cause of a fixed resolve to injure Catholics but because the legislators were ignorant of the wishes of Catholics. It is taken for granted in this country that all classes of the community make known their needs. If the Catholic side is not presented, who is to blame? Eternal vigilance requires organization to be effective.

THE COLLEGE LIBRARY IN RELATION TO

COLLEGE WORK

REVEREND PAUL FOIK, C. S. C., NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY, NOTRE DAME, IND.

The problem that confronts almost every college and university in the United States is the determination and establishment of the proper correlation between the library and the teaching body. Failure to recognize the function of the library in the educational plan is due in a large measure to lack of interest among Catholic educators and teachers. Instead of the library being the central agency from which the life and activity of the school radiates, it is too often the fact that the library and the library profession occupy a subordinate position. Too often it is the haven of a broken-down professor who leans upon librarianship as the means to an income, without a care or a thought of the instrumentality of the library in the great work of education.

The librarian if he would make the library serviceable must make each book do the work for which it was made. In other words, he becomes a teacher, not with one or two books, as the teacher in the classroom, but with a world of books. The average student who enters for the first time a large library is appalled by the size of its collections. It is the duty of the librarian to relieve this embarrassment. The text-book of the classroom contains often the predilections of the author on a given subject. The well-stocked college library enables one to examine a subject, and to trace it through its many ramifications until its full meaning and content have passed into the alembic of one's individuality. A text-book has been described by Justin Windsor as, "something that hits an average with a void on both sides of it". If the education of our youth is to produce the best results, then the librarian must be the abetter

of the professor and his text-book. The librarian must help where the classroom fails. If this work is to be accomplished, the cooperation of teacher, librarian and pupil is absolutely necessary, and in this task the initiative must be taken by the librarian.

College faculties are composed of persons of multifarious temperaments. Some are responsive and sympathetic; others repel and are self-sufficient. Like St. Paul, the librarian must be all things to all men. He must be tactful with all whom he meets. By prudent judgment, he may cultivate the tastes of some; by encouragement he may awaken desires in others. Unobtrusively he may offer help without creating embarrassment. Kindness is the key that unlocks the treasury of knowledge. Diligent sacrifice compels the attention of even the most self-contained professor, creating that condition of cooperation and mutual interest which is necessary and which is worth all the librarian's efforts.

Once that spirit of cooperation exists between the professor and librarian, then the library habit must be brought to bear on the student. A clear set of duties rests on both preceptors, if the education of the pupil is to reach the highest plane of development and achievement. On the part of the professor, care must be exercised that the proper assignments for extra reading are always faithfully executed. Failure to check up on the collateral work of the student nullifies the efforts of the librarian. Just as the orientation of the ship by the mariner may be improved by the vigilance and orders of the captain, so also the advice, direction and correction of the professor keep the student on the path of duty, that by the librarian's efforts, he may be piloted successfully to the harbor of learning.

The librarian if he knows his business, will inspire confidence in the pupil. His patience, his gentleness, and his kindness will attract seekers for knowledge. His counsel and advice in research will always find receptive minds, and their good will will carry out his instructions. He ought to lead the way until the student with practice acquires what is known as the library

sense.

The scientific method of using books must be inculcated in the student from his earliest years at college. Practical application of the library system; a thorough acquaintance with the bibliographical apparatus, and a careful manipulation of the reference material, are necessary to every pupil soon after his matriculation in college. Every graduate at the end of his course should have a practical and intelligent knowledge of the books that are to aid him in his life's work. No one can make the use of books more a perpetual delight and refreshment than the painstaking librarian; for the student once having been laught by him where to go for his material, knows how to extract it and can thereafter help himself.

The credit for whatever development or progress has been made in recent years in the library field is attributed to the scientific method. In fact, library methods in general have kept the pace of all other educational methods. The value of the laboratory method as it is most commonly called, has been demonstrated in all branches of teaching. It is no longer a part merely of natural and experimental sciences, but finds a place also in the library. Its extension to include all branches of human knowledge caused librarians to discover and employ ways and means whereby the library as a great laboratory could be made to answer the needs of all workers of the university.

An analytical study of the operation of the scientific method brings us to the heart of our problem, namely, how the college and university library of to-day does its teaching. Next to the acquisition of knowledge, is the learning how and where it may be acquired. Every freshman on entering college must be shown the advantages that the use of the library brings. The librarian should at certain intervals during the college year explain the nature and use of the devices in the library for finding what one wants. The practical use of the dictionary catalogue should be given special attention. Dr. E. C. Richardson regards the author and subject catalogue, but more especially the subject catalogue as, "a series of little bibliographical essays, much like the bibliographical lectures, which, theoretically at least, every professor prefixes to every course." Again, nothing is more obvious than the teaching function

exercised by the reference librarian. What a conspicuous service to the student, what a revelation of hidden treasure, to be able immediately to suggest the best book or article on a given subject. Each time an inquirer approaches the reference desk, he discovers a new method of research; and once he has overcome all the difficulties that hinder his advancement, he is indeed master of an educative power more valuable than years of tutelage by a professor.

The investigation of any subject by the student calls forth the resources of a library and puts them to an ultimate test. As subjects have their limits, so almost every subject presents a problem that requires a clear vision on the part of the investigator, in order that by systematic process in conducting the research, the best results may be achieved. A general survey of the subject should be made long before any notes are taken. A bibliography or reference list is essential before any constructive writing is attempted. For only by this systematic method and procedure is time saved and energy conserved.

As a man wandering aimlessly about in a crowded city is of all men the most lonely, so the student that does not make a reconnaissance of the material in a large library is apt to be bewildered or even lost, if he does not measure the value of the books in relation to his problem. Thought, selection, discrimination, must be employed at every stage of the investigation if satisfactory results are to be obtained.

The careful student will make first a statement of the fundamental principles underlying the question in hand. This information may be obtained by consulting encyclopedias. Source materials are next in order. A few of the leading authorities are cited at the end of articles in the encyclopedias. The student should seek for whole books on his subject. Here the card catalogue of the college library begins to function. Other valuable catalogues, such as United States catalogue of books in print, the Cumulative Book Index, the A. L. A. Index to General Literature, and other national and foreign bibliographies, are indispensable tools in every university library. Books consulted, if they are scholarly, will yield many additional authors and titles. Sometimes portions of books and single