c. How many of these were on printed cards from the Library of

Congress or from other libraries?

8. What do you estimate that it cost your library in 1912 to catalog a book, including accessioning, classification, shelf-listing and preparation for the shelves?

9. Give any special information about your library that will enable the committee to understand particular phases of your cataloging work.

Libraries Included in the Investigation

_University and Reference Libraries_

Columbia University Library. Harvard University Library. Princeton University Library. University of Chicago Library. Yale University Library.

John Crerar Library. Library of Congress. New York Public Library, Reference Department. New York State Library. Newberry Library.

_Public Libraries_

Boston Public Library. Brooklyn Public Library. Buffalo Public Library. Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh. Chicago Public Library. Cincinnati Public Library. Cleveland Public Library. Philadelphia Free Library. St. Louis Public Library. Toronto Public Library.

A request was read from the catalog section, first, that the Executive Board be asked to appoint a permanent cataloging committee to which the questions in cataloging may be referred for recommendations; second, that the Executive Board be asked to send a request to the Librarian of Congress for the publication of the code of alphabeting used in the Library of Congress.

Voted, on motion by Dr. Andrews that the president and secretary be instructed to appoint a committee for this year to whom questions of cataloging may be referred, and that the chairman of the catalog section be consulted as to the proper form of a by-law providing for a permanent committee.

Upon motion by Dr. Andrews, voted that the secretary be instructed to ask the opinion of the Committee on code for classifiers as to the desirability of a permanent committee to consider specific questions of classification and as to the proper form of a by-law to provide for such committee.

The appointment of members to the various standing committees was next considered, and as a result of consideration at this meeting and of later correspondence between the members of the Executive Board and consultation with the chairmen of the various committees, the standing committees for the year 1913-14 are announced as follows:

COMMITTEES, 1913-14

Finance

C. W. Andrews, The John Crerar Library, Chicago.

F. F. Dawley, Cedar Rapids, Ia.

F. O. Poole, New York City.

Public Documents

G. S. Godard, State Library, Hartford, Conn.

A. J. Small, State Library, Des Moines, Ia.

Ernest Bruncken, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

John A. Lapp, State Library, Indianapolis, Ind.

M. S. Dudgeon, Wisconsin Free Library Commission, Madison, Wis.

T. M. Owen, Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Ala.

S. H. Ranck, Public Library, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Adelaide R. Hasse, Public Library, New York.

C. F. D. Belden, State Library, Boston, Mass.

Co-operation with the N. E. A.

Mary Eileen Ahern, "Public Libraries," Chicago.

Mary A. Newberry, Public Library, New York City.

Irene Warren, School of Education, Chicago.

George H. Locke, Public Library, Toronto, Canada.

Harriet A. Wood, Library Association, Portland, Ore.

Library Administration

A. E. Bostwick, Public Library, St. Louis, Mo.

George F. Bowerman, Public Library, Washington, D. C.

John S. Cleavinger, Public Library, Jackson, Mich.

Library Training

A. S. Root, Oberlin College Library, Oberlin, Oh.

Faith E. Smith, Public Library, Chicago.

Alice S. Tyler, Western Reserve University Library School, Cleveland.

Adam Strohm, Public Library, Detroit, Mich.

A. L. Bailey, Wilmington Institute Free Library, Wilmington, Del.

Chalmers Hadley, Public Library, Denver.

Cornelia Marvin, Oregon State Library, Salem, Ore.

George O. Carpenter, trustee, Public Library, St. Louis, Mo.

International Relations

Herbert Putnam, Library of Congress, Washington.

E. C. Richardson, Princeton University Library, Princeton, N. J.

Frank P. Hill, Public Library, Brooklyn, N. Y.

W. C. Lane, Harvard University Library, Cambridge, Mass.

R. R. Bowker, "Library Journal," New York City.

Bookbuying

The committee has not yet been appointed.

Bookbinding

A. L. Bailey, Wilmington Institute Free Library, Wilmington, Del.

Rose G. Murray, Public Library, New York.

J. R. Patterson, Public Library, Chicago.

Federal and State Relations

B. C. Steiner, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore.

T. L. Montgomery, State Library, Harrisburg, Pa.

Demarchus C. Brown, State Library, Indianapolis, Ind.

Paul Blackwelder, Public Library, St. Louis, Mo.

C. F. Belden, State Library, Boston, Mass.

Thomas M. Owen, Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Ala.

W. P. Cutter, Library of Engineering Societies, New York City.

Travel

F. W. Faxon, Boston Book Co., Boston, Mass.

C. H. Brown, Public Library, Brooklyn.

J. F. Phelan, Public library, Chicago.

Co-ordination

C. H. Gould, McGill University Library, Montreal.

J. L. Gillis, State Library, Sacramento, Cal.

N. D. C. Hodges, Public Library, Cincinnati, O.

W. C. Lane, Harvard University Library, Cambridge, Mass.

Herbert Putnam, Library of Congress, Washington.

T. W. Koch, University of Michigan Library, Ann Arbor.

J. C. Schwab, Yale University Library, New Haven, Conn.

Work with the Blind

Laura M. Sawyer, Perkins Institution, Watertown, Mass.

Lucile Goldthwaite, New York Public Library.

Mrs. Emma N. Delfino, Free Library, Philadelphia.

Mrs. Gertrude T. Rider, Library of Congress, Washington.

Julia A. Robinson, Secretary Iowa Library Commission, Des Moines.

Miriam E. Carey, Supervisor of Institution Libraries of Board of Control, St. Paul.

Program

E. H. Anderson, Public Library, New York.

H. C. Wellman, City Library, Springfield, Mass.

George B. Utley, A. L. A. Executive Office, Chicago, Ill.

COUNCIL

Meeting of June 24th

The meeting was called to order by President Legler with 45 members present.

The Chair announced the death since the last meeting of the Council of Dr. John Shaw Billings and Mr. Charles Carroll Soule, and by unanimous vote of the Council the Chair appointed Dr. Herbert Putnam, R. R. Bowker and H. C. Wellman a committee to draft resolutions to be presented to the Association at large.

Dr. Bostwick as chairman presented the following:

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RELATIONS BETWEEN THE LIBRARY AND THE MUNICIPALITY

In presenting this final report, your Committee finds it necessary to consider and to give expression to two points of view, both of which are represented in its membership and neither of which can be neglected--one that believes that, owing to diversity of local conditions and of constitutional and other requirements in different parts of the Union, it is impossible to frame definitely a model library law or a model library section of a city charter, and the other, that without some such expression as can be given only in the form of a definite body of law of this kind, the recommendations of the Committee will necessarily be vague and will largely fail of effect.

Your committee has therefore thought it best in the first place to make a statement of the things that a library law or charter section should, in its opinion, aim to do, giving reasons where necessary; and in the second place to present a definite example of the way in which these things may be done, accompanied by a warning that before adopting it as a model in any specific instance, it should be carefully studied by some competent person and modified to suit the necessities of the case. Your committee realizes also that every state library law should contain provisions, such as those regulating the State Library and Library Commission, which do not fall within the duties assigned to this committee and hence are not touched upon in this report.

And first, regarding the aims of a library law:

(a) We reiterate our statement of last year that the library is an educational institution and that education is a matter of state rather than of local concern. If a state already has a good library law which has worked and is working well and satisfactorily to all concerned, local libraries should be left in operation under the provisions of the law, precisely as the schools should be and generally are left, no matter what changes in the form of municipal government are contemplated or have been carried into effect. If the state law is not entirely satisfactory, it is better to amend it than to try to better matters through the local charter. The charter may well contain, to avoid the possibility of conflict, some such special disclaimer as the following: "Nothing in this charter shall be so construed as to interfere with the operation of the public library under the library laws of the state." If the library law contains provisions seemingly in conflict with new charter provisions, some additional definition may be necessary.

(b) Possibly we are not yet ready for compulsory library establishment throughout a state, but at all events it should be made simple and easy for any public taxing or governing body to establish a free public library and to tax itself for the support of that library, accepting gifts where necessary and obligating itself to fulfill the conditions under which these gifts are made. This would include municipalities, counties, townships, school districts, boards of education, etc.

The library should be assured of reasonable and sufficient financial support, either through the operation of a special-tax provision or by the requirement of a minimum appropriation by the authorities. In no case should the existence or value of the library be placed in jeopardy by making possible a capricious withdrawal or lessening of support by the local authorities.

(c) The library should be administered by an independent board of trustees, not by a single commissioner, and, in particular, not by a commissioner who has other matters on his hands. In case such grouping appears necessary, the library should be placed with other educational agencies and in no case treated as a group of buildings or a mere agency of recreation. The board should be a body corporate, distinct from other municipal organizations and departments, with powers of succession, power to sue and be sued, to acquire and hold property, etc. The terms of its members should not expire all at once, so that reasonable continuity in policy will be insured. It should have power to take over and manage other city libraries, school libraries and, by contract, libraries in other municipalities or communities.

(d) The funds of the library, including those derived from taxation, bequest, gift, and library fines and desk receipts, should be at the board's free disposal for library purposes, including the purchase of land and the erection of buildings. They should be received and held by the municipal authorities, and disbursed on voucher, with the same safeguards and under the same auspices as those required for other public funds.

(e) The library should be operated on the merit system, in the same way that the schools are so operated--not by placing the selection and promotion of library employees in the hands of the same board that selects clerks and mechanics for the city departments, but by requiring that the library board establish and carry out an efficient system of service satisfactory to the proper authorities.

The board should have entire control of its own working force and should initiate its own policies, including selection of sites and planning of buildings, its librarian being regarded both as its executive officer and as its expert adviser, to whom the choice of methods and the management of details are naturally left. He should be present at meetings of the board and may serve as its secretary.

We regard as satisfactory any body of law that will accomplish the results aimed at in the following sections, which your committee does not regard as couched in legal phraseology. Before being used in any state its provisions should be worded by a competent person experienced in drafting bills for the legislature of that state.

Section 1

Any taxing body shall have authority to levy a tax, not less than ---- mills on the dollar, for the support of a free public library within its jurisdiction, and such tax shall be levied if so ordered by a majority vote of all voters at a general election, on petition signed by ---- voters.

Any governing or taxing body shall have power to provide, by annual appropriation, for the support of a free public library, whether or not a tax is levied as above provided, or to enter into a contract for library service with another governing or taxing body or with a private corporation already maintaining such a library.

Section 2

Any library supported as specified in Section 1 shall be governed by a board of not less than five or more than nine trustees (appointed as the legislature may provide), which board shall have the powers of a public corporation and shall perform all acts necessary and convenient for the maintenance and operation of the library.

The board may receive gifts and bequests, acquire and transfer property, real and personal, sue and be sued. It shall manage all libraries owned by the city and may contract with other public bodies within and without the city, to render library service, adding to its number, if mutually so agreed, one or more representatives of such public body. The terms of the members shall not expire coincidently. Any member may be removed by the appointing or elective power for stated cause.

Section 3

All moneys collected for the use of the library, whether by taxation or otherwise, shall be in custody of the city treasurer and shall be paid out by him on vouchers duly attested by the board and audited by the proper city authority.

Section 4

All employees of the library shall be appointed and promoted for merit only, and the board shall adopt such measures as will in its judgment conduce to this end.

Section 5

If a gift is offered to the library on conditions involving the performance of certain acts annually, the municipality may obligate itself to perform such acts, by ordinance which shall not be repealed.

Section 6

The Board shall submit an annual report of its work in detail, with its receipts and expenditures, to the tax-levying body.

Upon motion by Mr. Wellman it was voted that the above report be printed as a tentative report in the Bulletin.

Upon motion of Dr. Bostwick it was unanimously voted that the session of the Council on Thursday evening, June 26th, at which the topic, "The Quality of Fiction" is to be discussed, be thrown open to the members of the Association at large.

The Chairman called attention to the vote of the Council which was passed at the Asheville meeting in 1907, providing that privilege be given to members of the Council to reserve hotel rooms at the annual conferences in advance of the membership at large and stated that a number of members of the Association considered this action as undemocratic and as undesirable for the Council to continue.

Upon the motion of Mr. Thomson it was unanimously voted that this ruling be rescinded.

The following persons were appointed by the Chair as a Committee on nominations to nominate five members for the Council to be elected by the Council for a term of five years each: H. G. Wadlin, Josephine A. Rathbone, M. S. Dudgeon, Edith Tobitt, W. O. Carson.

Mr. Ranck presented a report of progress in behalf of the Committee on ventilation and lighting of library buildings and recommended that the Committee be continued, which recommendation, upon motion of Dr. Putnam, was adopted.

The report here follows:

Report of Committee on Ventilation and Lighting

June, 1913.

To the Council of the A. L. A.:

Your special committee on ventilation and lighting can submit at this time only another report of progress.

After the meeting at Ottawa the matter of having laboratory and other tests made in connection with the technical and scientific problems was taken up with certain industrial organizations with a view to the possibility of having them, in the interest of scientific knowledge, make the necessary tests for us, at no expense to the Association. Objection developed against this line of procedure, inasmuch as it was feared that less confidence could be placed in such tests when the organization making them (or if the persons making them were in the service of such an organization) had a commercial interest in the results of the tests.

Accordingly the effort was made to have the tests made by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and also by the Russell Sage Foundation, both of which efforts failed. The matter was then taken up with the Department of Commerce, and we are hopeful that we may be successful in getting the national government to make these tests for us through the Bureau of Standards.

In the meantime the committee is continuing its investigations and experiments so far as the limited resources at its command will permit. In this further study the committee is strengthened in its belief reported a year ago to the effect that most of the ventilating apparatus now in use will have to be discarded as junk and that the whole art and practice of artificial ventilation will have to be entirely remodeled on a correct physiological basis, inasmuch as the present basis appears to be entirely incorrect.

We therefore recommend that the committee be continued for another year. If deemed advisable the committee could prepare a preliminary report of its findings for publication in the Bulletin of the Association. Such a report might be of immediate service to librarians.

As an indication of the committee's difficulties in this matter we may cite the experience of Prof. Brooks of the University of Illinois who, after years of study and experience in illumination, feels less willing today to prescribe a lighting scheme than a few years ago.

Respectfully submitted,

SAMUEL H. RANCK, C. W. ANDREWS, W. H. BRETT, E. H. ANDERSON, ERNEST D. BURTON, Committee.

Mr. Ranck made an informal statement regarding the irregular and unsatisfactory fire insurance rates which he had found many libraries of the United States were securing and recommended that this subject be investigated by the Council.

It was voted upon motion by Mr. Thomson that a committee of three be appointed by the chair to investigate the subject of fire insurance for libraries. The chair appointed as this committee M. S. Dudgeon, Chalmers Hadley and S. H. Ranck.

There being no further business the Council adjourned.

Meeting of June 26th

This session of the Council was conducted as an open meeting and was attended by many of the members of the Association at large. The president presided.

The nominating committee presented the names of Willis H. Kerr, Mary W. Plummer, Mary E. Robbins, John Thomson and Samuel H. Ranck for members of the Council for a term of five years each. Upon motion by Dr. Bostwick it was voted that the secretary cast a ballot for the election of these members, which was accordingly done.

The remainder of the session was devoted to a discussion of "The Quality of fiction," discussion being led by Dr. Horace G. Wadlin and Dr. Arthur E. Bostwick.

Dr. Wadlin spoke as follows:

The Quality of Fiction--I.

The question set for our discussion is not new. It seems to be always with us. By itself, I do not think it of much importance. It only becomes so as related to the much larger question of the general purpose of the public library--what it is supposed to stand for in the community. All details of library policy revert to that, and the fiction question is, after all, a detail.

"The quality of fiction"--if I may paraphrase the words of a celebrated writer of it whose works still compete with the latest "best seller"--

"The quality of fiction is not strained. It droppeth like the gentle rain from Heaven. It is, perhaps, thrice blessed; It blesseth him that writes, and him that prints and sometimes him that reads. 'Tis mightiest in the mighty and--"

But I refrain from going farther. Beyond that point we reach debatable ground and I shall add nothing to the sum of human knowledge in that direction.

When your President asked me to open this discussion, he was kind enough to imply that the time had arrived when representatives of the larger libraries, at least, might speak with conviction on this question. And I suppose I was selected for the reason that the library for which I am responsible has, through circumstances not entirely within its control, acquired a reputation for ultra-conservatism in respect to purchases of fiction; a reputation for which it is entitled to little praise, if the result be thought meritorious and for which it should not be blamed if the results are condemned.

For it is well, always, to choose the good rather than evil in any line of action; to choose it, that is, because you love it. But, if you don't love it, it is fortunate that in the general plan of nature the good so surrounds us and hems us in, to say nothing of the consequences which follow the choice of evil, that, in any case, we can scarcely escape the choice of good.

With us in Boston, and I take it the conditions are not dissimilar elsewhere, the practical considerations of providing shelf-room for new accessions, of keeping the catalog within reasonable limits, the adequate provision for new books in other departments of literature, the constant increase in our fixed charges due to the expansion of our work--these enforce the restriction of purchases of fiction within limits that may be deemed conservative, whether we particularly favor conservatism or not.

Therefore I speak with no pride of opinion based upon the policy of my own library, nor in criticism of the policy of others, nor with any hope of establishing a hard and fast rule. Criticism is frequently caustic and bitter. I would fain be persuasive and kindly. It is indeed my conviction that no invariable rule is possible on this matter or on other points of library policy. Certain principles hold, but the application of them must vary in different libraries, and must proceed in harmony with local environment. Any other course would result in a system, hard and mechanical, where it ought to be flexible, sympathetic and humane.

It is said that in some places it is necessary to placate public opinion by liberal purchases of light and harmless trifles, "bright and snappy" stories, "big heart-gripping" tales of the moment in order that the fountain whereon the library depends for its continued life may not run dry. If that be so, who am I that I should sit in the seat of the scornful, or pronounce judgment on my neighbor? Any librarian whose hand is thus forced has trouble enough without my adding to it with wild and whirling words. After all, such action is not without precedent--nay, we may go farther and say not without justification. Old Isaac Walton was not the first who angled successfully with a concealed hook, and he has his disciples in other than green pastures or beside still waters. But, speaking seriously, such bids for the popular approval that may result in enlarged appropriations have nothing to do with the quality of fiction, and carry no lesson for those in more fortunate circumstances, who are able to exercise a sane and untrammelled judgment.

Let us admit freely, that fiction as a branch of literature, is today important, not merely as a means of relaxation and amusement but of inspiration and instruction. Whether or not that admission implies that a public library ought to provide an undue quantity of it is a question of logic, and to be logical when sentiment will more effectively carry your point is today fatal in the discussion of more weighty matters than the one we are now considering. There is, indeed, a form of printed matter even more frequently used than the novel for relaxation and amusement. I allude to that required in the great game of Auction Bridge, and one may gain instruction, perhaps inspiration from that, but public libraries so far ignore it. Although it has been suggested that a moving-picture annex, freely used by some millions to the same ends, might be profitably taken on, and unquestionably the suggestion has much to recommend it. At all events, that time may not be wasted in profitless controversy, I grant, at the outset, all that the most ardent advocates of fiction claim in its behalf.

And since it is asserted that many persons will read nothing but fiction, and that such reading is especially adapted to put new life into the tired shop-girl, to illuminate the social gloom that shrouds the proletariat, by taking him into worlds as unlike his real world as it is possible to make them, and to put a little more vitality into the merchant overwrought by too strenuous pursuit of the elusive dollar, why question its importance as at once a tonic and a sedative, a general promoter of bright days and peaceful dreams?

Of course, though many think otherwise, it is not undeniably the business of a public library to act as a pharmaceutical dispensatory and to make persons read who might much better get a required physical stimulus in some other way. Mr. Dana some months ago put the reading of the classics into the limbo of out-worn tradition--put them perpetually "on the blink," if I may use language similar to that employed in fiction by Sewall Ford's popular hero--and Miss Corinne Bacon, in a brilliant paper which, if you have not read it, I commend to your attention, keenly reminds Mr. Dana that it is not really necessary for any of us to read at all.

If, however, we dispute the unqualified benefits of fiction reading, it is the works of the masters which are used to overwhelm us--the recognized standard novels, quite modern some of them, for the production of good fiction did not stop with the death of Scott or Thackeray or Dickens--as if anybody questioned their influence or their power!

If I wished, on the other hand, to assume the rôle of Mrs. Partington, and seek to beat back the on-rushing tide of printed matter, all of which claims to be imaginative and romantic, I should need no better broom with which to attempt that forlorn and hopeless task than one made from the strands which Mr. Booth Tarkington, and others actively engaged in the production of fiction, supplied in the letters read from this platform Monday evening.

There is a trinity of things, frequently asserted, which I do not believe, that is, I do not believe them in my present state of mental development, though I trust I am still open to conviction.

=First=, I do not believe that everybody is entitled to receive at our hands the books they want, when they want them! I hear it put this way: The State or the municipality ought to provide any citizen who wants a book with the book he wants when he wants it.--A moment's candid examination will, I think, show that this is impossible, and it being impossible, we need not spend time in disputing the theory.

=Second=, I do not believe that we should buy the book of the day, and all the books of the day, irrespective of merit; or, as a critical journal once put it, "Buy the books the world is talking about--merit or demerit cast entirely aside."

The talk of the people, about the books of the day is, 99 per cent of it, if we may apply a quantitive measure to that which is immeasurable, pure gossip, fostered by more or less interested, or paid notices in the newspapers, and the reading of books which for the moment are made the subjects of such gossip is of about as much real value to the average man or woman as was Mrs. A's inquiry after the health of Mrs. B's old man. Not that she cared anything about his health but the inquiry helped conversation. And when the book of the day rises above the plane of mere gossip its interest or value is frequently momentary. Two years ago, the cheerful idlers on summer hotel verandas were lightening the burden of persistent application to what, for want of a better term, is called "fancy work" by reading "The rosary." Last year, their affections were centered on "The harvester." This year--well, I refrain from advertising what is likely to be found there.

But surely most public libraries in these days of expanding opportunity, find it difficult enough to supply things which have higher civic promise in them, even in fiction, without stocking up extensively with that which is as evanescent as the foam on the wave.

=Third=, I do not believe--as some do--that the indiscriminate reading of fiction, even poor fiction, leads finally to the selection of better books. Once I thought so, and I know that my distinguished predecessor, Dr. Winsor, held that opinion. But, after some thirty years' intimate knowledge of a library (outside of Boston), not too large to permit the study of the peculiarities of individual readers, this seems to me delusive. If I wanted to promote good reading, I would not treat it as a pill to be sugar-coated. Good wine needs no bush.

Passing from the triad of things I do not believe I make one positive affirmation. Every public library should establish a standard. As a matter of fact, this is done now. For example, the works of Mr. Charles Garvice are seldom found on our catalogs nor those of Rev. Silas K. Hocking. These two among the most popular English novelists of our day, may be found on the shelves of the circulating libraries, and with several others almost equally well-known, appear among the miscellaneous attractions of the railway news counters; but not with us. Why? They are clean, highly moral, in the accepted use of that word, and not without a certain literary merit. The answer to my query implies selection, in accordance with a standard.

I said some years ago on this subject, and have seen no reason to change my opinion, that while there are those who resent what they call "censorship" on the part of public libraries, nevertheless, simply because we are public institutions, we have responsibilities to the public, toward children, at least, and toward those of unformed literary taste.

Personally, I am not much afraid of the baleful effect of certain books usually condemned by moralists. Not every one who reads "The pirate's own book" will take to piracy on the high seas; and a quiet elderly lady of my acquaintance who reads rather more erotic French fiction than some would approve, still preserves, so far as I can see, modesty of demeanor, and, unless skilfully dissembled, an exemplary private life. I was myself, in my young days a persistent reader of Beadle's dime novels, which were of size to be readily concealed between Euclid and Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Grammar, well out of view of the censor. Oliver Optic was permitted to corrupt my young mind, and since I had an eclectic taste, I absorbed liberal doses of Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., Emerson Bennett, and Mrs. Southworth, writers almost unknown to the present generation. So far, I have escaped the penitentiary and the home for feebleminded. But that does not justify the exposure of Burton's "Arabian nights" on open shelves, for which lapse of judgment we were once criticised by a reputable Boston paper, or prove that since life is short and art is long and one can not read everything, and some books are, from any point of view, better than others, judicious selection may not prevent lamentable waste of time.

Before selection is attempted, the amount available for expenditure should be fixed, and this should be determined by the income of the library and the proper relation which, within that income, purchases of fiction should bear to other necessary expenses. The percentage will vary, I should suppose, with different libraries. Speaking for my own, it has by experience been determined at from 20 to 25 per cent of all expenditures for books. In a recent lean year, it dropped as low as 12 per cent, but in the last four years has ranged from 23 in 1912 to 25 in 1909. I include expenditures for replacements as well as for new fiction.

All theory apart, no more could have been spent without impairing the up-keep of other departments. As I have intimated, we are always confronted, to use Mr. Cleveland's phrase, by conditions rather than theories. I need not enlarge upon the character of those other departments. They are not for the use of the dilettante or the connoisseur. Contrary to an opinion that seems to prevail in certain quarters, we do not buy extensively, as one critical commentator put it, either "musty parchments or rare first editions in which not one person in 50 has the slightest interest or concern."

No. These departments provide for the scholarly use of a library which is at the center of a group of educational institutions accommodating probably 10,000 students. It is unthinkable to suppose that this work of education, of so much importance to our city, could go on without the aid derived from the library. And I need only mention the various special collections which have grown up from the beginning, which are drawn upon each year by students who come to us from abroad, and from which, on the interlibrary loan plan, we lend annually to other libraries in the proportion of 1,200 to the 50 which we receive from them in return.

These phases of our work must be taken into account, just as similar considerations must be influential in any library, if a proper balance is to be kept of expenditures for fiction. And bear in mind that every dollar spent for fiction beyond the proper limit as set by a candid consideration of conditions and resources, no matter how insistent the demand--and it is well known that the demand may be so insistent as to require, without satisfying it, all the money at your command--every dollar beyond this limit is a dollar drawn from students, from readers in courses, from work with the immigrant, if you have that problem, from work with children, from the artisan or mechanic who comes to you for the books that will add to his industrial efficiency, from your business men's branch, if one exists. The library cannot be made a mere depository for fiction. This should go without saying. It does not propose to include all good fiction in its purchases. The sum set apart can not all be used for new fiction, but must cover replacements. The library must also buy fiction in other languages than English.

As to the work of selection, I pass in rapid review our own methods, concerning which much nonsense has been written. We examine with care substantially every book in English that comes from the press, which any public library is likely to buy. Last year, which is perhaps typical, 890 different books in fiction were considered, including fiction for young readers. And every book was not merely examined by title, but was read and commented upon in our interest by at least 3 persons on the average.

Of course, no such thorough examination could be made by the library staff alone, and we have the services of a volunteer committee of readers not officially connected with the library. The committee does not supersede the critical opinion of the librarian or his selected staff officers. It does not even control. It merely aids by an analysis of the books and by such opinions, expressed on blank forms provided for the purpose, as show an outline of plot and treatment, and merits or defects as they appear, not to trained literary critics, but to average readers of some cultivation in different walks of life or on different social planes.

This committee was one of the excellent inventions of my predecessor, Dr. Putnam, and, shortly after its establishment, it received wide attention from the press, for the most part based on complete misconception of its purpose and character. This resulted in creating an impression as different as possible from the actual, but which still persists, as the mother-in-law joke persists, or the young lady who plays the piano in the parlor while mother washes in the kitchen, or the stage Irishman and Yankee--stock material of the pseudo-humorists.

