PUBLIC DOCUMENTS ROUND TABLE (continued 2)

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]

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.

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]

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.

Mr. HANDY: I was particularly interested in Mr. Marion's discussion, and in one suggestion more especially, that the library school might specialize somewhat more along the lines of special library work. While I think that might well be brought up as a subject of discussion this evening, I should like to say just now that it seems to me, in the first place, that there is a great dearth of properly prepared assistants to do the kind of work that is needed in the special library. I think the libraries that specialize in business library work have found that to be true, and that these library schools in general are not particularly adapted to meet that requirement. It occurs to me, then, that it might be possible for special libraries, possibly through the co-operation of the American Library Association, to get the library schools of the country, at some time in their course, to offer a more specialized course which could be taken by those students who intend to specialize in library work, and that in that course an attempt be made to develop the special library attitude, which is absolutely and wholly different from the general library attitude, toward the subjects handled. It seems to me that several exceedingly good things could come of it. In the first place, if the library schools would do for special libraries as they do for general libraries, that is, if they would select a certain number of libraries, which measure up to certain standards, throughout the country, and assign pupils to those libraries, with the understanding that before they could be qualified they would have to measure up to a certain standard; then a student who spent a certain amount of time in such a library would receive credit for special library work in the library course, exactly the same as students do now in general library work. Then I think you would find that you would get, in the first place, more specialized students; in the second place, I think you would lift the plane of special library work immensely, you would lift it to a much higher plane of professionalism and you would find that your directors and your people who pay the money to support these libraries would vie with one another to be qualified by the leading library schools in the country, and I think that in itself would be an inducement to a good many halting business concerns to support, as they are not supporting now, their libraries; they would see the advertising value of being endorsed by the leading library schools in the country, if they did not see anything else, and they would pay the money necessary to bring their own libraries up to that degree of efficiency.

On the other hand, it seems to me that the special library is offering an exceptionally interesting field to young women going into library work, and that the library schools as at present organized are not pointing the way to them as they should; and possibly the library schools are not in a position to do it. I did not mean to consider this at this point, but I do think that is one of the subjects that might be seriously considered now or this evening, and, if necessary, a committee appointed to go over the whole subject, and possibly co-operate with the American Library Association or the library schools, whichever might be necessary, to bring it to a focus.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: It might be of interest to know that in Simmons we have a library school which appoints special courses with a view to fitting women especially for economic and business library work.

Do you desire, Mr. Handy, to put your suggestion in the form of a motion now or later?

Mr. HANDY: My motion, then, would be this, that the subject of co-operation between the library schools and the special libraries, with the aim of preparing students especially for special library work, be taken up at the conference this evening. (Carried)

The VICE-PRESIDENT: Before we take up any further discussion, out of respect to the Chairman of the Municipal Year Book Committee, I wish to ask for a report from that joint committee, of which Mr. Ranck is chairman.

Mr. RANCK: I can only report progress again. I had hoped to be able to report something very definite at this time. Our committee had a meeting in New York in June, after the Pasadena meeting, at which time there were present Mr. Baker, the editor of "Engineering News;" Professor Hart of Harvard; Professor Rowe of the University of Pennsylvania; Mr. Woodruff of the National Municipal League, Dr. Whitten of the New York Public Service Library and myself. I think that includes all of the persons who were present.

The committee discussed first of all what should be included in a municipal year book, and as a result of that discussion, which lasted three hours, in the City Club, Mr. Woodruff was delegated to take up with certain publishing houses the project of putting this thing through. I have had several letters from Mr. Woodruff within the last few months, or weeks, on this subject, and he hoped to have a definite announcement ready for this meeting. The delay has been on account of the fact that the head of one of the publishing houses, the one that seemed most favorable toward this project, and a publishing house that is in the business of making year books and encyclopedias, was in Europe, and so Mr. Woodruff could not get that thing put through. However, he is in hopes that it may be put through almost any day.

I may say that thus far the prospects of our having for the cities of the United States and Canada an American municipal year book, are altogether favorable.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: Do you wish the committee to be continued?

