A Public Documents Round Table was held on July 1, Mr. George S. Godard, State librarian of Connecticut, in the chair. Miss Elizabeth M. Smith of New York state library was appointed secretary.
The preliminary report of the Committee on public documents already printed was read, in order to bring briefly before the session the status of the bills now before Congress relating to the printing, binding and distribution of public documents.
The chairman reported his efforts to bring to the conference the Superintendent of Documents, Mr. August Donath, to present in person a paper on the new printing bill. A failure of Congress to provide in the appropriations for traveling expenses for this and similar purposes, made this impossible. The chairman, Mr. Godard, reported that he had laid before the Senate Committee on appropriations the advisability of appropriating funds to pay expenses of the Superintendent of Documents, or some other competent official, while trying to get into closer relations with the depository and other document libraries. The secretary read a letter from the clerk of the Committee on appropriations reporting that Mr. Godard's letter would be called to the attention of the committee at the proper time. The following letter from Mr. Donath on the subject of public documents, dealing especially with the new printing bill, was read by Mr. Geo. N. Cheney of the Court of Appeals library, Syracuse, N. Y.
Office of Superintendent of Documents,
WashingtonJune 8, 1912.
My dear Mr. Godard:
Complying with your kind invitation to send to your committee a paper dealing with the subject of public documents from a standpoint of interest mutual to your association and to this office, I herewith submit a few words covering the subject as briefly as its intelligent discussion will permit. I deem it a privilege to be able to address those to whom this is a live subject, and regret all the more that Congress does not seem inclined to endorse recommendations, repeatedly made, that would bring the members of your association and the official in charge of this branch of the public service into more intimate intercourse. This would surely be in the interest of better service on the part of this office and a clearer interchange of expert opinion that could not be otherwise than beneficial to the cause which the law creating our connection was intended to serve.
The idea underlying the legislation that created "designated depository libraries" was undoubtedly the intent to create five or six hundred places throughout this broad land where the history of the country, as expressed in the printed page, should be accessible to the public. A very good intention, and one very largely impractical. When it is remembered that the yearly output of public documents is nearly a thousand, and that a steadily increasing amount of shelf room is required to make all these accessible, even those who only have a superficial acquaintance with the subject will see that to live up to the requirement which accompanies the designation is beyond the ability of perhaps the major number of the libraries now regularly supplied. Only in the larger cities and the most prosperous communities are there libraries able to cope with this "contract." Added to this cause for failure to carry out the intent of thus creating permanent places accessible to the student of the history of his country has been the right of a Senator or Representative to change the designation at the beginning of a Congress, thus leaving the discarded institution with a partial supply of public documents, and starting the new selection with a void that is never filled. Poor business, surely. And it is this condition that the official now in charge of the Public Documents Division has worked very hard to have amended.
I am glad to be able to state that light seems to have broken on this matter. After repeated searching inquiries on the part of the Printing Investigation Commission the true situation seems to be understood, and the measure popularly known as the New Printing Bill, which deals with the whole subject of the public printing, promises to establish a connection between the libraries of the land and this office that shall be of more benefit to the public and at much less expense than the operation of the law of January 12, 1895, permitted. At present writing this bill has passed the Senate, has been favorably reported, with amendments, to the House, and appears to be in shape for speedy final action. It contains many provisions that make for economy in the public printing, but I will only mention what is of more immediate interest to the libraries of the country.
To begin with, the law will permit selection, at stated intervals, of the class of publications that a designated library is able or desirous to handle. What a relief that will be can best be appreciated by the officials in charge of the smaller libraries. It will serve them, and it will likewise save money to the Government. The volume of literature sent out from here that later is returned can only be realized from personal observation. My personal acquaintance with it began on the day I took charge of this office. There were mountains of it, and in a few months, so the Public Printer informed me, he desired to lay before the Committee on Printing his report recommending how much of the accumulation seemed worth returning into stock, and how much should be sold as waste paper. However, the subject has become so familiar to the law-making body that remedial action is now apparently in sight.
The bill likewise assures that permanency to a designated library without which the original intent, above fully stated, is defeated. Once designated, no change in the political representation in Congress from that particular locality will affect the library's status. Thus the two causes that have operated to nullify the intent to create permanent depositories of the country's history will be removed. And while the question of selection may at first seem somewhat of a problem to many librarians, I feel confident that this matter will soon work smoothly and satisfactorily. I should not forget to mention that besides the privilege of thus curtailing their receipts from this office, libraries may also, in certain cases, receive duplicates that they find desirable.
Among other provisions of the new bill that will appeal to your committee I may mention that it goes a long distance in carrying out the slogan, "one edition for one book," by taking out of the numbered Congressional series all annual and serial publications and those of which a Departmental edition has been printed, the only exception being the Messages of the Presidents and the Annual Reports of the heads of the nine Executive Departments. This elimination of document numbers will materially reduce the size of what is commonly known as the "sheep set," and I also expect that it will enable a speedier delivery of this class of publications, besides permitting a return to the old custom of placing the serial number on each volume.
I believe the foregoing covers in as condensed a form as the subject admits the matters just now of greatest interest in the discussion of the subject of public documents. I need not assure you, and through you your associates, of the earnest desire on the part of this office to co-operate to the fullest possible extent with the good work that the libraries of the country are doing in advancing the intelligence of a people whose will is the foundation of our Government. The greatest menace to a government of the people is ignorance, and no agency is superior to the libraries of the land in combating this foe of free institutions.
In the hope that these remarks will be kindly received, and assuring you of my personal regard, I have the honor to be,
Very respectfully,
AUGUST DONATH,
Superintendent of Documents.
GEO. S. GODARD, Esq., Chairman,
Committee on Public Documents,
American Library Association.
Before discussion was opened, the secretary of the meeting read a courteous letter from Hon. Reed Smoot, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Printing, expressing regret at his inability to deliver at the Conference an address on the general topic of printing, binding and distribution of Government publications, and referring with appreciation to the intention of the A. L. A. Committee to deliver to him a concise report of the suggestions made by the librarians interested in Government publications. Discussions followed.
Mr. Henry J. Carr, a former president of the A. L. A. and a veteran document librarian, advocated concentrating the efforts of the association on getting the bill through in its present form, on the ground that it was now so nearly satisfactory, and had already been so long in preparation, that further delay would be unfortunate.
Mr. J. D. Thompson, formerly chief of the Department of Documents in the Library of Congress, now librarian of the Columbia University Law library, introduced the question of a limited distribution of bills. The following suggestions were made:
By Mr. Thompson (1) that public and private bills form separate numbered series, the former to be distributed to libraries requesting, or, if necessary, subscribing through the Superintendent of Documents, or (2) that the text of any bill under consideration should be included in the printed report on the same.
By Mr. Thorvald Solberg, United States Registrar of Copyrights, that every bill which has passed one house should be printed in a permanent form convenient for library use.
By Mr. Clement W. Andrews, librarian of the John Crerar library of Chicago, that bills not favorably acted upon should also be included in any scheme to be suggested; that better provision be at the same time recommended for supplying reports of hearings to interested libraries.
By Mr. William R. Reinick, chief of the Public Documents Department of the Philadelphia Free library, in favor of Mr. Thompson's suggestion of separate series for public and private bills, and of better distribution of reports of hearings.
By Mr. Herbert S. Hirshberg, reference librarian, Cleveland public library, that bills be printed in the Congressional Record.
By Miss Edith E. Clarke, now chief cataloger in the library of Syracuse university and formerly on the staff of the Superintendent of Documents, that the Superintendent of Documents be given a certain specified number of copies of bills to be distributed to libraries on request.
By Mr. R. R. Bowker, editor and publisher of the Publishers' weekly and the Library journal, that bills favorably reported be included in Committee reports; that reports of hearings be included in the document series; that the Superintendent of Documents be given the power to distribute, on request, copies of individual bills.
By Mr. Solberg, that texts of bills be included in committee reports whether reported favorably or not.
In conclusion the following resolution was introduced by Mr. Thompson:
RESOLVED, that the Committee on Public Documents recommend to the proper Congressional authorities that there be appended to each Committee report on a public bill, when printed (1) the text of the bill and (2) the testimony taken if stenographically reported and not confidential.
This resolution was adopted.
Further suggestions regarding other provisions of the printing bill were made as follows:
By Mr. Thompson: That unbound numbered documents be distributed in advance of the bound volumes, and that librarians be given option as to the form they prefer.
By Mr. Andrews: That some provision be introduced which should place in the hands of some one higher in authority than the blanket clerk, the power to place documents in the confidential non-distributable class and thus keep out of that class documents of general library interest which are not confidential.
The chairman then introduced the subject of daily lists of documents, with a suggestion that lists be prepared in the Senate and Assembly Document Room and printed daily in the Congressional Record, of all documents received the day previous in the document rooms. Such a list should meet with favor from Congress because prompt notice of publication would be valuable to Congressmen as well as to libraries.
Doubts of its practicability were raised by Mr. Solberg and Mr. Andrews. The latter referred to the difficulty rising from the fact that the Congressional Record was published only during the sessions, and suggested that the public printer furnish the lists. Miss Laura A. Thompson considered the difficulty raised by Mr. Andrews a small one because fewer documents and documents of less immediate interest were issued when Congress was not in session.
Miss Clarke stated her opinion that the Superintendent of Documents should issue the list as a daily bulletin. Mr. Ernest Bruncken of the office of the United States Register of Copyrights, by letter advocated this plan. Mr. Godard stated that the Superintendent of Documents was unwilling to undertake it. Mr. Thompson stated that the necessity of sending it out by mail daily made it impracticable. It was decided to take no action on this particular matter. The following resolution, however, was moved by Miss Clarke and carried:
WHEREAS: The reading public of the United States are looking more and more to the libraries and especially to the depository libraries, to supply to them and advise them about all the publications of the United States Government, and
WHEREAS: The librarians must of necessity largely depend for information as to these publications, upon the catalogs and bibliographical aids issued by the office of the Superintendent of Documents, and
WHEREAS: Promptness in the printing of these bibliographical aids is most essential to the timely use of current government material. Therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the librarians of the American Library Association assembled at Ottawa, respectfully urge the Superintendent of Documents to use all reasonable haste in the compilation, printing and distribution to libraries, of the Monthly Catalog of United States Public Documents and of the Document Catalog, so that they may be available in libraries as soon as possible after the periods covered by the same.
Mr. James I. Wyer, Jr., director of the New York state library, Albany, called attention to the withdrawal of free distribution of the specifications and drawings of United States patents, and moved the following resolution, which was carried:
RESOLVED: That the librarians of the for a limited free distribution of the bound volumes (or less desirable, the unbound volumes) of the Specifications and Drawings of the United States Patents, the Superintendent of Documents, perhaps, to designate or determine such libraries upon presentation of good reasons.
Mr. Charles H. Hastings, chief of the card section in the Library of Congress, expressed regret at the impossibility of printing on Library of Congress printed cards the volume numbers of the documents in the Congressional series, since the documents were not assigned to volumes until some time after publication.
The following resolution, proposed by Mr. Thompson, was adopted;
RESOLVED: That the Committee on Public Documents recommend that arrangements be made at the Government Printing office for the assignment of bulletin or document numbers at a later stage than at present, in order that they may correspond more nearly with the order of publication, and that wherever possible, documents be assigned to their volumes in the Congressional series at the time of publication in order that the volume numbers may be used in cataloging.
Mr. Solberg called attention to the unsatisfactory method of numbering Treasury decisions and decisions of the Attorney General.
Attention was called to the House amendment making centralization of distributors in the office of the Superintendent of Documents obligatory to all departments. A similar provision was stricken out of the Senate appropriation bill.
Mr. Thompson and Mr. Solberg opposed obligatory centralization and suggested that the association register with the Senate Committee on Printing its disapproval on the grounds both of economy and of promptness of service.
Mr. Bowker expressed a hope that the association would strongly endorse the attempt now being made to establish a legislative reference department at the national capital.
Mr. Wyer moved that the Committee on Public Documents send a resolution of thanks to the Senate and House Committees on Printing and to the Superintendent of Documents, for their uniform courtesy and careful consideration of the several suggestions made.
This motion was carried. The meeting then adjourned.
Seventh Annual Meeting, Ottawa, Canada, June 26-July 2, 1912
FIRST SESSION
(June 27, 1912, 2:30 p. m., at the Chateau Laurier.)
The meeting was called to order by President Godard, forty-four being present.
The president introduced Mr. H. H. Bligh, K.C., librarian of the Supreme Court of the Dominion, who welcomed the association to Canada and expressed the hope that the sessions would be profitable and that the stay in Ottawa would be enjoyed. He invited the members of the association to visit his library.
President Godard then addressed the association.
The report of the treasurer was read by the secretary, as follows:
To the American Association of Law Libraries:
Your treasurer respectfully reports the following receipts and expenditures: on August 24th I received a statement from Mr. F. O. Poole, former treasurer of the association, and a list of receipted bills which total $943.71. These receipts are expenditures made by Mr. Poole on behalf of the Association since the balancing of his books on May 5, 1911.
For the period from Aug. 26, 1911, to June 24, 1912, the following receipts and expenditures were made: It might be well to state here that your treasurer was elected at the annual meeting of the Association held at Pasadena in May, 1911, but the financial affairs were not turned over to him until the above date.
| Receipts |
| F. O. Poole, to balance account | $ 88.58 |
| Subscriptions for Index | 666.50 |
| Dues | 316.00 |
| Advertising | 263.75 |
| Overpayment of dues | .26 |
| Overpayment of subscriptions | 4.00 |
| $1,335.09 |
| Expenditures |
| Treasurer, printing & supplies | $ 37.87 |
| G. G. Glasier, express | 3.96 |
| H. L. Butler, typewriting for 1911 | 11.35 |
| The Index |
| Composition, printing & binding No. 2 & No. 4 and storage on back number as per bills | 447.45 |
| Salary of Karl Ed. Steinmetz as Mgr. Editor as per agreement with Executive Committee | 400.00 |
| Salary of Frederick W. Schenk as per agreement with the Executive Committee | 80.00 |
| Printing the report of the Committee on Sessions | 1.75 |
| Wrapping and shipping No. 2 of the Index | 10.41 |
| Wrapping and shipping No. 4 of the Index | 12.52 |
| Supplies furnished the Editor of the Index, and express | 19.05 |
| Return of overpayment of dues | .25 |
| Refund of subscriptions | 4.00 | 1,028.61 |
| Balance in First Nat'l. Bank, Montpelier, Vt. | $306.48 |
Your treasurer wishes to express at this time his appreciation of the many favors of the different officers of the association.
Respectfully submitted,
E. LEE WHITNEY, Treasurer.
The secretary reported that aside from arranging the program of the annual meeting, taking up details with reference to the election of new members, and other routine matters, the Executive committee had been obliged to meet the situation arising from the much regretted resignation of Mr. Gilson G. Glasier, as editor of the Index, after the publication of the first number of volume 4. It was finally decided to engage Mr. Karl E. Steinmetz, as editor of the balance of volume 4 at slight increase in compensation over the amount he received for indexing. The negotiations consumed so much time that after the publication of No. 2 of volume 4. It was decided to omit the third number, and to proceed forthwith with the preparation of the annual number which was to contain all index material of the year, including that which would have appeared in the third number.
At the meeting of the Committee in Cleveland, December 29-30, there was received from Mr. Schenk a proposition for doing the indexing and editing of volume 5 of the Index which was so favorable to the association that the Committee decided to accept it. Arrangements were effected which the Committee believed would place the work on a firm basis.
Members were urged to do their best to secure new subscribers.
On motion by Mr. Small, the president was directed to appoint an auditing committee, a nominating committee, and a committee on resolutions, of three members each, which committees were directed to report at a later session during the convention. The president appointed the following committees:
Auditing Committee: Mrs. M. C. Klingelsmith, Miss Frances D. Lyon, Harold L. Butler.
