[Reprinted from A. L. A. Bulletin, Conference Number, 1912 ] 
 
 CATALOGING IN LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE WORK 
 
 By ONO MARY IMHOFF, Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library 
 
 The state which studies the laws and 
 experience of other states and countries 
 in order to bring to its own statute books 
 the best features of each, combined with 
 the results of original work, confronts a 
 problem of no small dimensions. The 
 mass of laws put forth by the forty-eight 
 states of this country is so overwhelming 
 that it is practically impossible for one 
 man thoroughly to comprehend their mer¬ 
 its and disadvantages. The legislative 
 reference library, therefore, must be of 
 service in helping to select that which is 
 worthy of imitation, at the same time dis¬ 
 carding the impractical features. 
 
 The reasons for the success or failure 
 of such laws, and the differences in 
 economic or local conditions in two com¬ 
 munities must always receive serious con¬ 
 sideration by those who are endeavoring 
 to meet the advancing economic demands 
 for properly constructed and better laws. 
 The comparative element of this vast ac¬ 
 cumulation of material must always be 
 remembered, not only in the care, but also 
 in the gathering of material, if the library 
 is to serve its highest purpose. 
 
 Because of this and other well known 
 characteristics of a library of this type, 
 the demands are of a peculiar nature and 
 cannot be met by the ordinary library 
 material treated in the usual library 
 method. It is more or less of a quasi- 
 library, requiring an adaptation of library 
 processes to a combination of office and 
 library work. As a result of this differ¬ 
 ence, the general library rules for catalog¬ 
 ing must be decidedly modified. One is 
 justified in making the catalog of such 
 a library a law unto itself, for each and 
 every one of its class has its own partic¬ 
 ular problems, environment and limita¬ 
 tions, which will probably be met in its 
 own particular way. 
 
 Since the problem becomes so largely 
 one of individuality and circumstances, it 
 might be well to consider for a moment 
 some of the essential differences in pur¬ 
 pose and treatment of material, and to 
 realize the desirable points to be attained 
 as well as the non-essentials, or things 
 actually to be avoided. 
 
 The processes and methods of this kind 
 of a library must in their nature be con¬ 
 ducive to rapidity and conciseness of serv¬ 
 ice. Time saving devices are unusually 
 important, not only in the acquisition of 
 material and the actual technical work, 
 but in the delivery of material. The 
 speedy availability of the most serious 
 treatises on the most profound subjects 
 is absolutely necessary. Between ses¬ 
 sions many, many hours of the most ear¬ 
 nest and serious efforts must be spent in 
 investigation, study and research in 
 order to relieve the pressure of heavy re¬ 
 search work as much as possible during 
 the session. 
 
 The library deals with business men 
 who are seeking an answer to some spe¬ 
 cial need. They have a definite reason 
 for seeking the information and a definite 
 point of view and they expect the library 
 to answer their questions in a business¬ 
 like manner. Too much emphasis cannot 
 be placed upon efficiency of service as 
 shown through rapidity of service. The 
 legislator is a busy man and any time 
 saved through devices which quicken de¬ 
 livery of material, or shorten the time 
 devoted by the patron himself, is well 
 worth while. If two hours is necessary 
 on the part of the library worker between 
 sessions to put material into such shape 
 that it may be delivered ten minutes 
 sooner during the legislative session, it 
 should be given cheerfully. 
 
 Condensations, digests, and briefs may 
 
be prepared during the interval between 
 sessions which will save hours of time 
 during the actual high pressure season 
 of the session itself. Any sort of short¬ 
 cut brought about by analyticals, or any 
 other devices known to the cataloger, 
 should be used. Shrewdness of judgment 
 and a general discrimination as to what 
 is really valuable is not only highly de¬ 
 sirable but absolutely essential. 
 
 Since time is such an important ele¬ 
 ment, it might be well to call attention to 
 the fact, that the legislative reference 
 library may be adequately maintained 
 without many of the records which are 
 favored in libraries in general. Do away 
 with as much “red tape” as possible. 
 Simplicity of material, simplicity in serv¬ 
 ice, simplicity in the whole department 
 is to be commended above almost any 
 other one characteristic. Among those 
 records which can be abandoned with 
 perfect propriety in such a department, 
 are the accession book, gift book and 
 withdrawal book. So much of the mate¬ 
 rial is ephemeral in its value that the cost 
 of maintenance outweighs the value re¬ 
 ceived in actual results. The serial list 
 may be exceedingly simple. Records of 
 the number of books cataloged, or circu¬ 
 lation statistics are of very doubtful value 
 in this work. 
 
