m N??S JS^^^*^r^7 '%& ** />' V : li^ v^/:y vf^B at <3 THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY T.-V-: $&&%& (^Sil^ll ; S ffSf'^.-i !:*&:: A tietitik '^J:- $$&J \s "?*y *^' ^ f r^; N^vf 7 v^vggi ^**5j ^^^^ ^^^ jjjk^Vjt ' ,x- .* l-jSttV^& : ^E^'4 4* -t^J J^ 'Av^ ^ t|^ 'v> : : i :'<&: . P^/jsL^ 'V. ." .N^' ^^ PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE OF THE HELD AT SAN FRANCISCO OCTOBER 12-16 18911 BOSTON AMERICAN PRINTING AND ENGRAVING Co 189^ CONTENTS. Title. Author. Page. President's address S: S. Green i Binding and binderies D. V. R Johnston 9 Points of agreement among librarians as to library architecture .... C: C. Soule 17 Reclassification and renumbering of the Detroit Public Library . . . . H: M. Utley *o Libraries and schools S: S. Green 22 Economical, educational, select catalogues for public libraries . . . . W.K. Stetson 26 Annual report on gifts and bequests Miss C. M. H twins . 27 Use of the Public Library in the Cleveland schools W: H. Brett 30 The best library legislation W: I. Fletcher 31 Access to the shelves in the Cleveland Public Library W: H. Brett 34 Contagious diseases and public libraries G. M.Jones 35 The argument for public support of public libraries W: E. Foster 39 Impressions in foreign libraries M.. S. Cutler 48 Tabulated reports of state library associations H. E. Green 52 Uniformity in public libraries or individuality L.H.Sieiner 57 Method of cataloguing U. S. public documents and periodicals in the San Francisco Public Library J, Vance Cheney 61 Access to the shelves a possible function of branch libraries H. Putnam 62 Proceedings 68-124 Endowment 112 First Session 68-81 Seventh Session 112-116 Miscellaneous 68 State library associations 112-113 Secretary's report 68-69 Library receipt book 113 Treasurer's report 69-70 Renumbering and reclassifying 113 Necrological addenda 70 Normal schools and libraries 113-1 14 Public documents 7~74 "8, 120 Cataloging 114-116 Endowment 74~8o, 83, 97, 112 Eighth Session 116-124 Cooperation Committee 80 Miscellaneous 1 16 Committees 80 Election of officers 116-117,127 F. P. Hill 81 Place of meeting 116-117 Second Session 81-88 Copyright 117-118 Miscellaneous 81 Special report on public documents 118-120(56670-74) Catalogue of the publications of the igth century 81-83 Executive committee 120 Endowment 74-80,83,97, 112 Thanks 120 Miscellaneous 83 The new cataloging 120-121 Binding 83-85 Adjournment, when 121 New York library school 85-87 Japanese libraries . . ....>... 121-122 Pratt Institute training class 87 Resolutions 123 Amherst summer library school 87,88 Officers for the ensuing year 123-124 Third Session 88-95 Santa Barbara Session 124 Importance of public libraries 88-95 Thanks 124 Miscellaneous . . 95 Train Session 124-126 Fourth Session 96-104 Place and time of next meeting 124-126 State libraries 96, 128-129 Revision of constitution 126 Trustees' section 96 Program of next meeting 126 Subject index 96 Train Session 126-127 Invitations for the conference in 1893 .... 96 Thanks 126-127 Finance committee 97 Officers chosen 127(566116-117) Endowment fund 97 Chicago Session 127 Points of agreement in library architecture . . 97-4 Publishing section 128 Fifth Session 104-107 Association of state librarians ........ 128-129 Libraries and schools 104-107 From N. Y. to the Golden Gate, D. V. R.Johnston 129-133 Sixth Session 107-112 At San Francisco Jessie Allan 133-136 Miscellaneous 107 Public reception in the Palace Hotel 136-138 Contagious diseases . 108 Reception at Oakland 138-140 Access to the shelves 108 Speeches at the banquet at the Palace Hotel . . . 140-148 Prehistoric Poole loS-m From San Francisco to Chicago . M..E.Ahern 148-153 Columbian exhibition in Attendance register '53-154 CONFERENCE OF LIBRARIANS. SAN FKANCISCO, OCTO3EK 12-16, 1891. ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, SAMUEL SWETT GREEN, LIBRARIAN OF THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY, WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS. The function of a library is to serve its users. It is the duty of a public library to serve the public. The trustees and librarians of a public library are ministers of the people. They are to be ministered unto, aside from what the dictates of humanity demand, only in so far as provisions made for their comfortable per- formance of work may enable them to render service of increased efficiency and value. The service to be rendered by a librarian, however, it should be remembered, in the case of a very large portion of the community, is that of the parent and teacher and never that of a slave. A trustee of a large library wisely writes : " The community * * very rationally prefers the library which furnishes the greatest num- ber of facilities, the need for which is felt by the community (with a corresponding dead- ness in regard to facilities desired only by the librarian), and will do most for the reputation of the librarian who best administers the trust." Usefulness, then, is the test of successful library management. That statement, however, let it be distinctly understood, does not necessitate sympathy with a library officer who looks with contempt upon what have been happily called the me- chanic arts of our occupation. In 1876 I assisted in the formation of this association, and for fifteen years have been proud to work side by side with Winsor and Poole and Cut- ter and Dewey, while they, and others with a spirit like theirs, have labored to propagate correct ideas regarding library architecture and the cataloguing and classification of books. The work of these men has been a noble one. In places where persons are allowed to go to the shelves of libraries, it is a matter of prime importance that they should find the books systematically arranged and so placed that such as treat of similar subjects may be found in close juxtaposition. In all libraries a good system of classification must be in use if librarians are to aid inquirers expeditiously and even with certainty of finding answers to their questions. It is also indispensable that a library should be thoughtfully, scientifically, and adequately catalogued. Neither can people be well served in a poor library building. The public is concerned in having rooms for unpacking boxes and examining and cat- aloguing books ; well arranged and ample shelving; and in the provision of facilities for quick delivery of books to users within the building, and expeditious distribution of them to persons wishing to take them home. It is especially concerned to have well-lighted, ventilated and heated study, reading, and wait- ing rooms. Hearty praise, then, belongs to the men who have labored to improve the cataloguing and classification of libraries, and to exert an influ- ence in behalf of correct principles of library architecture. SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. It is evident that their efforts must be con- tinued. Especially needful is it that they still pro- claim the gospel of convenience and suita- bility respecting library buildings and the equipment of libraries. Thanks largely to the influence exerted by this association in its corporate capacity, and through the individual efforts of its members, immense strides have been made in the libra- ries of this country in cataloguing and classi- fication during the last fifteen years. One or two of the systems in vogue here have attracted much attention in foreign coun- tries also, and the names of Cutter and Dewey are mentioned with respect not only in this country, but in England, Germany, and Italy. But while this is so, the public needs further education in regard to the principles which should govern communities in making plans for library buildings. It is the business of the architect, said Pro- fessor H. W. Ackland, in my presence in one of the buiidings of the University of Oxford, to consider carefully what uses a building is to be put to, and listening attentively to the sug- gestions of persons who are to occupy it and work in it, to embody their wishes in plans that can be followed by the practical builder. Generally speaking it will be found in case of the larger libraries that the librarian and his assistants can best tell what accommoda- tions are required by the convenience of mem- bers of a community and the working force of the library better than anybody else. Whether, however, this knowledge is possessed by the librarian'or by one or more trustees, it should be sought out and availed of by the architect, if the proposed building is to prove to be well arranged and satisfactory. The community has yet to learn that it is important to consult a librarian in the first place in regard to the form of its building, and that it does not work well in practice to put up a building without consultation with a librarian, and then when the building is done engage an executive officer to occupy the structure, and do the best he can to make up for its shortcomings by the adoption of such makeshifts as are practicable. Let it never be forgotten, however, that in adopting systems of cataloguing and classsifi- cation and in putting up library buildings and furnishing them, a community is only pro- viding means for attaining an end. The end to be sought is the satisfactory service of the public. Tools are needful, and they must be of a kind to do well the work for which they are provided, but they must be taken in hand and used before the expense incurred in ob- taining them is justified. Incidentally, it is well, also, to add the im- portant remark that the community which wishes for good library service must not only have good tools and tools adapted to do the work desired, but also, and certainly, a skillful and industrious workman to handle the tools. Provide a good collection of books and facili- ties for their use and for doing the work of the library, but whether you do these things or not, secure at the start as accomplished and enthusiastic a librarian as you can lay your hands on. More, very much more, good can be accomplished by a good librarian with a poor library and an unsuitable building than by an incompetent librarian provided with the best of material and facilities. A good librarian will aim to accumulate a large collection of the best books and to secure the best facilities for handling and dis- playing them. He will aim to obtain a well- planned building. He will seek for these things, however, mainly as auxiliaries in enabling him to do well the work, which he will keep con- stantly in mind, of giving as much pleasure as possible to users of the library, and of exerting as widespread and elevating an educational influence as circumstances will allow. The test of the success of a library is its usefulness. That library best fulfils its mis- sion which, well housed, arranged and cat- alogued and well manned, studies the needs of the community in which it is placed and of students generally, and then addresses itself earnestly to the work of awakening interest in study and good reading, and shows the greatest and best regulated zeal in dissem- inating information and bringing about as GREEN. large as possible an increase in knowledge and wisdom. The chief purpose of a library is to stim- ulate and encourage persons of all ages, learned and unlearned, to make investigations and read good books, and to help them cor- dially and persistently in finding answers to their inquiries and in getting at books of standard value adapted to supply their special needs. Fifteen years ago, at the conference of librarians held in Philadelphia, at which this association was formed, I read a paper in which I said : " I wish to say that there are few pleasures comparable to that of asso- ciating continually with curious and vigorous young minds and of aiding them in realizing their ideals." It is because the members of this associa- tion, while providing carefully for the wants of scholars, properly so called, have engaged earnestly also in the work of popular educa- tion ; have considered questions of library economy largely from the point of view of in- creasing the usefulness of their libraries to the public ; and have by their increasing in- telligence and faithfulness year by year become in a higher and higher degree con- scious of the joy of stimulating and aiding in- quiry and cultivating a taste for good litera- ture, that I am especially proud of having had a hand in its formation, and of having taken constantly an active part in its deliberations and work. Librarians are working to-day in a gratifying spirit of helpfulness to special students, those of more extended interests and the general public, and the growing and already great earnestness and intensity of that spirit as dis- played at the present time, is largely owing to the movement started and promoted by this association and its members. I can give only a few examples of the mani- festation of that spirit. At the well-known convention of " librarians and others interested in bibliography" pre- sided over by Professor C. C. Jewett, and held in New York in September, 1853, it was resolved, on the motion of Charles Folsom of Boston, " That we have examined the work entitled 'Index to Periodicals,' by W. F. Poole, librarian of the Mercantile Library of Boston, and that we approve of its plan and execution, and we recommend that a similar system of indexing be extended to the transac- tions and memoirs of learned societies." The second edition of Poole's Index was published in 1853, and it was owing to the en- couragement which Mr. Poole, then librarian of the Chicago Public Library, received at the conference of librarians at Philadel- phia in 1876, that he felt emboldened to under- take the preparation and publication of the greatly enlarged and revised third edition of the work. It is matter for congratulation that this as- sociation was instrumental in hastening and securing the publication of a work which is one of the most useful of the aids available by scholars and popular investigators, which is prized throughout the literary world and re- garded as an indispensable tool by the libra- rian of every library in this country, and by the custodians of all the larger libraries in England and on the continent of Europe. In this connection I wish to call attention to the much-needed index of essays which Mr. Fletcher is preparing with the coopera- tion of other librarians, and under the pat- ronage of the publication section of this association. It is to be hoped that the movement which was auspiciously started last year for securing an endowment for that section, may receive a new impetus at this meeting of our association and be carried on to successful completion. Congratulations are here in order on account of the admirable work in useful indexing that has recently been done on the Pacific coast. Of the class list of Mr. Cheney I shall speak later. Now, I wish to' extend the thanks of all librarians and students to Mr. Rowell of the library of the University of California, for publishing a valuable volume containing a subject index of large portions of the library of the institution with which he is connected, and for the example that he has set to other librarians in preparing so useful a work. In passing, although I have no time to SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. dwell upon it, I must express the apprecia- tion which librarians have of the very valua- ble bibliographical work of Winsor, Foster and others, and extend to them the thanks of all users of libraries for the assistance they are constantly giving in both scholarly and popular investigation. Librarians are mind- ful also of the great importance of the ser- vices which have been rendered by two pow- erful allies whose work in behalf of libraries began at the same time as the formation of this association, namely, the Bureau of Edu- cation at Washington and the Library journal. We remember with gratitude the very effi- cient and valuable aid afforded by General Eaton and his successors, United States Commissioners of Education, in promoting improvements in library arrangement and making libraries of greater usefulness in the community. Well, too, do we remember the self-sacrificing spirit shown by the late Frederick Leypoldt of New York in issuing the Library journal 'at a considerable loss in money, because he could not help doing a thing which he saw that it was desirable should be done, even when he knew that he must impair his capital in undertaking the new venture. The librarians of this country feel very grateful to the gentlemen who supported the journal as workers and literary contributors at the start, and men who like Bowker and Cutter and Ford have in later years labored earnestly Disinterestedly, and successfully to make the publication valuable. We congratulate them on the great ad- vance which they have made and upon the power which they show to add every year to the interest and satisfactoriness of the journal. The usefulness of a library depends pri- marily upon its having a good librarian. But a libraraian must have good assistants. The head of a library has to look after its general interests; to keep in touch with the wishes and real needs of his constituency and show prevision in supplying their wants; when his institution is not properly appreciated he has to study means for making it indispensa- ble to a community and conquer for it recog- nition and support. He must meet the every-day users of his library to a great extent through his assis- tants. If, then, the public is to be well served, the librarian must have accomplished assistants. I can mention more than one large library in which ignorance or a spirit of parsimony prevails, or where political considerations or a disposition to nepotism is influential, in which the service is wholly insufficient and inade- quate, although the librarian is justly regarded as a leader in his occupation. It is interesting to note a growing apprecia- tion of the importance of having good library service, and it is because this is a crying need that this association has watched with great interest and growing admiration the work of the Library School started in connection with the library of Columbia College and now con- nected with the State Library of New York. The work of that school is practical, and becomes year by year increasingly thorough. Above all it stimulates and feeds the spirit of usefulness to the public. If a library is to do really good work, libra- rians must not only be well trained and have technical knowledge, but they must be well educated. Mr. John Winter Jones, late principal libra- rian of the British Museum, spoke as follows in his introductory address, as president of the international conference of librarians held in London in October, 1877, which I had the pleasure of attending, and at which the Li- brary Association of the United Kingdom was formed : "The learned author of the life of Isaac Cassaubon, Mr. Mark Pattison, says, ' The librarian who reads is lost;' and this is to a great extent true. It was certainly true in the case of Cassaubon, who, in his love for the contents of the books placed under his charge, forgot his duties as a librarian. The license which a librarian may be allowed to take while in the discharge of his duties was well indicated by the amiable Gary, the trans- lator of Dante, who used to describe himself and his colleagues, while engaged in the task of cataloguing the books of the British Mu- seum Library, as sheep traveling along a road GREEN. and stopping occasionally to nibble a little grass by the wayside." Certainly it is very dangerous to form the habit of reading in a library that is much used during office hours. While the library is open there is generally time only to become famil- iar with title-pages, page headings, prefaces, and tables of contents, and to glance hastily through books to gain an idea of their scope, style, and plan of treating subjects. That fact, however, does not prevent men and women from studying and reading outside the library building, and when not regularly engaged in library work, or in getting a good preparatory education before undertaking such work. I remember once to have heard of the su- perintendent of a National Gallery of Art, who, being himself an artist, was allowed to spend a portion of every day in painting. The governing body of that institution was wise in giving its manager time to practice his art. That man alone is capahle of rendering the best assistance to other persons who knows by personal experience how to do good work himself. The librarian who has made researches him- self can best aid investigators not only in de- partments of knowledge with which he is familiar, but in all departments of knowledge. The methods of investigation are the same everywhere. A student can best help a stu- dent. Officers of libraries then should, in so far as is practicable, be well-educated men and women, and constant students. They should be readers also, and acquire a knowledge of languages and literature and the elements of all branches of inquiry. I have known both men and women who have made excellent library attendants, who had had but little education, and who, with good powers of observation, learned to do their work well, although mechanically. Still, generally speaking, a good education and habits of reading and study are of the highest importance to the librarian who wishes to make his administration useful to the com- munity. In what I have said thus far I have mainly mentioned certain things which have been done in the United States since the forma- tion of this association to advance the use- fulness of libraries to all investigators and the general public, and have dwelt upon some considerations that must be had in mind if good library service is to be rendered. I wish to speak briefly, in conclusion, of a facility which with growing frequency is now being offered to scholars, and of a few espec- ially important undertakings which have of late years been engaged in, largely as the re- sult of the influence of this association and its members, in behalf of the cause of pop- ular education. When the first number of the Library jour- nal was about to be issued in the latter por- tion of the year 1876, the editor-in-chief wrote to me to ask if I had not some contribution to make to it. I immediately sent a communi- cation, which was inserted, on " The lending of books to other libraries," in which I advocated earnestly the plan, which had long been in practice in some of the libraries of Europe, of lending of books by one library to another for the use of students. No greater boon can be afforded a scholar than the privilege of receiving through the library of the town or city in which he lives the loan from other libraries, in other towns or cities, of books not to be had from the library of his dwelling place. Within a few years there has grown up in this country a great library which has been conspicuous in extending privileges of this kind constantly and systematically to students all over the land. Perhaps the largest medical library in the world is the one which has lately been rapidly built up in Washington, in connection with the Surgeon-General's office, by Dr. John S. Billings, its librarian. This library now contains 102,000 volumes and about 152,000 pamphlets. The next largest medical library in this country is that of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, which contains, I understand, about 47,000 volumes. Wishing to be able to state here to what extent the privilege of being able to borrow SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. books by investigators living at a distance from Washington is availed of, I wrote to Dr. Billings to ask him, and received, under date of July 31, the following answer : " The priv- ilege of borrowing books from this library is used to a very considerable extent through the medical libraries of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and by the workers at various universities, especially Cornell, Johns Hop- kins, Clark University, etc. The library is essentially a reference and not a lending li- brary, that is to say, it is not a circulating library for lending books to read merely ; and as it is required that the books shall be sent and returned by express, and not by mail, and at the expense of the borrower, it does not pay to borrow a single book as a rule. When, however, a person is working up a subject and collects a number of references, it be- comes worth while to pay for the transmission of ten or a dozen volumes in many cases. I am sure that the privilege of using the library is very highly esteemed by a number of our best writers and workers." It may here be remarked that the objection of expense does not apply to borrowing a sin- gle book from a library in a town or city which is near to the borrowing library. It is matter for profound thankfulness that other libraries, besides that of the Surgeon- General's office, have adopted the generous and admirable policy of aidinginvestigators by lend- ing books to them through out-of-town libraries. The two which have especially attracted my attention are those of Harvard University and the Boston Athenaeum Corporation. It was to be expected that institutions presided over by librarians of such far-reaching and broad views as Messrs. Winsor and Cutter, seconded by great intelligence in the governing bodies of their libraries, would labor in every way to have the books under their charge accomplish the greatest attainable good and render the most extended service. I have received most valuable aid in help- ing persons in Worcester to make investiga- tions by the loan of books, not only from all the libraries already mentioned, but from those of Yale and Columbia Colleges, and other institutions. I have had a very valuable manuscript lent to me by a law library in Boston. In fact, I have seldom applied to a library and asked for the use of books that my request has not been granted. It is to be regretted that some institutions are governed by rules which will not allow of such an interchange of favors or such unpaid generosity on the part of librarians as those of which I am speaking. That is the case in the Astor Library of New York and in the Library of Congress. That great institution, the Boston Public Li brary, is constantly growing in respect to the value of its collections, but its management has lately very much restricted the privileges which it formerly granted with great freedom to libraries and investigators outside of Boston. Since the organization of this association, the disposition of librarians to engage in per- sonal intercourse and render personal aid to the users of libraries has grown apace. All over the land earnest and well-directed efforts have been successfully made to render libraries useful to the teachers and pupils of public and private schools. I shall read a paper on the subject of Li- braries and Schools at another session of this meeting, and so will say nothing about that matter here. Many libraries are striving fruitfully to aid persons to get at books that will aid them in an increasedly satisfactory performance of the duties of their daily occupations. All that there is time to do in speaking of this kind of work is to refer inquirers to a paper on " The library in its relations to per- sons engaged in industrial pursuits," read by me two years ago at the meeting of this asso- ciation held in St. Louis. I must not fail to remind you that a year ago the Publication Section of the American Li- brary Association put forth a very useful list of books, entitled " Reading for the Young," which was prepared by Mr. and the Misses Sargent, and which embodied, with large addi- tions and with improvements, the excellent work published by that warm and judicious friend of children, our respected associate, Miss C. M. Hewins of Hartford. GREEN, October 22, 1890, the Governor of Massa- chusetts appointed the members of the Free Public Library Commission, which was pro- vided for in a law enacted in the previous May. The purpose of the establishment of that commission was twofold, namely, to furnish a competent body to answer questions regard- ing the maintenance and management of libra- ries, and to encourage and assist towns which did not already have public libraries to estab- lish them. The commission first addressed itself to the work of stimulating an interest in towns which had no public libraries, to establish them. From its first report presented to the Legis- lature of Massachusetts January 30, 1891, it appeared that only 103 of the 351 towns and cities of the Commonwealth were without public libraries. Even in some of the towns lacking them there were small association libraries. I have now to report, as a member of the Massachusetts Free Public Library Commis- sion, that, largely owing to the work of the commission, led by its hard-working, thought- ful, genial and efficient chairman, the State Librarian, Mr. Caleb B. Tillinghast, thirty-five of those 103 towns at the town meetings held last March and April accepted the provisions of the State law and organized library boards. The commission has been kept very busy since spring in selecting and buying the libra- ries for those towns which the State had promised to give them. The wants of every town have been considered by themselves ; its wishes have been ascertained, and stren- uous efforts have been made to supply the best of literature, and to provide as many books as publishers could be induced to fur- nish the commission for the amount of money at its disposal. The commission has always been able to furnish 1 50 volumes to every town, and gen- erally, by the addition of gifts from friends, as many as 200 or more volumes. Massachusetts makes a good showing in the matter of furthering the cause of popular education by the establishment of public li- braries. While noticing the fact that at the time of writing the first annual report of the Free Public Library Commission, 248 towns and cities had libraries in which the people had " rights or free privileges," Mr. Tillinghast wrote: "There are about 2,500,000 volumes in these libraries, available for the use of 2,104,224 of the 2,238,343 inhabitants which the State contains according to the census of 1890. The gifts of individuals in money, not including gifts in books, for libraries and li- brary buildings, exceed five and a half mil- lion dollars." Massachusetts is able to say to-day that of the 103 of the smaller towns, having accord- ing to the census just taken a population of 134,719, which had no public libraries January 30 of the present year, less than seventy out of a total of 351 remain which have not taken steps to establish them. May I be permitted, in closing, to call atten- tion to a kind of work which I am just now doing with considerable zeal in the library in Wor- cester, Massachusetts, over which I preside. In the new building which we have been occupying for a few months, and which the city committee, under whose auspices it was built, allowed me to plan, there is provided a hall which is to be used for various purposes, but which it is intended to use often for the display of pictures belonging to the library. The whole upper story of the building is so planned also that whatever use may be made of it eventually, it can for several years cer- tainly be used for hanging paintings, engrav- ings and photographs. In every large library there are collections of photographs, chromo-Jithographs and en- gravings, and finely illustrated books, out of which the illustrations can be temporarily taken, which are seldom seen. These col- lections and illustrations I am now placing on the walls of the hall spoken of above, and when the pictures are too numerous to be accommodated there, on those of the upper story, and inviting the public to come to the library to look at and study them. I did enough of this kind of work in our old building to show that it was feasible and desirable to have exhibitions of the kind indi- 8 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. cated, and find that in our new quarters they are attracting much attention and giving gen- eral satisfaction. It is only necessary to re- mind librarians that for large displays they have such works as the publications of the Arundel Society, the Piranesi's Rome, great works on Egypt, the famous Italian work on Pompeii just being completed, collections of photographs of pictures by Raphael, Michael Angelo, and other artists, as well as numer- ous other works and collections. For the first small exhibition I showed the sixty-three chromo-lithographs in sepia finish provided by Langl, to teach the history of architecture in German schools, and which give striking and picturesque views of ruins in Egypt, India, Persia, Assyria, Greece and Rome, and representations of fine old Christian, Moorish, pre-gothic, gothic, re- naissance and Russian buildings. I made the exhibition tell its own story by placing by the side of ruins, restorations of the buildings representing the opinions of the best authorities, exterior views of buildings where the interiors were given in the set of pictures, ground plans of buildings, etc. I saw to it, too, that the names of the build- ings and ruins were written distinctly in Eng- lish below the pictures, and had cards printed inviting persons wishing for further informa- tion regarding any of the objects represented to apply for books describing them in the ref- erence library down stairs. There was no expense incurred in the exhi- bition. The attendant who sat in the hall to guard the property did work which she would have been doing in some other part of the building if she had not been sitting there. This exhibition was kept open a month and a half. The first of September I opened a second exhibition in the same hall, of United States Army and Navy uniforms, and pictures repre- senting scenes in the war with Mexico and the civil war. I am convinced that a very important influ- ence in the direction of popular education can be exerted by exhibitions of this kind. I will remark, also, incidentally, that our new building, while planned to do such work as we have learned by experience may well be undertaken by us, has also been so ar- ranged that courses of study, such as those contemplated by the promoters of university extension, may be conveniently pursued in it. Much has been done in the last fifteen years to add to the usefulness of libraries. Much remains to be done. The question as to how far it is safe to pro- ceed in allowing users of libraries to go freely to the shelves, among the books of libraries, is one of great importance, and being a burn- ing question to-day, will be discussed at this meeting. No step has been taken towards co-opera- tive cataloguing, and for stopping the great waste which attaches to the present plan of doing work in every one of a thousand libra- ries which is needed in all, and it would seem might be done in some way at one centre or by one institution for all the thousand li- braries. That problem was vigorously attacked by Professor Jewett at the convention in 1853 ; it was earnestly discussed by members of the conference of which this association is the offspring, in 1876; it is yet unsolved. So, too, is the problem of dispensing with type-setting for catalogues every few years, when large numbers of new books have been added to libraries, and convenience demands that no more supplements shall be issued, but all the entries be gathered together again in a single alphabet. An index to periodicals has been issued. It is kept up to date. An index to essays is in the state of forward preparation. Mr. Cheney has just done an admirable piece of work in behalf of popular education in preparing and publishing a very much needed list of books in the San Francisco Free Public Library, namely, " Classified Eng- lish Prose, Fiction, etc., with notes and index to subject-references." The list will be found very useful in the libraries of the country. We have all these much needed facilities, but where is the index of transactions and memoirs of learned societies which the con- vention of 1853 thought it so desirable should be prepared ? JOHNSTON. The convention of 1853 was the first large meeting of librarians in this country. Profes- sor Jewett said that, so far as he knew, it was the first meeting in the world of librarians and bibliographers who had come together to see how they could make public collections of books more useful to communities and individuals. The gentlemen who met in 1853 meant to have held annual meetings. They did not meet a second time. In 1876 practical library workers came to- gether in the spirit of the men of '53. They have met almost every year since. Yesterday we began the first large meeting of librarians and persons interested in libra- ries on the Pacific Coast. The movement which is now started should lead to frequent meetings on this coast. It will do so, I am confident, and as the re- sult of your deliberations the libraries of the land will be enabled to render themselves increasingly serviceable to scholars and the general public. BINDING AND BINDERIES. BY D. V. R. JOHNSTON, REFERENCE LIBRARIAN N. Y. STATE LIBRARY, ALBANY. T T is hardly supposable that with the present knowledge of library economy many li- brarians can be ignorant in matters pertaining to book binding. The special report on " Public Libraries in the United States'" is- sued by the Bureau of Education in 1876, the proceedings of the A. L. A. and L. A. U. K., and the volumes of the Library journal, all contain much valuable matter relating to the subject, and any one so wishing can get about all needed information from these sources. The aim, therefore, of this paper is simply to bring together information already contributed in one way or another, and to add a few facts discovered by observation and experience. While of course it is necessary to be in- formed of all the processes through which a book must pass in being bound, such informa- tion must be gathered from practical mechan- ics or text books prepared for them, rather than from this association. For those who can not come in contact with skilled workmen it may be well to mention here that there are two good books now in the market, namely, W. J. E. Crane, Book-binding for Amateurs, London, 1885, 2s. 6d., and Joseph W. Zaehns- dorf, Art of Book-binding, second edition, London, 1890, 55. These, on account of their clear and concise character, are now used with satisfaction as text books in the Library School, and can be recommended. What a librarian must constantly study is the economic side of binding, so that he will not fall into extravagance, which is bad, or be led into habits of false economy, which are far worse. Strong, solid work and good mate- rials are worth paying for, and 25 per cent added to the first cost of a book may often be regarded as insurance against rebinding, which means not only replacing the material worn out, but also duplicating the labor already ex- pended. Then, too, each rebinding seriously deteriorates volumes subjected to the pro- cess; besides which, while the sacrifice of our books to cheap binders leads to the added expense entailed by inferior work, it is well known that handsome binding promotes a desire on the part of the public to protect the library from injury or loss. The waste in li- brary work generally comes from not using the material suited for the conditions to which the volume is to be subjected. The labor ex- pended on a book properly bound in one-half morocco, calf or sheep is nearly the same, and on a cloth book it is not much less, and this is all lost if the material used is unsuitable. Under certain conditions a cheap cloth bind- ing will outlast the best leather, and if a libra- rian does not know these conditions he can not profit by them. Then, too, the market is full of frauds, and if one is not informed as to the character, 10 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. value and strength of materials, he will be the prey of dishonest binders and publishers. Of course frauds are practiced which will de- ceive an expert, and against these all knowl- edge is -vain. The most important material is that which is used to cover the back and to form the hinge at the side, which has the hardest usage, costs the most, and represents the greatest expense in labor. The preservation of this is the preservation of the binding. It is consequently of the utmost importance to know not only what is the best kind of material for different uses, but also what grades of material give the greatest service for the cost. It is held by all having a knowledge of the subject that morocco is without any ques- tion the best material in which to bind a book which is to have considerable use, but which is to be preserved and not worn out in circulation. Morocco, which is goat- skin, has a long, tough texture by nature and is tanned without aid of chemicals, and so will stand not only hard and constant usage but will resist far better than any other leather the corroding influences of heat, foul air, and gas. But moroccos vary greatly in price and are imitated in very many ways, so one must always watch, not only to get the best morocco but to get morocco at all. It is said that you should always get the best and only the best morocco. This is not strictly true. Get the best for the purpose intended. The best morocco is Levant, which costs from $42 to $60 per dozen, or from $3.50 to $5 per skin. Levant is not only the handsomest morocco but it will outlast all others. Still the use of it in a library is an extravagance, because while it costs from 25 to 50 per cent more than the so-called Haussmann skin, its endurance is but little better. There is no saving in labor to be effected by its use, since binders class it as fancy work and charge a fancy price for it. Of course where a library does its own bind- ing this does not hold good, but even then it is very doubtful whether the use of Levant for other than fancy work can be recom- mended. The morocco which is best suited for library work is the grade known in the market as "genuine morocco," which costs, according to size, thickness, and finish, frorn $18 to $33 per dozen or from $1.50 to $2.75 per skin. All this grade of leather is good for one kind or another of work, but in the majority of cases the leather which costs the highest price is the most enduring, and the cheapest. Morocco, which costs from $26 to $33 per dozen, if it is of a proper finish and thickness for good work, will cost just about the same per square foot, namely, from 38 cents to 40 cents, the difference in price representing the difference in size only. Now since the smaller skins are always open to a slight suspicion as to their general quality, and will sometimes show a large wastage, the use of the skin costing from $30 to $33 per dozen is always recommended in the absence of some special reason to the contrary. This is known as the Haussmann skin, and measures on an average 7 square feet per skin, which at $2.75 per piece equals in round numbers 40 cents per square foot, being, as near as can be estimated in the long run, from 13 cents to 15 cents for a half-bound 8vo. Please bear in mind that all binding fig- ures are approximations, as price of leather, size of skins, size of books, amount of wast- age, etc., are inconstant quantities. The cheaper grades of "genuine morocco" costing from $18 to $24 per dozen are not only thinner but smaller skins, and can be used to advantage only on small work and on books having but moderate use. In cost this leather is about the same as the best Persian morocco, but for ordinary purposes it is to be preferred to it. Persians are quoted at from $10 to $24 per dozen, though that which is commonly used costs from $15 to $20. This skin is about the size of the cheaper "genuine morocco," and contains about 6 square feet, though some of the higher grades are as large as the Haussmann skins. Averaging as well as can be the ordinary sizes and prices of Persian morocco, it seems to cost about from 20 cents to 25 cents per square foot, or approximately, and 8vo will cost from 8 cents to 10 cents. JOHNSTON. II There seems to be but little use for Per- sian, as only the better quality can be trusted, and this overlaps in price the grades of " gen- uine morocco." Librarians in this country have given it a trial and report it unsatisfac- tory, though at the present time in England the circulating libraries like Mudie's and Smith's use a great deal of it. Persian is a good-looking leather, and wears quite well. It is, however, more apt to fade than " genu- ine morocco," and on exposure to heat it be- comes hard and brittle. The lighter shades of it are apt to streak and scratch, so that the darker shades only are commonly in the market. There are other grades of morocco which are very small and thin, and cost from $6 to $12 per dozen, but they have no place in li- brary work, and indeed are not much used for binding at all. The so-called imitation French and German moroccos, which cost from $15 to $18 by the dozen, or from 7 cents to 9 cents per 8vo, are not much used in this country for library binding, though we are apt to get it in quan- tity through our foreign agents. While it is a fact that this leather is made from sheep- skin, yet it is so well tanned that it will wear only a trifle poorer than Persian, and Euro- pean binders do not hesitate to advertise and use it by name. Another imitation of morocco made from the Persian sheep is known as "bock." It is a small skin and costs by the dozen from $9 to $11, or from 5 cents to 7 cents per 8vo back. It is a bad leather, giving scarcely bet- ter wear than good roan, and is a dangerous imitation, being often hard to distinguish from morocco when fresh on a book. A case is known where a binder informed a customer that bock and morocco were the same thing, and persuaded him to make out specifications for " bock or morocco." Other imitation mo- roccos are often made from common sheep- skin and from buffing, but they are not hard to detect. We are informed (see J. B. Nicholson, Manual on the Art of Bookbinding, Phila., 1856, p. 1 6) that "there are in the British Museum books bound in calf supposed to have been bound in the time of Henry VIII." Whether this is true or not, it is certain that no calf binding done to-day will ever reach such antiquity. Though no one can find fault with the use of calf in private collections, as it is one of the handsomest of bindings, yet it must be condemned as worthless for library purposes. It costs from $21 to $29 per dozen for the grades commonly used, and the cost per book of the different grades is about the cost of the different moroccos. As it requires careful handling in the bindery to keep it from soiling and needs extra finish- ing, the cost is apt to be rather high for calf work. Calf has many fatal objections. It becomes brittle and wears out at the joints ; it reduces itself to powder under the action of heat and gas, so that volumes will often break their own bindings by their weight on the shelves, and on account of the even, close grain it is liable to be soiled and scratched in use. Although these bad quali- ties have long been known, some librarians prefer to stand the trouble and expense of using it rather than to change the binding on long and handsome sets. It is a matter of regret to all having to do with law books that full calf bindings are so largely used by Brit- ish and Colonial law publishers, as this style of binding is very dear and yet hardly more useful than common half law sheep. Sheep-skin, too, whether in the form of blank sheep, roan or skiver, ought to be avoided when possible, as it is thoroughly un- reliable. Roans cost from $8 to $11 per dozen, and vary much in durability and ac- cording to no known law, except that the black and very dark leather is apt to be the poorest. Skiver, or split roan, costs from $5 to $9 per dozen, and varies in strength from paper upwards, some being more lasting than some roans. Skiver, of course, can only be used on very thin books, but even here cloth will answer much better if the book is not worth a morocco binding. In the same way it is wise to substitute morocco or duck for roan on much- used books, or cloth, if the book will spend much of its time on the shelves, as roan will stand neither the effects of usage or of time. 12 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. Law sheep, which costs from $6 to $12 per dozen, and law skiver, which costs the same, though used in this country more than any other binding leather, as they are the standard bindings for law books and public documents, are thoroughly bad, as they look mean, wear poorly, and are dirty to handle. However, the use of sheep-skin is compelled on sets of law reports, etc., as the legal profession demands it. Its use in a library, however, should be curtailed as much as possible, even for law work. There is no doubt that a better sheep-skin could be made than what is now in the mar- ket. Specimens of sheep and skiver bindings which have been in use for 40 or 50 years are not uncommon, and the New York State li- brary copy of Grattan's Virginia Reports, first issued in 1850, still preserves intact its orig- inal binding of sumac-tanned sheep, though worn and soiled from constant use. The use of this white sheep was suggested at last year's conference, but inquiry has failed to discover any quantity of it in the hands of dealers in binding materials, and such sam- ples as were procured from publishers of medical works, who still use it, were by no means satisfactory. Another bad leather is Russia, but as it is expensive, costing from $3.50 to $5.50 per skin, according to size, it is not used to any extent. It is stronger than calf, but, like it, wears out at the joints and crumbles under the action of heat and gas. The theory that its peculiar odor preserves it from worms, though long exploded, is repeated to this day. Much better than genuine Russia is its im- itation, American Russia, or buffing, as it is called, when split quite thin. It is made from cowhide and is a good, strong leather, and next to morocco, the best for binding. American Russia costs from 12 cents to 18 cents per square foot when plain, or from 16 cents to 24 cents when grained to imitate morocco, seal, etc. Buffing costs from 5 cents to 10 cents per square foot. The durability of this kind of leather depends very much on its thickness, and while it can be used on maps, newspapers, etc., quite well, for most purposes duck will answer better ; and while it is much better than roan calf or Russia for smaller books, duck or morocco or cloth, used as mentioned above, will be much more satis- factory. However, for those who wish a cheap leather binding, American Russia is recommended in preference to all others. All pig-skin which is now in the market has a handsome finish and a grain quite as good looking as morocco. It costs from $7.25 to $11.75 P er skin, in accordance with size, quality, and finish of the leather, each skin measuring from two to four times the size of genuine morocco ; so it is by no means a cheap material. It is a rather in- tractable leather and requires careful skiving to make it look well on a book. As it shows a tendency to harden and became brittle if not handled often, and is suspected of mildew- ing and engendering mildew in other books, it seems unwise to bind in it for general use, at least until its qualities are better known. However, it seems to be a very good if not the best material for table books, such as dictionaries, catalogues, etc., as it will stand rough usage without scratching or becoming shabby. It may also be used on encyclo- pedias and books of constant reference, but for other purposes its use must be regarded at present as doubtful and inexpedient. Most librarians have been forced to aban- don the use of buckram. It is not at all a cheap cloth, as it costs from 40 cents to 50 cents per yard. It is hard to work on a book, since it takes both glue and gold badly, and on exposure becomes brittle and is liable to soil and fade like any book cloth. Linen buckram, which is the highest priced and the best, has been practically unknown to the American market from the first, though, as it is hard to tell it from the cotton cloth, the fact was not generally known. In all cases where buckram was used duck will be found to answer the purpose better, as it costs only from 10 cents to 20 cents per yard, is easily worked, and in fact possesses all the require- ments for a strong, cheap binding suitable for circulating libraries, over-size books in little use, maps, and newspapers. On the other hand, duck is rough to handle, is not good looking, and will not take gold lettering JOHNSTON. well ; and as it is not wise to letter on labels, one is confined to limited shades of color, since they must be light enough to show ink lettering and dark enough to be used without soiling. With very large volumes, as the friction of duck sides is great, it is always a good plan to bind in half duck with paper sides, and indeed the custom of using half duck on 8vo and smaller books is growing in favor. Books having infrequent use of not over- size will last just as well in cloth as in any- thing else. Book cloth, costing from 12 cents to 20 cents per yard, will answer as well as high-priced morocco, and indeed better, since heat and gas have no effect on a cotton fibre. Remember, though, that cloth work is case work and will not stand usage. In binding in leather avoid both the very light shades, which are the most expensive and will not keep clean, and the very dark, especially the black and very dark green, which are tender. Binders prefer the blacks, but only because they are easy to match and can often be bought lower than other shades. Skins which are failures in lighter shades are often dyed black, and this tends to rot the fibre of the leather. The best colors for wear are the lighter browns, greens, olives> cochineal red, blue, and maroon. The effect desired to be produced by the binding should be pleasing to the eye and sufficiently diversified not to rob the books of their individuality. But as it is an annoyance to choose a color for each book and to have innumerable styles which must be matched, different schemes of color have been devised and used by different librarians, some assign- ing colors to subjects, some to the language of the text, etc. None of these schemes are without objections, and, indeed, their advisa- bility depends entirely on circumstances. The binding of pamphlets depends of course on the resources of the library, the largest libraries binding the most important singly and the others in groups, while the small ones bind but few, and those in col- lections. It is important in making these col- lections to have them closely classified, and if the sizes are unequal, to arrange them flush at the top so that dust can not find its way into the volume. Reports of societies, institutions, etc., are most useful if bound by regular periods, such as decades or semi-decades. Some of the larger libraries now bind the covers of their periodicals, pamphlets and books issued in parts, some placing them at the end of the volume and others binding them as published. In this way much valu- able historical as well as bibliographical matter is often preserved. The custom, too, is coming into favor with the larger libraries of binding half titles, advertising leaves, etc., with the covers. This custom is not endorsed for any but the very large reference libraries, as it materially adds to the expense, but for them it is strongly recommended. The public have the right to expect that a library main- tained in part for collecting and preserving the records of human thought and action will not neglect to preserve in original form the issue of the contemporary press. Any one who has done reference work for a cultivated community will hardly have to be informed how greedily odd scraps of informa- tion, found only in the advertisements of old publications, are sometimes sought for, and a proper regard for the future would seem to indicate the preservation of all the printed matter possible. In the mechanical processes of binding there are some points to be carefully noted. Sewing, when properly done, will often out- last the leather. But to get this result not only should the best thread be used, but every fold of more than four leaves should be sewn "all along" whenever possible. If, however, this will compel the use of very small thread in order to get the correct swell to the back, it is better to sew alternately with a stronger thread. Hayes' thread, costing from 90 cents to $1.10 per pound, will be found the best for library work. Every volume above a i6mo should be sewn on at least three bands, and as the vol- ume is larger and thicker, the number should be increased in proportion. The thread should in all cases completely encircle each band, and the first and last signatures should SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. be overcasted. When the bands are laced into the boards they should pass through grooves cut to each hole, so that in " knocking down " bands will not be cut or frayed. This last precaution, unfortunately, is seldom ob- served, and our binding suffers. All maps and folding plates in books that have much use should be backed with muslin, but as this costs about 6 cents per piece, for books with moderate use a muslin joint at the fold can be employed at a cost of only about one-third as much. All plates, however, in large volumes should be mounted at least on a cloth guard, or they are apt to be crumpled or torn. Books which are sewn on tapes, parchment strips or other raised bands last better and open freer than others, and have the added advantage of not being deeply sawed. There is an idea that they are not sawed at all, but as a rule a small cut is made on each side of the band to guide the sewer. Raised band sewing is not generally practiced, and sewers are unskillful in doing the work, so the cost is apt to be high. If tape sewing were more commonly used there is no reason why the cost should be more than 5 cents or 10 cents per volume higher than good band sewing; but at present the cost is often twice that much. Outside the large cities almost the only place where tape sewing is practiced is in the bindery where a certain kind of blank book work is done, and such a place, as a rule, does not do good library binding. Tapes are not generally laced into boards, but are glued on the inside of the cover. This is certainly dangerous, and we have had some trouble from it, though but little complaint has been made of bands pulling off. Though the looks of tight-backed books is injured by tapes and loose backs are not improved in appearance by them, if it were not for the present high cost they would be advantageous for library work, especially on loose- backed books. As it is, books of music, volumes of maps, plates and manuscripts, and other works that should open with great freedom, should always be sewed on them. Every book, if well bound, should have a vellum corner, which, if properly put on, is almost a perfect protection in case the book is carelessly dropped, as it will easily dent hard wood. These corners should be carefully skived down, so as not to make a protuberance against which the siding will wear itself out, and should not be less than 3cm long on a book larger than a I2mo, as in case of a fall a small corner will help to break off the board enclosed by it. There is practically no difference in the cost of vellum and leather corners, some binders charging more for one and some for the other. As between tight back and loose back, the testimony is strongly in favor of the former, while the latter is much more commonly used. In a tight back, the leather, being fastened to the back, forms part of the book itself, bind- ing it close at every point, and acting as a hinge joint at each place where the book is opened. In a loose back, the leather is hardly more than a connection between the boards, the first linings being all the support to the back. Hence, at the joint where the bands are seen on the edge of the board, there is a constant strain which must result in breaking the cord if the book is in frequent use. Un- less a tight back is well bound, it will not open as well as a loose back, but if the work is well done the difference between them is not worth mentioning. A loose back is better looking, especially when fixed out with false raised bands, but as these bands add nothing to the strength of the book, and may often weaken it, their use ought not to be advised. Every item of cost in finishing the tops and edges should be cut off, as there is no need of doing more than burnishing the top with an agate, the cost of which ought not to be more than i 1-2 cents per volume. This burnishing is almost as perfect a protection against dust as gilding, which will cost from 15 cents to 20 cents per top, or marbleing at from 3 cents to 5 cents, or coloring at 10 cents per volume. In finishing the back all tooling and orna- mentation should be avoided except plain gilt cross lines and blind tooling, to divide the back into panels, and perhaps a plain gilt fillet where the leather and sidings join. The lettering should be in the most used form of Roman capitals and Arabic numerals, large JOHNSTON. and clear enough to be easily read, and should be stamped on the back and never on labels, which are liable to come off. The use of old English, German or other fancy types, punctu- ation marks and Roman notation, is confusing to the eye and should not be allowed. It is a good plan to have the lettering al- ways in the same relative position, and the following arrangement is considered the best : Put the author's name in the top panel, with initials if needed ; a brief, comprehensive title made up from the title page if possible, in the second ; the editor, translator or commenta- tor, if necessary, in the third ; and the year, whole number of the volume, the series and series volume, in the order mentioned, without prefixing v., vol., Band, etc., in the fourth. In some rare cases, as on newspapers, it is well also to add the months. When books are bound together put the author of the leading book in the top panel and its title in the sec- ond, and the author and title of the second book in the third panel. When books have fixed class and book numbers they should be gilded on in the bottom panel of 8vo and smaller volumes, and in the top of the first panel of larger volumes. Lettering costs only from 3 cents to 5 cents per line, and the sav- ing in time and trouble spent in constantly replacing paper numbers will warrant the outlay. Paper sidings will ordinarily give the best satisfaction, as they cost 2 cents to 3 cents less than cloth and will wear about as long. They give but little friction on the shelves, and do not curl up at the edges, fray out at the ends, nor blister with moisture, as cloth will. Moreover, paper when worn out can be easily replaced. Full leather work, except in rare cases, has no place in a library. The cost of binding varies so much in dif- ferent places, and with the style and quality of work, that it is hard to give any figures which will be "of value. An 8vo in one-half morocco will cost from 75 cents to $1.25 ; a I2mo from 50 cents to 80 cents ; a i6mo from 35 cents to 70 cents, etc. At the New York State library we have adopted the following schedule, which we think represents a fair price for the very best style of library work : SIZE. Q=3ocm " =28.5 0=25 D=20 8=17.5 % GOAT. $1.25 I.I5 95 75 .60 % SHBBP. $I.OO .90 75 .60 .50 CLOTH. $ -75 .70 .60 .50 35 Bear in mind, however, that the cheaper grades of this leather work are in all respects equal to the morocco binding except as to the leather and finishing used. While it is cer- tain that in parts of the country, owing to competition and other causes, the price of binding has gone down within the last few years, yet, as in most European countries the cost has risen in spite of competition, we have no reason to expect that work will ever be very much cheaper here than at present. Of the work that comes from abroad, the French is the cheapest and the most satisfac- tory. English binding, when in morocco, is excellent, especially in the forwarding. And German work, while not so well forwarded as either of the others, is good in the finishing and leather, and is certainly much more satis- factory than German work of a few years ago. Figures furnished on Aug. i show the price of an 8vo in one-half morocco to be, in London, 35. 6d. ; in Leipzig, 2mk. 25pf . ; in Paris, 2 fc. ; so money can still be saved by having books bound abroad. The temptation to start a bindery in a li- brary is often very great to any one familiar with the cost and character of good work. Binders who do good work at fair prices are not numerous even in our large cities, and in places removed from these large centres book- binding is either practiced in a crude state or is charged for at fancy rates. It is easy to reason, " I pay $1,500 for binding, but as I can get a binder for $1,000 and can hardly use $200 worth of material, I can save money." Under certain conditions this reasoning may be good, but in the vast majority of cases it is wrong. A library which wishes to do first- class work of all kinds suitable for its use, repairing, relettering, cloth case work, well forwarded duck work on large volumes, and extra one-half morocco, will almost certainly lose money by doing its own work if its bind- ing bill is no more than $2,500 a year, and if it i6 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. expends from $2,500 to $3,000 it will still be on the doubtful list. But on any larger amount it should save money. The success of the enterprise depends entirely upon a proper subdivision and supervision of labor, and no bindery can hope to make a profit if it has not work for at least three hands. The experiment has been thoroughly tried and enough data have been collected to make it certain that none but the larger and rapidly growing libraries can expect to run a bindery at a profit, and that even these can hope but for only small financial gain. There is one excep- tion to this rule which should be noted here. Some of the rapidly circulating libraries in the large cities where books are bound for constant use, and with the expectation that many of them will wear out in service, have found that they can save money by doing their own work. They employ one all-'round binder at about $1,000 a year and perhaps $200 worth of assistance, and turn out work which costs from 20 cents to 30 cents per vol- ume. This style of binding is usually in duck, with little or no lettering. That it is suitable for the purpose to which it is put, the charac- ter of the libraries which use it leaves little doubt, but it has no place in a library which binds for preservation. But even in doing this kind of work, where the annual cost of running will not exceed $1,200 to $1,500 a year, it is easy to see what a large number of vol- umes at from 20 cents to 30 cents must be bound to cover expenses. But for first-class library work the case is far different. Suppose you have your plant, which will cost from $650 to $800, all paid for, and are willing to leave out from your cal- culation the interest on both plant and stock ? the cost of. light, heat, book-keeping, insur- ance, etc., and you set out to do work which is worth $2,500 a year. To do this work you will require three hands, a finisher at $20 a week, a forwarder at $12, and a sewer at $6, so that in round numbers the labor will cost $1,975 a year. But the stock used in doing this work, if the conditions are the same as at present exist in the New York State library, will cost from $575 to $625, so that your total cost will be from $2,550 to $2,600. If, how- ever, you do $3,000 worth of work, you may require another hand, an apprentice at $4 a week, which will make your labor cost in round numbers $2,185, a d the stock will cost from $690 to $750, so that the total cost will be from $2,875 to $ 2 93S- These approximations, though deduced from the practical experience of the New York State library bindery, are meant to rep- resent in all cases the highest cost and the most disadvantageous circumstances. How- ever, as we are actually doing work at the rate of from $3,100 to $3,200 per year, and that too largely of the very best quality, the quality on which binders make their greatest profit, and are not showing any great direct financial gain, your reporter is inclined to doubt the wisdom of any attempt at library binding in any library which has not other objects in view than the mere saving of money on the current contract rates, unless that library is very large. The indirect advantages, however, are nu- merous and valuable, namely, safety, conven- ience, saving in time, the certainty of having work done as wanted, and the ability of hav- ing outside work done at figures much lower than binders would give if they did not have to compete with you for your own work. These advantages are not to be disregarded or underestimated, but if we are to consider the direct money gain alone, we must con- clude that it can not be looked for in a library bindery. SOULE. POINTS OF AGREEMENT AMONG LIBRARIANS AS TO LIBRARY ARCHITECTURE. BY CHARLES C. SOULE, TRUSTEE OF THE BROOKLINE (MASS.) PUBLIC LIBRARY. T T has been stated that architects can get little help from librarians in planning libra- ries, because librarians do not agree as to what they want. This misapprehension prob- ably arises from the fact that library litera- ture, while it abounds in discussions of mooted points of construction, contains ap- parently no recent statement of elementary principles. To elucidate these principles some preliminary knowledge of the subject is required, and architects, asking advice without experience of their own, draw out and emphasize the striking differences of opinion, rather than the substantial agree- ments among librarians. It is the purpose of this paper to state cer- tain principles of construction, as to which those prominent American librarians who have had occasion to consider problems of building, appear to be unanimously agreed. To librarians, most of these propositions will appear like truisms ; but the necessity for formulating them appears in the fact that very few library buildings erected in this country during the last ten years conform to all, and some of them conform to none, of these axiomatic requirements. Librarians are generally agreed as to the following fundamental principles of library architecture. A library building should be planned for library work. The work of a library is (or should be) as definitely marked out as that of a school, or a hospital, or a factory ; and the building to contain it should be planned with as much care, and as intelligent a regard to its proper functions. Every library building should be planned especially for the kind of work to be done, and the community to be served. Libraries differ widely in scope. The col- lege library, the State library, the reference library, the circulating library, the profes^ sional library, the town library while they have much in common have different re- quirements as to rooms and arrangements ; and libraries of the same class may differ as to probabilities of growth, conditions of equip- ment, and opportunities for usefulness. The interior arrangement ought to be planned before the exterior is con- sidered. Within such necessary limitations as the size and shape of the lot and the amount of money available, the first consideration of librarian, building committee, and architect should be, not what exterior style, but what interior plan, is best for the library. No convenience of arrangement should ever be sacrificed for mere architectural effect. While the architect may suggest changes of plan which will improve the appearance of the building without sacrificing any point of usefulness, no essential conveniences for library work ought to be surrendered. It is far better that a library should be plain, or even ugly, than that it should be inconven- ient. A steam-engine, superb in finish but faulty in construction, is properly condemned. A library is a literary engine requiring equally perfect construction to do economical and efficient work. The plan should be adapted to prob- abilities and possibilities of growth and development. i8 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. In constructing a library building, it may be wise to build only for the needs of the present generation ; but room and opportunity should always be allowed for future development. The community may grow, the library may increase beyond expectation, its methods may change, its sphere may enlarge, or the progress of library science may develop improvements in administration, requiring changes and en- largement. Simplicity of decoration is essential in the working-rooms and reading- rooms. If money can be spared, the exterior of a library building, its approaches, entrances, and corridors, may be embellished to any extent ; but the rooms intended for use, while they ought to be attractive in form and color, should be free from that showy decoration which attracts sight-seers to disturb the quiet and distract the attention of workers and readers. A library should be planned with a view to economical administration. No library can be so liberally endowed as to be beyond the need of economy, in time as well as in money. A well-planned library can be administered more smoothly and less ex- pensively than one badly planned. In order to save money, expedite work, and insure prompt service to the public, the rooms of a library should be so arranged as to require as few attendants, as few steps, and as little labor as possible. The librarian's room should be near the centre of the system, within easy reach of the public on the one hand, and the working-rooms on the other. The rooms for public use should be so arranged as to allow complete supervision with the fewest possible attendants. The danger of mutilation or theft of books or periodicals is lessened, if every part of a reading-room is in plain view of the delivery clerk or of some other attendant. There should be as much natural light as possible in all parts of the building. No artificial light can be as healthy for at- tendants and for books, so agreeable to the eyes, or so economical, as daylight. Windows should extend up to the ceiling, to light thoroughly the upper part of every room. With high windows, and walls and ceiling of a light color, the upper part of a room holds and diffuses daylight. With low win- dows it may be a cavern of gloom. Windows in a book-room should be placed opposite the intervals between book-cases. In planning a book-room or stack the book- cases ought to be located and the windows ought to be so arranged as to cast light, and not shadow, down all the aisles. The arrangement of books in tiers of alcoves and galleries around a large hall (exemplified in the Public Libraries of Boston, Cincinnati, and Detroit) is considered entirely obso- lete. The old style of shelving around the walls, in alcoves, and in galleries, has been generally superseded by the use of "floor-cases," that is, double book-cases arranged in parallel lines across the floor of a room, or "stacks," which are tiers of floor- cases, one close above the other. Shelves around the walls, and in alcoves, are still used in small libra- ries not likely to grow much ; and in libraries where access to the books is unrestricted and space can be spared. A form of shelving which is grow- ing in favor, is an arrangement of floor-cases in large rooms, with space SOULE. between the tops of the book-cases and the ceiling, for ventilation and the diffusion of light. [This form of shelving is sometimes called a "one-story stack," but the term does not appear to be as appropriate as " floor-cases."] There is considerable difference of opinion in regard to the " stack " method of shelving books. All librarians recognize the objec- tions to the " stack," but most of them believe that economy of cost, room, and work re- quires its use to some extent in large libra- ries. Prominent librarians urge, on the other hand, that the inconveniences of the system are very great, and that, as a rule, its use should be avoided. The plan for reference libraries so strongly advocated by Dr. Poole (clas- sifying the books in departments and arranging them for storage and study in separate rooms, under one roof) has so far influenced library construction that modern library plans provide ac- commodations for readers near the books they want to use, whatever sys- tem of shelving is adopted. In a circulating library the books most in use should be shelved in floor- cases close to the delivery desk. In the floor-cases of a reference library the upper shelves should be narrower than those below, with a ledge about three feet from the floor. This form of shelving leaves more elbow- room in passing, admits more light, and pro- vides a temporary resting-place for books in use or in transit. Three feet between floor-cases is ample for all purposes of adminis- tration. No shelf, in any form of book-case, should be higher than a person of moderate height can reach without a step-ladder. Shelving for folios and quartos should be provided in every book- room. Straight flights are preferable to circular stairs. Communication by speaking tubes and bells should be arranged between the working-rooms of a library. So far, prominent librarians who have given special study to library construction appear to agree unanimously. Other points of general agreement such for instance as objection to lofty halls for use as reading- rooms or delivery-rooms have been omitted where any one could be found who doubted their universal application. On many such points librarians are approaching unanimity through frank discussion and practical experiment. If this paper serves a useful purpose, the writer may offer at some future conference a discussion of "Tendencies in Library Archi- tecture," covering more fully and systemati- cally the whole subject from the librarian's point of view. 2O SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. HOW THE RE-CLASSIFICATION AND RE-NUMBERING OF 60,000 VOL- UMES WAS DONE IN THE DETROIT PUBLIC LIBRARY WITHOUT CLOSING THE LIBRARY OR STOPPING THE CIRCULATION OF BOOKS. BY H : M. UTLEY, LIBRARIAN. TN 1886 the Detroit public library, which then numbered about 80,000 volumes, was arranged upon the fixed location system. The library has four galleries, which, with the main floor, give five tiers of book cases, divided into twenty alcoves in each tier. The alcoves are numbered from one to one hun- dred, beginning at the southwest corner of the main floor, and counting from left to right, making five circuits of the building and end- ing at the top. Each alcove is divided into nine divisions, and each division, when the sizes of books permit, has nine shelves. The books were numbered for alcove, division, shelf, and number of book on shelf. They had no accession number or other identifica- tion mark. If a library were absolutely fin- ished this system of numbering would be the ideal one. It fixes a definite place of resi- dence, a home for every book; and books are not naturally migratory in their character. The system of numbering had been employed in this library many years, and frequently the books had been re-adjusted and re-numbered to meet the difficulties occasioned by rapid accessions. Only five years before the date mentioned, the library had been closed three and a half months, to the very great annoy- ance of the public, to permit such re-adjust- ment, and the then librarian estimated that this would not need to be done again for a period of at least ten years. But before five years had passed it was found that some classes had grown much more rapidly than had been anticipated, and though plenty of space for growth had been left, on the whole, it had not always been left with prophetic precision. The result was that confusion was becoming worse confounded every day. Then the library board gave orders for printing a catalog, and it became evident that if the fixed book numbers were embalmed in a printed catalog the future diffculties of ad- justing the library into any sort of order would be greatly enhanced. I determined to discard the old inflexible system and make a radical change to one better adapted to the needs of a rapidly growing library. The commissioners assented to the change and the consequent delay in issuing a catalog, but only on the condition that the library should not be closed nor its use practically interrupted. Librarians consulted agreed that there were better sys- tems than ours, but none thought that the conditions of a change imposed by the board could be fully observed. The best advice was to number the accessions by a new sys- tem and then gradually take up the old books and fit them into new places. But this plan would be interminably slow and would post- pone indefinitely the printing of a catalog, already in a forward state of preparation and for which the public was clamoring. So there seemed to be no other course but to boldly assault the main collection. There was already in the library a some- what crude classification, apparently based on the leading principle of the decimal system that is, the books were grouped under nine general heads with a few subdivisions. But under the cast-iron arrangement of book num- bers several of the classes were necessarily broken and scattered. Upon consideration I adopted the decimal classification system entire with the Cutter system of author notation, the two combined to form the book number, and never went to the trouble of assigning accession numbers. In January, 1887, two library assistants were set to work. They had had only limited study of the systems and practically no experience in their application. Their plan of action was UTLEY. 21 first to make the entire round of the building for the critical inspection of every book to determine its subject or class, and they be- gan by selecting such sections as threatened the fewest difficulties to their inexperience. Having decided upon a class figure, it was entered upon the upper left-hand margin of the title page with pencil, subject to erasure if a change was finally thought desirable. This done, the book was put back in its old place on the shelf to be used by the public freely, as before. Such books as were out from any section undergoing classification were, upon their return to the library, placed in the hands of these assistants for classi- fication before being put on the shelves. New books added to the library were treated in like manner before going upon the shelves In due course of time the circuit of the li- brary had been completed and every book had received its class number. The public had not suffered the slightest inconvenience on account of the work, in fact, could not have suspected that anything unusual was going on in the library. The books were freely drawn for home reading and no restriction whatever was placed on their use on account of the operation described. This was the most difficult portion of the work and con- sumed the largest proportion of the time. The next step was to assort and bring to- gether all the books bearing the same class figure, and to assign to each book its proper author designation and its consequent place on the shelf. This step compelled the stop- page of the circulation, but only of one class at a time and that for a very limited period. Ninety-nine per cent of the library was still as freely used as ever. This plan when put to the test caused no dissatisfaction on the part of the public and proved to be entirely convenient. When one subdivision was com- pleted it was released for use and another was taken up. And so in due time the second round of the library was made and the work was done. As before stated, the work was begun about Jan. I, 1887; it was finished in May, 1888, a period of one year and five months. All the books in the library were thus classi- fied and renumbered, except fiction, books in the German language, and government docu- ments. The work was done by two persons, with the help of a third for two or three months, and it involved the handling of 60,000 books. The cost in money was $1,595, salaries of assistants engaged on the work, to which should be added $347 paid for labor, shifting books, pasting labels, etc., making a total outlay of $1,942, an average of a trifle over three cents per volume. The expense involved in such an under- taking would depend, of course, in every in- stance upon the rate of salaries. In the case stated no outside expert was employed, and our own assistants, being inexperienced, nec- essarily worked slowly at the outset and in some few instances found it advisable to revise their work of classification. So it is an open question whether it would not have been economy to employ a thoroughly skilled expert to take charge of the work. Some- thing might undoubtedly be gained in the matter of time, if that were important, and probably an expert could better deal with some close questions in classification. In conclusion, I have to say that the change was not made a moment too soon and that I am satisfied with the system adopted. The move was an economical one for the library, be- cause the books are now numbered for all time, and that work will not have to be re- peated every ten years, as was contemplated by my predecessor. The new system has now been in full use something over three years and has been found to be all that was expected. It was easily learned by the library assistants, who have never had any trouble in keeping the books in their proper order. It is economical of room. Very much less space is left for growth than for- merly, and if the space left does not prove to be exactly where needed, none is wasted, for the books may be pushed either forward or backward. It permits new books to be put on the shelves exactly where they should be, so that all the books in the library on a given topic are compactly grouped together and always in strict alphabetical order of authors. The book numbers are not cumbersome. 