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volumes and loaned 21,530,294 books-a gain over 1912 of over a quarter of a million in stock and a million in circulation. Since 1893 there has been a fivefold growth in free libraries and a ninefold growth in public use of these libraries. In their financial statements the libraries show a total of $3,814,875 available for the year's expense, of which $1,738,420 was provided from local taxation; this is greater by $116,988 than in the preceding year. Of the 52 cities of the State, 46 are now provided with free public libraries. The parcel post is helping the extension department of the State library to place books more easily and economically than ever before at the disposal of every library, school, club, and individual of the State. During the year there were 1,114 traveling libraries sent out; the greatest number in any preceding year was 852. The greater proportion are sent to study clubs and rural schools. Of the 10,541 school districts in the State, there are only 51 maintaining schools that are without libraries.

In Massachusetts the commission supplied books to 68 towns of the State; traveling libraries were sent to 94 towns and villages; collections of pictures were sent to 120 places; the library agent made 157 visits; 9 new libraries were organized. The appropriation for aiding free public libraries in small towns was increased from $4,000 to $10,000.

Pennsylvania has 142 free libraries; 10 years ago it had 67. During the past year 214 visits by commission officials were made, 8 new libraries organized, and several older ones aided in reorganization. The commission and the State Federation of Pennsylvania Women are in close cooperation. Volumes to the number of 17,884 were sent out by the traveling library department to 327 points in the State.

The Illinois library extension commission received a somewhat increased appropriation and has enlarged its work. Twice as many traveling libraries were sent out last year; programs were made for women's clubs; books were purchased for work with rural schools; three library institutes were held; and many visits of inspection were made. The libraries of Illinois have been placed in an embarrassing position by the legal interpretation of the Juul amendment passed at the last assembly. According to the opinion rendered, the amendment does not affect library taxes; no legal remedy can be applied for at least two years to come.

Libraries in Ohio, due to legislative measures, find themselves also much hampered by decreased income.

Indiana reports the establishment of 17 new public libraries, one of which is in a county heretofore possessing no public library. The State library commission arranged for 107 free lectures in 35 public libraries.

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In Iowa several new libraries were placed under tax support, and a number of new buildings were dedicated. Rural extension received much attention, and the traveling library work was largely increased in all departments.

Wisconsin has always given prominence to its traveling libraries. This year these were sent to 773 separate communities, an increase of 100 over the previous year and about twice the number of communities actually reached five years ago. Groups of books on agricultural topics have been especially emphasized. The commission has plans under way, based on the new parcel-post rates for books, for providing better reading facilities for rural districts than have ever been possible before. A separate department known as the study club and book selection department has been established.

In Missouri 326 traveling libraries were loaned, 46 more than in the previous year; 40 package libraries on recall of judges, Philippine independence, Panama Canal tolls, and labor arbitration have been formed and put in the field.

The Kentucky library commission supplies traveling libraries to 182 stations in 81 counties, in many of which these traveling libraries were the only available books except the school textbooks. The commission has assisted the State institutions in library organizing and administration. A graded list of 100 books, to constitute a model library for county graded schools, was compiled on request of the State supervisor of rural schools. The work with rural schools has been greatly increased.

Returns to the New Jersey commission show that 250 library centers in the State loaned about 8,000,000 books during the year; 163 visits were made to libraries by commission officers; 8 libraries were organized and 4 reorganized; 8 granges started reference collections; and a number of round tables were held in different parts of the State.

There are in California 26 county free libraries; 2 library district libraries; 3 high-school district libraries; 131 libraries supported by city taxation; 66 law libraries, of which 55 are county law libraries; 58 county teachers' libraries; 334 libraries in educational institutions, of which 6 are universities, 7 are colleges, 7 are normal schools, 248 are public high schools, and 66 are private schools and other institutions; 48 miscellaneous institution libraries and 69 association or society libraries; 42 subscription libraries. In connection with the above libraries there are 928 branches and deposit stations. There are 133 library buildings, of which 115 were gifts, and of these gifts 98 are from Andrew Carnegie.

The North Carolina commission secured from the State board of agriculture an annual appropriation of $600 for the purchase of

books on agriculture and country life, which will be used to help the farmers of the State.

The North Dakota commission cooperated with the State board of control in reorganizing the penitentiary library.

Utah has been especially conspicuous the past two or three years for new library buildings.

The Vermont free public library commission has in use 161 general traveling libraries, 211 school libraries; 104 study club libraries, and 88 picture collections. The use of these collections has doubled in the past two years.

An unusual effort to encourage the establishment of public libraries is seen in Indiana, where a member of the public library commission has offered 20 cash prizes, aggregating $150, for the best essays on "Why my community should establish a public library." The contest is open only to the school pupils of the nine counties that are without libraries.

Efforts for commissions are being made in Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Montana, and Washington has attempted to secure legislation enlarging the functions of its commission.

COOPERATION.

