OF THE PUBLIC AFFAIRS A COOPERATIVE CLEARING HOUSE SECOND ANNUAL CUMULATION PUBLIC THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY WHITE PLAINS, N. Y., AND NEW YORK CITY 1916 PREFACE Public Affairs Information Service is a forcible example of the truth of the hackneyed saw that "Necessity is the Mother of Invention." The Service has completed its third year-the second year since The H. W. Wilson Company took over its management. It is unnecessary to repeat the details leading to the inception of this cooperative movement, since they have been given in the 1915 Annual, and a report was presented to the Special Libraries session at the American Library Association in June, 1916, a résumé of which was printed in the weekly Bulletin, July 29, 1916. The value of the affiliation of the Service with The H. W. Wilson Company has been inestimable from the editor's viewpoint. The many detail features that must be evolved in order to make a publication of this kind possible had already been worked out in other publications and all that was necessary was to adapt them to the particular needs of the Bulletin. It From the standpoint of material, more difficulty has been encountered. is necessary to continuously establish and keep alive relations with many distributing agencies-associations, organizations, governmental, state and municipal departments, and prominent individuals—all of whom must be persuaded to cooperate by sending reports, publications, etc. The cooperation of these sources is now more easily enlisted because they are beginning to realize that the Bulletin is an excellent medium thru which their work may be brought to the attention of those interested in such activities. The world, however, does not stand still and it is necessary to keep pace with new movements and developments. The Service is neither partisan nor local. Material must be secured covering all points of view. The vastness of this task is apparent and the editor realizes that there are omissions in many lines of activity. With a limited staff it is impossible to follow up consistently everything of interest and it is the desire of all concerned to develop a systematic cooperation, in order to eliminate these omissions as far as possible. This is one of the ambitions for the coming year. The Service is not merely an information collecting and disseminating agency. Its primary aim is to be of concrete assistance in minimizing the task of the busy librarian, professor, social worker, business man, head of department or bureau. The Service carries out its activities by means of the weekly bulletins, the bi-monthly cumulations and the annual number. It acts as agent for the distribution of both free material and material with a cost, desired by the cooperators. It extends the privilege of borrowing from the collection and supplies typewritten material for copying purposes. The Service may be freely used as an information bureau. In outlining the scope of material to be listed, the cooperators and editor. decided to include some entries obtained from other standard sources of reference. An endeavor is made to avoid duplication when possible, but as a matter of con venience it has seemed advisable to bring together in one alphabet all material of the character one would expect to find listed in the Bulletin. A list of typewritten material indexed since the establishment of the Service will be found in the last pages of the annual. The full entries for 1915 and 1916 have been given for the convenience of those wishing to order material. This feature of the Service has met with gratifying success and promises to become entirely self supporting. The user of the annual will occasionally find incomplete entries. Several hundred letters were sent out in an attempt to complete the information, but replies to all have not been received and the staff is not sufficiently large to allow any one person to devote time exclusively to such research work. Miss Orrena Louise Evans, who has been the editor for two years, left the Service in August. Much credit is due her for the general organization of the Service, the style adopted in the Bulletins, and the solving of the innumerable problems incident to the development of any new publication. In editing the annual number it has been the endeavor to carry out her ideas. The staff wishes to express its appreciation to the cooperators for their assistance, to the advisory committee, consisting of John A. Lapp, Director, Indiana Bureau of Legislative Information, George S. Godard, State librarian, Connecticut, and C. C. Williamson, Librarian, New York Municipal Reference Library, for their willing advice and interest, and to the members of The H. W. Wilson Company staff who have so kindly assisted in solving the many perplexing problems which constantly arise. October 11, 1916, LILLIAN HENLEY, Editor. Key to Bibliographical Abbreviations Main entry; not used for periodical references nor analyticals * Net (when used before price) ‡‡Articles in preparation A. Atlantic Reporter Gaz. Gazette H J R. House joint resolution COLON ABBREVIATIONS FOR FORENAMES Key to Periodical References American W. 40th st., Aera. Aera. $2; single numbers 25c. Am City. American City. $3; single numbers Am Gas Light J. American Gas Light Journal. $3; single numbers 10c. 42 Pine st., N. Y. Am Ind. American Industries. $1; single numCo., 30 Manufacturers bers 10c. National Church st., N. Y. |