J. C. DANA: Perhaps the chief purposes of a state library association
are to arouse an interest in libraries among the public and to increase
the knowledge and enthusiasm of the members of the profession. The
mistake is often made of thinking that the chief purpose of an
association is to hold an annual meeting. It is thought that the annual
meeting once provided with a good program, and that well carried
through, the work of the association for the whole year is done. There
could not be a greater mistake. The benefits of a state association come
largely from correspondence between members, the preparation for the
meeting, and the securing of ideas, new methods and statistics by
circulating letters among members, and the publication in newspapers and
elsewhere of notes about the meeting which is to come and the meetings
which have been. One is almost tempted to say that a library association
performs its duty better if it is active during the year--carrying on
correspondence and thoroughly advertising itself--and holds no meeting
whatever, than it does if it holds an annual meeting and does not
advertise.
Another mistake common to those who organize state library associations
is to suppose that they are chiefly designed for the benefit of those
who organize them. They do not realize that to help younger and less
experienced members of the craft is a chief purpose of the association,
and that if through it librarians generally are informed and encouraged,
the profession itself is thereby improved, and they are themselves
advanced in general esteem.
It is, then, an association's business to be active all through the
year, to devote itself largely to such work in and between its meetings
as will benefit both beginners and past-masters among librarians, and,
always, properly to advertise its work. Along this last line let me say
an urgent word in favor of good printing. It is difficult to
overestimate the value to an institution like a library association of
an exhibition of itself, through all its circulars and programs and
lists, by means of the best printing that money can buy.
The general state association, being the largest and richest of all
associations in a given state, should take upon itself some large
definite work of permanent value and as far as possible of general
interest; say the compilation of historical material, the making of a
useful index, the issuance of popular lists, etc., etc. This work may
continue along the same line for several years, ending in the
publication of something thoroughly worth while which shall have been
the means of arousing interest in the profession itself and of bringing
the members of it into touch with one another month by month and year by
year.
As to the place of meeting of the state association, I doubt if much
benefit accrues, on the whole, from meetings held in remote places for
missionary purposes. I say this, of course, on the supposition that the
meetings thus held, being at places difficult of access, will not
generally draw a large gathering. Better results can generally be
reached in these same small communities by sending to them occasionally
one or two active representatives of the association to carry on a
little propaganda work, speak before a woman's club, before the school
teachers, or a local literary society on the local library problems.
About the programs of association meetings, it is difficult to say
anything which will have general application. They must, of course, to a
considerable extent, fit local conditions. I do not think it advisable
to give up much time to local speakers, either for words of greeting or
for historical sketches. These latter are generally unspeakably dull. On
the other hand, if popular interest in a place is desired a local
speaker may be the one best means available for accomplishing your
object.
Associations which are attended, as so many are, by librarians of
smaller libraries who rarely get abroad and do not often have an
opportunity to meet their fellows and to expand in the social atmosphere
of the library meeting, should cultivate to the greatest possible extent
what one may call the conversational feature. Not only should ample
opportunity be given before and after and between the sessions for
informal talks, but a portion of the formal gathering itself should be
devoted to brief and rapid exchange of ideas. This can be brought about
by a little preliminary wire-pulling. Let some one briefly open a topic,
and then let questions be offered, some of them by the most diffident of
those present who have previously been posted as to what they are to ask
and when. Manufacture a little spontaneity by way of an ice-breaker, and
it is surprising how freely genuine spontaneity will then flow. It is
unquestionably of great value to a librarian who is unselfishly giving
her energy to a small library in a remote place, trying to make her
books of use, to be able to express herself, no matter how briefly, on
some of the matters which touch her work at home.
A state association should draw out the diffident; cheer the discouraged
ones; magnify our calling; compel public attention to the value of
libraries; be active the whole year through; and always keep a little
ahead of the general library progress in the state.
