need of reading and research material for students and faculty is the underlying cause for the larger collections, the larger buildings, and the larger expenditures.

The increase in use is indicated by the attention given to the library in the catalogue of the institutions. Before 1900, the library was listed incidentally after farms, shops, and museum collections, if, indeed, it was mentioned at all. Now the library is given prominence as one of the important factors in the educational resources of a college.

The number of books loaned for home reading emphasizes more strongly the increasing library requirements of modern education. George A. Works, in his study made of university and college libraries, reported that only 2 out of 18 libraries could give statistics of the number of books loaned in 1900 for home reading. The practice of many libraries may have been similar to that of the University of Michigan, which loaned no books for home reading by students before 1906. At present the average student in many landgrant institutions is borrowing from the library from two to four books a month for home reading, in addition to his use of books within the library building.

College libraries have also been obliged to increase the hours during which they are open. The college catalogue of the past century made almost no statement as to the hours during which their libraries were available for the use of students. Occasionally a note was made that the library is open two or three hours a day. One college annual in 1894 referred humorously to the fact that a mouse, more daring than the college students, ventured into the library and was suffocated. The libraries of the past century were practically never open in the evening. To-day a majority are open 14 hours a day, from 7.30 or 8 in the morning until 10 or 10.30 in the evening, At present the library in many institutions is the one building most used for educational purposes one to which students go daily.

The increased use in most libraries has been caused by modifications in methods of instruction which demand more and better library service. Instructors are directing their students to the authorative sources of knowledge, rather than restricting them to one textbook. They are encouraged to search for material and methods personally rather than to memorize formulæ or the pages of a single text. These modifications in methods of instruction require libraries whose functions emphasize service to the individual rather than the collection of books for safe preservation or the erection of buildings chiefly as architectural memorials. The question of use has become paramount.

7 Works, George A., College and university library problems, 1927, p. 123.

This increase in use is not uniform in all institutions. In the first group, those institutions which have not started on the development of their libraries, students apparently do comparatively little reading from library books, borrowing an average of two or three books a year instead of two or three a month. These libraries are closed in the evening and possess meager book collections.

Functions of Libraries

A library of a land-grant institution has five functions, more or less overlapping. These functions are: (1) To aid directly in the instruction of students, both graduate and undergraduate, by supplying reading material, with suitable facilities for its use; (2) to provide for and to aid research by making available the necessary source material; (3) to aid faculty members to familiarize themselves with current developments in their respective fields; (4) to make possible and to encourage general reading by faculty and students; and (5) to aid in the extension service of the institution by supplying printed material and information to persons beyond. the campus.

The library in relation to effective teaching.-During the past 25 years the "seminar" method of instruction, formerly used only in graduate colleges, has been extended to undergraduates; reading has replaced much of the instruction formerly given by lectures or study of textbooks. Doctor Meikeljohn, of the University of Wisconsin, has strongly emphasized the importance now given to reading as a means of instruction.

College men after four years of lecturing are not in the true sense educated men. The most obvious, striking, and universal characteristic of the uneducated graduate of the American college is that he does not read books. We have got to stop the lecture procedure * * and begin our instruction by reading. In my opinion that is the only fundamental method of instruction.

*

Extensive reading by college students is largely dependent upon adequate library facilities. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that educators to-day agree that an efficient library is necessary to effective teaching in colleges and universities. The case is well stated by Dr. G. W. Rosenlof as an introduction to his "Library facilities of teacher-training institutions."

Certainly to-day, we look upon the library as one agency that most truly supplements the work of the teacher in the classroom * * *. Literature, history, science, art, and all the subjects of our curricula, including professional courses in teacher training, to be effectively taught, depend more and more upon unlimited library resources. The textbook will no longer suffice. The college library is now generally admitted the sine qua non of scholarship, both academic and professional. If teaching is to be interesting, virile, and comA. L. A. Proceedings, 1928, p. 334.

111490°-30—VOL 1- 41

manding, there will have to be a very complete supplementing of its activities by a live and growing library, properly selected, classified, and administered. If the final test of education is to be measured in terms of general intelligence, efficiency, and high ideals of citizenship, then there is a real place and function for the library in every school, no matter what may be that school's purpose or the type of student it seeks to train.

The library in relation to research.-Progress in a research field depends largely upon a knowledge of what has been accomplished previously in that field. Such knowledge is obtainable from a search of the literature in the field to be covered. An editorial in the Experiment Station Record states:

The investigator should be familiar with what has been done in his State or elsewhere on the problem he proposes to study. * * * Failure to build upon the past frequently means aimless wandering about in fields previously explored in the same desultory fashion.10 In 1912, Dr. A. C. True, then director of the Office of Experiment Stations, stated, "A necessary preliminary to all successful research work is the examination of the records of similar or allied work. These records are contained in books and periodicals."

99 11

The function of the library in its aid to research is to make available these records of the past. The book collections are fully as important as the laboratories. The work of a library is not confined merely to the collection of suitable material. Such material must be indexed, adequate arrangements must be made for its use, and material not locally available must be located elsewhere and borrowed. These processes are essential to a successful research program.

