Chapter XXIII: Section 3: of the By-laws to include representation of state, (11)

Mr. LAPP: That question might properly come up later, but I just mention at this time that we should be thinking about it, and report at a later session of this organization, this week. The matter is very important to us, because we have some difficulty in selecting. We have some difficulty in knowing just what the members of the association desire most, and at the present time we have a working arrangement with a number of people who are supplying things regularly. We should be glad to enter into arrangements with others if the demand seems to be great. Just now we have an arrangement with the Public Utilities Committee, which supplies every two or three months a summary of the best public utility references of the period before. We also have an arrangement with the Library of Congress, through Mr. Meyer, by which we receive a bibliography for every issue, a short bibliography on some obscure subject, some subject that is not covered in any systematic bibliography, or not covered adequately; and the desire is to get questions which would be of the widest interest and at the same time not conflict with something that has already been published, because the whole purpose of the Special Libraries Association is to do those things which nobody else does. If we find that we are doing something now which somebody else can do better, we should be very glad to transfer it to them, and merely undertake those things which nobody else does. We have an arrangement also by which we are going to receive some of the best references to material on city documents, beginning with the next issue. That I think will add very materially to the value of the publication, because city documents, as you know, are now almost inaccessible for the reason that no one knows that they are published until they are perhaps out of print, and they cannot be obtained.

I would like to take this opportunity of asking all our friends to contribute whenever they know of anything that is done or that has happened regarding a bibliography or in the way of a special locality that you think should be mentioned, that you send a note to the editors, or send us a copy of the publication itself. This is purely a co-operative enterprise, and it is by co-operation that we get the real value of the work. The hope is to cover the whole country, so that if a man is working on a subject in Boston some one in San Francisco can learn about it, and, if he is thinking of doing the same thing, have him co-operate and perhaps get that thing done better; and any information which can be given which will facilitate that plan will be of very great value to the association and be a very great help to the editors.

Mr. CUTTER: The first statement Mr. Marion made, about obtaining assistants for the people who need them, is, I think, the most searching question in connection with special libraries. It seems to me it would be wise for this association to communicate with graduating classes of some of our universities and suggest to the members of those classes well enough in advance that the library profession is a desirable thing for young men to enter. I think it would be a very wise thing for this association to take that up, and tell them the reasons why, and the demand for assistants. At the present time I have knowledge of several positions, but the specification is made that men are desired, as most of our business men are so ignorant that they do not know how efficient women are.

I would say in regard to what Mr. Lapp mentioned, that I have some 250 bibliographies on engineering subjects, some of them too special, but some of them would, I think, be of general interest, and I will take the opportunity of sending him a list of these.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: It might be of interest to note what has already been printed in connection with the Library of Congress, to show the character of the publications received from that source. You will recall, for instance, a bibliography on the drinking habit, the short ballot, on anti-cigarette ordinances and laws, the open shop, public utility rates, the pardoning power, compulsory voting, preferential voting, and, finally, city planning, and, also, I might say, one on the administration of charities and correction boards, a rather technical subject, which appeared in the April number, 1911.

(There here followed a discussion led by Mr. C. A. George, of Elizabeth, N. J., in which he asked for information as to the real purpose of the Special Libraries movement. Mr. Josephson, the vice-president, and Mr. G. W. Lee, of Stone & Webster, Boston, offered replies to the questions asked.)

Mr. DUDGEON: My connection with this association was due to this conception, that in my business, which was legislative work, etc., I conceived that there was a great deal in books that ought to be brought to the attention of the people who were doing the work, and I was glad to join an association whose special function seemed to be to help one another devise ways and means of getting book knowledge into the hands of the actual workers. Now, that seems to me to be somewhat of a distinct proposition. I think Mr. Cutter's definition justifies our existence. We are specialized in getting knowledge out of books and out of the experience of others into the hands of workers rather than into the hands of people who are just thinking about working. It seems to me that it is quite distinct although hard to distinguish.

Miss LINDHOLM: I believe in the effort to make the business public more appreciative of the work we are doing, we should write more articles about our work and our libraries. I think if there were articles written for the different electrical, engineering, automobile and manufacturing periodicals it would help a great deal.

Mr. CUTTER: I would suggest, Mr. President, that you can combine all those periodicals the lady mentions by writing articles for the Wall Street Journal. That is the place where the people read things.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: The editor of the Wall Street Journal was with us at our September meeting and gave us a very interesting description of his own part of the work in connection with the business, and the information bureau established by the Wall Street Journal. I sometimes think we fail to note the speed with which that information must be obtained, either in the reference department or the newspaper. They will sometimes employ a mere mechanical device to save two minutes in connection with the information given.