The genial "Librarian" of the Boston Transcript, who on Saturday is to tell you how to discourage reading, still has periodic visions of the "Censors of the Boston public library," just as more timid souls have created bogies out of Col. Roosevelt or other historic characters. But the committee has no power to "censor" anything, and the Boston public library has no "black list" nor has it in my time ever had to become a censor. It has to choose, and so far as possible within the exercise of fallible human judgment to choose wisely. It finds itself unable to buy some hundreds of as good books, perhaps better books, than it buys, but it censors nothing, being fortunately relieved of a duty from which I would myself not shrink in exigency, by the limitations surrounding its choice.

It is one of the curiosities of journalism, this rise of the legend of the Boston fiction committee. It started from a half jocose article wholly inconsequential, one would have thought, in a western paper from the pen of a little-known Boston space writer. Numerous excellent books not purchased were said to have been "tabooed," and the list went over the country like wild fire. None of them had been "tabooed," unless inability to buy is a taboo. Big head lines with Swinburnian fervor spoke of the "books banned in Boston." From the little daily papers, the matter spread to the big ones. The Times Saturday Review pointed out, after scanning some of the titles, that "in some New England minds exquisite pleasure was akin to wickedness," because of the supposed censorship of books not bought. The committee was irreverently alluded to as the "body of spinster censors who since they were themselves virtuous had determined there should be no more cakes and ale." A critical literary journal feared that the committee desired "to form Boston's literary taste on too precious a model," and that since the majority of the readers were women, "the sense of power may have led them into arbitrary decisions." A New York paper, not unwilling to have a shy at Boston, said: "The committee takes an attitude untenable, Pharasaic, and what the enemies of Boston call Bostonese."

Harper's Weekly, a journal of civilization, expressed curiosity about the committee: "That the majority of them are young, we know, because they are not married. But are they red, white, or blue stockings? Do they approve of straight fronts? Do hoops still gallop in the East wind?" Drastic comments were received and appeared in print from other librarians. Mr. Legler's predecessor, entirely in good faith, fell with the rest. He said he had been told that in Boston they sent new novels to club women and received their opinions on slips of paper. He imagined that a good dinner would have something to do with such reports.

The St. Louis Globe Democrat had a word of commendation, although equally misled as to the grounds of praise. It said: "The literary lines are drawn as sharply and perhaps as arbitrarily as the social ones. Yet this New England trait of severe selection is a blessing to the country, and has leavened its crudeness from ocean to ocean. Puritanism has been more or less a critic of the rest of us, but the criticism has done good. * * * There is doubtless good reason for the rejections made." But the New York Sun which still shines for all, said: "The city was so terribly agitated over the wicked censorship of fiction at the library that the reading committee is doomed to become an extinct institution."

All of this is ancient history, and I only recall it as showing, in little, the growth of a popular myth. The committee as an institution still lives. It has always been representative. As the Bookman once said of its lists of best sellers, so, in dealing with the reports, we are not under the impression that we are pointing solemnly to stupendous critical opinions. We do not even claim that every individual report is actually accurate and unbiased. But we do believe that collected and weighed, they are unbiased and accurate in the bulk. The committee in its membership is subject to frequent changes. It is, as I have said, free from library influence. Its members are appointed by the committee itself and we neither approve nor cancel appointments. At present there are 27 members, men and women, married and unmarried, (10 unmarried ladies comprise the spinster element), Protestants and Catholics, French, German, Spanish, as well as those to whom English is the mother tongue.

They are all fairly intelligent, not illiterate of course, but not offensively scholarly. They include artists and teachers, several literary persons, at least two authors of repute, a business man or two, two physicians, and so on. This analysis shows the representative character of the committee; that it is made up with breadth of selection. Its verdict is not conclusive, and aims to reflect only the opinion which readers of intelligence would form after careful reading. Other factors are always taken into account in determining whether or not a book shall be bought. Necessarily, many current novels approved by the committee are not bought. Frequently novels are bought which the committee did not approve. But the experience of several years has shown that nearly all which for various reasons we have found it impossible to buy have failed to demonstrate their right to live for even a few brief months. The demand for some of them was insistent for a short time. Now, their very names are forgotten. If we had purchased a considerable number of them, the money, so far as present demand is concerned, would have been wasted. It may be fairly said, however, that we have bought meantime, so far as our resources permitted, a fair representation of the best fiction, that which is likely to remain in constant request. Our supply of standard English fiction is large, perhaps 50,000 volumes, and is constantly replaced as the books wear out. We are liberal in providing good fiction for the young. Were our funds enlarged, we could undoubtedly use a larger number of copies, especially in branch and deposit work, but, as I have made clear, we cannot expend a larger amount of our money in this way without impairing the growth of the library in other important directions. Whether or not you approve the method that we find helpful, some plan of selection must be adopted since choice is imperative.

Of course, it would be possible to buy two copies of 500 different books, or, as at present, perhaps 10 copies of 100 books; the expense would be the same in either case. But in the first instance the chances of a borrower getting a copy of any book selected would be much reduced in comparison with his chance of getting one under the more limited range of titles. Of course, also, under the first plan, the library would be free from the impression that many novels had been "banned," but the public advantage is greater under the present system.

I have already taken too long. If you find anything in our plan helpful, I shall be glad. At any rate, I hope I have done something to lay the ghost of unreasonable censorship which some of you may imagine hovers over the Boston public library. We have our faults in Boston, but not that.

Let me take a moment in summing up. Every librarian must determine for himself how much money he ought to spend for fiction, under his own local conditions, within his own resources. He should try to keep a proper proportion in this expenditure, not as measured in Boston or elsewhere but in that little corner of the earth where his own library is placed. This is a personal matter, not one of invariable mathematical relations.

Having done that, he should establish a standard and select with reference to it. Not my standard--it may not fit the case--but his own. And this too, like most library functions, is a personal matter. It will depend largely on what the librarian is trying to do with his library. For a library should not be a dead thing. It should have a vital relation to the particular community in which it is placed, and fit it as the glove fits the hand. Through the books we circulate we are directly influencing the men and women we reach; not for their personal benefit or enjoyment only, or to satisfy only their individual tastes or desires; but that they may become better fitted for their civic duties, may become happier, more intelligent, more hopeful in their human relationships.

It is not the book that you give John Smith for the benefit of John Smith only, that counts, but the book that makes John Smith of greater benefit to the community. That sentence, which I quote in spirit if not in exact words from our colleague, Dr. Richardson, expresses the reason for being of the public library, the only justification for the maintenance of such libraries by general taxation. Whatever books contribute to that end are the books that should be bought.

There is nothing in the book itself as it lies on the shelf. It is neither moral nor immoral nor of any other intrinsic merit or demerit. "Three weeks," 12 copies of which a commercial circulating library in a small city near my home kept in constant circulation for a year, is as good as another in that inert position. But books in contact with the soul of humanity are no longer dead things. They have something of that vital quality which gave them birth, as Milton long ago said.

It is sometimes as much our duty to restrain readers as to stimulate them, and a large circulation per capita without regard to the character of the books circulated, is as apt to be a sign of the inefficiency of a library, as it is a thing to be emulated.

This is not a recital of platitudes nor does the subject call for beautiful phrases about the ideals of the librarian's profession. On the contrary, it concerns practical results in return for the taxpayers' money, which comes hard enough at best. It is no heart-breaking matter whether you buy and circulate 50, 60 or 70 per cent of fiction. If you bring your percentage down from 70 to 50, that of itself may not mean improvement. But it is heart-breaking if you fail to get the books best adapted to secure the results I assume you are trying to obtain and which you ought to obtain in your own community.

It may be that what Mr. Dana once facetiously called the "latest tale of broken hearthstones" is just the thing to give a fillip to the dormant sensibilities of your patrons--to make them sit up and take notice lest cracked hearthstones become fashionable in your vicinity. I do not know. But this I know. You should settle that point with your own conscience, and when you have settled it, go on, and do not apologize. In the long run your sins whether of omission or commission, will find you out. On the other hand, believe me, virtue in this field as in others, will bring its own reward, and the reward of virtue is about the only one any librarian can reasonably expect.

Dr. Bostwick was called upon to continue the discussion and spoke as follows:

The Quality of Fiction--II.

The two things that it is necessary to take into account in selecting literature are its form and its content. The former largely determines the literary value of a composition; the latter its practical usefulness. Poetry and prose are the two great basic forms into which all literature is divided. Narrative may be cast in either form and when that narrative is untrue we call it fiction. In the usage of most of us the word is restricted to prose. Fiction, therefore, is not so much a matter of form as of content, or rather of the quality of content. Of two books telling of the lives of the same kind of persons in the same way the mere fact that one is true and the other not would class one as biography and the other as fiction.

Of what importance is the fact that of two bits of narrative, one is true and the other is untrue? That depends on the purpose for which the narrative is to be used. If we desire an accurate and orderly statement of facts, the true narrative is the only one of value. On the other hand, the facts, not of the narrative but incidental to it, may be true in the fiction and false in the biography. From the standpoint of the seeker of recreation, the fiction is generally, although not always, more interesting. The writer has the advantage of being able to create the elements of his tale and control their grouping, as well as regulate their form; and in addition he knows that he must be interesting to secure readers. Unfortunately, historians, biographers and travellers have generally too high an opinion of their functions as purveyors of truth to stoop to make it interesting.

As regards literary value, of course the mere truth or falsity of the narrative can have little to do with this; yet I believe, as a matter of fact, that fictitious narrative has literary value oftener than true narrative; for the reason offered above, that writers of truth consider it beneath their dignity to garnish it, like those fatuous dieticians who believe that so long as we take so much proteid and so much carbohydrate we need not worry over forms and flavors. Now I am supposed to be telling you about fiction and about the propriety or impropriety of including much of it in libraries, but I think you see that I am sidling toward the statement that I think we need not consider fiction at all, as fiction, in this connection. The reasons for rejecting fiction, when they exist, have nothing whatever to do with its being fiction, and would apply to non-fiction as well. If a biography purporting to relate the events in the life of Oliver Cromwell is full of errors, that is a reason why it should not stand on your library shelves. If a novel, purporting to give a correct idea of life in Chicago, succeeds only in leaving the impression that the city is peopled with silly and immoral persons, that is equally a reason for rejection. If a history of the Italian Renaissance is filled with unsavory details, these might exclude it, just as they might exclude a novel whose scene was laid in the same period. The story of a criminal's life, if so written as to make wrong appear right, might be rejected for this reason whether the criminal really existed or not. A poor, trashy book of travel should no more be placed on the shelves than a novel of the same grade. And if our book funds are limited we can no more buy all the biography or travel or books on chemistry or philosophy than we can buy all the novels that fall from the press. I do not deny, of course, that any or all the reasons for rejection that have been adduced might be overbalanced by others in favor of purchase, and they might be so overbalanced in the case of fiction as well as in that of non-fiction.

In other words I should not buy a book because it is fiction, or turn it down for the same reason, any more than I would buy or fail to buy a book because it is biography or travel. I say I should not do this any more in one case than in another; I might want to do it occasionally in both. But I believe that the more we forget the mere issue of fiction versus non-fiction and try instead to draw the line between useful books and harmful ones, wise books and silly ones, books that help and books that hinder, books that exalt and those that depress, books that excite high emotions and books that stir up low ones--the sooner we shall be good librarians.

Following Dr. Bostwick's remarks the subject was thrown open to discussion by members at large.

The chairman said that at his request some very interesting facts had been extracted from the annual published statements in Publishers' Weekly, respecting so-called best books of the year. These statements showed that many of the books which were leading books of particular years, ten, fifteen and eighteen years ago, had absolutely disappeared from the list of books which are now in current favor. Some of these books were found to be unknown to those who are now engaged in book selection.

Replying to the question as to the percentage of fiction of books bought by public libraries in Canada, Mr. W. O. Carson of London, Ont., stated that in his library the percentage of fiction ran from twenty to twenty-five per cent and he thought that was a fair average for other Canadian libraries. Mr. Carson said that the Ontario government bases the government grant on the amount of money expended on books and they give no grant on fiction if it exceed more than forty-five per cent of the amount expended on other books, so in the majority of the small libraries, they do not expend more than thirty per cent on fiction for fear of losing a government grant on anything that exceeds that amount. Replacements are included in this percentage.

Dr. Steiner said that a number of years ago Mr. Ranck and he prepared a paper on replacements and their attention was called to the very large proportion of expenditure for replacements which had to be used for fiction and that this was particularly noticeable in a library of some age, as in the case of the Enoch Pratt Free library of Baltimore. The speaker thought it should be borne in mind in connection with the purchase, whether the amount expended was mostly for current fiction, mostly for replacements, whether a new branch was being stocked or whether a library was being stocked which had not been sufficiently provided previously with standard works. The exact proportion of fiction in any one year should be governed by these three factors, if not by others. Dr. Steiner said that their library last year wore out in round numbers about 7,000 books, of which at a rough guess at least six-sevenths were fiction. They replaced about 5,000 books including most of the non-fiction books, leaving from 1,500 to 2,000 volumes in fiction which were allowed to expire by limitation. In every case where a book wears out, the circulation department reports whether that book is regarded by them as being worthy of replacement and if the book be not a duplicate but is an original copy the recommendation is always brought to the librarian, who occasionally overrules the decision of the circulation department in the case of original copies, but so far as duplicates are concerned, the opinion of the circulation department is absolutely accepted.

Dr. Andrews said he had found it very useful in the work of selection to discriminate between those books the library does not intend to buy at present and those which it will not accept even as a gift, and that in fiction it might be especially valuable to have some line of exclusion. He asked whether the chairman or Miss Bascom could recall what is the proportion of comparison between the recommendation of the Boston book committee as read by Mr. Wadlin and that of the A. L. A. Booklist.

Miss Bascom replied that as she recalled it for 1912 of about 1,000 novels published about 140 were included in the Booklist, adding that she supposed that the greater number of the entire output were read.

The chairman said that from figures which he had caused to be compiled, it was found that in this country and Great Britain something like 80,000 titles belonging to the classification of fiction had been printed since 1882 in this country and 1880 in Great Britain. Mr. Wadlin said that the A. L. A. Booklist contained titles of fiction which the Boston public library had not bought simply because they could not, having bought other things instead. Local conditions govern their book selection to a considerable extent.

The question being raised whether librarians experienced any considerable pressure brought to bear upon them to purchase certain books, the opinion was expressed by Mr. Ranck, Mr. Wadlin and others that this pressure was not nearly so great as one might think would be the case, that those demanding the purchase of a certain book were reminded that the library had a limited income and that the question of selection always had to be very carefully considered and that books not purchased were not necessarily excluded for any other reason than lack of funds.

Representatives of the library schools being asked to what extent the lectures given in library schools were intended to exert an influence either for or against the wide purchase of fiction, Miss Hazeltine of the University of Wisconsin library school, said it was their effort to teach the students to buy the best books with the money at their disposal--those of the best literary value--and to buy many duplicates of the best fiction.

Dr. Bostwick said that those libraries that have pay collections of duplicates ought to state whether their reports include the pay collections of duplicates or not and what relation this collection bears to the original copies. In St. Louis it is the tendency to buy rather a small number of copies of each work of fiction for regular use and put these books as far as possible into duplicate collections. The pay collection of duplicates in St. Louis varies very much. In three of the branches it has not even been begun, the librarians of these branches reporting that there is no demand for it. In two branches it is very popular and in the central library fairly so.

Dr. Hill thought it was not wise to give a smaller number of copies to the public for free use than to the department where pay is requested. It seemed to him that the public should have just as many copies of a book as those who can afford to pay one or two cents a day. In Brooklyn they give the same number of copies to the free circulating department as to the duplicate pay department. Dr. Hill said the Brooklyn public library last year spent for replacement, juvenile and adult, $50,000 out of the $80,000 which was spent for books, or something like 60 per cent for fiction both new and replacements.

The chairman said he was much interested in a statement printed in Collier's about two or three years ago in which was enumerated the result of the publishing activities of the father of the present publisher, who started the line of inexpensive editions of Dickens, Scott and others of a similar character. It was noted in that summary that the firm had sold in this country seven million copies of the works of Charles Dickens and four or five million copies of Scott's works, not individual titles, but the complete works of those authors. This means of course that a surprisingly large number of the best novels by these writers must be in the homes of the people who use the public libraries and that these people use the libraries to supplement their own private collections. Consequently, no particular conclusions can be drawn as to the actual character of the reading done by these people from the fact that books they get from the public libraries are mostly the quality of fiction which is put out at the present time.

Mrs. Sneed said there was one rule for the selection of fiction which she generally gave to her library school class every year. This was the rule of Henry van Dyke: A book of fiction is really worthy to be bought if it has not given an untrue picture of life, if it has not made vice attractive or separated an act from its consequences. The speaker thought that if this rule was applied in reading one would not go so very far astray.

Mr. Bishop said he had been greatly interested in the last five years in the selections made by the public itself. The Library of Congress receives, of course, all the copyrighted fiction and places one copy at least of practically every book of permanent value upon its shelves. After the temporary agitation of the immediate advertising is over the public itself goes back to lines that are surprisingly good in every way.

Mr. Gould said that Mr. Dutton, the publisher of Everyman's Library, recently told him that he had now sold over one and a half million copies of the books in Everyman's Library, which was a good indication of the market found for standard works.

Mr. Jast, the English delegate, being called upon by the chair, contributed also to the general discussion, after which the session adjourned.

Meeting of June 28th

A meeting of the Council was called to order by President Anderson immediately after adjournment of the conference.

The following resolutions were received from the Government Documents Round Table and were read and adopted by unanimous vote.

The following resolutions were passed unanimously at the adjourned meeting of the Documents Round Table, Friday, 12:15 p. m., when the Special Committee on Resolutions, consisting of Miss E. E. Clarke of Syracuse University, Mr. H. J. Carr of Scranton, and Mr. H. O. Brigham of Rhode Island, appointed at the regular meeting on Thursday, reported as follows:

WHEREAS, The American Library Association desires to express the appreciation of its members respecting the efficient work that has been and is being done for libraries by the office of the Superintendent of Documents, nevertheless it recognizes the many hampering features that still control the issue and distribution of public documents. Believing that these features can be materially lessened, therefore

BE IT RESOLVED, That this Association approve and urge the early enactment of Senate Bill 825 entitled, "An Act to amend, revise, and codify the laws relating to the public printing and binding and distribution of Government Publications," now pending before the Sixty-third Congress; strongly recommending, however, that the parenthetical exception now included in the first proviso of Section 45 of said bill be stricken out so that the annual reports of departments shall not be treated as Congressional Documents.

BE IT ALSO RESOLVED, That this Association repeat its former recommendation urging that the text of all public bills upon which committee reports are made, shall be printed with the report thereon.

GEO. S. GODARD, Chairman Documents Committee.

The following report was made to the Council by Dr. Andrews in behalf of the Committee on affiliation with other than local, state and provincial library associations.

Your Committee on affiliated societies respectfully report that they have proceeded in the way proposed and approved by the Council at its meeting in January. They regret that circumstances have prevented them from presenting a final report but they believe that substantial progress has been made.

In May the Committee sent to the presidents of the four affiliated societies the following letter:

"The Council of the A. L. A. has appointed a committee to formulate the relations which should exist between the Association and affiliated associations other than state, provincial, etc., in return for the privileges accorded them. The committee understand that this action was taken largely because one or two of the societies had expressed a desire to contribute toward the expenses of the Association. This desire was duly appreciated by the council, who felt that it would be well to take definite and formal action. The committee propose that hereafter these privileges shall not be extended to other than affiliated societies without formal vote of the council, except that the program committee will be authorized to do so for the first meeting of any newly-formed society. They propose to recommend, also, that the present provision shall be continued,--namely, that each affiliated society shall meet with the Association at least once every three years. They also expect to recommend that some contribution towards expenses be required, but wish that the manner and the amount of the assessment be determined after consultation with the societies, and have asked that I secure an expression of your opinion on these points. They would consider the amount suggested by one of the societies,--namely $25.00, as a maximum. The grounds for such a contribution are evident, but it may be well to state them as follows:

"1. Participation in the special railway accommodations.

"2. Provision for rooms and meals at reduced rates.

"3. Provision of rooms and time for meetings.

"4. Participation in the activities of the meeting.

"5. Printing programs, announcements in the Bulletin, and assignment of 15 pages in the Proceedings.

"The cost of preparing for and holding a convention is about $500.00, that of the Bulletin and Proceedings, including editing and distributing, about $1,500.00. Provision of hotel rooms and travel facilities is not a matter of money, but frequently involves disappointment to individual members who apply too late.

"As stated already, the committee have not agreed on any amount or method. They have considered a flat amount of $15.00 to $25.00, one dependent on the number of members in the society, who are not members of the Association, and one dependent on the number of such members who attend.

"Personally, I think the logical method would be a combination of the first and third, and suggest that there be an initial amount of $10.00 or $15.00 and an additional charge of 50 cents or 25 cents for each member attending who is not a member of the Association. Of course, this additional charge will not be asked for official delegates of libraries who are members.

"Kindly let me have an expression of your opinion on this subject at your earliest convenience and oblige.

"Yours truly,

"(Signed) C. W. ANDREWS."

They have just now received replies from all and formal action has been taken by two. All, though perhaps with varying degrees of cordiality and readiness, recognize the justice of the proposed arrangement. There is quite naturally some variance in their suggestions as to the proper amount of the contribution to be made and the method by which it is to be computed. The committee desire to consider carefully these suggestions and to reconcile their variations as nearly as possible. They would like to discuss them in a personal meeting of the whole committee, as well as by correspondence, and hope that the winter meeting of the council will afford them an opportunity to do so, and to formulate a by-law for the consideration of council.

They therefore submit the foregoing as a report of progress.

For the Committee, C. W. ANDREWS.

It was voted that this report be received as a report of progress and further consideration be referred to the mid-winter meeting in January, 1914.

Adjourned.

AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES SECTION

(Round Table, June 27, 1913, 2:30 p. m.)

Mr. Charles R. Green, librarian of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, was acting chairman of the meeting, which was an informal one without a regular program. Miss Emma B. Hawks, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture library, acted as secretary. The subjects for discussion were (1) Catalog cards for agricultural experiment station publications and (2) The indexing of agricultural periodicals.

Mr. C. H. Hastings first spoke briefly in regard to the printing of cards by the Library of Congress for the publications of the state agricultural experiment stations. Cards have already been issued for the Illinois and Indiana station bulletins, the copy being supplied by the university libraries. Before going on with the work for the other stations, he thought it desirable to consult with the Office of Experiment Stations in regard to a plan of co-operation by which the same card might be used both for the Library of Congress cards and for the "Card index to experiment station literature" issued by the office. It would be much more economical to have only the one card printed, if possible. Miss E. B. Hawks expressed doubt as to whether such an arrangement could be made, inasmuch as the form and purpose of the Office of Experiment Stations card index differ so widely from those of a dictionary catalog. Mr. Hastings thought that it would do no harm to make the attempt and said that he would consult with the librarian of the Department of Agriculture and the director of the Office of Experiment Stations in regard to it. If such an arrangement can not be made he thought the Library of Congress would be willing to print separate cards, having the copy supplied by the station or college libraries, if they are willing and able to do the cataloging.

Mr. H. W. Wilson then spoke in regard to the publication of an index to agricultural periodicals. He stated that he has had a good many demands for such an index and has delayed adding any agricultural titles to the Industrial Arts Index, because it may be better to have a separate one. Those who have written to him about it have almost always expressed a preference for a separate index. Miss Hawks asked whether some titles might not be included in the Industrial Arts Index now, and then removed if a separate agricultural one were begun. Mr. Wilson replied that there was some likelihood of the Agricultural Index being begun next year, in which case it would hardly pay to do anything with the agricultural literature before this. There was some discussion as to the scope of the index. Mr. Wilson said they would wish to include only journals of national standing. Mr. C. R. Green thought that there were not more than about six of these. Mr. H. O. Severance thought there would be many more than this, including papers devoted to special phases, as poultry, bee keeping and stock raising. Dr. C. W. Andrews doubted whether the farm papers were worth indexing. He thought that the matter was rarely original, but that the articles of value are worked up from Station and Department of Agriculture publications. Mr. Wilson said he had had more demands for an Agricultural Index lately than for an index of any other subject.

Inquiry was made as to how many subscriptions would be needed to justify the starting of a separate index. Mr. Wilson could not say definitely. There might be two plans--one, the division of subscriptions among subscribers. The basis for the Industrial Arts Index was 20 cents a title--40 cents for a weekly. The other plan is a sliding scale of charges by which a library having a great many of the periodicals indexed pays a higher price, thus enabling the smaller ones to pay something but not a higher price than they can afford for the service rendered. Mr. Wilson stated that he was willing to go to the expense of a referendum to find out the wishes of libraries on this subject, with a view either to the starting of a separate index or the incorporation of some agricultural journals in the Industrial Arts Index. If the idea of a separate index is abandoned, he would almost certainly add some titles to the Industrial Arts Index. Mr. Green thought that he might count on active support of the Department of Agriculture library and all the agricultural experiment stations. He was not sure what further support there would be. Mr. Wilson thought the demand would probably be an increasing one.

Meeting adjourned.

CATALOG SECTION

FIRST SESSION

The first session of the Catalog Section was held Wednesday afternoon, June 25th, the chairman, Miss Harriet B. Gooch, of the Pratt Institute school of library science, presiding. As the minutes of the last meeting had been published, their reading was omitted.

The report of the committee on the cost and method of cataloging was called for, in response to which Mr. A. G. S. Josephson, Chairman of the committee, stated the present report was but a preliminary one, to be followed by a final report next year. The Catalog Section took no action on the report since the committee was appointed by the Executive Board of the Association, not by the section.[3]

[3] The report and questionnaire is printed in connection with the minutes of the Executive Board.

Miss Gooch then stated that the discussion for the afternoon was the administration of the catalog department considered first in its relation to the other departments of the library, and second as to its management of its own affairs looking toward simple, inexpensive and rapid methods of work. She explained that the discussion was concerned with library systems consisting of a central library with a number of branch libraries, and was to be treated both from the librarian's and from the cataloger's point of view.

The discussion was opened by Mr. F. F. HOPPER, of the Tacoma public library.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE CATALOG DEPARTMENT FROM A LIBRARIAN'S POINT OF VIEW

In the reorganization of our libraries, in the adoption of modern progressive and simplified methods, in the effort to develop and improve service to the public, the catalog department has tended to be drawn out of relation to the other departments, to become in a way isolated, and as a result its efficiency has been impaired. The attention of librarians has been given to other phases of library activities and therefore they know less about the catalog department than any other. Undoubtedly the technicalities of the cataloging process make it most difficult for librarians to grapple with, but all the more carefully should we consider ways and means of increasing the efficiency of the process, relating the work more closely to changes in other departments, and studying methods of possible simplification of the routine mechanical work that seems to have largely increased of late.

In one of Mr. Carlton's reports to his board of trustees, he uses these words: "It has often seemed to me that in library administration the catalog department was much like the police department in municipal administration. It is frequently under investigation; it is constantly being reformed; its defects are felt in many other departments; and its heads are always changing as one after another breaks down or fails to achieve impossible results."

Surely such an unsatisfactory and unwholesome condition is not without remedy.

If I can not presume to submit a definite plan of reformation, perhaps I may at least attempt to suggest possible lines of investigation for each librarian to pursue.

