year's neglect renders greater the difficulty of reference to the past files, and the apparent cost of the necessary work, while the yearly cost of keeping it up is comparatively small when once the previous files are indexed. An index of this sort requires the best sort of work, and a person of experience, judgment, and knowledge of the world of affairs-especially an acquaintance with political matters, both general and local. Still other places where this sort of work is demanded (and it is a steadily increasing demand) are state departments and commissions, municipal offices, banks, insurance and railway companies, law offices, commercial firms and publishing houses. In all these places the idea of indexing has arisen with the great increase of business the world over, in both extent and complexity; and it is simply a feature of the systematic and methodical organization which is everywhere rendered necessary by that increase. What sort of person is suited for doing such work? The qualifications and equipment that it requires are more native than acquired, more in personality than in booklearning; yet these latter furnishings are of great value. The first-class indexer is, like the poet, the critic, the translator, "born, not made;" yet we would all rejoice if there were fewer vacancies in the ranks of the second class, in all those kinds of achievement. Indexing is not commonly classed with the fine arts or the learned professions; but let not him who practices it regard it as a trade. To him, at least, it should be as an art and a profession; and, if he so regards it, that feeling will be evident in the quality and value of his work when done. It is only work of this sort that will bring the demand for more. It is certainly as true in indexing as in all other employments that really successful work must be the expression of high ideals in standards and aims; and that, since such ideals are all too rare among workers in every line, there is "always room at the top." To "index" a book is, according to the dictionary, "to point out, to render available the information therein contained." But the indexer himself must first see those things before he can show them to others; nor can he safely halt at mere facts and figures in the text. He must be able to see the real meaning or import when it is only implied, the undercurrent of the author's thought or purpose, the tendencies of a nation's social life, the basis of its economic conditions, or the gradual development of a scientific theory. Next is needed what a well-known librarian calls "the clas sified mind," which marshals all these facts and theories in orderly array, in systematic connection, in logical sequence. There are three main plans of arrangement under the respective headings: the alphabetical, the chronological, and the logical. Each of these has special advantages for special purposes; the nature of the matter indexed must determine which should be chosen in each case. Always the aim should be to render the information accessible to its readers in terms as simple, clear, and accurate as possible-to which end the indexer should not let himself be trammeled beforehand by any mere theory or cut-and-dried plan of work. It is as true in indexing as in cataloging and classification that any system must, to be really useful and valuable, have sufficient elasticity and flexibility to adapt it to varying circumstances and needs, and that "cast-iron" rules are often far more honored in the breach than in the observances. It would be folly to use the same plan for indexing Prof. William James's book on "Pragmatism" and Lieutenant Shackleton's report of his Antarctic explorations. Each book shapes a system for itself, according to its purpose and scope. Shall the analytical index be full or short? This requires a suitable sense of proportion: the subjects discussed within one book may be of varying importance, and sometimes but few of them need exten. sive development, so that it would be waste of time to treat them all alike. Nor is it well to supply much predigested food for the reader; as long as he can reach it easily, it is better that he do most of his own cutting and chewing, unless the matter is unusually difficult or complicated. When the indexer undertakes a piece of work, how can it be best performed? The prime requisite in method is economy of labor and time, both of these being equivalent terms for money-which neither publishers nor authors, and still less commercial houses, are inclined to lavish upon such work. Very few persons have any adequate idea of the cost of making an index of any sort. The other day I received a letter relative to "a card index for the -Journal (27 volumes). Kindly give an estimate of the time this work would require, and the probable charge for the same." As no other data were furnished for the estimate asked, it reminded me of the experience of the prophet Daniel, when the king not only desired him to interpret his dream, but to relate the dream itself, which the king had forgotten. Some printed instructions for indexing advise the student to make all his single index cards, then verify and check each entry from the text, then arrange the slips in the desired order, and finish by copying them all on clean sheets for the printer. I have known of a few indexes made in this way, and consequently about twice as expensive as they ought to be; but the employers are not likely to follow this plan a second time, and no publisher or editor who knows anything about indexing is willing to pay for such waste of time. A good indexer will make each entry correctly at the start, and not need to verify it; he will write each card in a good legible hand which can be used as it stands for printer's copy; and he will so plan the work as to avoid copying or rewriting cards, whenever possible. If you will pardon the personal allusion, I will describe my own plan for economy of time and effort. As I make each card with its subject-heading and first