COLUMBIAN KNOWLEDGE SERIES Public Libraries in America FLETCHER NUMBER 2- No. o flooA: Santa Barbara Free Public Library WEI SUN Any re signed the shall be en Books slip. Sevt once, exce In eve Books and holida Failurt ailurt r^rt eafl able wear by the per: Bgjrb housenwa Sugge UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES SCHOOL OF LIBRARY SERVICE Presented by WILLIAM E. HINCHLIFF LIBRARIAN SANTA BARBARA PUBLIC LIBRARY shall have guarantor, n their date be renewed y-eightdays. ling Sundays Exclude bor- ond reason- ic Librarian, of the same COLUMBIAN KNOWLEDGE SERIES II Public Libraries in America THE COLUMBIAN KNOWLEDGE SERIES, EDITED BV Professor DAVID P. TODD ofAmherst College. i6mo volumes. Cloth. Price, $1.00 each. I. Total Eclipses of the Sun, By MABEL LOOMIS TODD. II. Public Libraries in America, By WILLIAM I. FLETCHER. III. Stars and Telescopes: a Handybook of Astronomy, By DAVID P. TODD and WILLIAM T. LYNN. IV. Handbook of Arctic Discoveries, By A. W. GREELY. And other volumes, in preparation. Knowledge the wing -wherewith we fly to heaven SHAKESPEARE COLUMBIAN KNOWLEDGE SERIES Edited by Professor TODD NUMBER II Public Libraries in America BY a a<- WILLIAM it FLETCHER M. A. Librarian of ' Anther st College SECON BOSTON ROBERTS BROTHERS M DCCC XCV Copyright, 1894, BY ROBERTS BROTHERS. (Llmtirrsitii Press; JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. 2 7j F&3 NO one familiar with the inception and pro- gress of the public library in America will deny that it has a most significant future. The general wholesomeness and undoubted permanence of the movement have brought frequent and ample gifts and bequests, making possible a generous development ; still there has been no compact and accessible presentation of the library problem. These facts determined the inclusion of a suitable manual in the Columbian Knowledge Series. One need not visit all the libraries of the country to become painfully convinced that want of adaptation to use is by no means infrequent in these edifices. With regard to buildings, Lord BACON'S judgment seems very safe ; * and if true for houses, then ft fortiori for libraries, where architect and librarian are so often at va- riance concerning that simplest of conditions, 1 Houses are built to Live in, and not to Looke on : Therefore let Use bee preferred before Uniformitie ; Except where both may be had. Leave the Goodly Fabrickes of Houses, for Beautie only, to the Enchanted Pallaces of the Poets: Who build them with small Cost. Essays, xlv. 2 Editor's Preface abundant daylight. It is idle to blame ambitious architects, perhaps, or ill-informed committees ; the fact remains that the intended benefits to certain communities have been permanently les- sened by simple lack of right knowledge at the outset. Frequently there has been a failure to appreciate the evolution of the library idea, from the early beginnings when mere preser- vation of books was most prominent, and a dimly lighted vault above ground would suffice, to the present day, when convenience and con- stant use are paramount. 'First, appoint your librarian' is a maxim worthy the attention of newly formed boards of trustees ; for, although the recognition of libra- rianship as a distinct calling is recent, the rapid growth of library interests has necessitated ex- pert service in a multitude of essential details. But whether one considers buildings merely, or their subsequent outfit, or library admin- istration, it is to be hoped that ' Public Libra- ries in America' may help to render mistakes less frequent and more inexcusable, besides serving the farther purpose of suggesting useful library gifts to many communities now without them. DAVID P. TODD. AMHERST COLLEGE OBSERVATORY, February 1894. A LTHOUGH the author has long had in =*"A- mind to bring together in a library hand- book his occasional papers before meetings of librarians, in the Library Journal, and elsewhere, his intention might have remained unfulfilled indefinitely but for Professor TODD'S plan for such a volume in the Columbian Knowledge Series. The effort to make a book in some sense worthy of this place necessitated the entire rewriting of these chapters, and the addition of several new ones; and the whole has been brought into conformity with the latest progress in library development. While the large volumes of the Library Jour- nal, now reaching nearly a score, afford better indication of the number and importance of library subjects, nevertheless it is believed that the real gist of all these matters has been pre- sented here, and that the numerous references will guide to the best sources of ampler infor- mation and fuller discussion. 4 Prefatory Note In the Appendixes will be found a more de- tailed scheme of classification than the simple one given in the text of the book, a notice of gifts for library purposes with a tabular state- ment of the most important, a brief discussion of the Sunday opening question, specimen library rules, and several statistical tables. Attention is particularly called to the diagram representing the free library statistics of the different States, and to the fuller data regarding the one hun- dred largest public libraries. The statistics of these have been obtained at first hand from the librarians, and hearty thanks are rendered to the many who have given ready and prompt co-operation ; also to Professor TODD for helpful suggestions, and for actual assistance in the preparation of this book, far beyond the de- mands of his position as editor of the series. WILLIAM I. FLETCHER. AMHERST COLLEGE LIBRARY, Christmas 1893. CONTENTS PAGE I. THE PUBLIC-LIBRARY MOVEMENT : ITS HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE .... 9 II. LIBRARY LAWS : HOW LIBRARIES HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED 20 III. THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND THE COM- MUNITY 31 IV. LIBRARY BUILDINGS 40 V. CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUES ... 52 VI. MINOR DETAILS OF LIBRARY MANAGE- MENT 65 VII. SELECTION AND PURCHASE OF BOOKS . 68 VIII. REFEREXCE-WORK. THE PUBLIC LI- BRARY IN RELATION TO THE SCHOOLS, TO UNIVERSITY EXTENSION, ETC. . . 73 IX. THE LIBRARIAN : HIS WORK AND HIS TRAINING FOR IT 80 X. THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION . 85 XI. A FEW REPRESENTATIVE LIBRARIES . , 93 6 Contents PAGE XII. SPECIAL LIBRARIES 104 XIII. PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN CANADA . . . . in XJV. THE FUTURE OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY . 115 I. SCHEME OF CLASSIFICATION 121 II. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS ....... 138 III. SUNDAY OPENING OF LIBRARIES . . 140 IV. GIFTS TO LIBRARIES 143 V. STATISTICS 147 VI. LIBRARY RULES 156 BIOGRAPHIC SKETCHES 159 INDEX ... .... 161 LIST OF PLATES PAGE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY : NEW BUILDING . . Front. LEYDEN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ....... 10 PORTRAIT OF GEORGE TICKNOR 16 CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY: NEW BUILDING . . 23 PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM F. POOLE 31 AMHERST COLLEGE LIBRARY : SIX-STORY STACK 40 CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY : NEW BUILDING PLAN 42 NEWBERRY LIBRARY, CHICAGO 45 FORBES LIBRARY, NORTHAMPTON, MASS. ... 46 FORBES LIBRARY, NORTHAMPTON, MASS. PLAN 48 MERCANTILE LIBRARY, NEW YORK CITY ... 50 CARD-CATALOGUE CASE 60 PORTRAIT OF JUSTIN WINSOR 65 CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY: NEW BUILDING . . 73 PORTRAIT OF AINSWORTH R. SPOFFORD ... 80 RIDGWAY LIBRARY, PHILADELPHIA 96 MINNEAPOLIS PUBLIC LIBRARY 98 HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY : GORE HALL . 106 PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN AMERICA CHAPTER I THE PUBLIC-LIBRARY MOVEMENT: ITS HIS- TORY AND SIGNIFICANCE And this, fellow-citizens, is to be our intellectual and literary COMMON. ROBERT C. WINTHROP, Address at laying corner-stone of the Boston Public Library 's first building, 1855. HTHE public library of to-day, like other social institutions, is the result of a long evolution. In one sense a creation of the nineteenth century, not to say of its latter half, in another and truer sense it is but a normal development from its predecessors. The public library of all the centuries before the 1 8th was an instrument, not for the diffusion of knowl- edge, but for its conservation, as a storehouse of books to preserve them from destruction and to make them available to scholars. This institution has such antiq- uity that its origins defy research. The inscribed bricks found in rows and tiers of shelves, buried under the sands of the Assyrian desert, declare themselves part of an extensive royal or public library. Many of them are confessedly copies or compilations from simi- lar books existing in like collections centuries before. io Public Libraries in America Apparently the history of public libraries in this sense is co-extensive with that of the art of writing; for wherever books in any form were known, collections of them would naturally become a part of the para- phernalia of a court and palace. Also at centres of education libraries naturally grew up, well represented by the famous one at Alexandria, doubtless largely mythical, whose destruction has been supposed to make so wide a gap between the learning of the ancient and the modern world. During the dark ages of Europe the flame of learning was kept alive in the monasteries and the universities, where libraries of some thousands of volumes were slowly and painfully gathered by the patient toil of the copyist, though little used. The service rendered by these libraries in thus preserving and handing down to later and happier eras the gems of classic thought and learning, who can measure? But when did the public library movement begin? Not even the Reformation, with its tremendous asser- tion of the right of man to spiritual freedom, brought about the change so designated. Apparently it waited for that child of the Reformation, whose ominous name is Revolution, to turn the key which should open libraries to the people. For surely the spirit of the Rev- olution, in its sanest manifestation, moved BENJAMIN FRANKLIN and other men of his kind in their thinking and acting on political and social subjects ; and prob- ably with FRANKLIN, more than any other, originated the impetus to this movement. In his philosophic brain was conceived the thought of a public library for the diffusion of knowledge, to the end that men at large might be capable of self-direction, and better fitted for civil and political independence. FRANKLIN LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LEYDEN IN 1600 FROM A CONTEMPORARY ENGRAVING [Points of special interest are the arrangement and classification of the library, and the clear indication given as to the way libraries were formerly chained, the books standing with their front edges outJ\ The Public- Library Movement 11 was not more sagacious to plan than practical and sensible to organize and execute ; and in 1732 was es- tablished the Philadelphia Library Company, ' mother of all the subscription libraries,' in North America, as he himself called it. It is quite common to look upon the later move- ment by which libraries came to be supported by public funds derived from taxation as marking the beginning of the public library. In one sense this view is correct ; but when it is noted how naturally and inevitably the public library of FRANKLIN'S institution has grown into the more recent form, it is easy to per- ceive that in the establishment of these subscription libraries, the public- library movement really began. From the first these institutions were for the benefit, not of the few, but of the many. In most cases the fees were so small that they were supposed not to deter any from joining the associations. While the later experience of towns and cities has shown that any fee, no matter how small, marks the difference between a meagre constituency for a library and its general use by the public, this was not understood by the library associations, which generally accepted the idea that any one who could derive benefit from the library could raise or save the pittance required to purchase its full use. The very general application to such associations of names like 'Young Men's Institute ' implied that their members were not those of comparative leisure and ease of circumstances, but rather those who, unable to own books to any extent, must associate themselves together in order to obtain their use. There is perhaps no better indication of the reality of the public character of these association libraries, 12 Public Libraries in America than the fact that in most States where such libraries became at all numerous, laws were passed exempting them from taxation. The address to the public, printed in The Con- necticut Courant, ist March 1774, in behalf of a proposed society library (out of which has grown the splendid public library, now the boast of Hartford) began as follows : ' The utility of Public Libraries con- sisting of well chosen Books under proper Regulations, and their smiling Aspect on the interests of Society, Virtue, and Religion are too manifest to be denied.' Thus the ' missionary ' aspect of the public-library movement is not simply a feature of the more recent free library system, as is often supposed, but was inher- ent in the public-library idea of which FRANKLIN appears to have been the first exponent. This view is strengthened by the fact that persons not members of the subscription libraries were in many cases ad- mitted to the use of their books within the building. The records of the Philadelphia Library Company state that the librarian was allowed to ' permit any civil gentleman to peruse the books of the library in the library room, but not to lend or suffer to be taken out of the library by any person who is not a subscribing member, any of the said books.' In like manner, though in curiously stilted language, the design of the Redwood Library in Newport, Rhode Island, founded in 1747, was stated to be 'a Library whereunto the curious and impatient Enquirer after Resolution of Doubts, and the bewildered Ignorant, might freely repair for Discovery and Demonstration to the one, and true Knowledge and Satisfaction to the other ; nay, to inform the mind in both, in order to reform the Practice.' The Public-Library Movement 13 That this humanitarian and public-spirited view of the public library as a means of enlightenment and elevation to the community was common to the pro- moters of subscription libraries is evident in all their public utterances concerning the movement. And to an increase in this same sense of the utility and value to the public at large of access to good collections of books, we naturally trace the farther forward move- ment inaugurated precisely at the middle of the nineteenth century, when cities and towns began the establishment and maintenance of libraries at the public expense. Beyond the gradual preparation for this step, to which allusion has been made, there were special causes at work to promote it just at this time. Much attention was paid on the part of the large number already interested in public libraries, both in this country and in England, to the Report of the Parlia- mentary Commission on the British Museum, where Sir ANTHONY PANIZZI had been librarian for a few years, and by his liberal and progressive management had so revolutionized this fossil institution that an investi- gation was called for to see what this upstart Italian was doing. PANIZZI'S testimony before the Commission was a triumphant vindication of his view of the library, that it was for use, and not simply for preservation, and that the good of the nation demanded that the li- brary be made thoroughly accessible, and administered with a view to general utility and the diffusion of its stores of learning. The Report of the Commission was widely distributed and read, and became a chief factor in the new library movement. Other influences operated in the same direction, 14 Public Libraries in America especially in America. The lyceum lecture sys- tem, which took such hold on the people of all our towns in the last two decades of the first half of the century, led directly to the formation, in multi- tudes of places, of library associations on a popular basis, with fees so small as to seem to exclude none. At the same time these lectures had dif- fused widely among the people a thirst for culture, and among the cultivated classes themselves a desire to see the means of culture placed at the command of all alike. Not much was said in those days about socialism, but it was really a long step in the direction of true socialism when the public library was added to the public school as a State function. It was a recognition of the claims of the masses for all that the body politic can do to enlighten and elevate them, a recognition, in fact, of that solidarity in the body politic by virtue of which, if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. This aspect of the case has not failed to attract the attention of those social philosophers who find in this sort of co-operation their bete noir. In that strange book called A Plea for Liberty, published a few months since with an approving preface by HERBERT SPENCER, occurs a violent attack upon the public- library movement as a scheme for robbing one man to pay for books for another man to read. But until the individualistic philosophy gains more acceptance than it has yet found, communities will take the risk of any harm from co-operative efforts through govern- mental forms to provide postal facilities, parks, water supplies, police protection, and certainly the means of education, including public libraries. The Public- Library Movement 15 The first step in the movement for establishing public libraries in this sense seems to have been taken by the Hon. JOSIAH QUTNCY, Jun r , mayor of Boston, in October, 1847. He proposed to the city council, and they passed, a request to the Legislature that Boston be allowed to lay a tax to establish a free library. The Legislature assented the same winter, and this was probably the beginning of such legislation in any part of the world. In 1851, other cities and towns claiming the same permission, the law was made general. The interest in libraries excited throughout England by the parliamentary investigation already referred to was perhaps the immediate cause of sim- ilar legislation in that country ; but the leaders of the movement there confessed that the idea came to them from America. Whatever were the forces preparing for this move- ment, they wrought effectively, and the people were ready for the new idea. In thirty years after this first legislation in Massachusetts nearly every Northern State had taken similar action, those which were so- cially descended from New England being in the lead, more especially in the extent to which the legislation has been followed by the actual establish- ment of public libraries. In Massachusetts over two hundred towns have public libraries, and they contain an aggregate of two million volumes, nearly as many as are in the public libraries of all the other States. And several of the new States of the West have nearly kept step with Massachusetts, public libraries being numerous in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois, and fast springing up in Minnesota, Kansas, and Colorado. In the twenty States which have passed library laws nearly 1 6 Public Libraries in America seven hundred libraries have been established, con- taining at present not far from four million volumes. By a singular contrast, Connecticut has only sixteen public libraries, 1 and of these only two are supported by taxation, while the State of New York is even more backward, having until very recently no library law, and of course no public libraries in the modern sense of the term. But under the present policy of the Regents of the University of New York, and with liberal legislation back of them, public libraries are made a part of the State educational system, and their establishment is so fostered and encouraged that most of the towns in the State are likely to provide themselves with libra- ries before many more years have passed. The genius and significance of this modern move- ment are well illustrated in the establishment of the Boston Public Library, the wonderful growth and suc- cess of which constituted it, from the first, an object- lesson which many communities were happy to study. The character of Boston's library was strongly deter- mined by the rare mental and moral qualities of the late M r GEORGE TICKNOR. The new movement had many friends and promoters; but M r TICKNOR con- ceived, and through the force of his enthusiastic support carried out, most of what was new and dis- 1 It should be noted here that within the present year the city of Hartford has commenced making appropriations to cover the current expenses of the Hartford Library, now for the first time free to all the citizens. But this action has been taken only after libraries numbering nearly 100,000 volumes had been accumulated by private and associated effort, and a ftmd of $400,000 raised by subscription for the future mainte- nance and increase of the collections. Tlie Public-Library Movement 17 tinctive in its plan, and especially that which made it typical of the new school of libraries and rendered its influence so effective. In a letter to EDWARD EVERETT, in 1851, he gave his ideal of the new institution as follows : ' I would establish a library which differs from all free libraries yet attempted ; I mean one in which any popular books, tending to moral and intellectual improvement, shall be furnished in such numbers of copies that many persons can be reading the same book at the same time ; in short, that not only the best books of all sorts, but the pleasant lit- erature of the day, shall be made accessible to the whole people when they most care for it ; that is, when it is fresh and new. I would . . . thus, by fol- lowing the popular taste unless it should demand something injurious create a real appetite for healthy reading. This appetite, once formed, will take care of itself. It will, in a great majority of cases, demand better and better books.' M r EVERETT, and other equally intelligent and public-spirited men, doubted the wisdom of a library founded on such a principle ; but essentially it is that on which the free-library system of our times is based. And this system, so far as its distinctive fea- tures are concerned, was bom in the triumph of M r TicKNOR's views over the sceptical and conservative opinions of his associates. One finds here the library ' of the people, by the people, and for the people,' ^- an institution which any community, once tasting its advantages, is ready to support by taxation, paying the necessary expenses of its support, increase, and housing, as cheerfully as it does those of the public schools. At the same time, the growth of our public libraries 2 1 8 Public Libraries in America has been greatly fostered by private beneficence. No other public object seems to attract the gifts and bequests of the wealthy as does this. The Boston library received munificent gifts from TICKNOR, BATES, DOWSE, and others, to aid in the erection of its now outgrown building, and