South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-03-08

The Librarians trade" is not with
out its trick.
To the average reader a librarian
appears omniscient Not only can she
place in ones hand just exactly
what you were looking for"
Not only can she place in ones
hands al "a moments notice data on
any subject no matter how remote
il may be from the human. she can
recIte of hand the principal points in
the plot of any story, place it'in it's
class" and then, wonder Of won
ders reply negatively when you ask
her If she has read the book.
What gnOmes Of knowledge inspire
herr Is the question which is written
upon the puzzled features of the in
qulrer who receives this reply.
But IL is really quite simple-after
you know how IT is done.
AS a matter OF fact the Librarians
know the pedigree of "a book long be-
fore il is out of the hands OF the pub
fishers and only those which have
some pretense or 'aristOcracy' are
even considered, let alone admitted TO
the sacred recincts of the book
shelves. To be sure. they aren't all
DlueblOOds. but none are admitted
that fall below the pale OF respect
ability"
When a book is entered at the copy
right department il takes its first step
toward glory Of oblivion. An epitome
OF each book that is entered at the
copyright Office is made and sent 10
committee OF the American Library
association which passes it and prints
II with plus or minus signs fol-
lowing, in the Review Digest which is
distributed monthly among the men,
bers Of the American Library aSSocia-
ton. The brief sketch includes the
main facts OF the story, the name of
the publishing house and comments
on the author. The Review Digest
with the reviews in The Dial" and
/ The Nation. the only magazines
I that are not controlled by publishing
houses and therefore give unbiased
reports. are carefully watched by the
librarians. And therein lies the source
of their omniscience
At a club meeting few days ago,
in a round table discussion OF general
topics one woman remarked:
we subscribed for several mag
azines this year on the strength OF
what we had seen Of them on other
peoples tables or at the library, and
they have turned out to be very diff
ferent from what we expected of them.
The subject matter. if il is at all what
we expected it to be. is handled in
an entirely different way from what
We anticipated. We have been won
dering what the matter is"
one woman of an investigative turn
Of mind set out To find what the mat
ter was, and this is what she found
or a part Of it at least:
The past year-perhaps two years
have been noteworthy for the many
changes in editOrships and consequent
/ ~ in policy which have taken place
/ in periodicals. House Beautiful" for
/ example, formerly published in Chi
/ cagO, is now put out in New York. II
/ has taken to printing one story in
each issue. thus introducing a literary
feature, keeping up at the same time
\ those features which have made il
distinctive all along.
'Lippincotts formerly published in
Philadelphia. is now published in New
York 1t still keeps up the custom
! of running one complete long story
/ in each issue on the theory that in
/ this way the reader gets for a com
/ paratively few cents a novel that he
would pay $3.50 for in book form
! Some OF the old familiar features OF
'Lippincotts" are missing now, how
/ ever.
The man who was formerly editor
| OF the Literary Digest" has gone over
| To Current Opinion" formerly Cur
rent Literature" and what one once