XXX 



lation to each other. Societies are therefore necessary for efficient work- 

 Local scientific societies have long^ been recog:nized as important 

 factors in pubHc education, serving- as permanent repositories of infor- 

 mation for pubHc use and as distributors of such information. The 

 principal methods by means of which they accomplish these valuable 

 functions may properly claim our attention. 



1. Museums and Other Collections. Inasmuch as the work of 

 local scientific 'societies relates mainly to natural objects, collections of 

 such objects are indispensable for reference and for record. Portions of 

 these collections are available for the direct information of the public 

 by being- placed on view, g^rouped so as to illustrate facts and theories, 

 and properly labeled; such portions of the collections form the museum. 

 The educational value of museums is coming- to be more and more 

 recog-nized all over the world, so much so indeed that special associ- 

 ations formed for the purpose of considering- this feature alone now 

 exist in England, on the continent of Europe, and in the United States. 

 Museums supplement the work of schools, colleg-es, and universities, 

 and are reg-arded by many students and teachers as equal in educational 

 value to any one of these three. Other portions of the collections, 

 consisting of specimens too small, too valuable, or too frag-ile for dis- 

 play,, or that would be damagfed by exposure to the lig-ht, must neces- 

 sarily be preserved in closed cases, and only such persons as can use 

 them to advantag-e are given access to them. These reference collec- 

 tions are often of greater scientific value than the museum. 



2. Libraries. The books and pamphlets accumulated by local 

 scientific societies are largely such as are unlikely to be found in many 

 other libraries, being naturally selected with special reference to their 

 immediate work. Such libraries come therefore to contain many doc- 

 uments not readily accessible elsewhere, inasmuch as they are largely 

 derived from exchanges with other similar societies in various parts of 

 the world, and in this way valuable information is made available to 

 the community. 



. 3. Publications. The facts observed and conclusions reached by 

 members of societies are supplied to the public by published transactions, 

 proceedings, or under other titles, and they form a very important 

 part of our literature, there being a large number of such societies and 

 many of them publish voluminously. The facts recorded in these 

 publications are not by any means restricted to the immediate recipi- 

 ents of the documents, inasmuch as many of them are copied into 

 journals or newspapers and are cited by other students in various other 

 publications. The Proceedings of the Natural Science Association of 