22 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. They are usually composed of six or seven characters, and in very few cases, such as local or town history, run up as high as nine or ten. In arranging the books in the library their numerical order was not strictly fol- lowed, but classes most used were placed in the most convenient locations. In two or three instances it has been found desirable to transfer groups or subdivisions from one place to another to make room for some over crowded group. This caused no confusion for it was only necessary to notify the library assistants of the change. In all respects the system seems to be simple, flexible, elastic, practical. LIBRARIES AND SCHOOLS. BY S: SWETT GREEN, LIBRARIAN OF WORCESTER FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. A FEW years ago no aid was afforded sys- ^^ tematically by public libraries to schools. Now, on the contrary, in a very large number of towns and cities libraries are closely con- nected with schools. To judge from statements in the annual reports of such libraries as come to me I should say that almost all public libraries in the United States are trying in one way or another to be of assistance to schools. Gen. Eaton, late United States Commis- sioner of Education, stated a few years ago that no library had aided schools so systemat- ically, in so many different ways and so suc- cessfully, as the Free Public Library in Wor- cester, Massachusetts. It is because I am the librarian of that library, I presume, that I have been re- quested to prepare the paper which I am now reading to you. Teachers and librarians are co-educators. Librarians should cultivate friendly rela- tions with teachers and let them understand that they are ready to afford them any avail- able facilities for using books and getting at information, and to join them in endeavors to make the books of the library serviceable to their scholars. First, however, start with the knowledge and approval of the Superintendent of Schools, or such other person or body as may have the authority to decide what work is to be done in schools. In making arrangements to assist teachers and their pupils consult freely with the super- intendent and teachers, and make up your minds in regard to what it is practicable to undertake with the books at your command and without interfering unwarrantably with the school curriculum. Before going further let me state distinctly that if the work contemplated is to be done librarians must be allowed time in which to confer with teachers and help them and their scholars, or be supplied with accomplished assistants to attend to this branch of library service. I wish also to add that many duplicates are needed in doing school work. Such as are called for, however, accumulate gradually if a few books are bought every year with espe- cial reference to that kind of work. A close connection between libraries and schools is practicable everywhere ; in large cities, small cities, large towns, small towns, and villages. Generally speaking, libraries do not provide many books with especial reference to the wants of young children ; still teachers in the lower grades of schools will find in all libra- ries books that are useful to themselves, and in almost all libraries others which they can use without change for the benefit of pupils. For example, a book which contains pic- tures and descriptions of animals may be used in training the eye and cultivating the power of observation in children. Passages in books taken from libraries are read to classes to illustrate lessons in geog- raphy. In one instance that I know of lines from Longfellow's poem of Evangeline were read aloud, and when an interest had been awak- ened in the scenes and incidents described in GREEN. it, numbers of children were carried to a library to see certain elaborate illustrations of the poem which were published several years ago. When teachers have talks with pupils about countries and read extracts from books to them, the boys and girls wish to borrow the books to take home to read. They are given to them, and others are fur- nished describing travels and adventures or containing fairy tales or good stories. The habit of reading and a taste for good reading are thus formed together, and if chil- dren have begun the use of poor books, that use is supplanted. It is probable that many of the boys and girls thus served would not go to libraries themselves ; nor, should they go, would they make a judicious selection of books. Then, too, it is well to begin early to culti- vate in school a taste for good reading on the ground that large numbers of boys and girls, and particularly such as are children of uned- ucated men, whose judgment regarding the character of books is defective, leave school before reaching the higher grades even of the grammar schools. Many books from libraries are used as reading books. Teachers have reported to me that great improvement in reading aloud had been remarked as a consequence of using books that particularly interested children. Advance has been noted, too, as a result of the use of library books, in general in telligence, and in readiness in answering questions. A large use may be made of pictures and of books that are generously illus- trated in rendering assistance to younger children. In schools of the 7th, 8th, and pth grades and in high schools a very large use is made of library books in the school room. Some of these are used in the exercise of reading at sight or after a minute's examina- tion of the passage to be read. More are used as aids in studying geogra- phy. Some of the books used for that pur- pose are read by teachers in preparing them- selves for recitations. Teachers also select passages from works for pupils to read aloud, n a class exercise, or silently in their seats. Books are given to scholars to read, after they have learned their lessons. Many vol- umes are taken to homes to be kept over night, over Sunday, for a few days, or for a week or more. In some school rooms 100 volumes are to be found at one time in readiness for immediate use. In some schools scholars are allowed to examine the collections of books from libraries and to select such as interest them to read, or have their attention called to vol- umes which illustrate lessons. Sometimes a thousand volumes from a library on an average will be found in use every day of the school year for school pur- poses. I remember making an estimate of the average number of volumes in the Free Public Library in use in the schools of Wor- cester, daily, during two of the busiest months of the winter term and finding it to be 1,666. That number was additional, of course, to that of books taken out on cards held by indi- vidual boys and girls and to such as were used within the library building. The librarian of an important library stated a few years ago that he found that 626 out of 1,024 books taken out in a given time on teachers' and pupils' cards were stories. No such abuse of privileges is necessary, how- ever. Nor should it be tolerated. Those cards should be used almost exclusively for procuring from libraries books needed for educational purposes. In Worcester the rule is that teachers shall take out on teachers' cards only one story at a time for entertainment merely. That rule is strictly enforced, and all the books taken from the library in that city, by teachers, with the exception mentioned, are for purposes of study or serious reading, or for use in putting wholesome literature into the hands of children. Many of the books provided for children, however, are of course stories. The stories furnished, however, are only such as possess real merit. SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. By availing themselves of privileges af- forded by libraries which are working in sym- pathy with the purposes of teachers, instruc- tors are doing a great service to the pupils in supplanting the use of worthless books and papers, by stimulating an interest in good books which they introduce them to. The advantages obtainable from the use of books by teachers and scholars are greatly in- creased when a collection of such books as are most needed is made constantly availa- ble. For that reason some libraries have al- lowed schools to keep a considerable number of their books in school rooms for a term or even for a longer period of time. I know of one principal of a grammar school who with his assistants has been so success- ful in awakening an interest in subjects of in- quiry in connection with daily school work, that by putting books into the hands of his pu- pils to answer such inquiries, he has, without the use of force, controlled nearly the whole of the home reading of the children attending school in the building under his charge. It should be added, moreover, that a great many of the books given to children to take home are read by their parents and older brothers and sisters. That fact is not surprising, for librarians know that books which are attractive to school children are very commonly found entertaining to men and women. Another kind of service which libraries in Worcester and other places have rendered to schools consists in furnishing them with 25 or 50 copies of some work adapted to the mental capacity of young persons on the American Revolution or our Civil war, so as to enable a class to study some period of American his- tory with minuteness in a graphic and inter- esting narrative. Numerous copies of choice specimens of English and American literature have also been supplied to schools, to aid in the careful study of certain authors and for the purpose of cultivating the habit of reading with atten- tion and comprehension of the meaning, and with appreciation of skill in presentation of a subject, and of the beauties of style and composition displayed in literary productions. So much good has come from work of this kind done by the aid of libraries, that in some cases school committees have taken hold of the matter and bought books needed in doing it from school funds. In doing this kind of work a different book may be given to every pupil, he being re- quired to read the book so carefully that he can give a good account of its contents in writing or orally. Some teachers see that pupils are provided with blank books in which to write down lists of interesting good books which have been previously written on a blackboard, and ques- tions which they are to find answers for by going to libraries. If a teacher wishes to make his scholars feel how much our ancestors suffered in first peopling this country and preparing it to be- come a pleasant habitation for their descend- ants, he goes to a library and is there aided to select a book which contains a vivid de- scription of pioneer life, and gives it to the members of a class, in turn, to read. To aid in the study of American literature in the high school in Worcester it has been our custom to furnish two or three copies of the best works of such authors as Irving, Holmes and Hawthorne to the principal, to be used by pupils in becoming familiar with whole works of an author. Some of the books fur- nished are used by every member of the class. In teaching natural history interesting books on various subjects are sought by in- structors and furnished by libraries. Twenty-five books at a time are sometimes sent to a high school to illustrate an epoch in history when an effort is made to study some period topically. Simple and pure French and German stories are furnished to teachers to give to scholars to read at home, for the purpose of making it easy for them to read books in the French and German languages. In giving out subjects for compositions, such as are closely connected with studies are selected, and scholars in getting the infor- mation needed before writing use library books either in the school room or at the library building. GREEN. In some schools an hour is set apart every week for the teacher to use as he pleases for the benefit of scholars. That hour is used by some teachers in find- ing out what pupils are reading and how they read. Teachers learn in this way much about the occupations and minds of the boys and girls under their charge, and are thereby enabled to give a useful turn to their thoughts and employments. The number of books that teachers are al- lowed to take away from libraries for their own use and that of children varies in differ- ent places, according, mainly, to the size of libraries and their interest in school work. In Worcester we allow teachers to take home or to the school room six books for their own use and twelve for the use of pupils. If they need more books and ask for them they generally get them. Teachers are everywhere held responsible, I presume, for the use of reasonable care in keeping books from being lost or injured. Books sent to school rooms are sometimes picked out by librarians, sometimes selected by teachers. In some places baskets are pro- vided by the school authorities which scholars use in carrying books to and from school- houses. Horse cars are freely used in such places. In Newton, Mass., which is a collec- tion of villages separated by considerable dis- tances, books are distributed from the central library to schools through local expresses. Lists of books for young persons are issued by some libraries. Superintendents of schools sometimes print lists of good books for use in schools at the end of their reports. I have space now only to call attention to the excellent collection of books for children contained in Sargent's " Books for the Young," issued by the publication section of this association. In doing the kind of work which I have been describing, there is danger of interfering with the normal mental development of children by putting ourselves in a position of opposi- tion to the gratification of natural and harm- less tastes, which we may not happen to sym- pathize with, and so in weakening the desire to read at all. That danger, however, can be guarded against. Many persons are surprised when they find out what a good class of books children will read, when their attention is called to them and judgment is used in exciting an interest in them. So much for the work done in the school room. A word now in regard to that done in the library building. The librarian helps teachers to get at such books as they need to give them information, or aid them in making investigations. When questions are asked in schools which cannot be answered with sources of informa- tion at hand, a scholar is sent for a book at once if the school house is near the library, or the teacher or scholar goes to the library after the close of school and gets the facts sought for, for use the following day. The librarian helps in carrying out the wishes of teachers regarding their pupils. If they are set to make little inquiries he puts into their hands books on the subject adapted to their ages, and shows them how to get information out of them by the use of in- dexes, tables of contents, page headings, etc. He introduces them to encyclopaedias and atlases, and to gazetters and dictionaries of biography and those treating of other branches of knowledge. The librarian sets aside books which a teacher wishes scholars to see, so that they may be always at hand for use. He helps children to pick out good books to read. He gives them collections of pieces to speak and helps them to get at material to use in debates. In some libraries systematic instruction is given by librarians. Classes go in squads to libraries and are given books illustrative of some period in his- tory, some country or other subject that they are studying about, and taught how to use the books. Some librarians go into schools and talk to the children about books and their value in connection with school work. Teachers carry classes to libraries to look 26 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. at large illustrated works, throwing light on their studies. They are given a room where they can be by themselves and talk freely. These and other kinds of work done by libraries and schools together have been fully described in articles in the Library journal. Several of the best of these I collected into a little volume, " Libraries and Schools," pub- lished by the late Frederick Leypoldt of New York. I fear that it is now out of print. In some libraries, for example in Pawtucket, R. I., great attention is given within the library building to little children. Assistants can readily be trained to render aid to inquirers. Decided improvement in the character of the reading of young persons has been remarked in places where there has been an intimate connection between libraries and schools. In doing the different kinds of work de- scribed in this paper, the exact form which they are to take should be decided upon after consultation between individual teachers and librarians, and, of course, with the approval of persons in power. The work done in different places will vary according to diversity in the character of libraries, schools, teachers and librarians. Teachers soon learn the value of being ac- corded a free use of books for themselves and scholars. Little libraries are often bought for schools, in consequence of the recognition of the advantages that follow ready access to books for reference, study and collateral read- ing. In these cases public libraries supple- ment the school library. No extraordinary qualities are required by librarians who undertake to do work in con- nection with schools. Those really needed are interest in the work, knowledge of books, a good education, good manners, and good sense. ECONOMICAL, EDUCATIONAL, SELECT CATALOGUES FOR PUBLIC LIBRARIES. BY WILLIS K. STETSON, LIBRARIAN NEW HAVEN FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 'T'HE Boston Public Library class list of History, Biography and Travel, and the Quincy, Mass., catalogue, both issued nearly twenty years ago, were so successful, appar- ently, in accomplishing a most important object, that it has seemed strange to the writer that they have not had more imitators. Of course it was not to be expected that many libraries could equal these in respect to the elaborate notes, but something more could be done than has been done. Everything which can be added to a catalogue, to help the reader ignorant of books, repays for the effort and expense, within certain limits. There is no library which cannot give some information, and most libraries can add con- siderable information to the titles of the books. A mere sign, distinguishing juveniles, will prevent much disappointment, and help in selecting books. Misleading titles can be explained in a few words. Books of especial importance might be indicated by special signs or styles of type. As to notes, such as those in the catalogues above cited, there is, of course, more difficulty ; yet it seems to me perfectly feasible to insert many helpful notes in most library catalogues. Perhaps the chief obstacle is the cost of printing. Twenty-seven per cent of the Bos- ton class list was in note type, roughly indi- cating the increased cost in consequence of notes. How shall the cost be met? Is not the answer make the catalogues select, and not complete. If notes would be more useful than the titles of some books, omit such titles and print the notes. We suppose the library to have a complete card catalogue. The card catalogue is not sufficient for the public, in case of the most popular books, and hence these titles should be printed ; but the least popular or least important may be omitted. A complete printed catalogue of a growing library is impossible in reality, and special means might well be taken to impress the HE WINS. fact on the public, and certainly should be in case of a select catalogue. If we can sacri- fice the only completeness which is possible, and make the catalogue select, then there is possibility, or greater possibility, of printing an annotated catalogue. Still keeping in mind that the printed cata- logue is to be especially planned for the aver- age reader, the select catalogue might contain analyticals, just as the Cleveland Public Library catalogue does to cite a notable example. Selection is, of course, eminently necessary here. The principle is to give the most help to the reader, and analytical refer- ences on popular topics are more useful than entries of books of little interest and value. Select catalogues might be kept within such limits of size and price that the public could purchase them. Whatever may be the utility of ownership and home use of catalogues, the price of catalogues must be low if the public are to buy them. Few libraries can afford to print complete catalogues at all, except brief- est-title lists, still less to make the price pop- ular. Perhaps the select, educational cata- logue might be the best thing viewed from this standpoint. The whole question of printed catalogues for public libraries has not, it seems to me, been adequately treated in print, and the pur- pose of this mere note is to excite discussion. I doubt not that many share with me the desire that the views and experiences of the librarians at San Francisco may be expressed for the benefit of others. ANNUAL REPORT ON GIFTS AND BEQUESTS. BY MISS CAROLINE M. HEWINS, LIBRARIAN HARTFORD LIBRARY. T AST year's report on gifts and bequests to libraries in the United States, which, it may be remembered, was in an express office at Burlington, Vt., all through the con- ference at Fabyan's, contained returns from libraries to the amount of more than $22,000,- ooo. Answers were received from only one- fourth of the libraries from which information had been requested. On this account the Bureau of Education was asked last January to undertake the work of collecting and tabu- lating statistics, and has had the matter under consideration and last year's report in its possession for six months, without any appar- ent result.* This year, gifts or bequests, present or future, to fifty libraries, have been reported. Their value, as nearly as it can be estimated, is $1,400,000, of which more than $1,000,000 is in money, the rest being in land, buildings, books, manuscripts, collections of pictures and coins, etc. Only sixteen States are represented. The most important work of the year, in * The Bureau is now (Dec. 7) preparing a series of questions. C. M. H. bringing the subjects of gifts and bequests before the public, is the report of the Free Public Library Commission of Massachu- setts, with photogravures of sixty-eight free library buildings. Of these forty-eight are gifts, four bequests, one both gift and bequest, six partly gifts, and nine built by appropria- tions from towns or cities. They are, how- ever, only a small part of the buildings which house the books in the free libraries of 246 of the 351 towns and cities of the State. Mr. Tillinghast, the State Librarian, said not long ago that sixty memorial library buildings had been erected, and $5,500,000 given outright by individuals for them. It is recommended that the American Li- brary Association take measures, through the State associations or every State represented in the conference, to establish Library Com- missions for the purpose of obtaining and publishing library statistics as a first step towards planting libraries where they have never been before, and to secure as many illustrations as possible of libraries which have been erected by gift or bequest, making most prominent those given during the donor's lifetime. 28 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. State. City or Town. Name of Library. Gift or Bequest Source. Value. Money. California. San Francisco. Stockton. Wells, Fargo & Co. Gift. Bequest Adolph Sutro. Wells, Fargo & Co. and employe's Wm. P. Hazleton. Not stated $75.000.00 Connecticut. Ansonia. Branford. Bridgeport. Canaan. Danielsonville. New Haven. Ansonia Lib. Bridgeport Free Lib. David M. Hunt Lib. People's Library. Yale University. u ii u u Gift. Bequest Gift. Bequest Gift. Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes. T. B. Blackstone. Catherine E. Hunt. Judge Almond M. Paine. Alvan Talcott. Rev. Dr. H. M. Dexter. James Terry. Ex-Gov. James L. English. Mrs. Henry Farnham. Hon. Robbins Battell. Prof. Henry W. Farnham. 30.000.00 125,000.00 2,000.00 1,000.00 10,000.00 25,000.00 10,000.00 10,000.00 500.00 500.00 223.50 $ 2,000.00 1,000.00 10,000.00 25,000.00 10,000.00 500.00 500.00 223.50 it North Granby. Frederick H. Cossitt Lib. " Heirs of Frederick H. Cossitt. 10,000.00 10,000.00 " Stafford Springs Torrington. Torrington Lib. Assoc. Bequest Arba G. Hyde. Lauren Wetmore. 30,000.00 22,000.00 22,000.00 Illinois. Chicago. Durand. Merrill. Chicago Pub. Lib. Durand Lib. Assoc. Bequest Jerome Beecher. Andrew Ashton. T. B. Scott. 2,OOO.OO IOO.OO 10,000.00 2.OOO.OO IOO.OO 10,000.00 Louisiana. La. Historical Soc. Maine. Machias. Bequest Henry L. Porter. 10,000,00 Maryland. Baltimore. Manual Training Sch. Johns Hopkins Univ. Peabody Institute. Bequest Gift. J. E. A. Cunningham. J. R. Gilmore. W. H. Rinehart. 95,000.00 95,000.00 Massachusetts. Boston, pswich. klarlboro. tfethuen. Newburyport. Boston Public Library. Ipswich " Kevins Memorial. Newburyport Pub. Lib. Bequest Joseph Scholfield. Albert Farley Heard. Levi Bigelow. Mary A. Nevins. Abram Williams. 11,766.77 10,000.00 500.00 20,000.00 1,000.00 11,766.77 10,000.00 500.00 1,000.00 it Salem. Salem Pub. Lib. Gift. Hon. J. B. F. Osgood. IOO.OO IOO.OO " " < ii ' " fames D. Perkins. IOO.OO IOO.OO Minnesota. St. Paul. Bequest. Judge Henry Hall. 500,000.00 500,000.00 Nebraska. Omaha. Bequest. Byron Reed. 90,000.00 New Jersey. iightstown. 3 aterson. L.ongstreet Library. Gift. Fonathan & Mary A. Longstreet. Mrs. Ryle. 12,000.00 1,000.00 12,000.00 1,000.00 New York. Buffalo. Jeneva. tfarathon. New York. Buffalo Library, iobart College. Ames Museum of Nat. Hist. Astor Library. Bequest, ii _.e Grand Marvin. [. L. Swift, rtrs. Marsena Brink Peck. Mrs. M. Schuyler Elliot. L J. Astor. 19,000.00 20,000.00 15,000.00 75,000.00 19,000.00 20,000.00 " <" Columbia College. Gift. Mr. and Mrs. S. P. Avery. 30,000.00 ii u ii u Southampton. r ree Circulating Lib. Bequest. Gift. Jequest. C. M. Da Costa. -lenry G. Marquand. Mrs. Harriet J. Rogers. 1,500.00 5,000.00 1,500.00 5,000.00 10,000.00 Ohio. lendale. Bequest. Mrs. Mary Allen. 50,000.00 50,000.00 Pennsylvania. u tfeadville. Pittsburg. tfeadville Theol. Sem. 3 ittsburg Lib. Assoc. Gift. Juidekoper Family. William Thaw. H. Phipps, Jr. 6,000.00 5,000.00 50,000.00 5,000.00 50,000.00 Rhode Island. Olneyville. Gift. MissS. J.Eddy. 1,000.00 1,000.00 " 'rovidence. 'ublic Library. Bequest. Albert J. Jones. 2,000.00 2,000.00 Vermont. Jurlington. Jniversity of Vt. Gift. Frederick Billings. 50,000.00 50,000.00 ii Jutland. lutland Free Lib. " ieuben Rose. 500.00 500.00 Wisconsin. 5reen Bay. llenomonie. label Tainter Memorial. Gift. Rufus B. Kellogg. Capt. and Mrs. Andrew Tainter. 500.00 18,000.00 500.00 HE WINS. 29 Books. Manuscripts, etc. Land. Building. Conditions or Remarks. 40,000 For public use. For public library. Land. Building. Books about $10,000 more. Memorial to his father. Includes house for librarian. In addition to a fund of $5,000. 1,850 1297 Also a valuable medical library. On history of Congregationalism. Connecticut sermons, etc. For a seminary lib. in Amer. hist. | For building and books, given on account of a \ memorandum among Mr. Cossitt's papers. For library on death of his wife and sister. Subject to life interest of widow. Papers of Jefferson Davis. Land. 2,000 1,000 Autographs. Also book-case. Income to be spent for books. Income to be used as long as library lasts. Income to be spent for books. IFor reference books, in addition to $1,000 pre- viously given. Unconditional. {For Public Library and other such institutions as Common Council shall determine. Mss. and Coins, val. $50,000. On condition that city erect building. For altering building given last year. Napoleana. Books. Architectural lib. Art Collections. Last instalment of a bequest of $54,000. To found a free public library. {$15,000 for care and increase of collection; $15,000 for immediate use. Law and misc. lib. Land. House. Subject to life interest of a cousin. For erection of school library. Lib. Bld'g. On condition of Sunday opening. For building fund. ( Income of half for Italian books and half for books ( on design. {For management of library, in addition to $200,000 for building. Besides $15,000 in 1889. Building. SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. USE OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY IN THE CLEVELAND SCHOOLS. BY W: H. BRETT, LIBRARIAN CLEVELAND (0.) PUBLIC LIBRARY. 17 OR several years past the teachers in the * Cleveland schools, both public and pri- vate, and also some teachers of private classes have been allowed to draw from three to six additional books, and in some cases to retain them longer than the usual time. This, though an advantage prized by the more efficient teachers of the city, was not sufficient for the needs of the schools. During the year 1889 the issue of books to the teachers in the names of their pupils and for their use was begun. In addition to sev- eral smaller selections of books, earlier in the year, fifty volumes were placed in each of eleven schools, which remained through the last semester of that year. During 1890 col- lections numbering, except in a few instances, 50 volumes each, were placed in 61 schools and remained until the close of the year. As I write, at the beginning of the school year, the applications already indicate a very large increase. At first the books were issued in the name of the pupils, the teacher being responsible for them. This was merely to comply with the rules, as the teacher actually divided the books among her pupils as she saw fit. Lately the rule was modified to permit the issue of books directly to the teacher for the use of her pupils without the formality of charging them to the pupils. One of the library assistants who has had charge of this work from the beginning has been accustomed to visit each school once each month, to check up the books and see that they were properly cared for. This fre- quent oversight is important to protect the in- terest of the library, to call the attention of the teachers promptly to any deficiency, and also to give the assistant opportunity to make helpful suggestions to the teacher. Teachers were permitted to return any books they chose at any time and draw others, but very few exchanges were made. The selections of books first made were usually retained with very little change to the end of the year. They were used by the teachers at their own discretion. In almost every in- stance they were issued to the pupils for use at home, where they were read by other mem- bers of the family; and as most of the books were placed in schools remote from the library, these were in effect small delivery stations, operated without expense to the library for the benefit of the group of families represented in the schools. It places books in many families which have not been using the library, and to many children it is their first introduction to good reading. One teacher told me an incident showing the hunger for books. A copy of a favorite story disappeared. It had just before been reluctantly returned by a bright girl of her class, and the teacher's suspicions were aroused that the desire to possess the book had proved too strong a temptation for her. When questioned she finally admitted that she had taken the book, but bursting into tears, she exclaimed : " I did want it so bad. I never had a book in my whole life. " At the close of the last year a little circular was sent to the teachers having books, asking each what the result had been in her school, whether it was desirable to continue the issue, and inviting suggestions as to the best books and methods. The answers received were almost uniformly enthusiastic as to the value of the books in the school, and were unanimous in their wish to have the issue continued. Some reported that the in- fluence of the books was very marked upon the school work and that it inspired an inter- est in the school which had a favorable effect upon the deportment. I happened to hear of two schools in each of which the collection included a bound copy of Harper's Young People. The pupil making the best record for the week was per- mitted to draw and use this for the next week. It proved a capital stimulus to exertion and FLETCHER. good behavior. To conclude, I think I may regard the work thus far as altogether fav- orable and encouraging. It has not been done in accordance with a plan, but has been an attempt to occupy what appeared to be a new field of usefulness in which we have only gone forward step by step, as the way opened. I believe, however, that the time is coming, if indeed it is not already here, when the use of a collection of good books in the school room will be regarded as not merely desirable, but as an absolute necessity ; when the in- troduction of our children to good literature and the formation of the reading habit will be regarded as the most important work of the school course. What the best method for placing books in the school room may be, the future must develop. I am convinced now that it should be the central library under one management rather than by independent libraries for the separate buildings or roomsi whether this central library be a public library or a special one for the schools. Practically, however, the public library already organized and equipped for work offers a means of be- ginning the work at once. The essentials for successful work from the library, I think, are simply the duplication to a sufficient extent of the best books and the fre- quent oversight of its collections when placed in the school rooms. The advantages I have already sufficiently mentioned. In what I have written I have merely, in accordance with the request of our president, given an account of the work on our own library. Work in the same line is being done in the Mil- waukee library, I believe, also in the Detroit library and elsewhere, from which I hope we may hear. Permit me to add a few supplementary words in regard to another direction in which the library may work outside of its own walls. We have during the last few years been issu- ing books to a few manufacturing firms for their employes. They give us the names and addresses of their employees who wish to draw books, they become responsible for the books, send for and return them, usually once a week. We place catalogs in the works, make out a card which accompanies the book, which taken out and filed at the office of the works charges the book to the person, so that the work involved to the manufacturer is very little. Of the 300 names now registered and using the library from the different manufactories, not more than 20 had ever used the library before. I mention this not as a record of achieve- ment, but as suggesting a hopeful field for library extension. THE BEST LIBRARY LEGISLATION. BY W. I. FLETCHER, LIBRARIAN OF AMHERST COLLEGE. T HAVE been asked to present a paper on this subject, not of course with the idea that I should bring forward anything ideal, although "the best" might suggest that. Rather am I desired, I suppose, to set forth the best results of the experience practically had in this line, in those States which have taken the lead in the establishment of libra- ries. Library legislation is plainly in a course of evolution, in which we may observe four stages already past or being attained and a fifth plainly foreshadowed. The best library legislation in any time or place is that which secures, or conduces to, the best results in library development and administration, time and place taken into account. Passing by. as not pertinent to our discus- sion, all legislation for the establishment of State libraries or other institutions not for the benefit of the public, we find that the first stage in legislation for public libraries con- sisted in laws incorporating society libraries, the first of which in this country was the Phil- SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. adelphia Library, started by Benj. Franklin in 1732, and incorporated in 1742. From the first, these libraries were recognized as pub- lic benefits, and their establishment was en- couraged by exemption from taxation. At least sixteen States now have general laws under which such libraries may be estab- lished, and twenty-three States exempt them from taxation, thus drawing a clear line be- tween library associations and clubs, in which the benefit is supposed to accrue only to members, the library, even in the hands of a society, being regarded as a public good. The second stage in the development of library legislation appears in the laws passed in twenty-one States, beginning with New York in 1835, for the establishment of district school libraries. New York has expended over $50,000 annually in this direction for fifty-five years, but there, as elsewhere, the system has proved on the whole a failure, although it was at one time regarded as a long step towards universal popular culture. It was indeed such a step, in the sense that it prepared the way throughout the country for what was to follow, educating public senti- ment, and creating a desire for better things. In the third stage of laws for the further- ance of the library interest we come to the beginning of the public library strictly speak- ing, i. e., the library " of the people, by the people and for the people. " In 1849 ^e Legislature of New Hampshire passed the first act of which we have any record, empowering towns and cities to estab- lish and maintain public libraries by taxation. Massachusetts followed in 1851, and other States later. The history of this movement \vas concisely given by Dr. Poole in his ad- dress before this association in 1887; and an article by our associate, Mr. C. Alex. Nelson, in the Annual Cyclopasdia for 1887, gives a resum of the then existing laws of this char- acter. In looking for the best of these laws we observe that the differences are chiefly in two points : the amount of tax levy allowed, and the provisions made for appointment of trustees or directors. As to the amount, it is somewhat singular that while New Hamp- shire at the very first left the power of taxation for this purpose in the hands of the towns without limit, and has never found reason to amend that provision, nearly all the States have limited the amount, as has Great Brit- ain. Massachusetts began with a limit, which was soon abolished. The limit in a few representative States is as follows : New Jersey, one-third mill ; Indiana, three-fourths mill ; Connecticut, 2 mills ; Illinois, towns 2 mills; cities of less than 10,000 population, i mill; cities of over 10,000, one-fifth mill; New York, $i per poll for establishment, 50 cents per poll for maintenance ; Vermont, the same amounts doubled. It seems to be diffi- cult to say whether it is best to have this limit fixed by State law or not. Those States which fix no limit are quite satisfied with the result. In other States the circumstances may be so different as to make it expedient to impose a limit on possibly hasty and ill- considered local generosity towards the libra- ries, leading to the neglect of other proper expenditures. The policy of providing for the support of libraries out of fines taken in the courts, and licenses of various kinds, is hardly a wise one. It tends to degrade the library in the eyes of the public to have its prosperity dependent on the wickedness of the people, and also renders the support of the libraries too pre- carious for regular and satisfactory work. A direct tax levy is more dignified and puts the library where it belongs, on a par with other educational institutions of the State. The provisions for the care of public libra- ries vary greatly in different States. As an extreme example of unwise simplicity in these provisions, I cite Colorado, where the mayor of a city having a public library is required to appoint annually a library committee of three to serve one year. Libraries cannot flourish under such a regime. No stability of management or policy is possible, as no offi- cer could be sure of his place except for the current year, and where there are shifting local politics the library will inevitably be- come a party football. In most of the States larger boards are required, and their election is provided for under such restrictions as to secure compar- FLETCHER. 33 ative permanence in office, and to remove the election out of politics. The best legislation in this respect is that which provides wisely for a non-partisan board of from seven to twelve directors, only a portion to be chosen at a time, and all to hold office for a term of years. But there are two opposite dangers to be guarded against here. While library management must be kept out of politics, care must also be taken that it be not committed to a close corporation tending to become a one-man power. The Boston Public Library, having suffered from the first of these evils, sought relief in a special act of incorporation under which the direction was placed in the hands of five trustees, one appointed an- nually by the Mayor to serve five years. The recently printed report on the expenditures so far made on the new building for that library, consists mainly of the testimony of the president of the board, in which he makes it appear plainly that the government of the in- stitution has in a few years drifted into an early complete one-man power, and that its present awkward position as to the new building (and in other respects as well) is due to this fact. Legislation of the permissive sort just con- sidered, with proper regulations as to govern- ment, is undoubtedly the best yet attainable for most of the States, nor can anything further be well attempted until some years' experience of the great benefits of public libraries has prepared a community for yet higher ground. But there is higher ground to be taken, as already shown by Massachusetts and New York, which have added to their permissive legislation, laws intended to encourage ac- tively the establishment of town libraries, and providing for assistance from the State for the poorer towns. In Massachusetts the State Library Com- mission in less than two years from its estab- lishment, and by the judicious expenditure of a very small appropriation, has secured the founding of libraries in over thirty of the one hundred towns in the State which were with- out them, and its members look confidently to the near future when every town shall have such an institution. In New York legislation was had three years ago providing for subsidies from the State to free libraries of a certain size and having a given circulation. While this has done much to aid and stimulate the library interests of the State, further legislation is pending, intended to increase largely the aid furnished by the State, not only in money but in assistance and advice through the State Library, serving as headquarters for the entire public library system of the State. This stimulative legislation is readily seen to be a step beyond that which is merely per- missive, but it is a step which can hardly fail to be taken by all the States as they are gradually educated to an appreciation of the value to the State of good public libraries. Nor can it well be doubted that this evolution of library legislation will ultimately bring forth the ideal library law, that is to say, the one which shall make it obligatory on towns to have and to properly maintain libraries, just as it is now required that schools be pro- vided. Some years ago a member of the Library Association of the United Kingdom presented a resolution that Parliament be re- quested to pass a bill making this requirement of towns. It did not meet the approval of the meeting, but the confident expectation ex- pressed by the mover " It will come!" is certainly justified by the course library legislation has thus far taken. To the features of library laws already referred to must be added another the pro- tective. It has been found necessary, where public libraries exist, to make the willful or careless defacing or injuring of library books a penal offence. Only when some prosecu- tions under such laws have taken place, have library books been safe in the hands of a cer- tain portion of the community. In closing I may be permitted to speak of some points on which national "library legis- lation " may be improved. 1. We want laws providing for the regular and prompt supply to libraries of the United States public documents. 2. We want an amendment of the postal laws by which library books may pass through the mails at second-class (i. e. pound) rate. 34 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. 3. We want to be allowed to import books for our libraries without the tedious and vexatious delays and formalities involved in the present system. Although public libra- ries do not have to pay import duties, prob- ably no class of people would more sincerely hail the removal of the duty on books than the librarians. Such, then, is the " best library legislation." ACCESS TO THE SHELVES IN THE CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY. BY W: H. BRETT, THE LIBRARIAN. *T*HE library is classified upon the decimal system of Mr. Dewey, worked out as far as the third or fourth figure of the decimal fraction, if necessary. The circulating department, except fiction, is arranged in open alcoves, convenient of access. Each contains a reading table for the use of visitors. They are so arranged that they may, with the ordinary business of the library, be overlooked by four assistants. In especially busy times more are needed. The books are in cases with glass doors, but these are opened freely for visitors, and left open as long as desired. The novels are on open shelves behind a counter, and are given out by assistants on application. These are shown freely on the counter for selection. The arrangement of the circulating depart- ment is shown by a diagram in the Library journal of May, 1890, which is substantially as it has been operated since March, 1890, except that the railing and gates there shown as closing each alcove have never been put in place, as we found no need of them. The disadvantage feared from this plan was that books might be carried away without being charged. I say carried away without being charged, not as an euphemism, but because I think that when this does occur it is some- times through carelessness rather than delib- erate thieving. Our loss since opening the library is slight, not apparently larger than before, and is rather more than proportion- ately shared by the class fiction which is not open. It was also feared that the books would be so misplaced on the shelves as to become a serious objection, and I intended to have little notices posted, asking that books be not replaced on the shelves, but left on the ledges ; this, however, has never been necessary, as the inconvenience anticipated has never existed to any serious extent. The advantages gained have been, first, the greatly enhanced value of the library to its users. The importance of being able to look over the books upon any subject is obvious to every student and reader, and can hardly be overestimated. To those who are undecided as to what they want, an assistant can readily show an attractive shelf of books, or make a suggestion. In the history and travel alcoves the assist- ants usually keep a few attractive volumes on the tables, from which visitors may select. The new books are also shown on open shelves in a rack, and selections may be made from them at once. These books are checked each morning, so that I know that we are not losing books from them. Another important advantage is the increased speed with which books may be selected and drawn. The circulation of the library has largely increased. For the year ending August 3ist, 1889, the issue of books for home use was about 200,000. For the next year, during the last five months of which the library was open, it was 235,000, and for the year just closed it has been 280,000. This increase is in part due to the growth of the town, but I attribute much of it to the favor which our change in method has found with our reading people. In addition to the issue of books, there has been a considerable use of the circulating department as a reading and study room, of which no account is kept and no figures can be given. A fourth advantage, and a very important one, is the economy of the plan. Speaking from our experience thus far, I BRETT. 35 believe that the expense per volume of issuing books by this plan will not be above two- thirds as great as that by any plan which involves bringing the books to the reader, and gives him any reasonable opportunity to look them over and select. Perhaps I should speak more definitely and say that it is not more than two-thirds as great as it was in our own library on the old plan, as that is the only standard of comparison I have. I say this advisedly, as I find it impossible to gather from published library statistics any accurate estimate of the cost of issue per volume, so difficult is it to separate the amount paid for that especial work from the other expenses of the library. To sum up, I think I may say that our own experience of the open library has been altogether favorable. I should say, perhaps, in addition, that I regard it as essential to its success, first, that a library should be arranged upon a plan which will afford well lighted, convenient book rooms, or alcoves, which can be econom- ically overlooked; and, second, that it should be systematically and closely classified upon the shelves. The more broadly a library is classified, that is to say, the nearer it approxi- mates to no classification at all, the less use will it be. I do not in this undervalue the catalogue. The value of a catalogue still con- tinues in a library open and carefully classi- fied, in that it shows books upon a subject which may be off the shelf, parts of books, chapters, essays, etc. ; and it may be used out of the library. As I look over what I have written, I fear that I may be open to the charge of Unser- bibliothekismus (permitting me to coin a word), but I have only intended a frank state- ment of our own experiences in an important phase of library management, hoping to con- tribute a little toward the solution of a puz- zling problem. CONTAGIOUS DISEASES AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES. BY GARDNER MAYNARD JONES, LIBRARIAN OF THE SALEM PUBLIC LIBRARY, SALEM, MASS. pvR. W. F. POOLE, at that time librarian of the Chicago Public Library, read a paper on this subject at the Boston Con- ference of the A. L. A. in 1879 [L. J. 4: 258-262], giving special attention to the opinions of medical men as to the danger of contagion. In compiling the present report for the conference of 1891, I have approached the subject from the opposite side, that of the actual experiences of libraries, and precautions adopted. To get at the facts, I sent a cir- cular containing 7 questions to 66 represen- tative librarians of the United States, Canada, England and Scotland (52 American and 14 foreign), to which I have received 52 replies (43 American, 9 foreign). In 8 cases the librarians had no experience bearing on the subject or the replies were not in such form as to admit of tabulation, although I have sometimes made quotations from them. The 44 other replies are summarized as follows ; Have you any reason to think that disease has been carried by books delivered from your library ? Three do not answer; 39 say "No. " The following extract from the reply of Mr. K. A. Linderfelt, Milwaukee Public Library, is an expression of the general tone of the replies: " For my own part, I do not believe that any serious danger of carrying contagion by means of library books exists, but there are in every community quite a number of per- sons who feel nervous on this subject, and for their sake it is well to take every reasonable precaution. " Mr. J. Schwartz, New York Apprentices' Library, says : " My opinion, founded on an experience of twenty-eight years, is that con- tagious diseases are not spread through the circulation of books from libraries. In my experience I never heard of any reader to whom a disease was communicated through a book loaned by the library. And while the attendants at the desks handled hundreds of SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. thousands of books every year which had been circulated among all parts of the city and suburbs there has been only one case where any of the library employees was even sick of a contagious disease. This case oc- curred about 27 years ago, and from the cir- cumstances attending it, could not have been contracted at the library. " Mrs. M. C. Norton, assistant librarian of the Minneapolis Public Library, says : " We have had but one case brought to our notice where it was claimed by the family that the poison was carried to them through books from the library, but that was mere conjec- ture." Miss Ellen M. Coe, librarian of the New York Free Circulating Library, says : " The only case of infection known to us in the ten years since we opened our library is one where a somewhat alarming ulcerous skin disease attacked one of the librarians ; this was plainly from the soiled book covers." What means are adopted to prevent the spread of contagious diseases ? Have you any special arrangements with health officers ? The most general plan adopted is that men- tioned by Dr. Poole at the close of his article [L. J. 4 : 262] and which may be called " the Chicago plan." This is as follows : The health officer notifies the library of all cases of contagious disease, and books are not loaned to residents in such houses until notice is received that all danger is passed. All books returned which have been exposed to infection are disinfected or destroyed before they are replaced on the shelves of the library. Twenty-three librarians report that this plan is regularly followed in their libraries. In one city, there being no efficient Board of Health, an arrangement has been made with the physicians to report direct to the library, and one library receives reports from either health officers or physicians. Another libra- rian says : " Health officers sometimes re- port." Seven depend on report from the book borrower. Eleven report no special arrange- ment, and one says : " When there is an epidemic we stop circulation." In several cases the regulations of the library contain a clause requiring notification from the reader. The following from the by-laws of the Chicago Public Library is a sample of such regula- tions : " It shall be the duty of all persons having the privileges of the library to notify the librarian of the existence of any con- tagious disease in their residences or families, and for failure to do so their privileges may be declared forfeited by the Board." One librarian, who followed "the Chicago plan" for three years, reports : " The conjunction of books and contagious disease happened so rarely, however, that the reports were finally discontinued." In six cases special blanks used for notifi- cation have been sent to me, and some libra- rians speak of notices which are posted in the delivery room. Do you disinfect books returned yourself, or is it done by the health authorities ? How is this done ? By sulphur, hot air, or otherwise ? Twelve librarians report that disinfection is always done by the health officers, 10 that it is always done at the library, and 4 that it is done by either. Three simply report that it is done before the book is returned. At 2 libraries the book is destroyed and fine remitted, at i the book is not received and borrower is required to pay for it. At Brad- ford, England, the book is taken to the fever hospital for use there, the sanitary committee paying the value of the book. The method of disinfection used is as follows : Sulphur fumes 13, hot air 5, sun- light I, fresh air i, vapor of carbolic acid in an air-proof oven heated to 100 or 120 degrees i. At 9 libraries it is considered so difficult to disinfect thoroughly that the books are destroyed by burning or otherwise. One librarian reports " Serious cases destroyed and mild disinfected. " Miss. Coe says, " We also use a liquid dis- infectant to sprinkle the paper removed from the books (covers), as it accumulates in some quantity before it can be removed. The floors of reading rooms and waiting rooms are sprinkled at least once a day. Disinfectant is used in the cleaning water and of course in JONES. 37 all basins and closets constantly, also for the hand-bathing of the assistants. " Miss H. P. James, of the Osterhout Free Library, reports : " We disinfect books our- selves with sulphur. A large piece is put on a plate of tin, set on fire, the book is placed upright and open near it, and both are covered by a tight box for a day or two. The sulphur of course is consumed, but the per- fume remains. " Mr. James Bain, jr., of the Toronto Public Library, where now the health officers destroy all books found in houses reported infected, says, " Have the whole question of disinfec- tion under consideration." What diseases are considered contagious in your city ? Thirteen do not answer this question. Many of the others only answer partially, giv- ing a brief list, and adding " etc." This will account for the small numbers attached to such diseases as cholera, yellow fever, etc. Twenty-eight mention scarlet fever, 28 diph- theria, 27 small pox, 1 1 measles, 1 1 typhoid fever, 5 typhus fever, 3 membraneous croup, 3 scarlatina, 3 cholera, 2 chicken pox, 2 whoop- ing cough, i each glanders, yellow fever, ery- sipelas, itch, pneumonia, rotheln, mumps, in- fluenza. One says "all zymotic diseases." The English " Infectious disease (notification) act, 1889," under which the English libraries work, specifies a long list of diseases, includ- ing all fevers. A circular from the Bootle Free Public Library gives a list of fevers by name. Have you any medical opinions to quote ? C: V. Chapin, M. D., Supt. of Health, Providence, R. I., writes to Mr. Foster as fol- lows : "In reply to your inquiry in regard to the Public Library and infectious diseases, I would say that I have never known, in my own experience, diseases to be transmitted by means of library books. Nevertheless there is no question that such is possible and is quite likely to occur, if no precautions are taken. Certainly no books should be issued to a family in which there is a case of conta- gious disease, and none should be received from such a family until disinfected. How to disinfect is a problem which has not been satisfactorily solved. At present dry heat is the only agent that we can employ, and this often with the greatest care injures the books, if the disinfection be thorough. Disinfection by this agent can only be properly accom- plished in an oven with a thermometer at- tached, and ought to be done by the sanitary authority." Miss H. P. James says : " The physicians thought it a good plan to be on the safe side, but I do not remember that any of them felt there was much danger of contagion from the books." Mr. C : Evans, Public Library, Indianapo- lis, Ind., says : " Physicians generally hold a different opinion from librarians, but I have never known one who could specify any par- ticular case in support of his belief, either from books or from practical experience." Miss A. L. Hayward, Public Library, Cam- bridge, Mass., says : " Physicians have told us that scarlet fever is given by the particles of skin dropping from convalescent patients, and that therefore there was most danger of books giving this disease. " Mr. J. N. Larned, Buffalo Library, writes : " A few months ago our rule in this matter was called in question, and I procured the opinions of a dozen of the leading physicians of the city on the subject. Most of them sus- tained our action [stopping circulation and destruction of books returned], but they dif- fered quite widely in their several estimates of the danger to be apprehended. Some thought disinfection sufficient; but those who evidently had studied the matter most care- fully found the burning of the exposed books none too serious a precaution. We have no arrangement with the -health authorities for having cases of contagious disease reported to us. I think we ought to have it, and we probably shall. " Dr. G: E. Wire, librarian of the Medical Dept. of the Newberry Library, says : " These diseases are not contagious at all periods of their existence, and in their worst stages there is no reading done by patients or attendants. Of course if you really go into extremes as do the bacteriologists, there would be no chance for any one to live ; germs would be all-power- SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. ful and everywhere. But the human race has survived thousands of years before disease germs were thought of and still survives, despite the germ theorists. " Dr. L. H. Steiner, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, says: "The whole sub- ject of disinfection is treated at length and in a very practical way, by writers in the Trans- actions of the American Public Health Asso- ciation, to whose papers I would refer for further information. " The following is a bibliography of the sub- ject so far as contained in English and Ameri- can library publications. I have not been able to obtain access to the Transactions of the L. A. U. K. later than the sixth meeting. Library journal, 2 : 23-24. Brief discussion at New York conference. 4: 258-262. Dr. Poole's paper. 7: 234. Extract from report of Chicago Public Library. " During the recent severe scourge . . . no .case of transmission of the disease was traced to a library book, and no suspicion was raised that it had occurred." 8 : 336-7. By C : A. Cutter. 1 1 : 1 23-4. Report of State Board of Health of Iowa that no case of conveyance of conta- gious disease by second-hand school books had been found. ii : 166-7. Persons imagine diseases of which they read. 13: 105-6. Description of oven and process of disinfection by means of carbolic acid used at Sheffield, England. 16 : 80. A number of medical opinions. Library chronicle, 5 : 24. Methods of pre- caution adopted at Bradford, England. Library,' 1:171. " The free library and its books are the last sources from which infec- tion is to be feared." This statement is based on the strictness of the English laws regard- ing infectious diseases. 2 : 442. At Derby, England, " a list of in- fected houses is supplied to the library weekly." 2 : 443. At Plymouth, England, the lending department was closed for nearly six months during prevalence of a scarlet fever epidemic in 1889-90. Greenwood, T : Public libraries, 3d ed., 1890, p. 493-5. Speaking of the carrying of disease by books he says : " The statement is monstrously untrue, and invariably ema- nates from the avowed enemies of these in- stitutions. " He advocates precaution, pro- hibition of circulation, required notification, disinfection. Describes apparatus used at Dundee, Sheffield, and Preston, which is recommended as simplest and best. A sketch is given. It is a case of thin sheet iron, with perforated shelves. Compound sulphurous acid is burned in a small lamp. The conclusion to be drawn from the authorities cited above, as well as the whole tone of the replies received, seems to be this : No librarian actually knows of a case of contagious disease being carried by a book either to a reader or library attendant, that cited by Miss Coe alone excepted, and this is not a case of what is usually considered contagious disease. The medical authorities are divided in their opinions, but most of those consulted consider that the danger of contagion through books is slight. What is our duty then as librarians, care- ful of the health of our readers ? It seems to be this : Prohibition of circulation to houses where contagious diseases exist, and either disinfection or destruction of books returned from such houses. For obtaining a list of infected houses the best method seems to be to request notification from the board of health or other health officers of the city or town, and in absence of such officers to make arrangements with physicians to send notice direct to the library. In either case the library would usually furnish addressed pos- tal cards for such notification. As to whether books returned should be disinfected or de- stroyed, that can wisely be left to the opinion of the board of health or other competent local authority. Destruction is certainly the safer, because of the difficulty of opening a book so that the surface of every leaf shall be exposed to the disinfecting process. These precautions are recommended not because the danger is considered great, but to prevent all possible chance of contagion, and to allay the fears of unduly sensitive persons, of whom there are so many in every community. FOSTER. 39 THE ARGUMENT FOR PUBLIC SUPPORT OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES. BY W: E. FOSTER, LIBRARIAN OF THE PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY. *T*HE rise of the public library system both in this country and Great Britain, during the past half-century, has been almost coin- cident with the very noteworthy reexamina- tion of every phase of social economy now so powerfully influencing the thought of the world. In this discussion the contributions of Kaufmann, of Fawcett, of Graham, of Jevons, and above all, of Herbert Spencer, have been more than influential they have been almost epoch making and whatever view one may hold in regard to the social question, in its various phases, one cannot fail to acknowledge the deep debt which we owe to these profound thinkers. No book, from Mr. Spencer's point of view, which has appeared within recent years, is worthy of a wider reading than the volume entitled " A plea for liberty ; an argument against socialism and socialistic legislation," which appeared about the beginning of the present year. In it thirteen writers, whose point of view is very nearly identical, have discussed in successive chapters such topics as postal communication, electric communi- cation, investment, improvement of working- men's homes, free libraries, education, and other subjects, in their relation to the ques- tion, " What action shall the State take in re- gard to them?" The underlying purpose of the book is thus expressed in the words of Mr. Mackay, the editor of the volume : "If the view set out in this volume is at all cor- rect, it is very necessary that men should abandon the policy of indifference, and that they should do something to enlarge the atmosphere of liberty. This is to be accom- plished not by reckless and revolutionary methods, but rather by a resolute resistance to new encroachment and by patient and statesmanlike endeavor to remove wherever practicable the restraints of regulation, and to give full play over a larger area to the creative forces of liberty, for liberty is the condition precedent to all solution of human difficulty." Surely this is a statement of the case which must powerfully appeal to all thinking men, and lead them to reexamine, at least, the principles on which State support of the various institutions referred to is based. In such a spirit, a reexamination of the argu- ment for public support of public libraries must be regarded as entirely germane to the objects which the American Library Associ- ation has at heart. In such a spirit the pres- ent paper proposes to weigh once more the principles which underlie our American library system, and the considerations brought for- ward by Mr. O'Brien in the chapter devoted to " Free libraries " in the volume referred to. The half-century of discussion of " socialism and socialistic legislation " already referred to has made few things so clear as the fact that the arguments employed on any subject social subjects in particular are weakened in almost the exact ratio in which they are allowed to be tinged by passion and excited feeling. It must therefore be regarded as unfortunate that Mr. O'Brien's chapter suffers most emphatically from comparison with the generally high level of calm and unimpassioned argument, characterizing the larger portion of the book. Whether this is to be explained on the basis of the apocryphal legal maxim, ' When you have no case, abuse your oppo- nent," or whether Mr. O'Brien entered the lists fresh from some too recent participation in a personal contest over the question, we do not undertake to inquire. The fact remains that not only do the writers of the other chapters of the book appear from a careful reading to state their arguments more effectively, but that the reader is also impressed with the fact that they have a case which admits of more effective argument. Let us glance in succession at the points which Mr. O'Brien has aimed to make. They may be grouped in general under two heads ; first, those which relate to the injury (in Mr. SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. O'Brien's view) inflicted on the individual user of a free library from having it aided by public support, and second, those which relate to the tax-payer's grievance (in Mr. O'Brien's view) in helping to support it. The former is of course the side of the question most ger- mane to the general purpose of the book, and it is therefore an occasion for surprise to notice that in Mr. O'Brien's enumeration of arguments those coming under the other class outnumber it in the ratio of six to one. First of all, to use Mr. O'Brien's own language, is " the argument that if readers were left to pay for their own books, not only would books be more valued, but the moral discipline involved in the small personal sacrifice incurred by saving for such a purpose would do infinitely more good than any amount of culture obtained at other people's expense." And he takes occasion to suggest that "possi- bly the advocates of literary pauperism will see little force in" this argument. Possibly; we are not familiar with the train of reasoning which leads to an advocacy of " literary pau- perism." For ourselves, we have been accus- tomed, long before the appearance of Mr. O'Brien's chapter, to attach exceptional impor- tance to the principle which he has here indi- cated, somewhat awkwardly, to be sure. There can be no doubt that the appreciation of any object is in almost the exact ratio of the effort expended to procure it. This is why teachers and librarians in American communities, at least have so often had occasion to rejoice at seeing a taste not only for reading, but for owning books inspired in a young man or woman by access to a noble collection of books for the use of the public. For " owning books," we say ; but the limits of a collection so owned are too soon reached in the case of even the best-endowed pockets of individual readers. Were the intelligent teacher who takes an interest in the reading and intellectual growth of the pupils, from the various walks in life represented in our schools, to find a pupil whose interest in pur- suing further some lines of thought therein suggested, extended no further than to the books at home on his own book-shelf, we can- not doubt that it would give occasion to ques- tion the efficacy of the teaching imparted. Mr. O'Brien's objection to the enjoyment of these reservoirs of enlightenment, by a portion of the community, where the community as a whole is responsible for their support, is as if a man should be told that he would do well not to walk abroad at night by the light of the public street lamps, but rather enjoy the light kindled in his own house. The latter is cer- tainly important, but not even Mr. O'Brien's reasoning is likely to persuade us that it pre- cludes the former. Mr. O'Brien, in the sec- ond place, deeply feels for the reader who, in being brought in contact with the benefits of the library, is, he thinks, subjected to a wrong system of education. To quote his language : "Just at the time when a child is beginning to form his tastes, just at the period when the daily habituation to the simple duties of farm life would lay the foundation both of sound health and practical knowledge, he is taken out of the parent's control, and subjected to a mind-destroying, cramming process, which excludes practical knowledge and creates a dislike for all serious study." One is com- pelled on reading this extraordinary deliver- ance to cast one's eye to the heading at the top of the page, " Free Libraries," and ask what this formidable indictment not one count in which has any bearing on libraries can mean in this connection. The only con- clusion possible is that it was written with a view to appearing in some other chapter of the book. But Mr. O'Brien's concern is manifested also for the tax-payer who unites in the pub- lic support of the library. If we understand him correctly, his contention is that the enor- mity of this tax consists largely in the repre- hensible nature as represented in his pages of the institution itself. For from this short chapter one gradually frames a picture of the free library as a place which tramps frequent for sleeping off the effects of dissi- pation; as a place used by commercial trav- ellers for exhibiting their samples ; as a place from which in one instance " a respectable thief took away ,20 worth of books" ; as a place used in an almost exclusive degree for read- ing fiction; as a place where the time pre- FOSTER. scribed for keeping books makes ' serious study ' impossible ; " and, more serious than all the rest, as a place which, he says, "favors one special section of the community at the expense of all the rest." Let us do Mr. O'Brien the justice to add that for the first three of these counts he gives " chapter and verse " for his charges, quoting, namely, from various (English) library reports. No one will therefore wish to dispute his well-fortified statement that in such and such an instance an unseemly incident occurred. But even a child can assuredly see the difference between a statement of an isolated occurrence and an inference that it is a necessarily characteristic and inherent quality of the institution in ques- tion. Were this latter true, then we might well cry out for abolishing our churches, side- walks, and railway stations, for in them these very same three things respectively are known at some time to have been done. In the last three of these counts, however, we have only Mr. O'Brien's assertions as the basis, and we are obliged to add also that even these are found to be conflicting. On one page his language shows that he is pained that a certain percentage of readers in the libraries named should prefer to call for works of fiction. Can it be that he has for- gotten this, when on another page he cites it as a grievance that "it is a frequent occur- rence for a reader to wait for months before he can get the novel he wants ! " On page 333, after quoting, from the annual report of one of the English libraries, the statement as to the use of works of fiction^ nothing but a resort to italics can sufficiently emphasize his lamentation that " the more instructive books in the other classes circulate only once during the same period.' 1 '' Mr. O'Brien is not the only observer who has failed always to observe, when commenting upon percentages of fiction, that "any book requiring serious study cannot be galloped through, like a novel, in the week or fourteen days allowed for use," yet who would have believed that "out of his own mouth " would he be so completely answered, for this remark, as well as the one which it answers, is found in his decidedly interesting chapter (p. 348). But here it is evident that the bearing of the two upon each other was not in his mind in writ- ing it, for his purpose in the sentence last quoted was plainly to make it appear that the customary regulations of public libraries were such as to render " serious study " impossible. The limitation of "a week or fourteen days " for a book of the kind which he here indicates he instances by name Kant's " Critique of pure reason " and Smith's " Wealth of nations " is practically unknown in American public libraries. In most of those known to the present writer a book of this kind can be charged in the first instance for fourteen days and then renewed, making twenty-eight days in all, and in still others for a longer period. It can then, after being returned to the library to give any other reader who may need it a chance at it be taken out again after remaining on the shelves twenty-four hours, for another twenty-eight days' use by the same reader. The annual report of an American library which lies before us contains a case in point. Speaking of Bryce's " American Commonwealth," it states : " Of this, seven copies were added in succession." It names 101 as the total of the issues of this work during the year; but considering the truth expressed in Mr. O'Brien's own very just words, that "any book requiring serious study cannot be gal- loped through, like a novel," the statement is added that " such a record, for a book like this, constantly in the hands of readers, may be contrasted with the more than ten times greater number of times that some work of fiction might be read through, returned, and taken out again, requiring but a part of a day's attention." In fact, 101 is very likely to be the total number of issues possible in the case of seven copies of this book, while 700 would probably fall far short of the total possible issues of the same number of copies of a story like " The Wreck of the Grosvenor." Again, Mr. O'Brien not only tells us that "a free library favors one special section of the community " at the expense of all the rest, but throughout his chapter recurs again and again to the case of the " workingman." On page 330, for instance, we are solemnly told : SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. " If the workingman cannot come by his books honestly, let him wait until he can." This is indeed somewhat summary, particu- larly when, being interpreted, it is found to mean, Let there be no free libraries supported by the public. And yet, on page 344, with no less certainty, we are assured that " there is little doubt that at least forty-nine out of every fifty workingmen have no interest whatever in these institutions." Where the deliverances from one and the same source are so contradictory, the impar- tial inquirer will doubtless feel like looking for some other source of information. From the materials accessible to the present writer in regard to American libraries and the new edition of Mr. Greenwood's " Public libra- ries " appears to tell the same tale in regard to Great Britain the interest of working- men in the opportunities afforded by public libraries is everywhere emphatically shown; but he who sets out with the purpose of showing that there is any one exclusive class to whom the public library is of service and to no other be that class workingmen, or students, or manufacturers, or scientists will find the facts singularly obstinate and unresponsive to his purpose. The truth is Mr. O'Brien's confident assertion to the contrary that there is no more "universal" and non-partisan institution than a public library. This is undoubtedly the highest among its several claims to public support. Few among the objects to which the public funds have been appropriated, in American cities, have met with so hearty and unques- tioning approval as public parks, and it is right that it should be so. Yet there are whole classes in every community who not only never do enjoy the public parks, but never care to enjoy them. Even the public schools are for a certain fraction of the population only the younger portion. In contrast with both these, the public library extends its resources to the children and the adults alike, and contains materials indis- pensable to each alike. Perhaps, however, the fundamentally important question of uni- versality, in the sense of non-partisanship, is one which is seldom appreciated in its full force, as applied to a public library. An independent position, one entirely free from bias, a non-partisan attitude, in fact, is an ideal repeatedly set before the conductors of a school or a newspaper. In both these cases, however, there is too often an element of practical difficulty in carrying these praise- worthy intentions into practice, which is almost completely wanting in the case of a public library. The policy of the latter is, in its very essence, catholic. It places on its shelves the volumes which represent, not one side, but both, or rather all sides of any sub- ject on which the sentiment of the public divides ; and thus, whether the user be Demo- crat or Republican, protectionist or free- trader, Catholic or Protestant, the aspect which this collection of books presents to him is no less free and uncircumscribed than the illimitable air. Again, it is important that the relation of a public library to the question of entertain- ment should be clearly understood. Enter- tainment is not an element totally foreign to the purposes of a public library the same kind of public benefit accrues in this case as in the case of public parks but in the light of the infinitely more important functions which it renders, this must of necessity occupy a subordinate place. The primary function of a library is to render a service, to supply a need, to respond to a demand. In this respect its value to the community is of the same description as the postal system, the bank at which one may cash a check, or the reservoir from which one may "turn on " a supply of water. One of the points which Mr. O'Brien aims to make, and which proceeds from a manifest confusion of thought, can be appropriately noticed here. His contention is that a public library is for the " class " who may be desig- nated " book-readers," that these form but a small percentage of any community, and that therefore it is obviously wrong that the library should receive public support. This is ingen- ious, as is also his eloquent, though somewhat contemptuous setting of their supposed special needs over against those of others. "Are theatre-goers, lovers of cricket, bicyclists, FOSTER. 