African articles are typical. In weightier articles the Century leads with 13 that I have described with no pretense to accuracy as sociological, in this certainly at one with the standards set by Gilder. In these numbers Scribner's had no articles distinctly industrial, but as I recalled the splendid accounts of Panama which appeared during the summer, I felt justified in concluding that in this respect there was no change or deterioration. Harper's contained a half dozen articles that might be loosely named history or reminiscence. In art and literature, in addition to the Easy Chair, Harper's had one article; the Century six, Scribner's, in addition to its monthly Field of Art, four. In character of subject matter and in proportions, then, these three magazines are essentially what they have been. Nor could I discover any marked dropping off in quality. Harper's, as so often, carries an English novel serially this season by Mrs Ward; the Century's serial fiction is by Mrs Burnett; the high literary standard of Scribner's is maintained by serials by Mrs Wharton and Galsworthy. The short stories in considerable proportion were by writers unknown to me. In humor, Harper's and Century alike graced their funny columns with names that have made the world laugh. The so-called weighty articles were almost all by persons of distinction, not alarmists or muck-rakers. Counting the articles, I found the proportions by well known writers to be almost the same in the three periodicals. From conversations I have had, I feel that others may be as glad as I was to have this assurance that the charge of deterioration is not well grounded. It occurs to me that The Bellman owes The Century and Scribner's an apology. WM. H. POWERS. Brooking, S. D. "Catalog" and Progress Editor of PUBLIC LIBRARIES: I read with interest your editorial in March PUBLIC LIBRARIES, "Spell it cat alog," and I wonder if you are willing for me to say to the younger members of the profession, "Spell it catalogue?" When I was proposed for the position which I have held for nearly twenty years I was asked "How do you spell programme." I said that I put "me" at the end of it, and the position was mine. This was merely asking if I reverenced the best traditions of the English language. C. K. BOLTON. P. S. My point is that unconventional spelling, or dress, or words, or behavior, all injure a young librarian's advancement. Ability rather than striking peculiarities help people onward. * * * * * It seems to me that "programme” spells "The old gentleman in the black stock." We have respect for him and what he represents, but we do not copy his dress. Surely, you are not going to say that we lack reverence for those things which we have laid aside because they are not of the custom of the day! I may not accuse you of lack of reverence for Milton and Shakespeare and the Bible because your language differs both in substance and kind from theirs! "Catalog" came in, was naturalized and was a good and upright citizen in library circles for over thirty years, and now, when its use has spread pretty generally, some librarians are going back to "catalog-ue." I have not yet advanced far enough to become an exponent of simplified spelling, but surely, the authorities that sent "catalog" broadcast, cannot be said to be unconventional? No one could believe more sincerely nor express more emphatically, hardly more frequently, the points of your postscript than I do, but for a different reason. I once had the termerity to tell a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church, to ask the House of Bishops to add to the litany, the petition, "From ever becoming queer, Good Lord, deliver us!" EDITOR OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES. When a change of address is ordered, both the new and the old address must be given. The notice should be sent two weeks before the change is to take effect. If a subscriber wishes his copy of the magazine discontinued at the expiration of his subscription, notice to that effect should be sent. Otherwise it is assumed that a continuance of the subscription is desired. Copies failing to reach subscribers, through loss in the mails, will be duplicated without charge if request to do so is received within 30 days after publication. Later than that duplicate copies can be supplied only at regular rates. A long delayed duty- A recent newspaper article, referring to a library in a good-sized Illinois town, makes a plea for keeping the public library open on Sundays and holidays as well as later in the evenings. One of the reasons given for the plea is that the saloons were closed in the recent elections and many of those men who found the saloon the only club open to them, will now need some place to go. The library is open until 8:30 p. m. and the population is nearly 15,000. There is no reason why a library in a town that size should not be open later in the evenings and on Sundays. The extra appropriation which the city would be called on to make for this, would be an investment for the welfare of the whole town in that it provided some place to go for those who may be found standing on the street corners. Less profitable expenditure of city funds could easily be pointed out. The present appropriation for the library is quite too much to have the library fall short of its greatest efficiency, but it certainly does now in that it is closed in the evenings and on Sundays. The library had better remain closed in some other hours in the 24 than in the evening hours, if such a course is