LIBRARY DEPARTMENT SECRETARY'S MINUTES FIRST SESSION.-WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 1903 The Library Department met in the Second Church of Boston at 9: 30 A. M., and was called to order by the president, Dr. James H. Canfield, librarian of Columbia University, New York city. The meeting was opened by an address by Dr. W. T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, who gave a greeting from the older library interests to the new. The president, Dr. Canfield, gave a brief opening address. The first paper of the morning was presented by Alfred Bayliss, state superintendent of public instruction of Illinois, on "Some Co-operative Suggestions." The second paper was presented by Miss Electra C. Doren, librarian, Public Library, Dayton, O., on "Public-Library Work for Public Schools." Charles B. Gilbert, New York city, followed with an address on "From the School to the Library." C. G. Leland, director of school libraries, New York city, read a paper on "Class Libraries." N. D. C. Hodges, librarian, Public Library, Cincinnati, O., presented a paper on the topic, "Is the Public Library a Promptuary of the Public School?" General discussion was opened by F. W. Nichols, superintendent of schools, Evanston, Ill., followed by Principal William C. Hess, of New York city. A committee on resolutions was appointed, with Martin Hensel, Columbus, O., as chairman. A committee on nominations was appointed, with W. C. Lane, of Harvard University, as chairman. The session adjourned. SECOND SESSION.-FRIDAY, JULY 10 The department met in the assembly room of the Boston Public Library at 9:30 A. M., and was called to order by the president, Dr. Canfield. The meeting was opened by a paper, “The Library as an Adjunct to the Secondary School," by O. E. Helland, of the Male High School, Louisville, Ky. The second paper was presented by Miss Clara B. Mason, principal of the Clifton High School, Omaha, Neb., on Some Experiments in Nebraska." 64 At the close of the paper Dr. Canfield called on Mr. Horace G. Wadlin, librarian of the Boston Public Library, who gave the department a very cordial welcome to Boston and to the library. Mr. Wadlin outlined briefly the work that is done in Boston by the public library for the public schools. The next paper was presented by William H. Brett, librarian of the Public Library, Cleveland, O., on "Library Instruction in the Normal Schools." The last formal paper of the morning was presented by Miss Mary Eileen Ahern, editor of Public Libraries, Chicago, Ill., on "What May Be Accomplished by Definite Instruction in the Normal Schools." The president was obliged to leave at the close of the paper and invited Mr. Melvil Dewey, state library director of New York, to take the chair. The theme for general discussion was: "The Relation of the Normal Schools to Library Work," opened by James M. Green, principal of the State Normal School, Trenton, N. J., who was followed by E. Oram Lyte, principal of the State Normal School, Millersville, Pa., and J. N. Wilkinson, president of the State Normal School, Emporia, Kan. The Committee on Nominations, thru its chairman, W. C. Lane, of Harvard University, reported the names of the following persons, who were elected as officers for the ensuing year: For President-Reuben Post Halleck, superintendent of Boys' High School, Louisville, Ky. The Committee on Resolutions, thru its chairman, Martin Hensel, reported the following: I WHEREAS, A library post bill has been introduced in Congress by Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge and Hon. G. P. Lawrence, providing for the mail carriage at rates now granted to magazines and newspapers, of bo ks from libraries supported wholly or in part by taxation or tax exemption; and WHEREAS, The legislatures of Massachusetts and California, the American Library Association, the Massachusetts State Teachers' Association ad L..brary Club, and many other bodies and prominent persons in all parts of the country, have indorsed sa d bill; and WHEREAS, A liorary post, as above, is believed to be economic and promotive of library and educational co-operation, and social progress; Resolved, That the Library Department of the National Educational Association hereby commends said bill to the favorable consideration of Congress, the President, and the postmaster-general of the United States. Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed by this Association to co-operate with the Library Post Committee of Boston, the American Library Association Committee, and others interested in the above postal readjustment. Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the President and the postmaster-general of the United States, and to the Committee on Post-Offices and Post Roads of the next Congress. II Resolved. That the thanks of the Library Depir ment be extended to the city of Boston and the various associations, institutions, and individuals who have contributed so ge..erously to the success and pleasure of its meeting. The first resolution was discussed by W. C. Lane, Melvil Dewey, and others, and both resolutions were unanimously adopted. A committee, composed of James II. Canfield, of New York, Miss M. E. Ahern, of Illinois, and Reuben Post Halleck, of Kentucky, was appointed to co-operate with other associations interested in the postal readjustment. The department then adjourned. ! MARY EILEEN AHERN, Secretary. PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS SOME CO-OPERATIVE SUGGESTIONS ALFRED BAYLISS, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, In the processes of the schools the book has long appeared to be the sole instrument. To recognize the value of motor activity, rightly directed, as an agency in education is not to undervalue books. Manual training puts the growing youth into primary relations with things. It supplies a physical basis for spiritual accomplishments. It