Miss ELLA MCLONEY: It is unquestionably true, as has been stated, that
the annual meeting of a state library association is not the whole of
the work that must be done through the year. It is possibly only an
incident, but the fact is that in the nature of things the work of
preparation for this meeting must be carried on during at least half the
year. The preparation of the programs requires a great deal of
correspondence, and this must extend over a great part of the state and
during a great part of the year. Whenever any circulars or announcements
are issued, they should be sent to every library in the state; it does
not matter whether that library is likely to be represented or not, it
should have information as to the work that is being done by the state
association.
So far as advertising a library is concerned it seems to me a good deal
of a problem. Of course, library people, like other people, need the
help of the newspapers, but if you want to get the newspapers interested
in libraries it will have to be on the strength of something more than
what libraries are going to do. In other words, it will have to be
something that the newspapers can take up as news and feel that the
public are interested in; they want material that is fresh and newsy,
and if you can furnish them with that, then the newspapers will be
willing to help.
As to the printing of programs and other material, I am hardly prepared
to say that library associations should always have the best and most
expensive work. It is a proper thing, theoretically, to appear before
the public in the handsomest and most suitable dress possible, but when
every 25 cents is of importance and your treasury is practically empty,
and there is no one upon whom you can legitimately draw to fill it, I
think you must limit your work accordingly.
About definite work to be done, it is true of a library association, as
of any other association, that it should do something that will furnish
a reason for its existence. In most cases the most definite thing, if
you are beginners in association work, will be the task of gaining a
foothold; but the time will probably come when it will be necessary to
undertake some definite work, that the life of the association may be
prolonged and finally assured. The Iowa association, for its first three
or four years, was a very frail child, and required most careful
nursing; but finally, about the fourth year, it began to seem as if
there was very good prospect of its growth and development. Miss Ahern,
whom Illinois has claimed for the last five years, and who was at that
time interested in the Iowa work, devised the plan of establishing a
four years' course of library study, an ambitious undertaking in the
condition of affairs in Iowa then. This was printed in a neat folder,
which was sent to every library in the state, with a circular telling
them what the plan was, and that the library association wished the
librarians of the state to enter upon this four years' course of study,
and asked all who would pledge themselves to do so to come to the next
meeting with their report of the work. I received seven letters in
response to all this circular work, and when the time for the annual
meeting came there was no one there to report. Librarians were too busy,
too far apart, and too poorly paid, to permit the work being carried on
systematically. It was dropped at that point; I think it could be done
now, and it may be taken up yet. It did furnish a common bond, although
the results were not very evident just then.
The next thing, as has been the case with many other associations, was
the work of securing the library commission. We pegged away at that for
five years before we accomplished anything. Finally the State Federation
of Women's Clubs interested itself; we secured the commission, and the
work has been going on exceedingly well for the past year. We have made
no plan yet for further definite work, but some need will doubtless
develop.
In regard to programs, they must, of course, as Mr. Dana said, be
adapted to local conditions, and the people who are primarily the
workers in the state association, cannot expect personally to get much
from the program or from the work of the association. But it is probably
true in most cases that these workers have opportunities of visiting
other libraries, and have facilities for work that are not open to the
librarians in the smaller places. The librarians of the smaller
libraries should be given something definite, something technical,
something that will be of help to them in the work from a professional
point of view.
As to place of meeting, the Iowa meetings were always held in Des
Moines, the capital city, until two years ago. Then it was decided to
make the library association a movable feast. We met at Cedar Rapids
two years ago, last year at Sioux City, where we had a good meeting,
although not largely attended. Sioux City is in the extreme western part
of the state, and is not easily accessible by railroad, but we drew a
little from South Dakota, which was what we had counted on; some Dakota
people came and joined the association, and two of those people have
attended this A. L. A. conference. We meet next in Burlington, where
there are more libraries in the locality, and we expect a larger
attendance. I suppose the ideal condition would be to meet in some
central place, where there are library facilities, but I believe it is
worth while to move the association about; that is one way of
advertising it.
