Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

1

and poetry, curiosity may be noticed to take the lead, when men come to art and poetry with a deep thirst for intellectual excitement, after a long ennui, or in reaction against the strain of outward, practical things." I want those who represent learning and librarianship to welcome such an outbreak of the spirit with sympathy and understanding. I want them to be a selected and articulate class fit for high leadership in their chosen activities and possessing an intellectual and social prestige everywhere recognized and respected. I want them to be men who, in the words of H. G. Wells, "will have the knowledge, nerve and courage to do splendid, dangerous things." I want them to be upholders of qualitative rather than quantitative standards. I want them to be brave defenders of ideas and ideals rather than dumb servants of men and forces whose god is materialism.

"Two things only," it has been said, "are assured of immortality; ideas and monuments." For which of these would we prefer to have our age and country memorable? The ideas of the Greeks are still as vital and active as the properties of radium; the monuments of Mesopotamia exist, but are buried beneath the sands of the desert. Which are we to be, Greeks or Mesopotamians?

The Program

and

President ANDERSON: committee felt that there might be too much airy persiflage in the programs for the general sessions, and cast about for someone to sound the serious note. Of course it did not take us long to light upon the next speaker as the proper one to strike the note of seriousness solemnity. She is a great reader of novels, and a discriminating reader. She has, I understand, gleaned some choice selections from some of her favorite authors, with which she proposes to edify us. She is so well known to all of you that I simply present Miss AGNES VAN VALKENBURGH, of New York.

Miss Van Valkenburgh then amused and edified her audience by a selection of

"Readings from recent fiction," chocsing three of the recent "best sellers" as the subjects of her kindly wit and irony.

The secretary then read the report of the Committee on resolutions.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS

The Committee on resolutions beg leave to recommend the adoption of the following minute, to be spread upon the records of the Association, copies to be forwarded to the several bodies and persons therein mentioned:

RESOLVED, That the heartiest thanks of the American Library Association be, and are hereby tendered:

To the librarian of Congress, for the gracious welcome to the national capital extended by him to this Association at the first session of the present conference; for opening to inspection the beautiful structure under his control, and for numberless personal courtesies which have lent peculiar charm to an occasion which will always remain a notable one in the annals of the Association.

To the associates of the librarian on the staff of the Library of Congress, who have ably and devotedly coöperated with their chief in showing treasures, and in explaining methods of the great institution with which they are connected; and to express our deep sense of obligation and gratitude to the Library of Congress as the national library in fact and spirit, if not in name; and to testify to the immeasurable service rendered to the libraries and the library movement of this country by the labors and activities undertaken by that institution for the common good.

To the District of Columbia Library Association for most effective aid in all plans regarding the conference, and for the delightful reception on Thursday evening, which gave great pleasure to all who could attend it.

To the members of the board of trustees of the public library of the District

[graphic]

of Columbia for devoting a large portion of their building to the purposes of the interesting and novel exhibition of laborsaving devices and library equipment, which has proved to be a feature of the conference.

To the Librarian, Dr. George F. Bowerman, and his assistants, for assembling and displaying to advantage this exhibit; and to all members of the staff of the public library of the District of Columbia for many courtesies.

To Dr. Bowerman and his associates on the local entertainment committee, whose constant and untiring attention to the interests and welfare of the visiting members of the Association has contributed to the eminent success of this thirty-sixth conference.

To other librarians of the District of Columbia for many attentions kindly shown to the members of the Association.

To Dr. J. Franklin Jameson, Mr. John Foster Carr, Dr. P. P. Claxton, Mr. H. W. Kent, and Miss Leila Mechlin for their informing and felicitous addresses.

To the Press of the city of Washington for extended and accurate reports of the proceedings of the Association.

To the manager of the New Willard Hotel for obliging services freely rendered in connection with the conduct of the business of the Association at headquarters. (Signed)

C. H. GOULD,

W. T. PORTER,

ELISA M. WILLARD,

Committee. President ANDERSON: I will call for a hearty, rising vote for the adoption of these resolutions.