43 amateurs of music, and others to have their earnings confiscated," merely that the " book- reader" may gratify his peculiar craving? Like many other ingenious theories, however, it leaves out of account certain fundamentally important bearings of the subject. There can be no doubt that in any community " the book- reader " is not synonymous with the entire population. Some of the population are children in arms ; some have never learned to read: the sight of some who have learned has failed ; others again are too fully occu- pied to find time for it; others find their inclination drawn more strongly in other direc- tions ; others still have more or less to do with reading, yet are not, in the strict sense, " book-readers." Yet we shall err very widely if we lose sight of the fact that even those who do not personally perform the role of the " book-reader " do nevertheless benefit by the existence of the library, by proxy. The young child is read to, by his mother : or is cared for by her, by methods learned through her use of books. The busy " captain of industry," whose large profits are due to a skillful appli- cation of scientific principles, may find his own time so closely occupied by details of administration that, personally, he seldom opens the treatises which bear upon the sub- ject, but he has under him a staff of men whom he expects to keep abreast of the ever unfolding science, by the consultation not only of such works as private ownership may provide, but the more nearly complete collec- tion in a great public library. This principle of "community of interest" and interdependence has an even wider bear- ing; for it applies not only to the family and the business firm, but to the community as a whole. A public library report now before the writer contains several instances of this kind. Speaking of the systematic efforts made to build up an approximately complete collection of works on industrial and decora- tive subjects, the report states that in this way " the library is gradually becoming the possessor of a scientifically selected set of volumes and plates which cannot fail to leave a distinct impress on the character of the work done in the various industries of the city." Another portion of the same report illustrates the direct service rendered by such an institution to the interests of the municipality. To quote the language there used, " Instances of the last named, both striking and tangible, are of by no means exceptional occurrence, sometimes an appli- cation of this kind being presented from more than one city official on the same day," the foregoing having reference to the city in question. " A well-authenticated instance," it continues, " in one of the largest cities of the country, of the saving of a sum of many thousand dollars, in the matter of a contract, due to the opportunity for consulting the requisite data comprised in works of author- ity in the public library of that city, is but an indication of the possibilities of a public library." It is fitting that where funds are to be appropriated, collected by taxes levied on the tax-paying population, there should be possible so tangible a presentation as the above, of the direct relation of the institution supported, to the question of "profit and loss," as affecting those who are taxed. And yet it is well to remember that it is as true now as twenty centuries ago, that " man does not live by bread alone ; " and that the public support of the institutions referred to can be justified by other arguments than that of the material interests just cited. No aspect of the library's operation is more full of interest than that which takes account of its uplifting influence. The analogy be- tween its service and that of the postal system has been noticed; but it has a no less real analogy to the work of the school, the pulpit, or the press yet without the propa- gandist principle which so often attaches to these latter namely, in the principle of growth or advance. In the earlier portion of this paper a little space was devoted to showing that in the nature of the case the number of copies of any work of fiction used in the course of a year would immensely out- number those which could possibly be read in the more solid departments of reading. Even were the constituency of the library confined to a selected few, to whose minds 44 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. the higher class of reading was congenial, this would be the case. Nor should we forget that the ground of distinction between a " public " library and any other, as the library of a scientific society, a debating society, a theological school, or a teachers' club, is that its constituency is not thus limited to a selected class, but is broad as humanity itself, with all its enormous inequal- ities of condition, taste, and mental growth. Like a mirror, therefore, the recorded classi- fied circulation reflects this variety. Even with this apparently almost unmanageable un- evenness, appreciable improvement in stand- ards of reading is by no means an unknown experience. There lies before the writer, for instance, a library report which is able to make such a statement as this : " The fiction percentages of the seven successive years, beginning with 1883 and ending with 1889, show an uninterrupted decline, as follows : 70+, 66+, 62+, 6i+, 58+, 57+, 56+." But it must be remembered also that figures such as these, though they may tell a part, and a very gratifying part, of the advances which individual readers have been helped to make, fall very far short of expressing the whole. It would be entirely possible for individual after individual thus to advance from good to better, and from better to best, and yet the figures which express the aggregate use of the year remain stationary (or even retro- grade), because the constituency of a public library (particularly in a large city) is all the time being reenforced by new readers. And these new readers comprise both those who are children in age and those who are chil- dren in mental growth, who begin at the foot. When, therefore, there is anything more than a preserving of a uniform level as in the noteworthy figures above quoted it stands for a very striking advance indeed, on the part of a very large portion of the community. Probably every librarian in charge of a public library in a large city has had an opportunity of observing these advances in innumerable individual instances. And this class of re- sults, while distinctly following the "order of nature," does not by any means come about through a view of library administration which regards either books, readers, or librarian as inert masses. Much of it is the result of individual interest expressed by the librarian in some reader, whose mind receives an awakening impulse. More than one well authenticated instance exists of an individual beginning life as a newsboy or an elevator-boy, and through his use of a public library finding his intellectual powers unfolding until he has entered one of the learned professions. The relation of the library system to the school system opens an almost boundless field of thought, and it is a fact of deep significance that the profound principle involved in it, after having engaged the attention of English and American libra- rians for years, has been recognized in the edu- cational steps recently taken by the government of Japan, where the two systems are placed on a plane of equality. In the experience of one of the American libraries already referred to, almost the chief hope of the library for the future is placed upon " a class of readers," every year largely increasing in numbers, who comprise the "graduates from the various institutions of learning" in the city, and whose "lines of study and reading" "may be characterized as a carrying forward of those impulses in the direction of right read- ing which were received in school and col- lege." The library has a no less direct rela- tion to the needs and ambitions of those who have received the invaluable training of "the practical duties of the world," to use Mr. O'Brien's phrase, and it responds with equal readiness to these. There is concentrated in the contemptuous phrase, " book-learning," a popular judgment of condemnation which is for the most part just, on the spurious variety of knowledge which knows the expression of certain principles in books, but knows noth- ing of their practical embodiment in the life and work of this world. We are glad to ob- serve that Mr. O'Brien's antipathy to this pseudo-knowledge is almost as profound as our own, but his expression of it seems singu- larly out of place in a philippic against public libraries ; for one will seek far before finding an institution more perfectly suited to be a corrective of such a tendency than the mod- FOSTER. 45 ern public library. Does any one claim that the public school system sometimes has an unfortunate tendency to repress individuality and turn out a set of pupils of uniform mould ? If so, the public library supplies a means of supplementing and complementing this uni- formity by its infinite variety and universality, and it is continually doing this, indeed. Does any one regret that the school system at its best reaches but a fraction of the population, and that fraction for but a few short years of their life, and that in too many instances there is a tendency on the part of even these few, educated in the schools, to conceive of their education as " finished," and allow the fabric to become hopelessly ravelled ? If so, the public library stands to these members of the community in an almost ideal relation, not only fulfilling very perfectly Mr. Carlyle's charac- terization of a " collection of books " as " the people's university," but in the peculiarly wide range shown in the demands made upon it, almost as properly rendering it the people's workshop, or laboratory. The same library report which has several times been cited printed several years since a record of the inquiries made on specific sub- jects during a single month, which throws significant light upon this subject. Another report of the same library declares that " few can adequately conceive to what extent the inquiries made at the library have become specialized, and require trained facility and research " on the part of the library staff. The library thus becomes a laboratory, in which the reader gains not only the specific information, but the method. An observation of popular movements in their relation to political or economic princi- ples reveals few facts so plainly as that an almost insuperable narrowness of view is, in much the greater number of instances, the barrier to advance in those questions decided mainly by the popular voice. Why then should any one wish to perpetuate the condi- tions which make this possible? In Mr. O'Brien's view the workingman, and we ought not to forget how large a percentage of the community this word " workingman " represents, both in England and America, will be a fortunate man when the contents of free libraries are no longer rendered every- where accessible to him by public support, for then the workingmen "for one 'penny' can buy their favorite newspaper, which can be carried in the pocket and read at any time !" It is well nigh incredible that an ideal such as this should be looked forward to by thinking men. Whatever may be the fact in regard to the workingmen of Great Britain, and Mr. O'Brien of course knows them better than we do, it may confidently be asserted that the American workingman would strike no such false note. Mr. Lowell in one of his admirable orations quotes from a Wallachian legend of a peasant who was " taken up into heaven " and offered his choice among the objects to be seen there. He chose a half worn-out bagpipe, and with this returned to the earth. " With an infinite possibility within his reach, with the choice of wisdom, of power, of beauty, at his tongue's end, he asked according to his kind, and his sordid wish is answered with a gift as sordid." The newspaper is well enough in its way, even a "penny newspaper," but to condemn whole masses of the popula- tion to limit themselves to this, is to incur the condemnation of Mr. Lowell's fine scorn when, in another portion of the oration just referred to, he says : " It is we who, while we might each in his humble way be helping our fellows into the right path, or adding one block to the climbing spire of a fine soul, are willing to become mere sponges saturated from the stagnant goose-pond of village gos- sip." It is more. It is to help develop a community from whom in the end every spark of uplifting influence shall have van- ished. Does any one say that this is a result impossible of attainment by any people ? The scientifically true, yet brutally summary record given by the distinguished European savant, Elise*e Reclus, of a certain European stock which has found and occupied virgin soil in the South of Africa, is a sufficient answer. " In general," he says, " the Boers despise everything that does not contribute directly to the material prosperity of the fam- ily group. They ignore music, the arts, liter- 4 6 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. ature, all refining influences, and find little pleasure in anything," except stolid amassing of wealth. A few additional points remain to be noted. It is an entirely pertinent question whether every public library in England and America improves its high privilege, uses to the full the peculiar opportunities open to it, places itself in close communication with the pub- lic school system, with the university exten- sion movement, and with the influences con- tinually at work in industrial and artistic development. And we need not hesitate to answer in the negative. Yet the significant fact is, that everywhere the tendency is in this direction with a stronger and stronger, momentum. The advance made in 'this coun- try, within the last decade even, in this direc- tion, is among the most striking phenomena of the time ; and no less striking is the almost overwhelming percentage of the body of libra- rians in this country whose entrance upon the work from a deep-seated love for it, rather than as furnishing a means of livelihood, sup- plies one of the strongest guarantees against the invasion of the perfunctory spirit in the future. Again, it is equally pertinent to ask whether, granted that the benefits of such an institution as the public library are unques- tioned, dependence may not be placed on funds entirely unconnected with those of the public, for its support. It would ill become the citizen of a country where private munifi- cence has accomplished so much in channels of public spirit, to overlook these noble memorials of enlightened private action. Yet it remains true, nevertheless, that were dependence to be placed on these alone, a map of the country on which public libraries should be dotted down would show as partial and inadequate a supply furnished to the com- munity, as the very instructive " annual rain- fall map " published by the government shows in the matter of rain. What we are accus- tomed, in the eastern portion of this country, to consider the rain in its universal benefi- cent service and in its indispensableness that also is to be associated with the "reser- voirs " comprised in these public collections of books. For, after all, valuable as are the books themselves, even in their material aspect, as pieces of handiwork, still more in the specific items of information and admoni- tion contained in them, yet in the deeper view these are but symbols of their real signifi- cance and service. To place one's self in communication with them, as contained in these libraries, is to bring ourselves in con- tact with the stored-up thought of the world thus far. We have just adverted to the fun- damental bearing which this has upon the deeper or spiritual side of man's life. But the two-sided character of these collections of books follows us even here, for their indis- pensableness in the material point of view is almost as striking, and this, not only whether we consider the statesman planning measures of public weal, while neglecting to inform himself of the recorded conditions which necessarily must determine such measures ; or whether it be the inventor spending long years of his too brief life in perfecting a machine which his consultation of the recorded patents would have shown him some one else had anticipated him in thinking out ; or whether it be the day laborer submitting with- out an effort to violations of his rights, which a single glance at the recorded statutes would have shown him he had a remedy for. How like all this is to the supposed state of things which one of the most suggestive writers of our day has thus expressed : " Our early voyagers are dead : not a plank remains of the old ships that first essayed unknown waters ; the sea retains no track ; and were it not for the history of these voyages contained in charts, in chronicles, in hoarded lore of all kinds, each voyager, though he were to start with all the aids of advanced civilization," would be in the helpless position of the earli- est voyager. Once more, each reader of the strongly written book which we have been con- sidering should ask the question for him- self, whether all of the various propositions maintained therein necessarily stand or fall together. Because the compiler has chosen to bracket together two such headings as " Free libraries " and " The state and electri- cal distribution," it certainly does not follow FOSTER. 47 that the argument which carries conviction in the one case must in the other also. We shall not be suspected of having our judgment in this regard swayed by the natural weakness with which, to use Mr. O'Brien's illustration, the shoemaker is inclined to think that "there is nothing like leather," if we suggest, what the public at large in this country is very plainly persuaded of, that, for one person who has appreciated the need for public action in the latter case there are thousands in the former. The writer lives in a city in which for more than eleven years the public library was administered by funds not in the least degree derived from municipal appropriations. Yet the character of its service to the public had so widely impressed itself upon the com- munity that, largely from sources outside of the library board, a movement arose for recog- nizing the closeness of the relation, by public support. A report by a committee of the city government, recommending this course, signi- ficantly declares: "Your committee are unani- mously of the opinion that this public library, already existing in the city, is a useful and a necessary adjunct to the educational system sustained by the city in its public schools, and properly appeals to the treasury for an appro- priation towards its support." After eleven years' opportunity for observation and com- parison, such a judgment as this has the merit of deliberation and conviction. It is true that by far the greater part of the considerations which lead the present writer to find Mr. O'Brien's view untenable are drawn from observation and experience of conditions existing in this country. Yet it is to be noted that his position is also contested, so far as Great Britain is concerned, by an article in the March number of The Library (of London), which shows, not only that our English cousins are fully able to take care of themselves, but also that on many of the questions of fact, about which his arguments turn, he is painfully wide of the mark. Few students of social conditions have left so note- worthy an impress on contemporary thought as the late William Stanley Jevons. Of the free public library he held a view radically opposed to that of Mr. O'Brien, believing it to be "an engine for operating upon" the community, in ways at once protective and ennobling. As to the universality of its benef- icent service, he was equally convinced, declaring not only that "free libraries are engines for creating the habit and power of enjoying high-class literature, and thus carry- ing forward the work of civilization which is 'commenced in the primary school,"* but also that they are "classed with town halls, police courts, prisons, and poor-houses, as neces- sary adjuncts of our stage of civilization. "f The experience of one community or one nation is repeatedly serviceable to another; but, after all, it is the local conditions which must finally determine in any case. Even if a different conclusion were to be reached in this matter in Great Britain, it would still remain true that for us in America it is one of the highest duties of self-preservation to keep alive the uplifting influences represented in the public support of these institutions. The future of this country, even more than its past, will be irrevocably committed to the democratic principle in government. As is the people in the widest sense of the word so will be the national life and character. In the future, even more than in the past, crudity, narrowness, well-meaning ignorance, and low standards of taste and ethics will, unless met with corrective tendencies, color our national life. The public school and the public library "instruments equal in power to the Dionysiac theatre, and vastly greater in their range of power," % to quote the lan- guage of one of the most thoughtful of our men of letters will stand more and more, in our American communities, as such cor- rective tendencies. * Contemporary review, v. 39, p. 388. t Ibid, v. 39, p. 385. t George Edward Woodberry, in the fortnightly review, v. 35, p. 615. 4 8 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. IMPRESSIONS IN FOREIGN LIBRARIES. BY MARY S. CUTLER, VICE-DIRECTOR OF THE LIBRARY SCHOOL. T) Y the beautiful law of compensation which rules the universe one is continually los- ing a certain good only to gain another, it may be more or less desirable. In giving up reluctantly, for the first time since my con- nection with library work, the annual gather- ing of librarians at home, it was my good fortune to attend the meeting of the L. A. U K. in Nottingham and to see the interior workings of a few English and French libraries. I readily assented to the request of our president that I should send for the con- ference a little account of my library obser- vations on this side, as it furnished an excel- lent excuse for stealing the time from sight- seeing to clarify my ideas by expressing them. I shall attempt no Gradgrind exhibi- tion of facts, only a record of impressions, realizing well that quite unconsciously I may be giving a false coloring. In the quaint old town of Canterbury where I lingered for several days, the cem- etery was pointed out by a cab driver with the remark that in this half lay the church- men and on the other side nonconformists. Quite hastily but perhaps naturally I rushed to the concluusion that this was a usual separation, and was indulging in some unchar- itable reflections, when the driver quietly added that this was the only churchyard of the kind he had ever seen. Now it is quite possible that I may more than once mistake the exception for the common custom, thus doing injustice to those who so kindly re- ceived me. My only comfort will be that others far wiser have done likewise. I was accompanied by Miss Ada Bunnell, a recent graduate of the Library School, whose intel- ligent interest added much to my pleasure in making these visits. I was provided with a general letter of in- troduction from Mr. Dewey, which opened all doors and secured a most generous welcome. The whole management of the library was set forth, and my desire for samples of blanks, etc., for the Library School collection was many times anticipated. Even in those few cases where I did not make myself known, but showed my interest by questions, my re- ception was most kind. (Were it not ungra- cious to single out individual names when all were so kind, I would mention Mr. Jenkinson, the librarian of Cambridge University library ; Mr. Borrajo, sub-librarian of the Guildhall; and Monsieur Ruelle of St. Genevieve, Paris, who showed us special favor. With the lat- ter we conversed through the media of written English on our part, and on his, a slow and laborious speech, but it only served to accent- uate our hearty welcome from this most delightful old gentleman. I am quite safe in being personal, since Vol. i No. i is the only copy of the Library journal in the St. Gene- vieve.) From Miss James, a not unworthy namesake of our own beloved fellow-worker, I received in advance a pleasant invitation to the People's palace library, of which she is librarian. In Paris I presented my letter at the American legation and received an introduc- tion from the Hon. Whitelaw Reid to the director of the Bibliotheque Nationale. There we were put in charge of Monsieur Havet, the keeper of printed books, and later of the keeper of manuscripts, both speaking English fluently. The French secretary of the Ameri- can minister asked if I were the author of the " American system of cataloging," and I was forced to reply that I could only claim a simi- larity in name and the honor of an acquain- tance with my distinguished compatriot. Dr. Garnett, whom I expected to see where he used to sit in the centre of the great circu- lar reading room of the British Museum like a spider in his web, I found instead in a pri- vate office reached by an electric button pressed in an inconspicuous part of the King's library, having been recently promoted to the head- ship of the department of printed books. The CUTLER. 49 only library which we did not have an oppor- tunity to see as we wished was the Cathedral library of St. Paul's in London. This was reached by paying sixpence and climbing a laborious flight of circular stairs. A few curious books lay under a glass case in the centre of the room, while the rest were shut from public gaze by a railing. The librarian was not there, and the "care taker" assured us that it was quite impossible for us to pass within the gates. We did not press the mat- ter when he insisted that it would endanger his position if he were to let us inside, think- ing our probable gain too small to justify the slightest risk. The Cathedral libraries of England are valuable collections, but seem to be little used. It is hard to describe the peculiar pleasure of seeing for myself, the two largest libraries in the world and the libraries of the great English universities. It was my good fortune toenterthe British Museum and the Bodleian many times as a reader. Can any one enjoy so thoroughly as a libra- rian the luxury of solid hours of reading in a great library? The charms of Canterbury, Oxford, Westminster, and the Inner Temple were enhanced a hundred-fold when interpreted by Stanley, Matthew Arnold, Irving, Haw- thorne, and Lamb. REFERENCE LIBRARIES. There is one striking characteristic of all the reference libraries which we have visited ; namely, the reading-rooms are treated as work-rooms and are invariably kept free from the inroads of mere curious sight-seers. In the Bibliotheque Nationale there is pos- itively no admittance to this class. In the British Museum, a visitor by giving his name receives a ticket which admits him with a guard just inside the door of the reading-room long enough for a bird's-eye view. Oxford and Cambridge admit only when the visitor is accompanied by a fellow in academic dress. At the South Kensington Museum the Art library, the Science and education libraries, and the Dyce and Foster collections, require a ticket. A sixpence entitles students to the use of all the libraries for a week, a mere nominal fee which secures exemption from the thousands of visitors frequenting this marvelous museum. All these libraries rec- ognize the distinction, which I believe is an essential one, between the reading-room, a place for study, and the show-rooms, where rare and curious books, handsome bindings, and fine prints are exhibited. Do not some of our American libraries, well known for their wise and effective administration, weaken their influence by subjecting readers to the distractions of a curious mob, under the specious plea that a free library must be open to all who come ? If actual restriction is inexpedient, certain hours or days could be arranged for sight-seers which the real student would soon learn to avoid. The British Museum was phenomenally quiet. I spent many half days there, and although there are no signs exhorting to silence oftentimes the subdued rustling of leaves would be the only audible sign that the great room was filled. It is with profound sorrow that I record the reference libraries of the old world, like those of the new, are not free from those two foes of serious study, the reader who talks and the librarian who talks. The University library at Cambridge is a notable example of the utmost freedom in using the shelves. With the exception of incunabula, manuscripts and certain others of special value or rarity, the books stand un- guarded on the open shelves, inviting use from every reader. The other libraries ex- pose a fine collection of reference books, but carefully guard the great mass of their treasures. The short hours of opening, of which Mr. Richardson complains so bitterly in his ac- counts of continental libraries, seem not to be a vice of English or Parisian libraries. The British Museum, being now lighted by electricity, is open except in the summer months from 9 A. M. till 8 p. M. The modern department of the Bodleian contained in the Radcliffe building is open from 10 to 10, the old library from 9 to 3, 4, or 5, varying with the season and the natural light. The St. Genevieve in Paris fromii-4 and 6-10. SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. Ladies are not admitted in the evening. If I mistake not these hours compare favorably with those of American reference libraries. One serious obstacle to the pleasures of research is the time spent in waiting for books. My own experience is that one waits on an average forty minutes at the British Museum. I am told that at the Guildhall one can se- cure any book at five minutes' notice, but I did not have the pleasure of verifying the statement by reading in that new and hand- some hall. The Bodleian, in which I am now writing, has by far the most attractive interior. The charm of the university life hangs about the beautiful roof, the red-gowned portraits, the broad alcoves, and the ivy-circled windows ; and the spirit of " peace, beauty, and leisure " wraps it about like a garment. FREE LIBRARIES. The free library movement in Great Britain, dating from 1850, when Mr. Ewart put through Parliament the Public Libraries Act, has made most -rapid progress within a few years. Like our own country, the metropolis is far behind the large towns in providing library privileges, but it is rapidly coming to the front. A pe- culiarity of many library buildings in London is that they are provided with a residence for the librarian. I saw no covered books, and to my surprise, even in the smaller libraries it was not un- common to find the call numbers gilded on the backs. In a majority of these libraries readers' tickets are issued to rate-payers and their families. All others must secure a rate- payer as guarantee, or deposit a sum of money, usually i os. A delivery room with stack ad- joining, a news room for daily and weekly, papers, and a reference department, contain- ing also the monthlies, are regular features. A boys' room is carried on at Manchester and at Chelsea with most gratifying results. I was able to visit only two of the large public libraries, Birmingham and Nottingham ; these are doing a magnificent work. The Nottingham library, under Mr. J. Potter Bris- coe, has a central library and 11 branches, one of them a children's library. It contains 69,000 volumes in all, issues 433,000 books yearly, and has an attendance of 1,790,000, a daily average attendance of 6,000. CATALOGS AND CLASSIFICATION. The British Museum form of catalog is almost universal in England. It may be seen in the Young Men's Christian Association of New York, and so far as I know in no other place in America. It consists of large blank folio volumes provided at inter- vals with guards like a scrap book. The catalog slips, either printed or written on thin paper, are pasted by two edges upon the book, and when a rearrangement is necessary, are "lifted "by a paper knife and remounted to make room for new slips. In the Bodleian library this is done very deftly and rapidly by boys. It is quite obvious that it involves more labor than the slipping of cards once for all into a drawer. On the other hand dupli- cating processes can be used with thin slips. The two methods are about equally bulky (see Library notes i : 179-195). Of course the argument for this form is the greater ease of running the eye over a printed page than of handling cards in a drawer. On trial the book form seemed very conve- nient, except in the case of voluminous authors, where the American card catalog has a decided advantage if properly provided with guides. Many pages of the book must be scanned for a particular entry, like Gothe ; whereas the special guide-cards for Collected works, Biography, Criticism, or the colored cards used in some libraries, attract notice instantly. At the University library in Cambridge an ingenious device does away with some objec- tions to the book form. The sheets are not regularly bound, but are laced into the covers by pieces of cat-gut which pass above the mid- dle of each signature and are knotted on the ouside of the cover at top and bottom. This secures greater flexibility, and subjects or letters may be passed from one cover to an- other as the catalog grows. In some of the free libraries card catalogs are used. At the St. Martin's free library, London, the books are cataloged on the type- CUTLER. writer, with two or three duplicate copies which are pasted neatly on cards with very good effect. In the Bibliotheque Nationale the public use for accessions since 1882 a catalog similar to the Leyden catalog, a de- scription of which was read by Mr. Cutter at the Lake George meeting (see Library jour- nal 10: 206-8). Substantially the same form is used also in the Society Library, New York, and is now being tried in Harvard College. The French catalog differs in having three rows of cards instead of one. The official catalog is on cards, in drawers upon the wall, like the plan adopted for the New York State library. The Bonnange catalog cards, con- sisting of cards with cloth hinges, the lower parts clamped together in a box, were on sale at the "Library Bureau "in Paris, but I did not see them in use. For description see "Public libraries in the United States" pt. i, p. 558-60. Great saving of time and legibility is secured in many libraries by cutting up printed cata- logs and regular lists of accessions, and mounting them for the public catalog. Some American libraries with limited funds, and nearly all place themselves in that category, might profitably learn this lesson in economy. What is lost in beauty is gained in legibility, and uniformity is sacrificed for the sake of practical utility. There is great danger of re- garding the catalog too much as a work of art instead of a key to the contents of the library, and of wasting upon its elaboration time, and therefore money, which could be better employed in the purchase of books, or if that is too trite a statement, in paying higher salaries. The European method re- minds me of the plan in use at the St. Louis public library, of mounting titles from the Publishers' 1 weekly for order lists and catalogs. It is a most practical method of utilizing ma- terial already in print, and I wonder it is not more widely followed. There are few striking variations in catalog- ing entries. It was a comfort to find George Eliot's works under that name in the British Museum catalog, but I felt like grumbling, when looking for the Library journal venter the title, to be referred to " Periodical publications, New York." In like manner the Proceedings of the L. A. U. K. must be sought under "academies." Classification is a subject which has appar- ently received much less attention than with us. Most libraries which we visited are clas- sified roughly on the shelves, the public libra- ries using a letter to denote the class, then figures in accession order. The Bodleian li- brary is the only example which we found of a library closely classified on the shelves. The catalog is classed and arranged numerically. At the Guildhall library there is a classified card catalog on the decimal system. Subjects in which the library is specially rich, e. g. Lon- don, are further subdivided. The class num- bers are utilized only for the arrangement of cards, and the press-marks on a fixed location are added for use till they can get time to re- arrange the shelves. The sliding book press of the British Museum, by which the book ca- pacity is trebled (described in Library notes, 2 : 97-99), is a most interesting and ingenious invention. Though so heavily loaded, it works with perfect ease. CHARGING SYSTEMS. The use of the indicator is very common in circulating libraries. It is so little known in America, probably owing to its trial and re- jection by Mr. Winsor in the Boston public library, that a slight sketch of its workings is offered. Each book in the circulating depart- ment is represented at the charging desk by a tiny book 7x2}4x]4 cm., which lies in a pigeon hole just large enough to contain it. Both ends of the tiny book are enclosed by a stiff projection bearing the call number, one end being red, the other blue ; one color meaning " in," the other " out." The reader turns from the catalog to the indicator, till he finds by the color towards him a book that is in, which he then calls for. The clerk enters in the indicator book the number of reader's card and date of issue, and lays in the proper pigeon hole the reader's card and indicator book, reversed to show that the book is out. One foot of counter space is required for 1,000 numbers. This is Cotgreave's indicator, the one in SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. most common use, though there are several variations. In some libraries the indicator is used only to show what books are in, as in Birmingham, where a burdensome ledger sys- tem is combined with it, and in the Chelsea free library, where a card system is used simi- lar to one popular in the United States, i. e. a book card arranged (i) by time, (2) by call number. In the latter library the indicator is used only for fiction. Indicators as a system of charging impressed me as inferior to the card methods, because slower, and because failing to show overdue books in a satisfactory manner. Their advantage is the saving of time spent by our method in looking for books already loaned to other readers. The use of an indicator or of the indicator principle, for the class fiction combined with a card system of charging, is worth consideration by American librarians. A working model of Cotgreave's indicator, containing 1,000 numbers, will be in operation at the Library School during the coming winter, and can be studied there by any member of the A. L. A. A sample book and card will be shown at the California meeting. At the London institution a subscription library is used, a most ingenious and original system invented by the sub -librarian, Mr. George Parr. It is a card system by which the reader's time and book accounts are kept without stamping or writing, by means of arrangement, color, and a series of projections on the cards. The trays are a perfect Joseph's coat of contrasting colors, and one gains an impression of extreme intricacy, but great speed is claimed for it. BOOK-BINDINGS. Those who are fond of handsome bindings can here delight their eyes in the most curious and costly that the art of the binder can devise or the purse of a sovereign com- mand. In the King's library at the British Museum, which is now open on alternate eve- nings, and in the manuscript department of the Bibliotheque Nationale, are the finest dis- plays. At Zaehnsdorf's handsome show- rooms in London I was allowed to handle some fine specimens of modern work. Ex- actly what a Roxburghe binding is, seems to be a matter of dispute and uncertainty among American librarians, and since Roxburghe is distinctly an English binding and Zaehnsdorf confessedly the best binder in England, his definition is worth record. Roxburghe is a leather-backed book with lettering in a panel, having no corners, no bands, and no ornamen- tation. Cloth sides are frequent but not es- sential. The kind of leather makes no differ- ence. Mr. Dewey has alluded to the exhibi- tion of artistic book bindings at Nottingham. It contained among other treasures the three by Cobden-Sanderson, which were pictured in the English illustrated magazine, Jan., 1891. They were especially beautiful. Mr. Dewey's notice of the L. A. U. K. leaves nothing to be noted except the absence of women. Miss James of the People's palace and three American delegates were the only representatives of the sex, surely a most striking contrast to the San Francisco meeting. TABULATED REPORTS OF STATE LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS. BY H. E. GREEN, CATALOGER IN THE BOSTON ATHENAEUM. [In arranging these reports I have quoted the words of the respective secretaries as far as possible. Some needed to be very much condensed, in which cases I had, of course, to use my own words. H. E. G.] WHEN AND WHERE ORGANIZED. MAINE. Augusta, March 19, 1891. N. H. Fabyan's, Sept. 12, 1890. MASS. Boston, Nov. 13, 1890. CONN. New Haven, Feb. 23, 1891. N. Y. STATE. Albany, July n, 1890. N.Y. LIB. CLUB. Col. Coll., N. Y., June 18, 1885. NEW JERSEY. Trenton, Dec. 9, 1890. PENN. An attempt made to form an association without success. WISCONSIN. Madison, Feb. n, 1891. IOWA. Des Moines, Sept. 2, 1890. MICHIGAN. Detroit, Sept. i, 1891. GREEN. 53 NEED OF STATE ASSOCIATION. MAINE. For arousing an interest in, and demonstrating the need of, libraries in small towns. NEW HAMPSHIRE. To secure cooperation among libraries, to improve methods of working ; to encourage the establishment of new libraries, and render those already established more useful as a means of education ; to facilitate the collection of literature relating to the State, and promote a more economical distribution of government documents. MASS. For arousing an esprit de eorps and an interest in the general good in the librarians of town libraries, of which there are many. CONN. For discussing library interests, and promoting the formation of free libraries, of which there are few. NEW YORK STATE. To promote library inter- ests as a part of the educational system of the State and bring New York abreast of other States in the matter. N. Y. LIB. CLUB. " For knowledge of each other's work and plans and for cooperation." Mr. Dewey 1 ! letter, L.J., 1885, p. iff. NEW JERSEY. To improve lines of work by organization and cooperation. PENN. WISCONSIN. To arouse a more intelligent interest and enthusiasm in library work, and to secure the establishment of additional libraries. IOWA. Librarians were unacquainted with each other, and little was known of their libraries outside of their localities. There was little or no indication of progress. MICHIGAN. " For having library work carried on in the broadest, most progressive way, and for the help that a State organization can give to librarians who cannot attend the A. L. A. meet- ings. " Mr. Utley's address at first meeting. WORK ACCOMPLISHED. MAINE. None as yet, except organization. N. H. Organization. MASS. Many members drawn in who have not been in the habit of attending the A. L. A. meet- ings, and some interesting questions discussed at the three meetings which have already been held. CONN. Little as yet. One town librarian has been induced to take the course at Mr. Fletcher's summer school of library economy. N. Y. STATE. An attempt made to establish a clearing-house for duplicates. N. Y. LIBRARY CLUB. A union list of periodi- cals taken in libraries represented in the club compiled; was the pioneer of local library asso- ciations. NEW JERSEY. Interest awakened in A. L. A. Endowment Fund. Attention called to Sonnen- schein's "Best Books." The Library School and university extension brought to the notice of librarians. Resolution passed that the N. J. L. A. cordially indorse the name of Hon. T. W. Bick- nell of Boston as head of the educational exhibit at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago. WISCONSIN. No special results as yet; has been of general interest among the leading citi- zens of the State in its purposes. IOWA. Librarians are no longer strangers to one another. They have adopted a system of annual reports to the State librarian. One of their number has visited during the year the lead- ing libraries, and written a sketch of their present condition. MICHIGAN. Organization. Papers on inter- esting topics read at first meeting. WORK FOR THE FUTURE. MAINE. No definite plans as yet, but hope to accomplish something in awakening interest. N. H. Committees have been and are to be appointed to work up the bibliography of the State. MASS. Three or four meetings a year in dif- ferent parts of the State, with a subject for dis- cussion announced in advance, and a short address from some noted speaker, not necessarily on the subject under discussion. CONN. Missionary work in the smaller towns and villages. N. Y. STATE. To promote cooperation be- tween the libraries and educational institutions of the State, and the passing of effectual library laws. N. Y. LIB. CLUB. Publication of a manual giving comprehensive information in regard to libraries in the city of New York and its neighbor- hood ; also the evolution of a plan whereby the reference work done by certain libraries, especially on special topics of general interest, can be utilized in other libraries. N. JERSEY. Committee to draft a new law relating to town and village public libraries to be presented at next session of the Legislature. Dis- cussion of the distribution of State documents. Rev. T. B. Thompson of Trenton to explain the object and scope of university extension. WISCONSIN. No special plan as yet. IOWA. To examine the laws relating to libra- ries and suggest improvements; make monthly 54 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. reports on an agreed plan. To seek to awaken the public to a new interest in libraries. MICHIGAN. No plans reported as yet. SPECIAL FEATURES. MAINE. None. N. H. Whatever the Association accomplishes in the direction of a N. H. bibliography or other transactions of a permanent value or interest will be, according to the provisions of the act of incorporation, collected by the State librarian, and published as an appendix to his report to the Legislature. MASS. An objectionable feature of this club is the exclusion of every one not directly con- nected with library work as librarian, assistant, or trustee, no matter how deep his interest in the good cause.* CONN. None. N. Y. STATE. The State library system, ad- ministered through State officers. N. Y. LIB. CLUB. [The convivial element appears to be a special feature of this club, to judge from the reports of teas and entertainments by Messrs. Bowker and Ford, collations at Co- lumbia College, etc.] The club not confined to New York city or State, but embraces libraries in the city and vicinity. NEW JERSEY. None. WISCONSIN. None. MICHIGAN. None, as yet IOWA. Several libraries not represented at the organization meeting sent members this year, paying their expenses. The librarians ask for a two days' session. The President of the Associa- tion is a woman, as are most of the officers. NUMBER OF MEMBERS. MAINE. 21. N. H. 60 ? [The Secretary says about 60.] MASS. 143. CONN. 50. N. Y. STATE. N. Y. LIB. CLUB. 121. NEW JERSEY. 60. WISCONSIN. 29. IOWA. 23. MICHIGAN. 37. INTEREST TAKEN BY LIBRARIANS AND OUT- SIDERS. MAINE. Interest very slight, as shown by membership. *This mistake was corrected at the meeting held Dec. 16. N. H. Members generally interested, though not many librarians among them. MASS. Librarians mostly interested ; not much effect apparently produced on outside public. CONN. Libraries of the State well represented at the May meeting ; a number of outsiders came in. N. Y. STATE. N. Y. LIB. CLUB. Members much interested ; have members in foreign countries : Boston, Chicago, and Rangoon, Burmah. Many outsiders members. N. JERSEY. Considerable interest manifested at the meetings. WISCONSIN. Leading citizens of the State interested in the Association. IOWA. Interest encouraging. Three members of the Association are trustees of libraries. RESULTS IN COMMUNITIES WHERE THE ASSOCIA- TION HAS MET; NUMBER OF MEETINGS. MAINE. In most cases very slight ; only one meeting. N. H. Three meetings. MASS. Five meetings to Sept. 30 ; not much effectas yet. -. CONN. Two meetings ; interest awakened in the Association. N. Y. STATE. Two ? or three ? N. Y. LIB. CLUB. Twenty-five meetings; increase of spirit of fraternity and cooperation. N. JERSEY. Two meetings ; results yet to be seen. WISCONSIN. One meeting ; no special results. IOWA. Two meetings. A decidedly greater interest in library matters and a better apprecia- tion of librarians hip among leading men and women. MICHIGAN. No results reported as yet. One meeting. CONSTITUTIONS. MAINE. Printed in Lib. Journ., Apr., 1891, p. 114. N. H. L. J., Feb., 1891, p. 50. MASS. L. J., Jan., 1891, p. 19. Amended con- stitution annexed. CONN. Annexed ; condensed in L. J., March, 1891, p. 81. N. Y. STATE. L. J., July, 1890, p. 212. N. Y. LIB. CLUB. L. J., Aug., 1885, orig. const, amended Feb., 1891. N. JERSEY. L. J., Jan., 1891, p. 16. GREEN. 55 WISCONSIN. L. J., March, 1891, p. 81. IOWA. L. J., Jan., 1891, p. 18. MICHIGAN. CONSTITUTION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS LIBRARY CLUB. 1. Name. This organization shall be called " The Massa- chusetts Library Club." 2. Object. Its object shall be to promote the library inter- ests of the State of Massachusetts. 3. Members. Any librarian, library assistant, or trustee of a library in the State of Massachusetts may become a member upon payment of the first annual assess- ment, and remain a member as long as dues are paid. Any person eligible to membership may become a life member and be exempt from future annual assessments on the payment of $5.00. The money received for life memberships shall be safely invested and only the interest shall be spent.* 4. Officers. The officers of the club shall consist of a Presi- dent, two Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, and a Treasurer, to be elected by ballot at the annual meeting, who shall together constitute the Execu- tive Committee, and serve till their successors are chosen. j". Meetings. There shall be two or more meetings of the club in each year, one of which shall be the annual meeting to be held the first Wednesday in October, provided that the annual meeting shall be called to take place in some other month than October in any year when all the members of the Executive Committee agree to the change. 6. Dues and Debts. The annual assessment shall be fifty (50) cents. No debt or obligation of any kind shall be con- tracted by the club, or by any committee, officer, or member thereof on its behalf. 7. Amendments. This constitution may be amended by three- fourths vote of those present at any stated meet- * Amended Dec. 16, by striking out the word " first," and adding the provision "Other persons interested in library work may, with the consent of the Executive Committee, become members on the same terms." ing, notice of the proposed change having been given in the call for the meeting. CONSTITUTION OF THE CONNECTICUT LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 1. Name. This Association shall be called the CONNECTI- CUT LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 2. Object. Its object shall be to promote the library inter- ests of the State of Connecticut. 3. Members. Any person interested in the object of the Asso- ciation may become a member upon payment to the Treasurer of the annual assessment. 4. Officers. The officers of the Association shall consist of a President, five Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, an Assistant Secretary, -and a Treasurer, to be elected by ballot at the annual meeting, who shall together constitute the Executive Board, which shall have power to act for the Association in intervals between its meetings. 5. Meetings. There shall be not less than three meetings in each year to be held in February, May, and October, at such places as the vote of the mem- bers present at each meeting may decide. The meeting in February shall be the annual meeting. 6. Dues and Debts. The annual assessment shall be fifty cents. No debts or obligation of any kind shall be contracted by any member of the Association unless author- ized by a specific vote of the Executive Board. 7. Amendments. This constitution may be amended by a three- fourths vote of those members present at any stated meeting, notice of the proposed change having been given in the call for the meeting. CONSTITUTION OF THE MICHIGAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 1. Name. The name of this Association shall be the Michigan Library Association. 2. Object. Its object shall be to promote the library inter- ests of the State of Michigan. SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. j. Members. Any person interested in advancing its object may become a member of this Association by vote of the Executive Board and payment to the Treas- urer of the annual assessment. 4. Officers. The officers of the Association shall consist of a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, and a Treasurer, who shall be elected by ballot at the annual meetings, and who shall constitute the Executive Board, which shall have power to act for the Association in intervals between its meet- ings. /. Meetings. There shall be one or more meetings each year, the time and place of which shall be fixed by the Association or by the Executive Board, and ample notice of such time and place shall be furnished to each member. 6. Dues and Debts. The annual assessment shall be fifty cents. No officer, committee, or member of the Association shall incur any expense in its name, nor shall the Treasurer make any payment from its funds, unless authorized to do so by vote of the Executive Board. 7. Amendments. This constitution may be amended at any meet- ing, notice of the proposed change having been previously furnished each member in the call for the meeting. OFFICERS. MAINE. President, L. D. Carver, State Lib'n, Augusta. Vice-Pres'fs, E: W. Hall, Lib'n Colby Univ. ; G: W. Wood, Lib'n Bates College. Treas- urer, G: T. Little, Bowdoin College, Brunswick. Secretary, Harriet E. Fernald, Lib'n Maine State College, Orono. N. H. President, N. P. Hunt. Vice-Presidents, E. H. Oilman, John Kivel, E. P. Jewell, J. S. Nash, J. E. Pecker, W: W. Bailey, F. C. Faulk- ner, J. M. Parmlee, Cyrus Sargeant, I. W. Drew. Cor. Secretary, A. S. Batchellor. Rec. Secretary and Clerk of the Corporation, A. R. Kimball. Librarian and Treasurer, D. F. Secomb. Execu- tive Committee, N. P. Hunt, M. D. Bisbee, Geo. C. Gilmore, E. H. Gilman, and S. M. Richards. MASS. President, W: C. Lane, Harvard Coll. Lib. Vice-Presidents, W: Rice, J. C. Houghton. Treasurer, Miss M. E. Sargent, Lib'n Medford Pub. Lib. Secretary, Miss E. P. Thurston, Lib'n Newton Pub. Lib. CONN. President, Addison Van Name, Lib'n Yale Coll. Lib. Vice-Presidents, Walter Learned, Trustee New London Pub. Lib. ; Frank B. Gay, Watkinson Library, Hartford ; Willis K. Stetson, New Haven Pub. Lib.; Chas. D. Hine, State Board of Educ. ; Louise M. Carrington, Beardsley Lib., West Winsted. Secretary, Caroline M. Hewins, Hartford Lib. Asso.; Ass't Sec., Mrs. Martha Todd Hill, Stonington Free Library. Treasurer, W: J. Hills, Bridgeport Pub. Lib. N. Y. STATE. N. Y. LIB. CLUB. President, Frank P. Hill. Vice-Presets, Mary W. Plummer, R. B. Poole. Secretary, Mary I. Crandall. Treasurer, Silas H. Berry. Exec. Committee, George Hall Baker, W: T. Peoples, R. B. Poole, Ellen M. Coe, Mary W. Plummer. Pres. and Sec. ex officio. N. JERSEY. President, Rev. W. Prall, South Orange. Vice-Presets, F. P. Hill, Lib'n Newark Free Pub. Lib.; Prof. E. C. Richardson, Lib'n Princeton College. Secretary, Martha F. Nelson, Lib'n Union Lib., Trenton. Treasurer, G: F. Winchester, Lib'n Free Pub. Lib., Paterson. WISCONSIN. President, K. A. Linderfelt, Lib'n Milwaukee Pub. Lib. Vice-Preset, R. G. Thwaites, Sec. State Historical Soc. Secretary and Treas., F. A. Hutchins, office State Superintendent. IOWA. President, Mrs. Mary H. Miller, State Lib'n, Des Moines. Vice-Presets, W. H. Johnston, Fort Dodge, Mrs. Clara E. Dwight, Dubuque. Secretary, Mrs. Ada North, Iowa City, Univ. Lib. Treasurer, Miss Clara M. Smith, Burling- ton. MICHIGAN. President, H. M. Utley, Lib'n Detroit Pub. Lib. Vice-Presets, Mrs. Calhoun, State Lib., F. E. Morgan, Trustee Coldwater Lib. Secretary, Mrs. Annie F. Parsons, Bay City. Treasurer, Miss Lucy M. Ball, Lib'n Pub. Lib., Grand Rapids. STEINER. 57 SHOULD UNIFORMITY MARK THE ARRANGEMENT AND ADMINIS- TRATION OF OUR PUBLIC LIBRARIES, OR SHOULD INDIVID- UALITY BE PERMITTED TO ASSERT ITSELF IN EACH? BY LEWIS H. STEINER, LIBRARIAN, ENOCH PRATT FREE LIBRARY, BALTIMORE. *"pHE profession of public librarian has be- come so important that this question is not without interest to those who are devoting their time, energies and lives to library work. If it is answered one way, then all that will be required is the creation of a model which shall be strictly followed in every Library, irrespective of its environments and the special wants of the community it is intended to supply, irrespective of the varying forms of architectural structure which varied tastes and earnest desires for that which is novel and different from all other buildings erected for like purposes, may present, and irrespec- tive of the peculiar mental and moral equip- ment of the librarian and his available assist- ants and of their tact and ingenuity. If all are to be alike, and one dull uniformity to govern all, then a result will be attained dif- fering from that secured in any other occupa- tion, pursuit or profession. Methods of legal procedure differ but little in the different States, and yet the buildings constructed for the accommodation of the courts of law differ both externally and in- ternally in the arrangements, as well as in the administration of the methods ; churches are erected with but one main object in view the worship of God and yet arch- itects are controlled by influences that modify not only external plans but also the internal plans and provisions for the decent conduct of worship, and the accommodation of the worshipping congregation, the music and the officiating clergymen. Similarly, great build- ings for manufacturing purposes, private resi- dences, edifices devoted to educational pur- poses and those to pleasure, monuments to the mighty dead, and halls for the accommo- dation of legislative bodies, reject the idea of dull uniformity, and furnish opportunity for the exercise of the inventive faculties of those constructing them, as well as the desire to improve upon other structures, and to adapt them to the individual tastes of those for whom they are constructed. There is advance in everything in this age. We are not content to tread solemnly and slavishly in the footsteps of our predecessors. Our form of government, in our opinion, is a grand advance beyond that which satisfied mankind in previous ages. Science has fur- nished us with so many discoveries in public and social appliances that we eagerly seize these and use them for the necessities and comforts of life, speedily rejecting them for others that are of more recent discovery and better adapted for our uses. We have, indeed, a great horror of what is called old-fogyism, and find that we must em- ploy new discoveries and new methods, or we shall be left behind in the race for life. Even in the art of war, where so much seemingly depends on uniformity of action and mechani- cal drill of the individual soldier, this principle of adaptation and use of new discoveries finds a home. At one time, the efficiency of an army depended upon the solidity and strength of the phalanx ; then, when firearms began to take the place of personal strength, the solid phalanx gave way to the three-rank formation, supposed to be required to make the employ- ment of these most efficient ; then it was found to be a useless exposure of life to retain even three ranks of men in the making or resisting a charge, and the two-rank formation was con- ceded to be the best fitted for the purpose, with bodies of troops held in reserve for their support. But now the improvement of weap- ons of precision has been so great that all old plans are giving way to the deployment of troops as skirmishers, where each man acting by himself, although under general orders, can exercise his best skill on the enemy, SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. while he is exposed to a minimum of danger to his own body and life. Similarly, naval warfare has undergone change, and close- range engagements would seem to have given place to the free use of long-range artillery, worked with skill and scientific accuracy. Libraries in former days were intended chiefly for the safe keeping of books, with their possible use under exceptional circum- stances by the occasional scholar. Now, and reference is here made especially to those de- signed for the free use of the public, the ob- ject is to make them of the greatest possible advantage to the community for which they have been established. This necessarily im- plies that their books should be so arranged that the inquiring visitor could most readily have access to their contents, and could se- cure in the speediest manner information on all subjects claiming his attention. Arrange- ment and administration are the chief practi- cal duties that demand the public librarian's attention. Can these be bound by the fetters of uniformity, and that librarian be called best fitted for such duties who recognizes any model, that must, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, be absolute and final for his government in either ? Is he to be a simple machine, free from the employment and exer- cise of his individual peculiarities, and for- bidden to use all suggestions and improve- ments that an intelligent study of arrangement and administration would suggest to his active mind ? These questions seem to demand negative replies from every one interested in the greatest possible efficiency of our public libraries, because it requires but little study of the subject to reach the conclusion that li- brarians must be men alive to the require- ments of their calling, not satisfied with a me- chanical performance of their duties, and ever on the alert to discover or employ improved methods for the execution of the same, if they would not be left behind in this active, pro- gressive age. Where there is absolute con- tent with methods of administration or ar- rangement, whether proposed by themselves or by others and the result is worse in the latter case than in the former perfect satis- faction that no improvement can be found out- side of their present methods, and an inflexible determination to persevere in the same, there is the prophecy of living fossilization, which will soon be recognized by the people as a disgrace and reproach to the profession. Nowhere more readily than in a public library should everything be open to change, if this promises improvement. It is a pro- duct of the age and must keep pace with the latter. It dare not claim that its present methods are the best possible that can be devised, and thus calmly rest from all activity and be converted into a mere machine for literary convenience. The librarian who accepts such a situation is a disadvantage to the trust he is expected to administer, and should give place to some one more alive to progress and improvement, and more in sym- pathy with the age in which he lives. But if blind obedience to authority be objectionable, let us see what advantages may be expected to result from free play given to individuality in arrangement and administra- tion. And these advantages must show themselves in the librarian and in his library. I. THE LIBRARIAN. We must take it for granted that he is a scholarly man, who by constant association with books has learned to love their con- tents, and not to be satisfied with their titles simply or their mechanical form. He should know much of literature and of its rela- tions to all other forms of human know- ledge. How much, no one can prescribe, but he must be more than a mere book- worm. His business is not to be a lit- erary anatomist, but rather a literary physi- ologist. Books should glow with life and be made to do good service in the busi- ness of making mankind wiser, happier, and better. Hence their custodian the literary purveyor of the community must be on the alert to discover what plans are best adapted, in his particular location and environment, to accomplish this work. The printed page is to be made useful in a grand missionary work among all ages and classes. Should he be content with what has been done by others, no matter how vast their experience and STEINER. 59 justly celebrated their authority, he cannot secure the best results. The great librarians, nullius addicti jurare in verba magistri, have acknowledged no masters in their profession whose rules they were obliged to obey, but have become masters themselves by dint of their own earnest grappling, each day of their lives, with the problems that demanded answers. If truly great they did not wish to force their own methods upon those who were fast moving on to assume the places in the ranks which they in time would be com- pelled to leave. It was their pride to see others develop independence of thought, construct new plans and devise new methods. The secret of their reputation and honorable position, and that of those whom we all recog- nize as now in the front rank of the pro- fession, is at the command of any one who has the requisite culture and knowledge of the contents of books, combined with the practical bent that fits a man to command his situation, to know the peculiarities of his environment, and to adapt means to the desired end. The assertion of individuality must not pro- ceed, however, from a mere desire to differ with others unless such difference will give him greater freedom of action and make his plans and methods more useful. Nay, he should learn what others have done and are doing, by studying their methods and witness- ing the practical operations of the same in the libraries under their control, by familiarity with the journals devoted to imparting infor- mation on such topics, and, above all, by fre- quent familiar intercourse and conference with those who are students of the same sub- ject. He must strive to be in touch with other officers in the army of which he is a member. Starting out with the determination to get the best, he will soon acquire ability to select that which will suit his own peculiar situation, and, what is more to the purpose, to develop new methods and plans, which will be, at least for him and his particular sphere of work, better than all the rest. And, as he progresses in his life-work, he will learn not to disdain suggestions that even the least scholarly of his assistants may make, as to management and administration. Where these are conscious of the fact that, while they must recognize and conform to the rules and methods provided for their government by their chief, he will not thrust aside sugges- tions that may result from their own ingenuity and study of any portion of the details sub- mitted to their oversight and care, their use- fulness is greatly increased. Under such a system of recognition, the assistants them- selves rise from the lower mechanical level to become intelligent, all-alive, active participants in the spirit of the librarian and invaluable partners in his work. And this is no small advantage in the conduct of any business. It reduces perfunctory performance of duty to the minimum, and, in our calling, makes each member of his staff a tower of strength to the librarian. The development of broader and clearer ideas of the nature of his profession, that takes place as he throws off servitude to oth- ers and begins to make his library a part of himself and to identify himself with it, is also a result that is of incalculable value. But few have had the pleasure granted them to have been called in consultation in the construction of their library buildings. These have been mostly furnished before the appointment of the librarians, or, if constructed during their terms of service, their counsel has been some- times rejected as that of "cranks " who are deemed hardly practical enough to aid the architect in the planning of the building, which is to be the focus of their activity and usefulness 1n the community. Hence the ne- cessity for the development of the individ- uality and independence of thought that will make the librarian able to adapt the building to the best accomplishment of the purposes for which it has been constructed, and to make his plans so that he and it may be married one to the other and the twain be united in an indissoluble unity. True, there is great difference in the arrangements and plans of libraries, and some are infinitely better adapted for their purposes than others, but the wise librarian, who has learned to think and plan and adapt for himself, laughs at the inconven- iences with which he may be surrounded 6o SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. and forces them all to contribute to the suc- cess of his own plans. The modern chemist, in his well-appointed laboratory, with its wealth of appliances, con- ducts his researches with great comfort, con- venience and success, but a Faraday puts in a few glass tubes and ingenious makeshifts along with his indomitable determination to succeed, and secures discoveries that make him known to the scientific world as a master of his profession. Similarly, the wise libra- rian, who acts independently, will find that, although he is denied many aids and conven- iences which his more fortunate brother has at his command, he can contrive to force what he has into subjection to his wants and make everything useful in the execution of his plans. But, while thus getting perfect command of the building devised or employed for the pro- tection and arrangement of the books that he is enabled to purchase, he will probably feel the necessity for modifications of the very classification that is used for his own con- venience and that of his borrowers. This must needs be modified to suit the nature of the library whether it be only for reference or circulation, whether intended for the gen- eral public or for a more or less limited num- ber of subscribers. So, the details of ad- ministration must be largely determined in accordance with the peculiarities of the per- son in charge, the nature of the building, and, to a certain extent also, the character of the assistants that he is likely to have. He can usually not regulate this portion of his duties by what others have employed, but he must select, appropriate, adapt and devise what will be best fitted for his peculiar situation. Where the librarian thus thinks and acts for himself, after a careful study of what others have done, he becomes master of the situa- tion, and an honor to the profession of which he is a member. His staff respect him as their leader, are ready to carry out his views or to submit their contributions or sug- gestions for improvement of methods to his good judgment, and the whole library force can claim special respect from those who re- sort to its shelves for aid in their studies or for that which will bring amusement and comfort in their hours of fatigue. His own labors are lessened, and duty becomes a pleasure under such circumstances. 2. THE LIBRARY. The benefits thus received by the li- brarian are, however, not confined to him; they extend to the reputation the library itself will acquire in the community. It will soon be found out that it has an individuality of its own, in the formation of which the convenience of the community and its special adaptation to the wants of the people have been earnestly considered. These facts will create pride in it as peculiarly their own, not a slavish copy of another, but a creation adapted to their own needs, and this is not to be considered as of little moment. Town pride and personal pride will beget greater respect and love for the library, and will insensibly win friends not only for the architectural structure, but also for the books on its shelves. Its reputation will increase its friends, and so whatever it may possess of literary treasures will attain a wider sphere of usefulness. Individuality in anything commands respect, if not admiration, and, in the case of a library, this is very strikingly shown in any community. Every one feels that an active brain is at work for his benefit, which is not content with servile imitation of any one model, but strives to create its own, and that the best possible one for its peculiar limitations and environment. And so the labor, that has been expended on arrangement and administration, receives rec- ognition outside of the library itself, adding to its popularity with the people and its con- sequent increasing usefulness. The conclusion arrived at in this discussion is based upon the hypothesis that the librarian possesses the literary culture and book-know- ledge required for his position, sufficient judg- ment to weigh properly all the needs of the institution under his care, and an ambition to make his library of the greatest benefit to its natural constituency. If he does not possess these he is out of place, and should be sup- planted by some one who does, because to the CHENEY. 61 former the rules and regulations which have been made by another will always be blindly accepted as guides to control his action. He begins his work mechanically and will con- tinue it thus until he lays it down. He is as little fitted to judge of methods as many of the pupils who flock to our normal schools, to learn the methods of teaching, before they have even acquired an accurate knowledge of the branches they are expected to teach. These make their teaching mechanical, dry, and lifeless, and drive their pupils along roads they know not themselves, which are crowded with obstacles, instead of leading them along paths lined with attractive and lovely flowers. He is simply an echo of what others have ut- tered, a slave to a system instead of master of one evolved out of his own study of the situ- ation as presented in his own library. Let the profession of public librarian, which the nineteenth century has created, be filled not only with enthusiastic lovers of the con- tents of books, but also with earnest students of the best methods of arranging the same and administering their libraries, so that they may be animated with friendly rivalry, ready to seize and appropriate the best that others employ, as well as to devise from their own individual resources whatever may be best adapted to make their life-work redound to the greatest profit of their own readers. METHOD OF CATALOGUING THE UNITED STATES PUBLIC DOCU- MENTS AND THE PERIODICALS IN THE SAN FRANCISCO FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. BY j: VANCE CHENEY, THE LIBRARIAN. The United States Public Documents. The letter U indicates the class, U. S. Pub. Docs. Place after these the number of the Congress, and after this the number of the session ; then add, as a decimal, the number adopted in the following scheme of classifica- tion : SENATE. Senate Journal I Exec. Docs. (Sen. Docs.) .... 2 Misc 3 Reports 4 HOUSE. House Journal Exec. Docs. (House Docs.) Misc Reports Suppose, for example, we wish to catalogue House Exec. Docs., No. 16, 38th Congress, ist session. First comes the class letter U, and the number of the Congress, 38 : U 38. Add the number of the session, I, we have U 381. It remains simply to add, as a deci- mal, the number in the scheme, 6 : U 381.6. Where there is a second or third volume, it may be written as follows : U 381. & or U 38 1. 6 3 . The public documents being catalogued by this method, reference may be readily made to any article found in Poore's " Catalogue of the Government Publications of the United States," covering the period Sept. 5, 1774, to March 4, 1881: Hickox's "Monthly cata- logue " is not so easily managed, but with some ingenuity it becomes reasonably ser- viceable. About a year after the adoption of the above method, Mr. W. A. Merrill's paper appeared in the Library journal for April, 1891. Very much the same device is hit on there, but the method is not quite so simple, as will be seen by the following comparison : S. F. Free Public Library: U 381.6 U- 3 8i.6 2 U 3 8i.63 Miami University Library : 328.3816 328. 328. By the latter method it becomes necessary, at times, to write nine figures. The Periodicals. This method applies only to such periodicals as appear in Poole's Index. 