places, are good permanent advertisements. Personal visits to the
places where questions are being asked--the post office, the railroad,
telegraph, newspaper and express offices, and the suggestion that those
in charge send to the public library all inquiries they do not wish to
be troubled with or can not satisfy, will turn many people toward the
library.
If it is the item of expense that stands in the way of business work in
your library, have you considered possible economies in other lines?
Why not discontinue a certain fashion magazine and add a financial
one? Turn down an order for a history of the court of Queen Anne and
buy a good history of Wall Street. Get along without that valuable
but expensive book on the ancient civilization of the Egyptians and
buy a directory of the manufacturers of the world. Deny your worthy
scholars the latest commentary on Plato and get your business men
the latest book on accountancy. Sacrifice an historical or classical
atlas and secure the best maps of your own locality. Decide against
the Portuguese dictionary and buy a cable code. Cancel the order for
so-and-so's travels in British Guiana and subscribe for the Official
Railway Guide.
Here are suggestions for a few resources to be used in meeting business
inquiries of a general order, such as come to a library that advertises
itself as a Bureau of Information, and some things we have found useful
in business work:
1. The latest edition of the city directory, directories of local
towns, of the capitol of the state, and of the largest cities of
the United States. An exchange of directories one year old with
other public libraries has proved quite satisfactory. It increases
your resources, and the fact that you ask for year-old directories
from local business houses for the purpose of exchange is a good
advertisement of the library's business side. The cost of sending a
5-lb. directory to any part of the United States by book-rate express
is about fifty cents.
If you cannot afford directories, get telephone books from the American
Telephone and Telegraph Co., New York City, at prices ranging from 35
to 50 cents. Many of these contain classified sections. A classified
telephone directory of New York may be obtained free by writing to Mr.
Reuben J. Donnelly, 37 Fulton Street, New York City.
2. The very best local maps. To spend $30 on a real estate atlas may
seem extravagant; but such atlases are usually issued at intervals of
6 to 10 years, and will prove one of the most useful sources of local
information.
3. The Official Railway Guide. If the library cannot afford to pay
$8.00 a year for it, get a month-old copy from the local railway
office. It contains the most complete list of U. S. towns in print and
is of value as a gazetteer and in many other ways.
4. The Western Union A. B. C. and Lieber Cable Codes are the only
general codes in use. They cost about $32.00.
5. A table for displaying catalogs of business book publishers.
This will increase the use of business books and lead to many good
recommendations by visitors.
6. A monthly magazine, "Business News," of the Business Book Bureau of
New York. It indexes articles in the principal business magazines and
lists the important new business books.
7. A typewriter for the free use of visitors. The local office of a
typewriter company may place one in the library as an advertisement.
8. Reports of transactions on the New York stock exchange or of
transactions in local securities. Local brokers' offices will consider
it a good advertisement to place these on file.
9. Trolley guides. Fifty cents spent on these each year will fortify
the library against all attacks in that line.
10. Thomas's Register of American Manufacturers, price $15.00. With
this in hand you can say that, "The Public Library can give you names
of pill-box manufacturers in all parts of the U. S., the name of the
man who makes office furniture in Marietta, Ohio, or the place where
Rubberset products are manufactured."
11. Kelly's Directory of Merchants, Manufacturers and Shippers of the
World. Price 30s. This enables you to say, "The Public Library can
give you the name of German manufacturers of mirrors, the dealers in
lacquered ware in Tokio, the name of a bank in Warsaw, a forwarding
agent in Sydney or the express facilities of Coburg."
With a simple and inexpensive equipment, somewhat like that included
in these eleven items, backed by wide advertising in the local press,
a public library can attract the business men of a town to use the
institution they support, an institution which should be turned to by
everyone in the municipality as the very first source of information.
Miss EDITH KAMMERLING, head of the Civics Room of the Chicago public
library, presented most ably the work which could be done by any
library in the civics line, under the title
A CIVICS ROOM IN A MEDIUM-SIZED TOWN
Perhaps the best method of indicating the scope and material of a
civics room in a medium-sized library is to describe what are the
essentials of a civics room in a large city, permitting the adaptation
of such features of the latter to the former as the locality and
conditions may suggest.
A year ago last month a room was opened in the Chicago public library
which is known as the civics room. The legend on the door announces
"Sociology, Municipal Affairs, Business, Economics, Political Science,
and Education." At first people were very curious to see what the
civics room was like, and many there were of the idle curious who came
to see what we had, but as the subjects dealt with were not what are
generally considered as sources of amusement and entertainment, this
patronage gradually ceased until now we have only the earnest, studious
class.
The work required in assembling and taking care of the material is such
as to demand the most concentrated efforts and the most specialized
training upon the part of the librarian. She must be familiar with the
great issues of the day and must be able to look ahead and assemble
material where she sees that a topic is engaging the attention of
public-spirited men.
The material which is stored in the civics room, therefore, is less in
the form of books than in the way of pamphlets, magazine articles, and
newspaper clippings--that which is usually regarded as ephemera. The
latest material is not to be found in books, for by the time a subject
has been before the public, has been talked about, assimilated, and
finally published in book form it is practically an old subject.
One of the first considerations for the librarian is where to obtain
this material. Our civics room has a card index of institutions and
societies that are interested in the subjects that we cover in our
work, and since we are on the mailing list of most of the associations
we are pretty well supplied with their publications. The National
Municipal Review, published quarterly by the National Municipal League,
has a section devoted to new pamphlet material and is a great help in
learning of new publications. Other journals of particular value are:
The Survey, with its Information Desk, The Municipal Engineer, The
American City, and The American Political Science Review.
For magazine articles, of course we have the Readers' Guide, but most
of our magazine material is in the form of separates. The branches of
our library return innumerable magazines to the main library and these
are immediately dismembered and the articles of value and interest to
us are taken out and treated as if they were pamphlets. Our newspaper
clippings are obtained from 150 foreign and domestic newspapers
which our reading room receives daily. Representative material is
obtained in this way from all sections of the country. The pamphlets,
magazine separates, and newspaper clippings, together with a small,
well-selected collection of books and a goodly supply of current
magazines upon economic and sociological subjects constitute the
material of the room.
If you were to visit our civics room you would see one entire side of
the room lined with pamphlet boxes. Each box represents a subject.
Collected in one box are pamphlets, magazine separates, and newspaper
clippings. The patron is not compelled to read antiquated books in
studying his subject, nor is he compelled to go through the Readers'
Guide and wait for his magazines to be brought to him. Here, all
gathered together, is the latest material to be had. Each pamphlet
is classified; each magazine separate is made into permanent form by
being stapled in a manila folder with source, title, date, and class
number on the cover; each newspaper clipping is classified with source
and date and placed in a large manila envelope. We use the Wisconsin
Legislative Reference Bureau's expansion of the 300's of the Dewey
Classification for classifying our material. Selections from the
contents of a typical box will show what kind of material is to be had.
The subject is The recall:
Address of Pres. Taft at the banquet of the Swedish-American
Republican League. 62d Cong. 2d. sess. Sen. doc. 542. Mar.
9, 1912.
Address on the recall of judges and the recall of judicial
decisions at the session of the annual meeting of the Ill.
State Bar Assoc. Apr. 26, 1912.
Election and recall of federal judges; speech of Hon. Robt. L.
Owen. 62d Cong. 1st Sess. Sen. doc. 99. July 31, 1911.
Federal recall and referendum. Springfield Republican. Dec. 5,
1912.
How the "recall of decisions" would protect the weak from
injustice. Chicago Tribune. Apr. 7, 1912.
If recall ever comes, judges will cause it. Dallas News. June
8, 1912.
Importance of an independent judiciary. Ind. Apr. 4, 1912.
Judicial decisions and public feeling; address by Elihu Root.
62d Cong. 2d sess. Sen. doc. 271. Jan. 19, 1912.
A judicial oligarchy. Century mag. Oct., 1911.
The judicial recall. Century mag. May, 1912.
The judicial recall a fallacy of constitutional government;
speech by Rome G. Brown. 62d Cong. 2d sess. Sen. doc. 892.
Aug. 3, 1912.
Judicial recall is turned down. Baltimore American. July 4,
1912.
Judicial tyranny and the remedy; speech by Isaac R. Sherwood.
May 2, 1912.
Life terms and the judicial recall. Chicago American. July 16,
1912.
Nullifying the law by judicial interpretation. Atlantic. Apr.,
1911.
Oakland defeated recall nearly 2 to 1. San Francisco Chronicle.
Apr. 6, 1912.
Recall for all but judges urged. New York Sun. Jan. 6, 1913.
Recall in Oregon. Washington Post. Sept. 2, 1912.
Recall in Seattle. McClure's. Oct., 1911.
Recall of judges. Ind. Aug. 17, 1911.
Recall of judges. Editorial Rev. Nov., 1911.
Recall of judges; address by James Manahan. July 19, 1911.
Recall of judges; arguments in opposition by Mr. Rome G. Brown.
July 19, 1911.
Recall of judges a rash experiment. Century. August, 1911.
Recall of judges and judicial decisions; speech by Hon.
Augustus Gardner. Apr. 4, 1912.
Recall of public servants; speech by Hon. Jonathan Bourne. Aug.
5, 1911.
Restricting the judiciary. Chicago Daily News. June 16, 1913.
Right of the people to rule; address of Theodore Roosevelt.
Mar. 20, 1912.
Seeks substitute for judicial recall. Indianapolis Star. Aug.
30, 1912.
Study on the recall of presidents. Chicago Tribune. Sept. 23,
1912.
Where the recall is justified. International. Dec., 1912.
Wisconsin Assembly Bill; the interpellation or recall of
commissions and other state officers. Jan. 29, 1913.
Wilson explains recall. Springfield Republican. Sept. 26, 1912.
We keep the public informed of what is taking place in the Illinois
legislature by having a complete file of the house and senate bills
and joint resolutions. These are carefully indexed so that if a patron
asks for the bills relating to non-partisan elections, by turning to
our index and looking under Municipalities--Non-partisan elections, the
bills are easily found. Likewise the ordinances that are passed by the
city council are treated in the same way.
We have found from our experience covering a year's work that the
subjects that have been most used are as follows:
Initiative and referendum
Recall
Woman suffrage
Immigration
Direct election of U. S. senators
Minimum wages
Child labor
Woman and labor
Employers' liability
Housing
Unemployment
Labor unions
Syndicalism
Central banking system
Rural credit
Socialism
Single tax
Income tax
High cost of living
International arbitration
Public morals
Moving pictures
Civil service
Commission form of government
Smoke nuisance
Playgrounds and parks
City planning
Garden cities
Six-year term for president
Child welfare
Juvenile courts
Industrial education
Parcel post
Business
Industrial efficiency
Advertising
Public utilities
Noise
Billboards
Non-partisan elections
Some of the questions selected at random, show the demands made upon
the room. A committee of the City Council is appointed to investigate
the question of public service corporation commissions, and the
library receives a call for material upon the question "Whether it
is better to have public utilities regulated by state public service
commissions, or to have them regulated by the City Council." When the
investigation of the telephone rates is to be made the history of the
telephone investigations carried on by previous councils is looked
up. Upon investigating the advisability of electrifying the railway
terminals, statistics are demanded showing the amount of damage that is
done by the smoke of the railroads in the city limits. Only the live,
up-to-date material can be of any value to these city officials, and a
knowledge of what other cities have done relative to these questions is
necessary.
