EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXIII. November, 1910. No. 6. 



A recent gathering of considerable interest to workers in agricul- 

 tural science was the agricultural libraries' round table, held in con- 

 junction with the annual conference of the American Library Asso- 

 ciation the past summer at Mackinac Island, Mich. Represented at 

 this meeting were various agricultural college and experiment station 

 libraries, the libraries of this Department and this Office, state 

 libraries and other extension agencies engaged in farmers' library 

 work, and others interested in the collection and circulation of agri- 

 cultural literature. 



The programme included both papers and conferences, and while 

 some of the subjects dealt with the more technical details of library 

 management, others discussed the broader phases of the relation of 

 these libraries to other agricultural agencies. Among the topics to 

 be considered were the means of popularizing agricultural literature, 

 the place of agricultural literature in the general reference library, 

 the instruction of students in the use of agricultural and other scien- 

 tific literature, the selection and preservation of agricultural periodi- 

 cals, bibliographical and other aids to agricultural literature, and 

 similar questions of wide interest and significance. 



The meeting is believed to have been the first attempt to assemble 

 as such the scattered but rapidly increasing number of workers in the 

 comparatively new field of agricultural library science. As was to 

 be expected, it served to reveal some of the problems common to those 

 in attendance and the advantages to be secured by their discussion. 

 At the close of the conference, in response to a general desire for 

 future meetings, steps were taken looking toward the permanent 

 organization of an agricultural library section of the American 

 Library Association. Should these efforts be attended with success 

 another helpful auxiliary to agricultural science, therefore, gives 

 promise of being added to the long list of specialized associations 

 which have come into being within the last few years. 



The inauguration of this undertaking and the interest which is 

 being nmnifested in its development renders even more than usually 

 pertinent a discussion of the experiment station library and of the 



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