Lastly, the commissions are aiding in the library work by the establishment of library schools. In Wisconsin a summer school for library training has been held for the past seven years, and represents a class of work which it seems important that each state should undertake, namely: the training of librarians for the smaller libraries in which the salaries paid are necessarily so small that the librarians cannot afford the expense of a complete course in library training. This instruction applies especially to persons already in charge of small libraries throughout the state, who have not had the opportunity to secure professional training for their work, and it is of great value in bringing them in touch with library effort and setting higher standards of purpose and efficiency. Experience has shown that in a two months' summer session instruction can be given of the greatest value to those who are to have charge of this class of libraries. In this department of library extension which the states have been entering upon during the past decade lies the most important work which the state can undertake for libraries. The work of the library commissions means a systematic employment of the library as an educational and social factor in the progress of the people. This is the true mission of the library, and the most important function of the state lies in effectively aiding it to perform this work. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote A: Abstract.] WHAT MAY BE DONE FOR LIBRARIES BY THE NATION. BY HERBERT PUTNAM, _Librarian of Congress_. You have had suggestions as to what may be done for libraries by the city and what by the state. Whatever is left over--if there is anything left over--I am to treat as something that may be done by the nation--the nation not as an aggregate of its parts, but as a unit, acting through its central authority. There is a disposition to contend that _everything_ which may be more effectively or more economically done by a central authority for the larger area should be undertaken by that authority. I am not prepared to go so far. There may be a value in local effort that will repay its greater cost. But in an educational work which involves the accumulation of material some of which is exceedingly costly, only part of which is constantly in use, and little of which perishes by use; a work whose processes are capable of organization on a large scale and the application of co-operative effort: there must be certain undertakings which, relatively speaking, are possible only if assumed by a central authority. It is such undertakings, for the largest area, that I am asked to discover and set forth.