J UC-NfitF GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS (STATE AND CITY) BY J. 1. WYER, JR. PEEPRINT OF MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY CHAPTER XXIII Slmerican library Slfiffiociation |)ttijli0|)ing: iSoatU 78 E. WASHINGTON ST., CHICAGO 1915 A.L.A. MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY Types of Chapters and Authors Libraries I. * 'American Library History," Mr. Bolton. Printed. II. "Library of Congress," Mr. Bishop. Printed. III. "The State Librarj-," Mr. Wyer. Printed. IV. "The College and University Library," Mr. Wyer. Printed. V. "Proprietary and Mercantile Libraries," Mr. Bolton. Printed. VI. "The Free Public Library," Miss Lord. Printed. VII. "The High-School Library," Mr. Ward. Printed. VIII. "Special Libraries," Mr. Johnston. Nearly ready. Organization and Administration IX. "Library Legislation," Mr. Yust. Printed. X. "Library Architecture," Mr. Eastman. Printed. XI. "Fixtures, Furniture, Fittings." Unassigned. XII. "Administration," Dr. Bostwick. Printed. XIII. "Training for Librarianship," Miss Plummer. Printed. XIV. "Library Service," Dr. Hill. Printed. XV. "Branch Libraries and Other Distributing Agencies," Miss Eastman. Printed. XVI. "Book Selection," Miss Bascom. Printed. XVII. "Order and Accession Department," Mr. Hopper. Printed. XVIII. "Classification," Miss Bacon. In hands of Committee. XIX. "The Catalog." Unassigned. XX. "Shelf Department," Miss Rathbone. Printed. XXL "Loan Work," Mr. Vitz. Printed. XXII. "Reference Department," Dr. Richardson. Printed. XXIII. "Government Documents," Mr. Wyer. Printed. XXIV. "Bibliography," Miss Mudgk Now in hand. XXV. "Pamphlets, Clippings, Maps, Music, Prints." Unas- signed. XXVI. "Bookbindmg," Mr. Bailey. Printed. Special Forms of Work XXVII. "Library Commissions and State Library Extension, or State ^id and State Agencies," Mr. Wynkoop. Printed. XXVIII. "The Public Library and the Public Schools," Mr. Kerr. XXIX. "Library Work with Children," Miss Olcott. Printed. XXX. "Library Work with the Blind," Mrs. Delfino. Well advanced. XXXI. "Museums, Lectures, Art Galleries, and Libraries," Mr. Rae. Now in hand. XXXII. "Library Printing," Mr. Walter. Printed. XXIII GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS (STATE AND CITY) J. I. WYER, JR. New York State Library OUTLINE Definition Government documents and libraries Issue and distribution (points common to all documents) Determined by organization of city, state, and national government Table comparing governmental machinery of state, city, and nation Form of issue Department edition Collected edition Manner of distribution By states By cities City documents Local Those of other cities Check-lists and indexes State documents Printing and distribution Collected edition Department edition Check-lists and indexes What kinds of state documents are valuable to libraries Illustrative list United States documents Treatment by libraries Receipt and recording Arrangement Bibliography DEFINITION A "government document" (and this term is better than the too commonly used "public document") is any paper, map, pamphlet, or book, manuscript or printed, originating in, 302469 2 MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY or printed with the imprint of, or at the expense and by the authority of any office of legally organized government. Manuscript government documents, commonly called archives, were the original current records of government business and are the unique source materials of histor}-. Letter- files, pay-rolls, city tax lists, office records, minutes of boards and committees are examples of archive material. In some European countries, American states, and a few cities, these manuscript archives are highly organized and" administered w4th a liberality and an intelligence commensurate with their importance. Archives or manuscript goverimient documents are continually being transformed into printed government documents as when the Library of Congress printed the Journals of the Continental Congress and the New York State Library printed the Minutes of the Colonial Council of that state. This chapter is concerned solely with American printed government documents, for it is only printed documents that are generally available for library use. GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS AND LIBRARIES In this country-, libraries are the chief public depositories of the printed documents of the national government. In nearly every commonwealth, law or usage provides that libraries shall receive some or all state documents. Cities, too, are frequently publishers and, because it is seldom effectively done elsewhere, it becomes the duty of every library to preserve the printed documents of its own local government. There are some large libraries that collect and organize for reference use all the documents of each of these three kinds. There are more libraries that do this for a selection from them. There is no library so special in aim nor so small that it is not interested in some of them. It is thus only in the libraries of the land that government documents are