Mr. DUDGEON: My connection with this association was due to this conception, that in my business, which was legislative work, etc., I conceived that there was a great deal in books that ought to be brought to the attention of the people who were doing the work, and I was glad to join an association whose special function seemed to be to help one another devise ways and means of getting book knowledge into the hands of the actual workers. Now, that seems to me to be somewhat of a distinct proposition. I think Mr. Cutter's definition justifies our existence. We are specialized in getting knowledge out of books and out of the experience of others into the hands of workers rather than into the hands of people who are just thinking about working. It seems to me that it is quite distinct although hard to distinguish.
Miss LINDHOLM: I believe in the effort to make the business public more appreciative of the work we are doing, we should write more articles about our work and our libraries. I think if there were articles written for the different electrical, engineering, automobile and manufacturing periodicals it would help a great deal.
Mr. CUTTER: I would suggest, Mr. President, that you can combine all those periodicals the lady mentions by writing articles for the Wall Street Journal. That is the place where the people read things.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: The editor of the Wall Street Journal was with us at our September meeting and gave us a very interesting description of his own part of the work in connection with the business, and the information bureau established by the Wall Street Journal. I sometimes think we fail to note the speed with which that information must be obtained, either in the reference department or the newspaper. They will sometimes employ a mere mechanical device to save two minutes in connection with the information given.
I think Miss Lindholm's suggestion is a very good one and possibly can be worked out by getting more and more in touch with the trade periodicals. Many of those trade periodicals are not taken by the public libraries, are not listed in any indexes of periodicals, and much of the material afforded there is of unusual value.
Mr. CUTTER: I would suggest that we have a committee on publicity for the association.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: The committee have a plan to advance for that which I think they will bring out at the next meeting.
SECOND (FIRST JOINT) SESSION
(Friday, June 28, 2:30 p. m.)
The second session was a joint session held in conjunction with the National Association of State Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries and the Bibliographical Society of America. Mr. George S. Godard, acting secretary-treasurer of the National Association of State Libraries, called the meeting to order and occupied the chair.