The meeting of the section was held at the Chateau Laurier, Tuesday morning, July 2. Mr. M. S. Dudgeon, chairman of the section, presided.

Mr. FRANK K. WALTER gave an account of the new quarters and resources of the New York state library school.

Mr. Walter said that the new quarters in the new State Education building would probably be ready by October first of the present year, and would provide the most spacious rooms belonging to any library school. The present temporary quarters, however, are comfortable and fairly commodious. A good working collection of reference books and trade and subject bibliographies has already replaced that destroyed by fire. When present orders have been filled the new collection will be better than the old.

The collection of illustrative material, thanks to the untiring industry of Miss Florence Woodworth, is growing by leaps and bounds. About 4,000 administrative blanks and forms are mounted and classified and a large number are as yet unmounted. About 1,400 pictures and plans of library buildings (including post-cards) are mounted and filed.

There is an excellent collection of works on bookmaking, ancient and modern, and a fair number of examples of printing of various periods and of beautifully bound books. About 150 mounts show binding material, book illustrations, type faces and other material illustrating printing and binding processes.

Mention must be made of the "Alumni collection" which the New York State Library Association is collecting for the school. Its aim is "to cover all books, pamphlets, clippings, etc., written by students of the school and biographical or professional material relating to them," together with portraits of the students and library buildings erected under their supervision.

The "class work collection" numbers about 2,300 volumes and is intended primarily for class use, particularly in cataloging, classification and subject headings, in selection of books, and in printing and binding.

All of this material is listed in a separate dictionary catalog prepared expressly for the school's use. More than 10,000 cards are already included in this catalog which is growing rapidly as more material becomes available for use.

The collections of the New York State library will be available as soon as the new building is ready. Including such documents and other volumes as can be temporarily shelved for use, upwards of 200,000 volumes will probably be available. These include an excellent set of United States documents, a very fair collection of state documents, many important foreign documents, and a good working collection of statutes, law reports, legal periodicals and legal treatises.

Mention must also be made of the 700 annuals and serials (including reports, bulletins, etc.), on various phases of library work which are currently received and filed and of about 500 bound English and American periodical sets (including most of those listed in the various periodical indexes) besides the numerous foreign periodicals, transactions, etc., currently received.

Miss AGNES VAN VALKENBURGH, instructor in cataloging at the library school of the New York public library, read a paper on

TRAINING OR TEACHING

It may be well at the start to explain the terms used, to be sure that we are looking at the matter in the same light. Teaching, in this instance, I understand to mean that assistants shall have had library school instruction, while training is the instruction which is given in the library or department itself to fit the applicant for the special work she is to do. When I say assistants, I also mean librarians of the smaller libraries, such positions as the library school student has been called upon to fill.

There are two points of view in looking at the question, that of the assistant and that of the employer. On the first there can be little discussion, as the same principles are here involved which underly all education. It is certainly better for any person to have a view of the whole field rather than of one small part of it. I was talking to the head cataloger of a large department the other day, and she said that one of her main troubles was in getting the assistant who has been given a certain part of the work to do, to see that any other parts are necessary or important. If the curriculum of our library schools does not give our students this broader view, we are not living up to our opportunities.

No library school, or any other school, for that matter, turns out a finished product. I cannot say to you that the best pupil in my class at the end of one or even two years is a first-rate cataloger. I can only say that I hope and think that she understands the principles and their relation to the rest of the work, and with experience will prove competent, having shown capabilities which point in this direction. On the other side, I have talked with many library people of experience and they all say that, anxious as they are to give the persons under their care all possible instruction, they are so busy with the pressure of accomplishing so much work every day, that when they find a person who does one kind of work well, they are very apt to keep her at that, rather than to give her an opportunity to do all the kinds of work, for the sake of her education.

I always have the greatest admiration, not unmixed with reverence, for those who can conduct the business of a large department and a training class at the same time, as either alone seems to me to take all the energy of an ordinary person; also the more people you have to do work which can be done by fewer, the greater the economic waste.

From the point of view of the employer there is something to be said on both sides. Nowadays the old plea is seldom heard that library school people know too much and have no idea that any method is feasible but the one they have been taught. I did have once a graduate from a so-called library school, to assist in my department while I was ill; after she had been there about a week, she announced that she did not like the way the library was classified and during my brief absence she thought she would re-classify it. We had about 150,000 volumes at that time and more than a million cards in our various catalogs. Thus did ambition disqualify her, as we had regretfully to let her go, but fortunately her kind is rare enough to be interesting.

The other objection to the employment of trained people is the question of expense. The niece of the president of the board must have occupation and is willing to work for her spending money, so as an economical measure, it would be a good thing to employ her. This has two fallacies: First, someone has to pay for the education of every person and it is better from the point of efficiency to have this done by the employee herself rather than by the institution. Secondly, we should all be willing to pay for what we get, and you certainly get more for your money in employing the skilled person than the amateur.

