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.