PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
THIRTY-FOURTH ANNUAL
MEETING
OF THE
AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
HELD AT
OTTAWA, CANADA
JUNE 26-JULY 2, 1912

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
78 E. WASHINGTON STREET
CHICAGO, ILL.
1912

[CONTENTS]

Note: The minutes of the National association of state libraries have not been received in time to be included in this volume. They will be separately printed by that association.

[OTTAWA CONFERENCE]

JUNE 26-JULY 2, 1912

PRELIMINARY SESSION

(Wednesday evening, June 26, 1912, Russell Theatre)

The association convened in a preliminary session on Wednesday evening, June 26, with Dr. James W. Robertson, C. M. G., chairman of the Canadian royal commission on industrial training and technical education, presiding as acting chairman of the Ottawa local committee.

Hon. George H. Perley, acting prime minister of Canada, was introduced and welcomed the association to Canada on behalf of the Dominion government. The speaker called attention to the hundred years of peace between the two countries and the plans being formulated for celebrating it, and said that international conferences such as this were the best guarantees of peace; that the more we know of each other the less liable we were to get into trouble.

In Canada schools and libraries are growing apace, particularly in the new regions of the far west, very much the same as in the United States. Exchange of ideas as in this convention is the very best kind of reciprocity and will help both nations in their aims and aspirations for the good of civilization.

Comptroller E. H. Hinchey, the acting mayor of Ottawa, spoke the city's welcome, calling attention to Ottawa as a convention city and its growing claims for being considered the Washington of the North.

The association was graciously welcomed in behalf of the Women's Canadian Club of Ottawa by the president, Mrs. Adam Shortt, who also voiced the welcome from the Women's National Council of Canada. She said the preachers, the teachers, the writers and the librarians are four great standing armies, standing to protect us and to dispel the hydra-headed enemy Ignorance, but that she thought of librarians as captains of individual garrisons scattered here and there through towns and cities, who are sending out emissaries among the people and moulding and forming the mental and moral fibre of each community.

The CHAIRMAN: The Women's Canadian historical society was most kind in pressing forward its desire to have this convention held here. The president, however, desires not to speak to-night.

I have now the pleasure of asking Hon. John G. Foster, United States Consul-General, to speak, as one of ourselves. He is a good citizen, and though of you, with us—we count him almost one of ourselves.

Mr. Foster said he could have assured that portion of the delegates who were his fellow countrymen and countrywomen that they would feel very much at home in this country, whose people, institutions and traditions are so similar to those of the United States.

The CHAIRMAN: Many other representative bodies joined in the effort to secure this meeting for Ottawa and are represented on the platform to-night, but the only other speaker who I shall ask to voice for them or for himself welcoming sentiments is the Hon. Martin Burrell, Minister of agriculture, and, if I may say in parenthesis, also Minister of copyrights, since that comes within his department.

Minister Burrell spoke enthusiastically of the value of books and the habit of good reading and the greater ease with which books could now be secured than formerly. Continuing he said:

"I have heard it said by some skeptical gentlemen that it is true that a librarian never reads a book; in fact, that he cannot be a perfect librarian and read, because he is immediately lost. I do not like to hold that view. I rather hold to the view that the ordinary librarian, perhaps I should say the model librarian, should be a guide, philosopher and friend, and I do not doubt that many of you are very real guides, philosophers and friends to those who are seeking for perhaps they know not what and whom you can direct in right channels with incalculable good to their after life. It is absolutely true that in our modern life we need that guidance. I do not know that I could put it better than in the words of another great book lover, and good library lover too, our friend Robert Louis Stevenson of imperishable memory, who said once there was a sort of dead-alive, hackneyed people in the world who if they were not engaged in a conventional occupation were in a state of coma; that the few hours they did not dedicate to a furious toiling in the gold mill were an absolute blank. It is your high privilege to supply that blank; it is your priceless privilege to fill the hours of life which have to be a blank because we cannot train ourselves for them in this more material age,—to fill them up with a companionship and with an influence of the great thoughts of the great writers of all ages."

Concluding, he expressed his pleasure at the prospect of entertaining the delegates at the Experimental Farm on the following Saturday.

The CHAIRMAN: The real president of the Canadian Club found it impossible to be in Ottawa to-night, and I am the poor substitute for Dr. Otto J. Klotz, who has been a great pillar of strength in Ottawa to those who love books and use books. He deputed me to say that he was exceedingly sorry he could not meet so many old friends of his as would surely be in attendance, and still more sorry because he was deprived of the joy of thus paying a little more back to those who love books and use books for all that books and learning have done for him. He is one of our good men. I am sorry he is not here.

We are delighted to have a woman as your president; and in calling on Mrs. Elmendorf to respond may I say—this comes to me after meeting her yesterday and today—that she is altogether a woman of whom it may be said in relation to her office as president of the American Library Association, "thy gentleness has helped to make it great."

The PRESIDENT: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the American Library Association,—I am sure that I but express what you are all feeling in saying that this royal welcome to the Dominion of Canada makes us not only happy but very much honored. Some members of the association are already at home in their own capital, being keepers of "kings' treasuries" of Canada itself. Others of us are librarians from hither and yon in the country beyond the border, but we have all come with "joy and goodly gree" to sit in council in the very capital of the lovely land which is so loyally and affectionately

"Daughter in her Mother's house."

A small party of us came across the border, as William Morris's heroes are wont to move, "by night and cloud," and when we reached the boundary line a sudden inspiration took us and we stooped down and silently, gently gathered that boundary line in our hands and brought its firm lengths with us. I hold what might represent its shining links here in my hands. Therefore, while we visit here with you, in the very capital of the Dominion, while we hold that boundary line thus in our possession, from Boston Harbor down the coast through New York and Charleston to Key West, along the Gulf to New Orleans, across the great West to Pasadena, up the Pacific coast line to Seattle, from East to West, from North to South, there is no let or hindrance to the lines of influence which go forth. Those lines of influence run free without chance for knot or tangle or any such thing.

I hope you will not need to try whether "the King's writ runs" but I am sure that you will find that Shakespeare reigns in our realm, that Tennyson and Bobby Burns touch our hearts in song, and he who writes the songs of a people need not care who writes their laws.

Just one small story and then I shall have finished, for thanks must needs be brief if they come from the heart, and there is one to come after who will say to you with grace and directness and clear precision much that I might envy but never approach.

My tall brother happened by good fortune to be in London Town the night that the great city went nearly wild in her glad rejoicing at the relief of Ladysmith. It was a sight to see and join in, and he and his wife went on such progress through the streets as a cab could make for them. In his hand, at the full length of his long arm, he waved from the front of the cab a Union Jack and a Stars and Stripes to indicate his sympathy and good feeling. All went well until in one of the many enforced pauses a rough chap jumped for his hand crying, "Aw, sir! One flag'll do!"

We are very happy to be here and are just a little happier to see by these beautiful draped banners that you have not felt that One flag need to do!

The CHAIRMAN: Those of us who have gone to Washington have sometimes thought we should revise our boyhood's interpretation of the New Jerusalem of the Book of Revelation. Nothing I had ever imagined from St. John's description was quite a match for the glory and magnificence of the beautiful Library of Congress. I have found it delightful to think of a nation of great wealth providing such a fitting home for its literary treasures. Books are the friends and ministers of the mind and the soul of the people. The Washington building is the expression in materials of their aspirations for what is best and most beautiful. It is a wonderful building, leaving impressions of wonder on the casual visitor, and still more on those who linger in its chaste corridors and see something of the working of the library itself. I think of the sweet and stately beauty of the place, I think of the institution and its services, and I think also of the man who is more than a match for the magnificence of the home of those books. We will now hear from the man, Dr. HERBERT PUTNAM.

ADDRESS BY DR. PUTNAM

Our acknowledgments as visitors having now been made by the highest authority among us, it is not for the purpose of merely enlarging them that I am assigned a place upon the program. It is rather, I understand, with the view to an expression in behalf of the community of interest represented by this gathering as a whole; and some definition as to what we are, what we aim at, and wherein, if at all, we differ from our predecessors.

Our aim is in terms a simple one. It is to bring a book to a reader, to lead a reader to a book. The task may indeed vary in proportion as the book is obvious or obscure, the reader expert or a novice, so that our service may be as the shortest distance between two simple points; or as the readiest point between two distances. But its main and ultimate end is the same.

And it remains so in spite of organization grown elaborate, apparatus and mechanism grown complex. For the organization is merely to respond to a larger and more varied demand, and with a view to a more ample and diversified response.

What then is the difference between the library of today and the library of a few centuries—a single century—ago?—Is it merely in the development of this organization, the introduction of this apparatus and mechanism?—Is it to such matters that our efforts are directed?—Is it they which require incessant gatherings such as this for explanation, exploitation and discussion, and the innumerable reams of written contribution in our professional journals? They are indeed accountable for a large percentage of it: but back of them, beneath them, is a change which is fundamental, a change in attitude which is essential as no mere form or method can be. It consists in the birth and development—not indeed of a new characteristic in either book or reader, or the discovery of new potencies in the one or new sensibilities in the other—but of a new sense of responsibility on the part of the library in the utilization of the one for the benefit of the other. It is an incident of democracy.

Now, so far as democracy means the participation of the community as a whole in the conduct of its affairs the form of it has existed with us in the United States for generations; and the substance of it has existed throughout the Anglo-Saxon world. But democracy ought to mean something more: it ought to mean the participation of every individual in its opportunities. And a constitution of society which still left the resources for power and intellectual direction in the hands of the few was in effect an aristocracy, and no complete democracy. Among these resources a chief is education. And the practical monopoly of education—and of books as an element in it—meant a monopoly of influence also,—a monopoly which survived after limitations of caste were removed and the opportunities for wealth became widely diffused. Against it the free public school, the easily available college, the cheaply procurable newspaper and magazine, and the free public library fought and are fighting their fight in the interest of the prerogative of the individual, in the endeavor to equip him as an independent and co-equal unit, so that the actual constitution of society shall accord with its political form, and indeed assure the efficiency and the permanence of the form.

So, having provided for the mass the interest has of late centred upon the individual.

Meantime, with the evolution from homogeneity to heterogeneity the individual himself has become more and more diversified in trait, aptitude and need; so that the treatment of him by the agencies acting for the community as a whole has also had to become varied. Not merely that, but pursuing its responsibilities, to become affirmative, where before, so far as it existed, it was merely responsive.