I think Miss Lindholm's suggestion is a very good one and possibly can be worked out by getting more and more in touch with the trade periodicals. Many of those trade periodicals are not taken by the public libraries, are not listed in any indexes of periodicals, and much of the material afforded there is of unusual value.

Mr. CUTTER: I would suggest that we have a committee on publicity for the association.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: The committee have a plan to advance for that which I think they will bring out at the next meeting.

SECOND (FIRST JOINT) SESSION

(Friday, June 28, 2:30 p. m.)

The second session was a joint session held in conjunction with the National Association of State Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries and the Bibliographical Society of America. Mr. George S. Godard, acting secretary-treasurer of the National Association of State Libraries, called the meeting to order and occupied the chair.

Before beginning the regular program, Mr. Beer, librarian of the Howard Memorial library at New Orleans, called attention to a bibliography of French fiction, which he had come across during his travels in Europe last year. He said in part: "I discovered that there was being published at Lisle on the borders of Belgium by a Roman Catholic priest the most honest, the bravest review of fiction that exists in any language. He does not fear to mention every book which is published. He praises those which are good, and he scathes with the most bitter sarcasm and truthfulness those that are absolutely bad. He is the Abbé Bellian. If a young lady goes to buy a book she is asked if that particular book is in the list of Abbé Bellian. If it is not that store refuses to supply it to any one who is not of lawful age. It has been supplemented by a monthly publication which is very reasonable in price. It has been published since 1903." He urged that all become familiar with this book in order that the supply of French books generally throughout the United States in our libraries may be much more carefully selected and be more representative of the great French fiction. Dean Walton of the McGill University law school, Montreal, prepared a paper entitled "Legal systems of Canada, with a list of statutes and other legal papers of the Province of Quebec." This paper opened the formal program and was read by Mr. Charles H. Gould. This paper was followed by another entitled "Present Status of legal bibliography" by Dean Wigmore of the Northwestern University law school. This was read by Mr. Edwin M. Borchard, law librarian of the Library of Congress, in connection with his own paper on "The bibliography of international and foreign law, with an account of the method of building up the collections of foreign and international law in the Library of Congress." After reading Dean Wigmore's paper and discussing the present literature in this field and existing bibliographies, Mr. Borchard called attention to the effect which the increase in foreign travel had had upon all law library problems in America, bringing in as it had the wider international relations from year to year. He said "There are three points of view that have guided us" (in the formation of the Library of Congress collection) "the practicing lawyer's necessity of knowing foreign law, the legislator's necessity for knowing the solution of social and economic problems, the scientific object, the students' need of developing the science of law." He dwelt at some length upon the methods which he had used in arriving at the best selection of foreign continental law books. Through his connection as international law expert at the Hague Fisheries Arbitration he was enabled to get first hand judgment regarding the actual books by foreign lawyers. Further in the name of the Government by correspondence he approached the law departments of universities, judges of Supreme Courts, practicing lawyers, etc., of other countries. In Latin America he worked through the consuls and ministers of the United States to get such information. By these methods the books were ordered and many have now arrived. The question now presents itself as to how to make available this new material. This is being done by the publication of guides to the foreign law. "The first guide, the guide of the law of Germany, appeared about a month and a half ago.... It undertakes to furnish an introduction to the German system as a whole, and to the principal leading institutions, as parts of the system in some detail, mentioning particularly the important literature and how to use it, what the American lawyer in terms of his own law may expect to find in these European books.... The guide of the law of France is now in course of preparation, and will probably appear about the first of next year. We hope then to continue with Austria, Spain and Italy, which we consider the important countries. Later we may publish Belgium and Switzerland in one volume, perhaps including Scandinavia, and then one volume for the law of Latin America. If we do not get to the publication of guides we will publish the material that we have received, editing it with perhaps bibliographic notes of such information as we can convey in order to open up this bibliographic source to the general investigator.... We are getting many letters every week in Washington from lawyers throughout the whole United States, asking for information on foreign law.... Comparative law is a field which is now getting great impetus, partly through the work of developing legal collections, partly through the necessities of a case. We are no longer an insular nation. Growing international relations are making necessary some knowledge of foreign law and the desirability of its knowledge to legislators is admitted, I think, without a question."