Mr. RANCK: I think we have this in hand and that perhaps we might continue it.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: This committee has rather a unique function anyway. It speaks for both the State Libraries and the Special Libraries associations, a joint committee.

Mr. RANCK: And there was brought into it the National Municipal League and several others.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: Doubtless the National Municipal Review will contain in time notes of the proceedings of that committee, so that the members will be informed. Could it not be done that way?

Mr. RANCK: As soon as the thing is definitely decided I will notify the secretary.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: Yes, but I mean it would be available for any one to read in the National Municipal Review which appears from time to time.

Mr. RANCK: Probably, yes. If I may be permitted, I should like to say a word about another matter that was under discussion this afternoon. I was very much interested in what was said about present engineering training and the kind of training of men who are going into business, in their use of books, and their demand on libraries. A few weeks ago I had the privilege of going through one of the largest electric lamp factories in the country, one of whose branches has 2000 people employed, and I was particularly interested in the corps of professional men. I went there to visit a friend of mine who is a physical engineer. He was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, was afterward at the head of the department of physics in one of our state institutions, and was taken from that into this concern, and within the last three years that concern has engaged, I think, four or five doctors of philosophy, four or five men who have been professors in technical schools, and they are going at that business altogether different from the rule of thumb method; and that type of men who are accustomed to use books and who do use them are coming into demand more and more. One thing my friend said, that impressed me very much, was this, that in going about to a number of engineering schools, Cornell, the State College of Pennsylvania and several others, he has been talking to the boys taking engineering courses, of the chances and opportunities for going into that sort of work. These companies are after technically trained men from the colleges and universities and they send men like him out to talk to the boys and try to get them to come into their works. Another thing he emphasized, and which I think we must keep in our mind all the time—it is a thing we emphasize as librarians of the public libraries, but it has a bearing in the work of this organization as well—he said he was telling the boys at Cornell and those other engineering schools that while engineers have to deal with things, they have to know science; yet that more than half of the problems of the average engineer are problems of men rather than problems of things. In other words, that the humanities must be studied; that you must know sociology—that was referred to here this afternoon—and economics, just as much as chemistry and business and all that sort of thing. In short the two must go together.

Mr. G. W. LEE: Mr. Chairman, you have a question box there which has been forgotten all about, and I am not very sorry.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: No, I haven't. I am going to put it in for discussion, the whole thing.

Mr. LEE: There were no questions, I think, except the question box. I should like to question that. There ought to be some machinery at these conferences for introducing the new members; some method by which we can all let it be known what we especially want to know; some way to meet the people that have this information.

Now, what I want to say about the question box is that it seems to me that the Special Libraries Association might introduce a circular that tells about the next conference of the American Library Association, and could put in a little slip saying, "Please send to headquarters a statement of what you want to know, what is your specialty." It would help immensely. People come here to get some information; they want to know about filing photographs, about dry-goods libraries and so on, and we ought to make it possible for them to get something out of the convention without trying too hard.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: I think Mr. Lee has raised a very natural question. I have talked with some of the older members of the American Library Association, and it seems to be the feeling that we have lost something since we have grown so large. With eight hundred members, it is almost impossible to know every one personally, as it was when there were only a couple of hundred in attendance at the meetings. The New York library meeting in September will bring together as many people as used to come to the American Library Association meetings ten or fifteen years ago. I do not see any way out of it except to follow some definite method from headquarters so that the American Library Association itself can arrange the matter. It is not a matter of hospitality necessarily, but oftentimes the stranger within our gates is the one that suffers in these respects. After you have been to three or four conventions you enjoy yourself, but the first year it is difficult to know people.

Mr. MORTON: I should like to offer a suggestion with regard to the difficulty of the newer members getting to know the older ones. I find out that the way to get acquainted is to pitch in and do some work. Then they have to know you. I would therefore suggest putting the younger members on the various committees and make them work and work hard; then they will come to know people.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: You have brought up a very important point, and that is what we might call the committee system. The system has often failed by being limited to three members. The chairman does the work and sends around to the other members to sign up; or they live at various points of the country and the chairman forgets to do the work or for various reasons fails to report. The way to get the best results is to appoint a committee of one and get the work done by that committee, and if he does not do the work, discharge him and get another person in his place who will do the work. We are suggesting now a re-arrangement of that method by which we can get, I think, better results, in answer to your remarks.