in the purchase of books. And the amount available from taxation, has in nearly all our towns and cities been augmented by similar gifts, which have often been sufficient to cover the entire cost of the undertaking, making the library a free gift to the people. Most commonly s however, these gifts of individuals have been appro- priated to the erection of buildings, leaving the books to be provided and cared for at public expense. There has been ready perception of the truth that one's memory cannot better be perpetuated than by associ- ation with an institution so popular and at the same time so elevating and refining as the public library. Memorial libraries are therefore very abundant, and as expense often has not been spared in the erection of such memorials, many of our towns, even the smaller ones, are ornamented by library buildings which are gems of architecture. Doubtless the principle of mak- ing the exterior of a library expressive of aesthetic ideas has in some cases been overdone, so that the convenience of the library for use and study has been sacrificed to purely artistic effect. But the fact remains, with all its significance, that about the public library cluster naturally the affections and the interest of the community. In its endowment, on the one hand by private beneficence, and on the other by public taxation, is illustrated that collabo- ration of the rich and the poor in the pursuit of the highest ends which has in it the promise, and The Public-Library Movement 19 perhaps the potency, of the solution of vexing social questions. EDWARDS: Memoirs of Libraries (London, 1859), 2 vols. EDWARDS: Free Town Libraries (London, 1869). POOLE : Presidential Address before American Library Association, 1887, in Library Journal, xii. 311. U. S. BUREAU OF EDUCATION ; Special Report OH Libraries, 1876. Also various encyclopaedias, article Libraries. CHAPTER II LIBRARY LAWS: HOW LIBRARIES HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED All free governments . . . are in reality governments by public opinion. ... It is, therefore, their first duty to purify the element from which they draw the breath of life. LOWELL: Democracy. A S every institution of organized society is depend- ** ent for its existence and development on legis- lation, defining its functions and affording protection in their exercise, so the progress of the public- library movement is paralleled by a series of legislative acts exhibiting an evolutionary progress. Five distinct stages in this legislation may be noted, four of which have already been attained in some States, while the fifth and culminating one is yet in the future, but more or less plainly foreshadowed. The first stage appears in the acts of incorporation of society libraries, beginning with that of the Phila- delphia Library Company, referred to in the previous chapter, which was incorporated in 1742, ten years after its first organization. As has been remarked, these libraries were from the first recognized as public benefits, and their estab- lishment was encouraged by exemption from taxation. Laws to this effect now exist in at least twenty-three States of the Union. This legislation clearly distin- Library Laws 21 guishes between clubs and similar organizations for the mutual benefit of their members, and library asso- ciations, the library, even in the hands of a society, being regarded as a public good. The next form of legislation connected with library progress is found in the laws passed in twenty-one States, beginning with New York, in 1835, for the establish- ment of district school libraries. For a time great hopes were entertained that these libraries were to solve the problem of supplying the people at large with wholesome and profitable reading. Theoretically the scheme was most promising, and in some of the States, notably in Michigan after New York, it had a large measure of success. But although New York expended over $50,000 annually in this direction for fifty-five years, the system has there, as elsewhere, proved on the whole a failure. But it had its place as an effective educator of public sentiment in the right direction, and perhaps by its very failure to meet the growing demand for free libraries in a satisfactory way, led to increased efforts to devise an effective scheme for that purpose. The school district proving too small a unit for effi- cient library work, the next experiment took the town as the unit, and township libraries began to be organized. This led to what may be regarded as the third stage in the progress of library legislation ; namely, the pas- sage of laws enabling towns to establish and maintain libraries by taxation. In 1849 the first law of this character known to history was passed in New Hamp- shire. Massachusetts followed in 1851, Maine in 1854, Vermont in 1865, Ohio m 1867, and then after 1870 the movement became quite general, and many States adopted it, particularly those in the interior and the West. 22 Public Libraries in America In giving New Hampshire the credit of passing the first legislative act of this kind, the fact should not be lost sight of that Massachusetts had, in 1848, one year earlier, passed a similar act, referring simply to Boston, at the request of her mayor and lead- ing citizens. Very likely the New Hampshire law was suggested by this act, the new feature being the extension of its provisions to all the towns in the State. It may be noted in passing that the birth of the public-library system in England was quite strictly contemporaneous with that in this country. A per- missive act was passed by Parliament in 1850, follow- ing an inquiry made by a select committee into the best means of establishing free libraries. The Eng- lish law, like those of most of our States, limited the amount of tax levy for this purpose. Just why the taxpayers of any town may not be left to decide to what extent they will assess themselves for this purpose is hard to understand. But this restrictive provision remains in most of the laws, 1 although Massachusetts and some other States have dropped it, while the New Hampshire law was always free from it. The library interests of some States have been crippled, not to say strangled at birth, by the pettiness of the provision which could legally be made for their sup- port. In Maine, for example, there are no public libraries to speak of, the law allowing only one dollar i Following is the limit fixed by law in a few representa- tive States : New Jersey, one third mill on the dollar; Indiana, three-fourths mill ; Connecticut, two mills ; Illinois, towns two mills, cities of less than 10,000 population one mill, larger cities one-fifth mill. If such restriction is thought desirable, the sliding scale of the Illinois law seems a sensible arrange- ment. Library Laws 23 for each taxable poll to be assessed for the establish- ment of a library, and only twenty-five cents annually thereafter for its maintenance. Maine and New Hampshire, lying side by side, present the same con- trast in respect to libraries that is exhibited by Massa- chusetts and Connecticut, the latter State having no effective library law until 1881, and its towns, even to the present time, showing little disposition to accept its provisions ; while in Massachusetts more than half the towns had organized libraries under the liberal State law before 1880, a proportion now swelled to six-sevenths. The laws passed in Western States are mostly pat- terned after that of Illinois, adopted in 1872, not only permitting towns and cities to establish and maintain libraries by taxation, but making careful provision for their proper management. It provides for a board of nine directors, a body independent of the mayor and council, as well as of the board of education, and gives them full control of all library affairs, thereby avoiding the difficulties that often arise when the appointment of officials and the fixing of salaries are mixed up with local party politics. Such provision for the management of a library is superior to a State law which confides its care to a committee of three annually appointed by the mayor, as well as to one which leaves the method of govern- ment and control to be determined by the separate cities and towns. Experience has shown that care is necessary to avoid the opposite dangers, on the one hand of a library administration left at the mercy of shifting politics, and on the other of one run as a close corporation tending naturally to become a one- man power. The wisdom of the Illinois law in this 24 Public Libraries in America regard is probably the reason why it has been so widely copied in other States. The policy, prevailing in some cities, of deriving the support of libraries from fines collected in the courts and from licenses of various kinds, is hardly a wise one. To have the prosperity of the library in direct ratio with the wickedness of the people tends to degrade it in the eyes of the public, nor can an income thus derived be sufficiently regular and reliable for satisfactory work. A direct tax levy is more dig- nified, and puts the library where it belongs, on a par with other educational institutions of the State. Legislation of this permissive type, conferring on towns and cities the right to tax themselves for the support of libraries, and regulating library manage- ment, is undoubtedly the best yet attainable in most States, nor can anything farther well be attempted until some years' experience of the benefits of libraries has prepared a community to take higher ground. This higher ground appears in the fourth of the successive stages in library legislation, namely, in the laws lately passed in a few States, looking to active encouragement and assistance from the State to the towns in the establishment of libraries. The first law of this kind was passed by the Legislature of Massa- chusetts in 1890, creating a commission of five persons, appointed by the governor, to foster the establishment and growth 'of public libraries throughout the State. The commission is to furnish to librarians and trustees of libraries such advice and general assistance as may be required, and is empowered to make a gift of books to the extent of $100 to any town accepting the provisions of the law. Thus the town elects a suitable board of trustees, and appropriates a sum ranging from Library Laws 25 $15 upwards, according to the valuation, and must otherwise conform to the requirements of the State library law. The first annual report of the commission contained a history of all the city and town libraries in the State, giving also illustrations of the library buildings. Towns having no libraries were cited in their alpha- betical places alongside the others, with the simple statement, ' This town has no public library.' Great interest was excited throughout the State, and this unenviable prominence led many to eager acceptance of the liberal provisions of the new law. During 1891, libraries were established in 36 additional towns; and at the end of 1892, only 53 of the 352 towns in the State had no free library. In some of these there are associations, and the prospect seems good that nearly every town will soon enjoy the benefits of a free library. The expense of this organization to the State is but trifling, as the commissioners serve without pay, and have an allowance of only $500 annually for expenses. The towns accepting the provisions of the law in 1891 required, at $100 each, an outlay of $3,600 on the part of the State, in grants of books, the whole expense for the year 1891 being less than $5,000. A similar law was enacted by New Hampshire in 1891, with like success. And New York, having in 1889 provided for State aid to libraries already open to the public with a large annual circulation of books, passed in 1891 a very comprehensive statute, placing the free library system of the State under the direction of the Regents of the University, and providing for assistance to towns in various ways. 'Travelling libraries' of a small number of selected 26 Public Libraries in America books, either general in character or relating to special branches of knowledge, are loaned by the State Li- brary to towns wishing them. The State Library is made library headquarters for the State, and the towns are encouraged to substitute the new town system for the old district school library system, and to receive the aid of the State. Having for the first year an appro- priation of $25,000 for the furtherance of library interests, the Regents of the University have been able to make rapid progress, and have organized by far the most elaborate and thorough-going State system of libraries in existence. Much, however, remains to be done in New York, as until now the State has been very backward in respect to town and city libraries, largely .owing, no doubt, to the existence of the dis- trict school libraries., which stood in the way of town organizations for similar purposes. Thus a .few Eastern States have inaugurated a move- ment which seems likely to spread throughout the entire country. As the benefits of public libraries become more widely known and appreciated, the demand for State aid is keenly felt and effectively urged by the feebler and poorer towns. But immediately in the wake of this movement for State encouragement to public libraries, there seems to be coming the final step in the evolution of library laws already indicated as the ' fifth stage,' not yet reached although plainly foreshadowed. Reviewing in a paper read before the American Library Association at San Francisco, in 1891, the pro- gress of library legislation up to that time, the present writer was led to say, ' Nor can it well be doubted that this evolution of library legislation will ultimately bring forth the ideal Library Laws 27 "library law, that is to say, the one that shall make it obligatory on towns to have and to properly maintain libraries, just as it is now required that schools be provided.' These words were written without a thought that only about a year would elapse before definite steps would be taken in one State to secure compelling legislation of this character. But so it proved ; in this regard New Hampshire is again a leader, a bill having been before her Legislature during the winter of 1892-93, carefully drawn by a member of the State library commission and looking precisely to this end. It requires that ' each town shall assess annually . . . a sum to be computed at the rate of thirty dollars for every dollar of the public [State] taxes apportioned to such town . . . to be appropriated to the sole pur- pose of establishing and maintaining a free public library within such town.' It farther provides that when in any town the amount thus required to be raised is less than $100, 'books to the value denoted by the difference between the amount required to be raised and $100 shall be furnished by the State.' The principal argument brought forward by the promoter of this law 2 is that it is not enough for the State to secure the inauguration of libraries in the dif- ferent towns, but that suitable action is also necessary which shall insure to the libraries, when once started, such regular support from year to year as is provided for the schools by the educational statutes. At present, opposition to such laws is certain, the outcry against paternalism leading many to wish to decrease rather than to extend the share of the State in the direction of town affairs. z Sfnte Aid to Libraries ... By JosiAH H. WHITTIER 'Rochester, New Hampshire, 1893). 28 Public Libraries in America But so great are the advantages of libraries, and so marked the economy of extension of State aid in various matters, that this general supervision and assistance seems assured, bringing with it a measure of insistence upon the individual community. But whatever legislation may anywhere be proposed, it appears certain that no State will adopt and carry out generous legal provision for its public libraries until their benefits have in a measure been experienced. So that in most of our States, if not all, libraries have preceded library legislation, the latter coming in sub- sequently to foster a movement already well begun. Few libraries owe their existence to municipal adop- tion of the State library law, and the appropriation of money under that law. Most of them have grown up from very small beginnings ; an association is started with a small admission fee, the proceeds of which buy a few books to serve as a nucleus, and still smaller annual fees to cover additions and running expenses. In the beginning of its life a library will, perhaps, be very humble and unpretentious : some one inter- ested in the project gives the use of a room ; another, with little or no compensation, acts as librarian for the six or eight hours weekly when the library is open. Books will be given. A book fair to which the ticket of admission is a book for the library, or some similar and occasional effort, maintains the supply of books, and the library grows. In a few years it has become a power in the community, demanding better quar- ters and better service ; and it has so gained the inter- est of the people that its demands are heard. Then is a favorable time to bring it before the town for adoption. The association, having collected an at- tractive lot of good books, offers to present them to Library Laws 29 the town, provided it will assume control and future expenses. Seldom has such a proposition been re- jected by an intelligent community. The library has already quietly won its way to the hearts of the people, more especially of the common people, who will be found ready to undertake its support on condition of its becoming public property. As the library grows and becomes increasingly useful, it will be more highly appreciated, and generous appropriations will be readily forthcoming. It attracts attention as a large factor in the well-being of the town, and draws to it- self memorial gifts from the wealthy, in the form of buildings and endowments, until often the burden of support is in great part lifted from the community. Such has been the history of numerous American libraries. The way, then, to start a library is to start it, not to make great plans and invoke State aid at the outset ; but in a simple way to make a beginning from which the library may grow. Yale College, it is told, was founded by a meeting at Lyme of a few Connecticut ministers, each of whom brought books for the library from his own meagre store. When these few old volumes were laid together, the library of Yale Col- lege began to exist, and only by slow and gradual accre- tions has it become one of the largest and best in New England. Not all our public libraries have thus grown by long process from small beginnings. Occasionally one has been founded by a large bequest, launching it at once on the high wave of prosperity ; but the rule has been the other way, and no community can afford to wait for such a windfall. It may well be doubted whether a town will derive as much benefit from a library coming in the shape of a gift, as from one which has grown out of the efforts of the people them- 3O Public Libraries in America selves. Certainly no community need be without a public library, the process of forming one being so simple and easy. NELSON: Library Legislation, [APPLETON'S] Annual Cyclopaedia (New York, 1887). POOLE : Library Journal, ii. (1877), 7- HOMES : Library Journal, iv. (1879), 262. UTLEY : Library Journal, xiv. (1889), 190. SOLBERG : Library Journal, xv. (1890), supplement, 50. FLETCHER : Library Journal, xvi. (1891), supplement. 31. WILLIAM FREDERICK POOLE LATE LIBRARIAN NEWBKKRY LIBRARY, CHICAGO CHAPTER III THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND THE COMMUNITY Books should to one of these four ends conduce, For wisdom, piety, delight, or use. DENHAM. A PERTINENT question regarding the public li- ** brary as an institution is, What good does it do? Just what benefits does it confer? A brief enumeration of those most easily recognized may be given here. First, and on the lowest plane of usefulness, it supplies the public with recreative reading. Excep- tion to this is sometimes taken as an end too low to merit public support. But those who thus ob- ject fail to observe that in the expenditure of pub- lic money on parks, with their accompaniment of pleasure-grounds of various kinds and free concerts, a precedent has long existed. For if it is right that the public funds provide for physical recreation and aes- thetic enjoyment, clearly it cannot be wrong that intellectual recreation shall also be furnished. Gener- ally our libraries have circulated works of fiction far in excess of all other classes of books, the great majority of readers seeming to care for nothing else. This simply shows how great is the demand for read- ing as recreation. To the masses of the people, hard- worked and living hum-drum lives, as well as to those lapped in luxury and pining for something to kiU time, 32 Public Libraries in America the novel comes as an open door into an ideal life, in the enjoyment of which, even in fancy, one may forget the hardships or the tedium of real life. This craving for that romance in literature which is missed from life will be met in some way ; it is the province of the public library to meet it with a supply which is wholesome and ennobling, in order that it may not turn to other sources furnishing only that which de- grades or is lacking in good influence. Indeed, one of the highest aims for a public library may be to divert the recreative reading of the community into better channels, to replace trash with light literature of increasingly higher order, and so gradually elevate the ideals and sentiments of the people. No public library fails to furnish, as light reading, books supe- rior to the average of the fiction purchased at the stands and circulated in thousands. But in view of the possibilities of good in this connection, it becomes the directors of a public library to use discretion in the supply of fiction, which may be exercised both in the selection of books and in the manner of their distribution. Various views of the powers and duties of direc- tors have been held ; it is sometimes claimed that the demands of the public must be met, and that the directors have no right or duty of censorship. But such a view has little to commend or support it. On the contrary, it is generally felt that library direc- tors are permitted, and by proper interpretation of their trust required, to accept and exercise full respon- sibility for the moral character and influence of the library. Not what different classes in the community call for, but what will tend to elevate and refine should be their criterion in the selection of books for recre- The Public Library and the Community 33 ative reading. This view of library direction is con- sistent with the one commonly taken of our school system : it is not the business of the school board to provide, in studies and in methods of instruction, for the varying desires and demands of different classes in the community, but to use judgment in making such arrangements as will best promote the interests of general and thorough education. For some reason, the responsibilities of library directors have not always been estimated by like standards. Too often has the public library been regarded somewhat as a public club, a purely democratic association of the people for mutual mental improvement or recreation. But the idea is coming more and more into vogue that the public library is a great educational and moral power, to be wielded with a full sense of its great possibilities and the corresponding danger of their perversion. Reference has been made above to the manner of distribution of library books as pertaining to the bene- ficial effect of light reading. Half the battle for readers is in a wise selection, even of novels. No library ought to issue works of fiction except under the constant oversight of an attendant qualified to give wholesome advice to readers, thus furnishing that guidance which all need, and very many request. Here and there this work is done efficiently. Some lady librarians espe- cially, through a wise helpfulness in directing read- ers, are wielding an influence for good second to that of no preacher or teacher. Such guidance for readers is now furnished in many public-library catalogues. The recently published fiction-lis cisco public library is produced of a work cak taste and judgment of 34 Public Libraries in America ranged as to draw attention to books of history and travel, of biography and of science, which are natur- ally suggested by different novels, with a view to en- courage the frequent use of these more substantial works. The influence of light reading of a high order of literary merit in elevating and refining the com- munity is doubtless potent, all the more so because it is subtle and imperceptible. Frequently the reading of fiction is excused as being at least harmless, and library reports often treat the matter in about this fashion ; but good fiction, such as constitutes nearly all that circulated by the public libraries, has a posi- tive value, and is far from requiring apology. 