Miss Sutliff, after years of experience as a library school teacher, and with both apprentices and graduates, said to me that she thought that a person who was trained for a certain piece of work, at the end of one year, did that work better than the school graduate, but at the end of five years the second was a much better employee.

There is also this to be said on both sides of the question. There are people constitutionally unfit for library work, training or no training, just as there are people who can never run an aeroplane or climb a greased pole or be a third-term president; they are not fitted for it, and all of us have had more or less experience with these both in school and out. They may be excellent people; in fact, it is exactly this class of whom her friends say, "Isn't it too bad Mary never married; she would make such a fine wife for some good man."

I have had a green girl who could never be taught to write a dozen catalog cards correctly because she had no bump of accuracy; I also had a library school graduate with the same failing, and when I mildly suggested that the number of corrections seemed excessive, she replied, "Oh yes, but, you see, I knew you were going to revise them, so I was not more careful." She also did not remain with me.

There are many bright girls who will pick up knowledge of all parts of the work on their own initiative and without any special effort on your part, will be perfectly qualified to step into your place should necessity arise. There is one danger which may be mentioned here and that is the possible injustice done to this exceptional person when library boards refuse to consider any person except library school graduates. During the time students are at school, they and the faculty are carefully considering for which branch of the work they are best adapted, so the employer runs less risk in this respect also, than when he takes an unknown quantity which he hopes may fit some particular place. If the various library schools are not turning out people with broader horizons and greater adaptability, they are not doing their full duty; but if the students they have taught are better qualified for the work, this fact should have due consideration in the selection of assistants or librarians.

Miss JOSEPHINE A. RATHBONE, vice-director of the Pratt institute school of library science, described a projected normal course.

A PROJECTED NORMAL COURSE AT PRATT INSTITUTE SCHOOL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE

Much has intervened, but possibly some of you may remember that some thing was said on Saturday about specialization in the library school course. Discussion among the library school directors present showed a consensus of opinion that specialization is undesirable in the first year of a two years' course and practically impossible in a one year course, nor did any radical plan of differentiation of function among the schools, other than that which has come about already by natural causes, commend itself as possible at present at least.

The only practicable form of specialization therefore seems to be along the line of advanced courses for those who have acquired the fundamentals of technique and who have had sufficient experience to determine clearly the direction in which their aptitudes lie. Such a course we are making toward at Pratt Institute and it is of our plans and aims for this normal course in library training that I have been asked to speak today.

The inception of the course came about not as the result of a desire to do some new thing, but as a solution of two pressing problems with which I found myself confronted last summer; one of these problems is common, I am sure, to all library school directors, the difficulty of finding teachers for their faculties or of supplying from their graduates demands of public libraries for directors of training classes. The other problem was local and peculiar to ourselves, and by reason of it a possible solution was indicated for the former. This was the suggestion made by the librarian of the Brooklyn public library that the Pratt Institute Library school take over the instruction of the Brooklyn public library apprentices. As the professional school of Brooklyn, it was clearly our duty to perform this function for the public library of Brooklyn, and it only remained to find a way,—first, that would satisfy the needs and requirements of the Brooklyn public library system; second, that would so strengthen the Pratt Institute school as to recommend the plan to our trustees; third, would help to alleviate the professional situation of which I had become so acutely concerned.

In response to this need, almost an answer to prayer, for the idea occurred to me in church, came the conception of a normal course to fit advanced students for teaching positions in the profession. Now for a normal course three elements are requisite. Knowledge of the subjects to be taught, training in pedagogical methods and directed practice in teaching. The necessary knowledge of the subjects taught could be obtained by admitting to the course only those who had already acquired library technique. Pedagogical training could be given at Pratt Institute where there already existed a splendidly organized department of education and for the practice teaching there was the apprentice class of the Brooklyn public library for which the normal students could prepare and conduct the courses in library economy under the direction and supervision of our instructor of proved success in teaching. These two indispensable factors inherent in our situation seems to mark the Pratt Institute library school as distinctly the place of all others in which this experiment of training for teaching positions in library work could be tried. Now, does the need exist for librarians who are trained to teach? What is the situation?

There are ten or eleven library schools offering courses of one or two years. There are probably twice that number of summer library schools. There are training classes in all of the larger libraries and many of the medium sized libraries. There are many normal schools in which library courses are now given and the trend in this direction is unmistakable. There are school departments in many of the larger libraries in which more or less actual teaching is done, and in which a librarian who was at the same time a teacher, who understands the teachers' point of view would connect school and library the more completely. Many of you know that these positions are not easy to fill. But could a course be planned that would fit candidates for such positions? I believe so.