 Since the loss of material is inevitably 
 rather large, an inventory is almost essen¬ 
 tial. However, material is easily re¬ 
 placed, much of it is free and because of 
 this fact, a biennial inventory will prove 
 satisfactory in most cases. There is no 
 need of a complicated charging system. 
 In truth, establish no records of any kind 
 within the library until convinced that 
 its efficiency will be hampered without 
 them. Emphasis is put upon this point, 
 because of the fact that all legislative 
 reference departments have small appro¬ 
 priations in the beginning, and it is dur¬ 
 ing this early period that the library must 
 justify its existence by showing results 
 in active service rather than in catalogs 
 and records. At first there are never 
 enough assistants to do both efficiently. 
 Therefore, let the tendencies be toward 
 those things which will bring into evi¬ 
 
 dence vital things rather than mere good 
 housekeeping. 
 
 It might be well to state that the term 
 “catalog” will be used in the broadest 
 possible sense. The definition of the term 
 as it will be. used in this paper, might be 
 given as “a record of sources and of ma¬ 
 terial,” and not merely a record of mate¬ 
 rial to be found upon the shelves of any 
 one library or institution. 
 
 The catalog should be kept as simple 
 as possible in its essentials. Conciseness 
 of title, brevity of treatment, and above 
 all clearness, must always be borne in 
 mind. Sacrifice library school rules if 
 necessary. Let there be no hesitation in 
 enlarging or changing the title if by so 
 doing greater clearness is gained. It 
 must be remembered always that the 
 catalog is made not for librarians with 
 technical knowledge, but for men whose 
 use of it will be that of an untrained stu¬ 
 dent. Let it be such that your constitu¬ 
 ency may use it without help. Be exceed¬ 
 ingly generous with notes, never failing 
 in the case of bills to show whether such 
 bills became laws or failed in passage. If 
 a bill became a law, give the citation. If 
 reports or cases are known by special 
 names, be sure to note that fact. Let 
 there be no ambiguity either in title, sub¬ 
 ject or note. Annotations as to the sub¬ 
 stance of material are also highly desir¬ 
 able, particularly when they show whether 
 a given article is favorable or antagonis¬ 
 tic, or state the reliability of the author 
 concerned. 
 
 The material itself falls into three dis¬ 
 tinct classes which influence the catalog¬ 
 ing treatment; books, pamphlets, and 
 clippings. The books and pamphlets 
 show comparatively little variation from 
 regular cataloging methods. Clippings 
 in the Wisconsin legislative reference 
 department are mounted upon manila 
 sheets, eight by ten, arranged chronolog¬ 
 ically under classification number, marked 
 with a book number Z and treated as a 
 single pamphlet. They have no author 
 card, being entered merely under the 
 subject-heading necessary, with the au¬ 
 thor line left blank. This procedure is 
 convenient in some other cases, such as 
 
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 certain extracts from the Congressional 
 record, containing discussions in which 
 various members take part and where it 
 is difficult to enter under any individual 
 or even joint authors. 
 
 Since the author phase of the catalog 
 is of less interest than the subject phase 
 which acquires unusual importance, sec¬ 
 ondary cards may be very largely omit¬ 
 ted. Joint author cards are really of very 
 little service. Series and title cards are 
 the exception rather than the rule. 
 Whenever possible it is advisable to make 
 continuation cards instead of entering 
 new compilations or new editions on sep¬ 
 arate cards. In the case of continuation 
 cards, it is advisable to choose a brief 
 title and pay no attention to such varia¬ 
 tions as may be given in different edi¬ 
 tions. For instance, a 1907 compilation 
 of state tax laws might be entitled, 
 “Laws relating to assessment and taxa¬ 
 tion,” and the 1909 one simply “Taxation 
 laws,” and the 1911 one “Revenue and 
 taxation laws.” These may all be entered 
 upon one card under the simple title, 
 “Tax laws,” and the three volumes added 
 as continuations. In short, do not at¬ 
 tempt to show the exact detail by means 
 of cataloging, such as is advisable in pub¬ 
 lic libraries. What your patron wishes 
 to know is whether you have the tax 
 laws of that state and what is the date 
 of their compilation. These are the facts 
 which interest him and the number of 
 pages or the particular form of the title, 
 is of absolutely no value to him. This is 
 a good example of that freedom in con¬ 
 densation and changing of titles which is 
 somewhat heretical in its ^nature, but 
 which after all leads to that saving of 
 time and patience which is so necessary. 
 Use only such imprint as is absolutely 
 essential; omitting on the whole, illustra¬ 
 tions, maps, portraits, and plates. In 
 cases of excerpts from periodicals the 
 name of the magazine with the date of 
 that particular issue is usually deemed 
 sufficient. 
 