Mr. MARION: I wonder if Mr. Handy would develop a little the idea that was brought out in a conversation that he held with me some little time ago in Boston, in which he pointed out the sort of large opportunities that come to the special librarian, that do not come to the public librarian, and cannot from the very nature of things.

Mr. HANDY: I had in mind especially when I was talking with Mr. Marion a man who at present holds the position of assistant manager in New York of the Fire Insurance Exchange. I think his salary is between six and seven thousand a year. It happens that he is a very bright fellow, and he is taking charge also of evening classes in the New York University school of commerce and accounts, which adds another thousand dollars a year to his salary. I am speaking, in this, simply from the standpoint of salary. He started in as a special librarian. He came into opportunities solely through the close personal contact with superiors who were looking for exactly this kind of advisory and expert service that I tried to emphasize in my paper. Of course, he made good in the smaller position, and through making good there got the opportunity to go to New York in the first place, in a position, which while not particularly better than the one he had occupied as librarian, was better in opportunities and much beyond anything that any special library would be likely to offer; and he has so far made good in New York that he has come into the opportunity that I spoke of, and he has the present salary, which of course carries with it responsibilities; but it seems to me it will be a great many years before in general library work one would find an opportunity like that for advancement, because it was all done in about seven or eight years. It is that possibility of getting in close contact with the heads of great industrial organizations and great enterprises, and by making one's self extremely serviceable and valuable there, that makes the special library a particularly promising field either for bright men or bright women. It is not the library service in itself but it is the opportunity of getting into close contact with men who have made great successes in business, and that opportunity, I think, does not come to the general librarian. The person entering the general library must expect that the top of the work is simply the library opportunities themselves, and, of course, they are somewhat limited. A person entering special library work feels that the top is the whole vast industrial or commercial enterprise in which he is engaged, and if he has the adaptability—and that is precisely the thing which we have been trying to emphasize as necessary in library work,—he naturally, as time goes on, sees the field of opportunity broadening, and the opportunity comes for him to step out of the more restricted into the larger, more active field.

I know another person who received a very interesting offer, with a considerably larger salary and greater executive responsibilities, due entirely to the fact that he had made good in special library work; to the fact that that work brought him into contact with superiors who were able to help him into a broader opportunity. I think that is well worth emphasizing for either men or women interested in this meeting.

Mr. LAPP: Just that fact is the reason why we should have some means of training special librarians. The good men are being drawn off so rapidly that it is impossible for the demand to be supplied, and I am glad that the question of training librarians is coming up, and I hope that when it does come up we shall have some provision made for a committee that will work out a complete scheme in co-operation with the American Library Association and the library schools for the training of special librarians. But right there we should also emphasize the fact that it is not merely the librarians that should be trained, but we should train the directors of the establishments, and it ought to be emphasized in all special library work that there is a difference. I would agree with many who have spoken before, that the director of an establishment need not necessarily be a person trained in library work, although a person trained in library wok could make a good success of it if he also had an insight into the business. But I would emphasize the fact that we need a training for directors of establishments and we also need a special training for librarians and assistants. It is a great deal in the library world as it is in the college world, that the men who become really worth while as college professors, in the commercial departments at least, and in the engineering departments, unless they have a taste for the teaching work which would prevent their leaving it, do not stay very long in the business of teaching, and the college must continually recruit new men, and that is a difficulty that is going to confront the Special Libraries Association and people who are establishing special libraries, more and more. I believe that if the number of concerns today that ought to have special libraries and would profit wonderfully by them, were to attempt to get special librarians or directors of departments, they would fail completely and the whole movement would go to the bad, simply because you could not supply the people who would be competent for the work. The same thing is true of municipal reference departments. It is unfortunate if they are established and men who are not qualified are put in charge. The same thing is true of legislative reference departments. We might better wait for years rather than establish them before we can put them in charge of people who appreciate the work to be done, and who have the ability to do it. So that I think our big problem is to keep the special library movement from growing too fast for us to supply the men and women who can do the work; and I would emphasize again that we need two or three different kinds of training; one for those who are to have general direction of the work, for those who are to do the actual work on the library side, and also for the assistant side.