The resolutions were agreed to unanimously.

The secretary next read the report of the tellers of election showing that the following officers had been elected:

REPORT OF THE TELLERS OF
ELECTION
President

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

First Vice-President

W. N. C. Carlton, Librarian, Newberry Library, Chicago.

Second Vice-President

Mary L. Titcomb, Librarian, Washington County Free Library, Hagerstown, Md. Members of Executive Board (for three years)

J. T. Jennings, Librarian, Seattle Public Library.

Mary W. Plummer, Director, Library School, New York Public Library. Members of the Council (for five years)

Adam Strohm, Librarian, Detroit Public Library.

W. R. Watson, Chief, Division of Educational Extension, New York State Library, Albany.

Corinne Bacon, Librarian, Drexel Institute Free Library, Philadelphia.

Andrew Keogh, Reference Librarian,
Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
Effie L. Power, Supervisor Children's
Work, St. Louis Public Library.

Trustees of Endowment Fund
(for three years)

W. W. Appleton, New York City.
(for one year)

M. Taylor Pyne, Trustee, Princeton University, Princeton, N. J.

(The president-elect was at this point escorted to the platform.)

President ANDERSON: It must have been about 1896 when I first had the pleasure of meeting the president-elect. At that time I was looking for ideas about branch library administration and went to Boston for the purpose. Mr. Wellman was then supervisor of branches in the Boston public library, and I shall never forget his courtesies and general helpfulness to me in my visits to the Boston branches. It would be embarrassing to him if I should tell you in his presence my high opinion of him both as a man and as a librarian. I think, however, it may be interesting to you to recall that he graduated at Harvard in 1894 and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa; that he was first an assistant in the Boston Athe

naeum; then supervisor of branches in the Boston public library; later librarian of the Brookline public library; and since 1902 librarian of the City Library Association of Springfield, Mass., where he engineered the planning and erection of one of the most successful library buildings in this country. He is a member of the Massachusetts Free Public Library Commission; has been secretary and president of the Massachusetts Library Club; has been for many years a member of the Publishing Board and Council of this Association, and for the past year has been its first vice-president.

Mr. President-elect, it gives me great pleasure to hand over to you the emblem of office entrusted to the president of this Association. I feel that it will be in good hands, and I certainly wish you a most prosperous administration of the Assuciation's affairs. (Hands him the gavel.)

President-elect WELLMAN: Mr. Presi dent, I can understand that after administering the office with such signal

a

success you relinquish the gavel with happy heart. But, fellow-members, whoever receives this gavel must take it with feelings of profound gravity. When I consider what this Association stands for, and all it means, I can think only of the obligation and responsibility which you have imposed. I could not find courage to undertake the task if I did not believe that, after all, the part of the president is really of lesser moment, and that I can count for the greater part on the officers and Executive Board, and above all, on the active aid and earnest support of every member of the Association. For I think you will agree with me that it is that single-minded, wholehearted and harmonious devotion in the interest of this Association on the part of all its members which has made its worthy past and which alone will insure its successful future. I thank you for conferring on me this great honor and this great opportunity for service.

If there be no other business I declare this conference adjourned without day.

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]

Board. Dr. Frank P. Hill was appointed chairman with power to complete the committee. Dr. Hill later named the following persons to serve with him on this committee: Miss M. E. Ahern, Mr. J. C. Dana, Mr. J. L. Gillis, and the secretary of the Association.

The chairman of the Committee on code for classifiers, Mr. William Stetson Merrill, presented the following report:

Report of Committee on Code for
Classifiers

The Committee on code for classifiers takes pleasure in presenting herewith, as its report of progress, a booklet of 124 pages, mimeographed in a limited edition, wherein have been assembled by the chairman more than three hundred points of procedure for future consideration by the Committee.

The purpose of issuing this collection of data at the present time is to present, in a more specific way than has hitherto been possible, the points upon which it is desired to secure a fair consensus of opinion from classifiers and librarians.

The Committee has expended nineteen and 80/100 dollars of the appropriation of twenty dollars-made in January 1914 -in preparing the copy for the mimeographer and submits the matter of its issue in the present form to the Publishing Board.