Newspaper men who are doing such excellent work in keeping the
people informed about what improvements are being made to better the
conditions in the city, demand a great deal of a civics room. For
example: A newspaper man writing a series of articles upon how to
improve Chicago, wishing to write an article on housing, sends in
a call for information regarding Schmidlapp houses, and it is our
business to get him the material. Again he wishes to show how to reduce
the cost of living, and sends in a request for information concerning
the conveyance of produce from the farmer to the consumer by means of
the interurban cars. Or again he wishes to inspire the public with the
desire to beautify the city with window boxes and flowers and he wishes
to know what European cities are doing along this line.
Civic associations and women's clubs are constantly making demands upon
our resources. Such questions as:
What material have you from the budget exhibits of other cities?
Statistics showing the death rate in garden cities as compared
with the death rate in cities where the population is congested.
The provision of giving the wages of prisoners to the support
of the family.
Public comfort stations.
City planning and garden cities.
The question of working women's wages in its relation to the
social evil was studied, during the recent investigation of the
Illinois Vice Commission, by students and women's clubs.
Students find our room a boon. They are able to get material there
which they are not able to find anywhere else. This spring students at
the University of Chicago were working upon a debate on Panama Canal
tolls, and they were so eager to use our material that they would stay
all day, leaving in relays to eat while a few were left behind to guard
the material.
A civics room in a medium-sized town may be made one of the most
important assets of the library if it can be arranged that the person
in charge does not have to divide her attention with the main work of
the other departments of the library. If the staff is limited it would
be better to have the civics room situated in a centralized locality,
such as the state library, with easy communication with the smaller
libraries. These could have an index of what the state library has, and
when the need would arise the librarian could communicate her wants to
the state librarian and the material could be sent as a package library
upon short notice.
And so we find that we can be of assistance to the members of the
City Council, women's clubs, civic organizations, newspaper men and
students. The future of the work is very bright; new lines of work open
up; new opportunities for service present themselves. It is in this
work that one can be alive; he can feel that he is a part of the great
movement toward the betterment of his city and its people.
Dr. William H. Allen, director of the Bureau of Municipal Research, of
New York, made the closing talk of the evening, taking as his subject,
"What a city should expect and receive from a library." He made a
plea that librarians as individuals should stand for something in the
community, should take their place as persons in the affairs of the
day as well as see to it that their institutions performed the work to
be expected of a library. He also laid emphasis on the fact that the
general public did not know of the work being done by libraries and the
possibilities of further service and urged that discussions of such
work should be given place in the general magazines and newspapers as
well as library magazines. He strongly advocated individual thinking,
the doing of that which the individual librarian felt to be the best
for a given community whether it be in line with general library
thought or not, claiming that individuality of action and thought made
for a stronger and better administration even if such individuality led
to criticism upon occasion.
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING SECTION
The meeting was called to order Wednesday evening, June 25, by the
chairman, Mr. Frank K. Walter.
The first paper was presented by Miss MARY W. PLUMMER on
SPECIALIZATION AND GRADING IN LIBRARY SCHOOLS
Although it is twenty-five years since library schools began, one may
say that in a sense they are still in the experimental stage. And
to say this is really praise, for when schools cease to experiment
they are running along safely in ruts and have lost much of their
vitality. The same period has been one of great expansion in library
affairs,--not only has the country been covered with library buildings
where before, to use a Western expression, "there was nothing but
sagebrush," but forms of library work and extension have sprung up
that were undreamed of twenty-five years ago, new methods have had to
be found to meet emergencies and new conditions, social, industrial,
and educational, and the library or library commission without several
new ideas and aspirations per month is not thought to be doing its
full duty. Add to all this progress the reactions that are going on,
in library practice, in library architecture, etc., each a faithful
reflection of some new light or of some old light looked at a second
time, and the scene is one of activity paralleled, so far as the
present writer knows, in no other field of endeavor, unless it be that
of general education.
Several of the schools carry on an exercise called "survey of the
field," merely to keep their classes in sight of this movement, and
once a fortnight is not too often for such a class to meet--there is
always fresh material for discussion.
A school, however, must experiment within reason and along its own
lines. Because some small libraries and new branches are taking down
their partitions or building without them is not sufficient cause for
the advocacy of the practice in the schools; the much mooted question
of the use of the accessions-book must remain for some time a mooted
question in the schools--as long, in fact, as the conservative and
radical libraries so evenly balance each other on the subject. It is
not for the schools to practice or to teach library innovations--their
business is to watch innovations and their results and report to their
students.
It is open to the school, however, not only to watch but to forecast,
to some extent. By dint of observing and listening, one who is not in
the actual game often sees what is really happening or going to happen
before some, at least, of the participants are entirely aware of it. An
instance lies at hand in the subject of cataloging. Up to the present,
this has been one of the backbone courses in every school-schedule,
though the schools report regularly to their students the progress
making in co-operative cataloging and the use of printed cards. As this
use extends, it becomes more and more evident that cataloging is to be
concentrated in a few expert hands and that most librarians are not
going to have to be catalogers any more than the head of a commercial
concern has to know by heart the price of every article in his stock,
or than a manufacturer has to be able to do at a moment's notice what
his expert subordinates are doing.
For the present, libraries still exist which make their own cards,
and they still call on the schools regularly for librarians who can
catalog, and hope rather than expect to get them. For, in spite of the
fact that the schools still teach every student to catalog, as far
as the student material will admit, students of their own volition
seldom choose to be catalogers. Whether they too have sensed the fact
that a change is coming and that the librarianship of the future will
have more to do with the inside of the book and its application to
the individual, with the handling rather than the making of tools,
or whether they simply do not like what seems to them the probable
monotony of cataloging, I do not know; but I think the schools will
bear me out in the statement that cataloging as a specialty is not the
first choice of many students. In view of these facts, I am ready to
hazard the prediction that within ten years cataloging will be given
in the schools as an elective; and that instead of making catalogs the
majority of students will be led to consider the few main principles
of cataloging and then taught better how to use and how to criticise
catalogs.
Every instructor in cataloging knows that there are students whom it
is a waste of time and vitality to try to make into catalogers, and
every year good people go out from the schools who should never be
engaged as catalogers and whom the schools recommend only for their
qualifications for other work. Suppose we concentrated our teaching
ability in this line on the students who _would_ make good catalogers
and who would elect the study--we should be working with the grain and
not across it, the cataloging of the whole country would be uniformly
well done instead of open to well-founded criticism in places, as it is
now, and the time and strength of the instructor would be saved as well
as those of the student whose forte lies in another direction. Another
result would probably follow very quickly--more men would go into the
library schools. I am told that the detail of cataloging seems to a
man too much like making tatting, and one can easily understand that a
person competent and eager to handle large matters or to fill an active
administrative post would fret over anything involving as much minutiæ
as the making of catalog cards.
However, while libraries in general are making their own cards, and
while the smaller libraries have to have librarians who can turn their
hands to anything, cataloging as well as the rest, it is unsafe for the
schools to send out students without this part of the training. It is
only as library conditions point overwhelmingly toward cataloging as a
specializing study that the schools can change.
Librarians can help very greatly in the matter of specialization by
encouraging it and employing specialists for special work wherever
possible. Without depreciating in the least the value of an attractive
face and an agreeable manner and of taste in dress, in library work
as elsewhere, I may perhaps be allowed to put forward the opinion
that the librarian who is choosing a cataloger should not be unduly
swayed by these to the exclusion of the other requirements. Accuracy,
legibility, knowledge of books, ability in research and a taste for it,
all go to the making of a good cataloger, and it is discouraging for a
school to see the graduate who possesses these qualifications passed
over in favor of one who may have a pleasanter address but who can not
do the work half so well. And women librarians are swayed by these
considerations almost as much as men. The school can hardly be said to
blame in such cases--it can only sorrowfully shake its head, knowing
that if there is any discredit to be cast upon any one later, a great
part of it will probably fall upon the school.
Setting aside cataloging as a specialty in the days to come, to what
shall we devote the large place it has occupied in all the general
curricula?
It is easy to see that with printed cards and expert service, catalog
cards can be fuller in information, can be critically annotated,
perhaps, can be made more often for analyticals, subject and author,
and that the use of the catalog by the library assistant can be much
more constant and more discriminating. Some time can be given in the
curriculum to selecting from the catalog, securing from the shelves,
examining and comparing the books on a given subject, with the result
that the student can get a more thorough knowledge of its literature,
greater facility in the use of a valuable tool, and may become more
generally intelligent for the purpose of the selection and buying of
books, and for recommending or the contrary.
Classification and the study of subject-headings are in themselves so
broadening, furnish so good an exercise of the reasoning powers, and
afford such fine views of the inter-relations of fields of knowledge,
that I doubt if they can ever or ought ever to be set aside as special
studies. The study of works of reference, however, offers so large and
comprehensive a field that it seems to need division; and this brings
me to the other subject of my title, that of grading in the schools.
Probably no one thing has made teaching more difficult, than the wide
range of age and experience among the students. In the same class may
occur and do occur continually the girl of twenty without much reading
beyond high school and college requirements and the summer novel
(unless she has fortunately grown up in a cultivated family with the
habit of good reading and of discussing books), and the man or woman
of from thirty to forty with a knowledge of books, an experience of
life and society, and of thoughtful mind, who may have been successful
in teaching or in some other profession; and in between range students
of all degrees of cultivation, varieties of experience, and types of
education. The training fitted for the first class wastes much of the
time of the student at the other extreme, and if it be adapted to that
extreme may be too strong or too complicated a mixture for the youngest
student.
Grading would be expensive, for it would mean more teachers or more
specialized teachers. In some of the schools the classes are not
large enough to admit of so costly a proceeding; yet without grading,
under the conditions described, the school belongs where the ungraded
school belongs in the scheme of general education--it is delivering
a scattering fire that may or may not hit its object. The entrance
examination has been the device employed for unifying student-material
in some schools, and it is much better than any other means, it seems
to me; but though it may show what is the greatest common divisor of
the candidates in the way of education and offer a definite point
of departure for instruction, those who examine the papers see such
differences, quite apart from the mere answers to the questions, as
warn them that they are about to deal with a very varied assortment of
intellects, a wide range of cultivation, and with necessities ranging
from those of the steady, plodding follower who will never go further
than an average assistantship to those of the born administrator or
scholar. There is, to be sure, in such a class great benefit for the
younger and less experienced students from contact with the others,
from discussions that are a little over their heads, but, all the same,
teaching addressed to the maturer intellect leaves the other with gaps
unfilled, while teaching brought down to the level required by youth
and inexperience gets the older student nowhere for the time being. The
process is a sort of hitching along that should not be necessary in
professional or vocational schools.
Suppose that grading be practicable so far as money and teachers are
concerned. Where should lines be drawn? Often the younger person has
the more flexible as well as more open mind and the older student may
be a little set and may have ceased to take in readily new ideas. How
to distinguish the students who can receive and assimilate readily
the best and most that can be given? I should say that perhaps a
month might have to be spent in making the division by actual testing
of the students in class together. With this secured, two curricula
might be offered, one prepared for the needs of each class with
appropriate methods of teaching, and offering varied proportions of
the same subjects. And here I revert to the teaching of reference
work. For the higher grade it would be more inclusive, more difficult,
dealing more with books in foreign languages, with books on unusual
and recondite subjects, such as would be found in large reference or
college libraries, while the lower grade might be adapted to the more
elementary work to be done in small libraries or in branches.
