tains for this work, and send word to the school that the books for this special work are ready for the use of teachers and students. The next step is comparatively easy: at every purchase of books the library adds some-a few-helpful for this work, and as the library grows, its efficiency in this direction will grow and improve. Occasional visits to the schools, attendance at teachers' meetings, talks before teachers' associations and teachers' institutes will make the librarian familiar with the needs of teachers and pupils and enable him to make the library better adapted to the local needs. Whether it is the function of the public library to furnish a sufficient number of copies for supplementary reading in class rooms must be decided by the local authorities. In my opinion | it would be better for the school-board to provide all such books as are strictly supplementary readers, and to conform with the Common school library act, Chapter 573, laws of New York, 1892, Chapter 556, Section 13, 1894. I find it advisable, not only to co-operate with the secular schools, but also with the Sundayschools. In fact, my own experience has taught me that in small places it is advantageous that there should be but one library. The secular reading generally supplied by the Sundayschools should be furnished by the public library, where a greater collection of carefully selected books is available. There also should be in every library a biblical and ethical department. The books in this department must by no means be denominational or sectarian in character. A good Bible commentary, a Bible dictionary, a concordance, a history of every creed, denomination or sect represented in the respective locality, books of travel and exploration in Bible lands, should be owned by every well-established library. Secure the co-operation of every teacher and clergyman in your locality and enlist their influence in behalf of your library. The teacher will aid in guiding the children to proper and helpful reading matter, and through the children you will plant a library rootlet in every home. The clergy can aid you in moulding public opinion in favor of your library. Make your library the central point of attraction to every literary society, study class, debating club and University Extension class. Should there be a place without these valuable agencies for self-improvement, then organize classes of this kind in the library. As often as programs for these classes are made up it is of great importance that the librarian examine his collection and make up deficiencies as fast as possible, so as to enable the library to furnish the books needed. Whenever the local collection of books is not sufficient the librarian should not hesitate to obtain aid from the state library. The citizens of the Empire state have reason to take a just pride in their state library, which has really become the great public library of the state. It is able and ready to aid every one and to meet all just demands. If more than one copy of any one book or a number of works on any stated subject are wanted, the respective library, literary club, or circle should register with the Regents of the University and secure one or more travelling libraries. This will serve a double purpose: the library will be able to supply a temporary need and also make its patrons acquainted with the fact that the state has recognized libraries as educational institutions and is ready to aid those libraries that will make an effort for themselves and be useful to their communities. Local industries and enterprises: It is proper that every library should collect books and pamphlets that bear relation to local industries and pursuits. In farming regions, publications relating to agriculture should be provided; in manufacturing towns, especial attention will have to be given to literature relating to each particular branch of industry. Prompt notice in the local newspapers should be given as soon as new publications of this kind are received. I find that public documents, like the reports of the United States consuls, contain considerable valuable information of interest to manufacturers. The reports of the Bureau of Statistics and Labor, the Board of Mediation and Arbitration of the State of New York, as well as the reports of the United States Commissioner of Labor, will be found of great value in making the library useful to employer as well as to employe. The librarian should be wide-awake to the needs of the workshop in exactly the same way as he endeavors to aid the school. Every library should contain books on the relation of capital and labor, employer and employe, profit-sharing, strikes, shop-councils and arbitration. It is of vital importance to every community that its working population should be interested patrons of the library and the citizens in general. in the proper use of its library. Attention work done by the library in collecting and preshould also be given, to interest the working-serving it, will be duly appreciated by the men in the classes for mutual improvement, especially in classes in United States history, civics and political economy. Many a boy or girl, man or woman, will be found anxious to avail him or herself of every occasion for making up deficiencies of early school training, and grasp eagerly every opportunity for intellectual development and improvement. Not only the established local industries should find the books that bear, relation to them, but every new enterprise also, should be carefully watched and information regarding it promptly supplied. If electric railroads are proposed to be constructed, or electric lighting introduced, the people will be interested in books on these topics. .If road improvements or new pave- | ments are contemplated, procure promptly books on these subjects. The library should always be ready to anticipate the wants of the day, and promptly meet the demands of the hour. Material for local history: Another means of adapting the library to local needs, consists in the collection and preservation of material that will prove of great value to the future historian of the locality. Every library, no matter how small, should therefore preserve files of its local newspapers. Annual reports of local institutions, educational or charitable, the reports of the city or village officials, as well as directories and occasional sermons, lectures or addresses, should be procured and kept intact. Books and pamphlets relating to the respective locality, as well as photographs and views, deserve the attention of the library, and a collection of all publications written by citizens of the place, whether present inhabitants or not, should be secured by and incorporated in the library. In collecting ephemeral prints like handbills, programs and the like, good judgment will have to be exercised, or a great quantity of chaff will soon accumulate, the proper care of which will soon prove burdensome and expensive. An occasional appeal to the citizens through a circular or the local press