The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-06-28

The American Literary association VIII
begin its annual conference at Breton
/ Woods, New Hampshire, today. To this
organization. more than to any other, is
due the present stale of uniformity OF
library work i'm the United states and
canada Tt has done much to bring about
spirit OF cooperation among uDrdries,
ana more to establish uniform methods
OF cataloguing. This latter matter. chief
~, win occupy the attention of the asso-
citation at the present meeting.
II is estimated that there are 1000
libraries in the United states and Canada,
ana that the books on their shelves ag-
Efegate more Than 6oeo,009 volumes Some
/ lqea OF the number of libraries in the
United States which attempt to make any
OF neir collections anything ike com
pete, may be gathered from the fact that
| ABOUT 800 of them have been designated
as repositories for public documents is
sued by the United States government.
Ane library as an adjunct to universal
/ edqcauon has become a recognized essen
Library work has been reduced TO u
science, broadly speaking and one may
now study the Librarians profession
much as he would study law or medicine
only he learns to do by doing 10
greater extent than in either Of the latter
two. There are perhaps 5000 young men
and women in the United states who are
preparing for library work and If the
number of Libraries multiply in the next
there will be a great demand for Compe-
tent workers. Not only has there been
remarkable increase IN the number of
libraries. but also in the size and i'm
porJance of those already in existence.
Of course. the first essential to sue
cesstul library endeavOr is catalogue
OF its contents which win enable the
patron to locate any book therein by
subject, author or title. The perfection
OF such catalogue has called for the
pest thought Of the library world, and
the American Library association has
adopted a code of rules for catalOgUing,
which represents the combined wisdom
or ITS membership to date. The cooper
auOn IN CdtalOguinE has been extended
70 British libraries as vel. and an An
gio-AmeTiCan agreement on rules has been
reached. The rules agreed to have been
printed. and now form the basis Of cata-
logue work in the United States. Canada
and Great britain. These rules are not
complete. dealing only with the Ques-
tons relating to titles and authors in the
catalogue The subject next TO be han
uled viii be the preparation and printing
OF the list of subject headings.
The most prOdigiOus task of indexing
now being carried forward in the United
states is that covering the statutes at
large of the United States. There are
1900 pages Of closely printed matter in
the volumes containing the statutes and
to make every. proposition in them readi-
ly accessible for reference is a huge task.
Congress legislates i'm something Of a
haphazard way. using different language
at different times to express the same
meaning, and this gives rise to numer-
Gus conflicts and Inconsistencies, and to
Implied repeats and amendments, all of
which make indeXing very difficult job.
Although the work has been carried on
for a good while. there is vet much to
be done Up TO the close Of the last fiscal
year only the acts passed since 1873 had
been lndeXed, but even to index them
required over hundred thousand cards.
The bureau Of standards has made it.
self felt in the library world through its
tests Of cloth for bOOkbinding. It has
LAID down specifications for all cloth that
snail be used in the binding of public
documents, and the government buys no
cloth that does not come I'D TO the stand
ard set by these tests. The specifications
are 00tdinabie by any person or library
desiring them, and through this standard
Il IS expected that much loss due TO de-
tecuVe binding material will be prevenad
Library methods are gradually pernd-
aIlng the business world, the card index
belng an example. Eut a card index
without a competent indexer is a deIu-
sion and snare after it grows to large
proportions, so the most progressive bus
mess establishments are taking advan-
tage OF American library association rules
so far as it is possible to do so. and some
OF the young men trained for library
work find better salaries in the business
Held than in library circles. Business
prophets see the day when every up-tO-
date establishment VIII have its trained
librarian for keeping track Of every
transaction.
The first public library in the world
was that established by King Osyman-
dys king of Egypt in the twelfth dyn-
asty- It was located in a portion of the
kings palace. and above the entrance
was the striking phrase, THE Healing
of the Soul" The first American library
ever established was at jamestown direct
ly after the settlement there But il was
so small that most historians fail to
notice II, giving first place TO the Har-
ward library, founded in 1898, with Yale
and William and Mary following in 100.
In more than a century and a half of
existence. Harvard was able to accumu-
late only 1900 volumes. Interest in
libraries has been mainly of recent
growth. There are more than 60O00OOo
volumes in the libraries Of the United
States and Canada. Twenty million vol
umes would have been a liberal estimate
in 1880.
The major portion of the interest that
has been brought about is due to the
establishment Of the modern library sys-
TEN, which dates from 1876 It was in