Chapter XIII: Front Matter (13)

It is good to recommend the classics, but it must not be forgotten that there are classics, and classics. There should be independence, and an ability to look things in the face, to realize that a change has come, when it is already here. Why should the people who deal with books let the politicians get ahead of them? There is a bright, clean air blowing through the nation, and those who worship fusty precedent are correspondingly unhappy. We have a president who cares not a rap for mouldy and senseless traditions--he has learned well the lesson taught him by one of his predecessors. If President Wilson has the courage to point out that the final authority on matters of factory legislation and mine inspection in the year 1913 is not necessarily Thomas Jefferson, is it not possible for the critics and choosers of books to understand that Dr. Johnson and Madame de Maintenon have not uttered the last word about literature? There might and should be a "new freedom" of literary criticism--not yesterday, nor today, nor tomorrow, but all the time.

Here is another way to discourage reading. You can do it by giving a man one of these over-annotated editions of a book. I mean a book which has so many footnotes that the text is crowded right out of bed; a book in which the editor is so pleased with himself for discovering that the father of Lady Hester Somebody (who is mentioned in the text) was born in 1718 and died in 1789 that he simply has not the decent manners to keep his useless knowledge to himself. No; he must tell it to you, even though he elbows the author--a better man than himself--out of the way to do it.

One of the best books of its kind--I speak under correction--is George Birkbeck Hill's edition of Boswell's "Johnson." It is, I believe, correct, and scholarly; it certainly represents a vast amount of labor, and it is "very valuable for reference." Also it is admirably arranged for driving a reader away from Boswell forever. It is positively exasperating to see page after page on which Boswell occupies two lines at the top, and Dr. Hill takes up all the rest of the room. Sometimes he takes up the whole page! Yet that edition is recommended to readers by persons who ought to know better.

Other excellent examples--I am speaking only of much-praised books--are found in the Furness Variorum editions of Shakespeare. When one of these volumes appears it is usually greeted by a chorus of "Oh's!" and "Ah's!" as when a particularly gorgeous skyrocket goes up on Fourth of July night. Such scholarship! Such a boon to earnest Shakespeareans! Such labor! Such erudition! Well, a great deal of that praise is deserved--each volume is certainly a tour de force. But I wish to read you from a review of the latest of them--a review written for the Boston Herald, by Mr. John Macy, the author of that vigorous and sensible book, "The spirit of American literature." It deals with "The tragedie of Julius Caesar" edited by Horace Howard Furness, Jr. "This," writes Mr. Macy, "is the latest volume in 'A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare,' and is the first under the sole editorship of the late Dr. Furness' son. From an enormous mass of commentary, criticism, word-worrying, text-marring and learned guesswork, Mr. Furness has chosen what seem to him the best notes. The sanity of his introduction and the good sense of some of his own notes lead one to suppose that he has selected with discrimination from the notes of others. His work is a model of patience, industry and judgment. He plays well in this game of scholarship. But what is the game worth? What is the result?

"Here is a volume of nearly 500 large pages. The text is a literal reprint of the folio. The clear stream of poetry runs along the tops of the pages. Under that is a deposit of textual emendations full of clam-shells and lost anchors and tin cans. Under that is a mud bottom two centuries deep. It consists of (a) what scholars said Shakespeare said; (b) what scholars said Shakespeare meant; (c) what scholars said about what other scholars said; (d) what scholars said about the morality and character of the personages, as (1) they are in Shakespeare's play, and as (2) they are in other historical and fictitious writings; (e) what scholars said about how other people used the words that Shakespeare used; (f) what scholars said could be done to Shakespeare's text to make him a better poet. I have not read all those notes and I never shall read them. Life is too short and too interesting. All the time that I was trying to read the notes, so that I could know enough about them to write this article, my mind kept swimming up out of the mud into that clear river of text. It is a perfectly clear river. Some of the obscurities that scholars say are there are simply not obscure, except as poetry ought to have a kind of obscurity in some turbulent passages. Some of the obscurities the scholars put there in their innocence and stupidity, and those obscurities you can eliminate by blandly ignoring them."