1. The catalog room.

In the modern organization of work, the first care is to provide work-rooms in which the highest efficiency may be maintained. Scientific investigation shows the extravagance of conditions which retard speed and multiply unnecessary motions, which do not provide adequate light and air and proper colors to conserve strength, arrest fatigue and support the energies. In planning buildings we properly endeavor to bring the catalog department into the closest possible relation with the order department, the book stack and the reference department, to save steps which mean time and money. My observation is that frequently there is not the same care exercised in planning the room itself as there is in locating it. Often it is too small, so that work clogs up, books must be shifted too often (an expensive process), too many corners must be turned in getting about the room and the assistants impede one another's progress. On the other hand, a room may be so large that time is wasted in getting about it. To be sure this is a rare fault. I have seen cataloging rooms admirably placed for convenience of access to stack, reference room and order department, and really adequate in size, but so devoid of light and air that even a hardened devotee of our reading rooms would fear to enter such a place. Plenty of windows, if possible on two sides of a room, and ample indirect artificial lighting are just as important for the efficiency of the catalog department as like facilities for the public reading rooms.

2. Relation of catalog department to other departments.

When friction develops between two departments (of course it never does; this is merely a hypothetical case), my observation is that the catalog department is pretty likely to be a party to the affair. Why? Simply because as organization within libraries has developed, the catalog department has been left more and more to its own devices. In the departments working with the public, the tendency has been to complexity of organization, perhaps, but still to elimination of detail, simplification of method, the sacrifice of theory to practicality that the public may have the feeling of freedom and ease and be given the quickest and best service with the least red tape. During this process the catalog department has continued to develop theory unchecked by daily strenuous contact with the busy borrower, to increase routine and mechanical work, still opaque to the searchlight of scientific investigation from outside the department. You need publicity, but all you ever get is pages and pages of blasts against the poor old battle-scarred, but more-or-less-still-in-the-ring accession book, which in nine cases out of ten belongs to another department anyway. The illuminating power of publicity for the devious ways of cataloging and the development of a better spirit of co-operation, are to be obtained perhaps best of all by the establishment of entirely feasible definite relations between the departments. As Miss Winser will develop this topic, I will leave it here, simply remarking that in my experience the opinions of one department about the organization and detail of another department are frequently of the utmost value, but rarely the opinions of other departments about the catalog department, whose problems are not understood.

3. Organization of the department.

(1) General type of organization.

The development of the modern elaborate systems of scientific management in the various forms of industry has for the most part superseded the best type of ordinary management known as the "initiative and incentive system." Under the old system success depends almost entirely upon the initiative of the workmen, whereas, under scientific management, or task management, a complete science for all the operations is developed, and the managers assume new burdens, new duties and responsibilities. Having developed the science, they scientifically select and then train, teach and develop the workmen. The managers co-operate with the men to insure all the work being done in accordance with the principles of the science which has been developed. The work and responsibility are almost equally divided between the management and the workmen. The combination of the initiative of the workmen and the new types of work done by the management makes scientific management so much more efficient than the old way.

"All the planning which under the old system was done by the workman, as a result of his personal experience, must of necessity under the new system be done by the management in accordance with the laws of the science."[4] One type of man is needed to plan ahead and an entirely different type to execute the work. Perhaps the most prominent single element in modern scientific management is the task idea. The work of each workman is fully planned in advance by the management and the man receives complete written instructions, describing in detail the task he is to accomplish, as well as the means to be used in doing the work. And the work planned in advance in this way constitutes a task which is to be solved by the joint effort of the workman and the management. This task specifies not only what is to be done, but how it is to be done and the exact time allowed for doing it.

[4] F. W. Taylor, "Principles of scientific management."

It is said that "the most important object of both the workmen and the management should be the training and development of each individual in the establishment, so that he can do (at his fastest pace and with the maximum of efficiency) the highest class of work for which his natural abilities fit him," but it is nevertheless true that to some extent scientific management contemplates the selection of the workman best fitted for one particular task and keeping him at that task because he can do that better than any other. Within the narrow domain of his special work, he is given every encouragement to suggest improvements both in methods and in implements. In the past the man has been first; under modern methods the system is first.

I have attempted to summarize some of the principles of so-called scientific management, because in the organization of our cataloging work definite principles of any kind of management have rarely been evident throughout, and if we are to observe accurately the system of this department, and study it with a view to possible improvement, we must test its work by some existing scientific standards.

The =science= of cataloging has been pretty fully developed, and at least its technique is taught in our professional schools. Therefore it may be assumed that we are now reasonably conforming to the first ideals of scientific management when we select with due care for the headship of our catalog departments and for the more important positions, those trained in the principles of the science. I personally believe that the principles of scientific management should be actively employed by the head cataloger in the definite planning of the work of the individual, in the testing of the speed and accuracy of the individual for a special task, and in the insistence that speed for each task shall definitely conform to careful but easily made tests of the amount of time that should be consumed in performing the task. There are plenty of results of experiments in other lines of work which show that the output is increased, the cost lessened, by the constant planning and supervision and co-operation of the head of the department, and consequent abandonment by him of a corresponding amount of special detail work of his own that he heretofore may have done.

But now I must register an emphatic exception to the application of the exact principles of scientific management to a catalog department.

I believe the principles of scientific management as developed for the organization of industry and business, should undergo a distinct change or be abandoned entirely in their application to one most important phase of the organization of a catalog department. Scientific management does consider the health and comfort and freedom from fatigue and efficiency of the individual, but always with a view to the effect upon a particular task and upon increased output at reduced cost. In other words the emphasis is placed on the task, not at all on the broad development of the individual. In library work, human sympathy, a broad point of view, the fullest possible development of personality are of the utmost importance; esprit de corps, the spirit of loyalty and co-operation are of more importance than a particular task. I assume that needs no argument. Scientific management, fully applied, would, it seems to me, defeat this vital purpose of library organization, and would more effectually differentiate and isolate the catalog department than is already the case in many libraries.

This leads to some illustrations of my meaning by

(2) Some practical considerations of the organization.

I do entirely believe in a distinct and complete organization of a catalog department, not in the system some libraries use in having a department head, but without assistants definitely and wholly assigned to the one department. It is my observation that to insure quick, accurate, consecutive and thoroughly efficient work, not only must the department head devote practically her whole time to the one job, but at least enough assistants also, to insure continuity of work. I am not in favor of the head of the department being part of the time assistant in the children's room or even in the reference room. Such a plan is altogether too extravagant. The manager of a department needs to give undivided attention to the supervision of the work of the department. The head of the department is constantly brought directly in touch with the general administration of the library and with other department heads, and a possible tendency to narrowed point of view is thus checked to some extent. There are also some assistants who are naturally fitted to the work of the catalog department and not at all to meeting the public. If we secure an assistant evidently suited for catalog work, but for no other, we should bend all our energies to making her the most efficient possible cataloger, and not deprive the catalog department of her constant services in order to make a vain attempt to develop other sides of her personality and give the public poor service in the process. In my judgment, in a library cataloging from 25,000 to 35,000 volumes a year, a head cataloger, a first assistant, and probably at least two other assistants should give their whole time to the department and so form the backbone of the organization. To this part of it the principles of scientific management may be thoroughly applied.

My idea of the necessity for divergence from those principles comes when we consider the need for the development of some members of the cataloging staff by other sides of library experience, and also when we consider the importance of mutual understanding and co-operation between the departments. All librarians experience difficulty in obtaining assistant catalogers because a candidate is very often reluctant to devote herself wholly to the routine operations of the catalog department. In many such cases, it would be possible to secure an excellent part-time assistant for the catalog department, if we would offer work for part of the day in a department dealing with the public. In this way we would achieve a double purpose. The experience of all librarians, I am confident, will indicate the inestimable advantage to the point of view of the catalog department and to the catalog itself if some one of considerable importance in the department gives a part of each day to reference work, and another assistant a part of each day to the loan department. I think it is not so important that a cataloger devote some time to work with children, and it is also true that such an arrangement is rarely of value to the children's department, where special qualities and training are all-important. On the other hand, it is desirable that someone with the training and experience of a children's librarian, give to the catalog department time for the assignment of subject headings for the children's catalog. The work of the catalog and order departments is most closely related and yet it is my experience that misunderstanding between those departments is not infrequent. An assistant whose time is divided between the two should and does work to the advantage of both departments. With the exception of the one representative from the children's department, I do not believe that the possible advantage gained by having assistants from the departments which deal with the public give part time to cataloging, by any means equals the loss of efficiency attending the change from one manager to another or the loss in the work itself, for it is unusual that one assistant should do equally high-class work in two such distinct fields. I know that some say that the majority of really good desk assistants possess the education, the clear and discriminating mind, the accuracy and resourcefulness of the good cataloger and are of value in the catalog department. Also it is true that the suitability of each assistant for each department would of course be considered when interchanges are arranged. Nevertheless it is my observation that excellent desk assistants ordinarily can do well only the merest clerical work in a catalog department, and usually they do not appreciate the accuracy and minute care required in cataloging work. Certainly it is extravagant to use a part of the time of a presumably fairly-well-paid, good desk or reference assistant for merely mechanical work in the catalog department, which otherwise would be done by a cheaper grade of service than the better grade of catalog assistants. Also the special care and extra time wasted by head catalogers in revising the work of such assistants is an expense worth consideration.

4. Cost of cataloging.

Many complaints are heard from librarians of the seemingly excessive cost of cataloging. Few practical suggestions seem to have been made for reducing costs, except in the elimination of some details, such as accession books. Since I understand a committee is investigating this whole question, I have not attempted to obtain any statistical information. In the few fairly large libraries whose estimates of the cost of the process have come to my attention, the estimated cost of purchasing, accessioning, and cataloging a book, including labelling, gilding, card filing, and everything necessary to secure a book and prepare it for use, ranges from 30 cents to about 65 cents. These cost estimates vary, not only because of differences in the elaboration or simplicity of the processes, but also because of the difference in the character of the books added, large numbers of duplicates for schools, branches, etc., being more easily and cheaply handled than separate new titles.

There can be little question that scientific management, properly used, will reduce the costs of cataloging work. Adequate planning and supervision of all processes by the head cataloger, the classifier and others in charge of divisions of the work, can make for speed. I am convinced that we do not really know the maximum length of time which an assistant should be allowed to keep at one certain task. An assistant typewriting shelf-list cards should do rapid work for perhaps three hours. After that a measure of fatigue makes change of occupation advisable for the individual, and economical for the department. Slight fatigue from typewriting will not, however, impair efficiency in a different sort of work. A point worth considering here is, that the change in the occupation of a higher-grade assistant in order not to impair efficiency, should not mean time given to a lower or more mechanical grade of work. That is extravagance. Impending mental fatigue does not mean that mental processes are to be abandoned. Just as much rest is obtained, and efficiency is really increased, by simple change of the mental groove. Here the advocate of the general exchange of assistants between departments might say that the advisable thing to do is to send the assistant to another department. In most cases I believe that such a change is a mistake, because a change from one department to another means too great a break in the continuity of management in two departments. One manager can plan more effectively for the entire working time of an individual than two managers can plan for the two halves.

The development of library schemes of service, branches, stations, children's rooms, work with schools, has all added enormously to the routine and mechanical processes of cataloging. More shelf-lists, more catalogs, and all sorts of differentiation in the processes suitable to the special need have multiplied details faster than most librarians realize. It is this tremendous complexity which has worn out head catalogers, increased costs, and made administrators clamor for the elimination of unnecessary detail, without having a real understanding of what the detail is and is for.

Deterioration in the cataloging process will injure other departments, but undoubtedly most libraries have superfluous refinements that could well be omitted with economy in cataloging, and no loss to the chief end of all our work.

It is a temptation to consider carefully the methods which might save expenses in the cataloging process, but I can take time only to make brief reference to some of them, most of these having been frequently discussed at length before.

(a) Careful planning of catalog room for convenience, to save all unnecessary motions.

(b) Scientific supervision of tasks to produce greatest speed without undue fatigue.

(c) Stopping the publication of many monthly bulletins. Some bulletins of the larger and certain particular libraries are of inestimable value to other libraries. Most of these bulletins are printed from the linotype slugs used in printing their own catalog cards, and consequently the labor is minimized. The bulletins of most libraries, I firmly believe, are of no possible use to other libraries, and the material in them would be much more read by the public if published in the newspapers, as it should be in any case, and if the special lists, which are the most useful part of many bulletins, were printed on a multigraph, instead of being buried in forbidding bulletins that no able-bodied ordinary man in his senses could be driven to read.

(d) Use of Library of Congress cards. Some people say they do not save time. I recommend those people to recatalog a library without them, also to attempt to get along without them for a while for current additions. To the best of my knowledge they do save money, and I know they save wear and tear on typewriter machines and ribbons, and they save temper, which is nervous energy and worth while saving. If you don't believe that last read Goldmark on "Fatigue and efficiency" and then you will. Besides, Library of Congress cards look better than typewritten cards and have more durability, since typewritten cards rub and fade and have to be rewritten too frequently.

(e) What real objection can there be to simplifying the cards you write yourselves? It does not matter if they are not consistent with Library of Congress cards. No living borrower would know whether they were consistent or not, and no dead one would matter. Besides if variety is the spice of life, consistency is the vice of it. Nobody but a librarian ever worried about being consistent. I regret I can't even except the clergy.

(f) Omitting book numbers for fiction saves a vast amount of time and sacrifices little. They do not add beauty, and they cause endless trouble and expense without due compensation.

(g) As to the accession book: I mention this because everyone does, and therefore, lack the courage to pass it without remark. Some library reports say that they save the time of one assistant by doing away with it. The fact that practically all of them say it, no matter what size the library in question is, makes one suspicious. I think they are just copying each other's reports, which is not fair. If, however, the accession book is abandoned, and the bill-date, source and cost for each copy of a book are added to a shelf-list card which contains author, title, publisher and perhaps date of publication, much writing is saved and all necessary information is preserved. In the Minneapolis public library, which makes the closest estimate I have seen, four hours per 150 books are said to be saved by such a method. No small matter! It is my personal opinion that the accession book is superfluous in a library which is completely cataloged and shelf-listed.

(h) An interesting change due to the study of motions is recommended in the procedure for shelf-listing by the Minneapolis public library: "Formerly one person marked the call number on the back of the title page, and assigned the copy letter, then the book was taken by another assistant who marked the book slip, the pocket and the label. This meant two people handling the book, the second doing only the mechanical work of copying; hence the work must be revised by someone else, or many mistakes occurred in the work of even our best markers. Now, the shelf-lister, who knows the meaning of the number and has it already in her mind, marks all books as she lists them, and the work goes through faster and more accurately."

(i) Trying to save money by omitting the yearly inventory, particularly for open shelves, is a mistake, I believe. One does not save money by gaining discredit for failing to keep track of his wares.

(j) It is doubtless superfluous to recommend throwing away antiques, like withdrawal books.

(k) The use of the multigraph for writing catalog and shelf-list cards is certainly economy if the number of catalogs is large enough to require pretty large duplication. The shifting of much mechanical work to a less highly-paid class of assistant and the saving in revision of all but the first copy of a card, are distinct gains.

(l) There are doubtless many mechanical devices which will be adopted to advantage in cataloging in the next few years. Many machines of different sorts have greatly changed bookkeeping methods, making the bookkeeper an initiative force in administration of business houses, and certainly similar economy systems will be developed for the cataloger.

5. Efficiency of the individual in the department.

The routine work of cataloging brings fatigue sooner than an occupation involving more variety, although the effects of this form of fatigue may not cumulate so rapidly. It is consequently of special importance that the executive pay particular attention to the application of the principles of scientific management to the efficiency of the individual. The utmost care must be taken that energy shall be carefully directed and not be over-expended. Unduly prolonged attention to a particular kind of work resulting in the long run in nervous exhaustion is a familiar phenomenon of cataloging. Dr. Richardson says that for correction and verification work, two hours a day is the maximum for highest efficiency. My observation is that continuous work at the typewriter should not exceed three hours. Although filing is largely mechanical work, it is also very wearying because of the decided monotony of it, and there is a marked tendency to tire quickly. Since errors rapidly increase with fatigue, the service is directly injured, as well as indirectly through the ultimate effect on the health of the individual.

In general the carefully trained assistant not only knows how to go about his work with more dispatch, with less need for supervision, with more real efficiency, but also with less wear and tear on his nervous energy. An added argument for the economy of paying higher salaries to obtain adequately trained assistants! I have had excellent opportunity to observe the effect of the graded salary on the efficiency of a cataloging staff. The increased interest, the new energy, and the altered spirit are marked when a graded service is installed, particularly when it is realized that efficiency, as well as length of service, is considered.

It is not necessary to discuss recreation in the library, as the subject relates to the catalog department no differently than it does to the others. The same may be said about vacations, but in passing I should like to say that I agree entirely with Dr. Bostwick's idea of them as assignments to special work. It seems to me that assistants should be required to obtain the approval of the executive to the plans for their vacations. I have taken vacations myself which were certain to do me no good, and consequently do my work harm, and it does seem that I ought not to expect pay for such a misuse of the library's time. The change in the hours of service in the circulation department of the New York public library from 42-1/2 hours a week to 40 hours has caused widespread approval. I wonder if anyone has called attention to the fact that slight changes in climate affect the ability of the individual to work a certain number of hours. For instance, I know from experience that it is possible to work longer without discomfort in an even climate, not subject to extremes of either heat or cold, than it is in the climate of New York. There are certain parts of the country where it takes less energy to work 42 hours per week throughout the year than it does to work 40 hours correspondingly in New York.

With more attention to light, air, attractive appearance and convenient arrangement of room, avoidance of fatigue in spite of rapid work or monotony, sensible hours, some degree of variety in work, sane vacations, some outdoor exercise during each day, decent pay on a graded basis, the efficiency record of the cataloging staff in many a library should be raised, their organization held intact, and their humor and good-humor have some chance to appear.

The subject was continued by Dr. ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, of the St. Louis public library, who spoke as follows:

From the administrative standpoint the library life of a book is divided very distinctly into two periods, that before it is placed on the shelves and that after it is so placed. The first period, embracing selection, order, receipt, classification, cataloging and mechanical preparation, is strictly preliminary to the second and would have no reason for being except for the second. The public recognizes the second chiefly and knows of the first vaguely and inadequately. To the library, and especially to that part of the staff engaged in the operations proper to it, it bulks large.

The librarian of a large library often finds himself obliged to act, in a measure, as the public's representative, taking the point of view of the thousands of readers, rather than of those who operate the machinery directly under his own control. To one who is actually handling the levers and pulleys, the machine often seems to be the thing. The general administrator, somewhat removed from this direct contact, is better able to see it as it is--a means to an end.

Hence to the chief librarian, this period of preparation must always be a cause of anxiety. Its cost and its duration especially worry him. While his training and experience do not permit him to minimize its importance, he would like to make it as cheap and as short as possible. The reader wants his book, and he wants it now--as soon as he sees the notice of it in the paper. The departments of the library that have to do with its preparation are anxious only that this preparation shall be thorough, realizing that on it depends the usefulness of the book in the second, or public, period of its life. The impatient reader sees no reason for any delay. The co-operating departments see every reason. The librarian sees the reasons, too, but it is his business, to a certain extent, to take the reader's part, and insist that the book's preparation shall not be so thorough that by the time of its completion two-thirds of the necessity for any preparation at all shall have passed, never to return.

It therefore becomes an important part of his duty to hurry up the work of preparation, and it is my experience that this duty becomes difficult of performance, wellnigh impossible, when the work and responsibility of preparation devolves upon two or more departments. It has sometimes seemed to me that a majority of my working hours were occupied in settling disputes between the order and catalog departments, in futile endeavors to fit the responsibility for delays upon one or the other and to decide which of them, and when, was telling the truth about the other. It was thus with a feeling of relief, although somewhat of surprise, that I found myself four years ago at the head of a library where the preparatory stage of the book's life is entirely in charge of one department, a plan involving of course the consolidation of the order and catalog work.

My four years' experience has convinced me that in many cases this plan may be the solution of some of the librarian's problems. It does not do away with delay: it does not make the library staff assume the reader's point of view, or even the librarian's; but it does reduce the number of department heads with whom the librarian has to deal in his "hurry-up" campaign, and it does unify a responsibility whose division continually causes him trouble and vexation. That we so seldom see the combination of this work arises from the fact that the various stages of the book's preparation are rarely looked upon as parts of a whole. The ordering of books is regarded as a business in itself, requiring its own kind of expert knowledge and completed when the book has been delivered and the bills checked off. The cataloger, again, is proud of the degree of technical perfection to which he has brought the multiplicity of detail in his work. He has a high sense of its necessity in the library's scheme. Few see that both these processes, together with mechanical operations of pasting, labelling and lettering on which everyone looks down, are simply stages in the work of preparation, through which a book must pass before it becomes an integral part of a modern library. These are not separate departments of work, one completed before the next is begun; they are interwoven and interdependent in all sorts of ways. Books can not be ordered properly without a catalog. Books can not be cataloged properly without information necessary in the operation of ordering. It becomes a question of library policy, then, whether these operations may not be combined, and the considerations adduced above form at least a strong argument for such combination.

I have purposely dwelt on this matter from the standpoint of a general administrator and have therefore not gone into details, which it will be easy for you to obtain if you desire them.

In closing, let me say that I believe catalogers to have in a high degree that devotion to their task and that skill and interest in working out its details, that have made the American public library what it is. What they need to guard against is the aloofness arising from the separate and technical character of that work. Many of them realize, and all of them should do so, the fact that the catalog is made for the reader; not the reader for the catalog. We may try to train our readers to use our catalogs, but to the end of time we shall still have to deal with the unintelligent, the careless and the captious, and we must try to adapt our catalogs more or less to them. The cataloger may have to break cherished rules, to throw tradition overboard, to act in many ways that will scandalize his profession. Contact with as many other departments of the library as possible--realization of his position as a cog wheel in contact with other cogs, will help on the good work.

The following paper written by Miss BEATRICE WINSER, of the Newark free public library, was read in her absence by Miss Agnes Van Valkenburgh, of the library school of the New York public library:

THE RELATION OF THE CATALOG DEPARTMENT TO OTHER DEPARTMENTS IN THE LIBRARY

The subject assigned to me is the relation of the catalog department to other departments in a library. There is a feeling abroad that it is the tendency of librarians to consider their catalog departments as things apart, the details of whose management, long ago settled by experts, should be modified only as those experts may suggest.

Probably chief librarians do not have the habit of refraining from giving frequent and careful examinations in the catalog departments, or have less interest in the improvement of those departments than in others; but, because it has been possible for experts to formulate rules, as it has not been possible for anyone to do for other branches of the work, the chief librarians have quite naturally allowed themselves to pay less and less attention to the details of these departments, which have thus lost the stimulus which the chief librarians give to the departments with which they largely concern themselves.

This, naturally, as I have already said, tends to make of the cataloging department a thing apart and much efficiency is lost to the library as a whole because of it.

For the purposes of this paper I propose to include in the scope of the cataloging department much of the work on books from their selection to their placing on the shelf.

It must be borne in mind that I am speaking of public libraries and not of college, historical, scientific or special libraries of any kind, and that I am making suggestions only.

Book Selection

The selection of books instead of being a difficult and complicated matter calling for hours of study and conference, is really quite simple. Every librarian should expect his more intelligent assistants to make suggestions and help to keep his or her own collection up to date, but final decisions as to purchase should rest in the hands of two or three only. An attempt to let a dozen or more people discuss at meetings the value of any book or books and the propriety of adding this or that to the library costs enormously in time and money, and serves no useful purpose.

It improves the quality of the books selected but little, it tends to develop undue caution and to make the choice too literary and, if it helps to educate the assistants, it does so at too great a cost. The desire is often expressed that a library should contain "a well-rounded, well-balanced collection of books." This phrase sounds well and perhaps impresses the trustees or the town, but what does it really mean? Were we to follow it to its logical conclusion we would all buy in certain fixed proportions, all kinds of books and while we might then lay claim that we had a well-balanced collection, we would be far from filling well the special needs of any special community in which we might be placed. In point of fact every library buys what it thinks it needs most, in most cases it will be found that the books selected are the best books for that library. Most books buy themselves, others cry out to be selected. The clientele is waiting for them. The small remnant of specially chosen books call for no elaborate conferences. Why have any system of recording the fact that you did not buy certain books at this time, since next month or next year the book not bought has been displaced by another? Besides, you can always discover from your bibliographical aids the books you have been compelled to miss, so why duplicate the work already done for you?

Now let us look at the purely clerical side of book ordering. Do we fill out an elaborate order slip with all sorts of bibliographical data needed for comparatively few books only? All that is really needed by bookseller and library is the author, title and publisher of a book, and the latter even could be omitted in most cases.

Do we economize time and labor by writing our orders so that with the aid of carbon paper, we have an order slip to file, one to send to the bookdealer and another to the Library of Congress for the purchase of cards?

When a consignment of books arrives do we have some elaborate system of checking it off the bill? Do we use cabalistic signs in our books so that the public may not by any chance discover the price of them? Or do we simply write in plain sight the price, source and date of the bill in each book, check the book on the bill and pass it on?

Have we ever tried the experiment with say the Fiction Class of not giving either price, source and date of bill in the books?

Suppose we buy all our novels from one bookseller, as most libraries do, and announce to the staff generally and also drop a card into the official catalog and the shelf-list to the effect, that after such or such a date, neither the source nor price will be found in any novel, as everyone knows that all novels are bought from John Smith and cost $1.00. Think of the time saved! I am willing to wager that no library could report any ill effects from this change.

As to the few novels which sell at net prices, the money lost in charging the usual rate of $1.00 is negligible compared with the time saved in making these unnecessary entries. To comfort the super-conscientious librarian the loss would actually be covered in many cases, because the reprints of novels often cost less than $1.00.

Accession Record

Now let us go on to the accession book and ask how many use the regular or the condensed book and why?

Do you cling to the theory that it is the one complete record of every book in your library and would be most useful in case of adjustment of fire losses? I can't deny that it is a complete record of every book, but of what use is that to the library?

As to the adjustment of fire losses, are the books in your library arranged in accession order so that in case of fire you could show the insurance adjusters which books were burned by referring to your accession books?

Do you claim that the accession number is still necessary so that you may know the number of books added and to help distinguish one copy of a book from another? Why not use the Bates numbering stamp as an automatically accurate recording device, and save time and money? Do you use the accession book for securing each month the number of books added in any one class, which of course the Bates numbering stamp can not give?

To get this one record we employ the time of a person in making other useless records, when all we need is a blank book in which we enter in a few minutes all books under date and class number. In the same book we enter in another place the books subdivided under heads of purchase, binding, periodicals and gifts. Thus at tremendous saving we can answer at once the question of how many books are added during any month and in what class.

Do you perhaps keep an accession book, so that you may secure the price and source of a book reported lost by a borrower? How much lost motion, to say nothing of time and money, is expended annually in libraries where assistants turn from their shelf-list to their accession book for these facts which should be given on the shelf-list card!

Classification

Have you ever thought how much it costs your library to have it classified by a college and library school bred person? I am using these terms as synonymous with an educated person. Have you ever noticed how much time she spends in getting a book into what to her is the exact class and place?

Now I am not arguing for less educated people in our public libraries, far from it, but I wish to call your attention to the amount of time and money expended by you in too minute and particular classification. Have you ever thought that quite a coarse classification is just as good for your library as the rather particular one which causes your head cataloger to spend half an hour over a book which might just as well be made ready in five minutes?