The "moral" of this plan lies largely in the application of it. If
the large reference or college library could be deflected from its
main object, the securing of a competent reference assistant, by a
sunny smile on the part of a lower grade student, the school's work in
preparing the better student would go for naught so far as that library
was concerned, and if this happened several times it would result in
a confusion of values in the minds of the students. A + a sunny smile
- a knowledge of the books would seem to be more than equal to B + a
thorough reference equipment - a sunny smile. We may paraphrase here
a well-known saying by asserting that, taking all things together, a
librarian who can make his own choice of assistants gets the assistants
he deserves, with the further assertion that the word personality,
as often used now, does not get its full meaning; we forget that it
consists not only of what one looks like and sounds like and apparently
feels like but of all that one has made one's own out of the realm of
knowledge, and all that one has assimilated and made profitable from
one's experience.
The charge that the one year's general course is too full would
probably become less true if or when grading was adopted. Only those
subjects would need be given to a grade and those amounts of a subject
which the students were capable of profiting by and the time saved
could be used in more effective ways.
There is a very general desire to study administration among both older
and younger students. So far as this means covering the whole routine
of a library, with lectures on library relationships, management, etc.,
a course can easily be given; the difficulty arises when students
wish to go out as administrators on the strength of such preparation
alone; and when library boards send to the schools for students to
fill administrative positions and expect the training to ensure
administrative ability which, under the circumstances, can not be
guaranteed. No matter how friendly may be the attitude of the library
connected with a school, it is hardly willing to turn over any of its
administrative work to students, nor could it be expected to do so.
The ideal thing, of course, would be for the school itself to own a
small library as a laboratory in which students could be tested for
administrative ability under supervision. But this, too, would take
money. When one sees the splendid endowment of a School of Journalism,
a School of Technology, etc., one cannot help hoping that some day a
School of Librarianship may be endowed which may employ the best of
teachers and plenty of them, have its own ample collections, adapted to
its needs, and establish its own library as a laboratory in which it
may try experiments.
I have not yet touched upon the kind of specialization of which we have
heard most in late years--the kind to fit students to be librarians of
special libraries. I do not believe that the most energetic critic of
the library schools would require them to teach engineering, commercial
methods, law and medicine. A demand there certainly is from business
houses and manufactories for librarians, but that is not enough for
the schools. There must be a corresponding demand from persons wishing
to be trained for such places. This, so far as I can learn, has not
made itself felt. When applicants begin to come to the schools saying,
"I intend to go into an applied science library" (or "an insurance
library") "and I want to be trained for that work and that only," then
the schools will have to provide such training or declare definitely
that that is not a part of their field. Until such a demand arises from
would-be students, it would be foolish for a school which has plenty of
demand for general training and certain well-defined extensions of it
to go outside this province.
A committee of the Special Libraries Association, I learn, is
investigating the matter of preparation for special library positions,
and it is to be hoped that there may be a very thorough inquiry, and
that the committee will state definitely just what the association
wants and what it believes to be proper training for such positions.
Then the existing schools can decide whether or not they can give such
preparation.
Meantime, a suggestion that institutes of technology might take up this
special technical work and commercial schools the business library
courses, etc., may be worth considering.
It has been suggested that the schools specialize among themselves,
and to some extent that has come about naturally; for the school with
especially good resources and unusual facilities for teaching a given
subject, such as legislative reference or work with children, if it
makes known its advantages, is very likely to attract the student who
wishes to follow that line of work. Other reasons, however, often weigh
more heavily--the location of a school, the personnel of the faculty,
a smaller tuition fee, the general reputation and advancement of its
graduates, etc.; so that any school may be called upon to give some
special work of which perhaps it is not the best exponent. It cannot
send the student elsewhere willy-nilly, and it does its best to give
him what is wanted. As schools increase in number, a classification of
them according to curricula is likely to follow, and this difficulty
may be lessened. Even so, there is always the danger to be guarded
against that students trained along one line may, through force of
circumstances, take positions requiring a kind of training which they
have not had. It would be impossible for a mining engineer to do the
work of a mechanical engineer and vice versa, but in the work of an
average library the cataloger and reference assistant and children's
librarian must often change places, and any one of them, rather than be
without a position, would as a rule try to do the work of the others.
If all have had general training, this would not matter so much, but
without that there would be considerable loss of efficiency.
In bringing this heterogeneous paper to an end--a paper which claims to
be nothing more than a sort of thinking aloud on some of the problems
confronting the schools, I wish to state some conclusions that I feel
myself coming to: 1. That we need more good schools. 2. That they
need to send out a larger number of trained people. 3. That we need
longer, more thorough, and more systematic courses. 4. That with the
larger schools some effort at grading is desirable. 5. That the schools
would do well to get together and make a comparative study of their
curricula, and their resources and facilities for special subjects,
and map out tentatively a division of the field. This, while not
binding upon any school, might serve for guidance, but no school should
monopolize any one subject unless it is the only school having proper
facilities for giving it.
Miss CORINNE BACON read a paper entitled
CO-OPERATION OF LIBRARIES WITH LIBRARY SCHOOLS
Before beginning to talk of the ways in which libraries might
co-operate to better advantage with library schools, it is but fair to
acknowledge gratefully that many libraries are already co-operating
with us in a way that often must tax severely their time and patience.
In behalf of the Drexel Institute library school, I thank most heartily
those libraries that, regardless of the inconvenience to themselves,
allow our students to go to them for the practice work that is so
valuable to half-fledged librarians. And in voicing the gratitude of
Drexel, I feel that I am giving utterance to the feelings of every
other school that sends out its students in the same way.
We can give our students but two weeks practice work outside of
Philadelphia, because our school year is so short. Perhaps it would be
well to lengthen the year by two weeks, in order that the term of work
might be lengthened.
There are three things that it seems to me the schools may properly ask
of the libraries: advance practice work; direct criticism; a living
wage for assistants.
(1) Advance practice work--I mean by this work done in libraries prior
to any study of library science. As a rule, the student with a little
practical experience gets far more from a library course than one not
so equipped. Directors of schools often advise work in advance, but,
as far as I know, few schools require it. Pratt Institute begins with
practical work in the Pratt library. The difficulties in the way of
requiring this work are many. It would bear heavily upon the libraries;
it would be an added expense to students living at a distance from good
libraries; it would not necessarily prove the applicant's fitness or
unfitness for library work, as she might fail at the kind of work she
was set to do, and yet be capable of success on some other line.
Yet, on the whole, this would be a better test of fitness than all
the questions we directors hurl at kindly and well-meaning friends or
former instructors of our would-be students. Don't we ask too many
questions as to personality from those whose answers often carry little
weight? Why should we not accept all who measure up to a certain
physical and mental standard, without troubling our heads so much as to
whether they are ideally fit for library work? It would bring us more
in line with the professional schools. Moreover, there are almost as
many kinds of library work as there are of people!
The chance to work in a real library before beginning the course of
study would often clarify the student's ideas about library work, even
more than it would clarify the director's ideas about the would-be
student. We would have, perhaps, fewer applicants who are not very
strong but who "=love= books."
Sometimes I have wondered whether it would not be well to abandon
entrance examinations and require instead a health certificate from
a physician, a certificate that six months' satisfactory work had
been done in his library from a librarian, and a statement that the
applicant had read the English Bible through at least three times (this
last for its influence on English prose style!).
(2) Direct criticism.
"Indirect criticism" was perhaps the toughest thing in the advanced
cataloging course in my honored Alma Mater, and indirect criticism is
one of the most trying things that we teachers of library science have
to undergo. Librarians can help us by giving us their criticism of our
methods and of our students at first-hand.
We have had more or less direct criticism--we would like more.
We have been told (a) That our graduates are not so valuable to certain
libraries as their own apprentices. Of course they are not, at first,
but they should be more valuable later. (b) That they are wedded
to library school methods. I believe there is less justice in this
criticism than there was some years ago. (c) That our schools are not
"laid out and conducted in accordance with recommendations from experts
in pedagogy." We plead guilty. (d) That the schools "almost inevitably
tend to exalt technique and routine." I do not think that we mean to
do this. We know that culture and gumption are more important than
any amount of knowledge of technique and routine, but we expect our
students to finish their cultural studies (so far as such studies =can=
be finished) before coming to us, and we can not teach gumption. It is
heaven-born. We exist largely for the purpose of teaching technique
and routine but never for one moment do we mean to exalt them over the
weightier matters of the law.
I have gone a little out of the way to answer these few direct
criticisms. Some of us have profited by them. Give us more.
We would like direct rather than indirect criticism of our graduates.
Unfavorable comments on training in general, or on the training of
a particular school, do not take the place of direct criticism of
individuals. Librarians would be doing a kindness by writing to the
school from which they had a trained assistant who was lacking in ways
that reflected on her training and stating plainly what the defects
were, so that the school might profit by the knowledge.
Then, too, librarians would often save themselves trouble by
co-operating with the schools to the extent of writing for the record
of a graduate whom they think of engaging. Many do this, but not all.
A librarian or trustee may select an assistant at a conference on
account of her good looks and pleasant manners, and when he finds out
(it is usually a "he" who makes this error of judgment) that she is not
all his fancy painted her, he blames the school that trained her. The
school could have told him perhaps, if asked, wherein she was lacking.
(3) A living wage. This is the most important of the three points in
which we wish for co-operation. It is getting to be a serious question
as to whether women of ability can afford to go into library work. We
do not expect luxuries, but to do good work we must keep fit. We need
rooms that admit plenty of fresh air and we need nourishing food. We
are obliged to dress fairly well. We ought to go to library meetings,
and trustees do not usually pay the way of the assistants with the
smaller salaries. Recreation is a necessity if we are to keep sane. But
how can we afford to travel, or even to see a play or to buy a book, on
the salaries many of us get?
I was asked a few weeks ago to supply a college library with a
cataloger who must be a library school graduate knowing French and
German and the salary offered was $40 a month. If a woman ate poor
food, she might be able to save enough out of $40 to pay for her
washing--only she couldn't afford to buy any clothes to be washed. She
could never see a play, hear an orchestra, or buy a book.
A good cook, on the other hand, would have no difficulty in getting
$30 or $35 a month =and maintenance=, which would be equivalent to a
salary of at least $50 or $55 a month. Moreover, the cook would not
be expected to dress as well as the cataloger (though, as a matter of
fact, her Sunday clothes would probably be more costly) or to attend
conventions.
The case I have mentioned is by no means an isolated one. A
good-looking girl with pleasant manners, who could understand French,
German, Spanish and Italian over the telephone, was asked for by a
large city library that proposed to pay about $45 a month. Another
college library recently wanted a college and library school graduate
with experience and various other qualifications for $720 a year. Now
if an =experienced= woman with such an education can't get more than
$720 a year in library work, the sooner she leaves it for something
else the better. A special library belonging to a leading institution
in a large city was looking for a woman to reclassify and catalog its
collection, but seemed unwilling to pay even $50 a month.
This is not intended as a diatribe against the librarian employer. The
trustees and the taxpayers need education along the line of library
salaries. Libraries need larger appropriations for salaries. We have
passed through a period where method was exalted, we seem to be passing
through a period where a fine building is the prime necessity. But
after all, a library means primarily plenty of books that are worth
while and assistants that know enough to get them into the hands of the
right people. And we can not cultivate efficient assistants on less
than a living wage.
Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean to imply that a green library
school graduate should leap at once into a high-salaried position.
Yet the comparison sometimes made with the doctor or lawyer, who
are so long in gaining a foot-hold, seems to me unfair. Lawyers and
doctors who are good for much, make big money after a while. It is the
exceptional librarian who ever gets a large salary. Therefore it is not
fair to expect her to spend so many years earning little or nothing as
does the doctor or lawyer.
I have spoken particularly of salaries for women. Salaries for men
in library work are usually too low, but I have dwelt on the women's
salaries because women are discriminated against, not alone in
libraries, but in most kinds of work done by women.
The working-woman of today asks no favor because she is a woman. She
does ask equal pay with men for equally good work.
I do not mean to over-emphasize the money side of library work, even
though I think the "missionary" side of it has been over-emphasized.
Why is a shelf-lister any more of a missionary than a bookkeeper in
John Wanamaker's store? Why is any librarian any more of a missionary
than the editor of a great daily, or than a busy surgeon, or many other
folks that might be mentioned? We librarians serve those who know more
than we, who are better than we--we are "just folks" like all the rest,
equally worthy, if we give good measure in our work, of a living wage.
We of the schools ask of the libraries we try to serve that they send
us criticisms of our graduates, that they try them out, and that they
pay them, if found efficient, that living wage without which the best
work is impossible.
Discussion of both papers followed, after which was read the
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON METHODS OF PUBLICITY FOR LIBRARY SCHOOLS
The Committee on Methods of Publicity respectfully reports to the
Professional Training Section as follows:
At the time of the mid-winter meeting at Chicago the members of this
Committee met and after consultation with the Secretary of the A. L. A.
determined upon a procedure which was carried out as follows:
It was deemed wise to make an effort to reach the students in the
colleges and universities through the publication of an article in
each of the periodicals published in the various colleges. One form of
letter was framed for co-educational institutions, one form for use at
men's colleges and one form for use at women's colleges. These were
mimeographed and Mr. Utley, who had already prepared a list of college
publications, mailed the letter to over 180 publications.
The letter was in no sense an advertisement of library schools; it was
rather an attempt to set forth facts relative to the opportunities
within the library profession. It called attention to the existence of
the various library schools and referred the interested student to the
college librarian or to the Secretary of the A. L. A.
Although the Committee flattered itself it had produced a helpful
and interesting letter, it cannot learn that it was reprinted to any
considerable extent nor that it resulted in interesting many students
in the profession.
The Committee is informed that in many, if not in most, of the
educational institutions of the country there are groups of persons
interested in vocational training. It is therefore recommended that
this publicity work be continued, but that the approach for the
publication of the article and for the local use of it be made through
the persons or groups in each institution which are particularly
interested in vocational training. In most cases these persons have an
established channel of publicity and can reach the students and the
publications better than they can be reached through the direct attack
heretofore employed.
Respectfully submitted,
CARL H. MILAM,
M. S. DUDGEON,
JOSEPHINE A. RATHBONE,
Committee on Methods of Publicity.
June 25, 1913.
The following "Account of the work of the library school round table
for 1912 and 1913," by Mr. P. L. WINDSOR, was read by Miss Frances
Simpson.
ACCOUNT OF THE WINTER MEETINGS OF LIBRARY SCHOOL INSTRUCTORS
In January, 1911, 1912 and 1913, there were held in Chicago, meetings
of library school directors and instructors for the discussion of
topics connected with library school work. While at first thought it
might seem that such discussions should form a part of the programs of
this, the Professional Training Section, nevertheless, the meetings
have evidently justified themselves and are likely to continue.
Members of the faculties of only the generally recognized library
schools have attended these meetings; that is, the plans of the
meetings do not contemplate the attendance of instructors in summer
library schools or instructors in training classes conducted by public
libraries. This limitation on the number of people taking part in these
meetings was desired, first, because we who arranged the meetings
wished to discuss problems belonging primarily to our own special
work and not to attempt the larger field which properly belongs to
the Professional Training Section; and second, because we wished the
meetings to be sufficiently small in numbers and the participants to
be sufficiently specialized in interest to insure informal and frank
discussion.
Minutes of these meetings of library school faculties have included
copies of reports presented and in some cases have included abstracts
of discussions. Copies have been sent to each school.
Some of the topics discussed would be of no general interest to even
the Professional Training Section, as they pertain so closely to school
work. Others are of such a nature that we ourselves would not, with any
freedom, discuss them before as large a meeting as a section meeting.
Our frank, informal discussions have been characteristic.
Among the questions proposed for discussion and sent to the various
faculties in advance of the meeting, are such as these:
1. Is it desirable, and if desirable, is it practicable to make the
work of the first year of the two-year schools and the work of the
one-year schools more nearly alike? Many junior students in a two-year
school enter library work without taking the senior year's work; if the
courses in one-year schools are better preparation for library work
than the first year's work of the two-year schools, then these juniors
are at a disadvantage as compared with students from a one-year school.
Some students in the one-year schools may wish to go to a two-year
school and take a second year of training; as the courses are at
present arranged, this second year's work is almost impossible, because
it does not fit on to the work that the student has had.
2. Do we use the most approved pedagogical methods in our class room
work? Do we lecture too much, and give too few quizzes, conferences
and reviews? Do we depend too much on the student's taking full notes,
when the proper use of printed outlines, or carefully selected required
readings supplemented by a few notes would yield better results? Shall
the course in cataloging be put at the beginning of the course, or
later? How much do we use the stereopticon?
3. Would it be practicable for several schools to secure a lecturer
on some special subject in library economy who should give the
regular work in that subject in each of these schools? An example of
a beginning in this direction is Edna Lyman Scott's work in several
schools.
4. Would it be possible for the several schools to combine in securing
a lecturer each year to give a short series of lectures on some one
subject, these lectures to be seriously worked up, and to be published
after being delivered? The final publication of the lectures, and the
combined remuneration from several schools, might be a sufficient
incentive to capable persons to do their best work.
5. Are the subjects now in our curricula properly balanced? Is too much
time given to learning cataloging and other routine, and consequently
too little to a consideration of methods of extending the use of the
library by the public?
6. Is it as easy to secure transfer of credit from one school to
another as it should be?
Information on the following subjects connected with library school
work has been collected, reported on and discussed in our meetings.
1. The cost of library schools and a rough analysis of their
expenditures.
2. Specialization among library schools.
3. Book selection as a course in library schools.
4. The method of revising students' work.
5. Efficiency of administration in library schools.
6. Non-essentials in our library school courses.
7. Certain pedagogical problems connected with our library school
instruction.
The following officers were elected for the coming year: Chairman,
Corinne Bacon; Secretary, Julia A. Hopkins; Program committee, Mary W.
Plummer, Alice S. Tyler, Frank K. Walter.
PUBLIC DOCUMENTS ROUND TABLE
The government documents round table was called together at 8:15 p.
m., June 26th, by George S. Godard, state librarian of Connecticut,
chairman of the committee on public documents. Mr. F. W. Schenk, law
librarian of the University of Chicago, was asked to serve as secretary.
The chairman, after brief introductory remarks relating to the progress
which had been made in the matter of printing, binding, labeling and
distributing public documents, both national and state, introduced
Miss Mary A. Hartwell, assistant chief cataloger in the office of the
superintendent of documents, Washington, who read a paper prepared by
Superintendent of Documents Frank C. Wallace, stating his position upon
the many questions and resolutions suggested at previous conferences
of the American Library Association relative to the distribution,
indexing, assignment of volume numbers, and publication of daily
bulletins by the document office.
Mr. Wallace's paper follows:
PAPER BY THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS
I regret the necessity of being compelled to adopt this means of
addressing your Association, as I feel a better understanding could be
had of what we are trying to do for the libraries if it were possible
for this office to be represented at your conference. I have read with
much interest the proceedings of your last conference, and a part of
my paper will endeavor to explain some of the questions which were
discussed and made the subject of resolutions.
=Distribution of Bills and Other Publications Now Withheld From
Distribution to the Libraries.=
There is no doubt but that some libraries, even under the present
liberal distribution of government publications, fail to receive
everything they should, and I am thoroughly in accord with the opinion
expressed during your discussion that means should be provided to
enable the libraries to receive those publications of a public
character that are now withheld from distribution. It is gratifying to
note that in Senator Smoot's printing bill, which has been reintroduced
in the present Congress, there are provisions intended to supply
remedies for certain existing conditions.
Section 65, paragraph 1, to which I refer, provides that a sufficient
number of copies of those publications of Congress which do not bear a
congressional number, including the committee publications now withheld
from distribution to depositories and those printed elsewhere than at
the government printing office, shall be supplied to the libraries. It
is also worded so as to prevent the departments from withholding some
of their publications from the depositories.
The printing committee no doubt had in mind when this provision was
framed that, under the provisions of the existing law, too much
discretion is given the departments, with the result that, contrary to
the spirit of the printing law, libraries are being deprived of certain
classes of publications that are really of a public character.
The question as to the best method to be employed in the distribution
of bills is not so easy of solution. It would not be practicable for
this office to attempt to carry even a limited supply, as the work
involved in storing them in an accessible manner would involve an
expenditure that I do not believe could be justified by the results.
During the 62d Congress there were introduced 28,870 House bills and
8,589 Senate bills, and you can readily see that to handle an adequate
stock of all those bills would be considerable of an undertaking. At
the present time the only distributing agencies for copies of bills
are the House and Senate document rooms at the capitol, but, although
they sometimes furnish bills on request, the copies they receive are
not intended for general public distribution. It seems to me that the
solution supplied in your suggestion, that the text of all public
bills upon which committee reports are made should be printed with the
reports, is the most logical one that has ever been presented, but
it would not be practicable to include also the testimony taken at
hearings held by the committees, for in many cases the testimony would
fill several large volumes. Besides, section 65, already referred to,
provides that the libraries shall receive such hearings. Of course this
section is not yet law, but we are permitted to hope that it may become
so.
This is desirable from more than one point of view. It is often the
case that committee reports refer to sections of the bill under
consideration by number without quoting the language. In such cases the
report may be unintelligible to any reader who has not a copy of the
bill before him. In fact, nearly all committee reports not accompanied
by the bills to which they relate may properly be classed as incomplete
and imperfect publications.
The question of cost involved in printing the text of bills as
appendixes to the committee reports upon them is not serious. While the
number of bills introduced in Congress and receiving a first print is
prodigious, and the cost of printing them in 14-point type with as many
white lines as type lines is tremendous, it must be remembered that
only a very small percentage of the bills introduced ever get so far
as a committee report, and of these a considerable number are already
printed with the reports by order of the committees, and the cost of
printing the remainder in solid 8-point is so very much less than the
cost of printing them in the extended bill form that it is almost
negligible.
I do not think it is too late for the Association to submit to the
joint committee on printing an amendment providing for the printing
of the text of bills and resolutions as appendixes to the committee
reports upon them. The pending bill may not pass, or may be extensively
amended before passage, or may not be acted upon at the present special
session, but I consider it probable that a general printing law of
some kind will be enacted at a comparatively early day, and that
the American Library Association may, by proper effort, secure the
incorporation in it of the desired provision for the printing of the
text of bills with the committee reports.