collected and cared for in any systematic, comprehensive, and intelligent way. GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS 3 looking toward their fullest present and future availability for consultation. The casual or the serious student who wishes to consult more than one or two current documents turns from habit and indeed of necessity to the nearest library. Nowhere but in libraries is any serious thought given to the acquisition, arrangement, cataloging, and research use of government documents, and that this treatment of them may be facilitated both national and state governments offer special privileges to libraries. As government documents constitute a very special kind of printed matter, a kind, too, which is constantly growing in volume and importance, so they present peculiar problems to every library in the technical and bibliographical operations which are necessary to make them most useful. These problems will vary with the different types and sizes of libraries, such as the college librar}^, the large and small public library, the special library (law, medicine, insurance, etc.), the high-school library; they will vary with the different kinds of documents, as national, state, and local, and their varying appropriateness to the different kinds of libraries; to some extent they will vary in different parts of the country because of local industries, natural resources, geography, or geology. ISSUE AND DISTRIBUTION To know government documents it is necessary to know something about government, the more the better; and the official and necessary background for an intelligent under- standing of the nature, content, and significance of these three classes of documents and the ways in which libraries organize them for use is best to be had from a knowledge of the organ- ization and conduct of the government of the village, city, state, or nation whose documents are in hand. There is a type of book w^hich gives this information. For the city it is the Manual of the Common Council, for the state 4 MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY it is the Legislative Manual, commonly called the Blue or Red Book, for the nation it is the Congressional Directory. These are neither formal treaties on the theory of the govern- ment of state, city, or nation, nor discussions of the limits of its powers, but merely bare statements of its administrative activities with a Hst of the different offices and departments of the government, their duties and personnel. They are books prepared for the information and reference use of the members of city councils, state legislatures, and the national Congress. In working with government documents, the knowledge of the machinery of organized government is important from every aspect. In cataloging, it frequently supplies the official name of the issuing office with information as to changes in the names and affiliations of government bureaus, the perplexing genealogy of government offices. In classffication, it describes the work of each issuing department, commission, or office, hence giving a clue to the contents of the book in hand. In reference work, it tells which government departments or offices do work on specific subjects, for example, w^hich state has a department regulating railroads, telephones, or life insurance, and, if no special department exists, which state office performs comparable duties. Table I presents in comparative, tabular form the usual government activities of nation, state, and city in this countr>\ Before considering separately, and in some detail, city, state, and national documents, it is well to note peculiarities which are common to all three in (a) the form of their issue and (b) the manner of their distribution. a) Form. — Copying the long-standing practice of the national government (from which it is now breaking away), many city and nearly all state documents of the sort known as congressional or legislative documents — the reports of officials GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS 5 or departments made to the chief legislative body — are issued in two forms, a first or "department" edition and a later or "collected" edition. The "department" edition is the most numerous and is used for general distribution and when it is printed a smaller number of additional copies are laid aside for binding in the "collected" edition which is issued annually by cities and, oftenest, biennially by states to correspond with their legislative sessions. This "collected" or definitive edition is distributed more formally to libraries, other cities and states, public officers, schools, etc., and this distribution is usually provided for by law. This edition is usually uniformly bound in leather, often the documents in it are numbered serially, and the set provided with a common title-page, table of contents, and index. These "collected" editions are seldom bibliographically satisfactory, being made up usually by a lowest-bidder printer, a temporary political official who is careless or indifferent or an ex-officio board chiefly interested in letting a printing con- tract. To be satisfactory for library use such a "collected" edition should be 1. Complete; omitting none of the regular annual documents. 