Nominating Committee: A. J. Small, E. A. Feazel, C. J. Babbitt.
Committee on Resolutions: E. M. Borchard, F. B. Crossley, F. O. Poole.
Dr. G. E. Wire, chairman, reported progress on behalf of the committee on the Reprinting of Session Laws. This report, together with other reports and papers not set out in this number, will be found in the Law Library Journal published by this association in conjunction with the Index to Legal Periodicals.
Mr. George N. Cheney, chairman, on behalf of the committee on the list of law libraries and librarians, reported progress.
Mr. O. J. Field, chairman, on behalf of the committee on Latin American Laws, reported that that committee had received but one response to about thirty letters sent to various South American legal institutions. This reply came from Brazil, and called attention to the fact that the National Press of Rio de Janeiro had for sale the public laws of the country. The committee hoped to report additional information at the next annual meeting.
Mr. Poole, temporary chairman of the committee to confer with the Library of Congress on shelf classifications for the law department, reported that a series of questions had been propounded by the Library of Congress, a copy of which had been sent to each member of the committee, and that replies thereto had been received from Mr. Hewitt and Mr. Babbitt, which replies had been transmitted to the Library of Congress. No further action was taken by the committee pending further word from the Library of Congress, which library since that time has seemed to be fully occupied with other matters.
Mr. A. J. Small, chairman of the Committee on Bibliography of Bar Association Proceedings, reported that a complete list, prepared by Mr. Francis Rawle, of Philadelphia, had been received by the committee, but that, in accordance with Mr. Rawle's request, details given in this list—many of which were in very abbreviated form—would have to be put into bibliographical shape before publication. It was further reported that arrangements would be effected whereby this work might be done, and publication secured.
Mr. Small, chairman of the Committee on the Bibliography of American Statute law, reported progress.
On motion of Mr. H. L. Butler, it was voted to accept the reports of the special committees so far received, and to continue all the committees, subject to such change in personnel as might seem necessary to the incoming president, and further, that all committees be directed to report at the next annual meeting.
Mr. John B. Kaiser, librarian of the Department of economics and sociology of the University of Illinois, read a paper on library school training for employees of law libraries. This was followed by an animated discussion.
On motion, it was voted to adjourn, to meet again on June 28th, at 9:30 a. m.
SECOND SESSION
(June 28, 1912, at 9:30 a. m., at the Chateau Laurier.)
President Godard called the meeting to order and stated that the first matter to be taken up was the consideration of the "Tentative list of subject headings for a law library catalog" prepared by the Library of Congress.
Mr. Edwin M. Borchard introduced the matter. He stated that the list had been prepared primarily for the use of the Library of Congress in its own catalog and in the work of printing catalog cards for distribution. It was hoped that the list in its final form would be of help to law libraries throughout the country, and to this end criticisms of the tentative list and suggestions were asked for.
Mr. Borchard then took up the headings in regard to which there might be difference of opinion, and explained the decision reached by his library. He pointed out several cases where changes had already been made in the list.
Considerable discussion ensued on various points.
At the suggestion of Mr. Borchard, the president was, on motion, directed to appoint a committee of three to confer with the Library of Congress on the matter of these subject headings.
The president announced the committee as follows: George N. Cheney, Luther E. Hewitt, J. David Thompson.
On motion, the resolutions committee was directed to draw up and present at a later session of the convention, a resolution of thanks to the Library of Congress for undertaking this work.
The president announced that the nominating committee was ready to make its report.
The nominations presented by this committee were as follows: President, Franklin O. Poole; 1st Vice-President, Frederick W. Schenk; 2nd Vice-President, Mrs. M. C. Klingelsmith; Secretary, Miss G. E. Woodard; Treasurer, E. Lee Whitney; Executive Committee, E. O. S. Scholefield, O. J. Field, E. J. Lien.
On motion, the report was accepted and the president was directed to cast one vote for the candidates mentioned.
The president announced that he had cast the vote and that the above officers were elected to serve during the ensuing year.
On motion, the meeting adjourned until June 30, at 9 p. m.
THIRD SESSION
(June 30, 1912, 9 p. m., at the Chateau Laurier.)
Mr. Butler, of the auditing committee, presented a report on behalf of the committee, as follows:
The auditing committee begs to report that it has audited the books of the treasurer for the year ending June 24, 1912, and finds same to be correct.
Respectfully submitted,
MARGARET C. KLINGELSMITH,
FRANCES D. LYON,
HAROLD L. BUTLER.
On motion, the report was accepted and the treasurer's report was approved.
Mr. Poole, on behalf of the committee on resolutions, presented a number of resolutions acknowledging the services to the profession of the Massachusetts State library in publishing a list of American statute law, and the catalog of foreign statute laws; of Mr. Francis Rawle in presenting to the association for publication his list of Bar Association proceedings; of the Library of Congress in compiling a list of subject headings for law library catalogs, and the Guide to the legal literature of Germany; and to all those who contributed to the program of the meeting, and had been instrumental in making the stay of the members in Ottawa so pleasant and profitable. There was also presented a resolution in acknowledgment of the life work of William J. C. Berry, one of the charter members, and formerly librarian of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and of Stephen B. Griswold, the only honorary member of the association, and formerly state law librarian of New York. All these resolutions were unanimously adopted.
Mr. A. J. Small stated that he had received many requests for information regarding shelf classifications of text books in his library and moved that the president appoint a committee of three to gather information regarding such classifications in the several libraries and prepare the same for publication. After discussion the motion, being seconded, was duly carried. On motion it was voted to appropriate $25.00 for the expenses of the committee. The president announced the committee as follows: Miss G. E. Woodard, G. N. Cheney, E. A. Feazel.
The business of the association having been completed it was on motion, voted that the meeting adjourn sine die.
In addition to the above sessions, the association met in conjunction with other bodies in two joint sessions, the first with the National Association of State Libraries and the Special Libraries Association, and the second, with the Bibliographical Society of America and other bodies.
LEAGUE OF LIBRARY COMMISSIONS
Ninth Annual Meeting at Ottawa, Canada, June 28-July 1, 1912
FIRST SESSION
(Friday, June 28, 2:30 p. m.)
The first session was called to order by the first vice-president, Mr. C. H. Milam, of Indiana, in the absence of the president, Miss Cornelia Marvin, of Oregon.
It was voted to waive the reading of the minutes of the last annual meeting. The financial report of the secretary-treasurer was read and accepted.
The chairman appointed as a nominating committee to report at the last session, Charlotte Templeton, A. L. Bailey, and Mrs. Percival Sneed.
Miss Elizabeth B. Wales then presented the following report on charter provisions for public libraries in cities having the commission form of government.
REPORT ON CHARTER PROVISIONS FOR PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN HOME RULE OR COMMISSION GOVERNMENT CITIES
The present chairman took charge of the work about May 1st. The committee found the time remaining so short that it was deemed inadvisable to attempt to prepare material for the League at this meeting. Therefore your committee begs leave to report progress and submit an outline of its plans for criticism and suggestion.
The discussion of the subject seemed to indicate that the difficulties might fall into two classes. Cases involving a satisfactory library law in danger of change, and difficulties occasioned by attempt to better the original law under the Commission government; and a further division including cases where the commission law as passed was inapplicable to the library government, or conflicted with the law. The committee suggests dealing with the matter by statute law rather than by city charter provision, and would suggest as a method, that:
(a) Two provisional sections be drafted, one to insure the continuing in force of the state library law already on the books, to be used in states where such continuance is for the interest of the library; another to provide for the organization and control of the library under commission government by a definite statement in the commission law to override all former statutes, to be used in states where the present law is not satisfactory.
(b) These sections be submitted to the heads of library commissions for criticism, accompanied by a letter of explanation embodying the question, "Would such state law meet the problems of libraries in commission governed cities in your state?"
Another and perhaps better way of securing the result would be to write to library commissions and ask these questions:
(1) What difficulties have arisen in the library administration of commission governed cities in your state?
(2) What remedies would you suggest to meet these difficulties?
(3) Would you incorporate these suggestions in the laws of your state or in the charters of your cities?
The committee also suggests that a letter be written to Mr. Richard S. Childs, stating the main difficulties experienced and requesting an opinion regarding the best method of meeting them. Mr. Child's known interest would no doubt bring an enlightening answer to any communication of reasonable length.
Miss Tyler has generously permitted the committee to use the letters received by her in the preparation of her paper for the Pasadena conference, and to these cities one or two questions might be sent bearing upon the special conditions developed. This "second appeal" may be made extremely valuable by careful treatment; for instance, there are twelve cities which have experienced change in the number of trustees representing the effect of the law in California, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, and S. Dakota; three report a board elected by the Commission or council instead of appointed by the mayor; again the Michigan law, and also that of Massachusetts and North Carolina; two (Lewiston, Iowa, and Decatur, Ill.) report supervision of buildings and grounds by city committees; two (Des Moines and Tacoma) mention the value of increased publicity; one (Colorado Springs) reports civil service; there were in this first inquiry between twenty and thirty "no change" reports; some of these said no change "as yet." There were many special points noted in the letters which would repay investigation by the committee.
We shall hope for a generous coÖperation from the members of the League, if it be your pleasure to continue this committee.
Respectfully submitted,
ELIZABETH B. WALES, Chairman,
CARL H. MILAM,
M. S. DUDGEON,
ARTHUR L. BAILEY.
The report was accepted and the committee continued.
In view of the work being done by a committee of the A. L. A. Council on library laws and charter provisions, the League committee on the motion of Miss Tyler, was instructed to coÖperate with the A. L. A. Council committee.
Mr. M. S. Dudgeon reported the work of the Committee on Library post as follows:
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON LIBRARY POST
Your committee on library post reports as follows:
The present status of federal legislation is thus given in a letter received from the Hon. John J. Esch, member of Congress from Wisconsin.
"The post office appropriation bill, as it passed the House recently, provided for a rural parcels post with rates of 5 cents per pound, and 1 cent for each additional pound up to eleven pounds. These rates, however, are confined to parcels emanating in the town from which the route runs, or along such route, with the right of interchange of packages from route to route. As few books exceed a pound in weight this would mean a charge of 5 cents. The post office appropriation bill is now before the Senate. What action it will take remains to be seen. The House bill contained a provision for the appointment of a commission to investigate the whole subject of a general parcels post, the commission to make its report to Congress by the opening of the next regular session in December."
Parcels Post vs. Library Post
Our League president forwards the following letter from a Washington correspondent who is evidently perfectly familiar with the subject:
"I am in receipt of your letter of May 17th, asking me whether there is any hope of getting a library post, and in reply will say that if you mean a special act providing for a library post, separate and distinct from other postal service, I do not think that there is any hope of getting it in the near future.
"I do think, however, that the parcels post bill which Senator Bourne has proposed, if passed at this Congress, will very rapidly develop into a law which will be entirely satisfactory for library purposes. The average library book weighs slightly over a pound, but will come easily within two pounds. Under Senator Bourne's bill the rate on rural routes would be 5 cents for the first pound and 1 cent additional for each additional pound; within the fifty mile zone, 6 cents for the first pound and 2 cents for each additional pound; within the two hundred mile zone, 7 cents for the first pound and 3 cents for each additional pound. These rates were decided upon with a certain margin of profit to the government so that there would be no possibility of the government sustaining loss. It was believed that it would be disastrous to the parcels post movement to have any loss at the beginning. Such a loss would serve as an excuse for the abandoning of a parcels post. I am very certain that if this bill should be passed one year's experience would demonstrate that the rural rate could be reduced to 4 and 1 cent, making 5 cents for a two pound package; the 50 mile zone could be abolished and the rate for the 200 mile zone fixed at 5 cents for the first pound and 1 cent for each additional pound. The 200 mile zone, at that rate, ought to give you as good a library post service as you can expect to have within a number of years. I do not think that you can expect to get a law enacted which will provide for the carrying of library books at less than cost. It is no argument to say that the government is now carrying newspapers at less than cost. It made a mistake in establishing such a rate, but having made it, it cannot easily increase the rate.
"You ask whether there is anything the library people can do to forward this matter. My opinion is that the one thing you could do would be to help get sentiment back of a general parcels post so that a bill on a zone basis with rates varying according to distance, will be passed by this Congress. When we once get a law of that kind, its development will be very rapid. The trouble will be to get the first law on the statute books."
Senator Bourne's Bill
The bill introduced by Senator Bourne seems to be all that we can hope for at present. A summary of it follows:
Postal rates on parcels vary with distance, thus protecting local merchants and competing with express companies.
Third and fourth classes of matter are combined.
A special rate of one cent an ounce up to four ounces is provided for circulars and small packages of goods.
Rates are as follows:
Local, city and rural delivery only, 5cts for the first pound and one cent for each additional pound.
Within 50 miles zone, 6cts for the first pound and 2cts for each additional pound.
Within 200 miles zone, 7cts for the first pound and 3cts for each additional pound.
Within 500 miles zone, 8cts for the first pound and 5cts for each additional pound.
Within 1,000 miles zone, 9cts for the first pound and 5cts for each additional pound.
Outside 2,000 miles zone, 12cts for the first pound and 10cts for each additional pound.
These rates are based on a careful computation of the actual cost of collecting, distributing and delivering packages, plus the actual cost of transportation.
Weight limit, 11 pounds and maximum charge 12cts, the international limit and rate.
Committee Progress and Recommendations
The committee has canvassed the situation carefully and corresponded at some length with many persons. It has also suggested that the various commissions take up and follow the matter with their respective congressmen. Many commissions have done this. South Dakota, at its annual library association meeting adopted a formal resolution to be forwarded to senators and congressmen for the state.
The committee recommends:
1. That the secretary of each commission which has not already done so immediately communicate in a personal letter as already suggested with each senator and congressman from his state.
2. That each state commission at its next annual meeting adopt a resolution endorsing a parcels post law similar to Senator Bourne's measure, urging low rates on rural routes, and a zone system and send such resolutions, signed if possible by all the members of the commission, to each senator and congressman in the state.
3. That each state library association do the same.
4. That this League adopt such a resolution, and that the secretary from each commission sees that such resolution reaches the senators and congressmen in his state.
5. That efforts to secure a separate library post law be abandoned for the present.
Respectfully submitted,
M. S. DUDGEON, Chairman.
The report was accepted and the committee continued and the secretary of the League was instructed to place its recommendations before the Council of the A. L. A., in order to secure the coÖperation of that body. The members of the League were particularly urged to assist the committee in its efforts.
A report of the committee in state school library systems, in the absence of Miss Martha Wilson, the chairman, was read by the secretary. It consisted chiefly of a summary of the school library laws of the different states. The report was accepted.
The report of the committee on study clubs outlines, prepared by Miss Margaret Brown was read by Mr. Dudgeon. It was as follows:
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON STUDY OUTLINE
The committee finds that the difficulties encountered by traveling libraries in attempting to supply satisfactory and adequate reference material to the many study clubs largely dependent upon them for books, is chiefly because of the miscellaneous program, covering a wide variety of subjects.
In addition to this, many traveling libraries receive requests for study outlines or are asked to prepare them; hence it was decided by the committee that a plan should be submitted for the preparation of study outlines.
This plan once in use by traveling libraries preparing outlines, would bring about a certain standardization, thus making an outline prepared by one useful to all. Such a plan could not only be utilized by traveling libraries but by other organizations concerned in providing outlines for study clubs.
A plan was presented at the midwinter meeting of the middle-west section of the League, which after discussion has been revised and is herewith again presented with the following recommendations:
First. Plan for preparation of study outlines.
Basis.
A. One book selected as foundation for outline. If a single book suitable for text cannot be found, outline to be based on fewest number of books necessary for the purpose. Texts selected to be authoritative, reasonable in price, readable and stimulating.
B. Five to ten books as collateral reference. Selected to cover subject in study outline and amplify the text. Publisher and price given for all books included, for use in purchase. A more extended list of books can easily be prepared by any library where additional material is available.
