legislature for the creation of a commission. In 1914 Tennessee has ten municipally-supported libraries, seven of which are in Carnegie buildings; thirteen subscription libraries, and excellent school and college libraries, representing an aggregate investment of over $2,000,000 for buildings, for the maintenance of which $85,000 was appropriated in 1913. The state commission was created in 1909, but in 1913 by an act of the legislature the State Board of Education was made to supersede the free library commission, assuming all of their powers and duties except their system of traveling libraries, which was placed under the direction of the state library. Public as well as school libraries are now under the general direction of the State Board of Education through their division of library extension. The state free library commission still exists in the law, but has no appropriation for active work. The county library idea is spreading fast, and the public library of Chattanooga was, I think, the first to adopt the plan.

North Carolina-Has now seventy-five libraries, thirty-nine of which are public. Twelve are in Carnegie buildings, erected at a cost of $241,396. The total amount invested in libraries is $351,296. When the commission was created in 1909 there were three trained librarians; there are now eleven, not including graduates of summer schools and apprentice classes. The state association was organized in 1904. An appropriation of $1,500 is made for the work of the commission. Many state institutions and colleges have adequate libraries, and the library of the state university is under the direction of a corps of trained workers. A summer school is conducted by the state university library, and instruction in library methods is given in several colleges.

South Carolina-Is still without a li brary association or commission, although since 1907 five public libraries have been opened, and $45,000 expended in library buildings, and there has been

a library law since 1903. There are at least four trained librarians, and the system of rural school libraries is adequate. Only two libraries are municipally supported. The University of South Carolina boasts of being the first college in the United States to have a separate building, and that seventy-five years elapsed before any other state university followed its example. Throughout the small subscription libraries are literary collections rivaled only by those stored throughout Virginia. Active work has been begun towards establishing a state commission and organizing a state association, and in January, 1914, Mr. R. M. Kennedy, 11brarian of the University of South Carolina, presented before several clubs and teachers' institutes a strong plea for a betterment of library conditions, which will probably result in a changed state of affairs.

Virginia-One Virginia librarian says: "As usual Virginia is in a position to seem more backward than she is because she has neglected to keep records of her work. No library statistics for the state have ever been compiled." Although Virginia has a liberal library law which permits any town or county to tax itself to maintain a library, and the very active state library has conducted an apprentice training class since 1905, there are but two municipally-supported libraries, in Carnegie buildings. There are in all eight public libraries, two of which are endowed, the others being subscription li braries of many years' existence. The book collections in many Virginia colleges are invaluable, but there is not a technically-trained librarian in the state. The state library, with an appropriation of $30,000, renders efficient service, and the State Library Board acts as a commission. There is an appropriation of $4,000 for the publication of the valuable Virginiana, undertaken by the state library. In 1913 a legislative reference department was created. The state association was or ganized before 1907, and now has seventy

five members. As early as 1903 a system of traveling libraries was established, for which the legislature of 1906 appropriated $7,000. In March, 1908, an appropriation of $5,000 was made to encourage the establishment of permanent school libraries throughout the state, and the latest available statistics give 199 traveling libraries available for rural schools, clubs and communities. In Winchester there is one of the most unique libraries on the continent, for with a population of 6,000, Winchester boasts a library bequest of $250,000 and a building of cut stone which cost $140,000 and has a stack capacity of 75,000 volumes. Bequests to Virginia libraries within the past seven years (exclusive of colleges) have amounted to $308,000, and while the money has not actually been spent, pertinent facts indicate that li brary work in Virginia has started in the right direction.

West Virginia-Does not present SO promising a prospect, as there is not a free public library, municipally supported, in the entire state, and a bill for a free library law presented to the recent legislature failed to pass. There is a good state law for school libraries, and the rural schools have about 225,000 volumes in the school libraries. There are libraries at Huntington, Wheeling, Parkersburg, Fairmount and Charleston, which, as one report said, “purchase a great deal of fiction just like a public library, although they are under control of the Board of Education." There is no state association and no commission, but the club women of the state have become active in the matter, and conditions may soon be changed.

Oklahoma-The first public library was opened in 1901, and before 1907 there were five Carnegie libraries. There are now twenty-two public libraries, sixteen of which are in Carnegie buildings. Thirteen colleges have adequate libraries, as have the state and historical societies. There are three graduate librarians and nine summer school graduates are employed,

and all activities are combining for the creation of a commission. The state association is at present expending its energies on the preparation of a bibliography of the state's history. The sum of $167,000 has been invested in library buildings since 1907.

Kentucky-Libraries represent an investment of more than $1,018,000, for the support of which $159,000 was given in 1913. Fourteen public libraries have been built since 1907. There are now forty-one public libraries, thirteen of which are free and housed in Carnegie buildings. There are seventeen college and special 11braries; four of the college libraries are in Carnegie buildings. Book collections are in 2,600 graded schools, but the commission reports that no state institution has an adequate library. The state association was organized in 1907, immediately after the Asheville conference, and the very active commission, for which $6,000 was appropriated in 1913, maintains excellent traveling libraries, one branch of which is exclusively for the negro population. Berea College also maintains a unique system of traveling libraries, which circulate exclusively among the mountain people.