The library in relation to intellectual development of the individual instructor. For the continued effectiveness of a teacher, intellectual growth is essential. An instructor can not teach adequately the subject matter in his field unless he knows the recent developments in that field and the changes which are taking place, whether such developments are published in English or in foreign journals. To acquaint himself with progress in his field he requires not only the latest books but, even more, the periodical publications. Unless he uses such material he will be teaching the subject matter of his own school days rather than that of to-day. This statement holds especially in the fields of the pure and applied sciences.

An illustration of the need for periodical literature is the attempt of Profs. P. L. K. and E. M. Gross to ascertain for the field of chemistry what files of scientific periodicals are needed “in a college library successfully to prepare the student for advanced work, taking into consideration also those materials necessary for the stimulation and intellectual development of the faculty." 12 As a result of their

9 Rosenlof, G. W., Library facilities of teacher-training institutions, 1929, p. 7. 10 Experiment Station Record, 55: 303, September, 1926.

11 A. L. A. Proceedings, 1912, p. 334.

12 Science, 66: 386-387, 1927.

study they listed 28 scientific periodicals which they believe necessary to the chemist not only in a university with a graduate school but also in a small undergraduate college. The subscriptions to some of these journals vary from $50 to $100 per year and are beyond the financial resources of the average instructor. Unless the library supplies this type of material as well as books many in the teaching staff will be deprived of sources of knowledge that are essential to their progress.

Dr. F. A. Ogg, in speaking of college libraries, states:

A more generous outlay of money is required to make them very much better than they are; and it is a matter of simple fairness to the scholars who are in the service of the institutions concerned, as well as a necessary guarantee of higher quality of that service, to do all that can possibly be done to enrich their opportunities for a fruitful intellectual life.13

The library in relation to general reading of students.-The importance of general reading has received considerable emphasis during the past few years. Wide reading by college students has been urged not only as a necessary means of gaining adequate knowledge of any subject, but also as the most important means of broadening interests and establishing lasting reading habits-the most important contributions a college can make to the liberal education of the individual. President Glenn Frank stated in 1927, "Even though a man have as many degrees as a thermometer, even though he be graduated with the highest of honors, he is grossly uneducated if he halts his reading and learning with his graduation. The best thing the university can do for the 'rah rah college man' is to waken in him

* *

a zest for thinking and the habit of reading." 14 Many an individual owes the inspiration which directed his career to the incidental reading of a book.

It is an important function of a library to purchase and supply books for general reading. But its duty does not end there. It should use every means possible to encourage the reading of such books. They should be so placed that students can see them and handle them. They should be made "easy to use." Special shelves or special rooms should be reserved for books of general interest. All new books of this kind that are added to the library should be displayed for a week or two where all can examine them.

The library in relation to the State at large. The land-grant institutions are publicly supported. The citizens of a State regard it as their institution and as a source of aid on many and various problems. Extension services were established in recognition of this fact. In extension courses, which require reading, study, and research, the library has an opportunity to render valuable assistance by extend

18 Ogg, F. A., Research in the humanistic and social sciences, 1928, p. 365. 14 A. L. A. Proceedings, 1928, p. 334.

ing its service beyond the campus. In most cases its aid will take the form of cooperating with the extension and home-study departments, having material that is readily available as it is needed. However, it would not be fulfilling its complete function if it simply cooperated with these departments. Individuals who are not undertaking systematic training may have need of library facilities. This assistance consists of the loan by mail of books and pamphlets directly to groups, such as debating teams and women's clubs, study groups of any sort, or to industrial concerns that are conducting research investigations.

The service of this type that the library of a land-grant institution can render will depend greatly on the local library conditions in the State. In any State, however, the State college library has or should possess material, especially in the fields of agriculture and engineering, that would, if made available, afford most excellent facilities for educational advancement to many citizens and organizations of the State. The information desired may be supplied directly to individuals or by loans through local libraries or through county agents. The extension services have to a considerable degree successfully taken the college to the people. The library has a similar function independently and in cooperation with the extension services.

Summary-Importance of library.-The necessity of an efficient library for effective instruction, for research and investigation, for the intellectual growth of the faculty, and for general reading is generally recognized by those of high standing in the educational field and is accepted as fundamental in this survey. There is general agreement as to the position of the library as the heart of the college. The object of this study, therefore, is not to justify this conception of the library but rather to ascertain the present status of libraries in land-grant institutions and the means and methods necessary to obtain and maintain efficient library service in these institutions.

Requirements for Good Library Service

A library, to function effectively, requires an understanding by college administrators of the following necessary conditions: (1) Adequate book collections, (2) suitable buildings and equipment, (3) satisfactory relationships of library to institutional administration and to faculty, (4) competent and sufficient library personnel, and (5) adequate financial support.

These requirements are not new. All were emphasized, for example, in the reports of the librarian of the University of Illinois in 1894 and, in part, in reports of Kansas State Agricultural College