Lessons should be outlined by:
C. Question method. Five to ten definite questions on each lesson.
D. Or, Topical method. Topics assigned under each lesson should be those which present special phases of the general subject. The two methods may sometimes be combined. Written papers, if included under either Question or Topical form of study outline, should be assigned only for subjects which require some degree of original thought; all information to be derived from text books and encyclopedias should be covered by the regular lesson for oral discussion. Note. Number of meetings of study clubs vary. Probably not less than sixteen or more than twenty-six lessons. Many average two meetings a month. October to May.
Second. That this committee be authorized to draw upon the League treasury for a definite sum for the employment of a capable compiler to prepare outlines based on this plan.
Third. That if possible the coÖperation of some publisher be secured to print the outlines thus prepared, or others passed upon by the committee, and furnish them at reasonable cost to the various commissions operating traveling libraries and to club and individuals desiring them.
Fourth. That the study outline committee be constituted a sub-committee of the publications committee and be empowered to select subjects, revise and pass upon all outlines submitted, before printed.
MARGARET BROWN, Chairman.
Explanatory Notes on the Plan of Preparation of Study Outlines
A. The use of a few designated books (or a single book) as a basis for common study of the same subject, or closely related topics, provides the means by which the unity and co-ordination is secured, which is essential for effective and satisfactory results.
Each member may, if she so desires, provide herself at nominal cost with the source references necessary to cover the essential point contained in the outline.
B. The books for collateral reading should be carefully evaluated and selection based upon their real value in supplementing text, from the standpoint of reliability, readableness and stimulative quality, also that the price shall not be prohibitive of purchase by clubs, local public libraries and duplication in traveling libraries of large number of copies for use in supplying many different clubs.
Any local or traveling library may easily provide additional books for collateral reading whenever the collection permits. It is not, however, deemed advisable to have such extended lists incorporated in the outlines; as a demand would then be created which could not be supplied by the small library, and therefore would become a handicap and embarrassment.
C. In outlining lessons by the question method, the questions should be so formulated as to stimulate discussion; not simply to be answered in the affirmative or negative.
The question method permits a free expression of individual opinions based on personal reading. Such "discussion awakens the keenest interest through the activity of different minds upon the same fact or idea," as each member is expected to prepare herself to answer all questions.
The question method is endorsed by many educational experts as a desirable method for the conduct of study classes, and has been found to be practical and satisfactory by many study clubs.
D. In outlining lessons by the Topical method, care should be taken to include no more topics than can be thoroughly discussed, and such phases of the subject assigned as topics as will amplify the general subject which has been studied in common by all members from the text upon which the outline is based.
The report was accepted. On the motion of Mr. Bliss it was voted that the chairman of the committee be authorized to draw upon the treasurer of the League for any amount not to exceed $100.00 to defray the expenses of preparing some experimental outlines carrying out the plans suggested in the report. It was moved by Mr. Dudgeon that the chairman be instructed to enter into negotiations with some publisher to secure coÖperation in printing study outlines approved by the committee, to be sold to study clubs and library commissions at reasonable cost. Carried. On the motion of Mr. Bliss, it was voted to continue the study outline committee, with Miss Brown as chairman, and to authorize the committee to select subjects, revise and pass upon all outlines before printed.
Adjourned.
SECOND SESSION
(Saturday, June 29, 8:30 p. m.)
As there were several important committee reports still to be received it was voted to hold a meeting on Monday afternoon at 4:30 to complete the transaction of business. Mr. Milam then turned the meeting over to Miss Miriam E. Carey, of Minnesota, and the evening was devoted to the consideration of libraries in institutions.
Miss E. KATHLEEN JONES, librarian of the McLean Hospital, Waverley, Mass., read a paper on
LIBRARY WORK AMONG THE INSANE
I have been asked to talk about two things to-night,—our library at McLean Hospital in Waverley, Massachusetts, and my idea for organization among the state hospitals of the different states. By dint of considerable money, much thought and labor and an unlimited amount of interest and coÖperation with the librarian on the part of superintendent and trustees, we have been able to build up at the McLean Hospital something which approaches pretty near our ideal of what a library in a hospital for the insane should be. But in regard to the second subject I feel a little diffident, since there are several among you who have actually organized the institution libraries of your different states and combined them under one head, while I have only dreamed about it. Still, the dream and the vision must always be forerunners of accomplishment, and you also must have dreamed before you were able to build.
At McLean Hospital we have two libraries,—one for the use of the patients, which was started in 1835 with 160 volumes and now numbers over 7,000, and a medical library organized in 1887 and containing over 5,000 volumes. The two are kept entirely distinct with separate accession-book, catalog, classification and finances. The medical library comprises a fairly good department in general medicine and a very fine one in chemistry; but of course, its principal features are books and periodicals in psychology and psychiatry. We take 85 medical and chemical journals, most of them German, and the care of these periodicals alone is no slight task for the librarian. I will just say incidentally that, unable to find any classification for medical books which seemed at all adequate to our needs we have evolved one for ourselves, using the decimal idea in numbering. It is a thoroughly satisfactory scheme for us and we hope some time to print it for the benefit of the medical libraries in other hospitals for the insane.
Although our general library for the patients has been in existence for seventy-five years and more, for the first six decades it was conducted in a rather desultory manner, as indeed, most libraries were at that time. It was not till 1895 that any attempt at classification and cataloging was made, and not until 1904 was a trained librarian installed and the whole department put on a business basis. The expenditure of the annual appropriation was at that time put into the librarian's hands with directions to build up the library at her own discretion, subject, of course, to the approval of the superintendent and trustees. That the business basis is the only successful one, these figures show:—in 1904, after seventy years, the library numbered only 4,000 volumes, with few new books but a large assortment of old sermons and evangelical biography, and its circulation was about 5,000. During the eight years of the new regime, more than 3,000 volumes have been added and the circulation has increased to over 8,500.
During its seventy-five years of service our library has exemplified at least four important things:—first, as has been shown, that one cannot get such good results from the old desultory method of having a few books on the wards looked after by nurses, or even in a central library run by a stenographer in her spare moments, as from an organized, central library with a trained librarian at its head. Second, that although the business basis is the only successful one, the administration of it should be as simple and free from "red tape" as possible. The nearer a hospital librarian can keep her library to the idea of the private library and the more friendly and personal relations she can establish with the patients the more good she can accomplish. The third point I would make is that unless they are very ill and destructive, books are treated as carefully by the insane as by the users of the public libraries. Last year, out of 8,686 volumes taken out by patients and nurses, only 9 were lost or destroyed, and of these only two were charged to patients. It is the proud boast of one of our head nurses who has under him the next to the most violent and destructive ward on the men's side, that he has had out for his patients over 450 volumes in the last two years, and has not lost or had mutilated one single book!
The fourth and most important lesson we have learned is that the value of a well-selected library can hardly be over-estimated as a therapeutic agent. I do not mean by this that a cure can be effected simply by reading the right books; that of course is absurd. But it is a fact recognized by all psychiatrists and at the basis of the treatment of the insane in all hospitals today, that whatever takes a patient's mind off himself and his own troubles and directs his thoughts into other and more wholesome channels, contributes to his recovery. And when amusement pall, handicrafts tire and golf and tennis are too strenuous, books and pictures will almost always help. It is for this reason that we have to be so careful of the kind of reading, especially of fiction, which we put into the hands of our patients. They must be wholesome stories; anything dealing with suicide or insanity is strictly tabu; also stories which are morbid or would be apt to arouse a morbid train of thought. With these exceptions the insane want and should have the same books which you and I read. Moreover, and I wish I could say this loudly and emphatically enough to be heard over the whole country, the insane are not imbeciles and they are not children, and they resent it when they are treated as such just as much as you or I would. If the old ladies like to reread the stories they loved when they were young, so do old ladies everywhere, but they do not want kindergarten stories. And they are as interested in what is going on in the world and in keeping up with the times as anyone.
About once a week I go to Boston, look over the new books, select the ones I like the looks of and have them sent out "on approval." Every book of fiction is read by me, or if it is distinctly a man's book, by someone of the staff in whose literary judgment I can rely. The books which are kept are then classified and cataloged and either sent directly to some patient or ward where I know they will be appreciated, or else placed on the "new book shelves." Neither staff nor nurses are allowed to have the new books until the patients have read them. The patients come over four evenings a week to the library, the men Mondays and Fridays and the women Wednesdays and Saturdays. Our library consists of two large and very beautiful rooms with open shelves and open fires. Some of the patients roam about and browse among the books, others sit at the tables and look at pictures and magazines, while still others join the ladies of the house who generally sit in the front library in the evening with their fancy-work and the fire. Sometimes we play cards with them.
Besides these four evenings, certain patients are sometimes allowed to come over in the daytime, and the nurses come in at any time of day to get books for some particular patient or for their ward. These "traveling libraries" on the wards are our most successful means of reaching those patients who are too feeble, or too ill, or who lack the initiative to come to the library and select their own books, but who will often get interested in a book which lies on the sitting-room table of their ward.
I am often asked what kind of books aside from fiction the patients call for. I suppose books with pictures would rank first, for patients who are too ill to read will often look at these by the hour. These picture-books comprise art books, of which we have a very fine collection bought and added to each year with money from a bequest to the hospital; Black's travel books; Country Life in America, etc. Next come the nature and out-of-door books; then literature, especially Longfellow, Whittier and Tennyson. History is seldom called for by the patients,—sociology and economics never; yet our nurses, especially our Canadian nurses who want to know about conditions in the States, frequently ask for these, and we have books on all these subjects; for, though our hospital motto is "Patients first," we find that whatever increases the intelligence of the nurses increases their efficiency, and we are glad to have them avail themselves of every opportunity for reading and study.
Frankly humorous books I have learned never to give to a depressed patient, and Miss Carey tells me she has had the same experience. If a patient is much depressed he seems to resent being cheered up if he knows it, and we all have realized in ourselves that unless we are in the mood for it there is nothing in the world so dreary as an avowedly funny story. Neither is there any call for collections like the "International library of famous literature," and the "Library of American literature," and in this matter too, Miss Carey agrees with me. Short stories also are at a discount here. The patients want novels which shall grip and hold their attention in spite of themselves. We all know that the complete librarian is supposed to have an extra sense of intuition, and I think I unconsciously say to myself in selecting books for the patients, "If I felt the way that patient looks as if he felt, what kind of books would I want?" Sometimes, though, one makes mistakes. For instance,—we have one patient, a dear old lady, somewhat prim, a little austere, a typical New England aristocrat of the old school, with whom one immediately associates "Cranford" and "Oldfield" and Mrs. de la Pasture. But this dear lady wants detective stories, if you please, and the more gruesome and bloodier they are the more she revels in them. In her estimation, "The Marathon mystery" and "The Boule cabinet" and "The Mystery of the yellow room" totally eclipse "Down our street" and "Queed" any day.
But while short stories are seldom called for, the "short story in long dresses" and bound by itself, is very popular with patients who are physically weak and unable to hold large volumes or to read very long at a time. I always keep a collection of these little books in a special bookrack so I can lay my hands on them at any moment. They comprise such titles as "Pigs is pigs," "The good Samaritan," "Philosophy Four," "Stickeen," "The perfect tribute," "Songs from Vagabondia," "The friendly craft," etc. Then I have other racks on tables and window shelves which I keep filled with different books, changing them often. And I find that shifting the books on the shelves every little while brings into prominence some which have heretofore been overlooked. In short, I try to keep something new in the library all the time, even if only a new plant or arrangement of flowers, for the patients in a hospital of this sort are very dependent on outside agencies for diversion and interest, and their attention must be caught and held by some means or other.
So much for the reality: now for the dream.
Because the library in our hospital has been such a success, because it has so thoroughly proved its therapeutic value, I dream of the time when one as efficient shall be in every hospital in the country. The fact that ours is a private hospital means that we are not helped by the state; it also means that most of our patients, but by no means all, are on a paying basis; it most emphatically does not mean that we have the monopoly of the educated class. While it is true that there are many illiterates in the state hospitals, it is also true that there are in them thousands of men and women as well educated, as refined, as great lovers of books as those in our private hospital. For the majority, it is the question of money, not of education, which determines a patient's place in the state or the private institution. If our people value our library so highly, what must be their deprivation when because of lack of funds they have to go to state institutions where there are no books and periodicals or at best only a few old ones, never changed and seldom added to.
The state says it cannot afford to appropriate for each of its hospitals and asylums an annual sum sufficient to build up such a library as ours and maintain so many trained librarians, and the state is justified. But I have dreamed of a coÖperation by means of which there shall be in every state one trained librarian who shall organize into a library what books there already are in each institution, advise and train in library methods those in charge, and buy from an annual appropriation such as the state can afford, new books which shall be sent from one hospital to another in the form of traveling libraries, and after they have gone the round be divided up among the individual institutions,—thus slowly building up each library. This organizer should be in the employ either of the State Board of Insanity (or its equivalent) or else of the State Library Commission. It would seem that the former would be more satisfactory and less complicated, as the state institutions already are under their control, but in some states the library commission seems to have have been entirely successful in co-operating with the state board. One thing seems certain, that unless the state board and the hospital superintendents can be interested in the scheme little can be done; while with their interest and coÖperation success is insured.
That this dream is practical has been proved in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and a few other states. In New York, most of the state hospitals seem to have fairly good libraries, and the one at Middletown, N. Y., ranks very nearly with McLean in the number of volumes, and seems to be carried on very efficiently. In Trenton, N. J., there is a state hospital which has a memorial library with a good annual appropriation and which adds about one hundred and fifty books a year. I have with me the figures of the hospital libraries in nineteen states, if anyone cares to see them.
In my dream I see equal library advantages to every state hospital in the country, and I hear from them all the words they will say to you who are able to realize these dreams,—words our patients at McLean have said to us over and over again,—"You don't know what this library has meant to me!" This is an opportunity for intimate helpfulness and real, practical usefulness which I hope everyone of you will try to introduce into his state.
In the discussion that followed, Miss Jones said the McLean Hospital library had an appropriation of about $300 a year for books alone for the patients, but thought that a state hospital library could get on nicely with less. Miss Templeton gave an account of state institutional work in Nebraska where the policy has been to get library work in these institutions under the control of the state library commission.
Mr. Dudgeon said that a list of simple industrial books had been prepared with much care for the prisoners in the Wisconsin state prison. Also that the chaplain helped in recommending reading for the prisoners, those who expected to get out being especially anxious to keep up with events and not be Rip Van Winkles when released.
Miss Carey, of Minnesota, said their state commission has made special efforts to know what the libraries of the institutions were doing, how many readers they had, and how many books they circulate. She said this familiarized the institutions with the commission and so the officers were glad to put the burden off on the commission. She thought it was impossible to do anything until the officers of the institutions were on your side; that this must be worked for until secured.
After discussion the session adjourned.
THIRD SESSION
(Monday, July 1, 4:30 p. m.)
The third session of the League opened with a report from Mr. F. F. Hopper, of Tacoma, on the work of the Committee on federal prison libraries. His report was as follows:
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON LIBRARIES IN FEDERAL PRISONS
The report of this committee made by Mr. Hadley at the Pasadena meeting, outlined correspondence with the Department of Justice in Washington, which Department has supervision of the penitentiaries including their libraries. After repeated efforts by Mr. Hadley, the department seemed to become interested in the libraries in the prisons, and friendly to suggestions for improving them, but the officials considered that proper library facilities were dependent upon the provision by Congress of a system of education for the prisoners. However, the department already had the authority to appropriate money from its own funds for the purchase of books for the prison libraries. In his report, Mr. Hadley recommended that a bill be introduced in the next Congress for an annual appropriation for books and their care in penitentiary libraries.