1 Passing now to more obvious benefits, one of the most noteworthy is the supplying of books needed to give those workers in every department who care to read and study the means of perfecting themselves in their work. A good public library will be made full along those lines in which the local industries are specialized, and will at the same time provide the lead- 1 An admirable treatment of the question of fiction in public libraries appears in a paper by D r W. F. POOLE, read at the Conference of Librarians at Philadelphia, in 1876, and printed in the Library Journal, vol. i. pp. 45-51, from which the fol- lowing extract is taken : ' History professes to relate actual events, biography to de- scribe actual lives, and science to unfold and explain natural laws and physical phenomena. Fiction treats these and other subjects, mental, moral, sentimental, and divine, from an ideal or artistic standpoint ; and the great mass of readers prefer to take their knowledge in this form. More is known to-day of the history and traditions of Scotland, and of the social cus- toms of London from the novels of Sir WALTER SCOTT and CHARLES DICKENS than from all the histories of those localities. Fiction is the art element in literature; and the most enduring monuments of genius in the literature of any people are works of the imagination.' The Public Library and the Community 35 ing books on kindred arts. Thereby the especial industries already established will be furthered, and the introduction of others promoted. The artisan can no longer afford to despise book-learning. Everywhere it is recognized that, other things being equal, the man whose practical knowledge of his work is supple- mented by theoretical acquaintance through its best literature, will easily outstrip the mere perfunctory worker ; 2 and that the community whose artisans are thus equipped will flourish at the expense of rival towns where the standard of acquirement is lower. It may seem like debasing the library to cite the enhancing of facilities for money-making as one of its objects ; but viewed in the true light, it is far otherwise : addi- 2 A striking illustration came to my notice recently. A thorough mechanic, temporarily employed in a great engine- works, who has all his life associated the practice of the shop with the best available literature of his art, was directed by the superintendent to lay out and finish the valves of a low pres- sure engine of 1200 horse-power. These valves were more than six feet long, and had been squared off on the ends by putting them on a planer, after which they were to be laid out for turning. Here the customary practice of the shop dictated one method of procedure, while the mechanic's knowledge of the construction and working of the valves indicated another. Furthermore, if the old rule were to be followed, he saw clearly that these especial castings would be spoiled, the valves use- less, and the firm occasioned an unnecessary loss of several hundred dollars. On explaining it to the superintendent, he at first insisted that the old way was right ; but, finally, having to admit that his nominal subordinate was really his master, he directed him to lay out the valves properly, ' if he knew how.' It was a nice piece of work ; but when completed they were found to perform perfectly, and the constant hours of study, morning and evening, were more than repaid by a demon- stration of that superiority which always distinguishes from the bungler the worker who possesses complete mastery of his art. D. P. T. 36 Public Libraries in America tional money earned by superior quality of workman- ship is pretty sure to be used in such a way as to bring blessings and to enrich the individual life. When thus used, the power to earn more money becomes a means of culture and development, and money-getting is no longer an unworthy object. Many cities may easily be named where this effect of the public library in raising the quality of work and elevating the lives of working- people is strongly marked, although the first generation to feel this effect has not yet passed away, in England, Birmingham, and Manchester, and, in this country, Worcester, Waterbury, Cleveland, and many others, peculiarly manufacturing towns, and among the larger cities, Boston, Cincinnati, St Louis, Balti- more, and Chicago. Another marked influence of the public library re- sides in the sphere of social and political education, the training of citizens. In these days of earnest dis- cussion of economic and social questions, our libraries are well furnished with books and periodicals voicing the views of the best thinkers ; and the people who have access to such a library are eager readers of them. But probably it is through the less direct teaching of books of history, biography, and travel that the most good in this direction is likely to be done. ' History,' it has been well said, ' is past politics, and politics, present history.' The reading of historical works forms the best possible preparation for sharing in public affairs, and meeting questions of public policy, as every voter ought. And works of biography, exhibit- ing, as most of them do, high personal ideals applied to public affairs, are of the greatest utility in raising the standard of life by their quiet and perhaps uncon- scious influence, thereby preparing men to bear them- The Public Library and the Community 37 selves fittingly toward their fellows. So also books of travel familiarize their readers with the conditions of life in other countries, and induce more intelligent judgments in all matters of social and civil order and progress. Who will doubt that men who have enjoyed the advantage of a wide outlook on history and on the world of to-day are better citizens than those who for lack of reading and general information are narrow and insular in their views ? But neither the supply of recreative reading nor the better equipment of men for their work or for social and civic duties represents the highest and best influence of the library. That may be summed up in the single word culture, although abuse has perverted the term into something like cant. No word so well describes the influence of the diffusion of good reading among the people in giving tone and character to their intellectual life. And that not only the intellectual but the moral and spiritual life of a community is ameliorated by good books, none will deny. The free reading-rooms connected with most of our public libra- ries are powerful agents for counteracting the attractions of saloons and low resorts of all types. Especially use- ful are they to those boys and young men who have perhaps a dormant fondness for reading and culture, but lack home and school opportunities. Multitudes of such youth have been saved from wasted and ruined lives by being drawn into a free use and enjoyment of the public library. It is a significant fact that everywhere the clergy are found foremost in advancing the library move- ment. With abundant opportunities for knowing both theoretically and practically the advantages of such institutions, they are always outspoken in 38 Public Libraries in America their behalf, and in a multitude of places serve on boards of management. While books, even good books, are not always entitled to be called means of grace, whoever will look candidly at the matter will clearly see that only narrow and dwarfed ideas on spiritual subjects and a distorted form of religious life can consist with poverty of resources in mind and in- tellect. None are more impressed with the need of culture to lay a basis for large, tolerant, and truly Christian views and practices than those who endea- vor to show the meagre and stunted intellects of the masses the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Not that their salvation is to begin with culture, but in order that religion maybe all that it should, the enlargement and development .of the higher human faculties obvi- .ously should precede. If this should seem a digression, it is to be plainly PQ < Q w $ u H g M O 2 Library Bui/dings 45 one section of the building; by having bookcases occupying only one half the height of each room (y feet in 15), the upper part of the walls being filled with windows which insure a flood of diffused light in every part of the interior; by providing in each department ample space for reading and study, with good light and all facilities. It does not claim quite so compact ' storage ' of books as the stack, but a more convenient and practical arrangement of them, and a style of building adapted to the ready use of the elevator in passing from one story to another. That this method of building is not extravagant of space is evidenced by the fact that the Newberry library building now erecting is expected to accom- modate over a million of volumes, while it covers only one side of the block of land devoted to its ultimate use. The merits of this department system are yet to be tested, but it can hardly be doubted that they will be great, especially in the case of large reference libraries. 2 As applied to smaller libraries the Poole plan calls for a book-room with as ample floor area as can be secured, all books to be shelved within 7^ feet of the floor. Such a room 60 X 100 feet will thus accom- 2 The new building for the Library of Congress, now near- ing completion, presents a combination of the stack and Poole systems. Two very large stacks, each with a capacity of 800,000 volumes, occupy the central portion of the two quad- rangles, north and south of the great rotunda containing the reading-room. These stacks are to contain the general library, from which books to be used must be sent for from the reading- room. Running all round the outside of the two quadrangles is the main portion of the building, divided into a great number of rooms, for special collections, etc. The entire capacity of the building is supposed to be over five million volumes, less than one third being in the central stacks. (See p. 73.) 46 Public Libraries in America moclate about 100,000 volumes, and leave space for a large number of tables for the use of readers admitted to the shelves. When the library grows beyond this size it should have additional stories, and be divided on the department plan. A building may be erected with two stories, of about equal height, and basement, the latter being mainly above ground with sub-cellar. When the main floor (first story) begins to be well filed, portions of the library least used, long sets of documents, files of newspapers, etc., can be shelved in the basement, provision being made there for their convenient use ; and certain other classes of books may gradually fee segregated and transferred to the upper floor, which will in time become a separate department, the rnaia floor continuing to provide tor the most used classes. A building of stone or brick to accommodate 250,000 volumes on this plan, with the .addition of a large wing for the reading-room, offices, .etc., can ;be ; built in the most thorough manner for $100,000, and : be made as nearly fire-proof as need be. 8 8 The Forbes Library of Northampton, of which an eleva- tion and plan are given with this chapter, is offered as a good example of such a building. Its capacity will be not far from 250,000 volumes in cases seven feet high, or 400,000 if it should ever be deemed best to raise the cases on the two main floors to fourteen feet, putting in a midway open flooring. The building is of stone thoroughly fire-proof, and will cost not over $100,000, furnished and provided with cases for 100,000 volumes. The Mercantile Library of New York, of which a view is given at p. 50, represents a new style of city library building which depends for its origin and its utility on the modern rapid-running elevator. It is essentially just such a building as the Forbes Library, placed on top of a busi- ness block four or five stories in height, by which means the ground is made to pay a large rental, and the lower stories * support ' the library in a double sense, and at the same time lift it above surrounding edifices into good light and pure air. K PQ i i J w W m a: Library Buildings 47 The ratio of cost of building to number of volumes accommodated is not applicable with entire fairness to all libraries, but it serves for purposes of general comparison. It will be found to vary from 25 cents to $3 or $4, according as buildings are or are not wisely planned to secure book capacity, and are more or less decorative in style. Any cost beyond one dollar for every two books accommodated, with all needed space for reading and for library administra- tion, may fairly be considered as extravagant, except as extra expense is devoted to making the structure serve a monumental purpose or to its decoration. While on the subject of library buildings, a few remarks may well be made on the general arrange- ment of such edifices in all their parts. Several things are essential to any good library building, large or small, and the difference between large and small should be mainly one of scale. The entrance should open conveniently into a gen- eral lobby or ' delivery-room ' with a counter for the drawing of books, the entrance to the reading-room being at one side, and access to the book-room through a gateway in the counter. The librarian's room, with ample space for the necessary work of cataloguing, etc. (insufficient in most libraries) , should be so placed as to communicate readily with both the delivery-room and the book-room. The receiving and unpacking of boxes of books should be done in the basement, a small hoist being provided to take them to the librarian's room. The reading-room should be separated from the delivery-room by a glass partition, giving the desk-attendant supervision of all its parts. It should be. lighted, if possible, mainly from the north and east, south light being taken only 48 Public Libraries in America as a last resort ; but there should be an abundance of daylight, with the least possible amount of direct sunshine. The reading-room should contain the peri- odicals and newspapers, and a careful selection of the best reference books, comprising encyclopaedias, dic- tionaries of languages, of biography, of the sciences, etc., atlases, and other works. Readers should be encouraged to draw other books from the general library for use in the reading-room ; but, as already intimated, those who wish to make serious use of the books in some special department of the library should be admitted to that department and provided with all needed facilities. In planning a building, attention should be paid to the securing of such an arrangement of delivery- room, reading-room, entrance to book-room, and librarian's room, as will conduce to economy of ad- ministration by increasing the extent of oversight which one attendant may exercise. The salary of an extra attendant represents the interest on a sum which would go far to make the arrangement of the parts of the building what it should be. Taking into account the practical uses of the modern library, it is readily seen that it needs a building planned from inside and not from without, dictated by convenience and not by taste, no matter how good. The order should be to require the architect to put a presentable exterior on an interior having only use in view, and not, as is so often done, to require the librarian to make the best he can of an interior imposed by the exigencies of the architect's taste or the demand of a building com- mittee for a monumental structure. Cognate to the subject of the library building is that of the construction of bookcases or stacks. Just Library Buildings 49 at present a number of patented devices in the way of bookcases, wholly or partly of metal, are in the field, and indications appear to point to a general adoption of some such case. But whatever style of bookcase is adopted, it should conform to one simple require- ment, affecting the capacity of the room and conveni- ence of classification of the books. It should cover no more floor than is necessary, or, in other words, should not be deeper for the sake of a minority of the books than it need be for the majority. It is probably not going too far to say that not one tenth of the libraries in the country are shelved according to this principle. In most of them, one of two things is done, either all the shelves are made one foot or more in depth, or all lower shelves are so made, the case being narrower above, giving a ledge on which volumes may be rested. In either case the floor space occupied by a bookcase is the same, being that required for a case in which all the books are one foot in depth. When it is found that in an average public library not over one volume in twenty exceeds i\ inches in depth, the wastefulness of this arrangement is apparent ; and when the shelves are several inches deeper than the books, volumes are constantly being pushed back, and, for the time being, lost behind the other books. The most satisfactory bookcases are those made about 15 inches through (for a double case), each shelf being y| inches deep, and without any backing or partition dividing the two sides. Then such books as exceed y| inches in depth can be brought together on lower shelves, allowing just as many as may be ne- cessary in each case or stack to run through the case, sacrificing the shelf-room on the other side. It will 4 50 Public Libraries in America be found that about one shelf in 20 or 25 will thus be lost, while a very much greater gain is made by the case occupying 15 inches of the floor, instead of 24. The passages between the cases remaining the same, the increase of the number of volumes accommodated will be about 25 per cent. All shelves should be made movable and easily adjustable. Many devices are now in the market for this purpose, several of which are good. For ordi- nary wooden cases nothing is better, as combining effectiveness with simplicity and cheapness, than to allow the shelves to rest at each end on two com- mon picture eyes screwed into the uprights and countersunk in the shelves. Bookcases must be made of thoroughly seasoned lumber, and should be built rather solidly in order that they may stand true and hold their own. When placed in rows they should be braced in both directions by rods or strips of wood passing across the tops of the cases and secured to each. Shelves should be not more than three feet in length between uprights, or better 30 inches, and an inch thick or not less than J of an inch when dressed. The narrow aisles between cases should be from 30 to 32 inches wide; the wider ones between rows of cases, not less than four feet. The artificial lighting of a book-room arranged after this plan can only be done satisfactorily by providing gas-burners or electric lights overhead in each passage between cases. For this as for all library uses, elec- tricity is greatly preferable. Many libraries are fitted with electric lamps for each passage, which hang by a long flexible tube. When not in use they are hung on a hook and turned off. A person entering the MERCANTILE LIBRARY, NEW YORK CITY [ The library occupies the two upper floors only, ivhich give a capacity of 475,000 volumes ) with ample reading-rooms, offices, etc.\ Library Buildings 51 passage can take down the lamp, turn it on, and hold it anywhere in front of the shelves. On leaving the passage he puts out the lamp, and returns it to the hook, by which means only a small proportion of the lamps are burning at any one time. For lighting a reading-room, nothing compares with the incandescent electric lamp properly applied. The lights should be in the form of standing lamps on the table, the wires coming up from, or through, the floor under each table. The amount of heat from oil Limps or gas is very great, and its effect on the heads of readers at the tables is extremely unfavorable. The fact that very little heat is radiated from the electric lamp constitutes perhaps its chief advantage for this use. The subject of library buildings has been discussed at nearly all the conferences of American librarians, of which full reports are to be found in the Library Journal, passim. Special mention may be made of a paper on the advantages of the stack system, in vol. iv. pp. 294- 296, by M r HENRY VAN BRUNT, and a recent summing up of progress toward agreement on disputed points, by M r C. C. SOULE, in vols. xvi. (conference supp. p. 17) and xvii. (conference supp. p. 72). See also the paper by D r POOLE referred to on p. 44, and a very useful paper by him on Small library buildings, in Library Journal, x. (1885), 250. NOTE. It is only just to the new building of the Boston Public Library to say that its stack, having solid fire-proof floors at every level, is free from the objections stated on page 44. CHAPTER V CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUES Order is Heaven's first law. POPE. Have you a catalogue . . . ? SHAKESPEARE. A MONG librarians there has always been a good ** deal of rather profitless discussion of classifica- tion, the effort being to devise a perfect scheme for use in all libraries. Multitudes of schemes have been contrived which have had more or less acceptance, especially with librarians not qualified or not disposed to do inde- pendent work of this sort. But no completely satis- factory results can be obtained in the effort to apply to an individual library a scheme imported from with- out. Every library has its own characteristics and its own peculiar needs to meet ; and the classification proper to any library is such an arrangement of its books as is best suited to its own circumstances and requirements. All the classification schemes proceed on the idea of taking the whole field of knowledge as the unit, and dividing and subdividing it by some logical pro- cess, with a large infusion of arithmetic in the case of the decimal systems and some others. They are thus quite completely theoretical, and in practice are too rigid and mechanical to fit the natural differen- tiation of books one from another ; for the books Classification and Catalogues 53 in a library do not lend themselves to such a process of logical subdivision. Better results are secured by applying an adequate knowledge of books, and an appreciation of the needs of the particular library, to making an arrangement of the books on common- sense principles. The classification schemes usually work from the general ' subject ' down through subdivision. A sen- sible arrangement of books develops from the indi- vidual book upward by a succession of groupings. The groups thus formed are placed one after another in any order that seems most natural under the cir- cumstances of the particular library; and an immense advantage occurs from the fact that there is no attempt to subordinate minor classes to more general ones, and these to others, as happens in the logical classifica- tions. These are in place in dealing with knowledge as such, in laying out a scheme for the orderly devel- opment of a library intended to be general, but are, for practical reasons, out of place in the arrangement of the books in the library. For small libraries not exceeding 10,000 volumes, a very simple arrangement suffices and is preferable to one more elaborate. A common method is that of dividing the library into ten or twelve sections, each section embracing the books in one general department of literature. Following is a good scheme of classes for this purpose : A. Fiction. J. Juvenile books. B. English and American literature. C. History. D. Biography. 