A BOOK NOTE, MARTHA T. WHEELER In a notice of books on New York in New York Libraries for October 1910, attention was called to the entertaining Diary of Caroline Cowles Richards (Mrs Edmund C. Clarke), written in her girlhood in Canandaigua, N. Y. The sale of the little volume had at that time exhausted the original privately printed edition and a second printing also private - had been issued. It now appears bearing the imprint of Henry Holt & Co. ($1.30 n) having created for itself a recognized demand. The title is changed to Village Life in America, and this is accounted for by the fact that it has meantime been published in England, and the English sheets have been imported for the Holt edition. For the benefit of a foreign public a short preface To British readers has been added, a list of the towns mentioned, with brief notes characterizing them, and two pages of dramatis personae. There is also a new American introduction by Mrs Margaret E. Sangster, who pays high tribute both to the human interest and the historical value of its picture of the social conditions and general interests of a small northern town from 1852 to 1872. For American readers this edition loses somewhat in the omission of the illustrations in text, comprising most of the reproductions of photographs of people mentioned, so quaint and often amusing in their old-fashioned

clothes. A few of the more important are given in plates, and several views of the villages and of notable buildings are added. With the advantage of the name of a firstclass publisher, this edition may well find its way into many libraries which have not hitherto acquired it, and prove a happy choice as a gift to elderly people who recall the times described.

SUMMER SESSION OF THE NEW YORK STATE LIBRARY SCHOOL

The six-weeks summer session of the New York State Library School will be resumed this summer after a two years' interruption due to the destruction of the State Library in 1911. The course will begin Wednesday, June 4th and close Friday, July 18, 1913.

A general course covering the essentials of book ordering, cataloging and classification, loan work, reference work, selection of books, etc. will be given and an attempt will be made to emphasize those points on which experience has shown small libraries to be in most need of assistance. A special feature this year will be the course of thirteen lectures on work with children which is given in the regular course of the State Library School under the general direction of Miss Clara W. Hunt, superintendent of children's work of the Brooklyn Public Library. This will deal with the selection of books for children's reading as well as with the administrative side of children's work and will be of use to teacher-librarians as well as to librarians and assistants in public libraries. It will be open to all students in the summer school.

As the aim of the course is training for better work in present positions and not a short road to new positions, admission is limited to those already in library work or under definite written appointment to library positions. A few school librarians or teachers in New York State whose time is largely occupied with the care of school libraries will be admitted on written statement of their principals or superintendents that they are so employed.

No charge for tuition is made to residents of New York State. Others pay twenty dollars for the course. Only a limited number of students can be accommodated and early application will be necessary to insure admission. Residents of New York State will be

given preference in admission provided their applications are received in time to be considered before the full number of accepted candidates is definitely made up.

A special circular giving further information about the summer session may be obtained on application to the Registrar, State Library School, Albany, N. Y.

To correspondents. We would remind everyone having business or official relations with the Division of Educational Extension, that it will save time and possible confusion or duplication of work, if all correspondence relating to such business be addressed simply to the division, and not to individuals connected with it. Several officers of the division spend much of their time in travel or in field work, and mail addressed to them individually, besides being delayed in the process of forwarding must often be referred back to the office for consultation with previous correspondence or official records before proper answer can be made. By addressing all business communications direct to the office, correspondents will be assured that everything that can be or ought to be attended to at headquarters will receive prompt attention; and anything calling for the individual attention of any member of the staff, will immediately be referred to him or her. The intention of this note is not to interrupt or supersede communication between correspondents and individuals in the division, but to systematize and make more effective such communication.

Registry of public libraries. Under the law and Regents rules, public library money for books is distributed to free libraries which are registered as maintaining a proper library standard. This requirement of registry is necessary in order to insure the use of the money for a good public purpose. The Regents, however, make an exception in the case of a new enterprise which needs the money but has had no opportunity to show its quality, and by direct vote they make special grants at the time the charter is issued.

Libraries which have received this favor should not forget that, before receiving a second allotment, it will be necessary to apply for registry and to show on inspection that the proper library standard is maintained. Every library which has been in operation for six months should give attention to this

matter without further delay. Blanks for application to the Regents will be furnished on request and if aid is needed to put the library in proper order, assistance will be given.

Bookbinding and binders. We commend to the attention of all librarians interested in the problem of binding, the following communication received from Mr A. L. Bailey, chairman of the A. L. A. committee on binding. Address him, Wilmington (Del.) Institute Free Library.

The committee on binding frequently receives requests from various libraries for information about binding and, occasionally, requests for an expression of opinion about the work of certain binders. The committee has, therefore, established a collection which includes work done by many binders making a specialty of binding for libraries. Each binder has sent in samples, showing the manner in which he binds fiction, children's books and periodicals. In addition to these samples, each binder has answered a list of twenty-four questions relating to methods, materials, prices etc. With these samples and answers to these questions in hand the committee is in a position to give definite opinions upon quality and style of work whenever librarians ask for it.