These learned and over-annotated editions--they are not intended, you say, for the casual reader. Yet they get into his hand--they are, sometimes recommended to him. And, as Mr. Macy asks, are they worth the labor they have cost--are they worth it to =anybody=? Looking at them reminds me of the ideal ascetic of the Middle Ages, St. Simeon Stylites. St. Simeon was considered the most religious man of his time because for twenty years he lived upon a pillar that "numbered forty cubits from the soil," and because he would

"'Tween the spring and downfall of the light,
Bow down one thousand and two hundred times,
To Christ, the Virgin Mother, and the Saints."

In spite of that, St. Simeon is not the ideal religious man today. Will these fact-collectors be the ideal scholars a century hence?

Are we sometimes acclaiming as great scholars men who are really doing nothing but a tremendous amount of grubbing? Are some of the so-called scholarly editions really scholarly, or are they simply gigantic "stunts?" Whatever may be their value for reference, and that is vastly over-rated, they discourage reading.

It is also possible to drive people away from books, or make it difficult for them to get near books, by printing confusing things about them. It is possible to catalog a book--according to the best rules--in such a fashion as to make it an exceedingly unattractive, not to say repellant object. This is bad enough when it is done in the formal catalog, but when it is done in little leaflets, and book-lists--things which ought to be informal and inviting--the case is very sad. The other day I saw an entry in a book-list which read like this: "Dickens. Whipple, E. P. Charles Dickens." The expert is in no doubt; the uninitiated may well be confused to know which is the author and which the subject. When someone defends such practices by saying: "But the rules!" someone else, whose voice is a voice of authority ought to say: "Fudge! And also Fiddle-de-dee!"

The general subject today is "the World of Books." It is a delightful world--one so different from that into which we emerge every morning that it seems hard, sometimes, to realize that the one exists inside the other. It is a place of entertainment within the reach of any of us. There are a few obstructions around the entrance--some of which I have tried to describe. People have built up walls of impossible "classics"; publishers have tried to string a barbed-wire fence of Complete Works around it. Pedants stand outside, calling upon you to swallow a couple of gallons of facts before you go into the great tent. You can walk by them all. Inside, everything is pleasant. Over in one corner are the folk who like to play with first editions, unique copies, unopened copies, and all the rest of those expensive toys. Some of these gentlemen have about as much to do with the world of books as have the collectors of four-post beds and old blue china, but many of them are very good fellows. Most of them do not belong in here at all, but, like boys who have crawled in under the tent, now they are inside they think they have as much right as anybody. Some of them, indeed, are quite uppish and superior, and inclined to look down on the rest of us who have a vulgar notion that books are made to =read=.

Here is all you require--a comfortable chair, and a pipe. And the company! Well, look around:

Dear Lamb and excellent Montaigne,
Sterne and the credible Defoe,
Borrow, DeQuincey, the great Dean,
The sturdy leisurist Thoreau;

The furtive soul whose dark romance,
By ghostly door and haunted stair,
Explored the dusty human heart,
And the forgotten garrets there;

The moralist it could not spoil,
To hold an empire in his hands;
Sir Walter, and the brood who sprang,
From Homer through a hundred lands,

Singers of songs on all men's lips,
Tellers of tales in all men's ears,
Movers of hearts that still must beat,
To sorrows feigned and fabled tears.

At the conclusion of Mr. Pearson's paper a book symposium was conducted in which the following members of the Association briefly discussed the respective books here indicated:

Hine. Modern organization. Reviewed by Paul Blackwelder.

Crispi's Memoirs and the recent literature of the Risorgimento.
Reviewed by Bernard C. Steiner.

Goldmark. Fatigue and efficiency. Reviewed by Katherine T.
Wootten.

Tarbell. The business of being a woman. Reviewed by Pearl I.
Field.

Antin. The promised land. Reviewed by Althea H. Warren.

Brieux. La femme seule. Reviewed by Corinne Bacon.

The great analysis. Reviewed by Josephine A. Rathbone.

Weyl. The great democracy. Reviewed by Frank K. Walter.

The PRESIDENT: Before inducting into office the president-elect I shall ask the secretary whether there are any announcements to be made or if any new business is to come up at this time? Is there any business for the Council to consider?

Dr. ANDREWS: There are some resolutions from the Documents Round Table to come before the Council and perhaps other routine work.

The PRESIDENT: They will be referred to the Council. We will receive the report of the tellers concerning the election.

