Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 271 



let us multiply the case of Mrs. Blank by the 5,000 clubs in the 

 United States with a membership of nearly 300,000 women! The 

 libraries are helping the clubs and the clubs are helping the li- 

 braries all over the country. Truly, it is a work that thrills us as 

 we write, and gladly our cry goes forth to our club mothers : "Let 

 us prove our gratitude to you and join you in making horizons 

 broader, hearthstones warmer, and cities, states and nations 

 greater and truer." 



HOW THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY CAN HELP CLUB WOMEN. 



(Miss Florence Whittier, Assistant Librarian, University of Missouri.) 



One of the foremost ways in which the University library 

 helps club women, is by answering specific questions through its 

 reference department and sending a book or two which will help 

 the inquirer by giving her the best information on the subject in 

 which she is interested. Often, the reference department can be 

 helpful by suggesting a more limited scope for discussion than the 

 club women had planned. 



Though the foregoing assistance is gladly given whenever 

 practical, and about one hundred letters a month are written, to 

 inquirers in this State, the larger part of our work can be only 

 suggestive, A university library must keep at the library all the 

 books needed by its faculty and students and so many times we 

 cannot lend the book needed. In such cases we send the titles and 

 prices of the most helpful books. 



There are several means by which people away from libraries 

 can get the best printed information on their subjects. The Mis- 

 souri Library Commission is organized to be the first aid to all 

 readers in the State. Miss Elizabeth Wales, the secretary, at 

 Jefferson City, Mo., will gladly send books to responsible people for 

 simply the asking and the paying of transportation charges. Other 

 large libraries in the State will gladly help inquirers. 



There is also a publishing firm in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the 

 H. W. Wilson Company, which, through its library department, 

 will rent at a minimum rate magazine articles on any subject that 

 has found its place on the pages of the leading magazines. 



The University library will be glad if you will write us when- 

 ever you think we can help you. 