It is not the purpose of the committee to publish opinions about the work of any binder, but all questions will be gladly answered. Librarians can help to make this plan more useful, (1) By sending to the committee the names of library binders. The committee already has many names, but there must be many more whose names it will be unable to obtain unless sent by those who are interested. (2) By urging binders, whom they know, to comply with the requests of the committee. (3) By making use of the collection already established.

A note from the School Libraries Division. A very earnest effort is being made to increase the efficiency and usefulness of school libraries. Teachers and district superintendents are expected to give their best efforts to this end. Greater care is to be exercised in

the selection of books in order that the books purchased shall not only be good books but, in addition to this, those that will be most helpful in the particular school for which they are purchased. To aid in accomplishing this, it has been decided that hereafter no allotment of library money for school libraries will be made on the purchase of library books by trustees unless the application contains the indorsement of the district superintendent certifying that the selection made is, in his judgment, a satisfactory one. This places a large degree of responsibility upon the local supervising officer.

Registered libraries and lantern slides. The Division of Visual Instruction announces the following plan for lending lantern slides through public libraries for use by local organizations and individuals not entitled to borrow directly from it.

Each registered public library of the State is entitled under the general rules of the Department to borrow lantern slides and photographic prints. The rule that slides are not to be sublet by the borrowing institution is waived in the case of libraries. The Division of Visual Instruction will place in any library its lists of slides and photographs as they are published and will supply the library with application blanks. The requests from persons or organizations will be referred to the local library.

It is not practicable for the division to undertake to lend directly to individuals. It is believed that there is every advantage in an arrangement by which a person interested may go to the library and be sure that he can consult there lists of all the available slides and photographs, prepare a list of what he desires and have the illustrations procured by the library. There is so much in common between books and pictures as means of study that it is natural for one to go to the library for both.

While it is optional with the library to perform this service to the public, doubtless most libraries will be glad to undertake the work. No general announcement has as yet been made to the libraries relative to this matter but, growing out of particular inquiries during

the current year, a number of libraries have already begun to borrow.

A suitable card for the bulletin board has been prepared calling the attention of readers to the visual aids of the Department and to this plan of borrowing.

WILLIAM REED EASTMAN1

It has come to few men to enter a new work, carve out a career and win a national professional reputation after the age of fiftyfive. This has been done by Mr William Reed Eastman, who, after twenty years of continuous and devoted service in behalf of the libraries of New York State, presented his resignation, in October last, as chief of the Division of Educational Extension in the New York State Education Department, to take effect December 31, 1912. With cordial expressions of regret and of high regard for the distinguished service he has rendered the State, the resignation has been accepted by the Education Department. The regret and regard thus expressed in official way will be shared by everyone who has had any professional or official relation with Mr Eastman during his twenty years of library activity, and by innumerable librarians and trustees throughout the State who have been aided, stimulated and directed in their work by his counsel, sympathy or active cooperation. The regret will be modified, however, by the thought that the severing of official connection with the work will make little or no difference in his personal interest in or devotion to the cause to which he has so long given his heart, and by the knowledge that, in spite of advancing age, his health, vigor and youthful spirit seem to assure many years yet of fellowship and helpful counsel in the library work of the State.

Taken as a whole, Mr Eastman's career is one of the most interesting to be found in modern library annals, and it is to be hoped that, as leisure now comes to him, he will find the time and impulse to put in the form of a personal memoir a connected narrative of the events, scenes and developments in which he has had a part. He was born in New York City in 1835, graduated from Yale College in

1854 with high honors, the youngest man in his class; for several years he was engaged in surveying and engineering work, being one of the force to survey and lay out one of the earliest railways in Mexico. In 1859 he entered Union Theological Seminary, of New York City, from which he was graduated in 1862 and ordained a Presbyterian minister. During the years 1863-64, he served as chaplain of the 72d New York Volunteers, gaining thus experience and knowledge of events and personalities which have enabled him to make positive and interesting contributions to the history and reminiscences of that period. From 1864 to 1888 he served continuously as pastor of various churches in Connecticut and Massachusetts. In 1890-the year in which the first state library commission was formed - he was caught in the rapidly rising tide of the modern library movement, and with all the enthusiasm and devotion of youth, embarked on his new career. His scholarly ideals and professional standards would permit of nothing less than a most thorough and systematic preparation for this career; so, with the zest of a schoolboy, he entered the New York State Library School for a twoyear course, completing this with the class of 1892. He was immediately appointed to the work of inspecting, organizing and supervising libraries in New York State, a work to which, in various capacities, he has continued to give his whole energy up to the present.

