OF THE PUBLIC AFFAIRS A COOPERATIVE CLEARING HOUSE FIRST ANNUAL CUMULATION COMPILED BY ORRENA LOUISE EVANS ASSISTED BY MABEL E. EGBERT THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY 1915 PREFACE A little group of special librarians meeting at Kaaterskill in June, 1913, discussed a plan for keeping themselves informed systematically in regard to publications and movements of interest to them in their work. As the result, Public Affairs Information Service was organized on a cooperative basis, with Mr. John A. Lapp, director of the Indiana Bureau of Legislative Information, in charge. During the first year the Service was conducted from Indiana, mimeographed sheets being issued each week listing by subjects notices of important publications and movements relating to public affairs. In addition to this, typewritten material, such as bibliographies and digests of legislation, prepared by the various libraries, was sent to the Indianapolis Bureau, copied, and sold to cooperators for the cost of copying. It was found, however, that it was desirable to have these entries cumulated, so at the end of the first year an arrangement was made with The H. W. Wilson Company to take over the management of the Service and print the information in the form of weekly bulletins, to be cumulated every two months, each cumulation being complete for the year. The Indiana Bureau has continued to be a very active cooperator and adviser. Too much credit cannot be given to Mr. Lapp for his initiative in starting the Service and for his continued interest in its welfare. His desire to turn the Service over to the Wilson Company was prompted only by his interest and anxiety to see the enterprise succeed. Moreover, copy for all of the special bulletins issued during the past year, consisting of bulletins relating to Proposed legislation, Constitutional amendments and Governors' messages, has been prepared under his direction at the Indiana Bureau and he has continued to furnish notes on constitutional decisions. In publishing this first Annual Cumulation, an attempt has been made to include as many as possible of the entries issued in mimeographed form during the first year of the Service. Since a great many of these were published as announcements, considerable correspondence had to be carried on to find out if the publications mentioned had been issued and to obtain exact information in regard to them. It was also necessary to find out whether or not movements begun were being carried forward or were finished, and whether reports had been made of investigations, conferences, etc. The task proved so much greater than was anticipated that not only was the publication of the Annual delayed, but some of the items had to be omitted. Work on these will be continued during the coming year, and the remaining entries will be included from time to time in the Bi-monthly Cumulations. The same thing holds true of the printed Bulletins. It was impossible to check up all of the incomplete entries and to obtain the additional information needed without delaying the Annual indefinitely. Letters were not always answered promptly, second and even third letters were sometimes necessary before the information was obtained, so it was decided to include complete |