SECOND GENERAL SESSION
(Tuesday morning, June 24, 1913)
The PRESIDENT: We are to start this morning with the committee reports. Unless, however, undue objections are made we shall read these by title and, like the members of Congress, ask leave to print. A number of them indeed are in printed form and have been distributed and you have doubtless found them on the chairs as you entered the hall. I may say that some of these reports are unusually strong in that they represent the work of a year of very careful thought and investigation by their members. If you will take the time, either at this conference or after you get home, to read these reports, you will greatly profit from the labors of these respective committees. The printed reports comprise those of the secretary, the treasurer, the trustees of the endowment fund, the publishing board, the committee on bookbinding, the committee on bookbuying, the committee on federal and state relations; and reports have also been received in manuscript, by the secretary, from the committees on co-operation with the National Education Association, library administration, library training and work with the blind. Unless it is requested that any particular one of these reports be read at this time we shall pass them over and commit them to the secretary for inclusion in the printed conference proceedings.
The above mentioned reports are here printed in full.
SECRETARY'S REPORT
The third report of the present secretary and the fourth since the establishment of a headquarters office is here submitted to the association. The material conditions of headquarters are practically identical with those reported a year ago; we are still the recipients of the generosity of the board of directors of the Chicago public library, the large room furnished free by them being more and more appreciated as we compare our commodious quarters with those greatly inferior where a rent is charged which would be prohibitive to the funds of the A. L. A. For the continued courtesy and unfailing kindness of the librarian of the Chicago public library and his able staff I cannot find adequate words. It is unquestionably a decided advantage for the executive office of the A. L. A. to be in close proximity to a large reference collection and to a competent corps of library experts. In these respects we are fortunate not only in the Chicago public library, but also in the John Crerar and Newberry libraries which so admirably supplement each other in forming reference facilities of a high order.
The routine work of the year has much of it so closely resembled in kind that of last year that the secretary feels it unnecessary to rehearse it again in detail, but respectfully refers inquiry on this point to his report at the Ottawa conference. In quantity it is rapidly increasing; there are more letters to write; there is more proof to read; more personal calls from librarians and others as the establishment of the office becomes known; there are more arrangements to be made for the many-sided interests of the Association. The Publishing Board's work is likewise increasing, and with the removal of the Booklist office from Madison to Chicago headquarters, which will be made in the near future, additional duties will devolve on the general office, even though that periodical has its own special staff. These things, however, are as we desire they should be and we are pleased to see indications that the funds of the Association are going to permit the enlargement of the work as this is found advisable.
The Office as an Information Bureau—In no way is this growth quite so noticeable as in the increased correspondence through which the executive office is used as an information bureau on library economy. For a time after the establishment of the office this correspondence was naturally almost entirely with librarians. The letters of the past year, however, have shown that our existence is becoming known to others. We are being told the problems of the library committees of women's clubs; of manufacturers who wish to get their workmen interested in a business library; of business men who are thinking of establishing such a library; of young men and women who are considering librarianship as a vocation and do not know the proper steps to take to get the necessary training and experience; and of publishers and of booksellers who are referring various matters to our office. These things in addition to the steady daily stream of correspondence with librarians in every state of the union. Last year we recorded that our actual correspondence averaged 67 letters a day for a period covering several months. It has been considerably greater the past year. This includes, of course, all correspondence relative to publications, membership matters, and business routine. Several months ago the secretary printed 10,000 little leaflets mentioning some of the ways in which the A. L. A. can assist in library informational lines. About half of these have been distributed, mainly in channels outside of regular library work and among those who perhaps had not previously learned of headquarters and of our publications.
Membership—Last year it was the privilege of the secretary to report that the membership was larger than ever before in the history of the Association. We are now glad to be able to say that there is a substantial increase in membership over last year. In January, the secretary mailed with the annual membership bills an appeal to members to help again this year as they did last in securing new members. This appeal has been very effectual; many have been instrumental in securing one or more new members and the secretary desires here to thank all those who have so kindly assisted in this campaign. During the late winter and early spring many personal letters were written to librarians and library boards asking them to have their libraries become institutional members of the A. L. A., and many have responded favorably. Several hundred personal letters were also addressed to those who had recently, according to the news columns in the library periodicals, changed their positions, presumably for the better financially.