I am not going to degrade pedagogic training for teachers. That battle has already been fought out in the educational world. Of course, the best teachers are born, not made, and some few heaven sent may teach the better for not having learned how, but there are not enough of them to go around and the greater majority teach the better for training in tried and approved methods, applied under competent direction.

The normal course will therefore consist of two main parts—theoretical training and practice teaching.

The first part embraces educational psychology, a forty-eight hours' course, a thirty-six hours' course in the history of education, a general survey with a supplemental course on American public education—high schools, normal schools and colleges—a thirty-six hours' course in the theory of education taking up the conduct of recitations and giving the presentation of subjects, examinations, etc. A study of public institutions, both civic and philanthropic, will also be included. So much for the theoretical side. The practical application of the theory of education to the teaching of library technique will be made by the preparation of the courses for the Brooklyn apprentices and the conduct of the classes. The plan for this work is as follows: The normal students will spend a month before the teaching of the apprentices begins in the study of the Brooklyn public library system and in the preparation for the classes they are to conduct under the direction of Miss Julia Hopkins who is to have charge of this work. This work has been planned in consultation with the Brooklyn public library librarian and staff and between us we hope to work out the ideal apprentice course. I will go into this somewhat fully in order to show its value as teaching experience for the normal student.

1. There are to be two apprentice classes a year, beginning in October and March respectively. To these classes four months of instruction will be given. This gives each normal student the opportunity of preparing and conducting different courses each term.

2. The four months of instruction will be followed by three months of practical work in selected branches of the Brooklyn public library, during which time the apprentices will learn the technical details of branch work under the supervision of the branch librarian, thus freeing the course of these details and making it possible to spend the class room time on the broader professional and culture side of the subjects taught.

3. 160 hours of instruction will be given to apprentices, on three days of the week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, the alternate days to be devoted by them to study and preparation. Full library time will be required of them, which will ensure three hours of preparation for each hour of class room work or lecture. This means the compiling of full reading lists by the normal students to accompany the instruction.

4. The subjects taught fall into three groups, cultural, technical and professional, with strong emphasis on the first and an effort to correlate the first two quite closely. Besides a review of the classics of literature, there will be a study of the important literature of different subjects—history, biography, sociology, science, and to this study will be related as far as possible both parallel courses of classification and reference books, the apprentices being thus required to handle a great many books and to get at their subject contents quickly. They will be required also to make a great many short reading lists on related topics. In the course in children's work, which Miss Clara Hunt will supervise, emphasis will also be laid on the book. Miss Hunt will examine and criticize the lectures prepared by the normal students. We wish to strengthen this phase of the work both because it is needed by the apprentices and because it will be of the utmost value to the normal students, especially to those who go into normal school work later.

The technical courses will take up the usual subjects. In classification the emphasis will be laid on the subject content of the classes to add to the general information of the apprentices and the course related, as I said before, to the study of the literature of the subjects.

In cataloging the emphasis will be laid on an intelligent understanding of the use of a catalog rather than on the details of cataloging. On the professional side the course will be stronger than is usual in apprentice courses.

Now of what value will this course be in providing teaching experience to the normal student?

1. As preparation for directing apprentice classes in public libraries I feel that it will be of direct utility.

2. For giving instruction to high school students in bibliography, reference works, classification and the use of the catalog it would seem to give adequate training.

3. For conducting courses in normal schools these mentioned subjects plus the course in children's books and perhaps the history of libraries would seem to be a good preparation.

4. The courses in classification, reference work, history of libraries, work with children, loan desk work, compare favorably in length of time given to them and in thoroughness with the average one year library school course and the preparation, to say nothing of the conduct, of such courses would be an excellent foundation for the teaching of the same subjects in a library school.

In addition to these main features of the course, the pedagogic training and the practice teaching, there will be lectures on normal and high school library work and permission has been obtained from the public school system for the normal students to have practical work in the library of the buildings, training school and in some of the high school libraries. Opportunity to study the organization and methods of presentation of other library schools has been promised.

The first year or two will, of course, be experimental and experience alone can show how the whole thing will work out, but we feel that the opportunity is a great one and we mean to approach it open-mindedly and to allow it to develop organically.

Its success will, of course, depend on our securing the right kind of material for the class and for this we must look to the profession at large and especially to the other library schools. We do not want large classes, ten would be the outside limit, five or six the desirable number. But our own school could not supply even so many, and if you believe the plan a good one, the need real, and if the theory of differentiation of function seems wise, I ask you to send us those of your students who seem fitted for such work, and by coÖperation, council and support help us to make the course a benefit to the whole profession.

There seems to be some misapprehension in the profession as to the relation of the Brooklyn apprentice class and the general course of our own school. So far as our one year course is concerned the only connection is that the Brooklyn public library has graciously permitted us to put our students in the branches of the Brooklyn public library for practical work, while the apprentices are invited to attend the course of lectures by librarians. There is no thought of combining the two classes in class-room work, which would not be advantageous to either group.