reference thereto, I lay it on the table before me, in its proper alphabetical place; and for each new reference to that subject I add simply the page-number to that card, until it is full, or the subject is no longer mentioned; one card will thus contain from 20 to 40 page-references. As the cards increase, I place them in piles keeping together those of a similar meaning or rela tionship, and following wherever practicable, an alphabetical arrangement. Personal names I place in one pile, alphabetically. If I want any card I can turn to it quickly, to add a new reference; nor do I use as much time in this as I would spend in writing a new heading for another card; moreover, I thus save the handling of an immense number of cards when I come to the sorting and arranging after the first cards are written. At the present time I have on my table about 5,000 cards, thus classified, in 50 piles, representing the work of indexing a series of over twenty volumes; and most of them are all ready for the printer. If each entry had been written on a separate card, I probably would have on hand some 15,000 cards, at a low estimate. To do work in this way requires considerable experience, with a good memory, and what the phrenologists call a good bump of locality; and many persons choose the more diffuse and cumbersome method rather than try to keep so many cards in mind. But, as it has been already stated, there is no iron rule for this; each person should find out in what way he can work most naturally and effectively, and follow it. The headings for cards should be selected with judgment, accuracy, and sense of their relative importance, and should be worded very clearly and concisely; they constitute the basis on which the indexmatter will be classified in its compilation, and should be such as the reader of the book would most naturally look for. After all are written, they are arranged in alphabetical order, cards under one heading combined when necessary, and cross-references inserted when these are desirable to connect subjects related to each other; finally, all are pasted on sheets, in due order, and are ready for the printer. A few suggestions may be made as to indexing the clippings, circulars, old magazines, and other stray material that drifts into a library or a professional man's study. We all know how such flotsam accumulates -often not worth classifying and catalog. ing, yet containing something one wishes to use and preserve. The daily newspapers men or duplicate copies of magazines and illustrated weeklies, sometimes also bookcirculars, contain views, portraits, historic scenes or buildings, fine engravings, colored pictures of birds and flowers, which are worth saving. There is much material in magazines and newspapers describing the educational and philanthropic movements of the day, that may be used to advantage by local welfare associations. The librarian may save much of the abovenamed material, and friends of the library can be secured in almost every community who will aid her in similar ways. If pictures, clippings, etc., are roughly classified, and placed in pamphlet cases, or card or envelope boxes, or large manila envelopes, they will occupy but little space and can be easily found when required. For this purpose, each should have a corresponding index-card, on which is written the subject, name of magazine or paper from which it was taken, and a reference to the box or envelope in which it is kept-the latter to be designated by some word, letter, or number, which is repeated on the card. As these cards are for merely occasional or temporary use, they may be written with a pencil and require no elaboration in style; centimeter spacing, and red-ink headings, and canary cards are quite superfluous for this use. When the club-woman wants information about open-air schools, or folk-dances, or juvenile courts, the librarian is quite likely to find in her boxes some information on these subjects that is not in printed books, but showing what is being actually done at this very time in Chicago or Rochester or Boston. Or she can give the school children a description of King George's coronation, or an account of the way in which Uncle Sam recently obtained in Algeria, many new varieties of dates to be planted in the hot deserts of Arizona, or the narrative of Dr. Grenfell's noble mission work in Labrador-all beautifully illustrated; and the simple index above described will enable her to turn very quickly and easily to any of them. This is only one of the many ways in which the people, especially the children, may be brought into closer contact with the world of affairs, the great movement of human progress which never before in the world's history has been so rapid and broad. I have not had leisure to ascertain to what extent indexing is taught in the library schools; but I was told about three years ago, by two of the most prominent librarians in the country, that the demand for such instruction was increasing and that it ought to be given in the library schools. It would seem a pity to load upon most of their students much work additional to their present strenuous and intense curriculum; but, where judicious substitution can be made for some of their work, or where some of it can be required before entrance, those schools would seem to be a fit and proper agency for providing instruction in both indexing and proof-reading. Room for this may be found in the probable changes which for some time have been visible on the horizon, in the scope, conduct, and methods of the library schools of this country-changes which will doubtless be hastened and shaped to a considerable extent by the establishment of the proposed institute for library training in New York City with a rich endowment by Mr. Andrew Carnegie. This new institution may reasonably be expected to establish new and higher standards of training, and to furnish advanced and more highly specialized courses of study, with new and up-to-date methods; and those