Mrs. Margaret C. Klingelsmith, librarian of the Biddle law library of the University of Pennsylvania, followed with a paper upon "The books of the beginnings." Prof. Archibald McGoun of McGill university next presented a paper entitled "The bibliography of Canadian law." Dr. G. E. Wire of the Worcester county law library of Massachusetts opened the discussion. Speaking of the ordinary bar library for the working lawyer, he urged that there was needed an extension of Mr. Soule's Manual referred to in Dean Wigmore's article. He advocated also a much shorter list of citations than that employed in Soule. He further referred to the need of some publication on Spanish American bibliography, which would cover such things as the number of Porto Rican reports in a given series. He would like also some publication which would give the various codes and compilations of laws, both official and unofficial, in advance of "our law book friend" who comes along to tell us about it. From the practical standpoint he said that books on foreign laws were so much more useful when translated, that in the average law library the same books in the original language would be rarely used.

THIRD (SECOND GENERAL) SESSION

(Monday, July 1, 1912, 2:50 p. m.)

The third session was the second session for discussion of problems peculiar to the special library and was called to order by Vice-President Brigham.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: We have one paper which remains from our first session, and I am going to call for that paper first.

That will be a paper by Mr. T. J. Homer, member of the Massachusetts bar, on "The Boston co-operative information bureau." The development of that bureau is interesting and is the first attempt, I think, in this country co-operatively to work the libraries by exchange of publications, and I think probably you can be supplied on application with copies of their bulletins which some of us have here, and which will show you the extent of the movement. I am going to ask Mr. Marion to read Mr. Homer's paper.[15]

[15] This will be published in full in the Library journal and reprinted in Special Libraries.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: We will now proceed to the regular program for the day. We have a paper by Mr. D. N. HANDY. The topic has been changed by the speaker so, that it reads, "The library as a business asset; when and how?" and I introduce now Mr. Handy of the Insurance Library Association of Boston.

THE LIBRARY AS A BUSINESS ASSET; WHEN AND HOW?[16]

I feel that this subject of the asset value of the special library is one that is bound to be constantly growing in interest, because, of course, the tendency of business is to scrutinize carefully the things which it pays money for, and unless it can be shown that the library has some asset value, naturally, the library will come in for the first cuts in the budgets, and, later on, a complete cutting off. When the subject was assigned me by Mr. Marion he put the subject as "The library as a business asset." I have therefore discussed the subject from that standpoint, and inasmuch as it seemed to me that the whole thing resolved itself into a few very general and broad principles I have not made any attempt to consider details at all, but have assumed one or two things that it seemed to me must lie at the bottom of the whole proposition and must decide for us whether the library is to find a place among commercial assets and is to receive from business the support to which as an asset it is entitled.

[16] Abstract. The full paper will appear in "Special Libraries."

An asset, in business, is a debt-satisfying possession. In determining business solvency assets are set over against liabilities, and if the former exceed the latter, the business is said to be solvent. The term assets is applied technically to _material_ possessions. But there are possessions other, and even more essential than material: these are the _moral_, out of which assets grow. At the foundation of every business lie courage, competency, integrity, perseverance. These cannot be computed or averaged, but their commercial value is everywhere recognized.

Wherefore, let us at the outset agree that when we speak of the library as a business-asset, we speak not of its value as so many books and pamphlets, but of its value as a contributing agency to those more fundamental possessions to which material assets owe their existence.

What, then, has the library contributed and what may it in the future hope to contribute that will add to business courage, integrity, competency, perseverance In a word, to business efficiency?

The answer is found in a measure in our conception of a library and its function. Shall we then describe what we have in mind when we speak of the library that may become a business asset?

It certainly is not any collection of books and pamphlets under any custodian and handled probably more often by the janitor than the manager. That is not the kind of library that we have in mind. Our library is a collection organized and planned for a definite end....

The measure of its value is to be sought in increasing efficiency of personnel; wider outlook, clearer vision, firmer grasp, greater fortitude.

It would be pleasant to think of the precise manner in which a library might entrench itself in business favor, until it became admittedly indispensable. Such an experience is not uncommon. Libraries there are today--adjuncts of successful business houses--which stand on a plane of equality with every other department; whose directors are in every sense advisers; whose position in importance and dignity yields precedence to none. They add efficiency to the entire staff, and by breadth and merit bring distinction to the business they serve.

The asset value of a library is dependent upon a variety of conditions.

