The work required in assembling and taking care of the material is such as to demand the most concentrated efforts and the most specialized training upon the part of the librarian. She must be familiar with the great issues of the day and must be able to look ahead and assemble material where she sees that a topic is engaging the attention of public-spirited men.
The material which is stored in the civics room, therefore, is less in the form of books than in the way of pamphlets, magazine articles, and newspaper clippings—that which is usually regarded as ephemera. The latest material is not to be found in books, for by the time a subject has been before the public, has been talked about, assimilated, and finally published in book form it is practically an old subject.
One of the first considerations for the librarian is where to obtain this material. Our civics room has a card index of institutions and societies that are interested in the subjects that we cover in our work, and since we are on the mailing list of most of the associations we are pretty well supplied with their publications. The National Municipal Review, published quarterly by the National Municipal League, has a section devoted to new pamphlet material and is a great help in learning of new publications. Other journals of particular value are: The Survey, with its Information Desk, The Municipal Engineer, The American City, and The American Political Science Review.
For magazine articles, of course we have the Readers' Guide, but most of our magazine material is in the form of separates. The branches of our library return innumerable magazines to the main library and these are immediately dismembered and the articles of value and interest to us are taken out and treated as if they were pamphlets. Our newspaper clippings are obtained from 150 foreign and domestic newspapers which our reading room receives daily. Representative material is obtained in this way from all sections of the country. The pamphlets, magazine separates, and newspaper clippings, together with a small, well-selected collection of books and a goodly supply of current magazines upon economic and sociological subjects constitute the material of the room.
If you were to visit our civics room you would see one entire side of the room lined with pamphlet boxes. Each box represents a subject. Collected in one box are pamphlets, magazine separates, and newspaper clippings. The patron is not compelled to read antiquated books in studying his subject, nor is he compelled to go through the Readers' Guide and wait for his magazines to be brought to him. Here, all gathered together, is the latest material to be had. Each pamphlet is classified; each magazine separate is made into permanent form by being stapled in a manila folder with source, title, date, and class number on the cover; each newspaper clipping is classified with source and date and placed in a large manila envelope. We use the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau's expansion of the 300's of the Dewey Classification for classifying our material. Selections from the contents of a typical box will show what kind of material is to be had. The subject is The recall:
Address of Pres. Taft at the banquet of the Swedish-American Republican League. 62d Cong. 2d. sess. Sen. doc. 542. Mar. 9, 1912.
Address on the recall of judges and the recall of judicial decisions at the session of the annual meeting of the Ill. State Bar Assoc. Apr. 26, 1912.
Election and recall of federal judges; speech of Hon. Robt. L. Owen. 62d Cong. 1st Sess. Sen. doc. 99. July 31, 1911.
Federal recall and referendum. Springfield Republican. Dec. 5, 1912.
How the "recall of decisions" would protect the weak from injustice. Chicago Tribune. Apr. 7, 1912.