 Because the ordinary patron of the leg¬ 
 islative reference library is unfamiliar 
 with library methods, it has been found 
 convenient to file “see also” cards at the 
 
 beginning of the subjects rather than at 
 the end. For this same reason, the guide 
 cards should be much more numerous than 
 in other libraries, and it is of &reat ad¬ 
 vantage to have the main headings 
 brought out upon thirds with the sub¬ 
 divisions of these main headings on fifths 
 of a different color. Blue and manila 
 form a good color contrast for such a 
 scheme. 
 
 As has been said before, the compara¬ 
 tive feature of this work is one which is 
 worthy of special consideration. Its value 
 can scarcely be over-estimated. The effi¬ 
 ciency of the library can be greatly in¬ 
 creased by a constant lookout for such 
 material. Every book, pamphlet or clip¬ 
 ping, passing through the hands of the 
 cataloger must be most carefully re¬ 
 viewed, not only for its general material, 
 but for any comparative statement which 
 shows either conditions, laws, or tenden¬ 
 cies in two or more communities, states, 
 or countries. It may take form as a tab¬ 
 ulated statement, a chapter, a paragraph, 
 or even a mere foot-note, but at some 
 future time it may serve as a starting 
 point for an investigation, or give instan¬ 
 taneous help in the question as to “what 
 states or countries have laws similar to 
 this.” The advisability of listing such 
 comparative material in a separate cat¬ 
 alog must be determined by each library. 
 When it is buried in the regular catalog 
 it requires much longer to answer such 
 questions than when kept in a separate 
 file. If made into a catalog by itself, 
 there should always be a note showing 
 exactly what states or countries are in¬ 
 cluded in the comparison and the dates 
 covered by such material. In other words 
 the comparative entry must be justified 
 either by the title or a note showing that 
 it really is a comparison. Probably two- 
 thirds of such material is analytical in 
 character. 
 
 The question of analyticals will be 
 greatly influenced by the subject matter 
 under consideration. Upon certain sub¬ 
 jects there are practically no book treat¬ 
 ises, and most of the material will be 
 found in the form of analyticals. The 
 amount to be analyzed, the choice of form 
 
 3 
 
and the relative value of the material 
 concerned must be determined by shrewd 
 judgment on the part of the cataloger. 
 The entire library will be greatly en¬ 
 hanced by a careful selection of analyti¬ 
 cal, but the bulk of the catalog must not 
 be increased unless with good reason. 
 
 The percentage of analyticals will be in 
 most cases much higher than in the or¬ 
 dinary library, because so often a few 
 pages are worthy of special notice on ac¬ 
 count of their comparative nature, the 
 particular view point of the author, or 
 sometimes merely because of the scarcity 
 of material on that subject. As to the 
 cataloging form for analyticals, there is 
 no reason why it should not follow the 
 general rules of the library as a whole. 
 My own preference is for the long form, 
 because oftentimes the short form is not 
 perfectly clear to the legislator. Al¬ 
 though advocating simplicity, as a gen¬ 
 eral thing, it should not require clearness 
 to be sacrificed at any time. There is 
 room for discussion on this point and 
 there is difference of opinion, but my 
 conclusion in the matter has been reached 
 after some experimentation. A little more 
 work on the part of the librarian is pref¬ 
 erable to the slightest bit of doubt on the 
 part of the legislator. 
 
 Since legislators are investigating spe¬ 
 cific problems, looking at them from a 
 single point of view, and not always con¬ 
 sidering a subject in its broadest sense 
 or in its relationship to knowledge in 
 general, the question of subject headings, 
 outside of classification, becomes prac¬ 
 tically the most important single proposi¬ 
 tion the cataloger has to consider. In 
 practically every case the popular rather 
 than the technical form of heading is de¬ 
 sirable. The simple ordinary term should 
 be chosen, for it is under this type of 
 heading that your reader will be most 
 certain to look. In his haste and absorp¬ 
 tion he fails to realize that there is any 
 possible viewpoint, other than his own. 
 Having but one thought in his mind, he 
 naturally expects to find his material un¬ 
 der this subject. Most certainly he should 
 find at least a cross reference. There¬ 
 fore, one recommendation is to be exceed¬ 
 
 ingly generous in the matter of cross 
 references. Under such conditions it is 
 always wiser not to trust one’s own judg¬ 
 ment, but to call upon various people 
 asking under what heading they would 
 look for material of a certain type. In 
 this way the cataloger may secure sug¬ 
 gestions which are unusually helpful and 
 which put into the catalog the ideas of 
 many persons rather than of one. 
 
