The CHAIRMAN: The work of the local committee has been done largely by two men,--Dr. Otto Klotz and Mr. Lawrence J. Burpee,--and perhaps at a later session we will have occasion to give thanks to Mr. Burpee, who behind the scenes has made our official tasks come so lightly and so easily. The secretary read a cablegram bearing greetings from the New Zealand Libraries Association, through the secretary, Mr. Herbert Baillie, librarian of the Wellington (N. Z.) public library. Adjourned. FIRST GENERAL SESSION (Russell Theatre, Thursday, June 27, 9:30 a. m.) The PRESIDENT: I have the honor to announce that the Thirty-fourth Annual Conference of the American Library Association is now open. It seems to me, with the welcome given us this morning, in the beautiful sunshiny weather, nearly as bright and genial as the welcome that we were given last night, we open under very happy auspices indeed, and I hope that when you hear the speakers as they shall take up the matters on the program, you will feel that the auspices have been very well carried out. I shall have the pleasure to talk to you for a very few moments on the subject as printed on the program. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS The Public Library: "A Leaven'd and Preparéd Choice" Last evening's jesting pretense that the party from the States had stopped on the border and removed the boundary line to bring it with them here, into the very Canadian capital, was not quite all a jest. The American Library Association is itself a witness that though the boundary line firmly and clearly defines the limits of rule of the two countries in some great and essential things, some "Glories of our blood and state," it need not, it does not, even divide, still less alienate, the two peoples. It is one of the worthiest, most auspicious foundations of the American Library Association that it is, and has ever been, continental not national in its sympathy and membership. Within its circle "all who profess and call themselves" English-speaking may unite their best thought and their best endeavor for this important public service. There are many fundamental library principles that are common to both countries and your Program Committee has intended to arrange the program and discussions to take account of these, leaving to other and minor meetings such things as are national or local in their bearing. The committee has wished to transcend all division by boundary lines. By so much the jest was fact. The attempt has been made to stand away from detail of all sorts so far that it may be possible to see the library world as "a world" indeed, "a whole of parts," as a system of members, each member distinct yet, by virtue of the very peculiarities which constitute its distinctness, contributing to the unity of the whole.