54 Public Libraries in America E. Travels. F. Science. G. Useful arts, H. Fine and recreative arts. I. Political and social science. K. Philosophy and religion L. Works on language and in foreign languages. R. Reference books (generally shelved in reading- room). As the library increases and some sections seem to require subdivision, it can easily be done by dividing the numbers in a class, e. g., assigning to ancient his- tory numbers i to 100 in class C ; to modern European history, numbers 101 to 300 ; and to American history, 301 to 500, or by making more minute subdivisions, if necessary. By means of much less painstaking in this arrangement of numbers within the classes than is required to apply a more elaborate scheme of classification, a library can be satisfactorily cared for until it reaches 30,000 or possibly 50,000 volumes. When the library has outgrown such a system and requires a more definite arrangement, a scheme of classes can be made out with reference to the books in hand and to those likely to be added. If for any reason the library is to be specialized in one subject, room enough for that subject to expand indefinitely should be assigned, not only on the shelves, but also in the catalogue and classification. And the different classes of books will naturally be so placed in the room that those most in demand will be most conven- ient of access, and others in proportion. The order of classes given in the list above will be found appli- cable to the ordinary public library, beginning with A at the point nearest the delivery counter. Classification and Catalogues 55 i In the appendix is given a longer list of classes adapted to libraries of 20,000 to 100,000 volumes, with such modifications as any particular case may call for. This list is an ' eclectic ' one, made by comparing and digesting the subject-lists of several libraries, and is perhaps nearer that of the Chicago Public Library than any other. It is not offered as a list to be adopted, but rather to afford general guidance. As intimated above, a small library may be num- bered satisfactorily, with room for expansion, by simply numbering the books in each class consecutively, the classes being designated by capital letters prefixed to the numbers. In a larger library with more subdivisions, the classes will be numbered, and the class number pre- fixed to the book number, a period being placed between the two. In some classes, as in fiction and in literature, the books should be arranged alpha- betically by authors : in biography they are better arranged alphabetically by the subject, so that all lives of the same person will be together. Where there is an attempt to keep the books in these classes in strict alphabetic order, making all additions fall into it, the inserted books may receive a number with a letter added, 169 a following 169, 169 b following that, and 169 aa going between 169 a and 169 b. There are devices for designating books by marks other than numbers to secure this alphabetical arrange- ment, of which the Cutter author- table is best known and most used. But it is doubtful whether it is worth while to carry out the alphabeting to so extreme a point as to make it necessary to adopt a complicated system of book marks. 56 Public Libraries in America On the whole it will be found that very satisfactory results can be obtained by the method of leaving blocks of numbers for additional books where they seem to be needed, and inserting lettered numbers when the numbers assigned have been exhausted. 1 This whole matter of classification in libraries has derived artificial and factitious value in recent discus- sions, from the effort to make classification do more than can be expected of it. For example, it has been said that a library should be so classified that its entire resources on a certain subject may be found on a given shelf or series of shelves, and that a library so arranged practically catalogues itself. This idea has been pushed beyond any proper application of it. For to one who undertakes to make thorough research on any subject in a library, it soon becomes apparent that very much of the best material is not separable from the collections of which it forms a part, so as to be put on the shelf assigned to that subject. For a simple illustration, take the subject of Pauper- ism. If a certain shelf is assigned to this subject, on it may be found two or three volumes, which the super- ficial reader who simply follows out the scheme of clas- sification as a guide might suppose to be all that the 1 What has been said here about the numbering of books presupposes a ' relative ' or ' movable ' location on the shelves. The practice, formerly in vogue, of numbering the shelves and designating the books as belonging on particular shelves has been generally abandoned in favor of the newer method, which is to have the book marks designate simply the relative order in which the books stand, so that as certain shelves become crowded the books may be moved along from one shelf to another to any extent, without deranging their numbers at all, so long as they are kept in the same order of succession. Classification and Catalogues 57 library has. But it is certain that in many works on general Political Economy, and in others likely to be classed under Charities and under Population, he will find much of service to him ; while a great deal more should be hunted out of collected works of certain authors, articles in periodicals, proceedings of socie- ties, etc., to say nothing of the large encyclopaedias. It will readily be seen that just so far as one yields to the tendency to regard the classification as a guide to the treasures of the library, he will be narrowed and dwarfed in his work of research. If, on the other hand, classification cannot be depended on for this purpose, evidently it is of only secondary importance and not worthy of the great attention it sometimes receives. Regarded as a matter secondary to good cataloguing and to be used as a convenience only, it can easily be disposed of on principles of common- sense and local utility ; and the ingenuity and skill as well as the time often expended on it can be turned to the service of the catalogue, which must always be the chief library adjunct. Printed catalogues of public libraries have nearly had their day. Formerly no library was thought well equipped which had not issued one. But when it was found how rapidly supplements must be issued to keep up with new books, and how soon the printed catalogue became a ' back number ' ; and when the usefulness of such a catalogue was weighed against its cost, serious doubts arose as to the value of this sys- tem. The more common practice now is to maintain good written catalogues, kept well up to date, and to issue occasionally, temporary and cheaply made lists of new books, or of works in special classes. The Boston Public Library ceased issuing printed cata- 58 Public Libraries in America logues about twenty years ago, and is not likely to print another. The same may be said of the Boston Athenaeum, whose catalogue, issued in 1871, a marvel of fulness and accuracy, cost such a sum of money that this wealthy institution seemed likely to be im- poverished by the work before it was accomplished. The withdrawal of such large sums from the resources of the libraries, and their diversion from the purchase of additional books to the production of elaborate cata- logues whose chief value must disappear after a few years, is at least a questionable policy. The manuscript catalogues of public libraries are now nearly always -made on the card- catalogue plan. The titles of the books are written on separate slips or pieces of cardboard, which are set on edge in alpha- betical order in drawers. This method of catalogu- ing is now so nearly universal that it may almost be said to be the only method in general use. The sys- tem, at first restricted to library use, has gained wide acceptance in the making of indexes for mercantile and professional uses, and has come to be recog- nized as the best way to make an index or catalogue where new titles must constantly be introduced in exact alphabetical order. The method used in the British Museum, as a sub- stitute for the card catalogue, consists in writing the titles on narrow slips of paper which are then pasted (at the ends only) on large sheets of heavy paper, secured together by a sort of movable binding, so that additional sheets can be inserted at any part of the alphabet. When the slips are first mounted on the sheets, wide spaces are left for additional titles. As these spaces are filled, the slips must be removed and re-arranged. This method of cataloguing has been Classification and Catalogues 59 very sparingly used in this country, the New York Y. M. C. A. Library being perhaps the only one adopt- ing it to any considerable extent. The 'Rudolph Indexer,' contrived by a practical cataloguer in San Francisco, is an adaptation of the British Museum system. The slips instead of being written are printed, and instead of being pasted on the sheets are ingeniously secured by insertion in slots, or rather under folds which clip their ends, so that they remain as placed, but can easily be moved. For the sheets of heavy paper are substituted large pieces of cardboard, and these are not secured in volumes, but piled in a box, so that by turning a crank they pass on endless chains over two cylinders at the top, where they are exposed under glass, six large pages being in view at once, and the mechanism ena- bling one to turn over the pages very rapidly. This invention is quite new and seems, to meet with favor in many quarters, being by some thought fit to super- sede the card catalogue, though this is doubtful except for certain restricted uses. The Rudolph In- dexer is also made in book form, differing from the British Museum catalogue only in the use of various mechanical devices, by which, for one thing, the slips are entirely removable, and additional matter can be constantly inserted. M r RUDOLPH intends to make arrangements to furnish libraries with printed slips for use in his Indexer at such rates that it will be cheaper to purchase them than for each library as now to write its own titles. Another substitute for the card catalogue is offered , in the system long in vogue at the library of the University of Leyden, and adopted as an experiment a few years ago at Harvard College Library. By this 60 Public Libraries in America system the titles are written on slips differing from ordinary catalogue cards only in being somewhat lighter : the writing is allowed to extend only to within an inch of the right-hand end of the slips. These slips are clipped at the right in a movable binding so that they stand on shelves as volumes, the binding being instantly removable for the addition of new slips. For the present it remains true that the card catalogue arranged in drawers is the accepted form throughout America. The accompanying illustration shows a catalogue case of the most approved style and with all necessary fittings, as made by the Library Bureau of Boston. In some libraries efforts are now making to obviate in part the disadvantages of these cases. One plan is to use large trays or boxes with lifting lids in place of the drawers, all arranged on one level, covering a long table running around a hollow square in a room devoted to this use. By this means a large number of persons can consult the catalogue at one time, while with the case of drawers only one or two persons can be using the catalogue at once. Another arrangement adopted where there is lack of room for spreading the catalogue out, is to use smaller drawers with strong handles, the drawers to be taken from their places for consultation, and placed on a table near by, enabling the user to sit at his ease while turning the cards, and to secure the best available light. With this plan in use, the catalogue case may be made to extend from near the floor to a height of six feet or more, thus saving a great deal of the lateral extension which is necessary where the case is only three or four drawers in height, this being about the limit for convenient use if the drawers are not to be < Q y g Classification and Catalogues 61 removed. All card-catalogue drawers are now fitted with rods running through a hole punched near the lower edge of the cards, and so secured by means of a lock or catch as to prevent the removal or displace- ment of the cards. The question of the form of the catalogue being determined, it must then be decided how full and elaborate it shall be made. One entry for each work described, made under its author's name, as SCOTT, WALTER. Ivanhoe. London, 1851. 2vols. 8. or if it be anonymous, under its title, as ENGLISHMAN in Paris, An. N. Y., 1892. 12. or if it have neither author nor distinctive title given, under the subject, as MEXICO, Three weeks in. [Anon.] Boston, 1856. 16. such single entry for each work in the library con- stitutes what may properly be regarded as its complete catalogue, using the word in its strict sense. And until recently library catalogues did not undertake to go much beyond this. But in the last fifty years there has been a grow- ing tendency to add other features to those strictly constituting the catalogue ; and subject entries have either been incorporated in the same alphabetical list with the entries by authors, or put together in a sub- ject catalogue, distinct from the other. What is called a dictionary catalogue is one that gives these dif- ferent entries (under author, subject, and title), com- bined in one alphabetical arrangement. In many libraries the separate subject catalogue is preferred, and it seems: to be a question of individual or local 62 Public Libraries in America taste and preference which is the more useful arrangement. 2 The matter of subject cataloguing has received more attention and become of vastly more importance since the practice of making 'analytical' references was widely adopted. On the ground that a small library thoroughly catalogued is worth more than a much larger one without a key to its treasures, many libmries are going quite extensively into analytical entries. The following titles show how these different forms of entry are usually made : Author-entry. BIRRELL, A. Obiter dicta. Title-entry. Obiter dicta, by A. BIRRELL. Subject-entry. English literature. BIRRELL, A. Obiter dicta. Analytical*: MILTON, J. BIRRELL, A. In his Obiter dicta. POPE, ALEX. BIRRELL, A. fn his Obiter dicta. JOHNSON, S. BIRRELL, A. In his Obiter dicta. 2 The catalogues thus far spoken of, are understood to be strictly alphabetical, whether under author, title, or subject. The 'classified' form of catalogue finds few adherents in any claim for precedence over the alphabetical. But for many uses, e.g., in brief printed finding lists, bulletins of accessions, etc., the classified form is preferable. A well-furnished library will have in its shelf or class-lists a classified catalogue, which, either as a whole or in sections, may be copied for use as a help in finding books. Class-lists made out in this way seem to be the most generally acceptable form in which the catalogue can be spread out in the delivery-room to assist in the choice of books for home use. By a combination of type-writer and mimeograph, these lists can be multiplied neatly and expecli- tiously. For larger libraries, the new invention known as the linotype (= line-otype, each line being one type cast from type metal) seems destined to be very useful, as it may be, by combination and co-operation, for many smaller ones. By the linotype, operated similar to a type-writer, a line of writing is stamped into a soft substance which serves as a mould, from Classification and Catalogues 63 The making of analytical entries has been car- ried to an extreme in some libraries, the different papers in the Transactions of learned societies and very many similar titles receiving separate entry. Be- fore the publication in 1882 of the enlarged POOLE'S Index to Periodical Literature, many libraries were placing in their catalogues separate entries of impor- tant articles in periodicals. The publication of the enlarged ' Poole ' rendered the continuance of this work unnecessary, and also gave rise to the question why other classes of books besides periodicals, if worthy of analytical cataloguing, could not better be included in a general index, which, once published, would save libraries the trouble and expense of doing this work in manuscript for themselves. By the same sort of co-operation among librarians that was applied to the preparation of POOLE'S Index, the ' A. L. A.' [Ameri- can Library Association] Index to books of essays and papers has lately been brought out. If this work is kept up, as is intended, by the issue of supplements from time to time, it will represent the transfer of another large field of work from the manuscript cata- logue to the printed index. More and more of such indexes and of bibliographies of special subjects will appear ; and, if judiciously used and availed of. will not only prevent the necessity of much analytical cata- loguing, but will be found more useful than any library catalogue is likely to be. which each line is then cast in one piece. These lines can then be set up in any desired order and printed from like any stereotyped page. The same lines may be re-arranged and used indefinitely for different catalogues ; so that where a library is supplied with the titles of its new purchases in these cast lines, it has the material ready for printing as many different forms of catalogues or lists as may be desired. 64 Public Libraries in America A great service is done to readers, especially to students or others who expect to write on a given subject, if they are shown a fairly good exhibit of the existing literature of the subject. For this reason and for others, every well-equipped library will have a good collection of bibliographical works. Their use is threefold, to assist in the selection of books for purchase, to help the cataloguer, and to guide readers to the best information. All per- sons using a library with any serious purpose should be familiar with these helps ; and the librarian should make it his object to teach readers how to use them. At the same time there can be no worse error in administering a library for the public good than that of leaving readers to grope their way into the use of an elaborate apparatus of catalogues, indexes, and bibliographies. There must always be the per- sonal friendly aid of the librarian or attendant to give to the library that atmosphere of kindly helpfulness which makes the visitor at home, although he may not be ' to the manner (of libraries) born.' As to classification, the author would refer to his own papers on the subject in the Library Journal, vol. xiv., and to EDWARDS'S Memoirs of Libraries, as there quoted; to the Library Joiirnal, passim, this subject having been constantly under discussion in its pages ; to the U. S. Bureau of Education's Report on Libraries, 1876. From the Library Bureau, Boston, may be purchased the elaborate schemes of classification of DEWEY, CUTTER, and others. For the subject of cataloguing, the files of the Library Journal and the U. S. Report on Libraries must again be referred to. Part ii. of this Report contains CUTTER'S Rules for making a dictionary catalogue, which represent in the most complete and compact form possible the American system of cataloguing, in which regard nearly all our public libraries are mainly agreed, CUTTER'S Rules being a record of what was already agreed upon rather than a code newly formulated. JUSTIN WINSOR LIBRARIAN OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY CHAPTER VI MINOR DETAILS OF LIBRARY MANAGEMENT Think naught a trifle, though it small appear. YOUNG. "DESIDES the author and subject catalogues, alpha- *~ betical or classified, two other forms of cata- logue are needed, the accession- record and the shelf-list or class-list. The accession-book preserves a record of the books in the order of their acquisi- tion and gives details as to how obtained, price paid, etc., serving from the mercantile side as an invoice- book and preserving a historical record of the library. The entry of books in this record is the first one to be made. The shelf- list or class-list records the titles in the order in which the books stand on the shelves, and is necessary as a check-list by which to exam- ine the library to detect losses, and keep the books in due order. It might seem that this system calls for too much detailed work, and comes under the heading of ' red-tape.' But it will be found that in the long run, in a matter requiring so much of detail as the care of a library, work will be saved by a systematic attention to these matters, the neglect of which leads to confusion and loss. 1 1 It is desirable that a certain amount of thorough-going system be applied to a small library for the sake of its future. Nothing is more common than for a library which has attained 5 66 Public Libraries in America All books received by a library should be collated to see that they are complete and correct copies. Enough imperfections will be found and corrected to compensate for the work. Library labels should be carefully and neatly pasted on the inside of the cover, and on them should be written all needed numbers and marks. The preservation of books from defacement is a matter of so much consequence that the library itself ought at least to set the example of leaving the titlepage free from ink marks or stamps. An embossed stamp neatly put on is all that the title- page need receive. Books going into large circulation, especially in manufacturing communities where they are likely to be much soiled, ought to be covered with paper, which should be renewed as often as necessary to keep them looking tidy. It is not common now, as it was formerly, to cover all library books. The ingenuity applied to library work has pro- duced methods of keeping account of loans much superior to those used a generation ago. The most convenient and satisfactory one is that by which each book is furnished with a card bearing its num- ber and title. This is kept in the volume when on the shelf ; and when the book is taken out, the card is marked with the borrower's number and the date, and kept in a box, where the cards all stand on edge, arranged for each day in numerical order, the days being separated in the box by movable partitions. As books are returned the cards are replaced in them, and at the end of two weeks (or whatever is the time considerable size to be deficient, greatly to the regret of its supporters, in the early records needed to make its history complete. Minor Details of Library Management 67 for which books maybe kept), the books represented by the cards remaining in the compartment of a cer- tain date are known to be overdue, and may be sent for by post-card notice. To this advantage of a self- registry of overdue books is to be added that of the comparative ease with which it can be learned at once who has any book which is out.