62 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. The letter P indicates the class, Periodical Literature. Place after it the number set against the name of the periodical in Poole's Chronological conspectus, and add, as a dec- imal, the number of the volume. Suppose, or example, we wish to catalogue the six- teenth volume of Scribner's monthly. First comes the class letter P. The number in Poole's Conspectus is 198, and the number of the volume is 16. Add these, and we have P 198.16. ACCESS TO THE SHELVES A POSSIBLE FUNCTION OF BRANCH LIBRARIES. BY HERBERT PUTNAM, LIBRARIAN OF THE MINNEAPOLIS PUBLIC LIBRARY. T~*HE question of free access to the shelves may on the whole be regarded as under debate, not with reference to an ideal to be attained so much as to the practicable mech- anism by which it is to be effected. The problem of informal contact, which, to a library in a small space or to a specialized library, presents no difficulty, to a city library, with a large constituency, does present some embar- rassments in a measure harassing. There are books upon the shelves of unique value, which if destroyed could not be replaced; there are others of high intrinsic value which might be ruined by careless or malicious hands ; the books are carefully classified, and no classification, however methodic, can with- stand the turmoil of ignorant disarrangement ; there is a large public to deal with ; their admittance to the book rooms would crowd the alcoves and impede the work of issue ; this public is composed, nine-tenths or even ninety- nine one-hundredths, of persons unknown to the attendants and without credentials ; and finally there is an ample card catalogue. There are copiously suggestive reading lists ; to what purpose were the thousands of dollars and years of labor expended upon these save to render access to the shelves superfluous ? So for the time freedom of access is declared impracticable, or rigid exclusion is palliated. For the time, I say ; for I cannot believe that the most of the obstacles indicated are other than temporary or relative. It is indeed true that every large library contains books that it cannot afford to have destroyed. Its contents may probably be divided into three groups: (i) books which are rarities, and these must be treated somewhat as curios in a museum ; (2) books which are documentary sources, and these must be treated as legal records ; and (3) books which are literature, and these should be treated as living instruments of education. Now, assuming that these first two classes do exist in every library and in each department of every library, and that a rule must be made especially to guard them, must such a rule be made a blanket rule for the whole library ? Is it not possible to seclude them so that the rigidity necessary in their case shall not need to encompass the entire collection? Is it not possible to set them apart, as already we are obliged to set apart folios from octavos, and even entire special collections within the library, to assign them perhaps a special section in each case, behind a screen if necessary, and still leave the main body of the department open for free handling ? And as for the confusion of free handling, the disarrangement results not from taking books down but from trying to put them back again ; a simple prohibition to readers against the replacement of any vol- ume upon the shelves is ample to secure the integrity of the classification. The public must to a large extent, to be sure, remain individually unknown to the attendants ; but not without credentials ; for as to a church, so to a library, a man brings the best credentials who brings himself; and the chiefest sin he can commit against it is to remain away from it. What would we have ? Surely a chief lesson these books are to teach is faith in one's fellow-man ; and how can the books teach faith when the library itself teaches suspicion? But the catalogue and reference lists, do PUTNAM. not they suffice? Do they? Does a cata- logue stand for a book, for a collection .of individual books ? For two reasons not : in the first place it covers only the literature of knowledge ; in the second place it begins at the wrong end, begins with the trained mind which seeks direction, while the library has usually first to do with the untrained mind, which needs stimulus. And yet note the inconsistency it is the disciplined reader, the reader for whom this apparatus is most effective ; it is this reader, if any, that we admit to the shelves ; while it is the crude and vagrant mind, the mind that is essentially diffident and unenterprising, the mind in awe of the catalogues and most in need of the incentive of direct contact with the books it is this one that we rigidly exclude. Is there an influence exerted by a collection of books not exerted through the best of cata- logues ? We know there is ; we recognize it when we speak of the companionship of books, when we speak of books that are our friends and intimates. Surely we could not call that man an intimate in whose ante-room we must sit and wait and send up our cards, and whom we can come into touch with only through systematic endeavor. To be friends with books, as with men, we must be able to drop in upon them, to jog about among them, exchange a look or a word with them, or seek a deep confidence among them, as the spirit may move us. Every one who loves books, every librarian, feels this power of humanity stirring amongst them. He feels also a power of humanizing latent within them. He feels it in the books ; but no most inveterate classi- fier could assert it in a catalogue. No librarian of today would content his ambition with the passive response to trained inquiry. He likes to feel himself an educator. He is to stir up an interest in good books. How then ? How would he stir up an interest in botany in a child ? Would he set him down at a desk with the scheme of Linnaeus, or would he turn him loose in an open field and let him mark for himself the fresh and deli- cate individuality of each appealing flower ? How to stir up an interest in good books ? Why not stock the shelves with them, and turn the public loose among them ? Books can speak for themselves ; and eagerly enough the people will respond, if not shut out from them by a seven-barred catalogue. Toward three classes of readers access to the shelves is potent : first, toward those who have not yet the ambition or impulse to read at all, and of these I have just been speaking; second, toward those whose reading has been a monochrome and who need to be diverted ; and third, toward those whose tastes are below the standard of the library, who fre- quent it and call for books, and don't get them, and grumble and wonder why the library sets up for a public library, and doesn't get the books the people want to read. (I omit the fourth class of students proper because the gain to them is self-evident and generally admitted.) Every librarian of a public library has a certain number of readers who per- sist in adhering to two or three authors Mrs. Holmes or Augusta Wilson, perhaps. You have tried to wean them from this exclu- sive devotion, and been often rebuffed and mortified. Have you ever tried turning them loose among the shelves ? Ten to one they would select a new author ; and in their con- dition of mental inertia a new author is for them the best author. I would indeed go further, and assert that any undisciplined reader is likely to select a better book from the shelves than he will select from the cat- alogue. Timidity hampers him. Certain authors he has read ; he is at least sure of them ; he dares not go outside of them ; and so he keeps rotating through the list of the flabby familiar, and his influence upon cir- culation is a horror to us. But in the book rooms the fancy is captivated toward a score of books novel to his experience; the individ- uality of the books in their mere physique attracts him (to a less degree of course in libraries where this individuality has been suppressed to a barbarous uniformity by manila covers) ; and in a twinkle this lethargic imagination is fluttering to a thousand new impressions from East and West. As to the grumbler who calls himelf " the people," I have never yet found the grumbler who couldn't be turned into an enthusiast by 6 4 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. being turned loose in the book rooms. What- ever the occasion of his complaint, it usually rests on an ultimate suspicion of the good intent of the library. Generally, of course, it is that the library doesn't provide him, and promptly, with the book he wants. Take this reader, tell him it is true the book he asks for can't be supplied, but that whatever the library has is open to him and turn him into the book rooms to pick for himseif. The effect is mag- ical ; the most desperately disgruntled natures are veered to confiding faith and loyalty. One final consideration pends from this. Every library contains certain flabby books. The librarian is ashamed of them ; he would not recommend them ; he puts them there merely as toll bait. But he puts them there. He then covertly (that is among the profession) boasts that they are at least supplied in inad- equate quantities ; they appear on the finding lists, but they are rarely on the shelves when called for. As if one should make it an excuse for administering poison that it was adminis- tered in small doses ! Yet this is extreme ; for the books are not quite poison, they are not vicious ; but they are flabby ; and in con- trast to the work the library has to do can it afford to supply even the flabby books? It countenances them by placing them upon its finding list ; it countenances the interest of its readers in them; and then it frustrates their attempts to read them. Surely such subter- fuge is both cowardly and unworthy of an edu- cational institution. Why is it necessary? Is it not because we rely upon the catalogues to attract our readers instead of relying upon the books themselves ? At present the stan- dard must be low, because the crude reader is reached only through the catalogues, and in these only the familiar appeals. But with free access to the books the standard might be high ; for he would then be reached by the novel individuality of the books appealing for themselves. I have little need to be urgent in such a cause, before such an audience. I cannot believe there is a librarian who has felt as a reader and would not himself be urgent for freedom of access. The problem is one of means. I believe that before long an effort will be made even in the largest libraries to differentiate; so that if all the books cannot be made free, part will be made free ; that if access cannot be granted at all seasons and at every hour of the day, it will be attempted in seasons of less pressure and at quiet hours of the day ; that if it cannot be granted to all persons it will at least be granted as of course, and only withheld as an exception and a pen- alty; and finally, that where it may not be con- trived immediately in great central libraries, in which the division between records and literature must be a slow process, and whose architecture does not provide for comfortable shelf reference, in such cities it will be undertaken without delay in the branch libra- ries to which no such obstacles adhere. The suitabilities of branches for the inaug- uration of such an experiment need only to be enumerated to be accepted. A branch has a small, a localized constituency. Most of its readers soon become personally known to the attendants. The collection of books is almost purely a collection of literature, the books that are to make character first, and then, and only in a lesser measure, the books that are to give knowledge, of matter of record almost none at all ; the pressure on the issue desk need never be so heavy as to crowd unduly the alcoves. And finally, whatever the pur- pose of the central library, the purpose of the branch is to enlist the sympathy and arouse the intellectual impulse of the section of the community in which it is placed. It is a feeder from the main library ; it should also be a feeder to the main library. It should make the most of that humanizing element in books which needs only to be let work in order that it should work; and so far as can be, should be exempt from that rigidity of system which formalizes a book a friend into a library, a mere institution. To constrain it within the regulations deemed necessary in the central library is to suppress a function peculiarly its own, to deprive it of an opportunity for which its circumstances peculiarly adapt it. For a branch library in a large city may, if it will, gain something of the potency of a village library, which the village folk haunt with a PUTNAM. friendly persistence which they feel to belong to them, and which is to them in effect a week-day union of church and club and higher school. In Minneapolis we have been putting these theories into practical operation. I have felt diffident about reciting our experience because "it has been but a short one. But I am told that an ounce of experience is worth a pound of theory, so will adduce it for what it is worth. Our friend Brett has been trying similar experiments in Cleveland, and very likely has gone a step beyond us. I shall hope that he will add his testimony as to results. The Minneapolis Public Library is a free city institution, free for circulation as well as for reference. It was opened to the public in December, 1889. The city is one of 165,000 inhabitants, and has practically no other pub- lic library. The library opened with about 30,000 volumes, and additions are being made of about 13,000 volumes yearly. By the end of the first year about 15,000 cards had been issued, and 200,000 volumes circulated for home use. In point of circulation, therefore, it ranked in 1890 about seventh of American public libraries. The building has three main reading rooms, that have sufficed for the entire body of readers at any one time. From the first, however, we intended that readers (at least certain of them) should have access to the book rooms ; and these were arranged with a view to admit of this. The stacks were planned on a modified alcove sys- tem ; and they present some sixteen large alcoves (8 feet by 10) and over thirty narrower ones (3> feet from face to face, and 10 feet deep). Every alcove has an individual win- dow. The large alcoves have sloping desks across under the windows ; the small alcoves have drop tables. On every case or stack the shelves below three feet have a depth of 16 inches (above only 8 inches); so that to the face of every stack there is a ledge of three feet from the ground for the student to rest his book upon. From the first, also, the books were arranged with regard to safety of access. Certain of the larger art folios (as the Napoleon and Lep- sius Egypt, Piranesi, Prisse d'Avennes, etc.) were put in special cases with sliding shelves and locked doors. It has always been under- stood, however, that any inquirer whatever might examine any book in the library. And if a schoolboy asked to see, e. g., Lepsius, he was never refused permission ; only the book would be brought out and set upon the special folio table, and he cautioned as to its proper handling; and an attendant occasionally pass his way to see that he was not sprawling his elbows upon it. We find that such small thoughtlessness is the only impropriety we have to guard against. The really superb books carry their own lesson of awe and respect. Certain other works in our art department (Owen Jones, for instance, and Racinet) were in too constant use to be put behind glass. We gathered these into a stack by themselves, and at first stretched a cord across the alcove with a sign enjoining " special permission." But we found the cord superflous and removed it. The fiction was massed in small alcoves nearest the issue desk ; and to this access has not been given until recently. It was refused, however, only because people in the alcoves might interfere with the work of the pages. So, when the summer came and the pressure slackened, these alcoves also were thrown open. With 15,000 card-holders it did not seem practicable to admit every reader as of course. We issued shelf perrnits for certain periods, from a day to a year. Clergymen and teach- ers had these cards as a matter of course ; and any reader could get one who could assert that he was pursuing some definite course of reading. But beyond this we tried to make it understood that, without a written permit, any reader could by request get admitted to the shelves. The librarian's office is in full view of the issue desk, and the door is always open ; and I have never yet refused an application for a shelf permit. In my absence and at all times the attendants are instructed to take to the shelves any inquirer who seems inade- quately supplied through the ordinary chan- nels. Our catalogue facilities are as yet mea- gre, and we have to depend largely upon this 66 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. personal mediation coupled with freedom of access. We find, as no doubt other librarians have found, that this personal mediation may often gain a warm friend to the library, where a catalogue would have left only an irritated client. In other ways where we couldn't bring the people to the book rooms, we tried to bring the book rooms to the people. A large num- ber of books were always out upon the refer- ence shelves in the reading rooms. Current periodicals have always been kept in open pigeon-hole cases in the reading rooms. And on Sundays and holidays trucks of miscella- neous entertaining books have been set out in the reading rooms to be used without record. A few books and several dozens of magazines have disappeared each year. But we lay the theft to one or two systematic depredators, and should never think of making the entire reading public suffer for it by abridging the general freedom. Now this admission to the shelves "upon request " and special application, which alone we thought practicable at first, did not accom- plish all that we desired. No matter how broadly we advertised our willingness to grant formal permits, we found that people were diffident about applying for them. The idea of having to prove some systematic course of reading under way embarrassed many from asking time permits; and the ordinary reader didn't feel like repeating a request for admit- tance at each visit to the library. When this summer came, therefore, we had a sign printed : " At this hour readers may enter the book rooms and select their own books." And at all times when there is not a crowd the sign is displayed before the issue desk. I need not say that the privilege has been appreciated. It has added fifty per cent to the summer use of the library. Indeed, it so far approximated the summer pressure to that of the winter that the hours during which the privilege may be extended have constantly to be reduced. So that, oddly enough, it is likely to be defeated by its very success. In casting about, how- ever, for a field within which the freedom might be 'continued in cases not reached by the main library, and independent of the con- ditions to which it might there have to be subjected, we hit upon the branches. In these we have extended the freedom of access without limitation. Each branch occupies a couple of rooms, one of which is a reading room. The books are shelved in ordinary open cases behind the issue desk. Every reader goes in and picks out a book for him- self. There are not as yet many books to pick from ; until recently the branches have been chiefly delivery stations. But each branch had to start with several hundred books of its own ; and each receives current additions in the duplicates that can be spared from the- main library. In each, therefore, there are over a thousand volumes of miscellaneous literature; and these volumes have become absolutely accessible to the readers. There is no permit necessary, not even a verbal per- mit or nod from the attendant. "The books are here; come and help yourself; make friends with them," is the common under- standing. Now as to results these questions present themselves : (i) What is the loss to the library in the way of books stolen or mutilated ? (2) Does not the freedom of access cause disarrange- ment of books and impede the work of issue ? (3) Does freedom of access (a) add to the number of books read, (b) improve the quality of books read ? In stating our conclusions it must be repeated that they are based upon a very brief experience ; that the library has been open less than two years ; that the public, never before accustomed to a public library, might very naturally at first be constrained to an awe and respect which might easily rub off upon extended familiarity; the honestly-inclined may become careless, while the reprobates may discover easy methods of rascality. (1) The total ascertained loss in the past year and a half from theft has aggregated about twenty-five books and twice the number of magazines. The total cost of replacing this material has not exceeded fifty dollars. Of mutilation we have not thus far discovered more than one important instance. (2) The presence in the alcoves of the entire PUTNAM. 67 body of readers would at the crowded hours of the day be a serious impediment to the work of issue. At the central library, there- fore, we find it necessary to limit the access "as of course " to certain hours of the day. We are still enabled, however, to admit at all times a large body of persons holding shelf permits, and every reader whose inquiry is serious enough to move him to a special application for admittance. And in the branches the freedom is possible without limitation or distinction. The rule against replacing of books on the shelves provides in the main library against disarrangement. In the branches the number of volumes is small, and any disarrangement can be easily recti- fied. (3) The number of books drawn has cer- tainly been increased by the privilege of access. This is especially the case in the summer season, when the mind is naturally listless and shuns the formal effort demanded by a catalogue. As to the quality of the reading, the period is too brief to point to a definite improvement ; my conviction, how- ever, is firm, as I have declared it, that, as a rule, the general reader will select a better book from the shelves than he will from the catalogue ; and I certainly see nothing in our experience to weaken that conviction. I am, at any rate, clear as to this, that the open and candid system, by winning the interest and confidence of our readers, will enable us gradually to drop from our shelves the books we are ashamed of, and to leave there only the books we are glad to have people read ; and in this way a certain betterment must result. Whatever the perplexities of detail, free- dom of access cannot long be refused. As librarians, we are, of course, to guard the books. But let us not be accused of making this guardianship a deprivation of the proper beneficiary. Let us send these books them- selves down to posterity, if we can ; but let us remember that the best way we can send them down is to send them down in the persons of sound men and women. 68 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. THE PROCEEDINGS. PIONEER HALL, SAN FRANCISCO, MONDAY-FRIDAY, OCT. 12-16, 1891. FIRST SESSION. (MONDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 12.) President GREEN called the Convention to order at 3.15 P.M. Mr. Fletcher was elected Temporary Secretary, to act during the absence of Mr. Hill ; Mr. John- ston Recording Secretary, to act in the absence of Professor Little; Miss Van Zandt Treasurer, to act during the absence of Mr. Carr. Messrs. Utley and Soule and Miss Bean were instructed to act as a Finance Committee, and Mr. Hild to act as Secretary of Transportation. The proceedings of the last Convention, as printed, were adopted and placed on file. The report of the Secretary, Mr. HILL, was read by Mr. Fletcher and placed on file: SECRETARY'S REPORT. For fifteen years the office of Secretary has been filled by one of the brightest and ablest men in the profession. At no time is it an easy task to take up the work connected with the Secretary- ship, and it becomes doubly hard when one is obliged to follow such an active, energetic, 'and conscientious man as Mr. Dewey. You all know how he has given the best years of his life to the furtherance of the interests of this Association, and what that labor of love has resulted in, so it is unnecessary, at this time, to go into any extended praise of his work; sufficient to say that the growth and success of the A. L. A. are due, in a great measure, to the very able efforts of Melvil Dewey. We regret that he is not with us this year to take part in the exercises; and, while we may not be willing to own it, if there is any lack of enthusi- asm shown at the meetings we shall ascribe it largely to his absence. Of necessity the report of the Secretary must be one of progress at least from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. Certainly in distance never before have we made such headway, while in matters pertaining directly to our welfare it is safe to say that we have enjoyed a good degree of prosperity. From the East we did not bring so many libra- rians as we had reason to expect early in the summer; but the presence of so many new faces from the Pacific slope not only makes up, in point of numbers, for the absent ones, but also shows that the missionary spirit which prevails in this, as in similar organizations, is very necessary to its existence. The Secretary of your local committee reported some weeks ago that he was doing all he could to gather a large number of librarians and other interested persons, but despaired of success on account of distances. If such is the case here, you can understand how difficult it has been to get even this small number to cross the continent for the purpose of attending this year's Confer- ence. We shall try to overcome this shortcoming by a greater degree of enthusiasm. This is a large field to work in, and the harvest should be abundant, as becomes the glorious State of Cali- fornia. One sentence in Mr. Dewey's report of last year struck me very forcibly. "Not one library in ten," he says, "ever sees our proceedings." Why is this? "No money," answers the Treas- urer. Well, let us get the money some way. Every library ought to have a copy. It is good missionary work and a practicable way of increas- ing our membership. The folder, authorized by the last Convention, containing interesting facts about the A. L. A., has been printed and is ready for distribution. Members are requested to help themselves from the box on the Secretary's desk. Last year President Crunden recommended " that a salary, not to exceed $200 a year, be paid to an Assistant Secretary," this Secretary to be appointed by the Secretary and approved by the Executive Board. Something of the sort ought to be done, and if the Assistant (who ought to be a good short-hand writer) should be the Record- ing Secretary it is very certain the Association would get the worth of its money. Before we started from the East some doubt PROCEEDINGS. 69 was expressed as to the success of this Confer- ence, but that feeling disappeared soon after leaving Chicago. This has been, and will con- tinue to be, one of the most interesting and bene- ficial meetings the A. L. A. has held. The little conferences we have held on the train during our long journey across the continent, and shall enjoy on our return trip, are of at least equal importance with the papers which will be read. Such an ample opportunity for interchange of ideas and opinions has never before been given us, and we have made the most of it. I would call your attention to the Attendance book. Enter your name at once, and scan the book to see who is here ; then you will not go away disappointed at not meeting the very per- sons whom you have come to consult. It is hoped that this meeting in San Francisco will result in the establishment of new and the increased usefulness of old libraries. It is also hoped and believed that all persons in attendance here today will become members of the Associa- tion. The cost is only two dollars a year, and the return will repay the outlay ten times over. On receipt of the money the Treasurer, who is pres- ent, will be pleased to issue certificates of mem- bership. The progress for the year will be reported in detail by the several committees, and, while the absence of some of the prominent members may necessitate postponement of action on a few mat- ters, still you will find in the reports as well as in the papers plenty of food for thought, reflection, action, and congratulation. It was voted unanimously to recommend to the Executive Board to make Mr. ADOLPH SUTRO an Honorary Member of the American Library Association. The report of the Treasurer was then read by Mr. DUDLEY and referred to the Finance Com- mittee. TREASURER'S REPORT. HENRY J. CARR, Treasurer, in account with the AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 1890. DR. Sept. 6. To balance on hand from last Report (White Mts. Con- ference, p. 106) . . . $31380 Sept. 6 to Dec. 31, 1890. To fees from 43 temporary members (White Mts.) . 86 oo Brought forward $399 80 To fees from annual mem- bership, viz. : For years 1888, '89, and '90, 4 ... $24 oo For years 1889 and 1890, 3 .... 12 oo Year 1890, 106 . . 212 oo Year 1891, 7 ... 14 50 $262 50 1891. Jan. i. To interest on deposits(Grand Rapids, 6 months, 1890) . 9 22 Feb. 23. To Finance Committee, loan from A. L. A. Endowment Fund Trustees .... 200 oo April 7. To sale 2 cop. Proc., 1890 . 2 oo " 21. " 5 " " " 5 oo July 27. To interest on deposits (St. Joseph, 6 months, 1891) . i 55 Aug. 8. Tointerestondeposits(Grand Rapids, 6 months, 1891) . 343 Jan. 24 to Sept 30, 1891. To fees from annual mem- bership, viz. : For years 1890 and 1891, 5, .... $20 oo Year 1891, 208 . . 416 oo " 1892, i . . 2 oo 438 oo Total $1,321 50 1890. CR. Carried forward $399 80 Sept. 13. By A. S. Brolley; expense of stenographer to and at White Mts. Conference . $28 17 Oct. 2. By Miss C. M. Hewins, Hartford, Conn., bill of Aug. 29, 1890; postals and printing for report on be- quests, etc 10 25 Nov. 5. By A. S. Brolley, Albany, N. Y., bill of Oct. 6, 1890; reporting proceedings at White Mts. Conference . 74 oo Nov. ii. By Library Bureau, Boston, 'bill of Sept. 25, 1890 ; cir- culars and sundry expenses preliminary to and at White Mts. Conference ... 154 70 By Library Bureau, second bill; 1,000 circulars for same (Secretary) ... 7 oo Dec. 9. By Hoffman Press, New York, bill of Aug. 21, 1890; Dewey circulars . 2 50 1891. Jan. 30. By Library Bureau, bills of Dec. 20, 1890 ; for 400 copies Proceedings White Mts. Conference (174 p.) . 413 61 Also for envelopes, directing and delivery of 348 copies distributed 31 44 Carried forward $721.67 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. Brought forward $721.67 Also for 500 circular letters concerning meeting of 1891 n 70 (Note. $200 paid on account Jan. 10; $156.75 paid Jan. 30 ; $100 balance paid Feb. 25, 1891.) March 17. By Miss Mary S. Cutler, Albany, N. Y., bill of Jan. i, 1891 ; prizes for social evening at Fabyan's, Sep- tember, 1890 2 50 April 14. By Publishers' Weekly, bill of Feb. 7, 1891 ; 5 reams of paper for Proceedings, White Mts. Conference . 13 oo April 21. By Library Bureau, bill of March n, 1891; mailing index to Proceedings . . 7 32 June 8. By Finance Committee; loan of Feb. 23, 1891, from A. L. A. Endowment Fund Trustees, repaid .... 200 oo Also interest on same loan ($3.75) and exchange (25C.) 4 oo Aug. 17. By Publishers' Weekly, bill of June 30, 1891 ; notes on American State Libraries (Dewey) 4 oo Sept. 3. By Grover Brothers, Newark, N. J., bill of Aug. 1,1891 ; envelopes for notices, etc. (Secretary) 7 oo Sept. 10. By Secretary's office ; current expenses for stamps, post- als, express, etc., July 20 to Aug. 22, 1891, per de- tailed voucher .... ii 15 Sept. 30. By Treasurer's office ; cur- rent expenses for postage, exchange, and envelopes, Oct. 2, 1890, to Aug. 22, 1891, per detailed voucher, 1468 Aggregate payments . Sept. 30. Balance on hand, viz. : On deposit at Scran- ton, Pa. . . . $172 93 On deposit at St. Joseph, Mo. . . 151 55 $997 02 3 2 4 48 Total $1,321 50 A. The special deposit of $400 belonging to the Association has continued to draw its semi-annual compounding of 4 per cent interest, and amounted to $430.11, July i, 1891. The financial status of the Association for the past year has not admitted of making any addition to the capital sum on special deposit. Whether another year will prove more favorable remains to be seen. Membership status at the close of September, 1890, is as follows : Life members . , 25 Regular members, paid to 1891, inclusive . 215 Also owing for 1891 only 84 " 1890 and 1891 16 Total 340 C. NECROLOGICAL ADDENDA. One active member has been lost by death since the last report, viz. : Mrs. GEORGE WATSON COLE, who died at Chicago, Jan. 13, 1891 (registration No. 618). FREDERIC W. CHRISTERN, bookseller, New York city, who died April 24, 1891 (registration No. 86) ; had formerly been an active member in the A. L. A., though he was not so at the time of his death. Peabody Institute of Baltimore, Md. (registra- tion No. 164), by the death, in 1890, of its Provost, N. H. MORISON, becomes also an indirect subject for notice in this connection. All of which is respectfully submitted. HENRY J. CARR, Treasurer. PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. Mr. BOWKER offered the majority report on Public Documents, signed by Messrs. Hovey, Green, Bowker, and Flint, and the minority report signed by Mr. Dur/n. Both reports were ordered to be placed on file. Majority Report. The Committee on Public Documents, appointed at the last meeting of the Association, begs leave to hand you herewith a report of its doings for the year last past. It regrets that no conclusion has been reached in the work which was particu- larly submitted to its charge, namely, an arrange- ment with Congress for the better and more equit- able distribution to libraries of the public docu- ments issued by the Government. The chairman visited Washington last year for the purpose of meeting the committees of the Sen- ate and the House, which committees have charge of this matter, and while there saw a good deal of both Senators Manderson and Hawley, on the PROCEEDINGS. part of the Senate, and Mr. O'Neil, the chairman of the committee, on the part of the House. The committee has to report that, although no definite conclusion was reached, enough seems to have been said, showing the irregular, improper, and wasteful way in which public documents have heretofore been distributed, to move the Congres- sional Committee to some action looking toward improvement in this matter which will be of ben- efit to libraries. Both the Senators and Mr. O'Neil agreed that something should be done, and done at once ; that the printing of so much government matter (a large part of which is stored in the basement of the Capitol and never called for) is a waste of public money ; that a more systematic scheme of printing should be adopted ; and that copies of the documents, when published, should be distributed among those public depositories de- sirous of putting such matter before their readers. The result of the repeated interviews had by us has been the appointment of a joint committee on the part of the House and Senate, to which has been referred the entire matter of the distribution of public documents, with this aim in view, namely, to decide what documents, if any, shall be dropped from the list of publications sent to the public depositories ; what additional docu- ments shall be sent to them ; and in what manner, that is, through what bureau, they shall be so dis- tributed. The investigation which this commit- tee is making is still broader than that above referred to, for it is its intention to inquire into the abuse and misuse of such public documents. Mr. John G. Ames, the Superintendent of Public Documents in Washington, was of very great service to your committee, to which fact your committee here desires to call special attention. The Joint Congressional Committee, above referred to, has had several meetings. Mr. Ames appeared before that committee, and in his capac- ity as Superintendent of Public Documents, and also as a friend of the American Library Associa- tion, has laid before them very thoroughly the views which this Association entertains. The Congressional Committee will renew its hearings in the fall, and we beg to suggest to the Associa- tion that it would be advisable for our committee to appear before them at that time, and reinforce Mr. Ames in the good work which he has done. Mr. Ames will keep us informed as to the time at which a hearing can be had, and your committee is very sure that a delegation from this Associa- tion would receive most careful attention and a cordial welcome from the Senators and Represent- atives of the Committee of Congress. E. C. HOVEY. SAMUEL SWETT GREEN. R. R. BOWKER. WESTON FLINT. BOSTON, Sept. 15, 1891. Minority Report. I regret that I am unable to join in the hopeful view entertained by the majority of the committee. I visited Washington while the joint congressional committee was in session, and, at the request of Mr. Ames, appeared before it for the purpose of testifying. At the request of Senator Manderson, chairman of the committee, I did not testify. That gentleman informed me, in the presence of the remainder of the committee in attendance, and of several witnesses from government offices, that State libraries had nothing to do with the business of the committee ; that they were getting all the government publicatious they ought to get; that the difficulty was that the government was print- ing too much ; and that if I desired to present any " views " I might write them out and send them in by mail. (The last seemed to be tendered in a spirit of compromise, after a little controversy on the subject.) In my opinion Senator Manderson has not the slightest comprehension of this subject from the library standpoint, and never will have until he permits some one to give him some information. I do not think the committee is considering the needs of the libraries at all. Their only object, so far as I could learn, was to arrive at some method of cheapening or lessening governmental publish- ing expenses, and possibly some changes in the arrangement of documents. Perhaps they may be brought to see the error of their ways, but if so it will be through the influence of some more per- suasive person than myself. I wish to say, however, that the agitation of this subject at our last meeting has been of some bene- fit. Indeed, the present investigating committee, which unfortunately is investigating something else, is in part a result of it. There has been an improvement in several of the departments in sending out documents, but there are still several laboring under the delusion that they exist by divine grace, and whether the public is served or not served, it is to their eternal glory. The pi ess of the country has paid some attention to the mat- ter, and has shown some intelligence in discussing it. If the librarians would agitate the subject at SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. home bring it to the attention of the local press and of their Congressional representatives the reform could easily be accomplished. At present no library in the country receives all government publications, and only a favored few receive .the most valuable ones. There are a number of valu- able current publications of which the State of Indiana is unable to secure one copy for her State library, and at present Indiana is faring better than the average. J. P. DUNN, State Librarian, Ind. A letter of Mr. J: G. Ames was read : I am very sorry to be unable to report any material progress in the matter of additional legis- lation regarding public documents in behalf of public and college libraries. I have for years been repeatedly disappointed in finding at the close of each successive session of Congress that bills which have been introduced and urged upon the attention of the proper committees failed to receive attention, or at least action, but I have nevertheless continued to labor in the same direc- tion, feeling confident that at last something would be done. A few measures which have been deemed advantageous to our public libraries have indeed been enacted, but the most important ones have hitherto been either entirely ignored or laid aside for future consideration. During the last session of Congress little if anything was done in which libraries had an interest, with the exception of one very important measure, viz. : the appoint- ment of a joint commission of the two Houses to sit during the recess to consider the whole matter of the publication and distribution of documents, with a view to the amendment of the laws govern- ing the same in such way as to reduce the expense of printing and to secure a better system of dis- tribution. This commission has held quite a large number of sittings during the summer and will be in ses- sion again during October and November. It has already gathered a very large amount of statistics from various officers of the government, having to do with public documents, and I think it is deter- mined to formulate some bill for presentation at the next session, making possibly some very radi- cal changes in this whole matter. There is there- fore now an opportunity for the librarians, through the conference, to bring to bear upon this com- mission their combined influence to secure the recommendation from it of such legislation as they desire in regard to supplying, especially deposit- ories of public documents, with the publications that are not now included in the set furnished them. I think it therefore very important that there be a strong committee appointed at this con- ference, who shall appear before this commission at the earliest opportunity, to present the views of the conference and to urge upon the commission the adoption of these views in any new legislation proposed. Such an opportunity has not hitherto occurred, and if it is neglected, it will be to the lasting detriment of our public libraries. I would suggest therefore that not only such a committee be appointed, but that the conference pass a reso- lution, or resolutions, indicating as fully as practi- cable just what is desired. * * * It is possible that by the adjournment of the conference the commission may be again in ses- sion in this city, and if so, would it not be a prac- ticable thing for the committee appointed to stop for a day or two in Washington for consultation with the commission? It will, after this is done, be very desirable that the librarians in the several sections of the country shall put themselves in communication with their Representatives and Sen- ators, urging upon them the importance of this legislation, and securing their favorable action when the matter comes before the two Houses, for usually it requires all this sort of influence to carry a measure of this kind through the Senate and House. There are several other matters about which I would like to speak, but I will touch only upon one or two. First, the exchange of public docu- ments through this office, which I have been car- rying on for the last three or four years, greatly, I believe, to the advantage of our public libraries and to their satisfaction. In conducting this work I have had to encounter considerable opposition from certain quarters in this department, in spite of which, however, I have continued it just as far as my time and strength would permit. * * One other point I would suggest, viz.: some ac- tion with regard to a comprehensive index of pub- lic documents, such as I suggest in my last annual report. That such an index is almost a matter of necessity if our public documents are to be of the largest avail, is evident to any one who has fre- quent occasion to consult them, and it might be well for the conference to pass some resolution urging, in behalf of the interests of our libraries, that provision be made, without further delay, for such an index. I send you a copy of my last re- port, in which some of these matters are dis- cussed and which you may not have at your com- mand. FIRST SESSION. 73 I trust that the meeting of the Association will be very delightful, as previous gatherings of the sort have always been. I wish I could make one of the number going from this section of the country, but, as hitherto, my work ties me very closely to the office, so that, especially at this sea- son, I am unable to absent myself from the city. Hoping that this may come to hand so that you can lay the matters suggested before the confer- ence, I remain very sincerely yours, JOHN G. AMES, Superintendent of Documents. Mr. BOWKER made a general statement of the situation and moved that a Committee on Resolu- tions, to consist of three persons, be appointed by the President, to report to this conference on the whole question of public documents. The value of this work is very great in collecting matter of value to the public at large, contained in public documents unindexed. This motion was seconded by Col. LOWDERMILK and carried. The President appointed Mr. Bow- ker, Col. Lowdermilk, and Miss Hewins. Col. LOWDERMILK said : There is probably no matter pertaining to books so little understood as the printing and distribution of the publications of the United States government, and it is certainly true that there is great lack of system in the method of doing the work. While the laws and resolutions relating thereto are sufficient to make a book of good size, they have .been passed at various times as occasion seemed to demand, and are very in- harmonious and often conflicting. For a long while past the printing laws have remained un- codified, and it requires a good deal of research to learn just what they provide for. A very ex- cellent compilation of all such laws and resolutions has been made by Capt. H. T. Brian, the foreman of printing, and I hope it may be printed soon for general use. While many libraries justly complain that they are unable to procure documents that they greatly need, I apprehend that the most serious cause for dissatisfaction is to be found in the long delay ex- perienced in securing those which are pretty sure to be sent to libraries which have been designated as depositories. All the documents ordered by Congress are sent to such depositories, bound up in the series of Congressional documents. The delay is always for months, and often for years, and when sent they are found to be simply an in- discriminate collection, the documents in a volume having no relation to each other. Here is room to remedy two evils the great delay and the want of system in arrangement. Some means should be adopted whereby kindred matter may be kept together, and by which all the documents of one session of Congress may be issued before the next session begins. There should also be a radical revolution in the system now employed in designating the volumes, which in many cases is almost incomprehensible. The wretched binding should also give place to better and more attrac- tive work. There should also be uniformity in size and a supression of big quartos and large type. The lack of a proper catalogue or index to all government publications has long been a crying evil, and should meet with early attention and earnest effort, as the entire legislative history of the country is embraced therein, officially, and they are constantly being made use of by the schools and students of American history. It is the most valuable material of the kind in existence, covering all affairs of the colonial period, as well as early and late explorations, surveys, foreign relations, finance, revolutionary, 1812, Mexican, and civil wars, roads, rivers, harbors, bridges, ethnology, geology, mineral resources, etc. Spasmodic ef- forts at indexing have been made from time to time, but beyond the lists found in the American catalogue, Hickcox's monthly catalogue for five years past, and the index to reports of committees made by Capt. T. H. McKee, and which are inval- uable, nothing at all satisfactory has been pro- duced. In 1882 I aided in securing the passage of an act providing for a complete alphabetical, subject-index catalogue, and the work was put in the hands of Major Ben : Perley Poore, who pro- duced a chronological list with an index. The arrangement was poor and altogether contrary to the provisions of the law, and inasmuch as wholly inexperienced persons were employed it has only served to show how valuable a really good catalogue would be. I have indexed for my own use several thousand titles, and last winter submitted to Congress specimen sheets of such a work as I thought might meet the necessities of the case. In this plan the arrangement was by subject, alphabetically, and under a general head the subject was exhausted. In addition to the title was given a brief of the contents, the charac- ter of the document, date, number of pages, and location by Congress and session or department from which issued. With this specimen as a basis a bill was introduced in both Houses of Congress, 74 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. and referred to the committees on printing, both of which would have reported favorably but for lack of time in consequence of the political dead- lock. Some $55,000 had already been expended upon an index to the journals of Congress, and as it was likely that some $60,000 more would be re- quired to finish it the appropriation was suspended, as it was concluded that the work would not be of sufficient value to justify its continuance. I have found that when Senators and Members have been fully informed upon any matter of importance in which libraries are interested, they have been most liberally inclined, and I am quite sure that there will be no difficulty in inducing Congress to grant whatever reasonable relief may be asked. What is wanted is that every librarian shall induce the Senators and Members of their respective States to take a personal interest in the matter, and make the library cause their own cause. It is not so much that the libraries are not given all they want, but that what is given comes to them so tardily aud in such questionable shape. The law provides that all documents printed by order of Congress for free distribution shall go to the libraries designated as -depositories. If they are not so sent, it is the fault of the administration. It may be desirable to have the list of depositories enlarged, and also to include in the distribution some things which are printed from department funds, and for which no provision for distribution has been made. My opinion is that every State should have at least one library in which there may be found a complete set of the publications of the govern- ment everything from the begining, if possible, and every great centre of population should pos- sess all that librarians may designate as useful or desirable at that place. Professor ROOT spoke further on the subject of the distribution of public documents, urging action and the necessity of personal application to Congressmen and others in authority. The PRESIDENT. For several years before the present I was chairman of the Committee on Public Documents, and always found Senator Manderson very ready to try to do for libraries what they wish for. Senator Hoar has always assured me that Senator Manderson has been our friend. I am glad to see that Mr. Hovey has secured the support of Senator Hawley. -It is my opinion that we have made a real advance this year and that we are acting on the right line. I hope the majority report will be adopted. Mr. BOWKER. Next year the Committee on Public Documents will be able to go much further in this work, as the public is beginning to under- stand the value of having government publications at hand for consultation. The PRESIDENT asked Dr. Wire to take charge of the museum of articles for exhibition. Mr. WOODRUFF exhibited the Leyden and Florence catalogues, and spoke in praise of Italian library work. ENDOWMENT. Mr. DUDLEY read the report of the Endow- ment Committee. As it is usual for the several committees to make reports at each annual meeting of the Asso- ciation, it devolves upon us to say something. Such committees are expected to report progress, and then, after the acceptance of their reports, to ask for their discharge. If by progress is meant the accomplishment of the work which has been set us to do, we must humbly but consciously confess, at the outset, that our labors have been largely in vain, and that such progress as is above referred to does not appear as yet to be even within the limits of our vision. In short, as a committee whose duties are to draw money out of other people's pockets, we regretfully admit that we do not appear to have been a signal success. The members of the Association must decide whether this is our fault or theirs. In living over the enthusiasm shown at the Conference last year, and recalling the spontane- ous pledges of money made by the several States, it seemed to us that it would not be necessary even to jog the memory of those earnest men and women who, in their eager enthusiasm to help along the good cause, pledged not only their own money, but the entire wealth of their respective States as well ; while there seemed to be no ques- tion that the first matter which should receive their attention on their arrival home would be the send- ing of these pledged amounts to the members of your committee, who rested confident in the be- lief that the whole amount would be deposited in the bank and be drawing interest within a month. The fact must not be lost sight of that the mem- bers of your committee were among those who pledged their States for sums of money, the in- come of which should be used for the benefit of the A. L. A., and they are obliged reluctantly to admit that, in their eagerness to dun others, they have somewhat forgotten the obligations which they themselves assumed. The strenuous efforts FIRST SESSION. 75 which, as creditors, they have put forth, must be made to stand as an excuse for their inaction in the capacity of debtors. Rhode Island is always pointed out as one of the smallest States in the Union. Hereafter one of the events in her history will be the fact that she early made good her pledge to the A. L. A. To this action her citizens and their descend- ants may ever point with pride, and may with entire propriety say to her sister States : " While in area we may indeed be small, we certainly are not in other ways. " Michigan stretches out her hand to Pennsylva- nia, not forgetting to take in Ohio by the way, and together these three States have poured into the ever-ready coffers of your committee moneys to which they stood pledged. Topeka smiles from afar on New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, and with them sends evidence that her word is as good as her bond. Surely these eight are not the only States in the great sister- hood of States, and yet none others have com- pleted their promised contributions. Perhaps, in their unfriendly rivalry to secure the World's Columbian Exposition, the great and prosperous States of Illinois and New York have forgotten their more than friendly rivalry for supremacy in the amount of their individual subscriptions to our endowment fund. Who can forget the glance of injured feeling which stole across the face of Dr. Poole, when, it being intimated that Illinois had pledged nothing, he replied : " Illinois will do as much as New York." This proves to have been a Western boast. New York has raised $110, but where, oh ! where is Chicago ? We cannot refrain from contemplating the feelings of shame and remorse which will chase each other over the face of Dr. Poole, when his attention is called to his earnest pledge and idle boasting, now, no doubt, long since forgotten. What with the Grant Monument still unfin- ished, and the Directors of the World's Fair appealing to the government for aid, offering a mortgage on the gate money as security for the loan, your committee are of the opinion that perhaps there are better fields than these for raising money. A full year has passed by since your committee was appointed, and since the Association, at its conference, appointed a board of trustees to man- age this fund. The duties of the trustees have not as yet been very onerous. Your committee finds itself confronted today with the same prob- lem as twelve months since. At the conference held at Fabyan's in 1890 the sum of $5,000 was pledged by the several States. Of this amount only $3,2 1 5 has been raised, leaving quite a bal- ance to be taken care of. It seems to your committee that there is no rea- son why a very substantial fund should not be raised for the use of the Association, and we are confident in the belief that efforts properly put out would result in the end desired. True, a fund of $5,000 would be a good beginning, but our ef- forts should not stop when we have succeeded in raising this amount. How best this can be done your committee is at a loss to say. We have had printed and sent out a great number of circulars, with an extra sheet containing copies of letters of indorsement sent to us by some of the more prominent educators in the country, these letters heartily indorsing our scheme. These, of course, we did not expect would in themselves bring contributions, but we did hope that they would form an opening wedge for future personal solicitations. Personal solici- tation is, after all, the only trustworthy way of raising money ; and if the members of the Ameri- c'an Library Association cannot put their shoulders to the wheel and raise this money, we may be sure that no one from outside will do it for us. The committee wrote personally to all who had not sent in their pledges by the ist of August last. In answer to some of the letters the amount of the respective pledges was sent ; to others no reply whatever was vouchsafed. We would suggest that those members of the Association who shall attend the Conference at San Francisco shall renew their pledge of sup- port to this good cause, and return to their homes determined to leave no stone unturned to do what is in their power to make the contributions from their State as large as possible. We must not be satisfied with $5,000, nor need we be if we will all turn to and work. We must use every channel that is open to us for the securing of this money, remembering that a large number of small con- tributions is oftentimes as good as a few large ones. If every trustee of public libraries through- out the country would give one dollar, it is a mat- ter of very simple arithmetic to see that the fund would already amount to much more than $5,000. If every librarian will make this a personal mat- ter, starting with the trustees of his own library, and gradually extend his efforts to wider fields, there is no doubt that in 1892 we shall have a fund, the income of which would be of very great service to the American Library Association. SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. In closing, your committee begs to call your attention to the Trustees' report herewith, with exhibits, as indicated. JOHN M. GLENN. E. C. HOVEY. BOSTON,' September 30, 1891. Dr. POOLE. Mr. Norman Williams has been in Europe all summer and could, consequently, do no work, but will report to the committee later. The money can be raised and will be raised, and Chicago will do as much as New York. Mr. JOHNSTON. Mr. Pliny D. Sexton has promises that all the money pledged by New York will be raised, and the Convention may be certain that it will be raised. Mr. DUDLEY. Colorado did not raise the $100 pledged by it, because no circulars have been sent as promised. Mr. COOK also complained that no circulars had been received. Mr. HILD. The Chicago Public Library Trus- tees are now considering whether they can legally appropriate money for this end from their funds. If they determine that they cannot do so, I have no doubt that they would raise the subscription personally. Mr. SOULE. I think the situation is not with- out hope; Mr. Hovey has raised $2,500 by his own efforts, and others can do the same. Dr. Linderfelt read the REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE ENDOWMENT FUND. BOSTON, MASS., September 28, 1891. We inclose exhibit marked A, a statement show- ing names of those who pledged themselves at Fabyan's last year, with the amounts of their re- spective pledges, and also another column of fig- ures, indicating what proportion of these amounts has been raised. This shows that the total amount raised amounts to $3,215. From this amount we have paid out the following sums for expenses incurred during the year: Nathan Sawyer & Son, for printing cir- culars $121.25 Library Bureau, for distributing same . 13.85 Total cash received 3,218.75 Total amount paid out I 3S- 1 $135.10 We have also received interest amounting to $3.75 on a note given us by Treasurer Carr, to se- cure the payment of a loan of $200, which loan has since been paid. Our condition, therefore, is as follows : Deducting this latter item, we have . $3,083.65 This is represented by cash on hand and in the bank, by amounts subscribed and not yet collected, and by a note for $500, sent by the officers of the publishing section to secure a loan made by us to them, and bearing interest at six per cent per annum. W 7 e inclose as exhibits B and C copies of our letters of indorsement and circular, which we dis- tributed widely throughout the country. E. C. HOVEY. (EXHIBIT A.) TRUSTEES OF ENDOWMENT FUND in account with AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. Name. H. M. Utley, Detroit, O. S. Whitelaw, St. Louis, H. Kephart, " " Ami. Raised. Ami. Pledged. $IOO.OO $IOO.OO 100.00 50.00 IO.OO O Mrs. C. W. Whitney, Kan. City, 50.00 o W. Beer, Topeka, 25.00 25.00 C. R. Dudley, Denver, 100.00 o K. A. Linderfelt, Milwaukee, 100.00 o A. W. Whelpley, Cincinnati, 175.00 175.00 W. H. Brett, Cleveland, 10.00 10.00 Miss H. P. James, Wilkesbarre, 100.00 100.00 F. P. Hill, Newark, 100.00 100.00 R. A. Guild, Providence, 100.00 100.00 Miss C. H. Garland, N. H., 10.00 10.00 W. F. Poole, Chicago, 2,000.00 o C. C. Pickett, " 200.00 o Dewey & Sexton, New York, 2,000.00 no.oo G. E. Stechert, " " 100.00 100.00 Library School, " " 100.00 100.00 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 25.00 o A. L. Peck, Gloversville, 25.00 o F. C. Patten, State Library, N. Y. 10.00 o Staten Island, 10.00 o E. C. Hovey, 2,000.00 2,000.00 S. S. Green, 100.00 100.00 Brookline, Mass., 25.00 35-OO Cambridge, Mass., 25.00 o Lawrence, Mass., 25.00 25.00 Salem, Mass., 25.00 50.00 Lowell, Mass., 10.00 A. N. Brown, Annapolis, 10.00 10.00 D. Mann, Washington, 5.00 5.00 $7,665.00 $3,215.10 FIRST SESSION. 77 (EXHIBIT B.) AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. Organized in i8"j6. President: MELVIL DEWEY, Albany, N. Y., Sec- retary University State of New York ; Director New York State Library. Secretary: WILLIAM E. FOSTER, Providence, R. I., Librarian Providence Public Library. Trustees of the Endowment Fund: PLINY T. SEX- TON, President First National Bank, Palmyra, N. Y., Regent of University of State of New York; NORMAN WILLIAMS, 1007 Tacoma Building, Chicago, 111., Trustee Crerar Library; E. C. HOVEY, Merchant, Box 1753, Boston, Mass., Trustee of Brookline (Mass.) Public Library. If you have not time to read this circular when received, please preserve it for later (not late) examination. Or, if you will not soon be able to carefully consid- er the subject it presents, or do not need such inspi- ration as may be incited by its suggestions, please give us immediately all the money you can rea- sonably spare and raise to help create an Endow- ment Fund, whose income may be used by our Association in support of its earnest efforts to develop, multiply, and improve valuable library aids and methods, and stimulate and elevate the character and capacity for usefulness of librarians. Contributions to such endowment will in no slight degree discharge the duty which all self- helpful persons owe to their fellow-creatures, and will be likely, directly and indirectly, to return much good to the givers themselves. Trustees of libraries and librarians are requested to act as agents in soliciting and forwarding con- tributions, which may be sent to either of the above-named trustees of the Endowment Fund, or to John M. Glenn, 12 St. Paul street, Baltimore, Md., manager of the New Mercantile Library, who is the associate member of the Special Endow- ment Committee. AN APPEAL TO FRIENDS OF LIBRARIES FOR HELP. The American Library Association, during its fifteen years of life, has been constantly hindered from the higher degree of its possible usefulness bv a lack of money, and it now seeks to obtain an Endowment Fund whose income may be a peren- nial resource for aid in executing its well-matured plans, and which shall encourage and extend (as may be done indefinitely) its work, which is of the most promising missionary character. Librarians, whether or not affiliated, need no reminder of the helpfulness of our Association. Nor can thoughtful lovers of humanity doubt that the time is near at hand when well-equipped and properly-conducted libraries are to be most effec- tive agencies in enlightening, purifying, and ele- vating mankind. Vice incubates in ignorance. The world cannot successfully quarantine itself against the former : the hot-bed in which it breeds must be destroyed- Existing educational methods are valuable but insufficient. The work of our present schools must be supplemented by multiplying and enlarg- ing in scope public libraries. The libraries of the past have been mainly cloisters of exceptional and profound scholarship. Excellent in their charac- ter, they have garnered the experience and wis- dom of the past, and kept alive the divine spark of mental culture. The libraries of the future should be made the lifelong schools of the people at large schools from which graduation will be only into the life to come. The hope and safety of organized society depend upon the wide diffusion of intelligence and cul- ture ; and from no centres can such influences be so beneficently extended as from generously sup ported and wisely-managed public libraries. It is manifest, however, that before libraries can generally attain to such popular usefulness there will need to be much educating and training of librarians for their part therein, and that they must devote much study and experimental treat- ment to the subject of the necessary changes and improvements in the construction and arrange- ment of libraries in the details of library work involving, doubtless, among other things, the pre- paration and printing of manuals of instruction for both librarians and the people, but whose limited use in the earlier stages of the movement would preclude expectation that their cost would be reimbursed by their sale. The work already accomplished by the Ameri- can Library Association is seen throughout the country in better library buildings and in the beginning of a new era of library architecture; in improved methods of administration ; in new labor and time saving working aids; in the rapid multi- plication of libraries; in the promotion of benefi- cial legislation ; and in the elevation of librarian- ship to the dignity of a profession. SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. So far this work has been done (almost unaided) by a few of the librarians of the country, who, at considerable loss of their own valuable time, and usually at their own expense, which could illy be afforded from their meagre salaries, have been meeting together on occasions for the past fifteen years, educating each other by comparing views and reporting experiences, and devising and exe- cuting, as well as they could with their limited resources, plans for increasing the usefulness of libraries. Having so clearly demonstrated what they mjght and would do if properly supported, it is certainly time now that the material burdens of such missionary work should be lifted from their shoulders ; and it should be made possible, not only that the present competent laborers in the good cause may accomplish more, but also that others equally competent may be enabled to cooperate with them. Any one interested in library work who has ever attended a meeting of our Association will readily appreciate the great worth of the papers there read on the various branches of library science, as well as the almost equally valuable interchange of views that are drawn forth by the subsequent discus- sions ; and yet much that is of the highest value to library interests is often practically lost to the profession and to the public at large because of lack of means to promptly publish and widely dis- seminate the record of our proceedings. As instances of the high character and impor- tance of the work done by our Association, it is only necessary to mention two most able and com- prehensive papers read at the recent annual meet- ing : the one on " The Public Library and the Pub- lic School," by Dr. William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education ; and the other on " University Extension and its Relation to Li- braries," by Dr. Herbert B. Adams, professor of history in Johns Hopkins University. There could be no subjects more important or of greater interest to all classes. Proper reading for young people is a subject of great importance, and one that causes much con- cern to parents and thoughtful librarians. It was one of the earliest subjects to engage the atten- tion of our organization, which has long had in hopeful contemplation the preparation and publi- cation of a carefully-selected list or catalogue of suitable books that could be safely recommended for the entertainment and instruction of children. The printing of such a work would not be undertaken as a business venture by any pub- lisher, for its probable sale would be too limited. It could be done only by co-operative effort, and it is only in this year that our Association has finally been able to issue such a manual. The book is called "Reading for the Young," and was mainly compiled by the late John F. Sargent. It is an excellent illustration of the good work that might be done under the auspices of the American Library Association if it had adequate pecuniary resources at its command. A copy of said manual will be mailed to every contributor to our Endowment Fund. And now, one and all, give us a prompt and liberal response to this appeal, and have a share in the good work waiting to be done. We desire to call your attention to the copies of letters received by us in indorsement of this En- dowment Fund, which will be found on separate sheet inclosed. Respectfully submitted by the* Endowment Committee. PLINY T. SEXTON. JOHN M. GLENN. E. C. HOVEY. (EXHIBIT C.) LETTERS OF INDORSEMENT. ASHFIELD, MASS., Sept. 16, 1890. MY DEAR MR. HOVEY : I have seen with great interest and pleasure that a subscription has been auspiciously begun to raise a fund for the publication of the important papers which are read by the best librarians in the country at the annual meeting of their Association. The New York member of the committee, Mr. Pliny T. Sexton of Palmyra, I know well as a fel- low regent of the university, and a more fortunate selection could not have been made. It is only very recently that the service of the library in our system of education has been properly understood. As actual forces of education, many libraries have been practically moribund. The methods of making their re- sources practically useful have been but recently studied and applied. Happily they share in the impulse of the modern college movement. In New York the State Library has just been made part of the university in the State, and every library in the State will be touched into new life. The training school for librarians has already proved its great benefit to the more general and more intelligent use of the libraries. The publication of the views and of the results of experience in all the great libraries in the coun- FIRST SESSION. 79 try which are represented in the Association will be of the greatest value to all library officers and trustees, and its advantage to the public is obvious. I am very glad to know your interest in the subject ; and the more persons you can interest in it, the better for us all. Very truly yours, GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE, MASS., Oct, 8, 1890. Dear Sir : Your effort to raise a permanent fund for the American Library Association de- serves to have prompt success. For all the higher education libraries are indispensable auxiliaries ; and for elementary education, such as towns and cities provide by taxation, one of the best tests of success is the use subsequently made of libraries by the population trained in the public schools. Elementary schools which do not implant in a large proportion of their pupils a taste for reading books, fail of their principal object. The wise development and management of libraries are, therefore, of fundamental and lasting public inter- est. Under our laws and customs it is quite as necessary to train library trustees as librarians for the intelligent discharge of their duties. Com- mending your undertaking to the generous sup- port of all persons who take satisfaction in using their private means for the promotion in sure ways of the common good, I remain Very truly yours, CHARLES W. ELIOT. Mr. E. C. HOVEY. JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, BALTIMORE, Sept. 24, 1890. My Dear Sir : --In reply to your inquiry, I am very happy to say that I am well acquainted with the purposes, history, methods, and influence of the American Library Association, and I am sure that it has made important contributions to the literary and educational progress of this country. The proposal to raise a fund for the partial en- dowment of the Association meets with my hearty concurrence. The librarians should not be ex- pected to pay all the expenses of meetings which are maintained, not for their personal advantage, but for the public good, and which merit the finan- cial support of the public for the same reasons that educational and charitable conferences are the recipients of aid. It appears quite reasona- ble that trustees of libraries should be asked to contribute to the proposed fund, and also to make it easy for librarians in their service to attend these annual conventions, because all who resort to public libraries are sure to be benefited by the discussions, suggestions, and recommendations formulated by the librarians in respect to the con- struction, arrangement, heating, and lighting of buildings, the selection, purchase, and care of books, the preparation of catalogues, the duties of librarians, and the most effective ways of meeting the wants of the varied classes in the community Everybody is interested in securing the very best administration of libraries. Toward that end the Library Association effectively works. Yours sincerely, D. C. OILMAN. JOHN M. GLENN, Esq. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 23, 1890. Mr. E. CLARENCE HOVEY, Boston, Mass. Dear Sir : I am very glad to learn that the librarians, at their recent meeting in New Hamp- shire, have formed a section of their Association to include trustees of libraries only. Much good will come from this organization if it can be suc- cessful in securing attendance on the part of library trustees over the country. While there are many trustees who are very distinguished and proficient persons in the work of libraries, and who are competent to superintend and direct the institutions under their charge, there are, of course, very many persons selected by the pub- lic or appointed by stockholders who are not com- petent in the details of library management, although they are good financiers and business men. The discussions of the Librarians' Con- gress furnish just the educational element that is needed to aid trustees in their work. I feel quite sure, therefore, that this movement will assist substantially the work of librarians by effecting a change for the better in the Boards of Trustees scattered over the country. Very respectfully yours, W. T. HARRIS, Commissioner. Mr. HlLD moved that the report of the Endow- ment Committee be placed on file and that the report of the trustees of that fund be referred to the Finance Committee. Carried. Mr. Hild read Mr. Sexton's letter. PALMYRA, N. Y., Sept. 17, 1891. SAMUEL S. GREEN, Esq., President American Library Association. Dear Sir : Absence and illness have delayed reply to your card, in which you politely expressed 8o SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. the hope that we might go to the San Francisco meeting of the A. L. A. a pleasure which I very much regret to say we will be compelled to forego. We have never been on the Pacific coast, and the opportunity will not likely occur again of making the trip under such favorable circumstances ; but we find it impossible to go. Concerning the A. L. A. Endowment Fund, I am sorry to have little to report; less probably than either of the other members of the commit- tee, who I presume have already made their reports to you. I have received only the following amounts : From Charles D. Vail, Librarian of Hobart College, at Geneva, N. Y., $10.00 From Hon. Jona. Chase, of Valley Falls, R. I., through Reuben A. Guild, Librarian of Brown University, 50.00 From the members of the Library School at Albany, N. Y., 100.00 To which Mrs. Sexton and I add 100.00 Making a total in my hands of $260.00 In this connection I wish to explain that I have been unable to make personal solicitation of con- tributions to the fund. Great numbers of circu- lars have been sent out, inviting gifts, but have failed to call forth responses. The lesson seems to be that such begging can only be successfully done in person, and that I have not been able to do. Long continued illness kept me so much a prisoner, that many most imperative duties have been entirely neglected. And the present state of my health admonishes me that the coming year is so likely to repeat the experience of its predecessor, that I feel I ought to, and I do now, respectfully resign to the Amer- ican Library Association my positions of member of its Endowment Fund Committee and as Trus- tee of its Endowment Fund. This costs me some pangs, for I gratefully ap- preciated the honor which those appointments conferred upon me ; but it would not be honora- ble to retain them without such measure of use- fulness as I see no possibility of my rendering in the near future. Congratulating you and the Association on your presidency, and earnestly wishing for and confidently anticipating its continued and enlarged prosperity and beneficence, I am Very sincerely yours, PLINY T. SEXTON. Mr. HILD moved that the Finance Committee present two names to the convention to fill the vacancies in the Trustees of the Endowment Fund. Carried. Mr. CUTTER presented a verbal report of THE COOPERATIVE COMMITTEE. The Cooperative Committee have had very little in the way of library helps brought to their attention in the past year, but are agreed in recommending : 1. H. H, Ballard's klips and binders. (Pitts- field, Mass., P. L.) 2. C: A. Cutter's colored and larger initial labels for card drawers. 3. C: A. Cutter's shields for movable electric lamps. Mr. Lane's card-volume system for holding catalogue slips (in place of drawers) has been studied by Miss Green, and will be reported upon for the Library journal. Mr. Cutter also mentioned on his own responsi- bility, not having been able to consult the rest of the committee about these matters : 1. K. A: Linderfelt's plan for a card catalogue, with cards written on both sides, and drawers pulling out on both sides of the case, enabling the public on one side and the attendants on the other to consult the same catalogue. 2. S. C. Dana's shelf groove for labels.* (Den- ver P. L.) 3. S. C. Dana's card box. 4. S. C. Dana's periodical card. 5. Fitch's combined shelf-list, classed catalogue, and indicator.* (Sacramento P. L.) Mr. CUTTER stated that the Committee on Re- vision of the Constitution had done nothing. Mr. DUDLEY moved that a committee of five on Revision of the Constitution be appointed by the chair. Carried. Messrs. Soule, Winsor, Cutter, Crunden, and Dewey were appointed. COMMITTEES. The President appointed the following commit- tees: Reception: Messrs. Nolan, Hild, and Whelpley, and Misses Allan and Sherman. Resolutions: Messrs. Scudder, Jenks, and Dana, and Misses Hewins and Harbaugh. GIFTS AND BEQUESTS. Miss HEWINS read a report on gifts and be- quests. (See p. 27) *See Miss Plummer's "Western Libraries," in Library journal, 16: 335. SECOND SESSION. 81 Mr. BOWKER offered the following resolution : The American Library Association cannot close the first union of its San Francisco Conference without expressing, as strongly as it is possible to do, its unbounded indebtedness to its Secretary, Frank P. Hill, for the pleasures of its trans- continental journey and for the promise of an unusually successful conference here, and recognizing that it is his self-sacrificing devotion and his unsparing attention for weeks past to every detail of preparation and management, which has resulted in his temporary illness and deprived us for some days of the pleasure and benefit of his presence, it sends to him, with its best wishes for his speedy recovery and return to our deliberations, its loving sympathy and its heartfelt thanks. Adjourned. SECOND SESSION. (TUESDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 13.) The PRESIDENT called the convention to order at 2.15 p. M. Mr. CUTTER exhibited and explained a novel paper file, in use in the Sacramento Public Library. The PRESIDENT announced that a photographer would take a photograph of the Association at Palo Alto. He also announced that Miss Hewins had resigned from the " sub-committee on imme- diate action in regard to public documents." The resignation was accepted and Miss Ahern was elected to fill the vacancy. CATALOGUE OF THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE NINE- TEENTH CENTURY. Mr. BOWKER. This subject is brought before the Association at the present time, largely for the purpose of getting, either publicly in the confer- ence or privately, any criticisms of this plan of work, and any suggestions that may be made. I do not think that this general work will be more than twice or three times the size of the original cata- logue of 1876. Our work will give us an English- speaking bibliography approximately complete. The following is a memorandum on a General Cata- logue of American Publications of the Nineteenth Century. (From the Preface of the American Catalogue, 1884-90.) In the preface to the volume of The American Catalogue of 1876-84, the present writer outlined a scheme for the publication of a General Cata- logue of American Publications of the Nineteenth Century. We are now within the last decade of that century, and face its end. The work, if it is to be done, must be begun almost at once, and it is the intention of the present editor to organize, during 1892 or 1893, preparations for the collection of material, provided there is reasonable hope of obtaining guarantees against too great pecuniary loss. The cost of such a work would scarcely be less than $50,000, and might out-reach that figure. Efforts will therefore be made to procure sub- scriptions for 500 guarantee copies, at $100 each, from libraries, publishers, the leading booksellers, clubs, private collectors of books, and public- spirited citizens interested in such national under- takings ; and as collections are made, either of individual subscriptions or of installments as re- quired for the work of compilation, which will be the main element of cost, they will be placed in deposit with some trust company in the name of trustees, to whom the work will be secured as it progresses, thus affording a guarantee in case of the death of the editor or his inability otherwise to complete the undertaking. His personal work will be, of course, chiefly of organization, plan, and general control, nor could the present writer undertake, in view of other responsibilities press- ing upon him and personal literary work in plan, to do more than act as general-in-command in view of which he is willing to put aside, until the work had paid all other expenses, any question of per- sonal pecuniary profit or other compensation, and indeed to contribute his share toward such other expenses. As planned, the work would make several thick octavo volumes, ranging not with the present series, but with the Trade List Annual volumes. Two of these, at least, would be devoted to main entries, by author and title ; one to sub- ject entries ; one to government publications ; and a fifth (possibly conjoined with the former) to State publications, books issued by societies, books in series, and omissions and errata in the first volumes. The most practicable method of compilation would probably be to cut from the American Cata- logue of 1876, and later volumes and slip, that ma- terial by authors (titles in case of anonymous works), insert in the alphabet the Kelly and Roor- bach entries, and fill out American titles from the copyright-deposit records, from the early trade publications and publishers' lists, and from the printed catalogues of the larger libraries. Pub- lishers would for this purpose be asked to report any of their publications since 1876 not given in the American Catalogue volumes, and the cooper- ation of libraries would also be asked in the com- parison of their catalogues. It might be desirable to print as proofs the shortest possible title-a-line 82 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. list of books uncatalogued in the existing Ameri- can catalogues, starring those points on which further particulars are needed, that libraries might add omitted titles or fill out needed bibliographi- cal data. It would be desirable to give birth and death dates of American authors, but this is prob- ably too much to undertake. It would probably be well to confine the catalogue to books actually printed in America, or having the imprint of American publishing houses, omitting the impor- tations of English branch houses or American im- porters, which are included in the current Ameri- can catalogues. The first two volumes should be published in 1902 and 1903: As soon as these were printed, it would be expected that all inter- ested, particularly libraries and second-hand book- dealers, would cooperate in furnishing lists of omissions, and filling bibliographical deficiencies, so that the work, in its final form, might be ap- proximately complete. Meanwhile, work on the subject-volume would be progressing, but this should not be sent to the printer until reasonable time after the publication of the main-entry portion had been given for the record of omissions, which, as also possibly gov- ernment and State publications and the issues of societies, either in detail or by general cross ref- erences, should be covered in the subject-entries. The United States Government publications, by the cooperation of such bibliographers or experts as Messrs. Hickox, Lowdermilk, and J. G. Ames, preferably on the plan adopted for the current volumes, which permits extension backward as well as forward with a minimum of work and of space, could meantime be published, and the State publications also could be separately edited. These departments should assure more or less national and State support for the work in the shape of guarantee subscriptions. The publica- tions of societies, which, when complete for the century, would be of the greatest value to schol- ars, the lists of books in series, including the indi- vidual issues in nonpareil, and similar features, could also be separately and simultaneously edited, on the lines already laid down. If this series of volumes should be finished, as they ought, by 1905, it would then be compara- tively easy to complete the national record, as would not be possible in an older nation, by the issue of a prefatory volume, through library coop- eration, giving American publications in the eight- eenth and previous centuries. America would then have the most complete national bibliog- raphy in the world. Pres. GREEN. How do you propose to have the expense paid ? Mr. BOWKER. I propose, as in all the work I have undertaken, to make it a private enterprise. If government publications are included, it will be very proper to look to the government and State Departments and libraries for individual subscrip- tions to the work. I think that $50,000 is a very moderate estimate. The expense of this cata- logue will be very much greater than that of 1876. Pres. GREEN. Then you propose to issue a prospectus in due time, to see what support you can get ? Mr. BOWKER. My present desire is, that this matter should be discussed as fully as possible in our meeting this year. Afterward, as the plan grows, steps will be taken to send out a pros- pectus and see what guarantee of subscriptions we could get. This is on a footing with the great catalogue of 1876, which was presented at the Philadelphia Exposition and was, in a sense, one of the results of the feeling of national enterprise prevailing at that time. This will come, in its preparation, about the time of the Columbian Exposition, and I have no doubt Dr. Poole will be ready to have Chicago guarantee about half the expense of the work. (Laughter.) The libraries and second-hand booksellers ought to take some pains to fill up the omissions in the American catalogue and then those omis- sions should be included in the second volume. I think it is of very great importance to get this into shape, because it would present a very good bibliography of American publications during the time, except for secular purposes. Of course, when you get back of the year 1800, you have trouble, merely from the number of books. Mr. CUTTER. I hope the publications of societies will be entered in the author catalog as well as in the society list, and will be included in the subject catalog under their proper sub- jects. Mr. BOWKER. We have a list of the societies for the third volume of the American catalogue, but it has been impossible to get them in the cur- rent volume of authors. Entries should be made, both under authors and under subjects. Library people should be of assistance in stirring up the societies to report. In regard to the publications of societies, there is an utter absence of biblio- graphical record, except it is an accidental one in those few libraries which have collected the pub- lications of the few societies in their neigh- borhood. SECOND SESSION. Mr. CUTTER. I also hope that it will not be found too costly, at least in the majority of cases, to give the birth and death of the author, and, perhaps, some slight biographical data by which to identify him. Mr. BOWKER. That would be a matter of great cost. I suppose in the present volume it will cost two thousand dollars, out of the eight or nine, to remedy deficiencies in the publishers' lists. The delay in holding type, altering proofs, etc., is an enormous expense in the work of cataloging. Dr. POOLE. This work being begun so long beforehand, possibly some of these matters can be supplied in the manuscript. I am pleased to hear this report, for it looks like the beginning of an "American Bibliography," which we so much want. We have nothing which compares with the English catalogues. My objection to the "American Catalogue " has always been that it is a booksellers* catalogue. I think the booksellers' feature ought to be eliminated altogether. The books we want most to know about are the books which are rare ; and the principle of the "Ameri- can Catalogue " is to omit books which are not for sale. After an edition has run out and cannot be supplied, the title has not been furnished by the publisher to the "American Catalogue." The matter of the selling of books has nothing to do with bibliography. I have printed several tracts which have never been on sale, but they are none the less valuable for that. It has been my prac- tice to print monographs and give them away, and then I am sure to get some good readers. I think it due to the writers in this country who print books at their own expense and give them away, that we should have an "American Bibliography." We should have one which will be a scholar's bibliography, and not simply a bookseller's cata- logue. I want the titles given in a bibliographical way, and the dates of publication given. The dates are commonly omitted in the "American Catalogue," because the booksellers did not want it known that the edition appeared a good many years ago, for fear that it would not sell as well. But the date when a book did appear ought to appear in the catalogue. Now let us have a good, square, honest catalogue, if we are going to have an "American Bibliography," and not one simply for the selling of books. I think this feature will pay. I hope Mr. Bovvker will keep the fact in mind, and I believe, from what I have heard, that Mr. Bowker intends to give us a genuine biblio- graphical catalogue. Mr. BOWKER. Mr. President, apparently Mr. Poole has not had much occasion to consult the " American catalogue." Every effort was made for it to obtain the titles of books, whether in print or out of print. Every effort was made to procure full bibliographical data ; dates were given where it was possible to obtain them, and when not given, it was because it was impossible to obtain them. There has been every intention to pre- serve the highest bibliographical standard that can be attained. If we had waited until we could publish the catalogue on other than commercial principles, we should not have had it at all. While I pledge for myself the strongest en- deavor to reach thfe highest bibliographical stan- dard and include all the most valuable class of books of which Dr. Poole speaks, I do think that there should be some appreciation of the " Ameri- can catalogue " as it exists at the present time. ENDOWMENT. Mr. SOULE read a telegram just received from Mr. Hovey : " Massachusetts sends greetings and adds $500 more to Endowment Fund." PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. Pres. GREEN then read his address. (Seep, i.) A recess of ten minutes was taken to examine specimens of binding exhibited by Mr. D. V. R. Johnston, of the State Library, Albany, New York. Announcement was made of visits to China- town, also of visits to libraries Friday afternoon, and of the excursion on Saturday to Santa Cruz, etc. BINDING. Mr. D. V. R. JOHNSTON read his paper on BINDERS AND BINDING IN LIBRARIES. (Seep. 9.) Pres. GREEN. This subject is now open for discussion. Mr. BOWKER. We want to hear from Mr. Cutter on that subject. Mr. CUTTER. We employ a binder or rather, we let a room in our building, at a cheap rent, to a binder who works for us at contract prices. The gain to him is low rent and small insurance premium; to us safety and quickness, the books being bound in the building and all re- turned to us at the end of each month. In cases of extra haste we require return within three days. I have lately had all books bound without 8 4 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. any gilt bands. The lettering shows much better in that style. Dr. LINDERFELT. We tried the different bind- eries in the city, and have found it impossible to get work done satisfactorily. The last bindery had our work for four or five years. The binding itself was satisfactory, but the difficulty was in the slowness of the work. When the question of a new building came up our trustees wanted to do the work ourselves. We began it in June, pur- chasing machinery of the very best kind, for over $700. Our old binder offered to finish the work quicker for an advance of 10 per cent on the price, but we did not accept his proposition. We had not room in the building, so rented a room for $20 a month. We employed a workman as super- intendent at $18 a week, an assistant at $12, two girls at $5 each, and one at $4 a week. We will probably not save any money, but we get our work quicker. They have turned out 200 to 300 books a week. To determine the difference in cost between our present method and the old way, we keep an exact account of the number of books bound and what they would have cost by the old method, so that I can lay before the Asso- ciation at the end of the year a statement of the cost by both methods. We have adopted sewing on parchment strips, and I have yet to find a single book which has broken the cover itself. That binding is of the very best kind. I am inclined to take exception to the statement of Mr. Johnston that the roans are to be dis- carded. For some time we have used a prepara- tion of roan which we get from a Philadelphia house, Schwartz & Co., which is far superior to any roan I ever had, and just as serviceable, and much cheaper. We pay about $10 a dozen less for them, and they can be had all colors. Mr. JOHNSTON. Even at that you only save about 10 cents per volume. Mr. BOWKER. Dr. Linderfelt, how much was your bindery bill last year ? Dr. LINDERFELT. It amounted to about $2,500, or not more than $3,000. Our intention now is to go thoroughly through the entire library, and rebind every volume that needs it, before mov- ing to the new building. Mr. BOWKER. I want to inquire from Mr. Cutter whether he had an arrangement with his binder to give the preference to his work. At certain seasons of the year, when there is a great demand for blank and other work, the binder is inclined to put off his library work for other work, which accounts for much of the delay. Any arrangement with a binder should take this into consideration. Mr. CUTTER. We did not make any agree- ment to have preference in our work. I put a clause in the contract that we could terminate it at a month's notice, at any time, and that we might send as much work as we chose, but did not bind ourselves to give him any work at all. Therefore, if there is any delay we have an easy remedy, because there are several binders who would like his rooms. Besides, if any schedule is not returned by the end of the calendar month, he gets no pay for it till the end of the next month. As, like all the binders whom I have known, he is in a state of permanent impecunios- ity, the schedules always are sent up within the month. Mr. BOWKER. Did he buy the plant, or did you ? Mr. CUTTER. He owned the plant and moved it in from his former rooms. He is an indepen- dent binder and he does work for us under con- tract, and for any one else who will employ him, and as he is one of the best binders in the city, and perhaps the best, he gets plenty to do. Mr. BOWKER. I think that in any town where there are private libraries the best location for a bindery would be near the public library, because it would suggest to people going into the library the convenience and advisability of having books rebound ; and I do not see why the plan of Mr. Cutter, if applicable to large libraries, should not be applicable to libraries in moderate-size towns. Miss TESSA L. KELSO. We use ordinary buff- ing mounted on tag board, and find it very satis- factory and very cheap. It is flexible and people enjoy using it. We have used it for two years. The binder told me of a thing which has helped wonderfully; bending a book at three or four places and bringing a great pressure to bear upon it. I have found this to save half our binding of fiction and current periodicals, breaking them be- fore they go on to the shelf. Mr. JOHNSTON. A good fall may break flexible work. Buffing is very good as far as it goes, but it is an uncertain leather to use. Miss KELSO. It is cheap. Mr. JOHNSTON. It is better than roan or skives, but I think if in the place of that burring you should use morocco or half duck, you will get much more satisfactory results. Dr. Linderfelt's roan is buffing. Dr. LINDERFELT. I use silver for lettering instead of gilt, and find it cheaper. SECOND SESSION. Mr. JOHNSTON. But the amount of gilt on a book is a very trifling matter; a leaf of Vallou's best gold costs hardly a cent, and you would not use that much. I have never seen library books in silver. I have seen it used on cream tinted fancy work. It makes a handsome book, but you cannot read the title. Miss SHERMAN. Before this question is closed I would like to ask for a satisfactory way of mounting plates, so that they will be neither clumsy nor destroyed. Do any librarians mount plates ? Miss KELSO. We have art plates, ordinary supplements which come with the Graphic, and so on, which we want to circulate in the schools for the use of the pupils. The teachers some- times paste a strip of adhesive library paper over the corner and hang them up on the wall. Miss SHERMAN. I mean art plates. Mr. JOHNSTON. The only things I know about are charts, which are mounted on cambric. Miss SHERMAN. We mount them on card- board, so that they can be carried through the streets. They are clumsy, but they last, and I know of no other way. Mr. WHELPLEY described at length the method of binding in Cincinnati. We have, he said, a binder who gives the utmost satisfaction, both as to time and to quality of work. He is the son of an old German bookbinder who came to our city forty years ago, and made library work his busi- ness, and trained his boy to help him. This son, now a man with a family, knows exactly when and how to bind the library books, and all about putting on titles without being told. We can get our books bound in two weeks if we want them. NEW YORK LIBRARY SCHOOL. Mr. HILL'S report on the Library School was read by Dr. Wire. As Mr. Lamed and Miss Coe, the other mem- bers of the committee, were unable to attend this meeting, you must be content with only one-third of a report. The Library School is no longer an experiment. It has been in active operation for five years, open- ing its doors Jan. 5, 1887, and it is time to look back upon its record, and see if the result aimed at by its founder and instructors has been secured; and what is of greater importance, learn, if we can, whether trustees and librarians have been benefited by its establishment. Some of you possibly will not agree with me as to the worth of the school, but my estimate is made up from visits, questions, and trial of several graduates. It was my intention to give a short sketch of the institution, but the new circular issued by the director gives all necessary information, and re- lieves me of that duty. Very briefly I will state a few facts. The school was opened Jan. 5, 1887, with twenty students. The course extended over four months. The school opens this fall with thirty-five members. For three years the school was under the fos- tering care of Columbia College, but after the election of Mr. Dewey to the secretaryship of the University of the State of New York, it was trans- ferred, by agreement between the Columbia trus- tees and the regents of the University, to the State Library at Albany. Here in October, 1889, it began the fourth year of its existence. During the three years at Columbia no entrance examinations were held, but since the removal to Albany candidates have been examined in litera- ture, language, and general information. At the last examination Tuesday, 9 June, 1891, thirty- two questions were asked. From October, 1889, through June, 1891, sixty-one persons were ex- amined, each having taken from one to nineteen examinations. Of this number thirty-five failed in one or more studies. In June, 1891, twenty- four took the entrance examinations and twelve failed to pass. Nine of the twelve tried again in September. Since June all applicants have been told that the entering class for 1891 is already full, and their only chance of entering this year is from vacancies which may occur. This year entrance examina- tions have been held in twelve places in the States of New Hampshire, Maine, New York, Illinois, and Michigan. Graduating exercises were held for the first time Wednesday, 8 July, 1891. The school now occupies four rooms, a gain of two over last year. The faculty consists of eight regular instructors and twenty non-resident lecturers. That there was need of just such a school is shown from the fact that of all the graduates who wanted library positions, only one failed. The last few years have seen such an increase in the number of libraries and improvement in methods of managing them, that trained assistants. have become a necessity. The most perplexing task of a chief librarian is to teach beginners to take such material as the 86 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. trustees see fit to give him, and try to mould it to the proper library standard. Happily this state of things is fast passing away, and the selection of assistants is being left more and more to the librarian. The A. L. A. Library School helps us out by doing away with the necessity for individual schools. I recall the remark of a distinguished craftsman who said that he could fill his library with men and women anxious to learn the work, and willing to serve months without pay; but his answer always was the same : " I haven't the time to give to such labor." Let us see what the school does. 1. It offers the aspirants for library honors the same opportunities granted the lawyer, the doc- tor, the minister, each in his chosen profession. The students have a well-defined purpose in view and intend to carry it out. 2. It brings together those who are completely interested in the subject. The very elect go there. No drones are admitted, or, if they do get in, soon find the pace too fast and quietly retire. 