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 | THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER. 
 
 I Saturday, March 9, 1912.) 
 
 _ System Explained. 
 
 é 
 
 | MERSON once said that one 
 E could remain within the limits 
 of a modest country seat and 
 yet be much traveled and widely 
 cultured. Better still, in his com- 
 paratively home- 
 keeping though 
 surpassingly -full 
 life, he. exem- 
 plified the signif- 
 icant idea. to 
 which he gave 
 utterance. To him 
 the two means of 
 traveling abroad 
 in thought. and 
 of acquiring a 
 wide knowledge of the facts and 
 | things common fo his every day 
 world, while yet remaining at home 
 in body, were books and nature. 
 Through these he became familiar 
 with the facts of life -and came to 
 | recognize back of all natural objects 
 and of life itself a divinity shaping 
 1 them and unifying them into a sat- 
 | isfactory whole. 
 
 LOUIS R. WILSON, 
 
 Twenty-Nine States Have Traveling 
 Libraries. 
 
 In order that home life—home 
 life in the country especially—might 
 | pe enriched and the outlook of the 
 country fireside extended beyond the 
 bars and over the hills to the great 
 outside world, and that a fuller- 
 knowledge of home life itself might 
 be made possible, the traveling li- 
 brary has been established and is 
 
 being operated in 29 States. 
 
 The traveling library system is a 
 | very simple thing. A State creates 
 a special commission by legislative 
 enactment. Ordinarily it is composed 
 librarians, and others 
 
 HAVE TRAVELING LIBRARIES? 
 
 “Farmers and Their Families in Twenty-Nine States Now Have 
 Such Advantages, but Few in the South——A Good Reform for 
 the Farmers’ Union and All Farmers 
 
 to Help Along—The 
 
 S : By Louis R. Wilson, Librarian, University of North Carolina. 
 
 braries. The State appropriates a 
 given amount of money for the pur- 
 
 chase of books and maintenance. The 
 
 books are carefully selected by the 
 secretary and the commissioners 
 after. they have considered carefully — 
 the interests of all those whom the 
 traveling collections are intended to 
 serve. Then they are made up in 
 cases of from 25 to 50 volumes and 
 are ready for distribution upon prop- 
 er application. Usually the commis- 
 sion maintains a public office in the 
 State library at the Capitol from 
 which the cases are sent out free of 
 charge except for transportation. The 
 borrowers usually pay this. 
 
 Special and General Collections 
 
 Upon request special collections 
 can be secured to meet special needs. 
 A- debating library or a reference li- 
 brary can be sent to a village school. 
 A. public health library can be sent 
 to a community interested in the 
 suppression of preventable diseases. 
 A gardening library can be sent to a 
 group of truckers, thus enabling the 
 State to make more effective the 
 work of the departments of educa- 
 tion, health and agriculture, and ce- 
 menting all into a more helpful, re- 
 lated union. Ordinarily, however, 
 the libraries are sent in less special- 
 ized form and are for the public 
 use of: > 
 
 1. Rural settlenfents which have 
 no library facilities. 
 
 2. Schools which have small col- 
 lections and are consequently in need 
 
 ‘of supplementing from the outside 
 
 if they are to be kept fresh and in- 
 teresting. ; ‘ 
 
 3. Villages or towns which have 
 not established public libraries but - 
 for which the collections thus sent 
 may become the centers around 
 which public libraries will spring up. 
 
 4, High schools, special study 
 clubs, local associations, ete., which 
 are in need of richer reference col- 
 lections or desire a few special books 
 
 See oe eee 
 
on special subjects but do not feel 
 justified’ in purchasing the books 
 outright. —~ A 
 
 The libraries are usually kept for 
 from three to six months. At the 
 
 _ end of the period they: are sent back 
 
 to the commission to be replaced by 
 another. In this way each commu- 
 nity having a library association or 
 station is kept supplied with new, 
 interesting books, and the books are 
 read by from one to two dozen com- 
 munities before they are worn out. 
 Sometimts shipments of magazines, 
 
 pictures and stereopticon views are . 
 
 also sent along with the books to 
 add to their variety and attractive- 
 ness; 
 
 Time for the South to Wake Up. 
 
 In the Southern States the very 
 great benefits to be derived from this 
 system have not been generally en- 
 joyed, primarily because the people 
 have not known that books could be 
 
 * supplied in this way and at very 
 
 little expense to the State. They 
 have not realized that apart of the 
 State’s revenues can be as legitimate- 
 ly used in providing a public library 
 of this nature for the citizens of the 
 State at large as the revenues of a 
 city may be in the maintenance of 
 a library for its citizens. The prin- 
 ciple is the same. Virginia, North 
 Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Geor- 
 gia, Alabama and Texas-have library 
 commissions of very recent estab- 
 lishment, but only Virginia, Tennes- 
 see and Kentucky have set aside 
 funds in any sense adequate to make 
 
 _ the operation of the system effective.’ 
 
 The other commissions have a very 
 few special libraries, but their ap- 
 propriations do not admit of the op- 
 eration of extensive systems. The 
 use of these, however, is such as to 
 demonstrate clearly the need for 
 more generous appropriations for 
 this purpose. 
 
 In other sections conditions are 
 better. In Massachusetts the State 
 Agricultural Coilege -aids the com- 
 mission by sending out the special 
 agricultural libraries. Kansas owns 
 35,000 volumes and has 525 cases 
 in constant circulation. Ohio spends 
 $10,000 the year for similar pur- 
 poses and New Jersey’s 237 collec- 
 
 _tions were so operated in 1910 that 
 the aggregate of 40,570 volumes_ 
 loaned were read by 118,500 borrow- 
 _ers in different séctions of the State. ‘ 
 
 hy 
 
 How the Plan Would Work. 
 
 Two practical questions present 
 themselves in this discussion: (1) 
 How can communities make use of 
 such systems? and (2) How to get 
 them started in States now without 
 them, 4 
 
 . The answers in both instances are 
 simple. 
 
 Groups of rural tax payers, rural 
 schools, special study clubs and ‘vil-. 
 lage library associations are usually 
 the beneficiaries of such systems. Ap- 
 
 ' plication blanks are furnished upon 
 
 request by the library commissions 
 or State libraries. If a group of ru- 
 ral tax payers wishes the loan of a 
 library, five or ten of its members 
 form a library association, sign the 
 application blank and agree to be re- 
 ‘sponsible for the library. while it is 
 in their possession, to pay transpor- 
 tation charges on it to and from the 
 issuing office and to place it in the 
 home,of a librarian whom they name 
 where the books may be accessible, 
 free of charge, to the whole commu 
 nity. The applications are filed in 
 the order of their receipt and the 
 collections are sent out for three 
 months, four months or six months 
 -ag the issuing office may determine. 
 When the period expires the library 
 is returned and a fresh one with diff- 
 erent volumes is sent to take its 
 place. If a school wishes to use the 
 system, the school committeemen are 
 made the responsible board and the 
 teacher is usually chosen as libra- 
 rian. Ina similar way special study - 
 clubs and library associations in 
 small towus may be organized and 
 
 ‘upon application may receive ‘special 
 or general collections as their needs 
 require. The whole plan is exceed= 
 ‘ingly simple and its value lies in the 
 ‘fact that for a comparatively small 
 appropriation on the part of the 
 State and for a small transportation 
 charge borne by the community the 
 varied services of a free public li- 
 brary may be carried to the hearth- 
 stone of every citizen of a whole 
 
 State. 
 
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