2. Arranged in a single series, each document numbered (preferably with the same number each year for the peren- nial reports, as in Massachusetts), and the documents grouped, roughly at least, by subjects, as Educational, Financial, Charitable, Public Works, etc. 3. Furnished with a series title-page and table of contents in each volume, showing on title-page the title of series, the period covered, number of volumes, compiler, place and date of publication, printer's name, and on the table of contents a numerical list of all documents forming the set with the number of volume in which each appears. 4. Each separate document of over thirty or fifty pages should have its own detailed index. 6 MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY 5. Each volume should have at the end a thoroughly good index to the entire set or series. 6. Bound in stout leather or better in buckram or canvas and each volume lettered on the back with the name of the city or state, date, contents of volume, and title of series with number of volume or documents. b) Manner of Distribution. — The distribution of all govern- ment documents, national, state, and city, is illogical, unsyste- matic, and wasteful. Too many people have a hand in it — congressmen, legislators, issuing offices, state and city libraries, various city officers, etc., all send out documents with no checks on each other. It lacks centralization. It is worst in our cities and best in the distribution of our national documents. There is little well-considered legislation governing it in either cities or states, and such scattered provisions of law or ordi- nance as affect the distribution of documents are fortuitous and unimportant. In cities the city clerk is usually charged by law with the custody and distribution of official documents, but the work is done perfunctorily and documents desired can usually be had more surely from the issuing office. In states the law usually lays it upon the secretary of state, and because it has usually been indifferently performed in that office, the state library has latterly and often informally come to be the chief agent for the state in such matters. This tendency to lodge official distribution of state docu- ments with the state library seems to be a proper and commendable one. It is better acquainted with the bibliog- raphy of such documents than any other state agency. The continuity of administration insuring necessary care in compiling, continuing, and revising mailing lists is greater than in any other state department. It would be well if in all states laws could be enacted which would definitely fix the distribution of state documents as a function of the state library. GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS 7 In a few states the library commission has been designated by law or has assumed without objection the business of dis- tributing state documents to libraries. CITY DOCUMENTS Local documents. — By this term is meant the official pub- lications, the administrative and business records, of the village, city, town, or county (whatever the primary political district may be) in which the library is situated and which it serves as its chief and immediate constituency. At least one library in each such political district should make the completest possible collection of its public documents. They will usually be in printed form, yet the local library should welcome manu- script records which are not as well cared for or are not more appropriate in the city hall or courthouse. In very small places public documents will often appear in fugitive and informal shape. The village treasurer's report may be printed only in one local paper, the report of the library in another. Some or even all of the city departments may issue separate pamphlet reports which are never collected into one volume. It is likely that no officer or institution will take as much interest in preserving these reports as the local library, for the fre- quently changing officers of a local government pay slight heed to keeping a full set of such documents. They may be pre- served either by a public library or perhaps with even greater propriety by a historical society library. Such material should be kept in a separate room or alcove and may well form part of the local history collection which should be a feature of every library and which easily may be made a matter of considerable pride and interest. Besides the local government documents, this collection will contain scrapbooks, the files of the town papers, portraits or photographs of local people and places, books by local writers, and books and pamphlets printed in the town. Its scope may even be extended to include relics which 8 MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY are genuine and not too unwieldy. Much, even of the docu- ment material, which will go to form such a collection appears in frail and ephemeral form, and constant vigilance alone