Foremost among them, I should say, must be a condition of receptivity on the part of business itself.

Again, and only second in importance, is the attitude of the library towards business. If the library shall cling to traditional aims; shall overestimate the importance of conventional methods; shall hold disdainfully aloof from those adaptations and changes which alone can make it useful to business, then its asset value will never be large or general.

Finally, assuming business and the library to agree as to their mutual helpfulness, the lines along which they are to co-operate, if the results are to be satisfying to both, must be susceptible of being easily seen and followed....

At no time in the history of the modern business world has the opportunity been so favorable for a lasting alliance between the library and business. Business was never more complex, nor more moral. Greater wisdom is required to develop it. It is more sensitive. Results come quicker, failure follows more promptly on the heels of error--success almost anticipates the footsteps of sound judgment. Consequences are more far reaching. Disaster to one involves many--while bankruptcy carries overthrow and panic to hundreds of others.

The greater demands of business are seen not only in the enormous growth of industrial enterprises, and the larger responsibilities of management, but in the increasing numbers of college and university men who are seeking business careers.

Again, an almost revolutionary change has taken place in the public attitude towards business of every kind. It matters not what it is. The idea now is that men live for service; that men organize socially, commercially, and industrially for service. And if any organization is unable to undergo this test it must reform, or stand aside and let a better take its place. This I take it is the interpretation of the great unrest which has possessed England and America in the last decade....

All these--this increasing complexity, growing sense of social responsibility, demand for an increasing inflow of college men into business--spell opportunity for the library as an indispensable adjunct for business enterprise. Answering for our first condition, then, it may be said that business is in a receptive mood, and that it stands ready today to welcome among its productive forces the library organization.

But if the library is to be truly an asset to business enterprise, the library itself must recognize not only its opportunity but its responsibility. The failure of the general library to lead in this work of aiding business in the solution of its problems has been inevitable. Business wants its own technology; it wants pamphlets, clippings, reports--all sorts of special things which no public library with all its other obligations could ever hope to get and to classify.

Hence the need of specialized libraries and special methods. It is evident that the special library has a whole field of methods yet to amplify, systematize and unify. If the library is to help business it must be organized as business is organized. To get everything on a subject may be necessary for some purposes, and is always interesting to the bibliographer; but to get the adequate thing is the business-librarian's ideal of service, and if he misses it he may wake up surprised to find his labor unappreciated.

Business is multiplying short-cuts, motion-savers, "efficiency" getters in every department; it will tolerate nothing less from the library. It is for the library to prove its value--to demonstrate its practical worth by adjusting itself to the business environment. It must not follow too closely the traditions of general library work. It ought to be familiar with general library methods; but it should never lose sight of the fact that general library methods were devised with an eye single to general library problems. The problems of a business library are different.

This, then, is the duty of the business library if the title to asset-value is to go unchallenged. And the library may be certain that business will not take it at its own appraisal but will demand to see for itself whether its claims are justified.

Business libraries in many cities are justifying their existence and are gradually making for themselves a secure place among the assets of the enterprises which they represent.... Finally, how are the library and business to co-operate for their mutual advantage?

It is evident that in this respect business has to perform a duty even greater than we have laid upon the library itself. If the library is under obligation to adapt itself to the needs of business, business is under special obligation to place its resources more completely at the disposal of the library. It must take the library seriously and plan for it accordingly....

Business fails to appreciate the ally that it might have in the well conducted library. It appreciates and at times is mildly grateful for the library's service; but it has shown no great discernment when it came to an understanding of the means by which the service was rendered. It asks for and expects results; but has little appreciation of the price at which results must be bought.

An indispensable requisite of a business library is a librarian thoroughly conversant with the main facts of the business. He must know its theory and history. He must be freed from routine at least to the extent necessary to enable him to become an expert in the materials which he handles. He must be treated as a literary adviser and given the opportunity to develop literary discrimination and judgment in the field which he covers. Then he becomes more than a custodian of books; he is a counselor, impressing his personality upon a unique source of business inspiration, namely, the business literature of his collecting and bringing direct to his superiors the information which they will know how to use for the good of the business as a whole.

Subordinates, working under him, will assemble, classify, card index, bulletin and distribute, while the library itself will stand on a level with manufacturing, accounting and selling. It will be a department of the business, organized like other departments, for efficiency....