Respectfully submitted,

(Signed) WM. STETSON MERRILL, Chairman. The above report was unanimously accepted.

In accordance with the vote of the Association at its meeting on May 27 it was voted that the President appoint a committee of five to consider the desirability of making any amendments to the constitution, this committee to report to the Executive Board at the next mid-winter meeting. The President appointed the following committee: Mr. N. D. C. Hodges, Miss M. E. Ahern, Miss Alice S. Tyler, Mr. Gardner M. Jones and Mr. C. H. Gould.

It was voted that the question of appointing standing committees on classification and cataloging be referred to a committee appointed by the President, this committee to report to the Executive

Board at the next mid-winter meeting. The President appointed as this committee, Mr. W. N. C. Carlton.

The following report was received from the chairman of the Committee on cost and method of cataloging, Mr. A. G. S. Josephson, which was accepted as a report of progress:

Report of Committee on Cost and Method of Cataloging

To the Executive Board:

This Committee submits hereby a report of progress.

At a meeting held yesterday at the Library of Congress, at which Mr. Charles Martel, chief of the catalog division of the Library of Congress, and Mr. T. Franklin Currier, head cataloger of Harvard University, were also present, the accompanying letter was adopted.

It will be sent to all the libraries which are taking part in the investigation conducted by this Committee, accompanied by the enclosed schedule of the test to be made.

The Committee suggests that Mr. Martel and Mr. Currier be added to it as members.

Respectfully submitted,

(Signed) AKSEL G. S. JOSEPHSON, Chairman.

Report

1. The information received in re sponse to the questionnaire sent last year to twenty libraries gave clear evidence of the existing lack of uniformity in preparing library statistics, as well as of a considerable variety of conditions and methods of work.

2. In order, therefore, to arrive at more definite results, the Committee asked the Executive Board for authority to undertake a more extended and more detailed investigation into the prevailing methods of cataloging. Having received the authority asked for, the Committee sent copies of the questionnaire used last year to thirty additional libraries, asking for similar information.

3. The Committee now asks each li brary that has taken part or intends to take part in this investigation to set apart one hundred books (titled, not volumes) for an actual test of the cost of cataloging under conditions normal to each li brary. If there has been any essential change in the organization since information was sent to this Committee in response to the questionnaire, such changes should be reported.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

4. As the report is to be summarized by items, it is especially desirable that the report shall be made item by item, and libraries are requested not to combine proc

esses.

5. The books selected should be such as would be purchased by a public or college library, having both reference and circulating collections; they should be taken from the books currently received and new to the library; neither duplicates, nor replacements, nor even new editions should be selected.

6. Pamphlets, i. e. material treated with less fullness than the books regularly placed on the shelves, incunabula, long sets of periodicals or other books requiring special expertness or considerable time, such as books requiring much analytical work, should not be selected, even though they might be very characteristic for the library. It is the intention of the Committee to make a special test for this kind of work; libraries willing to take part in this additional test should communicate their willingness to the chairman of the Committee.

7. Fiction, poetry and drama should be represented by not more than ten titles. Books in foreign languages should be included in the proportion normal to each library.

8. The use of the printed cards for analytical entries prepared for and distributed by the A. L. A. Publishing Board should not be reported.

9. As an increasing number of libraries are using printed cards prepared by other libraries, and some of the libraries included in the investigation themselves are printing cards for their own use, libraries using printed cards should report on their method of handling these, both the cards prepared by other libraries and those prepared by themselves, so that the Committee may be able to judge how far this method influences the cost of cataloging.

10. Many public libraries, both large and of moderate size, possess branches; most university and some college libraries have departmental libraries. The libraries having such supplementary systems should report on the work of duplicating cards for the use in the special catalogs for branches and departments, so that the Committee may be able to judge how far the cost of cataloging is influenced hereby.

11. Full and explicit remarks and information setting forth the special problems and conditions accompanying each case are asked for.

[blocks in formation]
« НазадПродовжити »