3. It starts and educates the pupils in the right way, and prepares them for the real work which begins in the library proper. 4. The course of training gives the pupils an in- sight into the most approved methods of manage- ment and systems of classification adopted by the larger libraries in the country ; and by occa- sional visits to the library centres they are enabled to see how the work is carried on. And so when the graduates go forth they are not wedded to one particular theory, but are prepared to grasp any. I am aware that some librarians prefer to train their own assistants, feeling sure then that they will be brought up in the way they should go. In the long run this may pay, but I doubt it. Excep- tions only prove the rule. If I had my way every recruit should come from another library or the Library School, in order that new ideas might be brought in, fresh inspiration infused into the old soldiers, and a higher standard set for their emu- lation. Just as one returns from a conference of the A. L. A. quickened by the intercourse with brother librarians, and ready to keep in line with all that is best in library work. 5. It keeps librarians and assistants on their mettle all the time. They don't want the school to get ahead of them. One good Library School girl will put more snap into a staff than any amount of scolding, flattery, or A. L. A. confer- ence. 6. It places library work on a more elevated plane, by making of it a recognized science. 7. It teaches trustees and the public to have greater respect for the calling of a librarian ; for they find at the school not mere enthusiasts, but earnest, thoughtful, far-seeing students fully alive to the requirements of the times, and prepared to enter whole-souled into this great educational work. 8. It shows trustees where they can find compe- tent employees. I do not mean to say there isn't good material in the libraries today ; but I do con- tend that there is a surplus of poor stock among us, and whatever can be done to improve the quality merits approval. 9. It has resulted in giving to new libraries trained and competent people, who could lay a good foundation and build upon it ; and where a Library School pupil has been put in charge of an old library better service has been the outcome. 10. Wherever its existence is known would-be applicants are deterred from becoming candi- dates. Boards of trustees now recognize the fact that local talent is not always the best. Really, the people do not care whether or no an employee is a resident what they want is the service. Trustees no longer find it necessary to select a local candidate whenever a vacancy occurs. They can look only to the good of the library. The time will come, and that soon, when trus- tees will no more think of taking an inexperi- enced person for librarian or assistant, than they would of engaging the services of a mining engi- neer to erect their building. Before the school was established trustees seldom thought of going outside the city for library help. They felt they must select some local man or woman. Times are better now. Finally: Every graduate is a living example of the usefulness of the Library School. Rapid strides have been taken since 1887. Every year adds to its reputation, and in this success librarians rejoice. The school has settled down to staid, definite work. The hurry and drive, accompanied by high nervous tension, are gone. There is still plenty of interest and enthu- siasm left, but one no longer notices that attempt to do too much in a short time. This year the instructors, not the pupils, seem to be the ones who need restraint. From inquiries made of other librarians, sup- ported by my own experience, it is conclusively proven that the pupils, as a rule, underrate rather than overrate their own ability. SECOND SESSION. A few words in the way of criticism : If any- thing, the entrance examinations are too severe. Perhaps not too much so to secure the best material; but it seems to me just as good results might be obtained with a little lower standard. For instance, applicants who have had library experience, and appear to be imbued with the " proper library spirit," might be taken on trial even though they fail to pass the examinations, for it isn't always the best educated person who makes the best librarian. It is quite as necessary to know how to meet and treat people who visit the library as to know books ; and the former is as hard for some to learn as is the latter for others. A happy medium is desirable. The pupils should not be rushed. It were bet- ter to lengthen the course and not make them think they can learn everything in two years. It would be a good thing if the old library hand were taught as some libraries prefer the written to the printed card. To librarians I would say : Steer clear of the Library School unless you are as enthusiastic as the instructors and pupils, and are fully pre- pared to answer all manner of questions. It is a mistake that the name of the school should be confined to a single State ; and I hope the Board of Regents having control of the school will consent to drop the words New York State from the title, and let it be known as " The Library School." In my judgment the school is here to stay, and will continue to increase in usefulness until it shall be recognized and accepted by the great brother- hood of librarians and the community at large, as the most powerful agent in shaping successful library workers. FRANK P. HILL. BROOKLYN LIBRARY TRAINING CLASS. Miss PLUMMER was called on by the President for an account of her training classes in Brooklyn. She was out of the room, but has since furnished the following report : These classes were started in 1890, in response to a well-defined and frequently expressed need. People came to them who could not afford the longer time or the greater expense of the Library School, who could not, in some cases, have availed themselves of the school advantages for lack of college education, who were satisfied to learn the system of cataloging, or the technical processes of the Pratt Institute Library only, and who did not feel at finishing that their brief training en- titled them to such positions as the Library School graduates may justly hope for after their longer, broader, and more arduous course. As in the Library School, a majority of the students were young women. The instructors were all members of the Library staff, each of whom took charge of the training class when it entered her peculiar province, while the two cataloging classes, which were quite distinct from the other, were under one person's charge throughout the year. The course begins in November, and consists of two terms, each three months long, during which instruction and practice-hours alternate. A third term, called the apprenticeship term, is given to those whose record has been most satisfactory. No degree or certificate is given as yet, but the library consents to act as reference, and to recom- mend for positions those of the students whose work has been praiseworthy, and who seem fitted in other ways as well for library Work. The cataloguing classes use the A. L. A. rules as authority, with Cutter's rules for reference. The training classes begin their course with les- sons in the library hand, after which the class takes up the library processes in systematic order, beginning with the order department and follow- ing a book through its course into the hands of the borrower and back again. A detailed list of the subjects dealt with is as follows: Library hand, order department work, accession work, classification, finding-list rules, alphabeting, shelf-listing, preparation for the shelves, stock-taking, binding and rebinding, reading-room work, keeping of statistics, care of supplies, desk-work throughout both terms, refer- ence work and bibliography, English composition, and English literature. Desk-work includes regis- tration and circulation. A simple entrance examination, to test the gen- eral information of applicants, is now held at the beginning of each school year. Some very good material has offered for these classes, and in all cases where a more advanced course has been practicable and the student could profitably go further, the Library School has been recommended. Two rooms have been fitted up during the sum- mer for the use of the classes, and all work is done in these rooms that can be carried on there to ad- vantage. Shelves and blackboards, desks with lids, and other appliances make the rooms very convenient, though the space is pretty well occu- pied when the whole class is in attendance. AMHERST SUMMER LIBRARY SCHOOL. Mr. FLETCHER gave an account of his library school. 88 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. The course in library economy at the Amherst Summer School was held this year in response to a demand from several quarters for a brief course calculated to give beginners in library work, or the librarians of small libraries who have not been brought in contact with modern improved methods, enough instruction in such methods to answer their immediate demands. Two hours a day, five days a week for five weeks, were given to instruction and two hours a day to practice. Each afternoon one hour was devoted to instruction in cataloging, and one hour to other branches of library work, the twenty-five hours proving suffi- cient time to go through pretty nearly all depart- ments. In the forenoon, two hours daily were given to practice following the instruction of the previous day. The instruction in cataloging was given by reading aloud from Cutter's rules and giving a running comment with constant reference to Linderfelt's and Perkins* rules. The work done in cataloging for practice was also criticised each day by myself (I was sole instructor), for the benefit of the class. There were eleven in the class during the entire time besides three others who attended one week each for special work. As to results, I can only say that they seemed to be highly satisfactory. Three members of the class expressed a desire and some intention to attend the library school at Albany, the brief course having awakened an appetite for a thorough training such as the school can give. All apparently felt that they were greatly profited by the course and abundantly repaid for the time they had spent. Miss HEWINS. I was at the Ainherst School from the first week, and want to bear testimony to the influence it has on the librarians of small libraries. Most of the class had had experience in small libraries in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other places. They were people who did not know a shelf list from an accession book, and had very few ideas about catalog cards. It was rev- elation to them when they found library work could be done in a systematic manner, and when they learned what could be done in library work in a thorough way, it was like going to a new world for them. THIRD SESSION. (TUESDAY EVENING, OCT. 13.) IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES. The PRESIDENT called the meeting to order at 8 o'clock, and said that it would be addressed by visiting and California librarians on the subject of the value of public libraries, and the importance of providing facilities needful in order that good work may be done in them. Dr. POOLE. If this meeting had been held at Richmond, Virginia, or at Mobile, Alabama, or even in Louisville, Kentucky, the subject which has been given us tonight "The Value of Public Libraries to Communities" would be a very simple one to treat; for in those communities they do not exist, and I have never heard that they were wanted there. But on the Pacific Coast, and in the communities represented here by delegates from the Eastern States, the discus- sion of this subject seems a good deal like the treatment of an axiom. We all cordially admit, without discussion, that the whole of a thing is greater than a part. It was also ascertained in New England 250 years ago, and has since been regarded as an axiom, that public schools and general education were good for communities, and more economical than general ignorance. It was further discovered by New England people more than forty years ago that public libraries, maintained by municipal taxation, supplemented the work of the public schools, and were also good for communities. It was my fortune to take up library work in a college society library of 10,000 volumes forty-five years ago, before the principle of public libraries was discovered. I have been in library work ever since, and have been conversant with the progress since made. There was in 1847 little or no interest in libra- ries. It was not known how many libraries there were in the country, or how many books the larger libraries had. In fact, there were no statistics on the subject ; no treatises on library management ; no practical works on bibliography; and there was no one who had studied library administra- tion scientifically and could impart information to learners. It might be called the pre-historic age of libraries. The average librarian then was usu- ally a keeper of books that is, one who did not allow them to get away, and kept as many persons as possible from using them. He was commonly a college professor who could not teach, a minis- ter who could not preach, or a physician who had no patients. The salaries paid were very small. Being a college student I took the position for the purpose of being in contact with books, and not for the pay, which the first year was thirty dollars. The second year I was promoted to be full libra- rian, and I think my salary was raised to fifty dollars. They were the two most profitable years I have spent in libraries ; for I had the opportunity THIRD SESSION. 89 to work out alone the main problems of library ' administration, with no books on the subject to read, and no person about me to whom I could go for advice or information. The year 1848 is a sort of era in the history of American libraries. John Jacob Astor then died in New York city, and by his will founded the Astor Library, the first free reference library in the United States. He gave it $400,000, which was then thought to be an immense sum, and for that time it was so. George Peabody, Walter L. New- berry, John Crerar, and Andrew Carnegie have since given their millions. In the splendid gift of Mr. Sutro, San Francisco will have a noble refer- ence library during the lifetime of the donor. It would be well if all public-spirited men of wealth, who intend to make such gifts in their wills, would follow Mr. Sutro's example and do it while living. The tidal wave of benefactions for libraries is on, and will rise higher. Such gifts usually come in pairs. Mr. Newberry's gift of three millions to Chicago was followed by Mr. Crerar's with another three millions. Some San Francisco citizen will doubtless duplicate, and perhaps exceed, Mr. Sutro's gift. The endowment of a great public library is now ascertained to be the straight path- way to heaven. Some years ago there always appeared in the will of a rich man or woman, who died in Boston, a legacy to Harvard College, and another to the Massachusetts General Hos- pital. Much of this money-now goes to libraries and to the erection of memorial library buildings. I was speaking before this digression of what had happened of importance concerning the library interests of the country in 1848. Profes- sor Charles C. Jewett, who had been the librarian of Brown University, was then appointed librarian of the Smithsonian Institution ; and his is about the only name, with a reputation as a librarian, which comes down to us from the pre-historic period. Under his guidance the Smithsonian Institution, which has since changed its functions, assumed the same relations to the libraries of the country which the Bureau of Education now holds. He went about collecting and arranging the statistics of the libraries of the United States ; and his valuable report he printed in 1850. It was then known for the first time what libraries there were in the country, their origin, history, and contents. The most important event of the year 1848 was the initiatory step taken which led to the estab- lishment of the Boston Public Library, the first free library in the world supported by municipal taxation and administered for the benefit of every class of citizens. Josiah Quincy, Jr., then Mayor of Boston, conceived the idea of petitioning the Legislature to allow the city to raise money by taxation for creating and supporting a public library; and the authority was granted. Subse- quent legislation extended the right to all the cities and towns of the State. Similar legislation followed in other States and in England ; and the public library has become as universal and as beneficent as the public school. The first edition of the Index to Periodical Literature, prepared by a student in Yale College, was printed in 1848, and was the precursor of much voluntary and sim- ilar bibliographical contributions done by librari- ans for the benefit of students. In Prof. Jewett's report of 1850 on the libraries of the United States, several which are now among the largest do not appear, for they did not exist. The Library of Congress, now with more than 600,000 volumes, then had 50,000 ; and a few months later a fire occurred in the building and burnt up 30,000 of these. The great library of the country then was that of Harvard College with 84,200 volumes. The Philadelphia Library Com- pany came next with 60,200, then Yale College with 50,481, and Boston Athenaeum with 50,000. Of libraries containing 1,000 volumes or more there were 432, and containing less than 1,000, 271. Excluding public school libraries, the whole number was 694, and the aggregate number of volumes 2,201,632. The last report on libraries by the Bureau of Education, 1885, gives the whole number 5,338, and the aggregate number of volumes 20,622,076. This brief retrospect shows the enormous development of interest in libraries during the past forty years and growing apprecia- tion of their value in intelligent communities. The intelligence of communities is now measured largely by its libraries and other facilities for popular education. The large number and the excellent administration of public libraries in California are among the most pleasant and, I must confess, surprising incidents I have met with on the Pacific Coast. We, the visitors from the Eastern States, have little we can tell which will be new to our brethren in California. I understand that one library building is now in process of construction, and that it is proposed to erect others in San Francisco. I am told, also, that the views of Eastern librarians on this subject are desired, and that tomorrow forenoon the methods of construction will be discussed. I do not, therefore, intend this evening to go into the SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. matter of specific plans, but will venture a few remarks on the subject of a general nature. My first remark is that in putting up a library build- ing we should use common sense. The sense used is too often "uncommon sense." The board or committee do not go about the work as they would if they were building anything else. Their ten- dency is to put up an architectural monument or a memorial of somebody or something, or a show structure, when what is wanted is a library build- ing. These men, if they were a committee to erect a mercantile block, a church, or a theatre, would use common sense; for these structures are intended for a specific, practical purpose, and can- not be trifled with. So has a library building a specific, practical purpose, and ought not to be trifled with. When a sensible man intends to build a house and has selected his lot, he decides about how much money he will put into it, and, taking his wife into consultation, they decide how many rooms they will want for their family, pres- ent and prospective, and their visitors. They decide on the size and location of the rooms, and as many other details as occur to them concerning the interior construction and arrangement. They are then ready to consult an architect who will group and artistically harmonize their preferences, give suggestions as to elevations, etc. This is pre- cisely the common sense which ought to be used in constructing a library building. The interior of the building ought first to be considered, and every detail concerning the present and future wants of the library should be thoroughly studied and decided upon before a thought is given to ele- vations or fa9ades. The librarian should be first taken into consultation, and he will furnish the committee with the information which will enable them to decide with reference to future growth, how much space will be needed for the storage of books, how much for the delivery-room, the refer- ence reading-room, the periodical reading-room, the librarian's room, the rooms for administrative work, etc. The librarian will base his estimates on the space now occupied and the prospective growth of the library for at least twenty-five, or, what is better, fifty years. An architect can- not supply this information, and no one except the librarian can, for he knows all the conditions of the library and of its growth. If the building is intended to be permanent, the committee should consider how and where it can be enlarged in future years ; for it is the inevitable law of libra- ries to outgrow any limits which may be assigned them. After these questions have been decided, it is time to call in the architect. Hitherto there has been nothing for him to do. Now he has work to do. The plans and sketches of the committee and librarian will be crude, and the rooms may not be grouped in the best manner. They are to be har- monized and expressed in artistic drafts, and plans for heating and lighting and ventilation supplied, as well as the elevations. The trouble with many library buildings, which have resulted in failures, has been that the work was begun at the wrong end upon the elevations and fa9ade, instead of the interior of the structure. Committees, whose chief interest consists in having a showy and artistic front, are usually responsible for the error. Now, if you have an " art crank " in this city, pray keep him off a library building committee. Perhaps I ought to explain what I mean by an "art crank." I do not mean a man who loves art, for all educated and cultured men and women love art ; but I mean a man with very little brains who loves art in the abstract, without any reference to time, occasion, or fitness of things. He talks loudly about art, and judges everything by its artistic qualities. He visits Italy and sees a beauti- ful palace of the Florentine renaissance style, and he admires it. He would like such a building for a library in San Francisco, it is so lovely ! He could sit up nights and look at it by the light of the moon. And why not? Confessedly it looks well where it is, and why would it not answer for a library in San Francisco ? The conditions are different. The admirer has given no attention to what is inside the building or its adaptation for a library, and has considered only the fa9ade. The structure was erected several centuries ago, when revolutions and mobs were of common occurrence in Italy, and hence the first story was built with very few and very small windows. In Paris the same construction is seen in the old buildings. The first story of fashionable residences, which with us is the most valuable, is there the quarters of the servants and scullions. The family live in the stories above. The first story was intended simply for fortification and protection. When the mob appeared, the gate and iron screens were let down and the place was closed up. This is the plan of the new public library building on Copley square in Boston, and the one which some art enthusiasts in that city are admiring and worshiping. The plan was not taken directly from Italy, but second-hand from the Ste. Genevieve Library in Paris. Abstractly, and as a production of the sixteenth century, the facade is pretty ; but THIRD SESSION, how strangely it looks where it is, and for the pur- pose of being used as a public library, with those few and small windows in the first story, and in a peaceful community where there are no mobs, and no occasion to fortify libraries ! The first requi- site in a public library is light, and all the light that can be had. Nothing in architecture is truly beautiful which is not appropriate, reasonable, and useful. The error has occurred through a mis- taken love of art, and ignoring the advice of libra- rians, one " art crank " will cause you much trouble. If you have one in San Francisco, bottle him up until your plans are made. (Applause.) Mr. FLETCHER. Perhaps the first feeling that is natural to one of us, coming across the conti- nent, and undertaking to say a word about public libraries is a feeling of caution. We ought to re- member that we are a long way from home. I am reminded of an incident that occurred in one of our towns near Boston. A clergyman who had occasion to preach away from home took a written sermon which he had already delivered at home, and did not take the precaution to read it over care- fully before going into the other pulpit; so, when he came in the course of his sermon, to describe the evils that would befall young men going into bad ways, he said, with a good deal of earnest- ness, " I would sooner have a son of mine an inmate of yonder institution, than that he should fall into these courses, " when he suddenly real- ized that he was pointing in the direction of the theological seminary, his remarks having been in- tended to refer to the insane asylum near his own church. It would not do for one of us to come with a sermon prepared for the longitude of Bos- ton and deliver it here. On the other hand, we have to be careful not to go to the other extreme. Perhaps, some of us came here like missionaries to the heathen ; if there is anybody with such ideas among us he has had the conceit pretty well taken out of him, coming into your libraries and seeing what has been done and what is to be done for libraries in this city in the future. We heard yesterday of what is to be done for the future of libraries in this city and of the excellent libraries that are springing up in different parts of this State. It will not do for us to conclude that we from Boston way are in such a very different longitude that we can come over here with our hands laden with benefits to confer upon you poor, ignorant, destitute people. What is the situation ; what have we come here for ? There seemed to be a great desire on the part of some of the peo- ple interested in library work in this part of the country, that we should come here and hold this meeting, and that desire came, if I am not mis- taken, with the greatest force from those whom we should pick out as the least needing any mis- sionary effort that we could bring. Now, what does this mean ? It means, for one thing, that those on this coast who are familiar with the subject, having read the Library journal and being themselves interested, want others to become so. They have come to appreciate the advantages which we derive from living closer to- gether in the East. What are those advantages? They are not what can be learned at a college, nor what can be read in a paper before a library association, but they are largely matters of per- sonal contact and acquaintance. I do not know what impressions prevail on the Pacific Coast, as to what real live librarians look like, but we under- stand that one of your number who came over the mountains to meet us, had to revise his impres- sions of us, and sent back word to his home that we were "'not such a bad lot after all. " We have learned to know each other and in that we have learned a great deal about library work. This contact of one with another has done more to advance library work among us, than years and years of the reading of library journals and proceedings of conventions. One can read of the methods which a person employs in doing his work and they may commend themselves to his judgment, but when one gets into a company of people, is brought into personal contact with them, and, by question and answer, gets things put in just the shape in which they will fit one's personal needs, then one begins to learn, as one never can by mere listening or reading. I remem- ber hearing an homely figure used by a clergy- man, in speaking of the influence of a Sunday schobl teacher, compared with that which he had with his congregation. He said it seemed to him as if there was a row of bottles on the seat before him, and as if he must take a pitcher of water and try to fill those bottles by pouring from the plat- form, while the Sunday school teacher, sitting down there among the bottles, takes one at a time by the neck and pours the water in. It is cer- tainly true, that beyond everything that we can analyze and understand, there is a peculiar growth that comes from being brought into personal con- tact with an enthusiastic worker and thinker in our own line of work. I suppose you, of the Pacific Coast, feel that you have not the conditions that we have in the East- ern country in the matter of libraries. Certainly, 9 2 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. you have not the number of libraries that we have in proportion to the number of communities we will not say in proportion to the population, be- cause that is not the thing to be attained. You want a library in every community, no matter how small, and the work of carrying them into every town has been pushed in some of the Eastern States far beyond what it has been here. Many of you feel interested to know how you are going to carry on the work of seeing that every community has access to a public library. The subject of the best legislation for libraries conies up, and it is certain that right legislation is at the bottom of advancing public library work. I say at the bottom ; it is in one sense so ; but it is certain that you never can have right legislation until you have a certain public sentiment back of it. The town libraries, which are now so abundant in Massachusetts that hardly one town in ten is without one, grew, in almost every case, from very small beginnings. And not until numerous hum- ble library associations had been at work some years educating the people up to an idea of the value of town libraries, was the legislation obtained under which their growth has been so rapid. Even Yale University, with its library of some 200,000 vol umes was commenced, it is recorded, by a few poor clergymen coming together and con- tributing each a few books, such as he could spare from his scanty library, to form the nucleus of the library for the college and so of the college itself. Over and over again the same method has been employed in the starting of a library, which has afterwards come to be one of our large institu- tions. So the lesson that comes from experience in the East, more strongly than any other is, to make a beginning, no matter how small, and from that small beginning, it is perfectly surprising in the case of libraries, what a growth there will be ; everything tends that way when a beginning has once been made. When you have begun to put into a community good reading, it will drive out the bad reading to a great extent. People read trash, because they do not know of anything bet- ter. You cannot teach them in any better way than by putting the better reading within their reach. Perhaps no greater sermon has been preached in modern times than that of Thomas Chalmers, on " The expulsive power of a new affection. " If you want to get rid of the bad, you must put in the good. Some people are so misguided that they oppose public libraries, on account of some of the litera- ture which they are disseminating. It may be true there are a few books circulated from libra- ries that are below your standard or mine. But we must remember that we are assured by those best qualified to judge, that people read above them, and if we find them reading trash, it is be- cause their ordinary plane of thought is below the level of even these books. However, this may be, people will be elevated by the presence in the community and in their homes of the better books freely supplied by the public library. Drive in the small wegde of good reading, and it will gradually elevate the public taste and force out that which is low in either a library or a moral sense. There is nothing for which people are more ready to work and to make donations than a pub- lic library. It is not necessary that every library should be just like every other library ; that is to say, that a system should be employed which re- quires just so much elaboration and just so much expense. It is not necessary that a learned libra- rian should be employed in the beginning, nor a person be employed to give his whole time to it. In many communities can be found a person to carry on the library in connection with other work and at very little expense. But all these things are familiar to you, and as I said at the outset, it is hard for us to bring any- thing to you which will be new. If this meeting is to be beneficial to the people of this coast, it will be through the personal contact that we and you here interested in library work have with one an- other, and so in ways far better and far more wide- reaching than would result from any addresses and discussion of papers which we can present. Pres. GREEN. Is there not considerable skep- ticism among practical men as to whether libraries are doing much good in communities ? It is readily acknowledged that they afford a large amount of entertainment to the citizens of communities, both young and old ; but do they do them much real good ? Suppose they only add to the happiness of the people of a community ? Is not that doing a great work ? An anecdote told by Miss Jenkins, of the Boston Public Library, is interesting. She was speaking of a woman who did her washing and wanted her to bring her every Saturday night an interesting book. The books which she liked best were Mrs. Southworth's novels. There is nothing harmful morally in the novels of that author, but they are exciting works which we do not care to encourage people to read ; we would rather have them read what we consider better THIRD SESSION, 93 books. But this woman wanted Mrs. South- worth's novels every Saturday night, and so her friend carried them to her. Miss Jenkins asked her why it was that she liked that kind of books. She answered, " Because such books take me out of myself. For the time being I associate with people who live in palaces and are sur- rounded by the luxuries which riches can buy. I feel as those people feel, get out of the squalid conditions which are usually about me, live with great people, and temporarily get the enjoyment which comes from living so." Now none of us would wish to deprive that poor woman of the enjoyment which she gets from reading exciting stories. There are many deaf persons who are denied the privilege of being much in society, because it is difficult for others to talk with them. Such persons often get an immense amount of enjoyment out of novel reading; so do invalids and convalescents. While librarians seek to afford entertainment, however, they try to im- prove the taste of readers. They try to carry persons forward just as fast as they will go; to lead them from lower to higher kinds of reading. But that does not necessarily mean leading them from stories to other kinds of reading. It means often, so far as stories and novels are concerned, conducting them from a lower kind of novel to a higher kind of novel; for some of the best litera- ture that we have is, of course, in the form of stories. One can hardly do better than to read thoroughly the works of such writers as Thack- eray and George Eliot. It is well, too, to have sympathy for the poor awakened by becoming familiar with the writings of Charles Dickens. It should always be borne in mind that one of the most forcible ways of giving instruction is by telling stories to children and giving them stories to read. I well remember that some of the choic- est instruction, and that which has stood longest by me, came from stories which were told to me when I was a child. I like to remember, too, that the great teacher, to whose teachings Mr. Fletcher referred, chose that way of teaching, and that many of his choicest lessons come to us in the form of parables, which are, in reality, nothing but stories. But, ladies and gentlemen, while I prize highly the influence of stories in awakening good impulse and think that we get a great portion of our knowl- edge from them today, I do not by any means advocate their exclusive use. I am very glad when persons use only the highest class of novels and turn their attention also to other kinds of reading. A great many persons think that our libraries are simply storehouses of novels. Stories form a considerable portion of popular libraries, and it is very proper that they should do so. A large portion of the community, if it did not read novels, would not read anything. It is infinitely better that people should be em- ployed in reading any book, magazine, or paper that is not bad, rather than not read at all. Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells of Boston, whose whole life is devoted to philanthropic effort, told me that she had great hopes that the poor people with whom she came in contact would turn out well, if they had a taste for reading and took to it readily as a means of recreation. It is a great safeguard, if you have tastes which lead you when in search of amusement to take up a book or paper instead of associating with idle men, or such as think only of eating and drinking. But libraries are not merely storehouses of novels. Such as have novels, also have books of all kinds, and they regard it as their main function to give instruction. When I face an audience like this, made up of practical men, I like to say a few words to show how valuable libraries are in sup- plying the average every-day wants of the business man. They gratify the natural thirst for knowl- edge. They are also of great use to the mechanic in his daily occupation and do much to add to the material prosperity of communities. I like to relate an anecdote such as this one which is told of Captain Eads, the great engineer who built one of the famous bridges which cross the Mississippi River at St. Louis. When Eads was a young man he was very fond of reading. During that period of his life a vessel containing a cargo of iron had been wrecked on the Missis- sippi River and was at the bottom of the river. His reading had given him such a knowledge of the principles of science and such confidence that the laws of nature might be relied upon, that he made a rough kind of a diving bell, and as he could get nobody to go down under water in it, descended in it himself to the bottom of the river, and after numerous descents brought up the cargo of iron. He made considerable money in that way. His confidence came to him as the result of having used books and learned from them the principles of science and the constancy of the laws of nature. Knowledge is of money value. Captain Eads profited by his early experience. He kept on studying and finally performed greats feats of engineering, which I presume enriched him, which 94 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. certainly gave him a great name. It would be easy to multiply examples of the value of books in promoting material interests. Richardson, the great architect, liked to have the buildings which he planned put up by a large contractor with whom I am acquainted. That contractor told me that if he had had any success as a builder it was owing to the fact that he had always been a great reader on subjects connected with the occupation in which he is engaged. He has been a constant user of books belonging to the public library in Worcester, and often sends to me for books con- nected with work which he is attending to. In what does reading and studying consist but in supplementing your own experience and the knowledge which you have obtained from persons who have taught you trades, or with whom you have come in contact in your various occupations ? You add to the information which you obtain in other ways the knowledge which other persons have acquired, as you find it recorded in books. In using industrial books you are adding to your own experience the experience of other men, and often the experience of men distinguished in the avocations in which you are engaged. Would it not be of great advantage to individuals if all the foremen and workmen in the great shops of this city, in addition to acquiring the practical experi- ence which they get every day in their work, were also students, and had formed the habit of going to a library and reading scientific papers and books which give the principles of science and relate to the industries in which they are engaged? Is it not of great advantage to a community to have the workmen in its shops become readers and stu- dents ? Now I have no hopes that all the work- men of any shop can be induced to become readers, but I know that a great many of the artisans of a town or city may be stimulated to become so. When libraries are open to workmen and they avail themselves of the privileges afforded by them, inventions will surely be multi- plied, and the value of the products of the manu- factories and machine shops of towns will be greatly increased. Now and then some great invention will result and an immense new industry be built up. But I need not speak longer on this subject. It is evi- dent, is it not, that no community can afford to be without good libraries. They need, too, compe- tent librarians to select the proper works to put in those libraries ; librarians who will also receive persons who come to use books cordially and sym- pathetically, and with an earnest desire to find out their wishes and put into their hands proper books to give them the knowledge they want. With good libraries and librarians an immense amount of service may be rendered to a commu- nity. Consider one way not yet mentioned in which this may be done. Suppose, for example, that you put into the hands of your school teachers everything that is needed to help them in their studies ; do you realize how much more valuable the results of those studies are if a teacher has access to all kinds of books that will enable him to prepare himself for the recitations and lectures which he has to conduct or deliver ? His instruc- tion becomes much more valuable than it would be if he did not have access to a large number of books. It is of great advantage to school children to have libraries to go to, and to be able to con- sult a librarian who will help them get informa- tion on any subject that they may be interested in and in any little investigations they wish to make, and to whom the teacher can send them in confidence for answers to questions which come up in school. Thoughts crowd upon me as I stand here and try to tell you how valuable libraries may be to communities. Do you realize of what great value they are in promoting good morals in a commu- nity ? What better thing could you desire than to have the members of all the families of this city engaged in reading evenings, instead of being on the street, or in other places where it is not best for them to be? It is a fundamental principle in philanthrophy that if you wish to wean a man from a baneful pleasure it is best to give him some other entertainment that is harmless. Read- ing, when encouraged by the establishment of libraries, is influential in satisfying men and in keeping them from unwholesome occupations. Ladies and gentlemen, excuse me for speaking so long. There were a few minutes to be filled up and this fact tempted me to speak. Mr. ROWELL. We have heard this after- noon that of 350 towns in Massachusetts four- fifths have public libraries. This year the first annual report of the Massachusetts " Public Library Commission " was published, and from that report we find that a large proportion of these public libraries bear the name of some indi- vidual. I mention one, the public library of Cambridge, Mass. And so on all through these little towns, the library in many cases bearing the name of its donor, a man who had bequeathed his wealth to it or established the library. There is no one here who would venture to say that we THIRD SESSION. 95 have not made a start in this work on the Pacific Coast. The largest single donation that has been made is in Portland, Oregon, where Mrs. Green has donated $250,000 for the establishment of a public library. The University of California has received the second largest gift for library pur- poses. Mr. Henry D. Bacon of Oakland some of you will remember him in connection with library work at St. Louis presented $25,000 in money and his private library of 14,000 volumes, and his collection of art works, the whole amount- ing to $100,000 in value. And I wish to call to mind a name, to Californians almost forgotten Michael Reese. In the. University there is a marble tablet which bears the inscription, " In commemoration of the gift of $50,000 by Michael Reese." He died ten years ago, and in that short time his name has almost vanished from the talk of men, but that tablet will preserve it. Very few of our libraries have been endowed by private munificence. The Los Angeles Public Library as yet has not been the recipient of any large gift, but in the last three years $60,000 has been raised by municipal taxation for its support, and I am sure that later on some of the citizens of that town will be endowing it in a way which is commensurate with the generosity, the hospitality, and the philanthropy of the people of the south- ern part of this State. Mr. President, in this year another large dona- tion has been made, and I would ask you to call on Mr. Cloudsley, the librarian of the Stockton Pub- lic Library, for a few points on that subject. Mr. CLOUDSLEY. Our library was organized in 1880 and it has grown until now it is a library of 15,000 volumes. It has received numerous gifts and, as Mr. Fletcher has said, grows grad- ually and continually. It has had gift after gift of books in small numbers of 20, 30, 50, 100, 200 or 300 volumes. A few years ago it received a be- quest of $5,000. The city gave us $6,000 more to add to that $5,000. We put this out at inter- est and erected a small building, about 50 by 80 feet, two stories high. Within the past year the library has been given $75,000 by Mr. Hazelton, of Tarrytown, New York, who was formerly a citi- zen of Stockton, but who died at Tarrytown. This is part of the tidal wave which Dr. Poole tells us of ; it has reached that far and I hope it will reach San Francisco, and give you a public library. (Applause.) Pres. GREEN. I said this afternoon that be- sides expenditures for putting up a large number of library buildings, in Massachusetts, besides gifts from individuals of many libraries, and besides large sums of money raised by taxation for the establishment and support of libraries in that State, $5,000,000 has been given in money for the benefit of that class of institutions in Massachu- setts. Soon after I made that statement, one of the members of the Association rose, and in speak- ing of the little permanent publication fund of $10,000, which we are trying to raise, of which we had raised $3,200, Massachusetts having given of that amount $2,000), said that he had received a dispatch from Mr. Hovey saying that he had raised $500 more. I have now another telegram from Mr. Hovey, saying that he has secured another $500; so that Massachusetts has now contributed $3,000 towards the fund. I knew that you would all be glad to hear this statement. I am glad to read this dispatch now, because it shows forcibly what one man may do. Of the money already raised, $3,000 out of about $4,000 has been raised by this one man. He felt interested in the work, and went around among his friends and raised it. I think he has raised nearly the whole of it in Boston and vicinity in $500 subscriptions. If anybody feels a real interest in library work, he can raise money in this way. It is almost the only way in which money can be raised by persons interested in the matter going to other persons and getting them interested, and soliciting subscriptions for this kind of work. If the libraries here need endowments, the endow- ments will come largely in this way. Frequently a rich man will become interested in a library, and will make provision for it in his will. Why should not all of us who are interested in libraries do as this gentleman in Boston is doing go to friends who have money and create the same interest in them, and get them to do something for such of our institutions as are in need of assistance ? The PRESIDENT requested the members to meet punctually at 9.30 for tomorrow morning's session, as the members would visit Stanford University in the afternoon. He also announced that the section of State librarians would meet at 9 A. M. Mr. FLETCHER. It is very desirable that any one present, whether a member of the Associa- tion or not, who is associated in any way with State libraries, should attend that meeting. The PRESIDENT announced that the Trustees of Libraries would also meet at 9 A. M. tomorrow. Adjourned. 96 SA N FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. FO UR TH SESSION. (WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14.) The PRESIDENT called the convention to order at 9.40 A; M. STATE LIBRARIES. The resolutions adopted by the Executive Com- mittee of the Section of State libraries were read by Mr. Wallis. Mr. WALLIS. There is not a State in the Union, except California and Nevada, which has on the title page of its legislative reports the date of the session which the volume contains, and there is no way of telling when the Legislature meets. In Nevada they have adopted a rule by which the title pages in each session bear the dates of the commencement and adjournment. Many States in the Union have not the money to send out their documents. In California, for example, there are fifteen or twenty documents, large books, and they have not the means. If Congress will provide the means whereby a State library can send to another State library all the publications and the public laws free, we can distribute the documents of every State in the Union to the public libraries. The government ought to do this. I desire to thank the Association for the help they have given, for without it we could have done nothing, and I expect that before long every State in the Union will be improved. As Dr. Poole says, it is the beginning of a revolution. The report was accepted. TRUSTEES' SECTION. Mr. SOULE reported that the meeting of the Trustees' section was adjourned until next year, and this report was accepted. Mr. FLETCHER announced that an invitation had been received through Mr. Hill, from Mr. McWil- liams, for the delegates to stop over at Fresno on their way south, and the President announced an invitation to lunch under the " Big Trees." Mr. FLETCHER. Our Secretary, Mr. Hill, called me to his room this morning and said that he had attempted to write out an expression of his feelings on receiving the minute regarding himself adopted by the Conference day before yesterday, but had found it too much of a strain upon him in his present nervous condition. He wished me to express to the convention, verbally, his most hearty appreciation of the kind words in the minute and to express his feeling of un- worthiness of it. I simply speak for him. SUBJECT INDEX. The PRESIDENT then read two letters from Mr. Wm. C. Lane, Assistant Librarian of Harvard College Library. The first expressed regret that imperative work had prevented his preparing a report on Aids and Guides in time to be read at the meeting of the association ; the other follows : "I take pleasure in forwarding to you, to be laid before the Library Association, a copy of the Index to the subject catalogue of Harvard Col- lege Library, on which I have been at work for the last eight years, and which has just been finished. "Although its principal value is in its usefulness in our own library, I think it will not fail to be of interest and in some cases of use to other libra- rians. "I am glad that, although this library is absent from your meetings in the person of its officers, it may nevertheless be represented by one of its pub- lications just issued. "You will notice that two hundred copies of the Index have been printed for the Library Bureau in Boston, where copies may be obtained by those who desire them." The PRESIDENT. The Index is here; it is very interesting and of great importance, for use in connection with such catalogues as are to be found at Harvard College Library. INVITATIONS FOR THE CONFERENCE IN 1893. The SECRETARY read a letter dated October i from John G. Shortall, as President of the Board of Trustees of the Chicago Public Library, inviting the Association to hold its meeting in 1893 m Chicago, in view of "the important gathering of public men, in the various departments of interest to the civilization of our time, intended to be pres- ent during our Columbian Exposition," and two letters dated October 8, from Norman Williams and Huntington W. Jackson, trustees of the Crerar Library, and from E. W. Blatchford and Wm. H. Bradley, trustees of the Newberry Li- brary, uniting in the invitation. The letters were referred to the Executive Com- mittee. Pres. GREEN. The Standing Committee have authority to employ a stenographer to report the proceedings of this meeting, and at the last con- ference it was proposed that they should do so, but not then voted. Do the members approve of the action of the Standing Committee in employing a stenographer ? FOURTH SESSION. 97 On motion of Mr. BOWKER this action of the committee was approved. FINANCE COMMITTEE. Mr. UTLEY read the report of the Finance Com- mittee : The Finance Committee, to whom was referred the annual report of the Treasurer respectfully report that they have examined the same. The Treasurer's statement of receipts has been compared with the statement of the bank in which the funds are deposited, and they are found to agree, except that the funds in bank show $1.55 in excess of the Treasurer's account, which is prob- ably interest on the deposits for the last quarter and which will go into the next year's statement. The vouchers and disbursements agree. The report of the Trustees of the Permanent Endowment Fund, showing the condition of that fund, we recommend be accepted and published in the proceedings. We nominate for Trustees of the Permanent Fund for three years (to succeed himself) E. C. Hovey of Brooklirje, Mass. For the unexpired term of two years in place of Pliny T. Sexton, resigned, John M. Glenn of Baltimore. All of which is submitted. CHARLES C. SOULE. H. M. UTLEY. MARY A. BEAN. Acting Finance Committee, That portion of the report of the Finance Com- mittee referring to the Treasurer's report and to the publication of the report of the Trustees of the Endowment Fund, was adopted. ENDOWMENT FUND. The PRESIDENT. Mr. Hovey has been a very efficient trustee, as shown by statements made in this meeting from time to time ; he has raised $3,000 of the small sum which has been raised. and I earnestly hope that he will be elected a member of the Board of Trustees on the Per- manent Fund, for three years. Mr. Hovey was elected, and Mr. John M. Glenn of Baltimore, Md., was elected to fill the unex- pired term caused by the resignation of Mr. Sexton. A letter from NORMAN WILLIAMS, Trustee of the Crerar estate, Chicago, 111., dated Oct. 8, 1891, relating to the Endowment Fund, was read. I beg to report, as one of the Trustees of the Endowment Fund, that I hold, subject to draft by the proper officer, the sum of $600, being the con- tributions of ten individuals of Chicago to the Endowment Fund. These contributions were recently made at my solicitation, no contributions having been received from any public library. Although under your circular "Trustees of libra- ries and librarians are requested to act as agents in soliciting and forwarding contributions," I have not received any subscriptions from any pub- lic library or through any librarian for the reason, as I understand, that it is deemed a doubtful ques- tion whether the public libraries have any right to make a subscription for the purposes contem- plated in your circular, under act of their incor- poration. A prolonged absence has prevented me from making a personal solicitation until quite recently, and also from sending forward an earlier report. I beg to suggest that a just and fair estimate be made of the proportionate amounts which should be contributed from the various States, and that it should not be left to the activity of any one par- ticular locality to secure the entire amount required. Mr. SOULE read his paper on POINTS OF AGREEMENT IN LIBRARY ARCHITECTURE. (Seep. 17.) The PRESIDENT. It has been arranged that two or three gentlemen, particularly conversant with the principles of library architecture, and whose attention has been recently called to the subject, should be first called upon to speak on this matter. I call upon Dr. Poole. Dr. POOLE. The very excellent paper which has been read expresses, I believe, the average opinions and experience of all librarians. It certainly expresses mine. Perhaps I might go over it and desire to make here and there some changes of expression, but they would not affect the general issue. I am thankful to Mr. Soule for having contributed this paper, and believe it will be useful in disarming prejudice, and will refute the statement, often made by architects and others who have some special scheme to promote, that there is no harmony among librarians as to the principles of construction, and that each has his own plan and is striving to secure its general adoption. Since the formation of this Association, fifteen years ago, a great change has been going on in our country in methods of construction, as well as in other matters of library economy. This result has been brought about by papers which have been read and discussions held at the meet- SAJV FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. ings of the Association. All the library buildings which have been erected in our country during the" past ten years and they have been many give evidence, with two exceptions, of judicious progress and of the influence of our Association. The exceptions are the unfinished structures of the Boston Public Library and of the Library of Congress. If there be anything in either of these buildings which has been approved of in this Association I have not discovered it. The Presi- dent of the Boston Public Library expressly stated that its new building was planned without consulting his own or any other librarian. The result has been an " Iliad of woes " to the trus- tees, the city government, the architect, and the tax-payers, and the end is not yet. That library has no representative with us at this meeting, and yet it was one of the leading supporters of the Association in earlier years, when Dr. Winsor and later Dr. Chamberlain were its librarians. Dr. Winsor would be with us today representing Harvard University Library if he had not just returned from a protracted European tour. Neither has the Library of Congress any representative here, and its librarian was formerly one of our most prominent members. The plans of the new building of that library have been earnestly and _, sharply criticised at our meetings and never defended by a librarian. Hence the absence of its chief official is accounted for. The discussions of the original plans of that structure have been beneficial, for they defeated the scheme and saved the country many million dollars. The subject had been incidentally treated earlier, but the first general discussion concerning library buildings took place at the meeting at Washington, in February, 1881, where I had the honor of read- ing a paper on the subject. At the same meeting Mr. J. L. Smithmeyer read a paper on the same subject, and brought out for the first time his plans for the new building of the library of Con- gress. Both these papers appear side by side in the Library journal for that year ; and mine was printed with drawings by the Bureau of Educa- tion and the American architect. Mr. Smith- meyer made no estimate of the cost of his build- ing ; but architects who examined the plans placed the cost at fifteen millions, and some of them higher. The Congress Committee on the Library accepted Mr. Smithmeyer's plans and urged Con- gress to make an appropriation for beginning the construction. A strong opposition arose in the House, partly on account of its being a build- ing devised for show rather than for legitimate and convenient library use, but chiefly on account of the immense and unknown cost involved. The measure was discussed from time to time with considerable feeling and personality, and it went over from session to session without final action. At one time a motion made by Mr. Holman of Indiana was carried, that the cost of the building should not exceed two millions, which made the use of Mr. Smith- meyer's plans impossible. After further delay, without a change of this general character, were cut down and modified with the intention of bring- ing the expense within four millions. The limit was later raised to six millions, and the work of construction was begun under Mr. Smithmeyer as architect. He was soon relieved, and the work was placed with full power under General Casey, engineer of the War Department. General Casey made the judicious appointment of Mr. Bernard R. Green as superintendent and engineer, who has made modifications and improvements in the plans committed to him. It will be a better building than it promised to be under Mr. Smithmeyer's charge ; but will be far from what the average American librarian regards as an ideal library structure. Allow me to state briefly some of the objections to plans of that building. The main structure, which measures on the outside 470 by 338 feet, incloses a quadrangle, in the centre of which is an octagonal reading-room 140 feet in diameter, with very high ceiling, and surmounted by a dome. In this reading-room are book-cases, and from it radiate into the open area of the quadrangle book-stacks which are nine stories high. Every one who has visited Washington in summer is aware that the climate is very warm it is hot. Some visitors make the expression stronger than that. (Laughter.) The reports of the Naval Observatory show that the mercury in the sun at Washington often stands from 160 to 165 degrees. A piece of iron at that temperature is too hot for the hand to hold without pain. The corridors of the book-stacks are to be lighted by skylights in the roof. Imagine the heat there must be in the stacks and the reading-room shut up in the quadrangle, with high walls on the four sides and cut off from the natural circulation of air ! What a time the readers will have with the sun at 165 degrees blazing down into that quad- rangle ! We may be told that the terrors of such heat to the readers and the books will be obviated by mechanical circulation. The success of this remedy seems to me improbable. Is that good FOURTH SESSION. 99 construction which shuts out the essential por- tions of the library from the natural air currents ? Excessive heat is the great enemy of books. Other points of criticism on these plans may appear later in my general remarks. The fact is the American Library Association did not begin its work soon enough. If it had started in five years earlier and taken up the examination and* discussion of library construction, Mr. Smith- meyer and his scheme would never have had a hearing in Congress. The erection of the two great library buildings at Washington and Boston furnished the most favorable opportunities for showing practical and sensible progress in ideas, and what library architecture should be; but, unfortunately, both have failed in producing model buildings. When the American Library Association began its work, all the chief library buildings of the country were constructed on the same principles Harvard College Library, Boston Public Library, Boston Athenaeum, Astor Library, Baltimore Pea- body Institute, Congress Library, Cincinnati Pub- lic Library, and many others. The same design may be seen in every part of Europe. It is the gothic ecclesiastical style, and has been the common form for library buildings for the last four or five centuries. During the middle ages the church was the conservator of letters and learning. Its libraries, composed chiefly of relig- ious books, were put in religious buildings planned after the style of its gothic cathedrals, and like cathedrals, were not heated. Later the secular libraries adopted the same construction ; and so the fashion came down through the centuries to our time as the only correct library style. There is no necessary or logical connection between library arid ecclesiastical architecture, and it is probable that the last of this class of buildings has been erected in this country. The prominent features of this style are briefly these : Two rows of columns supporting a clear story which takes in light on both sides, the open nave between the columns, and aisles between the columns and the walls. The lofty nave is used as a reading-room, and the aisles for shelving books in galleries from four, six, or more stories high. As the clear story admits but little light, some of the buildings have a large lantern or skylight in the roof. In our northern climate these rooms must be warmed in winter, and it is desirable that they should be cool in summer. In winter we provide radiators, or turn in a volume of hot air from furnaces in the cellar. That air, being lighter than the cool air in the room, rises to the ceiling like a balloon. Hence the temperature becomes very hot in the upper strata where heat is not needed, while it is cool near the floor where it is needed. In order to get the proper warmth near the floor, it is necessary to overheat the upper strata, and this excessive heat destroys the bindings of books which are stored there. A test with a thermom- eter will show that the temperature in such a room increases one degree for every foot of eleva- tion above the floor. Leather is a substance which will not stand excessive heat, and it begins to deteriorate when the temperature is higher than is comfortable to ourselves. Books cannot live where we cannot live, and should be shelved near the floor where we live and are comfortable, but never in galleries. This injury to books by heat goes on in rooms which are not as high as those I have named ; even on the high shelves in book-cases in private houses. The reading-room of the Boston Athenaeum is only twenty feet high and has but one gallery. If you go into that gallery and examine the books which have been stored there for some years, you will find your clothes covered with a red powder, which is the ashes of the bindings destroyed by excessive heat. In winter you will also find the temperature uncomfortably hot. It will be readily conceived what the heat must be in winter in galleries and it is the same with stacks four, five, or six stories high, and especially in the Congressional building, where the stacks are nine stories high. The alternative is not to heat these buildings in winter, which will be very inconvenient for readers. My remedy is in the construction, and is very simple. Do not have high rooms; have no gal- leries ; and shelve the books in a single tier of book-cases on the floor, and not higher than a person of average stature can reach any book without step or ladder. Another objection to the common construction of which I have spoken is the annoyance of climb- ing stairs from one story and gallery to another. This is the most tiresome, wearing, and unhealthy exercise a human being can take. Years ago an ingenious person in charge of a penitentiary in Eng- land invented the treadmill. He found that by putting lazy criminals upon a rotating wheel they would have to keep moving or they would fall into a pit. He found also that the apparatus fur- nished an economical power for propelling machin- ery, and that he had made a great discovery. The treadmill was introduced into other penitentiaries ; but it turned out that the criminals who were exer- 100 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. cised thereby became ill. They had pulmonary trouble, their breath was short, they had sciatica, and became lame. This result was so common that a public investigation by scientific men was ordered, and the whole trouble was traced to that infernal treadmill that constant going up stairs for that is the essential principle of a treadmill. They also found it to be the most uneconomical mode of expending human energy, for only eleven per cent of the energy which a man can expend on a level and without injury to himself can be utilized on a treadmill. The government, therefore, expelled the treadmill from the prisons of England as a barbarism, a cruel and unusual punishment. It is not to our credit that the principle is still found in American libraries as an exercise good enough for runners and attendants. In the Boston Public Library young girls were first used to run up and down stair*, and they soon gave out. Boys have since been employed as runners. Boys can stand almost anything in the'way of abuse and live, and when a boy drops out of the ranks, lame and crippled, another poor boy, with perhaps a mother dependent on him, is waiting to take his place. President Gilman gave the name of " statistical devil " to crankism in statistics. For the fiend we now have under consideration the name " treadmill devil " is appropriate, which, on the score of humanity, ought to be turned out of all the libraries. By abolishing galleries and not introducing stacks I have made the barbarism unnecessary. The nave of the conventional and mediaeval reading-room, as I have stated, is used as a read- ing-room, and it is the most inappropriate place in the world for such a purpose. The reader needs quiet and to be let alone, and they ire constantly disturbed by visitors walking around among them and perhaps talking. This is usually the show- room, and is made as elegant as possible for the purpose of attracting visitors who have no purpose to study. If such a building be not fire-proof it is the most conbustible of structures, and if fire- proof it is needlessly expensive. The style admits of no accommodations for carrying on the adminis- trative work of the library, the selection and ordering of books, the receiving, the cataloguing, and preparing them for the shelves. Very little of this work was done in the middle ages, and hence there was no need to provide for it. The tendency in late years, especially in college and university libraries, has been to adopt the stack system a series of iron book-cases, one above the other, from five to nine stories high, and accessible by galleries. Compactness and the capacity of storing a large number of books in a limited spaee are regarded as the chief advantages of this construction. The merits of this system have never so impressed me that I was ready to adopt it or recommend it to others. In the case of colleges where it has been adopted there was no occasion for economy in ground space, as the building was to be built on a campus where there were many acres of unoccupied ground. I am not satisfied that there is either financial economy or convenience to readers in the plan. On the other hand, it seems to me to have some very notable disadvantages. The stacks I have seen do not meet one's aesthetic idea of how books ought to be treated. Inside trie walls the structure looks like a model prison with tiers of cells rising one above the other, and without an incident of beauty or cheerfulness to relieve the sombre picture. The galleries are narrow and not in- viting, the light is uncertain and insufficient, and diminishes as you enter the stack. If the stack- room be heated in winter you have the " heat fiend" in the upper galleries. In summer this fiend there holds undisturbed possession. If you climb the stairs from gallery to gallery the " tread- mill devil " is at your heels. The stack with which I am most familiar is that of Harvard University, the first which was constructed. Be- sides my own observations I have the concurrent testimony of several of my assistants who have been employed in that library. The heat in sum- mer in the upper galleries is excessive. The light in the galleries is generally poor, and in the lower ones the numbers and titles of books cannot be read in cloudy weather or after three o'clock in the afternoon. The galleries are not convenient or light enough for the consultation of books. I have never met a person who had used or been employed in the library who spoke well of that stack. Another form of stack is now coming to the front ; and, if I am correctly informed, it is pro- posed to introduce it into two public libraries in that portion of the West where I reside. We shall probably hear its merits extolled in this dis- cussion. It is not the ordinary stack from four or six stories high, but a three-story stack a little devil with the second story on the level of the delivery room, the first story being below and the third story above that level, so that the attendant in any event can have only one flight to climb. This is better than having two or more flights ; but it is better still to have no flights to climb, and FOURTH SESSION. 