Often, after much time has been spent in debating this point or that, about some special feature of a book, and it has at last been placed in a certain division, it will be found more useful with its fellows in a coarser or broader division.

I am only suggesting that time could be saved here without impairing the usefulness of the library.

Cataloging

This is that division of library work which one must approach as the holy of holies, leaving one's shoes on the mat outside.

Please do not assume that I do not appreciate what it has meant to the public library to have experts formulate a set of rules which any library can use. I am not objecting to the rules, but to the application of the rules. We spend hours, days, months, and years in giving paging, illustrations, size, publishers and place of publication on our catalog cards and all for what purpose pray?

What does the average user of a public library want to know? He wants to know whether you have a book by a certain author, by a certain title or on a certain subject. Ninety-five per cent of the borrowers of books want nothing more than that, and I am excluding fiction entirely. Consequently for the possible five per cent, and that is a high percentage, you spend much time in giving gratuitous information. The man who knows his subject goes to the bibliographies of the subject and does not depend upon your card catalog for bibliographical information. Let us look into these valuable items, aside from the very necessary author and title, supplied on catalog cards.

Paging. Did your reference people ever report any need of it in serving the public? I never heard of such need.

Place of publication and publisher. Both these items are occasionally asked for, but why spend time in putting them on all your cards for the sake of the few who wish to know, since you can immediately refer to Books in Print for current books and for all others to the many aids published for the librarian.

The date. Well, I might grant that it serves a better purpose than the other items, but I doubt its great usefulness.

Do you in addition to the very necessary shelf-list for all the books in the library, have a special shelf-list for Branches? Have you ever thought of the time given to keep the record of all the books at your Branches?

What purpose does it serve, since your Branches have their own record of the books they have?

I know of one library which kept such a record and finally decided to give it up, since it cost a great deal of money, and seemed after careful consideration to be of little value. Not the least harm has resulted from the change and the cataloging department has almost forgotten that it was ever done.

Does the head cataloger work at least one day a week in the lending or reference department for the sake of getting away from her own point of view and to imbibe something of the real needs of public and assistants? Try it, even if you think you can't afford it and I venture to prognosticate that your cataloging department from being the seat of the learned and superior will become a really valuable aid to all the other departments.

Within the limits of my paper I have been able to cite only a few examples of the changes which might be made in the method of putting books on the shelf in most of our public libraries, but I hope that the very obvious things I have said may serve to help in simplifying the work of a profession already much overburdened with technique.

The fourth paper in the discussion by Miss LAURA SMITH, of the Cincinnati public library, was entitled:

ADMINISTRATION OF A CATALOG DEPARTMENT FROM A CATALOGER'S POINT OF VIEW

The ideal of the modern library is service to the community, but the tendency has been to estimate this service by statistics as printed in library reports. Columns of figures, showing the number of books cataloged and the cards made, represent but a small part of what can be done and should not be taken as a measure of value of the cataloging department to the library patrons. The old idea of the library was the omniscient librarian who served all the readers from his store of knowledge, but the development of the modern library movement, bringing an increased patronage, made it necessary to delegate some of this work, and libraries were set off into departments. Gradually mechanical appliances were introduced and personal aid was limited to the favored few while the average reader was helpless in the face of machinery whose workings were a mystery to him. It reminds one of the story of the fine hospital donated by a philanthropic citizen to a thriving town of the middle west. The building was a model of hospital architecture, the furnishings were the most modern obtainable and the institution was ideal in every respect, adjudged by experts the latest thing in hospitals. A poor citizen, foreign by birth, took his wife to this hospital for treatment. The next day he went to inquire for her and was told that she was too ill to see him, but the attendant offered to take him through the building and show him all the modern improvements. The man was interested and followed his guide through the various wards, listening attentively to his lecture on the advantages of the latest improvements in hospital service. The second day he returned to learn the progress of his wife's case, but she was still too ill to see him, so the attendant showed him some more improvements, which he had not seen the day before. The man was greatly impressed. The third day he returned and was told that his wife had died. When asked by a friend what disease had ended her life, he replied, "I don't know, unless it was the improvements." So the library has adopted progressive methods and among other improvements it has walled a room with the latest model of catalog trays filled with cards as silent guides to the collection of books. Printed signs, which no one reads, give intricate directions as to the use of this monster; a human assistant is rarely in sight. Has the library the right to expect the public to know how to use a catalog? A trained assistant should be stationed here, and who are better qualified for this service than the members of the cataloging staff? At this point is one of the opportunities for the cataloger's most efficient service to the community.

The chief requisite of a well-organized catalog department is a corps of intelligent, educated, trained assistants who have had several years' experience. The raw recruit from the library school is an expense to the service because library school graduates find difficulty in adapting themselves to the existing methods of most libraries. This fault is sometimes individual but more often it is due to the different methods of cataloging taught in the various schools. There should be uniformity of method on this point, full cataloging should be taught in all the schools because it is far easier for the cataloger to learn omissions than to acquire a knowledge of full cataloging when the short form only has been taught in the school. Subject-heading work can be taught only in a general way. Years of experience are needed before an assistant is competent to assign subject headings, therefore a constantly changing staff is an item of expense worthy of serious consideration. Subject headings might be in the hands of a few assistants but there is advantage in having the views of many minds under the supervision of one reviser.

An understanding of the community and of existing conditions within the library, added to a thoroughly assimilated knowledge of cataloging methods, increases the value of an assistant. Changes are usually due to small salaries, and to better financial conditions elsewhere, but adding a reasonable amount to the salary of a competent assistant is a good investment. To be sure, it foots up on the pay roll as a larger outlay than the substitution of a less experienced assistant at the same or a smaller salary. What the pay roll tells, however, is not borne out by the facts because on it there is no financial accounting for the time of the administrator of the department which is consumed in breaking in a new cataloger while the more important things wait, or go by default. Positions in the cataloging department should yield a financial return sufficient to make their incumbency more or less permanent for it is possible to accomplish more with a smaller staff of experienced assistants than with a larger number of those new to the business.

When the library has gathered together the best staff of catalogers it can afford it should not put them, like a collection of expensive bric-a-brac, behind closed doors with only the regulation catalogers' tools as guides, and expect them to yield the best return on the investment. The best cataloger needs the stimulus of personal contact with the public as an aid to the most intelligent work. When the cataloging department has a sufficient number of well-trained, experienced assistants, a schedule of work which permits direct contact with the public for at least one-third of the time and a system of co-operation between departments with freedom from unnecessary interruptions to the routine as planned, the catalog is a labor saving tool reducing the net cost of production by the time saved to the circulating and reference departments.

The cataloging for a large library system should be done at the central library for several reasons. The main cataloging offices are there with the collection of reference books and the official files showing what headings and entries have been used. The expert catalogers and revisers are better fitted for the responsibility of the cataloging than the assistants at the branches, distracted by other work. The enormous number of cards necessary for the various catalogs are more economically duplicated by writer press, or multigraph, than by hand or typewriter because time is saved in this way in the actual making of the cards, in numbering and putting titles on printed cards and in proof reading, or revising, for in revising typewritten cards, each card must be carefully scrutinized, while from the writer press only the first copy needs revision. When copies of the same title are to be purchased for several branches, the cost of cataloging is greatly reduced if all the copies reach the cataloging department together as time is thus saved in all the processes of preparing the books for circulation, from the accessioning to the pasting of the labels. In the case of fiction this is always possible but with other classes, while it is not always expedient to purchase for the main library and the branches simultaneously, the branch librarians and order department can simplify the process by prompt decision as to the number of branches to which titles are to be added, so that all cards may be ordered or made at the same time. By this means one order for printed cards and one setting up of copy for writer press or multigraph is sufficient. When books come to the catalog department singly and at odd times the labor of verifying author entries and subject headings is the same as for new titles, and the making of cards becomes a mechanical process only when they are to be made in large quantities. Every branch added to the library system increases the work of the cataloging department, a fact often lost sight of by the chief administrators of a library. There seems to be a popular delusion that each new addition to the library family means only a duplication of cards while the fact remains that most of the processes in the routine practically consume as much time and thought as if the title in hand were new in the library. In the case of shelf-listing it is obviously easier and takes less time to make a brand new shelf-list card for a book than it does to withdraw the card from the shelf-list, make an addition to it and refile the card.

If the main building is so arranged that one card catalog can be used conveniently by all departments much expense will be saved. But if there must be department catalogs, author and subject entries should be uniform so that the individual catalogs may be simply duplicates of certain divisions of the general catalog. Subject headings in the public library should be simple enough to be within the comprehension of the average reader. To simplify headings for children is a useless expense and an insult to the child who is often more intelligent than many adult readers. The public library being "an integral part of public education" should not be guilty of senseless simplification even though the kindergartners may accuse us of "taking away the joy of childhood." If the so-called simplified headings are used they can not be filed with other headings, therefore two separate catalogs in each branch must be maintained at extra expense.

All non-essentials should be eliminated from the mechanical processes of preparing books for the shelves. The time of high-priced service should be used for the scholarly work, duplication of cards and routine clerical work do not require a college education nor library school training. Printed cards should be purchased whenever possible. It is not necessary to become hysterical over the superfluity of information on some of the Library of Congress cards because the average user of a catalog in a public library does not read beyond the first line of the title, and therefore is not confused by bibliographical details. On the other hand, this same detail is valuable to the few readers who need it. Another groundless objection to the use of these cards is the statement that books must be held until the cards are received. If there is co-operation between the order and the cataloging departments, books and cards may be ordered and will come to the cataloger about the same time. When they do not the books should be sent through on temporary slips. This adds slightly to the cost of handling, but saves the reputation of the library in the circulating department. The printed card should be accepted when it agrees with the title page, but when the card requires changes which mar its appearance it should be rejected. When the cards must be made by the individual library the extra bibliographical detail should be omitted for purposes of economy, and the catalogs would still be uniform and accurate in essentials. Entries must be accurate, uniform and as consistent as possible that the catalog may save the time of the reference librarians, since effective reference work can be done only when the library is well classified and cataloged and quick service is possible only under these conditions.

The plan to combine the catalog and reference departments, the assistants working one-third of their time in reference work, brings excellent results. In the first place the assistants come in direct contact with the public for part of every day. The knowledge of books gained by examination for full cataloging can be made directly useful to the public. On the other hand, the demands of the reader, his peculiarities of expression and his general attitude toward the library give inspiration to the work in the cataloging department as to subject headings and analyticals to be made. The change of work is restful and enables the assistants to accomplish much in a day without becoming weary of either line of work. The efficiency of the assistants depends upon their ability to bring the book and the reader together and as the cataloger has the advantage of studying the books she should therefore bring this knowledge to the public through personal contact.

Emphasis is put on the increased usefulness of the staff by reason of the ability to appreciate the relation between the library and the public and to bring into the daily life of the community the increased knowledge of books.

What has been said is not intended as a criticism of any method of administering a cataloging department, but is an effort rather to present a plan which from practical experience has proved successful.

The discussion was then thrown open to the floor, with the suggestion from the chairman that it take the following lines:

1. Is the catalog department too confined in its organization and too distinctly separated from other departments?

2. How much mechanical work should be done by expert catalogers? Who should do the mechanical work and where should it be done?

3. What should be the relations between the catalog and the shipping departments?

Mr. Hodges, of the Cincinnati public library, said that each library had to use a system suited to its individual needs, that in Cincinnati there was no head of the order department, that he considered the use of catalogers in the reference department during rush hours a good plan as they were usually well fitted for the work, that in his library there was a single head of the catalog and reference departments.

Miss Hitchler, superintendent of cataloging of the Brooklyn public library, said that co-operation could be effected between departments without interchange of assistants.

Mr. Hopper said that the obstacle to combining the heads of the catalog and order departments in one person was that a knowledge of cataloging and a knowledge of the book trade were seldom combined in one person.

During the discussion of the second point--that of scientific management within the department--Miss Van Valkenburgh raised a laugh by inquiring where we are to draw the line in keeping track of our efficiency.

Mr. Martel, of the Library of Congress, in answer to the charge made against catalogers of over-elaboration, as for example in the matter of periodical records, said that under-elaboration often proved quite as expensive as over-elaboration.

SECOND SESSION

Friday, June 29.

The second session of the Catalog Section was held on Friday afternoon, June 29, Miss Gooch presiding.

Miss Van Valkenburgh, Miss Hiss, and Miss Dame, were appointed as nominating committee by the Chairman.

The session took the form of an informal discussion on simplified forms of typewritten catalog cards, and was held at the desire of the committee of the Professional Training Section on uniformity of forms of catalog cards. This committee was appointed in January, 1912, and consists of Helen Turvill, Chairman, Agnes Van Valkenburgh, Harriet B. Gooch.

The Chairman directed the discussion by taking up point by point the form of card recommended by the committee for the practice work of the library schools. Typewritten cards for a public library of about 50,000 volumes, to be filed with L. C. cards, were taken as a basis of discussion.

Among the details considered were the following, with the decisions which seemed most generally favored by those present:

=Brackets.= Omit brackets for material inserted in heading but use in title and imprint.

=Initial article.= Use initial article, unless including it would entail repeating author's name in the title.

=Initial possessive.= Omit author's name in the possessive case at the beginning of a title, and cancel it when used on L. C. cards.

=Editor, etc.= In the title use the name of the editor, translator, etc., in the form given on the title page.

=Imprint.= Include place, publisher and date of publication together with inclusive copyright dates if they differ from the date of publication.

=Collation.= Give main paging, illus., ports., maps. Give size only if unusual.

=Position of items.= Begin collation on a new line and indent.

=Secondary cards.= Give author and title only on secondary cards. (Main subject cards are not considered secondary cards.)

Other details discussed were use of points of omission, form of series note, tracing cards, headings in joint-author entries, the place for paging in an analytical note, entry under pseudonym versus real name, entry for adapter.

At the close of the foregoing discussion, the matter of having a permanent A. L. A. committee on cataloging was brought forward, and upon Miss Van Valkenburgh's motion, it was determined to request the Executive Board of the A. L. A. to appoint a permanent catalog committee to which questions in cataloging may be referred for recommendation.

Miss Sutliff then suggested that an A. L. A. code of alphabetizing would also be welcome. Mr. Martel, in response to a question by the Chairman, said that the Library of Congress followed the Cutter Rules, but had working notes that might be helpful.

A motion put by Mr. Keogh was then passed that the Executive Board of the A. L. A. be asked to send a request to the Librarian of Congress to furnish the code of alphabetizing used in the Library of Congress for publication.

An amendment to the foregoing to include the words "with changes for small libraries" failed of passage.

The nominating committee then submitted its ticket: Chairman, Charles Martel, Chief of the Catalog Division, Library of Congress; Secretary, Edith P. Bucknam, Chief of the Cataloging Department, Queens Borough public library.

After the election, the meeting adjourned.

SECTION ON LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN

FIRST SESSION

The first session of the Section on Library Work with Children was held in the ballroom of the Hotel Kaaterskill, at 2:30 p. m., June 24th, with the Chairman, Miss Power, in the chair. In the absence of Miss Lawrence, Miss Ida Duff acted as secretary.

Two papers on the subject of "Values in library work with children" were read; the first by Miss CLARA W. HUNT, superintendent of the children's department, Brooklyn public library.

VALUES IN LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN--I

You are probably familiar with the story of the man who, being asked by his host which part of the chicken he liked best replied that "he'd never had a chance to find out; that when he was a boy it was the fashion to give the grown people first choice, and by the time he'd grown up the children had the pick, so he'd never tasted anything but the drumstick."

It will doubtless be looked upon as heresy for a children's librarian to own that she has a deal of sympathy for the down-trodden adult of the present; that there have been moments when she has even gone so far as to say an "amen"--under her breath--to the librarian who, after a day of vexations at the hands of the exasperating young person represented in our current social writings as a much-sinned-against innocent, wrathfully exploded, "Children ought to be put in a barrel and fed through the bung till they are twenty-one years old!"

During the scant quarter century which has seen the birth and marvelous growth of modern library work with children, the "new education" has been putting its stamp upon the youth of America and upon the ideas of their parents regarding the upbringing of children. And it has come to pass that one must be very bold to venture to brush off the dust of disuse from certain old saws and educational truisms, such as "All play and no work make Jack a mere toy," "No gains without pains," "We learn to do by doing," "Train up a child in the way he should go," and so on.

Our kindergartens, our playground agitators, our juvenile courts, our child welfare exhibits are so persistently--and rightly--showing the wrongdoing child as the helpless victim of heredity and environment that hasty thinkers are jumping to the conclusion that, since a child is not to blame for his thieving tendencies, it is our duty, rather than punish, to let him go on stealing; since it is a natural instinct for a boy to like the sound of crashing glass and the exercise of skill needed to hit a mark, we must not reprove him for throwing stones at windows; because a child does not like to work, we should let him play--play all the time.

The painless methods of the new education, which tend to make life too soft for children, and to lead parents to believe that everything a child craves he must have, these tendencies have had their effect upon the production and distribution of juvenile books, and have added to the librarian's task the necessity not only of fighting against the worst reading, but against the third rate lest it crowd out the best.

It is the importance of this latter warfare which I wish mainly to discuss.

We children's librarians, in the past fifteen or twenty years, have had to take a good many knocks, more or less facetious, from spectators of the sterner sex who are worried about the "feminization of the library," and who declare that no woman, certainly no spinster, can possibly understand the nature of the boy. Perhaps sometimes we are inclined to droop apologetic heads, because we know that some women are sentimental, that they don't all "look at things in the large," as men invariably do. In view, however, of the record of this youthful movement of ours, we have a right rather to swagger than to apologize.

The influence of the children's libraries upon the ideals, the tastes, the occupations, the amusements, the language, the manners, the home standards, the choice of careers, upon the whole life, in fact, of thousands upon thousands of boys and girls has been beyond all count as a civic force in America.

And yet, while teachers tell us that the opening of every new library witnesses a substitution of wholesome books for "yellow" novels in pupils' hands; while men in their prime remark their infrequent sight of the sensational periodicals left on every doorstep twenty years ago; while publishers of children's books are trying to give us a clean, safe juvenile literature, and while some nickel novel publishers are even admitting a decline in the sale of their wares; in spite of these evidences of success, a warfare is still on, though its character is changing.

Every librarian who has examined children's books for a few years back knows exactly what to expect when she tackles the "juveniles" of 1913.

There will be a generous number of books so fine in point of matter and make-up that we shall lament having been born too late to read these in our childhood. The information and the taste acquired by children who have read the best juvenile publications of the past ten years is perfectly amazing, and those extremists who decry the buying of any books especially written for children are nearly as nonsensical as the ones who would buy everything the child wishes.

But when one has selected with satisfaction perhaps a hundred and fifty titles, one begins to get into the potboiler class--the written-to-order information book which may be guaranteed to kill all future interest in a subject treated in style so wooden and lifeless; the retold classic in which every semblance to the spirit of the original is lost, and the reading of which will give to the child that familiarity which will breed contempt for the work itself; the atrocious picture book modeled after the comic supplement and telling in hideous daubs of color and caricature of line the tale of the practical joker who torments animals, mocks at physical deformities, plays tricks on parents, teases the newly-wed, ridicules good manners, whose whole aim, in short, is to provoke guffaws of laughter at the expense of someone's hurt body or spirit. There will be collections of folk and fairy tales, raked together without discrimination from the literature of people among whom trickery and cunning are the most admired qualities; there will be school stories in which the masters and studious boys grovel at the feet of the football hero; in greater number than the above will be the stories written in series on thoroughly up-to-date subjects.

I shall be much surprised if we do not learn this fall that the world has been deceived in supposing that to Amundsen and Scott belong the honor of finding the South Pole, or to Gen. Goethals the credit of engineering the Panama Canal. If we do not discover that some young Frank or Jack or Bill was the brains behind these achievements, I shall wonder what has become of the ingenuity of the plotter of the series stories--the "plotter" I say advisedly, for it is a known fact that many of these stories are first outlined by a writer whose name makes books sell, the outlines then being filled in by a company of underlings who literally write to order. When we learn, also, that an author who writes admirable stories, in which special emphasis is laid upon fair play and a sense of honor, is at the same time writing under another name books he is ashamed to acknowledge, we are not surprised at the low grade of the resulting stories.

With the above extremes of good and poor there will be quantities on the border line, books not distinctly harmful from one standpoint--in fact, they will busily preach honesty and pluck and refinement, etc., but they will be so lacking in imagination and power, in the positive qualities that go to make a fine book, that they cannot be called wholly harmless, since that which crowds out a better thing is harmful, at least to the extent that it usurps the room of the good.

These books we will be urged to buy in large duplicate, and when we, holding to the ideal of the library as an educational force, refuse to supply this intellectual pap, well-to-do parents may be counted upon to present the same in quantities sufficient to weaken the mental digestion of their offspring beyond cure by teachers the most gifted.

There are two principal arguments--so-called--hurled at every librarian who tries to maintain a high standard of book selection. One is the "I read them when I was a child and they did me no harm" claim; the other, based upon the doggedly clung-to notion that our ideal of manhood is a grown-up Fauntleroy, infers that every book rejected was offensive to the children's librarian because of qualities dangerously likely to encourage the boy in a taste for bloodshed and dirty hands.

Now, in this day when parents are frantically protecting their children from the deadly house fly, the mosquito, the common drinking cup and towel; when milk must be sterilized and water boiled and adenoids removed; when the young father solemnly bows to the dictum that he mustn't rock nor trot his own baby--isn't it really matter for the joke column to hear the "did me no harm" idea advanced as an argument? And yet it is so offered by the same individual who, though he has survived a boyhood of mosquito bites and school drinking cups, refuses to allow his child to risk what he now knows to be a possible carrier of disease.

The "what was good enough for me is good enough for my children" idea, if soberly treated as an argument in other matters of life, would mean death to all progress, and it is no more to be treated seriously as a reason for buying poor juvenile books than a contention for the fetich doctor versus the modern surgeon, or for the return to the foot messenger in place of electrical communication.

It would be tactless, if not positively dangerous, if we children's librarians openly expressed our views when certain people point boastfully to themselves as shining products of mediocre story book childhoods. So I would hastily suppress this thought, and instead remind these people that, as a vigorous child is immune from disease germs which attack a delicate one, so unquestionably have thousands of mental and moral weaklings been retarded from their best development by books that left no mark on healthy children. In spite of the probability that there are today alive many able-bodied men who cut their first teeth on pickles and pork chops, we do not question society's duty to disseminate proper ideas on the care and feeding of children.

Isn't it about time that we nailed down the lid of the coffin on the "did me no harm" argument and buried the same in the depths of the sea?

Another notion that dies hard is one assuming that, since the children's librarian is a woman, prone to turn white about the gills at the sight of blood--or a mouse--she can not possibly enter into the feelings of the ancestral barbarian surviving in the young human breast, but must try to hasten the child's development to twentieth century civilization by eliminating the elemental and savage from his story books.

If those who grow hoarse shouting the above would take the trouble to examine the lists of an up-to-date library they might blush for their shallowness, that they have been basing their opinions on their memory of library lists at least twenty-five years old.

We do not believe that womanly women and manly men are most successfully made by way of silly, shoddy, sorry-for-themselves girlhoods, or lying, swaggering, loafing boyhoods; and it is the empty, the vulgar, the cheap, smart, trust-to-luck story, rather than the gory one, that we dislike.

I am coming to the statement of what I believe to be the problem most demanding our study today. It is, briefly, the problem of the mediocre book, its enormous and ever-increasing volume. More fully stated it is the problem of the negatively as the enemy of the positively good; of the cultivation of brain laziness by "thoughts-made-easy" reading. It is a republic's, a public school problem, viz.: How is it possible to raise to a higher average the lowest, without reducing to a dead level of mediocrity the citizens of superior possibilities? Our relation to publisher and parent, to the library's adult open shelves of current fiction enter into the problem. The children's over-reading, and their reluctance to "graduate" from juvenile books, these and many other perplexing questions grow out of the main one.

I said awhile ago that the new education has had a tendency to make life too soft for children, and to give to their parents the belief that natural instincts alone are safe guides to follow in rearing a child. I hope I shall not seem to be a good old times croaker, sighing for the days when school gardens and folk dancing and glee clubs and dramatization of lessons and beautiful textbooks and fascinating handicraft and a hundred other delightful things were undreamed-of ways of making pleasant the paths of learning. Heaven forbid that I should join the ranks of those who carp at a body of citizens who, at an average wage in America less than that of the coal miner and the factory worker, have produced in their schools results little short of the miraculous. To visit, as I have, classrooms of children born in slums across the sea, transplanted to tenements in New York, and to see what our public school teachers are making of these children--the backward, the underfed, the "incorrigible," the blind, the anæmic--well, all I can say is, I do not recommend these visits to Americans of the stripe of that boastful citizen who, being shown the crater of Vesuvius with a "There, you haven't anything like that in America!" disdainfully replied, "Naw, but we've got Niagara, and that'd put the whole blame thing out!" For myself I never feel quite so disposed to brag of my Americanism as when I visit some of our New York schools.

And yet, watching the bored shrug of the bright, well-born high school child when one suggests that "The prince and the pauper" is quite as interesting a story as the seventh volume of her latest series, a librarian has some feelings about the lines-of-least-resistance method of educating our youth, which she is glad to find voiced by some of our ablest thinkers.

Here is what J. P. Munroe says: "Many of the new methods ... methods of gentle cooing toward the child's inclinations, of timidly placing a chair for him before a disordered banquet of heterogeneous studies, may produce ladylike persons, but they will not produce men. And when these modern methods go as far as to compel the teacher to divide this intellectual cake and pudding into convenient morsels and to spoon-feed them to the child, partly in obedience to his schoolboy cravings, partly in conformity to a pedagogical psychology, then the result is sure to be mental and moral dyspepsia in a race of milksops." How aptly "spoon-fed pudding" characterizes whole cartloads of our current "juveniles"!

Listen to President Wilson's opinion: "To be carried along by somebody's suggestions from the time you begin until the time when you are thrust groping and helpless into the world, is the very negation of education. By the nursing process, by the coddling process you are sapping a race; and only loss can possibly result except upon the part of individuals here and there who are so intrinsically strong that you cannot spoil them."

Hugo Münsterberg is a keen observer of the product of American schools, and contrasting their methods with those of his boyhood he says: "My school work was not adjusted to botany at nine years because I played with an herbarium, and at twelve to physics because I indulged in noises with home-made electric bells, and at fifteen to Arabic, an elective which I miss still in several high schools, even in Brookline and Roxbury. The more my friends and I wandered afield with our little superficial interests and talents and passions, the more was the straightforward earnestness of the school our blessing; and all that beautified and enriched our youth, and gave to it freshness and liveliness, would have turned out to be our ruin, if our elders had taken it seriously, and had formed a life's program out of petty caprices and boyish inclinations."

And Prof. Münsterberg thrusts his finger into what I believe to be the weakest joint in our educational armor when he says: "... as there is indeed a difference whether I ask what may best suit the taste and liking of Peter, the darling, or whether I ask what Peter, the man, will need for the battle of life in which nobody asks what he likes, but where the question is how he is liked, and how he suits the taste of his neighbors."

What would become of our civilization if we were to follow merely the instincts and natural desires? Yet is there not in America a tremendous tendency to the notion, that except in matters of physical welfare, the child's lead is to be followed to extreme limits? Don't we librarians feel it in the pressure brought to bear upon us by those who fail to find certain stories, wanted by the children, on our shelves? "Why, that's a good book," the parent will say, "The hero is honest and kind, the book won't hurt him any--in fact it will give the child some good ideas."

