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N one of the big classrooms of the School of Business of Columbia University, in the busy days of the summer session, a group of thirty students from all parts of the country met for the first university summer course in bookselling. The plan was part of the broad program projected by the new School of Library Service of Columbia and now developing under Dr. C. C. Williamson. The group met continuously five days a week from July 11th to July 29th.

The course was described in the Columbia Summer School Catalog as follows:

Courses in Retail Bookselling—

"These are practical courses for booksellers or those planning to enter bookselling in any of its branches. Three hours of lectures each morning will be followed by afternoon visits of observation to establishments representing the various aspects of the booktrade, printing houses, publishing offices, wholesale houses and bookshops of various kinds.

"From 8:30 to 9:55 daily a course in books from the booktrade point of view by Sarah B. Ball. Miss Ball graduated from the Pratt Institute of Library Science in 1902, was connected for seven years with the business branch of the Newark Public Library and a few years ago started the business of Ball & Wilde,

booksellers, at 30 Broad Street, New York. Her course is described as follows:

"Book knowledge needed by the bookseller: Supplements and diversifies the information gained by his general reading and earlier courses in literature. The bookseller must think in terms of subject classification, of editions and publishers and prices. He must know how to evaluate books for his market, what editions to order and what are their selling points. must know autobiographies from Cellini to Adams, anthologies from Palgrave to Untermeyer, travelers from Marco Polo to Beebe the merits of each, the editions, publishers and prices. Actual problems will be assigned and brought in for class discussion."

Second Series of Lectures

Practical Aspects on Bookselling-10 to 11:30

These are Frederic conducted by Melcher of the Publishers' Weekly, who was for twenty-three years in practical retail bookselling in Boston and in Indianapolis. The lecture course as outlined for his series was divided as follows: (1) The bookstores of the United States-types and qualities for

success

(2) The locating of bookstores (3) Bookshop equipment

In the afternoon there were required visits in the city, in order that the functions of publishing, wholesaling and retailing, could be thoroly understood. The visits arranged for were the following:

For the study of bookmaking-Charles Scribner's plant, 43rd St.; Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City

Publishing-The Macmillan Co., Oxford University Press, D. Appleton & Co. Wholesaling-Baker & Taylor Co., American News Co.

Retail stores, general-Brentano's, Scribner's, Putnam's, Himebaugh & Browne

Department store-Wanamaker's Small bookshops-Doubleday, Page, Channel Bookshop, Ball & Wilde, Britannica Bookshop

Children's bookselling-Harper's Bookshop for Boys and Girls, Miss Cutter's Children's Bookshop

Second-hand stores- -Dauber & Pine, Theodore Schulte

College bookstore-Columbia University Bookshop

Old and rare bookselling-Brick Row Bookshop, Edgar H. Wells, Holliday bookshop

Trade journal and bookstore servicePublishers' Weekly

An extensive bibliography of booktrade. literature was prepared by Mr. Melcher and given to each student, and the Columbia library made these books available. In Miss Ball's course the pamphlet on BookTrade Tools by the H. W. Wilson Co. was required; and in the course by Mr. Melcher all were required to read and study the important pamphlets issued by

the Publishers' Association, supplied gratis, including "The Successful Bookshop,' "Bookshop Accounts and Records," "Developing a Mail Order Business," "The Rental Library." The students also purchased for their study and frequent reference "Elements of Retailing" by Ruth Leigh (Appleton), "Bookman's Glossary" by John A. Holden, "The Printed Book" by H. G. Aldis and "The Truth about Publishing" by Stanley Unwin, "Bookstore Advertising and Publicity" by John T. Hotchkiss. Special lectures were given by Miss Humble on seasonal selling and by Franklin Spier on bookmaking.

As this was the first year for the planning of such a course, its sponsors were especially interested in the registrations, and those who gave the lectures were particularly pleased with the results. The sessions proved to be extremely stimulating as the result of having a group who were really interested in the subject and who brought to the class alert interest and varied experiences.

The geographical representation alone. was significant of the importance of such a course. While about half of the students came from within the vicinity of New York, there were students present from Bakersfield and Pasadena (Cal.), Chicago (Ill.), Sarasota (Fla.), Greensboro (N. C.), Spartanburg (S. C.), Birmingham (Ala), Reading (Pa.), Racine (Wis.), New Haven (Conn.), Detroit (Mich.), Cleveland (O.), Pittsburgh (Pa.), and Baltimore (Md.) Two-thirds of the class were college graduates and all had excellent background for booktrade connections. Six of the students had library school training and four intended to use the training for a continuation of library work, believing that this knowledge of handling books from another point of view would be valuable. Half of the students had already been in the book business, either as employees or as owners of small shops and were looking for information to increase their effectiveness in the field. Seven came to the courses with other backgrounds and were planning to go into retail bookselling. This variety of training and of background made the discussions especially valuable, and the informal interchange of experience.

among the students as well as in conferences with the teachers was stimulating.

The New York booktrade showed great interest in this experiment and wherever the students went they were most hospitably received and given careful instruction about the function of each institution. The variety of business which is available. for study in a city like New York makes such opportunities particularly helpful.

By the success of this course the gradual progress of the American booktrade toward ways of systematic training has taken another step forward. Beginning with the early experiments of the New York Booksellers' League many years ago, thru the training classes of Miss Graham of Philadelphia and her lectures at the New York Public Library, the trade has gradually pieced together experimental work and in the last two years has seen rapidly growing results. The Simmons College Library School has for two years offered its library students systematic training in bookselling; the College of the City of New York has had two successful evening courses; in Pittsburgh last winter an ad

mirable course was conducted by cooperation between the university and local booksellers. The program of the Vocational Bureau at Washington for store training of employees is progressing and material will be available next year. Both the Book

sellers' Association and the Publishers' Association have maintained committees on bookselling education, thoroly believing in the importance of the movement and ready to throw the weight of their efforts into any constructive program. At the last two. Booksellers' Conventions, especially, the subject has been to the front and everyone has felt that with the new era of booktrade activity the booksellers of America were prepared to help train the next generation of booksellers.

