To Librarians frequently remark: "We must order what our patrons demand. The people pay the bills. Our readers call for novels and light literature; they do not call for the other kind." This is in part answered by saying that one reason novel readers patronize the library and other readers do not is because the first find their wants gratified, while the others may not be so fortunate. Students can be made of novel readers, just as a course of treatment will make strong healthy boys out of weak and dissipated ones. Many times a boy may be led to better reading by encouragement and by telling him he is capable of going deeper into his subject than are those about him. The books he is reading are interesting but you have something for him along the same line, only of a better order. Little by little a wrong tendency may be changed. The influence here of the teacher is of the utmost value. preach a taste for good books and then be found reading trash, robs the teacher's opinion of weight and her advice of force. Many a library is rich along one line of school work and almost barren of books touching other phases. This will probably be due to the bias of the librarian, or more likely to the fact that some particular teacher requires considerable library work of his students, and little by little, books have been purchased for his department. Naturally, the English and history departments in their various phases make the greatest draft upon the library. But care must be exercised lest the library become top-heavy. All subjects have a strong humanizing side and those who study science or mathematics or industrial or technical education must be made to feel that the library is for them as well. Too frequently we endeavor to force the boy who is mechanically inclined to read poetry or English history and try to turn the attention of his more bookish brother toward natural science and the industries. In this way, we say, we shall make well-rounded students. Librarian and teacher must beware lest the boy, halted in his purpose, stop reading entirely and forsake the library. By suggestion and careful direction the boy may be led where he can never be forced. The That the school and library may integrate still further it has been found advantageous in some localities to organize libraries and schools under one and the same management, or, as elsewhere, to have a member of the board of education a member also of the library board. librarian may in fact be a member of the school board. The same argument would apply to the desirability of this double representation for library and school, as to playgrounds and schools. The same care shown in planning a school building should be exercised in planning a library, and experts should be intrusted with this work. Lighting, heating, ventilation, location of stacks and shelves, arrangement of rooms, offices and desks-these are matters of the first importance. All of this suggests that from the financial side the advantages of the dual representation are obvious. No question would then arise as to the librarian giving necessary time to the school, and here could be located a branch library presided over by a librarian salaried by the school. Care should be taken not to duplicate unnecessarily the magazines and periodicals found in the school library and those in the public library. In so far as possible the permanent pictures should also be different. Simple but artistic decoration and finishing should always be secured. Tactful librarians may be of great service in advising with school authorities and principals as to the location of the school library room. If space is at a premium, as it usually is, the library will likely be found in a dark alcove, or in the basement, or on the third floor, or at one side of a dreary study room. Without exception, the library should occupy the best location in the building. It should preferably be removed from sound of playground or street, and be placed on the first or second floor. It should be sunny and commodious, and unless the school is unwieldy, the study periods should be spent here rather than in a study room. The books should be grouped as to subjects-ancient history, English literature, French, chemistry, geography and the like. The pupil should report for study in the library, and take up his position in the alcove where the books of his subject are grouped. The librarian or an assistant may thus, without loss of time, know what each student is doing and can lend aid or suggestion. If the book or books needed in a given instance are not available the librarian should know this. The pupil, with proper adjustment between teacher and librarian, may not return to his class unprepared and with the excuse that his book was "not in." The small room library with its selected list to meet the needs of the class from week to week, is essential to good work. However, too great a draft must not be made upon the public library. The subject will determine whether one copy of each of several books or several copies of one should be placed in the class room. It sometimes happens that teachers themselves, thoughtlessly or otherwise, have levied on all the reference books in a given subject and then refuse to accept the explanation from the pupils, that nothing can be found. And "Let the student be sent to the library early and often; there is no more welcome visitor, but let him be sent upon an errand of dignity. Let the subject be one which will broaden his outlook, increase his store of valuable knowledge and increase his pleasure in the use of good books. Do not, I beg of you, even if he be sent, let him work so long over an allusion in a classic which he is studying that he lose all appreciation of the literature and go away from the library with a distaste instead of a taste for 'the best that has been thought and said in the world.' A teacher fails somewhat if the pupils are not led to books. What use if a child be taught to read if he be not taught what to read and where to get it? The teacher should seek to create an appetite for books, the librarian to gratify the appetite created."11 Some of the money used in the purchase of new books could more profitably be spent in issuing a series of bulletins, these in sufficiently large editions to provide students and others interested. Clear, simple, 11 Jewett. The public library and the school problem. Public libraries, 14:119. 