"Ideas." Yes, perhaps. There is another educator I should like to quote, J. H. Baker in his "Education and life": "Whatever you would wish the child to do and become, that let him practice. We learn to do, not by knowing, but by knowing and then doing. Ethical teaching, tales of heroic deeds, soul-stirring fiction that awakens sympathetic emotions may accomplish but little unless in the child's early life ... the ideas and feelings find expression in action and so become a part of the child's power and tendency...."

Now we believe with G. Stanley Hall that, "The chief enemy of active virtue in the world is not vice but laziness, languor and apathy of will;" that "mind work is infinitely harder than physical toil;" that (as another says) "all that does not rouse, does not set him to work, rusts and taints him ... the disease of laziness ... destroys the whole man."

And when children of good heritage, good homes, sound bodies, bright minds, spend hours every week curled up among cushions, allowing a stream of cambric-tea literature gently to trickle over their brain surfaces, we know that though the heroes and heroines of these stories be represented as prodigies of industry and vigor, our young swallowers of the same are being reduced to a pulp of brain and will laziness that will not only make them incapable of struggling with a page of Quentin Durward, for example, but will affect their moral stamina, since fighting fiber is the price of virtue.

Ours is, as I have said, a public education, a republic's problem. To quote President Wilson again: "Our present plans for teaching everybody involve certain unpleasant things quite inevitably. It is obvious that you cannot have universal education without restricting your teaching to such things as can be universally understood. It is plain that you cannot impart 'university methods' to thousands, or create 'investigators' by the score, unless you confine your university education to matters which dull men can investigate, your laboratory training to tasks which mere plodding diligence and submissive patience can compass. Yet, if you do so limit and constrain what you teach, you thrust taste and insight and delicacy of perception out of the schools, exalt the obvious and merely useful things above the things which are only imaginatively or spiritually conceived, make education an affair of tasting and handling and smelling, and so create Philistia, that country in which they speak of 'mere literature.'"

In our zeal to serve the little alien, descendant of generations of poverty and ignorance, let us not lose sight of the importance to our country of the child more fortunate in birth and brains. So strong is my feeling on the value of leaders that I hold we should give at least as much study to the training of the accelerate child as we give to that of the defective. Though I boast the land of Abraham Lincoln and Booker Washington I do not give up one iota of my belief that the child who is born into a happy environment, of parents strong in body and mind, holds the best possibilities of making a valuable citizen; and so I am concerned that this child be not spoiled in the making by a training or lack of training that fails to recognize his possibilities.

It is encouraging to find growing attention in the "Proceedings" of the N. E. A. and other educational bodies to the problem of the bright child who has suffered by the lock-step system which has molded all into conformity with the capabilities of the average child.

The librarian's difficulty is perhaps greater than that of the teacher, because open shelves and freedom of choice are so essential a part of our program. We must provide easy reading for thousands of children. Milk and water stories may have an actual value to children whose unfavorable heritage and environment have retarded their mental development. But the deplorable thing is to see young people, mercifully saved from the above handicaps, making a bee line for the current diluted literature for grown-ups, (as accessible as Scott on our open shelves) and to realize that this taste, which is getting a life set, is the inevitable outcome of the habit of reading mediocre juveniles.

We must not rail at publishers for trying to meet the demands of purchasers. Our job is to influence that demand far more than we have done as yet. Large book jobbers tell us that millions and millions of poor juveniles are sold in America to thousands of the sort we librarians recommend. I have seen purchase lists of boys' club directors and Sunday School library committees calling for just the weak and empty stuff we would destroy. I have unwittingly been an eavesdropper at Christmas book counters and have heard the orders given by parents and the suggestions made by clerks. And I feel that the public library has but skirmished along the outposts while the great field of influencing the reading of American children remains unconquered. Until we affect production to the extent that the book stores circulate as good books as the best libraries we cannot be too complacent about our position as a force in citizen making.

An "impossible" ideal, of course, but far from intimidating, the largeness of the task makes us all the more determined.

This paper attempts no suggestion of new methods of attacking the problem. It is rather a restatement of an old perplexity. I harp once more on a worn theme because I think that unless we frequently lift our eyes from the day's absorbing duties for a look over the whole field, and unless we once and again make searching inventory of our convictions, our purposes, our methods, our attainments, we are in danger of letting ourselves slip along the groove of the taken-for-granted and our work loses in power as we allow ourselves to become leaners instead of leaders. May we not, as if it were a new idea, rouse to the seriousness of the mediocre habit indulged in by young people capable of better things? Should not our work with children reach out more to work with adults, to those who buy and sell and make books for the young? Is it not time for the successful teller of stories to children to use her gifts in audiences of grown people, persuading these molders of the children's future of the reasonableness of our objection to the third rate since it is the enemy of the best? May it not be politic, at least, for the librarian to descend from her disdainful height and make friends with "the trade," with bookseller and publisher who, after all, have as good a right to their bread and butter as the librarian paid out of the city's taxes?

And then--is it not possible that we might be better librarians if we refused to be librarians every hour in the day and half the night as well? What if we were to have the courage to refuse to indulge in nervous breakdowns, because we deliberately plan to play, and to eat, and to sleep, to keep serene and sane and human, believing that God in His Heaven gives His children a world of beauty to enjoy as well as a work to do with zeal. If we lived a little longer and not quite so wide, the gain to our chosen work in calm nerves and breadth of interest and sympathy would even up for dropping work on schedule time for a symphony concert or a country walk or a visit with a friend--might even justify saving the cost of several A. L. A. conferences toward a trip to Italy!

This hurling at librarians advice to play more and work less reminds me of a story told by a southern friend. Years ago, in a sleepy little Virginia village, there lived two characters familiar to the townspeople, whose greatest daily excitement was a stroll down to the railroad station to watch the noon express rush through to distant southern cities. One of these personages was the station keeper, of dry humor and sententious habit, whom we will call Hen Waters; the other was the station goat, named, of course, Billy. Year after year had Billy peacefully cropped the grass along the railroad tracks, turning an indifferent ear to the roar of the daily express, when suddenly one day the notion seemed to strike his goatish mind that this racket had been quietly endured long enough. With the warning whistle of the approaching engine, Billy, lowering his head, darted furiously up the track, intending to butt the offending thunderer into Kingdom Come. When, a few seconds later, the amazed spectators were gazing after the diminishing train, Hen Waters, addressing the spot where the redoubtable goat had last been seen, drawled out: "Billy, I admire your pluck--but darn your discretion!"

The parallel between the ambitions and the futility of the goat, and the present speaker's late advice is so obvious that only the illogicalness of woman can account for my cherishing a hope that I may be spared the fate of the indiscreet Billy.

Miss CAROLINE BURNITE, director of children's work, Cleveland public library, delivered the second paper on this subject, presenting the topic from another viewpoint.

VALUES IN LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN--II

To elucidate principles of value, I shall use, by way of illustration, the experience and structure of a certain children's department where the problem of children's reading and the means of bringing books to them has been more intensively studied in the last nine years than was possible there before that time. At the time we took our last survey of the department it was found that probably about six out of ten of the children of the city read library books in their homes during the calendar year, and that each child had read about twenty books on the average. Four of the six procured library books from a library center; two of the six procured them from collections, either in their schoolrooms or in homes in their neighborhood. In all, fifty-four thousand children read a million books, which reached them through forty-three librarians assigned for special work with these children, through three hundred teachers and about one hundred volunteers. Now, we know that six out of ten children is not an ideal proportion and that fifty-four thousand may endanger the quality of book influence for each child, but both of these statements indicate conditions to be adjusted so that the experience of each reading child may contribute to the whole and experience with numbers may benefit the individual. To accomplish this end, work with the children was given departmental organization. My concern in this paper is with departmental organization as it benefits the reading child, and with the principles and policies which have been developed through departmental unity.

We think ordinarily that one who loves books has three general hallmarks--his reading is fairly continuous, there is permanency of book interest, and this interest maintained on a plane of merit. These three results always justify the reader and those who have influenced him, and if the consequent book interests of the library child were entirely such, they would prove to all laymen, without argument, that the principles are basic. But in the child's contact with the library there are many evidences of modifications of normal book interests; for, instead of continuity of reading, the children's rooms are overcrowded in winter and have comparatively small book use in summer; instead of permanency of book interests extending over the difficult intermediate period, we know that large numbers of those children who leave school before they reach high school have little or no library contact during their first working years and we sometimes feel that the interesting experiences with reading working children, which librarians are prone to emphasize, give us an impression of a larger number than careful investigation would show. As for quality of reading of the individual working child we cannot maintain that it is always on a high plane.

All these conditions we know to be largely the result of environmental influences. Deprived for twelve hours a day, twelve months in a year, of opportunity for normal youthful activities, the child's entire physical and mental schedule is thrown out of balance and his tendency is to turn to reading, a recreation possible at any time, only when there is no opportunity to follow other avenues of interest. The strain upon the ear and eye, and back and brain, is even greater in the shop than in the school, and in the consequent intense physical fatigue the tendency is toward recreations in which the book may have no place. The power of the nickel library over the child can be broken by the presence of the public library, but no intermediate gets away from the suggestion, by voice and print, of the modern novel, with its present-day social interests. Consequently the whole judgment of the results of library work with children can not rest upon these general tests of normal book interests. Rather such variations from the normal are themselves conditions which influence the structure of the work and especially the principles of book presentation. If children are living in an environment which is not the best one for them, all the forces with which they come in contact should tend to correct the abnormal and give them the things their moral nature craves--freer and fuller thoughts, better and freer living, truth of expression, beauty of feeling. We must recognize that books also must be a force in reconstructing or normalizing the influences of their environment. Children with social needs must have books with social values to meet those needs--right social contacts, true social perspective, traditions of family and race, loveliness of nature, companionship of living things, right group association and group interests.

But while the pedagogical and moral values of books, that is the benefits of right reading for children of normal life, were fully analyzed, the children's department of which I speak had almost no written principle to aid in the enormous task of determining the influence of books on children with social needs. Appreciations of the social relationships and the interdependence of characters in books which have proven themselves moving forces in the lives of children, gained through the testimony of men and women who know their indebtedness to them--such books as "Little women," "Tom Brown," "Heidi," "Otto of the silver hand"--gave a fundamental principle upon which to work. Books should construct a larger social ideal for the reader instead of confirming his present one. Then arose this question: Should we have books with weak social values in the library as a concession to certain children, or by having them do we harm most those very children to whom we have conceded them? The gradual solution of this problem seems to me to be one of the greatest services which a library can render its children. So long as this question is in process of solution we may accept the following as a tentative reply: No books weak in social ideals should be furnished, provided we do not lose reading children by their elimination. If such books are the best a child will read and we take them away, causing loss of library reading interest, we permit him to sink further into his environment. With the last principle as a basis, the evaluation of books was accomplished in the evolution of the department. The cumulative experience of librarians working with children showed that many books which lead only to others of their kind were weak in social viewpoint, and that such books were the ones read largely by those children most occasional and spasmodic in their reading. Here was a determining point in the establishment of standards of reading, for it brought us face to face with the question, Shall we consider this situation our fault since we supply such books to children who need something better vastly more than do others, or shall we merely justify our selection by maintaining that those children will under no circumstances read a higher grade of books? However, it was proven at the same time that other books were read also by children with social limitations, which, although apparently no better on first evaluation, lead to a better type of reading and this gave us a fresh impulse to consider the evaluation of books as a constantly moving process, and prompted the policy of the removal of those types of books which were least influential in developing a good reading taste. This was done, however, with the definite intention that an increasingly better standard of reading must mean that no reading children be sacrificed, an end only possible by a fuller knowledge of the value of the individual book to the individual child.

Now let us see what changes have been evolved in the book collections in the department under consideration in the past seven or eight years.

In the first study of the collection and before any final study of books from the social viewpoint had been reached, the proportion of books of the doubtful class to those which were standard was considered, and it was seen that this proportion should be decreased in order that a child's chances for eventually reading the best might be improved. It was obvious that the reading of the young children should be most carefully safeguarded, and this was the first point of attack. As a result, these two types of books were eliminated:

1. All series for young children, such as the Dotty Dimples and the Little Colonels.

2. Books for young children dealing with animal life which have neither humane nor scientific value, such as the Pierson and Wesselhoeft.

At about the same time stories of child life for young children were restricted to those which were most natural and possible, and stories read by older girls in which adults were made the beneficiaries of a surprisingly wise child hero, such as the Plympton books, were eliminated.

The successful elimination of these books, together with the study of the children's reading as a whole, suggested within the next two or three years that other books could be eliminated or restricted without shock to the readers. On the pedagogical basis, certain types of books for young children were judged; on the social basis, certain types of books for older children, with results as follows:

1. The elimination of word books for little children, and the basing of their reading upon their inherent love for folk lore and verse.

2. The elimination of interpreted folk lore, such as many of the modern kindergarten versions.

3. The elimination of the modern fairy tale, except as it has vitality and individual charm, as have those of George MacDonald.

4. The elimination of travel trivial in treatment and in series form, such as the Little Cousins.

5. The restriction of an old and recognized series to its original number of titles, such as the Pepper series. The disapproval of all new books obviously the first in a series.

6. Lessening the number of titles by authors who are unduly popular, such as restricting the use of Tomlinson to one series only.

7. The elimination of those stories in which the child character is not within a normal sphere; for instance, the child novel, such as Mrs. Jamison's stories.

8. The restriction of the story of the successful poor boy to those within the range of possibility, as are the Otis books, largely.

Without analyzing the weaknesses of all these types, I wish to say a word about the series form for story and classed books. The series must be judged not only by content, but it must be recognized that by the admission of such a form of literature the tendency of the child toward independence of book judgment and book selection is lessened and the way paved for the weakest form of adult literature.

The last policies regarding book selection developed on the same principles within the past three years have been these:

1. The elimination of periodical literature for young children, such as the Children's Magazine and Little Folks, since their reading can be varied more wholesomely without it.

2. The elimination, or use in small numbers, of a type of history and biography which lacks scholarly, or even serious treatment, such as the Pratt histories.

3. Lessening the number of titles of miscellaneous collections of folk lore in which there are objectionable individual tales; as, for instance, buying only the Blue, Red, Green and Yellow fairy books.

4. Recognizing "blind alleys" in children's fiction, such as the boarding school story and the covert love story, and buying no new titles of those types.

Reports of reading sequences from each children's room have furnished the basis for further study of children's reading for the past seven months. These have been discussed and compared by the workers, and are now in shape for a working outline of reading sequences to be made and reported back to each room, to be used, amplified and reported on again in the spring.

While those books which are no longer used may have been at one time necessary to hold a child from reading something poorer, we did not lose children through raising the standard, and the duplication of doubtful books in the children's room is less heavy now than it was a few years ago. Also there are more than twice as many children who are reading, and almost three times as many books being read as there were nine years ago, while the number of children of the city has increased but 72 per cent. Furthermore, the proportion of children of environmental limitations has by no means diminished, and the foreign population is much the same--more than 75 per cent. Of course, the elimination of some books was accomplished because there were better books on these subjects, but the general result was largely brought about because in the establishment of these higher standards =we did not exceed the standards of those who were working with the children.= The standards which they brought to the work, and which they deduced themselves from their experience, were strengthened through Round Table discussion, where each worker measured her results by those of the others and thereby recognized the need of constant, but careful experimentation. A children's department can not reach standards of reading which in the judgment of the librarians working with the children are beyond the possibility of attainment, for with them rests entirely the delicate task of the adjustment of the book to the child. A staff of children's librarians of good academic education, the best library training, a true vision of the social principles, a broad knowledge of children's literature, is the greatest asset for any library maintaining children's work.

But it is true inversely that in raising the standards of the children the standards of the workers were raised. By this, I mean that there were methods of book presentation in use whereby the worker saw farther and deeper into the mentality of the child and understood his social instincts better. This has been evidenced in the larger duplication of the better books. The methods are those which recognize group interest and group association as a social need of childhood. Through unifying and intensifying the thoughts and sympathies of the children by giving them, when in association with their own playmates, a common experience of living in great and universal thought in the story hour, the mediocre was bridged and both the child and the worker reached a higher plane of experience. By giving children a chance for group expression of something which has fundamental group interest, not only the children recognized that books may be cornerstones for social intercourse and that there is connection between social conduct as expressed in books and social obligation, but, what is also vastly important, the worker learned that when children are at the age of group activity and expression they can often be more permanently influenced through their group relations than as individuals.

Through the recognition of the principle that there are standards of book use with individual children and other standards of book appeal for groups of children, it was shown that the organization of the work as a whole must be such that all avenues of presentation of literature could be fully developed. It was seen that far less than with the individual child could we afford to give a group of children a false experience or impotent interest, and that material for group presentation, methods of group presentation and the social elements which are evinced in groups of children should receive an amount of attention and study which would lead to the surest and soundest results. This could be fully accomplished only by recognizing such methods as distinct functions of the department, to be maintained on sound pedagogical and social bases. In other words, that there should not only be divisions of work with children according to problems of book distribution, such as by schools and home libraries, but there must be of necessity divisions by problems of reading. Whereas, in a smaller department all divisions would center in the head, the volume of work in the library above alluded to rendered necessary the appointment of an instructor in storytelling and a supervisor of reading clubs, which has resulted in a higher specialization and a greater impetus for these phases of work than one person could have accomplished. Here we have an instance of the benefit that a large volume of work may confer upon the individual child.

With the attainment of better reading results and higher standards for the workers, it was obvious that the reading experiences of the children and the standards of the workers must be conserved, that the organization should protect the children, as far as possible, from the shock of change of workers in individual centers. Within the past two years considerable study has been given to this, and yearly written reports on the reading of children in each children's room are made, in which variations of the children's reading in that library from accepted standards, with individual instances, are usually discussed. However, the children's librarian is entirely free to report the subject from whatever angle it has impressed her most. Also a written report is made of the story hour, the program, general and special reading results, and intensity of group interest in certain types of stories. This report is supplementary to a weekly report in a prescribed form of the stories told, sources used and results. All programs used with clubs are reported and a semi-annual report made of the club work as a whole. A yearly tabulation is made of registration from public and parochial schools, giving registration in all libraries, class rooms and home libraries. By discussion and reports back to individual centers, these become bases for a wider vision of work and a wiser direction of energy with less experimentation.

The connection between work with children and the problem of the reading of intermediates, referred to in the beginning, should not be dismissed in a paragraph. However, it is only possible to give a short statement of it. Recognizing that the reading of adult books should begin in the children's room, a serious study of adult books possible for children's reading was made by the children's librarians for two summers, the reports discussed and books added to the department as the result. A second report of adult titles which children and intermediates might and do read was called for recently and from that a tentative list has been furnished both adult and children's workers for further study. The increasing number of workers in the children's department who have had general training, and in the adult work who have had special training for work with children will make such reports of much value. It may be interesting to know that fifteen of the children's librarians have had general training and six adult workers in important positions have had special training for children's work. Four years ago there were only three in children's work who had had general training and none in adult work with the special training. In order to follow the standards of children's work, there is one principle which is obvious, namely, a book disapproved as below grade for juvenile should not be accepted for general intermediate work. This is especially true of books of adventure which a boy of any age between 12 and 18 would read. It has been possible to raise the standard of books for adults in the school libraries above that of the larger libraries. This will furnish eventually another angle for the study of the problem of intermediate reading.

In conclusion, the chief influences in the establishment of right reading for children are an intensive study of the reading of children in relation to its social, moral and pedagogical worth to them, the right basis of education and training for such study on the part of the workers, the direction of such study in a way that brings about a higher and more practical standard on the part of the worker, and the conservation of her experience. These are the great services which the library should render children, and they can be most fully accomplished through departmental organization.

These papers were followed by a discussion, led by Miss Stearns and Mr. Rush, in which advice was given to those selecting children's books to eliminate, in buying new books, those which would be eliminated later, and the suggestion was made that children's librarians should enter the field of writing children's books. Dr. Bostwick of St. Louis then gave a report on

VOLUME OF CHILDREN'S WORK IN THE UNITED STATES

We may divide the history of work with children into three epochs. During the first, our libraries were realizing with increasing clearness the necessity of doing something for children that they were not doing for adults. During the second this conviction had taken the practical form of segregation, physical and mental, and its details were worked out with definiteness. In the third, in which we still are, the whole administrative work of the library for children is being systematized and co-ordinated. These three stages may be roughly styled the era of work with children, the era of the children's room and the era of the children's department. The first began, in any particular library, when that library began to do anything whatever for children that it was not doing for adults; the second, when it opened its first children's room; the third, when it co-ordinated all its children's work under one administrative head. In most libraries the first period was relatively short; the second relatively long. Some libraries began their work by establishing children's rooms, reducing the first period to zero. Some large libraries are still in the second period, never having co-ordinated their children's work. Here are the approximate dates for a few libraries:

1 2 3 Cleveland 1894 1898 1903 New York 1895 1898 1902 Pittsburgh 1898 1898 1898 St. Louis 1893 1897 1909 Milwaukee 1896 1898 .... Chicago 1904 1904 .... Brooklyn 1899 1899 1901 Boston 1895 1895 ....

I lay no stress on the accuracy of these dates, particularly in the first column, where in some cases they are matters of opinion. Pittsburgh appears as a unique example of a library that stepped full-fledged into all three stages at once, starting off, as soon as it began to do children's work at all, not only with a children's room, but with a definitely organized department to conduct the work.

With the idea of presenting comprehensively some idea of the volume and importance of children's work in the United States at the present time, a questionnaire was sent out to libraries (78 in all) whose total home use was 100,000 volumes or more. Of these 51 responded. These have been divided into five groups, five "very large" libraries, circulating more than 2,000,000; eight "large" ones, between one and two million; seven "medium," between half a million and a million; thirteen "small," between quarter and half a million, and eighteen "very small," from 100,000 to 250,000. The results for each of these groups have been stated separately--averaged where possible.

First, regarding the total volume of work. The answers to the questions show that in 51 of the 78 largest public libraries in the country, graded by circulation--libraries containing altogether nearly 9,000,000 books and circulating a total of over 30 millions--there are now 1,147,000 volumes intended especially for children. Children drew out during the last year 11,200,000 volumes for home use. Volumes for children added during the year numbered 280,000. These libraries have 231 rooms devoted entirely to children and 180 used by them in part, with a combined seating capacity of 15,900. Classroom libraries are furnished for the children in the schools, by 31 libraries reporting, to the number of 5,000.

Children in 46 libraries reporting hold altogether 413,000 library cards. There are 42 supervisors of children's work, with numerous clerical assistants and staffs of 473 persons, of whom at least 177 are qualified children's librarians, 108 are graduates of library schools, and 54 have had partial courses.

The general conclusion deducible from the statistics gathered seems to be that in some ways library work with children has become standardized while in others it has not. Standards, whether permanent or not, we can not tell, have been reached or approximated in the number of books devoted to children's use and, in general, in the proportion of the library's resources, time and energy that is given to this branch of the work. But when we come to the specific number of assistants assigned to it, their supervision, their pay and the grade of experience and training required of them, then we all part company. Not only is there no general agreement here, but some of the discrepancies are so large that we can ascribe them only to the fact that we are still in the experimental stage.

For instance, to take first the fairly uniform or standardized conditions, the fraction of the stock of books allotted to children is about one-fifth in the larger libraries and decreases slightly in the smaller; in the very small it is about one-eighth. The proportion of juvenile books added yearly is much larger; it varies from nearly one-half in the very large libraries down to one-fourth in the very small. This would seem to be a result of the increasing stress laid on children's work. If this proportion is maintained in the annual purchases, that in the total stock may approximate to it in time, although we can not be sure of this without knowing the ratio of the life of a children's book to that of an adult book. The children's books are doubtless shorter-lived, and this would tend to keep the proportion down in the permanent stock. The circulation is still more nearly uniform, being about one-third to children in all the classes of libraries. The proportion of money spent for children is also uniform, being about one-fourth in libraries of all sizes. The same is true of the number of children's rooms, which throughout all classes of libraries, both large and small, are in the proportion of one to every 60,000 to 70,000 of circulation, and of their seating capacity, which is 60 to 70 per room.

Looking on the other side of the shield we find the greatest variation in the proportion of children's cards in use, which runs from less than one-half up to nearly all. From one to five supervisors are employed in each library but some of the very large libraries use only one and some of the small ones as many as three. The same is true of clerical assistants, of which some of the very small libraries report as many as three, while some of the very large get along with as few as two.

Salaries are fairly uniform, although apparently smaller than the work would warrant. Whereas the children's circulation is about one-third the total, the salaries in the juvenile department are from one-seventh to one-eighth the total throughout. In the "small" libraries they are only one-eleventh of the total.

The distribution of library-school graduates is very irregular. Some libraries in all classes have none at all. In the three lower classes no library has a larger number than three. In some of the larger libraries there may be as many as 20 or 30.

I am aware that some of this irregularity, which I have called a lack of standardization, may be due to differences in nomenclature. Assistants, for instance, having precisely the same duties may be described as supervisors in one library and not in another. This will not explain everything, however, and the conclusion is inevitable that in the respects just noted no uniformity has yet been reached by libraries. It seems to me that this lack of standardization has made its appearance in precisely the place where it might have been expected--namely in the third of the three periods already mentioned, that of co-ordination and systematization. This is the latest period; some libraries have not yet entered upon it and most of them are young in it. In other words, children's work is much older than the systematic administration of a children's department, or a system of children's rooms. Hence, children's work in general--the selection and purchase of books for children, the planning of children's rooms and their administration as units--has existed long enough to become standardized. We know what we want, having passed through the stage of experimentation.

This is not true of the administration of a children's department--the grading of assistants, the organization of a compact body of workers with its expert supervision, the settling of questions of disputed jurisdiction that necessarily arise in cases of this kind. It is on this part of their work that children's librarians need to focus their attention for the next few years. It is time, not perhaps to withdraw our eyes from the older questions but to transfer our gaze in part to the newer. We need to talk less about the size of our juvenile collection, methods of selection of children's books, the salaries of our assistants, ways of increasing our circulation, sizes and plans of children's rooms, and so on, and more about the organization and administration of the children's department as a whole--the duties of the supervisor and her assistants; her relations with the heads of other departments and with branch librarians, the measure of control shared by her with heads of branches in case of children's librarians of branches, the existence of separate grades, corresponding to separate duties or variation of qualifications, among the children's librarians; insistence on training adapted to these different grades. Time forbids me to go into details, and I can but suggest these points for your consideration. Into one point, however, I feel like going a little more fully:

We need more special training for children's work. It is the one kind of specialization that we have attempted in our schools, and we must have more of it and more kinds of it. This of course is but a single case in the more varied program of special training that I am convinced we shall have to take up before long. In the course of an interesting debate on this subject in the A. L. A. Council last January it developed that most of the librarians present looked upon specialization as impractical. In particular they believed it impossible for a student to look forward so definitely to special work that he could decide on the special courses that would benefit him. The man that had taken the college-library course might become a superintendent of branches; the qualified municipal reference librarian would go, perhaps, into an applied science room. This may be so now but it cannot long remain the case. Even now we can not carry this line of argument much further without making of it a reductio ad absurdum. Why go to a library school at all when, after all, you may accept the headship of a grammar-school on graduation, or even decide to travel for a hardware house? Why should we attempt to train one man for a lawyer and another for a physician when both may prefer farming? We are getting away fast from the old idea, born of pioneer conditions, that anybody can do anything if he tries. We shall have to travel further enough from it to satisfy ourselves that an expert university librarian will have to be trained for his post and not for that of head of the supply department in a public library. We have learned that a children's librarian does her work better for special training; may it not be that we shall have to make some difference in the future between training, let us say, for supervisory work, for the charge of a branch children's room, and for the duties of an assistant of lower grade?