What he has done for library development in this State during these twenty years can never be measured or weighed by any available statistics. It is true his work has been but one of many factors entering into the product. The spirit of the times, favorable laws, public library money, the development and activities of the State Library and its traveling library system, broad-minded policies of the Education Department, these and many other forces have been at work in the field during this period, but they have wrought their effects largely through the mind, spirit and energy of Mr Eastman.

The statistics of library growth in New York State during Mr Eastman's connection with the field are, in the words of the Bookman, "nothing less than amazing," and have perhaps never been paralleled by those of any social, educational or philanthropic movement. Thus in 1893, there were in the State

238 free libraries, including school libraries free to the public; in 1912 there are 800 such libraries. In 1893 there were in free libraries 849,995 volumes; in 1912 there are 4,721,000 volumes in such libraries. In 1893 there was a free library circulation of 2,293,861 volumes; in 1912 a circulation of 20,309,176 volumes. These figures mean that there has been in this interval a threefold growth in the number of free libraries, a fivefold growth in the number of volumes in these libraries, and a ninefold growth in their circulation. Limiting the period to the time when nearly all of both field and office work was done by Mr Eastman, from 1892 to 1901, there was a growth from 238 to 529 free libraries, from 849,995 to 2,425,260 volumes in them, and from 2,293,811 to 9,232,697 circulation.

But his activities and influence have by no means been confined to the duties connected with his office. His work in the State Library School, as instructor in the theory and planning of library buildings, has given him a foremost place among authorities in this field in the United States, and has been an influential factor throughout the whole country for economy and efficiency in library construction. In the origin and development of the New York Library Association, which he has served in nearly every capacity, his steady, systematic and constructive work has been the strongest single factor. What Mr Dewey was to the National Association, Mr Eastman has been to the State Association. In the planning and carrying out of the work of library institutes, a work that has an untold and immeasurable influence in the library development of the State, he was from the first the leader and director. Through the development of this work and that of the association, he has seen during his twenty years of active service the number of libraries gathered in annual conference and cooperation increased from 15 or 20 to 450, and the number of persons participating in these conferences increased from 40 to 1250.

Surely, in the contemplation of such advances in his field of work and limitless possibilities for enlarged and enriched living for the people of the State which they suggest, he must now have a reward and satisfaction such as is given to few of the world's successful workers.

Morning opening

In this city, having a population of over 25,000, the public library has heretofore been open only in the afternoon and evening. The trustees are now considering the question of having it regularly open mornings also. Please give your opinion as to the advisability of this, and reasons for the opinion.

Concerning this question we think you will find but one opinion among live and progressive librarians today. In a city as large as yours, and indeed in one much smaller, we would regard such opening as a matter of course. As you ask a statement of reasons, we submit the following: (1) The aim of the library is to see not how little it can do for the public but how much; not how few people it can accommodate but how many, and every added hour of opening means that more people's convenience is met. Every public library, in even the smallest place, should be open as many hours as its resources will permit. (2) People should be free to go to the library whenever the impulse or need arises. You can not arbitrarily squeeze this impulse or need into afternoon or evening hours. Nobody can say just when I may want or need to use the library. Of course necessity may determine this matter, but where there is no necessity for denying me the freedom or privilege I may want, it should be given me. If I were a resident of your city and should find the public library door locked against me in the morning when all other centers of activity are open, I should feel aggrieved, and would conclude, either that the library did not care as much for its business with the public as do the proprietors of banks, stores and saloons, or that it was too meanly supported to do its full work. (3) While for the majority of its patrons the library is most largely and most conveniently used in the afternoon or evening, there are some in every community whose natural time for going to the library is in the morning. Some prefer to go there at that time just because there are fewer present and they can thus have a better chance at the books or at the service of the librarian. Some do their shopping or marketing in the morning and do not go out on the street again during the day. If the library is then closed, such persons will either fail to use the library or will fail to get the full benefit from it.

(4) Even the churches, criticized as they have been for getting so little use out of their expensive buildings, are more and more coming to see the wisdom of keeping open all the time to provide continuously for such individual needs as they can supply. One will rarely find, even in large churches, more than two or three persons taking advantage of this privilege at any one time, but the church thinks it worth while to provide even for these few. And it is hardly too much to say, in the cities at least, that it is just the churches that are doing this that are best holding their own or making the largest growth. The policy of the public library should certainly be as broad and generous as that of any church.

A. W.

Salaries, hours open and circulation How large a circulation is one librarian supposed to handle in village or small city libraries? How many hours a week is such a library, having an annual circulation of about 20,000, supposed to be open? Have you any statistics to show what the average library of this kind is paying in salaries per 1000 circulation and per hour of opening? We are planning to open this library about four hours more a week, and would like to know what this should mean in increased salary.

From reports made for the past year by 17 different libraries, each having a circulation of from 15,000 to 25,000, are gathered the following statistics bearing on the questions raised: