LIBRARIES, PUBLIC. 



333 



Much of the work published, like the last named, 

 under the auspices of the American Library Asso- 

 ciation, is the product of co-operative effort. 



Among the special indexes due to the effort of 

 individual libraries must be mentioned that of 

 technical periodicals in the Patent Office Library 

 in \Vashington, and the one for trade journals in 

 the Commercial Museums in Philadelphia; both 

 are in manuscript, on cards. 



Librarians are, naturally, greatly interested in 

 the international conferences on a co-operative 

 catalogue of scientific literature, held in response 

 to a call from the Royal Society of London, the 

 first in 1896, the second in 1898, the third in 1900. 

 This catalogue, which begins with 1901, is to 

 comprise all published original contributions to 

 mathematical, physical, or natural sciences, to the 

 exclusion of what are sometimes called the applied 

 sciences, whether appearing in periodicals or in the 

 publications of societies, or as independent pam- 

 phlets, memoirs, or books. It is to be arranged 

 according to subject matter and author's names, 

 with special regard to the requirement of scientific 

 investigation. The management is intrusted to a 

 central bureau established in London and re- 

 gional bureaus in various countries, to which lat- 

 ter falls the work of dealing each with the litera- 

 ture of its country. Future international conven- 

 tions (1905, 1910, and every tenth year thereafter) 

 rill make any necessary revision of the regula- 

 ions. 



Interlibrary Loans. These are becoming more 

 equent, especially between reference libraries as 



a means of partial- 

 ly overcoming the 

 distances between 

 centers of re- 

 search ; they are 

 naturally of great 

 value to the inves- 

 tigator. 



This system of 

 sending books on 

 request from one 

 library to another 

 is in vogue at the 

 library of the sur- 



feon general's of- 

 ce (on a note- 

 worthy scale, in- 

 troduced there by 

 Dr. John S. Bil- 

 lings), the Worces- 

 ter (Mass.) Libra- 

 ry, the medical li- 

 braries of Boston, 



:., the Academy of Medicine (New York city), 

 e Congressional Library, etc. 

 Circulating Libraries. The preponderance of 

 e free circulating library in this country has 

 aturally caused much energy to be applied to 

 he improving and simplifying of methods, espe- 

 ally in all that pertains to the keeping of records, 

 3 in the charging systems. What is known as the 

 " two-book system " has been introduced in many 

 libraries. This permits the reader to draw two 

 ks at a time for home use, but only one of the 

 oks may be a work of fiction. 



., libraries bring books whore the circu- 

 lating library does not. This system was charac- 

 terized by R. G. Thwaites, president of the Ameri- 

 can Library Association in 1900, as " in some re- 

 spects, perhaps, the most hopeful of all forms of 

 recent library popularization." It provides for 

 small libraries of 25, 50, or 100 volumes, sent from 

 central libraries to " individuals, clubs, and asso- 

 ciate libraries in communities roundabout," for 



JOHN SHAW BILLINGS, 

 NEW TORE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 



IltHBKRT PUTNAM, 

 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 





certain periods (usually six months), upon re- 

 quest and under certain conditions. The travel- 

 ing library was first introduced in 1892 in New 

 York State, but be- 

 fore that time the 

 Baltimore and Ohio 

 Railroad Company 

 was circulating 

 books to its em- 

 ployees along its 

 line. Since then 

 various systems of 

 traveling libraries 

 have been estab- 

 lished, as follows: 

 1895, Iowa and 

 Michigan; 1896, 

 Colorado, Illinois, 

 Kentucky, Massa- 

 chusetts, Nebras- 

 ka, Ohio, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Virginia, 

 and Wisconsin ; 

 1897, Louisiana, 

 New Jersey, and 

 Tennessee; 1898, 



Alabama, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Kan- 

 sas, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Utah, and 

 Washington; 1899, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Mon- 

 tana. Texas, Vermont, and British Columbia; 

 1900, Arizona. 



In 1893 the first traveling library went out in 

 New York with 100 volumes. In 1898 it was 

 reported that there were more than 1,650 in the 

 country, of which 687 were in New York, with 

 more than 73,000 volumes. Some specialties had 

 already developed, as at the New Jersey Traveling 

 Library at Princeton, which circulated books on 

 forestry only. 



The introduction of small collections of selected 

 books directly into the homes of tenement-house 

 residents has also been tried with encouraging 

 results. 



Libraries and Schools. Another recent develop- 

 ment in the manifold activity of the American 

 public library is its co-operation with the schools, 

 which, beginning at Worcester, Mass., about 

 twenty-five years ago, has only within the past 

 few years become generally recognized as a de- 

 partment of library work. Boxes of books for 

 instruction and entertainment, selected by the 

 teachers, are sent 

 to the schools 

 sometimes classi- 

 fied by grades ; and 

 traveling school li- 

 braries, to assist in 

 certain courses of 

 study, are not un- 

 common. Other 

 methods of reach- 

 ing the school chil- 

 dren posting bul- 

 letins and lists in 

 schools, the organ- 

 ization of " library 

 leagues " among 

 pupils, etc. serve 

 to accentuate the 

 community of in- 

 terests between 

 school and library. 

 The latest mani- 

 festation of this 



spirit was seen in the year 1900 in New York city, 

 where the Board of Education made arrangements 

 for establishing small libraries in some of the 



JAMES L. WHITNEY, 

 BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY. 