In closing, let me say again that we need to focus our attention at present on the organization and administration of a children's department, especially on the places where it interlocks with that of other departments. The study of this matter should not be entrusted to children's libraries alone, for the standardization of work involving more than one department should not be =ex parte=. The matter should be in charge of a committee including in its membership both chief librarians and the heads of children's departments--possibly also the children's librarian of a large branch library and a branch librarian.

The volume of the work is now remarkable; its organization has gone beyond that of some other departments in attention to detail; the question of its co-ordination and of interdepartmental relations should now be taken up systematically.

Libraries Very Large Libraries Large Averaged Over Averaged 1,000,000- 2,000,000 2,000,000

Av. number volumes in library 5 658,416 8 286,643

Av. juvenile volumes in library 3 136,080 7 57,348

Av. cost of juvenile volumes Not given 2 $22,000

Av. volumes added during year 5 73,098 8 30,172

Av. cost of volumes added during year 5 $70,976.88 7 $27,244.25

Av. juvenile volumes added during year 4 32,100 6 12,383

Av. cost of juvenile volumes added 3 $18,928.92 3 $7,801.86

Av. circulation for year 5 3,973,150 8 1,214,068

Av. juvenile circulation for year 5 1,451,569 6 501,389

Av. number children's rooms in system 5 23 8 6

Av. number rooms used in part by children 5 7 7 7

Av. seating capacity of children's rooms 5 1,502 8 467

Av. classroom libraries 2 314 7 301

Av. home libraries for children 1 56 3 26

Av. deposit or delivery stations not included in above 4 52 7 22

Av. volumes on shelves open to children 3 129,413 7 52,067

Av. juvenile cardholders 2 34,942 7 28,501

Av. age limit of juvenile cardholders 2 15 7 15

Av. estimate of juvenile cards in use 2 [5]46,332 5 20,845

Av. supervisors of children's work 4 1 to 5 7 0 to 5

Av. salary paid supervisors 1 $2,000 6 $1,174

Av. clerical assistants in children's work 1 2 5 2

Av. salary paid clerical assistants 1 $705 4 $524

Av. children's librarians 4 20 7 1 to 11

Av. salary paid children's librarians 4 $786.82 7 $896

Av. additional assistants giving full time to children's work 3 4 to 83 4 2 to 27

Av. salary of such assistants 3 $560.33 4 $714

Av. assistants giving part time to children's work 1 2 2 10

Av. salary paid such assistants 1 $576 2 $654

Number library school graduates 4 1 to 21 8 0 to 29

Number assistants having had partial library school courses 4 3 to 11 5 0 to 8

Number trained in local library 4 4 to 56 7 0 to 15

Number trained in other libraries 4 3 to 10 7 0 to 1

Pages giving full time to children's work 3 0 to 11 6 1 to 8

Av. yearly salaries for entire staff (not including janitors) 4 $170,453.82 8 $74,503.90

Av. yearly salaries children's department 2 $20,080.00 8 $11,032.33

Libraries Medium Libraries Small Averaged 500,000- Averaged 250,000- 1,000,000 500,000

Av. number volumes in library 7 150,200 13 92,236

Av. juvenile volumes in library 6 26,750 12 16,244

Av. cost of juvenile volumes 5 $21,316 2 $9,750

Av. volumes added during year 7 15,654 13 8,898

Av. cost of volumes added during year 7 $15,001.75 10 $8,851.81

Av. juvenile volumes added during year 6 5,875 13 2,661

Av. cost of juvenile volumes added 6 $4,428.10 3 $2,876.00

Av. circulation for year 7 714,784 13 339,059

Av. juvenile circulation for year 7 227,697 13 122,739

Av. number children's rooms in system 7 3 13 2

Av. number rooms used in part by children 6 3 9 4

Av. seating capacity of children's rooms 7 233 11 150

Av. classroom libraries 7 201 8 83

Av. home libraries for children 1 25 3 3

Av. deposit or delivery stations not included in above 7 12 9 12

Av. volumes on shelves open to children 6 40,326 10 13,721

Av. juvenile cardholders 4 14,470 11 7,056

Av. age limit of juvenile cardholders 3 14 8 15

Av. estimate of juvenile cards in use 4 9,436 7 6,172

Av. supervisors of children's work 5 1 to 2 7 1 to 3

Av. salary paid supervisors 5 $1,070 7 $760

Av. clerical assistants in children's work 4 1 to 3 5 1 to 3

Av. salary paid clerical assistants 4 $600 5 $516

Av. children's librarians 5 1 to 9 12 1 to 3

Av. salary paid children's librarians 5 $648.50 12 $829.16

Av. additional assistants giving full time to children's work 2 2 4 1 to 3

Av. salary of such assistants 2 $690 4 $524

Av. assistants giving part time to children's work ... ... 2 1

Av. salary paid such assistants ... ... 2 $288

Number library school graduates 7 0 to 2 11 0 to 3

Number assistants having had partial library school courses 6 0 to 5 11 0 to 1

Number trained in local library 7 1 to 9 10 0 to 3

Number trained in other libraries 7 0 to 1 9 0 to 2

Pages giving full time to children's work 7 0 to 2 12 0 to 2

Av. yearly salaries for entire staff (not including janitors) 6 $30,844.90 12 $19,984.81

Av. yearly salaries children's department 6 $4,144.75 12 $1,726.33

Libraries Very Small Averaged Under 250,000

Av. number volumes in library 18 58,355

Av. juvenile volumes in library 16 7,496

Av. cost of juvenile volumes 2 $3,843.49

Av. volumes added during year 18 4,405

Av. cost of volumes added during year 17 $4,467.22

Av. juvenile volumes added during year 17 1,247

Av. cost of juvenile volumes added 9 $1,207.01

Av. circulation for year 18 175,928

Av. juvenile circulation for year 17 56,475

Av. number children's rooms in system 18 1

Av. number rooms used in part by children 13 3

Av. seating capacity of children's rooms 17 79

Av. classroom libraries 7 31

Av. home libraries for children 1 6

Av. deposit or delivery stations not included in above 12 4

Av. volumes on shelves open to children 13 5,504

Av. juvenile cardholders 14 5,230

Av. age limit of juvenile cardholders 14 14

Av. estimate of juvenile cards in use 11 2,704

Av. supervisors of children's work 3 1

Av. salary paid supervisors 3 $846.66

Av. clerical assistants in children's work 2 1 to 3

Av. salary paid clerical assistants 1 $420

Av. children's librarians 17 1

Av. salary paid children's librarians 17 $801

Av. additional assistants giving full time to children's work 9 1 to 4

Av. salary of such assistants 9 $512.22 $600[6][7]

Av. assistants giving part time to children's work 4 2 to 7

Av. salary paid such assistants 4 $591

Number library school graduates 16 0 to 3

Number assistants having had partial library school courses 13 0 to 2

Number trained in local library 16 0 to 4

Number trained in other libraries 12 0 to 1

Pages giving full time to children's work 15 0 to 2

Av. yearly salaries for entire staff (not including janitors) 17 $10,159.22

Av. yearly salaries children's department 14 $1,306.01

[5] Not the same libraries as are represented two lines above.

[6] Maximum.

[7] For first year.

SECOND SESSION

The second session of the section was held June 27th, at 2:30 p. m., in the ballroom. Miss MARTHA WILSON, supervisor of school libraries, state department of education, St. Paul, Minnesota, read a paper entitled

POSSIBILITIES OF THE RURAL SCHOOL LIBRARY

On the outermost fringe of library influence they wait--the country children.

To fulfill to them the mission of the library, to make books necessary and accessible, we must take account of the agency which touches the life of even the most remote group--the country school.

Relationships between libraries and schools have long afforded discussion and the librarian is rare who does not feel a sense of her share in the educational work of the town and her responsibility in making her library serve as an adjunct to the school, supplementing or supplanting its library resources.

The country school and its library has in the main been outside this friendly concern or ministration on the part of the town library and but little account taken of it as a part of the library resources or possibilities of a county or state.

The present revival of rural interest has quickened every phase of country life, social, economic and educational.

The country school has shared in the enlargement of interest and is undergoing many radical changes in its spirit, its teaching, its relationships to the neighborhood and the world outside.

While in former times the country child went to school only when not needed at home and received through the year an intermittent schooling, amounting in all to but few weeks a year, compulsory education laws in the majority of states have prolonged the period which he now actually spends in school, and subsidies in state aid for longer terms have lengthened the season through which the school is in operation.

The new emphasis on country life is a transforming effect on the country school, "the ragged beggar sunning" is being replaced by a modern building planned according to state regulations, with regard to comfort and convenience, seats and lighting are seriously considered and the individual drinking cup adds the last touch of modernity.

It is changing its teaching as carefully. The leaders in country school work are striving to give a standing to country service, to reshape it to new country conditions and connect its work very definitely with the neighborhood in which it is placed.

In Minnesota there are three types of rural schools. The first of these is the one-room, one-teacher school in an isolated community where every grade is represented and all subjects taught. The second type is the associated school where several districts have connected themselves with a town school, where the pupils of high school age are received on the same term as their town cousins, and the one-room schools continue the work with the lower grades in the country but under the supervision of the central school. The third is the consolidated school where a number of districts have combined and established in a town, village or open country a modern school for the grades and high school, transporting to it all the children within the radius of five miles.

In all of these schools, the old course of study is adapted to include health instruction, nature study or agriculture, some manual training, sewing and cooking. The high school training departments and the normal schools are making all haste to prepare teachers to fulfill the new requirements while the teachers already at work must bring themselves up to grade at the summer schools. The practical subjects make a strong appeal. A country teacher at the summer school was heard to remark that "the rope-tying lessons were awfully interesting and the course in agriculture was just grand."

As a help in the new order of things a strong school library is needed more than ever. Even in the smallest school there is indeed a collection of books known as the school library, the heritage of the years. These show no design in selection further than meeting the state aid requirement of the expenditure of a certain amount of money every year for library books. The trail of the book agent is over them all: witness the sets; Motley--"History of the United Netherlands," Grote--"History of Greece," Gibbon--"Rome," and such subscription books as "Lights and shadows of a missionary's life" and "The Johnstown flood."

The erstwhile teachers and their interests have left an impress; the correspondence courses which they pursued while teaching are reflected in such books as Hamerton--"Intellectual life"; "The literature of the age of Elizabeth"; and all the Epochs, and Eras and Periods in which they delved for credits; their faith bears witness in the "Life of Luther" found in every school library in one western county and their hopes in "How to be happy tho' married," common in another.

The average number of volumes in each school is impressive in reports, but inspection of the libraries too often shows that the majority of the books are entirely useless in connection with the school work and quite beyond the grasp and interest of the pupils who may be typified by little moon-faced Celestia who trudges two miles through the pine forest to the little log schoolhouse and to whom an illustrated book is a revelation of worlds unknown; Anna, eleven years old, who at the time of our visit was doing the work of the household and caring for her mother and the new baby brother before she came to school, for in this county the size of the state of Connecticut there are but five doctors and fewer nurses; Mary, aged 13, who keeps house for an older brother and his logging "crew" of four grown men; and little Irven, 7 years old, who reads so fast the words can hardly come and who is willing and eager to aver in round childish scribble that his favorite books are "Seven little sisters," Eskimo stories and Fairy stories and fables.

However hard to realize, the needs are simple to state; better books and direction in their use.

In many of the newer libraries there are many good and suitable books and the more progressive county superintendents are paying more attention to their libraries, making use of the suggestive lists furnished them and selecting all the books for the schools in their counties. One proudly reports the purchase in his county in the last year of 2144 =real= children's books. The standardization of the state school list has helped in later years, and as they are obliged to buy from this list there is a pleasing lack of "Motor boys" and "Aeroplane girls."

Some few of the teachers have the notion of the purpose of the school library and are eager to extend its influence. One teacher, combining school work with homesteading, asked for help in getting illustrated books and pictures, explaining that he found it difficult to give images to the words in their texts as the children in his school had never seen a locomotive, a train of cars, a bridge, a tower, a brick or stone building, and the nearest approach to the palace of which they read in their stories was the two-story square frame building in the adjoining settlement. The teacher of Anna and Mary realizing that they would not be allowed to stay in school longer than the law required, having now had more schooling than their father or mother, was trying to give them some simple instruction in household work and was glad to know of "When Mother lets us cook" and the simple books of sewing; and the town girl teaching her first term in the country school tells of her experience in using books of drawing to tame the young "Jack-pine savage" who had been the bully of the school.

The country teacher, as a type, is hardly more than a child herself, born, or transplanted at an early age, into pioneer conditions of work and living with the energies and thought of the family concentrated on getting a start in life in the new land.

In these homes books have not been plentiful, in some the catalog of the mail order house is often the only printed matter in evidence, having apparently displaced the family Bible from its time-honored place on the center table.

In the early schooling and life of the country teacher only the textbooks have left an impress and when she is asked at a country teachers' meeting or in the beginning of her normal school course to name favorite children's books, she puts down the texts she studied in the country schools, the Baldwins, the Carpenters, the Wheelers and the rest.

The stage of poverty and extreme hardship is fast passing. With increased prosperity comes the opportunity for better things, usually desired by the children, not always by the parents.

The school inspector was urging a new schoolhouse. The farmer thought this one good enough. After dinner they went out to see the fine stock and seeing the splendid barns for the stock the inspector said: "You provide such good buildings for your stock you ought to be willing to do something for your children." The farmer still demurred and the inspector pressed the matter. "Do you care more for your stock than for your children?" The farmer became indignant and said: "I want you to know that stock is thoroughbred." If the parents have lost or never had the power to enjoy books, the school and the library must see to it that this asset is given the child in the country, who tomorrow must deal with the problems of the new country life more complex than his fathers have known; the farmer's wife to become emancipated must learn to use the books which will help her, and there must be foundations for the larger citizenship for in spite of all efforts to keep the boy on the farm he will continue to join the ranks of the financiers, the doctors, the judges, the governors and the like.

The newer idea of the use of books and reading in the country schools is taking hold if sometimes vaguely. "I tell them to read library books," she said when asked what use she made of the school library. "Oh no, I have never read any of them myself," and "Little women" and "Captains courageous" and many other live children's books stood in perfect condition on the shelf, though there were a number of children in the school old enough to enjoy them, and only such books had been used as the more adventurous spirits in the school had tasted, found good and passed on to their fellows.

Few children have books of their own--one-third--one-fourth--one in ten being the answer which comes from the teachers to this query. Generally speaking, they read the books in the school library or none at all unless there is a traveling library at hand.

Teachers' training departments in the high schools are doing much to help the country school. In the year's work the students get much of the spirit as well as methods of country school teaching for the training teacher is usually eager to give them all she has of enthusiasm and efficiency and reaches out for all help in her work.

In one teacher's outlines, familiar looking notes on book selection and lists of children's books were discovered. She had patiently copied them from the summer school notes of the librarian in her home town and was using them with her students. In addition to her regular work she looks after the school library which is open to the public and also gives help to schools in the country in the arrangement of their school libraries. In most of these departments some work is attempted on the rural school library with required reading of children's books.

The town librarians find these classes an opportunity to extend their influence by talks in the schools and showing the resources and use of the library. Acquaintance and work with country teachers helped one librarian to put through a long-cherished, long-fought scheme of county extension. As the teachers understand more fully the help they can get from the library the more eagerly they consult the librarian about their work.

The inclusion of talks on children's books, reading and school libraries on the programs of the county teachers' and school officers' meetings, talks and exhibits at district and state educational gatherings and the University weeks have helped to give school libraries new importance in the estimation of the teachers.

The country school library to become useful must be reduced to a collection of books suited to the ages of the pupils as well as to the work in the school. As elsewhere, the best way to get the country child to read the best books is to have no other kind.

Recent library legislation makes it possible for any country or town school library in Minnesota to combine with a public library for service. They may turn over their books not needed in the school and what is more valuable to the library, the fund which they are annually required to spend for library books. In return the library must furnish the school with traveling libraries of books selected from the state school list, suited to the pupils in the school, and the school may also be a distributing point for books for the neighborhood, a real branch.

In some of the associated school districts the central library sends to the associated schools traveling libraries purchased by the district or borrowed from the library commission. In others, the country pupils act as a circulating medium for the central school library. In one town the school and town jointly maintain a good library with a competent librarian in the schoolhouse and it successfully serves the town, the pupils for their reference work and the country 'round about through the country boys and girls who come in every day to school.

The village or open country consolidated school presents yet another opportunity. These schools are the direct outgrowth of the new spirit of country life and are planned to minister to the social as well as the educational needs of the combined districts; and serve as a social center. The library is an important part of the equipment for this work.

State plans for these buildings include a good-sized assembly room, and a room for a library is required. The principal of the school must be shown how the library may help him in his work and he must be assisted in the selection of books not only for the school work but also for the boys' and girls' club, the potato and corn growing contests, the farmers' club, the women's club, the debating societies, literary evenings, and social gatherings which he plans to make features of his school.

Such are some of the possibilities. To make them realities, the teachers must be trained in an understanding of the purpose of a library and a knowledge of children's books, and every library agency in every county and state must be quickened toward the most remote of "all of the children of all of the people."

In the discussion by Mr. Kerr, Miss Burnite, Miss Brown, Miss Allin, Miss Zachert and Miss Hobart, which followed, the following points were made: That the time to accomplish the work in question is when the teachers are in the normal schools, that such work should be based upon the teachers' intensive knowledge of children's books, and that influence may be gained by approaching the superintendents and by using as advertising mediums the school papers to which the teachers subscribe.

Miss Power then gave the chair to Miss Mary E. Hall, librarian Girls' high school, Brooklyn, N. Y. Miss Hall introduced Miss MAUDE McCLELLAND, who told of her work in charge of the library in a high school in Passaic, N. J., pronounced by Miss Hall to be a model of its kind. Miss McClelland made a very happy comparison of the old time school boy and the school boy of today and discussed modern high school methods of helping children to meet actual problems in life.

Miss McClelland said in part:

THE WORK OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRANCH

In the preface to a volume of essays entitled "Literature and life," William Dean Howells defends the doctrine that the tree of knowledge, so familiar to all of us, is in reality but a branch of the tree of life. Literature, instead of having a separate existence of its own, is, as a matter of fact, but a part of life, and all that is necessary to make it a vital force in the lives of human beings is to establish its identity with life.

Now the emphasizing of this unity of literature and life has become the self-appointed task of the modern public library--a task which it is approaching from a number of different angles, such as work with children, work with clubs, work with foreigners, and work with schools. Something of what the library is doing along one of these lines--that of work with schools--may be learned by studying the methods in use in the high school branch of a public library.

Perhaps these methods may best be illustrated by contrasting the school days of two brothers, Adam and Theodore. Now Adam went to school in the good old days when there were no high school libraries, and indeed very few libraries of any kind. At 9 o'clock every morning the active interests of life ceased for him. He then entered the schoolhouse and began the study of a set of lessons, which far removed from real life in themselves, could not be made intensely vital even by the best of teachers, because there was no library in the building upon which the teachers could draw for books and other materials to illustrate the connection between the classics and real life.

The first subject upon his program was ancient history. This he learned with the aid of a textbook, condensed in form, and attenuated in spirit. To him the book was a collection of disagreeable facts to be learned by heart and then forgotten as quickly as possible after examinations were over.

Now, when Adam's brother Theodore entered the school, matters had changed. A branch of the public library had been installed, and the history teacher was no longer handicapped in her work. The members of Theodore's class had all been given special topics for investigation, so when the class in ancient history was called, one pupil drew upon the board the plan of a Greek house, which he had copied from Harper's classical dictionary, while another pupil, who had been to the library and interviewed Gulick's "Life of the ancient Greeks," described the furniture and cooking utensils of the Greeks, and told about the kind of things they had to eat. And Theodore began to realize that after all, those ancient Greeks were real people, just like other real people. So from that history lesson he carried away inspiration from the life of the past toward the living of his own life of the present and future.

The next lesson on the schedule for the day was English. Now, when Adam went to school, he had been rather fond of reading--but that there could be any connection between reading and the English work given him at school never entered his head for a moment. True, they did some reading in the English class, but it was reading in which he wasn't very much interested, though he supposed that in some vague way it probably did him a great deal of good. The real reading, which he did surreptitiously at home was of an entirely different kind. Far from imagining that he derived any benefit from it, he at times even feared that he was endangering his immortal soul. But he felt that the pleasure was worth it. The two kinds of reading, if tabulated, would be about as follows, the comparative amount done being in about the ratio of 16 to 1 in favor of the kind he liked--if he had luck in borrowing books from the boys:

School Reading

Rhetoric and composition. Evangeline. Pilgrim's progress. Selections from Milton. Lady of the lake.

Home Reading

The downward path or A debt of vengeance. Helping himself. A leap in the dark. Trapped in his own net.

The school reading was unexceptionable as to literary character, but, at least for the growing boy of average intelligence, it seemed to lack attractiveness.

When Theodore entered the English class in high school, times had changed. The first thing the teacher did was to give him a list of books for home reading. At the top of the list was written, "These books may be borrowed either from the high school branch or from any other branch of the public library." On the list were such books as "Huckleberry Finn," "Tom Sawyer," "The jungle books," "Story of a bad boy," "The wonder book and tanglewood tales," "Treasure island" and "The man without a country."

Now, these books have literary character; they are attractive; furthermore, they were written by authors who at all times observe with proper respect and deference the laws of the English language.

So, once more, through the aid of the library, we find the connection between literature and the joy of life established.

In the old days, not much had been said about vocations, or working for a living. Indeed, the only ambition considered really worth while was that of going to college and becoming educated. To leave school before graduation was rather a disgrace, and if any boy was, like Lady Macbeth's guests, by force of circumstances, compelled to "go, and stay not upon the order of his going," his method of departure can best be described by the expression, "slinking out." But now, Theodore found the school ready and willing to help all those who had to leave school to go to work; and again, the connection between real life and school was established.

And if Theodore found that the library was not lacking in books that would help in the practical issues of life, neither did he find a dearth of the books that are needed for companionship--the books that we are inclined to group under the heading "Cultural reading." Oliver Wendell Holmes, in one of his essays, says, speaking of libraries, that he has the same easy feeling when among books that a stableboy has among horses. And it is perhaps along this line--that of inculcating a real love for books--that the greatest work of the high school library lies.

In an article on "Children's reading" in Harper's Weekly for May 31 there are some valuable suggestions for the librarian, not least among them that contained in the last paragraph, which I shall quote:

"An excellent suggestion is that in all public schools there should be, as well as the supervisor of drawing, and the supervisor of music, and the supervisor of manual training, a supervisor of the art of reading. For is not reading, after all, an art, and an uplifting, consoling and educative art?"

Mr. SAMUEL H. RANCK, librarian of the Grand Rapids public library, read a full and interesting paper on

THE LIBRARY'S OPPORTUNITIES IN VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE

In October, 1911, the Grand Rapids public library published in its monthly bulletin an outline of the Central high school course in vocational guidance, with a selected list of the library's books on this subject for teachers and pupils. Five thousand copies were printed, and no number of the bulletin we have ever published has received so much attention. Requests for it have come from all over the world, and a number of institutions have purchased as many as 50 copies. This bulletin is now out of print. In the near future, on the basis of our experience of the last few years, we expect to publish a revised edition of the vocational guidance list, which will include much new material purchased on this subject in the last two years.

Although this list has received so much attention outside of the city its greatest success has been in the city itself. It has brought to the library a great number of young people for the books for circulation and to the reference department for the preparation of all sorts of themes on vocational subjects as a part of their high school work in English. It is not an uncommon thing to find from 20 to 50 high school students at one time working on this subject in our reference department. Incidentally this work at the library has been a splendid training for the boys and girls in the use of the reference books, and regardless of any direct effect it might have on their choice of a career it is certain that the consideration of a number of subjects in connection with the possibility of their being followed as a vocation tends to broaden the life of any young person.

At first this work was regarded somewhat as a joke by some of the pupils but there has been less and less of this as time goes on. No work that the library has ever done in the way of making certain classes of books known to its readers has met with anything like the response as has this work of co-operation with the Central high school.

All through this work the thought of the library has been that it is a co-operating agent rather than an institution working independently, and it seems to me that in all work of this kind the teacher and the school through their intimate personal knowledge of the child are in a much better position to guide the boys and girls than is the library. The library's place is simply that of being fully alive and sympathetic with the whole situation, and in putting forth every effort to gather all available data and to supply the needs of those who can use printed material on this subject. It does not of course neglect opportunities for personal influence, but it seems to me that the library can not take the initiative in the same way nor on the same scale as does the school. Through the reading rooms the library has special opportunities to direct the "misfit" who comes to the library for a clue to a better occupation.

Along with the list in our bulletin of October, 1911, which by the way includes only things in the circulating department of the library, we published an outline of work in vocational guidance in the Central high school by Principal Davis. The following is his statement and the outline, as then in use, since modified somewhat on the basis of practical experience.

Outline of Work in Vocational Guidance in the Central High School

By Jesse B. Davis, Principal

"Vocational guidance aims to direct the thought and growth of the pupil throughout the high school course along the line of preparation for life's work. The plan is intended to give the pupil an opportunity to study the elements of character that give success in life, and by a careful self analysis to compare his own abilities and opportunities with successful men and women of the past. By broadening his vision of the world's work, and applying his own aptitudes and tastes to the field of endeavor that he may best be able to serve, it is attempted to stir the student's ambition and to give a purpose to all his future efforts. Having chosen even a tentative goal his progress has direction. In the later study of moral and social ethics he has a viewpoint that makes the result both practical and effective.

"In order to reach all the pupils in the high school this work is carried on through the department of English, which subject all pupils must take. Brief themes and discussions form the basis of the work. Pupils are directed in their reading along vocational and ethical lines and are advised by teachers who have made a special study of vocational guidance. The following outline is but suggestive of the types of themes and discussions to be used. Each teacher is given opportunity to use her own individuality in working out the details of the scheme.

"Outline

First Year

1st Semester--Elements of success in life.

1. Every day problems.

(a) The school. (b) The home. (c) The athletic field. (d) The social group.

2. Elements of character.

(a) Purpose of life. (b) Habit. (c) Happiness. (d) Self-control. (e) Work. (f) Health.

2nd Semester--Biography of successful men and women.

1. Character sketches.

2. Comparison of opportunities of ... with self.

3. Comparison of qualities of ... with self.

Second Year

1st Semester--The world's work.

1. Vocations: Professions, occupations.

2. Vocations of men.

3. Vocations of women.

2nd Semester--Choosing a vocation.

1. Making use of my ability.

2. Making use of my opportunity.

3. Why I should like to be....

4. The law of service.

Third Year

1st Semester--Preparation for life's work.

1. Should I go to college?

2. How shall I prepare for my vocation?

3. Vocational schools.

4. How shall I get into business?

2nd Semester--Business ethics.

1. Business courtesy.

2. Morals in modern business methods.

3. Employer and employee.

4. Integrity an asset in business.

Fourth Year

1st Semester--Social ethics: The individual and society--from the point of view of my vocation.