1909. but comprehensive abstracts of books and articles should from time to time appear. Every dollar put into cheap novels, which, when read are out of date and will never again be referred to, would better be devoted to securing additional library assistance and in publishing bulletins. Only in rare instances should a book of fiction or a volume of more pretentious foundation, by an untried author, find place on the library shelves in less than a year from its appearance. The major portion of cheap books would thus never be brought within the library. One authority advises against buying for school libraries, literature less than twenty to twenty five years old.12 One of the evils of the day is found in the unwholesome novel, the cheap magazine, and the Sunday newspaper. The danger lies not so much in the story itself as in a warped habit of mind soon established in the reader. It is for the teacher and librarian to so analyze the mind of the boy as to properly direct his reading into normal channels. The children's or juvenile room, if properly conducted, is of the greatest value. Because teachers have their own tasks to perform they can give little assistance here in person. Through counsel and advice they can do much. Story telling and reading to children should have a large place, and hence, to be of the greatest service a sufficient number of assistants or associates must be in attendance here. Our children's rooms in libraries must be modern in method. Stories and readings, given along the line of the school program and school activities, will greatly facilitate the regular teacher's work. If then the curriculum be crowded and the school system so rigid that no place remains for the humanizing influence of good books, the teacher and the librarian must work the problem out between them. If the pupil's interest lies in statescraft and oratory give him Patrick Henry and Webster and Pitt and Lincoln; if he wishes verse, there is Stevenson and Lowell and Riley and Kipling; if applied science or in 12 Public schools and their libraries. Library, New Series 7. p. 373. 1906. vention, then Franklin and Fulton and Morse and Edison. For each one, young or old, the library may be "made to talk" if only the teacher and the librarian are wise and tactful. The day of the few books is past, and it is worse than useless to deplore the change from the few well known to the many scanned; but at least some good books revealing the life and times of the great epochs in all countries can be well assimilated. A few books should be well digested. But with our libraries overflowing with richness, with books and newspapers and magazines; with pictures and exhibits and lectures; with museums and concerts and recitals, and all given in the name of education, teachers and librarians have great opportunities and increased responsibilities. They must also pave the way that the pupil may gather the kernel from many books of many kinds, and from these manifold sources, all of which are more or less closely related to the library. Modern methods of teaching lay more and more stress upon the use of the library as a working laboratory for all departments, a means of supplementing the regular text-book work in the class room by the use of books and illustrative materials so as to give the pupil a broader view of the subject and awaken an interest which may lead to further reading on his own account, to create a love of reading and develop a library habit which will lead him to the best use of the public library after school days are over as well as during his school life. "Through the coöperation of principal, teachers, and librarian, the library may be made the very center of the school work."13 And if either teacher or librarian is disposed to be impatient or pessimistic or narrow she has but to say with Rizal, "Las ideas no tienen patria"-Ideas have no Fatherland. The CHAIRMAN: The discussion of municipal civil service as affecting libraries was postponed from the last general session to this. Is there any one who has anything to say on that subject? Mr. Jennings is 13 Hall. What the librarian may do for the high school. Library journal. 34:154. 1909. here and I presume he would like to explain his position a little more thoroughly. Mr. JENNINGS: From the discussion which followed my paper on Saturday morning, it seems that I failed to make my meaning clear on one important point. The title of the paper was "Municipal civil service as related to libraries" and I thought it was understood that my criticisms were directed at external not at internal civil service. I am convinced that no outside commission should control in any way the library staff. I think we all agree on that. Two excellent arguments or illustrations have come to my attention during the last two days and I beg to mention them here. The employees of the state Department of Education and the state library at Albany have been chosen for years by the New York state civil service commission. The Commissioner of Education, Dr. Andrew S. Draper, has, however, come at last to the conviction that this system does not secure the best grade of men and women for positions above the grade of clerks and he is seeking either a modification of the system or a complete change that will enable the department to get the best. He finds the need sometimes of persons who do not happen to reside in the state of New York and he desires a method of selection sufficiently elastic to permit the use of judgment on the part of the appointing officer. The second illustration is the story of a town in the middle West, the name of which I am not at liberty to mention. The library board in this town decided that the library needed a change of librarians and presented their views as delicately as possible to the person who was then librarian. She declined to resign and appealed to the Civil Service Commission and to the mayor. Her appeal was sustained. Now, the library trustees in that town, as in all other towns, were appointed to control the li brary and manage its affairs. Their first and chief duty, I take it, was to select a competent librarian. Civil service took this power from them and the librarian still retains her position. The CHAIRMAN: We are very much obliged to Mr. Jennings for showing us a little further light. Is there anyone else in the room who wishes to speak on this subject? If not, the time has arrived when we ought to adjourn and I now declare this session closed. Adjourned. FOURTH GENERAL SESSION (Shakespeare Club, Tuesday, May 23, 9:30 a. m.) (Mr. A. E. Bostwick, presiding.) The CHAIRMAN: When a serious problem comes up for consideration, it can be treated in different ways. Some people avoid it, others deny that there is any problem and others admit that there is a problem, but say that it is insoluble, and still others investigate it seriously and bring out at least something worth while. Those of you who listened to Mr. Chivers' paper at Bretton Woods know he has seriously investigated the question of bookbinding. I now have the pleasure of introducing Mr. CEDRIC CHIVERS of Brooklyn. MATERIALS AND METHODS IN BOOK BINDING (Supplementary to Bretton Woods Exhibit.) Speaking of the behavior