In 1911 catalogs of the libraries in the penitentiaries at Atlanta and at McNeil Island were prepared by the prison librarians and printed. After these were submitted to the Department of Justice, it seems to have been decided to adopt a definite policy for the annual expenditure of money for the purchase of books for one of these libraries, that at McNeil Island. This decision was probably hastened by the disclosures the catalogues made in regard to the kind of books already in the libraries. It is evident that fiction constitutes almost the whole of the collections. At any rate in January the attorney general wrote the secretary of the American Library Association that the department would spend $100 annually for the purchase of books for the library at McNeil Island, and requested that a list of books be prepared, none of the books to be fiction, but chiefly history, biography and science. Mr. Utley asked the present chairman of your committee to prepare the list since the Tacoma library is the nearest to McNeil Island and the present chairman was somewhat acquainted with the conditions and needs there. A list of 500 titles, with a first choice of books to cost $100.00 was considered, but the list was reduced to 175 titles, since it was deemed best to provide only for purchase for two years. Since the library already contained considerable fiction and the public libraries of both Seattle and Tacoma frequently send the prison selected books from their discards, it was fortunate that the department wished no fiction on the list.
We have learned from the Department of Justice in the last few days that similar purchases were not contemplated for the much larger prisons at Atlanta and Leavenworth. No attempt was made to secure the introduction of a bill in Congress providing for an annual appropriation for books and their care in the penitentiary libraries, since it was already so late in the present session; since the new interest of the department under the present law appeared promising; and since it seemed desirable first to secure the discussion and coÖperation of the American Prison Association and other societies interested in prison administration and reform. It was hoped that a member of this committee could present the subject of libraries in the federal prisons at the meeting of the Conference of Charities and Corrections in Cleveland during the present month, but it was not possible to carry out the plan. The American Prison Association has formally invited a member of the committee to discuss the same subject at the annual meeting of the association at Baltimore in November, and it is highly desirable that the invitation be accepted. It should be possible to interest and secure the powerful backing of the American Prison Association in securing the passage of any contemplated legislation looking to the improvement of prison libraries.
The warden of the prison at McNeil Island secures some fifty magazines as gifts by merely begging them from the publishers! At both Atlanta and Leavenworth, the only new magazines the prisoners see are those which they subscribe for themselves or which are sent by their friends.
In the Atlanta prison, a regular school is conducted, and whatever books are purchased from the general funds are school books. A school should be established at McNeil Island. At present there are no facilities for such work there but with the example of the one at Atlanta, it should be possible to urge effectively that the department establish a school at McNeil Island.
In the coming year the commendable start which the Department of Justice has made in purchasing books for the prison at McNeil Island, should open the way for successful efforts in persuading the department to undertake much more liberal purchases of books for the libraries of the much larger prisons at Atlanta and at Leavenworth.
It is earnestly recommended that a vigorous presentation of the needs of the prison libraries be made to the department by someone in person, backed by all the influence obtainable. It is also urged that a list of fiction suitable for prison libraries be co-operatively made with the utmost care. The needs of the prisoner in his reading for recreation are very special, and many books entirely suitable for the open shelf room of a public library should be ruthlessly excluded from the prison. Expert knowledge of the psychology of the prisoner should in some way be obtained in preparing a list of fiction for reading in prison. It is better that the prisoner read not at all than that he should be given many of the books eminently fit for one in the normal conditions and relations of life.
FRANKLIN F. HOPPER, Chairman.
Mrs. Sneed supplemented Mr. Hopper's report with a report of conditions in the federal prison at Atlanta and of conferences which she had had with officials from Washington. It was her opinion, based on advice from the prison authorities that the only way to accomplish anything is for some one to go to Washington, put the case plainly before the Department of Justice and ask that an appropriation be made for libraries in the federal prisons. Mr. Dudgeon moved that Mrs. Sneed, Dr. Owen and Mr. Hopper act as a committee representing the League with full power to act, and that the League pledge itself to hearty coÖperation. Carried. Miss Tyler moved that the secretary of the League send a communication to the Council of the A. L. A., stating the progress of the committee and asking for its coÖperation. On the motion of Mr. Dudgeon, $50.00 was placed at the disposal of the committee to carry on its work.
The report of the publications committee was then presented by the chairman, Mr. M. S. Dudgeon. At his suggestion the recommendations of the committee were voted on as they were read.
The League adopted the first, second and third recommendation of the committee; took no action on the fifth, and adopted the sixth. The report of the committee was then accepted.
REPORT OF THE PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
Your committee respectfully reports the following:
1. A very definite demand has been presented to the committee from the various commissions calling for the publication of a buying list of about one thousand titles for use by small libraries. The committee has investigated the matter and is glad to report that Miss Zaidee Brown's list has been revised and brought up to date by Miss Webster of New York, and that this will admirably meet the demand. After going over the matter with Mr. Utley, it appeared that no advantage would result should this committee handle this publication. The committee recommends that the separate commissions deal directly with the New York state library. The committee is informed that the commissions will be circularized by the New York authorities for this purpose. The price is exceedingly reasonable, probably not exceeding two cents each in large quantities. It seems likely that arrangements can be made so that each commission can stamp or print upon the title page such matter as it sees fit.
We understand that copy of the list is now ready for the printer. When printed this list will also contain a magazine list.
2. It was suggested by the president of the League that the committee collect and print short paragraphs suitable for publication in newspapers during local campaigns for a library. The committee recommends that this be undertaken by one of the commissions as a sub-committee, rather than by the publications committee.
3. Mr. Gillis of California, has suggested that each commission prepare a list of the best material available treating of the history of its state. This seems to the committee the function of the state library rather than the commission and it recommends that this request be referred to the National Association of State Libraries.
4. It was suggested that the committee reprint Moulton's "Aids to Library Work with Foreigners." This matter was referred to the A. L. A. Publishing Board, which has arranged for its publication.
5. The committee has been asked also to consider the publication of a buying list for traveling libraries, to be followed by a periodical supplement probably issued in mimeograph form. The questionnaire submitted to the commissions indicates that there would be only a limited use of such a list, many commissions maintaining that present aids are sufficient. The commissions exhibited so little interest in the matter that this question is submitted to the League without recommendation.
6. The loss resulting from the susceptibility of the trustee or librarian of many of the smaller libraries, to the subtle wiles of the eloquent book-agent, calls for some authoritative pronouncement upon the value, or lack of value, of subscription books. To make such a pronouncement seems to be the function of the A. L. A. Publishing Board. The committee therefore respectfully recommends that such board be requested to make proper provision for such pronouncement.
Respectfully submitted,
M. S. DUDGEON, Chairman,
ZAIDEE BROWN,
MARY E. DOWNEY.
In the absence of the chairman of the committee on uniform financial reports for library commissions, the following report was read by the secretary:
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON UNIFORM FINANCIAL REPORTS
The difficulties confronting the compiler of statistics of expenditures of library commissions or library extension departments are obvious, owing (1) to variations in organization and scope of work in different states, (2) to variations in accounting systems which must conform to the state accounting system, and (3) to variations in methods of appropriations. For example, in some states definite appropriations are made for certain departments of work, in others certain expenses such as printing, binding and office supplies are paid from the general state fund for all departments. In view of these facts, many commissions are of the opinion that a uniform accounting system which will meet the needs of every state is impracticable.
Your committee collected the financial reports of each library commission, or other state department doing library extension work and made a careful comparison of the items included.
It was found that these items could practically all be grouped under a few general headings, as given in Table I. It was further suggested that another summary giving approximate totals for various departments be added, as outlined in Table II.
The committee therefore submits this summary of expenses, as a tentative form, to be used in the annual report of the League for purposes of comparison.
The work of the committee has shown that such a summary can readily be made from the financial reports of the several commissions as they are now published and it is believed that this table would be a useful addition to the yearbook.
The outline here presented is not regarded as final, but is submitted for your discussion and amendment.
CLARA F. BALDWIN, Chairman.
- TABLE I.
- Summary of Expenditures
- Books and binding
- Direct aid
- Pamphlets for distribution
- Express, freight and cartage
- Office supplies and furniture
- Periodical clearing house
- Periodical subscriptions and memberships
- Postage
- Printing
- Salaries
- State institutions
- Summer school
- Traveling expenses
- Traveling library boxes
- Miscellaneous
- Total
- TABLE II.
- Summary of Expenses by Departments
- Field work
- Instruction
- Traveling library
- Direct aid
- Legislative reference
- School library work (for Oregon)
- Educational reference (for N. Dakota)
The report was accepted.
The secretary then presented the following report of what the League Yearbook should contain.
LEAGUE OF LIBRARY COMMISSIONS' YEARBOOK
In accordance with the request of the president of the League, the secretary has made the following outline of the matter which should be included in the Yearbook to be published this coming autumn:
- List of members of the League.
- Officers.
- Committees.
- Constitution.
Report by states, giving under each the names of the executive staff, a list of the publications in print, and new legislation pertaining to library extension, any distinctly new phase of work taken up, and in the case of a new commission a full account of its form of organization and scope of activities.
Traveling libraries: Number of volumes in fixed groups; number of volumes on open shelves; loans.
Number of requests in answer to which books have been sent; number of volumes sent out.
Requests classified as follows: Groups of taxpayers, public libraries, schools, institutions, study clubs, individuals, other organizations.
Summary of public library conditions by states: Population, number of towns of over 2,000; number of libraries supported by tax; number of libraries supported by associations; number of subscription libraries; number of library buildings; number of trained librarians.
Financial report according to the recommendations of Miss Baldwin's report.
The report was accepted.
The nominating committee then presented the following names as officers of the League for the ensuing year:
For president, Mr. C. H. Milam, Indiana; for first vice-president, Miss Elizabeth B. Wales, Missouri; for second vice-president, Dr. Thomas M. Owen, Alabama; for secretary-treasurer, Miss Zaidee Brown, Massachusetts; publications committee: M. S. Dudgeon, Wisconsin, chairman; Miss Fannie C. Rawson, Kentucky; Miss Caroline F. Webster, New York.
It was voted to instruct the secretary to cast the ballot for these officers.
The meeting adjourned.
SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION
Fourth Annual Meeting, Ottawa, Canada, June 26-July 2, 1912
FIRST (GENERAL) SESSION
(Thursday, June 27, 2:30 p. m.)
In the absence of the president, the vice-president, Herbert O. Brigham, state librarian of Rhode Island, called the meeting to order in, the ball room of the Chateau Laurier.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: Ladies and Gentlemen, we will open the session this afternoon with the consideration of a general topic, which will be taken part in by Mr. Dudgeon and by other speakers who will discuss Mr. Dudgeon's paper. It so happens that this year we have been so fortunate as to have the article reprinted beforehand in the publication of the Special Libraries Association, so that doubtless many of you are already familiar with the paper.
I am going to appoint on the nominating committee Messrs. George W. Lee of Boston, John A. Lapp of Indianapolis, and Miss E. V. Dobbins of New York City.
We are very fortunate in having with us to take the main paper for this opening session a man who has been actively engaged in special library work for some time in the west, one who is very familiar with the development of the "Wisconsin idea" of legislative reference work, and closely associated with Dr. McCarthy in developing that idea.
I take great pleasure in introducing to you Mr. M. S. Dudgeon, secretary of the Wisconsin library commission, who will talk upon the subject of "The plan, scope and results of special libraries."
Mr. DUDGEON: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen—There are those who maintain that there is no such thing as a special library in a class of its own, but that what we call a special library is simply a general reference library which by the needs of its patrons has become somewhat specialized in its methods and in its equipment. On the other hand, there are those who maintain that a special library has so distinctly a different function and purpose, that its scope is so different, that its equipment is so different, and that the equipment, the qualities and the characteristics of those who man the library are so different, as to entitle such an institution to an entirely different classification; that it is not a general reference library, but a special library, something entirely different. It seems to me to be more or less a distinction without a difference, more or less a play upon words. I have, at the request of the Program Committee, written down what seemed to me the perfectly obvious things that might be said about the scope and purposes of the special library. You have the paper before you as printed in "Special Libraries," and will probably be fortunate enough to escape some detail, as I will try to shorten this somewhat in the reading.[13]
[13] Mr. Dudgeon's paper appeared in full in "Special Libraries," June, 1912, pp. 129-133.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: I think we all have a clear understanding of just what a special library means, and I think we should all notice especially the allusion that Mr. Dudgeon made to the reference library as compared to the public library, in the definition of the use of the book.
I think one of the finest examples of a special librarian one can find is in our absent president. Dr. Whitten is doubtless one of the best authorities today on public utilities, and he has this month gone to London, where he is spending the summer investigating public utilities for the National Civic Federation. That, I think, accounts for his absence, and we regret very much that he is not here.
I am going to ask Mr. Josephson of the John Crerar Library, Chicago, to lead the discussion.
A. G. S. JOSEPHSON: I am afraid that you will not find my paper what you expected it to be, a discussion of Mr. Dudgeon's paper. When Mr. Lapp wrote me some time ago to ask if I would not discuss the question, I began to try to make up my own mind as to what a special library was. I had made my mental notes on that subject, and when Mr. Dudgeon's paper came and I read it and undertook to discuss it, it happened that my own ideas came first.[14]
The VICE-PRESIDENT: I am going to ask Mr. W. P. Cutter, librarian of the Engineering Societies of New York City, to contribute either by a paper or an oral discussion of Mr. Dudgeon's address.
Mr. CUTTER: I do not know that I have anything to offer as a contribution to the discussion of Mr. Dudgeon's very interesting paper and Mr. Josephson's very interesting discussion of it. I might, perhaps, with my usual liking to express things briefly, say that I consider a special library as one that serves people who are doing things, and a reference library one which serves people who are thinking things. The former are not thinking about doing things, they are already doing them. I think that applies also to people who are serving as legislators, who are making laws; to sociologists, who are making attempts to handle crime and other sociological questions. I believe that the development now in the public library world is in the direction of service to the public. For twenty-five or twenty-six years now we have been talking about, first, books, and then about places for storing books, buildings to put them in, methods of cataloging them, charging them, of making picture bulletins for children and all that, and we have finally arrived at a discussion of the methods of serving the people who are really doing things. It has taken about twenty-five years to arrive at that point, and I think we are reaching that goal. I noticed, although I was not present at the meeting this morning, that in two reports of committees of the American Library Association, an instrument was mentioned which has been used in one library, at least, to my knowledge, for the reproduction of material for people who are doing things, a reproduction of printed material, manuscripts, maps, drawings, etc. This is the first time that has come up, I think, in a report in the American Library Association on the reference side.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: I hoped that Dr. McCarthy, the head of the legislative reference department of the Wisconsin library, and Mr. Galbreath, former state librarian of Ohio, who is now secretary of the Constitutional Convention of Ohio, would be present today. In their absence the discussion is now open to the members, and I hope there will be a very general and free discussion.
JOHN A. LAPP: I have not very much to say except to emphasize one or two points which Mr. Dudgeon brought out in his paper. One of those points is the fact that the material which we deal with in special libraries is not found in books. In a short experience of only four years, I think, outside of those references to legal works, to law periodicals and law books, I have not been able to do one-tenth of my work from books or from published material. Most of the work, the real work, which has been done by the legislative reference department of Indiana has been done through work which we have prepared, which we have drawn up from the general material scattered here and there in obscure sources and from letters which we had written to experts outside. I say scarcely one-tenth, and I do not know but perhaps that is too liberal. One-tenth of the questions we have been able to answer from published material. That would seem to me to be the most distinguishing point about the special library. I believe that the heads of the industrial libraries, the manufacturing libraries, the commercial libraries, will agree with me on that point.