The SECRETARY: The report of the tellers states that you have elected as your officers for the coming year the following persons:

REPORT OF THE TELLERS OF ELECTION

No. of Votes

President
E. H. Anderson, Director New York
Public Library 144

First Vice-President
H. C. Wellman, Librarian City Library,
Springfield, Mass. 141

Second Vice-President
Gratia A. Countryman, Librarian Minneapolis
Public Library 144

Members of Executive Board (for 3 years)
Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress,
Washington 146

Harrison W. Craver, Librarian Carnegie
Library, Pittsburgh 137

Members of Council (for 5 years)
Mary Eileen Ahern, Editor "Public Libraries,"
Chicago 140

Cornelia Marvin, Librarian Oregon
State Library 145

Alice S. Tyler, Director Western Reserve
Library School 146

R. R. Bowker, Editor "Library Journal,"
New York 144

A. L. Bailey, Librarian Wilmington
(Del.) Institute Free Library 142

Trustee of Endowment Fund (for 3 years)
E. W. Sheldon, President U. S. Trust
Co., New York 143

FORREST B. SPAULDING,
JOHN F. PHELAN,
Tellers of Election.

The PRESIDENT: You have heard the result of the election. I shall ask Mr. Gardner M. Jones and Mr. Harrison W. Craver to show the president-elect the way to the platform.

(The committee escorted Mr. Anderson to the platform.)

Mr. President-elect, it is with special personal satisfaction that I have announced to you the result unanimously made by this conference in choosing you to the honorable position of president. I am personally gratified in that you represent, I think, so splendidly many of the elements which have been talked about during this meeting. You are yourself a graduate of a library school, yet you have sympathy with those who have not attained to that distinction. You have been associated with a great scientific library, you have been in charge of a medium-sized library and are now at the head of the largest public library in the world; and yet many of us have had evidences that you have the deepest and warmest sympathy for the small and struggling library, no matter where it may be.

Mr. President-elect, the retiring board of officers received this gavel not as an emblem of authority, but as a symbol of service. As such we commit it to your care for the next year.

For the retiring board of officers I may say, in the words of Wynken DeWorde in one of his colophons, "And now we make an end. If we have done well, we have done that which we would have desired; and if but meanly and slenderly, we yet have done that which we could attain unto."

The wish goes from the ex-president to the president that the most successful administration in the history of the Association may be the one which is about to begin.

(Mr. Legler then handed the gavel to Mr. Anderson and retired from the platform.)

PRESIDENT ANDERSON: Ladies and gentlemen, fellow members of the Association: In the first place, I want to express my heartfelt thanks for the gracious things the retiring president has just been pleased to say concerning my humble self. Furthermore, I have to thank him for giving me an opportunity to correct a mistake which has been current in this Association for some twenty years, namely, that I am the graduate of a library school. I was at the Albany library school--more years ago than I care to tell--between seven and eight months. My money ran out and I had to get a job. I did not even complete the first year. That is a reflection on me, not upon the library school.

The exigencies of trains and luncheons would make it unfair if not cruel for me to detain you here this morning with a speech and I shall make none. But I want to beg you on this occasion to forget and forgive the disagreeable things said or done by the officers-elect in the heat of a bitter partisan campaign. (Laughter--There was no opposition ticket.)

Seriously, I want to express to you all, not merely for myself but for every member of the incoming executive board and the incoming members of the Council, our appreciation of the honor you have conferred upon us and of the responsibilities you have placed upon our shoulders. We can only hope to maintain--and it will require a struggle and great and arduous work on our part to maintain--the high standard set by our predecessors. I thank you.

If there is nothing further to come before us the Conference will stand adjourned.

ADJOURNED SINE DIE.

EXECUTIVE BOARD

Meeting of June 23, 1913

Meeting called to order by President Legler. Other members present were Miss Eastman, Messrs. Anderson, Andrews, Putnam and Wellman.

Several matters of routine business were transacted, including the reception and adoption of the report of the Committee on Nominations.

Upon motion of Mr. Anderson, seconded by Dr. Putnam, Mrs. H. L. Elmendorf was elected member of the Publishing Board to succeed herself for a term of three years.

In behalf of the Committee on International Relations, Dr. Putnam reported that with such information as it had been able to gather the committee felt unable to make any affirmative recommendation as to participation by the American Library Association in the proposed Exposition of the Book and Graphic Arts at Leipzig in 1914.

Adjourned.

Meeting of June 28th

Present: President Anderson, Miss Eastman, Messrs. Andrews, Wellman and Craver.

