The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-27
URGE NEED FOR
 LOCAL LIBRARY Various Suggestions Made At
 Convention Yesterday ADDRESSES LAST NIGHT
pr. Buchner and Miss Hopkins Were Speakers and Others Joined In the Disoussions-Morning Meet
 ing In Bessemer.

The second night session of the an- nual convention of the Alabama Library association was held at the city hall last night, with President Thomas M. Owen of Montgomery in the chair. Dr. Owen was unable to reach Birmingham in time for the opening Monday night on account of a wreck between here and Montgom- cry.
 The speakers last night were Miss Jes- sic Hopkins, Assistant librarian Carnegie library, Montgomery. who spoke on "Li- brarianship as a Profession" and Dr. E. P. Buchner of the University of Ala bama whose subject was "The Free Pub lie Library and The Industrial Com munity" After their addresses q general discussion was indulged in. The address of Dr. Buchner was especially interest," ing, bearing as it does upon the indus trial situation in Birmingham.
 The establishment of free public library in Birmingham was the sub ject of comment. Among the remarks was suggestion by President Owen that the officials of the local association raise about s6OOO with which they could employ a first class library promoter for two years who would by the end of that time not only have raised s6o,0Oo, but the full amount of $3O0,00O required to put up a magnificent institution. The desire to stimulate interest in a Birmingham li- brary was very marked.
 Miss Hopkins on Librarlanship.
 Miss Hopkins dealt with the subject of lbrarianship from the beginning of the recording of books from "Rameses l., on through the splendid times of Lo- renzo the Magnificent or the fiourishing of the indefatigable Bodley even down to current history distinguished by our own Fletcher, Dewey and Dana" .'Librarianship as a profession, how ever" said Miss Hopkins, may be said
 to have found its beginning in the estab- lishment by Mir. Dewey in 1886 of the
 Pioneer Library school of Albany, N. Y. For the past 20 years two forces have
 been at work; a natural growth toward complexity and a tendency toward sim plification in order to cope with that
 growth" The speaker touched on tho
 phase of personal fitness" when she described as embracing such qualifica- tions as culture, tact enthusiasm, exec utive ability good health, public spirit and common sense. "The prospective li- | brarian," she said, must be lover of | books but not q bookworm." The quail | fications not to be desired were listed as | long, -wlndedness, inability to mind one s
 own business, cholerlc temperament, in-
 accuracy and tendency to be forth
 putting"
 The need of technical training was es-
 pecially emphasized flor while librarians are not made but born" said she, they l have need of that training which makes perfect" Cooperation, librarianship in 1 the south, and the library spirit were dwelt upon, closing with The ideal li-
 brarian does not dream of his bank ac-
 count. but Is awake to the fact that there
 are pleasures, aims and purposes in life
 which cannot be measured by dollars and | cents. It is the library spirit
 pr. Buchner introduced.
 | pr. Buchner followed Miss Hopkins, President owen saying in presenting nim that he wished every man, woman and i child in Alabama could hear the words
  I his lips pr. Buchner's subject was "The Free Public Library and the Community '
 and he said in part:
 "Go back to the time when man man1- rested activity not of the brute but of the savage The savage lived the simplest
 way possible, but these conditions did not
 develop the library or school, or that which wedged them into our social lie. Go along further, and we find man living a nonadic life. But yet we find that the husbandman has not developed the school or library Go down to later age. when iron and other metals were discovered
 Yet these men did not find the library and the school When did they come in' When man reached the highest point of reckoning; when he put things on record not for himself, but when he put them on record for future generations.
 Now. to times a little more familiar to
 us. to the times with which we are asso- clated as a people. The industrial life Of America rests upon the civilization of centuries, but it is also developing into itself. As to the conditions which have brought about America's pre-cminence, | venture to set forth five of the reasons