The subject of the training of special librarians is the one subject here upon which there seems to be, thus far, a division of opinion. I have always believed that the person who has a general knowledge of the subject, with a library training, is the person who is best qualified to do the work of a special library. I think that is true particularly in legislative and municipal reference work; but, on the other hand, it should be emphasized that if that person did not have a pretty good knowledge of library work, or if he did not have a pretty efficient librarian with him, he would make a sorry failure, as Mr. Dudgeon has suggested. At the same time, I do not believe that the librarian who is trained as a librarian merely, who loves books and so on, can get hold of the real vital part of the work in a way that the person who is using the special library demands. On the whole I am inclined to believe that the best working arrangement is to have a man in the library who has a knowledge of the subject matter and a person who knows something about library work and library training, and then to have him supplemented by some one who knows the library side of it, with a bare knowledge of the other subjects, and, working together, they can bring about a very efficient special library service. That is the ideal of a special library combination. I think it has worked out in most cases. But, again, speaking from personal knowledge, I do not think that I could ever do very much in legislative reference work if I were a librarian without the other training. Whatever I had of librarian training, through the school, when I went into the work, might be placed in very small compass—I haven't told this before but I will confess now that when I began I knew very little about librarianship. If my assistants knew that at the time, at any rate, I have never told It before, but I have learned something about it since that time. But I think I could have made a better success of librarianship if I had had more library training. On the other hand, I do not believe I could have gotten along if I had not had the other side of the subject more largely. So I agree with Mr. Dudgeon on most points as to that question; but I would suggest that the person who is in charge, if he is not fairly well grounded in librarian skill and librarian art, should have some one with him who would keep him off the rocks, because he will go on the rocks if he does not have some one to guide him.
The special library meets a very special need. That has been pointed out many times. We deal with material that is not in print. We manufacture it. Many times we must color it with our own opinions. Some people say that in public affairs, in municipal and legislative reference work, we should not allow our own personality or our judgment to enter into the work. I should like to find a librarian who is able to keep from doing that. If I have knowledge which to me seems certain, if I know a certain fact and have the information right at hand, I cannot refrain from telling the person who ought to know that fact; I cannot refrain from telling him that a certain thing is right, or a certain thing is wrong. While we must all do it diplomatically, it is out of the question, I believe, for a man to be efficient as a special librarian, even in dealing with the public affairs in libraries, to avoid giving his own opinions on subjects. What is the use of his getting a knowledge of the subject if he cannot really use it? But he should use it very discreetly.
The special library was very well described by Mr. Cutter when he said it was a library for those who do things, while the reference library is for those people who think of things. This is the age of efficiency. I believe that the librarian is the efficiency engineer, or ought to be the efficiency engineer, of the educational world. I think the general reference librarian ought to be that, and I think the librarian of the special library, particularly of the manufacturing and industrial library, can be to a large degree the efficiency expert of such a concern.
GUY E. MARION: I think the people who are present here would take a good deal of satisfaction in knowing who the people are that are actually and most vitally interested in special library work, and I have analyzed an up-to-date membership list which I hold here in my hand, of which I should be glad to show copies to any who may be interested. We have now grown to a group of 224 people who are interested. That is a growth, roughly, of twenty-five per cent since our last meeting in New York City. There are four insurance libraries in the country. There are nineteen people who are interested in public utilities. There are five financial libraries. There are among the commercial, technical and scientific libraries (many of which are in manufacturing concerns), forty-eight. Among the public affairs libraries, which cover the legislative reference departments of state libraries as well, there are something like thirty-six. It is interesting to note that the public libraries have themselves been sufficiently interested to know what we are doing, so that forty-five of them have become members of this association, to be in touch, I presume, with what we are aiming for. There are twenty-nine colleges and universities interested; and of miscellaneous people whom we can hardly classify, not knowing where they belong, there are thirty-eight. In this connection I think it is worth while to say to you, many of you who frequently change about the country, or are looking for advancement, that it would not be amiss for you to fill out one of the little blanks showing your qualifications, the things in which you are interested. At the present moment I know of the largest automobile concern in this country, the automobile trust, which is looking for an active, wide-awake librarian, probably a man. Those opportunities are coming to the attention of your secretary quite frequently, and we shall always be glad to have you keep in touch with us by filling out one of these little blanks. We may be able to readjust you.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: The Secretary has an announcement to make in regard to city planning.
Mr. MARION: I think it would not be amiss for me to speak of three or four of our bibliographies. There has been one list published under the direction of Mr. Meyer of the Library of Congress, called "Selected list of references on the short ballot," which is easily obtainable at our headquarters; also a list of references on street railway service by Robert H. Whitten, our president. There was prepared by Mr. Dana, "The social questions of today," which is a very useful compilation of subjects, and institutions and people interested in social questions. Then, in addition, our May number of "Special Libraries" has published probably the most remarkable collection of city planning items that has ever been gathered together. It was done co-operatively between the Library of Congress and the Department of landscape architecture of Harvard university. (Here the Secretary read a notice of a later complete bibliography of City planning which will be published by the Library of Congress in which a new complete classification scheme for the arrangement of all the articles will be used.)
I think that the classification alone will be exceedingly useful to you who ultimately, with the growth of American cities and their rapid development, are going to be forced to take an interest in the subject of their re-arrangement. This is going to become more and more a vital problem, it seems to me, in the future here in America than it ever has been in the past; and when the final list is published it will consider not only American experience, but also European, appertaining to that subject.
GEORGE W. LEE: I should think this might be a good chance for people to express themselves as to the need of bibliographical matter to go into "Special libraries," as members who receive "Special Libraries," whether they think the trend of articles is about right and to make suggestions. Possibly it might be some guide to the editorial committee to know whether the material they are putting in is about right, or whether there are certain things that might with advantage be inserted. Then the question comes, are you helping, yourself, to make up these bibliographies?
The VICE-PRESIDENT: Perhaps Mr. Lapp can speak of the various ways in which we made the bibliographies, working with the Library of Congress methods and various others.
Mr. LAPP: That question might properly come up later, but I just mention at this time that we should be thinking about it, and report at a later session of this organization, this week. The matter is very important to us, because we have some difficulty in selecting. We have some difficulty in knowing just what the members of the association desire most, and at the present time we have a working arrangement with a number of people who are supplying things regularly. We should be glad to enter into arrangements with others if the demand seems to be great. Just now we have an arrangement with the Public Utilities Committee, which supplies every two or three months a summary of the best public utility references of the period before. We also have an arrangement with the Library of Congress, through Mr. Meyer, by which we receive a bibliography for every issue, a short bibliography on some obscure subject, some subject that is not covered in any systematic bibliography, or not covered adequately; and the desire is to get questions which would be of the widest interest and at the same time not conflict with something that has already been published, because the whole purpose of the Special Libraries Association is to do those things which nobody else does. If we find that we are doing something now which somebody else can do better, we should be very glad to transfer it to them, and merely undertake those things which nobody else does. We have an arrangement also by which we are going to receive some of the best references to material on city documents, beginning with the next issue. That I think will add very materially to the value of the publication, because city documents, as you know, are now almost inaccessible for the reason that no one knows that they are published until they are perhaps out of print, and they cannot be obtained.
I would like to take this opportunity of asking all our friends to contribute whenever they know of anything that is done or that has happened regarding a bibliography or in the way of a special locality that you think should be mentioned, that you send a note to the editors, or send us a copy of the publication itself. This is purely a co-operative enterprise, and it is by co-operation that we get the real value of the work. The hope is to cover the whole country, so that if a man is working on a subject in Boston some one in San Francisco can learn about it, and, if he is thinking of doing the same thing, have him co-operate and perhaps get that thing done better; and any information which can be given which will facilitate that plan will be of very great value to the association and be a very great help to the editors.
Mr. CUTTER: The first statement Mr. Marion made, about obtaining assistants for the people who need them, is, I think, the most searching question in connection with special libraries. It seems to me it would be wise for this association to communicate with graduating classes of some of our universities and suggest to the members of those classes well enough in advance that the library profession is a desirable thing for young men to enter. I think it would be a very wise thing for this association to take that up, and tell them the reasons why, and the demand for assistants. At the present time I have knowledge of several positions, but the specification is made that men are desired, as most of our business men are so ignorant that they do not know how efficient women are.
I would say in regard to what Mr. Lapp mentioned, that I have some 250 bibliographies on engineering subjects, some of them too special, but some of them would, I think, be of general interest, and I will take the opportunity of sending him a list of these.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: It might be of interest to note what has already been printed in connection with the Library of Congress, to show the character of the publications received from that source. You will recall, for instance, a bibliography on the drinking habit, the short ballot, on anti-cigarette ordinances and laws, the open shop, public utility rates, the pardoning power, compulsory voting, preferential voting, and, finally, city planning, and, also, I might say, one on the administration of charities and correction boards, a rather technical subject, which appeared in the April number, 1911.
(There here followed a discussion led by Mr. C. A. George, of Elizabeth, N. J., in which he asked for information as to the real purpose of the Special Libraries movement. Mr. Josephson, the vice-president, and Mr. G. W. Lee, of Stone & Webster, Boston, offered replies to the questions asked.)
Mr. DUDGEON: My connection with this association was due to this conception, that in my business, which was legislative work, etc., I conceived that there was a great deal in books that ought to be brought to the attention of the people who were doing the work, and I was glad to join an association whose special function seemed to be to help one another devise ways and means of getting book knowledge into the hands of the actual workers. Now, that seems to me to be somewhat of a distinct proposition. I think Mr. Cutter's definition justifies our existence. We are specialized in getting knowledge out of books and out of the experience of others into the hands of workers rather than into the hands of people who are just thinking about working. It seems to me that it is quite distinct although hard to distinguish.
Miss LINDHOLM: I believe in the effort to make the business public more appreciative of the work we are doing, we should write more articles about our work and our libraries. I think if there were articles written for the different electrical, engineering, automobile and manufacturing periodicals it would help a great deal.
Mr. CUTTER: I would suggest, Mr. President, that you can combine all those periodicals the lady mentions by writing articles for the Wall Street Journal. That is the place where the people read things.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: The editor of the Wall Street Journal was with us at our September meeting and gave us a very interesting description of his own part of the work in connection with the business, and the information bureau established by the Wall Street Journal. I sometimes think we fail to note the speed with which that information must be obtained, either in the reference department or the newspaper. They will sometimes employ a mere mechanical device to save two minutes in connection with the information given.
I think Miss Lindholm's suggestion is a very good one and possibly can be worked out by getting more and more in touch with the trade periodicals. Many of those trade periodicals are not taken by the public libraries, are not listed in any indexes of periodicals, and much of the material afforded there is of unusual value.
Mr. CUTTER: I would suggest that we have a committee on publicity for the association.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: The committee have a plan to advance for that which I think they will bring out at the next meeting.
SECOND (FIRST JOINT) SESSION
(Friday, June 28, 2:30 p. m.)
The second session was a joint session held in conjunction with the National Association of State Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries and the Bibliographical Society of America. Mr. George S. Godard, acting secretary-treasurer of the National Association of State Libraries, called the meeting to order and occupied the chair.
Before beginning the regular program, Mr. Beer, librarian of the Howard Memorial library at New Orleans, called attention to a bibliography of French fiction, which he had come across during his travels in Europe last year. He said in part: "I discovered that there was being published at Lisle on the borders of Belgium by a Roman Catholic priest the most honest, the bravest review of fiction that exists in any language. He does not fear to mention every book which is published. He praises those which are good, and he scathes with the most bitter sarcasm and truthfulness those that are absolutely bad. He is the AbbÉ Bellian. If a young lady goes to buy a book she is asked if that particular book is in the list of AbbÉ Bellian. If it is not that store refuses to supply it to any one who is not of lawful age. It has been supplemented by a monthly publication which is very reasonable in price. It has been published since 1903." He urged that all become familiar with this book in order that the supply of French books generally throughout the United States in our libraries may be much more carefully selected and be more representative of the great French fiction. Dean Walton of the McGill University law school, Montreal, prepared a paper entitled "Legal systems of Canada, with a list of statutes and other legal papers of the Province of Quebec." This paper opened the formal program and was read by Mr. Charles H. Gould. This paper was followed by another entitled "Present Status of legal bibliography" by Dean Wigmore of the Northwestern University law school. This was read by Mr. Edwin M. Borchard, law librarian of the Library of Congress, in connection with his own paper on "The bibliography of international and foreign law, with an account of the method of building up the collections of foreign and international law in the Library of Congress." After reading Dean Wigmore's paper and discussing the present literature in this field and existing bibliographies, Mr. Borchard called attention to the effect which the increase in foreign travel had had upon all law library problems in America, bringing in as it had the wider international relations from year to year. He said "There are three points of view that have guided us" (in the formation of the Library of Congress collection) "the practicing lawyer's necessity of knowing foreign law, the legislator's necessity for knowing the solution of social and economic problems, the scientific object, the students' need of developing the science of law." He dwelt at some length upon the methods which he had used in arriving at the best selection of foreign continental law books. Through his connection as international law expert at the Hague Fisheries Arbitration he was enabled to get first hand judgment regarding the actual books by foreign lawyers. Further in the name of the Government by correspondence he approached the law departments of universities, judges of Supreme Courts, practicing lawyers, etc., of other countries. In Latin America he worked through the consuls and ministers of the United States to get such information. By these methods the books were ordered and many have now arrived. The question now presents itself as to how to make available this new material. This is being done by the publication of guides to the foreign law. "The first guide, the guide of the law of Germany, appeared about a month and a half ago.... It undertakes to furnish an introduction to the German system as a whole, and to the principal leading institutions, as parts of the system in some detail, mentioning particularly the important literature and how to use it, what the American lawyer in terms of his own law may expect to find in these European books.... The guide of the law of France is now in course of preparation, and will probably appear about the first of next year. We hope then to continue with Austria, Spain and Italy, which we consider the important countries. Later we may publish Belgium and Switzerland in one volume, perhaps including Scandinavia, and then one volume for the law of Latin America. If we do not get to the publication of guides we will publish the material that we have received, editing it with perhaps bibliographic notes of such information as we can convey in order to open up this bibliographic source to the general investigator.... We are getting many letters every week in Washington from lawyers throughout the whole United States, asking for information on foreign law.... Comparative law is a field which is now getting great impetus, partly through the work of developing legal collections, partly through the necessities of a case. We are no longer an insular nation. Growing international relations are making necessary some knowledge of foreign law and the desirability of its knowledge to legislators is admitted, I think, without a question."
Mrs. Margaret C. Klingelsmith, librarian of the Biddle law library of the University of Pennsylvania, followed with a paper upon "The books of the beginnings." Prof. Archibald McGoun of McGill university next presented a paper entitled "The bibliography of Canadian law." Dr. G. E. Wire of the Worcester county law library of Massachusetts opened the discussion. Speaking of the ordinary bar library for the working lawyer, he urged that there was needed an extension of Mr. Soule's Manual referred to in Dean Wigmore's article. He advocated also a much shorter list of citations than that employed in Soule. He further referred to the need of some publication on Spanish American bibliography, which would cover such things as the number of Porto Rican reports in a given series. He would like also some publication which would give the various codes and compilations of laws, both official and unofficial, in advance of "our law book friend" who comes along to tell us about it. From the practical standpoint he said that books on foreign laws were so much more useful when translated, that in the average law library the same books in the original language would be rarely used.
THIRD (SECOND GENERAL) SESSION
(Monday, July 1, 1912, 2:50 p. m.)
The third session was the second session for discussion of problems peculiar to the special library and was called to order by Vice-President Brigham.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: We have one paper which remains from our first session, and I am going to call for that paper first.
That will be a paper by Mr. T. J. Homer, member of the Massachusetts bar, on "The Boston co-operative information bureau." The development of that bureau is interesting and is the first attempt, I think, in this country co-operatively to work the libraries by exchange of publications, and I think probably you can be supplied on application with copies of their bulletins which some of us have here, and which will show you the extent of the movement. I am going to ask Mr. Marion to read Mr. Homer's paper.[15]
The VICE-PRESIDENT: We will now proceed to the regular program for the day. We have a paper by Mr. D. N. HANDY. The topic has been changed by the speaker so, that it reads, "The library as a business asset; when and how?" and I introduce now Mr. Handy of the Insurance Library Association of Boston.