101 to have all the books in the circulating department on a level with the delivery counters. A person may ascend stairs a few times a day without appar- ent injury; but when often repeated the exertion becomes wearisome and positively injurious to health. On account of the general introduction of elevators, stairs are more unusual and more of a nuisance than formerly. Physicians state that in cities where little of dwelling houses is on the ground floor and much in the air, the health of women is undermined by stairs. Many years ago, when I had charge of the Mercantile Library in Boston, a delivery counter was put in which was six inches too high, and there was a step of that height for the attendants to stand upon when changing books. A strong, healthy man, who had been in the library for several years, was in service at the delivery counter. In less than a year after putting in that step his health began to fail, he was lame, had sciatica, and the same symptoms the treadmill prisoners in England exhibited. We did not suspect the cause, and sent him away to recu- perate. He came back all right and went to work ; but the old troubles came on again and he had to leave. Taking up other work, his health was perfectly restored. Another person took his place in the library, and in about six months he was affected in the same way. Since my attention has been directed to the subject of library con- struction, I have no doubt that the troubles of these men were brought on by that one step which their duties required them to ascend constantly during the day. The work of attendants in our libraries, who are generally women, is now very fatiguing, even when they work on a level with the delivery counters; and it is a question worth the consideration of a Humane Society whether it is justifiable to burden them further with the cruelty of climbing stairs, even if it be only a single flight. Another objection I have to a three-deck stack is that the galleries cannot be sufficiently lighted. Light has the peculiarity that it always moves in straight lines, and will not turn a corner unless it be reflected. No high light, that is, light from the sky, which is the only effective light, reaches any part of the interior of the stack, for it is cut off by the floor of the gallery above. The only light taken in, therefore, is the horizontal light reflected from the opposite side of the street ; it may be a dingy brick or stone building which gives off little reflection in clear weather, and on cloudy days scarcely any. The tunnel between the book-cases, from 20 to 25 feet long, is to be lighted, if at all, by this weak horizontal reflection, and through a window with an opening of about six by two and a half feet, I do not believe the stack can be so lighted. It may be lighted by electricity, and so may any dark room ; but to suggest this alterna- tive is a confession of weakness in the scheme. No light is so effective and essential in a library as natural light. It is a sufficient reason for condemn- ing any plan of library construction which does not furnish an abundance of natural illumination. I believe in shelving books in a single tier of cases not more than eight feet high, in rooms of moderate height, from fourteen to sixteen feet, and with no galleries. The space above the book- cases is needed for the distribution of light and the circulation of air. These book rooms are always light. When 250,000 volumes can be shelved in this manner, in a space one hundred feet square, or on 10,000 square feet of floor space, it seems unnecessary to talk about stacks. It is desirable to have all the books in the library on one floor ; but if there be not space enough, take two, three or four floors, and have an elevator running to each. Classify the books into depart- ments, and assign these departments to the several floors as will be most convenient to'readers. When a person wants a book he goes to the department where it belongs. This principle is applied in the large retail stores in every city, and is regarded as a convenience to all concerned. I have never seen it applied to a library, but see no reason why it is not practicable. It may be asked what classifica- tion of departments I would make for the several stories. I have not given special thought to the matter, but will throw out some suggestions. As prose, fiction, and juvenile reading form nearly three-quarters of the circulation in popular libra- ries, we will assign these books and readers to the first story. In the second story we will place his- tory and biography, travels and geography, poetry and drama, essays and miscellanies, language, French, German, and Italian liter- ature. In the third story we will place fine arts, practical and useful arts, natural sciences, religion, philosophy. In the fourth story, politi- cal economy, social science, education, politics and government, public documents. I am not prepared to say that I would not under any circumstances recommend the construction of a stack ; but I will say that I have never seen an instance when I thought it advisable. If we can- not get the thing we want, it is good policy to get the best thing we can. I should not like to go to sea in a bowl ; but if it were necessary to go and I could get nothing better, I think I should try it. IO2 FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. I have said nothing about the plans of the New- berry Library which I fully explained at our last meeting at the White Mountains, and I have omit- ted speaking of them now because few members here are interested in a purely reference library where no books are circulated. I may say in brief that our method is to classify books into depart- ments such as Fine Arts, Practical and Useful Arts, History, Political Economy, and Social Sci- ence, Religion, etc., and to give each of these departments a separate room, where the books are read as well as shelved. We begin with a few departments, and as the number of volumes increase and more space is needed, the depart- ments are subdivided and each of the subdivisions are given separate rooms. For instance, when the room for History is becoming full, the American history is taken out and assigned to another room. We have a large number of rooms, and when these are occupied, which will be some years hence, there is opportunity for extending the structure and providing more rooms. It is, in short, many special libraries under one roof and one adminis- tration, and each having attendants familiar with the specialty which the room contains. The library in temporary quarters has now about 80,- ooo, and the new building is in progress of con- struction. The reference library which Mr. Sutro is collecting and generously proposes to give to the citizens of San Francisco, will have the same general character as the Newberry Library, of Chicago, and in the building he will construct for it some of the principles described may be applied ; but for ordinary and circulating libraries they have no adaptation. The PRESIDENT. In regard to going up and down stairs, I found that on account of econ- omy of space I must have a stack in the new building just put up in Worcester, and I have a little elevator running through its four stories. I do not mean that the young ladies shall run up and down stairs at all, but that they shall use the elevator. Mr. WHELPLEY. I was very much in hopes, before the convention closes, to have Dr. Poole tell us who was responsible for the Cincinnati Public Library. That appears to be a library in which all the bad features which are spoken of from time to time are grouped. We have had the reduction of the bindings to powder carried on probably as successfully as it could be done anywhere, or more so; and not only the reduction once to powder, but the books have been rebound and have again undergone the same process. We have had the climbing of six stories of iron stairs, adding to that another story between the two roofs, and all the remarks that have been made by Dr. Poole, in regard to the health of those who are required to make a tread- mill journey from day to day, I could supplement. The PRESIDENT. You have no elevators ? Mr. WHELPLEY. We have no elevators and I cannot see where we could have them. The PRESIDENT. Yours is not the stack sys- tem? Mr. WHELPLEY. No, it is the old cathedral system. We introduced the electric light and it has purified the atmosphere. I can see that it has stopped the deterioration of the books in the upper stories. The same rules are to be applied to the health of books as to the health of men. We want less heat and better ventilation, to pre- serve the books, and I think the use of the electric light will influence this. I should like to have a little of the searching criticism of Dr. Poole and others who know about the Cincinnati Public Library, for I think it would produce a beneficial effect and probably lead towards a new library. Dr. POOLE. When I was called to Cincinnati, in 1869, the lot had been bought, the plans of the building had been made, and the superstructure was already put in, so that I had nothing to do with the plans of construction. Besides, if I had had the opportunity, I do not think I should have made changes, for my attention had not been called to the subject of construction at that time. The PRESIDENT. I suppose that everybody thinks that Dr. Poole's plans for the arrangement of his library building are excellent ; but most of us believe that we must have stacks for various consid- erations, and I want to point out two or three facts. One is that you avoid the treadmill by having an elevator ; another is that, although you may not leave space above your stacks, yet, with' the elec- tric light and ventilation, you can prevent largely the deterioration of books. Dr. POOLE. Does the attendant run the ele- vator ? The PRESIDENT. I have a little hydraulic elevator running through the different stories of the stack, which the attendants run for them- selves. Then we have two other large elevators for other purposes. Mr. BOWKER. May I put in a word? The development now is in the direction of the appli- cation of the same current which supplies the light to running the elevators. It will be a very FOURTH SESSION. 103 important development in library architecture, so that you will not have to use hydraulic power. You can improve in the matter of light by putting windows opposite every column of the stack and having them as high as you can, and by white- washing or painting the walls of the buildings opposite you can do a great deal to get in light even in the city. Then you have these electric lights with long hose in the middle of each set of shelves that are long enough to be carried to the end of your stack. These are ways in which you get over the difficulties in a stack, and most of us believe that a stack is the form that we must have in our libraries. Miss HEWINS. In the conditions of our build- ing in Hartford we have two problems to con. sider. One is the circulating library, where we have the stack on the ground floor, and the other is the Watkinson library of reference, where the " alcove system " is to be followed, so that persons coming into the hall can see at once that beautiful collection of books. I think that this is some- thing to be considered. The PRESIDENT. Will the public be allowed to go to the shelves ? Miss HEWINS. That has not been settled, but I think that it will be allowed in the reference library. The PRESIDENT. That is, in the alcoves ? Miss HEWINS. No, all the work at present is done in the middle room. Arrangements will be made for sitting in the alcove ; there will be a window put in. The PRESIDENT. I will call upon Mr. Cutter. We must all be brief in order to finish by half- past eleven o'clock. Mr. CUTTER. I shall have to lead your thoughts in a little different direction from that which they have lately been following and take up another side of the subject. When in the Buffalo convention we were considering whether it was worth while to have a school for librarians, I remem ber thinking, and I believe saying, that it was even more important to have one for library trustees, and perhaps there is no matter in which it is more desirable that the trustees should be instructed than that of library architecture. Every other mistake which a Board of Trustees may make in regard to the administration of a library can be corrected, but a mistake in a building it is almost impossible to correct. To re-catalogue your library, if catalogued on a wrong principle, would be very expensive ; still more expensive would it be to re-classify it ; but to re-build is ruinous. Yet judging from the results one would suppose that many building committees did not know that there is any difference between the good building and the bad building, from a library point of view. Their attention is almost always centered on the appearance of the edifice ; they want (very prop- erly) to make a structure which will be an honor to the city. Even from a library point of view that is very desirable, beciuse the library building ought to be attractive to draw people into it. Nothing is to be said against that. But they do not feel what we feel strongly, that the success of the library, in a very great degree, depends upon the adaptation of the building to its purpose. They do not understand that the cost of running the library will depend largely upon whether it is suited to its purpose, and whether it is constructed so as to admit of economy of administration. In many of our libraries this is an extremely impor- tant matter. Suppose a city has a certain sum given to it for a building on condition that it fnr- nishes the money to buy the books and run the library afterwards. It will make a great difference in the annual expense whether the library is so built that the attendants go for each book an average of 50, or of 100, or of 150 feet; whether it is so planned that it requires a great deal or a very little supervision, a great many or a very few attendants in the different rooms. Of course it is not feasible to have a school for building committees. The only thing we can do is to get as many trustees as possible to attend these conventions and listen to what is said in regard to library architecture. We must work up public opinion, so far as we can, as to the superi- ority of a good library building over a bad library building. Mr. Soule has given us a most excellent state- ment of what is desirable in library buildings. There is another side to the question ; one may make a statement of what not to do. I could not pretend to do it with his fullness, but taking my own library as an example, I can indicate several points which I advise you should avoid. The Boston Athenaeum is remarkable in this, that although it was not designed by an architect, it was for many years held to be one of the hand- somest buildings in Boston ; and although it was not planned by one who knew anything about building libraries, and I do not think the advice of any librarian was asked in regard to it probably no librarian could have given good advice at that time, forty years ago yet it has served the purpose of a library fairly well. But there are IO4 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. several features which stand much in the way of good work and of comfort, and make it more expensive to run the library. We have very low windows, their tops six or eight feet below the ceiling. The consequence is that the whole room is badly lighted and the upper part is simply a reservoir of darkness. Of course, according to the modern doctrine, we ought to put no books up there. But what are we to do when the lower shelves are full and many have double rows of books upon them ? We must put books in the galleries though we cannot see them when they are there. We have the alcove system, and a window in each alcove. The window is not as wide as the alcove, leaving a wall space at the side. It is necessary to have shelves on that wall space. The result is that when one wants to get a book by the side of the window the light dazzles one's eyes and no light falls upon the book ; and as the public go to our shelves, they are subject to the same dis- comforts as we. We have high shelves, ten feet high, compelling the use of ladders. Ordinary light ladders are dangerous ; people tumble off of them. Solid step ladders which can be rolled around occasion more or less loss of time. The railings of our galleries as originally put in were so low that many persons complained of dizziness, and we were obliged to raise them. We came near having some very objectionable stairs. There was a room sixty feet long, with galleries; it was entered at the west end; the staircase to the gallery was put at the east end. A person going into the room in search of a book at the west end of the gallery, though it might be almost within reach as he entered, must go sixty feet to the end of the room, sixty feet back to the west end of the gallery, and then retrace all those steps. The borrower, for whom he was getting the book, had to wait while he walked forty yards unnecessarily. I did not see this design before it was carried into execution. When I did, it was onlv necessary to point out to the arcbitect the result of his plan to get him to put another stair- case in the west corner near the door. I have seen almost exactly the same thing done in two other libraries, showing the foolishness of having plans made and accepted by men who do not know what library work is. We have, as I said, the alcove arrangement, which obliges us to go twice as far as there is any need of, because a large part of the books might just as well have been stored in a compact stack. One feature, which would generally be objec- tionable, I like. All our work is done in public the cataloging, classification, collating, pasting, everything. This arrangement brings myself and my assistants into closer contact with the public, and I think it worth while to endure all the inconvenience for the sake of that. Mr. ROWELL. Would you recommend it ? Mr. CUTTER. Not for all libraries, but it suits us. I should certainly urge that there should be proper rooms for all mechanical work, and that books necessary for cataloging should be close to the catalogs. We have no space whatever where a teacher can meet her class and look over large books or engravings. Our library is much used in that way. Teacher and pupils have to crowd into a small room where the art books are kept. Some- times two classes are there at the same time, with resulting confusion. From my own experience one of the most important things in a library of any size is that there should be some place where a class can be met by their teachers, and not interfere with the regular work of the library; yet I have heard of a library just built at a cost of $250,000 that has no class-rooms for the public and no working-rooms for the force. These evils that I have pointed out may seem to you small matters. And each by itself is ; but taken together, and each one working its little hindrance or annoyance many times a day, they produce an amount of delay and discomfort that cannot be neglected. I doubt if it is too much to say that by reason of them every real scholar who goes to the library is prevented of something that he might be able to accomplish, or is obliged to spend more time about it than he need in a well-planned building. Surely it is worth while to avoid such a result by a little forethought. FIFTH SESSION. (WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 14.) Owing to the lateness of the hour of the return from Stanford University, in order to give mem- bers time to dine, the President did not call the meeting to order until 8.30 P. M. President GREEN read his paper on LIBRARIES AND SCHOOLS. (Seep. 22.) Miss HEWINS. When I first went to Hart- ford, sixteen years ago, the reproach was thrown at the library by the principal of a large school, that it was of no benefit whatever to his pupils, for FIFTH SESSION. 105 the only use that they made of it was to read trashy books, which lowered their standing in school. So far as I know, however, he never made any suggestions as to the better reading to be found in the library. We did not try to do much work in the schools until about seven years ago, when an old teacher resigned, and a young man trained in modern methods of teaching took his place. He at once began to take an interest in the pupils' reading, and imparted an entirely new spirit to his school. He took a subscription at the library which gave him ten or twelve books at a time, to be kept in the school room. The pupils have ever since made a record of what they read there and at home, and every winter this record is sent me for notes and comments. I have observed steady growth in power of expression besides marked improvement in the reading of the successive classes. After a while one or two of the other schools began to take books. Last year the amount was raised to make our library free, but the building is still unfinished, and we charge a nominal sum for subscription in order to keep away a larger crowd of readers than we can handle. After the larger sums for the library had been subscribed smaller gifts were called for, and the school children, even in the kindergartens, gave so generously in proportion to their means that we decided to offer them the first use of the free library. Last winter, at a special meet- ing of our Board of Directors, it was decided to spend a hundred and fifty dollars for duplicates of interesting books on American history and add them to what we already had for the use of the schools. The duplicate books are Abbott's Miles Standish, Mrs. Austin's Standish of Standish, Brooks' Abraham Lincoln, Mrs. Catherwood's Romance of Dollard, Coffin's Boys of '76 and Building the Nation, Cooke's Stories of the Old Dominion, Cooper's Lionel Lincoln and Wept of Wishton-Wish, Eggleston's Montezuma, Pocahon- tas, and Tecumseh, Fiske's Civil Government in the United States and War of Independence, Goss' Jed, Hale's Philip Nolan's Friends and George Washington, Miss Hale's Mexico, Harte's Thank- ful Blossom, Henty's By Right of Conquest, True to the Old Flag, and With Wolfe in Canada, Mrs. Jackson's Ramona, Markham's Colonial Days, Munroe's Flamingo Feather, Scudder's George Washington, Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Thompson's Green Mountain Boys, and Mrs. Wright's Children's Stories in American History and Children's Stories in American Progress. We have in our bulletin for July, 1891, a list, arranged under periods, of all the books in the library which we recommend for school use in connection with United States history, and we have another now out of print, of the best books of travel for refer- ence in geography. Sixteen schools use our books. Some of them are two or three miles out in the country, away from even a Sunday school library, and, in order that the pupils may form a habit of reading, we send them interesting stories, besides books directly connected with their studies. Mr. BRETT'S paper on THE CLEVELAND LIBRARIES AND SCHOOLS was then read by Miss Allan. (See p. 30.) Mr. UTLEY. Some three years ago an arrange- ment was made between the Board of Education of our city and the public library commission, by which the Board of Education became responsible for the preservation and safe return to the library of books specially procured for use in the schools, and they also provided transportation between the library and the school houses. A number of boxes were furnished in which the books are placed. The principals of the schools made the selection of books. The high school grades are provided with a list of something like 1,500 books. The books were purchased expressly for this use and were not taken from the library shelves ; they were in all cases duplicates, so that the library was left with its usual number of copies to be used in the ordinary manner. In the high school grades the number of copies of each book was designated by he principal and ran from a single book to as high as fifty copies, depending on the size of classes and the extent of use desired. When a subject is taken up upon which special reading is required by the teachers, these books are called for by the principal and sent to the school. When the class passes beyond that study and a new series is required, the old list is returned to the library and a new list is sent out. In the grammar schools in the 7th and 8th grades we have children from ten to thirteen years of age. In these grades the number of copies of a book is usually twenty, and the custom is to make up the list about once in five weeks, sending out the books seven or eight times a year. The team comes to the library for the books, and they are all sent out at the same time, generally occu- pying about two days in making the delivery. At the end of the five weeks the books are returned to the library to be redistributed and sent out io6 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. again. The same books do not go back to a school ordinarily more frequently than once in two years. These books are treated in different schools in different manner. In some they are read in the school houses, being given to the pupils when they have accomplished their lessons or have con- ducted themselves in such a manner as to merit some reward. In most schools, however, they are circulated as they are circulated from the library; that is, the children are allowed to take them home to be read. From records kept at some schools it appeared that every one of these books is read about three times during this period of five weeks. In the 5th and 6th grades, there being a larger number of children, a larger number of books was prepared. In some instances 100 copies of the books are furnished, and they are circulated in the same manner as in the 7th and 8th grades. This plan has been in operation about three years, and I think it is eminently successful. Of course, very much depends upon the teachers themselves ; if they are not interested the children are not likely to become so, but I notice that the plan is becoming more and more popular, as time passes and as teachers and children see its advan- tages. The effect is seen already in the circula- tion of books from the library itself ; a decided improvement in the character of books called for by young people is manifest. Miss KELSO. Do you permit the pupils to take books from the library, as well as from the school, giving them a library card at the same time ? Mr. UTLEY. The pupils may have library cards, and many of them do, and go to the library and borrow books, in addition to those which they get from the school ; but there is no arrangement for distributing books to the schools upon special cards held by teachers, as is done in some libraries. I think that was mentioned by Mr. Brett and some others. The plan of distrib- uting the books in the schools is a distinct arrangement, separate and apart from the ordi- nary circulation of library books upon cards. Children under fourteen years of age do not have library cards in their own name, but they may use the cards of their parents We give books when the cards are presented, to any child, no matter how small. Mr. GREEN. In Worcester we have a blue card which we give to persons too young to have the kind of card usually given out, but whom we think it desirable should have cards, and they may take books out on those cards. The attendants are all instructed to look after the reading of per- sons having the blue cards, so as to see that they get books adapted to their age, and good books. We should like to hear from Dr. Linderfelt as to what has been done in Milwaukee in this line. Dr. LINDERFELT. I have very little to report unlike what has already been said. There may be some slight difference in the methods used in our library, but the results are substantially the same. Our system of distributing books directly to the schools through the teachers was inaugurated something like four years ago, for the purpose of reaching a large class of the community to whom the existence of the library was practically unknown. The method which we employ in carry- ing on this work is this : The teachers of any of the upper grades in a public school either come to the library and select for themselves, or send into us a list of a number of books sufficient to go around among the scholars under their charge, generally thirty to sixty books each. These are then sent from the library to the school, and from the school back to the library, at the expense of the library, the work of transfer being attended to by the person employed for delivering books every day to the regularly established delivery stations. The books are kept by the teacher two months, which is twice as long as any other books can be kept out of the library, and then returned ; but, of course, there is nothing to prevent the teacher returning them before the time or from taking the same books, or a part of them, back again, if he choose, though, as a rule, it has been found that the time allowed is amply sufficient. While the books are at the schools they are given out by the teacher in the same manner as at the library, so that the school practically, for the time being, becomes a branch of the public library. No child in the school can take home any of these books unless provided with a regular library card, in no way dif- fering from the card used at the library itself. This prevents drawing more than one book at a time, whether from the school or from the library, the only restriction being that a book drawn from a school must be returned at the same school. The teacher, by this means, is relieved from all personal responsibility as to the library books that he gives out at his school, since, as soon as a book is drawn from the teacher on a regular library card, the father of the child, or whoever else serves as his guarantor, becomes responsible for the safe return of the book. With each book we furnish a card, SIXTH SESSION. 107 which is a fac simile of the charging slip used in the library, but of a different color, and which the teacher uses for charging the book each time it is given out. This slip is returned to the library with the book, and tells its own story, as to what books are most used and consequently need to be fur- nished in a number of duplicates. We have at various times expended $500 each time in duplicat- ing substantially the same list of the books most frequently called for, and, as the system of school delivery is being extended so as to include more and more of the lower classes and younger children, this duplication of books must be carried on contiuually. We thoroughly believe, however, that we can in no other way better serve the pur- poses for which the library has been established, than by furnishing a sufficient amount of the best literature, even if we thereby should be obliged to curtail the amount available for the purpose of what may be styled ornamental literature. As regards the books which the teachers select for use in the school room, they are generally such as are intimately connected with studies of the class, though not necessarily restricted to books directly discussing the subject in hand, but con- sist of illustrative fiction and supplementary read- ing of all kinds. So thoroughly is this system of school work now organized that if a school or a single teacher in a school is not making use of the privileges that we offer, we send our superinten- dent of that particular branch of the library ser- vice to ascertain the reason. With special refer- ence to this school work, there was, a few years ago, appointed as superintendent of the delivery department of the library a lady, who, while a teacher herself in one of the schools, had been found to be particularly interested in that part of the work and exhibited a great deal of ingenuity in interesting her scholars in the reading of good books. Thus, when a great many of her pupils were tardy in attendance, and every other means of correcting the vicious habit had failed, she adopted the plan of reading to the class every morning, for ten minutes before school com- menced, the then new story of Little Lord Faunt- leroy, on the condition that if any one were late the reading was postponed until the next morn- ing. After this had been done a few mornings every single scholar was present promptly ten minutes before school time, and it was not long before, in case there was danger of one being tardy, the other children would start out to find him and bring him in on time. Under this lady's guidance the school delivery work in Milwaukee has become an eminent success, and we would sooner think of giving up any other department of the library than that. Before sitting down I wish to mention a spec- ial experiment made by one of our school princi- pals, who made an application to the library for permisssion to keep 40 or 50 books during a whole school year, for carrying out a plan of work which he had conceived, outside of the ordinary school work. These books all related to ancient Greek and Roman history and were given out to be read in the usual way by the members of the highest class of his school, but every Friday after- noon, after school hours, the class met for an hour or so and discussed what they had read during the week. Each time three or four of them were required to give a resume, in their own words, of any passage that had impressed them favorably, either in its treatment of the subject or as illus- trating any particular phase of it. These exer- cises were kept up during the entire school year, and when at the end of the year a final exercise was held in public, it was astonishing to find what a depth of knowledge those children possessed in the main facts of ancient history, all of which was acquired outside of the regular routine. This year the same principal intends to take up modern history in the same manner, and I have no doubt that when his children leave school they will be far in advance of other children of the same age who have not had such training. Mr. FLETCHER then gave a synopsis of his paper on LIBRARY LEGISLATION. (See p. 31.) The PRESIDENT announced invitations to Oak- land tomorrow. Adjourned. SIXTH SESSION. (THURSDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 15.) Called to order by the PRESIDENT. An exhibition of articles from the Library Bureau of Chicago, on the platform, was announced. A letter from Miss HANCOCK, tendering some souvenirs of Pescadero beach in the shape of small bottles of variegated pebbles, was read : President and members of the A. L. A., assembled in San Francisco, Oct., i8gi: I spent my vacation this year at Pescadero beach, and became so fascinated picking up peb- bles that I did nothing else. As a partial result io8 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. of that pastime I have prepared these souvenirs for the members of the A. L. A., and hope that in your distant homes you may enjoy in looking at them a little bit of what I did in picking them up on the beach. Yours fraternally, CAROLINE G. HANCOCK. The thanks of the Association were extended to Miss Hancock. CONTAGIOUS DISEASES IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES, a paper by GARDNER M. JONES, was then read by Dr. WIRE, who at the end said : In conse- quence of the peculiar character of the library with which I am connected, I have had no expe- rience whatever in the dissemination of disease by my books. People with small pox and typhoid fever are not likely to consult books in a medical reference library. Mr. PUTNAM'S paper on ACCESS TO THE SHELVES was read by Mr. Jenks. (Seep. 62.) Mr. BRETT'S paper on the same subject was read by Miss Sherman. (Seep. 34.) Mr. DANA. From the day the Denver Public Library was opened the conduct of it has been based on the principle that the books and papers it contains are the property of the public, and that the institution serves the purpose of its existence only when those books and papers are actually used. It is not worth while, with our limited experi- ence, to do more than to say that our conclusions as to access to shelves are exactly in harmony with those of Mr. Putnam. The Denver Public Library is entirely free to any resident of the city. Books are lent, for the most part, on the simple promise bf the applicant to observe the library's regulations. There are, properly speaking, no printed rules as to the conduct of the users of the library, and so far, the need for them has not been felt. The gate in the fence which separates the cases from the reading tables is sometimes closed, but never locked. Readers who wish to use the reference books, which for want of space else- where are kept behind this fence, are asked to step in, and told to enter without asking the next time they may wish to use them. School children in particular are urged to come in and use the reference books and make themselves acquainted with books, guides, and indexes of all kinds. Book borrowers, who ask for a work not in, are shown the way to the shelf containing similar books and told to help themselves. Those who wish to look over the library in a general way, or for the purpose of acquainting themselves with its resources in particular lines, are given every pos- sible facility for doing so. Want of space makes it impossible to permit readers to go to the fiction cases, though we are confident, from experiments we have tried in a small way, that Mr. Putnam is entirely right in his conclusion as to the advisa- bility of so doing. Very few books are lost or mutilated possibly forty or fifty dollars' worth in two years. The books are disarranged, but this is a small matter, relatively. Probably ten persons are accomo- dated by access to the shelves where one is incon- venienced by the disarrangement. The quality of reading done is certainly improved by giving bor- rowers liberty to choose for themselves, and the number of books read, as well as the number of users of the library, are increased by the liberal policy pursued in its management. Our library, it will be seen, has so far, both in size and general conduct, much resembled the branch library of which Mr. Putnam speaks, and bears him out in his conclusions. Order, obedience to rules and regulations, silence, comfort or convenience of librarian and attendants, library traditions, all these are made to give way to the one essential thing the putting the people, for whom the library is established and by whom it is supported, in actual touch, in intimate personal relations, with that which con- stitutes a library, the books themselves. As it is true on the one hand, as Mr. Putnam says, that the worst sin one can commit against a library is to stay away from it, so, on the other hand, we have been of the opinion that the worst sin against the public the library can commit, is to deny it access to the books themselves. There is nothing sacred about a book after all ; it is merely a tool whose value is in its use, and we take pleasure in adding the evidence of our limited experience to the truth of the proposition that a good book well worn out is the best of all books, and in protesting that the notion that books are to be preserved as a sacred trust is but an unfortu- nate survival. The PRESIDENT. We should like to have a discussion on this subject, but as the time is lim- ited, I think the only way for the ladies and gen- SIXTH SESSION. 109 tlemen who are interested in the matter, is to talk to one another in an informal way. I will now call on Mr. Rowell to tell us about the PREHISTORIC POOLE. Mr. ROWELL. We have all been puzzled, I suppose, or some of us at least, by the question " Who was the original Mr. Jacobs ? " It is not a very intelligent man who requires to ask that question ; but I have found a little difficulty in solving the question " Who was the original Poole ? " I have in my hand an eight-page pamphlet, entitled " Subjects for debate, with references to authorities." The numbers refer' to volumes in the Brothers Library. It is published by John Edmands, of the Mercantile Library, Philadelphia. At the bottom of the page is " Yale College, Jan., 1847. It consists of general topics. The first is " May an advocate defend a client known to be guilty?" the second is "Ancient and modern eloquence compared ; " others are " Buonaparte," " Aaron Burr," " Byron's Works," " Capital pun- ishment," "The Crusades," "The Holy Alliance," " Is a lie ever justifiable ? " and many others. Under the last heading are Wayland's Moral science, 301 ; Dymond's Essays ; R. Hall's Works, i. 96; Bacon's Essays, 13; Bentham's Works VI, 267; New Englander, I, 184; N. E. Mag., VII, 302. These show you at once the character of the little book. Knowing that Dr. Poole was a graduate of Yale College, I at once looked in the 1882 edition of " Poole's Index " and read in the preface, as follows : " Thirty-five years ago, when a student of Yale Col- lege, and engaged as the librarian of one of the library societies, I caused examination of such references as were accessible and arranged sub- jects under topics, for the preparation of the student. I had noticed that the contents of standard periodicals with which the library was filled were not indexed, although they were rich in the treatment of subjects about which inquiries were made." So he prepared his first index, the Periodical publisher, 1848, 154 pages, 500 copies; second edition 1853, 521 pages, 1,000 copies. In this preface there was no allusion to the pamphlet which I have here. So I wrote Dr. Poole about it, and received the following letter in reply : THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY, CHICAGO, Jan. 31, 1888. Mr. ROWELL. I did not prepare " Subjects for debate, with reference to authorities, Yale Col- lege, Jan. 1847, 8 pp. 8," and I do not now recol- lect that I ever saw it. I did not go into the Brothers Library until 1847. I think it was done by John Edmands, now of the Philadelphia Mer- cantile Library, who was, in January, 1847, librarian of the Linonian Library, and graduated that year. I think I have heard him say that he had done something of the kind. I have just written to him to inquire, and when I hear from him will write to you. I am obliged to you for calling my attention to the matter. I am very sure, however, that I did not get my ideas from him, or this list. Yours very truly, W. F. POOLE. Mr. EDMANDS then wrote the following letter to Dr. Poole : THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY, PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 3, 1888. MY DEAR POOLE : Alas for fame ! I have been flattering myself for these long years that I had an assured place, high upon the roll of liter- ary fame, as author of " Subjects for debate," and now it appears that the foremost man in the nation is ignorant of the fact. Well, such is life ! Yes, I did prepare it. And now, what about the conference number of the Library journal ? Yours sincerely, JOHN EDMANDS. I then received the following letter from the Newberry Library : NEWBERRY LIBRARY, CHICAGO, Feb. 6, 1888. Mr. J. C. ROWELL. Dear Sir : Saturday morning Mr. Poole fell on the ice and sprained his wrist; being thus temporarily deprived of the use of his right hand, he has requested me to reply to your inquiry of the 26th of January. John Edmands, Librarian of the Mercantile Library of Philadelphia, is the author of " Subjects for debate." Respectfully yours, ANNIE E. HUTCHINS, Assistant. On Feb. i6th Dr. Poole apologizes for his acci- dent and he says : " It is very singular that I never saw it; but it is. probably accounted for by the fact that I did not go into library work until six months after it appeared. I will ask Mr- Edmands if he has a copy. Yours very truly, W. F. POOLE. 1 10 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. The following postal card came from Mr. Edmands : MERCANTILE LIBRARY, PHILADELPHIA, 2, 8, 1888. " I am not the fortunate possessor of that rare and invaluable literary work. Should be glad to get one. JOHN EDMANDS, Librarian. " Dr. Poole next wrote : NEWBERRY LIBRARY, CHICAGO, Feb. 23, 1888. "DEAR MR. ROWELL: I enclose postal from Mr. Edmands. You see you have got hold of something which is rare, and so far as now appears, unique. I have not made inquiry of Pro- fessor Van Name, of Yale University Library, but shall do so. You see, moreover, that the ' claimants ' for your find are increasing, that is, if you are inclined to part with it. If you should wish my advice, I should say, keep it, and put it among your curiosities. Yours truly, W. F. POOLE." The last letter is from Addison Van Name, Librarian of Yale University Library. NEW HAVEN, Oct. i, 1891. "MY DEAR MR. POOLE: I have had many things on my mind the past few days, and I cannot remember whether I answered your inquiry, as I fully intended to do, when it first came. At the risk of repeating, I beg to say that we have the pamphlet in question (8 pp. 8 vo). Mr. Edmands was the Librarian of the Brothers University during his senior year. I should 'have been glad to join the party of librarians who have just started for your coast, but it was not possible. Very truly yours, ADDISON VAN NAME." You are going tomorrow afternoon, I presume, to visit Mr. Sutro's collection, and there you will see some original authentic memoirs. I think this little book I have resurrected is quite a biblio- graphical memoir, and I think it is about the first thing of the kind on record. It differs from Poole's Index in this way : We have all cooperated together in taking a series of magazines, arrang- ing the topics as they occur, and writing the name of the article down. This list of subjects for debate proceeds on quite a different plan. He selected a list of topics which were interesting at that time, and then he looked through all the books in his library, and his magazines, and picked out the different articles relating to the different subjects. It was evidently an interest- ing and very valuable work. The PRESIDENT. Do you not think that the subjects which were presented for debate were those on which he sought references ? Mr. ROWELL. Possibly, but he took others, such as Capital Punishment, Scriptures and The- ology, and National Copyright they were agi- tating that question then. It was rather unusual for a thing of this kind to appear in a college cata- logue and it had evidently never been tried before. In February, 1847, it merited these words from the editor of the Yale Literary Magazine (page 192): " We were prevented by excess of matter from noticing in the last number a little pamphlet com- piled by the librarian of the Brothers in Unity, entitled "Subjects for debate, with references to authorities." The very title is enough to insure it a hearty reception in this world of ours, and the slightest examination of it must convince every one of its great utility. They who have spent hours in guessing what books contained the desired information, without finding the right ones, and have been tempted to believe that college libraries had nothing but their number of volumes to rec- ommend them, will know how to appreciate the labors of the industrious compiler of the pam- phlet. We congratulate him on the prospect of immediate relief from the many and annoying inquiries for " Something on the Hartford Con- vention," " Capital Punishment," " The Tariff," " Thomas Jefferson," etc., etc. We congratulate the Society, too, on the pos- session of a chart which not only reveals to them the resources of their library, but enables each member to make a profitable use of them. The avidity with which copies have been bought up shows the interest taken in the matter, and we would advise those who have not yet furnished themselves with a copy, to secure one before the edition is exhausted." The edition probably was exhausted, because six months later Dr. Poole became librarian of that very library, and he had not seen a copy of it. At that time in Yale College there was the Brothers Library and the Linonian Society Library, and Dr. Poole in his first letter says that he was the librarian of the Linonian Society. I cannot do justice to this interesting matter in five minutes, but this little pamphlet on the Doctor's authority SIXTH SESSION. in was produced by Mr. Edmands, the librarian of the Brothers Library. I want to call attention to the fact that it is not only interesting as the precursor to Dr. Poole, but to the Fletcher Essay Index. The PRESIDENT. As I understand the matter, very little can be done this year in regard to pre- paring for our exhibit at the Columbian Exposi- tion ; the arrangements will have to be made at our next meeting. Mr. Hild has a communication on this subject. Mr. HILD. This is a report of what it is pro- posed to do, which was printed in the August number of the Library journal. Owing to the illness of Mr. Hill, the secretary, who has been the most active member of the committee, we have not been able to make a fuller report, but we have some correspondence here. I will read one letter which may be interesting to the Asso- ciation. Boston, Oct. 3, 1891. Mr. FRANK P. HILL, Chairman of the Sub-Commit- tee on the World's Columbian Exposition Amer- ican Library Association. SIR: I beg to inform you that the Governor and Council of our State have granted the request made by our commission that the sum of $1,000 be appropriated for the use of the American Library Association in its intended exhibit of the libraries of the United States. It must be understood that this contribution from our State can only be counted upon after the other States have contributed a sufficient sum of money to render the exhibit a success, and that it is of course made with the understanding that the libraries throughout the country will have no other exhibit than that under the auspices of your Association. Very respectfully, E. C. HOVEY, Secretary. Mr. HILD. I think the matter of this exhibit should be referred back to the same committee with the addition of a new list of Advisory Coun- cil, to act and report at the next meeting of the Association. The PRESIDENT. One word about this com- munication from Mr. Hovey. He is the gentleman who did us so great service in Washington last winter in the matter of the public documents ; he is the gentleman who has raised so large a portion of the permanent fund of the Association, which is raised for the purpose of helping us in issuing books and pamphlets. He is a member of the Massachusetts commission on the Columbian Exhibition, and is a very active member of that commission. In that capacity he has induced the Governor of Massachusetts to appropriate $1,000 out of $10,000, at his disposal, to be used for our advantage at the exhibition. I think that special thanks should be extended to Mr. Hovey for his energy and good judgment in working in the interest of the Association. The special thanks of the Association were unanimously extended to Mr. Hovey, as recom- mended by the President. The PRESIDENT. The Committee on the World's Fair has one vacancy ; I would suggest the name of Mr. Johnston to fill it. Mr. John- ston has been selected by the rest of the com- mittee as a man who would be very useful to them in furthering the work placed in its hands. Mr. D. V. R. Johnston was elected to fill the vacancy. The PRESIDENT. It is well to keep these matters in the hands of persons who have already acquainted themselves with the subject, that we may have the advantage of the knowledge which they have already acquired. An Advisory Committee will have to be appointed ; why would it not be well to reappoint last year's Advisory Committee ? The Advisory Committee was re- elected. Mr. JOHNSTON. I want to say that a short time before we left the East I had a long talk with Mr. C. Wellman Park of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, N. Y., who has been selected by the Bureau of Education to have charge of the educational exhibit at the Colum- bian Exhibition, and I asked .him as to the desir- ability of our Association considering the matter of this World's Fair exhibit. If he had been a librarian for many years he could not have been any more enthusiastic over the question of a library exhibit as part of an educational system than he was. He has since assured Mr. Hovey, and, I believe, other members of the Association, that he will cooperate with us most extensively to make that exhibition a success, and will try to secure a part of the appropriation which they hope Congress will make for that purpose. There was one difficulty which he did not see the way to overcome, and which we will have to overcome ourselves ; that is, the question of sufficient room. He doubted if they could give us much more than 400 square feet, which, of course, would be utterly inadequate. Mr. Park had charge of the educa- tional exhibit at Paris, and is certainly a very 112 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. competent man, or he would not be selected to take this second exhibit. He is thoroughly familiar with all the details and execution of matters of that kind, and I think he will be a very valuable assistant to us. He has already sent on many suggestions to us as to the as- sembling of the exhibit, the shelving, and the charge of it. We can rest assured that the United States authorities are in hearty cooperation with us. A note from Mr. KEPHART, librarian of the Mercantile Library, St. Louis, was read : ST. Louis, Mo., Oct. 2, rSgi. Mr. JOHN M. GLENN Dear Sir : I returned from a vacation in the East too late to finish my collecting for the A. L. A. before the 'Frisco meet- ing. I have collected so far 5140.00, and will send you not less than $150.00 within a few weeks. That is to say, the Board of Direction of the Mer- cantile Library contributes $150.00, but I hope to secure more outside. SEVENTH SESSION. (FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH, OAKLAND, THURS- DAY EVENING, OCTOBER 15.) Called to order by the PRESIDENT at 8.30 P. M. Mr. FOSTER'S paper on the PUBLIC SUPPORT OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES was read by Mr. Beckwith. (Seep. 39.) Miss MARY S. CUTLER'S paper, IMPRESSIONS IN FOREIGN LIBRARIES, with notes on the recent meeting of the Library Association in England, was read by her niece, Miss Louisa S. Cutler. (See p. 48.) Pres. GREEN. The next paper is one by Mr. Chas. A. Cutter, of the Boston Athenaeum, and Miss Harriet E. Green, of the same library, on " STATE LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS. " (Seep. 52.) Mr. CUTTER. It is not quite correct to say that this paper is by Mr. Cutter and Miss Green. The written paper, which is purely statistical, is entirely by Miss Green. She sent out the circu- lars and she digested the replies. The spoken part will necessarily be by myself, and as I see so many here who are not members of the Associa- tion, I shall venture to insert a few items of infor- mation, perfectly familiar to our members. In 1876 it occurred to a young college graduate that it would be a good plan for librarians to get together and exchange their information and make one another's acquaintance. The first meeting, therefore, of the American Library Asso- ciation was held in connection with the Exposi- tion in Philadelphia. Since then meetings have been held nearly every year. Simultaneously with these meetings a library journal has been pub- lished, and at the same time there has been a most important development of libraries ; enormous amounts of money and of books have been given to them and great improvements have beeu made in library administration. I take it, it would be claiming altogether too much to assert that this great development of libraries has been caused by the stimulus of the Library Association and the Library journal, but I have not the least doubt that it has been very much assisted by our exist- ence, by the discussions which we have held, by the notices in the papers, and by all our meetings, and by the efforts which we have made to adver- tise the improvement of libraries and the advance- ment of Library Associations, from time to time, and by progresses, such as we are now making through the country. We have caused the library idea to be more in the air than it would otherwise have been. But it was found that library conventions had to be held in different parts of an enormous coun- try and that a very small part of the librarians could attend. There are in the United States some 6,000 libraries ; there are probably almost as many librarians. There are at least 1,000 libra- rians of important libraries, and we bring here from beyond the mountains only fifty ! It is evi- dent that there are a great many more who could be benefited and who should receive all the good which comes from library conventions, who are not among our members. It was thought, therefore, to be a good plan to have associations which would not cover so large a ground ; one associa- tion for each Stats, one association, if necessary, for each county. That idea came to a head in 1890. Before that, in 1885, the New York Library Club had been founded in New York and was, in some sort, a State association. Not merely the libraries of the city of New York met in the Library Club, but those of the whole State. New York was followed by New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and in the present year by Wisconsin, Maine, and Michigan, and an attempt has been made in Pennsylvania which was unsuc- cessful. But we notice that there is not in that SEVENTH SESSION. list the name of California, nor the name of any State on the Pacific Coast. Why should you not have an association for the Pacific Coast ? You certainly cannot be expected to come across the mountains for our annual meetings ; neither can we come here more than once in a generation, until, at least, an air-ship is made which shall bring people across the continent in a day or two. Why not have an association which shall combine together all your librarians ? If, as I dare say you will, you tell me that your coast is as long as the Atlantic Coast, and the difficulties would be as great as, in the American Library Association, why not have an association for Southern California, and another one for Northern California, and perhaps for States still farther North ? You will find it is very rare for librarians with any brains to be blind to the real advantages of renewing their acquaint- ance with one another and exchanging their ideas. Twenty of you, I believe, have already met this year. I am sure you must all be convinced it is worth while. As the result of your meeting, you will have many new ideas and make many new experiments, and I think you will be very glad to see one another again. Perhaps those who are present now may think it is not worth while to come from a considerable distance and meet in such an assembly as this, and listen to papers which might elsewhere be read, in the report of the proceedings or in the Library journal. There is something in this, but I have always been of the opinion that the great good that comes from these library conventions is not in listening to papers. It is a great deal more in listening to the discussions which follow the papers, and more even than that in the little private conferences which are going on all the time on the street cars, in the railroad cars in which people come to the conference, in the hotel corridors, and elsewhere, in which the librarian privately gives his experience, his difficulties, and the way in which he has overcome them. That is what makes these conventions important; audit is just as likely to be useful in a State association as in the American Library Association. (Ap- plause.) LIBRARY RECEIPT BOOK. Mr. ROWELL I slept very poorly last night, and, getting up rather early in the morning, having nothing to do, I thought I would commence a library receipt book, patent applied for. The first receipt which I thought necessary to put down was, " How to endow a library." This is the receipt : _ . Take 50 rich men (trustees of libraries preferred). i dextrously persuasive librarian-chef. 20 Ibs. flour of urgent reason. 10 Ibs. mixed spices to tickle fancy. 5 Ibs. salt of wit. 5 pints yeast of desire. 200 Ibs. sugar of flattery (more or less to suit taste). % Ib. dynamite oT determination. Directions: The librarian-chef takes in turn each of the fifty R. M., and having stuffed and cov- ered him with a thick batter of above ingredients carefully mixed in due proportions, sets him aside to simmer gently, the fire being closely tended and the heat gradually increased without singeing or scorching one. When all have become thoroughly heated, clap them quickly in the pot, pour in more spices, and stir hastily for a few moments. With a long-handled spoon drop in the dynamite, cover all, and retire with speed. In ten seconds with a loud report the cover will fly off and the chef will find done to a beautiful brown fifty non-transferable ten-year endowment life insurance policies of $2,000, each written in favor of his library. Mr. UTLEY read his paper on RE-NUMBERING AND RE-CLASSIFYING, prefacing it by saying there are many librarians who are not satisfied entirely with the arrangement of the books upon their shelves. In most instances these libraries have grown up from very small beginnings, not expecting to amount to very much within a reasonable period of time. Therefore their arrangements have been more or less guided by inexperienced persons. Generally small libra- ries could not afford to employ experienced libra- rians and so the arrangements have been largely haphazard. Persons see the defects of their sys- tem and desire to change them, but dread to do so. It occurred to me that information respecting the manner in which a library of considerable propor- tion was changed, might be useful to such persons. (Seep. 20.) NORMAL SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES. The PRESIDENT. We had a very interesting meeting last evening, in which the question how libraries could be made of use to schools was brought up and considered with a good deal of thoroughness. A paper was read and then gentle- men and ladies from different States gave their experience in the matter, Among those, Dr. Lin- SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. derfelt of Milwaukee told us what had been done there. I understand that he did not have time to tell us at all fully about the work that has been done in connection with the normal school. I think it would be very interesting to hear about that in a five minutes' talk. Dr. LINDERFELT. There are at present, in the State of Wisconsin, five normal schools, in which teachers are trained for the various public schools of the State. Of these, one is situated in Milwaukee, and we have the same connection with that school that we have with the public schools of the city ; the books are given out to the teachers and the books are used in the school without any restriction whatever. We found in our dealings with the schools that the difficulty in the proper use of books was not so much with the schools as with the teachers. The average teacher of a public school, particularly from the country districts, is not what he ought to be, as far as regards the direct education or preparation for their work ; they are particularly lacking in a proper preparation in the manner of making use of books. After considering for a long time how to improve the teachers, as well as the schools them- selves, we concluded the safest plan was to com- mence with the teachers themselves. For that purpose, at the last session of the State Legisla- ture, which was last winter, we obtained authority for the Board 'of Regents of the normal schools to employ a competent cataloguer, so called, for taking charge of the libraries of all the normal schools of the State. The proper person was selected and has been at work in Milwaukee since the latter part of last August, ostensibly merely for the purpose of arranging the libraries that already exist in the normal schools, but with the full understanding with the Board of Regents that this position is to be made permanent, and that the object of the superintendent of the State nor- mal school libraries being employed in this way is to train the students at the schools in the proper use of books, to instill into their minds an appreciation of what books can do, outside of the ordinary text books, in educating children to obtain a bibliographical knowledge, and the pos- sibility of selecting out of the vast quantity of material that exists, the proper books for the use of the children. I think that beginning in the way we have done and securing for the position a very excellent person, as we have, we shall be able in the course of a very few years to scatter all over the State library missionaries, who, before they enter upon their temporary or life work as teachers, know how to handle books and what use to make of them for the children. I think it is the first attempt of the kind made in the country. CATALOGING. The PRESIDENT. We have about half an hour before adjourning, and I will call upon one of the gentlemen of this city now in the audience, Hon. John P. Irish, President of the Starr King Fraternity. Colonel IRISH. I have scarcely more voice this evening than can be used in saying that the people of Oakland feel very highly honored in- deed to receive a visit from the National Associa- tion of Librarians. I have listened with much pleasure to the reading of the technical papers that have been read by the members of the Association to their fellow-members this evening. I am moved to say one thing to the librarians. I have raised the suggestion from a remark made by a young lady (and I am surprised to find that all the lady librarians are young ladies ; it is an evidence of the very early intellectual attainments of the women of America that the librarians here are all young). The suggestion came to me from a remark she made on cataloging, that, instead of putting so much expense into catalogs of libraries, a little more might be added to the salaries of librarians. I stand here to defend the salaries of librarians, and of everybody else who has to work for salaries. But I wish to say to the pro- fessional librarians here that books are the lenses through which we look at past civilizations and at the different phases of our homes. And when we reflect upon the very small number of books through which we look as through lenses to the great civilizations and to the great libraries of the past, we are moved to have very great faith in condensation and in the belief that, after all, all that there is in a library of value may be easily and very readily condensed in the small space of a catalog. I believe that the problem for librarians to solve, that the subject for them to study, is the problem of cataloging the library so as to render it by condensation easily available without un- necessary loss of time. I think that in a few years all the concentration and experience of the genius of the professional librarians upon this subject will be found in every library in the civil- ized world a book more vitally interesting than all the other books upon their shelves and that book will be the universal catalog of the libraries of the world. In that will be contained SEVENTH SESSION. all that there is in these libraries, so that the student, the scholar, the professional man, the pupil in the public school, or whoever may wish to consult that library, may go to the catalog and th.ere find a list of authors upon any given subject and a sufficient guide therein to what they have written upon the subject pro and con. That is the sort of catalog that is needed. The art of printing has enabled such a wonderful elabora- tion of the very few ideas there are in the world and there are very few ; some of us haven't any (laughter) ; sometimes I have not one. A great many people have not one idea, and live in fear that their lack of ideas will be discovered. (Laughter.) The art of printing has enabled such a wonderful elaboration of the very few ideas in the world that the work of the profes- sional man requires consultation of a large number of books. I say this as a man who has been busy a great many years past in one of the pro- fessions that requires the frequent consultation of libraries and of books. The professional man cannot afford to dissipate his time in searching over the shelves of a library ; and a library with- out a complete, efficient, properly condensed cata- log is just as useless for library purposes or for consultation as that wall which stretches before me on the right hand or that on the left it is a closed and a sealed book without a catalog. Now, it is very easy to see that you mean to make that kind of a catalog, and I am here to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that you must con- centrate your energies, your experience, genius, and judgment upon the creation of a catalog of this kind. When you have done this, you will have done a work that is as important and profit- able to the users of books as that work which was done by the people who wrote and printed the books upon the shelves. Then you will have opened the library to the public schools, and to those who desire them, and to those who desire to receive that air of refinement and intellectual grace which may be had in the library alone. (Applause.) President GREEN. Ladies and Gentlemen, if I understand Mr. Irish, the thing which he desires is a good subject catalog, in which under every imaginable subject may be found references to the best works, the best magazine articles, the best essays, etc., on that subject, so that, desiring to know something about any given subject, you can instantly turn to that subject in the catalog and find references to books under the heading, or under sorne other heading or headings to which it will refer by cross references. Such a catalog is something which is to be found in manuscript, in a somewhat imperfect form, of course, in many of the larger libraries of this country, and it is one of the most useful facilities that can be afforded in a library. In Poole's Index, under a great variety of headings, are found references to the different articles in periodicals, which treat on given subjects, and Poole's Index covers along list of the periodicals in the English language. I wish also to call attention to the fact that under the su- perintendence of the acting Secretary of this Asso- ciation, Mr. Fletcher, the Librarian of Amherst College, there is being prepared, by cooperation (just as Poole's Index was prepared) of many of the librarians of the country, an index of essays. It is the particular province of the publishing section of this Association to attend to that kind of work. I have said nothing about the numer- ous bibliographies which exist ; works which give all the literature on specific subjects. The kind of work which Mr. Irish wishes to have done is of great importance; a good deal of it has been done; much of what has been done is in manu- script and much in print. Mr. FLETCHER. Allow me to call attention to the fact that one of the best pieces of work in this direction is that which has been done by the Libra- rian of the University of California, at Berkeley, in the Topical Index, of which he will soon publish the second volume. In this there is a surprisingly large amount of material. This volume we have found in the extreme East, and I dare say all over the country, very useful in doing just this work which Mr. Irish so appropriately noted as the work which needs to be done, to put before the eyes in compact shape the condensation of that which is in the books in the libraries on all these different subjects. Pres. GREEN. Mr. Irish will undoubtedly take an early opportunity to go to the University of California to look at this work. Mr. WENDTE. That book is on our library table. Pres. GREEN. However, the existence of the volume mentioned does not diminish the force of Mr. Irish's suggestion, for there is a great deal of room for work still to be done in the direction pointed out by him, as Mr. Rowell himself knows. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a few minutes left before we have to take carriages for the station. Now is the opportunity, if anybody has any ques- tions to ask upon any subject connected with the papers of the evening, or any other atter relat- n6 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. ing to library economy or library management. We have some papers that I can have read, but I think it would be pleasant if the few remaining minutes should be spent in an informal way. Isn't there some Californian who wants to ask a question of some Eastern librarian ? Colonel IRISH. There may be some Califor- nia librarian who desires to. " pop the question " to an Eastern librarian. (Laughter.) The PRESIDENT. The Eastern librarians are very responsive. (Laughter.) Mr. WENDTE. As a friend of librarians I would like to ask a question. Is there not some way in which Mr. Irish's suggestion can be carried out? In Poole's Index, for instance, on any given topic, the eye is appalled by a long list of refer- ences and you have no means of knowing which is desirable. Many essays are of no account. In cataloguing such an enormous quantity of material could not something be done to condense it so that sae could see what is useful and what is use- less ? The PRESIDENT. We have long thought that it would be desirable to have a single volume, in which about ten thousand volumes should be cat- alogued under subject headings and in which indi- cations should be given in regard to the character of each of the books catalogued, as well as refer- ences to important articles in periodicals, valua- ble essays, etc. The ten thousand books should be the best books in the English language, and explanatory notes should be added to entries when needed. Librarians are very busy men and nobody has as yet taken hold of this matter. The impor- tance of it we all realize. Mr. WHELPLEY. Mr. Stetson's paper to be read tomorrow covers that ground. Adjourned. EIGHTH SESSION. (FRIDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 16.) Called to order at 10.30 A. M. by the PRESI- DENT. The PRESIDENT. The Local Committee wishes me to announce that the November number of the Overland Magazine will be called " The Library Conference number," and will contain historical and descriptive notices, with illustrations of sev- eral California libraries, and who are members of this association. The photograph taken at the Stanford Univer- sity is now ready and can be had on rollers. It is very large and is an admirable photograph, and the likenesses of the different people can be seen as you would like to have them. ELECTION OF OFFICERS. The first business this morning is the election of officers. The provision of the constitution is that the Association shall choose five persons as an Executive Committee. This committee adds to its numbers as many names as it pleases and enough to fill all the different offices of the society. It is intended to revise the constitution. It is expected that a more republican form will prevail, namely: that the President, Secretary, Treasurer, and one or two others, perhaps five, will be elected directly by popular vote, but until that revision is made it is necessary to proceed under the provisions of the constitution as they are. You will now elect five members of the Executive Committee, and it is desirable that you elect persons now present. Mr. BOWKER nominated Mr. Frank P. Hill and Mr. S. S. Green. The PRESIDENT. The best way would be to have nominations from the floor of persons for the Executive Committee ; then to make a list and take an informal ballot, and see which five per- sons stand highest. You will then be ready for a formal ballot. Mr. BOWKER moved that the procedure sug- gested by the President be adopted. Carried. The nominations were continued, and Mr. Fletcher, Dr. Linderfelt, Mr. Dudley, Mr. Utley, Mr. Rowell, and Mr. Cutter were named. PLACE OF MEETING. Mr. BOWKER. Before a formal ballot is held there should be discussion as to the place of hold- ing the next meeting ; it is thought that it should be held near the centre of library population. I recommend Washington. The PRESIDENT appointed Messrs. Cutter, Bow- ker, and Utley a committee to consider all sugges- tions made with reference to the place of meeting next year, and report later in the session. Mr. FLETCHER read invitations received from Chicago, to hold the meeting in that city during the year of the World's Fair. Mr. HILD. As chairman of the Sub-committee on Libraries I would like to know whether the permission is given by the Association to hold the conference in Chicago in 1893. We intend to have an international Congress of libraries on the largest scale possible, to bring together more than ever before in this country. With that view we have already 'Selected about 150 librarians in all EIGHTH SESSION. 117 parts of the world to act as an Advisory Council to this committee. Many of you will receive invi- tations. This World's Congress Auxiliary would like to know whether the Association wishes to go to Chicago in 1893, and all the libraries of Chicago join in extending this invitation to the Association to come to Chicago. The PRESIDENT. I have no doubt we shall decide to go to Chicago in 1893, but I think it would expedite matters to refer this invitation to the committee chosen to make recommenda- tions. Mr. WHELPLEY. Why not decide the Chicago business here now ? The PRESIDENT. I think it had better go to the committee in connection with the other mat- ters ; then we can have a vote on it. The question of going to Chicago in 1893 was referred to the committee with instructions to report. ELECTION OF OFFICERS. Mr. DUDLEY. Mr. President, has it been the practice to choose the President from this Execu- tive Committee ? The PRESIDENT. Not necessarily, but I think it has commonly been so ; this, however, is not necessary. Mr. CUTTER. It has been an unbroken custom. Mr. FLETCHER. On one occasion it was pro- pos^d to take an informal ballot for President merely for the guidance of the Executive Com- mittee, but it has not been the usual custom. PLACE AND TIME OF MEETING. While the voting was going on the President requested expressions of opinion as to where the next year's meeting should be held, and he sug- gested Nantucket. He said that Mr. Soule had suggested chartering a steamer and making a trip along the Atlantic Coast early in June. Mr. CUTTER. The committee on the place of meeting for the following two years recommend for 1892, Washington and Baltimore, preferably in May, but the time to be left to the decision of the Executive Committee; in 1893, Chicago. That should be an International Conference, and should meet in May, when all the educational bodies meet. Mr. HILD. It has not been definitely settled that the educational bodies shall meet in May ; it was recommended in the programme of the World's Congress Auxiliary, but it has not been fixed upon. The PRESIDENT. Strike out the word May. Mr. CUTTER. I am sure the committee will agree to this. Mr. HILD. The time could be fixed next year. The report of the committee as to the places of meeting for 1892 and for 1893 was divided, and the different recommendations adopted separately. It was suggested that the Standing Committee be given power to change the place of meeting for 1892 if it were found impracticable to go to Wash- ington, but after some discussion the suggestion was not adopted. COPYRIGHT. Mr. BOWKER. I wish to offer a series of reso- lutions which I have not had an opportunity to bring before the committee, so that I offer them on my own individual responsibility. The reason for offering them is this : The Association took some action relating to the passage of the Copy- right act. One of the questions of the Copyright bill was the provision of a weekly list of copy- righted books, which has been since sent to the Treasury Department in a more roundabout way since the ist of July. It may be worth while to call the attention of this conference to the fact that this list contains the name of every book and pamphlet copyrighted in this country. It is, therefore, a most thorough foundation for a national bibliography, and I have had some talk with Mr. Spofford as to the desirability of making this a bibliographical record : Resolved, That the A. L. A. records its gratifica- tion at the passage of an international copyright act, as promoting justice to authors of books and the development of American literature. Resolved, That the Association suggests to the librarian of Congress, that in the weekly list of copyright deposits full bibliographical data of books and pamphlets (except those solely com- mercial) be given, as the best possible basis for an adequate national bibliography. Resolved, That, in case of the amendment of the act, the Association suggests that the publica- tion of the weekly list be transferred to the juris- diction of the librarian of Congress, and that he be authorized to receive subscriptions for, or to provide for, the distribution of the list. Resolved, That the American Library Associa- tion heartily congratulates the nation on the progress made toward the final completion of a worthy and adequate building for the national library, and its members especially felicitate their associate, the librarian of Congress, on the fact that in Capt. B. R. Green (?), of the Engineer Corps, U. S. A., Superintendent of Construction, he has a coadjutor who, as architect and engineer, has shown both the desire and the ability, in his modifications of the previous plans, to provide for practical library requirements, both in his SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. general plans and in his novel and ingenious treatment of detail, such as shelving and transfer arrangements ; and Resolved, That we trust every endeavor will be made to provide as early as possible for the partial occupancy of the new building, so that the books now clogging the work of the present library rooms, and the records and other material already disintegrating in the vaults of the Capitol, may be saved from their threatened decay, and the treasures of the library made available to scholars and to the public. The resolutions offered by Mr. Bowker were adopted. Mr. BOWKER then read the SPECIAL REPORT ON PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. Mr. BOWKER. I should explain that this report has not been signed by the members of the com- mittee, because we have not been able to get together. It is, however, the result of long con- sultation on the part of the members of the committee, and, I think, represents the views of allr-with one possible exception, which I will point out. Your special Committee on Government Publi- cations submit that a satisfactory system of gov- ernment issues should embrace the following conditions : Public documents should be printed on durable paper, in permanent standard size, except where there is specific reason for variation, and in suffi- cient minimum number, .under general pro- vision of law, to supply the Executive and Con- gressional libraries, each Senator and Representa- tive, each issuing department, bureau or commit- tee, with the necessary copies for record and office use ; each public depository, and a moderate sur- plus for general use or public sale. Additional copies to be printed only from department appro- priations or by specific legislative provision. Public documents should not be understood to include office blanks, confidential instructions, or other routine papers not of public concern. Each document, in addition to separate publica- tion, should have its proper place in one series, and the binding up of one document in several shapes or series should as far as possible be avoided. Except where numerical or chronological arrange- ment is desirable, as in the case of bills and jour- nals, the classification and binding should be such that the issues of the same department or bureau should be together, and cognate subjects should be bound in the same or in adjacent volumes. Each volume in a series should have lettering showing its individual character. These conditions might best be met by substituting for the present Senate and House executive and miscellaneous series one comprehensive series to be known as United States general or miscellaneous documents, to embrace department reports and all other docu- ments not properly belonging in the several series specifically connected with the two Houses of Congress or not special sets of publications. Each volume or set should have at its end an index to that volume or set only; there should be a separate annual index to all government publi- cations of the year, whether by government sub- scription to individual enterprises or by public provision ; and there should be ultimately a sys- tematic and comprehensive subject-index to all governmental publications, but not until a plan has been matured after full consultation with the best bibliographical authorities inside and outside the government service. Every government publication should be sent, as soon as issued or bound, to public depositories of the first class, which should include every State library and the leading library for public use in great centres of population. A select list, to embrace the Statutes, President's Message, Cen- sus volumes, Copyright lists, and other issues of universal interest, and such other issues as may be of special local interest, should be sent promptly to public depositories of the second class, which should include such other libraries as can make good use of such documents such libraries to be registered on application of the librarian or proper officer, stating the locality*and character of the library, its present or prospective shelf-room, its facilities for reference use, the character and distribution of its readers, and the lines of documents serviceable to its constituency, such application to be indorsed by the proper Senator or Representative. All documents deposited to be subject to trans- fer or recall, in case the library becomes dead or fails to provide adequate accommodation and facilities for their use. The distribution should be through a central mailing office and bureau of distribution, except where, as in the case of serial issues which should be sent in first mail, time can be saved by mailing direct from the office of publication, such bureau to be a division of the Government Printing Office, or Library of Congress, or Department of the Interior. This bureau should receive all orders from Congressmen, the departments, etc., and should keep check-lists to prevent unintended duplication. This bureau should also be the gen- eral depository of all unissued documents. EIGHTH SESSION. 