Mr. Wellman presented his resignation as non-official member in view of his election to the office of first vice-president, which, upon motion of Dr. Andrews, was accepted.

Upon motion of Mr. Craver, it was unanimously voted that W. N. C. Carlton be elected to the Executive Board to fill the unexpired term of Mr. Wellman. Mr. Carlton was called to the meeting and took his place as a member of the Board.

A meeting place for 1914 was next considered. Miss Edith A. Phelps, librarian of the Carnegie library of Oklahoma City, appeared before the board and invited the Association to meet in Oklahoma City, her invitation being seconded by the Oklahoma Library Association and other organizations of the State. Invitations were received also by letter from the convention bureaus of New Orleans, Nashville, Wilmington, Del., Milwaukee, and other places. After informal discussion it was voted that the Secretary be instructed to investigate facilities for holding the conference at Madison, Wis., and if, in the opinion of the president and secretary, conditions at Madison are not favorable for a meeting, that Mackinac and Ottawa Beach be investigated in the order here named.

Invitations from the authorities of the Panama-Pacific Exposition to hold the conference at San Francisco in 1915 were read and from the California Library Association to the same effect, Mr. Everett R. Perry, of Los Angeles, bearing the invitation from the latter association. Invitations were also received from the library authorities of Seattle, seconded by the business organizations of that city and by the convention bureaus of other cities of the Pacific Northwest. It was voted to refer this information to the next Executive Board.

Mr. William Stetson Merrill presented the following report in behalf of the Committee on code for classifiers, which, upon motion, was accepted as a report of progress, and the request for an appropriation of $20 referred to the meeting of the Executive Board in January.

The Committee on code for classifiers begs to present a
report of progress.

During the past year no general meeting of the Committee has
been held, but the chairman has been in correspondence with
several members of the Committee and considerable data have
been collected for the proposed Manual for classifiers. Messrs.
Bay and Merrill are more immediately concerned with this
section of the work and over three hundred points have been
assembled for future consideration.

An appropriation of twenty dollars ($20.00) to cover
typewriting, postage and stationery is requested.

Respectfully submitted,
(Signed)
WM. STETSON MERRILL, Chairman.

At the request of the secretary a transfer of funds was authorized as follows: From the contingency fund to conference fund, $75, and to miscellaneous fund $75, leaving a balance in the contingency fund of $95.

Upon motion of Dr. Andrews, it was voted that members joining the Association after the annual conference shall only be required to pay one-half year's dues together with the usual initiation fee of $1.

Consideration of the question of issuing the annual handbook in biographical section form was postponed until the next meeting of the Executive Board.

A letter was read from Dr. Frank P. Hill, suggesting that a special committee be appointed to consider the matter of participating in the proposed Leipzig Exposition and to ascertain the cost of such participation as well as the possibility of securing a creditable exhibit from American libraries. It was voted that a special committee of three on this subject be appointed by the president, which committee shall make the report to the Committee on international relations. The president appointed as this committee Dr. Hill with power to add the other two members.

It was unanimously voted that an appropriation of $30 from the contingency fund be made to each of the three members of the Travel Committee as partial compensation for expenses incurred in the performance of association duties, and that the thanks of the Executive Board be expressed with regret that the finances of the Association did not permit a complete reimbursement of expenses.

A report was submitted from the Committee on cost and method of cataloging, but owing to the lack of time for proper consideration the secretary was instructed to have the report typewritten and copies sent to the respective members of the Executive Board. At the request of the Committee that two other members be added to the Committee, one of them to be located in Chicago, the other to be the head cataloger of one of the public libraries taking part in the investigation, the president appointed the following persons: J. C. M. Hanson and Margaret Mann.

The request of the Committee for an appropriation of not to exceed $50 was referred to the January meeting of the Executive Board.

The report is as follows:

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON COST AND METHOD OF CATALOGING

The present report is preliminary only. Before a final report can be made a more detailed inquiry must be undertaken of the way in which the work is handled in libraries of various types. The methods used in the libraries that have taken part in the present investigation vary to a considerable degree, and do not always seem to lend themselves to an accurate classification by character or size of library; in some cases this is possible, for instance when we find that the receipt of much duplicate material in the large public libraries having extensive systems of branch libraries has developed a method of handling these that is almost uniform for all. One element which disturbs the cataloging work in these libraries is that the withdrawal and cancellation of the records of lost and worn-out books is done by the cataloging departments. Five of the twenty libraries do not at present readily lend themselves to comparison in all respects with the others, the Library of Congress and the New York public library on account of their size and complicated organization, the libraries of Harvard University and the University of Chicago because of the disturbances caused by present work of reorganization and recataloging, and the New York state library on account of its rapid growth since the fire two years ago. In other libraries recataloging goes on simultaneously with the current work, but it does not cause the same disturbances as in the cases mentioned.