 For instance, a book or pamphlet relat¬ 
 ing to the extortion practiced by usurers 
 would be found under a heading such as 
 “Interest” or “Usury.” However, there 
 are various other headings under which 
 individuals might expect to find material 
 of this kind, depending upon the particu¬ 
 lar phase of the question which he had 
 in mind at the time. A busy man, wish¬ 
 ing to draft a bill putting the loan shark 
 under control, would be thinking of a loan 
 shark and not of the underlying principle 
 of interest. Another man approaching 
 the question through interest in the in¬ 
 stallment plan would expect to find mate¬ 
 rial of use to him under that subject. 
 Another man taking a broader view of the 
 subject might look under “Interest.” Each 
 of these men would be justified in look¬ 
 ing under the particular subject he had 
 in mind, expecting to find either the ma¬ 
 terial or a reference sending him to the 
 chosen heading. Every possible heading 
 which suggests itself is worthy of con¬ 
 sideration, for such an investment of time 
 will more than pay for itself in the satis¬ 
 faction it brings to those who use the 
 catalog. The necessity for painstaking 
 effort and careful thought in this connec¬ 
 tion is verified by experience. 
 
 Special and local names may well be 
 noted on all main cards and cross refer¬ 
 ences made in every case from such 
 forms. For instance, the law governing 
 the sale of stocks recently passed in 
 Kansas, which is popularly known as the 
 “Blue sky law” should be noted as such 
 in the catalog. The “Mary Ann” bill may 
 be called for by that name and if there 
 is no cross reference in the catalog the 
 untrained assistant in the library, or the 
 stenographer, will never find it. The me¬ 
 chanical part of the catalog should be so 
 
 4 
 
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 / 
 
 complete that it does not require ac¬ 
 quaintance with all phases of the subject 
 in order that a person may use it intelli¬ 
 gently. Therefore, special and local 
 names inevitably need attention. 
 
 The contents of a legislative reference 
 library are largely of either an economic 
 or a legal nature, and its patrons some¬ 
 times approach the material from the 
 legal side and sometimes from the eco¬ 
 nomic side. In assigning subject headings 
 this fact must never be forgotten. Con¬ 
 sequently, the headings will sometimes 
 take a legal turn and sometimes an 
 economic turn. At times it is necessary 
 to compromise and choose one halfway 
 between the two. 
 
 Let us consider for a moment the rela¬ 
 tionship of the economic and the legal 
 material. Justice Holmes, in his book on 
 the “Common law,” expresses this rela¬ 
 tionship unusually well. He says in sub¬ 
 stance that the growth of the law is 
 legislative; it is legislative in its grounds; 
 that the secret root from which law draws 
 all the juices of life is consideration of 
 what is expedient for the community. 
 
 The economic necessity for law pre¬ 
 cedes the legal expression. The need for 
 a statute is felt long before it is formu¬ 
 lated. This is readily recognized by polit¬ 
 ical economists and lawyers. Judge 
 Dicey, in his book entitled, “Law and 
 opinion in England,” (Lond. 1905, p. 367) 
 says: “A statute * * * is apt to re¬ 
 
 produce the public opinion, not so much 
 of to-day as of yesterday.” Since a legis¬ 
 lative reference library is busied with the 
 process of law-making, rather than with 
 the administration or interpretation of 
 law, the trend will be toward the eco¬ 
 nomic headings rather than the legal. 
 The tendency of law is to crystallize, and 
 subjects legal in aspect are likely to be 
 complete in themselves, and therefore less 
 amenable to library purposes. As an ex¬ 
 ample, a subject heading such as “Emi¬ 
 nent domain” is legal in its nature. This 
 will be used in the main body of the cat¬ 
 alog without a doubt. It may have cross 
 references of both a legal and an eco¬ 
 nomic nature. At the same time “Emi¬ 
 nent domain” may be used as a sub¬ 
 