THE LIBRARY AS A BUSINESS ASSET; WHEN AND HOW?[16]
I feel that this subject of the asset value of the special library is one that is bound to be constantly growing in interest, because, of course, the tendency of business is to scrutinize carefully the things which it pays money for, and unless it can be shown that the library has some asset value, naturally, the library will come in for the first cuts in the budgets, and, later on, a complete cutting off. When the subject was assigned me by Mr. Marion he put the subject as "The library as a business asset." I have therefore discussed the subject from that standpoint, and inasmuch as it seemed to me that the whole thing resolved itself into a few very general and broad principles I have not made any attempt to consider details at all, but have assumed one or two things that it seemed to me must lie at the bottom of the whole proposition and must decide for us whether the library is to find a place among commercial assets and is to receive from business the support to which as an asset it is entitled.
An asset, in business, is a debt-satisfying possession. In determining business solvency assets are set over against liabilities, and if the former exceed the latter, the business is said to be solvent. The term assets is applied technically to material possessions. But there are possessions other, and even more essential than material: these are the moral, out of which assets grow. At the foundation of every business lie courage, competency, integrity, perseverance. These cannot be computed or averaged, but their commercial value is everywhere recognized.
Wherefore, let us at the outset agree that when we speak of the library as a business-asset, we speak not of its value as so many books and pamphlets, but of its value as a contributing agency to those more fundamental possessions to which material assets owe their existence.
What, then, has the library contributed and what may it in the future hope to contribute that will add to business courage, integrity, competency, perseverance In a word, to business efficiency?
The answer is found in a measure in our conception of a library and its function. Shall we then describe what we have in mind when we speak of the library that may become a business asset?
It certainly is not any collection of books and pamphlets under any custodian and handled probably more often by the janitor than the manager. That is not the kind of library that we have in mind. Our library is a collection organized and planned for a definite end....
The measure of its value is to be sought in increasing efficiency of personnel; wider outlook, clearer vision, firmer grasp, greater fortitude.
It would be pleasant to think of the precise manner in which a library might entrench itself in business favor, until it became admittedly indispensable. Such an experience is not uncommon. Libraries there are today—adjuncts of successful business houses—which stand on a plane of equality with every other department; whose directors are in every sense advisers; whose position in importance and dignity yields precedence to none. They add efficiency to the entire staff, and by breadth and merit bring distinction to the business they serve.
The asset value of a library is dependent upon a variety of conditions.
Foremost among them, I should say, must be a condition of receptivity on the part of business itself.
Again, and only second in importance, is the attitude of the library towards business. If the library shall cling to traditional aims; shall overestimate the importance of conventional methods; shall hold disdainfully aloof from those adaptations and changes which alone can make it useful to business, then its asset value will never be large or general.
Finally, assuming business and the library to agree as to their mutual helpfulness, the lines along which they are to co-operate, if the results are to be satisfying to both, must be susceptible of being easily seen and followed....
At no time in the history of the modern business world has the opportunity been so favorable for a lasting alliance between the library and business. Business was never more complex, nor more moral. Greater wisdom is required to develop it. It is more sensitive. Results come quicker, failure follows more promptly on the heels of error—success almost anticipates the footsteps of sound judgment. Consequences are more far reaching. Disaster to one involves many—while bankruptcy carries overthrow and panic to hundreds of others.
The greater demands of business are seen not only in the enormous growth of industrial enterprises, and the larger responsibilities of management, but in the increasing numbers of college and university men who are seeking business careers.
Again, an almost revolutionary change has taken place in the public attitude towards business of every kind. It matters not what it is. The idea now is that men live for service; that men organize socially, commercially, and industrially for service. And if any organization is unable to undergo this test it must reform, or stand aside and let a better take its place. This I take it is the interpretation of the great unrest which has possessed England and America in the last decade....
All these—this increasing complexity, growing sense of social responsibility, demand for an increasing inflow of college men into business—spell opportunity for the library as an indispensable adjunct for business enterprise. Answering for our first condition, then, it may be said that business is in a receptive mood, and that it stands ready today to welcome among its productive forces the library organization.
But if the library is to be truly an asset to business enterprise, the library itself must recognize not only its opportunity but its responsibility. The failure of the general library to lead in this work of aiding business in the solution of its problems has been inevitable. Business wants its own technology; it wants pamphlets, clippings, reports—all sorts of special things which no public library with all its other obligations could ever hope to get and to classify.
Hence the need of specialized libraries and special methods. It is evident that the special library has a whole field of methods yet to amplify, systematize and unify. If the library is to help business it must be organized as business is organized. To get everything on a subject may be necessary for some purposes, and is always interesting to the bibliographer; but to get the adequate thing is the business-librarian's ideal of service, and if he misses it he may wake up surprised to find his labor unappreciated.
Business is multiplying short-cuts, motion-savers, "efficiency" getters in every department; it will tolerate nothing less from the library. It is for the library to prove its value—to demonstrate its practical worth by adjusting itself to the business environment. It must not follow too closely the traditions of general library work. It ought to be familiar with general library methods; but it should never lose sight of the fact that general library methods were devised with an eye single to general library problems. The problems of a business library are different.
This, then, is the duty of the business library if the title to asset-value is to go unchallenged. And the library may be certain that business will not take it at its own appraisal but will demand to see for itself whether its claims are justified.
Business libraries in many cities are justifying their existence and are gradually making for themselves a secure place among the assets of the enterprises which they represent.... Finally, how are the library and business to co-operate for their mutual advantage?
It is evident that in this respect business has to perform a duty even greater than we have laid upon the library itself. If the library is under obligation to adapt itself to the needs of business, business is under special obligation to place its resources more completely at the disposal of the library. It must take the library seriously and plan for it accordingly....
Business fails to appreciate the ally that it might have in the well conducted library. It appreciates and at times is mildly grateful for the library's service; but it has shown no great discernment when it came to an understanding of the means by which the service was rendered. It asks for and expects results; but has little appreciation of the price at which results must be bought.
An indispensable requisite of a business library is a librarian thoroughly conversant with the main facts of the business. He must know its theory and history. He must be freed from routine at least to the extent necessary to enable him to become an expert in the materials which he handles. He must be treated as a literary adviser and given the opportunity to develop literary discrimination and judgment in the field which he covers. Then he becomes more than a custodian of books; he is a counselor, impressing his personality upon a unique source of business inspiration, namely, the business literature of his collecting and bringing direct to his superiors the information which they will know how to use for the good of the business as a whole.
Subordinates, working under him, will assemble, classify, card index, bulletin and distribute, while the library itself will stand on a level with manufacturing, accounting and selling. It will be a department of the business, organized like other departments, for efficiency....
The library may adapt itself to business, but it is for business to say whether the adaptation shall be thoroughgoing and effective. Is the library, then, a business asset? My answer is that it is such just in proportion as business is willing to let it be. When business shall treat it as it treats other factors of business success, discerning its possibilities of usefulness, encouraging and planning for its development, adapting it to the requirements of business activity, then it will justify itself unquestionably....
Business has already awakened to the possibilities of library help, and wherever it has done so with insight and courage it has answered for itself the question which we have here proposed. In banking, in finance, in engineering, in applied chemistry, in insurance and in numerous other fields, business has set itself to the task of adapting library methods to business needs. Special collections administered for special requirements are springing up in every large city, and the liberality with which these are beginning to be supported is in some respects an indication of business' own estimate of their value.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: The matter is now open for discussion, and I will ask Mr. Morton, librarian of the United Gas & Fuel Company, to be the first speaker.[17]
The VICE-PRESIDENT: The next speaker is Miss MARGARET E. MURRAY, librarian of Wm. Filene's Sons, Boston, who will address us on the subject
THE EARNING POWER OF A SPECIAL REFERENCE LIBRARY ON RETAIL DISTRIBUTION
The Wm. Filene's Sons Company of Boston are retailers of men's, women's, children's and infants' wearing apparel and employ at present about 900, but in a few months will employ 2000 employees. Among other innovations they have made provision for a Business Reference Library in their new building, which they are to occupy this coming fall, and which is, so far as we know, the first in this line of business.
It is planned to have on file all information relating to the business and such other information as may be helpful to the management and all other employees in the discharge of their duties, such as daily papers, technical and general reference books, trade journals, newspaper clippings, and typewritten material.
The library was created because there was a definite need for a central clearing house of information on the latest and best in retail distribution and because it was urgent that one department should be responsible to care for safely and mobilize the valuable information, books and pamphlets scattered throughout the various offices of the organization.
Now what will the earning power of this special reference library be? It will be in exact proportion to its use and efficiency, based on just how well and how often it can make or save a dollar for the business. It will depend largely on how aggressive the library policy will be in creating needs and meeting the needs for its material, and although it may not be able to show quite as tangible a profit and loss statement as a merchandise department, still there should be the same effort and desire to know the stock on hand the first of the month, the purchases, the expenses of the department, the stock on hand at the end of the month (having in mind depreciation) and the sales, which would be services rendered.
The more efficiently and oftener the reference library serves the organization, the more time it saves high-priced executives, and helps the rank and file, the more certain it will become a permanent paying department of the business and make itself indispensable. This is in general how the earning value will be determined. However, if the library is to succeed, such general statements will not be sufficient.
The chances for service and making definite contributions toward business efficiency in a large retail establishment are innumerable, and especially in a progressive house like the one with which I have the honor to be associated.
But such service and such contribution must be made very definite, must be made very specific and must be applied to every member of the organization.
For some years past our company has been experimenting with profit sharing agreements, and one of the difficulties has been for general profit sharers, men and women in non-selling departments, working for the whole store, to show what has been his or her contribution toward profits.
Therefore, if a reference librarian, who would be termed a general profit sharer, fails to study, position by position, just how he or she can contribute to the needs of the men and women connected with the organization, the library will not be recognized and felt as a money making investment. It is, therefore, along these lines that the Filene reference library will be operated.
In all the initial steps and preparatory work of organizing, the methods of the legislative reference libraries are as far as possible being applied.
The work of some of the successful legislative reference libraries is divided into three main divisions—comparative, critical and constructive, and in analyzing the store material on hand, it is found that pretty nearly all of these main divisions of reference work have in the past been practically ignored. In isolated cases, comparative work has been attempted, as for instance, furnishing specific information from some other store on some store policy for some one manager, but it has not been disseminated and placed at the service of all. The need of having this work done has been recognized and in the future will be done through the library.
Retail distribution has its laws and policies, but the laws and policies are, to a large degree, empirical. They are the result of years of effort and experience, and what was good five years ago, may not be good today. All policies are constantly changing.
Therefore, the first work, and at present in hand, before the library can start on its aggressive mission is to tabulate, classify, index and fit for use the present valuable information scattered throughout the offices of the management, destroying everything obsolete or whatever has become a permanent part of the store organization.
For it is imperative in a fast growing business employing an increasing number of executives, that new employees should profit to the fullest extent by the experience of past years and how other people have handled problems new to us, and the library can assist very definitely by placing in their hands brief summaries on important subjects connected with the business, revised copies of duties of various positions, bibliographies on important subjects related to the business, and any other material that will help them absorb in the shortest possible time the fundamentals of the business.
Perhaps it may be of interest to mention briefly what special subjects, both general and technical, the library must watch out for. The best way is, with apologies, to give you an idea of the personnel of the management. The Filene brothers and their partners are public spirited citizens; one brother, Mr. Edward A. Filene, with a few other men, organized the present successful Boston City Club and was largely responsible for the amalgamation of the numerous commercial organizations of the city into the present Boston Chamber of Commerce, and was chairman of the recent Metropolitan Plan Commission of Massachusetts. The other brother, Mr. A. Lincoln Filene, served for three years on the State Commission for Industrial Education and is now a member of the Executive Board of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, and also contributed largely in time and money to the Boston Vocational Bureau. The other partners are also serving on special committees of various organizations and are all, with the Filenes, very keenly interested in labor problems, the relations of employers to employees, and each has on his desk the best books on scientific management, as Taylor's, Gantt's, Emerson's and Brandeis'.
Therefore, first of all the business reference library will have on its shelves six or seven of the best books on scientific management, also books on organization and finance. Then will be added special books on bookkeeping, auditing, insurance, statistics, advertising, decorating, buying, selling, materials, and subjects of interest to the Filene Co-operative Association (an organization consisting of all employees and members of the corporation, each member having a single vote) such as pensions, arbitration, compulsory insurance, co-operative housing, etc.
Perhaps it might also be well to add that this association has maintained a library of all the popular fiction for the past twelve years, and no fiction will be placed in the new business reference library.
The librarian is also custodian of all the private contracts, leases and corporation records, and is expected to prepare digests of any important papers at any time.
This is what the Filene library expects to do and must arrange for resources to actually obtain and devise ways and means for the dissemination of information needed.
The VICE-PRESIDENT:—We have with us today Miss E. V. Dobbins, who is librarian of the Edward Accounting library of the American Telegraph & Telephone Company, New York City, and she will add to the discussion.
Miss DOBBINS: I desired not to write a paper, because I might write one too long and not say much in the end, so I thought perhaps it would be interesting just to tell you why our immense corporation found it necessary to have a library. We have a large engineering library; that is, we have a very fine collection of technical books—unfortunately, as yet, no librarian; we have a splendid legal library, and I represent the accounting library. Two years ago our comptroller, who is an authority on accounting in the United States and has some reputation abroad, decided that it was necessary to get together the material, and they were good enough to offer me the position, which I was very glad to accept. So we collected what few books we had. We didn't have much. We bought largely. All our men are authorities on the particular subjects with which they deal, so, consequently, in buying books for our library we cannot select, as we used to in the public library, with due respect to the library, any and all books on a particular subject. We have to have the last word upon it. Accounting is a peculiar subject inasmuch as there are only about four or five authorities—I may be wrong, that is all I could ever find. If anybody knows of any more I should be more than glad of the information.
We go largely into economics. We also take up public utilities and reports of county and state governments and city reports. We do some little work in scientific management. I do not think the sympathies of the officials lie very largely in the direction of scientific management, however. Everybody there is supposed to know his job and do it. We are very fortunate in not being handicapped for money. We can buy whatever is out, just as soon as it is out, and as many copies as we find it necessary to have. We deal primarily with the accounting department, which includes the statistician's department too, and the executive department. Those are two very big departments and they keep us pretty busy all the time. We have quite a file of pamphlets. We do not give as much care to the pamphlets as we do to the books. When we came to the question of cataloging I realized that we had a very big piece of work on our hands, and we were short of help, and it was essential that we have everything up to date just as quickly as we possibly could. So I bought Library of Congress cards, and it was a very happy inspiration, for we had everything done by sub-headings and everything assigned in about two weeks, and of course that helped considerably.
The library is used frequently and primarily by the officials and the directors. The employees of the company have the privilege of coming, and they come often and freely. The comptroller has told me time and time again that he could not measure in actual money value the service the library has given the house and himself primarily. We take all the leading economic and scientific journals and they circulate. I have a list of the names of the various men to whom they go. I tried to have a specified time for their return, but I am sorry to say it did not work out. Our desks are all equipped with telephones, so we telephone, and if they can find them they return them. When they cannot find them the oldest office boy, Joseph, is enlisted. I think he was the leader of the Boy Scouts. He knows generally where to get them. I think he says they are generally behind the desks, but in any event we get them, and if they are very badly torn, mutilated or marked, we buy other copies to bind. The leading magazines we bind as soon as the volume is completed. They form the largest part of our reference work. I go over those magazines very carefully and find what I would like to bring out more prominently than in a bound magazine, and we catalog those particular subjects, buy extra copies, put them in the pamphlet file, catalog them and put them in the pamphlet catalog, so that if by any chance the bound volume is out and a particular article is sought, we have it. We find in those two places we can generally meet all the needs of the library. I do not think any of the people of the corporation have really ever become familiar with the actual library side of it. They look upon a shelflist as something fearful and awful, and they do not understand it, but as long as they get what they want when they want it, they seem thoroughly happy. Speaking in a quite impersonal way, I think our library is quite a business asset, because I can candidly say that the men who are at the head of our corporation would not tolerate it five minutes if it were not.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: We were to have a paper by Miss Abbott of the reference department of the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Ind. She was hindered, however, in the preparation of this paper, and also from coming to this meeting, but the paper will be furnished later and printed in "Special Libraries."