The library may adapt itself to business, but it is for business to say whether the adaptation shall be thoroughgoing and effective. Is the library, then, a business asset? My answer is that it is such just in proportion as business is willing to let it be. When business shall treat it as it treats other factors of business success, discerning its possibilities of usefulness, encouraging and planning for its development, adapting it to the requirements of business activity, then it will justify itself unquestionably....

Business has already awakened to the possibilities of library help, and wherever it has done so with insight and courage it has answered for itself the question which we have here proposed. In banking, in finance, in engineering, in applied chemistry, in insurance and in numerous other fields, business has set itself to the task of adapting library methods to business needs. Special collections administered for special requirements are springing up in every large city, and the liberality with which these are beginning to be supported is in some respects an indication of business' own estimate of their value.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: The matter is now open for discussion, and I will ask Mr. Morton, librarian of the United Gas & Fuel Company, to be the first speaker.[17]

[17] Mr. Morton's discussion will appear in "Special Libraries."

The VICE-PRESIDENT: The next speaker is Miss MARGARET E. MURRAY, librarian of Wm. Filene's Sons, Boston, who will address us on the subject

THE EARNING POWER OF A SPECIAL REFERENCE LIBRARY ON RETAIL DISTRIBUTION

The Wm. Filene's Sons Company of Boston are retailers of men's, women's, children's and infants' wearing apparel and employ at present about 900, but in a few months will employ 2000 employees. Among other innovations they have made provision for a Business Reference Library in their new building, which they are to occupy this coming fall, and which is, so far as we know, the first in this line of business.

It is planned to have on file all information relating to the business and such other information as may be helpful to the management and all other employees in the discharge of their duties, such as daily papers, technical and general reference books, trade journals, newspaper clippings, and typewritten material.

The library was created because there was a definite need for a central clearing house of information on the latest and best in retail distribution and because it was urgent that one department should be responsible to care for safely and mobilize the valuable information, books and pamphlets scattered throughout the various offices of the organization.

Now what will the earning power of this special reference library be? It will be in exact proportion to its use and efficiency, based on just how well and how often it can make or save a dollar for the business. It will depend largely on how aggressive the library policy will be in creating needs and meeting the needs for its material, and although it may not be able to show quite as tangible a profit and loss statement as a merchandise department, still there should be the same effort and desire to know the stock on hand the first of the month, the purchases, the expenses of the department, the stock on hand at the end of the month (having in mind depreciation) and the sales, which would be services rendered.

The more efficiently and oftener the reference library serves the organization, the more time it saves high-priced executives, and helps the rank and file, the more certain it will become a permanent paying department of the business and make itself indispensable. This is in general how the earning value will be determined. However, if the library is to succeed, such general statements will not be sufficient.

The chances for service and making definite contributions toward business efficiency in a large retail establishment are innumerable, and especially in a progressive house like the one with which I have the honor to be associated.

But such service and such contribution must be made very definite, must be made very specific and must be applied to every member of the organization.

For some years past our company has been experimenting with profit sharing agreements, and one of the difficulties has been for general profit sharers, men and women in non-selling departments, working for the whole store, to show what has been his or her contribution toward profits.

Therefore, if a reference librarian, who would be termed a general profit sharer, fails to study, position by position, just how he or she can contribute to the needs of the men and women connected with the organization, the library will not be recognized and felt as a money making investment. It is, therefore, along these lines that the Filene reference library will be operated.

In all the initial steps and preparatory work of organizing, the methods of the legislative reference libraries are as far as possible being applied.

The work of some of the successful legislative reference libraries is divided into three main divisions--comparative, critical and constructive, and in analyzing the store material on hand, it is found that pretty nearly all of these main divisions of reference work have in the past been practically ignored. In isolated cases, comparative work has been attempted, as for instance, furnishing specific information from some other store on some store policy for some one manager, but it has not been disseminated and placed at the service of all. The need of having this work done has been recognized and in the future will be done through the library.

Retail distribution has its laws and policies, but the laws and policies are, to a large degree, empirical. They are the result of years of effort and experience, and what was good five years ago, may not be good today. All policies are constantly changing.

Therefore, the first work, and at present in hand, before the library can start on its aggressive mission is to tabulate, classify, index and fit for use the present valuable information scattered throughout the offices of the management, destroying everything obsolete or whatever has become a permanent part of the store organization.

For it is imperative in a fast growing business employing an increasing number of executives, that new employees should profit to the fullest extent by the experience of past years and how other people have handled problems new to us, and the library can assist very definitely by placing in their hands brief summaries on important subjects connected with the business, revised copies of duties of various positions, bibliographies on important subjects related to the business, and any other material that will help them absorb in the shortest possible time the fundamentals of the business.