 division of economic headings, such as 
 “Railroads,” “Street railways,” “Tele¬ 
 graphs,” and “Telephones.” This shows 
 how the legal aspect of an economic 
 question may be brought directly in touch 
 with the economic phase of the question. 
 Another example is “Liquor problem;” as 
 it is used in the subject headings, it is 
 an economic question, yet we use the 
 subdivision “Illegal traffic” which in¬ 
 cludes purely a legal phase. “Discrim¬ 
 ination,” a legal term, will cross refer to 
 some specific form under an economic 
 heading such as “Railroads—Rebates.” 
 It is often necessary to refer from some 
 rather popular headings to legal forms, 
 such as “Funeral expenses, see Estates 
 of deceased persons.” Again it may be 
 necessary to mix the two with a heading 
 such as “Ethics—Business and profes¬ 
 sional,” with cross references from legal 
 headings, such as “Professional ethics,” 
 “Legal ethics,” “Medical ethics,” etc. 
 The general conclusion reached is that 
 there is likely to be either subdivisions 
 or cross references back and forth from 
 any type of heading to any other type, 
 with one exception, namely, an economic 
 subdivision of a legal heading. In our 
 experience in Wisconsin, we have not 
 found this combination of headings 
 either necessary or advantageous. This 
 fact but emphasizes what has already 
 been said, that law once established, be¬ 
 comes permanent and fixed in character. 
 
 Geographical divisions as main head¬ 
 ings should be used sparingly, but geo¬ 
 graphical subdivisions of subjects are 
 very helpful. Primary election laws, road 
 laws, tax laws, will all be more available 
 if divided by states, not only in the classi¬ 
 fication, but in the subject heading. If 
 clearness or rapidity of service demand 
 subdivisions, they should be made, even 
 though there be few cards under each 
 subdivision. 
 
 Many helpful suggestions for subject 
 headings and cross references may be ob¬ 
 tained from law indexes, law encyclope¬ 
 dias, and the New York index of legisla¬ 
 tion. 
 
 Not only is it necessary for the cata- 
 loger to know the material which is in 
 
 5 
 
the library itself, but if efficient work is 
 to be accomplished it is decidedly neces¬ 
 sary that material not within the four 
 walls should be made available. Let all 
 kinds of knowledge be at the cataloger’s 
 command, and make the mechanical de¬ 
 vices carry as much of this burden as 
 possible. First of all, material which is 
 in town but which is not contained within 
 your own library, should be noted. Stat¬ 
 utes and session laws of all the states 
 should be obtainable though not necessar¬ 
 ily a part of the library itself. If a state 
 or law library is near at hand, it is far 
 better to rely upon them as a source of 
 reference than to duplicate such a collec¬ 
 tion on your own shelves. Articles in 
 law magazines, reports large in bulk, but 
 issued only occasionally, may be noted, 
 when not placed upon the shelves. In 
 Wisconsin we make a distinction between 
 material in existence within the city and 
 that which is in existence elsewhere, such 
 as in the Library of Congress, the John 
 Crerar library, or near-by institutions. A 
 manila catalog card tells us that the ma¬ 
 terial may be found outside of the city, 
 whereas by stamping the name of the li¬ 
 brary in the place of the call number on 
 a white card, we indicate that the mate¬ 
 rial is in town. Subject entries only are 
 made for material of this sort. 
 
 There are many indexes already in ex¬ 
 istence which will supplement the catalog 
 and call to the attention of the worker 
 available material. One of the most val¬ 
 uable sources of all is found in the ex¬ 
 perts of the neighborhood. The librarian 
 is too prone to think that all the most 
 useful knowledge is in books or printed 
 form. Some of the best help imaginable 
 can be obtained from men. Every com¬ 
 munity has within its borders specialists 
 of various types; men who have given 
 their lifetime to the study of some par¬ 
 ticular question. Make such individuals 
 a portion of the catalog; use them as 
 sources. The telephone is at your com¬ 
 mand and oftentimes more valuable in¬ 
 formation can be obtained from some per¬ 
 son within telephone call than can be 
 gotten from hours of work with shelf 
 material. 
 
 Furthermore, do not limit yourself to 
 the talented man within the community, 
 but use the expert wherever he may be 
 found. Correspondence will often bring 
 information to your door; mount the let¬ 
 ters; put them with the clippings or cat¬ 
 alog them separately; in case of urgency, 
 telegraph. In fact, have some of the 
 appropriation deliberately set aside 
 for supplementing the catalog by tele¬ 
 grams. 
 