can get worthy results. Such a collection should be arranged for easy and effective exhibit as a museum and for use with schools. It w^ill often interest local people of means in gifts and bequests of money or material. Documents of other cities. — Few public libraries, and those the largest, will collect many documents of other cities. The larger college and reference libraries will try to get sets of reports of such cities and city officers as deal with current questions of municipal government or control, especially on social and political topics. A very few of the largest libraries will try to collect all city documents. There are no general indexes or check-lists of city documents, and the only essays tow^ard such bibliographic records which are known to the writer are: List of works relating to city charters, ordinances, and collected docu- ments. 383 pp. New York PubHc Library, 1913, the title of which would more accurately describe this labo- rious and useful compilation if it omitted the words ''w^orks relating to,'' and Official documents of the city of Pittsburgh: tentative list, February, 191 3. 16 pp. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. There is no regular list of current issues of city documents, and their distribution is not so well organized as that of state and national documents. It is therefore very difficult, not only to learn of their issue, but to secure copies regularly or even to know what pieces are required to form complete sets. Unlike the general government and some states, few cities designate a special officer or department to supervise the GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS S CJ o o d ii ft T3 o ^ ^ cd S Ah PL| "3 ?3 ^p O > 3 ?5 «« 4) J- ^^a: c/} > epq g « O O tn lU 3 a o a a 3q^ „ So »- S o "" ^ 3 "3 coH<1 fl o 3.2 3 tn Si^ a a-9^3 .y o O O SS S6 o o UU ?B '-' s. fl !2 S +j +j '"^ CA! C/D CJ !h^ 0) o t> *J 4) Ct^ « « K "" U U I-) 9 B H ^^ f^ l3 o o boea fe:2 o o M 3 o lo MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY printing and distribution of their documents. Each document usually is to be had only by direct application to the issuing office and often not even then. Check-lists and indexes. — WTiile city documents, more than those of either state or nation, are business records, not research- publications, yet an increasing volume of expert and significant matter is being issued in city documents, and it will not be long before bibliographers in municipal reference libraries or in libraries having great document collections, must prepare the check-lists and indexes needed to facilitate their collection and use as reference material. At present such data exist only in the card or printed catalogs of great libraries and to a very slight extent in our current trade bibliography. In form of issue and unsystematic arrangements for distri- bution, city documents present a situation even more dis- couraging than state or national documents. There has been within the past twenty years a remarkable civic awaken- ing in this country. This has produced a considerable and important body of valuable literature published by city govern- ments. The arrangements for printing and distributing, how- ever, are not characterized by that efficiency which has been sought in civic life in the past generation. A somewhat more detailed statement of the chaos and varying practices in the publication of city documents is found in Kaiser, J. B., ''Ameri- can municipal documents," Special Libraries, June 19 13 (also printed in Library Journal, 38:453-56), while more exact information as to the printing, sale, and distribution of munici- pal documents in American cities of more than 25,000 popu- lation is presented in tabular form by Frank G. Bates in Special Libraries for January 19 14, 5:12-21. The same specifications for a satisfactory "collected" edition that are set down in a previous paragraph apply with as much force to city as to state documents, although outside of New England, and particularly Massachusetts, few cities, GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS II save the very largest, regularly prepare a collected edition of their documents. STATE DOCUMENTS Printing and distribution. — The printing and, with lesser detail, distribution of state documents are prescribed by statute in all states. These four dozen laws, though much alike in the main, yet embody a great number of diverse minor provisions. There is no state printing law which can be pointed to as a model, although Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have statutes representing much study which secure pretty satis- factory results. Few of the states have codified the printing law which is thus a group of laws passed at different times, which lack unity and which in many cases do not apply most effectively to present administrative conditions. The three principal common features are: (i) printing let under contract to the lowest bidder; (2) provision for an official or ''collected" edition of the principal documents; (3) principal distribution reserved by members of the legislature as an official