Perhaps it may be of interest to mention briefly what special subjects, both general and technical, the library must watch out for. The best way is, with apologies, to give you an idea of the personnel of the management. The Filene brothers and their partners are public spirited citizens; one brother, Mr. Edward A. Filene, with a few other men, organized the present successful Boston City Club and was largely responsible for the amalgamation of the numerous commercial organizations of the city into the present Boston Chamber of Commerce, and was chairman of the recent Metropolitan Plan Commission of Massachusetts. The other brother, Mr. A. Lincoln Filene, served for three years on the State Commission for Industrial Education and is now a member of the Executive Board of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, and also contributed largely in time and money to the Boston Vocational Bureau. The other partners are also serving on special committees of various organizations and are all, with the Filenes, very keenly interested in labor problems, the relations of employers to employees, and each has on his desk the best books on scientific management, as Taylor's, Gantt's, Emerson's and Brandeis'.

Therefore, first of all the business reference library will have on its shelves six or seven of the best books on scientific management, also books on organization and finance. Then will be added special books on bookkeeping, auditing, insurance, statistics, advertising, decorating, buying, selling, materials, and subjects of interest to the Filene Co-operative Association (an organization consisting of all employees and members of the corporation, each member having a single vote) such as pensions, arbitration, compulsory insurance, co-operative housing, etc.

Perhaps it might also be well to add that this association has maintained a library of all the popular fiction for the past twelve years, and no fiction will be placed in the new business reference library.

The librarian is also custodian of all the private contracts, leases and corporation records, and is expected to prepare digests of any important papers at any time.

This is what the Filene library expects to do and must arrange for resources to actually obtain and devise ways and means for the dissemination of information needed.

The VICE-PRESIDENT:--We have with us today Miss E. V. Dobbins, who is librarian of the Edward Accounting library of the American Telegraph & Telephone Company, New York City, and she will add to the discussion.

Miss DOBBINS: I desired not to write a paper, because I might write one too long and not say much in the end, so I thought perhaps it would be interesting just to tell you why our immense corporation found it necessary to have a library. We have a large engineering library; that is, we have a very fine collection of technical books--unfortunately, as yet, no librarian; we have a splendid legal library, and I represent the accounting library. Two years ago our comptroller, who is an authority on accounting in the United States and has some reputation abroad, decided that it was necessary to get together the material, and they were good enough to offer me the position, which I was very glad to accept. So we collected what few books we had. We didn't have much. We bought largely. All our men are authorities on the particular subjects with which they deal, so, consequently, in buying books for our library we cannot select, as we used to in the public library, with due respect to the library, any and all books on a particular subject. We have to have the last word upon it. Accounting is a peculiar subject inasmuch as there are only about four or five authorities--I may be wrong, that is all I could ever find. If anybody knows of any more I should be more than glad of the information.

We go largely into economics. We also take up public utilities and reports of county and state governments and city reports. We do some little work in scientific management. I do not think the sympathies of the officials lie very largely in the direction of scientific management, however. Everybody there is supposed to know his job and do it. We are very fortunate in not being handicapped for money. We can buy whatever is out, just as soon as it is out, and as many copies as we find it necessary to have. We deal primarily with the accounting department, which includes the statistician's department too, and the executive department. Those are two very big departments and they keep us pretty busy all the time. We have quite a file of pamphlets. We do not give as much care to the pamphlets as we do to the books. When we came to the question of cataloging I realized that we had a very big piece of work on our hands, and we were short of help, and it was essential that we have everything up to date just as quickly as we possibly could. So I bought Library of Congress cards, and it was a very happy inspiration, for we had everything done by sub-headings and everything assigned in about two weeks, and of course that helped considerably.

The library is used frequently and primarily by the officials and the directors. The employees of the company have the privilege of coming, and they come often and freely. The comptroller has told me time and time again that he could not measure in actual money value the service the library has given the house and himself primarily. We take all the leading economic and scientific journals and they circulate. I have a list of the names of the various men to whom they go. I tried to have a specified time for their return, but I am sorry to say it did not work out. Our desks are all equipped with telephones, so we telephone, and if they can find them they return them. When they cannot find them the oldest office boy, Joseph, is enlisted. I think he was the leader of the Boy Scouts. He knows generally where to get them. I think he says they are generally behind the desks, but in any event we get them, and if they are very badly torn, mutilated or marked, we buy other copies to bind. The leading magazines we bind as soon as the volume is completed. They form the largest part of our reference work. I go over those magazines very carefully and find what I would like to bring out more prominently than in a bound magazine, and we catalog those particular subjects, buy extra copies, put them in the pamphlet file, catalog them and put them in the pamphlet catalog, so that if by any chance the bound volume is out and a particular article is sought, we have it. We find in those two places we can generally meet all the needs of the library. I do not think any of the people of the corporation have really ever become familiar with the actual library side of it. They look upon a shelflist as something fearful and awful, and they do not understand it, but as long as they get what they want when they want it, they seem thoroughly happy. Speaking in a quite impersonal way, I think our library is quite a business asset, because I can candidly say that the men who are at the head of our corporation would not tolerate it five minutes if it were not.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: We were to have a paper by Miss Abbott of the reference department of the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Ind. She was hindered, however, in the preparation of this paper, and also from coming to this meeting, but the paper will be furnished later and printed in "Special Libraries."

The VICE-PRESIDENT: I would like to inquire whether Mr. Pack, Secretary and Comptroller of the Toronto Electric Light Company is here.

Mr. LAPP: Mr. Chairman, I have a letter from Mr. Pack which I wish to read. When Mr. Pack was asked to be present at this meeting he said he would write his views at least, if he could not come. He has written a general statement of his belief in the special library.

(Mr. Lapp here read the letter which is available at the office of Secretary.)

Mr. MARION: May I ask whether Miss Tutt, who is present, I think, might not have something to say in relation to the automobile library, inasmuch as she is actively representing Miss Elizabeth Abbott here?

Miss TUTT: Mr. Chairman, I scarcely feel prepared to say anything about her library, particularly as an automobile library, for I do not know that she has done anything especially in the automobile work of her library, her work taking up all lines. Her work has grown to such an extent that she told me just a day or two before I left that she really did not know but that they would have to get another name for it; she had not as yet found anything in the corporation that she had not been called upon to do, so that she was at a loss to know just what it was that she was expected to do. It has developed wonderfully and very satisfactorily. It has been up-hill work, as you all know. The corporation has changed hands, gone into various companies, come back again, and she had it all to meet and arrange. All that work and all the papers and records have just simply piled up, are all being sorted out now, indexed and put in order. She is doing a wonderful work. The other institutions there in South Bend are watching very closely her work and I think it will be but a short time before the other factories will be following suit; but so far as the automobile part is concerned, there is nothing any more special in that than in any other line of work that she has done; that is to say, nothing that I know of.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: I am going to ask Mr. Marion, our secretary, who is at the head of a technical library, to take part in this discussion.

Mr. MARION: I must say, as one of the other speakers, that I have not prepared a paper, believing that in such an assemblage of essayists and discussers it would not be impossible to find some very good material from which to talk extemporaneously. I have not been disappointed. Two or three points I will mention in what may be only a rambling discussion, but they may be worth while to some of you.

Mr. Handy mentioned in a passing way only the entrance of a large number of college men into business today. I do not think he put the matter nearly strong enough. It is this very entrance of well-educated men into business, rather than coming in through the long process of experience, entering, that is, half way up the scale of life, equipped with a fine technical training, making them already professional men, as the physician steps into the community a professional man, that has forced business to equip itself along a little different line. It seems to me this is one of the great telling reasons why more and more special libraries are going to be built up in manufacturing concerns and industrial plants; for with these men coming in, they do not come as mechanics wanting a plane, a saw or a hammer; they come primarily wanting books and nothing else. They have been trained to the ample use of books for four and sometimes six years previous to their entrance to business, and to take books away from them would be like taking the plane or saw or hammer away from the carpenter. So these men must be provided for, and I think that is one of the chief causes that is compelling business to adopt libraries.

Regarding the type of librarian that is required for administering this sort of a library, I think enough emphasis has not been put upon the keen aliveness which is required in these people, if I may be pardoned for saying so, in comparison to those who are employed in public institutions, where the term of office is likely to run anyway for a year. In business, we have to make good, and to make good seriously, daily. Our reputation is at stake every time a question is asked.

Then it seems to me there is no opportunity for the quiet type of librarian who would like short hours and the freedom to come and go at leisure. It requires primarily some one of tireless vitality and one who is ready to sacrifice himself to build up not only the efficiency of his own department, but to support other departments when they may be overworked.