 A record of sources, arranged both by 
 places and subjects is of service. Under 
 your subject list enter the names and ad¬ 
 dresses of those who are specialists. 
 Experts throughout the country will thus 
 be at your command. In the geographi¬ 
 cal list, put the names of parties to whom 
 you may apply for material relating to a 
 given community. Suppose for instance, 
 that your state is contemplating a Work¬ 
 men’s compensation law and some state 
 where there is no legislative reference 
 department is also considering the mat¬ 
 ter. This state passes a law on Tuesday, 
 and on Saturday the bill of your own 
 state is coming up for consideration. You 
 need exact information as to which bill is 
 passed, whether it passed with or without 
 amendments; in fact, you must have im¬ 
 mediate and full knowledge concerning 
 that law. You may have within your 
 mind some possible source, but during the 
 stress and pressure of the legislative ses¬ 
 sion such a list relieves one of the neces¬ 
 sity of remembrance. 
 
 The catalog, through its mechanical 
 devices, can carry this burden. The cat¬ 
 alog is not merely a record of sources 
 within the four walls, but must endure as 
 a record of all possible available sources, 
 so that time and energy given to “the 
 living part” of the catalog, is well 
 expended. 
 
 In addition to the sources already men¬ 
 tioned, there are numerous other possible 
 indexes of value. When the bills are 
 available in printed form, a subject index 
 indicating the final disposition of a bill— 
 whether killed, passed or vetoed—is of 
 inestimable use. Such indexes for the 
 general laws and the local and temporary 
 laws are advantageous. A comparative 
 
 6 
 
index, apart from the regular catalog, al¬ 
 ready noticed, may be mentioned again in 
 this connection. An index of the docu¬ 
 ments of the state is also a valuable asset, 
 since the publications of most states are 
 rather poorly indexed and have practi¬ 
 cally no centralized list of subjects. The 
 decisions of the attorney-generals quite 
 often are of as much importance in law 
 conclusions as are the decisions of the 
 courts. They have virtually either vital¬ 
 ized or invalidated laws upon the statute 
 books. In states where statute revisions 
 are rather infrequent, statute indexes may 
 be necessary. These indexes should be 
 made supplementary to the regular cata¬ 
 log. Some of them may be carried along 
 as side issues at the same time as the 
 regular work, and others may be taken 
 up in their entirety to be accomplished 
 as time permits. 
 
 Since the importance and value of such 
 a library depends, not upon the quantity, 
 but upon the quality and efficiency of the 
 collection, the disposition of material 
 which has become historical in its nature 
 comes prominently into the foreground. 
 Unless there is constant supervision and 
 reduction, there is an unnecessary and 
 useless accumulation. The working li¬ 
 brary will never be a large one. After a 
 state policy relating to a given question 
 is established, the library should, within 
 a reasonable time, dispose of the larger 
 portion of the collection on that subject. 
 Its present usefulness from the legislat¬ 
 or’s standpoint is over. Its future value 
 is as a historical contribution. As a re¬ 
 sult, there will be continual withdrawals 
 as well as continual acquisitions. 
 
 After all, that which makes library 
 
 work so stimulating and so interesting is 
 the human element. The progress which 
 one may make in its mechanical side, the 
 service of all its books and pamphlets, 
 the importance and the value of the ma¬ 
 terial, depend primarily upon the human 
 side of it. The mere fact that the scholar, 
 as well as the man with a hobby, the 
 student along with the crank, the conser¬ 
 vative together with the radical, the theo¬ 
 retical and the practical man, are all 
 brought together in a common place, 
 shows that the mechanical is truly the 
 lesser value in this field of work. How- 
 
 I 
 
 ever, it is in the making of a more per¬ 
 fect apparatus, in the saving of time and 
 energy, in the additions to its efficiency, 
 that the cataloger receives his reward. 
 The possibilities of this work are so far 
 reaching, that every reasonable device or 
 idea is at least worthy of trial so that 
 there may be every possible advancement 
 in every practical direction. It is a new 
 work and there are few guide posts. We 
 cannot accept other experiences unques¬ 
 tionably. What are virtues in another 
 library may be vices in the legislative 
 reference work. What we most need is a 
 safe and sane balance of judgment, quick¬ 
 ness of perception, a sense of foresight, 
 combined with all the special knowledge 
 possible, great discrimination, initiative 
 and the ability to meet any situation, and 
 above all, the disposition to test every 
 new conception or suggestion which may 
 lead to development; in fact, the more of 
 these virtues which the cataloger may 
 possess, the more efficient will be the re¬ 
 sult, not only in the catalog itself, but in 
 the net results shown by the work in its 
 entirety.