While most libraries count classification and shelf-listing as parts of the cataloging, only four include accessioning, and three do not include either of the four processes mentioned under point 2 in the questionnaire sent out by the committee. Three libraries state expressly that the assignment of subject headings is done by the cataloging force, but this is probably also the case with some who do not mention the fact. In one case the reference and cataloging work are combined in one department; in general, reference work seems to be the catalogers' favorite side line.

In some libraries the determination of headings and the form of entry is determined by the heads of the department, in others all the original work is done by the assistants and afterwards revised, while in at least one case such work as classification and the assignment of subject headings is done by specialists, each handling his particular subject. Two or three libraries employ a special assistant for the cataloging of serial publications. Two libraries have all statistical recording done by a special assistant or clerk.

Whether a library prints its cards or has them written or typewritten in several copies, does not seem to influence the method of work except at the final point, but the growing use of cards printed by some other library has introduced an element that did not exist when any of the libraries taking part in the investigation were organized.

The cost of cataloging can not be determined until a definite unit has been agreed upon. The way to reach such agreement might be in line with the method employed by the Boston public library, where a considerable number of volumes were set aside for this investigation and the time and money spent on each work carefully computed. By employing a similar way of investigating not only the cost, but also the routine gone through with a book in a number of libraries on its way from the unpacking room to the shelves, some definite unit might be found.

The work of the committee has only begun; it should be planned to go much more into details than the present questionnaire indicates. The purpose of the committee should be twofold; to find out whether a method of handling the routine with a minimum expenditure of time could be worked out that could be recommended as standard, and to study how the work might be so arranged as to be made in some degree less mechanical to those who are capable of more or less independent handling of literary material for the purpose of preparing it for use by readers in libraries.

AKSEL G. S. JOSEPHSON,
EMMA V. BALDWIN,
AGNES VAN VALKENBURGH.

Questionnaire

1. Give a short sketch of your catalog department indicating
the processes into which the work is divided.

2. How many of the following items do you include as part of
cataloging?:

(a) Accessioning.
(b) Classification.
(c) Shelf-listing.
(d) Preparation for the shelves.

3. Of how many persons does your cataloging force consist and
how is it graded?

4. What are the minimum and maximum salaries in each grade and
division of your cataloging force?

5. What was the total amount expended for salaries for the
catalog department in 1912?

6. a. How many of the assistants in the catalog department
spend full time on the cataloging work?

b. What other work are these engaged in in other departments
of the library?

7. a. How many volumes did you add to your library during
1912?

b. How many of these were added as new titles to your catalog?

c. How many of these were on printed cards from the Library of
Congress or from other libraries?

8. What do you estimate that it cost your library in 1912 to
catalog a book, including accessioning, classification,
shelf-listing and preparation for the shelves?

9. Give any special information about your library that will
enable the committee to understand particular phases of
your cataloging work.

Libraries Included in the Investigation

_University and Reference Libraries_

Columbia University Library.
Harvard University Library.
Princeton University Library.
University of Chicago Library.
Yale University Library.

John Crerar Library.
Library of Congress.
New York Public Library, Reference Department.
New York State Library.
Newberry Library.

_Public Libraries_

Boston Public Library.
Brooklyn Public Library.
Buffalo Public Library.
Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh.
Chicago Public Library.
Cincinnati Public Library.
Cleveland Public Library.
Philadelphia Free Library.
St. Louis Public Library.
Toronto Public Library.

A request was read from the catalog section, first, that the Executive Board be asked to appoint a permanent cataloging committee to which the questions in cataloging may be referred for recommendations; second, that the Executive Board be asked to send a request to the Librarian of Congress for the publication of the code of alphabeting used in the Library of Congress.

Voted, on motion by Dr. Andrews that the president and secretary be instructed to appoint a committee for this year to whom questions of cataloging may be referred, and that the chairman of the catalog section be consulted as to the proper form of a by-law providing for a permanent committee.

Upon motion by Dr. Andrews, voted that the secretary be instructed to ask the opinion of the Committee on code for classifiers as to the desirability of a permanent committee to consider specific questions of classification and as to the proper form of a by-law to provide for such committee.

The appointment of members to the various standing committees was next considered, and as a result of consideration at this meeting and of later correspondence between the members of the Executive Board and consultation with the chairmen of the various committees, the standing committees for the year 1913-14 are announced as follows:

COMMITTEES, 1913-14

Finance

C. W. Andrews, The John Crerar Library, Chicago.

F. F. Dawley, Cedar Rapids, Ia.

F. O. Poole, New York City.

Public Documents

G. S. Godard, State Library, Hartford, Conn.

A. J. Small, State Library, Des Moines, Ia.

Ernest Bruncken, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

John A. Lapp, State Library, Indianapolis, Ind.

M. S. Dudgeon, Wisconsin Free Library Commission, Madison, Wis.

T. M. Owen, Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Ala.

S. H. Ranck, Public Library, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Adelaide R. Hasse, Public Library, New York.

C. F. D. Belden, State Library, Boston, Mass.

Co-operation with the N. E. A.

Mary Eileen Ahern, "Public Libraries," Chicago.

Mary A. Newberry, Public Library, New York City.

Irene Warren, School of Education, Chicago.

George H. Locke, Public Library, Toronto, Canada.

Harriet A. Wood, Library Association, Portland, Ore.

Library Administration

A. E. Bostwick, Public Library, St. Louis, Mo.

George F. Bowerman, Public Library, Washington, D. C.

John S. Cleavinger, Public Library, Jackson, Mich.

Library Training

A. S. Root, Oberlin College Library, Oberlin, Oh.

Faith E. Smith, Public Library, Chicago.

Alice S. Tyler, Western Reserve University Library School, Cleveland.

Adam Strohm, Public Library, Detroit, Mich.

A. L. Bailey, Wilmington Institute Free Library, Wilmington, Del.

Chalmers Hadley, Public Library, Denver.

Cornelia Marvin, Oregon State Library, Salem, Ore.

George O. Carpenter, trustee, Public Library, St. Louis, Mo.

International Relations

Herbert Putnam, Library of Congress, Washington.

E. C. Richardson, Princeton University Library, Princeton, N. J.

Frank P. Hill, Public Library, Brooklyn, N. Y.

W. C. Lane, Harvard University Library, Cambridge, Mass.

R. R. Bowker, "Library Journal," New York City.

Bookbuying

The committee has not yet been appointed.

Bookbinding

A. L. Bailey, Wilmington Institute Free Library, Wilmington, Del.

Rose G. Murray, Public Library, New York.

J. R. Patterson, Public Library, Chicago.

Federal and State Relations

B. C. Steiner, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore.

T. L. Montgomery, State Library, Harrisburg, Pa.

Demarchus C. Brown, State Library, Indianapolis, Ind.

Paul Blackwelder, Public Library, St. Louis, Mo.

C. F. Belden, State Library, Boston, Mass.

Thomas M. Owen, Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Ala.

W. P. Cutter, Library of Engineering Societies, New York City.

Travel

F. W. Faxon, Boston Book Co., Boston, Mass.

C. H. Brown, Public Library, Brooklyn.

J. F. Phelan, Public library, Chicago.

Co-ordination

C. H. Gould, McGill University Library, Montreal.

J. L. Gillis, State Library, Sacramento, Cal.

N. D. C. Hodges, Public Library, Cincinnati, O.

W. C. Lane, Harvard University Library, Cambridge, Mass.

Herbert Putnam, Library of Congress, Washington.

T. W. Koch, University of Michigan Library, Ann Arbor.

J. C. Schwab, Yale University Library, New Haven, Conn.

Work with the Blind

Laura M. Sawyer, Perkins Institution, Watertown, Mass.

Lucile Goldthwaite, New York Public Library.

Mrs. Emma N. Delfino, Free Library, Philadelphia.

Mrs. Gertrude T. Rider, Library of Congress, Washington.

Julia A. Robinson, Secretary Iowa Library Commission, Des Moines.

Miriam E. Carey, Supervisor of Institution Libraries of Board of
Control, St. Paul.

Program

E. H. Anderson, Public Library, New York.

H. C. Wellman, City Library, Springfield, Mass.

George B. Utley, A. L. A. Executive Office, Chicago, Ill.

COUNCIL

Meeting of June 24th

The meeting was called to order by President Legler with 45 members present.

The Chair announced the death since the last meeting of the Council of Dr. John Shaw Billings and Mr. Charles Carroll Soule, and by unanimous vote of the Council the Chair appointed Dr. Herbert Putnam, R. R. Bowker and H. C. Wellman a committee to draft resolutions to be presented to the Association at large.

Dr. Bostwick as chairman presented the following:

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RELATIONS BETWEEN THE LIBRARY AND THE MUNICIPALITY

In presenting this final report, your Committee finds it necessary to consider and to give expression to two points of view, both of which are represented in its membership and neither of which can be neglected--one that believes that, owing to diversity of local conditions and of constitutional and other requirements in different parts of the Union, it is impossible to frame definitely a model library law or a model library section of a city charter, and the other, that without some such expression as can be given only in the form of a definite body of law of this kind, the recommendations of the Committee will necessarily be vague and will largely fail of effect.

Your committee has therefore thought it best in the first place to make a statement of the things that a library law or charter section should, in its opinion, aim to do, giving reasons where necessary; and in the second place to present a definite example of the way in which these things may be done, accompanied by a warning that before adopting it as a model in any specific instance, it should be carefully studied by some competent person and modified to suit the necessities of the case. Your committee realizes also that every state library law should contain provisions, such as those regulating the State Library and Library Commission, which do not fall within the duties assigned to this committee and hence are not touched upon in this report.

And first, regarding the aims of a library law:

(a) We reiterate our statement of last year that the library is an educational institution and that education is a matter of state rather than of local concern. If a state already has a good library law which has worked and is working well and satisfactorily to all concerned, local libraries should be left in operation under the provisions of the law, precisely as the schools should be and generally are left, no matter what changes in the form of municipal government are contemplated or have been carried into effect. If the state law is not entirely satisfactory, it is better to amend it than to try to better matters through the local charter. The charter may well contain, to avoid the possibility of conflict, some such special disclaimer as the following: "Nothing in this charter shall be so construed as to interfere with the operation of the public library under the library laws of the state." If the library law contains provisions seemingly in conflict with new charter provisions, some additional definition may be necessary.

(b) Possibly we are not yet ready for compulsory library establishment throughout a state, but at all events it should be made simple and easy for any public taxing or governing body to establish a free public library and to tax itself for the support of that library, accepting gifts where necessary and obligating itself to fulfill the conditions under which these gifts are made. This would include municipalities, counties, townships, school districts, boards of education, etc.

The library should be assured of reasonable and sufficient financial support, either through the operation of a special-tax provision or by the requirement of a minimum appropriation by the authorities. In no case should the existence or value of the library be placed in jeopardy by making possible a capricious withdrawal or lessening of support by the local authorities.

(c) The library should be administered by an independent board of trustees, not by a single commissioner, and, in particular, not by a commissioner who has other matters on his hands. In case such grouping appears necessary, the library should be placed with other educational agencies and in no case treated as a group of buildings or a mere agency of recreation. The board should be a body corporate, distinct from other municipal organizations and departments, with powers of succession, power to sue and be sued, to acquire and hold property, etc. The terms of its members should not expire all at once, so that reasonable continuity in policy will be insured. It should have power to take over and manage other city libraries, school libraries and, by contract, libraries in other municipalities or communities.

(d) The funds of the library, including those derived from taxation, bequest, gift, and library fines and desk receipts, should be at the board's free disposal for library purposes, including the purchase of land and the erection of buildings. They should be received and held by the municipal authorities, and disbursed on voucher, with the same safeguards and under the same auspices as those required for other public funds.

(e) The library should be operated on the merit system, in the same way that the schools are so operated--not by placing the selection and promotion of library employees in the hands of the same board that selects clerks and mechanics for the city departments, but by requiring that the library board establish and carry out an efficient system of service satisfactory to the proper authorities.

The board should have entire control of its own working force and should initiate its own policies, including selection of sites and planning of buildings, its librarian being regarded both as its executive officer and as its expert adviser, to whom the choice of methods and the management of details are naturally left. He should be present at meetings of the board and may serve as its secretary.

We regard as satisfactory any body of law that will accomplish the results aimed at in the following sections, which your committee does not regard as couched in legal phraseology. Before being used in any state its provisions should be worded by a competent person experienced in drafting bills for the legislature of that state.