diminishes. the distance between the man who acquires wealth and the man who inherits it. It exhibits the relation of an estate to the labor which created it. Mr. Emerson somewhere alludes to the fable that the gods in the beginning divided man into men, that he might be more useful to himself; just as the hand was divided into fingers, the better to answer the end. So the functions of society are parceled out to groups of men, who perform various services. In the last analysis the services of the section. hand who keeps the track in order are as essential to the safety of the traveler as those of the president of the road. A great building is the product of the architect's idea, the builder's skill, and the sweat of the hod-carrier's brow. Into all this manual training gives insight, and thus justifies itself as an elementary educational force. But it does not diminish the value of books. On the other hand, it tends to set them in right relations to education as tools to be used, rather than infallible sources of light and guidance. We are in a fair way to become a bookish people. While our territory has increased fourfold and our population sixteenfold, libraries have become as a hundred to one, and books in libraries as a thousand to one. Every little red schoolhouse even has its library, or suffers the consequence of diminished self respect and a lower rating in its class. Libraries, once for the use of the learned only, have become common. There is a characteristic architecture, so that the stranger within the gates may as readily find the free library as the free school. The training school for librarians is duly recognized. We are thus committed to the free-library idea. There have even appeared advocates of compulsory free libraries. If quantity were all, if every printed and bound volume were a book, the visible supply is not inadequate. To the dwellers in cities and towns, at least, the common provisions for the self-education obtainable thru the reading and study of books are, or soon will be, fairly commensurate with the provisions for common education in the free schools. Since the school and the library are both common educational agencies, they should work together. This they are doing to an extent almost unthought of a few years ago. To fix the reading habit, to give it right direction, thru such a knowledge of books as will give the power to discriminate, the will to choose, and mastery to use and enjoy, has become the common problem of teacher and librarian. What task could better combine duty and pleasure? What partnership could be more delightful? Two or three concrete Illinois cases may serve to illustrate methods of school and library co-operation. 1. A football captain was graduated from the young normal school at Charleston the year before last. Not finding an opportunity to "accept a position" as principal of a town school, he very sensibly "hired out" to teach in the country. The neighborhood in which he found himself was not tributary to a library, but the children, he soon found, were very hungry for books. Having been an all-around student, indoors as well as out, and a good mixer, he had friends back at the normal school; among the rest, the accomplished professor of music, the entire membership of the orchestra, the glee club, and the librarian. By means of his relations with his musical friends he found it easy to give his people such a concert as many of them had never heard before. It goes without saying that the athletes went along and paid their way in. The net appreciation was a little more than sixty dollars. On the morrow of the concert there was a protracted conference with his friend the librarian, the result of which was an order for a real little library, in lieu of the heterogeneous bundle of books which so often follows equally wellintended efforts. Now, this much has been done many hundred times in Illinois within the last ten calendar months. The point to this instance is that when the library went forward to that school there went with it, for good measure, a complete card catalog, with all the necessary suggestions for its use. This was merely a manifestation of the genuine librarian's instinct. But it supplemented that energy and initiative of the young athlete most admirably. 2. The public library at Rockford has long been an intelligent ally of the public schools in that city. Traveling cases of books for the grade schools are an established part of its work. It has lately added a feature, less conventional, but more generous, because its benefits are not confined to the city limits. During the week of the county institute the county superintendent is made a sort of preferred creditor on a large scale. The rules are suspended, and he is permitted to use books in and for the institute practically without restriction as to number. The limits of this paper do not permit a detailed account of the working out of this plan, but the better acquaintance with books and how to use them is of great value to the schools of that county. Think of the discontent produced in the mind of a young teacher who had qualified for the examination in United States history, for example, by the study of one text-book-even the best published-after but a single week of such reading under judicious guidance! This experiment has led to the purchase of hundreds of books by the teachers for their own use, as well as a distinct improvement of the quality of the school libraries, and much insight into the manner of relating them to the school work. 3. I have lately seen an illustration of co-operation between a public library and the common schools which combines more of the current practical suggestions to that end than can often be found in a single city. The population of Galesburg is well within the limits beyond which Bishop Spalding tells us it would be better if cities did not grow. It is the seat |