=Reasons Why Catalogs and Indexes Cannot Be Issued More Promptly=
The need for the prompt issue of the catalogs is thoroughly
appreciated, as we understand they are the only means of information
the general public have for knowing what the United States government
is publishing.
The Monthly Catalog is required to show what documents have been
published during a month. Evidently, therefore, its compilation cannot
be completed until after the close of the month. The compilation,
however, is always completed within three or four days after the month
closes. Sometimes the printing does not follow as quickly as one would
like. This may seem strange to libraries, to whom the Monthly Catalog
is perhaps the most important of all the public documents. If, however,
they were in Washington they would soon realize that there are several
other government concerns, some of them larger and more exacting than
the public documents office. There is one known as the Congress of the
United States, which calls for thousands of pages of printing where
the documents office calls for one, and which, when it calls for the
right of way in the government printing office (or anywhere else), is
able to get it. The printing of the document office receives every
consideration in the government printing office which it is possible to
give, but it cannot command the right of way over Congress, the White
House, or the cabinet.
It has been a long time since the Monthly Catalog has failed to be
mailed during the month following its date, often by the middle of the
month. It is to be noted, also, that its information is quite different
from that of "press notices." It enters only documents that have been
actually received, and its descriptions are minute and accurate. In
its preliminary pages it gives such advance information of forthcoming
documents as can be officially secured and vouched for. There is a
habit in some government offices of giving the newspaper reporters
information of proposed publications before the copy is ready for the
printer, and sometimes before pen has been put to paper. Plans thus
prematurely announced are subject to change and the advance notice may
thus mislead the reader. Readers of the Monthly Catalog are not thus
misled.
The superintendent of documents is confident that those librarians who
keep well informed recognize his purpose to do everything for the great
library interests of the country that the limitations of the law and
the executive pressure upon his and other administrative offices for
economy make possible.
The main cause for delay in the preparation of the copy for the
document catalogs and indexes is that publications are ordered printed
as documents that do not materialize until long after the close of the
Congress to which they have been assigned, thus making it necessary
to delay publication of the catalog and indexes until sufficient
information can be obtained for making the entry.
It is hardly necessary to explain why the document catalog is being
issued in one volume to cover the entire Congress instead of at the
close of each regular session, as provided by law, because a very
complete and detailed explanation has been given in several of the
annual reports. It is evident our explanation has been considered
satisfactory by the printing committee, as the new printing bill
provides for the document catalog to cover a whole Congress.
I will also refrain from a long discourse as to why the work on the
catalogs has been behind, as I know the librarians are only interested
as to the promptness in the printing of these bibliographical aids in
the future. The copy for the 61st Congress catalog will be ready for
the printer sometime during the coming summer and that for the 62d
Congress before the adjournment of the 63d Congress, which will be as
near as it will be possible to issue this catalog after the period
covered.
This leaves it to the Monthly Catalog and the Document Index to bridge
the gap and supply the current information from one Document Catalog to
another, which, although not as complete and as comprehensive as the
Document Catalog, serve as excellent substitutes during the interim.
=Assignment of Volume Numbers to the Congressional Series=
There is probably no question concerning public documents to which
this office has given more consideration than the devising of a plan
by which it would be possible to assign the volume numbers to the
congressional series as soon as the documents are printed.
There are two very material advantages to be gained, were it possible
to solve this question; one that of eliminating the necessity for the
public printer to supply storage room for these documents and reports
prior to the preparation of the schedule; and the other that the work
of the librarians in cataloging these documents and reports would be
greatly facilitated by having all of the necessary information at the
time the publication was cataloged. The greatest handicap to a solution
of this problem is the lack of information concerning the publications
which have not been printed and to which document numbers have been
assigned. Even now, after the session is closed, we are compelled to
hold up the schedule for weeks and sometimes months to learn the title,
paging, and other necessary information regarding certain publications
to which numbers have been assigned, but which are not printed.
At the present time in preparing the schedule, we endeavor to maintain
a numerical arrangement in binding the Senate and House Reports after
having classified them as public or private in accordance with the
provisions of the printing law. The Senate documents are brought
together first by subject and then by number, but, with the House
documents, on account of the introduction in this series of all the
annual and serial publications, an effort is made to preserve, as far
as possible, a departmental and subject arrangement.
It might be well to explain at this point that, although the only
volumes distributed to the libraries now as numbered congressional
publications are those of which Congress is the author, and of these
there are consequently no other editions, the schedules and index must
of necessity, on account of the wording of the law at the present
time, be made to cover a complete numbered set still provided for the
exclusive use of Congress.
There is about only one way to accomplish the numbering of the volumes
as soon as printed under the present law, and that is by disregarding
entirely any sort of an arrangement and assigning the next open volume
number as the documents and reports appear. Of course, the index would
furnish the key to these miscellaneous volumes. Such a plan is now
being considered by us, and it is hoped that before July 1 some plan
can be devised which will permit of a more prompt shipment of the
documents and reports to the libraries.
=Publication of a Daily Bulletin=
The resolution of the Association passed at Pasadena, May, 1911,
favoring the publication of a daily or weekly bulletin of the document
issues by the superintendent of documents, has not been forgotten or
overlooked, but up to the present time the project appears no more
feasible than it did at the beginning.
The documents office has not the authority of initiative except to a
very limited extent. Its activities are all prescribed and defined by
law. It is from the law that the superintendent of documents derives
his authority to compile and publish the Monthly Catalog, the Document
Index, the Document Catalog, and the series of price lists. It would
hardly be proper or prudent for him to begin the issue of another
periodical without first asking the permissive or directory action of
Congress. Asking does not always mean getting. Legislation concerning
the document service has been found heretofore somewhat slow and
difficult in the securing. I do not feel that I could predict with any
confidence that legislation authorizing a daily or weekly bulletin
could be secured at all.
If it could, an appropriation to make it operative would be needed,
because it is not practicable for the members of the present cataloging
force to undertake any new work. They are working under high pressure
to bring the Document Catalog up to date and to keep the Document Index
and the Monthly Catalog there.
The embarrassment caused librarians by calls for documents which have
been noticed in the newspapers but not yet announced in the Monthly
Catalog is not so much due to delay of the Monthly Catalog as to
premature announcement in the newspapers. It is the practice of various
government bureaus to pass along to the newspaper men information of
new publications as soon as they are sent to press or even sooner. Of
course readers of the newspapers assume that the documents noticed
are already available for sale or distribution, whereas the fact is
that various causes may tie up the documents in press for months or
even years. The most prolific cause of such delays is changes--changes
in "copy," changes in "proof," changes even to the substitution of
entirely new matter after a first draft has been put in type. The
number and extent of such changes in printing the public documents
are almost unbelievable, and they are of course highly embarrassing
to the libraries and to the public when premature announcement of the
forthcoming issue of the delayed document has been made.
If the publishing bureaus could be induced to withhold information of
new documents until such documents had been actually printed, bound,
and delivered, the embarrassment experienced by librarians would be
obviated. It is hardly practicable, however, for the superintendent
of documents to make any suggestion in the matter to the publishing
offices. Some of them at least would be likely to resent such a
suggestion from him as being meddlesome and out of his sphere. As to
whether such suggestion from the American Library Association would be
welcomed or heeded, I do not venture to express an opinion.
Premature announcements are not always accurate. The announced
publications are often changed in the making, and sometimes are not
published at all.
Of course, the Monthly Catalog, being an official document and an
accurate one, cannot take any chances on premature announcements.
All of its entries stand for documents actually received, carefully
examined, and their origin fully inquired into. This is not work to
be hastily done. Sometimes a surprising amount of time and trouble
are expended in finding out whether a document belongs in some
series, whether it is the beginning or ending of that series; if the
latter, then whether the same subject or subjects are to be pursued
in some other series, and the variety of similar details which
libraries and collectors should have, and for which they look to the
documents office, because in too many cases such particulars cannot be
ascertained by examination of the document itself.
A month is the shortest time in which such matters can be sifted out
and brought into orderly catalog form. Lists issued at any shorter
intervals must necessarily be memoranda rather than catalogs, and the
work done on them must be performed again in a more orderly manner for
the official monthly, annual, and biennial catalogs.
=Explanation of Section 8 of the Legislative Appropriation Act
Centralizing the Distribution in the Office of the Superintendent of
Documents=
The long cherished hope for a central distributing office has been
realized nominally, but the provisions of law creating it, I am
sorry to say, correct only the evils that existed from a mechanical
standpoint, in that they prevent the double hauling and wrapping that
were necessary prior to the change. There remain as many distributing
agencies as before, as the authority to distribute the publications
consigned to this office continues with the issuing office. The
libraries have been afforded no relief, because now, as before, if a
dozen selected pamphlets are wanted, it may mean the writing to about
as many different places. This is a rather difficult proceeding, as
most persons are unfamiliar with the machinery of the government
and are frequently in doubt whom to address to secure the desired
publications. The departments have always been rather reluctant to
relinquish control of the distribution of their documents, and the new
printing bill, should it be enacted as it now reads, would give back to
them even the mailing of the daily miscellaneous requests.
Instead of providing for such a step backward, it is the opinion
of this office that a provision should be inserted that would
discontinue entirely the free distribution by the departments (except
to collaborators and sufficient copies for official use), and would
permit the superintendent of documents to supply free copies to public
libraries and sell copies to the public at a nominal cost.
At the present time the departments have only a limited supply, which
results in a few applicants obtaining free what others have to pay for.
There is probably not a librarian who hasn't experienced the
inconvenience of the present arrangement, as it is a daily occurrence
for us to have to refer their requests to the issuing office or quote
the prices.
=Need for Co-Operation on the Part of the Librarians to Improve the
Publication and Distribution Methods of Government Publications=
The most striking example of the need for co-operation is that we are
today fighting for certain reforms in the methods of publication that
were asked for sixteen years ago.
The first superintendent of documents had hardly entered upon the
duties of the office before he recognized the faulty methods of
publication and distribution which he well knew served only to prevent
the public document from occupying the position its general standard of
efficiency warranted.
It is hard to understand why the untiring efforts of those interested
in promoting the use of the public document have been practically
ignored when you stop to think of the annual cost in compilation,
printing, and distribution.
We all know that every conceivable subject is treated in the public
documents, and when we think of their value to the historian, student,
and public in general, it is hard to understand why any obstacles
should be put in the way of making them readily accessible and
encouraging the librarians to give them the proper place on their
shelves.
Now, as to the faulty methods which obtain in the publication of the
public documents, very little has been accomplished in the way of
reform. That the present methods cause needless expense in mechanical
production and needless difficulties in their use, there is no
question. Chief of these faulty methods is that of reprinting the same
book several times under different numbers and titles. I do not mention
this as a new discovery, because every superintendent of documents has
endeavored to have the law changed to eliminate from the congressional
series those publications of which a departmental edition is printed.
One edition for one book is the only logical manner of issuing
government publications, and the Smoot bill which has again been
introduced goes a long way towards correcting the present evil.
Section 45 provides that all publications of which there is a
department edition printed, except the annual reports of the executive
departments, shall not be numbered in the congressional series, and
section 65 provides that all copies additional to the original order of
the department should be identical with those ordered by the department.
We are seriously opposed to the exception of the annual reports, and
with the hopes of eliminating any exceptions we have just written the
Senate committee on printing as follows:
"No reason is known to this office why the annual reports of
the executive departments and independent offices should be
excepted from the operation of the salutary provision that
departmental publications shall not be printed a second time
with changes to indicate (erroneously) that they are documents
emanating from Congress.