Miss OLIVE JONES: I fully believe that the greatest work of the state
association it does through the librarians individually. It is of help
in the state in bringing out different lines of work, and in keeping the
library work before the public; but, after all, do we not gain more from
individual effort than from anything else? In educational problems, it
is coming to be realized that the work of the individual means more than
the work of any body of people, and I am fully convinced, if we can
bring librarians to our state associations, and have an association full
of enthusiasm and that intangible something which we call library
spirit, we will have more done for the state at large than by any
devising of general work along large lines. I would make a special plea
that in deciding where to meet, you should consider first the
librarians, and settle a pleasant place for the members who meet
fellow-workers only once a year. There are librarians who have no
vacation at all, except when their board kindly allows them to go to the
state association meeting; there are librarians who never know
personally anything of this larger work done all over the country, and
we should not ask such persons to come to a place where they are not
going to be comfortable, and which they must spend a good deal of money
to reach. We must be sure of having something for the librarians of the
smaller libraries; something technical, not too much, but something
which the librarian can take away, feeling that it has been worth while
to attend. I am not certain that we could have library instruction in
Ohio; we tried it and it did not seem to work; but if you can introduce
in the program one or two definite, technical papers, it is a good
thing. And at the same time give a chance for sociability and some
social entertainment.
There is one other point, and that is in regard to the advertising that
we can do through individuals--you see my point is individualism. I
believe in newspaper advertising, but I think if you can work up a good
mailing list through your state, sending all your circulars to
individuals, you will do more than by newspaper advertising. And it is a
good thing to get one library in each city to keep a list of every one
in that city who ought to be specially interested in library work,
whether members of the association or not. Then let that librarian send
to the secretary of the association a duplicate of that list, so that
everything the state association issues goes to each person who should
be interested in library work.
W. R. EASTMAN: In New York we are going through a little transition
period in state library association work. Formerly our state association
held occasional meetings in different places. It held one in midwinter
in New York City, with the New York Library Club. Then in the summer or
spring we held a meeting in the central part of the state. We tried to
make our programs as practical as could be, discussing not only
occasional technical points, but elementary points as well. We always
had good meetings; we got together a little circle of librarians who
were interested, and we thought the state association was worth keeping
up, although the state was so large that we reached only one or two
centers. About a year ago, under a new administration, Dr. Canfield
suggested that the annual meeting should always be held in one place. We
consented to try the plan, and decided to make Lake Placid, in the
Adirondacks, our meeting place. We met there, and the association, to my
surprise and somewhat to my disturbance, first voted always to meet in
one place, and then voted always to meet at Lake Placid. We then made a
proviso instructing the executive board to district the state into 10 or
12 districts, and lay out a plan by which every one of those districts
should have a library conference in the course of the year. Thus,
instead of one meeting of the state during a year, we are going to have
12 local conferences. Whether those local conferences will have an
organization I do not know; the board has not yet reported its plan.
Probably there will be some sort of a skeleton organization--a president
and secretary, and perhaps some one in charge of each local conference,
and then some member of the association will probably come and attend
the conference. Our object is to bring together the librarians and
library trustees for 50 miles around; if the teachers are interested, so
much the better. So, you see, we have begun to establish a system of
local conferences all over the state. It is not extravagant; it is
hopeful; I believe there is a great deal in it, especially for the
larger states.
Miss STEARNS: I for one would protest against always meeting in one
place, unless as Mr. Eastman has described, the meeting is held at a
resort. I have known cases where meetings were held at one central,
large town, because it was so accessible; and the librarian of a little
library, who cannot have open shelves and all facilities, goes to this
town and sees its large library, with its red tape, and gets so
completely tangled up in the red tape of that institution that she will
never be able to disentangle herself. I believe in the migration of
meetings.
H. C. WELLMAN: I am in hearty sympathy with what has been said in regard
to extending library work through the state. It is especially valuable
in the newer states of the Union, but in the older states, in New
England, in New York, and elsewhere, I think we must not attend too
strictly to the extension of library work, but must rather intensify it.