Mr. LEE: One difference is that in the public library you are being asked questions all the time, and in the special library you are being asked questions two-thirds of the time, and the other third you ask questions yourselves, so you get the benefit of variety; part of the time you are a student, and the rest of the time you are a librarian, and there is that stimulating, broadening effect, and to me it has been a very uplifting effect.

Mr. MORTON: Mr. Marion spoke of the training of the librarian, also Mr. Lapp and one or two others. I do not know whether our position is particularly unique, but some months ago I lost my assistant, and instead of going to a library man I considered myself extremely fortunate to get a man who was a graduate chemist, a civil engineer, a mining engineer and a man who had had wide experience in all of those branches. It seems to me that for technical business the practical training in the particular line of business is of far greater value than training in any library system, simply on account of the nature of the information that they are called upon to produce.

Miss LINDHOLM: I wish to add a word to what Mr. Lapp has said, to point out the fact that even if we should try to give courses in special library work in the library school, there would not be any teachers in the library school qualified to give these courses, because they would not have the special library experience, and we ourselves are too busy running our special libraries to give the courses, so that it is really a matter quite far in the future, I should think. Last spring I read in the Library Journal a very good article on a course for legislative reference librarians, but that is the first article of the kind I have ever seen, although I had often thought about it myself.

Another thing that would help out in trying to give some idea of special library methods to new people, would be for those of us who have gotten our libraries well in hand, our systems, etc., to get up a series of little handbooks on how to organize a financial library, a public utilities library, a legislative reference library and so on, those who are perhaps library school students could use these pamphlets as text-books. This would necessitate our starting in the publishing business and having a publishing board, like the American Library Association.

Miss HOAGLAND: I think we should fail in our whole duty toward the library profession, and especially to the profession of the special librarian, if we did not take some account of this growing demand for training in special library work. I think that we appreciate the great difficulty of combination of the technical work that is necessary in library training and the special library field that each might wish to occupy. It has seemed to me that it was possible to make a combination by giving a minimum of library training, and then for students to specialize in some business lines and learn the bibliography of that trade. Of course, that is a very difficult operation in the ordinary library school, but I believe there are places in the country where that might be acquired, where many businesses are present, capable of furnishing the libraries, and where students can take, say, three months of technical training, which would include typewriting of records, and then can be sent into the field to learn that field, the school to furnish them the special bibliography for that special work. In that way I believe we could develop a series of libraries that would train for special librarianship.

Miss MILLER: There is already one school, the Wisconsin school, which gives regular instruction to such students as wish to take up legislative reference work. They are given from one to two months library experience during those two months in the winter when the other members of the class go to the public libraries. They at least get the principles of legislative reference work.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: If there is no further discussion, we will take up the reports of committees, and the first will be Mr. Lapp's report, as editor of the publication.

Mr. LAPP: There is very little to report in regard to the publication. It has been issued regularly since January, 1910, and the third volume is now nearly completed. The growth of subscriptions has been gratifying, and the publication has been able to do what was done on the membership which we have had. We hope to have an increased membership, because there are a number of things which we can do. We have now regularly established several sources of information, we are going to have others, and out of those we will publish, I think, a better, more useful magazine the coming year than we have in the past. We have a connection with the Library of Congress by which a special bibliography is furnished every month upon some obscure question. We have a connection with the New York public library by which we receive municipal documents. We have a connection with the Public Utilities Committee by which we will have public utility references and the others, insurance references and so on. The publication will issue also some special bibliographies such as the one that was issued recently on city planning. It will take up certain others and publish them as means permit.