Now the service of school and college furnishing definite instruction and perhaps training, to an organized body of youth, within a limited age, and under control, can be reasonably systematized and standardized. But the library is to furnish not merely education but enlightenment, and even culture, to the community at large—without respect to age, and without subordination to control. It cannot impose, it does not control. It may recommend, but it cannot direct. It must still respond to a need voluntarily expressed; but its duty is held to go further: it must remind that the need exists,—it must even inspire the need,—that is to say, the consciousness of it. In this way it is engaged in creating the very demand which later it seeks to satisfy.

Now this duty upon it accounts for the prodigious energy in the effort itself, and the activity and range of the discussion, which are the characteristics of the modern library movement, particularly in English speaking America. It accounts for the incessant repetition of explanation, of exhortation, of recited experience, which give to a present-day library conference something of the aspect of a revival meeting.

To librarians of the older school these are somewhat distasteful; to librarians of the more modern school already convinced and experienced, they may be tedious; but they seem necessary still for the enlightenment and encouragement of others newly entering upon the problem, of a public not yet fully familiar with the relations of it to their own welfare, and to the helpful solution of local problems where the idea meets conditions still impeding: for the field is vast and conditions are still very unequal.

The efforts, still inchoate, include also many devices which are crude and of doubtful expediency: especially many designed chiefly to attract—in which the library seems to compete with other enterprises courting popularity in a way scarcely dignified for a public institution maintained by government. They shock the conservative in somewhat the same way as an advertisement by a lawyer or physician shocks the traditions of those reticent professions: and they include not merely schemes of advertising—which might seem to impair the dignity of the book, but auxiliaries for attracting attention such as savor of the devices of a business house in exploiting its goods. The ultimate aim is, of course, the commendation of the book itself,—and the justification lies—or is sought—in this. But the means,—well, the means often afflict the conservatives in the profession, and even cause uneasiness to certain of us among the progressives.

The compensating assurance is that they are the promptings of an enthusiasm in itself meritorious; that they are experiments; that they may prove to be expedients merely temporary, and that later they may be dispensed with after they have served their purpose. They are to rouse the dormant, stir the stagnant: but there are also other agencies at work to rouse and to stir; and the time may well come when the operation of these in combination will have achieved the creation of a spirit in the community safe to act upon its own initiative.

Apart from the portions of our programs devoted to the discussion of such methods and devices—which concern the direct action of a particular library upon its own constituents, is the portion—a large one—devoted to schemes of co-operation among our institutions as such in the interest of economy and therefore of efficiency—in their administration. These are necessarily technical, and their immediate interest is to the librarian rather than to the reader. But their ultimate benefit is to reach the reader,—particularly in freeing to his use a larger measure of the direct personal service of the administration, in interpreting the collections to his need. In proportion as they succeed in this they will achieve a reversion to that service held precious in the library of the older type,—which, lacking the modern apparatus, and with an imperfect collection, at least put the reader into direct contact with what it had, and gave him also the inspiring personal touch with an enthusiast already saturated with its contents: and which accordingly sent him forth with a grateful glow, too little, alas! evident in one relegated to the mere mechanism of modern library practice.

The mechanism became inevitable: the increase of the collections, the increase of the constituency, the greater diversity of the need, and the demand that this should be met promptly, have required it. This isn't so apparent to the public, who think of the problem—of getting the right book to the individual reader—in only its simplest terms. But to us librarians it is not merely apparent but urgent. And accordingly we expend upon it a length and a zest of discussion that quite mystify the portions of our audiences outside of the craft.

What impels us is that the mechanism is not merely elaborate: it is expensive. It is the more so in proportion as it is variant in form and involves a multiplication of expense by each library acting independently in its own behalf. Our effort, and the purpose of our discussions, is therefore to promote a standardization of the form and a co-operative centralization of the work itself, in which our libraries as a whole may secure a participating benefit.

Now the mechanism consists of certain apparatus necessarily independent with each library—administrative records, charging systems, etc.; but also of classification, catalog and bibliography. All of these may be standardized,—but the opportunity for a co-operation which may save expense occurs chiefly in the three last named. The extravagance, the needless extravagance, of an absence of it represented by the old conditions was little apparent to the general public or to boards of control. It becomes obvious when one considers that thousands of libraries receiving hundreds of identical books,—and hundreds of libraries receiving thousands of identical books—were each undertaking independently the expense of cataloging and classifying these: thus multiplying by exactly their number the total cost of the community. As against this, the economy of a system under which a particular book shall be cataloged—and perhaps classified—at some central point once for all, and the result made available in multiple form to all libraries receiving copies of it—needs only to be stated to be convincing. A condition of it is, in the case of classification, identity in the basic scheme and notation, in the case of catalog identity in the form, and uniformity in the practice. The general availability of bibliographic lists does not depend upon either, though convenienced by both.

Identity in classification seems still remote, nor does the undoubted vogue of the Decimal scheme assure it: for this is chiefly among the smaller libraries. In the larger, the Decimal scheme, where adopted, is apt to be accompanied by variations of detail, which mean a variation in the place and symbol assigned to a particular book, and thus bar the general adoption of a decision in the classification of it made at any central bureau. So far as this variance affects the direct administration of a particular library it may be unimportant: for the arrangement of its own books upon its own shelves—provided this is based on a subject scheme, consistently carried out—may be sufficiently effective for its own purposes, even though purely individual with itself. What it implies, however, in multiplication of an expense that might be avoided by the adoption of an identical scheme, is of an import very serious. The construction of a scheme which should suit equally all libraries and all librarians is not to be expected. The best that can be hoped for is a scheme sound in its fundaments and upon which the concessions of individual preference necessary will be only as to detail. The reluctance—of librarians—to make such concessions is due, I think, to an exaggerated estimate of the importance of classification as such—that is to say, of the precise location of a particular book in a given collection; a failure to realize—what experience should have taught—that in many groups no location can be absolutely permanent, owing to changes in the literary output and in the subject relation of that group to the rest. This reluctance is, I fear, one of the conservatisms least creditable to the profession. It induces tenacity in adhesion to systems adopted, and it leads to the adoption of new systems devised to accord with supposed idiosyncrasies of a particular collection—or pursuant to the ingenious inventiveness of a particular librarian. I can express myself the more frankly because in this latter respect the Library of Congress has itself been a sinner;—and one not yet come to repentance. For at the outset of its problem it found the Decimal classification in considerable vogue, the Expansive in considerable favor. And it adopted neither, but proceeded to devise a scheme of its own. It did this out of declared necessity, with regard to its supposed interests; and considering those interests alone the results have seemed a justification. They are even being utilized in certain other institutions, and though not proffered as a model for general adoption, they render even now a general service in proving the economy of centralizing the process of classification, as well as that of cataloging, at some central point or points from which the decisions may radiate.

The general availability of a catalog entry depends of course upon uniformity in cataloging practice as well as identity in size and form of the card itself,—if the result takes the form of a card. Agreement in this has fortunately been rapid, and we have now in English speaking American a set of decisions, embodied in a code of rules—substantially accepted among our own libraries and even substantially acceptable to the libraries of Great Britain. Between continental practice and our own variances still exist, and bar the complete interchange of results. One cannot doubt, however, that time will eradicate, or adjust these also.

Between bibliography as distinguished from classification and cataloging, there exist, however, no such impediments; and the centralization of bibliographic work—co-operation in it—is progressing apace.

The prospect is, therefore, fairly cheerful that librarians will be able in the near future to free themselves and their funds from undue attention to the mere mechanism of their craft, and more completely to devote their resources and personal service to the book as literature, and the reader as a human being.

The spirit for this is ardent. It is manifest in our two countries as nowhere else in like degree. As regards the reader it calls itself proudly "the missionary spirit"; it seeks him, appraises him, sympathizes with him, counsels him. It does not doubt its duty in this to be an affirmative one. But as regards the book itself it is not yet so decisive. For in the selection of what it is to offer it still concedes much to what is called the "popular taste"—which means the popular fancy of the moment, ignoring in doing so its prerogative as an "educational" institution to assert standards, and to abide by them. Its hope is to improve the taste itself; and the need of this—its appropriateness as a function of the library, and the means of effecting it—are to be a main feature of the program of this conference. They are justly so,—even though they are matters of concern chiefly for that type of library which is engaged in serving the public at large. It is, however, precisely that type of library with which also the duty should lie of representing the standards established by time, and the taste represented by the more refined rather than by the average instincts of the community. And as the temptation—to make concessions is also peculiarly theirs—the responsibility is particularly upon them, their librarians, their trustees, and the conservative in public opinion—to assert this duty and to conform to it. The assertion of it may cause resentment; but this will prove merely individual; it is not likely to organize into formidable resistance. And in time it will become merely sporadic. It will tend to diminish in proportion as associations such as this, in conferences such as this, declare solidly for the authority of the library in such decisions—while clearly distinguishing it from any censorship of literature as such.

The temptation to court "popularity"—natural in institutions maintained at the public expense and therefore dependent upon the favor of city councils—has another phase which I hope may prove but transitory. It is in the exploitation of the service done by the books which are the "tools of trade" as against those making for general information, or general culture. The supposition is that the service of the first named is one which will convince certain important opinion as a "practical" service, and particularly that it will appeal to those who are just now insistent upon vocational studies as the studies to be given right of way in the education of youth. The temptation is the greater because the service of a book of this sort is a service whose results are readily demonstrable, it is concrete and objective;—while that of general literature is but subjective.

Its importance cannot be questioned, nor the duty of the library to perform it, nor the success of our public libraries in the actual performance of it. The only criticism might be lest in the emphasis upon it, our libraries may seem to underestimate, if not to disparage, that other service which in its ulterior benefit to the community may prove of even greater importance; that service which reminds the public that livelihood is not the main purpose of life, nor the present, the local and the particular, the only era, the only place, the only thing worthy of consideration and regard. The books which achieve this may have their greatest value in offsetting the tendencies of mere industry. This is not to say, however, that they may not advance industry itself; for though they may not improve the mere dexterity of a particular individual in a profession, art or trade, they may aid to that sense of proportion, that larger view of a worldwide relation which will advance the art itself; and they cultivate the imagination which is the essential of modern industry in its larger relations.

As, therefore, our colleges still stand for the utility of the general studies even in a career looking to vocation, so our libraries may well stand for the utility of the general literature. Particularly is this duty upon them since the opportunity—in its relation to the community at large—is uniquely theirs: for no other agency—not even the museum, or the art gallery, or the theatre, the opera house, or the concert hall—potent as may be the influence of these—matches the book in power and availability in this service of quickening the sensibilities, refining the taste, enlarging the understanding, diversifying the experience, warming the heart and clarifying the soul.