"The reasons which have induced the prohibition of second and
varying prints of department publications generally, apply with
at least equal force to the annual reports, which are the most
distinctively and obviously departmental of all departmental
issues. They are so distinctive that it is safe to say they are
always known and called for by their departmental designations,
never by their congressional numbers. Everybody knows at once
what is meant by War Department Report, 1912, but nobody knows
offhand what is meant by House Document 929, 62d Congress, 3d
session. There is nothing whatever to indicate that these two
designations mean the same publication, which is really not
a House document at all, but a publication of the executive
and not of the legislative branch of the government. And, of
course, the same is true of the annual reports of all the
executive officials.
"The addition of congressional document numbers to executive
reports adds nothing to their value or to their accessibility.
The second set of designations is merely confusing and
troublesome. To spend money on such a second print is to spend
it only to buy harm instead of good.
"The numerous and conclusive considerations which have been
sufficient to place in the bill the prohibition of the second
and superfluous editions of other departmental publications
apply with at least equal if not even greater force to annual
reports, and to except them from the general prohibition seems
therefore illogical and contradictory and a long step toward
defeating the proposed reform and the economies which it is
intended to promote.
"If it is not desirable to protect the annual reports from
the waste and confusion of double editions, then it is hard
to see why any publications should be so protected. The
annual reports, so numerous, so important, so certain to be
continuously issued for all time to come, are 'the very head
and front of the offending' in the double printing abuse, and
with them the reform should begin.
"To except the annual reports seems to amount to discrediting
if not to virtually abandoning the whole reform--the most vital
of all reforms in connection with the public printing, that of
permitting but one edition for each publication, by which it
may always be known and identified and kept free from confusion
with others."
There is no question that the librarians are in sympathy with what we
are trying to do, so now is the time to join forces and make every
effort to have this bill embody the necessary provisions to correct all
existing evils.
The librarians must give the movement impetus, and we believe if
sufficient organized effort is directed in the proper channels good
results will be bound to follow.
Mr. Wallace's paper was received with enthusiasm because it showed
his close and intimate knowledge of matters pertaining to the
publication and distribution of documents. A spirited discussion
followed the reading of the paper, all through which expressions of
appreciation were made concerning the service which had been rendered
by the document office in recent years towards prompt and efficient
distribution of publications delivered to that office.
Miss Hartwell, informally representing the superintendent of documents,
answered many questions relative to the serial numbers on government
documents and urged if consistent with the policy of the American
Library Association that action be taken suggesting to Congress that
annual reports now listed in the congressional set of documents be
omitted inasmuch as they are not now in the depository set and such
omission would facilitate the publication of the Documentary Index.
The discussion also brought out the consensus of opinion that the
libraries would be more satisfactorily served if all publications were
sent out under the direction of the superintendent of documents.
Henry J. Carr, librarian of the Scranton public library; Miss Edith E.
Clarke of Syracuse University, and Herbert O. Brigham, state librarian
of Rhode Island, were appointed a special committee to prepare a
suitable resolution of thanks to Mr. Wallace for his excellent paper
and to draft suitable resolutions to be submitted to the Council for
its approval, urging that the recommendations in Mr. Wallace's paper
relative to publication and distribution of documents be approved
by the American Library Association, this committee to report at an
adjourned meeting of the session to be held at 12:15 p. m. on Friday.
The second paper of the evening, prepared by Mr. FRANCIS A. CRANDALL of
Washington, D. C., on certain phases of the public document question,
in his absence was read by Charles F. D. Belden, state librarian of
Massachusetts.
Mr. Crandall's paper (in part) here follows:
PROPOSING AN EXECUTIVE GAZETTE
The committee on department methods, known to the public as the Keep
commission, was the agency through which, about seven years ago,
President Roosevelt hoped to reorganize and energize the government
service in Washington.
The Keep commission organized for helpers twelve so-called assistant
committees, their total membership being about seventy, all supposed to
be experts in the several branches of inquiry assigned to them.
On one of these assistant committees, the one on "The organization of
editorial work and an official gazette," the writer had the honor to
serve.
We held more than one hundred meetings, and examined as witnesses
almost if not quite every man and woman who had any official relation
with the work of preparing manuscripts for printing. We learned after
a while that the President wanted an official gazette, and expected
us to devise the means of creating it. I think that nearly all the
members from the start deemed the scheme impracticable and chimerical.
It became clear that it would be a costly enterprise, and we could not
find any department that had the money for it.
Soon after this Mr. Keep left Washington, and the Keep commission,
though nominally still living, dwindled rapidly, and brought forth
little if any more fruit.
The members of the assistant committees were left stranded, with
desks full of unprinted manuscripts as the only results of their
prolonged labors. From one of these desks I have withdrawn the report
of a subcommittee of the assistant committee on the organization
of editorial work and an official gazette. Though it was written
half a dozen years ago, it seems that an element of interest yet
remains in its proposal for the publication, as an alternative to the
impracticable official gazette, of an executive gazette. This proposal
has not had any exploitation whatever.
In the hope that it may in this way be brought to the general notice
of persons interested in the methods of publication and preservation
of the historical records of the government it is now offered for the
consideration of the American Library Association.
The London Gazette, which is the model most generally thought of when
the term official gazette is used, was begun in 1665, and may be looked
upon as a survival of the pre-newspaper age, for though there were
newspapers before the Gazette, they bore little resemblance to what
we now know by that name, and the daily press--the significant part
of the press of our day--was not born till a generation later. We may
assume that when the Gazette was begun its semi-weekly issues were
sufficient to carry all the official information that the government of
that day wished to offer to its subjects. But this long since ceased to
be true. The English government now has a host of publications which
do not appear in either of the three Gazettes--London, Edinburgh,
and Dublin--of the United Kingdom, nor in any of the multitude of
gazettes which are issued in the various British dependencies, from
Canada and Australia to Borneo and the Andaman Islands. The country
has outgrown the London Gazette, and by its growth has been forced
into that specialization and subdivision of its official publications
which we see even more notably in our own country. No doubt for the
Andaman Islands a monthly gazette covers the whole ground, everything
being printed in it and no occasion being found for any other official
publication whatever. This may be true of many small countries, but it
is not conceivable for a great and growing country like ours.
The specialization of official publications seems to be an inevitable
result of the growth of public interests and the public service. By
recent methods documents are printed relating to special branches of
the public service and sent only to those employed in such branches.
Economy of both time and labor as well as economy in printing are
thus promoted. This subdivision is carried out with much minuteness.
The Daily Bulletin of the Railway Mail Service, relating solely to
the affairs which its title indicates, is printed in Washington in an
edition of 1,500 copies and supplied to all offices in the department
and sent out to the different division superintendents throughout the
country. These superintendents extract from it the matters which affect
their divisions and redistribute these parts to their subordinates
in general orders. Thus everybody in the postal service gets that
information and those orders which he needs and he does not get and
consequently does not waste any time upon that information and those
orders which he does not need. The hydrographic office's weekly, Notice
to Mariners, containing only the latest information as to aids and
hindrances to navigation, would seem to be a sufficiently specialized
publication to be supplied to sailors without further ado. Part of the
edition is issued in the complete form, but economy and efficiency are
further promoted by additional subdivision. The weekly publication,
not a large one to begin with, is split into many parts, often a dozen
or a score, and one of these leaflets is supplied to the mariner who
needs information as to those waters only into which his own voyage
will carry him. The Yearbook of Agriculture, the Annual Reports of the
Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum, the American Historical
Association, the Chief of Engineers, the Chief of Ordnance, the Bureau
of Education, and other publications which are made up of distinct
papers or chapters that permit of separate publication, are split up
and each chapter or paper printed in a pamphlet by itself, so that the
authors and others who ask for copies of special papers may have these
alone and the cost of supplying them with whole volumes thus be saved.
Even pamphlets of moderate size, like the bulletins of the Department
of Agriculture which report the proceedings of the conventions of
official agricultural chemists, economic entomologists, and other
bodies of government specialists, are split into fascicules with which
the popular demand for information on special parts of the work of
these scientific bodies may be met at least cost.
Any publication, by whatever name or in whatever form, which undertook
to include all of these and the other and almost innumerable
specialized publications of the government, and to have itself supplied
to all who now receive the existing publications, would of necessity be
of enormous bulk and be printed in an enormous edition, and it seems to
your committee that it must break down of its own weight. We think it
absolutely essential to the success of an official gazette that all of
these specialized class publications should be most rigorously excluded
from its pages. Specialization seems to be a natural and proper
development of the public printing, and it would hardly be practicable,
or wise if practicable, to arrest it.
For these reasons, your committee, in casting about for material which
might properly and usefully be carried in an official gazette, should
one be issued, has endeavored to choose that only which is of interest
to all classes and not alone to any one class, whether in or out of
the public service. The list which represents the judgment of the
committee in this respect is still very long. We have not suggested
the discontinuance of any publication on account of its inclusion in
a gazette, because in all the letters we have received from public
officials, and all the questions we have asked them, we have not yet
found one who is of opinion that any publication now existing can be
superseded by publication in a gazette without injury to the public
service.
Opinion among officials as to a gazette is radically divided, the
number for and against appearing to be about equal, though the adverse
argument appears to be the stronger. Opinion in the committee is also
widely divided, and we are unable to make a unanimous recommendation on
the desirability or feasibility of issuing a gazette on the model of
the London Gazette or of any other official gazette known to us.
Your committee, however, thinks it a duty to submit for consideration
an alternative plan, based on a suggestion offered in one of the
official letters received in reply to its inquiries. This alternative
is an executive gazette, to contain all of the official papers and
messages of the President and such other occasional matters of special
and immediate importance as the President may think it advisable to
have officially published. Such matter might perhaps at times be drawn
from the diplomatic correspondence with other governments or from
reports made by American ambassadors, ministers, or consuls, or from
the findings or rulings of commissions or other official bodies or
other sources for which no special method of official publication is
now provided.
The weight of this suggestion lies in the fact that every word
officially put forth by the chief executive is of universal interest
and of historical import, and no official vehicle for its complete
and authentic publication is now provided. It is printed in the
Congressional Record, in the newspapers, on separate sheets, in
the collected volumes of statutes, and sometimes not at all. These
publications are so scattered and each different kind so incomplete
that the most industrious librarian or other collector can never
be sure that he has all. When the congressional compilation of the
messages and papers of the Presidents from Washington to McKinley was
made the originals were gathered from all sorts of public documents
and old newspaper files and miscellaneous sources. When it chanced
that some of the old papers were preserved in public offices the
compilers--especially at first--did not know where to look for them.
That compilation as finally made is commendable, but nobody can
say that it is complete. It served, however, to demonstrate--what
indeed all students knew before--that there is no place where all
the official utterances of the head of the government may certainly
be found. If they were all to be printed in one publication--if the
faith of all Presidents were pledged that all official papers should
be given publicity in one known publication, and if that publication
were so published by volume and number that any historical student or
collector might know to a certainty when he had secured all of these
publications, then it seems to your committee that something of real
moment would have been accomplished.
It is true that the publication of presidential messages in an
executive gazette would contradict the unanimous opinion of the
committee that any sort of an official gazette should be wholly
colorless from a partisan point of view. Still, it seems of high state
importance that all of the official utterances of the chief executive,
without exception, should be collected and published in some known
and accessible place. Whether this consideration is of more or less
importance than that of keeping a gazette free from partisanship the
committee does not undertake to decide. It submits the suggestion
without expression of opinion on its own part.
