I am going to appoint on the nominating committee Messrs. George W. Lee of Boston, John A. Lapp of Indianapolis, and Miss E. V. Dobbins of New York City.
We are very fortunate in having with us to take the main paper for this opening session a man who has been actively engaged in special library work for some time in the west, one who is very familiar with the development of the "Wisconsin idea" of legislative reference work, and closely associated with Dr. McCarthy in developing that idea.
I take great pleasure in introducing to you Mr. M. S. Dudgeon, secretary of the Wisconsin library commission, who will talk upon the subject of "The plan, scope and results of special libraries."
Mr. DUDGEON: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen—There are those who maintain that there is no such thing as a special library in a class of its own, but that what we call a special library is simply a general reference library which by the needs of its patrons has become somewhat specialized in its methods and in its equipment. On the other hand, there are those who maintain that a special library has so distinctly a different function and purpose, that its scope is so different, that its equipment is so different, and that the equipment, the qualities and the characteristics of those who man the library are so different, as to entitle such an institution to an entirely different classification; that it is not a general reference library, but a special library, something entirely different. It seems to me to be more or less a distinction without a difference, more or less a play upon words. I have, at the request of the Program Committee, written down what seemed to me the perfectly obvious things that might be said about the scope and purposes of the special library. You have the paper before you as printed in "Special Libraries," and will probably be fortunate enough to escape some detail, as I will try to shorten this somewhat in the reading.[13]
[13] Mr. Dudgeon's paper appeared in full in "Special Libraries," June, 1912, pp. 129-133.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: I think we all have a clear understanding of just what a special library means, and I think we should all notice especially the allusion that Mr. Dudgeon made to the reference library as compared to the public library, in the definition of the use of the book.
I think one of the finest examples of a special librarian one can find is in our absent president. Dr. Whitten is doubtless one of the best authorities today on public utilities, and he has this month gone to London, where he is spending the summer investigating public utilities for the National Civic Federation. That, I think, accounts for his absence, and we regret very much that he is not here.
I am going to ask Mr. Josephson of the John Crerar Library, Chicago, to lead the discussion.
A. G. S. JOSEPHSON: I am afraid that you will not find my paper what you expected it to be, a discussion of Mr. Dudgeon's paper. When Mr. Lapp wrote me some time ago to ask if I would not discuss the question, I began to try to make up my own mind as to what a special library was. I had made my mental notes on that subject, and when Mr. Dudgeon's paper came and I read it and undertook to discuss it, it happened that my own ideas came first.[14]
[14] Mr. Josephson's discussion will appear in a later issue of "Special Libraries."