A state library association, as Miss Jones said, can do a great deal for
librarians and for the library profession. The Massachusetts Library
Club has done something in the way of giving a series of lectures, to
run two or three years. The first lecture dealt with paper making, the
subject being treated by an expert; then came book illustration, of
which most librarians knew absolutely nothing; and then, finally, book
binding, for which we had one of the best binders of the state to come
down and show us the tricks of the trade. You are all library school
graduates out here; but in the effete east nine-tenths of the librarians
have not had that technical training. I do not know anything that was of
more practical good to our club membership than that lecture on library
binding. There is another thing that we ought to do, and that is to give
attention to the more scholarly side of librarianship. We are so busy
organizing, so busy spreading library ideas, that we are in danger of
losing sight of scholarship. That is something the state association can
do--in the directions of literature, bibliography, and such subjects. I
think that should be emphasized more than has been the case. In the
Massachusetts Club we are trying a similar scheme to that of Mr.
Eastman; we are going to have one annual meeting, which will take in all
the library clubs all over the state. Then, besides that, the state club
meets about three times a year in different parts of the state.
In concluding, I want to make sure that this round table is to be
continued, and I therefore move that this assembly petition the program
committee of next year for another round table meeting on this subject.
_Voted._
Miss M. E. AHERN: I want to say a word about this matter of having
peripatetic meetings. In the state of Illinois we have all the library
law and all the library books in the northern part of the state, and
then there is a part of the state down in the south that they call
"Egypt." There may be some libraries there, but we have been unable yet
to induce them to take their place in the state library association. Two
years ago, after having tried for several years to get these libraries
to come into the association, we brought the association to them, and
held our meeting in East St. Louis, under the most distressing
circumstances of weather and other uncomfortable conditions; and not a
single librarian from that community attended the meeting. We tried the
same plan last year in another place in the state, and I felt when the
meeting was over that we had not done much good there. Very few of the
local people came to the meeting. Later I heard that we did some good,
but I am inclined to think that the personal efforts of the librarians
at that place did more than the association did. I am not at all a
pessimist, but in Illinois this plan has failed to interest the people
of the indifferent districts in the work that the library association
was trying to do, and I have been almost convinced that it is the proper
thing for an association to get a central point and bring librarians in
touch with the vitalizing spirit of a good library conference, rather
than to try to take the association to an indifferent community. I want
heartily to emphasize the point made by Mr. Dana about local speakers. I
have suffered more than once from these local speakers. I have a most
distinct recollection of hearing a trustee talk for one hour and a
quarter on the beautiful, magnanimous and generous efforts made by
himself to run the local library. The point made by Mr. Wellman needs to
be taken cautiously. I think there is more danger of emphasizing the
scholarly side of librarianship at state meetings than there is of not
giving it sufficient attention. The American Library Association, in my
opinion, should stand for the higher tenets of the library faith, and
the scholarly side should be more emphasized than has been the case
heretofore in the meetings of the national association. With all our
different organizations, clubs, associations, conferences, round tables,
and so on, it seems to me that the American Library Association should
take care of the technical side, and the smaller questions, that must,
indeed, be settled by local conditions, should be taken up by the state
associations. While, of course, we want to have material of a high order
presented at the state association, at the same time we must remember
that these associations reach those people who cannot be touched in any
other way; and if they have come to get light on this new topic of work
for children, or if they are on the point of reorganizing their library,
or if they are having trouble with their board, they do not take kindly
to a dissertation on printing in the 15th century.
One thing has been left out in the various interests which have been
brought forward, and that is the part of the trustee in the state
association meetings. A librarian may have all possible inclination, and
all the enthusiasm that we can give her, but if she does not have the
co-operation and the kindly sympathy of her library board, or at least a
majority of its members, life is to her a burden. Her condition is worse
than when she did not know, and did not know that she did not know. The
state associations have not so far been open enough to the trustees. It
seems to me that this is a subject well worth taking up, and we should
try to do more for the library trustees of the state than we have done
heretofore. Necessarily they take rather a material view of the
situation, and we should try to lead them away from the dollar-and-cents
view of library work. These two things need to be emphasized--keep in
mind the small librarian, and educate the trustee. Some one has said
that we need a library school for trustees quite as much as we need a
library school for librarians, and the more I see of libraries the more
I believe that.