cost. Frequently such literature is the latest and most authoritative word upon any subject.
In our scheme of scientific management, therefore, the small library, perhaps even more than the large, can not afford to do without collecting such literature. The pamphlet collection is indispensable. It means work, but in the end by its live usefulness it saves time. By scientific management and intensive use a small library with a good pamphlet collection can get better results than one three times as large whose resources are not up-to-date and thoroughly made use of.
First, a word as to the filing of such material; second, as to sources for securing it. I cannot attempt to offer any new solution to the vexed problem of pamphlet disposal. I will merely state briefly how Goodwyn Institute library handles its pamphlets. We have found the system of filing in pamphlet boxes most convenient and practicable. A box is lettered with D. C. number or inclusive numbers, and with subject or subjects included, as 334.6 Agricultural credit. Pamphlets are counted as received, but not accessioned. If important, catalog card is made under subject, or author, rarely under both. If of slight or only temporary value, they are merely marked with class number, and placed in box without cataloging. Sometimes merely a general catalog card is made to show that the library receives all the publications of an organization, as with the National American Woman Suffrage Association, or with the American National Child Labor Committee. In these cases there would be both author and subject card. Any specially important publication of the association would be brought out by separate card. A check on the pamphlet would indicate whether or not it had been cataloged.
For the small library which has not time to catalog individual pamphlets, it would be sufficient to make one general card for each group, giving class number and subject heading, as: "325 Immigration; for material (or for additional material) on this subject, see pamphlet collection," or merely, "See also pamphlets."
Goodwyn Institute clips also the local newspapers and a few others for matters of local or special interest, mounts the more valuable clippings on manila sheets, 8x10 in size, numbers them, occasionally catalogs an important one, and files them with pamphlets on the same subjects. To keep the collection from becoming obsolete, or occupying too much space, it should be gone over once a year, and old pamphlets and clippings and their cards withdrawn and destroyed. With many constantly changing subjects in agriculture, engineering, current problems, etc., it becomes instinctive with the reference assistant to bring forth first to the would-be investigator the pamphlet box or boxes on that subject, then the more recent magazine articles, and only last the books.
In Goodwyn Institute library the pamphlet collection is supplemented by a vertical file, arranged alphabetically under the same headings as the pamphlets. In this file are placed letters, circulars, typewritten lists, and the like, not advisable to be placed in the pamphlet boxes. A practical plan for indexing this material is a general card on each subject included, to be filed at end of regular cards in cataloging: e. g. "Levees; for additional material, see vertical file." For the very small library the vertical file is perhaps the most convenient arrangement for disposing of pamphlets and all unbound material in one place.
Some of the larger libraries bind in inexpensive form all pamphlets which are considered worthy of preservation, but for the small library this seems necessary only in the case of pamphlets of unusual value or size.
Now as to some of the sources of the pamphlet and ephemeral literature which is so valuable. I can not do better than to remind you again of two lists with which you are probably already familiar. The first is "Social questions of today, selected sources of information, compiled by the Free Public Library, Newark, N. J.," 1911. It may be obtained from the Editor of Special Libraries, State Library, Indianapolis, for ten cents. It includes the names and addresses of organizations interested in social questions, such as the American Civic Association, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Vocation Bureau of Boston, and an index of subjects covered by the publications of these organizations, such as the cost of living, prison reform, sex hygiene, vacation schools.
The second list is entitled "The library and social movements; a list of material obtainable free or at small expense." It may be had from the A. L. A. Publishing Board for five cents. This list includes material on all sorts of sociological questions, from co-operative stores to workingmen's compensation. From these two lists a good working collection of up-to-date, inexpensive pamphlet material on social problems may be obtained. Among recent organizations, born since these lists were published in 1911, are the Drama League of America, the American Commission on Agricultural Co-operation, the Southern Sociological Congress. All these put out valuable and inexpensive reports and publications. It would be a boon to small, and even large libraries, if the A. L. A. Publishing Board would father a new list including and enlarging the material of the two 1911 lists, and adding the most important new organizations and publications which have since come into being.
The recently published index to Special Libraries, Vol. 1-3, makes available, in that indispensable little journal much valuable material on current questions, and sources of information.