Arizona republican., 1921-11-04

INQUIRIES OF ALL VARIETIES ARE PUT
 TO STATE UBRARY

If man in Oklahoma wants to know the name of an Arizona breed of dog,'' if an high school pupil wants to know "all about the constitution, constitutional convention, and the legislature" if a woman wants to know if she can recover on mining stocks-they inquire at the state H. brary.
 The reference work covers q broad field, according to Mrs. Con Cronin, deputy librarian, who in an illumi- hating talk before the Business and Professional Woman's club last eve ming gave the members an idea of the library and it's work.
 The two speakers on the program, which was arranged by the capitol group. were members of the club. vo- cational workers who brought their activities before the other women workers in business and professions. As Mrs. Cronino sketched her duties
 Miss Etelka Weiss, public health nurse. outlined tho public health activities in Maricopa county. She spoke of the work being done in con- il1nction Efth the clinic, the day nursery with patients in the hospitals and the surveys of the homes to pre- vent disease. She cited cases where the county nurses had brought in-
 
 finite relief
 There were other features on the 1 program in addition to the talks, the entertainment being provided by young girl artists, Helen Hanley and Esteleah Harmsen.
 The program was we'll received, Mrs. Cronin's contribution being of more than ordinary interest. She said in part:
 .'The Arizona state legislature of 1915 created the department of state library, with a legislative reference department, which is now knows as the state law and legislative refer ence library, this last being achieved after repeated efforts by proceeding legislatures since statehood.
 At the time of the creation of the department the law library as then existing contained but few of the re- 1 quired law books necessary for a first class legal workshop. The state | reports were incomplete; current statutory law of the several states was lacking; the text books were | fragmentary, and those esser tial legal publications known as Case Law were very incomplete. There l had been no provision for any organ | ization, the library having been | looked after by the reporter of deci- | sionS. Since the creation or the de- partment a system of exchange has been effected by which Arizona. in exchange for her own state reports.
 session laws, and departmental pub lications, receives all the state pub | 1icatnons of every state in the union, 1 from Alaska and all our insular pos sessions and all legal publications from the provinces in Canada. You l can readily see how very much we receive in exchange for very little. 1 Through the medium of this ex- | change system our state reports and 1 current statutory laws are now com l plete. All current ana modern text 1 books are purchased, and all Cana
 dian and English reports. In short l in the state library are all the legal publications requisite and necessary l for a first class law library. There 1 are now in the law library approxi- l mately 13,000 live, up to date and
 necessary law books.
 "The law library presents two classes of problems: First, those 1 which are common to practically all l types of libraries: second, those ! which arise from the fact that the | publications contained in a law h-
 brary differ both in form and sub- ject matter from those in a general 1 library, thus giving rise to variations | from the normal procedure usually
 followed in handling other library
 material. There is no generally ac-
 cepted, standard. scientific classifi- 1 cation. Law books naturally fal,
 into well defined groups. The prob
 lem that the librarian is confronted l with is knowing the law as contained
 in law books; knowing where the law
 is to be found, and knowing it better
 than the average lawyer.
 Law books are loaned to members
 of the bar in all parts of the state as
 well as here in Phoenix.
 While the law library presents
 many varied features, the most in
 teresting work in the state library is
 that of the reference department
 which Is divided into the legislative
 reference and the general reference
 departments.
 ''The legislative reference depart
 ment exists as an aid to intelligen
 legislation. It began in the New Yorl
 state library in 1890. Eleven year: later, 1901, Wisconsin followed, devel. l oping new methods and new ideas 1 Since that time 34 states have under.
 taken the work on varying scales