The VICE-PRESIDENT: I would like to inquire whether Mr. Pack, Secretary and Comptroller of the Toronto Electric Light Company is here.
Mr. LAPP: Mr. Chairman, I have a letter from Mr. Pack which I wish to read. When Mr. Pack was asked to be present at this meeting he said he would write his views at least, if he could not come. He has written a general statement of his belief in the special library.
(Mr. Lapp here read the letter which is available at the office of Secretary.)
Mr. MARION: May I ask whether Miss Tutt, who is present, I think, might not have something to say in relation to the automobile library, inasmuch as she is actively representing Miss Elizabeth Abbott here?
Miss TUTT: Mr. Chairman, I scarcely feel prepared to say anything about her library, particularly as an automobile library, for I do not know that she has done anything especially in the automobile work of her library, her work taking up all lines. Her work has grown to such an extent that she told me just a day or two before I left that she really did not know but that they would have to get another name for it; she had not as yet found anything in the corporation that she had not been called upon to do, so that she was at a loss to know just what it was that she was expected to do. It has developed wonderfully and very satisfactorily. It has been up-hill work, as you all know. The corporation has changed hands, gone into various companies, come back again, and she had it all to meet and arrange. All that work and all the papers and records have just simply piled up, are all being sorted out now, indexed and put in order. She is doing a wonderful work. The other institutions there in South Bend are watching very closely her work and I think it will be but a short time before the other factories will be following suit; but so far as the automobile part is concerned, there is nothing any more special in that than in any other line of work that she has done; that is to say, nothing that I know of.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: I am going to ask Mr. Marion, our secretary, who is at the head of a technical library, to take part in this discussion.
Mr. MARION: I must say, as one of the other speakers, that I have not prepared a paper, believing that in such an assemblage of essayists and discussers it would not be impossible to find some very good material from which to talk extemporaneously. I have not been disappointed. Two or three points I will mention in what may be only a rambling discussion, but they may be worth while to some of you.
Mr. Handy mentioned in a passing way only the entrance of a large number of college men into business today. I do not think he put the matter nearly strong enough. It is this very entrance of well-educated men into business, rather than coming in through the long process of experience, entering, that is, half way up the scale of life, equipped with a fine technical training, making them already professional men, as the physician steps into the community a professional man, that has forced business to equip itself along a little different line. It seems to me this is one of the great telling reasons why more and more special libraries are going to be built up in manufacturing concerns and industrial plants; for with these men coming in, they do not come as mechanics wanting a plane, a saw or a hammer; they come primarily wanting books and nothing else. They have been trained to the ample use of books for four and sometimes six years previous to their entrance to business, and to take books away from them would be like taking the plane or saw or hammer away from the carpenter. So these men must be provided for, and I think that is one of the chief causes that is compelling business to adopt libraries.
Regarding the type of librarian that is required for administering this sort of a library, I think enough emphasis has not been put upon the keen aliveness which is required in these people, if I may be pardoned for saying so, in comparison to those who are employed in public institutions, where the term of office is likely to run anyway for a year. In business, we have to make good, and to make good seriously, daily. Our reputation is at stake every time a question is asked.
Then it seems to me there is no opportunity for the quiet type of librarian who would like short hours and the freedom to come and go at leisure. It requires primarily some one of tireless vitality and one who is ready to sacrifice himself to build up not only the efficiency of his own department, but to support other departments when they may be overworked.
This brings me to the point of the preparation for special librarianship. I question very much whether the librarian who is prepared through the regular source of supply, the library school, today, is going to become just the type of person to take up this special library work. It seems to me the more I consider it that a great many of the most successful special librarians are those who have grown up through business, at least to a certain degree, and have taken on the library training in their own quiet moments. If this is the case, would it be worth while for the library schools to consider a list of special libraries where candidates for their certificates or diplomas might go to spend a fraction of their summer vacation in actual special library work and receive credit in their schools toward their diplomas? I think that that might be worked out with more careful thought.
Mr. Morton mentioned the fact that the statistics of the library do not show up against the operating department, the manufacturing department, etc. I want to say that with the Arthur D. Little, Inc., Library, we are now obliged to pass in time slips. In other words, the library has been put upon a par with the other departments, the chemical, the research and the engineering departments, and at the end of every month we are given an opportunity to show what we have done in the way of results.
If there has been a quiet month of course there will be little put in the way of service, in time, but the time slips show and it is up to the library to maintain its standing, to show just what it has done during the month in actual time, because with a concern of the nature of ours, which is a consulting and engineering corporation, time is a great element. Mr. Handy touched upon that, but not half emphatically enough. In the insurance library I am sure he does not appreciate it. The monthly report is based primarily on the time spent on different problems, and these time slips are all assorted and tabulated against special pieces of work which are generally known in an engineering organization by what is called a job number; and so the librarian's time is now being accounted for in the same way that that of the head of the research department is being accounted for. It seems to me that that is a step in advance and indicates progress.
It occurred to me to say to you that while I have been here at this conference I have received application for another membership, so that while we came with 224, we now have 225 members. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company have requested their librarian to become a member of this association, so that we grow daily.
Mr. Brigham has called my attention to the fact that it ought to be brought out forcibly here how necessary it is for every one of you people, no matter what part of the country you may go to, to bring to the attention of this association officially, either through the secretary or the president, the birth of every such library that you may know of. Business does not know us. We know business of course, but until this association has had a much wider publicity campaign than we have been able with our meager means to give it, business cannot come to us and cannot get the help that we can give it. If, then, when you go to your respective places, you would be alive to the creation of every special library in your part of the country, and when you know of a collection of books where a librarian might be necessary, you would bring it to our attention, we would write them and tell them of the service that we can render them.
I think the thing that has impressed me most in the discussion that has gone on just now is the fact that the company that employs Miss Dobbins has three special libraries. That is unique, it seems to me, that one corporation should employ three special libraries; not merely one, but a library for the legal department, another for the accounting department and a third for the engineering department. That it seems to me represents a pretty high development of the special library idea.
Miss DOBBINS: May I just interrupt a moment to say that I too submit a report at the end of every month. It was my own suggestion, for I wanted the company to know that we were doing something, and we would possibly be lost sight of in such an enormous place. So I sent in a report, very brief, just giving the number of books circulated in the various departments, the number of pamphlets and the reference work done. They said they were very glad to get it, and that it put us on a working basis.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: Before opening a more general discussion I would like to have the secretary make a few announcements regarding certain things of interest.
Mr. MARION: I have here a bound volume of "Special Libraries" that all may see everything that has been published to date. I think it would be of interest to some of you who are not familiar with its contents. We also have for sale, if any one cared to purchase them, three copies of Volume 2 complete. Then we have for distribution to any who might care for it, "The earning power of chemistry," which is written by Mr. Little, the president of the concern which I serve. As you know, Mr. Little is, today, one of the foremost industrial chemists in this country, if not in the world. He is also this year, by a very fortunate circumstance, it seems to me, president of the American Chemical Society. I say fortunate because this year America is entertaining the International Congress of Applied Chemistry that meets in Washington and New York in September. This is a review to convince the business man of the usefulness of chemistry in solving his everyday problems. It is a reprint of a free public lecture delivered to the business men of Indianapolis last June. It is simply a talk upon business from another angle. In the same way Mr. Handy's talk is equally strong, it seems to me, from the library standpoint.
We have also for sale here, should any one care to purchase it, the city planning bibliography which was published as the May issue of "Special Libraries." It is 25 cents a copy. This was compiled by Harvard university and the Library of Congress.
I have a few copies left of "The library as an adjunct to industrial laboratories," a paper which I submitted originally to the American Chemical Society at its Boston meeting, and describing in minute detail my own personal library. It may be of interest to some and you are welcome to it if any of you wish to take it away.
Mr. HANDY: I was particularly interested in Mr. Marion's discussion, and in one suggestion more especially, that the library school might specialize somewhat more along the lines of special library work. While I think that might well be brought up as a subject of discussion this evening, I should like to say just now that it seems to me, in the first place, that there is a great dearth of properly prepared assistants to do the kind of work that is needed in the special library. I think the libraries that specialize in business library work have found that to be true, and that these library schools in general are not particularly adapted to meet that requirement. It occurs to me, then, that it might be possible for special libraries, possibly through the co-operation of the American Library Association, to get the library schools of the country, at some time in their course, to offer a more specialized course which could be taken by those students who intend to specialize in library work, and that in that course an attempt be made to develop the special library attitude, which is absolutely and wholly different from the general library attitude, toward the subjects handled. It seems to me that several exceedingly good things could come of it. In the first place, if the library schools would do for special libraries as they do for general libraries, that is, if they would select a certain number of libraries, which measure up to certain standards, throughout the country, and assign pupils to those libraries, with the understanding that before they could be qualified they would have to measure up to a certain standard; then a student who spent a certain amount of time in such a library would receive credit for special library work in the library course, exactly the same as students do now in general library work. Then I think you would find that you would get, in the first place, more specialized students; in the second place, I think you would lift the plane of special library work immensely, you would lift it to a much higher plane of professionalism and you would find that your directors and your people who pay the money to support these libraries would vie with one another to be qualified by the leading library schools in the country, and I think that in itself would be an inducement to a good many halting business concerns to support, as they are not supporting now, their libraries; they would see the advertising value of being endorsed by the leading library schools in the country, if they did not see anything else, and they would pay the money necessary to bring their own libraries up to that degree of efficiency.
On the other hand, it seems to me that the special library is offering an exceptionally interesting field to young women going into library work, and that the library schools as at present organized are not pointing the way to them as they should; and possibly the library schools are not in a position to do it. I did not mean to consider this at this point, but I do think that is one of the subjects that might be seriously considered now or this evening, and, if necessary, a committee appointed to go over the whole subject, and possibly co-operate with the American Library Association or the library schools, whichever might be necessary, to bring it to a focus.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: It might be of interest to know that in Simmons we have a library school which appoints special courses with a view to fitting women especially for economic and business library work.
Do you desire, Mr. Handy, to put your suggestion in the form of a motion now or later?
Mr. HANDY: My motion, then, would be this, that the subject of co-operation between the library schools and the special libraries, with the aim of preparing students especially for special library work, be taken up at the conference this evening. (Carried)
The VICE-PRESIDENT: Before we take up any further discussion, out of respect to the Chairman of the Municipal Year Book Committee, I wish to ask for a report from that joint committee, of which Mr. Ranck is chairman.
Mr. RANCK: I can only report progress again. I had hoped to be able to report something very definite at this time. Our committee had a meeting in New York in June, after the Pasadena meeting, at which time there were present Mr. Baker, the editor of "Engineering News;" Professor Hart of Harvard; Professor Rowe of the University of Pennsylvania; Mr. Woodruff of the National Municipal League, Dr. Whitten of the New York Public Service Library and myself. I think that includes all of the persons who were present.
The committee discussed first of all what should be included in a municipal year book, and as a result of that discussion, which lasted three hours, in the City Club, Mr. Woodruff was delegated to take up with certain publishing houses the project of putting this thing through. I have had several letters from Mr. Woodruff within the last few months, or weeks, on this subject, and he hoped to have a definite announcement ready for this meeting. The delay has been on account of the fact that the head of one of the publishing houses, the one that seemed most favorable toward this project, and a publishing house that is in the business of making year books and encyclopedias, was in Europe, and so Mr. Woodruff could not get that thing put through. However, he is in hopes that it may be put through almost any day.
I may say that thus far the prospects of our having for the cities of the United States and Canada an American municipal year book, are altogether favorable.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: Do you wish the committee to be continued?
Mr. RANCK: I think we have this in hand and that perhaps we might continue it.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: This committee has rather a unique function anyway. It speaks for both the State Libraries and the Special Libraries associations, a joint committee.
Mr. RANCK: And there was brought into it the National Municipal League and several others.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: Doubtless the National Municipal Review will contain in time notes of the proceedings of that committee, so that the members will be informed. Could it not be done that way?
Mr. RANCK: As soon as the thing is definitely decided I will notify the secretary.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: Yes, but I mean it would be available for any one to read in the National Municipal Review which appears from time to time.
Mr. RANCK: Probably, yes. If I may be permitted, I should like to say a word about another matter that was under discussion this afternoon. I was very much interested in what was said about present engineering training and the kind of training of men who are going into business, in their use of books, and their demand on libraries. A few weeks ago I had the privilege of going through one of the largest electric lamp factories in the country, one of whose branches has 2000 people employed, and I was particularly interested in the corps of professional men. I went there to visit a friend of mine who is a physical engineer. He was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, was afterward at the head of the department of physics in one of our state institutions, and was taken from that into this concern, and within the last three years that concern has engaged, I think, four or five doctors of philosophy, four or five men who have been professors in technical schools, and they are going at that business altogether different from the rule of thumb method; and that type of men who are accustomed to use books and who do use them are coming into demand more and more. One thing my friend said, that impressed me very much, was this, that in going about to a number of engineering schools, Cornell, the State College of Pennsylvania and several others, he has been talking to the boys taking engineering courses, of the chances and opportunities for going into that sort of work. These companies are after technically trained men from the colleges and universities and they send men like him out to talk to the boys and try to get them to come into their works. Another thing he emphasized, and which I think we must keep in our mind all the time—it is a thing we emphasize as librarians of the public libraries, but it has a bearing in the work of this organization as well—he said he was telling the boys at Cornell and those other engineering schools that while engineers have to deal with things, they have to know science; yet that more than half of the problems of the average engineer are problems of men rather than problems of things. In other words, that the humanities must be studied; that you must know sociology—that was referred to here this afternoon—and economics, just as much as chemistry and business and all that sort of thing. In short the two must go together.
Mr. G. W. LEE: Mr. Chairman, you have a question box there which has been forgotten all about, and I am not very sorry.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: No, I haven't. I am going to put it in for discussion, the whole thing.
Mr. LEE: There were no questions, I think, except the question box. I should like to question that. There ought to be some machinery at these conferences for introducing the new members; some method by which we can all let it be known what we especially want to know; some way to meet the people that have this information.
Now, what I want to say about the question box is that it seems to me that the Special Libraries Association might introduce a circular that tells about the next conference of the American Library Association, and could put in a little slip saying, "Please send to headquarters a statement of what you want to know, what is your specialty." It would help immensely. People come here to get some information; they want to know about filing photographs, about dry-goods libraries and so on, and we ought to make it possible for them to get something out of the convention without trying too hard.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: I think Mr. Lee has raised a very natural question. I have talked with some of the older members of the American Library Association, and it seems to be the feeling that we have lost something since we have grown so large. With eight hundred members, it is almost impossible to know every one personally, as it was when there were only a couple of hundred in attendance at the meetings. The New York library meeting in September will bring together as many people as used to come to the American Library Association meetings ten or fifteen years ago. I do not see any way out of it except to follow some definite method from headquarters so that the American Library Association itself can arrange the matter. It is not a matter of hospitality necessarily, but oftentimes the stranger within our gates is the one that suffers in these respects. After you have been to three or four conventions you enjoy yourself, but the first year it is difficult to know people.