And this service—understood everywhere—is nowhere—save perhaps in England—quite so completely followed into its consequences as in Canada and the United States. The conviction of it grounds our libraries upon a public opinion assuring permanent support; and inspires among individuals enthusiasm for gift and endowment. The greater, therefore, the responsibility of librarians and trustees to see to it that this conviction, this enthusiasm and the resources which they provide shall be so utilized as to effect not merely the most showy but the most substantial results.

And the responsibility should include not merely a zeal for the general reader, but a regard for the scholar: since a benefit to the general reader may end with himself, but a benefit to the scholar becomes amplified and diffused through him. He is not, be it understood, a class by himself. He includes the specialist whose vocation is research in a particular field; but he includes also the reader for whom research is but an avocation. He is the unusual man, but he is also the usual man in his unusual moments. What is the conscious aim of the one may be the incidental achievement of the other—to advance knowledge. And the aid rendered by the library to either may be of a consequence to the community more far reaching than the mere diffusion of ascertained knowledge among a multitude of individuals.

If the effort of our libraries in this direction has not kept pace with their efforts in the others, the explanation is obvious in the emphasis necessary upon the others during the past fifty years. But the time has come when the obligation to the scholar should resume its due place—in our programs, as well as in our practice.

And with the resumption of that interest may we not hope for a recognition—a recognition—in our organizations also of that type which gave personality to the libraries of old?—I mean the type represented by the Panizzis, the Garnetts, the Winsors, Pooles, Cutters and Spoffords. For however indifferent such men may have been, or might be today, to the mere mechanism which of late we have been exalting, and which we must hold to be necessary under modern conditions, they succeeded in producing an atmosphere which had a potency of its own, which no mere mechanism can reproduce, and for which the zeal of routine personal service, however "missionary" in spirit, cannot be a substitute. For the mechanism gives the impression of intervening between the reader and the book; and the routine personal service fails from the very nature of its effort. The reader reached out to may be pleased and aided: but he loses the lesson and the penetrating suggestion afforded by the mere absorption of the old-time librarian in the book itself. It was that which once took the visitor out of himself, away from affairs, and gave him touch with a different world, a sense of different values. Does he not miss it now? I think he does; and that, however he may respect the mere efficiency of the modern librarian, as administrator, his really affectionate admiration turns back to the librarian of the old school whose soul was lifted above mere administration, or the method of the moment, or the manner of insistent service, and whose passionate regard was rather for the inside of a book than for the outside of a reader,—even the librarian to whom a reader seemed indeed but an interruption to an abstraction that was privileged.

I for one, should be sorry to think that this type has passed finally. There is need for it; there should be a place. I trust that it will be restored to us; and I deplore the influence upon the younger generation in our profession of referring to it with condescension if not with contempt.

"Our profession." I use the term because it is current. We have assumed it, and no one has challenged it. There are grounds on which it might, I suppose, be challenged. "The word implies," according to the Century Dictionary, "professed attainments in special knowledge, as distinguished from mere skill; a practical dealing with affairs, as distinguished from mere study or investigation; and an application of such knowledge to uses for others as a vocation, as distinguished from its pursuit for one's own purposes." The latter two requirements are certainly met: we are engaged in practical affairs, and to the use of others. But the "professed attainments in special knowledge, as distinguished from mere skill," while certainly represented in individuals among us, are not with us conditions of librarianship as a vocation or as an office, nor have we in America, as they have in Germany, the conventional preparation, the preliminary examination as to qualifications, and the license which by law or usage are requirements in the professions strictly so-called. A profession should imply uniform standards in such qualifications: but the qualifications of persons accepted among us for library posts of importance,—even among persons who have made notable successes in such posts, vary extraordinarily in both kind and degree. A profession should imply a certain homogeneity in ideals, methods and relations; while among us there is still a notable diversity. The modern library with its large establishment and organization, and the responsibility of large funds, has, like the modern university, created a demand in its administrators for the traits necessary in business rather than characteristic of the professions or expected of them. (This demand, and the vogue of woman in our work—a vogue which finds its completest recognition at this meeting—are indeed the most notable of recent phenomena affecting our personnel.) As yet the conventional training has not attracted a sufficiency of men and women with such traits to meet the need; nor has it, on the other hand, attracted a sufficient number of men and women grounded in special branches of the sciences and the arts to fill the positions in our research libraries which administer, and should interpret, the literature of these. The actual personnel of our association includes therefore the utmost diversity in trait, education and experience.

A considerable such diversity exists among teachers, and does not disentitle them to the claim of constituting a profession; and we are sometimes called educators. But we cannot claim to be, for we lack the didactic authority, purpose and method.

The final characteristic of a profession is its influence upon the community as such. Now, our lack of such an influence as a body is in part due to the lack of that homogeneity in ideal method and personnel—but in part also to the necessary limitations of our office. We are necessarily non-partisan. We are to furnish impartially the ammunition for both sides of every issue. The moment we become identified with a single side merely, we lose our influence and our authority. And it matters not whether the issue be political, or theological or economic or social. If it be scientific, or merely literary, we have more freedom, since the subject matter is more nearly academic and less emotional. But even here we must avoid the charge of faddism. In a contest of morality we may indeed take side against the baser, because with this we have no influence and no need to court one. But there are today few moral issues clearly distinguishable as such in which there is need or temptation for us to engage.

The result of this neutrality is an attitude which to the world at large must seem somewhat colourless; but also a habit of mind which insensibly in itself becomes neutral. We are content to be observers. We avoid becoming contestants. Such characteristics do not go to the solidification of opinion in a profession, nor to the assertion of it in an aggressive way.

The sum total of all of which (observations upon us) is that in spite of our numbers, in spite of the momentous aggregate that our "establishment" represents, in spite of the assured place which it occupies in the community and the social system, we are at present, and in many ways must continue to be, an aggregate of individuals rather than a body politic. But even as the Devil's advocate I would not so conclude in a deprecatory sense, for we may find and show many reasons for complacency—and special opportunities for service—in the relations which this situation implies.

My original invitation was a large one: no less than to estimate the place of the library in English-speaking America. I have not attempted to comply with it: for it seemed too large for my fraction of this program. But as a theme it was enticing. And so would have been the reverse of it,—that is, the place of English-speaking America in the development of the library. That also will perhaps be worthy of treatment at some large opportunity. One particular aspect of it is suggested by a letter of Francis Lieber to General Halleck, fifty-seven years ago. It runs—

"... Have you laid the foundation of a great public library in California? Your state, above all others, ought largely to provide public funds for a library,—say $20,000 a year for the first five years, and then, permanently so much a year. We cannot do in our days without large public libraries, and libraries are quite as necessary as hospitals or armies. Libraries are the bridges over which Civilization travels from generation to generation and from country to country, bridges that span over the widest oceans; and California will yet be the buttress of the bridge over which encircling civilization will pass to Asia, whence it first came...."[1]

[1] From "Life and letters of Francis Lieber." Edited by Thomas Sergeant Perry. Boston. 1882.

If California may be such a buttress, what may we not propound of English-speaking America as a whole—from which through its universities and colleges occidental ideals and methods are already being transmitted to the Orient through the effective medium of students sent here for their education?

Such are some of the thoughts with which some of us at least approach this conference. They are thoughts, even if, as yet, only in part satisfactions. There is a satisfaction, however, which is dominant with those of us who come from over the border. It is that this conference is to be held on Canadian soil; and that here, with the broad welcome extended to us, with a common subject matter, and with purposes in connection with it that can awaken neither cavil nor suspicion, we are free to indulge in reciprocities that will be complete, mutual, and enduring.

Mr. Lawrence J. Burpee read the following telegram from the private secretary of the Duke of Connaught, which was received with hearty applause:

The Governor-General wishes meeting of American Library Association every success and His Royal Highness regrets exceedingly that it is impossible for him to be present at your annual meeting tomorrow.

Mr. BURPEE: Similar letters of regret have been received from the Right Honorable Prime Minister and several members of the cabinet and from Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and we are yet in hopes that Sir Wilfrid will be able to be with us on Dominion Day.

I have been asked by the Dominion Archivist and by the Director of the Victoria museum and the Custodian of the National gallery to extend to you a most hearty welcome to visit those institutions, and I have also been asked by the president of the Ottawa Electric Railway to say that the railway would like you to consider yourselves guests of the company while here, and that the A. L. A. button will identify us sufficiently.

The CHAIRMAN: The work of the local committee has been done largely by two men,—Dr. Otto Klotz and Mr. Lawrence J. Burpee,—and perhaps at a later session we will have occasion to give thanks to Mr. Burpee, who behind the scenes has made our official tasks come so lightly and so easily.

The secretary read a cablegram bearing greetings from the New Zealand Libraries Association, through the secretary, Mr. Herbert Baillie, librarian of the Wellington (N. Z.) public library.

Adjourned.

FIRST GENERAL SESSION

(Russell Theatre, Thursday, June 27, 9:30 a. m.)

The PRESIDENT: I have the honor to announce that the Thirty-fourth Annual Conference of the American Library Association is now open. It seems to me, with the welcome given us this morning, in the beautiful sunshiny weather, nearly as bright and genial as the welcome that we were given last night, we open under very happy auspices indeed, and I hope that when you hear the speakers as they shall take up the matters on the program, you will feel that the auspices have been very well carried out.

I shall have the pleasure to talk to you for a very few moments on the subject as printed on the program.

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

The Public Library: "A Leaven'd and Preparéd Choice"

Last evening's jesting pretense that the party from the States had stopped on the border and removed the boundary line to bring it with them here, into the very Canadian capital, was not quite all a jest. The American Library Association is itself a witness that though the boundary line firmly and clearly defines the limits of rule of the two countries in some great and essential things, some

"Glories of our blood and state,"

it need not, it does not, even divide, still less alienate, the two peoples.

It is one of the worthiest, most auspicious foundations of the American Library Association that it is, and has ever been, continental not national in its sympathy and membership. Within its circle "all who profess and call themselves" English-speaking may unite their best thought and their best endeavor for this important public service.

There are many fundamental library principles that are common to both countries and your Program Committee has intended to arrange the program and discussions to take account of these, leaving to other and minor meetings such things as are national or local in their bearing. The committee has wished to transcend all division by boundary lines. By so much the jest was fact.