will often be rewarded by the acquisition of valuable material consisting of books or documents bearing upon the early history of the place. There can be no doubt that the day will come when all the accumulated historical material will be found of great value and very useful, and the Readers' wants: Each library must naturally adapt itself to the wants of its readers. While it is impossible to meet all demands, and "he who tries to please everybody will please nobody," an honest effort must be made to meet all just demands as far as the means of the library will permit and the general interest will require. The library ought to lead the taste of its patrons and not follow it, and the wishes of the public should be considered from this principle. New and popular books should be furnished promptly and in sufficient number. Books in foreign languages should be supplied wherever required; they will bring those to the library who do not understand English, and give to students of these languages additional facilities for self-improvement. The publication of special lists of available books on timely topics, or reading lists for literary clubs, lists that will aid the work of teachers and pupils, will make a library not only popular but also adapted to local needs; and a liberal use of printer's ink will make the citizens acquainted with the fact that the library is wide-awake to the interests of the locality and meets the requirement of the day. The library that proves to be the people's bureau of information will quickly be recognized as an educational force in the community and will frequently befriend those who otherwise might stay away from the library or oppose it. Children's reading: It is of vital importance to every community that its library should give most careful attention to the reading of the young. I refrain, however, from discussing this subject, and simply refer to Miss Stearns' excellent paper on "Reading for the young," read before the Lake Placid conference of the American Library Association and also to the series of annual reports on children's reading contained in the volumes of the LIBRARY JOURNAL. Every librarian should consider himself morally responsible for every book delivered to any patron, much more so if the patron be a child, and for this reason he will take the utmost pains to aid and guide the children in the selection of their reading-matter. Personal influence: In small places the librarian's direct personal influence may aid the library in this adaptation to local needs and cir cumstances, and while what Miss West calls his "personal equation" may enter as a factor in his work, it is advisable for every librarian to remain the "unknown" quantity of that equation. In connection with these general remarks, I thought it might be of interest to present briefly what is being done by some of the libraries of the state with regard to adaptation to local needs. For this reason, I addressed circulars containing eight questions to 25 libraries, and having received replies from 18 institutions, I wish to make the following report: The questions submitted are as follows, viz.: 1. Do you approve of the principle that the library should adapt itself to local needs? i. c., in agricultural districts, would you supply books and periodicals on agriculture; in manufacturing districts, books and periodicals on the special industry of the locality, etc. 2. If opposed to this principle, please state reasons why. 3. In what manner do you adapt your library to the special needs of your locality? 4. Do you aid the schools? 5. Do you collect and preserve local ephemeral prints, like handbills, programs, pamphlets? 6. Do you preserve files of local papers? 7. Have you any special method by which you make your library valuable to your own locality? 8. How do you interest your citizens in your library? From the replies the following facts are gathered : Sixteen favor the adaptation to local needs, two seem to object. Thirteen aid the schools. Eight collect and preserve local pamphlets. Nine preserve files of newspapers, local and otherwise. Three claim special methods. Six interest the citizens in their locality by notices in the local papers. PRACTICAL LIBRARY-MOVING. By C: R. GILLETT, Librarian of Union Theological Seminary. This, if one carries the matter back far enough, is the system actually adopted when books are boxed for removal. To be sure, the aim in boxing is the preservation of the volumes from loss and harm, but when the boxes are unpacked the treatment of the books and the replacing of them on the shelves is the treatment and the replacing of the individual book, for boxes and shelves cannot be made convertible terms without great waste of time, strength and room. Convenience in handling is thus sacrificed to supposed safety, and with it comes multitudinous and useless detail. IN the November number of the LIBRARY | handled, and what unit is most convenient, exJOURNAL there were several references to the peditious and safe? Usually the single volume problem which occasionally confronts the li- is treated as the unit, but thereby the complexbrarian, viz.: What is the best method of mov-ity and detail of the task is vastly multiplied. ing books from old to new quarters? Many men, many answers; and of course there are many ways in which it may be done, provided one has an unlimited corps of assistants and helpers. But that is not the case with all of us, and for the benefit of those who may be in my own case, I would like to set down some of the results at which I arrived. For such, the question is complicated by the item of expense, and the problem takes this form: How can removal be effected most cheaply, consistent with convenience and safety? The individual carrier with an armful of books, and the box closely packed and fastened, represent perhaps the extremes, and they are both exceedingly expensive, troublesome and slow. Books so treated are also exposed to special dangers, and from experience I do not think that the percentage of damage is any less after all this trouble has been taken than according to the system which I have adopted. The question which is fundamental to the whole problem is this: What is the unit to be It makes no difference how a library is classified the classification furnishes the clue to the order of the units which compose the entire collection, whether the book or a number of books constitute that unit. Given a classifica│tion or a fixed order, and the sequence of the units takes care of itself. The primary arrangement in the new quarters must correspond with that in the old for obvious reasons, but principally to avoid confusion. The problem is to transfer the classification unchanged and to make changes and adaptations to a new environment later. Having had considerable experience in the moving of collections of books, I may be allowed to give my conclusions. On the first occasion, some ten years ago, I had on my hands a collection of 60,000 volumes which were to be removed from the old building of Union