Texas-The modern library movement in Texas began in 1899, and by 1907 nineteen Carnegie buildings were in use, and there were altogether twenty-two public libraries throughout the state, besides numerous small libraries maintained by women's clubs, which have been so potent a factor in the library development of the state. Since 1907 at least twelve new libraries have been opened, at a total expenditure for buildings of $488,000, including $285,000 for the new library building of the University of Texas. Many bequests have been made to Texas libraries, and Houston has recently received $7,000 to be used exclusively for the purchase of children's books.

Arkansas-Was not grouped with the states reporting in 1907, but it seems well to include it here, and report that there

Vice-President WELLMAN: It is a fact of interest that the very first exhibit sent out by the American Federation of Arts was shown in a public library. Since that time there have been many other cases of coöperation between the federation and the libraries, as you will learn, and such coöperation opens vistas of helpfulness to both institutions.

We had expected tonight to hear a word regarding the general aims and educational work of the federation from its president, Mr. Robert W. De Forest, and also somewhat in detail with a lantern, from Miss Mechlin, the secretary. Unfortunately I have to announce that Mr. DeForest writes that he has just been through a convention himself, a convention of the federation, and has returned from Chicago utterly without voice. He writes with great regret-a regret which we share that he is unable to be present tonight. Your disappointment, however, will be mitigated by the pleasure of know

ing that at short notice, Mr. Henry W. Kent, secretary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of New York, has very kindly consented to come and bring us Mr. De Forest's message.

I take very great pleasure in introducing Mr. HENRY W. KENT.

ADDRESS BY MR. KENT

I ought, perhaps, to say, since Mr. Wellman has introduced me as secretary of another kind of institution, that I am really a very old librarian. I am nearly twenty-five years old in the library serv ice, and I make this statement somewhat to excuse many things I may say that would seem too technical if they came from one who had not been a librarian. I am very much interested in old librarians, and I was particularly interested in the presentation of this book, this roster of the people who came to the first meeting of the Library Association.

I have heard the name of the old librarian spoken of somewhat lightly. He is regarded by some people as being more or less of a fossil and more or less of a slipshod individual, but I think-and I thought particularly when I saw this book placed upon the table-that we ought to have a little more regard for the old librarians. Do we not owe to them our system of classification? Do we not owe to them the very preservation of books? Do we not owe to them the establishment of the greatest libraries of the world? Any other association except our own-and I must believe it is because we are so modest-any other association of professional men would long ago have raised monuments to the librarians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, to the oldest librarians.

Speaking of accomplishment, I was much interested in what Mr. Bolton said of the trend of library work in this country. While I do not pretend to answer the question that he undertook to lead you to answer for yourselves, I have often wondered whether the trend of the present-day library work is not due to the fact

that we are beginning to find out, in this curious multiplex and complicated civilization of ours in this country, that cultivation and learning are not confined entirely to books, and that there are other things demanding attention which are cultivating, which are inspiring, and which are educational.

It seems to me that the affiliations with all of these various organizations-associations for civic work, associations for social work-and the affiliations with the schools and universities and all the other work being done, are perfectly natural. Mr. Bolton spoke of moving pictures. Why not affiliate ourselves with them? The association of museum people, whose meeting I have just been attending in Chicago, had a long and most interesting paper delivered on the various kinds of movingpicture machines which might be used in museums as a part of the work of description. I do not see why the libraries might not do that also.

Before I come to my real point, which is a matter of coöperation which I wish to propose to you, I want to speak of two or three other things which I wish very much might result, in this present-day trend of libraries. One is the matter of recognition of the importance of book collecting as a fine art.

Many, many people-and I have seen it, perhaps more than most, because of the connection which I had at one time with a club of bookmen, booklovers, called "bibliophiles"-many people assume to scorn the bibliophile and the bibliomaniac; all sorts of slurs have been written about people who profess love of a book as a book, and I am sorry to say I find a good deal of this among library people. But it is a stupid, mistaken notion, and it seems to me, if I might suggest, Mr. Chairman, that one of the things that this Association might very well do is to begin the cultivation of this love of books through a chapter; through a section; through a club of the members of this great Association; people who will care for printing; people who will care for paper;

people who will care for bindings. I think you will agree with me and I am speaking now as an old librarian of twenty-five years' service-that we do not care for those things and that much of our printing is beneath contempt, and much of our knowledge, or rather our lack of knowledge of such things, is lamentable. It is high time, in the trend that is to come, that we should look to overcome this reputation we have for not caring for such things.

This applies particularly to a thing that interests me very much, and that is the stand which this club-I hope I am not talking injudiciously this Association, should take toward the public on books; that we should demand better books, better paper, better type, better illustrations.

This matter of illustration is also one we might very well consider in this Association, it seems to me, and one that should have our attention in the future, along with the other trend. We should reject, we should disclaim these poor, these beneath-contempt illustrations we get in half-made half-tones. We should demand a better kind of illustrations; we should demand a careful cataloging of these things; we should teach our assistants to think that the cataloging of our illustrations and the regard for illustrations are almost as important as the cataloging of the book itself.

Among these affiliations that are growing up with the libraries is one which should be very close and that is the affiliation of the things which make for art in the community. We have here in Washington the headquarters of an association which is made up of many-the most, I think-of the associations which give their attention to art in this country. I understand there are a good many libraries that are associated with the federation, as well as architectural societies, sculptors, painters, landscape gardeners, and all other people who make art their creed.

There is a growing conviction that the need of art in the communities of our