The main thing I want to ask as editor of "Special Libraries" is that the editor should receive co-operation from persons connected with the association. This is a co-operative enterprise and every one should co-operate. Whenever you know of anything which has happened in your community in the special library interest, or of any publication that does not get into the ordinary sources, furnish that to the editor and it will be scattered over the country through "Special Libraries."

A new system will be organized following this meeting, we hope, by which the country will be divided into districts in each of which there will be one person who will be responsible for that district, and we hope in that way to keep in closer touch. We will also have a representative in the different classes of special libraries so that no one will be left out, and we will get reports from all persons who are representing the different departments in the special libraries, which now number perhaps seven or eight that are active different classes of libraries.

I want to ask for suggestions also from the members of the association about things that we want published. I would be glad to receive letters. I do not receive enough of them; and, another thing, I do not receive criticisms. There are many things we would like to know about the publication, many things we would like to learn. We would like to hear from you either one way or the other on the publication.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: I will call for the report of the Committee on Public Utilities, Mr. Morton.

(Mr. Morton rendered a brief report which is available in the secretary's office to those who may be interested to see it.)

The session then adjourned.

FOURTH (EXTRA) SESSION

(Monday, July 1, 8:15 p. m.)

After an informal interchange of ideas among a small group of people who gathered in the private dining room, the business session, continued from the afternoon, was called to order by Vice-President Brigham. In view of the small attendance and in order to allow greater publicity the meeting was adjourned to Tuesday, July 2, 9:30 a. m.

FIFTH (SECOND JOINT) SESSION

(Tuesday, July 2, 9:30 a. m.)

The second joint session was attended by the National Association of State Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries and the Special Libraries Association delegates, and was presided over by Mr. Brigham, vice-president of the Special Libraries Association. The meeting was held in the ball room of the Chateau Laurier.

Mr. Charles J. Babbitt of the Massachusetts state library read the first paper, entitled "Snags, stumbling blocks and pitfalls among the session laws." During the course of his paper Mr. Babbitt touched upon some very interesting phases of these questions. In the absence of Mr. James MKirdy, Mr. Thomas Montgomery, state librarian of Pennsylvania, presented his paper, entitled "Bill drafting." Following this, in the absence of Dr. John H. Arnold, librarian of the Harvard Law School, Mr. George S. Godard read his paper, entitled "The history of the growth and development of the Harvard university law library." Great regret was expressed at the absence of Dr. Arnold, who may now be looked upon as the father of law libraries.

Following this Mr. Lapp discussed the question of co-operation between legislative reference departments. This address also covered a report upon the same subject as well as a report on legislative reference service. Mr. Godard followed with general remarks, in which he called attention to the great changes in our present social life, brought about by improvements in our methods of transportation, so that now our view point is so much broader that in the drawing of bills we can no longer overlook what other states are doing, hence the great necessity for co-operation and wider knowledge in this field. He reviewed briefly the work of the Law Reporting Company and tried to point out how service such as they had rendered might be made practical. He appealed for a national legislative information bureau, and he questioned whether this could ever be brought about by co-operation, but rather insisted that it must be a definitely established service run for profit or subsidized by government support. The chairman called attention to the library law abstracts which are probably present in every state library in one form or another. In these abstracts minute subjects are touched upon which are difficult to get at. The material usually exists only in carbon form. As a result of an interview with a commercial concern, the chairman found that with the use of the multigraph this firm would agree to furnish three hundred copies for $1.00 a folio with $5.00 for composition and general work. This would mean on a thirty folio, a total of $35.00 for an issue of three hundred copies. He suggested that such material be sent to a central agency and believed that such a scheme could be worked out successfully. Mr. Babbitt called attention to several interesting instances where the assistance of such a scheme would have been invaluable in furthering greater publicity for material which was only found through co-operation among the state libraries. Dr. Clement W. Andrews believed that this sort of work should be done at the American Library Association headquarters and thought with competent operators this was the most practical way to have it done. He also called attention to the fact that the Illinois State Bankers Association had asked the John Crerar library to undertake an analysis of the State Banking Association publications. He offered to send circulars covering that work to any state or law libraries that might find them of usefulness.