Mr. MORTON: I should like to offer a suggestion with regard to the difficulty of the newer members getting to know the older ones. I find out that the way to get acquainted is to pitch in and do some work. Then they have to know you. I would therefore suggest putting the younger members on the various committees and make them work and work hard; then they will come to know people.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: You have brought up a very important point, and that is what we might call the committee system. The system has often failed by being limited to three members. The chairman does the work and sends around to the other members to sign up; or they live at various points of the country and the chairman forgets to do the work or for various reasons fails to report. The way to get the best results is to appoint a committee of one and get the work done by that committee, and if he does not do the work, discharge him and get another person in his place who will do the work. We are suggesting now a re-arrangement of that method by which we can get, I think, better results, in answer to your remarks.
Mr. MARION: I wonder if Mr. Handy would develop a little the idea that was brought out in a conversation that he held with me some little time ago in Boston, in which he pointed out the sort of large opportunities that come to the special librarian, that do not come to the public librarian, and cannot from the very nature of things.
Mr. HANDY: I had in mind especially when I was talking with Mr. Marion a man who at present holds the position of assistant manager in New York of the Fire Insurance Exchange. I think his salary is between six and seven thousand a year. It happens that he is a very bright fellow, and he is taking charge also of evening classes in the New York University school of commerce and accounts, which adds another thousand dollars a year to his salary. I am speaking, in this, simply from the standpoint of salary. He started in as a special librarian. He came into opportunities solely through the close personal contact with superiors who were looking for exactly this kind of advisory and expert service that I tried to emphasize in my paper. Of course, he made good in the smaller position, and through making good there got the opportunity to go to New York in the first place, in a position, which while not particularly better than the one he had occupied as librarian, was better in opportunities and much beyond anything that any special library would be likely to offer; and he has so far made good in New York that he has come into the opportunity that I spoke of, and he has the present salary, which of course carries with it responsibilities; but it seems to me it will be a great many years before in general library work one would find an opportunity like that for advancement, because it was all done in about seven or eight years. It is that possibility of getting in close contact with the heads of great industrial organizations and great enterprises, and by making one's self extremely serviceable and valuable there, that makes the special library a particularly promising field either for bright men or bright women. It is not the library service in itself but it is the opportunity of getting into close contact with men who have made great successes in business, and that opportunity, I think, does not come to the general librarian. The person entering the general library must expect that the top of the work is simply the library opportunities themselves, and, of course, they are somewhat limited. A person entering special library work feels that the top is the whole vast industrial or commercial enterprise in which he is engaged, and if he has the adaptability—and that is precisely the thing which we have been trying to emphasize as necessary in library work,—he naturally, as time goes on, sees the field of opportunity broadening, and the opportunity comes for him to step out of the more restricted into the larger, more active field.
I know another person who received a very interesting offer, with a considerably larger salary and greater executive responsibilities, due entirely to the fact that he had made good in special library work; to the fact that that work brought him into contact with superiors who were able to help him into a broader opportunity. I think that is well worth emphasizing for either men or women interested in this meeting.
Mr. LAPP: Just that fact is the reason why we should have some means of training special librarians. The good men are being drawn off so rapidly that it is impossible for the demand to be supplied, and I am glad that the question of training librarians is coming up, and I hope that when it does come up we shall have some provision made for a committee that will work out a complete scheme in co-operation with the American Library Association and the library schools for the training of special librarians. But right there we should also emphasize the fact that it is not merely the librarians that should be trained, but we should train the directors of the establishments, and it ought to be emphasized in all special library work that there is a difference. I would agree with many who have spoken before, that the director of an establishment need not necessarily be a person trained in library work, although a person trained in library wok could make a good success of it if he also had an insight into the business. But I would emphasize the fact that we need a training for directors of establishments and we also need a special training for librarians and assistants. It is a great deal in the library world as it is in the college world, that the men who become really worth while as college professors, in the commercial departments at least, and in the engineering departments, unless they have a taste for the teaching work which would prevent their leaving it, do not stay very long in the business of teaching, and the college must continually recruit new men, and that is a difficulty that is going to confront the Special Libraries Association and people who are establishing special libraries, more and more. I believe that if the number of concerns today that ought to have special libraries and would profit wonderfully by them, were to attempt to get special librarians or directors of departments, they would fail completely and the whole movement would go to the bad, simply because you could not supply the people who would be competent for the work. The same thing is true of municipal reference departments. It is unfortunate if they are established and men who are not qualified are put in charge. The same thing is true of legislative reference departments. We might better wait for years rather than establish them before we can put them in charge of people who appreciate the work to be done, and who have the ability to do it. So that I think our big problem is to keep the special library movement from growing too fast for us to supply the men and women who can do the work; and I would emphasize again that we need two or three different kinds of training; one for those who are to have general direction of the work, for those who are to do the actual work on the library side, and also for the assistant side.
Mr. LEE: One difference is that in the public library you are being asked questions all the time, and in the special library you are being asked questions two-thirds of the time, and the other third you ask questions yourselves, so you get the benefit of variety; part of the time you are a student, and the rest of the time you are a librarian, and there is that stimulating, broadening effect, and to me it has been a very uplifting effect.
Mr. MORTON: Mr. Marion spoke of the training of the librarian, also Mr. Lapp and one or two others. I do not know whether our position is particularly unique, but some months ago I lost my assistant, and instead of going to a library man I considered myself extremely fortunate to get a man who was a graduate chemist, a civil engineer, a mining engineer and a man who had had wide experience in all of those branches. It seems to me that for technical business the practical training in the particular line of business is of far greater value than training in any library system, simply on account of the nature of the information that they are called upon to produce.
Miss LINDHOLM: I wish to add a word to what Mr. Lapp has said, to point out the fact that even if we should try to give courses in special library work in the library school, there would not be any teachers in the library school qualified to give these courses, because they would not have the special library experience, and we ourselves are too busy running our special libraries to give the courses, so that it is really a matter quite far in the future, I should think. Last spring I read in the Library Journal a very good article on a course for legislative reference librarians, but that is the first article of the kind I have ever seen, although I had often thought about it myself.
Another thing that would help out in trying to give some idea of special library methods to new people, would be for those of us who have gotten our libraries well in hand, our systems, etc., to get up a series of little handbooks on how to organize a financial library, a public utilities library, a legislative reference library and so on, those who are perhaps library school students could use these pamphlets as text-books. This would necessitate our starting in the publishing business and having a publishing board, like the American Library Association.
Miss HOAGLAND: I think we should fail in our whole duty toward the library profession, and especially to the profession of the special librarian, if we did not take some account of this growing demand for training in special library work. I think that we appreciate the great difficulty of combination of the technical work that is necessary in library training and the special library field that each might wish to occupy. It has seemed to me that it was possible to make a combination by giving a minimum of library training, and then for students to specialize in some business lines and learn the bibliography of that trade. Of course, that is a very difficult operation in the ordinary library school, but I believe there are places in the country where that might be acquired, where many businesses are present, capable of furnishing the libraries, and where students can take, say, three months of technical training, which would include typewriting of records, and then can be sent into the field to learn that field, the school to furnish them the special bibliography for that special work. In that way I believe we could develop a series of libraries that would train for special librarianship.
Miss MILLER: There is already one school, the Wisconsin school, which gives regular instruction to such students as wish to take up legislative reference work. They are given from one to two months library experience during those two months in the winter when the other members of the class go to the public libraries. They at least get the principles of legislative reference work.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: If there is no further discussion, we will take up the reports of committees, and the first will be Mr. Lapp's report, as editor of the publication.
Mr. LAPP: There is very little to report in regard to the publication. It has been issued regularly since January, 1910, and the third volume is now nearly completed. The growth of subscriptions has been gratifying, and the publication has been able to do what was done on the membership which we have had. We hope to have an increased membership, because there are a number of things which we can do. We have now regularly established several sources of information, we are going to have others, and out of those we will publish, I think, a better, more useful magazine the coming year than we have in the past. We have a connection with the Library of Congress by which a special bibliography is furnished every month upon some obscure question. We have a connection with the New York public library by which we receive municipal documents. We have a connection with the Public Utilities Committee by which we will have public utility references and the others, insurance references and so on. The publication will issue also some special bibliographies such as the one that was issued recently on city planning. It will take up certain others and publish them as means permit.
The main thing I want to ask as editor of "Special Libraries" is that the editor should receive co-operation from persons connected with the association. This is a co-operative enterprise and every one should co-operate. Whenever you know of anything which has happened in your community in the special library interest, or of any publication that does not get into the ordinary sources, furnish that to the editor and it will be scattered over the country through "Special Libraries."
A new system will be organized following this meeting, we hope, by which the country will be divided into districts in each of which there will be one person who will be responsible for that district, and we hope in that way to keep in closer touch. We will also have a representative in the different classes of special libraries so that no one will be left out, and we will get reports from all persons who are representing the different departments in the special libraries, which now number perhaps seven or eight that are active different classes of libraries.
I want to ask for suggestions also from the members of the association about things that we want published. I would be glad to receive letters. I do not receive enough of them; and, another thing, I do not receive criticisms. There are many things we would like to know about the publication, many things we would like to learn. We would like to hear from you either one way or the other on the publication.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: I will call for the report of the Committee on Public Utilities, Mr. Morton.
(Mr. Morton rendered a brief report which is available in the secretary's office to those who may be interested to see it.)
The session then adjourned.
FOURTH (EXTRA) SESSION
(Monday, July 1, 8:15 p. m.)
After an informal interchange of ideas among a small group of people who gathered in the private dining room, the business session, continued from the afternoon, was called to order by Vice-President Brigham. In view of the small attendance and in order to allow greater publicity the meeting was adjourned to Tuesday, July 2, 9:30 a. m.
FIFTH (SECOND JOINT) SESSION
(Tuesday, July 2, 9:30 a. m.)
The second joint session was attended by the National Association of State Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries and the Special Libraries Association delegates, and was presided over by Mr. Brigham, vice-president of the Special Libraries Association. The meeting was held in the ball room of the Chateau Laurier.
Mr. Charles J. Babbitt of the Massachusetts state library read the first paper, entitled "Snags, stumbling blocks and pitfalls among the session laws." During the course of his paper Mr. Babbitt touched upon some very interesting phases of these questions. In the absence of Mr. James MKirdy, Mr. Thomas Montgomery, state librarian of Pennsylvania, presented his paper, entitled "Bill drafting." Following this, in the absence of Dr. John H. Arnold, librarian of the Harvard Law School, Mr. George S. Godard read his paper, entitled "The history of the growth and development of the Harvard university law library." Great regret was expressed at the absence of Dr. Arnold, who may now be looked upon as the father of law libraries.
Following this Mr. Lapp discussed the question of co-operation between legislative reference departments. This address also covered a report upon the same subject as well as a report on legislative reference service. Mr. Godard followed with general remarks, in which he called attention to the great changes in our present social life, brought about by improvements in our methods of transportation, so that now our view point is so much broader that in the drawing of bills we can no longer overlook what other states are doing, hence the great necessity for co-operation and wider knowledge in this field. He reviewed briefly the work of the Law Reporting Company and tried to point out how service such as they had rendered might be made practical. He appealed for a national legislative information bureau, and he questioned whether this could ever be brought about by co-operation, but rather insisted that it must be a definitely established service run for profit or subsidized by government support. The chairman called attention to the library law abstracts which are probably present in every state library in one form or another. In these abstracts minute subjects are touched upon which are difficult to get at. The material usually exists only in carbon form. As a result of an interview with a commercial concern, the chairman found that with the use of the multigraph this firm would agree to furnish three hundred copies for $1.00 a folio with $5.00 for composition and general work. This would mean on a thirty folio, a total of $35.00 for an issue of three hundred copies. He suggested that such material be sent to a central agency and believed that such a scheme could be worked out successfully. Mr. Babbitt called attention to several interesting instances where the assistance of such a scheme would have been invaluable in furthering greater publicity for material which was only found through co-operation among the state libraries. Dr. Clement W. Andrews believed that this sort of work should be done at the American Library Association headquarters and thought with competent operators this was the most practical way to have it done. He also called attention to the fact that the Illinois State Bankers Association had asked the John Crerar library to undertake an analysis of the State Banking Association publications. He offered to send circulars covering that work to any state or law libraries that might find them of usefulness.
Mr. D. N. Handy of the Insurance Library Association of Boston spoke in regard to the recently organized legislative bureau of the National Board of Fire Underwriters. One of the chief functions of this bureau will be to bring together an abstract card index of the laws in the various states in the country bearing on fire insurance. Recently the Association of Life Insurance Presidents has completed a card index abstract of the laws bearing on life insurance, comprising something like four thousand cards. Mr. Godard offered further discussion which he finally followed with a motion to the effect "that our committee on resolutions prepare suitable resolution directed to Congress, endorsing the bill now before Congress looking toward the permanent establishment of a legislative bureau at Washington and expressing our hope that it may be established in the very near future, and at the same time expressing our willingness to co-operate in any way that we can." Mr. Montgomery, as chairman of the Committee on resolutions then offered several resolutions.[18]
Mr. Johnson Brigham of Iowa then opened up the discussion of the relation between state libraries and legislative reference bureaus, to which Mr. Montgomery replied. General discussion followed in which several told of the actual working relations between these two jurisdictions in their several states. The meeting adjourned at 12:24 p. m.
SIXTH (BUSINESS) SESSION
(Tuesday, July 2, 12:25 p. m.)
At the close of the second joint session, a business meeting of the Special Libraries Association was called to order by Vice-President Herbert O. Brigham in the ball room of the Chateau Laurier.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: The first business is the report of the secretary-treasurer.
Mr. MARION: The membership has increased, from September, 1911, from 171 members, until June, 1912, to 224 members, which is an increase of thirty per cent. The bulletin has increased in pages from 12 to 16. The financial situation seems to be very satisfactory. We have a cash balance of $292.15. There seems to be an increased call for special librarians in heretofore unknown fields. The following statement indicates the condition of the treasury as of the date given:
SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION
July 1, 1912.
Financial statement of the books as of the above date.
| Receipts |
| Cash on hand Sept. 27, 1911 | $119.07 |
| Membership fees and subscriptions | 415.80 |
| Sale of back numbers | 85.28 |
| Sale of reprints, bibliographies, etc. | 31.13 |
| Advertising | 12.00 | |
| $663.28 |
| Expenditures |
| Rent of hall at New York meeting | 15.00 |
| Stenographic work of New York meeting | 15.00 |
| Postage, telegrams, express, etc. | 41.08 |
| Storage cabinet for editor's office | 13.25 |
| Indexing of volume 1 | 10.00 |
| Printing | 275.50 |
| Bank Exchange | 1.30 | 371.13 |
| July 1, 1912, Cash on hand | $292.15 |
| Accounts Receivable | 144.10 |
| Accounts Payable | | no bills
rendered |
GUY E. MARION, Treasurer.
On motion of Mr. Montgomery the report was received.
The CHAIRMAN: The report of the executive board of the Special Libraries Association is brief. It is proposed during the coming year to readjust as far as possible the committee system and substitute therefor representatives for certain sections of the country, so that the persons who represent those sections shall be responsible for the part in which they are located. It is entirely a matter for the board. I think that will be the extent of their report, in brief, and I will now call for the report of the nominating committee, Mr. Lee.
Mr. LEE: The nominating committee respectfully submits the following list of officers for the ensuing year:
President: D. N. Handy, Boston.
Vice-President: R. H. Johnston, Washington.
Secretary-Treasurer: G. E. Marion, Boston.
Executive Board: Officers ex-officio: O. E. Norman, Chicago; Florence Spencer, New York.
There being no counter nominations, on motion, the secretary cast a ballot for the association, and the chair declared the nominees elected for their respective offices.
Mr HANDY: Will it be in order now to take up the matter of special education for the special training of library assistants?
The CHAIRMAN: That comes under the head of new business, which we are now taking up. You are quite in order.
Mr. HANDY: I would make a motion that a committee of three be appointed by the President, upon the training of special librarians, with instructions to report upon this matter at the next annual meeting.
The motion was seconded by Mr. Lapp and carried.
Upon motion of Dr. Andrews the meeting adjourned sine die.
