Part 2 (2/2)

The tendency to read inferior books can soon be checked by a good library. If the attention of the children in school is directed to good books, and the free library contains such books, there will be no thought of the news-stand as the place for finding reading matter.

The economical reason for establis.h.i.+ng free public libraries is the fact that public officers and public taxation manage and support them efficiently and make them available to the largest number of readers. By means of a free library there is the best utilization of effort and of resources at a small cost to individuals.

While a private library may greatly delight and improve the owner and his immediate circle of friends, it is a luxury to which he and they only can resort.

A library charging a fee may bring comfort to a respectable board of directors by ministering to a small and financially independent circle of book-takers, by its freedom from the rush of numerous and eager readers, and by strict conformity to the notions and vagaries of the managers. But such a library never realizes the highest utility. The greater part of the books lie untouched upon the shelves, and compared with the free library it is a lame and impotent affair.

The books of a public library actively pervade the community; they reach and are influential with very large numbers and the utility of the common possession--books--is multiplied without limit. Before several of our towns lies the question of opening to all what is now limited to those who pay a fee. This is not merely a limitation--it is practically a prohibition.

Whether right or wrong, human beings as at present const.i.tuted will not frequent in large numbers libraries that charge a fee. The spirit of the age and the tendency of liberal communities are entirely in favor of furnis.h.i.+ng this means of education and amus.e.m.e.nt without charge.

Certainly towns which can maintain by taxation, paupers, parks, highways and schools have no reasonable ground for denying free reading to their inhabitants.

These towns spend vast sums of money in providing education, and yet omit the small extra expenditure which would enable young men and women to continue their education.

The experience of Library Commissions of various states has amply demonstrated that libraries and literature are sought for and appreciated quite as much by rural communities as by the larger towns, and not infrequently the appreciation is apparently keener, because of the absence of interests and amus.e.m.e.nts other than those provided by the library. There is now no real reason why every part of this state may not enjoy the advantages and pleasures of book distribution, for concentration of effort in the small towns elsewhere has provided efficient, attractive and economical libraries, and could as well do so here.

F. A. HUTCHINS.

MISSION OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY

It is our business in this country to get at the best methods to govern ourselves. How many of our best people have paused to reflect on what that means, and on all it means? It means that now we have about 80,000,000 of sovereigns. It was all very well when we were a little confederation of h.o.m.ogeneous stock stretching along the Atlantic sea-board. We had our dissensions then, but our population was permeated with the principles of our government. In one hundred years we have swelled from a handful to 80,000,000, and a large part of them made up of additions from the nations of the earth, and not the self-governing nations. And the problem is to educate the children of these, as well as our own children, in the principles of that government of which they are an essential and vital part.

This is the first problem, and if it is not attended to, our government will crumble away and decay from neglect. We do not want denizens in this state and this nation, we want citizens. We do not want ward politics, but we do want government as our forefathers understood it.

And it is the duty of every right-minded citizen to work unfalteringly for this end. The question is one of expediency.

We want citizens. And the public school and the public library are the places where citizens are made. Therefore we must labor for and support these inst.i.tutions first and foremost. To a very great extent, the librarian is the custodian of public morals and the moulder of public men.

The librarian must, and he usually does, feel his responsibility. The word ”responsibility” should be given equal weight with the word ”liberty” and emblazoned beside it, and it is these two things that the public librarian through his knowledge of good literature must impress upon our coming generations--”liberty and responsibility.”

WINSTON CHURCHILL.

LIBRARY EXTENSION

Our public schools are doing a great work, but, after all, ”the older generation remains untouched, and the a.s.similation of the younger can hardly be complete or certain as long as the homes of the parents remain comparatively unaffected.” For those whose early education has been neglected either by reason of family circ.u.mstances or because of wayward disposition, and who realize their need before it is too late, there are night schools, business courses and correspondence school courses, with the minor advantages and stimulus offered by public lecture courses.

Volunteer study clubs and societies for research are being organized in great numbers. And, more potent and more forceful, more universal in its application than all these because better organized, better equipped and readier to avail itself of all existing affiliating agencies, is that national movement which has become known for want of a better term as library extension.

Library extension aims to supply to every man, woman and child, either through its own resources or by co-operation with other affiliated agencies, what each community, or any group in any community, or any individual in the community may require for mental stimulus, intellectual recreation or practical knowledge and information useful in one's daily occupation.

HENRY E. LEGLER.

The opening of a free public library is a most important event in the history of any town. A college training is an excellent thing; but, after all, the better part of every man's education is that which he gives himself, and it is for this that a good library should furnish the opportunity and the means. All that is primarily needful in order to use a library is the ability to read; primarily, for there must also be the inclination, and after that, some guidance in reading well.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

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