Library commissions and State associations in their meetings this year have dwelt more than ever before on the problem how to make the book a vital force in the life of the rural dweller. The problem is by no means solved when the book is placed in the hands of the farmer, his wife or his child. Efficiency in labor, so as to conserve time to read, must be taught; and education must be of the kind that gives the desire to read. So librarians are learning to join hands with those conducting farmers' institutes; with the county agents of the Department of Agriculture, of whom there are more than a thousand actively at work; with the granges; with the extension departments of the State universities; and with the public schools. There is here a vast field for cooperation that librarians are just beginning to enter.

The Chicago Public Library has adopted the cooperative scheme, in establishing branch libraries in manufacturing and commercial plants, and offering to establish libraries where suitable rooms are set aside and the salaries of the necessary librarian and assistants are paid by the employer. The plan has proved popular, and about 27 libraries are operating on this basis.

At the 1913 conference of the Special Libraries Association, at Kaaterskill, N. Y., a cooperative plan was formulated for collecting and distributing to subscribers information regarding new publications, pamphlets, documents, bibliographies, type-written material, etc., of special interest to legislative and municipal reference libraries.

This service has proved successful enough to warrant readjustment and enlargement, and the H. W. Wilson Co., publishers of bibliographical and library aids, has launched a new weekly periodical, the "Public Affairs Index," in which the service will be broadened and much enlarged and the data cumulated biweekly.

A fund has been raised by certain firms and individuals of Boston to employ an interlibrary research worker who will not, in the prosecution of her work, be content with the resources of any one library, but by correspondence and personal visits to various libraries will endeavor to exhaust the field of information before rendering a report. Boston libraries have undertaken the preparation of a union list of all periodicals useful for research work received in the 54 public and private libraries of the city.

The General Federation of Women's Clubs at its biennial meeting in Chicago, in June, held a conference on library extension. The following topics were among those discussed: How to secure a State library commission; More liberal library legislation; Book selection; The extension of available resources to the isolated and less-favored districts; The kind of literature to be furnished; and The general relation of libraries to clubs. The committee on library extension of the Ohio federation of women's clubs has conducted a survey of library conditions in the prisons and county institutions, and has taken steps to secure, in cooperation with the State library association, a library survey of the State.

The National Education Association has had a library department for nearly 20 years; exceptionally helpful meetings were held at St. Paul in July. The National Council of Teachers of English recently established a library section, which it is believed will be of much benefit to high school and normal school libraries. The Conference for Education in the South also has a library department.

The American Federation of Arts has for a number of years cooperated with libraries by lending paintings, drawings, photographs of sculpture and architecture, lectures and lantern slides. Each lecture has been written by a person who is an authority and is illustrated by about 50 slides. The City Art Museum of St. Louis hangs the best of its recent acquisitions in the St. Louis Public Library at regular intervals. The St. Louis library cooperated actively in the preparation and production of the Pageant and Masque of St. Louis in May, 1914.

An illustration of the proper sort of cooperation between different departments is seen in Virginia where the State auditor has sent to the State library all the ancient records in the possession of his office. An increasing number of articles on libraries and library work are appearing in nonlibrary periodicals.

LIBRARY WORK IN SCHOOLS.

The growing importance of library work in high and normal schools is one of the noticeable features of the year. The American Library Association, the library department of the National Education Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English have all made this phase of work prominent during the past year, and much has been accomplished through cooperation between these and other associations.

Vocational guidance is being seriously undertaken by nearly all the prominent public and school libraries. Cooperation with the schools in this work is generally intimate and systematic. In Portland, Oreg., a professor of the University of Oregon meets weekly in a study room at the public library those desiring advice upon vocation or courses of study.

Every country school in Wisconsin has a small library of good books. There are nearly a million and a half volumes in these rural school libraries, costing over half a million dollars. The Wisconsin State department of public instruction has compiled a new township school library list of about 1,450 titles, which will be in force for two years from April 1, 1914.

Library agencies in a number of States are recommending the schools to set aside a "Library day"

on which teachers and children shall be reminded of the part that books and reading have in human life and education and on which day the various interests of the school library shall be set forth and emphasized.

All the public libraries of the country are each year doing an increasing amount of work with the schools. The school buildings are made library deposit stations and branch libraries, the scholars come regularly to the library on assigned work, and particular attention is given to the needs of teachers. In Portland, Oreg., for example, 300,000 books, or nearly one-third of the total circulation for home use, were borrowed from the school deposits. Instruction in the use of the library and talks on books were given to 31,435 pupils in 968 classes, partly in the school, partly in the library. Most large libraries have a teachers' room equipped with all sorts of pedagogical helps; in some libraries these helps include a set of Montessori apparatus. Librarians are cooperating actively with parent-teacher associations. Many libraries have printed lists of books particularly applicable to school work or to children of school age. Two of the most important of these recent lists are those of the Boston and Washington (D. C.) public libraries. In the latter city the circulation of juvenile books has increased fivefold in the last 10 years, chiefly due to the deposits made in the school buildings. Representatives of library commissions in many States visit the

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