perquisite. Any change in, or reform of, document printing and distri- bution in any state must be grounded upon a careful study of its present laws regulating these matters and an intimate acquaintance with the practice, often extra-legal, which now obtains. Collected edition. — Practically all states issue their docu- ments in two editions, the ''department" edition and the "collected" edition. The former, comprising nearly all of the total edition, is distributed by legislators and through the different issuing departments. The latter is in most states only large enough to supply a few state officials and institutions and the state libraries of all the other states in exchange. This edition is in many cases prepared by or under direction of the state library and the exchanges with other states are almost always conducted by it. The binders' title is variously Execu- tive Documents, Legislative Documents, Public Documents. 12 MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY Department edition. — While in a few states there is a notice- able and increasing tendency to enlarge the functions of the state library, or the state library commission in document distribution, yet in no state is it as completely and effectively centralized, there or in any office, as it should be. The reasons, not far to seek, are the reluctance of members of the legislature to part with this attractive perquisite, and the natural feeling of issuing departments that they can distribute their o^\^l publications better than anyone else can do it for them. In view of this lack of any definite or uniform distributing agency in the various states, libraries desiring copies of the "department" edition can do no better than to apply to the state department or office which issues the document. If this brings neither reply nor document a letter to the state library w^ill usually bring one or the other. Check-lists and indexes. — The principal bibliographic helps to a knowledge and reference use of state documents are the following: Bowker, R. R. State publications; a provisional list of the official publications of the several states of the United States from their organization. 103 1 pp. New York, 1908. Reviewed in Library journal, 34:459. An account of some difficulties encountered in its compilation is in Library journal 30:233-38. Hasse, A. R. Index of economic material in documents of the states of the United States to 1904. Carnegie Institution 1907+. Reviewed in Library journal, 32:377 and 33:466. There is to be a separate volume for each state, of which 1 1 have appeared for Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Delaware, Ohio, Kentucky, California, and Illinois. Library of Congress. Monthly list of state publications. January 1910+. A full index is issued at the end of each year. GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS 13 A few states, usually through the state library, library commission, or state historical society, have issued tentative check-lists of official publications but they are seldom full or accurate enough to be of much use. VALUE TO LIBRARIES While every library will pay special heed to collecting all the documents of its own city^ the documents of its own state will not be collected with the same zeal or completeness by any but the larger libraries. Beyond the borders of the state, however, and as a class, state documents are of far more impor- tance than city documents and to a far greater number of libraries. Few except state libraries and the largest reference libraries collect the documents of all states, although every library, even the smallest, will find use for some of the documents of its own state and occasionally for one from another state, and many medium-sized and larger libraries will wish to get regularly reports from certain departments in other states or (still oftener) occasional publications of a social or scientific sort. Speaking generally, but perhaps with as much definite- ness as the matter will allow, the kind of state documents that small libraries will find useful are statistical publications like the Legislative Manual or Blue Book and the report of the treasurer or auditor presenting the annual budget with state- ment of sources of revenue, receipts, and disbursements; popular but authoritative science such as is found in the bulle- tins of agricultural colleges and experiment stations, in the reports of forest, fish, and game commissions and geological surveys; historical matter such as the accounts of memorial expositions, celebrations, and dedications and publications of a political, social, or economic nature. The following titles of a few documents issued by New York state during the past few years will illustrate better than any statement the type 14 MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY of occasional state publication issued by all states, which is of interest to all libraries in the state and often to those outside: Beach. Apples of New York. 2V. Geneva experiment station. Horner. The American flag. Education department. Lincoln. Messages of the governors of New York. iiv. State library. Felt. Control of flies and other household insects. State museum. Manual for the use of the legislature of the state of New York (annual) Secretary of state. New York arbor day annual. Education department. Whitford. History of New York canals. 