270 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



Pertwee — Scenes from Dickens. 



Phelps — Essays on Modern Novelists. 



Ward & Others — World's Great Woman Novelists. 



With the letter is enclosed an agreement which Mrs. Blank 

 is requested to have signed by her club president and one other 

 officer and by the person who will care for the books when received. 

 One of the books on the list proves to be the same as one which is 

 already owned by a member of the club. Mrs. Blank therefore 

 crosses out Garnett and Gosse, "History of English Literature," 

 and returns the list with the signed agreement to the Missouri 

 Library Commission. Within a few days a small cardboard case 

 is received containing the five books requested. There is a pay- 

 ment of forty cents to be made for express charges, but the 

 books are loaned to the club free of all other expense. These books 

 are to be retained by the club until the study of the subject is 

 completed. At any time that extra help is wanted, Mrs. Blank is 

 at liberty to write again to the Missouri Library Commission and 

 ask for more books. The number is not limited, as the idea is to 

 give the best possible service to each club as far as the stock of 

 books in the possession of the Library Commission can do. At 

 the end of the club year we see Mrs. Blank asking the members to 

 return to the librarian, all books bearing the mark of ownership of 

 the Missouri Library Commission of Jefferson City. The librarian 

 then repacks them in the same little cardboard case in which they 

 were received and ships them back to the Missouri Library Com- 

 mission. This time the express must be prepaid, as the law gov- 

 erning the Commission requires the payment of transportation by 

 the borrowing club. 



This circulation of half a dozen books at a time is a little thing, 

 perchance, but we look upon it as part of the great movement which 

 is as wide as the nation. The development of higher education of 

 women began in 1819 and is a product of the 19th century, and the 

 development of organized club work may be considered as begin- 

 ning in 1890 with the incorporation of the General Federation of 

 Women's Clubs. What it is and what it will be therefore is dis- 

 tinctly a product of the 20th century. The libraries of our coun- 

 try, particularly the public libraries, were developed along the 

 present lines in the latter half of the 19th century. The creation 

 of the first Library Commission is exactly contemporary with the 

 organization of the General Federation in 1890. This parallelism 

 of the clubs and library work is significant. A little thing you say, 

 perhaps — the sending out of half a dozen books to Mrs. Blank — but 