The attempt has been made to stand away from detail of all sorts so far that it may be possible to see the library world as "a world" indeed, "a whole of parts," as a system of members, each member distinct yet, by virtue of the very peculiarities which constitute its distinctness, contributing to the unity of the whole.

We shall fail to see the library world thus, as a world, as a whole unless, amid the mass of facts, of experiences, of needs, of adaptations involved, we can finally discern and seize upon the true center, the truly dominant thing.

If we could once see the true center as the center, and the mass of detail taking ordered place about it; if we could once perceive the dominant that should surely rule, and lesser matters in due subjection to that rule, then from the obvious things ever before our eyes, and only too familiar, by that very familiarity made difficult to apprehend, the library might all at once appeal as an entity, as a clear conception. So the forest becomes visible to the artist's eyes, the forest, formed of trees, but never really seen until all at once in the vision of the forest the trees are lost to sight.

Some modes of thought, some phrases of expression which have been used are those which the philosopher has weighed and clarified for his own carefully measured statements. Do not smile at my temerity, and on the other hand do not be in the least alarmed. I ventured but a little way and you will not be called to go far into the philosopher's country under my lead. Even if one be no swimmer it is an experience to venture out, with careful balance, feeling for secure foothold upon the solid bed, even a little way into a mighty stream whose full mid-current would sweep over one's head. One gets, out of even so limited an adventure, a sense of the sweep of the river, feels the embrace and pull of the current, stoops to drink a little of the clear, bright, deep waters, ever thereafter to thirst for deeper draughts and to long for strength and mastery to plunge into and breast the full stream.

In trying to find warrant for my own thoughts and ordered and lucid statement for them, I have sought and consulted certain books and some of them were too hard for my full reading. I shall not further acknowledge my debt now but, once more departing from precedent, I shall list them for print at the end of the address.

In the wish to find the center or dominant of the library world it would be presumptuous for me to dogmatize and say "Lo here! this is the point," or "Behold! this is the principle." In the very name of the institution which we are talking about there are two elements joined—Public, and Library—and it seems quite obviously proper to try the first as the center.

Perhaps the application which follows might repel some as narrow, as exclusive of any but a single type of libraries. The principle itself may, however, be made to apply to the entire library world by recognizing as "public" all libraries which are not private, and by defining public anew as applied to each group or type of libraries, always letting it include all those individuals for whose use and pleasure the library is maintained.

What does "public" signify in Canada and the United States? What but all the people of these two great experiments in democratic society? Pray note that I say society not government. An excursion into discussion of the latter might involve dabbling in the stream of politics which would threaten dangers far more imminent, for me, than philosophy promised. To consider democratic society for a few moments very simply is a less hazardous matter.

What is any society but "a world" again, a whole, in which the great thing that matters is the level and fullness of mind that is reached through the diversities of complete development and perfection of the individual members which compose it?

The level of value and happiness for the whole can only be raised by raising the condition of the individuals and, on the other hand, that individuality is the most complete, of most real, felt value to itself, which contributes to the perfection of the whole, because it is only thus that the individual is conscious of having done his utmost.

Why try to say it again when the philosopher has said it so exactly?

"What a man really cares about—so it seems to me—may be described as making the most of the trust he has received. He does not value himself as a detached and purely self-identical subject. He values himself as the inheritor of the gifts and surroundings which are focussed in him and which it is his business to raise to their highest power. The attitude of the true noble, one in whom noblesse oblige is a simple example of what, mutatis mutandis, all men feel. The man is a representative, a trustee for the world, of certain powers and circumstances. And this cannot fail to be so. For suffering and privation are also opportunities. The question for him is how much he can make of them. This is the simple and primary point of view, and also, in the main, the true and fundamental one. It is not the bare personality or the separate destiny that occupies a healthy mind. It is the thing to be done, known and felt; in a word, the completeness of experience, his contribution to it, and his participation in it.

"At every point the web of experience is continuous; he cannot distinguish his part from that of others, and the more he realizes the continuity the less he cares about the separateness of the contribution to it.... It is impossible to overrate the co-operative element in experience."

Does it not appear then that the highest possible service to the public is service to the individual, in giving to the individual stimulus and opportunity for the fullest, most diverse, most perfect development, creating thus a world the more enriched, the more unified, in that each of its members has rich powers, functions and experience of his own?

But the crux is to come. A people, a society, is made up of individuals of diverse tastes and powers, but it includes very many who are far short of being fully alive to the powers which they may possess. If the span of such lives passes thus, if no stimulus, no illumination reaches them, life will be uninspired, unfruitful of much service, or much joy. It will not be life at its full, nor "the soul at its highest stretch."

It is not always afar from our own doors that such things happen. President Eliot says, "Do we not all know many people who seem to live in a mental vacuum—to whom, indeed, we have great difficulty in attributing immortality, because they have so little life except that of the body?"

From such conditions not only individuals but all society suffers. As a spot of unnourished, inactive tissue in a human body is a host ready to receive any one of many forms of disease, so, in the body politic, individuals not fulfilling their utmost best are soil made ready for all manner of social and political ills.

The time may come when society will recognize that many social and political ills are partly caused by its own neglect, and call not for more restrictions, for more stringent laws and severer sentences, but rather for more carefully and universally given opportunity.

Listen once more to the philosopher.

"The more highly differentiated the individuals composing a society, the more complete becomes the social bond between them. A man who feels that he is rendering to the community a service at once indispensable and only to be performed by himself, will have come near to fulfilling his part in the highest attainable scheme of social harmony."

If this be true, then there seems clear warrant for saying that the community, for its own sake, has a vital interest in trying to secure for each individual the most effective opportunity not only for discovering what his distinct contribution may be made, but also for developing his power to render that contribution most completely.

Does the community anywhere concern itself to give such opportunities? Democratic society has recognized its necessity to give a certain amount of knowledge and training by means of its schools. It is beginning to make the experiment of giving a certain amount of skill to earn a livelihood. This teaching is done in classes and a class is made up of individuals of similar knowledge and attainments, and to them is given general and identical information which tends to produce like results. The community has need for unlikeness, for individuals who can render unique service.

The community can never decide what the special individual aptitude may be. No living soul can discover for another. The "power to become" is innate and must make its own response to the stimulus which is capable of affecting it.

It is true that the universe is a great battery incessantly sending an infinity of calls of infinitely varied messages. But the receiving operator may be asleep, he may never come within range. The universe is very wide. The range of experience of all is narrow, of some pitifully narrow.

Because of lack of opportunity to see, to do, to know, to feel, it is not exaggeration to say that multitudes live a half-alive existence, never useful to their possible limit, never happy to their full, for happiness is "felt perfection."

From the beginning of time, some men have received their messages, found their work, given their service, lived life to the full and laid it down with a will. The record of these men and their accomplishment, of man's great adventure to find himself, has been written by many hands, and that record is literature.

Arnold says, "To know ourselves and the world we have, as a means to this end, to know the best that has been thought or said in the world," and "Literature may mean everything written or printed in a book."

The library is the reservoir of literature, a collection of books, but it is something more, it comes to have identity, a self of its own beyond the sum of all its books, when, by the fusing of the whole under the vital power of the minds that gather and order it, it becomes, in the Shakespearian phrase embodied in my title, "A leaven'd and preparéd choice."

The library is the one place where time and space are set at naught. It is the microcosm of the universe.

Here all the wonders of nature are flashed back from the mirrors of eyes that have beheld them.

Here India, and the Arctic and the isles of the sea are as close at hand as Niagara.

Here Archimedes' lever, Giotto's circle, Newton's apple, Palissy's furnace, Jacquard's loom, Jamie Watt's tea-kettle, Franklin's kite are cheek by jowl with the last Marconigram.

Here the fate of Aristides, of Columbus, of Gordon is as clear to read as the doings of yesterday in Chicago.

The record of what happened at Thermopylæ, at Lucknow, at the Alamo receives beside it the tale of the courage that rose as the Titanic sank.

What Buddha and Socrates and Jesus taught answers the cry and strengthens the heart of doubt and pain today.

The library is the great whispering gallery of noble deeds and, catching a whisper,

"The youth replies, I can"

and goes forth.

The library is haunted with visions of beauty that Plato, that Michael Angelo, that Shelley saw—the youth exclaims "I see!" and follows his lure.

Here Clotho sits twirling her "thread-running spindle" and the youth, catching the clue, fares forth whither the fateful thread leads.

The library is almost never the goal but to many it may be the starting point whence they go forth "to strength and endeavor, love and sacrifice, the making and achievement of souls."

The public for whom the library exists has little conception or comprehension of its power. How shall such publicity as will give this knowledge of it be given?

Such publicity should make clear the larger aspects of the library's service, showing that the life of any society is "an indivisible inheritance" and the welfare of all made or marred by the condition and service of each one, therefore the library should be equipped to be universal in its appeal and service, a public necessity for individual use.

The public for whom the library exists gives it support insufficient for the task it should perform. If the library commanded respect would it not receive funds?

Books are the treasure to be gathered for its work. What shall be the principles of buying? How create the "leaven'd and preparéd choice?"

Books are the medium of appeal, the stuff of human knowledge, experience and wisdom stored by means of the printed leaf. The extent to which each individual shares in the stored treasure of the race-mind, is, in its sum, the measure of public safety and happiness and the starting-point for service. How show, how make known the attraction and stored power of books?

Every individual must choose his own path. How leave him free to choose in a wide field?

Service, but not authority, must be at hand. What shall the tests of fitness for such service be?

The staff fit for such service must be of rare material and quality.

The members of the staff are instruments of the highest elaboration and most delicate adjustment. The requisite quality of service can only be rendered under fit conditions. It is not a matter of knowledge, conscience and will solely, it is a matter of these things plus insight, sympathy and response. Exhaustion, or an approach to it, discouragement from lack of appreciation, are like a ground wire for loss of power. Body, mind and spirit are all involved in this service. How conserve their strength, well-being and joy?

Unskilled people cannot render fit service. What are the things that matter in training? How far can training be effective.

These are the subjects that your Program Committee has thought it might interest all to consider. Certain leaders will discuss them, each according to his own will and way. In their wisdom and in that of the discussions with which you will follow them will lie all the value of this conference.

Books Consulted: A Short List

Bosanquet, Bernard. The principle of individuality and value. Macmillan. 1912.

Bryce, James. The American Commonwealth. Vol. 2, p. 828, and chapter CII. Macmillan. 1910.

Chesterton, G. K. Manalive. Lane. 1912.

Douglas, Robert. The choice. Macmillan. 1911.

Eliot, C. W. The function of education in democratic society. In his Educational reform. Century. 1908.

Goldmark, Josephine. Fatigue and efficiency. Charities Pub. Co. 1912.

Hobhouse, L. T. The individual and the state. In his Social evolution and political theory. Columbia Univ. Press. 1911.

—Liberalism. Holt. 1911.

Jones, Henry. Idealism as a personal creed. Macmillan. 1909.

—Working faith of the social reformer. Macmillan. 1910.

Macdonald, Greville. The child's inheritance: its scientific and imaginative meaning. Smith, Elder. 1910.

Mark, Thiselton. The unfolding of personality as the chief aim of education. Univ. of Chicago Press. 1911.

Sidis, Boris. Philistine and genius. Moffatt. 1911.

Woodberry, G. E. The torch: eight lectures on race power in literature. McClure. 1905.

The PRESIDENT: I have very great pleasure in presenting one who in truth needs no introduction to you; one who has not for some time appeared on our platform but whom I know you will all welcome with pleasure, Miss TESSA L. KELSO.

Miss Kelso, of the Baker and Taylor Co., New York City, spoke informally from notes only on the topic, "Publicity for the sake of information: the librarian's point of view," and has been unable to furnish a copy of her remarks for publication.

The PRESIDENT: I think you may have seen it mentioned once or twice in the course of your reading, that there was such a thing as the "Wisconsin idea." Now, I would not for a moment, having been born in that lovely state, have you get any notion that that "Wisconsin idea" is singular. We have therefore asked to come and talk to us this morning a gentleman who, those closest to him say, is a repository of "Wisconsin ideas," and I have great pleasure in introducing to you Mr. WILLIAM H. HATTON,—"Mr." Hatton by request, though he is ordinarily known in his own country as Senator Hatton.

PUBLICITY FOR THE SAKE OF INFORMATION: THE PUBLIC'S POINT OF VIEW

When man first discovered that his hands would respond to the command of his brain and that he could use a club to defend himself from his enemy, and that he could through combined mental and physical effort, react upon his environment, the gateway on the road to continuous progress was opened to mankind.

The potential power of man cannot be measured. The Creator, in so far as we are able to judge, has fixed no limits to man's progress. The only limitations are his lack of knowledge and his lack of power to discern the true relations of the forces which surround him.

Mankind is a social organism, not a collection of separate and independent parts. Where any part is neglected and fails to develop so as to discharge efficiently its function, the whole organization suffers. Therefore society is not only deeply interested in education during childhood and adolescence, but it is concerned in the education of man throughout his whole life. The public is as much concerned in the education of the man of forty years of age as it is in the education of the boy of five years. One of the chief functions of the state is to secure justice, equity and equality of opportunity. Dr. Lester F. Ward says, "There can be no equality, no justice, not to speak of equity, so long as society is composed of members, equally endowed by nature, a few of whom only possess the social heritage of truth and ideas resulting from laborious investigation and profound meditations of all past ages, while the mass are shut out from all the light that human achievement has shed upon the world."

What shall be done that this "light of human achievement" shall penetrate the cloud of ignorance and cause the lamp of wisdom to burn in every home? Your reply doubtless will be, "The formal training of the schools." Yes; that is a step in the right direction, but all will agree that the training of the schools is only and can be only a beginning, a learning how to acquire and assimilate knowledge and develop power. There must be other institutions and agencies which shall carry forward the work of education, if we are to have that continuous and universal development which is possible and desirable.

The library is peculiarly suited for this work and its power and future influence are not fully appreciated even by those engaged in library work. It is not necessary to say to this audience that the public library is an essential part of a complete educational system and that there should be harmony within the system.

The training in the schools should be such as shall make a beginning at least in the preparation for social life and social service, in the broad sense. The students should be shown that the library is a social mirror, a record of the social activities of mankind. If for any cause students leave school, they should be in such close relation to the library and be so familiar with library methods that they will be encouraged to continue studying; thus we shall find the book in the hand of the worker, the ideal condition, assisting him in solving his problems and opening to him visions of life of which he had never dreamed.

The school authorities should never overlook the fact that the average time which the individual student attends school is short; but be it short or long, pupils should be trained in the use of the library, and taught how to find in books answers to their questions. Questions which shall require students to go to the library should be regularly given them. In the higher grades and in the high schools emphasis should be placed on library work. Students should not only be required to read certain specified books, as supplementary reading, but there should be regular assignments of topics for investigation, which will require them to use the library and other sources of information, thus training them in research methods and developing their power of original investigation. By this method their school work will become a living motive-force in their lives.

The colleges and universities offer a great number of courses. So many subjects are open for study that the most that can be done during the college years is to select a few and concentrate effort upon those selected and leave the great field of knowledge for future exploration and conquest. Therefore, if a student leaves college with high ideals and an ambition to explore still further the field of knowledge and develop his individuality, his immediate need is a good library. Therein is the crystallized wisdom of ages held in "magic preservation." Here he may find freedom for the development of his individuality and be able to increase his power to react on his environment, enabling him to find profit, pleasure and culture in the various activities of life.

But has he learned how to use the library? Let us take the testimony of Dr. Harper, former president of the University of Chicago. "It is pitiable," he said, "to find that many graduates of our very best colleges are unable, after taking up the more advanced work of the divinity school or other graduate courses, to make use of books. They find nothing; they do not know how to proceed in order to find anything. No more important, no more useful training can be given men in college than that which relates to the use of books. Why do so many men give up reading when they leave college? Because in college they have never learned the use of books."

This is the testimony of a man of wide experience. A college librarian should be a person of strong personality and broad culture, and the example of some of the universities and colleges of making the librarian a member of the faculty should be followed by all colleges. The most important work for schools and colleges is to arouse in the students the spirit of research, train them in research methods, and develop their powers of independent investigation. Impress upon them the fact that education cannot be received but must be acquired, and that the acquisition of knowledge is a process co-extensive with life.

President Hibben of Princeton says, "It is the nature of education that it does not result in a complete and finished product, but rather a progressive process. There is nothing final about it. Its achievements always mark new beginnings. Education must always be defined in terms of life, of growth, of progress."

It will be readily seen that those who complete the regular courses of the schools, colleges and universities need the library. It is well known that the majority do not take advantage fully of the opportunities offered by the schools, but for various reasons they drop out all along the line. For these we need the library. We have a large immigration of adults from foreign lands. These people come here to make homes and to take part in our government. Self-government requires knowledge and understanding. Great questions are constantly arising which demand intelligent action. Ignorance, whether it be the ignorance of the rich or of the poor, is a menace. One of our grave social problems is the ignorance and indifference of the ostentatious rich. Rich in material things, but poor in the things which make life rich. They have not learned that every man owes a debt to society that can be paid only in service. Complex our social organization is and it is becoming more complex each year. Grave questions are before us for solution. The people in general have no adequate conception of the possibilities of the library, when properly organized, as an effective force for dealing with these conditions; and it is doubtful if the most optimistic librarians appreciate what may be, and will be done in the future with this great instrument of education. A community without a public library lacks an essential of a well organized community.

Let us have in the library men and women of broad culture who have had special training in psychology and sociology, who are sincerely and sympathetically devoted to humanity. Let this great educational institution be directed by people of commanding power, trained for public service, who have entered the profession as a life work, salaries to correspond, with qualifications required and services rendered. We say services rendered because all service must be rendered before it can be measured. The library will thus become the center of intellectual activities of the community, a continuation school, a local university.

Society is under obligation to furnish every means possible for the development of human capacity. There is in the world latent talent and capacity beyond measure. For the development of this latent talent, society is in a measure responsible. If opportunity is offered, capacity will develop.

Great forces surround us pressing for admission to our lives, telephones, electric light, printing, anæsthesia, antiseptics, synthetic chemistry, wireless telegraphy, etc. These things have always been possible but the cloud of ignorance obscured man's vision, and kept him from realizing his power.

The degree to which a community discharges its obligation can be measured by the opportunities it offers for the development of the members of that community. To offer better opportunities for those who wish to continue their studies and to bring together those of like tastes and desires, let there be opened seminar rooms in the library building, or in other buildings which shall be under the control of the library authorities. To these seminar rooms bring students, from every walk of life, to study under competent direction and to investigate subjects in which they are interested either from a material or cultural point of view. Only a small percentage of those who complete the high school course go to college. There should be provided graduate courses for the high school graduates, and other students of like qualifications in these seminar rooms, directed by the library staff. The school teachers and library staff can meet in these seminar rooms and discuss questions of common interest; and also pursue advanced studies. These rooms should be the centers for university extension work.

People can be brought together here for study and discussion of questions of citizenship, government, civic betterment, and all questions pertaining to social adjustment. Study groups can be formed for regular and systematic study under the direction of competent teachers. People of all ages can be brought together for study, which is impossible under our present system of education. In these groups the mature man and woman of high ideals will exert a powerful influence upon the young. Through this system regular and systematic reading under competent direction can be encouraged. Teachers and parents can meet in these seminar rooms and discuss school questions.

Continuation schools should be maintained. Bring the people from their vocations to these continuation schools; out of these schools organize classes for special work in the library seminar rooms; thus may be secured the union of instruction and practical application which make for increased efficiency, cultivates the whole man, and brightens his life.

John Stuart Mill said, "The business of life is an essential part of the practical education of a people without which book and school and instruction, though most necessary and salutary, does not suffice to qualify them for conduct and for adaptation of means to ends. Instruction is only one of the desiderata of mental improvement. Another indispensable, is vigorous exercise of active energies."

It matters not how highly we value the formal training of the colleges we must never overlook the fact that a very large majority do not have the full benefit of such training. We must therefore deal with conditions as they exist. When we call to mind the names and careers of such men as Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin, Hugh Miller, Herbert Spencer, Richard Baxter, Abraham Lincoln, Michael Faraday, Sir Humphrey Davey, Horace Greeley, Sir William Herschel, we come to realize that many of the brightest stars in the world's constellation have been cut and polished by forces other than the formal training of the schools. Wide is the field and great is the opportunity.

The question may be raised, "How shall we secure the money for this great work?" We are expending in the United States more than two-thirds of our national income for wars past and for military purposes, educating men to destroy. Let this fact come to the knowledge of our people and a demand will be made to cut down the appropriations for educating men to destroy and increase the appropriations for educating men to construct.

A hundred years of peaceful intercourse between two great nations, Canada and the United States, with over three thousand miles of boundary without a gunboat or a soldier, is the best answer to the militarist who would spent the money for instruments of destruction that should be used for instruments of construction.

How shall we bring to the knowledge of the people information relating to this great work? There are more than twenty millions of students in the schools of Canada and the United States. These students touch directly or indirectly every home. With libraries at various local centers correlated with the schools, we have what may be called the nervous system of education of these great nations. Through this system the people may be reached more uniformly and regularly than in any other way. Here is a great body of people seeking information coming into direct contact with the homes.

Therefore we put the schools in the first place as a means of publicity for the sake of information. Let us bring the library and the schools into closer relation. Render service to mankind wherever mankind is. The best publicity is secured through services rendered. The patronage of the lawyer and physician depends largely on the quality of service rendered. The business man secures custom when he establishes a reputation for fair dealing. May not the library expect good measure of publicity from the reputation it has for real accomplishment? Study the problem, do things that are worth while. Bring the whole power of the organization to bear on the subject of social adjustment. This will lead to various fields of activity. Produce results which shall compel attention. Do things that will be considered news. Having done, having produced, do not hesitate to make known. Give your reports what the newspaper man calls the "news turn."

Every librarian should have training in psychology and sociology and should continue to study. Study man individually, in groups, in communities and mankind as a whole.

The PRESIDENT: The next in order will be the secretary's report.

SECRETARY'S REPORT

The close of another conference year finds the executive office still enjoying the hospitality of the Chicago public library in the commodious, convenient and well equipped rooms in the Chicago public library building. Heat, light and janitor service have also been supplied gratuitously as in previous years. The association has now held headquarters offices in Chicago for nearly three years and it is a pleasure for the secretary to report that the prospects for continuance and permanence of headquarters were never brighter than they are now. The income from membership fees is steadily increasing. In 1909 the amount raised from this source was $4,557.50; in 1910, $4,888.48; in 1911, $5,325.46; and the receipts thus far for 1912 warrant us in hoping that the total amount from membership fees will be at least $6,200. While the finances of the association even yet do not permit us to do many things that are very much worth doing and which are in the legitimate field of activities, we seem gradually to be approaching the time when excursions can be made into new avenues.

Although the work of the headquarters office varies from day to day so that no two days are alike the year's work in the aggregate so closely resemble that for last year that much repetition of last year's report would be made if a detailed statement were presented. The routine work has of course been performed, such as editing the bulletin, attending to the correspondence, advertising for the publishing board and sale of its publications which in the last year has been the heaviest in its history, the payment of bills, the keeping of books, the printing of publications for the publishing board, with the attendant work of making contracts for printing and the reading of proof, the arrangements for the midwinter meetings and the annual conference. The volume of this routine work has been very great and is still increasing so that often for days at a time there is little chance for doing anything else.

Since November 1, 1911, a record has been kept of mail sent out from the office. From November 1, to May 31, 1912, 11,818 pieces of first-class mail have been dispatched, or an average of about 67 pieces a day. In addition to this 15,794 pieces of circular matter were mailed either in the interest of the A. L. A. or its publishing board during the same period. No record of mail received has been kept but it runs from 50 to 70 letters a day, and frequently reaches 150 a day at certain seasons and on certain days of the week. Of course not all of this requires the personal attention of the secretary, a large share being orders for publications, or remittances for the same, payment of membership dues, and various inquiries, which are entirely handled by the office assistants. The headquarters office, however, continues to be, we are pleased to say, a clearing house for general library information. The Chicago public and John Crerar libraries are frequently consulted by the secretary, and occasionally the Newberry and other libraries, and I desire to express at this time my hearty appreciation of the cordial assistance given me by the reference librarians of these various institutions. Thanks to their kind offices we have been able in most instances either to give the desired information or tell where it may be found. To those seeking advice regarding establishment of libraries, selection or purchase of books or policy of administration we have gladly helped so far as we were able but always make it a point to try to put the inquirer in touch with the library commission of his state or the state library. We have taken particular pleasure in corresponding with certain towns in New Mexico, Florida, Mississippi and Montana where a public library is either being organized or where a campaign to secure one is being conducted. Notwithstanding the systematic efforts of the various commissions to cover thoroughly the library work of their respective states many small libraries and library boards seem blissfully ignorant of the existence of such an institution as a state library commission, and we consider it no small service to be able to enlighten them on this point. The commissions, on the other hand, are constantly putting the small libraries in touch with the A. L. A. The state library commissions can always be counted on to co-operate with the A. L. A. to publish our news notes and notices regarding publications in their bulletins, to recommend membership and A. L. A. publications and to respond quickly and efficiently to any special call. This is thoroughly appreciated by the secretary and the executive office. During the past year the secretary has made several demands on the time of the secretaries of the various state library associations and has found response in most cases prompt, intelligent and willing.

The library interests of the country are making progress towards a harmony of effort that is good to see and that will bring its sure result in better and more intelligent service to the people.

We have endeavored to keep the value and importance of publicity steadily before us and have accomplished as much in this direction as time and funds permitted. Multigraphed articles have been sent out to about 175 of the leading papers of the country several times during the year and from marked copies sent to the office and from reports from librarians who have seen the articles in their local papers we know that these contributions have been pretty generally used. Several special articles on either the work of the A. L. A. or the Publishing Board have been written for particular papers. A publicity committee has, at the request of the secretary, recently been appointed in the hope of securing still greater publicity. The work of the executive office, however, does not lend itself to the making of "stories" interesting to those outside the profession. Nearly every live and up-to-date library, on the other hand, is every week living out experiences which, if written up in a breezy and popular style of which many of our library folk are masters, would make capital articles acceptable not only to the daily press but to the more exclusive magazines as well. It appears, therefore, that the executive office can perhaps best promote publicity for the profession, by urging the preparation of these contributions from the reference librarians, the children's librarians, the loan desk people, the municipal reference workers, these people who, as Kipling puts it, have

"lived more stories
Than Zogbaum or I can invent."

The secretary has written four or five articles on the A. L. A. for various encyclopedias and year books, and has endeavored to get the association listed in all the leading reference almanacs and annuals. Lectures before library schools by the secretary regarding the A. L. A. and its work, and official representation at the state meetings have also given publicity to the association.

During the past year twelve persons have received library appointments through recommendations of the secretary. This is a somewhat smaller number than the year before when about fifteen were helped to positions through the executive office. With two or three exceptions the secretary has made recommendations only when requested to do so.

The work of the publishing board occupies practically three-quarters of the time of the assistant secretary, at least half of the time of the stenographer and order assistant and probably a quarter of the time of the secretary. In consideration of this the publishing board appropriates $2,000 a year to the operating expenses of the office. The work of the publishing board is heavier than ever before in its history; the receipts from sales for the calendar year 1911 being $8,502.88, and for the first five months of 1912 $6,090.16. Further notice of this feature of the work of the office can be found in the report of the A. L. A. publishing board presented in print at this conference.

The secretary wishes here to commend most heartily the faithful services of his fellow-workers at the executive office, Miss Clara A. Simms and Miss Gwendolyn I. Brigham. Their capable and willing service has been a large factor in the work of the association and its publishing board and without such intelligence and loyal help the results of the year could not have been attained. For the active co-operation and good will of the officers and other members of the executive board the secretary is deeply grateful. It has been a pleasure to work under such congenial conditions.

Membership—There are more members in the A. L. A. at the present time than ever before in the history of the association. The secretary has conducted as vigorously as possible a steady campaign for new members, this work not only being the duty of the office but directly in line with the conviction of the secretary who has recommended membership in the national association to all library workers in the earnest belief that this action is fully as beneficial to the individual as to the association.

When the January membership bills were mailed we enclosed in each envelope an appeal for the member addressed to secure at least one new member for the association. This resulted directly in the addition of over one hundred new members and the secretary wishes to take this opportunity to thank most sincerely and heartily those members who aided in this work. Besides the pleasure of securing these new members it was gratifying to feel that so many old members took such practical interest in aiding the association. In April membership appeals were sent to 1854 members of state library associations who were not members of the A. L. A. This has resulted in a fair increase of membership. In December the secretary sent letters requesting membership to 232 library people who had, according to the news columns of library periodicals, recently changed their positions assumably for the better. In addition to these more or less impersonal appeals the secretary has written a large number of personal letters to those with whom he is either personally acquainted or else with whom he has conducted an office correspondence. As in all other lines of business it is this personal appeal that has been the most effective and has brought the largest percentage of returns.

When the 1911 Handbook went to press last August there were 2046 members in the A. L. A. Of this number 13 have since died and 26 have resigned. Since last August 351 new members have been received making the present total net membership 2,358. Assuming that the usual number, or about 150 persons, will discontinue their membership this summer the net membership in the 1912 Handbook will be approximately 2,208. Of the present total membership 332 are library or institutional members, 24 of whom have joined since last August.

A. L. A. Representatives at Other Conferences—The practice of having an officer or officially appointed delegate represent the association at the state library association meetings has been followed the past year with success fully equal to that in previous years. Since the Pasadena conference there have been 39 state or provincial library meetings, and a speaker representing the A. L. A. has been present at 16 of these. The A. L. A. at present has too small a budget to meet the traveling expenses of these speakers, which have been met either by the state association or by the delegates personally.

The joint conference of Michigan and Ohio at Cedar Point, Ohio, Sept. 2-8, was attended by Mrs. H. L. Elmendorf, president of the American library association, who delivered an address on "Joy Reading," and by the secretary, who spoke informally on the work of the A. L. A. The New York state meeting in New York City, Sept. 25-30, was also attended by both the president and secretary, Mrs. Elmendorf giving her address on "Joy Reading," and the secretary speaking on "What the American Library Association Stands For."

Mrs. Elmendorf was the official delegate to the Keystone State library association meeting at Saegertown, Pa., Oct. 19-21, giving an address on "Joy Reading;" at the District of Columbia library association conference, at Washington, November 8, where she gave a talk on some of the recent books; and at the New York state teachers' association meeting at Albany, Nov. 27-29, speaking on the subject, "School and library co-operation; a concrete example and a little theory."

Mr. J. I. Wyer, Jr., represented the A. L. A. at the state meetings of Iowa, at Mason City, Oct. 10-12; of Illinois, at Joliet, Oct 11-13; and of Missouri at Hannibal, Oct. 18-19; delivering at each meeting an address on the subject, "What Americans Read."