* This method of charging books, or some modification of it, is in use in nearly all progressive libraries, and is to be recommended in its simplest form for the small- est ones. It has the general features of the Ameri- can baggage-checking system, and is as superior to the ledger-account method as that system is to the happy-go-lucky way of dealing with ' luggage ' on European railways. See the U. S. Report on Libraries, 1876, already referred to, espe- cially the paper by D r POOLE, on the Organisation and Management of Public Libraries, p. 476 of that volume. Also numerous articles in the Library Journal, passim. In Appendix VI will be found a suitable code of library regulations. * Note to zd edition. This is a matter of considerable im- portance, but one which has been largely overlooked. Readers are generally expected to be satisfied with the statement that the desired book ' is out.' But if one can be told who has the book he can often secure its transfer to himself sooner than if he must take his chances at the library. CHAPTER VII SELECTION AND PURCHASE OF BOOKS . . . Lord help us in this flood Of daily papers, books, and magazines. R. LEIGHTON. ' I A HE selection of books for a library must depend * very largely on circumstances, such as the amount of funds available, the scope of the plan on which the library is founded, the kind of community to be served, and the neighborhood of other libraries of a general or special character. But it is always true that the selection should be carefully guarded, and conducted with a view to the usefulness of the library. Other considerations too often govern. Some- times the work of selection is allowed to pass into the hands of some one who is supposed to be com- petent because he is a book-fancier, possibly some- thing of a bibliomaniac, but who fills the library with books which constitute it a literary museum, rather than a literary laboratory or workshop. The pet phrase of the bookseller, ' a book without which no library is complete,' is given too much weight, and a long list of ' standard ' works is ordered with- out its being perceived that they were the stand- ards of yesterday, and have become the dead stock of to-day. A library which is the only one for a given community, and whose resources are small, Selection and Purchase of Books 69 demands the utmost care that money is not wasted by being put into books which are not the best of their kind to-day, books once famous and whose titles are familiar as household words, but which have been superseded. The story is told of a distinguished professor who, on being asked by the librarian of his university what books might be set aside in his scien- tific department to make room for new ones, replied, ' All that are more than ten years old.' The prog- ress of knowledge in many departments is now so rapid that the best books sometimes become obso- lete in a few years, and it is almost a work of genius to determine which of to-day's books are worth pre- serving for to-morrow's use. Again, there is often a disposition on the part of librarians and committees to make the library grow as rapidly as possible in the number of volumes, so that purchases are made rather with reference to seeing how many volumes can be bought for a certain sum than with a view to wise selection. The annual reports of li- braries are apt to dwell with pride on the number of volumes added, and this is quite commonly accepted as a fair test of the real life and value of a library. Nothing could well be farther from a correct standard, as will be clear enough from the reductio ad absurdum of the principle. For example, books can be bought, even most of the classics of the English language, for a few cents per volume, so that the average cost of the additions to a library might be kept down to less than a half dollar a volume, if that were made the ruling principle. But no one is willing to put such books into a public library. There is sufficient healthfulness in the public taste to make it demand that the library have better editions than the cheapest. May it not 7O Public Libraries in America be in the line of a wise education of the public taste to choose for the library only well-printed and well- bound books, and to make more of the quality of the additions than of their mere quantity? When I am asked by a library director how many volumes he ought to buy for every $1,000 expended, I tell him there is no standard on which a reply can properly be based. Except as a circulating library derives benefit from having a large number of books, so that more read- ers may be served at one time, it may well be held that expensive books are generally better worth their cost than cheap ones. The public library is doing its best work when it is teaching people to respect and to love books. To issue to its readers cheap and trashily made books is to invert its true mis- sion and to degrade, instead of ennobling, literature in the eyes of its patrons. As people should handle books carefully and treat them always with consider- ation, there can be no better way to bring this about than to put into their hands books worthy of respect. A shrewd professor once said that he never did anything more promotive of discipline in his class than putting a good carpet on the recitation-room floor. Instead of the boys spoiling the carpet, the carpet renovated the boys. So it will be with well- made and attractive books. Library books ought for this reason to be kept in as good repair as possible, and when hopelessly worn out or fallen to pieces they should be replaced by other copies, and in many cases by other books. To return to the matter of selecting books, it may be well to add a caution against carrying too far the principle of choosing new books rather than Selection and Purchase of Books 71 old. Outside the scientific and historical depart- ments, that is to say in the domain of pure literature, the disposition to read only the new books is to be deprecated and discouraged. The public library ought not to pander to a perverted Athenianism, demanding ' some new thing ' ; but as against the literary bubbles of the day, it ought to represent the accumulated wealth of the literature of the past, and exert an influence to win readers away from mere newness and acquaint them with the masters of thought and style. Those who are charged with the selection of books ought therefore to be competent to plan wisely for the building up of the library in genuine literature from all sources. Care must always be taken not to fill a library with ' good books ' which nobody will read ; at the same time the library must go before the demands of the people, and create a taste and desire for that which it supplies. Every public library should encourage its readers to make application for the purchase of books not in the library, by providing blanks for that purpose, and paying courteous attention to all requests, making explanations when they are not granted, and in such case directing the applicant to other books of equal or greater value, when possible. . The purchase of books is best managed if either the librarian or some other officer is exclusively charged with the work, under the general direction of the trus- tees or of a library committee. New books may be obtained ' on approval ' and placed before the com- mittee ; but to act intelligently on them the committee need the advice of a person acquainted with litera- ture and with the book market. This should be the librarian, but in some cases may be one of the library committee. 72 Public Libraries in America Libraries can generally do better by employing a bookseller or purchasing agent than by dealing with publishers. In many places a local bookseller may be able to handle the library's business satisfactorily ; but in the smaller towns, the library will be best served by dealing with a metropolitan agent, even at quite a distance. No library of any considerable size should miss the opportunities of buying certain books cheap which are offered by the auctions constantly occurring in the large cities. Many very desirable books, some new, may be bought at these auctions for less than half- price ; and their catalogues ought to be scanned in the interest of every public library. Purchases can generally be made at these sales through the auc- tioneer without expense, thus saving the necessity of personal attendance. In like manner, catalogues issued by booksellers ought to be looked over to pick out the few items of special interest to the particular library. By con- stant watch of the book -market and taking advan- tage of favorable opportunities, libraries can best be strengthene'd in any desired specialties, with not over one half the expense that an out-and-out order for the needed books would be likely to involve. CHAFFER VIII KEFERENCE-WORK. THE PUBLIC LIBRARY IN RELATION TO THE SCHOOLS, TO UNIVER- SITY EXTENSION, ETC. Life thrills along the alcoved hall, The lords of thought awake our call. WHITTIER. T^ VERY public library should be a library of refer- ^-* ence, or, to use the term which President OILMAN proposes as a substitute, a ' library of study.' Impor- tant as it may be in many communities, the supplying of books for home-reading must not be regarded as the only function of the library. A good collection of books will attract increasingly people who are pursuing, or who wish to pursue, the study of various subjects requiring a more free and ready use of the books than is possible by drawing them from the library one after another. To the professional scholars in the community must nowadays be added the pupils in the common schools, mem- bers of reading circles and literary clubs, persons attending University Extension lectures, and many others, to indicate the constituency of the ' reference ' department of a library. And just in proportion as a library is so adminis- tered as to encourage and stimulate the demands of all these classes, will it be accomplishing its highest mission. To this end certain things should be done. In the first place, as already suggested, the building itself should facilitate this reference work. A read- 74 Public Libraries in America ing-room, well lighted and ventilated, supplied with convenient tables and comfortable chairs, and kept quiet and orderly is the first requisite. In this con- nection it may be well to advise placing in the read- ing-room a certain number of small tables, each calculated to furnish a place for one person to work with that privacy which is marred when several occupy the same table. A long table divided into stalls, such as is used in the British Museum, answers this pur- pose measurably where room cannot be allowed for the separate tables ; but the latter arrangement is prefer- able where space is abundant. The proper lighting of reading tables for evening use is a matter of considerable importance. Whether gas or electric light be used, table lamps are essential. A moderate amount of diffused light should be se- cured by the use of chandeliers ; but to supply strong light close at hand for reading and study, small lamps are needed at the right distance above the table and well shaded. The incandescent electric lamp is the best possible light for the purpose, chiefly for the reason that it radiates only a very small amount of heat. The heating of the head while leaning over a table reading is a fruitful source of serious illness, and every possible precaution should be taken against it. To secure these table lights, the gas-pipe or electric wires (better both to prepare for emergencies) should be brought up through the floor under each table, and taken up on one leg of the table to its top, where they may be brought through at any point desired for placing the lights. The initial expense of this arrange- ment is soon saved in the smaller amount of light required, as compared with any system of illumination by diffused light from overhead. Reference-Work 75 The best method of heating a reading-room is by steam or hot water radiators placed at the sides of the room (not in the middle), under windows wherever possible. When practicable there should be a fire- place, with a slow fire generally burning. With the radiators placed under the windows, and provision for letting in a small amount of fresh air near each, this will secure excellent ventilation without elaborate apparatus for the purpose ; while the fire on the hearth, with some easy-chairs about it, will do much to make the room homelike and attractive. When it can be so arranged, a competent attendant should have a desk in the reading-room ; and while doing regular work at cataloguing or otherwise, he should be ready at all times to give help to the readers in finding desired information, and to repress all disorder and noise, the bane of many such rooms. A general reading-room should be well supplied with reference books, in the selection of which there is opportunity for a great deal of intelligent painstaking. The leading encyclopaedias, dictionaries, and atlases should be supplemented by the best encyclopaedic works devoted to special branches, as music, the fine arts, mechanics, chemistry, geography, political econ- omy, statistics, classical and Biblical literature and antiquities, biography, etc., and by the best annuals, readers' manuals, books of quotations, and other books of miscellaneous information. In some cases it will be well to have the most used bound sets of periodi- cals also in the reading-room, the periodical indexes being at hand to direct the reader. Many libraries keep duplicate files of a few leading periodicals in order to have one set in the reading-room, while the other is available for circulation. 76 Public Libraries in America An admirable feature of some public libraries is a large table in the reading-room supplied with illus- trated papers and books of pictures to attract young and illiterate people. By furnishing them with some- thing they can enjoy and appreciate, they may grad- ually be led to the use of more instructive literature. It may seem to make but little difference whether all these reference books are placed on open shelves in the reading-room, or kept in the book room and given out freely to readers ; but there is a great advan- tage in the open shelves, in that readers having free access to these books become better acquainted with them, and sooner come to understand their different purposes and uses ; and in a word, acquire that facility in consulting reference books which is essential to success in any literary work. In addition to all the matter that is placed in the reading-room, great freedom should be allowed in drawing books from the library for use in that room, so that any reader may supplement the brief article on his subject in the encyclopaedia or periodical, with the fuller treatment in some special work to be found in the library. But when every possible facility has been furnished for reading-room use of books, a well-ordered library must go farther and admit readers (at least, such as are genuinely engaged in study and research) to its shelves, where, under proper restrictions, they may look over the books on a given subject and not be confined to the narrow range imposed by the limita- tions of reading-room use. Nothing short of this is satisfactory to one who wishes to know thoroughly the available literature of his subject ; and there seems to be no good reason why this liberty should not be granted to proper applicants, unless indeed the library is so ' stored ' away that such use is impossible. Reference- Work 77 This subject of study in the library suggests the kindred one of the relation of the public library to edu- cational institutions, especially to the common schools. The marked change in educational methods in the last score of years, whereby teachers look less to the textbook and more to general sources of information in such branches as history and the natural sciences, has led to a high appreciation of the value of the public libraries to the schools, and to a demand on the libraries for special privileges for both teachers and scholars in the use of the books. Most libraries have been ready to meet teachers half-way in this matter and grant such requests, by providing additional copies of the books most wanted in the schools, and allow- ing an extra number of volumes to be taken, with an extension of the time for which they may be kept. In other cases, classes from the schools have been re- ceived at the library and given lessons by the libra- rian in the use of books. In the public library of Brookline, Massachusetts, and perhaps elsewhere, pro- vision is made for the habitual use of the library by school children, a room being set aside for their use, with a special attendant during the hours when the children are out of school. Public libraries have also been ready in most cases to aid the work of reading circles and other home culture organizations by furnishing books required, and giving guidance in their use. Courses of lectures often have their usefulness greatly increased by the co-operation of the library in furnishing in advance lists of books on the respective subjects, and so promoting an intelligent hearing. University Extension finds in the public library its chief ally. Indeed, the first regular course of such 78 Public Libraries in America lectures given in this country was one arranged by, and held under the auspices of, the Buffalo Library. As these lectures aim to give instruction after univer- sity methods, the use of suitable books is essential, so that in England and to some extent in this country, the lecturers have organized ' travelling libraries ' to go with them from place to place. The Extension lecture given in connection with the free use of a competent library seems to be the ideal ' university of the people.' The lecture with- out the ' laboratory work ' of the library is likely to be comparatively profitless, and, on the other hand, tiie mere reading of books cannot give the quickening and stimulating influence needed to furnish real educa- tion. The ' Lyceum lecture ' system of the middle of this century constituted one of these agencies car- ried wellnigh to perfection, accomplishing much in the way of popular culture ; while the public libraries which seem so largely to have grown from that system make up the other agency, in its turn contributing largely to the same end. University Extension seems to offer a happy combination of the two, affording a culture at once more thorough than that which the lec- ture provides, and more vital and effective than that gained from books alone. It may yet be generally recognized that even CARLYLE'S remark that ' the university of the future is a great collection of books ' blinked the lead- ing factor in all education, the personal teacher. If he meant that in the higher branches the services of the teacher can be dispensed with, his remark remains of very doubtful truth. The student in any department whose teachers all speak through the printed page only, may in exceptional cases become a Reference- Work 79 complete and thorough scholar, but the estimate which the world puts upon the ' self-made man ' will gen- erally apply well to the self-directed and self-inspired reader. This, however, is not the place to discuss a theme so difficult as that of the relative value of teacher and library; but the writer could not do justice to his own convictions without protesting against an undue estimate of the value to the publte of an unlimited supply of books to read, such an estimate as leads to the expectation that by this means the people are to be educated. He desires to put the reading of books in its proper place in connection with all truly educational work, the place of an adjunct and not that of the principal factor. It is honor enough for the public library to claim that it should serve as an efficient adjunct to the educative work of the home, the school, the church, and the lecture system, making that work broader and deeper and more effective, and providing the means by which it may be prolonged beyond the school and college age, and made to reach the multitudes whose school life ceased early, if, indeed, it ever began. GREEN: Libraries and Schools, New York. 1883. FOSTER : Libraries and Readers, New York, 1883. ADAMS : ' Fiction in Public Libraries, and Educational Catalogues,' Library Journal, iv. (1879), 330. HEWINS: 'How to make the most of a small Library,' Library Journal, xi. (1886), 305. Numerous other articles in the Library Journal are also of great value. CHAPTER IX THE LIBRARIAN: HIS WORK AND HIS TRAIN- ING FOR IT I hold every man a debtor to his pro- fession ... to be a help and ornament thereto. BACON. T IBRARIANSHIP is not one of the recognized * ' learned professions ; in fact it is but just begin- ning to be acknowledged as something more than a function, for the exercise of which any fairly educated or even ordinarily intelligent person is quite competent. So recent is the change in this respect that most of the men are still living who by the devotion of rare talents and public-spirited zeal to this work have proved its capabilities. Their names, living or dead, constitute the honor-roll of librarianship. Among the departed, PANIZZI in England, and JEWETT, LLOYD SMITH, and NOYES in America should be ' held in everlasting remembrance.' These men have made it clear that jjibrarianship is essentially a public service, and that only those con- spicuous for service rendered to the public can be called successful. The same is true of the recognized professions, as it is not true of the ordinary pursuits of men by which a living is gained. It has lately been said by a prominent novelist ;that literary work (at