The summer school plan such as Columbia has started has many virtues. Its intensive day after day course gets more concentrated attention from the student than weekly evening courses can achieve. The short period of three weeks enables booksellers at a distance to take time away from their own affairs to come a long distance for the purpose.

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HE courses designed especially for booksellers which have been given in the present Summer Session at Columbia University are a recognition of the fact that the booktrade and libraries have much in common in the way of bibliographical information, a knowledge of the problems of book production, and an understanding of the reading habits of various classes of the population. The administration of the School of Library Service believes that it will be to the advantage of both the booktrade and library service to cultivate this common ground more intensely and in a cooperative way.

Much of the training, heretofore available only to librarians, can be made of the greatest benefit to booksellers, while librarians can profit by a more intimate knowledge of the methods and problems of the booktrade. It is for this reason that the School of Library Service of Columbia University, which was opened to students in

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September, 1926, is charged by the statutes of the University with the responsibility of furnishing "technical and professional instruction in bibliography, the production, distribution and use of books, library methods, and the organization and administration of libraries and book collections of various types.

Courses offered specifically for libraries include the making of the printed book, the history of the printing trade, bibliography, and the history and organization of the booktrade. These and many other courses offered in the School of Library Service would be of much practical value to booksellers, while the courses on booktrade bibliography and the practical aspects of the commercial distribution of books could be pursued with profit by most librarians. Courses such as have been given this summer will become a regular feature of the curriculum of the School if there is sufficient demand for them.

HEN I divorced myself from the library profession, after years of interesting work under John Cotton Dana in the Newark Free Public Library, and espoused, so to speak, the bookselling profession, my first shock was to discover how little I knew about publishers and how essential that knowledge is in a bookshop.

To think of books primarily by author is the literary attitude. It matters not what Mencken, Cabell, or Wells write about, the author interest is the focal point.

To think of books primarily by subject is the scientific, scholarly, and the library attitude. An unknown author expounding

a new theory of evolution or adding to our knowledge of Shakespeare has an immediate audience.

The bookseller combines these two attitudes, but back of that must be an understanding of publishers' lines, or the bookseller is hampered at every step. The book selection course was therefore planned to place the emphasis on publishers, with author and subject as of secondary importance.

Over forty of the leading publishers whose sales are largely thru the bookshops, and The Baker & Taylor Co. very generously cooperated in carrying thru the idea. The plan of presentation was as follows, for

each publisher-1. A distribution of his trade list. 2. Brief characterization of line with some comment on historical background when it helped to visualize the stock (i.e., Appleton, Oxford, Macmillan, Longmans, Harper, etc.). 3. Rapid survey of the trade list with attention called to outstanding authors and books of special value, from the booktrade point of view.

To pack into one's mind forty-odd publishers' lines from the catalogs alone would surely have resulted in mental indigestion. To offset this each publisher very generously sent samples of characteristic books which were held up for display when noted in the trade list. These books were after

wards on exhibition in the Industrial Relations Library where a closer inspection was possible.

In order to give point and purpose to the course each member of the class was asked to visualize some imaginary bookshop and check the catalogs with the idea of buying initial stock for that store. As bookstores are greatly affected by local conditions, the class was warned against imitative buying, and an effort was made to characterize certain lines as typical of certain types of stores, with a wide range of choice left to the buyer. In very few instances were any individual books designated as essential.

In order to reproduce actual bookshop conditions of buying forthcoming publications, Mr. Scott of Macmillan's, and Mr. Rubinow of A. & C. Boni, kindly consented to present a few new books to the class for consideration. A schedule of the primary factors which enter into the evaluations of a book, from the bookseller's point of view, was drawn up on the blackboard, and as the salesman gave his sales talk the class decided whether these factors would have a plus or minus effect on the probable sale of the book.

The major divisions of this schedule were as follows:

1. Advertising plan of the publisher

2. Probable sale as affected by author

3. Probable sale as affected by subject
4. Range of class interest (limited, in-
definite, universal)

5. Physical characteristics

6. Probable duration of sale (ephemeral, indefinite, permanent)

7. Sale affected by local conditions (price, prejudice, psychological factors)

The actual analysis of a number of books by this schedule, on widely differing subjects, brought out some interesting illustrations of judgment being unduly affected by some minor matter. It gave a singularly clear understanding of sales possibilities and sales liabilities of a forthcoming book.

On the first day of the course the bibliographical background of publishing was given by means of a large chart.* Beginning with the manuscript which the author sells to the publisher, the activities of prepublication promotion and post publication promotion were presented in three main divisions:

1. To the publisher 2. To the trade 3. Cooperative

The chronological sequence of the bibliographical records was shown, emerging finally in "Out of Print." Here the chart again divided and showed the major divisions of "Rare" and "Not Rare"-the "Rare" division being humorously designated as "Immortality" and the "Not Rare" division, with its inevitable junking of at least the physical properties of a book, as "Death." Over eighty divisions were used, and the chart bore the title of "Birth, Life History, Death and Immortality of a Book from the Booksellers' Point of View." No attempt was made to indicate the intricate procedure that is the publisher's chief concern, which lies between "Manuscript" and "Published," except for the promotion program.