of books in public libraries, as issued by the publishers, the report of the Binding Committee of the American library association says: "Cloth-bound books must be withdrawn from circulation and sent to the bindery when they have been in the hands of less than twenty readers. Larger books of travel, history, etc., can seldom be used more than ten times before being rebound, and it is not uncommon to have them torn from their covers before being in the hands of five readers." It is a matter of concern that we should recognize the seriousness of such a statement as this, and it is our business to remedy such a condition of things if we can. We recently learned in investigating the qualities. of paper of which modern books are composed, that they differ very greatly in so many ways and in such degree as is set forth in Fig. 1. These variations occur in ordinary books, having deleted all the books of extraordinary sizes and qualities, either of the poor or excellent varieties: 62"x4" will not be recognized as too small a book, and 10"x 8" will be recognized as not too large a book. Books of less weight than 4 lbs. and greater weight than 54 lbs. may be discovered in a library. Thinner paper than 2.5M. and thicker than 13.25M. may be found. Tensile strength so slight that the ordinary machines would not record it, and again paper so stout as greatly to exceed 20 lbs. to the inch, occur in every library of any considerable size. There are also sections thinner and thicker than those recorded on the accompanying diagram. It may, therefore, be taken that the va riations of quality and condition here shown are such as have to be dealt with in the everyday handling of books in a lending library. It has been shown that previous to 1890 papers in vital respects were more nearly alike and were stronger by more than 50 per cent than those used to-day. Indeed, the comparison is as 8 to 3. There has been little effort made, except in one or two directions, to deal with these alterations in the qualities of books as far as their binding is concerned. Librarians and bookbinders are fully aware of the far greater use to which books are subject in the public library over the use they would get in the case of the private purchaser. We see clearly that the binding which would hold in the one case is totally inadequate for the other. The cord holding the smaller weight in Fig. II is seen to be too slight to hold the larger weight. Yet this illustrates the state of the case as between the private use of a book and the public use of a book, with the additional disadvantage that owing to the deterioration of paper the bind ing represented by the cord has been weakened. The improved methods which we recommended for dealing with the different classes of paper of which we had become cognizant, implied the use of the most appropriate materials for binding and covering books. An examination of the more important of these is the matter in hand. Testing the various materials used for covering the books, we find, as we would expect, considerable difference between the breaking strain in the direction of the warp and the strain suffered by the woof, and on Fig. III is given the results of a number of such tests. It will be seen that the ordinary edition cloth, chiefly used in publishers' bindings, suffers a strain in the warp of 25 and in the woof of only 10 lbs. to the half-inch. With stouter library cloth the difference is even larger, being 30 for the warp and 10 for the woof. A practical suggestion is here madethat if the cloth were used so that the warp should run across the book rather than up and down the cover, a certain amount of strength would be added to the binding. It would not be as much as the difference between the two strains, because attrition and friction would be the same, but considerable additional strength would be obtained. An objection to using the cloth in this way would be urged, that the pattern or design, when it is not an allover and even one will be found in the direction of the warp, and it is supposed aesthetically to be of more importance that such a pattern should be up and down the book and not across it. This may even on aesthetic grounds be an arguable point, but as a constructive advantage it would seem wise to adopt the suggestion to use the cloth in the strongest way of the threads. Fig. IV gives the result of testing a number of materials one inch wide, used in bookbinding for end paper lining, plate lining, jointing, etc. These again show the variation of strength value in the warp and woof. It would be evident that in the use of these materials, advantage should be taken of the stronger way of the warp, and use it in the line of strain. Figs. V, VI, VII show the warp and woof of several kinds of cloth photomicrographed to 56 diameters. They have been prepared in order to visualize the difference between the warp and the woof, which they there clearly do, but are of little importance or advantage to our inquiry, other than as illustrating this one point. It may be of a little interest to observe the penetration of the coloring matter in the case of the thinner face cloth, and the partial permeation with the thicker qualities. We now come to the consideration of the mechanical values of leather, the subject being of much more importance than that of dealing with cotton or linen materials. Leather has qualities which no other ma terials possess in adaptability to the binding and covering of books, because if wisely chosen, it is of far greater variety in thickness, softness, pliability, tenacity of adhesion and strength, being capable of adaptation to the exceedingly varied conditions which our diagrams illustrate modern books to exhibit. The Royal Society of Arts of England appointed a committee in 1901 to discover the reasons for the decay observed with modern leathers, and their very valuable report dealt exhaustively with the phase of the subject they undertook to consider. Some amplification of their inquiry appears to be necessary along the lines we are now pursuing, for supposing leather to be properly tanned and dyed in the manner the report specifies, it is still desirable to know which leathers supply the best mechanical qualities, as above indicated. Apart from the actual wearing of the leather in use, which it is impossible to follow for the purpose of testing, we may subject leather to tearing and breaking strains, and obtain some useful data of value. The tearing strain is ascertained in the fashion depicted by Fig. VIII. Fig. IX represents a skin of leather. A, B and C represent pieces of leather cut for the purposes of testing in different directions of the skin, A diagonally across the shoulder, B horizontally across the back, C vertically to the back. There is a grain with skins, but not so distinct as |