119 Recognizing that such results must be accom- plished step by step, yonr committee would con- fine present action to the following resolutions : Whereas, The present lack of system in the printing, binding, indexing, and distribution of government publications results in great waste, probably exceeding $500,000 yearly, with a max- imum of inconvenience to Congressmen as dis- tributors, and a minimum of convenience to their constituents ; in supplying to libraries publica- tions which they do not and cannot use, and deny- ing those which would be especially valuable to their local public; and in an entire confusion as to arrangement, indexing and binding ; Resolved, That the American Library Associa- tion, assembled in conference at San Francisco, learns with gratification of the special investiga- tion into the printing and distribution of pub- lic documents, undertaken by the Joint Committee on Printing of the two Houses of Congress ; and Resolved, That this Association proffers to said Joint Committee, through its Standing Com- mittee on Public Documents, its hearty coopera- tion in promoting better methods of issuing and distributing the manv valuable issues included among government publications, Resolved, That the A. L. A. hereby extends its hearty thanks to the Honorable, the Secretary of the Interior, for the useful work accomplished in his department in utilizing government publications by the exchange of volumes to complete sets, and trusts that this work may be continued and extended. Resolved, That the A. L. A. appreciates heartily the enterprise shown by Mr. J. K. Hickox in his valuable Monthly Catalogue of Government Pub- lications, and commends the work to libraries for the support which will insure its completion and continuation. Respectfully submittted. R. R. BOWKER, Chairman. The PRESIDENT. This report was evidently prepared by persons entirely conversant with the subject. Is there any difference of opinion ? A MEMBER. The quickest results could be obtained, first, by securing the prompt delivery of such books as are now printed and by abolishing the index which now precedes each volume, so that they would not have to wait until all the books are published, in order to make out the index. We could save from three to nine months. Each volume should be sent out in paper ; they are now sent out in the cloth edition. The Offi- cial Index for each session could be afterwards secured. The PRESIDENT suggested referring the report to the standing committee for consideration by it. Mr. BOWKER recommended that it be dis- cussed in the convention. A MEMBER. The State libraries receive their public documents only through the courtesy of the Senate now ; there is no law for the distribution of the public documents to them. Dr. LINDERFELT. The members of the Amer- ican Library Association have, to my certain knowledge, for ten years considered the subject at every meeting, and I have yet to find a single per- son, either publicly or in private conversation, dis- agreeing in the slightest particular from the report put before us by Mr. Bowker and his com- mittee as expressing the views of the American Library Association. I think if there is anything we can publicly do to indorse these views, we should do it. I think we have delayed long enough in this matter and we should not put any restriction on the Standing Committee. This policy should be indorsed to the fullest extent now, in the pub- lic meeting. There is one little word in the report, however, which it seems to me might be mis- understood. Mr. Bowker said "through reference libraries." That is a word that has caused a great deal of mischief already and it ought to be elim- inated. Some of these libraries have been hampered to an astonishing degree in getting the government publications, on that technical ground. I know that the Buffalo library with some hundreds of thousands of volumes, one of the most important in the country, has the greatest difficulty in getting the reports that are given out to the public libraries, 500 volumes at a time. Mr. BOWKER. "Through reference libraries in centres of population." The members of the committee present would modify that by having it read, "and the leading reference libraries for public use in great centres of population." The PRESIDENT. That may be allowed by unanimous consent. It is allowed. Mr. BOWKER. Mr. President, may I ask if you yourself disagree with the report ? The PRESIDENT. I am very glad to have that go out as the expression of the opinion of this Association. All I want is that the Standing Com- mittee, when it begins to arrange matters with the members of Congress and with the Committee of Congress, may be left free to agree to whatever in its own judgment is thought best at the time when action is called for. The report presented by Mr. Bowker was unanimously adopted. The resolutions proposed by the Special Com- mittee were adopted. Mr. BOWKER. I now ask the discharge of the Special Committee. The Special Committee was discharged. Mr. WALLIS. The Standing Committee on I2O SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. Public Documents relates to documents of the United States. Could there not be a resolution passed here, giving the Standing Committee authority also to make recommendations, such as they desire, upon State documents? There is no provision for the transmission of public docu- ments between one State and another, and the result is that many of the States cannot afford to send their voluminous publications to the several States of the Union. On motion of Mr. Wallis the Standing Com- mittee was instructed to take into consideration the whole question of the exchange of books between States, the question of the exchange of State publications, as well as that of government publications. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. The tellers reported the informal vote for Executive Committee as follows : Scattering. F. P. Hill, 27. C. C. Soule. W. I. Fletcher, 25. F. H. Hild. J. C. Rowell, 25. J. V. Cheney. C. A. Cutter, 23. Miss Hewins. S. S. Green, 21. E. J. Nolan. K. A. Linderfelt, 19. A. S. Root. C. R. Dudley, 18. J. C. Dana. H. M. Utley, 13. D. V. R. Johnston. It was moved that the informal vote be declared formal, and that the five persons receiving the highest number of votes be declared elected members of the Executive Committee. Mr. ROWELL. In the interest of the Associa- tion I wish to decline the nomination, which would necessarily be enforced upon me by that action, for this reason : We out here on the Western slope are very distant from you of the East. Our means of communication are slow, and it is necessary that the gentlemen or ladies serving on this committee should be in quick communication, and sometimes that they have personal interviews. I think, therefore, it is eminently proper that I should decline to serve. The PRESIDENT. I would state, for the infor- mation of the convention, that the arrangements for this convention have been made entirely by mail. If the committee takes hold of matters at once I think there would be no difficulty, even if one member of the committee is in California. I I hope Mr. Rowell will not decline. Mr. DUDLEY. I think every member of the Association would be glad to have Mr. Rowell serve on this committee, but I do not think we should try to compel him to do so. Therefore, if he asks to be released from the burden, I ask that his resignation be accepted simply on that ground. Carried. The motion to make the informal ballot formal was withdrawn after some discussion. The Secretary presently announced the result of the formal ballot, as follows : F. P. Hill, 30. K. A. Linderfelt, 28. C. A. Cutter, 26. C. R. Dudley, 24. W. I. Fletcher, 24. THANKS. Mr. WHEPLEY offered the following resolution: Resolved, That Mr. F. H. Hild, librarian of the Chicago Public Library, be requested to return to the trustees of the Newberry Library, the Crerar Library and the Public Library of Chicago, the thanks of the Association for their invitation to meet in that city in 1893, an d report that the Association has unanimously voted -to accept the invitation. Carried unanimously. The PRESIDENT. I will now call on Mr. Cheney to give his five-minute talk. THE NEW CATALOGING. Mr. CHENEY. Matthew Arnold has said that we cannot do without religion ; I have long been of the impression that we cannot do without cata- logs, and I am firmly convinced of it. Cata- logs, with all due deference to the gentlemen who have reported here in favor of " Access to the shelves," properly made, give the borrower an opportunity to get at the contents of the library, without the aid of access to the library himself. Such is the experience in the library with which I am connected, and it must be so with any large library. I have been continually working to see what we can do to produce a better catalog, so that we shall not be doing each other's work over again, but when the work was once done it could be utilized. Fortunately I have associated with me a gentleman who goes beyond theory into the more solid realm of practice, and this has given us a new method of cataloging which is the result of large experience of a practical man, a man versed in practical mechanics and in library matters. Now, what I am about to read you is somewhat revolutionary. I have taken the precaution, being a young member of the Association, to procure the opinion of one of your oldest members and one of your most skilled and thoroughly versed libra- rians, Mr. Fletcher, to say whether or not I am justified in these rather startling remarks which I have to make upon this subject. Without further EIGHTH SESSION. 121 ado, I say simply to the good librarians and to the young librarians who are about making a catalog I suggest to them most emphatically that they wait for a few months until the things which I here speak of can be laid before you. I am daily in receipt of communications from per- sons who want information as to how they can get along with this catalog; it has been on our minds day and night, and we think we have con- tributed something here toward the solution of the great catalog question. (Applause.) To the Members of the American Library Associa- tion in Convention. It seems not quite right to allow the librarians to return to their several places of toil without mention of a matter that may considerably affect their plans for future catalog work. Though it it is impossible to give details for perhaps six months to come, a general statement will suffice by way of notice. Mr. A. J. Rudolph, first assist- ant librarian of this library, will bring out at an early date a new method of cataloging, the adoption of which bids fair to amount to some- thing like a revolution ; this for the following reasons : 1. It does away with that very cumbrous thing, the card catalog. 2. It renders unnecesary the printing of cata- logs and bulletins in volume form. 3. The pen is pretty much dispensed with, the most of the work not only being printed as it proceeds, but the subject-headings and the sub- divisions being distinguished by colored inks. 4. It solves the long-standing problem of a universal catalog. 5. The method insures not only economy, but accuracy and fullness hitherto impossible. 6. It insures speed, one assistant being able to do the work of five using the old methods. Books arriving in the morning can be fully cataloged the same day, and the catalog put before the public. I have said that the new method will accom- plish these rather astonishing things. I believe it will, and, acting on the belief, I have suggested to our own Board of Trustees the advisability of delay in further printing until the time is ripe for a thorough examination of it. Fraternally yours, J. V. CHENEY. Mr. FLETCHER. You will at once see that I am put in an embarrassing position by being called upon to say whether the claims made in this document are justified. I am not prepared to accept that position. Like the man who was to stand in front of the cannon and catch the ball, I feel like saying, " Touch it off easy." All I am prepared to say now is that it has commended itself to me as worthy of the claims of those interested in it. How far those claims will be substantiated remains to be seen. But I should probably claim as much for it if it was of my own contrivance. On motion the paper prepared by Mr. Stetson on ECONOMICAL, EDUCATIONAL, AND SELECTED CATALOGUES was read by title. (Seep. 26.) On motion the paper prepared by Dr. Steiner, SHOULD UNIFORMITY MARK THE ARRANGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF OUR PUBLIC LIBRARIES? was also read by title. (Seep. 57.) ADJOURNMENT. A motion by Mr. Root was carried that when the Association adjourn today it should not be the final adjournment, but that the final adjourn- ment shoujd take place at a meeting after the excursion train should reach Chicago. JAPANESE LIBRARIES. A letter from Mr. J. E. TANAKA to President Green was then read by Mr. Johnston : TEIKOKU DAIGAKU (Imperial University}. TOKYO, JAPAN, Sept. 23, 1891. Dear Sir: To the Conference of the Amer- ican Library Association, which is going to be held at San Francisco, I beg to send greetings, with my sincere wishes for its every success, while I regret very much at my inability to have the honor and pleasure of meeting all the veteran librarians of the United States, from whom I cannot fail to derive much benefit by coming among them. I take this opportunity of giving to the Confer- ence a short account of the Tokyo Library, of which I am the librarian, and also something about other libraries of Japan. As to the details of the management of the former, however, I bet- ter wait for another opportunity to describe ; for it is in the period of transition from the old method 122 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. to the new. By the new method I mean the American method more or less modified accord, ing to circumstances, especially in the case of the treatment of Japanese and Chinese books. I am, therefore, only to introduce the Tokyo Library to the notice of the American Library Association, incidentally touching all other libraries in Japan. TOKYO LIBRARY. The Tokyo Library is national in its character, as the Congressional Library of the United States, the British Museum of Great Britain, etc. It is maintained by the State, and by the copyright Act it is to receive a copy of every book, pam- phlet, etc., published in the empire. The Tokyo Library was established in 1872 by the Department of Education with about 70,000 volumes. In 1873 '* was amalgamated with the library belonging to the Exhibition Bureau and two years later it was placed under the control of the Home Department, while a new library with the title of Tokyo Library was started by the Education Department at the same time with about 28,000 volumes newly collected. Thus the Tokyo Library began its career on a quite slender basis ; but in 1876, the books increased to 68,953, and in 1877 to 7 l $S3- Since that time, both the numbers of books and visitors have steadily increased, so much so that in 1884 the former reached 102,350 and latter 115,986, averaging 359 persons per one day. The library was then open free to all classes ; but the presence of too many readers of the commonest text-books and light literature was found to have caused much hindrance to the serious students, on whom the greatest favor ought to be con- ferred, while any discrimination between the two was entirely impossible. This disadvantage was somewhat remedied by introducing the fee system, which, of course, placed much restriction to the visitors of the library. This seems to be in con- tradiction of the generally recognized principle of public libraries, but it was sheer necessity of the time, when there were not many available resorts for serious students, for whom this library was chiefly intended. With this object in view, a large number of books, mostly consisting of works of light literature, was withdrawn from the reading room. These measures naturally caused a great decrease in the number of readers, but an improve- ment in the quality was distinctly observable. Up to that time the library was in the old Uni- versity Hall, which, though quite spacious, was very inconvenient for the use of library. A new building was, therefore, erected in the Uyeno Park, to which the library was removed in 1886. The place is away from the bustle of the city with fresh air and evergreens round and about. The reading room accommodates about 200 read- ers and is divided into three compartments viz. : "special," "ladies," and "ordinary." We have two sets of catalogues, viz. : " card catalogue " and printed catalogue, both classified. It is now proposed to improve them upon the principle of dictionary catalogue. It is very clear from the character of the library that it is a reference library and not a circulating library. But as there are not any other large and well-equipped libraries in Tokyo, a system of " lending out " is added, something like that of Konigliche Bibliothek zu Berlin, with a subscrip- tion of 5 yen (about $5) per annum. The sub- scriber has the privilege of taking books out of the library for a term of ten days, subject to a renewal should the subscriber so desire. The Tokyo Library now contains 97,550 Japan- ese and Chinese books and 25,559 European books, besides about 100,000 of duplicates, popu- lar books, etc., which are not used. The average number of books used is 337,262 a year. By applying, therefore, *Jevons's principle of the multiplication of utility, the average turn- over of each book is about 2.5 + and by dividing the total expenditure by the total issue of books, the average cost of each issue is 2.3~sen (about two cents). Again by comparing the number of books used and the classes of books read during the last year, we see that t2i-5 per cent is in his- tory, geography, etc.; 21 per cent in literature and language ; 17.2 per cent in science, mathematics and medicine ; and 13.4 per cent in law and poli- tics. In other subjects the percentage is less than 10. This comparison gives some idea of the incli- nation of the reading public. THE LIBRARY OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY. The Library of the Imperial University, which is also under my charge, comprises all the books belonging to the Imperial University of Japan. These books are solely for the use of the in- structors, students, and pupils, no admittance be- ing granted to the general public. The library contains 77,991 European books and 101,217 Jap- anese and Chinese books. *The Rationale of free public libraries, in his Method of social reform, pp. 29-30 t Extract of Tokyo Library Report, 1890, p. a. EIGHTH SESSION. 123 OTHER SMALLER LIBRARIES OF JAPAN. As to other smaller libraries of Japan, there are eight public and ten private libraries in different parts of the empire. The books contained in them are 66,912 Japanese and Chinese books and 4,731 European books with 43,911 visitors! Besides these, in most of towns of respectable size, there are generally two or three small private circulating libraries, which contain books chiefly consisting of light literature and historical works popularly treated. The proprietors of these libraries or their as- sistants go about from patron to patron every day, leaving with him the books he requires. These books are loaned for a small sum, which varies according to. the quality of books and also the length of time during which the books are to be kept. There are about 60 libraries of this de- scription in the city of Tokyo alone. I. TANAKA. RESOLUTIONS. Mr. SCUDDER. The Committee on Resolutions recommends to the Association to spread the fol- lowing minute upon its records, and to transmit the same, duly certified, to each of the parties named therein: The American Library Association cannot close this the last session of its thirteenth general meet- ing without expressing its warmest thanks for the unbounded hospitality with which it has been received in California from the moment it touched the borders of the State until the time of its de- parture. Much, very much, was expected of a State the prodigality of whose natural resources was reputed to be reflected in the hearts of its citizens, but the overflow of good feeling and gen- erous action must be placed to the credit of Cali- fornia's full appreciation of the work of the Asso- ciation as an important agent in the education and culture of the people and in the elevation of the standard of citizenship in our common country. Where all have acted with such liberality and done so much to render the visit of the Associa- tion to California a success and pleasure in every possible sense, time fails to specify our indebted- ness ; but the members present can never forget the untiring devotion of the local Executive Com- mittee of San Francisco, upon whom by far the heaviest burden of responsibility has fallen and who have responded thereto with such cordial good will and fellowship as to win all our hearts ; nor the fervor of the citizens of Sacramento, our first and brief hosts, whose generosity outran their boundaries, but did not stay without the gates ; nor the local committee of Oakland, who made us mark with a red letter the day we spent across the bay. No less can we allow ourselves to for- get the welcome as received at Sutro Heights, where body and mind were refreshed under the personal guidance of our generous host, Adolphe Sutro, Esq. ; and at Palo Alto, where the Oxford of the Pacific slope, born in a day, delighted us only less than the courteous, graceful, and bounti- ful reception of Senator and Mrs. Stanford. To all these we offer most heartfelt thanks and express our fervent wishes for the unchecked growth of California in those intellectual and moral directions in which she is now advancing with such rapid strides. The Association cannot forget, also, its indebt- edness to the Committees of the Mercantile and Public Libraries of Denver, the University Club of the same city, and the President and Faculty of Colorado College, Colorado Springs, who made the short stay of the Eastern party in the Centen- nial State a delightful remembrance. Resolved, That the Association offers its grateful thanks to the officials of the Pennsylva- nia Railroad accompanying our party to San Fran- cisco, for the liberality and convenience of all their arrangements for our comfort, which have been fully appreciated by all the travellers. This resolution was unanimously adopted. Mr. FLETCHER then read for information the report of the Executive Committee, naming the following list of OFFICERS FOR THE ENSUING YEAR. President. K. A. Linderfelt, Milwaukee. Vice Presidents. W: I. Fletcher, Amherst College Library. L. H. Steiner, Enoch Pratt Library, Baltimore, Md. C: C. Soule, Brookline, Mass. [Mr. Soule resigned, and Mr. Utley was elected in his place.] J. C. Rowell, University of California. C.. M. Hewins, Hartford Library, Conn. [Fred'k H. Hild also was afterwards chosen.] Secretary. Frank P. Hill, Free Public Library, Newark, N.J. I2 4 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. Assistant Secretaries. GENERAL. W: E: Parker, Treas. Library Bureau. M.. Salome Cutler, Vice Director Library School. TRAVEL. H. E. Davidson, Secretary Library Bureau. Fred'k H. Hild, Chicago Public Library. RECORDING. Prof. G: T. Little, Bowdoin College Library. Treasurer. H: J. Carr, Albright Library, Scranton, Pa. Finance Committee. W: C. Lane, Harvard College. J. M. Glenn, Treasurer New Mercantile Library, Baltimore, Md. Cooperation Committee. Gardner M. Jones, Public Library, Salem, Mass. Harriet E. Green, Cataloger, Boston Athe- naeum. M.. A. Bean, Brookline, Mass. Library School Committee. M.. W. Plummer, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. Dr. G. C. Wire, Medical Librarian, Newberry Library. W. K. Stetson, Public Library, New Haven. Public Document Committees. R. R. Bowker, Vice-President Brooklyn Library. E. C. Hovey, Trustee Brookline Library. T. H. Wallis, Ex-State Librarian of California. J. P. Dunn, jr., State Librarian, Indiana. Standing Committee. The President, ex-officio. The Secretary, ex-officio. F: M. Crunden, Public Library, St. Louis. Endowment Committee. J: M. Glenn. E. C. Hovey. R. R. Bowker. Trustees of Endowment Fund. Norman Williams. E. C. Hovey. J: M. Glenn. Councillors. Justin Winsor, W: F. Poole, C. A. Cutter, F: M. Crunden, Melvil Dewey, S: S. Green, Ex-Presidents, and W: H. Brett, C. R. Dudley, C. A. Nelson, H. M. Utley, A: W. Whelpley, J: Edmands, J: V. Cheney, Miss H.. P. James, Miss M.. E. Sargent, J: C. Dana, Tessa A. Kelso, Alfred E. Whitaker, Horace Wilson, W. C. Fitch, D. V. R. Johnston. It was moved that the Committee on Public Documents have power to add to its number and elect its own chairman, but the President advised the convention that according to the constitution, while the Executive Committee could add to the number of any one of its committees, the Associa- tion had no authority to do so. Adjourned. SANTA BARBARA SESSION. (FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21.) At a meeting held in the parlors of the Arling- ton Hotel, Santa Barbara, President GREEN in the chair. The PRESIDENT stated that the object was to express the thanks of the Association for the courtesies which had been extended to it. Mr. SCUDDER from the Committee on Resolu- tions offered the following: Resolved, That the members of the American Library Association here present return thanks to the Librarian and Trustees of the Free Public Library of Santa Barbara for the generous hospi- tality which enabled them to see thoroughly and pleasantly a place of whose attractions they have often heard, and in taking leave extend their heartiest wishes for the prosperity of both the library and the city. This being duly seconded was unanimously carried. Adjourned. TRAIN SESSION. (FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30.) Pres. GREEN in the chair. Dr. NOLAN, in order to bring the matter before the meeting, moved to re-consider the resolution passed at San Francisco to meet in Washington. Mr. WHELPLEY objected on the ground that the regular meeting in San Francisco should not be superseded by a smaller meeting at which only a few members were present. Mr. CUTTER stated that it was not well to give up Washington or Baltimore, but it would be a good plan to have some quiet place where the A. L. A. could conduct its business without dis- traction which is not possible in a large city. K. A. LINDERFELT. TRAIN SESSION. 125 Mr. DUDLEY also objected to large cities and stated that the experience of the A. L. A. in cities had not been such as to create any desire to try it again. Meetings held away from the seductive influences of the town were to be preferred. Mr. SOULE called attention to the fact that next year it would be well to devote our time to making preparations for the World's Fair, and conse- quently close attention to regular business was to be desired. Mr. BOWKER thought that it was unwise to ignore the action taken at San Francisco, but as it was well to modify its action he offered the following resolution : Resolved, that the Standing Committee be authorized, in arranging for the Washington-Bal- timore Conference, to provide that the first ses- sions of the conference shall be held at some quieter resort (preferably Annapolis, if satisfactory hotel accommodations can be had, otherwise in New York and Washington, and at some point as near Washington as practicable) ; also that the committee be requested to arrange for an optional post-conference trip to include Old Point Com- fort, Richmond, White Sulphur Springs, Luray, the Natural Bridge, and Gettysburg or other con- venient points. Dr. NOLAN withdrew his motion to reconsider in order to give Mr. Bowker's resolution a chance for consideration. Mr. SOULE moved to strike out "Preferably Annapolis, provided satisfactory hotel accommoda- tions can be had," on the ground that in his opin- ion Annapolis could not offer accommodations at all suited to the wants of the A. L. A. Mr. LOWDERMILK did not think that Annapo- lis was so bad, but in his opinion Old Point or Luray were much better; he confessed that he had never been at Annapolis. Dr. POOLE objected to Washington because it was too hot and because in the South there were few libraries belonging to the A. L. A,,' and because we could hope for but little support there. Col. LOWDERMILK urged the advisability of meeting in the South in order to give aid to the librarians in that section who were striving to do their best under adverse circumstances, and who deserved great credit for very excellent work. Mr. HILL objected to Washington and thought that the Association had the power to change the action of the San Francisco meeting whenever it wished. He favored Col. Lowdermilk's sugges- tion to go to Old Point or Luray. He also thanked the A. L..A. in touching words for the resolutions of sympathy for him. They had been of great comfort to him when sick and far from home, and as he had thought far from friends. Miss SHERMAN stated that there were in the South many devoted librarians who could not give the time and money to attend the sessions in the North, who ought to be aided by a session in the South which they would gladly attend. Dr. NOLAN did not like to override the action taken in San Francisco, but thought that a session near Washington would answer all the conditions demanded. He was in favor of Luray as he knew the place to be good from his own personal experience. Mr. CUTTER called attention to the fact that next year should be devoted to business only, in order that the Association might get itself into condition to make a creditable exhibition in Chi- cago in 1893. He thought the Executive Com- mittee should have the largest powers to chose time and place of meeting. In his opinion the session should be in the North, so as to get the largest possible delegation to attend. Dr. POOLE moved to la'y both Mr. Bowker's resolution and Mr. Soule's amendment on the table. Lost. Mr. JENKS moved to strike out the words " Between New York and Washington." Mr. DUDLEY raised a point of order that the convention had adjourned to meet in Chicago. The chair held the point not well taken. Messrs. SOULE and JENKS withdrew their amendments. Mr. DUDLEY moved to amend by striking out the words " As near Washington as practicable." " Lost, yea 12, nay 13." Miss AHEARN moved to strike out the words " Between New York and Washington." Car- ried. Mr. BOWKER'S resolution as amended was then adopted, reading as follows : Resolved, That the Standing Committee be authorized in arranging for the Washington and Baltimore conference to provide that the first ses- sions of the conference shall be held at some quiet resort, preferably Annapolis, if satisfactory hotel accommodations can be had, otherwise as near Washington as practicable ; and that the committee be requested to arrange for an optional post-conference trip to include Old Point, Richmond, White Sulphur Springs, Luray, the Natural Bridge, and Gettysburg, or other points. On being asked, the chair ruled that the Execu- tive Committee has full power to fix the time of meeting at any date in the months of May and June. 126 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. Dr. POOLE moved that the Executive Commit- tee have power to name any time. Mr. HILD thought this unwise, as it was impor- tant to have an early session to provide for the World's Fair. Dr. POOLE'S motion was lost. Mr. SOULE declined to accept his election as Vice-President. The chair ruled that Mr. Soule must offer his resignation to the Executive Committee, as the Association had no voice in the matter. Mr. BOWKER appealed from this decision, but in answer to a question from the President said that he did not wish to make the appeal at this meeting. Mr. HILD moved that when the Committee on Revision of the Constitution make its report a printed copy be sent to each member of the Asso- ciation at least three months before the confer- ence. Carried. Mr. DANA offered the following resolution: Resolved, That the Standing Committee be requested to consider the advisability of printing at least two-thirds of the papers to be presented at the next conference of the Association, and distributing the same among such members as are to attend said conference two weeks before the date of the same. Mr. BOWKER moved as an amendment that the Standing Committee see that at the next confer- ence the bulk of the time be given to discussion and not to papers. Mr. CUTTER opposed the amendment as being no more than a recommendation that had been tried and had failed at every conference. He urged that Mr. Dana's experiment be tried once at least. Mr. Bowker's amendment was lost, and Mr. Dana's motion was carried. Adjourned. TRAIN SESSION. (SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31.) President GREEN in the chair, Mr. Scudder from the Committee on Resolutions offered the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted : Resolved, That the members of the A. L. A. attending the San Francisco conference who have taken part in the journey across the continent and through Southern California, under the manage- ment of the Pennsylvania Railroad, express their cordial thanks to that company and especially to Assistant General Passenger Agent George W. Boyd, for the very satisfactory manner in which the journey has been planned and conducted, and the special train equipped and manned, affording the very perfection of travel and avoiding com- pletely the discomforts and inconveniences usually incident to long journeys; and they especially appreciate the good faith of the company in that although the number of passengers fell short of original expectations, it has fulfilled to the utmost the liberal arrangements of the original pro- gramme. Resolved, That in tendering their especial thanks, individually and collectively, to Tourist Agent J. P. McWilliams and to Mrs. H. F. Bender, chaperon, representing the management of the Pennsylvania Railroad, they recognize to how large an extent the proper arrangement of detail has been due to their efficiency and constant courtesy. Resolved, That they appreciate heartily and fully how much they are indebted to the excellent service and unfailing good-nature of Pullman con- ductor Backus, Dining-car Conductor Erhart, and other train officials, and to the porters, waiters, and others of the train crew, for the comfort and convenience which they have enjoyed throughout the journey. Resolved, That they thank also the Southern Pacific Railroad General Passenger Agent Good- man and its other officials for their courtesy in making special arrangements for the side trips from San Francisco and in affording other conven- iences on their road. The American Library Association wishes to return its hearty thanks to the Kansas Library Association, and especially to the librarians present at Topeka on the last day of October, for their very gracious welcome and cordial hospitality, for the delicate music of the Mandolin Club, and the personal attentions of the young ladies of the U and I Club, all of which gave to the Association's brief stay at Topeka a peculiar charm. The A. L. A., recognizing how greatly the pleasure and interest of its California Conference and of the trip across the continent have been increased by the abounding generosity with which it has been welcomed at every turn, wishes to place on record its warmest thanks to the follow- ing parties, in addition to those that have already received recognition : To the press of San Francisco for its excellent and full reports of the meetings of the conference, which were satisfactory in a high degree. To the citizens of Santa Cruz who spread for us a lunch in that noble forest of Big Trees, which lies at their border, and received us with such warm hospitality. To the good people of Pasadena, under the leadership of Willis M. Masters, Esq., President of the Board of Trade, and Mrs. Merritt of the Public Library for a bountiful lunch and a drive under personal guidance through their fruitful valley and a visit to the library, where the school children fairly loaded us with flowers and fruit. To the Board of Directors of the Public Library of Los Angeles, and a committee of citizens, to Miss Tessa L. Kesso, the chief librarian, Miss Adelaide R. Hasse, her assistant, and the entire library staff, for a most cordial reception at the Public Library, a collation under the presidency of His Honor, Mayor H. T. Hazard, where the TRAIN SESSION. CHICAGO SESSION. 127 tables were decorated with flowers and palms in a manner befitting Southern California, and a drive with the citizens about the growing city ; also to Mr. and Mrs. T. S. C. Lowe of Pasadena, who supplied our train with the choicest flowers on our departure. To the Trustees of the Free Public Library of San Diego, and the indefatigable Miss Lulu Younkin, librarian, for a most enjoyable visit to their border city, where the Association badge was honored on ferries and railways ; yachts and carriages were provided for our pleasure; a ball given by the Mizpah Club on our arrival, and a reception by Mrs. H. L. Story on our departure ; and not the least a trip to Mexico allured us. To Mrs. G. L. Smith, librarian of the Public Library of Riverside, and to its citizens for a drive through the place under individual guidance, an informal reception at the library and a generous collation. The members of the Association, so fortunate as to be able to make this trip and attend the Conference cannot fail to carry with them through life a high appreciation of the generous culture, the prodigal hospitality, and the devoted patriotism of the good people of California. Dr. Nolan offered the following : Resolved, That the thanks of the American Library Association be tendered to its President, Samuel Swett Green, for his courteous and effi- cient discharge of his responsible duties during the San Francisco session of the Association. This being duly seconded, Dr. Nolan himself put the question. Carried with applause. The Executive Committee through Dr. Linder- felt reported that they had accepted with reluc- tance Mr. Soule's resignation. They also reported that they had elected Mr. H. M. Utley to fill the vacancy (applause), and furthermore that they had elected Mr. Fred'k H. Hild a Vice-President, in order that he might represent the Association with full powers before the Committee of the Colum- bian Exposition. (Applause). Mr. Utley thanked the Association in a few words for his election. Adjourned. CHICAGO SESSION. (MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2.) The final meeting was held at the Newberry Library, Chicago, President GREEN in the chair. Mr. SOULE discussed the nomenclature of library architecture and proposed that hereafter the " single stack " be hereafter known as " floor cases," and that systems of this character be called the " range system." Mr. UTLEY moved that the Committee on Reso- lutions prepare a vote of thanks to the citizens of Chicago for their generous hospitality. Carried. The following was afterwards prepared by them : Resolved, That the cordial thanks of the A. L. A. be given to our kind Chicago friends and particu- larly to the authorities of the Public and New- berry Libraries, for their very generous attentions, by which our visit to their city was made as attractive and useful as was possible in so brief a stay. Mr. CUTTER read his report on personal statis- tics. Mrs. DIXON outlined the system of sliding book presses as used in the British Museum, the Bod- leian Library, and in Mr. Gladstone's private library. Mr. BOWKER made a report on the model library as conducted in the Brooklyn Library. He hoped that the A. L. A. members would communicate criticisms on it to the Library journal. Mr. FLETCHER offered the following resolution which was carried : Resolved, That the librarians in foreign countries be urgently invited to attend the library conference to be held at Chicago in 1893 ; and also to con- tribute as largely as possible to the library exhibit to be there made. Mr. FLETCHER offered the following : Resolved, That Messrs. Melvil Dewey, W. S. Biscoe, and Miss Mary S. Cutler, and Mrs. Dixon, who attended the meeting of the L. A. U. K. at Nottingham, be recorded on the minutes of the A. L. A. as duly accredited delegates. Adopted. The President thanked the people of Chicago for their cordial invitation to the A. L. A. to attend the World's Fair in 1893. Adjourned. 128 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. PUBLISHING SECTION. The annual meeting of the section was called to order at 10 A. M., October 15, by the President. No formal report was presented by the Executive Board, all points of interest in the year's work appearing to be covered by the report of the Treasurer. The Treasurer's report was read, and it was voted to refer it to Mr. J. L. Whitney of the Boston Public Library as auditor, and that if approved by him it should be filed. The President stated that the A. L. A. Index to essays, e^:., was actually at press, and specimen copies of a provisional first page were distributed. A ballot being taken for officers for the ensuing year, the old board were reflected as follows: President, W. I. Fletcher. Secretary and Treasurer, W. C. Lane. Executive Board, The President, the Secretary and Treasurer, Melvil Dewey, C. A. Cutter, C. C. Soule. ASSOCIATION OF STATE LIBRARIANS. The Association of State Librarians beg leave to report that it has been deemed advisable not to call a meeting this year for the purpose of dis- cussion owing to the fact that few of the mem- bers could be present in San Francisco. How- ever, the Association wishes to report that much good has been accomplished since its organization in 1889. Many of the States have changed their laws in accordance with the principles advocated by us and have increased their appropriations for library purposes. We wish to call attention to Chap. 126 of the New Hampshire laws for 1891, approved April n, 1891. This act passed annually on the recommendation of our Associa- tion provides that the Senators and Representatives in Congress from New Hampshire be instructed to favor (i) free transportation through the mails for all matter between State libraries ; (2) free transportation between State libraries and foreign governments ; (3) a lower rate of postage on books ; (4) that State libraries have the privilege of importing books free from custom duty. This resolution has already secured the endorsement of the New Hampshire delegation in Congress. And on the recommendation of Senator Gallinger a petition is being prepared for him to present to Congress. In February, 1890, a circular letter was sent out to the Governor, and Superintendent of Education of every State in the Union, and to other interested people, outlining the policy of the Association and requesting aid and cooperation. Starting from the proposition that a State library should not only be a complete reference library for all branches of the government, executive, judicial, and legislative, and the repository of all materials for local history and biography, it was urged that it should also contain ancj furnish abundant facilities for using all desirable books of information relating to special industries and pursuits of the State, or calculated to lead to the introduction of industries and pursuits suited to it, but hitherto neglected. In short, it should be fitted to serve all interests of the State by infusing into their conduct the highest intelligence and skill. On the following points we requested assistance: That there be a uniformity in the laws govern- ing State libraries and regulating exchanges of public documents. That each State provide for the main- tenance of a State library, by creating a fund, and not by annual or biennial appropriations. That the salary of each State librarian be made proportionate to the salaries of other State offi- cers. And that the terms of office depend on efficiency solely, and not on changes of administra- tion. That each State provide for the speedy trans- mission, under the direction of the State librarian, to all State libraries and to foreign governments, of all public documents and State publications, directly to the libraries. That each State should provide by law That all books published under its authority be properly indexed by a uniform topical alphabet, preserving the same heads of reference from year to year. That the title pages of all statutes and journals of the Legislature show the dates of convening and final adjournment of the sessions. That law reports give the extreme dates of the decisions on the title pages, and the date of the rendition of each decision above the title of each STATE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 129 That each volume of law reports contain a table of cases, plaintiff and defendant, and vice -versa, That the name of the State, with year and num- ber of the Legislature where practicable, be let- tered on the back of every volume. That each State provide for the proper cata- loguing and indexing, under the direction of the State librarian, of all publications that have been or may be issued by authority of the State. That each provide for the preparation and pub- lication of a list of the sessions of its Legislature, from the first session to date. That each State provide for the proper exchange and disposition of duplicate books. Owing to the cooperation received from persons not librarians and correspondence by individual members of this Association, rather than to any official action perhaps, we are happy to report that many things have been done in accordance to our wishes. And while much yet remains to be accomplished, we have great reason to feel encouraged. Besides these requests from the States we asked from the National government the following : That Congress should provide For free transportation by mail between State libraries. By international arrangement, for free transpor- tation of books and other printed matter between State libraries and departments of foreign govern- ments. For a lower rate of postage on books. That the privilege now en joyed by the Library of Congress, and by societies, colleges, and schools, in the exemption of books from import duty, should be extended to State libraries. Though these demands are reasonable and for the public good, we regret to say that we have as yet met with no response or encouragement. Books addressed to the Library of Congress are carried free through the mails, because of the high public utility of this institution. For the same reason the official libraries of the several States should be exempted from postal charges on mat- ter transmitted between them, since securing full sets of the documents of each State in the libra- ries of other States is a part of a national and interstate polity rather than a mere local exi- gency. Great difficulty is now experienced and great expense incurred in trying to make exchanges between State libraries and foreign governments. Whatever Congress and the Department of State can do to facilitate exchanges and lessen expense would benefit individual States and the country. Reducing postage on books would facilitate diffusion of good literature, and would aid popu- lar education through the libraries, by removing what the Librarian of Congress recently character- ized as " the present unwise and unjust discrimina- tion against good books, which permits all the cheap libraries of novels to go by mail at i cent a pound, while all the other books must pay 8 cents a pound, thus putting a government premium upon trash, and taxing the diffusion of knowledge eight times as much as the diffusion of fiction. " Through an apparent oversight, State (and pub- lic) libraries are riot mentioned in the statutes as entitled to import books free of duty. The rulings of the Treasury Department allow libra- ries exemption from duties, but the law should be so explicit as not to leave libraries dependent on the rulings of the Treasury or the decisions of Collectors of Customs. We greatly regret the absence of our President, Melvil Dewey, who has been so faithful to our cause, and who has given it such hearty assistance. We further report that the officers of last year have been reflected and the Association has adjourned to meet at the next session of the A. L. A. Respectfully submitted, T. H. WALLIS, For the Association. FROM NEW YORK TO THE GOLDEN GATE. BY D. V. R. JOHNSTON. At 7.30 A. M., Oct. i, 1891, four travelers, partly refreshed by sleep under the auspices of Jersey mosquitoes, stepped over from Taylor's Hotel in Jersey City to the Pennsylvania R. R. station and formed the nucleus of a company of faithful members of the A. L. A. bound for the setting sun conference. In the course of a few minutes a local train brought into view the smiling face of our Secretary, who, being used to the insects of the locality, had without doubt enjoyed a good night's sleep; and soon the New York and Brooklyn ferries brought in the rest of 130 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. our party, and at a minute or two before 8 the special train was off one locomotive, four cars, about twenty officials, and nine tourists. These latter had by the time of starting all been thor- oughly waked up by astonishment at finding their luggage by some unknown power all present and accounted for, and were in fact in thorough harmony with their environment, bent on having a good time of pleasure and profit and fearing not the dangers of the road. In less than ten minutes from starting we had our first proof that our fame had gone abroad, for at Newark we were stopped by the staff of the public library who gave us a hearty God-speed and a bean-bag outfit. It would be hard to say what were the feelings of this party of higher culture on being presented with the appliances of such a simple and homely amusement, but it may as well be frankly confessed that culture and bean bags got on well together. As the New Jersey State fair was being held at Trenton, and of course the railroads were running many extra trains, we lost time on the way to Philadelphia, that is, our train lost time ; we personally did not, we talked shop and were happy. At 10.30 we rolled into the Broad Street station and found there the Philadelphia delega- tion, who having slept and breakfasted at home, sported a superior air, and the New England contingent, weighed down with luggage and a night in a sleeping-car. However, it took but a moment for the whole party to flutter round the train and alight each one in his proper nest. The signal dropped, the conductor called "all aboard," and with a clear track before us and with engine running wide open, our train started for the West. With nothing to stop for but the southern delegation, which marched aboard with true military promptness at Harrisburg, we had a free run for Pittsburg and such a run ! On we rushed through the glory of an October day, the moun- tains in their splendid livery one by one falling behind us, along the Susquehanna, up the valley of the Juniata, over Blue Ridge and Alleghany, by the busy hives of mountain industry, past ill-fated Johnstown, and in the dusk stopped at Pittsburg, glowing with its thousand furnaces. A few minutes here to chat with those who welcomed us at the station, and we were off again through the night. The morning found us on time again rapidly nearing Chicago, and at 9.30 we were most heart- ily welcomed by our Chicago friends. Though we had but two hours to spend, yet, so well were we taken care of that we had the chance of visiting the libraries and "doing" the business part of the town. Chicago was very hot, however, and when, at 11.30, we drew out into the open country, we found the slightly cooler air agreeable. We were the less sorry to leave, moreover, because our party now contained the best of Chicago's citizens, according to our standards. We now numbered forty-one, and as it was understood that each individual possessed at least one new idea on library matters, we all set to work to inter- change a work, by the way, which completely lasted out the trip. So we imbibed information and dust till even- ing, when we crossed the Mississipi and found a cooler atmosphere. Then it was discovered that there were some who would condescend to amuse themselves, even with bean bags, and later it was found, with some difficulty, that a few confessed to singing. In fact we then came to the under- standing that pleasure and profit should be mixed in fair working proportions. That evening at Ottumwa, la., we found a county fair in " full blast " within a structure which at first appeared to be made of coal, and by the courtesy of the management we were taken in to spend what few minutes were allowed us by the schedule of our train. About the middle of the same night, at Pacific Junction, the Omaha delegation joined us. The next afternoon, after a warm and rather monoto- nous but not unprofitable nor unpleasant day, over the Nebraska and Colorado plains, we saw (many of us for the first time) the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains, and as darkness was settling down over the valley beautiful Den- ver received us in hospitable embrace. We had been promised at last year's conference a taste of wild and woolly hospitality, and we thought our- selves prepared for great things; but we were not prepared for the generous, warm-hearted recep- tion which we received. The librarians of the Mercantile and Public Libraries, with their assist- ants, and a delegation of leading citizens, wel- comed us at the station and gave us the freedom of the city. As all the clubs opened their doors to us, most of the men in the party spent the evening at one or the other of them, thus at once becom- ing acquainted with very many representatives of Denver's culture and progress. Others, how- ever, escorted such of the ladies as were not too tired to the theater, and all of us retired for the night quite convinced that Denver was all that was claimed for it, and more. TO SAN FRANCISCO. The next day being Sunday, we were supposed to be left to ourselves, but this was not carried out literally, as our entertainers were ever at hand to point out new ways of enjoying the time. Many of us attended divine services in the Cathedral, and other places of public worship, and all of us found more or less time for walking or riding through the city and its suburbs. Monday morning, bright and early, our hosts were at hand, with carriages to show us the city. And, after that sunny autumn morning spent in such surroundings, and in such good company, we could not but love Denver. At noon we left on a special train placed at our disposal, for Argo and the silver smelting works, where we were welcomed by the president of the company, ex-U. S. Senator N. P. Hill. Under his guidance we inspected these interesting works, and left with a great admiration for the Senator as a gentleman and as a scientist, and with at least a general knowledge of the art of reducing silver ores. One accident, however, befell us and marred the pleasure of the day, for while leaping over a stream of molten slag one of the Columbia College representatives fell and sprained her ankle so badly that she was deprived of many of the pleas- ures of the trip thereafter. In the afternoon, as if to show us all the phases of her nature, Denver treated us to a regulation dust storm, which was^followed by rain, which in turn gave way to snow. But we were not daunted. We made thorough inspection of the libraries while there was yet day, and in the evening attended a most enjoyable reception extended to us at the house of the University Club. Late in the evening Denver gave us a hearty God-speed, and taking away two of her librarians and two other travelers who there joined us, we went our way. The early morning found us at romantic Manitou Springs, we having changed our schedule and run through Colorado Springs in the night. The sun- shine, tempering the cool mountain breeze, made the day most pleasant for a run in the open air. The morning was spent in driving about, the majority going to the Garden of the Gods, while some explored the caves and canons, and a few devotees of Ramona took the longer drive to the grave of Helen Hunt Jackson, on Cheyenne Moun- tain. No one was disappointed, and each thought that his party had a little the best of it. In the afternoon, thanks to the courtesy of the management of the Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway, we all had a chance to make the ascent of Pike's Peak, which was towering above us covered with fresh-fallen snow. All who were cer- tain of their soundness in wind and limb were on hand when the train started. True, we were informed that there was no certainty of our ever reaching the top, and, for that matter, there was no certainty of our ever coming back ; but our honored President cheered us up as we said good- bye by stating that if the worst came to the worst all the papers to be read before the A. L. A. were in his keeping, and so the world would not be a total loser if we concluded never to come down from the mountain at all. But, with the latest invention of modern engineering to push us from behind, and a gang of stalwart aliens to shovel the drifts in front, we took the chances. And we made no mistake. Up and up we went, through constantly changing mountain views, stopping now and then to be shoveled out of a drift, and at last, just as the sun was dipping behind a range of a thousand snowy mountains, we stood on the summit of the king of the Rockies. As we knew that we must expect most bitter cold, and had with us no cloth- ing suitable for such a temperature, we wore the blankets belonging to the Pullman Palace Car Co., and without doubt some thirty able-bodied citizens so wrapped in red blankets that the letters P. P. C. were worn on the small of the back, walking in solemn procession around the mountain top, was a sight for gods and men. Nevertheless we drank in the wonderful scenery with pleasure ; we drank in some coffee at the Summit House with much less pleasure ; and there were some who imperiled their constitutions with the sand- wiches of the country ; yet we all lived and were happy. It seemed as though we tarried but fora moment, yet that moment was worth traveling hundreds of miles for ; it was such a perfect moun- tain day. Having come within an inch of leaving behind to the tender mercies of Pike's Peak coffee and sandwiches one of our most valued members, we started for the valley ; and, as the darkness suddenly fell on us, and we were all very hungry we were glad to remember that the hotels of the land were both numerous and excellent. How- ever, we kept up our spirits and sang songs until we were at Manitou once more. Then, after a hasty dinner, we made our way over to Colorado Springs, where we enjoyed a most hearty recep- tion at the hands of its cultured citizens, in the halls of the rising young university. As one of our members, with his Pullman blanket, was rush- ing from the hotel at Manitou to catch the cars for Colorado Springs, he overheard a voice from the 132 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. piazza calling, " Hurry, Mary, hurry, there goes the last of them." Then in a tone of great disap- pointment he added, " There, now, you have missed seeing those interesting Ute Indians." Early Wednesday morning we started again, and all that day we were in the mountains. Through the Royal Gorge, through the canon of the Arkansas, by mountain peaks innumerable, past busy Leadville to the top of Tennessee Pass, and then we plunged over the Divide; then through the ever-changing Eagle Canon, with scenery as grand as before, we ran down the mountain side, until evening, when we stopped at Glenwood Springs. It is with sorrow that we have to chronicle that crossing the Divide was too much for our genial Secretary. Some of the more profane say that his lungs, long used to New Jersey malaria, could not stand the pure air of 10,000 feet elevation; but the more thoughtful said that the pressure of work in getting up the trip had exhausted his strength. However, be that as it may, the fact remains that we lost the services of a most competent officer for the bal- ance of our trip. Having swum in the wonderful sulphur baths of Glenwood in the evening, and covered our- selves with alkali dust crossing the plains in the night, in the morning we found ourselves running through Utah, through new valleys and by differ- ent mountains which were quite as beautiful to look upon as those which we had already seen. We steamed through several thriving Mormon towns, by Utah Lake, and through the passes, and at noon were at Salt Lake City. Having lunched at the fine new hotel, we all took car- riages to do the City of the Saints, which, it must be confessed, was not up to our expectations except as to natural beauty. We, however, saw all the law allowed and more, for some of the party on being informed that no Gentile foot had ever entered the sacred precincts of the Temple straightway entered therein, and, what is more, climbed up to its highest pinnacle. A trip to Fort Douglas to see dress parade and sunset on the Great Salt Lake and a visit to the library wound up the day. That night, five hours ahead of time, we were off, hoping by an early start to get through the snow-sheds on the Sierras by night. But it was not so to be, for at Ogden we received a telegram from the Sacramento committee warning us by no means to reach there ahead of time, as they had their plans already made for a public reception in our honor. However, we were gainers by the early start, as we not only had a good chance to view Great Salt Lake and its weird, unnatural scenery, but also had time enough on our hands to run very slowly over the desert plains of Utah and Nevada, so slowly, indeed, that we raised but little of that awful alkali dust which is such a nuisance to travelers. At Carlin, Nevada, in the afternoon we found, to our surprise, a library. It was like a voice crying in the wilderness, and with one accord we rushed in upon the librarian, and wished him all manner of good luck. We found that the few inhab- itants of Nevada were of a most extraordinary men- tal development and worthy of many libraries ; for at one of the stations we overheard a citizen inviting a friend to come and inspect our party, on the ground that " it was the smartest lot of people which had ever been seen in the State." " Are they all from Boston ? " asked the other. " Nop, they are not, for they don't all wear glasses ; but they look almighty wise just the same." The morning our train was " held up " in true western style by the State Librarian of California, with Judge R. O. Cravens, T. H. Wallis, ex-State Librarian; W. C. Fitch, President of the Sacra- mento Library ; and J. A. Woodson, President of the Sacramento Art Museum, and the librarian of the Alameda Public Library. This party took the train at Truckee, and as we were conducted west- ward, leaving behind us for a day or so the chair- man of the Committee on Resolutions for a raid on the grasshoppers of that locality, we were their captives body and soul. They came not empty- handed, but brought with them quail, salmon, and the choicest of California's golden fruits. With laughter, feasting, and good fellowship we were carried on our way, and being so well-conducted none of the glorious scenery of the Sierras was allowed to pass us unnoticed. Romantic Donner's Lake was pointed out and its sad story rehearsed. The canons were introduced to us one by one, and at Cape Horn we had a full hour to revel in the morning beauty of the " heart of the Sierras " so famed on canvas and in print. But the party did not give up its search for solid information, and from the President on, all, with few exceptions, made personal examination of that marvelous product of the country, the red bat of Tuckalook Canon. True, we had studied the species before, but never under circumstances so favorable for scientific investigation. It was unanimously voted that the bat was a brick. As we were whirled rapidly down the mountain side, only stopping for fresh relays of fruit and flowers, which our captors had provided at every station, our spirits rose TO SAN FRANCISCO. 133 higher and higher at the prospect of enjoying a conference among people who were as hospitable as cultured. At 1.30 p. M. we drew up in the Sacramento station, and were immediately taken possession of by a delegation of citizens who escorted us in carriages to the Crocker Art Gal- lery, where His Honor, Mayor Comstock, gave us the freedom of the city. Mr. Woodson welcomed us to the gallery in a very neat speech. After hav- ing admired the fine collection of paintings, which are the memorial of one of Sacramento's best- known citizens, Judge Crocker, the whole party went to the State capitol, where in the halls of the State Library we were welcomed by the Hon. E. G. Waite on behalf of Gov. Markham, who was absent from the city. Our President answered in one of those pithy, witty speeches which have made his administration famous in the annals of the A. L. A. and after inspecting the library and the capitol, under the guidance of the State Library staff, we were taken to drive through the city, carrying away with us baskets of fruits and flowers and a large floral book made with most exquisite taste, which afterwards we used to ornament our parlors in San Francisco. At 4.10 P. M. we were turned over to the San Francisco committee, who had come up to take care of us, ten librarians, all known to us by reputation ; and turning our back on the good peo- ple of Sacramento we started on our final run for the Golden Gate. We found that although we were tired with much sight-seeing and merrymak- ing, in the heat of a most sultry and oppressive day, our San Francisco friends could still keep us in full enjoyment of the passing hours, and after what seemed a short run through the darkening fields and along the bay we rolled into the Oakland station and our railroad trip was ended. A short wait for the ferry, a short ride in the cool fog drawing in from the sea, a twinkling of electric lights and a jingling of bells, the wheels ceased churning the water, and our journey was done. Three thousand five hundred and forty-five miles of thorough enjoyment and solid profit. AT SAN FRANCISCO. BY JESSIE ALLAN, LIBRARIAN OMAHA PUBLIC LIBRARY. The entertainment of the members of the American Library Association by the San Fran- ciscans virtually began at 5 p. M., Saturday. Oct. 10, when we left Sacramento accompanied by the vanguard of citizens of 'Frisco and Oakland, namely Messrs. Cheney, Cleary, Doxey, O'Conor, Peterson, Rowell, Symmes, Warren, Whitaker, and Wilson, Arrived at the Palace Hotel, which was to be our home for a week, each member realized that for thirty-six hours he was a free agent, and knowing the proverbial hospitality of Californians, and that every hour of the next six days would be fully occupied by the regular program, resolved to make the most of his opportunity. Newspapers and correspondence demanded the attention of many, but a number of the vvisemen decided without hesitation to see Market street on a Saturday night. This is a feature of San Fran- cisco, and the endless throng composed of Caucasians, Negroes, and Mongolians, passing up " two bits " side, then down " three bits " side, give an air of cosmopolitanism not equalled in any city of the United States. The unique program designates Sunday by the single word " rest." If to change is to rest, we rested ; but " perpetual motion " would more happily describe our condition. The different churches claimed most during the hours of morning service. Then to see the beauties of the city seemed to be the main object of life. To see San Francisco, patronize the street railways. No city in the world may be seen so quickly and so easily as on this the most perfect cable-car system in the world. The rides are full of delightful surprises, of superb views of city, mountain, and sea. Californians say that the city is built on a hundred hills, and those who have fully experienced the ups and downs of cable life must agree that this is not a western exaggeration. Golden Gate Park was the destination of many of our people, and it was hard to believe that even such indefatigable perseverance had in so short a time transformed desolate sand hills into a trop- ical vision of lovliness. A kind providence in the guise of a Chinese funeral led a few of us to the Chinese cemeteries, where in addition to the peculiar burial service we witnessed the interesting ceremonies incident to the semi-annual feast of the dead. The celebra- tion continues all day, and we saw all the steps in 134 SAN- FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. the service from the arrival laden with meats, rice, liquor, cigarettes, etc., the explosion of fire- crackers, the burning of religious paper repre- senting money, prayers, and messages for the departed. As a grand finale we were at 1 1 o'clock treated to the heaviest earthquake shock that has been experienced in many years. As one of our bright Southern California hostesses remarked, " The people of San Francisco said they would move heaven and earth for you. As far as the latter is concerned they could not have been more successful." At 9.20 A. M. Monday, conducted by the mem- bers of the local commtttee, we started on a trip that had not a single marring feature. Sutro Heights and the Cliff House were points of desti- nation, and the mode of transit, a train, decorated with flags and flowers. The ever-changing pano- rama of this ride on the edge of the cliff must be seen to be fully appreciated. Arrived at Sutro Heights we were welcomed by Mr. Sutro, aud his daughter Dr. Merritt. A stroll through the grounds was followed by a visit to the Cliff House ; a view of the famous seal rocks, and a cursory inspection of the mammoth baths in course of construction. Returning to the residence of our host, we were served with an elaborate luncheon, during which Messrs. Sutro, Green, Poole, Linderfelt, and Cheney made some brief and felicitous remarks. Return to the city was made by the Park and Ocean road in time for the opening session at Pioneer Hall. Monday evening, at 8 o'clock, the members of the Association were most delightfully received by the citizens of San Francisco. Owing to illness, Mr. W. H. L. Barnes was unable to make the opening address, Rev. C. W. Wendte, who was introduced by Mr. Cheney, kindly filling his place. In welcoming the members of the Asso- ciation, he said that he had often wished to be a librarian, just to be free from the cares, annoy- ances, and exactions of an ordinary mortal's life, and to seek rest and quiet in the dim, still alcoves of some great place of books. Mr. Wendte might find the dimness and stillness in many of our cathedral libraries ; but would soon acknowledge that rest is in the vocabulary of few librarians. Mr. Green responded in his usual happy style, when the official program was closed by Mr. Cheney, who read an original poem called " A Librarian's Trials." It was a decided hit, being a humorous allegory, not long, and written from a true standpoint. Conversation was resumed and continued for an hour, during which we learned by actual experi- ence the charming heartiness with which San Francisco treats the strangers within her gates. Tuesday at 9 A. M., under the thoughtful and kind guardianship of Messrs. Whitaker, Wilson, and Rowell, we were conducted to the steamer " Tiburon " for a trip around the bay. The names Hunter's Point, Raccoon Straits, Alcatraz, Man and Angel's Island, and El Campo became realities to us. Our friends regretted the clouds and the wind, but the scenery in these circum- stances was so beautiful, and the kindliness of the ladies and gentlemen of San Francisco and Oak- land so delightful that I doubt whether a clear atmosphere could have made the day more satis- factory. With the usual hospitality, a bountiful luncheon was served on the return trip. Until I P. M., Wednesday, business meetings claimed our undivided attention. At this time in response to an invitation tendered by Senator and Mrs. Stanford, the party to the number of 60 boarded a special train for Palo Alto. The prime motive of this excursion was a visit to the Leland Stanford, Jr. University. This beautiful and mag- nificent institution was opened October i, about four and a half years after the laying of the corner- stone. In accordance with Senator Stanford's desire to perpetuate pioneer customs, all the buildings are in the old mission style of architecture, with broad, low arches, high, pitched roofs, and red, curved tiles. With the exception of the last named, California has furnished all the materials for construction. After a general view of the buildings and satis- fying the omnipresent photograph fiend, we were conducted to the chapel, where a brief address of welcome was made by President Jordan, and responded to by the President of the Associa- tion. Carriages then conveyed us to the Palo Alto stock farm, where even the most ordinary horse lover became wildly enthusiastic over the beauties of Sunol, Palo Alto, Bellbird, Ladywell, and hun- dreds of lesser lights in the equine world. Per- haps it is only fair to presume that the wonderful breaking of records in the following week was due to the visit of the members of the American Library Association. One of the horses was introduced to the party as Librarian. From the Kindergarten we were driven to Menlo Park, where we were most charmingly and heart- ily received by Mr. and Mrs. Stanford, Miss Upson, AT SAN FRANCISCO. 135 and others. Two hours were spent in conversa- tion, in promenading through the beautiful grounds, and in doing justice to the dainty colla- tion. It was late in the afternoon when the train left Menlo Park. Air, clear and balmy, an indigo sky, and charming fellowship added to the delights of a most delightful day. Tuesday and Wednesday nights, after the ses- sions, parties were arranged, each under the guid- ance of an officer, for the purpose of visiting Chinatown, a small part of the city as regards area, but harboring 50,000 Celestials. We were first given.a general idea of the streets or alleys, lined with small shops, where curious groceries are sold, and still more curious meats and vegetables ; booths where we saw confections, books, newspapers, curios, and around, above, and below the, to us, cabalistic red scrolls, all as distinctly Chinese as if we were in the Flowery Kingdom. Suddenly we were conducted through a dark passage, down steep and narrow stairs to the squalid, crowded, ill-smelling, living places of these human beings; to their opium dens, mere closets having several bunks, in each of which lies a Chinaman in different stages of intoxication ; to the public kitchen, to see the blind woman and the disgusting Chinese idiot. It was a relief to again reach the street where, foul as the air was, it seemed like purity itself compared with that of the subterranean haunts. The restaurant was a pleasant surprise, with its beautiful lacquered chairs and tables, its dainty china, real tea, and strange sweetmeats. From here we went to the Joss House, but recently finished and gorgeous with its bronze and gilt carvings and richly embroidered hangings. Our last visit was through long underground passages to the theatre. This is almost indescrib- able. We were seated on the stage which is entirely without scenery. Near us was the orches- tra composed of a gong, cymbals, a violin resembling a croquet mallet, an embryonic banjo, the whole making a discordant din, which, added to the falsetto voices of the actors, made one think of the infernal regions. A part of the party viewed the closely packed audience from a window at the back of the stage, where they looked over the heads of the actors who were some ten feet beneath them. After visiting the "green room" to see the robes heavy with gold and silver embroidery, we left the building, and returned to the American city via Murderer's Alley and the the Chinese Dupont street, having been sur- feited with Chinese men, women, and children, shops, dens, and, above all, the all-pervading, monopolizing, come-to-stay Chinese odor. Thursday afternoon Rev. C. W. Wendte, Dr. S. H. Melvin, Dr. B. A. Rabe, Miss Coolbrith, Messrs. H. F. Peterson, J. C. Rowell, C. B. Mor- gan, J. B. McChesney, S. G. Hillborn, J. A. McKinnon, and J. E. McElrath met us at the Palace Hotel to conduct us to Oakland, where elaborate preparation had been made for our entertainment. The University of California at Berkley was first visited, President Kellogg welcoming his guests, and President Green returning thanks. An hour and a half was spent in enjoying the art gallery, library, and university buildings, when much to our regret we were obliged to again take wing. Returning to Oakland, a brief visit to the library preceded a ride to Piedmont Heights. At 5.30 p. M. we entered the spacious and beautifully- appointed home of the Starr King Fraternity, a most ideal memorial of a man who " The truth half jesting half in earnest flung ; The word of cheer, with recognition in it, The note of alms, whose golden speech outrung The golden gift within it." After being pleasantly received by many cul- tured citizens, we were led to the dining-room, where a ravenous appetite, gained during the long ride, was more than satisfied. The inner man appeased, adjournment was made to the parlors, where pleasant addresses were made by Rev. C. W. Wendte, Dr. Melvin, and President Green. This delightful informal reception was followed by a business session, when carriages conveyed us to the train in time for the 9.30 boat for San Francisco. Friday evening was devoted to a banquet at the Palace Hotel, the close of a most delightful series of entertainments. This final act was planned by Mr. Horace Wilson and carried out to perfection in every detail. The beautiful floVers and fruits arranged with artistic carelessness, the banks of palms and foliage plants, the brilliantly-lighted white-and-gold room, the hidden orchestra, all conspired to make a veritable fairy land. The unique menu, a fac-simile of the outer page of the Library journal, brought us to earth again, and it was nearly eleven when Mr. F. J. Symmes, as toastmaster, stopped the merry conversation with a few well-chosen remarks. President Green replied. Toasts were then responded to by Dr. Linder- 136 FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. felt, Dr. Nolan, Mr. Irving M. Scott, Professor Kellogg, and Mr. R. R. Bowker. The hour of twelve brought with it a realizing sense that we were to leave San Francisco early in the morning. To adequately describe the entertainment ten- dered us, would require a gifted pen and many pages of the Journal. In the words of one of the best and busiest of our colleagues, " I would not have missed it for anything. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and will furnish food for pleasant rem- iniscences a long time to come." PUBLIC RECEPTION IN THE PALACE HOTEL. MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 12. Mr. J. VANCE CHENEY called the meeting to order and introduced Rev. Dr. Wendte of Oak- land, saying : The shadow is always crawling on the bright place, even in this sunny land. At the last moment, I learn that Gen. Barnes, who was to deliver the address of welcome, is prostrated by illness. This is a severe disappointment; but it must not be thought that, on this prolific shore, all hangs upon any one man. I shall introduce presently one (his modesty forbids my mentioning his name till the proper time) who will convince you instantly that many a tongue among us is tipped with the hallowed fire. I shall say but enough to decently bid him step forward. No words of mine or another are needed to assure you of your welcome. Did we not meet you, at the boundary line of our great State, with the true hospitality of the wild, with the fish from our waters and the game from our hills; and, a little later, did not our capital city chariot you up and down its flowery ways, its chief officer heading the procession ? And thereafter did not a gallant band escort you with due honor down here into the wind and fog ? Ay, have not the very elements conspired with us to give you greet- ing ? Last night the rejoicing of the under-gods was such as to shake these solid walls. An American poet, years ago, styled our State "the leopard of the splendid hide." Our leopard was wilder then than now ; we have led her down from her haunts on the brown and yellow hills, and it is only too evident that she can, on occa- sion, kneel submissively in the presence of beauty and chivalry. Yes, our leopard begins to respect the keeper's hand; still we have need of you tamers from the East who have come to give her such lessons as you may in the course of a short week. We expect much from the next seven days ; indeed, it may be that when, three or four thousand years hence, some Flinders Petrie unwraps the mouldy swathings of this once glorious State, his eye \vill pause with special delight on this bright little point of her history. But, members of the American Library Asso- ciation, that you may know just how welcome you are, I must introduce the Rev. C. W. Wendte of Oakland. Dr. WENDTE welcomed the Association in a fluent speech, which unfortunately was not reported. President GREEN said : Your welcome is cordial and warm ; its cor- diality and warmth are only equalled by the sin- cerity of our gratitude. I thank you in the name of the members of the American Library Associa- tion, and of all the librarians of the country, and of the towns, cities, and States which they rep- resent. We come from Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, from Indiana and Illi- nois, from Michigan and Wisconsin, and from other States of the Union, including those on this coast, and we come one and all in hearty apprecia- tion of the warm-hearted and generous hospitality of the citizens of San Francisco and California. Among the remembrances of my boyhood are the stirring accounts which appeared in the news- papers of the battles of the Mexican war. I call to mind the fact, as I stand here tonight, that it was a native of Worcester and, at the time, a citizen of Massachusetts, who at the beginning of that war gave the order to the commander of the naval squadron on this coast to take posses- sion of California in the name of the United States. I refer, of course, to George Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy, in the Cabinet of President Polk, and historian of the United States. I carry the history of this great State of Cali- fornia in my memory. As I think of the earlier incidents in its history and remember the crises through which it has since, passed, I am filled with renewed confidence in the conservative character- istics of human nature, as shown in the manifesta- SAN FRANCISCO RECEPTION. 