JiTLT 33, 1886. T 



SCIEIS^CE, 



71 



or shall the subdivision be carried further, making 

 periods in the history of countries, and dividing 

 zoology into the orders and families of animals, 

 and so on, or, even further still, allowing a place 

 in the history of England, France, and Germany 

 for every reign, also dividing mathematics into 

 arithmetic, algebra, the calculus, etc., and break- 

 ing up orders of animals into genera and species? 

 Each successive subdivision intensifies the difii- 

 culty of keeping all the books on a subject to- 

 gether. Grouping books does not remove them 

 one from another at all : they are no farther off 

 than before subdivision. Mr. Cutter vras a strong 

 advocate of putting by themselves all books on 

 well-marked subjects. Mr. Lane (Harvard col- 

 lege library) submitted specimen sheets of an in- 

 dex for catalogues, which elicited discussion ; 

 following which was a paper on ' Close classifica- 

 tion vs. bibliography,' by Mr. William I. Fletcher 

 (Amherst college library). Classification as used 

 in the sciences, he said, may be exact ; but as used 

 in a library it cannot be, for the reason that many 

 of the best contributions to the discussion of a sub- 

 ject are not detachable from the books or sets of 

 publications which contain them. The libra- 

 rian must advise his readers to find in every 

 possible way what is the actual literature of the 

 subject he may have in hand. Bibliography is 

 the watchword for the librarian of the future ; 

 and this, rather than classification, must furnish 

 readei-s with the means of tracing the literature of 

 their subjects. Mr. Fletcher regarded close classi- 

 fication as having fatal defects, as a system for 

 the guidance of the reader to the resources of a 

 library in a given subject ; and it should be rele- 

 gated to a subordinate place as a minor factor in 

 library administration. The library system of 

 our day has one important mission, that of furnish- 

 ing the means of cultin-e to a people whose life is 

 in danger of being drawn into a fatal specializa- 

 tion. Mr. Fletcher characterized the prevailing 

 system of classification as an attempt to substitute 

 machinery for brains, and said that the gi-eatest 

 present needs of our libraries are intelligent 

 librarians and assistants, and the best obtainable 

 intelligence crystallized in bibliographic books. 



Next came an elaborate paper on ' International 

 copyright in congress,' by Mr. T. Solberg (Library 

 of congress), who reviewed at great length the 

 history and progress of congressional legislation 

 on this subject. The paper was not read, but will 

 be printed in full in the Proceedings of the asso- 

 ciation. 



The evening session of the second day was 

 entirely characteristic of the work of the associa- 

 tion, being largely occupied with the technical 

 details of library work, and embracing pai)ers and 



talks by Mr. Cutter on author-notation for Greek 

 and Latin classics, by Mr. J. N. Earned (Buffalo 

 public library) on a few of the devices and arrange- 

 ments, in a librar}' bviilding, and by Mr. MelvU 

 Dewey (Columbia college library) on ' Eclectic book- 

 numbers,' illustrating simple methods of finding 

 books on the shelves. Mr. E. B. Poole (Y. M. C. A. 

 library, New York) reported, for the committee 

 on congressional legislation, a resolution, which 

 was adopted, recommending such legislation as 

 shall enable libraries to send books to their out- 

 side clientage as second-class matter at one cent 

 per pound. 



The evening session of the third day was taken 

 up with two noteworthy papers, — ' The first li- 

 brarians' convention, 1853,' by Mr. E. M. Barton 

 (American antiquarian society, Worcester) ; and 

 ' The teaching of bibliography in colleges,' by Mr. 

 R. C. Davis (Michigan university library), giving 

 an outline of the system now employed at Ann 

 Arbor. 



Perhaps the most important matter coming 

 before the meeting of the association was the 

 report made at the morning session of the third 

 day by Mr. Fletcher, on behalf of the committee 

 on co-operative cataloguing, — a scheme w^hich 

 received some notice in Science a few weeks ago. 

 The object in view is the preparation and printing 

 of such catalogues, bibliographic guides, and in- 

 dexes as shall serve to relieve the several libraries 

 of a large share of the expense of the present 

 system of publishing expensive individual cata- 

 logues. The committee had received replies from 

 some seventy different libraries, favoring the or- 

 ganization of a publishmg section of the associa- 

 tion, after the pattern of the early English text 

 and the Shakspeare societies. The association 

 next heard the reading of a paper on ' Library 

 buildings,' i^repared by Mr. Eirikr Magmisson 

 (Cambridge, England, university library), advocat- 

 ing the Archimedean spiral as the form most 

 suitable for the library structure of the future. 

 This plan was illustrated in the London Athenaeum 

 some months ago, and may fairly be conceded 

 to present certain advantages; viz., a maximum 

 of book-space with a mmimum of material used 

 in construction, the possibility of enlargement of 

 the original structure perpetually as required, 

 without disturbing in the least the operations of 

 the central library or its functions. But the as- 

 sociation, while extending a cordial vote of thanks 

 to Mr. Magnusson for his paper, was entirely 

 unanimous in condeimiing his proposed library. 

 In particular. Dr. Poole said the idea was sub- 

 stantially an old one, rejected long ago, and that 

 the enforced sky-light for the book-stacks was a 

 very serious disadvantage. Other members criti- 