least novel- writing) is done ' first of all, to earn AINSWORTH RAND SPOFFORD The Librarian: His Work and Training 81 money.' One may beg to differ from the statement as a matter of fact in the case of authors ; but how- ever it may be with novel-writing, it is certain that no one will make a success of librarianship whose purpose is 'first of all, to earn money.' Thus far the pecuniary rewards in this line of work have been but scanty, and only those who have thought more of things other than these rewards have been attracted to it. The qualifications needed to make a first-rate libra- rian are various. In some libraries one kind of man may succeed, while in others a very different sort is required. But for the ordinary public library, doing the work indicated in these pages, it is evident that a libra- rian must be both a scholar and a person of executive ability ; enough of a book-worm to have a decided taste and fondness for books, and at the same time not enough to be a recluse and to lose sympathy with the stand- point of those who know little of books. The librarian needs to be a person of general and genuine culture, versed as much as possible in all departments of literature and science. The classification and cata- loguing of books require a certain amount of knowl- edge of their subject-matter in its relations with other fields to secure proper adjustments. The same wide knowledge, not only of book-titles but also of the contents of books and their bearing on the general subject of which they may treat some special phase, is required in giving assistance to readers and in making the library useful to all classes of the community. A librarian may be a specialist in some direction, but in his library work he should not appear so ; he should rather manifest that enthusiastic interest in 6 82 Public Libraries in America all branches of knowledge which will appeal to all specialists. This is likely to come from experience in library work coupled with an ardent interest in it rather than from anything else. To begin with, one needs a well-ordered mind and a good stock of general infor- mation ; also to be imbued with a real missionary spirit to serve as an impetus in the growth sure to follow. As to literary and linguistic attainments, the libra- rian cannot be too richly furnished, provided these attainments do not serve, as is sometimes the case, to separate him from the common sort of people to whose wants he must minister. At least a college education, the young librarian should have had, unless the same years have been spent in library work with opportunities for study, and those improved to the utmost. An ignorant librarian is a contradiction in terms. Knowledge of the languages, both ancient and modern, is essential. A general reading knowl- edge of several languages is worth much more than a thorough acquaintance with one. A little time spent in learning to read any language, the grammar being used like the dictionary rather for reference than for study, will secure a knowledge of it better for library purposes than months of the usual school and college study. During the last score of years, the remarkable de- velopment of library inteiests in America has led to a growing recognition of the demands of the libra- rian's office for a more definite training than was formerly necessary. In one sense it is doubtless true that the best training school for librarians is a good library, and many of the most efficient librarians now in service had no other. But a person entering ser- The Librarian: His Work and Training 83 vice in a library cannot often have an opportunity to become acquainted with the various departments of the work, and so acquire within a limited time that entire familiarity with librarianship which will qualify him to take charge of a small library. To meet the increasing demand for persons thus competent, grow- ing out of the great multiplication of libraries, train- ing classes have been organized in connection with various institutions, the Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, the Drexel Institute of Philadelphia, the Public Library of Los Angeles, and Amherst College (Summer School) . A more ambitious effort in this direction is the Li- brary School, conducted by M r MELVIL DEWEY at the State Library at Albany of which he is Director. This school, started by him on a small scale at Columbia College in 1886, when he was librarian there, has now come to have a regular two years' course with an average attendance of about twenty. Its graduates are established as librarians or assistants in many places and have given good evidence of the value of their training. Librarianship affords a fine field for woman's work, and a decided majority of all American librarians are women. Even in the more complicated business of managing the larger institutions, women are show- ing marked abilities, while they have almost a mo- nopoly of the small libraries throughout the country. In the various movements for making libraries more useful and popular, women have been pioneers ; their readier sympathies qualify them for inspiring and guid- ing young readers, and advancing the ' missionary ' features of public-library work. To college-educated women especially must this profession increasingly 84 Public Libraries in America offer openings and attractions, as new libraries are rapidly established and older ones attain a size de- manding more and better service. Consult a series of articles on ' Being a Librarian,' in the Library Journal, vol. xv. NOTE. As to the prominence of women among American libra- rians, it is interesting to observe that of the 'one hundred largest libraries' of which statistics are given in Appendix V, precisely one- half have women as librarians. CHAPTER X THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION The best reading, for the largest number, at the least cost. Motto of the Association, "D ECENT library progress in the United States is -*-^ quite intimately connected with the history and work of the national association of librarians, organ- ized in 1876 at a conference held in Philadelphia, in connection with the Centennial celebration of that year. As early as 1853, there met in New York City 'the first convention of librarians that ever assembled in the United States.' Fifty-three persons were in attend- ance, as though one responded for each year of the century to that date. Among those present were, WILLIAM F. POOLE of the Mercantile Library of Boston, SAMUEL F. HAVEN of the American Antiqua- rian Society, Worcester, CHARLES FOLSOM of the Boston Athenaeum, REUBEN A. GUILD of Brown Uni- versity, LLOYD P. SMITH of the Philadelphia Library Company, and CHARLES C. JEWETT of the Smithsonian Institution. That modern library ideas were already in vogue is shown by the resolutions passed, as follows : ( i ) Fav- oring the establishment of local public libraries in every town; (2) Recommending the issue of a popu- 86 Public Libraries in America lar library manual 1 ; (3) Appointing a committee to draft a plan for a Librarian's Association, and to call a meeting in Washington the following year ; and (4) Approving the plan and execution of POOLE'S Index to Periodicals, and recommending a similar plan of indexing to be extended to the transactions and me- moirs of learned societies. 2 1 To secure the carrying out of this recommendation a com- mittee was appointed, whose chairman, D r GUILD, librarian of Brown University for forty-six years, has only recently re- signed that position. D r GUILD prepared, and in 1858 pub- lished The Librarian's Manual, a small quarto of 304 pages, occupied in the first half by a select list of bibliographies, and in the latter by descriptions of the leading libraries in Europe and America. Except as incidentally touched on in the de- scriptions of these libraries, the book made no attempt to fur- nish a manual of library practice. Dealing with what now seems to have been a primeval period in American library his- tory, couched in somewhat formal language, and printed in antique type (with capital initials for all nouns), it is difficult to believe that only thirty-five years have passed since its pub- lication. The book deserves mention as an excellent piece of typography, and reflects marked credit not only on its author, but also on its publisher, the late General CHARLKS B. NORTON of New York, also the publisher of POOLE'S Index (edition of 1853), and distinguished for a genuine and public spirited inter- est in libraries. It was at his suggestion, and through his efforts mainly, that this Librarian's Conference of 1853 was held. He was the publisher of NORTON'S Literary Register, and in the volume of that periodical for 1854 is to be found a full report of the proceedings of this conference. 2 An index to the publications of learned societies has not yet advanced much beyond the stage indicated in 1853, that of being a recognized desideratum. The Royal Society of London has indeed issued a catalogue, arranged alphabetically by authors, of the papers in these publications, but the prepa- ration of the index by subjects seems to have been abandoned as too large a task. So great is the demand for such an index that frequent efforts have been made to provide for its execu- tion ; and it is to be hoped that some co-operative plan may The American Library Association 87 So successful was this meeting, and so interesting to those in attendance, that it is almost incredible that the failure of the committee to call the proposed meeting for organization in 1854 should have put the project to sleep for almost a generation, but so it was. Only when the Centennial celebration of 1876 gave a new impetus to all such movements was the second meeting of librarians held. This meeting was brought about largely through the efforts of M r MELVIL DEWEY, a graduate in 1874 from Amherst College, where he had remained as acting librarian. He took a leading part in the new organization, was its secre- tary for fourteen years, then its president, and is now, as Director of the New York State Library, one of the most prominent librarians and promoters of library work in the country. At this meeting in 1876, the American Library As- sociation was definitely organized with JUSTIN WINSOR, then librarian of the Boston Public Library, as presi- dent. Successive meetings have been held nearly every succeeding year ; a complete list follows on the next page : soon be formed by which the work can be accomplished. It is an object well worth the attention of the Smithsonian Institu- tion, as a means to 'the increase and diffusion of knowledge' ; and a special endowment of this enterprise would be a wiser disposal of property than the founding of an additional college. Note to 2d edition. The author received, in August, 1894, from the Secretary of the Royal Society, official notice that trie Society has determined to proceed immediately with the prepa- ration and issue of this desired subject-index, a most welcome announcement. Public Libraries in America B 1 "" V fl . , . 1-' ^ H3 ^ i i X O C* . *4 r* C. C S 1 I I 1 1 1 p* ?* ?* XXX X X X X X X ^ fc H C- a o 'w M S S i 8 \. CUTTER b (j S GREEN [. FLETCH M a > U z; ----- Pi <: s en o c/: X a X M -s ^ 2 - H *^ 12 5 ^ > i H -->- h-1 " ~ & H i ^ 5 O fa CO i s ai t/1 6 c rt n a S .a e .a ^j o ._ 3 1 S to 13 u si - C C o 1 1 1 1 1 1 J3 ^ .5 3 PH ^; m > u pa Lake George Milwaukee Thousand Is K '5 c a 3 ^c IS San Francisc Lakewood o eg eF 15 O Adirondacks Denver n N rt 00 CO CO T. r^ CT> Ot CN ON ON L>< OO OO OO 00 OO 00 00 OO OO CO v: CO o; OO C Ho t-i N fO ^ ^O VO f^ 00 ON M H ro Tj- in vO I 55 " "* ** ** ** CJ The American Library Association 89 There was also an informal gathering of about thirty librarians at the Catskills in 1888, which did not count as a meeting of the Association ; the proceedings were, however, of considerable interest, and are reported in the Library Journal, vol. xiii. In 1877, just after the meeting in New York, a party of twenty-one American librarians went to England to attend the first general convention of English librarians, held in London ; as a result of this meeting the Library Association of the United King- dom was organized, which has had a very successful career, doing much to advance the library interests of Great Britain. In the meetings of the American Library Associa- tion, the one object constantly in view is co-operation among libraries in the interest of better and more economical administration, looking to a more efficient and satisfactory service of the public. The subjects most discussed have been : the best library legislation ; how to further the establishment of libraries in every community ; library buildings ; the wise selection of books ; the best methods of cataloguing and classifica- tion ; library records and book-keeping ; above all, the educational and missionary features of library work, reaching the young through the schools, and older people by means of branches and delivery stations, and through University extension or other lectures ; and in various ways creating the demand which the library shall supply. One who reads the proceedings of these meetings can hardly fail to be impressed with the prominent place occupied by pub- lic spirited and humanitarian feelings and motives in the present administration of public libraries. But the discussion of these vital questions of library go Public Libraries in America management, interesting and profitable as it is, has not formed the entire work of the Association. Prac- tical methods of co-operation were sought from the first. At the original meeting in 1876, steps were taken for securing the preparation, by a co-operative scheme, of a new edition of POOLE'S Index to Peri- odicals, brought down to date. About fifty librarians entered into this scheme, and the work was brought out in 1882 in a volume of 1450 pages. Supplements to this Index have been regularly issued, also prepared by co-operation. In 1886 the Publishing Section of the Association was organized for the purpose of securing the issue of works of similar utility in libraries, which cannot be produced on a basis of mercantile profit. Reading for the Young : a Classified and Annotated Catalogue, by JOHN F. SARGENT, was issued by the Publishing Section in 1890 ; and in 1893 was brought out a much larger work, the ' A. L. A? [American Library Asso- ciation] Index to General Literature, complementing POOLE'S Index, and indexing the papers in books of essays and other composite volumes outside of periodicals. Not least of the good things accomplished by the Association has been the publication of the Library Journal, now in its igth volume, constituting a verit- able storehouse of information on all subjects con- nected with libraries. In 1890, at the White Mountain meeting, the En- dowment Fund of the Association was started. The intention is to raise the sum of $20,000 or more, the income of which shall be employed in enabling the Association to print and distribute large editions of its proceedings and papers as a means of cultivating the The American Library Association 91 public library sentiment throughout the country, and in enlarging and strengthening the work of the Pub- lishing Section. This endowment fund, under the care, as treasurer, of M r E. C. HOVEY of Brookline, Mass., formerly trustee of the Public Library there, has already attained large proportions, but has not reached its limit. A comparatively small sum invested in this fund will yield large returns in advancing the library cause throughout the country, and so in the elevation and enlightenment of the whole people. The interest in the recent annual meetings of the Association has led to a movement for establishing local library clubs and societies, providing for frequent meetings of the librarians within a limited region. The New York Library Club, founded in 1885, and a continued success, has been followed by the Massa- chusetts Library Club, the Chicago Library Club, the Connecticut Library Association, the New Hampshire Library Association, and others. By means of these local associations, the librarians of the smaller libra- ries, who cannot attend the national gatherings, are brought into contact with modern library ideas and methods, which are thereby introduced into the small towns with great advantage. This chapter should not close without especial ref- erence to the library exhibit at the Columbian Expo- sition in 1893, and the Congress of Librarians held at Chicago in connection with the Fair. The congress was made to include the annual meeting of the Asso- ciation, and continued nearly a fortnight, with one session daily. The papers and proceedings were so arranged, through the assignments made beforehand, that every important department of library work was covered both historically and practically. The pro- 92 Public Libraries in America ceedings are to be issued in a volume by the United States Bureau of Education, and will constitute a sort of encyclopaedia of library science. The library exhibit in the Government building at the Exposition, while under the auspices of the Bu- reau of Education, was arranged by a committee of the American Library Association, and formed one of the most interesting of all the literary exhibits at the Fair. Perhaps its chief attraction was the 'model library,' a collection of about 5000 volumes, chosen by a canvass of many librarians, and representing their judgment of the 5000 volumes best adapted for start- ing a library. The catalogue of this collection, issued by the Bureau of Education, will doubtless be much used by new libraries as a purchase list. Besides the 'model library,' the exhibit contained several of the best styles of shelving, the most im- proved catalogue cases, with other library furniture and fittings ; also numerous plans of library buildings, specimens of different methods of cataloguing, and many other things calculated to show the progress in all these matters, and to acquaint all visitors with the best methods and apparatus. This exhibit cannot fail to have made a strong im- pression throughout the country in favor of public libraries, and of their live and progressive manage- ment, and doubtless will greatly enhance the library movement in the end of the igth and the beginning of the 2Oth centuries. CHAPTER XI A FEW REPRESENTATIVE LIBRARIES Example is a living law, whose sway Men more than all the written laws obey. C. SEDLEY. '"THE object of this chapter is to give a brief ac- -* count of certain libraries serving as types of the classes to which they belong, and to illustrate the history and development of public libraries in the United States. It may be proper to remark that those chosen for this purpose have been selected not because they were more worthy of especial mention than many others, but because the facts regarding them were available to the writer. Besides, it would be a hope- less task to select those most worthy of separate description. Considering first the subscription libraries, a very important factor in the development of our library system, no better example can be found than the one already mentioned in the language of FRANKLIN, its founder, as being ' the mother of all the subscription libraries in America.' FRANKLIN'S own story of its origin is of interest, as told in his Autobiography. Only a few extracts can be given here. He says : At the time I established myself in Philadelphia there was not a good bookseller's shop in any of the colonies to the southward of Boston. . . Those who loved read- 94 Public Libraries in America ing were obliged to send for their books to England ; the members of the Junto had each a few. We had left the ale-house, where we first met, and hired a room to hold .our club in. I proposed that we should all of us bring .our books to that room, where they . . . would become a .common benefit, each of us being at liberty to borrow :such as he wished to read at home. This was accordingly done, and for some time contented us. ... Yet some in- conveniences occurring for want of due care of them, the collection, after about a year, was separated, and each took his books home again. And now I set on foot my first project of a public nature, that for a subscription library. ... I was not able, with great industry, to find more than fifty persons, mostly young tradesmen, willing to pay down for this purpose forty shillings each, and ten shillings per annum. On this little fund we began. The books were imported ; the library was open one day in the week for lending to the subscribers, on their promis- sory notes to pay double their value if not duly returned.' In 1732, the first books were received, and the library was fairly launched. The library company was duly incorporated ten years later, and gradually won more and more of public favor. Large gifts of books were made, and several other libraries founded in imitation of it were eventually absorbed. It passed through the Revolution without suffering loss, and maintaining the respect of both parties. When the city was occupied by the British, their officers used the library, but always paid for the privilege. At the close of the war it numbered about 5,000 volumes. In 1745, M r JAMES LOGAN had conveyed to trustees, for the benefit of the public, his valuable private library, attaching to the gift some peculiar conditions ; for example, that the librarian should always be a descendant of his, and that his family should be well represented on the Board of Management. Difficul- A few Representative Libraries 95 ties arose in connection with these conditions, and it was closed in 1776, remaining so until 1792. when it was combined with the Philadelphia Library. The Loganian Library was, however, kept by itself, M r LOGAN'S descendants being represented on the Board of Management, and the collection has constantly increased from its own funds, so that it constitutes one of the chief features of the institution. From the first, the effect of the Philadelphia Li- brary on the community was quite marked, and the city soon became distinguished for the reading habits of its people. A traveller, the Rev d JACOB DUCHE, writing in 1 7 74, says of it : ' You would be astonished at the general taste for books which prevails among all orders and ranks of people in this city. The librarian assured me that for one person of distinction and fortune there were twenty tradesmen that frequented his library.' This library has gone on prosperously from the out- set, growing constantly in size and influence. For thirty-five years, ending with his death in 1886, M r LLOYD P. SMITH was librarian. A man of rare abilities and peculiar fitness for the position, he was recog- nized in both Europe and America as a leader in the profession. Under his care and that of the other able men who have held the position, the books have been selected wisely and well cared for. Not being called on to meet the same popular demands that confront an ordinary public library, a large share of the income has been expended on costly works of permanent value relating to various subjects, especially to the fine arts. In 1869, D r JAMES RUSH left his large estate, amounting to $1,500,000, to establish the Ridgway 96 Public Libraries in America branch of the Philadelphia Library, and for its ac- commodation, a magnificent stone building, of which a view is given herewith, was erected at a cost of $800,000. The library now numbers 1 70,000 vol- umes, about equally divided between the Ridgway branch and the parent library at Locust Street, where the original building, erected in 1789, has been re- placed by a much more commodious one, enlarged to its present size in 1889 by a gift of $50,000 from M r HENRY C. LEA. The Philadelphia Library is entirely free to all comers as a reference library, like the Astor Library in New York; but a small fee is required of those not members of the company, who take books away from the building. Not only do such libraries serve the purpose of educating a community up to the support of a free library, but, as is often the case, they continue to be useful and to flourish side by side with the free library. In Boston, the Athenaeum, a high-priced subscription (or rather corporation) library, has received a decided impulse from the public library, and was never so flourishing as at present. And should the movement now on foot for the establishment in Philadelphia of a free library be successful, although the Library Com- pany may seem to suffer for a time, it is likely to be benefited in the long run. Anything which serves, as does a free library, to increase greatly the public taste and desire for books, makes an increased posi- tive demand for the peculiar advantages offered by a first-class subscription library. The Public Library of New Bedford may well be taken as an example of the regular free library founded I A few Representative Libraries 97 in pursuance of the State library law, especially as it was the first one so organized in Massachusetts. The first steps were taken at a meeting held within six weeks of the passage of the law in May, 1851. The year following the city passed an ordinance appropri- ating $1,500 for its establishment, and providing for its maintenance. The New Bedford Social Union transferred to the new library about 5,500 volumes which it had accumulated, forming a particularly good collection, and affording the library a favorable begin- ning. From M r GEORGE ROWLAND, Jun r , it received, in 1857, a gift of $1,000, the income to be applied to the purchase of more expensive works ; and in 1870, one of $50,000 from SYLVIA ANN HOWLAND for the same purpose, so that the library has had rare opportunities for acquiring a class of books better than those commonly found in popular public libra- ries. Other large gifts have been received, both of money and of books (not less than 10,000 volumes), showing the strong hold of the library on the affec- tions of the people. In 1857, the city erected a handsome brick building at a cost of about $40,000, which in 1887 was en- larged to nearly double its original capacity. The library now contains nearly 60,000 volumes. Much attention has been devoted to material illustrating local history, and a very interesting collection has already been acquired. From the beginning the library has been regarded as a part of the educational system, and has been made to co-operate in the school work in every way possible, teachers directing the reading of the pupils, and making the use of library books a definite feature of school work in history, language, and the sciences. 