Mr. D. N. Handy of the Insurance Library Association of Boston spoke in regard to the recently organized legislative bureau of the National Board of Fire Underwriters. One of the chief functions of this bureau will be to bring together an abstract card index of the laws in the various states in the country bearing on fire insurance. Recently the Association of Life Insurance Presidents has completed a card index abstract of the laws bearing on life insurance, comprising something like four thousand cards. Mr. Godard offered further discussion which he finally followed with a motion to the effect "that our committee on resolutions prepare suitable resolution directed to Congress, endorsing the bill now before Congress looking toward the permanent establishment of a legislative bureau at Washington and expressing our hope that it may be established in the very near future, and at the same time expressing our willingness to co-operate in any way that we can." Mr. Montgomery, as chairman of the Committee on resolutions then offered several resolutions.[18]

Mr. Johnson Brigham of Iowa then opened up the discussion of the relation between state libraries and legislative reference bureaus, to which Mr. Montgomery replied. General discussion followed in which several told of the actual working relations between these two jurisdictions in their several states. The meeting adjourned at 12:24 p. m.

SIXTH (BUSINESS) SESSION

(Tuesday, July 2, 12:25 p. m.)

At the close of the second joint session, a business meeting of the Special Libraries Association was called to order by Vice-President Herbert O. Brigham in the ball room of the Chateau Laurier.

The VICE-PRESIDENT: The first business is the report of the secretary-treasurer.

Mr. MARION: The membership has increased, from September, 1911, from 171 members, until June, 1912, to 224 members, which is an increase of thirty per cent. The bulletin has increased in pages from 12 to 16. The financial situation seems to be very satisfactory. We have a cash balance of $292.15. There seems to be an increased call for special librarians in heretofore unknown fields. The following statement indicates the condition of the treasury as of the date given:

SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION

July 1, 1912.

Financial statement of the books as of the above date.

Receipts

Cash on hand Sept. 27, 1911 $119.07

Membership fees and subscriptions 415.80

Sale of back numbers 85.28

Sale of reprints, bibliographies, etc. 31.13

Advertising 12.00

$663.28

Expenditures

Rent of hall at New York meeting 15.00

Stenographic work of New York meeting 15.00

Postage, telegrams, express, etc. 41.08

Storage cabinet for editor's office 13.25

Indexing of volume 1 10.00

Printing 275.50

Bank Exchange 1.30 371.13

July 1, 1912, Cash on hand $292.15

Accounts Receivable 144.10

Accounts Payable no bills rendered

GUY E. MARION, Treasurer.

On motion of Mr. Montgomery the report was received.

The CHAIRMAN: The report of the executive board of the Special Libraries Association is brief. It is proposed during the coming year to readjust as far as possible the committee system and substitute therefor representatives for certain sections of the country, so that the persons who represent those sections shall be responsible for the part in which they are located. It is entirely a matter for the board. I think that will be the extent of their report, in brief, and I will now call for the report of the nominating committee, Mr. Lee.

Mr. LEE: The nominating committee respectfully submits the following list of officers for the ensuing year:

President: D. N. Handy, Boston.

Vice-President: R. H. Johnston, Washington.

Secretary-Treasurer: G. E. Marion, Boston.

Executive Board: Officers ex-officio: O. E. Norman, Chicago; Florence Spencer, New York.

There being no counter nominations, on motion, the secretary cast a ballot for the association, and the chair declared the nominees elected for their respective offices.

Mr HANDY: Will it be in order now to take up the matter of special education for the special training of library assistants?

The CHAIRMAN: That comes under the head of new business, which we are now taking up. You are quite in order.

Mr. HANDY: I would make a motion that a committee of three be appointed by the President, upon the training of special librarians, with instructions to report upon this matter at the next annual meeting.

The motion was seconded by Mr. Lapp and carried.

Upon motion of Dr. Andrews the meeting adjourned sine die.