1. Why should I be interested in

(a) Public schools? (b) The slums? (c) Social settlements? (d) Public charities? (e) The church? (f) Social service?

2. The Social relation of the business man.

2nd Semester--Social ethics: The individual and the state--from the point of view of my vocation.

1. The rights of the individual.

2. Protection of the individual from the state.

3. The obligations of citizenship.

4. The rights of property.

5. The responsibility of power."

The books in the bulletin were arranged in accordance with the foregoing outline, which takes the pupil through the whole four years of high school work. Principal Davis' statement of the aims and methods of vocational guidance as it is being carried on in Grand Rapids is sufficiently clear I think, and does not require any additional explanation. It should be clearly understood, however, that vocational guidance is altogether different from vocational education and from industrial education, subjects with which it is sometimes confused.

To meet the many demands which come to Mr. Davis for information regarding vocational guidance he is now at work on a book which will discuss the whole matter fully. This book will probably be ready in the fall. It will contain a revised list of our books on this subject.

At a recent meeting of the Board of Education this work was organized and systematized for the whole city, for all the pupils in the seventh grade and upwards, with Principal Davis as director of the work.

In the light of our experience we believe that the library, in addition to printing a list of books such as given in accordance with this outline, needs a supplementary list arranged according to vocations. On account of the growing interest in vocational education and industrial education there have been many useful books published within the last few years. When this work was first begun there was a dearth of suitable material on a good many subjects, and it was necessary for the library to depend largely on magazine articles, pamphlets, etc., in the reference department, the best of which we have indexed according to subject, along with our indexing of other material such as college catalogs, to show the institutions where courses are given on particular subjects, etc.

The following are a few of the subjects called for recently, as they were noted in the reference department: Nursing, Teaching, Drafting, Social settlement work, Dressmaking, Library work, Dentistry, Music, Mining engineering, Electrical engineering, Farming, Physical training, Agriculture, Education of defectives, Forestry, Playground work, Stenography, Art, Mechanics, Magazine illustrating, Domestic science, Landscape gardening, Designing dresses, Housekeeping, Social secretary work, Private secretary work, Decorative painting, Baseball managership, Surveying, Civil service, Kindergarten work, Scientific farming, Physical culture.

The purpose in all this work is to endeavor to aid boys and girls to find a work in life that will command their best energies, their intelligent interest, and is adapted to their capacities, thus avoiding so far as possible the bane of young people drifting into the first thing that comes along, whether they are fitted for it or not. This work puts before them the widest possible range of choice of vocation, enlarges their horizon, and then endeavors to ground them in those fundamental moral qualities which are the basis of every successful life.

By putting the right sort of books into their hands in this way the library has a tremendous opportunity for influencing their lives at the most formative period, and at the same time developing in them a more or less serious attitude toward life and its work. The study of the lives of successful men and women and the study of the work and requirements of different vocations can not help but impress upon boys and girls the importance of preparation and conscientious effort as prime requisites for success in any line of work.

We of the library in Grand Rapids are of the opinion that the library alone in such work could do very little. As already stated we believe that the initiative should come from the school. On the other hand, we are firmly convinced that the school alone without the co-operation of the library would be very seriously handicapped. In the first place the school would be required to duplicate unnecessarily a large number of the books which are in our public libraries, and this of course would be an economic waste. In the second place the school would be denying the children one of the best opportunities to come in contact with an institution which aids them in the continuation of their education all through life after they leave school. It is of immense value to the child to get training in the use of the library in connection with the thinking he is giving to his work in after life. A better introduction of the child to the value of books and a public library, the library itself could hardly ask.

But the library's greatest opportunity in vocational guidance is in the fact that all this work is really constructive manhood and womanhood, or if you please, constructive citizenship. And this is not only the greatest work the library can do, but the greatest work any institution can do.

This subject proved a timely one and aroused considerable discussion. Many questions were asked concerning the co-operation of the public library in Grand Rapids with this department of work in the high school. Mr. Ranck announced that Mr. Davis, principal of the Central high school, expects to bring out a book in the fall which shall include outlines and the list of books which has been in such great demand and which is now out of print.

The discussion seemed to show that "vocational guidance" is a legitimate field not adequately covered by libraries. Miss Power now took the chair.

Miss Burnite made a motion to adopt the following resolution:

Whereas, the members of the American Library Association who are engaged in work with children feel the great bond of affection for all those who have rendered that service to child life which the achievement of efficient library service for children signifies;

And whereas, the Dayton public library has suffered the destruction of its children's department and thereby the children of the city are without the influence of good books at the time they need them most;

Be it resolved: that we express to the Board of Trustees, the librarian, Miss Clatworthy, the head of the children's department, Miss Ely, our deep sympathy and the hope that their work may be rehabilitated upon a greater plane of service.

Be it resolved also, that these resolutions be spread upon the minutes of this meeting and the secretary be empowered to forward them to the library officials mentioned with the request that the resolutions be forwarded to the Women's Clubs of the city and especially to the Mothers' Clubs as an expression of sympathy for them also, in the loss of the department of the library which has furthered their own efforts in bettering child life.

The motion was carried and the session adjourned.

BUSINESS MEETINGS

At the business meetings of the section held June 25th at 2:30 p. m. and after the session, Friday, June 27th, the chairman appointed three new members of the advisory board, as follows: For one year, Mr. Henry E. Legler, and, for three years, Miss Linda Eastman and Miss Lutie E. Stearns. Miss Annie C. Moore, Miss Clara W. Hunt and Miss Caroline Burnite were appointed members of the nominating committee and upon their recommendation the following officers for the ensuing year were unanimously elected: Miss Agnes Cowing, chairman; Miss Mary Ely, vice chairman; Miss Ethel Underhill, secretary. Miss Adah Whitcomb and Miss Faith Smith were appointed by the chair to investigate the subject of simplified headings in several different libraries, to confer with the Catalog Section and A. L. A. Publishing Board, and to report to the Section.

COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION

MAIN SESSION

The main session of the College and Reference Section was held on Tuesday afternoon, June 24th, at the Hotel Kaaterskill. Mr. Andrew Keogh, reference librarian of Yale University, presided; Miss Amy L. Reed, librarian of Vassar College, acted as secretary.

The chairman asked for a motion to fill the vacancy on the committee of arrangements which would be caused by his own retirement. It was voted that the Chair appoint a nominating committee; Mr. L. L. Dickerson, librarian of Grinnell College, and Miss Laura Gibbs, cataloger of Brown University, were asked to serve as such a committee.

The session then proceeded to the program for the day, which was the work of Miss Sarah B. Askew, New Jersey public library commission, and of Mr. N. L. Goodrich, librarian of Dartmouth College. In order to secure pointed discussion Mr. Goodrich had caused brief summaries of the papers to be printed and distributed to members of the section two weeks before the meeting.

Miss LUCY M. SALMON, professor of history at Vassar College, read the first paper, entitled

INSTRUCTION IN THE USE OF A COLLEGE LIBRARY

Students who enter college are in an altogether hopeless state, if we are to believe the lamentations poured out in educational reviews and in library journals. In familiar phrase, "they have left undone those things which they ought to have done, and they have done those things which they ought not to have done, and there is no health in them." But it is not given either a college librarian or a college instructor to remain long hopeless, either for himself or for others,--the very nature of his calling demands that somebody do something. Discouragement over ignorant and untrained freshmen dissolves into the bewildering questions of who is to do what, and when, and where, and how. And so the college year begins.

It is undoubtedly true that a very large majority of college freshmen are not familiar with a large library such as they meet in college, that they have never used a card catalog, and that they would not even recognize it if they saw one.

But is it reasonable to expect such knowledge? The majority come from small places where such opportunities are not found, the work of the secondary schools does not demand extensive use of a library, and the mental immaturity of pupils of the secondary school age does not augur well either for an understanding of the intricacies of the card catalog, or for any special interest in the cataloging of books, or in general library history and administration. If the entering student had a knowledge of these things, one reason for going to college would be lacking,--he goes to college to learn what he cannot reasonably be expected to know before that time.

Cheerfully accepting then this condition of ignorance of all library procedure on the part of the rank and file of college freshmen everywhere, and unanimously agreeing that the college student must in some way learn how to use a library, diversity of opinion is found in regard to these two questions:--Is this instruction given better as an independent course to the entering students, or is it better to give it in connection with regular college work? Should the instruction be given by members of the library staff, or by college instructors?

The very fact that this question has been broached is helpful, since it is significant of the great changes that are coming both in library administration and in educational theory and practice. It suggests the increasing specialization in library work, the growing co-operation between the library force and those engaged in the more technical side of education, newer and, we believe, higher ideals of the object and therefore of the process of education, and the reflection of these changes in the development in the student body of independence, self-reliance, and the desire to do creative work.

Assuming therefore that we are all interested in securing for the college student fullness of knowledge at the earliest hour possible, I venture personally to differ somewhat from the report of the majority of the committee of the New England college librarians and to say that from the angle of the college instructor, it seems clear to me that the knowledge is better acquired in connection with regular college courses and that it can best be given by college instructors. It is with most of us a favorite occupation to see how many birds we can bring down with one stone, and this desire is in a sense gratified if we can incorporate knowledge of how to use a library with the subject matter included in a particular course,--it seems a saving of time for student, instructor and librarian. Everything is clear gain that can be picked up by the way.

But quite apart from this general desire to telescope several subjects, there are specific advantages gained by the student when the instruction is given by the instructor of a regular college class. The knowledge acquired falls naturally into its place in connection with definite, concrete work. Abstract theory has little place in the mental equipment of the fresh man, he seeks out relationships, adds new knowledge to what he already has, and quite reasonably is impatient, even intolerant in spirit when new ideas and facts are presented to him that he cannot immediately assimilate. To use a homely illustration, an article of food, like butter, that is essential for our physical diet serves its purpose much better when distributed through other articles of food than if taken independently and by itself. All new ideas in regard to library organization, cataloging, bibliography, searching for material, the handling of books, if gained through the usual channels of college work, are quickly and easily assimilated by the college student. If, however, these same ideas are presented to him unrelated to other work they are in danger of remaining unassimilated and of becoming a hindrance rather than a help.

On the other hand, the advantages in having the instruction given by a regular college instructor are that he deals with small sections of students, not with "numbers which are appallingly large;" that he knows the individual student; that he is able to relate the bibliographical work with the individual student on the one hand, and on the other hand with the special subject with which the student is working.

Personally, I can but feel that the assumption made by the committee of the New England college librarians, by the librarian of the Newark public library, by the dean of the collegiate department of the University of Illinois, and by others in the library field that college instructors are not interested in this matter and would oppose instruction in it is not really warranted by the condition that exists.

May I venture to describe somewhat in detail what is done in one college in showing students how to use books, how to become acquainted with the opportunities of a large library, and how to avail themselves of these opportunities in a direct personal way. In giving this account of what is done in Vassar College, may I emphasize the statement that the work done is by no means peculiar to one college,--other institutions all over the country are doing much that in principle is precisely the same, although the details may vary.

The first aid in knowledge of the library building, of its equipment, and of how to use its collections is given the Vassar College student literally during her first hours on the college campus. She is met by a member of the senior or the junior class and taken about the campus, and it is the duty of these student guides to give every entering student a copy of the =Students' Handbook=. In this she is urged to "become acquainted with the library as soon as possible." "The reference librarian," the =Handbook= tells her, "expects every new student to come to the reference desk to be shown about the arrangement of the library and the use of the catalog and to receive a copy of the library Handbook."

The guides point out the library and they are instructed to urge the new students to seek out the reference librarian at once and to make the library trip immediately. The new student goes to the residence hall where she is to live and she finds on the bulletin board in this hall an invitation to take the library trip. The records kept by the reference librarian show that a very large percentage of the entering students almost immediately avail themselves of this invitation extended by guides and reiterated by =Handbook= and by bulletin boards.

When the new student first enters the library she is given a plan of the building showing the arrangement of the different sections and a handbook explaining in full the library privileges. Armed with this, she is met by the reference librarian and then joining a group of three others she is taken through the library where she makes connections between the plan in her hand, the books on the shelves, "the inanimate reference librarian--the card catalog--" and the animate reference librarian in whom she finds a guide, counselor and friend.

This library trip can be, and is intended to be only general in character. The student gains from it first of all the consciousness of having found in the reference librarian a friend to whom she can always go for help and advice; second, her interest is aroused to become better acquainted with the card catalog and with the general facilities for work afforded by the library; and third she gains a determination to follow the injunction of the =Students' Handbook=, "do your part to make the library an ideal place in which to work."

It is at this stage, after this general instruction given by the reference librarian, that the majority of the entering students meet the officers of the department of history. We give them collectively during the first week, usually the second day, an illustrated lecture on the library. This includes slides showing the catalog cards of a few of the books they will use most in their history work, the cards of the most important reference works, periodicals, and atlases, slides showing the difference between a "see" card and a "see also" card, slides that explain incomplete series, continuation cards, and every variation that concerns their immediate work. Every slide concerns a work on history that is to be used almost immediately, and the form used in cataloging, the notation and the annotation, the hieroglyphics of the printed card, and the bibliographical features of the card are fully explained from the screen.

The students then meet their individual instructors, each one having previously provided herself with a pamphlet called ="Suggestions for the Year's Study, History I."= This pamphlet, besides giving detailed instructions for the preparation of the work, includes a plan of the library; suggestions in regard to its history, as also the description and the meaning of its exterior and interior; a facsimile and explanation of the catalog card of the text book used in the course; hints concerning the general card catalog; an analysis of the general form and different parts of a book; special directions for preparing the bibliographical slips or cards that must accompany every topic presented, together with an illustration of a model card; a full classification, with illustrations under each, of all the works of references the class will presumably use, including general works of reference, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, periodicals, year books, atlases, autobiographical material, including the various forms of =Who's Who?= together with biographical, ecclesiastical and various miscellaneous dictionaries and encyclopaedias; an elaborate chart devised to show the authoritativeness as history of the text book used in the course, accompanied by a full explanation of it; suggestions in regard to the purchase of histories for a personal library; and finally, a recommendation to make use of another pamphlet called =Suggestive Lists for Reading in History=. The main points in the pamphlet =Suggestions for the Year's Study= are talked over between instructor and students, and constant reference is made to it throughout the year.

The next step in the history work is to assign each student one or more questions written on a slip and drawn by lot. These questions are intended to test her assimilation of the bibliographical help already given, and her ability to apply to a concrete case what she has gained. As soon and as often as possible the students in the different sections of this class in history go to the library with the instructor for such additional and special help as they may need.

From time to time the students in History I prepare special topics on limited questions. A bibliography must always preface these topics and if it is in any way at fault, either as regards form or material, it must be presented a second time or as many times as is necessary to correct the defects.

This course in History I is required of every student in college. Those students who elect other courses based on this become acquainted with still other features of the library and acquire added facility in bibliographical work. Every student, for example, who elects the course in American history has a pamphlet called =Suggestions for the Year's Study, History A, AA=. This pamphlet includes a chart that shows the location in the library of all the sections of American history, each accompanied by the Dewey notation for each section, and also the notation for the sections in political science, law and government, American literature, English literature, and English history. It also considers at length the place in the course of the textbook, secondary works, collections of sources, almanacs, works on government, guides to literature, state histories, biographies, travels, and illustrative material. For the latter the students are again referred to =Suggestive Lists for Reading in History=.

Another section of the pamphlet considers specific classes of books which the student uses. It calls attention to the various kinds of bibliographies, as complete, selected, classified, and annotated; to library catalogs arranged on the dictionary, author, subject, and title plan, as also to trade catalogs; to documents classified by form and by contents; to official publications, and the publications of historical societies; to every form of personal record; to descriptions by travelers; and to general and special histories. It also takes up periodicals; manuscripts; special facsimiles, like the B. F. Stevens; geographical material; monumental records; inscriptions, and pictorial material.

Elaborate directions are given for preparing exhaustive bibliographies of the material in the college library on special subjects and suggestions for expanding these in the future as other opportunities for further library work are presented. In addition, tin trays of cards are provided in the American history sections. These are bibliographical cards that supplement but do not duplicate the catalog cards of the general library catalog.

During the year about twenty special topics are prepared by this class, each prefaced by a bibliography of the subject. At the end of the year, one special bibliographical topic is presented. This represents what each student can do in the time given to three classroom hours.

At the end of the first semester of this course the examination given is not a test of what the students have remembered but rather a test of what they are able to do under definite conditions. The class is sent to the library, each member of it usually receives by lot an individual question, and she then shows what facility she has gained in the use of books by answering the question with full range of the library.

Other pamphlets of =Suggestions= have occasionally been prepared for the most advanced courses. At the end of the senior year the students in my own courses are frequently given an examination that calls for the freest use of the library in the planning of history outlines for club work, in arranging for a public library selected lists of histories suitable for "all sorts and conditions of men," and similar tests that show how far they are able to apply present bibliographical knowledge to probable future experiences.

All this instruction and opportunity for practice in bibliography is not left to "the chance instruction of enthusiastic instructors" or to "the insistence of department heads" to quote Mr. Kendric C. Babcock.[8] It is definitely planned, it is systematically carried out, there is definite progression from year to year in the kind of bibliographical work required, and it is directly related to the specific and individual work of every student. From time to time conferences are held by the members of the library staff and the instructors in history and these conferences enable each department to supplement and complement the work of the other and thus avoid repetition and duplication.

[8] =Library Journal=, March, 1913, p. 135.

This division of labor enables the reference librarian to play the part of hostess, to make the students feel at home, to secure their good will and co-operation, to develop a sense of personal responsibility towards the library and its treasures. Her work as regards the library is

largely general and descriptive; as regards the students it is that of a friend and counselor; as regards the other officers of the college it is that of an ally and co-operator.

It is necessary to emphasize at this point the wide divergence between the work of the reference librarian in the college or the university and that of the reference librarian in the public library however large or small it may be.

In the public library the demand made upon the reference librarian is for definite information for immediate use; the library patron wishes, not training in acquiring information by and for himself, but the information itself; no substitution of deferred dividends will satisfy his insistent demand for immediate cash payment; he cares not at all for method but he cares very particularly for instant results. Moreover, no one intervenes between the reference librarian and the library patron,--he alone is responsible for giving the information desired. And again, the reference librarian has to deal with an irregular, constantly fluctuating clientele. The man who wants to know who first thought the world was round and whether he was a vegetarian or perchance a cannibal may never visit the library again, but the effort must be made to satisfy his curiosity. The reference librarian of the public library must always be more or less of a purveyor of miscellaneous information to an irregular fluctuating public.

But the functions of the college reference librarian are altogether different. It is often his duty not to give, but temporarily to withhold information; not to answer but to ask questions; to answer one question by asking another; to help a student answer his own question for himself, work out his own problems, and find a way out of his difficulties; to show him how to find for himself the material desired; to give training rather than specific information; to be himself a teacher and to co-operate with other instructors in training the students who seek his help. All this is possible for him for he deals with a regular constituency and he can build up each year on the foundations of the previous year. But while progression comes for the students, there is always the solid permanency of subject with which the reference librarian deals. With the regularity of the passing calendar there come the questions of the feudal system and of the frontier, of the renaissance and of how to follow a bill through congress. The personnel of the student body changes, but there is always an unchanging residuum of subject matter. On the side of the regular college work there is therefore practically no demand whatever made on the college reference librarian for the miscellaneous information demanded of the public reference librarian,--he is not the one who writes for the daily papers the description in verse of the daily life of the reference librarian.[9] Just what his work is in the college, from the students' point of view is indicated by a recent experience.

[9] =Library Journal=, Oct., 1912. =Public Libraries=, June, 1913.

A class of seventy in American history was recently asked to what extent the members of it had availed themselves of the services of the reference librarian in that particular course and the replies seem to show that their inquiries had chiefly related to the use of government publications, early periodical literature, material not suggested by the titles of books, out-of-the-way material, source material, and current newspaper material not available through indexes. The many tributes to the help received from the Vassar College reference librarian are perhaps best summed up, so it seems to the teacher, in the statement of one student "she shows you how to go about finding a book better the next time."

If then it must be evident that the work of the college reference librarian differs widely from that of the public reference librarian, it remains to consider specifically what division of the field should be made between the college reference librarian and the college instructor. Here a clear line of demarcation seems evident. The college instructor must know the student personally and intellectually, as he must know the conditions from which he has come and the conditions to which he presumably is to go. He must help the student relate all the various parts of his college work and help him relate his college work to the general conditions in which he is placed. Hence he cannot separate for the student the bibliography of a subject from the subject itself. Nor can he turn over to the librarian the instruction in bibliographical work. The reference librarian is the only member of the library staff who in the capacity of a teacher comes into direct personal relationship with the student, but his work, as has been seen, is entirely different.

In this division of the field that leaves to the college instructor the actual instruction of students in the use of books, a large unoccupied territory is claimed by the reference librarian as peculiarly his own. This concerns the "extra-collegiate activities" and includes help on material needed in inter-class debates, dramatics, pageants, college publications, Bible classes, mission classes, commencement essays, and all the miscellaneous activities in which the student, not the instructor, takes the initiative. This work corresponds somewhat closely to that of the general reference librarian in a public library and it demands about one-half of the time of the librarian.

Instruction in the use of the library is facilitated by unrestricted access to the shelves and here the students are able to put their knowledge to the test and to work out their own independent methods.

What are the advantages and the disadvantages of unrestricted access to the library shelves? The question was recently asked a class of seventy students and their replies show an almost unanimous opinion that the advantages are overwhelmingly in favor of the open shelves.

Among the educational advantages enumerated are that this fosters independence and self-reliance, through encouraging personal investigation; that it enables students to see books in relation to other books, to make comparisons, and therefore to select those that are the best to use; that it shows the library resources and, to a certain extent, the breadth of the investigation that has been done in specific lines. "The open shelf is an instructor, a great indispensable helper, an education in itself," writes one student, while another states, "It gives an opportunity to form a closer acquaintance with books already known by name, and for casual acquaintance with books one has not time to draw out and read at length."

On the more personal side the students have found the advantages to be the pleasure found in handling books; the appeal made by titles and bindings; the inspiration that comes from the feeling of kinship with books; the opportunity given for wide acquaintance with books and authors; more extensive reading; the saving of time; the satisfaction of being able to find what is wanted, freedom from the limitations of specific references. "We become interested in subjects and in books we should not otherwise have known at all," writes one, while another asked a friend who replied, "Well, I don't know exactly what it means, but I guess it means that I for one use books I never otherwise would have used."

On the side of the library as a whole, many have found advantages in the opportunity it gives of doing general and special bibliographical work and in the knowledge afforded of the general plan of arrangement, classification, and cataloging. "If we had to stay in a reading room, how much idea of library organization should we have?" is the clinching question of one enthusiastic student.

The moral advantages are found to be the feeling of responsibility towards books and the training given in not abusing the privilege.

But it is in the failure of some persons to avail themselves of these opportunities for moral training that students find the disadvantages of the open shelf. There are the periodic complaints that books are lost, misplaced, hidden, and monopolized; that the privilege is abused; and that the social conscience is lacking. "The open shelf is the ideal system but it is designed for an ideal society," feelingly writes one, while another, more philosophical, finds that the open shelf has its annoyances, but no disadvantages, and that these are probably to be charged up to human nature, not to the system.

Only an occasional one sees any other disadvantages. One student finds herself bewildered and lost in irrelevant material, while another brought up in the atmosphere of Harvard, thinks that the closed stack encourages greater precision and carefulness, "for if you have to put in a slip and wait for a book you are more careful about your choice than you are when you can easily drop one found to be unsatisfactory and lay your hands immediately upon another one." "It may be," adds a third, "that we do not get all we might from a book when it is so easy to get others. I find myself often putting aside a book when I do not immediately find what I want."

With an occasional plaint about the increased noise and that the open shelf really takes more time since it is easier to ask for an authority on a specified subject than it is to look it up for one's self, the case for and against the open shelf, from the side of the student, seems closed, with the verdict overwhelmingly in favor of unrestricted access to the library shelves.

I cannot forbear suggesting two directions in which it seems to me the library work could be extended to the advantage of both library and academic force.

The first is the desirability of having connected with every college library an instructor in the department of history who gives instruction in one or more courses in history and who is at the same time definitely responsible for the development of the bibliographical side of the history work.

The work of the history librarian on the library side would be to serve as a consulting expert on all questions that arise in cataloging books that are on the border lines between history and other subjects. Such perplexing questions are constantly arising and valuable aid might be given in such cases by an expert in history.

Another part of the work of the history librarian from the side of the library would be to keep the librarian and the history department constantly informed of opportunities to purchase at advantage works on history that are available only through the second-hand dealers. It now usually devolves on some member of the library staff to study the catalogs of second-hand books and report "finds" to some officer of the history department. Could facilities be provided for making it possible to have the initiative come from the history side it would seem a distinct gain.

The work of the history librarian would also include the responsibility for the classification, arrangement and care of the mass of apparently miscellaneous material that accumulates in every library but does not slip naturally into a predestined place. All is grist that comes to the history mill, yet it is difficult to know how it can best be cared for. Miss Hasse in her well-remembered article =On the Classification of Numismatics=[10] has shown that the utmost diversity has prevailed in regard to the classification of coins and the literary material dealing with them. This is but one illustration of the uncertainty, confusion, and diversity that prevails in classifying much of the material that seems miscellaneous in character, and that yet should be classified as historical material.

[10] =Library Journal=, September, 1904.

The work of the history librarian on the side of the students would be concerned during the first semester particularly with the freshmen and the sophomores. The bibliographical and reference work now done could be greatly enlarged and extended. It would be possible to explain still more fully the possibilities of assistance from the card catalog; to help students locate the more special histories that might seem to be luxuries rather than the necessities of their work; to make them acquainted with histories as histories, rather than with histories as furnishing specific material; to develop their critical appreciation of books and their judgment in regard to the varying degrees of authoritativeness of well known old and recent histories. Encouragement would be given the students to begin historical libraries for themselves, advice could be given in making reasonable selections of books, and help in starting a catalog. Interest in suitable book-plates for historical collections might be roused as well as interest in suitable bindings, and thus through these luxurious accessories the student be led on to friendship with the books themselves and with their author.

During the second semester the work of the history librarian would be largely with the seniors and would be more constructive in its nature. The seniors are looking forward to taking an active part in the life of their home communities and they will be interested in the public schools, in the public library, in social work, in church work, in history and literary clubs, in historical pageants, fêtes and excursions, in historical museums, in the celebration of historic days, and in innumerable other civic activities, many of which are intimately connected with the subject of history. The history librarian would be able to give invaluable aid to the seniors in preparing lists of histories suitable for public libraries in communities where suggestions may prove welcome; in suggesting histories adapted to all these demands made by personal, co-operative, and civic activities. This constructive work of the history librarian would be capable of infinite extension and variation and its good results would be far-reaching and of growing momentum.

May I suggest one further possible direction in which the activities of the library staff would lend interest to the general work of the college. Every institution needs luxuries and the members of the library staff have it in their power to offer courses of lectures open to all members of the college and also to citizens of the community who are interested in educational questions. Such courses would include lectures on the history of libraries; on the great libraries of Europe and America; on the great libraries of the world; on great editors like Benjamin F. Stevens; on rare books; on books famous for the number of copies sold, of editions, of translations, of migrations through auction rooms; on the famous manuscripts of the world. The possibilities of such courses are limitless.