necessary to keep the library open in the evening, but from the size of the town, the air of prosperity which it wears and the expenditures that are made for other departments of municipal service, the library is certainly entitled to the small amount to make efficient the investment which has already been made for the library. Under no circumstances ought the librarians be called on to make the contribution. Here is definitely a problem which belongs to the trustees of that library. It ought to have had attention long ago and further delay in bringing about a proper solution will redound neither to the value of the library nor to the honor of the community. The professional spirit-As the growth of opportunity makes the library circle. an ever widening one, calling for more extended application of the principles of library service, and more thorough knowledge not only of accepted library technique, but of library practice in administrative affairs, it behooves those who assume "to speak as one having authority" to inform themselves not only of the conduct of library affairs in their own locality but to the border of farthest limit. This must be done if one is to have the right to speak at all, for professional ethics requires that credit be given where credit is due, and it is unfitting that one should advance only and because another is made to recede. If it needs be that one must refrain from speaking in terms of praise of another's work because of duty to the profession, one should be very sure that whatever is said is accompanied with a spirit without blame. Hardly a library company of any size comes together that one does not have occasion to remember this. Everyone can recall incidents where criticism has bred criticism until some of what is said falls outside of the real facts or foundations of the situation. any, A critcism of the Booklist pressed for reason resolves itself into personalities. Another criticism of a fine piece of work was without reason, outside of the work all being done by one man. A thing one hears often and as often impatiently, is, "Most librarians do so and so," or "Everyone now concludes," when as often as not there are few, if adherents of the proposition, outside of the speaker. A recent "expert" publicly announced that "In every well-regulated library board, the librarian is present only when invited," when with those entitled to the very term, "well-regulated library board," the reverse is probably true. Much harm can be done by this kind of speaking, and where the best spirit is so badly needed in library affairs it is unfortunate that speakers should not be more careful. "Wisdom is first pure, then peaceable full of good fruits, without parti ality, without hyprocisy." The Washington meeting-The advance registration for the A. L. A. meeting shows the attendance will not be far from 1,000. If everyone who goes carries the determination to get from the meeting and to give to the meeting, the very best that he has, there will undoubtedly occur a fulfillment of the saying, "In the multitude of counselors, there is wisdom." Washington itself is an object of much interest and for the most part is so beautiful, that a visit to it taken understandingly may be fruitful in lasting and helpful impressions. It is to be deeply regretted that the grevious war cloud is hovering on the horizon, the center of which is over the national capital, and librarians everywhere, as well as those who will be privileged to visit Washington, will join in the ardent hope that a way consistent. with honor and integrity will appear through which war may be averted and peace and good will may come. Opening of Leipzig Exhibit The International book trade and graphic arts exposition was opened at Leipzig, Saxony, May 6, by King Frederick August of Saxony. The exhibit is the largest of its kind ever held. The grounds cover 100 acres and the main building five acres. The Exposition is in celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Royal academy of graphic arts and book trade at Leipzig. Most of the foreign nations. have taken a great interest and are represented in the Exposition. The ancient machinery for paper making and the various activities connected with the book trade are placed in comparison with the most modern and up-to-date machinery of the printing trade. The American library exhibit is in place in charge of T. W. Koch of University of Michigan. Hints on Small Library Building Many ask us for advice on how to build and how to manage small public libraries. We keep on giving the advice, although it is never taken. Here is some of it. Each town should build its own library. A gift from an outsider looks like so much clear gain, and several hundred towns and cities have taken these gifts on that basis of seeming gain. But a town's biggest asset is its citizens. The best thing in the citizens-for the town. -is their interest in it. That is real citizenship and is what American cities are after. If a few people bestir themselves, get up a library fad, ask for and get money from rich outsiders and build a fancy monumental building, they get on the platform at the dedication, perhaps have the honor of being trustees thrust upon them, gain an enjoyable prominence and feel they have done something for their city. And there is the library (or rather there is the building; for what makes it a library, the books and the librarian, are usually slow in coming to much) but there is the library, not an outgrowth of the city's intelligence, civic interest or generosity, and