98 Public Libraries in America Thus the New Bedford Library exemplifies most of the characteristics of the Massachusetts public library : 1 i ) Establishment and support by municipal action. (2) Absorption of the older society library. (3) Reception of many generous gifts of money and of books. (4) The erection of a suitable and imposing building. (5) Accumulation and preservation of local memo- rabilia and materials for history. (6) Active and effective co-operation with the schools. (7) Entire freedom of use by the whole community. One of the most beautiful and satisfactory library buildings in the country is located at Minneapolis, and it houses one of the best of the city libraries. Its history well illustrates the rapid growth of institu- tions in the West, and the small beginnings from which large libraries often grow. In 1859, BAYARD TAYLOR lectured in Minneapolis, having made it a condition of his doing so that the proceeds should accrue to the benefit of some literary institution. This led to the establishment of the Athenaeum, incorporated in 1860, which in the course of a few years accumulated several hundred volumes, mainly from funds raised by lectures and other enter- tainments. In 1866, a small building was erected, $11,000 having been subscribed for the purpose. In 1870, D r KIRBY SPENCER left property which has risen in value until it amounts to over $200,000, the income to be used only in the purchase of books. In 1884, an Act of the Legislature was secured incorpor- A few Representative Libraries 99 ating the Public Library, the Athenaeum being merged in it, and providing by taxation funds for its support and for the erection of a building. The new struc- ture here shown was completed in 1889 at a cost of nearly $300,000, and is a model of convenience and usefulness as well as of architectural taste and elegance. During most of its history the library, of which Professor J. K. HOSMER is now librarian, has been in the charge of M r HERBERT PUTNAM, a son of the late GEORGE P. PUTNAM, the New York publisher, and he made it known far and wide for liberality and progressiveness of administration. Contrary to the practice of most public libraries, readers are here ad- mitted quite freely to the book-shelves to make their own selections or to read in the alcoves ; and all restric- tions not absolutely essential to the safety and good order of the library are removed. The fact that such a policy has been pursued for years without loss or damage to the library is not only a testimony to the high character of the people, but an indication that similar freedom of access might be granted elsewhere. The Minneapolis Library is one of the few having museums and art galleries as accessories. The new building provides in its upper story an admirable hall for the exhibition of paintings, and contains, besides lecture-rooms, the natural- history collections of the Minnesota Academy of Natural Sciences. In this regard the free libraries of the United States exhibit quite a marked difference from those of Eng- land, where museums of art and science are regarded as essential concomitants of the library. Such com- bination is rarely attempted here, and is perhaps wholly confined to places where these institutions have ioo Public Libraries in America been built up by associations, and have become free under municipal direction by later arrangement. This was true at Minneapolis, and similarly at Hartford, Springfield (Massachusetts), and some other places. The library at Buffalo, occupying a fine new building, with art gallery, historical museum, and library in the same structure, is not yet free to public use. Our public libraries, established as such, have gen- erally been held strictly to their purpose of supplying reading to the people, one reason being that the de- mand for books is so great that the library itself ab- sorbs all available funds and occupies all available room. As time goes by, the museums and art galleries now combined with libraries will likely be separated from them, giving to both larger opportunities for de- velopment and allowing more convenient use. With the growth in taste and culture, museums and galleries will increase in number, but it will probably be found mutually advantageous not to establish them in close connection with public libraries. The Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore may be taken as a good type of the free library not established by the community itself, but given to it outright by a generous benefactor. Baltimore has long had excel- lent reference libraries, its Peabody Institute being in the very front rank of such institutions. But the lack of a general lending library was apparent ; and in 1882, M r PRATT, a native of Massachusetts, who had acquired wealth in business in Baltimore, determined to supply that deficiency, and with great wisdom set about the work while he was yet living, instead of deferring it until his death, at the risk of that thwart- A few Representative Libraries 101 ing of intention through legal complications so often happening, and notably in the case of the TILDEN bequest to New York. 1 M r PRATT'S method of establishing his trust was as wise as his purpose was generous. His proposition, 1 The Hon. SAMUEL J. TILDEN, dying in 1886, left a will dated in 1884, devising the bulk of his immense property, esti- mated at $7,000,000, to trustees, for the purpose of founding a free public library in New York city. At the suit of a nephew, an heir-at-law, this provision of the will was defeated in the courts, being finally declared invalid by the court of- last resort in the State. This case attracted much attention on account of the impor- tance and magnitude of the interests involved, and especially because the result seemed to show that so astute a lawyer as M r TILDEN, with the aid of the perhaps equally competent practitioners who assisted in drawing the will, was incompetent to state his intentions so that they could be properly carried out. Professor J. B. AMES, of the Harvard Law School, in The Harvard Law Review for i5th March 1892, ascribes the mi>carriage of the Tilden Trust to defects in the legislative and judicial system of New York, by which public bequests are deprived of that protection accorded them in most of the States. But it is hardly to be doubted that the real gist of the diffi- culty lay where it is placed by M r JAMES L. HIGH in an article on 'The Tilden Trust and Why it Failed,' in The Atlantic Monthly for October, 1893. His statement is that the objection upon which the judgment cf the Court of Appeals was largely based ' may perhaps be best expressed in the statement that it nowhere clearly appears in the will that the testator intended to found a free library ... in the City of New York.' However, M r TII.DEN'S relatives and heirs were not all con- tent to see his apparent intention frustrated, and one of them, M r!> WM. A. HAZARD, has deeded to the executors, for the pur- pose of establishing The Tilden Library, her entire rights in the property, estimated at over $2,000,000, an amount which, if judiciously employed, will found an institution capable of doing great good. For farther information consult, in addition to the articles referred to above, Library Journal, xvi.(i89i), 337-346. IO2 Public Libraries in America readily accepted by the municipal government, was that he should turn over to the city the sum of $833,000, on condition that it should guarantee to the library an annual income of $50,000. Thus an in- come was secured equal in stability to the credit of the city itself. M r PRATT also paid the cost of the library building, which was not far from, $400,000 additional. Five branches have been established in different parts of the city, and the library is thus reaching the entire community with its helpful influence, M r PRATT'S wish being, above all else, to carry the advantages of a large and well-selected library to the doors of the people. Its annual circulation is about 450,000 volumes, and the reading-rooms are very largely patronized. A pamphlet has recently been issued in Peterbor- ough, New Hampshire, claiming for the library in that town recognition as the first free public library organ- ized in the country, ' or,' in the language of the pamphlet, ' we might even say in the world ; for the European municipal libraries, some of which have existed for over 300 years, are not supported by pop- ular taxation and correspond only in name with our modern town libraries.' Peterborough in 1833 voted to employ a certain sum of money (which, having been raised by State taxation on banks, was distributed to the towns by the State to be used for some ' educational purpose ') in the purchase of books for a town library to be free to the people of the town. This action antedates by sixteen years the first law (that of New Hampshire) providing for town support of libraries, and it seems quite likely that it does present the first case of a free library supported by A fav Representative Libraries 103 public funds. D r ABIEL ABBOT was active in selecting the books and forming the library, which ' grew steadily from its foundation, the town paying annually forty- five dollars and upwards for its support.' In the ab- sence of direct evidence for or against the theory, it is easy to believe that the success of this experiment was largely instrumental in bringing about the legisla- tion of 1849, by which New Hampshire, first of all the States, favored the establishment of free town libraries. The Peterborough Library, beginning in 1833 with about a hundred books, and now numbering 8,000 volumes, has received numerous gifts of books and money; and in 1893 it moved into a beautiful new building costing $20,000, with a capacity of 40,000 volumes, the gift of friends of the library. No more interesting chapter in library history has been written than the Report of the Massachusetts Library Commission for 1891, containing historical sketches of all the public libraries in the State ; and to that Report the reader is referred for many additional examples of successful and useful libraries growing from the feeblest beginnings, and also for numerous practical suggestions from experience as to the best methods of securing the establishment and mainte- nance of a library. CHAPTER XII SPECIAL LIBRARIES The central fact in civil society is the division of labor. W. T. HARRIS. *~PHAT account of the public libraries of America would be incomplete which did not include the large number of important special libraries belonging to various societies and institutions, but practically open to the public for serious research and study. The Historical Societies, located in nearly every State, have libraries which are semi-public. Those of the Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Long Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Minnesota Historical Societies, and the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, Massachusetts, are especially noteworthy for their completeness, the efficiency of their management, and their service to the cause of literature in their own department. The New Eng- land Historic Genealogical Society in Boston, mak- ing a specialty of local history and genealogy, has gathered a considerable library in these classes. All these libraries are freely resorted to by inquirers for historical information, and contribute largely to the public welfare. In many States the State Libraries are also of great value to the community, being used extensively as free reference-libraries for the benefit of all comers. Those of Massachusetts, New York, and California Special Libraries 105 are among the largest and most general in character, the majority of the State collections being composed chiefly of law books and public documents. Various scientific societies and academies, existing in nearly every State, have also accumulated fine col- lections of scientific books, and these too are gener- ally open to any one who can really make good use of them. They are thus centres of true scientific education and a valuable concomitant of the public library, which is usually unable to go beyond popular science. Such libraries are connected with the Amer- ican Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, the Boston Natural History Society, the Essex Institute at Salem, Massachusetts, and the New York, Philadel- phia, St Louis, and California Academies of Science. 1 Mention should also be made of the college and 1 The city of Washington has now a noteworthy congeries of libraries scientific or special in character. Among the largest are those of No. of Vols. Congress 675,000 House of Representatives 130,000 Surgeon General's Office 105,000 Senate 75,ooo Patent Office 60,000 Bureau of Education 50,000 Department of State 50,000 War Department 33> oo Geological Survey 3,ooo The library of the Surgeon General's office has acquired a world-wide reputation not alone for its completeness as a med- ical library, though it is probably unsurpassed in its specialty, but also for its admirable printed Index-Catalogue, a monument of painstaking and intelligent industry. Fourteen volumes have been printed, and two more are needed to complete the work. Each volume contains about 1,000 royal-octavo pages printed in two columns, much of it in solid nonpareil. References are made under author and subject, not only to the 105,000 volumes in the library, but (in the fourteen volumes already issued) to io6 Public Libraries in America university libraries, in many cases freely accessible to the public. If there were no other public libraries, those of the colleges would do much toward supply- ing their place, so far as providing books for the literary and studious portion of the community is concerned. That of Harvard University 2 was for two centuries the largest library in the country, and is now surpassed only by the Congressional and Boston Public Libra- ries. Yale has also an excellent one, particularly rich in Americana and in works on Oriental subjects. Other New England colleges, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams, Brown University, and the Univer- sity of Vermont, all have valuable libraries ; the last was lately enriched by the addition of the private library, mostly in linguistics, of the eminent writer, GEORGE P. MARSH, presented by the late Hon. FRED- ERICK BILLINGS, who was also the donor of the hand- some new library building of the University, designed by RICHARDSON. In New York, the libraries of Columbia College and Cornell University are deserving of especial no- tice. The former, opened freely to all for reference and study, is so liberally administered that it is used very largely by persons outside the college, and is among the most useful libraries in the city. Cornell has one 135 ooo pamphlets and 462,000 articles in journals and transac- tions. It is by far the most extensive library catalogue yet printed excepting that of the British Museum, now in process of issue ; and its index-features constitute a model for the gen- eral scientific index suggested on page 86. 2 The accompanying illustration is taken from an excellent account of the Harvard library, by M r CHARLES KNOWLES BOI.TON, now Librarian of the Public Library, Brookline, Massachusetts. Special Libraries 107 of the finest library buildings in the country, recently erected at a cost of $250,000, the gift of HENRY W. SAGE, who also presented an endowment fund of $300,000 ; and the library is very strong in some departments, particularly in history (including the rich historical library of ex-president ANDREW D. WHITE, presented by him) and in the literatures of continental Europe. The University of Pennsylvania also has a large and elegant new library building and a fine collection of books. The same is true of the University of Michigan, Oberlin College, and many other institutions for higher education ; indeed, nearly all the colleges in the land are giving greatly increased attention to their libraries and library buildings. The new University of Chicago created a sensation in the year 1891 by its purchase in Germany of an entire library of 150,000 volumes, placing it at one stroke in the lead, as to number of volumes, of all the Uni- versity libraries, Harvard alone excepted. Following is a brief comparative statement of the foremost col- lege and university libraries : Institution Founded No. Vols, Harvard L' Diversity l6-}6 4^O,OOO University of Chicago .... 1890 I7OI 250,000 180,000 I7C7 165,000 1868 150,000 University of Pennsylvania . . I7S5 1746 100,000 9 1, coo l877 90,000 University of Michigan .... 1841 I77O 80,000 7t;,ooo 1767 73,000 1821 61,000 Johns Hopkins University . . . 1876 60,000 loS Public Libraries in America Another class of libraries, even better indicated by the term 'public' than those connected with some society or institution, is composed of endowed free reference-libraries, of which the following may be cited as leading examples : Library and City Founded No. Vols ASTOR, New York City .... LENOX, New York City .... NEWBERRY, Chicago 1849 1870 1887 245,000 3O,OCO 115 ooo PEABODY Institute, Baltimore GROSVENOR, Buffalo . ... 1857 iSCQ 1 1 5,000 40 ooo WATKINSON, Hartford .... BANCROFT, San Francisco . . . SUTRO, San Francisco .... * Not yet opene 1858 1859 * i 45,000 50,000 200,000 In many cities and towns libraries of importance are maintained by the Young Men's Christian Associ- ations, and these are free to the public except that in most cases only members draw books for home use. By the nature of these associations, pledging them to benevolent efforts, the ' missionary ' features of library work are prominent with them, and their libraries reach beneficially large classes most likely to profit by their use, as being dependent on them, in the ab- sence of a free library, for what of culture they re- ceive. This is true of the large and well-selected Y. M. C. A. libraries of New York City and Brooklyn, and of very many others in hundreds of places not yet reached by the free-library movement. Other libraries serving considerable numbers of people are those connected with various fraternities like the Free Masons and Odd Fellows. The Odd Fellows' library in San Francisco numbers nearly Special Libraries 109 45,000 well-selected volumes, and is probably the largest of its kind in the United States. The library, with its reading-room, is also one of the leading features of many city clubs. Noteworthy among these are the Century, Union League, and University, of New York, the Union League and Rittenhouse in Philadelphia, and the Maryland in Baltimore. 