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.