There are also the courses of lectures that we are all eager to hear on the plain necessities that are of even greater interest than are those that deal with the luxuries. The college wants to hear about the administration of a library and its general problems; about the special questions of cataloging, interlibrary loans, the special collections of the library as well as its general resources. From the standpoint of special departments, lectures might be given by representatives of these departments on the treasures of the library as they concern their special fields.

Joint department meetings of the members of the library staff and the officers of the departments of English and of history for the discussion of questions of mutual interest have at Vassar College proved stimulating and contributed much to a mutual understanding of each other's ideals and to a sympathetic appreciation of the difficulties attending their realization.

"Why cannot all this work with and about books be explained by the librarians,--" college authorities sometimes ask. "That is their business; it is the business of the teacher to teach."

The answer is simple. The good teacher must individualize the student, the good librarian must individualize the book; and both teacher and librarian must co-operate in helping the college student get the utmost possible from his college course in order that in his turn he may help the community in which he lives in its efforts to realize its ideals. The endless chain extends to the farthermost confines of heaven!

Discussion of the paper was led by Mr. J. T. Gerould, librarian of the University of Minnesota. He believed that most college teachers had neither the knowledge nor the enthusiasm necessary to give systematic bibliographic instruction. Training in the use of the library should, he thought be given by a member of the library staff, from a general point of view, introducing the student to reference books not simply in one field, but in all. The time had come for the university libraries to define their position as a distinct educational integer, not a mere adjunct to the academic departments. Of course, to take such a position, the library staff must be thoroughly equipped, and must include trained bibliographers in adequate number.

Dr. E. C. Richardson, librarian of Princeton University, called attention to the fact that the principle of unrestricted access to the shelves required hearty co-operation between the college public and the library staff. It should be recognized that the librarian is not responsible for the correct placing of every book on an "open shelf."

Mr. John D. Wolcott, librarian of the Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C., spoke of the questionnaire on the subject under discussion sent out in October, 1912, by the A. L. A. to two hundred colleges and universities. A summary of the results were included in the chapter entitled "Recent aspects of library development" by John D. Wolcott, which forms a part of the Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education for the year ended June 30, 1912. Reprints may be obtained from the Commissioner.

Mr. H. C. Prince, librarian of the Maine state library, called attention to the courses in legal bibliography which were being given at various law schools. Those at the University of Chicago, though without credit, were eagerly attended by law students.

Mr. Goodrich reiterated his belief that the libraries should take a definite stand in insisting that college students must be taught how to use library resources to the full. They must learn the many "tricks of the trade," which in his opinion, were better known at present to the librarian than to the teacher. Miss Salmon replied that she thought it less a question of learning the "tricks of the trade" than of adapting the desired knowledge to the individual need and capacity of the student; hence her belief in the teacher as the proper medium of instruction. The discussion could not be pursued for lack of time.

Mr. H. E. BLISS, librarian of the College of the City of New York, read a paper on

SOME PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING CLASSIFICATION FOR LIBRARIES

I

The letter inviting me to take part in this conference echoes to me now across the busy field of the past month with notes something like this: "Come, if you will, and talk to us and with us, but =please= be =practical=." Perhaps I have elsewhere in-adroitly given the impression that I believe classification for libraries should be a matter of science or of philosophy. I did indeed say in print, some months ago, that "To be practical today and tomorrow, man must be scientific." Upon science, that is verified and organized knowledge, practical common sense is becoming more and more dependent. To be practical without knowledge is in most matters to be ineffectively practical. How practical should we be in classification for libraries, and how should we be practical effectually?

Those who have had to do with classification only in small collections of books for popular use may regard it as a comparatively simple and unimportant thing. They do not see why there should be so much trouble and fuss about it. This we may term the naïve view, to borrow a phrase from recent philosophical literature. But some of those who have undertaken to maintain a classification for a large university or reference library know that it is one of the most difficult and complicated of our problems. They apprehend furthermore that it has not yet been solved satisfactorily. This may be termed the =critical= view. It may vary from moderation to extremes optimistic or pessimistic.

Not a toy librarians want but a =tool=, as we say. The mechanism of a library, however, is not operated by merely mechanical hands. There should be somewhat in library service beyond mere statistical and technical economies. Our arrangement of books should not be inconsistent with the organization of knowledge, lest we fail in an =inestimable= service to the seekers and disseminators of knowledge.

II

Is it feasible economically to adapt this instrument, classification, to that higher service? There are three answers to this question. There is the pessimistic negative. Books are wanted in all possible and impossible arrangements. You cannot make a classification that, even with the customary transfers of charging-systems, will serve all these ever-varying needs. This argument leads to the virtual negation of the very =principle= of classification. If this were wholly true, it were futile to provide a place for bacteriology, for the books would be wanted now under botany, now under pathology, or sanitation, and again perhaps under agricultural science.

Shall we separate such branches or not? The pessimist says: "Whichever you do, classification fails." The optimist answers: "Good classification serves the average or prevailing demand." To more special subjects the pessimist then turns, such as crystallography, eugenics, child-psychology. These he says are claimed in their entirety by two or three different sciences. These arguments, launched against so-called "scientific classifications," are no less hostile to the worthy undertaking of a practical system in such conformity to the consensus of modern science as the conditions permit. But most librarians have not accepted this pessimistic negative. They continue to classify books for average demands, and the interest in the problem increases.

Contrasted is the more prevalent optimistic view. We have good classification. The Decimal Classification is an admirable, successful, at least serviceable system; it is the established, the familiar, the most practical. With all its faults, we love it still. Is not that =naïve=? Then, a consistent, scientific system is an impossibility. The relations and interests in science are ever changing, always complex. The thing would not continue for a decade to be satisfactory.

Another outcome of the naïve optimistic view, as realizing the complexity of scientific specialization, is the doctrine that a simple, practical system may be kept abreast of scientific progress by the addition of new details. This elaboration of schedules is compatible with what we term "expansion." Expansibility is essential to the very life of a notation, but it may be overworked. Certain systems have, I fear, expanded beyond the capacity of their safety valves to save them from explosion. Thousands of the details of those inflated schedules are practically useless even in the largest library. Such abnormal distension of the bibliographical body, or hypertrophy of its special parts, is not now for the first time called a disease of the bibliothecal system. That the subjects and topics are innumerable and of intricate complexity has led to the misconception that a classification for libraries should embody an infinity of captions in infinite complication. An alphabetical subject-index is believed to be all that is requisite to operate this maze of entangled details. This view may be termed the =subject-index illusion=.

Classification for libraries is to be distinguished on the one hand from notation and on the other hand from an arrangement of bibliographical subjects indexed. Notation and index are but correlative to classification, and, however requisite to a practical system, are in truth of minor importance. They are the fingers and the feet of the body and brain that organize the materials of knowledge. Yet it is these fingers and feet that have chiefly occupied the attention of most classifiers.

In the theory of classification subjects are to be distinguished from classes as contents from containers. The subject is that which is denoted by its definition; the class is the aggregate of particular things--books, or other things--that are comprised by the definition. A class may be comprehensive of many subjects or aspects of subjects. Such need not appear in the schedules of the classification, but they should be in its subject-index. Thus, Botany is a subject, to which Botanical Books is the corresponding class; Plant Physiology, a less general subject, has a less comprehensive class of books. Geotropism is a specific subject in the physiology of plants. The question arises, is there a class of books and pamphlets treating especially of this subject, the tendency of plants to respond to gravitation, as a stimulus? "Have you in your library," I might ask individually of the majority, "have you an aggregation of books on this subject?" The A. L. A. List comes nearest in the sub-headings under Plants, where with Movements appears Heliotropism, a kindred subject. This caption Movements is for a veritable class of subjects, and it might indeed comprise Geotropism. That is just what the Library of Congress schedule does, subordinating under QK 771 "Movements, Irritability in plants, (general)", the caption of 776, "Miscellaneous induced movements: Geotropism, Heliotropism, etc." In my own classification, the mark GCM goes with the caption, "Movements, Heliotropism, Geotropism, etc." It seems well thus to provide for a future group of monographs. If I criticise the Library of Congress classification today, or elsewhere, be it remembered that I recognize its correct treatment of this and thousands of other subjects. But is the E. C. justified in reaching into the dim future for subdivisions of specialization such as its NESGD, Diatropism, and NESGL, "Lateral Geotropism?" That is where we must open the safety valve or burst.

The body of the D. C. is congested with thousands of names of persons, places, and events which may be subjects, but hardly for classes of books. Systematic schedules might provide for most of these, reduce the bulk of the system, and make for economy and convenience. The L. C. schedules suffer from similar but more astounding expansion. Class H, Sociology and Economics, is needlessly immense, having 551 p., of which but 51 are index. According to the principle laid down a moment ago, the number of subjects in the index should by much =exceed= those in the schedules.

The "Expansive" Seventh expansion expanded so much with its own specialistic tissue that it could afford to omit such bulk of proper and place names. For instance Aves (Birds), covers 8 pages of fine print; there are all the taxonomic terms, for example, PGSLPI is for Phalacrocoracidæ, some family related to the pelicans; but there appears besides only the single subject Oology (eggs), at the end as PGZ. No place under Birds for their structure, their habits, for the popular bird-books, and for such interesting subjects as their migration, flight, etc., about which there =are= books! However much there is to interest, to commend, and to admire in this great undertaking, it must be admitted that this is not practical classification for libraries. It is the province of the subject-catalog to bring together topics and titles which are too special for classification to bring into collocation.

But let us return to the main question of the feasibility of =better= classification. There are three answers, I said. Two we have considered, the naïve, and the pessimistic, also their offspring, the subject-index illusion, but we have not yet completely answered the pessimistic. This we may now proceed to do in connection with the third answer, which is optimistic and constructive, while at the same time critical. This affirms that better classification is feasible, that it may be sufficiently flexible and durable, that changes and adjustments may be provided for in alternative and reserved locations, that the notation may be quite simple, and that the index may be as full and specific as comports with convenience.

The purpose of library classification is to group books and to =collocate groups= for the convenience of readers and students in their =average wants=. It is not so much for those who want a book, whose author and subject are known, or any good book on a particular subject; for such, the author and subject-catalogs may suffice. But classification is for those who want books, in the plural, directly, without preliminary handling of cards. Three types of such wants are to be distinguished.

(1) To all libraries come (the prevalent type) those who wish a few good books on the subject, or a few facts to be found in the standard books. They do not care to fuss over the card-catalog. The reference librarian, the selective lists, may serve such wants, but close classification usually does so most economically and most satisfactorily. For very specific subjects, however, the subject-catalog in the large library may often best serve this type and may make it less dependent upon free access and close classification.

(2) The second type wants all the good books treating of the subject especially. From these the user himself is to make selection according to his purpose or point of view. Free access and classification are here requisite. A bibliography, if there be one, would be most likely an _embarras de richesse_.

(3) The third type is that of exhaustive research: all the available literature is wanted, not only the books and pamphlets treating especially of the subject, but also those on related subjects and those of broader scope. Subject-catalogs and bibliographies are needed preliminaries, but access, continued access to the books, is the desideratum. It is for this type that the most carefully guarded libraries give access to their precious collections. Classification, not merely any old kind of subject, or close classification, but good, scientific, close classification, based upon good, consistent, broad classification, is here of paramount importance. The test comes when the student turns from the special to the more general and the related subjects, which are mostly in related branches of science. The tendency to organization in science is rapidly and surely growing. The more consistent with the consensus, to which studies on the average are adapted, however original and divergent their aim, the more convenient will be the classification. It is in subordination of the specific to the broader subject or class and in collocation of related subjects and subdivisions of classes that most systems fail; and here that most classifiers fail to understand either the fault or the remedy.

The difficulties emphasized by the pessimist, the overlapping of studies and the rival claims, arise chiefly from improper subordination. The material is common to the several sciences because these are portions differentiated from larger fields. Child-psychology is part of Psychology. The science and art of education are mainly concerned with the mental. They are related to Physiology and to Sociology as Psychology is related. But to place Education under Sociology, as is done by the D. C. and the E. C. is to answer the relation of second, not of first dependence, and is as false as it were to put psychology under sociology, to put the cart before the horse. Education and Psychology are working together, and their books should be contiguous. How shall we arrange these practically? Well, scientifically, in the order of generality, thus:

I Anthropology. ID to IG Human physiology.

J Psychology. JN Social psychology. JO Child-psychology. JP Education. JQ Educational psychology.

K Sociology and Ethnology. KA Sociology. KE Ethnology.

L History.

The principles of consistent subordination and practical collocation should guide the maker of a system, and his notes should guide the classifier of books. Here indeed should be a "code for classifiers" more intimately articulated than in a separate book. But herein lies the practical art of classification, so to dispose classes, divisions, and subdivisions, that they shall produce a relative minimum of inconvenience under the average conditions of demand and a relative maximum of collocation not only of special classes but of general, as well as a degree of consistency as high as practical conditions permit, and ultimately, as an ideal, a consistency not only with the pedagogic but with the philosophic organization of knowledge. This ideal, I believe, is not beyond approximate realization.

This critical but optimistic view ascribes the failure of library classifications to the dispersion of related material under subject, or close classification, without proper subordination and collocation. The subject-index, however useful to classifiers, is of little value to students. I approve close classification, but find it the more unsatisfactory and baffling as it is the less consistently adapted to good broad classification, with good articulation of related subjects according to predominating interests, and with alternative locations for flexibility to changes and for durability in the progress of science.

III

Having answered the main question of feasibility, we may now take up some minor practical questions, first Notation. It is not likely that reason shall soon remove all traces of prejudice and controversy in this matter. A few propositions, however, are so reasonable that I think they will be accepted. Notation should be brief and simple. Its simplicity depends upon its brevity, though also upon the familiarity and homogeneity of its elements. Letters give brevity. The capacity of three-letter notation, allowing for omission of all objectionable combinations, is about 15,000. Using letters and figures together increases this capacity to about 25,000, omitting confusing mixtures such as K7G and 8B4. Since somewhat more than 10,000 subdivisions seem requisite, the question reduces to this form: "Which is simpler, notation of three letters, or of five figures?" But figures, it is argued, are more familiar. They may be so to bookkeepers, but to the keepers of books! Familiar here means familiar with the numbers of the D. C. Then, are unmeaning combinations like DAL or GWK really more meaningless than numbers like 13859? On the other hand, isn't RAG easier to see and to remember? But the argument, so far as it is not merely prejudiced, is childish. Such combinations as A1, 3B, C42, and CF6, are hardly objectionable, and may prove convenient and economical in class-notation as they do in the author numbers, with which librarians are so friendly. Since they are come to stay, what is the use of arguing for homogeneous notation?

Notation is the more systematic and economical where it reduces in part to schedules applicable to the subdivision of many classes or divisions. This feature appeared to a minor extent in the "form signs" of the D. C., but was carried out extensively and complexly in the E. C. It is apparent also in the L. C., but there is more conspicuous by its absence through hundreds of pages of names of countries, places, and persons. Time does not permit me to describe here the six schedules that economize the system I have worked out: Schedule 1, Mnemonic numerals, constant throughout; Schedule 2, for subdivision by countries, applicable under subjects, where-ever desired; Schedule 3, for subdivisions under countries and localities; Schedule 4, for subjects under any language, except the chief literary languages; Schedule 5, for the chief literary languages; and Schedule 6, for arranging the material under any prominent author.

Some who admit the feasibility of better classification object that a classification modern for the present will be out of date in a generation. This in new guise is the familiar argument that it is useless to clean the house today, for it will need again to be cleaned next week--which all good housewives say is an unreasonable argument. It would be a pity to have fair librarianship called a slouch.

Is it conceivable that your books shall remain forever classified as they are at present? Are there to be no changes, merely additions of new captions? Conservatism is not strange, considering the cost of changing notation; but that cost is small compared with the cost of new building or new collections, and is justified by the service to be rendered. The longer postponed, the larger the cost, the larger the burden. Some libraries are changing now--to what? That change may indeed have to be changed again in a decade or two. But how long, then, should a classification endure--or rather, be endurable? One who would not prophesy may nevertheless give an opinion. I believe that a good classification should last a century--with some minor alterations. I believe that a good library should be willing to reclassify, if necessary, at least some of its collections two or three times in a century. I think that library economy should have been developed with better regard to this problem. It is not practical to arrange books inconsistently with the scientific and pedagogic organization of knowledge. Organization based on consensus is one of the marked tendencies of modern thought and purpose, and is not likely to be overcome by dissenting or disintegrating philosophical counter-tendencies. This organization is more stable than the theories on which it rests, and these are more stable than the popular press would lead us to suppose. New theories, new statements, are assimilated to the established body of knowledge without much dislocation of members. Durability in a system would depend not only upon present consistency with the organization of knowledge, but upon flexibility through reserved and alternative locations, judiciously chosen with regard to tendencies in science. There might be flaws and errors, but all practice, in whatever profession is thus imperfect and tentative.

That the D. C. is antiquated is not because of any change in science, but because it did not conform to the science of its generation. The welcome accorded to it in the pioneer days was in keeping with the earlier view that classification is a simple thing, as it indeed was for the small popular libraries. That acceptance has mellowed now into an affectionate companionship with a familiar and comfortable conveyance that has proved serviceable so far. Now the thing is said to need repair. But that it cannot economically be reconstructed has been recently demonstrated. It evidently must go on till its thousand pieces fall in a heap together, like the "wonderful one-hoss shay." Loading it with more and more scientific luggage may for a time increase its service, but the rattling of its parts grows all the more distressing to those who ride.

I reserve my opinion of the Expansive Classification and of that of the Library of Congress. It is to the point to say, however, that they are as unsatisfactory in the major principles of practical and scientific classification for libraries as they are valuable and admirable in the details which they have elaborated. They should help to solve the ultimate problem; but, if consistency with science and economy with convenience are feasible and requisite, neither of these systems is fit, nor is either, I think, likely to endure in general use in the future.

The simpler, the more systematic, and the more consistent with the organization of knowledge a classification and notation is, the more economical and the less vexatious will be the operation of classifying books. The subject, scope, treatment, purpose of the book--if that could be stated beforehand--and why not?--by author and publisher, and confirmed by the copyright office or the national library, then the class-notation could in most cases be quickly found through subject-index. That information might be printed in the book and more readily found there than through centralized cataloging and service of cards. Centralized or co-operative classifying however, or assigning of subjects and of the class-marks of an elaborately classified central or national library, would be a service of high value and of very considerable economy. =But= it should be distinguished from standardized classification. As libraries differ and differentiate, so should their classifications. At best a system may serve for libraries of a type, but not for all types. A university need not adopt an unfit classification as more than one has done of recent years. It may translate the centrally assigned subjects and class-marks into its own system, through its own index. Some general conformity, or conformity in special parts, may indeed prove economical and convenient, but standardization of an elaborate system is progress in the wrong direction.

This outline of a large, complex, and unsolved problem of paramount importance is very inadequate. I would propose that a committee be constituted, to articulate with the present committee on a code for classifying, to set to work upon a fuller investigation of this great question of the feasibility of better and more economical classification and notation. If librarians do not provide better classification for libraries, then the users of libraries will very likely in the not remote future provide for better librarians.

In the subsequent discussion, opened by Dr. Richardson and by a paper written by Mr. W. S. Merrill, chief classifier of the Newberry library, Chicago, exception was taken to many of Mr. Bliss' criticisms of present classifications. It was pointed out that the D. C., with all its faults, was yet eminently practical, as evidenced by its widespread use. Mr. Cutter stated that the E. C. classification for zoology, which Mr. Bliss had specially criticised, had been made in just the way Mr. Bliss himself regarded as the soundest, i. e., it had been condensed from material furnished by an eminent scientist; as to its being over minute, it was expanded only half as much as the scientist had proposed. Mr. Charles Martel, chief of the catalog division in the Library of Congress, Dr. Andrews, librarian of the John Crerar library, Chicago, and others also expressed their belief in close classification as a safeguard against confusion and unscientific grouping.

Only a few minutes remained for a paper on "Art in the college library," by Mr. FRANK WEITENKAMPF, chief of the art department, New York public library.

ART IN THE COLLEGE LIBRARY

The problem of art in schools has been frequently discussed. The matter of art in colleges, apparently, has not been so much considered. The cases, however, seem to be dissimilar only in degree, not in kind. In fact, not a little of the material that has been suggested for schoolroom decoration would be equally in place in the college. For instance, names such as those of Gozzoli or Luca della Robbia, on the =Craftsman's= list for schools could just as well be suggested for the college. Also, the average student is probably first to be reached best by recognition of the fact that there are other interests beside the purely aesthetic. In other words, good use can be made of the subject picture, the best possible being chosen. Dr. W. D. Johnston, librarian of Columbia University, where exhibitions "have always been an important auxiliary of lectures" and have included exhibitions of graphic arts, states that these last "are selected and displayed less with a view to artistic than pictorial value." But he adds that more and more attention is given to artistic value, and that in his belief the most valuable exhibits of an artistic nature are those "displayed permanently on the walls of halls, seminar rooms and lecture rooms. On the other hand, those which are exhibited temporarily should, if well selected, and well announced, do much to broaden taste."

The permanent display of pictures which illustrate with distinction certain broad principles of taste, is of undoubted necessity. But the use of the temporary show must not be lost sight of. The oft seen easily becomes the oft unheeded; familiarity breeds contempt. Periodical changes therefore seem advisable, as evidence that there is "something doing." Loans of good prints from private sources, if advisable, might be utilized to excellent effect. For instance, if the library happens to own, or can borrow, a copy of such a publication of color reproductions as the Medici prints, or "Meister der Farbe" or "Alte Meister" (the latter two issued by Seemann of Leipzig), a number of plates from the same might be placed on exhibition for, say, three months. This might be followed by a six-weeks' black-and-white show of good etchings from a private collection, or from the stock of the nearest museum or print dealer. After that, perhaps, a show of Greek art. The guiding principles should be: Keep the exhibit within reasonable bounds as to numbers, make selection with as much discrimination as circumstances will permit, and see that what you offer is made palatable. Dr. E. C. Richardson of the Princeton University library tells me that there a large collection of art photographs is drawn upon for permanent exhibition, the latter rearranged "every now and then" in order to exhibit fresh material, and that there have been a number of special exhibitions. (Incidentally, this university has a great variety of undergraduate courses in art.)

The matter of proper presentation is important. Not what is seen, but what is digested, counts. Good labels are a necessity; summary, with as little dryness as possible, informative, so that the student may see at a glance why a given picture was shown, and what are its good points. If relation to studies can be brought out in these exhibits, all the better. That naturally suggests the possibility of an occasional display of pictures illustrating a given period or personality in a given country. In the recently-printed little volume, "Art museums and schools," containing four lectures by Stockton Oxson, Kenyon Cox, Stanley Hall and Oliver S. Tonks, the significance of the museum to teachers of English, art, history and the classics is considered, and the documentary value of art is properly emphasized. "In order to teach the classics," says Prof. Tonks, "you must know more of ancient life than is to be gleaned from the literature by itself." Viewed in this light, the old Greek vases and other art objects take on a new significance. But the ultimate object of all this must not be lost to sight, the cultural influence sought, the promotion of interest in art as a matter not apart from, but a part of, our daily life, a contribution to general culture. It is well to make it clear that a certain amount of appreciation of art can become as much a matter of course as certain elementary rules of good breeding. "Art," says Croly, in his "Promise of American life,"--"art cannot become a power in a community unless many of its members are possessed of a native and innocent love of beautiful things." These considerations, again, suggest the occasional exhibiting of plates illustrating decorative and applied art, say color plates such as those in Wenzel's "Modern decorative art," or "Dekorative Vorbilder," or similar books, if procurable, or black-and-white plates from books or art magazines. A judicious use of the library's books is advisable, not through lengthy lists in which the bibliographical instincts of the librarian might find vent. Reference to two or three books on a subject--whetting the appetite by displaying them at the same time as the plates exhibited--may lead to an occasional reading at spare moments. It may help also to show the fallacy of the "I don't know anything of art, but I know just what I like" attitude. You can not understand anything worth understanding without some trouble, any more than you can play football or bridge without some practice.

The matter of hanging must depend, naturally, on local conditions: amount and distribution and shape and location of available wall space or other space, financial resources, character of student body, etc. The simplest method is, of course, to suspend the pictures by clips from horizontal wires, but it is not under all circumstances the safest. Pictures may be fastened to a wooden background (usually covered with burlap or other textile) on the wall. In that case, care must of course be taken that thumb-tacks do not pass through the print. The shank of the tack passes close to the picture upon the outermost margin of which its head will then press. Mr. E. R. Smith of the Avery library at Columbia University, lays strips of bristol board over the spaces between the pictures, and overlapping the margins of the same; the tacks pass through these strips. Pictures fastened to the wall may be covered by sheets of glass held in place by strong tacks, or perhaps the brass-headed upholsterers' nails. Where prints are shown unprotected it may prove well to mount them, unless they are printed on thick and strong paper. (At the Newark library they use mounting board bound at the edge with buckram and further strengthened by pigskin corners; this is for prints which circulate among teachers.) Where frames are used with the intention of periodical or occasional change of exhibits, the back can be held by the familiar "button" device which can be easily swung aside so as to admit of changing the picture without extracting nails. Mr. Paul Brockett of the Smithsonian Institution, tells me that there the glass doors of bookcases have been used for exhibiting pictures. At the same place, wing frames--that space-saving device of a dozen frames with glass centered on a standard, and having a certain swing in either direction--have been used. Moreover, these frames were units which could be hung on the standard or placed against the wall. In some of the New York public library's branches, such frames radiate directly from the wall, to save space. A similar device is seen in a certain type of display fixtures, in which the swinging frames reach to the floor, and which may be seen in operation in the lithographic exhibition of Fuchs & Lang, Warren St., New York City. There is no protecting glass here, however, and I presume that the use of this contrivance would be safe only in exceptional cases. Hints to exhibitors may be found in articles such as the one on "Mounting, framing and hanging pictures," by Miss Mabel J. Chase, assistant supervisor of drawing, Newark, N. J., in the =School Arts Magazine= for December, 1912, or in one on "Planning and mounting an exhibit" in the number for March, 1913, by George W. Eggers, who lays stress on the fact that "Every exhibit should definitely tell something." Still continuing the examination of this magazine, one notes in the issue of April, 1913, an article on the "Decoration of an assembly hall in R. C. Ingraham Grammar school, New Bedford, Mass." That relates to a permanent exhibit, and describes the distribution of pictures and other objects in such a manner as to make a harmonious arrangement of the whole room. But there are other periodicals, and there are readers' guides and other indexes and bibliographical aids, and this is not the place for lists.

Now, as to the material to be used for the exhibition. Outside of the resources offered by the library's own collection and the loan possibilities indicated, there are various dealers and other agencies to be taken into account. In the state of New York for instance, the division of Visual Instruction of the Education department has a circulating collection of pictures furnishing ample material for educational extension lectures and for study clubs. This consists of "Braun, Elson, Hanfstängel and Hegger carbons, Copley prints and bromides and Berlin photogravures." These wall-pictures are lent to schools and libraries, framed without glass, for a fee of 50 cents each per year. In other states, I presume state library commissions could give advice. There are the artistic lithographic drawings in color issued by B. G. Teubner of Leipzig at five and six marks apiece, the plates of Seemann's "Meister der Farbe" can be purchased separately, and dealers such as the Berlin Photographic Co., George Busse, the Detroit Publishing Co., Braun Clement & Co. and others could no doubt give lists and advice. Importing book-dealers, French and German, must be considered. Not all of the material furnished by these concerns is equally cheap, but a certain amount of the higher-priced sort will serve for permanent exhibit.