137 tions of the character of the better portions of the American people. Once aroused we grapple in a death struggle with the elements of disorder, and the contest is sure to end in victory for what is highest and best. As I think of what has occurred in this State, I am forcibly reminded of the great picture of Sir Joshua Reynolds, called the Infant Hercules. In that picture the limbs and stature of the child are those of a babe, but they are instinct with strength. The face, too, manifests a determined spirit. The infant holds in either hand a serpent which it is crushing. The better portion of the people of this State crushed out the disorder and vice that existed here, and in the place of chaos and iniquity established order and virtue. I well remember, sir, the days of 1849. My father fitted out two men who came here to dig for gold. This gold pencil, which I hold in my hand, was given to me in the same year by a gen- tleman who made a pet of me in my boyhood, just as he started to come herein a vessel which went around Cape Horn. It is inscribed "T. H. S. to S. S. G." I am very sorry that Thomas H. Selby is not here tonight to welcome us, as I am sure he would be were he alive. He came here, was successful as a merchant, and so won your confidence and esteem that you made him Mayor of the city. In the early days of California we sent you from the East some of the choicest of gifts. We sent you large numbers of well-trained young men. I need not remind you that Thomas Starr King, whose public services you have always appreciated, was a gift from Massachusetts. What we gave you in days gone by you are returning to us today. We never can forget how gloriously you came forward during the civil war and poured your gold into the treasury of the nation. As a distinguished citizen here has just estab- ished a university in this State, so another gentle- man, formerly resident here, has founded an insti- tution of the highest importance in Central Massachusetts, in the city of Worcester. I refer, of course, to Jonas G. Clark and Clark Uni- versity. After serving California and San Fran- cisco faithfully as a citizen, in his quiet way, doing what Starr King did more publicly to keep this State loyal to the Union, he left here, and after traveling, and living in New York, went home to his native county of Worcester, Massachusetts, and settled in its chief town. There he has endowed an institution which has been in existence for two years and which shows vigorous life, the central idea of which is to afford a place where the whole body of instructors and students shall be made of men every one of whom is engaged in making investigations and aiming to add to the sum of human knowledge. Nobody is admitted to the university who is not an enthusiastic and advanced student, and everybody connected with it is engaged in original research. For Jonas G. Clark who is spending, for the benefit of the whole country, a fortune the foundation of which was laid here, we thank you most heartily. In former days some persons, residents else- where, thought that our country could dispense with New England. There was a time, sir, when there was much talk about a Pacific republic. What, sir, could a bird do without its wings ? How couid the mutilated creature fly onwards and upwards ? What a country would this be without New England and the States on the Pacific coast ! New England is bound to California by bands of iron, and these pass over the breasts of our sister States. But they are bound together and united with those sister States by the still stronger bonds of respect and affection. God bless Massachusetts and California. God bless our whole country. A LIBRARIAN'S DREAM. BY JOHN VANCK CHENEY. The catalogue finished, I slipped away Farewell, it's ho for a holiday ! I pitched my tent by a mountain stream, And, lulled by the water, fell in a dream. Slow rose a building, solemn, old, A dingy building, crammed and cold, Wherein sat toiling, wan and lean, A spectacled man, huge books between^ Busier by far than the man of the law Once on a time Dan Chaucer saw. " Enough, enough ! the night is come, I go," he cried, " to the wife at home." He spoke and paused, gazed wistfully round, And spoke again 'twas a feeble sound : " Before I go, look kindly down, Bless me, ye mighty in renown ; From shelf to shelf, you know how true, Long years have I looked up to you." I said to myself, 'tis a pitiful sight, The grizzled man in the dismal light ; And how came his voice so far and faint ? There's something about him that smacks of the saint. 138 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. While yet in thought I softly spoke, Out of the dusk a strange light broke, And, one by one, from the walls came down Grave files of the mighty, the sons of renown. I stood by a pillar, still as a stone, While every writer on bark or bone, Every sage, it seemed, who had uttered word That, spoken once, is forever heard, Philosophers, prophets, of every clime, From the hour of dawn on the hills of time Came down, as only the kingly can, And clustered about the queer little man. Kalidasa, Sadi, Xenophon, Herodotus, Hafiz, Anacreon, Homer, Ferdusi, ./Esop, and Bion, Every son of man that the world sets high on ; Solon and Cesar and Socrates, Confucius, Buddha, Sophocles, Josephus, Philo, Ptolemy Soter No shadow of mortal was ever devoter Livy and Virgil and Tasso and Dante, And he of the knight on his good Rosinante ; And these were but children compared with some others, Startlingly filmy, primitive brothers, Who must have flourished, if Nature had 'em, In the reign of his Serpentship and Adam. Shakespeare I saw, and Rabelais, And Newton, and Milton, and Bacon and Gray, Herschel and Hervey, DeQuincy and Lamb, All shapes of the mighty, all you could cram In a list as long as a Norway mile ; And every soul of 'em wearing a smile, A smile of blessing, which golden ran All over the queer little spectacled man. Never before was creature of dust Encircled by shapes so exceeding august ; Never was greater obeisance paid To mortal being, monarch or maid. They bowed and they smiled and the time went on ; I looked lo, every shape was gone ! And in their places there stormed a band Of the light peculiar to sea and land, Un-Wordsworthian wholly, a crowd Which rushed so fierce and howled so loud I thought he had come to the end of his span, The little old saintly spectacled man. They coaxed and questioned, they queried and quizzed, Till the windows winked and the pillars whizzed : O, heavens, the things they wanted to know From Moses' tomb down to dynamo ! " I should like to make some Ozokerite ; " " A cure, if you please, for potato-blight ; " " What is the catch of Saskatchewan River? " " What have you got on the spleen and liver? " " The pedigree of the monkey-wrench Had I better look in Darwin or Trench ? " " Is there any new trick for coloring butter? By the way, do you swear by Dewey or Cutter?" " What smarty started the question of sex ? " "Who wrote the Brando Multiplex?" " Is Harrison after a second term ? " " What have you anent the army-worm? " " What becomes of the flies in winter?" " Is there anything sure to kill a printer ?" " Where shall I find a pithy quotation To stick in a skit on immigration ? " " Did Marlowe write the ' Ricketty Hand?' " " Can the women vote in Ashantee land? " " Say, what the deuce is a deodand ? " And so they plied him, and after and ; There isn't an accent in any tongue But over and over 'twas rung and rung Tumultuous, terrible interrogation, Enough for a Solomon's ruination. I counted up to a million and stopped ; But what did the worn saint do? He dropped In his chair, unflinching took shock after shock ; Without so much as a glance at his clock, He answered 'em, yea, by Peter and Paul, Serenely he answered 'em, one and all. His dinner at six, 'twas now quite eleven, But there he sat, as the saints sit in Heaven ; The friend, the peer, of the shades on the wall, There he sat with an answer for all, Sat wise and calm, tipped back in his chair. This very hour I should look for him there Were it not that, up in the hills by the stream, I woke, and he slipped through the doorway of dream. RECEPTION AT OAKLAND. Before the regular session, the Rev. C. H. WENDTE, Pastor of the First Unitarian Church, addressed the company in the reception room. It seems my duty to act as a substitute for others who do not put in an appearance. It is a pleasant obligation to address a few words of welcome on behalf of the citizens of Oakland and members of the Starr King Fraternity, and especially for those engaged in the noble course of library work, to tender you a hearty welcome to our city and our hospitalities. I have been asked some questions about our young city, and if you will pardon me for a matter of advertising, I will give you a few facts. Oakland is a younger city than San Francisco ; it has perhaps 70,000 people. It is a pleasant city to live in, a city of homes, schools, and churches. We have the larg- est Congregational church on this coast, whose pastor, Dr. McGee is with us ; we have the larg- est Presbyterian church, the largest Methodist, and so on. The seminaries of learning, Berkeley, you visited this morning; we have institutions of learning for the young men of this coast ; at Berkeley we have a school under a professor whom many of you have known in the East in past years. Some of his teachers are here this OAKLAND RECEPTION. 139 evening. We have high schools, grammer schools, and so on, which I wish you could haye seen more of as you traveled about today. We have factories of various kinds, iron works, refining works, car shops we have a large plant in this Western city, and some day this will be the Brooklyn of this State. Oakland and San Francisco will correspond to Brooklyn and New York. We think this is a very pleasant place to live in. As to the library, we have one with us this evening who can speak on that subject, and I shall call upon him presently. Your presence with us has given us a great impetus. We are informed that it is the intention of one or two wealthy persons in our community to found some institution among us, and we hope and trust that one of these may be the public library of our city. Miss INA D. COOLBRITH, librarian of the Public Library of Oakland, read a poem. IN THE LIBRARY. Who say these walls are lonely, these, They may not see the motley throng That people it as thick as bees The scented clover-beds among. They may not hear when footfalls cease, And living voices for awhile, The speech, in many tongues and keys, Adown each shadowy aisle. Here are the friends that ne'er betray; Companionship that never tires ; Here voices call from voiceless clay, And ashes dead renew their fires. For death can touch the flesh alone ; Immortal thought, from age to age Lives on, and here, in varied tone, It speaks from many a page. Here searching History waits, the deeds Of man and nations to rehearse ; Here clear-eyed Science walks and reads The secrets of the universe. Here lands and seas, from pole to pole, The traveler spreads before the eye ; Here Faith unfoids her mystic scroll The soul to satisfy. Here Homer chants heroic Troy, Here Dante strikes the harp of pain, Here Shakespeare sounds the grief, the joy, Of all of human life the strain. Alone and silent ? Why, 'tis rife With form and sound ! The hosts of thought Are dwellers here ; and thought is life. Without it earth and man were not. To war and state-craft leave the bay, A greater crown to these belongs: The rulers of the world are they Who make its books and songs. Dr. MELVIN, chairman of the Board of Trus- tees of the Public Library, said : It would be manifestly improper for me to detain you with any extended remarks, if it had been my pleasure to do so, further than to say that we enjoy your visit very much, and on behalf of the trustees we extend to you a cordial invi- tation to our city and hope we shall see some of you again before we leave. I did not have the pleasure of seeing you this afternoon and accom- panying you, but I am told you saw part of our city, and I hope you enjoyed it. It is quite a new thing for us to have a visit from librarians some- thing unique in fact. We have had representa- tives here from scientific bodies, political and non-political bodies ; so many that conventions coming to this coast excite but little attention. But it is different with librarians. We never have had a visit from librarians from all parts of the Union before, and our people have taken much interest in your trip. Dr. Wendte has spoken to you of some things we have here; it has occurred to me I might sup- plement his remarks by telling you of some things which we have not here. For instance, we have here no blizzards of any sort, and very rarely any lightning; no extremes of heat or cold. We do not happen to have Plymouth Rock, but we have the Seal Rocks, and we think we have the most enjoyable climate on the face of the globe. I hope you will enjoy it fully, and that we may have reason to feel that some of you will return again to remain permanently. (Applause). Pres. GREEN. I thank you, Mr. Wendte, ladies and gentlemen, and through you the citizens of Oakland, for this hospitable reception. You have spoken of the library here as not being so good as you desire. We certainly have found it a very cosey and attractive place. It is also certain that you only have to become aware of the value that a library can be to the community, to induce you to make it larger and to give it the means of doing a great work in the city. But there are only a few minutes before we must begin our regular meeting, so I must say no more. Then, too, the dinner was so good and I partook so heartily of it, that really I am too full for utter- ance. We were very hungry and you fed us. (Applause.) I could speak better in a humorous than a seri- ous vein. It has occurred to me, as I looked around in the hall above and saw how many libra- rians there are here, that if those officers are such a blessing as we claim that they are, many commu- 140 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. nities in the East must be suffering, now that we are all here in California. There was a wit in Boston, who said that if peo- ple were very good, when they died they would go to Paris ; now we have come to the conclusion that if we are considered worthy of reward when we die, the thing we should desire most, after leaving the States or cities in which we are now engaged, would be to come through the Golden Gate to San Francisco and Oakland. Once more, gentle- men, I thank you most heartily on behalf of the American Library Association, for the very cor- dial reception you have given us and for the royal hospitality you have extended to us. (Applause.) Mr. WENDTE. I always thought librarians were slow and not quick of speech, but I have listened to President Green on several occasions within the past few days and find I was mistaken. SPEECHES AT THE BANQUET AT THE PALACE HOTEL. Mr. SYMMES. Ladies and gentlemen and mem- bers of the American Library Association : Owing to remarkable modesty on the part of the chairman of the Banquet Committee, it has devolved upon me, as an appointee under him, to preside upon this oc- casion, and I start with this explanation of the honor which has devolved upon me. I thank you for the attention which you have given up to this moment to the services which have been rendered by the Banquet Committee, and I trust that you will be equally attentive for the few moments which we expect to occupy. My chief instructions from the Banquet Com- mittee were, not to make a long speech; and certainly nobody else will make one that will bore anybody else. We desire to extend to you, now that your duties are over, a cordial welcome, and we hope by this meeting to impress upon you the fact of its cordi- ality. It is related that once upon a time, when a cer- tain people were about to elect a new ruler or gov- ernor, they agreed mutually among themselves, that he should be their chief who first of all, upon a certain day, should behold the rays of the rising sun. Accordingly, upon the morning of the day appointed, they gathered with great anxiety and earnestness and looked out upon the eastern skies. With one exception, however; one man turned his back upon the rising sun and looked west with equal anxiety. Whereupon the others laughed at the idea that he should look in a western direc- tion for the light which was supposed to come from the east. But nevertheless, when the sun rose in his glory, he first painted with his rays the western hills, and this man, of all the company, was the first to behold the rays of the rising sun. Now, when you left your eastern homes, in the centre of civilization and culture and refinement, to come and visit us in this far-away west, it perhaps seemed to you equally absurd that you should find out here anything which might en- lighten you. It has, therefore, been the special aim of the Library Committees here and of the few citizens who have joined them in their efforts to entertain you, to enable you to behold such a rise of civilization and culture and refinement as we have here with us to develop. We have completed our attentions, so far as we have been able to give them, for the reason that your time is now over and you are about to leave us, and this is the conclusion of the attentions which we have been able to give. I have it upon the authority of Mr. Rowell, that the Right Honorable Mr. Gladstone once gave this definition of the word " Deputation," as " a multitude, signifying many but not much." It has been held that the American Library Association can be considered a deputation, not in that light, however, but as an organization consisting of " much, but not very many." (Applause.) On behalf of the American Library Association, therefore, we shall ask your honored President, Mr. Green, to address us. President S. S. GREEN. Ladies and gentle- men : I remember a story of a good clergyman who, being entertained on a certain occasion, when he came to dinner found two turkeys on the table and two kinds of pies, and I don't know how many other sorts of good things. When he saw the boun- tiful repast that was spread before him, he was moved to exclaim in saying grace, "Oh, bountiful Jehovah, we thank Thee for all these blessings." He was so pleased with the fare that he concluded to stay two or three days in the family of his host. The next day for dinner there was only one turkey and one kind of pie. That day his grace was, " Oh, Lord, teach us to be thankful for all thy favors." The next day there was nothing but turkey hash and no pie at all, and he prayed piteously, " Oh, Lord, teach us to strive to be thankful." We have some fear that with all the luxuries with BANQUET. 141 which you have regaled us the past week, you will suffer when we go away, but we trust that as you will have the productive soil of California left to you, you will not be forced to " strive to be thankful." Two or three months ago I had the pleasure of visiting Quincy, Massachusetts, on the invitation of Mr. Charles Francis Adams, in a party led by Senator Hoar of Worcester, and made up of offi- cers of the American Antiquarian Society, which has its headquarters at Worcester, and of the Massachusetts Historical Society, which has its headquarters in Boston. We were taken to see the house in which John Adams, the second President of the United States, was born, and the house where John Quincy Adams was born. We were taken to the church, in the basement of which are buried the remains of those two Presi- dents, and Mr. Adams opened the vault in which they are contained, saying that he was not aware that it had* been opened since the remains of John Quincy Adams were placed there. Then we sat down to lunch in Mr. Adams' house in Quincy, and afterwards, having visited several graveyards in Quincy, were conducted to the house of Mr. Adams' father, the late Charles Francis Adams, who served as our Minister to England during the Civil War. There we were shown a building in the rear of the house in which are contained the archives of the Adams family : the diary and correspondence of John Adams, the diary and cor- respondence of John Quincy Adams, and the diary and correspondence of Charles Francis Adams. In that building, sir, we had the history of the east- ern portion of our country and of New England. This afternoon I was taken to a little building in a distant part of this city and shown a collec- tion which Mr. Bancroft has made : the archives of this Pacific Coast. I congratulate you, sir, that here on this Pacific Coast the archives of this portion of the republic are being carefully preserved, and that under the guidance of Mr. Bancroft an epitome of them is being presented to the world in printed form. It is a source of great satisfaction to the mem- bers of the American Library Association that they have been received with so much kindness here in San Francisco. This is the centre of men- tal activity in California, and to a considerable ex- tent the centre of political activity in this great com- monwealth. Hence the pleasure we have felt, sir, because you have been moved to show us so great kindness, and because you felt us worthy of the royal hospitality which we have enjoyed. There is a little story of the late Charles Dick- ens, one of the lesser known of his stories, " The Haunted Man," which describes an institution in the dining-room of which there was a portrait un- der which was the motto, " Lord, keep my memory green." We have made, sir, in this city and in California, many acquaintances and some friends. It is our sincere hope, this evening when we are parting from the city, that our memory may remain green in your hearts. (Applause.) Mr. SYMMES. I think Mr. Green need not ex- press or feel any anxiety about our going hungry after he leaves. I think he might well be reminded of the story of the darkey who was questioning the efficacy of prayer. He said that it depended a great deal upon the prayer, and that the efficacy of prayer depended largely upon a man's discrim- ination. He said, " Now, if I pray for a chicken the Lord is not going to bring me a chicken, but if I pray the Lord to send me after a chicken, I gets one every time." The American Library Asso- ciation have been here and they have gotten their chicken, such as it is. We recognize the fact that you have today placed at the head of your Association for the coming year, and honored with the highest honors which you have to give, Dr. Linderfelt of Mil- waukee. (Applause.) Now, we are a long way from Milwaukee, and it is not as well known here as, perhaps, some Mil- waukee people think it is. It is chiefly known out here for its supply of a most excellent beverage. We will ask Mr. Linderfelt to tell us where Mil- waukee is. Dr. LINDERFELT. Ladies and Gentlemen, Citizens of San Francisco: It is a great pleasure to me to stand here to-night as the representative of a municipality which your chairman has justly designated as distant, and that I have been al- lowed to come out here, bringing with me the greetings of our fair city on the shores of the great inland sea, to this other fair city, behind whose hills the sun sets at night, only to rise again in re- newed glory out of the ocean that laves the eastern coast of this our common country. You, Mr. Chairman, have intimated that you need to be told where Milwaukee is, and that it is known here chiefly for the beverage you take so kindly to in this part of the world, and I infer that the mention of Milwaukee instantly conjures up before the mental vision of the Californian a foaming beer mug. Well, we do use the hops and the malt to good advantage, but at the same time I wish to say emphatically that we have other 142 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. things and make other things in Milwaukee besides beer. It is, in fact my honest opinion, and in spite of my friend across the table, who has just warned me not to say it, I will proclaim it fearlessly, that next to San Francisco there is not another place on this continent equal to Mil- waukee ; next to California there is not a State in the Union equal to Wisconsin. (Applause.) And the mention of Wisconsin brings to my mind the shock I received when, on my arrival, one of the gentlemen here present, who is at the head of one of your foremost libraries, coolly and unblushingly located Milwaukee in the State of Michigan. Not that I want to disparage in any way our sister State across the unsalted'sea, since that would immediately bring me into conflict with my friend from Detroit, but I do think Wis- consin is fully able to take care of her own. If he had placed us within the confines of Illinois, I should have thought it less strange, for we of Mil- waukee have long been accustomed to be consid- ered merely an outlying ward of our grasping neighbor on the south ; and it is not entirely be- yond the range of possibility that Chicago may yet " take us in,' 1 in order to improve the general average of her citizens. Well, you all know Chi- cago, know what she is and what she aims to be, and that you don't know Milwaukee equally well is due entirely to the singular modesty which is the most distinguishing trait of her inhabitants. And this modesty prompts us on all occasions to concede the first place to somebody else, a trait of which I have already unwittingly given you an ex- ample. Not so with Chicago. I have a friend in Chicago who has two lovely little girls, eight and ten years of age. They went to Boston a few years ago to visit a relative, and while there some callers entertained themselves talking to these little folks from the West, and among other things said, "You must see a great mauy things in Boston you have not in Chicago ?" The girls opened their eyes, and the elder asked, in astonishment, " What?" "You have not the ocean, for instance !" " Oh, but we have the lake ! " " But that is not as big as the ocean." " It looks just as big." " But you certainly have not any mountains." " Mountains ! If we wanted any we'd make them ! " Now, that is the kind of hairpin a Chicagoan is, even while a child. A Milwaukeean would have conceded the point at once. And yet, while not considering Milwaukee and the universe synonymous terms, we are proud of our city, proud of our men, proud of our women ! You should see Milwaukee nestling among shady bowers on her seven hills, overlooking a bay that has been compared with the celebrated Bay of Naples for beauty ; her streets lined with homes of men and muses, her valleys teeming with industry, and these industries more varied and extensive than any other city of its size in the country. And as for those who make up the city, I dare say there is not one person present in this room who will dispute that we have the right to be proud of our men, when I call to your minds, ladies and gentle- men, that the gentleman whom you have called to fill the Governor's chair in the great State of Cali- fornia until a few years ago was an honored citi- zen of the Cream City. (Applause.) I am told that this banquet is somewhat of an innovation in your beautiful city of San Francisco, in so far as ladies are not usually present at gatherings of this kind. In Milwaukee, on the contrary, we would not know how to get along without our women ; we must have them by our side, to share our joys as they share our sorrows. And what men can do in Milwaukee, women can do. Men will have their clubs to keep them busy of an evening, and our Milwaukee women have a flourishing women's club, which has been a guid- ing-star for similar institutions throughout the entire country. When a home was wanted for that club, the women started a stock company, and they put up a building and furnished it with- out invoking the aid of a man in the whole enter- prise. They made it one of our notable edifices, which has become the centre of the literary and intellectual life of the city; and what is more, it pays its stockholders handsome dividends. Can you match this in California ? I am afraid I am going beyond the time that I ought to have, particularly as it has been devoted mostly to self-glorification ; and I shall tax your patience only a few minutes longer, while I thank you and all the inhabitants of San Francisco, both on my own behalf and on behalf of the whole Library Association, and to assure you that your warm welcome to, and generous reception of, what President Kellogg termed the "circulating libra- rians," have made it impossible for us ever to for- get our trip to California. I have seen many cases, in my day, of California fever, and I have always had a slight contempt for the unfortunates thus attacked ; but after seeing what this country has done for you and what you have done for the country, I begin myself to feel BANQUET. 143 severe symptoms of that disease. Its most evident effect is a desire to live in California, but if our reception continues to the end as it has begun, I fear you will have to bury me in California. (Ap- plause.) Mr. SYMMES. Dr. Linderfelt has alluded to the remarkable circumstance that we find ladies pres- ent at a banquet of this kind, which fact I have no intention to ignore, but I was afraid that the Presidents might feel that they should be first recognized. It is a remarkable fact that certainly never be- fore in this building, and I question if ever on this coast, has there been an entertainment of this kind, graced, as this has been, by so many fair women. It is a favorite method of the mathematician, when he wishes to discover the true value of any quantity, to map out a theory and then follow out his conclusions. Did it ever occur to you, my friends, what a forlorn and desolate condition this globe would be in if it had not been for women ? Can you imagine the condition of our poor old Adam, wandering alone in the Garden of Eden, companionless, without any woman to pluck his apples for him, or to throw the blame upon, when he found they were bitter and sour ? Think of poor little Moses ; he might have been floating up and down among the bulrushes yet but for the fair woman who came to his relief. And we need not go so far back as that, but look to our own later times. Think of the long line of American Smiths; where would they be today had it not been for that dear little Indian girl, Pocahontas ? Without the ladies, what light would be lost throughout the libraries all over the country ; and when we realize, as well we may, our dependence upon them, the pleasures and joys which we have with them, certainly we cannot overlook the honor which they have conferred upon us by their attend- ance here tonight. If I mistake not, Dr. Nolan, of Philadelphia, is a man who has learned to appre- ciate the ladies, librarians or otherwise. I call upon Dr. Nolan. Dr. NOLAN. Ladies and Gentlemen : We were received at an inconveniently early hour in the morning, by the good Samaritans from Sacramento, who came to us at Truckee, laden with the fruits . and flowers of the soil. They brought us roses, chrysanthemums, grapes, pears, figs, and last, but not least, salmon and quail. The latter was after- wards placed on toast. Since that time until the present moment, or until a very few moments ago, everything was so gracious, graceful, well-consid- ered and well-ordered, that not only were those men from Sacramento, but all the men we have met in California were Sacramento men, in view of the fact that they are evidently outward signs of an inward grace. But our toastmaster has made the first break, in calling upon me to respond to the toast. I do not know how to do it. In the first place, our toast- master has spoken some of the best things I was going to say and appropriated them to himself. He has spoken of the obligations of Mrs. Adam, formerly called " Eve," to Mr. Adam, and of our little friend Moses to the daughter of Pharoah, in taking him out of the water to save him from a watery grave, and doubtless other incidents would have occurred to him, as they might have occurred to me, if I had had more time to think about it. (Laughter.) In view of the dreadful experience that I knew I would undergo in considering the proper lan- guage to use on this occasion, my first intention was to decline positively and absolutely to go into the room, when I knew that I would be called upon to speak upon "The Women," but in view of the wonderful kindness and attention we have ex- perienced at the hands of the gentlemen of the San Francisco Committee, and in view of the very satisfactory bill of fare that we have been called upon to discuss, I thought that I would have to be guided by the words of Luther at the Diet of Worms, when he declared, " I can take no other course." Mr. Jackson would be a far better man to call upon to speak to the toast of " The Ladies." I have never had any experience in this direction; I am a practitioner a poor practitioner of medi- cine ; I am afraid my clients sometimes find me a poor practitioner, but not always. Nevertheless, I am not entirely without resources. When I find myself in a predicament, I can generally find my way out of it. This occasion is not an exception to the rule. When called upon I immediately looked about for assistance and I went to a lady and entreated her to act as special providence on this occasion. She prepared something for me, and I now have the pleasure of responding to the toast of " The Ladies." (Producing manuscript.) I will endeavor to deliver the lines with an im- pressiveness worthy of the subject : " Under the divine guidance of this charming toast, my tongue feels its inadequate ability to express the devoted sentiments of an overflowing heart. Beneath the lovely radiance of the beam- ing eyes and witching smiles which surround us 144 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. tonight, the blushes of even California roses pale in comparison. The sincerity of their counten- ances, the gentleness of their demeanor and the charm of their society form a triumvirate stronger to control the actions of all true lights than any that cross the page of history. He that bends not his will to their persuasive mandates and bows not his head in reverence to their worth, is beyond the pale of true manhood. The ladies, our comfort in times of trouble, our solace in the hours of pain, source of light and joy forever." (Applause.) Now, ladies and gentlemen, that is the orthodox way of doing it, and I am thoroughly persuaded that it cannot be well improved upon. I would be well contented to leave it right there, but under the influence of my emotions I intend to say a few words more. (Applause.) Mr. Toastmaster, may I go on ? The TOASTMASTER. Yes, four minutes more. Dr. NOLAN. The ladies are responsible for a great many things. I have no hesitation in saying that the decoration of this room must have been ordered and supervised by a lady. I do not think that a male biped could have done it. How far the ladies have been responsible for the cuisine and cookery, I do not know, but we all know that among the attainments of our American women, the making of pie is one that has the most far- reaching influence from Maine to California. The American pie is noted, not only at home, but its reputation has gone abroad, and the people from other countries come over here to enjoy the protec- tion accorded the American industry, "pie making." In this connection I am reminded of a story which has been heard, perhaps, by some of the members of this Association, but it will bear re- peating because there are some persons present who are not members of the Association, and, therefore, have not heard this story. There are very few stories known to any member of the As- sociation which all those on that train across the continent did not hear during the journey many times. It is said that an English gentleman who journeyed across the ocean and arrived in Boston, thinking that when in Rome he must do as the Romans did, immediately decided that he would sample the great American dish, pie. So he sat down at the lunch-table at the Parker House, and told the colored individual who waited upon him that he wanted pie. The waiter said : " We have apple pie, cherry pie, peach pie, plum pie, pumpkin pie, lemon pie, and custard pie." Said the Englishman : " I'll take some apple pie, cherry pie, peach pie, plum pie, pumpkin pie, and lemon pie." The waiter looked at him and said : " Well, what's the matter with the custard pie ?" (Laugh- ter.) Upon the train leaving Boston our English friend met a countryman of his to whom he re- lated the story, and he wound up by saying : " And now, old chappie, what do you suppose was the matter with the custard pie ?" (Laughter.) We have to be thankful to the ladies, among other things, for their presence across the Conti- nent. If the San Franciscans, as reported, have not yet had an opportunity to have the ladies pres- ent on such occasions as this, it is their loss, and I hope that one of the literary works with which we will be credited is to teach them to associate themselves with the ladies hereafter. " Oh, woman ! in our hours of ease, Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, But seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace." Mr. SYMMES. I do not think I mistook my man. Among the many things of which California has cause to be proud are the recent growth and en- terprise of our city, in respect to manufactures, and the building up of enterprises which will make this portion of the globe independent of the Eastern States ; among the citizens of this place who are here to enjoy your society this evening, there is one who has, perhaps, done more than almost any other man in furthering the interests of manufacturing, and who knows and appreciates the value of books, paintings, and works of art, as well as the more practical details of mechanics, and whose enterprise and industry have given to us one of the largest manufactories of this coast, one which will compare well with any enterprise of its kind in the East or in any country. We shall ask Mr. Irving M. Scott of this city to say a few words. Mr. SCOTT. Mr. Chairman and our Visiting Guests : In rising to respond to a toast here to- night, at this library meeting, I want to congratu- late the librarians of the United States upon the progress that they have made. Some few years ago I was connected with the library interests of. this city, and we never had anything like this. We had our dinner in a plain and simple manner, and we passed down to our library meeting and attend- ed to our business, like old-fashioned fellows. If there is anything I congratulate you upon, it is BANQUET. 145 that you have broken through the solid lines of business and carried on your meetings under such a roof as this, surrounded by flowers and fruits, and the fairest product of any land, the ladies. Neither do I yield to our friend from Milwaukee, that the people of his city are more gallant than we are. While you of Milwaukee were building houses in which women had no share, we were taking into full partnership all our wives and endowing them with one-half of all our accumula- tions. California is making no show in buildings, but on her laws she has grafted the central truth, that woman is the equal of man and entitled to the same rights and to a full share of all that is accumulated in their partnership. I speak not only to Milwaukee, but to all the cities that cluster around the lakes on the north, or the ocean on the east, and I tell our other friends that Californians left the land where pie is a luxury; we have better things than turkey and beans and pie ; we have the teeming fruits and flowers and all that belongs to a land that blos- soms with milk and honey, and we ask all of you people from those regions where pie is a luxury and beans are an absolute necessity, to come over and spend the winter with us. (Applause.) Alluding to the labor question, in the modern system of economy, where the telegraph is an instrument of every-day use, a man telegraphs to save time. There is no employment so impor- tant in the economy of the present civilization as that of the librarian, for the time has passed when any man can afford to crowd his brain with dry statistics which are better kept in books, to which we can refer with greater assurance of accuracy than to any man, however learned, however inde- fatigable he may be in the pursuit of knowledge. To the great libraries we turn at the hour and the time when they are needed. We have in this growth of the modern library and its association with other indispensable adjuncts, the librarian. We no longer turn over our leaves in searching for facts, but we ask for the librarian and we tell him what we want ; he tells us to look on shelf A for volume B, page 10, and paragraph 2, as the case may be, and get what we want. It is absolutely indispensable that with the great libraries of to- day, and the great economizing of time and space, and the great crowding of great events into a small space, and of the gradual shortening of the diameter of the earth, and of the methods of inter- course, that we should have a librarian who can at once put his finger upon the topic which is wanted, and give us, not only the best book, but the best paragraph at the least possible expenditure of time and trouble. That is what your libraries have produced, a phenomenal man. Why, the librarian of that sacred library at Washington can multiply eleven figures in his head, besides quoting every paragraph in astronomy. Now, the libraries which you have been super- vising, the dissemination of this great fund of infor- mation which you are engaged in collecting, are becoming better understood and better known. Mr. Scott referred to his experience in the British Museum in London, some years ago, and the great improvements made in British libraries since then, mentioning their system of cataloguing and taking care of the books. He then said : You, as librarians of the United States, have a duty which you owe to your fellow-citizens in showing that intelligence of which the library it- self is an exponent, by inducing the highest pos- sible circulation, and in giving the greatest amount of information to every mother's son who is aspir- ing for fame. And believing that you are competent to take care of this great matter, and that these meet- ings are full of interest and full of learning and progress, we of California welcome you all from all the lakes and rivers and States ; I say unto you, with all respect, come over and see us and bring your wives and your daughters, for we are . 100,000 women short in this State. (Laughter). Mr. SYMMES. Of course you all recognize that one of the most important requisites to the progress and improvement of the nation is popular instruc- tion. Next to that I think, perhaps, you are will- ing to admit that universities, colleges, and other centres of information can, perhaps, be rated. We have with us tonight the President of the Univer- sity of California, an institution of which we are exceedingly proud, an institution which is un- doubtedly the most valuable and important of any upon our coast. I ask you to listen to a few words from President Martin Kellogg, of the University of California. Pres. KELLOGG. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : It gives me pleasure to see the faces of the librarians. Certainly the universities and libraries and higher educational institutions are all very closely connected ; they are all bound up in one bundle and look toward the eleva- tion of the community. Here in California we are glad now to feel that great progress has been made. I remember the time when there were not many libraries in California. There were a few private libraries, like that of Judge Hoffman, 146 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. who lived in this city, and those of some gentlemen who have passed away, that were noted for their excellence, but very few libra- ries existed in this State, and few institutions of learning. Their time had not yet come. But far back in past years there were a few men who looked forward to the time when universities, colleges, academies, and high schools should exist, and now they have won. There has been a great deal of progress, and this year, 1891, has witnessed a very remarkable event. The university that existed is not now alone ; another university has been placed alongside of ours, and we feel that now it will be like Oxford and Cambridge in England, or, if you choose, like Harvard and Yale in New England. These two, emulating each other in all good works, will efficiently forward the power of educa- tion more rapidly than either one would have done alone. We believe that the time which remains of this century will be productive of good to California, as well as to other States. The President, a few years ago, began to speak to the young men under his care, to prepare them to be messengers of truth in the century to come. And now we are in the ninth decade of the igth century. Some of our Regents of the University have been assigned to terms that reach far over into the next century sixteen years is their term of office. How near we are to that dividing line ! It seems to me that when the 2oth century opens, it will not be in quiet, and with no throb of feeling from a people who desire the best things for themselves and their race, but that there will be a great outburst of feeling, a shout arising, as it were, to Heaven that there has never been such progress in all the past here on this coast and throughout the American nation. Is it not so ? I believe California will not be left behind. 1 believe California will take its part ; that it will stand among the foremost States then. How old is the Library Association, Mr. Pres- ident ? Pres. GREEN. Fifteen years. Mr. KELLOGG. You will not come to San Francisco again very soon. There are so many other places, so many places like Milwaukee, that think themselves the center of the Union, the Li- brary Association will have to go to them, to many cities, and see many men, like Ulysses of old, be- fore it comes again to San Francisco. But I ven- ture to say, when it does come again, it will see a far different state of things. If you had come in 1849, or tne Y ear immediately succeeding, you would have seen little to remind you of the educa- tional feeling known in the Eastern States ; you would have seen little of those things here, but when you come again to San Francisco I trust you will find California in the front rank of States. There is a spirit here that has received an impulse within the last few years, an evolution, a force patiently at work underneath the con- suming forces prevalent within the State, and this has been powerful for good and now is beginning to tell. And more and more, as the years pass, there will be seen here in California progress in all that has to do with the welfare of man. I do not believe that the horse races that are at- tended from day to day are the best things in California ; I do not believe that the speculation upon our streets is the best thing to be seen here. I do believe that while these things last there will be also in the community things which are better and which appertain to the immortal mind of man ; that these things are the things which are to pre- vail in California. While some of us will not be here when we next meet, some will be here. Any man and any woman who gives his presence then ask him if there has not been progress here on this western coast, if there has not been development. We must do more and more for the enlightenment of the States along this coast, for the enlighten- ment of the shores beyond the seas, of the na- tions with which our commerce brings us in con- tact, with the nations with which our internal commerce brings us into intercourse even to the Atlantic shore. I firmly trust that will be the case. I believe in the future of California. I do not believe in egotism or boasting on the part of the people of California. I believe this is to be one of the great empire States of the Union, and I am thankful that we see our friends here tonight. I wish I could go with them to see some of the libraries they have built up in old New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the rest of the States. I know they are doing a great work for our nation. I bid them God speed in the efforts that they make. (Applause.) Mr. SYMMES. We realize that you have to make an early start in the morning, and, while we feel that we have many other good men among us whom we should like to call upon to say a few words to you in the interest of California, such as the Mayor of the city and an ex-Mayor, the mem- ber of Congress and the new judge, and that we have not begun to display our talent yet, I remem- ber that it was a part of the contract that I should not bore you nor let any one else do so. Therefore BANQUET. 147 we shall close our entertainment by simply asking you to wait for one more speaker. We think it would be well to turn upon us the electric light of one of your editors and publishers, one who, if he is like all the editors we know, will speak the truth and perhaps shame the devil. He will not be afraid to say anything he likes and we promise to put up with it. We will ask Mr. R. R. Bowker to tell us what he thinks of us. Mr. BOWKER. Mr. President, Ladies and Gen- tlemen of San Francisco: When midnight is near and the roses of the banquet begin to fade, al- though I am told that the roses of California never fade, he speaks best who speaks least, and I am rather disposed to quote Mr. Hale and say that, on the whole, there has been so much said and so well said, that I will not further occupy the time. But I have been asked to say good-bye, and to say a word as to what we have seen and as to what we of the Library Association think of California and our California hosts. I cannot, after the numer- ous scriptural allusions of the evening to Adam, to Moses, and to quail, which we did not expect to hear in this biblical land, suggest the striking out, between sacred and profane history, of much which we have had an object lesson of at your hands. The ancient Israelites passed forty years getting through a very small piece of desert, and when they reached the promised land and the mountain- tops which overlooked it, they had to send out spies to bring back to them the grapes of Israel. We passed through what used to be the Great Ameri- can Desert, that is now marked only by a spot on the map, in a few hours, and instead of sending out spies we found the inhabitants of the promised land coming to us with grapes to which the grapes of Israel could not have been a circumstance. And when from that splendid height of Cape Horn we looked down upon the land of promise, we were sure that no people before the Americans had looked upon such a landscape for their promised land. And when descending to the plains we reached the land of promise, we found it already a land of fulfillment. A generation ago you found your gold below the surface ; now you are finding your golden harvests on the richest soil that has been given to man, and you are look- ing forward to that greater harvest which grows six feet above ground, the harvest of brain. It has been a great pleasure, not a surprise, but a great and growing pleasure to see how much attention California has given to the intellectual development of your State and to the country. It is the librarian's honor and pleasure to serve in the development of that harvest. It is the libra- rian's aim, and particularly of those librarians gathered in this American Library Association, to be the great saving instrument and to amplify a frequent motto of our Association. The American Library Association works " to give the best views to the greatest number of people at the least cost, with the least trouble and in the short- est time." We are glad to find here in the city of San Francisco a staff of librarians whose equals we have scarcely found in any city which we have reached ; and I say that in all sincerity and with no tinge of insincere flattery. If the visit of this Association helps you to appreciate more fully the men you have about you, to assist them more heartily in their work of helping to develop brain, we shall be glad we have come. We hope that another result of our visit will be the formation of a library association in this State, that will make you all feel how useful an association is in this work of development. Let me call your attention to, perhaps, the most interesting fact about this Association, in con- nection with other national associations of its kind; that these journeys from one city to another are knitting together with golden threads, giving to it a closeness of texture, making it a cloth of gold, such as no other nation has been. It is time, sir, to say good-bye. I cannot tell you what we think of California, because it will take to- day, tomorrow, and the day after, and all the time until we leave. We say good-bye in the old English sense, and I can assure you, sir, that, though to some of us California seemed a long way off, California will ever be very near to us, and as we leave this land of gold, with its magnificent approach at the Golden Gate, our memories of it will be, to the end of our days, golden memories. (Applause.) Mr. SYMMES. As the hour of midnight ap- proaches, it seems wise that we should close our proceedings at this time; we will therefore now adjourn. The guests present were : GENTLEMEN. Badlam, Alexander. Layman, Jos. D. Baker, L. L. Linderfelt, K. A. Barnes, Gen. W. H. L. Morgan, C. B. Bauer, Emil. Morrow, Judge W. W. Bean, John D. McChesney, J. B. 148 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. Beckwith, Daniel. McNulty, Bert. THE PKKSS. Bigelow, S. C. McWilliams, J. P. Argonaut. Report. Bowker, R. R. McKinnon, J. M. Examiner. Wave. Boyd, C. M. Nolan, Dr. E. J. Post. Chronicle. Brady, Henry J. O'Connor, Prof. Hos. Call. Cheney, John Vance. Perkins, Dana. LADIES. Clark, George T. Peterson, H. F. Ahern, Miss M. E. Kirkland, Miss C. S. Cleary, A. Pond, E. B. Allan, Miss Jessie. Kumli, Miss liertha. Cloudesley, W. F. Richardson, Dr. G. M. Badlam, Miss. Linderfelt, Mrs. K. A. Cooke, H. H. Root, A. S. Baker, Mrs. L. L. Lippett, Miss Julia. Coues, Prof. Elliott. Rowell, J. C. Barr, Miss Belle. Macy, Miss L. F. Cutter, Charles A. Rudolph, A. J Bauer, Mrs. Emil. Marble, Mrs. E. C. Cutting, Gen. John T. Sanderson, Mayor. Bean, Miss M. A. Metcalf, Miss Anna. Dana, John C. Scott, A. W. Bigelow, Mrs. S. C. Morrow, Mrs. W. W. Davis, Chas. H. Scott, Irving M. Boyd, Mrs. C. M. O'Brien, Miss. Day, Clinton. Scudder, S. H. Beaver, Miss Kate. Plummer, Miss M. W. Doxey, William. Shaw, Geo. T. Cheney, Mrs. J. V. Pond, Mrs. E. 15. Dudley, C. R. Soule, Prof. F. Cole, Miss. Prescott, Miss H. B. Easton, Wendell. Starbird, A. W. Coolbrith, Miss Ina D. Rust, Mrs. M. C. Ewing, Robert. Stechert, G. E. Coues, Mrs. E. Rowell, Mrs. J. C. Fletcher, W. I. Sutro, Adolph. Crooks, Miss Alice. Rudolph, Mrs. A. J. Gale, Prof. Symmes, F. J. Cutler, Miss L. S. Scott, Mrs. A. W. Gilmore, L. B. Tanszky, E. Davis, Mrs. Charles H. Scott, Mrs. Irving M. Goodwin, William. Terrill, C. C. Dexter, Miss Lydia A. Shaw, Mrs. Geo. T. Green, S. S. Todd, Prof. Easton, Mrs. Wendell. Sherman, Miss D. K. Greenblatt, Moses. Utley, H. M. Ewing, Mrs. Rob't. Smith, Mrs. G. R. Halladie, A. S. Wetherbee, L. B. Gilmore, Miss L. S. Soule, Mrs. F. Harkness, H. W. Whelpley, A. W. Halladie, Mrs. A. S. Taft, Miss E. A. Hild, F. H. Whitaker, A. E. Hancock, Miss C. G. Terriir, Mrs. C. C. Jellison, A. M. Wilson, H. L. Harbaugh, Miss May C. Van Zandt, Miss M. Jenks, Rev. H. F. Wilson, Horace. Harris, Miss Emma G. Wade, Miss E. J. Johnson, A. J. Wire, George E. Hasse, Miss. Whelpley, Mrs. A. W. Johnston, D. V. R. Woodruff, E. H. Hewins, Miss C. M. Whitaker, Mrs. A. E. Kellogg, George H. Wallis, G. H. Hitchcock, Miss A. G. Wilson, Mrs. Horace. Kellogg, Prof. M. Jellison, Mrs. A. M. Younkin, Miss Lulu. Kelso, Miss Teresa. FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO CHICAGO. BY MISS M.. E. AHERN. It was a party somewhat worn out bodily, but still fresh in enthusiasm, that left San Francisco at 9.30 A. M., Saturday, Oct. 17, on its way to view the wonders that lie between that city and Mon- terey. For about two hours every one tried to prove to his neighbor that he had brought away the largest amount of enjoyment that could pos- sibly have been crowded into the previous week. The route lay through a broken but very pictur- esque part of the country, with many points of interest about which the party were informed through the kindness of Mr. Whitaker of the Mercantile Library, and Gen. Wilson of the Me- chanic's Institute, who accompanied the librarians, and laid them under a lasting obligation for their unceasing efforts in behalf of the comfort and pleasure of the A. L. A. At noon the party reached the Big Trees, where they were met by a delegation of citizens from Santa Cruz. An appetizing lunch was spread under the shade of the forest giants, and the most hearty apprecia- tion of the genial hospitality of the good people of Santa Cruz was very manifest. Very happy after-speeches were made by the Mayor and other FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO CHICAGO. 149 citizens of Santa Cruz, which were responded to in like manner by Pres. Green, Mr. Linderfelt, and others. A stroll through this grove made one feel the aptness of the lines which declare " The groves were God's first temples," as the majesty and power of these mighty forest giants filled the soul with wonder and admiration. With the usual bad taste, names of distinguished people have been given to various trees, so that visits were made to Gen. Sherman, Gen. Grant, Jumbo, and to Gen. Fremont's Camp, which latter is entirely lined with cards bearing the names of those who have been there. A beautiful stream flows through this forest. I will not chronicle the pleasures and mishaps of the young ladies who enjoyed its pel- lucid waters. After we had been subjected to the magic power of the camera, the journey was resumed, and Santa Cruz was soon reached. Two of the party had tramped the six miles from Big Trees through a romantic canon. The short time between trains was occupied in a visit to the public library under the guidance of Miss Water- man, the efficient librarian. Santa Cruz contains 7,000 people and the library 8,000 books. While waiting for the train the hospitality of the Hotel on the Beach was extended to the librarians, and a choice collection of beautiful flowers was placed at their disposal. A heavy fog came up which proved nearly disastrous to many who were gath- ering up the shells from the seashore, for " Maud " came near being lost. The party reached Monterey about 7 P. M. After dinner little parties of twos or fours started out to enjoy the moonlight and the beautiful grounds. The fog still was very heavy, and so no one knows who it was that was lost in the Maze, or who it was that looked out for Aunt Lu, but certain it is that much unwritten history happened under cover of that fog. All that art can do, combined with the most profuse luxuriance of nature, makes the neighborhood of the Hotel del Monte, the choice garden spot of the Pacific coast. We thoroughly enjoyed the grounds, the views, the beach, and the Long Drive. Visits were made on Sunday to the old missions founded in 1770 by Father Junipero Serra, which by the liberality of Mrs. Leland Stanford are in good repair. Early Monday morning the return to San Fran- cisco was made, and the day was spent in viewing many places of interest, which, in the press of busi- ness and pleasures of the week before, had not been visited. Some of the party, however, stayed in Monterey to take the "long drive "of seventeen miles along the shore, one of them taking it for the second time with even increased pleasure. With many pleasant and lasting memories of San Fran- cisco the party took up its former quarters in " Scotland " and " Belgium," and at 10.00 P. M., amid hearty good-byes and good wishes on both sides, left for the tour through Southern Cali- fornia. All Tuesday the road lay through the various kinds of Calif ornian country. Now the land was fruitful, covered with vines and fig trees; again, we were climbing the mountains going round the Loop and through the mountain tunnels and over the wastes of the Mojave Desert. About the mid- dle of the afternoon a bare, bleak mountain was pointed out, on the summit of which rose a white cross, and a librarian from the region thereabouts is authority for the statement that it was the grave of Ramona, who, according to another account, is still alive. This is the region from which H. H. took the scenes and people described so graphic- ally in her tale of wrongs done the Indian. Tuesday evening Santa Barbara was reached, and a stay of twenty-four hours made in one of the most interesting places of California. Santa Barbara lies on a narrow strip of land facing the sea, and some beautiful islands on the south, a picturesque mountain range, about 5,000 feet high, lying some two miles back to the north. The most beautiful sunset that was seen was that watched from the beach at Santa Barbara. The climate is equable and drowsy ; rest seems to fill the air. The citizens displayed a rather peculiar hospitality in furnishing carriages, by means of which the day was pleasantly spent, but denying to the librarians the pleasure of their company. The public library, in charge of Mrs. Rust, the old mission, the mammoth grapevine, the cliffs, from which there were magnificent views, and the Hard Road were visited during the day. When the shades of Wednesday fell, the party, unlike the Arab, departed with song and noisy laughter, and was seen no more until it rested by the sea wave of Santa Monica in the early morn of the next day. A stay here of several hours was employed by some in gazing into the calm eye of the festive ostrich, which is " farmed " here, and by others in the sportive display of anatomy among the foamy billows. At 1 1 o'clock the train pulled out with, its beaming party for Redondo Beach, which was reached about 2 p. M. Some of the party stopped off at Los Angeles, and they will always have cause for regret at missing the pleasures of Re- dondo. The surf-baths, the shark which was drawn, ashore by the President elect, the impromptu dance,- 150 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. on the $2,000 floor, the moonlight walk through the beautiful gardens, will long furnish pleasant thoughts. The early morning of Friday, October 23, found the party ready to enjoy the genial sunshine and generous hospitality of Pasadena. Before break- fast was despatched the citizens were abroad with fruit and flowers and bade a hearty welcome to the tourists. Carriages were in readiness, and a pleasant drive of three hours through this beauti- ful city and its suburbs, out to the Raymond and back through the Carr place, showed good reason for its popularity. A pleasant little visit to the public library enabled the librarians to meet many of Pasadena's people who were in waiting with fruit, flowers, smiles, and welcome. Luncheon was served at the Green Hotel and was followed by appropriate speeches from Mr. Masters, Pres. Green, Mr. Whelpley, and others. With grateful feelings for a very pleasant visit, the librarians proceeded at 3.30 P. M. and in an hour found themselves in comfortable quarters at the West- minster Hotel in Los Angeles. Various little excursion parties started out before the dinner hour, and visited the display of fruity flowers, vegetables, etc., not to omit the babies at the dis- trict fair, the Chinese quarters, the churches, and a part of Spanish town. To say the entertainment, socially, of the A. L. A. here was in the hands of Miss Kelso and her able assistant Miss Hasse, declares at once its high order. A very elegant and cordial reception of the A. L. A. was held in the evening in the handsome rooms of the public library, where youth, beauty, and intellect bade a hearty welcome to this vigorous city. A late hour found the party wending their way back to the Westminster, the gentlemen with ghosts of bright eyes and echoes of silvery voices keeping company with their reluctantly returning steps, and the young ladies wishing Tempus wouldn't fugit, and willing to " trade off " even the " Big Four " for some of the gallant gentlemen who seemed so concerned for their welfare. Next morning, Miss K. with her able co-adjutants were at the hotel at an early hour, and the librarians were taken around to see the city. Down the wide avenues the party wended its way, each carriage with some fair or brave resident in it, to point out the places of interest or beauty, or even to " give a tip " on the price of corner lots. The wonderful stories of wealth and progress, where just a few years ago " the rank thistle nodded in the wind," were amazing. At noon, with many regrets, the librarians were compelled to say farewell to Los Angeles. The train rolled on during the afternoon through great fields evidently earlier in the season covered with wheat, stretching as far as the eye could reach. The afternoon was spent in musing over the pleas- ures of the past few days, the only ripple being caused by one of the ladies absent-mindedly placing her hat outside the window. It was carried away on the wings of the winds, or mayhap by the wings on its side exerting themselves once more. At any rate, it was two days before she saw it again. As the evening came on the whiff of the Seabreeze became more perceptible, and as the darkening shades of night appeared, the broad expanse of old ocean again spread its billows beside the train, but was soon shut out from view by a dense fog rolling in. At the beautiful Hotel del Coro- nado the party was met by Miss Younkin and a committee of San Diego citizens, who cordially welcomed them and extended the freedom of the city. A charming program of entertainments offered and a badge of " open sesame " were pre- sented to each of the party, and they again saw that the lines were falling to them in pleasant places. In the evening a number accepted the invitation of the Mizpah Club to " trip the light fantastic," and Boston again vied with Chicago in graceful movement* Sunday, Oct. 25, was undecided what kind of weather to give the tourists, and by turns furnished fog, smoky cloudiness, sharp winds, and finally flashed the sunlight over the mountains in a warm good night. The day was variously spent by differ- ent persons, but by the most part the comforts of the hotel and a good rest were enjoyed. In the afternoon many of San Diego's best people made friendly calls on the librarians. In the evening a party, under the guidance of Major Forney and his wife, made an underground tour of this seven acres of hotel. Wonder and amazement kept step with the company from the time of entrance, when the young lady with an historical name, insisted on tasting the beautiful red liquid, much to her after regret, through the cooling rooms, through the electric plant into the ice manufactory, where the process was shown and explained, and out again on the beautifully-lighted grounds. The next day one party went for a sail in the yachts on the bay, others, in the carriages placed at their disposal, viewed places of interest in and about this enterprising city, which is fast turning from a sleepy Spanish town into an American commercial centre. Still others, by the power of the pretty, white badge, took the train to Tia Juana. Aside FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO CHICAGO. from the fact of being in a foreign country there was little to excite interest or admiration. Badges were stamped at the custom house, the curio-shop was nearly emptied, and the garrulous darkey who drove the coach over the line recognized his friend from " Injianny." In the evening a delight- ful reception of the librarians was held at the residence of Mrs. H. L. Story, where, in addition to many other charming people, they were greeted by the gifted poetess, Mrs. Rose Hartwick Thorpe, who, at the solicitation of the company, recited her own poem, " Curfew shall not toll tonight." Early on Tuesday morning Riverside was reached, and the citizens headed by Mrs. Smith, the librarian, came aboard bearing their greeting in fresh fruit and flowers. The Magnolia avenve, the broad and heavily laden orange groves and vineyards, the beautiful views of the mountains and valleys, as seen in the pleasant ride about this lovely city, will long linger in the minds of the tourists. A lunch was spread at the Glenwood, where, in the parlors, formal speech-making pre- ceded its discussion. Much surprise and com- ment were excited by the peculiar views on the education of women and their position in life, drawn out from members standing high in A.L. A. At 2 P. M. the journey was resumed, and in an hour the party came to Redlands. Why a stop of three hours was arranged in this queer place of dust, burros, and consumptives no fellow has yet found out. Some efforts at amusement and killing time were made by one of the young women running off with a burro, and three others eloping with the street-car driver, mules and all' With the first sunshine of Wednesday, Oct. 26, the train had reached The Needles, a small town so called from the form of a mountain group near by. Immediately, as if up from the ground, came a swarming crowd of wretched-looking Indian squaws with rude clay pottery for sale. The interest in these specimens of Poor Lo brought out the inmates of the cars in every stage of rob- ing, and as long as the train waited the barter kept up. At every stop during the day these creatures appeared, and each time were greeted with the beaming smiles and gleaming coins of the gentlemen of the party, who exchanged their " bits " for different specimens of animate as well as inan- imate objects, once paying two " bits " to see the papooses. The way lay through a sandy desert, but towards evening the road wound up into the mountains, and the day closed with magnificent views of mountain gorges, canons, valleys, and towering rocks. The tour across Arizona, all things considered, was a very pleasant disappoint- ment, and as the crowd gathered as usual in the evening on the " back porch " of the observation car, no one felt it had been tiresome. Ah, that " back porch ! " Night after night, as the evening shadows fell, " by ones and twos the company came." As over and over the bliss of that mem- orable and historical walk from "Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party" was related, and over and over the threat was made to " Hang my Harp on a Weep- ing Willow Tree," grasshoppers became a burden and were barred out, " electric sparks " were crys- tallized into a study flame. Even the sarcastic disciple of Esculapius, if it were not fish day, joined in declaring the reality of the " Hole in the Bottom of the Sea." During the day, this same back porch served as debating ground, resting place, meeting place, studio, and it was said poetry was inspired on that platform on several occa- sions. When the party awoke to consciousness on Thursday, they found a decided change in the tern- peiature and realized that they had passed out of the land of flowers andjsunshine. The route still lay through the Indian country, and the bartering was kept up quite as vigorously as on the previous day. The Indians, however, and their dwellings also, were a decided improvement over those seen before. The most interesting place was Laguna where the town and people seemed to have lifted themselves from the adobe mud into a better atmosphere. Upon inquiry it was found that many had been at Carlisle, Hampton, and other schools. At every opportunity a fresh supply of pottery was laid in, and the eagerness of the young ladies of the party to possess the silver ornaments of the Indians was outdone by that of the gentlemen, who captured even the pins which held together their unique attire. Late in the afternoon the old town of Santa Fe was reached. Here the relic-hunter, curio-seeker, and sight-seer had full play, and the energy dis- played in the pursuit until seven o'clock in the evening would have cleared the waiting desks in the libraries at home. A visit was made to the Helen Hunt Indian School, which was found filled with mischievous boys and girls not unlike their lighter brethren. The view from Fort Phillips was beautiful, but a drive over this quaint old town with its narrow streets, queer adobe houses, dusky faces peering curiously from every quarter, a foreign language heard everywhere, gave one the impression of being in another coun- 152 SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. try, instead of under the bonny stars and stripes. Though it is the oldest town in the United States, it is far from being an American city. When the train again proceeded on its way, the cars pre- sented the appearance of a junk-shop, and the tales told of bargains made would have done credit to an Uncle Solomon. Friday, Oct. 30, began for the tourists in one of the most beautiful places visited on the whole way, Las Vegas Springs. The train had stopped at the side of a small valley surrounded closely by mountains, and within sight and sound of a clear stream, the outlet of the springs. The mountains were covered with the evergreens, between which jutted out the huge, red granite rocks. On the lower heights, as well as in the valley, were the variously-tinted deciduous trees, which flamed out in their autumnal colors. A blue haze hung over the tops of the mountains, but the flashing rays of the morning sun threw a golden radiance over all. A beautiful hotel, the Montezuma, " way up on the mountain " side, furnished a good break- fast, after which the search for curio-shops began. It was noticeable that the zeal was somewhat dampened, whether from the increase of material or decrease in the wherewithal, but there was an interest in the financial condition of one's neigh- bor, which had not been observed before. After witnessing the spectacle of some of the more dig- nified ladies of the party trying to persuade a burro, the party proceeded on its way. A meeting was called in the observation car at 1 1 A. M., where a lively discussion, participated in by nearly all, showed that the spirit of business was not dissipated by the pleasures indulged in for the past week. It was pleasant to see the President trying to keep his feet in the swaying car and order at the same time, energetically waving an Indian war club by way of a gavel, surrounded by the members, each anxious for his own peculiar views to be adopted. The first break in the party was made on Friday evening by the departure of Messrs. Dana and Dudley for Denver. These two could ill be spared, as they had made them- selves particularly pleasant and helpful on the journey, the first to all who came in his way, and the last as a member of the Big Four, and in the musical line. Saturday morning the train wound its steady way across what evidently in some past day had been the booming part of Kansas, judging from the straggling, deserted villages plentifully sprinkled along the line. At about 2.30 p. M. Topeka was reached, and a most satisfactory stay was made there. Through the courtesy of State Librarian Dennis, Mr. Wilder, Librarian Beer, and other citizens, a delightful view of the city Washburn College, the Capitol, the libraries, and other points of interest were obtained. A very pleasant reception was given in the parlors of the public library. One of its features was an address of welcome from Mr. Chief Justice Horton, of the Kansas Supreme Court. President Green re- sponded. Dainty refreshments were served by a collection of the prettiest girls seen on the whole route. Over and over again the gentlemen of the party allowed themselves to be served, for the mere pleasure of meeting again their bright eyes and witching smiles. Good-bys were finally said, and the train was soon on its way to Kansas City. Eastern Kansas wore a more pleasing aspect, and this last even- ing's ride was very beautiful. The road lay along the bank of the Kansas River, which seemed per- fectly still, and reflected on its placid surface the bordering trees in all their autumnal tints. Broad fields of well-kept farms lay on the other side, while over the cloud mountains the setting sun flooded the heaven with yellow and rose. It was a scene of delight long to be remembered. Shortly after dark the train rolled into Kansas City, and the cars were again forsaken for the hotel. As the long line of carriages wended its way to the Midland, speculations were heard on the streets as to whether it was a funeral or an opera troupe. No social entertainment was offered here, and the librarians spent the day as their individual inclination prompted. A subdued feeling seemed to take possession of them, the shadow of the approaching end to a very pleasant month. With sincere and oft-expressed regret the party on Sunday evening bade adieu to Miss Allan of the Omaha Public Library, than whom none brighter nor more earnest in purpose are in the A. L. A., and at 6.00 P. M. the librarians again began their homeward journey, and the early morning found them within the great Chicago. Who can tell of Chicago ? She is incomparable, for there is none like unto her ; no, not one ! The librarians were met by committees from the Public Library, the Newberry, and the Crerar, and were gracefully and cordially entertained till their departure. After finding pleasant quarters at the Auditorium, the party was taken to the Public Library, where Mr. F. H. Hild, High Sachem of the Mandarins, and librarian of Chi- cago, was their genial host. After a pleasant hour with him, the Newberry Library was visited, ATTENDANCE REGISTER. 153 where a meeting was called to attend to some unfinished business. When this was accomplished the A. L. A. of 1891 was at an end. After luncheon at the Auditorium the party was driven in car- riages to the Columbian Exposition grounds, and a slight idea of the monster " show " to be held in 1893 was obtained. In the evening an informal reception was given the librarians in the parlors of the Auditorium, and the good-bys of many who had formed warm attachments in the trip across the continent, were spoken. At II o'clock the best wishes of those left behind went with the eastern contingent as they proceeded on their way. [At Pittsburgh the party were shown the library, the public green-houses, the city hall, the jail, and other public places by the Rev. Dr. W. J. Hol- land, and seven of them had the good fortune to see the wonderful collection of butterflies in his house. The troop gradually dwindled as it passed Philadelphia, Newark, New York, and Putnam, and it was a lonely seven that reached Boston at 6 P. M., Nov. 4, having traveled over 9,000 miles in five weeks lacking half an hour.] ATTENDANCE REGISTER. Ahern, Mary Eileen, Cataloger State L., Indian- apolis, Ind. Allan, Jessie, Ln. P. L., Omaha, Neb. Barr, Isabel, New York City, N. Y. Bean, J: D., Brookline, Mass. Bean, Mary A., Ln. P. L., Brookline, Mass. Beckwith, Daniel, Ln. Athenaeum, Providence, R. I. Bowker, R. R., Vice-President Brooklyn L., Brooklyn, N. Y. Cheney, J: Vance, Ln. P. L., San Francisco, Cal. Clark, G: T., Asst. Ln. Cal. State L., Sacramento, Cal. Cleary, A. J., Ln. -Odd Fellows' L., San Fran- cisco, Cal. Clowdsley, W. F., Ln. F. P. L., Stockton, Cal. Cooke, H. H., Liby. Dept, McClurg & Co., Chicago, 111. Coues, Dr. Elliott, Washington, D. C. Crook, Alice B., Yonkers, N. Y. Cutler, Louisa S., Ln. Aguilar L., N. Y. Cutter, C: A., Ln. Boston Athenaeum, Boston, Mass. Dana, J: C., Ln. P. L., Denver, Col. Davis, C: H., Worcester, Mass. Davis, Mrs. Adelaide, Worcester, Mass. Dexter, Lydia A., Cataloger, Newberry L., Chicago, 111. Dudley, C: R., Ln. Merc. L., Denver, Col. Ewing, Robert, Trustee Mech. Inst., San Fran- cisco. Cal. Fletcher, W: L, Ln. Amherst Coll. L., Amherst, Mass. Gilmore, L. B., Asst. Ln. P. L., Detroit, Mich. Gilmore, Leonora S., Somerset, Mass. Goodwin, Helen M., Los Angeles, Cal. Goodwin, W:, Philadelphia, Pa. Green, S: Swett, Ln. F. P. L., Worcester, Mass. Haines, Estelle, Cataloger P. L., Los Angeles, Cal. Hancock, Caroline G., Ln. F. P. L., Sacra- mento, Cal. Harbaugh, Mary C., Asst. Ln. F. L., Alameda, Cal. Harris, Emma J., Woonsocket, R. I. Hasse, Adelaide, Asst. Ln. P. L., Los Angeles, Cal. Hewins, Caroline M., Ln. Hartford L. Assoc. Hartford, Conn. Hild, F: H., Ln. P. L., Chicago, 111. Hill, Frank P., Ln. F. P. L., Newark, N. -J. Jenks, H: F., Trustee P. L., Canton, Mass. Johnston, D. V. R., Ref. Ln. N. Y. State L., Albany, N. Y. Kelso, Tessa L., Ln. P. L., Los Angeles, Cal. Kumli, Bertha, Ln. F. L., Santa Rosa, Cal. Layman, Joseph D., Asst. Ln. State Univ. of Cal., Berkeley, Cal. Linderfelt, K. A: , Ln. P. L., Milwaukee, Wis. Linderfelt, Mrs. K. A: , Milwaukee, Wis. Lippitt, Julia, Providence, R. I. Lowdermilk, W. H., Bookseller, Washington, D. C. Marble, Mrs. E. C., Florence, Mass. Metcalf, Anna, Ln. Harris Inst. L., Woonsocket, R.I. Morrison, G: H., Sec. Bancroft L., San Francisco, Cal. Moss, G:, Act'g Ln. Sutro L., San Francisco, Cal. Nolan, E: J., Ln. Acad. of Natural Sciences, Phila, Pa. O'Brien, Margaret A., Asst. Ln. P. L., Omaha, Neb. Perkins, Sarah H., Cataloger F. P. L., San Francisco, Cal. SAN FRANCISCO CONFERENCE. Plummer, Mary W., Ln. Pratt Institute, Brooklyn N. Y. Poole, W: F:, Ln. Newberry L., Chicago, 111. Prescott, Harriet B., Cataloger Columbia CoIl.L., N. Y. Root, Azariah S., Ln. Coll. L., Oberlin, Ohio. Rowell, Joseph C., Ln. State Univ. of Cal., Berkeley, Cal. Rudolph, Alexander J., Asst. Ln. P. L., San Fran- cisco, Cal. Rust, Mrs. M. C., Ln. F. P. L., Santa Barbara, Cal. Scudder S: II., Cambridge, Mass. Shaw, G: T., Trustee F. P. L., San Francisco, Cal. Sherman, Deborah Keith, Yonkers,N. Y., Trustee Y. W. C. A. Lib., N. Y. Smith, Mrs. G. L., Ln. F. P. L., Riverside, Cal. Soule, C: C., Trustee P. L., Brookline, Mass. - Southworth, Mrs. M. E., Cataloger State L., Sacramento, Cal. Stechert, G. E., Bookseller, New York. Sutro, Adolph, Hon. Member, San Francisco. Taft, Emma A., Providence, R. I. Terrill, C: C., Trustee F. P. L., San Francisco, Cal. Utley, H: M., Ln. P. L., Detroit, Mich. Van Zandt, Margaret, Order Dept., Columbia Coll. L., N. Y. Wade, Emily I., Cataloger P. L., San Francisco, Cal. Wallis, Talbot H., Ex. State Ln., Sacramento, Cal. Waterman, Minerva, Ln. F. L., Santa Cruz, Cal. Whelpley, A. W., Ln. P. L., Cincinnati, Ohio. Whelpley, Mrs. A. W., Cincinnati, Ohio. Whitaker, Alfred E., Ln. Merc. L., San Francisco, Cal. Wilson, Horace, Ln. Mech. Inst., San Francisco, Cal. Wire, G: E., Supt. Med. Dept., Newberry L., Chicago, 111. Younkin, Lulu, Ln. P. L., San Diego, Cal. ATTENDANCE SUMMARIES. BY POSITION AND SEX. Men. Wmen. Total. Trustees and other officers Chief librarians Sub-librarians and assistants Publishers and booksellers . Others 8 21 6 3 6 Total ......... 44 i 13 n o n 36 8 34 17 3 17 80 BY STATES. Mass 12 111 R. I C Mich. . . . . . 2 Conn .... I Wis 2 NY IO Neb . 2 Penn 2 Col . . 2 NT Cal , iQ J D. C Ohio 2 Total . . . . . 80 Ind. . I BY SECTIONS. 6 of the 9 No. Atlantic States Sent 1 " 9 So. Atlantic States " " 8 Gulf States " 5 " 8 North Central States " 2 " 8 Mountain States " 1 " 8 Pacific States 3* 2 O 13 4 30 Total 80 /^IJI A f**-ly f ' A . f-idKGr'&.-'^i ''^V^.*-- T f^fv V-^V^^vfe^^^ ^<^7 ^^' T v^> '"''<% M^-* ' vjlr ^r V^i/' r '^ " ^ V 'i>^v* ;^A; :X &$$. \ ^8K" '' '*$$& 1 f "^^iS '-fi^* j '' -^ ^'L\ y? 'w^-i'^si^\/^- w^ v /.^ek:\- ^^^^F-v : > }''.->? ^. 'a^S'- v jf v^ M^- a*> $* &;:>. /i^ ^^;^ ; V^^W ??W ' ^? : V '^ #^!i p| . f'-^' . '.i? V* "^i?t. >'^ P ^ > ^ r T7Sv^y > ^*-T> ^P^ i^i /\ N^ M * -!i^>^M> '^;v> 'V; KsTST'^feffl! ^^ -r^^Nv"'-". a ^^>y' ->f^-' ; ^ / v -T^>s3^^,^^ a -it a & ^ :: W! UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBAN*