Students find our room a boon. They are able to get material there which they are not able to find anywhere else. This spring students at the University of Chicago were working upon a debate on Panama Canal tolls, and they were so eager to use our material that they would stay all day, leaving in relays to eat while a few were left behind to guard the material.
A civics room in a medium-sized town may be made one of the most important assets of the library if it can be arranged that the person in charge does not have to divide her attention with the main work of the other departments of the library. If the staff is limited it would be better to have the civics room situated in a centralized locality, such as the state library, with easy communication with the smaller libraries. These could have an index of what the state library has, and when the need would arise the librarian could communicate her wants to the state librarian and the material could be sent as a package library upon short notice.
And so we find that we can be of assistance to the members of the City Council, women's clubs, civic organizations, newspaper men and students. The future of the work is very bright; new lines of work open up; new opportunities for service present themselves. It is in this work that one can be alive; he can feel that he is a part of the great movement toward the betterment of his city and its people.
Dr. William H. Allen, director of the Bureau of Municipal Research, of New York, made the closing talk of the evening, taking as his subject, "What a city should expect and receive from a library." He made a plea that librarians as individuals should stand for something in the community, should take their place as persons in the affairs of the day as well as see to it that their institutions performed the work to be expected of a library. He also laid emphasis on the fact that the general public did not know of the work being done by libraries and the possibilities of further service and urged that discussions of such work should be given place in the general magazines and newspapers as well as library magazines. He strongly advocated individual thinking, the doing of that which the individual librarian felt to be the best for a given community whether it be in line with general library thought or not, claiming that individuality of action and thought made for a stronger and better administration even if such individuality led to criticism upon occasion.
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING SECTION
The meeting was called to order Wednesday evening, June 25, by the chairman, Mr. Frank K. Walter.
The first paper was presented by Miss MARY W. PLUMMER on