The adjourned session of the government documents round table was
called to order by Chairman Godard at 12:15 p. m. on Friday, June
27th. Mr. Carr, reporting for the special committee, reported certain
resolutions, which were unanimously adopted and referred to the Council
with the request that they be officially adopted by the Association
and copies of the same be transmitted in official form to the joint
committee on printing, the public printer, and the superintendent of
documents.[12]
[12] For text of these resolutions see minutes of the Council, page 256.
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIES
FIRST SESSION
(June 24, 1913, at 8:30 p. m., at the Hotel Kaaterskill.)
The meeting was called to order by President Poole, twenty-eight
members being present.
The address of welcome, which was to have been delivered by Mr. Frank
B. Gilbert, of the Department of Education of New York State, was given
in the form of a telegram from him, as he was unavoidably prevented
from attending.
President Poole addressed the association as follows:
This is the eighth annual meeting of this Association. We had hoped to
have with us Mr. Frank B. Gilbert, who is one of the charter members,
formerly of the New York State Law library, but this morning I received
the following telegram:
"Unable to be present tomorrow night. Unexpected official
business requires attention tomorrow afternoon. Hope your
meeting will be successful."
I think we will have to take the welcome from the last six words.
The next item on the program is the President's address. I am not going
to make any address because you would not be edified.
I would call your attention, however, to a few things which have
appealed to me during the past year, and which, with suggestions which
will come from the members present, will make perhaps a basis for our
work during the coming year.
In my library, and I have no doubt in a good many of the libraries
represented here, there have been calls for practice and form books,
and perhaps for other local books of states outside of one's own state,
and you have all probably experienced difficulty in getting proper
information regarding such material. This need is coincident with
the possibility of developing our Law Library Journal. It occurs to
me that we might organize a committee to publish in our Law Library
Journal, once a year, a list of local practice and form books, giving
the title, author, number of the edition, date of publication, cost and
publisher--the idea being to include in the list, not all the books,
but the best books, and to place the choosing of that list in the hands
of parties familiar with such books. If a list could be published every
year it would be of considerable advantage.
Another suggestion has come to me--I think from Mr. Hewitt--that we
put in the Law Library Journal, in some such way as described above,
references to the court rules of the highest courts of the several
states and any important local courts that are represented in the
published reports. I do not refer to the text of the rules and the many
amendments, but where they can be found, date of adoption, etc.
There is another matter which will come up at one of the sessions,
viz., the movement for uniformity in the publication of session laws.
You will hear more about that later, but it is worth our consideration.
You all know the rather baffling way in which session laws are
published; hardly any two states are alike, and the states change their
methods from year to
year, causing a great deal of confusion and difficulty in finding
material.
You are perfectly familiar with the chief work which this Association
has accomplished, viz., the publication of the Index to Legal
Periodicals and Law Library Journal. We can congratulate ourselves,
I think, on a fairly successful year. The editorial work has been
done very well, and the promptness of publication has shown some
improvement. Mechanically, we have it on a better basis than ever
before, and there is no reason why the publication should not continue
and become actually self-supporting. Now, as you know, it only
partially pays for itself. The Association pays a certain amount of the
costs. We hope to increase the subscriptions among practicing lawyers,
and plans have already been made for doing this.
We should, I think, take more pains with the Law Journal portion. We
have not done with that all that is possible. Personally I think that
the editor, working as he does at present--I mean by that, under his
present contract and with the time at his disposal--can hardly be
expected to do very much more; but we can make a good deal more out of
the publication if we improve the Law Journal--make it more readable,
so that people will subscribe for the Journal alone. I do not think you
can say that anyone would pay $5 a year for what is in the Law Journal
now. I wish that matter could be taken up later and discussed, and that
steps might be taken to bring about an improvement in that respect.
The report of the Treasurer was read by Mr. Redstone of the Social Law
library in Boston.
Under the head of the Report of the Executive Committee, the letter
from Chairman C. W. Andrews, of the special committee on the relations
between the American Library Association and affiliated societies, was
considered.
Reports of the special committees were made by Mr. A. J. Small,
of the Iowa State Law library, chairman of the committee on legal
bibliography; by Dr. G. E. Wire, of the Worcester County (Mass.) law
library, chairman of the committee on reprinting session laws; by Mr.
O. J. Field, of the Department of Justice, chairman of the committee on
Latin-American laws.
The first Round Table was held on Wednesday, June 25, 1913, at 9:30 a.
m.
The report of the committee to confer with the Library of Congress
on subject headings was given by Mr. Hewitt of Philadelphia, and a
discussion ensued. This was followed by a symposium on architectural
plans and furnishings for law libraries, participated in by Mr.
Frederick D. Colson, of the New York State law library, Mr. Godard, Mr.
Poole, Mr. Hicks, Mr. Schenk and Mr. Hewitt.
At the second session, Wednesday, June 25th, at 2:30 p. m., Mr. Colson
gave an account of the destruction and rebuilding of the New York State
library. Mr. Frederick C. Hicks, of the Columbia University library,
read a paper on "Law libraries and the public," which was followed
by a statement by Dr. Wire on the Massachusetts system of county law
libraries.
A paper on the work in the University of Minnesota law library, by Mr.
Arthur C. Pulling, librarian, will be printed in a future issue of the
Journal, Mr. Pulling being unable to attend.
The nominating and auditing committees were appointed by President
Poole, as follows:
Nominating Committee: George S. Godard, chairman; Mrs. M. C.
Klingelsmith, E. J. Lien.
Auditing Committee: O. J. Field, chairman; William R. Reinick, Mary V.
Fisk.
The vouchers, etc., sent by Mr. Whitney, not having arrived owing
to the delay of the express company, the auditing committee were
instructed to report to the executive committee as soon as the material
could be examined.
The committee on resolutions, consisting of Mr. A. J. Small, Mrs.
Klingelsmith and Mrs. Hoover, reported the following resolution on the
death of Charles J. Babbitt, which was ordered spread upon the minutes:
"WHEREAS, after a long and untiring service in his life work
our friend and fellow member Charles J. Babbitt has this
year completed his work and become a graduate member of our
fellowship, and through his death this Association has lost an
active member, a kind friend and valued associate, who has left
behind him an enduring memorial in the good work which while
living he accomplished:
"BE IT RESOLVED, that this Association has met with an
irreparable loss, and that we extend our sympathy to the
bereaved family, and that this resolution shall become a part
of the record."
Then followed the report of the committee on shelf classification
of law textbooks, consisting of Miss Gertrude E. Woodard, George N.
Cheney, E. A. Feazel.
Remarks on cataloging and classifying law textbooks in the Library of
Congress were made by Mr. Martel of the Library of Congress.
Messrs. Schenk and Butler spoke on the matter of increasing the
efficiency of the Index to Legal Periodicals and Law Library Journal.
Additional features of the Journal were considered, and Mr. Schenk was
authorized to include in the Journal during the coming year:
List of Reports as currently issued.
List of textbooks dealing with local forms, practice, etc.
References showing where to find the court rules of the local courts,
the decisions of which appear in the published Reports.
The following officers were elected for the year 1913-14:
President--Franklin O. Poole, Association of the Bar of the City of
New York; First Vice-President--Frederick W. Schenk, Law Library,
University of Chicago; Second Vice-President--O. J. Field, Department
of Justice, Washington, D. C.; Secretary--Miss Gertrude E. Woodard, Law
Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Treasurer--E. Lee Whitney,
Vermont State Library, Montpelier; Executive Committee--President,
ex-officio, First Vice-President, ex-officio, Second Vice-President,
ex-officio, Secretary, ex-officio, Treasurer, ex-officio, E. O. S.
Scholefield, British Columbia Legislative Library, Victoria; A.
J. Small, State Law Library, Des Moines, Iowa; C. Will Schaffer,
Washington State Law Library.
The meeting adjourned with a resolution by Mr. A. J. Small thanking
each officer and member of the association who had contributed to its
work; and with a final word from Mr. Butler urging all to work for the
success of the Index during the coming year.
LEAGUE OF LIBRARY COMMISSIONS
Tenth annual meeting at Kaaterskill, N. Y., June 25-27, 1913
FIRST SESSION
(Wednesday, June 25, 2:30 p. m.)
Round Table on Organizing Small Libraries
The meeting was called to order by the President, Mr. Milam. A
roll-call by states showed that sixteen were represented: Indiana,
Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan,
Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island,
South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin. The President then introduced the
leader of the discussion, Miss Zaidee Brown, of Massachusetts. The
outline of the discussion, as printed on the program, was as follows:
1. Methods suggested by the state organizer for
Accessioning
Classification
Shelf-listing
Cataloging
Should it be attempted?
Should L. C. cards be used?
Loan system
Mechanical preparation of books
2. Average time required for above processes,
and average cost per 1,000 volumes
3. Help from local sources
Volunteers, paid workers, trustees
Help from neighboring librarians
4. Kinds of supplies and cost
5. How the organizer may interest the
people of the town in the library
6. Board meeting: Budget and other administrative
problems
It was stated that for this discussion "small library" meant any
library with less than 5,000 volumes.
* * * * *
As to the accession book, the general opinion seemed to be that there
was more reason for keeping it in a library without trained service
than in a larger one, and that the trustees usually liked to have
it kept. A very simple entry was recommended. Miss Brown suggested
that where, in reorganizing, it was necessary to accession the books
already in the library, the quickest way was to number them when the
first, or shelf-list, card was written. These cards might be kept in
numerical order, and the accession book written from them, thus saving
one handling of the books. She said one reason for keeping an accession
book in a small library is that the accession number may be used for
charging; this led to a discussion of the use of Cutter numbers in a
small library; Miss Wright, of Vermont, uses them and has found no
trouble. Miss Brown thinks they add considerably to the labor and
expense of reorganizing, and she has found them likely to fall into
confusion with untrained librarians. No conclusion was reached.
As to classification, the preference was for a simplified form of the
D. C., using only three figures in most cases, and combining some
classes.
The leader then asked how many organizers favored a dictionary catalog,
with an untrained librarian. Miss Hazeltine, of Wisconsin, said that
in that state they start only a shelf-list, to be used as a classed
catalog, until the librarian can attend summer school, and then a
dictionary catalog is made. Miss Askew stated that in New Jersey a
dictionary catalog is made even for a small library, if the librarian
and trustees wish it. In Vermont, also, the organizer starts a
dictionary catalog.
Miss Frances Hobart, librarian at Vergennes, Vt., reported that when
she classified she placed a slip in the book giving the class and book
number, and the subject headings to be used, for the guidance of the
cataloger. These slips are kept, to form a rough shelf-list, and serve
the purpose in assigning Cutter numbers. A number of those present
said that they thought it not necessary to make a shelf-list simply
for taking an inventory, as many libraries do not take inventory,
and it is not worth the labor of the shelf-list. Mr. Olin Davis,
librarian at Laconia, N. H., described a method of taking inventory
from the accession book, thus making a shelf-list for that purpose
unnecessary. The discussion showed that in some states the custom of
the state organizer is to start a dictionary catalog, and to make a
shelf-list only if Cutter numbers are used, or if the additional labor
can be easily afforded. Miss Brown, of Massachusetts, said that she
preferred, with an untrained librarian, to make an author and title
catalog, and to use the shelf-list for a subject catalog. She makes an
alphabetic index to the shelf-list, which also serves as a guide for
classification, and includes in this index analyticals and secondary
subject cards. She feels that this method reduces to a minimum the
difficulty of assigning subject headings, and the danger of scattering
material through doing this poorly. The objection to her method was
made that such a catalog is not so easy for the public to use; she
admitted this, but said that in a small library the catalog is mainly
a tool for the librarian. Mrs. Budlong, of North Dakota, recommended
using the order card for the shelf-list.