2V. State engineer. Eaton. Birds of New York. 2V. State museum. Session laws; issued annually in New York, biennially in most other states, and usually distributed by the secretary of state. Maps of roads, forests, quarries, notable scenic regions, rivers, harbors, etc., are issued from time to time by all states and are of interest to all libraries. Even though it does not try to get all of them, every library should have as complete a list as possible of the documents of its own state and should follow, whenever there is any way to do so, the current state publications. In some states, a list of current state documents likely to be of interest to libra- ries is regularly printed in the bulletin of the state library com- mission. Every library, too, should be accurately acquainted with the lending and distributing facilities offered by the state library or by the nearest large library which keeps a com- plete set. UNITED STATES DOCUMENTS This chapter logically should cover United States govern- ment documents as fully as state and city documents are dis- cussed above. That it does not do so is due to the fact that the American Library Association Publishing Board has issued and keeps in stock as Handbook 7 the present author's little pamphlet on ''United States government documents in small GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS 15 libraries." The fourth edition of this, revised to March 19 14, has recently been printed and it seems needless to reprint it in this chapter. TREATMENT BY LIBRARIES Records. — An accurate record of the library's document holdings is desirable. This record may be its shelf-list, its author catalog, or a check-list, preferably on cards. In only the very largest, most highly specialized libraries should all three be required. The most useful of these three records for the small library is the shelf-list (which, for government docu- ments, may be made on a standard-sized card specially printed like the samples shown below), which should suffice in all libraries up to twelve or fifteen thousand volumes. Libraries larger than this will begin to feel the need of an alphabetical list of serials to supplement the classed order of the shelf-list and this will probably take the form of author cards in the public catalog. Here again the form of the card may best resemble a check-list card or the card used to catalog or note the receipt of periodicals and other serials; a card which empha- sizes the record of the single volume rather than the library's total holding. As both the shelf-list and the catalog are standard records, only the check-list will be described here. Of course the easiest and a wholly satisfactory way is to check all the library's holdings against some reasonably accurate printed list, noting the variations on the margin or on interleaves. The third edition of the Check-List of United States Government Docu- ments, the detailed lists of collected state documents in the prefaces to the different volumes of Miss Hasse's Index, the list of Wisconsin documents issued a few years ago by the state library commission are examples of check-lists which easily may be used thus. There are few such, however, and the large library maintaining a separate and extensive documents i6 MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY NORTH CAROLINA. AUDITOR Biennial Report I87I I88I I89I I90I I9II 1872 1882 1892 1902 I9I2 1873 1883 1893 1903 I9I3 1874 1884 1894 1904 I9I4 187s 1885 189s I90S I9I5 1876 1886 1896 1906 I9I6 1877 1887 1897 1907 I9I7 1878 1888 1898 1908 I9I8 1879 1889 1899 1909 I9I9 1880 1890 1900 I9IO 1920 NEW YORK (STATE) . MUSEUM Bulletin SI 61 71 81 91 52 62 72 82 92 53 63 73 83 93 54 64 74 84 94 55 65 75 85 95 56 66 76 86 96 57 67 11 87 97 58 68 78 88 98 59 69 79 89 99 60 70 80 90 100 The above card may also be single-spaced so as to hold 100 numbers. KANSAS. INSURANCE SUPERINTENDENT Annual Report I87I I88I I89I I90I I9II 1872 1882 1892 1902 I9I2 1873 1883 1893 1903 I9I3 1874 1884 1894 1904 I9I4 1875 1885 1895 1905 I9I5 1876 1886 1896 1906 I9I6 1877 1887 1897 1907 I9I7 1878 1888 1898 1908 I9I8 1879 1889 1899 1909 I9I9 1880 1890 1900 I9I0 1920 GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS 17 department will prefer the specially printed cards shown above, the peculiar uses of which are quickly apparent. Such a check- list, which is fully described in Public Libraries, 15:181-84, exclusively for the library staff, will be freely annotated with the bibliographic eccentricities which abound in government documents. Arrangement. — In any but the very largest libraries, that not only preserve collected editions but duplicate these with separate departmental editions, government documents will be shelved like any other books. A separate room, alcove, or shelf for such books is not necessary. Whether single volumes