Mr. Chalmers Hadley, librarian of the Denver public library, and ex-secretary of the A. L. A., was the representative of the American library association at the meeting of the Pacific northwest library association, at Victoria, B. C., Sept. 4-6, giving an address on "The Library and the Community."

The secretary attended the Minnesota meeting, at Lake Minnetonka, Sept. 20-22, the Nebraska meeting at Omaha, Oct. 18-19, and the North Dakota state meeting at Jamestown, Oct. 20-21, giving at each conference an address on "Reaching the People." He also gave an address at the joint session of the Indiana library association and the Indiana library trustees' association, at Indianapolis, Nov. 8th, on "The Legal and Moral Requirements of a Library Trustee."

Dr. Arthur E. Bostwick, librarian of the St. Louis public library, and ex-president of the A. L. A., was the principal out-of-state speaker at the Alabama library association conference, at Tuscaloosa, and at the State University, November 21, 22 and 23. Dr. Bostwick gave two addresses; the first on "The Companionship of Books;" and the second on "The Message of the Library."

Miss Clara F. Baldwin, secretary of the Minnesota public library commission, attended, as A. L. A. delegate, the joint meeting of the Montana state teachers' association and Montana library association, at Great Falls, December 27-29, 1911, and spoke on "The work of a library commission."

Dr. Reuben G. Thwaites, secretary of the Wisconsin State Historical Society, and an ex-president of the A. L. A., officially represented the association at the inauguration of Dr. George E. Vincent, as president of the University of Minnesota, October 18.

Mr. Carl B. Roden, of the Chicago public library, and treasurer of the A. L. A., represented the association and gave an address on "The library as a paying investment," at the Wisconsin library association meeting at Janesville, February 21-23.

The secretary has lectured during the year before the Iowa summer library school, the New York public library school, and the University of Illinois library school. He also addressed the summer library conference at Madison, Wisconsin, on the work of the A. L. A.

Changes in Officers and Committees—Following his election as first vice-president, Mr. Henry E. Legler resigned as non-official member of the executive board and Miss Alice S. Tyler was elected by the board to fill the unexpired term ending in 1912.

Mr. Harrison W. Craver was unable to accept re-appointment as chairman of committee on library administration and Dr. Arthur E. Bostwick was appointed in his place.

Miss Margaret W. Brown resigned from the committee on bookbinding and Miss Rose G. Murray was appointed to succeed her.

Necrology—The association has lost heavily by death during the past year. Our losses include the senior ex-president of the association, who was a life member, two other life members, and several who were, by their regular attendance through many years, familiar figures at our annual conferences. In all 13 members and 4 former members have passed away since we last met in conference. The roll is as follows:

Emma Helen Blair, for several years a member of the staff of the Wisconsin State Historical Library, died September 26, 1911. Miss Blair had performed valuable and important work as an editor and professional indexer, assisting among other things in editing "Jesuit Relations" and the long series of historical documents in Spanish entitled "The Philippine Islands." She had been a member of the A. L. A. continuously since 1896 (No. 1524), and attended the conferences of 1896, 1900 and 1904. See Library journal, 36:603.

Isaac S. Bradley, for many years librarian and assistant superintendent of the Wisconsin State Historical Society, died April 22, 1912. He joined the A. L. A. in 1890, (No. 790) and had taken great interest in the work of the association. Few faces were more familiar at the conferences than his, as he attended sixteen of the annual meetings, those of 1890, '92, '93, '95, '96, '97, '98, '99, 1900, '01, '02, '03, '04, '06, '07 and '08.

Frederick Morgan Crunden, senior ex-president of the A. L. A., life member, and librarian of the St. Louis public library, from 1877 to 1909, died October 28, 1911. He was president of the A. L. A. 1889-90, presiding over the Fabyans conference of the latter year, and vice-president of the International Library Conference at London in 1897. He joined the A. L. A. in 1878 (No. 129) and became a life member about 1889. To record Mr. Crunden's services to the American library world and to the A. L. A. would be practically to give a history of the association for the past 30 years. He participated in many programs and conference discussions and was one of the best known and beloved of American librarians. Mr. Crunden attended the conferences of 1883 and 1886 to 1905 inclusive, twenty in all, without an absence, except at the San Francisco conference of 1891. He also attended the London international conference in 1897. See A. L. A. Bulletin 6:3; Library journal, 33:569-70; Public libraries, 16:436-38.

Irene Gibson, chief assistant in the publication section of the Library of Congress, died July 9, 1911. She joined the association in 1893 (No. 1114), and became a life member in 1910. She attended the conferences of 1893, '97, 1903, '08, '10. See Library journal, 36:439.

Jessie Sherburne Gile, assistant in charge of the work with schools in the public library of Haverhill, Mass., died October 22, 1911. She joined the A. L. A. in 1902, (No. 2555), and attended the conferences of 1902 and '06.

David L. Kingsbury, assistant librarian of the Minnesota Historical Society of St. Paul, died January 24, 1912. He joined the A. L. A. in 1904 (No. 3079), and attended the conferences of 1904, '08 and '11.

Mrs. Evelyn N. Lane, head of the circulating department of the Springfield (Mass.) City Library, died August 30, 1911. She had been a member of the A. L. A. since 1902 (No. 2454), but so far as recorded attended only the conference of that year.

Robbins Little, for twenty years superintendent of the Astor Library, New York City, died April 13, 1912. He joined the A. L. A. in 1880 (No. 389), and later became a life member. So far as recorded he attended none of the conferences.

Stella Lucas, librarian of the Tainter Memorial Library of Menominee, Wis., died July 30, 1911. She joined the A. L. A. in 1901 (No. 2252), and attended the conferences in 1901, '05 and '08.

Adolph L. Peck, librarian of the Gloversville (N. Y.) Free Library since its foundation in 1880, died October 9, 1911. He joined the A. L. A. in 1883 (No. 466), and was a familiar figure at the annual conferences, having attended those of 1883, '85, '86, '87, '90, '92, '93, '94, '96, '98, 1900 and 1906.

Mrs. Minerva A. Sanders, for many years librarian of the Deborah Cook Sayles Memorial Library, Pawtucket, R. I., died March 20, 1912. Although Mrs. Sanders was an enthusiastic attendant on A. L. A. conferences she never personally joined the association, but was officially entitled to a seat in the conferences by virtue of the institutional membership of her library. She had attended fifteen conferences and was well known to the veterans of the association, who well remember her early advocacy of open shelves and work for children.

L. W. Sicotte, president of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society, of Montreal, died September 5, 1911. He joined the A. L. A. in 1900 (No. 1947). So far as recorded he attended only the conference of 1900 held in his home city.

T. Guilford Smith, of Buffalo, regent of the University of the State of New York, died Feb. 20, 1912. He had been a member of the A. L. A. continuously since 1893 (No. 1193), and attended the conferences of 1897 and 1903.

The following persons at various times were members of the association but were not at the time of their death:

Zu Adams, for many years connected with the Kansas State Historical Society, died April, 1911. She was a member of the A. L. A. for the year 1904 (No. 3203), and attended the St Louis conference.

Caroline A. Farley, formerly librarian of Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass., died March 14, 1912. She joined the association in 1896 (No. 1394), and was a member continuously until 1909. So far as recorded she attended none of the conferences.

Stephen B. Griswold, for many years law librarian of the New York state library, died May 4, 1912. He joined the A. L. A. in 1892 (No. 943), and remained a member until 1904. So far as recorded he attended no conferences.

William E. Parker, treasurer of Library Bureau, Cambridge, Mass., died November 2, 1911. He was a member of the A. L. A. continuously from 1889 (No. 757), to 1909, and was secretary of the association in 1890. He attended the conferences of 1889, '90 and '96.

The secretary's report was accepted on motion of Mr. J. I. Wyer, Jr., seconded by Dr. C. W. Andrews.

The treasurer's report which had been previously printed, was read by title, and accepted.

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

Report of the Treasurer, Jan. 1st to May 31st, 1912.

Respectfully submitted,

C. B. RODEN, Treasurer.

Chicago, June 1, 1912.

The following report of the finance committee was read by Dr. C. W. Andrews, chairman, and accepted.

REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE.

To the American Library Association:

In accordance with the provisions of the constitution the finance committee submit the following report:

They have duly considered the probable income of the association for the current year and have estimated it at $19,450, and have approved appropriations made by the Executive Board to that amount. The details of the estimated income and of the appropriations are given in the January number of the Bulletin. The committee have also approved the appropriation to the use of the Publishing Board to any excess of sales over the amount estimated. The receipts and expenditures of the Publishing Board have been included in the figures given, so that they now exhibit the total financial resources and expenditures of the association.

On behalf of the committee the chairman has audited the accounts of the treasurer and of the secretary as assistant treasurer. He has found that the receipts as stated by the treasurer agree with the transfer checks from the assistant treasurer, and with the cash accounts of the latter. The expenditures as stated are accounted for by properly approved vouchers. The bank balance and petty cash, as stated, agree with the bank books and petty cash balances. The accounts of the assistant treasurer have been found correct as cash accounts.

On behalf of the committee Mr. E. H. Anderson has examined the accounts of the trustees for 1911, has checked the securities now in their custody, and certifies to the correctness of the figures, to the bonds on hand, and the balance in bank. He finds that at par value the bonds and securities amount to $102,500 for the Carnegie fund, and $7,000 for the Principal account.

He has examined the vouchers for the amounts transmitted to the treasurer and has compared the reports of the treasurer and trustees in regard to the number of new life memberships. He certifies that to the best of his knowledge and belief all of the accounts as submitted to him are correct.

All of which is respectfully submitted for the committee.

CLEMENT W. ANDREWS, Chairman.

The following reports which had been previously printed, were read by title and accepted.

[A. L. A. PUBLISHING BOARD]

With the issuance of the A. L. A. Catalog, 1904-11, which is now in press, the Publishing Board practically completes an important group of bibliographical aids which has been in process of compilation or publication during the past five years. The chief publications embrace the following:

A. L. A. Catalog, 1904-11, to be issued in 1912.

List of subject headings for use in dictionary catalogs, 3rd edition revised by Mary Josephine Briggs. 1911.

Small library buildings; a collection of plans with introduction and notes by Cornelia Marvin. 1908.

Guide to the study and use of reference books, by Alice B. Kroeger. 1908.

Supplement to the above, compiled by Isadore G. Mudge. 1911.

Foreign book lists, embracing to date German, French, Hungarian, Norwegian and Danish, and Swedish.

