(Tuesday, July 2, 9:30 a. m.)
The second joint session was attended by the National Association of
State Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries and the
Special Libraries Association delegates, and was presided over by Mr.
Brigham, vice-president of the Special Libraries Association. The
meeting was held in the ball room of the Chateau Laurier.
Mr. Charles J. Babbitt of the Massachusetts state library read the
first paper, entitled "Snags, stumbling blocks and pitfalls among the
session laws." During the course of his paper Mr. Babbitt touched upon
some very interesting phases of these questions. In the absence of Mr.
James MKirdy, Mr. Thomas Montgomery, state librarian of Pennsylvania,
presented his paper, entitled "Bill drafting." Following this, in the
absence of Dr. John H. Arnold, librarian of the Harvard Law School, Mr.
George S. Godard read his paper, entitled "The history of the growth
and development of the Harvard university law library." Great regret
was expressed at the absence of Dr. Arnold, who may now be looked upon
as the father of law libraries.
Following this Mr. Lapp discussed the question of co-operation between
legislative reference departments. This address also covered a report
upon the same subject as well as a report on legislative reference
service. Mr. Godard followed with general remarks, in which he called
attention to the great changes in our present social life, brought
about by improvements in our methods of transportation, so that now our
view point is so much broader that in the drawing of bills we can no
longer overlook what other states are doing, hence the great necessity
for co-operation and wider knowledge in this field. He reviewed
briefly the work of the Law Reporting Company and tried to point
out how service such as they had rendered might be made practical.
He appealed for a national legislative information bureau, and he
questioned whether this could ever be brought about by co-operation,
but rather insisted that it must be a definitely established service
run for profit or subsidized by government support. The chairman called
attention to the library law abstracts which are probably present in
every state library in one form or another. In these abstracts minute
subjects are touched upon which are difficult to get at. The material
usually exists only in carbon form. As a result of an interview with
a commercial concern, the chairman found that with the use of the
multigraph this firm would agree to furnish three hundred copies for
$1.00 a folio with $5.00 for composition and general work. This would
mean on a thirty folio, a total of $35.00 for an issue of three hundred
copies. He suggested that such material be sent to a central agency
and believed that such a scheme could be worked out successfully.
Mr. Babbitt called attention to several interesting instances
where the assistance of such a scheme would have been invaluable
in furthering greater publicity for material which was only found
through co-operation among the state libraries. Dr. Clement W. Andrews
believed that this sort of work should be done at the American Library
Association headquarters and thought with competent operators this
was the most practical way to have it done. He also called attention
to the fact that the Illinois State Bankers Association had asked the
John Crerar library to undertake an analysis of the State Banking
Association publications. He offered to send circulars covering that
work to any state or law libraries that might find them of usefulness.
Mr. D. N. Handy of the Insurance Library Association of Boston spoke
in regard to the recently organized legislative bureau of the National
Board of Fire Underwriters. One of the chief functions of this bureau
will be to bring together an abstract card index of the laws in the
various states in the country bearing on fire insurance. Recently the
Association of Life Insurance Presidents has completed a card index
abstract of the laws bearing on life insurance, comprising something
like four thousand cards. Mr. Godard offered further discussion which
he finally followed with a motion to the effect "that our committee on
resolutions prepare suitable resolution directed to Congress, endorsing
the bill now before Congress looking toward the permanent establishment
of a legislative bureau at Washington and expressing our hope that
it may be established in the very near future, and at the same time
expressing our willingness to co-operate in any way that we can." Mr.
Montgomery, as chairman of the Committee on resolutions then offered
several resolutions.[18]
[18] These resolutions will be found in full in the proceedings of the
National Association of State Libraries, which will be printed by that
association.
Mr. Johnson Brigham of Iowa then opened up the discussion of the
relation between state libraries and legislative reference bureaus,
to which Mr. Montgomery replied. General discussion followed in
which several told of the actual working relations between these two
jurisdictions in their several states. The meeting adjourned at 12:24
p. m.