Theological Seminary at 9 University Place (just below 8th st., New York) to 700 Park ave., between 69th and 70th sts., a distance of between three and four miles. Later I moved the library of the San Francisco Theological Seminary from San Francisco to San Anselmo, a distance of upwards of 20 miles, partly by wagon, partly by boat, and partly by rail. In each case the same plan was followed with entirely satisfactory results. The same plan has since been adopted by the librarian of the University of the City of New York in transferring his books from Washington Square to University Heights, a distance of ten or twelve miles. No boxes were used, and during the process of removal any book was available except during the period while the books were on the cart in actual transit. Wagons with good strong springs were used and as many as a ton (in some cases nearly two tons) of books went to a single load. One of these libraries was numbered by shelves and in the other there was only a sequence of volumes under the larger rubrics of the classification (the classification was not completed at the time of removal). unit was not the single book, but an aggregation of books which made a pile of books of a given size. Usually a shelf-ful made two units, and each was tied in a bundle and marked with its appropriate number which indicated the place whence it came, its relative position in the classification and its destination in the new The quarters. The cords used were of thick, soft jute, and only in rare cases did they damage the bindings or leave any trace of their presence. Care in the selection of the end books contributed, of course, to this result. Where greater care was required, paper was used to cover corners and edges, so that as a final result it may be said that damage of the slightest sort was not done to more than one book in 500. The 60,000 volumes in New York were prepared for removal, moved over three miles and set up in place ready for use, by four assistants in thirty days. The 15,000 in San Francisco were prepared and moved by two assistants in a week and a half. My experience points to this system as economical, expeditious, safe and satisfactory. The immense labor of packing boxes is avoided and the amount of actual damage done is no greater than in the case of boxed books. The strings are arranged with a fixed loop at one end so that they can be used over and over again. The bundle became the unit and could be handled with ease and safety. A paper slip bearing the classification number directed the bundle to its appropriate place, and if the cord was not removed till the final location had been settled, the transfer of a package was much facilitated. The cords cost less than boxes and could be used with greater speed. And when the cost of removal was counted up, it was much less than it would have been under any other system. Actual risk of damage was incurred only when the books were in the cart and in transit. It then arose only from the jolting of the vehicle over rough stone pavements, but was obviated by the use of an abundance of heavy cloths and blankets. Care had to be observed in packing the bundles, but this is an easier task than might appear at first sight, and I did most of it myself. COMBINATION ORDER AND SHELF-LIST SLIP. BY WILLARD H. AUSTIN, Reference Librarian Cornell University. EVERY library, large or small, must determine for itself the character and the number of the records it should keep. A charging system may range all the way from a single entry to three and four, according as it is found necessary to be able to determine certain facts about any book not in its place on the shelves. Although there is a certain range in the matter of recordkeeping, all who have ever had the supervision of a library that makes any claim for order and system, are agreed that there are certain fundamentals which cannot well be omitted in any These include, as is well known, the accession book, the shelf-list, the order-list, the case. isfactorily. So excellent does it prove that I think it a pity not to give others the benefit of the idea. catalog and charging system. In a small library, where one person, or at most two, must do all the work, the question of the number of records to be made is a serious mat- It may be called a combination order and ter. It is for such cases that I wish to out-shelf-list slip, and its name explains its uses. I line a device which I have put into opera-insert here a model form, which may be varied tion in a small library over which I as- from to suit particular cases, but which will sumed supervision, and which works very sat- serve to illustrate what I have in mind: for which purpose they may be arranged in one alphabet or classed. This is one reason for making the slips the same size as the small index card, that they may be put in some unused portion of the catalog case, where they can be consulted by borrowers in search of "new books." Here they are kept until the next invoice arrives, when they are put permanently into the shelf-list. They should be punched and fastened in with a rod to prevent their misplacement, while they serve as a new-book list as well as when they form the permanent shelflist. As will be readily seen, its first use is as an | the shelf-list, is to serve as a list of new books, order-slip to be filled out by the librarian or others, from time to time, and together the slips form an order-list, from which titles may be selected, according to the amount of funds available at any one time of ordering. After being copied on the order-sheet to be sent away, the slips are dated and filed away, designated as "Orders out." When the books arrive the corresponding order-slip for each one is again dated, to show when the book was received, the price corrected by the invoice — if the actual cost differs from the list price and each slip inserted between the leaves of the volume. When the volume is given its accession number, the slip receives the same number. In the same manner the slip receives the class and book numbers given to the volume, and the record is complete. Up to this time no shelf-list entry as such has been made, but this order-slip, with the full information which it now gives, is itself the shelf-list entry, and is more complete than many librarians would justify themselves in taking the time to make for a shelf-list alone. Another, and temporary, use to which these slips may be put before being permanently filed in Nothing further need be said. It is evident that a library by means of this slip has all the advantages of an order-slip and a shelf-list, with only the labor necessary to make either record separately. A shelf-list in this form needs never to be rewritten, is quite as convenient for taking inventory, if two persons are available for the work, as the sheet shelf-list. It forms a classed catalog, in form like the dictionary catalog used by the public, which may always be at hand for the use of the librarian, or others, to get at the literature of any subject. |