This brings me to the point of the preparation for special librarianship. I question very much whether the librarian who is prepared through the regular source of supply, the library school, today, is going to become just the type of person to take up this special library work. It seems to me the more I consider it that a great many of the most successful special librarians are those who have grown up through business, at least to a certain degree, and have taken on the library training in their own quiet moments. If this is the case, would it be worth while for the library schools to consider a list of special libraries where candidates for their certificates or diplomas might go to spend a fraction of their summer vacation in actual special library work and receive credit in their schools toward their diplomas? I think that that might be worked out with more careful thought.

Mr. Morton mentioned the fact that the statistics of the library do not show up against the operating department, the manufacturing department, etc. I want to say that with the Arthur D. Little, Inc., Library, we are now obliged to pass in time slips. In other words, the library has been put upon a par with the other departments, the chemical, the research and the engineering departments, and at the end of every month we are given an opportunity to show what we have done in the way of results.

If there has been a quiet month of course there will be little put in the way of service, in time, but the time slips show and it is up to the library to maintain its standing, to show just what it has done during the month in actual time, because with a concern of the nature of ours, which is a consulting and engineering corporation, time is a great element. Mr. Handy touched upon that, but not half emphatically enough. In the insurance library I am sure he does not appreciate it. The monthly report is based primarily on the time spent on different problems, and these time slips are all assorted and tabulated against special pieces of work which are generally known in an engineering organization by what is called a job number; and so the librarian's time is now being accounted for in the same way that that of the head of the research department is being accounted for. It seems to me that that is a step in advance and indicates progress.

It occurred to me to say to you that while I have been here at this conference I have received application for another membership, so that while we came with 224, we now have 225 members. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company have requested their librarian to become a member of this association, so that we grow daily.

Mr. Brigham has called my attention to the fact that it ought to be brought out forcibly here how necessary it is for every one of you people, no matter what part of the country you may go to, to bring to the attention of this association officially, either through the secretary or the president, the birth of every such library that you may know of. Business does not know us. We know business of course, but until this association has had a much wider publicity campaign than we have been able with our meager means to give it, business cannot come to us and cannot get the help that we can give it. If, then, when you go to your respective places, you would be alive to the creation of every special library in your part of the country, and when you know of a collection of books where a librarian might be necessary, you would bring it to our attention, we would write them and tell them of the service that we can render them.

I think the thing that has impressed me most in the discussion that has gone on just now is the fact that the company that employs Miss Dobbins has three special libraries. That is unique, it seems to me, that one corporation should employ three special libraries; not merely one, but a library for the legal department, another for the accounting department and a third for the engineering department. That it seems to me represents a pretty high development of the special library idea.

Miss DOBBINS: May I just interrupt a moment to say that I too submit a report at the end of every month. It was my own suggestion, for I wanted the company to know that we were doing something, and we would possibly be lost sight of in such an enormous place. So I sent in a report, very brief, just giving the number of books circulated in the various departments, the number of pamphlets and the reference work done. They said they were very glad to get it, and that it put us on a working basis.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: Before opening a more general discussion I would like to have the secretary make a few announcements regarding certain things of interest.

Mr. MARION: I have here a bound volume of "Special Libraries" that all may see everything that has been published to date. I think it would be of interest to some of you who are not familiar with its contents. We also have for sale, if any one cared to purchase them, three copies of Volume 2 complete. Then we have for distribution to any who might care for it, "The earning power of chemistry," which is written by Mr. Little, the president of the concern which I serve. As you know, Mr. Little is, today, one of the foremost industrial chemists in this country, if not in the world. He is also this year, by a very fortunate circumstance, it seems to me, president of the American Chemical Society. I say fortunate because this year America is entertaining the International Congress of Applied Chemistry that meets in Washington and New York in September. This is a review to convince the business man of the usefulness of chemistry in solving his everyday problems. It is a reprint of a free public lecture delivered to the business men of Indianapolis last June. It is simply a talk upon business from another angle. In the same way Mr. Handy's talk is equally strong, it seems to me, from the library standpoint.

We have also for sale here, should any one care to purchase it, the city planning bibliography which was published as the May issue of "Special Libraries." It is 25 cents a copy. This was compiled by Harvard university and the Library of Congress.

I have a few copies left of "The library as an adjunct to industrial laboratories," a paper which I submitted originally to the American Chemical Society at its Boston meeting, and describing in minute detail my own personal library. It may be of interest to some and you are welcome to it if any of you wish to take it away.