features will naturally reflect their influence and be to some extent repeated in the other schools. Definite results in the advancement of library work and standards must certainly result from the recent establishment of the A. L. A. section for matters connected with professional library training. The outlook is very hopeful in all directions. Mr. C. W. Andrews read the following letter from Miss Harriet W. Pierson, of the catalog department of the Library of Congress: I wish that the question of the official English form of name for international congresses and bodies might be discussed at the meeting of the American library association. The A. L. A. rule is as follows (101): International meetings. Enter international meetings, conferences, and congresses, of private persons, under their English names provided their publications have appeared in English or that language is specified as one of the official languages of the conference. In other cases enter under the name in the language in which most of the publications have appeared, or when this cannot be ascertained, under the name by which the conference is best known. International congress of Orientalists, with references from Orientalists, International congress of; Congrès international des orientalistes; Internationaler orientalisten congress, etc., etc. This seems, on the whole, to be the most satisfactory rule that could be framed. Experience has shown, however, that much time is consumed in searching for the English form of name; if found, it is difficult to choose one of several forms; if not found, and entry is printed in vernacular form, it frequently happens that the English name soon afterward appears, and the cards have to be reprinted, involving no little expense. As is no doubt known to you, there exists at Brussels an institution called the "Office central des institutions internationales," which has published a work most useful to catalogers, entitled "Annuaire de la vie internationale. 1908-09." It seems to be within the scope of the work of the Office to simplify and to make uniform the names of international meet ings and bodies. May not American librarians very properly make a recommendation to the Office to the effect that they secure from the various international organizations which have English speaking delegates, an official form of the name in English, this to be printed in a new edition of the Annuaire, or in the publications of the congresses, as is already done in a few cases. I understand that the committee to consider the extension of the international cataloging rules will probably have its headquarters in Brussels. If invited to do so by the A. L. A. Catalog section, would not this committee be able to arrange the matter with the Office central des institutions internationales? Very respectfully, (Signed) HARRIET W. PIERSON. Mr. Andrews said he heartily endorsed her suggestion; that at The John Crerar library the French form is used, but he would be glad to see an official form adopted. It was voted to refer the matter to the Executive board. Mr. Lane, librarian of Harvard university, explained the system of classification in use in the university library, and also gave much information in regard to the printing of catalog cards undertaken by the library, the field covered, price of cards, etc. After miscellaneous discussion the nominating committee reported as follows for officers for 1912: For chairman, Miss Laura A. Thompson, cataloger, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. For secretary, Miss Mary Elizabeth Hawley, asst. cataloger, John Crerar library, Chicago. These officers were elected. Adjourned. CHILDREN'S LIBRARIANS' SECTION FIRST SESSION Saturday afternoon, May 20. The first session of the Children's librarians' section was a public meeting held in the Shakespeare club-house, under the auspices of the Pasadena women's clubs. Mr. HENRY E. LEGLER, librarian of the Chicago public library, gave an address, illustrated with lantern slides, on LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN Not long since a man of genius took a lump of formless clay, and beneath the cunning of his hand there grew a great symbol of life. He called it Earthbound. An old man is bowed beneath the sorrow of the world. Under the weight of burdens escape, that seemingly they cannot younger man and his faithful mate stagger with bent forms. Between them is a little child. Instead of a body supple and straight and instinct with freedom and vigor, the child's body yields to the weight of heredity and environment, whose crushing influence press the shoulders down. a The young fawns are playing with the shadows, The young flowers are blowing towards the west But the young, young children, O my brothers, They are weeping bitterly! They are weeping in the playtime of the others, In the country of the free. Do you question the young children in the sorrow, Why their tears are falling so? The old man may weep for his to-morrow Which is lost in long ago; The old tree is leafless in the forest, The old year is ending in the frost, The old wound, if stricken, is the sorest, The old hope is hardest to be lost; But the young, young children, O my broth ers, Do you ask them why they stand Weeping sore before the bosoms of their mothers, In our happy Fatherland? Go out, children, from the mine and from the city, Sing out, children, as the little thrushes do. Pluck your handfuls of the meadow Cow. slips pretty, Laugh aloud to feel your fingers let them through! Only in recent years has there grown into fulness a conception of what the duty of society is towards the child. For near two thousand years it was a world of grown-ups for grown-ups. Children there have beenmany millions of them-but they were merely incidental to the scheme of things. Society regarded them not as an asset, except perhaps for purposes of selfish exploitation. If literature reflects contemporary life with fidelity, we may well marvel that for so many hundreds of years the |