or continuing sets, they will be classified with other books on the same subjects on the safe principle that all the material in a library on the same subject should be in the fewest possible different places. In the largest libraries, which keep practically all govern- ment documents, the matter of arrangement presents too many different aspects for consideration in a pamphlet of this size. BIBLIOGRAPHY GENERAL Fuller, E. D. United States, state and town documents in small libraries. Library journal, 23 : 564-66, 1898. Tilton, A. C. Printed series cards for public documents. Public libraries, 15:181-84, 1910. Describes a method of recording public documents on specially ruled cards. Applicable to city, state, or federal documents. STATE DOCUMENTS For fuller list on state documents, see "Library work; cumu- lated 1905-1911," pp. 373-74. H. G. T. Cannons' list on govern- ment documents in his ''Bibliography of library economy," 1910, pp. 306-9, includes material on state documents. For bibliographies of state documents, see A. B. Kroeger's "Guide to the study and use of reference books," 1908, pp. 97-98. l8 MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY Hasse, A. R. How may government documents be made more useful to the public? Library journal, 26:8-13, 1901; State documents, pp. 11-13. ■ . Subject headings for state documents. Library journal, 31:0123-26, 1906. National association of state libraries. Proceedings, 1899-date. This association has always had committees on exchange and distribution of state documents and on systematic bibliography of state official literature. The reports of these committees, the ensuing discussion, and other papers read before this body, all relate to state documents as they are considered by state libraries. Check-Lists and Indexes Babbitt, C. J. Hand list of legislative sessions and session laws, statutory revisions, compilations, codes, and constitutional conventions of the United States and of the several states to May 191 2. 634 pp. O. Massachusetts State Library. 191 2. Bowker, R. R. State publications; a provisional list of the official publications of the several states of the United States from their organization. 103 1 pp. New York City. 1908. Hasse, A. R. Index to economic material in documents of the states of the United States to 1904. Carnegie Institution. 1907 + . Library of Congress. Monthly list of state publications. January 1910+. CITY DOCUMENTS Bates, F. G. Municipal ordinances and documents. Special libraries, 5:12-21, 19 14. Tabular exhibit of the present status of the publication and distribution of documents in American cities of over 25,000 population. Childs, W. T. Baltimore's municipal journal. Independent, April 17, 1913, pp. 881-82. Hasse, A. R. The New York "City Record." Library journal, 32:207-8. Kaiser, J. B. American municipal documents. Special libraries, June 1913, and Library journal, 38:453-56. GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS 19 Check-Lists Carnegie librae of Pittsburgh. Official documents of the city of Pittsburgh; tentative list, February 1903. 16 pp. O. New York public library. List of works relating to city charters, ordinances and collected documents. 383 pp. Q. New York. 19 13. Reprinted from the Bulletin of the New York Public Library. PUBLICATIONS OW THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION PUBLISHING BOARD 78 E. Washington St., Chicago, III. A.L.A. Catalog, 1904-11. Edited by Elva L. Bascom. Cloth, $1.60, postpaid. Guide to reference books. Edited by Alice B. Kroeger. Revised and enlarged edition. Cloth, $1.50 (postage, 11 cents). Cataloging for small libraries. By Theresa Hitchler. New and greatly enlarged edition. Cloth, $1.25. Hints to small libraries. By Mary W. Plummer. Cloth, 75 cents. Selected list of music and books about music for pubUc libraries. By Louisa M. Hooper. Paper, 25 cents. Aids in library work with foreigners. Compiled by Marguerite Reid and John G. Moulton. Paper, 10 cents. LISTS OF FOREIGN BOOKS Selected list of Hungarian books. Paper, 15 cents. Selected list of German books. Paper, 50 cents. List of French books. Paper, 25 cents. List of Norwegian and Danish books. Paper, 25 cents. French fiction. Paper, 5 cents. list of Swedish books. Paper, 25 cents. List of Polish books. Paper, 25 cents. LIBBART HANDBOOKS Intended to help the librarians of small libraries in the various details of library work. I. Essentials in library administration. By Miss L. E. Steams. Paper, 25 cents. 3. Management of traveling Ubraries. By Edna D. Bullock. Paper, 15 cents. 5. Binding for small libraries. Paper, 15 cents. Suggestions prepared by the A.L.A. committee on bookbinding. 6. Mending and repair of books. By Margaret W. Brown. Paper, 15 cents. 7. U.S. Government doctmients in small libraries. By J. I. Wyer, Jr. PapCT, 15 cents. 8. How to choose editions. By W. E. Foster. Paper, 16 cents. 9. Normal library budget. By O. R. H. Thomson. Paper, 15 cents. •I \ ..■■ ■'>.if^':i-;:>vJ:^V^\y-r^'*?^/4*^«1'^ THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. f> mi^ 9 6v%rw •j _ 2^.^.^ _ } ^^28 942 S MAY 10 194fl 1 .