550 Children's books; a purchase list for public libraries, by Harriet H. Stanley. 1910.

Selected list of music and books about music for public libraries, by Louisa M. Hooper. 1909.

Hints to small libraries, by Mary W. Plummer, 4th edition. 1911.

This list does not include a number of new tracts and handbooks, nor the tentative chapters of an A. L. A. Manual of library economy which it is proposed upon completion to assemble in book form. An index to annual library reports, which is well under way, will probably be put into type before the expiration of the calendar year. In addition, during the quintennial period now closing, the Board has been instrumental in securing the publication of the following important bibliographical aids bearing the imprints of other organizations: Index of economic material in documents of the states of the United States, prepared by Adelaide R. Hasse; A. L. A. Portrait index, edited by W. C. Lane and Nina E. Browne.

New chapters of the Manual of library economy are noted in another paragraph.

Directions for the librarian of a small library (3000 copies), by Zaidee Brown was reprinted for the League of library commissions from the type used by the Free public library commission of Massachusetts.

The library and social movements; a list of material obtainable free or at small expense (1250 copies), compiled by Ono Mary Imhoff, of the Wisconsin free library commission, was reprinted for the League from the type used for the edition of the Wisconsin free library commission.

Subject index to vol. 7 of the A. L. A. Booklist (2500 copies) was printed in June, 1911. Although proportionately valuable to vols. 1-6 the sale has been very unsatisfactory and is not an encouragement to prepare future yearly indexes.

During the past year the following publications have been reprinted: A. L. A. Index to general literature, edited by W. I. Fletcher, 1905 edition (500 copies); Cataloging for small libraries, by Theresa Hitchler (Handbook No. 2) (1000 copies); Binding for small libraries, compiled by the A. L. A. Committee on Bookbinding (Handbook No. 5) (1500 copies); Guide to reference books, by Alice B. Kroeger (1000 copies); and Cutter's Notes from the art section of a library (Tract No. 5) (1000 copies). A new edition of Miss Stearns' Essential in library administration (2000 copies) is now in press. It has been brought up to date by the author.

Publications out of Print—Several publications for which plates were not made have recently become out of print. Magazines for the small library, by Katharine MacDonald Jones, and Graded list of stories for reading aloud, by Harriot E. Hassler were both League publications which had been turned over to the Board. There is a steady demand for them and they should be either brought up to date and reprinted or something else issued on the same subject.

Questions of Policy—The work now nearing an end has engaged the attention and absorbed the resources of the Publishing Board to an extent that precluded entry into new fields calling for large expenditures. The editorial work involved in the compilation of the third edition of Subject headings, extending over a period of several years, and the editorial expenses incident to the publication of the A. L. A. Booklist have practically exhausted the current funds available for such service. Beginning with the new fiscal year, the funds derived from sales will doubtless care for all outstanding obligations, and the income from the Carnegie endowment can be devoted to maintain and to further strengthen the Booklist, and to undertake new enterprises.

Out of the great labor involved, and time required in the preparation of Subject headings, and of the A. L. A. Catalog, has developed the suggestion that work for new editions of the former compilation should be continuous, and that the Booklist bears a logical relationship to the A. L. A. Catalog. While the members of the Publishing Board are not fully prepared at this time to urge a definite permanent policy in this connection, an interesting suggestion comes from Mrs. Elmendorf, which well merits consideration in having an important bearing on future development. Her suggestion, in her own words, is this:

"Would it not be well to consider the publication of the A. L. A. Catalog in loose-leaf form on something the same principle as Nelson's Cyclopedia? Different parts of it might then be revised from time to time and the parts or pages might be for sale separately.

"It could be so printed that the pages might be mounted and arranged in a vertical file, headings being suggested at the bottom for arrangement as any library preferred, in regular classed order or in alphabetico-classed. A card index to the vertical file might be made to minimize the difficulties of the classed arrangement. The notes should be attractive notes, letting the presence of the book in this "Choice Catalog" vouch for its worth and in a general way for the treatment, for the choice should be guided by the best popular, readable treatment. I am more and more thinking that effective helps to awakened personal interest are needed and are lacking. The A. L. A. Catalog has always been too bulky, too costly, too much directed to the buyer for effective personal service. I have long been convinced that the greatest popular service can be performed even in the large libraries with quite a limited number of books, I think not more than 20,000, perhaps not more than 10,000. I should like to advertise that many adequately and attractively and watch the results.

"I know that there are many objections and difficulties to be met, and yet I believe that there is the germ of a workable scheme present."

List of Subject Headings—The chief publication of the year has been the new List of subject headings, revised and edited by Mary Josephine Briggs, cataloger of the Buffalo public library. After nearly five years of labor this third edition appeared October 1st, 1911 and has met with a most appreciative reception. 3000 copies were printed as a first edition. 1312 copies have already been sold (to June 1), and a steady demand continues. The reviews have been almost uniformly favorable.

A. L. A. Catalog, 1904-11—The new A. L. A. Catalog, 1904-11, although not yet off the press as this report is written, will be distributed we hope about the date of the Ottawa meeting. It contains a selection of about 3000 of the best books published since the A. L. A. Catalog of 1904, with a list of books now out of print which appeared in that Catalog, and also of new editions. Children's books are listed separately. Five thousand copies are being printed as a first edition, of which nearly 3000 have been subscribed for in advance of publication. From the preface written by the editor, Miss Elva L. Bascom, the following extracts are selected:

"The general plan of the Catalog and the routine of co-operation in the selection of titles practically coincide with those of the original work except that the whole routine, from the preliminary selection to the final preparation for printing, has remained in the hands of one person.

"All titles have been submitted to the publishers for latest information, so that the list should be dependable for prices.

"The sixth edition (1899) of the Decimal Classification has been followed. This decision was made on the information that the smaller libraries had not to any extent adopted the seventh edition. It is to be hoped that when the time comes to revise the 1904 Catalog there may be at hand a complete revised edition of the "D. C." simplified for the requirements of the smaller libraries.

"The addition of subject headings (not given with the titles in the 1904 Catalog) was determined on before the decision to print only a class list was made. It has been a frequent request from the librarians of smaller libraries, who need help in this matter and who found it difficult to find the headings chosen for the Dictionary list in the 1904 Catalog. The new edition of the List of subject headings has been followed with some additions. Where the subjects of analytics are easily ascertainable, they are only recommended.

"While in the beginning the attempt was made to adhere fairly closely to the proportion of titles to each subject given in the 1904 Catalog, it was found impossible to do so without impairing the usefulness of the list. The output of books in the subjects grouped under Sociology has been so great, and the demand for them so heavy, that it seemed better to include a larger number than was originally planned rather than risk weakening the usefulness of the section. The greatest increase has been in Useful Arts, and this was intentional, since there is no division where the average librarian is more in need of help, nor where it is more difficult to find the "best book" on short notice.

"Two special lists are incorporated in the Catalog, both in answer to definite requests. One is a selection of about 50 titles of religious books specially chosen for Catholic readers. Two preliminary selections were made, one by an assistant in the St. Louis public library at the request of the librarian, Dr. A. E. Bostwick, and a second by the Rev. W. J. McMullen of Pittsburgh, at the request of the librarian of the Carnegie library of Pittsburgh, Mr. H. W. Craver. Both lists were then incorporated into a much more extensive one, covering all subjects, compiled by Mr. William Stetson Merrill, of the Newberry library. The final selection, limited to religious books, was submitted to Archbishop Ireland, and at his request was examined by the Rev. J. A. Ryan, of the St. Paul Seminary, St. Paul, Minn."

The second list consists of 50 titles of modern drama and books about it. It was impossible to get any unanimity of opinion on such a brief selection and the editor is aware that it will satisfy a very small proportion of libraries. It is allowed to stand, however, for the suggestion it may give to the perplexed librarian of the smaller library.

"It is hardly to be imagined that any one ever prepared a list of this character and extent without wishing to ask the indulgence of possible critics and to explain why it is so much farther from perfect than it was expected to be. It seems a fairly simple task to select 3000 titles from the books published in eight years, but a list based on the co-operation of about 75 librarians and 100 experts, all fully engaged with their own work, and selected, edited and prepared for printing in the intervals between work having a prior claim, is bound to progress but slowly and to suffer many changes of fortune. One needs to be this sort of clearing house of opinion but once to realize how far apart our libraries are in the matter of book selection. In many cases what is one library's meat seems to be another's poison, and one soon reaches the conviction that there are no "best books" on any subject for a library of any size—if librarians alone are to be consulted. Happily, professors, special students and experts in general are less at variance. It is only fair to say that the Fiction and Children's lists represent librarians' votes only. It is to be doubted if the Fiction, at least, would have retained the proper amount of "light reading" if it had passed through the hands of literature professors. If it does not prove a good "working" selection the editor will be greatly disappointed, for it was on that ground alone that many titles escaped the deleting pencil."

A. L. A. Booklist—With the current number of the A. L. A. Booklist, volume 8 is completed. Since the initial number appeared in January, 1905, the Booklist has come to be regarded as an indispensable tool in every library. There has been no deviation from the original policy of furnishing to the libraries, and the numerous small libraries particularly, an unbiased guide in selection of books currently published. The number of titles listed from the 2500 annually examined, has been expanded from time to time, but the general character of the publication has been retained. Suggestions have come to the Board for change of name, for change of form and size, and for other changes that might lead to a larger use of the list by the general public. While the members of the Board have given careful consideration to the arguments presented, they have deferred reaching a final conclusion until practical unanimity can be arrived at as to the wisdom of the changes sought. A total of 7729 titles has been included in the 2456 pages which comprise the eight volumes of the Booklist:

A. L. A. BOOKLIST

Manual of Library Economy—Six chapters of the Manual were printed and ready for distribution previous to the Pasadena conference, namely:

1. American library history, by C. K. Bolton.

2. Library of Congress, by W. W. Bishop.

4. The college and university library, by J. I. Wyer, Jr.

17. Order and accession department, by F. F. Hopper.

22. Reference department, by E. C. Richardson.

26. Bookbinding, by A. L. Bailey.

During the latter half of 1911 the four following chapters were printed, also each in a separate pamphlet, appearing in the order here named:

20. Shelf department, by Josephine A. Rathbone.

15. Branch libraries and other distributing agencies, by Linda A. Eastman.

9. Library legislation, by W. F. Yust.

12. Library administration, by A. E. Bostwick.

Since their publication the following number of copies of each chapter have been sold (to March 31):