Olive Jones, Secretary.
[CATALOG SECTION.]
The Catalog Section of the American Library Association held two meetings in connection with the Waukesha conference.
FIRST SESSION.
The first session was held in one of the parlors of the Fountain Spring House, on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 9. The chairman, Anderson H. Hopkins, called the meeting to order.
It was Voted, That the section waive the formality of registration of members preliminary to voting.
It was Voted, That the chairman appoint a nominating committee of three, to report at the close of the session. This committee was appointed as follows: Miss Sula Wagner, Mr. Jones, Mr. Roden.
A. H. Hopkins: When the round table session on this subject was held last year its object was, of course, to find out whether there was a demand for a section of this kind. We found it out pretty soon. Now we have the section. Then came the question, when I was asked to assume the chairmanship for one more year, of how it might best be occupied. It seemed to me for a time that perhaps the best plan would be to go to the opposite extreme—from having been informal last year—and have set papers, especially as the Association had decided not to take stenographic reports of the meetings. However, a change came about in my views when the interstate meeting was called at Atlantic City last March. A meeting was held there of the Publishing Board's committee on rules for a printed card catalog. The members of that committee were at that time all of the opinion that no better plan could be followed for this year's meeting of the Catalog Section than to have another discussion similar to that of last year, but confining the talk chiefly to knotty points which they met in the course of their work. That has been done; but there have been added a few questions which have come to your chairman in the course of the year from persons interested in the section.
The Publishing Board, in taking up the task of producing printed cards, found that widely divergent practices must be shaped so that they would work together. To this end they appointed a committee of seven and set them the task of producing harmony among the jarring elements of practice in all the libraries of this country, barring none. The head of the catalog department of the Library of Congress was made chairman of this committee; and, as you know, this great library and its chief, to whom we all turn so gladly, are lending their cordial support to the project, and realization now seems near at hand.