The discussion showed that in New Jersey and Vermont the organizer
usually starts a dictionary catalog; and in Minnesota, Indiana,
Wisconsin and Massachusetts the shelf-list is used as a subject catalog
unless the librarian has at least summer school training.
As to the use of Library of Congress cards, the general testimony
seemed to be that the labor of ordering them, and adding numbers
and headings, is about equal to that of making simple cards, with a
typewriter. Miss Brown stated that the added expense for cards per
1,000 volumes is about $35, if the order is by author and title. Miss
Farr, of Maryland, said that she could catalog about 1,000 volumes a
month, making a dictionary catalog, if she made her own cards, and
about 1,100 if she used Library of Congress cards--showing that the
labor is nearly the same.
It was not possible to give definite estimates of the cost of
reorganization or the time required, as conditions vary so greatly;
but some general averages were obtained. Mr. Milam, of Indiana, stated
that the cost of supplies and labor, including the time and expenses
of the state organizer, was about $50 to $60 per 1,000 volumes. One
organizer said that a cataloger should average 40 volumes a day,
assigning Cutter numbers and making a dictionary catalog. Miss Askew,
of New Jersey, thought this number too small, and said she expected one
person to make a dictionary catalog for 1,000 volumes in two weeks.
Miss Brown, of Massachusetts, said that the number of volumes done in
a week varied from 500 to 1,000 volumes, according to the amount of
local help received. She finds it possible to get volunteer workers
for a good deal of the work, including writing the cards, and doing
the mechanical work involved by a new charging system. This estimate
is not for a dictionary catalog, but for an author and title list,
and a shelf-list for non-fiction with subject index--no imprint being
given on most of the cards. To show the cost of reorganization where
there was practically no volunteer labor, Miss Brown gave the figures
for a library at West Bridgewater, Mass., which contained about 6,500
volumes. The state library commission gave about a week of Miss Brown's
time, which is not included in the estimate, a cataloger was engaged
at $75 a month, and an assistant at $50. Local workers were paid about
twelve cents an hour. The books were accessioned, classified, an author
and title catalog made, and a shelf-list for non-fiction with subject
index. Book-pockets and book-cards were placed in the books. Copy for
a printed catalog was made. This catalog was later printed, at a cost
of about $125. The entire cost of the work, including printing the
catalog, was between $600 and $700, or about ten cents per volume. The
time required was about seven weeks.
As to the question of how the organizer might interest the people of
the town, there was a discussion on whether the organizer did better
work if she stayed at the hotel, or was entertained in a private
family. She can, of course, become better acquainted if in a family,
but Mr. Milam said that he thought the hotel preferable because there
would be no drain on her vitality outside library hours. It developed
during the discussion that in several states the commission pays the
living expenses of the organizer in the town. In Massachusetts, the
library is expected to meet this expense, but the state sometimes helps
buy the supplies.
As to the meeting of the Board, Mr. Milam said that he thought the
organizer should always meet the Board, and if possible leave with them
a suggested budget for a library of that size. Miss Brown said that
she carried with her sample copies of a number of selected lists and
library aids, and showed them to the Board of Trustees.
A number of organizers spoke of addressing clubs, schools, and other
bodies in connection with the work.
After the Round Table, Mr. Milam appointed the following nominating
committee: Miss Clara Baldwin, chairman; Mrs. Percival Sneed, Miss
Zaidee Brown. The meeting then adjourned.
SECOND SESSION
(Wednesday, June 25th, 8:30 p. m.)
The topic of the second session was libraries in state institutions
and in federal prisons. Mr. Milam, the president, called the meeting
to order. Miss Julia A. Robinson, supervising librarian of the state
institutions of Iowa, opened the discussion. Mr. Jenkins, of New York,
who was announced on the program, was unable to be present. Miss
Robinson spoke first of the need of providing good reading matter
in state institutions; and pointed out that such libraries have
the advantage of those in the outside world, in that they need not
compete with so many conflicting interests in their patrons. Of the
two possible kinds of supervision; by an outside authority, such as a
state library commission, or by an official of the board controlling
the state institutions, the latter is preferable if the appointment of
such an official is not dominated by politics. An official appointed
by the Board of Control has greater authority, can maintain a closer
supervision of the books admitted, and can obtain more help from the
inmates of the institutions. As to methods employed, the book selection
should be carefully made to suit the various classes in the different
institutions; and the organization should be as simple as possible. In
Iowa, they use an accession book, the decimal classification, and a
simple form of shelf-list. In all the institutions, reading rooms for
the use of the inmates under proper supervision add to the usefulness
of the libraries. The librarian is usually an officer or employee of
the institution, but should possess a knowledge of the books in her own
library, and a sympathetic acquaintance with the inmates which will
enable her to assist them in selecting the books which will be most
helpful to them. She should also have sufficient time to give proper
attention to the library. Inmates often make good assistants, but
should work under close supervision and should not be allowed to select
the books. In the prisons, where the readers do not have access to the
shelves, printed finding lists are necessary.
Miss Florence R. Curtis, of the University of Illinois Library School,
next spoke on libraries in prisons. She called attention to the fact
that nearly eighty per cent of those in prisons will be out of prison
in from one to ten years. They should be regarded as citizens in the
making, to be helped in every way possible. Of those who enter, about
ninety per cent are literate; and over seventy-five per cent have
attended school beyond the sixth grade. About fifty per cent of those
sent to prison are so-called "accidental criminals," that is, they
have yielded to an impulse, but are not habitually criminal. Before
they leave prison, however, they have received an education of a sort
in crime. They know the criminal class, its leading men, etc., they
know the methods of crime, and they have learned to regard the law as
more favorable to the rich than to the poor, and how best to evade it.
Besides this, they have become acquainted with unclean literature,
circulated secretly; and with vice and dissipation. Guards in the
prison often peddle drink and drugs to the prisoners. As to what they
have learned that is good, she enumerated the following: The prisoner
may have learned a trade, but the trades taught often do not help in
earning a living outside. The prisoner may have attended a school.
Usually the school is held for four months, is taught by a volunteer
prisoner, and aims only to teach the elementary subjects. The prisoner
has attended the church service. Last, the prisoner may have had the
use of the prison library. Miss Curtis examined the catalogs of thirty
prisons. Perhaps three-fourths of the books might be regarded as
deadwood. Often the libraries contain vicious books, which give wrong
ideas of the relations of men and women, and of the family; create
a false idea of life; and make dissipation attractive. The works of
Chambers, Elinor Glyn, Phillips, Mrs. Southworth, and others of similar
grade, are found in large numbers in the prison libraries. The prisoner
has so much time to think over what he reads, that especial care should
be taken that his reading should be wholesome. Books dealing with shady
business methods, religious unrest, race prejudice, the detection of
crime, etc., are all bad. All fiction added to the library should first
be read by a person of good judgment, with respect to its effect on the
prisoners. The selection of suitable books does not represent the whole
duty toward the prisoner. Personal guidance in the choice of books is
most desirable. The chaplain is not always the best person to give such
guidance as he may not be familiar with modern fiction and he has other
duties. The superintendent is not always interested in the reading of
the prisoners. The superintendent of a reform school stated flatly
that the physical care of the girls was the main duty and interest of
the institution. A librarian appointed by the Board of Control will
make the most careful selection of the books. The librarian should
also visit the institutions and give as much personal guidance to the
reading as possible. It should be noted, however, that this is not a
place for an immature person, nor a sentimental one.
Miss Curtis said that the duty of the state library commission, as to
prison libraries, was to try to rouse the superintendents, and bring
about a better condition.
Miss Stearns, of Wisconsin, asked about the use of magazines in
prisons. She had visited a prison, with the chaplain acting as
librarian, where they took dozens of magazines, and had given up buying
books because the magazines were so popular. Among those especially
in demand were World's Work, Current Events, and Cosmopolitan. Miss
Robinson, of Iowa, said that they took magazines for the prisons, but
in no case were magazines bought to the exclusion of all books. Where
it is regarded as necessary, the magazines are expurgated by clipping
out certain articles. Miss Curtis said that in Illinois prisons many
magazines are taken, and are very popular. The men are allowed to form
magazine clubs, and to take any magazine not positively disreputable;
and many of the cheaper lower-grade magazines are taken.
Miss Clarke, librarian of the public library at Auburn, N. Y., where
there is a state prison, said that she had investigated prison
libraries in New York state, especially in Auburn, in connection with
the work of a committee of the New York State Library Association.
She regards conditions in New York state as discouraging. In Auburn,
the selection is not so bad, but the men are allowed little if any
selection. A convict assistant chooses fifty volumes for fifty cells.
These are passed out, and each one is kept a week. It is then passed on
to the next cell. An educated ex-convict in a letter printed by Richard
Harding Davis in the New York Sun, stated that he was unable for a
year to get a book he wanted, though nobody else wanted it. They have
no printed catalogs or lists. In the women's prison, in Auburn, the
prisoners are allowed to select books, and one of the teachers had done
some work with reading clubs. Miss Clarke stated that in New York state
prisons, the teacher of the prison school is not a convict. The prison
school is allowed $50 worth of books a year. The hope for improvement
in New York state, in library conditions in the prisons, is through the
appointment of a librarian in each prison, or a library supervisor of
all state penal institutions.
Mr. Wellman, of Springfield, Mass., asked how to rouse interest in
prison libraries in a state where there is no interest. Miss Curtis
said that one should avoid rousing general public criticism, as this
would antagonize the prison authorities; that it was better to use the
slow method of getting the heads of the institutions and the board
controlling the prisons interested. The state library commission
should do this. A general article in the press on the value of good
prison libraries might be desirable, but one should by all means avoid
anything approaching a sensational story about special cases. As an
example of how to rouse interest, Mr. Wynkoop spoke of the number of
New York Libraries, published in February, 1913, which was devoted
largely to libraries in state institutions. Copies of this were sent
to all trustees of state institutions in New York state, to members
of legislative committees dealing with charitable and reformatory
institutions, to members of sociological societies, to mayors and
sheriffs, to most of the leading newspapers of the state, and to others
of influence. About 700 copies were sent out in this way. There have
been some evident results. In Syracuse, Rochester, Bath, Jamestown, and
some other places, the papers have had notices about the need of better
libraries in prisons and jails, and the authorities have in some cases
taken steps to improve conditions. In answer to questions, Mr. Wynkoop
said that he did not make direct criticism of the present library
conditions in prisons, but spoke of the poor economy of spending
so little on them. The maximum amount spent on the library of any
institution in New York state is $500, though expenditures for other
purposes may run into the millions.
It was suggested that public libraries should supply local jails
with reading matter. Miss Clarke stated that in the state prison at
Auburn, magazines are taken for the officials, but are not loaned to
the prisoners. An offer of discarded but usable books from the public
library to the jail was refused, because the prisoners would cut out
the pictures and put them on the wall.