from the populace at large it gets far less sympathy and support than a public library needs to make it worth the maintaining. Put the library in the centre of town. This advice needs no argument. The library is for use, it is for the use of everybody, everybody pays to maintain it, so it should be equally handy to everybody. To be handy it must be near the centre. And "centre" does not mean centre of the residence district; though many a trustee has fooled himself into thinking that that is what it does mean. It means in the centre of the daily movement of the population. A public library does not just naturally exude sweetness and light. It does not educate a community by being near its homes. It is useful if people go to it and use it. It is central for that purpose when it is in the daily movement centre-and nowhere else. The offer of a "nice free lot in the residence section" has led to the putting of scores of libraries in places where they will never pay more than a third of what they ought to pay on the in vestment. Gift libraries from outsiders are very apt to be attacked with this tendency to remoteness. The men who ask for it wish it to be "monumental" and in a "sightly" place, that it may be free to reflect glory on themselves. As a rule, it is better to start in temporary quarters and let the building fund accumulate while trustees and librarian gain experience and the needs of the library become more definite. A large rented room in the centre of a town can be the home of a far more useful institution than can ever be made out of a great many, probably even a large majority, of the outside-gift buildings, which stand in lonely state in offthe-road places in scores of our towns already.-The Newarker. A Not Unusual Complaint I don't know where Tween six and eight Public library, Kansas City, Mo. Library Coöperation with Women's Missionary Societies The Public library of Long Beach, California, has found in the women's missionary societies of the different churches a very effective agency for bringing new patrons to know and use its books. Before such coöperation was possible the first need was to inform them on what the library had which could be helpful in their mission study work. To accomplish this the ever-useful "Selected list" was largely relied upon. A very comprehensive plan of missionary reading was prepared, in which each country was taken up in order, mentioning the best books relating to each. Fiction and books of history and travel were named as introductory to works written with the purely missionary aim. Several hundred copies of this list were made on the multigraph and distributed at the meetings of the various societies. Other and briefer lists were printed in some of the weekly church calendars. Besides these general lists, suitable for any society, every effort has been made to meet particular needs. The library is ready to furnish lists of available material for classes pursuing definite lines of study, as well as to give every aid to individuals in preparation of papers. Suggestions are also invited as to the purchase of books particularly desired for special work. To make the books of missionary interest more conveniently accessible to those who come to the library, they have been placed on a separate shelf labelled "Missionary Books." This collection, numbering about 250, includes lives of missionaries from the biographical section and some especially selected travel and descriptive works as well as those which belong distinctively to the class of missionary books. In occasional cases the library has not depended upon the ladies coming to the library, but has upon request sent collections of books in charge of an attendant to a regular meeting of the society. At these times the books are always wel comed enthusiastically and nearly the whole number sent is circulated. Always there are some who in this way take home their first library book. The officers of the societies have remarked upon the benefit to their work which has come from the wider knowledge of the literature of missions. VICTORIA ELLIS. An Interesting Exhibit An interesting item placed in the collection for the Leipzig exhibit was a model designed to show a typical arrangement of a one-room library building. The model plan had partitions between the various departments, formed merely by bookcases seven feet high in some instances, in others, three feet high with a glass screen above, this arrangement being designed to give a complete observation of the room. The model was built to the scale of one-half inch to the foot. The outside walls were given a stucco finish, and the ceiling was complete only over the rear portion of the room. The model was built by Miss M. A. Barnes, of Jersey City, and the tables and chairs of cardboard were made by a member of the staff of the Brooklyn. public library. A New Line of Coöperation One thousand copies of a circular prepared by the postmaster at Washington, D. C., relative to parcel post, have been distributed to the postoffices in Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and southern Pennsylvania. The circular gives rate of postage and method of packing farm products to be sent by parcel post with the idea of decreasing the cost of food products. The Public library of Washington is coöperating with the postmaster of the city to the extent of receiving and posting on a special bulletin board in the library, prices at which farmers and others will sell their products by parcel post. The effort will be watched with in terest. |