Miss Mary W. Plummer gave the following outline of the work done during the past year at the library school of the New York public library and the plans for the second year.

REPORT ON THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY SCHOOL

During the past year we have done four things: Trained thirty students for the one year certificate; given partial training to members of the library staff, to be continued or completed the coming year; given the same to members of other library staffs, to be continued or completed, both to be recognized by pass-cards; and tested three sets of probationers for the lowest grade of the library service.

There is nothing especial to be said about the first class, except that out of twenty-five who were able to do the full year's work, more than twenty applied for the second year and the diplomas. Of these, three asked for the unpaid practice, amounting to fifteen hours per week, and taken as an equivalent for their tuition. These three will probably take two courses of the three offered for the second year in administration, advanced cataloging, and reference work, and in work with children.

The remainder have applied for paid positions at not less than $50 per month, with one course in the school. As members of the staff for the time being, they will have no tuition to pay.

The second type of student we hope may increase in number as time goes on. One branch librarian took about half the course, carrying on her regular work and responsibilities, and seemed none the worse. Others took single subjects in which they were interested. One assistant from a suburban library did the same, commuting daily. These, of course, were assigned only a nominal amount of practice, since they had their regular work. For these as well as the probationers the entrance examinations of the school were insisted on. The probationers being usually too young for the school, were allowed three conditions, since they have plenty of time to work them off before old enough to enter the school. Others take the probation first, and if appointed to the staff, serve six months or more, and can then enter the school as staff members without tuition.

They understand that they are not in any sense a class, that they are not being trained but merely tested, that the school is responsible only for the original selection of the probationers, and though it may take and does take an interest it has no real jurisdiction after this selection is made.

Mr. Brett announced that the Cleveland public library would introduce a training class for children's librarians in which the students would be given practical work for five days and receive five-sixths of the regular salary. The remainder of the time will be given to instructions and lectures.

Mr. W. H. Kerr stated that the State normal school at Emporia, Kansas, had a course in library work which required one-fourth of the time in the four years.

Miss Hazeltine presented the card code of over five hundred cataloging rules which had been prepared by the Wisconsin library school for instruction in its school, after consultation with, and assistance from many librarians.

In response to a question by Miss Mary E. Hall as to what was being done to train librarians to take charge of school libraries, the discussion turned to that subject.

Several of the schools mentioned that practical work in school libraries was given their students. Emphasis was laid on the point that high school students who had taken a course in the high school in library methods were not qualified to have charge of school libraries.

A preliminary report was presented from the chairman of the committee on the uniformity of forms of catalog cards in simplified cataloging.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON UNIFORMITY OF FORMS OF CATALOG CARDS

The committee on revision of cataloging practice appointed by the library schools instructors at their meeting in January, 1912, wishes to make a brief report of the work done.

As a preliminary step in securing opinions from the various schools on the extent of the work and the forms that the code should take, the following plan was tried. A sufficient number of the galley proofs of a new edition of the rules compiled by the Wisconsin library school were secured and, on May 6, sent to all of the library schools; also to one or two individuals whom the chairman thought might be interested in the project from the teaching point of view. It was thought that this code, which had proved a practical one, might at least serve as a basis for comments. The schools were asked whether they desired to co-operate in the attempt to secure uniformity in practice, and if they approved of the form in which the Wisconsin code was to be printed, that is, on cards; and lastly, to show by their comments the points wherein their practice varied.

Replies have been received at this date from all of the schools, and from them the following conclusions are reached:

First, there is a general interest in the subject of securing unification in instruction; but there seems to be some doubt as to whether we are to attempt to cover all of the points of a complete cataloging code, or only matters of spacing, indention, punctuation, etc.

Second, the majority of the schools returned the proofs fully annotated for the changes which they desire. On the whole, these comments showed that the differences are not great and that uniformity on many at least can be secured, if so desired by the schools.

Third, a general discussion of the subject will be helpful, before any final decision can be reached in regard to a co-operative code.

The committee accordingly decided to ask that there be a discussion of the matter at the Ottawa conference and a notice to this effect was sent to each school.

A list of the points for discussion has been made out.[12] The committee will hope to make a final report at the midwinter meeting.

HELEN TURVILL, Chairman.

The membership committee, consisting of Miss Josephine A. Rathbone, Miss June R. Donnelly and Mr. Paul Blackwelder, was continued. The program committee, consisting of Miss Mary W. Plummer, Miss Mary E. Hazeltine and Mr. Frank K. Walter, was also continued.

Mr. Frank K. Walter was elected chairman for the coming year and Miss Agnes Van Valkenburgh, secretary. Adjourned.