I think that the classification alone will be exceedingly useful to you who ultimately, with the growth of American cities and their rapid development, are going to be forced to take an interest in the subject of their re-arrangement. This is going to become more and more a vital problem, it seems to me, in the future here in America than it ever has been in the past; and when the final list is published it will consider not only American experience, but also European, appertaining to that subject.
GEORGE W. LEE: I should think this might be a good chance for people to express themselves as to the need of bibliographical matter to go into "Special libraries," as members who receive "Special Libraries," whether they think the trend of articles is about right and to make suggestions. Possibly it might be some guide to the editorial committee to know whether the material they are putting in is about right, or whether there are certain things that might with advantage be inserted. Then the question comes, are you helping, yourself, to make up these bibliographies?
The VICE-PRESIDENT: Perhaps Mr. Lapp can speak of the various ways in which we made the bibliographies, working with the Library of Congress methods and various others.
Mr. LAPP: That question might properly come up later, but I just mention at this time that we should be thinking about it, and report at a later session of this organization, this week. The matter is very important to us, because we have some difficulty in selecting. We have some difficulty in knowing just what the members of the association desire most, and at the present time we have a working arrangement with a number of people who are supplying things regularly. We should be glad to enter into arrangements with others if the demand seems to be great. Just now we have an arrangement with the Public Utilities Committee, which supplies every two or three months a summary of the best public utility references of the period before. We also have an arrangement with the Library of Congress, through Mr. Meyer, by which we receive a bibliography for every issue, a short bibliography on some obscure subject, some subject that is not covered in any systematic bibliography, or not covered adequately; and the desire is to get questions which would be of the widest interest and at the same time not conflict with something that has already been published, because the whole purpose of the Special Libraries Association is to do those things which nobody else does. If we find that we are doing something now which somebody else can do better, we should be very glad to transfer it to them, and merely undertake those things which nobody else does. We have an arrangement also by which we are going to receive some of the best references to material on city documents, beginning with the next issue. That I think will add very materially to the value of the publication, because city documents, as you know, are now almost inaccessible for the reason that no one knows that they are published until they are perhaps out of print, and they cannot be obtained.
I would like to take this opportunity of asking all our friends to contribute whenever they know of anything that is done or that has happened regarding a bibliography or in the way of a special locality that you think should be mentioned, that you send a note to the editors, or send us a copy of the publication itself. This is purely a co-operative enterprise, and it is by co-operation that we get the real value of the work. The hope is to cover the whole country, so that if a man is working on a subject in Boston some one in San Francisco can learn about it, and, if he is thinking of doing the same thing, have him co-operate and perhaps get that thing done better; and any information which can be given which will facilitate that plan will be of very great value to the association and be a very great help to the editors.
Mr. CUTTER: The first statement Mr. Marion made, about obtaining assistants for the people who need them, is, I think, the most searching question in connection with special libraries. It seems to me it would be wise for this association to communicate with graduating classes of some of our universities and suggest to the members of those classes well enough in advance that the library profession is a desirable thing for young men to enter. I think it would be a very wise thing for this association to take that up, and tell them the reasons why, and the demand for assistants. At the present time I have knowledge of several positions, but the specification is made that men are desired, as most of our business men are so ignorant that they do not know how efficient women are.
I would say in regard to what Mr. Lapp mentioned, that I have some 250 bibliographies on engineering subjects, some of them too special, but some of them would, I think, be of general interest, and I will take the opportunity of sending him a list of these.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: It might be of interest to note what has already been printed in connection with the Library of Congress, to show the character of the publications received from that source. You will recall, for instance, a bibliography on the drinking habit, the short ballot, on anti-cigarette ordinances and laws, the open shop, public utility rates, the pardoning power, compulsory voting, preferential voting, and, finally, city planning, and, also, I might say, one on the administration of charities and correction boards, a rather technical subject, which appeared in the April number, 1911.
(There here followed a discussion led by Mr. C. A. George, of Elizabeth, N. J., in which he asked for information as to the real purpose of the Special Libraries movement. Mr. Josephson, the vice-president, and Mr. G. W. Lee, of Stone & Webster, Boston, offered replies to the questions asked.)