8 It thus appears that access to fairly good and well- appointed libraries is very commonly had by large classes in the community, even where no free public library exists. Still it must be noted that with all the advantages offered by the various organizations re- ferred to, only a small portion of the whole popula- tion is reached. To the great mass of the people, even of those who care to read good literature, the free public library comes as the first and only oppor- tunity. Something about the fact and the sense of ownership in the library, through its being the people's own, supported by taxation and governed by their representatives, makes the average man accept and use to their utmost the opportunities of the public library, while he will turn aside from library privileges in any other guise. There is always a marked con- trast between the use of even a free reference-library like the Astor, and the reference department of a city library like that of Boston, to the advantage of the 3 On second thought it was deemed unwise to attempt to include here, as had been intended, a statistical account of club libraries. Such libraries can hardly be called even semi-public; at the same time, some of them will bear comparison as to extent and excellence with many of the libraries specifically referred to in this chapter. In a future edition, should there seem to be a demand for it, a more detailed account of these may be inserted. iio Public Libraries in America latter. The inference would seem to be that the people are not yet educated up to the extensive use of a reference library; and that such education will be most readily accomplished through the free use of a circulating department. When this has been per- ceived, founders of libraries have put the popular feature foremost, as in the case of the CARNEGIE libraries of Allegheny and Pittsburg, the ENOCH PRATT library of Baltimore, and many others of less note. For the American people the library of the future is unquestionably the free public library, which for the highest success must be truly public, either established and maintained at public expense, or, if liberally en- dowed by private benefactions, still brought under municipal ownership and, to some extent, municipal control. A library existing as a charity, managed by a close corporation, will undoubtedly render exceed- ing service ; but its power for good cannot equal that of the public library treated as part of the educational system of the State, and tending ever to increase the self-respect and self-reliance of the community. CHAPTER XIII PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN CANADA . . . An union in partition. SHAKESPEARE. HP HE library history of Canada is not unlike that -*- of the United States, and began with the estab- lishment of a subscription library in Quebec in 1779 on a basis similar to that of FRANKLIN'S Philadelphia institution, started forty-seven years earlier. The company embraced officers of the garrison, leading merchants, and other citizens, the Governor being among the foremost and writing to England on behalf of the subscribers for ^500 worth of books, which were selected by RICHARD CUMBERLAND, the dramatist. This library, referred to in LAMBERT'S Travels, in 1 806, as the only library in Canada, had a slow growth, numbering 4,000 volumes in 1822, and, being partly burned with the Parliament Buildings in 1854, con- tained only 7,000 when made over to the Quebec Literary and Historical Society in 1866. While the province of Quebec has, both at Mon- treal and the city of Quebec, large university libraries, it is only in the province of Ontario that any effort has been made to establish public libraries. In 1848, just when the movement was taking form in England and the United States, a school bill was drafted by the Superintendent of Education, D r RYERSON, which em- 112 Public Libraries in America braced provisions for the formation of libraries, both school and township. Not until 1854, however, was the Act passed by Parliament, and its conditions were such that it did not in effect bring about the establish- ment of free town libraries, while it resulted in the multiplication of good school libraries. The place of public libraries was partially supplied by the ' Mechan- ics Institutes ' which were formed in very many towns, and to which the Educational Department has given small grants proportionate to the amounts raised by them. Over one hundred towns have these Institutes, and in most cases the annual fee is one dollar, addi- tional grants being made by the town or village councils. In 1882, a Free Libraries Act was passed, similar to those of Great Britain and the United States, fixing the maximum of taxation at one-half mill on the an- nual assessment. Nine cities and towns have availed themselves of it, as follows : Name of Town When established No. of Vols. [1891] Berlin ? T.,t>2 Brantford .... .... ? 8 Q77 Chatham ? 2,71 C ? 6,^ Hamilton 1889 l6,t?K St Catherines ? 6,206 Simcoe 1868 T 7OO Toronto 1881 67 8?4 Waterloo ? 4 QOI The library at Toronto, altogether the leading one in the list, has a circulation of about 450,000 volumes annually, rftaintains two branches, and is supported at a cost of over $40,000 per year, of which three-fourths Public Libraries in Canada 113 is raised by taxation. It owes much of its success to the able management of its librarian, M r JAMES BAIN, Jun r , who, holding the position from the first, has car- ried into its administration not only a thorough ac- quaintance with the best methods in vogue in England and the United States, but also a high appreciation of the possibilities latent in the library as an agency for public culture. In the Toronto library a librarian from the States would feel quite at home, the arrangement of the library in its different departments and the methods of administration being such as are most approved among us. One exception is to be noted, namely, the use of the ' indicator,' an apparatus quite common in the larger libraries of Great Britain but never a perma- nent accessory in the United States. 1 Outside the regular public libraries of Canada (con- 1 Its object is to indicate whether a given book is in or out, and so save time and patience of both applicant and atten'dant. It consists of a large frame containing a great number of very small pigeon-holes, open through and numbered to represent all the books in the library. These holes are occupied by pins having one end red and the other blue. When the books are all in, the pins present their red ends to the front of the counter, and when one is taken out the attendant turns its pin end for end, the process being reversed when it is returned. If kept constantly corrected so as to show at every moment the exact status of the library, the indicator is of much service, and in actual practice in the Toronto library it is highly es- teemed, M r BAIN expressing surprise that we do not use it. But the indicator has not proved a success where it has been tried in our libraries ; for example, in Boston after an experi- ment extending over several years it was discontinued. No theory is offered to explain the indicator's success with the one public and failure with the other. Of course the applica- tion of the indicator to a very large library would be impos- sible. Where used it is confined to the classes of books most 8 114 Public Libraries in America fined, as has been stated, to the province of Ontario), the principal semi-public libraries are as follows : No. of Vols. Ottawa. Parliament 150,000 Toronto. Legislative 70,000 Toronto. University of Toronto . . 37,000 Halifax. Legislative 12,000 Quebec. Legislative 40,000 Quebec. Laval University .... 100,000 Montreal. McGill University .... 75,000 Montreal. Montreal College .... 40,000 Kingston. Queen's College 20,000 In Winnipeg there is a library of about 20,000 vol- umes, now subject to a small fee, but liberally admin- istered, and likely soon to become free. called for, a few thousand volumes being all that can be brought into its scope, unless it be made unwieldy and cumbersome. While on this subject, it may be in place to refer to the very ingenious device (but one not commending itself to librarians generally) employed in the Public Library of Sacramento, Cali- fornia, as a combination of catalogue, charging system, and indicator. The library is arranged as a hollow square, visitors being admitted to its centre, where on three sides a light rail separates them from the alcoves. Along the top of this rail runs a wire on which are strung the catalogue cards, having two rows of squares ruled off near their lower edge for punch- ing. When a book is drawn, the upper square of a pair is punched, and when it is returned the lower one ; so that a glance at a card gives the author, title, and number of the book, and also shows whether it is * in ' or ' out.' This chapter is based on a valuable article on the libraries of Can- ada, by M r BAIN, Librarian at Toronto, in the Library Journal, xii. (1887), 406, and its statistical part on Statistics of Public Libraries in the United States and Canada, issued in November 1893 by the United States Bureau of Education. For farther notice of these Statis- tics, see Appendix V to this work. CHAPTER XIV THE FUTURE OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY We have raised expectations that we are bound to fulfil. JUSTIN WINSOK. E cannot observe the rapid growth of libraries during the last half century without being led to ask in wonder what is to be the result in the fu- ture. In 1850 there were in the United States about 100 libraries of 5,000 volumes or more, aggregating something like one million volumes. The largest library in the country was that of Harvard College, numbering 70,000 volumes. The Boston Public Library and the Library of Congress, now together numbering over a million volumes, were practically not in existence. The Astor had not been founded, and New York had no large library except the Mer- cantile, numbering but a few thousands. In 1890, the number of libraries reported in the country was 4,000, and the number of volumes 27,000,000, at least fifty libraries having 50,000 each. Massachusetts has in its free public libraries alone more volumes than were in all the libraries in the United States in 1850. And the movement is now more rapid than ever before, as seen in the establish- ment of libraries both by private beneficence and by cities and towns, and in the adoption of legisla- tion calculated to foster and develop the movement. 1 1 6 Public Libraries in America The libraries established for some years are outgrowing their buildings and calling for larger ones, and those now being erected plan for hundreds of thousands of volumes where a score of thousands would have been deemed sufficient a few years ago. There is a law affecting the growth of libraries not unlike that of geometric progression. By the prin- ciple of noblesse oblige, a library which has attained a certain size is called upon to grow much faster than when it was smaller. Each year's additions result in a good many books which are but beginnings of series to be indefinitely continued ; or the enlargement of the scope of the library by the purchase of books in some department hitherto neglected makes it neces- sary to cover the increased ground every year there- after. Not long ago the trustees of the Astor Library complained that they could hardly use any of their large income for the purchase of really new books, on account of the demands for continuation of series already commenced. So with Harvard University Li- brary, where it is reported that over $7,000 is required annually for subscriptions to serials and for other standing charges entered against the income as liabili- ties to be met before a dollar can be appropriated for new books. As our numerous libraries grow, this tendency to demand largely increasing funds and to require larger and still larger buildings gives serious occasion to pause and look the matter over to see what can be done by way of relief. Co-operation between libraries in one locality (or near enough together to make co-operation practi- cable) suggests itself as a partial remedy. Up to the present time nearly every public library has pursued The Future of the Public Library 1 1 7 its own independent course in accumulating books to the extent of its resources, with a view to making a general and well-rounded collection. Attention is now directed to the fact that in some places, as for ex- ample, in New York City, and in Boston and its vicinity, several libraries exist in near contiguity, each covering in part the same ground, and expending in the aggregate large sums of money in duplicating books of which one copy would be enough for the neighborhood, and in making small collections in a good many different departments. By combining forces and agreeing that one field of effort should be covered by one library and a different one by another, much larger collections could be secured in each specialty, so that the congeries of libraries would practically constitute one large library in several departments. Each library must have certain books for itself, even if this necessitates their duplication many times in the same community. The first few thousand vol- umes, consisting of the ordinary reference books and the standard authors in various departments, must be common to all libraries, except those strictly devoted to some specialty. But there certainly should be such a relation between the different libraries established in any city that they will divide between them, on some proper principle of differentiation, the field of literature, beyond the comparatively narrow range of books necessary for each to have. This principle has been happily carried out in Hartford, Connnecticut, where, in 1867 M r DAVID W ATKINSON left a fund for the establishment of a public reference library. Very wisely he put on his self-perpetuating board of trus- tees, as ex officio members, representatives of the Ii8 Public Libraries in America existing libraries, of which there were several in town, in order to secure harmonious interworking of them all ; and the result has been that each of the libraries, having its own field, has cultivated it well, leaving to the Watkinson Library the comparatively limited scope of a general central collection, which has already been enabled to attain decided eminence. It certainly seems highly desirable that the relation thus indicated should not only be established between the several libraries in a city, but should also be made to include those of suburban towns and even the important collections at a considerable distance. But while little has yet been done looking to such an arrangement, there are tokens of its being not far distant. Indeed the Crane Free Library of Quincy, Massachusetts, under the direction, as president of the board of trustees, of the Hon. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, has lately definitely entered on the policy of curtailing its own scope, and systematically referring readers to other libraries for such books as fall out- side its prescribed field. 1 Two things are requisite in carrying out such a scheme of co-operation: (i) A duly organized cen- tral agency of some kind, and (2) A low rate of pos- tage on library books. A reduction on the rate of book postage has been urged upon Government by the associated librarians for several years past, but is not easily carried. When the full meaning of the request for it, and the good results aimed at are seen by our legislators, it is likely to be secured. As to central agencies for carrying out the co-operative work, either the State Library Commissions, already established in some States, or the local associations of librarians 1 Annual Report, Crane Library, 1893. The Future of the Public Library 1 19 and library trustees, may be regarded as promising to meet the requirement. Under the direction of the Regents of the University, the State Library System of New York seems to be rapidly assuming a solidarity and completeness of organization which promises to fulfil this ideal of co-operation among libraries. But it remains an open question whether it is wise for this work to be taken in hand by Government, or whether it may not better be done by voluntary associa- tion. 2 But however a more intimate relation and co- working between individual libraries is to be effected, this is doubtless the most important new phase of the library work of the near future. 8 A combined catalogue of contiguous libraries at once occurs as a hopeful means of co-operation. There are many practical difficulties in the way of this scheme, but a beginning has been made in the catalogue issued a few years ago of periodicals taken by the different libraries in Boston and Cambridge, and in the handbook of the New York Library Club, in which is given an account of each library in the city, and an indication of the lines in which each is specialized. Co-operation in these directions is ' in the air,' and so plainly indicates a great economy of resources that it is sure to be secured in one way or another. When one looks at the many respects in which radi- cal changes seem impending in methods of library 2 This question is ably discussed by D r JUSTIN WINSOR, Li- brarian of Harvard University, in an article in The Atlantic Monthly for June, 1893. 8 M r HERBERT PUTNAM has made useful suggestions on library co-operation in a paper on ' Bibliograpic Bureaus ' read before the American Library Association and printed in the Library Journal, xii. (1887), 409. I2O Public Libraries in America work, in buildings and catalogues and administration, it is easily seen that the library movement is hardly beyond infancy as yet, and that its day of com- plete development is far in the future. One of our university librarians, a few years since, addressed the American Library Association on the subject of 'A Librarian's Duty to his Successors,' pointing out the mistake of large investment of time or money in es- tablished methods, liable soon to become quite out- worn and unfit for the newer times. The future of public libraries is difficult to foretell. We may be sure that for many years yet to come libraries will grow rapidly in size and number; that ingenuity rightly applied will ever be bringing into use new apparatus and new methods, so that what are now of the newest will soon be antiquated ; also that the people at large will increasingly support and use the libraries, and that the free public library, especially, will take its place among the chief agents of civilization. APPENDIX I SCHEME OF CLASSIFICATION THE following scheme of classes is an elaboration of the simple arrangement for the smallest libraries, given on page 53. A few numbers have been omitted at the end of each general division to provide for the insertion of additional classes ; these may, however, be inserted at any point by giv- ing them the number of the preceding class with a letter added. The books in each class are supposed to be numbered con- secutively. Subdivisions may be made as needed in any class by assigning blocks of numbers to a particular subject, as de- scribed on page 54. Any one using this scheme should feel free to change the numbers or the order of the classes as may seem best to fit the needs of a particular case. The scheme is offered rather as a general guide, than as something to be followed with absolute adherence to detail. 1 Fiction. English and American in one class, ar- No class number. ranged alphabetically by authors (anony- mous works alphabetically by titles). Translations of foreign fiction also in- cluded. 1 A separate edition of this scheme of classification with an alpha- betical index and careful directions for its use has been prepared by the publishers of this book, and will be sold by them at one dollar per copy, bound in cloth. 122 Appendix I Classification Juvenile Books. f Including not simply stories, but all Use J . in place of ] books calculated for young readers. Ar- class ^ ranged alphabetically by authors, etc. as I above. English and American Literature; Universal Literature. Class No. 1. Periodicals. 2. Miscellany and humor. 3. English authors (arranged alphabetically, with biographies and critical works on each author following his works). 4. American authors (arranged alphabetically, with biographies and critical works on each author following his works). 5. English literature ; histories, etc. 6. " " collections. 7. American " histories. 8. " " collections. 9. Drama (Eng. and Amer.) ; histories and col- lections. 10. Poetry (Eng. and Amer.) ; histories and col- lections. 11. Fiction (Eng. and Amer.) ; histories and criti- cism. 12. Universal literature ; history, etc. 13. Criticism; science and art of poetry, the drama, fiction, etc., (except works refer- ring to the literature of a particular lan- guage.) Appendix I Classification 123 History. Class No. 15. Philosophy and study of history. 1 6. History of civilization. 17. Historical essays and miscellanies. 1 8. Chronology. 19. Ancient history ; general. 20. Oriental. 21. . Egypt. 22. The Jews. 23. Greece. 24. Rome. 25. Middle Ages. The Crusades. 26. Europe, modern. 2 7. England and Great Britain : general 28. England ; before Norman conquest 29. 1070 to 1600. 30. 1 7th century. 31. 1 8th and igth centuries. 32. Scotland and Wales. 33. Ireland. 34. France ; general. 35. Before the Revolution. 36. Revolution and to 1815. 37. Since 1815. 38. Germany. The Netherlands. Belgium. 39. Austria and Hungary. Switzerland. The Dan- ubian and Balkan States. 40. Italy. 41. Spain and Portugal. 42. Greece and Turkey. 43. Russia. Poland. 1 24 Afpendix I Classification History (Continued). Class No. 44. Scandinavia. 45. America in general. 46. Discovery and early voyages. 47. Indians. 48. North America ; general. 49. United States " 50. Colonial period. 51. Revolution. Also 1789-1812. 52. War of 1812 and to 1860. 53. Civil war. 54. Later history. 55. New England. 56. Maine. N 57. New Hampshire. This arrangement is sug- 1:8 Vermont gested for a Kbrary m New \ England. Elsewhere other 59. Massachusetts. F StatS wQuld be giyen gped . 60. Connecticut. fically. 61. Rhode Island. J 62. Middle States. 63. Southern States. 64. Western States. 65. Pacific slope. Alaska. 66. Canada. British America. 67. Mexico. Central America. West Indies. 68. South America. 69. Asia; general. 70. Persia, Arabia, etc. 71. India. 72. China and Japan. 73. Africa; general. 74. Egypt, modern. 75. Australia and other islands. Appendix I Classification 125 Biography. Class No. 81. Collective works. 82. Individual biographies (arranged alphabetically by names of persons written about, rather than by authors). Voyages and Travels. Geography. 85. Descriptive geography. Atlases. Maps. 86. Art of travel, etc. 87. Voyages; collections. 88. Travels around the world, etc. 89. North America. 90. United States. 91. New England. 92. Middle States. 93. Southern States. 94. Western States. 95. Pacific slope. Alaska. 96. Canada. British America. 97. Mexico. Central America. W. Indies. 98. South America. 99. Europe ; general. 100. Great Britain. 10 1. France. Spain and Portugal. 102. Germany. Austria. Netherlands. 103. Italy. Switzerland. 104. Greece and Turkey. 105. Russia. Poland. 1 06. Scandinavia. Iceland. 107. Asia; general. 1 08. Syria and Palestine. Asia Minor. 109. Persia, Arabia, etc. 1 26 Appendix I Classification Travels (Continued): Class No. no. India. in. China. Corea. Japan. 112. Central Asia. Siberia. 113. Africa. 114. Northern Africa and the Desert. 115. Egypt. The Soudan. The Nile. 1 1 6. Abyssinia. Madagascar. 117. Central and Southern Africa. 1 1 8. Australia and Polynesia. 119. Polar regions. 1 20. Islands. Sciences. 125. History and philosophy of the sciences. 126. Scientific societies and academies. Periodicals. 127. Essays and miscellanies. 128. Evolution and cosmology. 129. Natural history (works combining zoology, bot- any, etc.). 130. Biology and embryology. 131. Comparative anatomy and physiology. 132. Zoology. 133. Lowest forms of animal life. 134. Mollusca. Insects. 135. Fishes. 136. Reptiles. 137. Birds. 138. Mammalia. 139. Man. Anthropology, ethnology, etc. 140. Botany; general. 141. Cryptogamia. 142. Of countries and localities. Appendix I Classification 127 Sciences (Continued'). Class No. 143. Geology : general works. 144. Of countries and localities. 145. Mineralogy and crystallography. 146. Chemistry ; general. 147. Inorganic. 148. Organic. 149. Analysis. Text-books. 150. Physics. 151. Heat. 152. Light. Optics. 153. Electricity. 154. Telegraph and telephone. Phonograph. 155. Electric lighting. 156. Electro-dynamics. 157. Sound. 158. Hydraulics. 159. Mechanics. 1 60. Physical geography. 1 6 1. Meteorology. 162. Astronomy; general. 163. Descriptive. 164. Practical. 165^ Almanacs (not statistical). 1 66. Mathematical sciences : general. 167. Arithmetic. Book-keeping. 1 6 8. Algebra. 169. Geometry. 1 70. Higher mathematics. 171. Geodesy and surveying. 172. Navigation. 128 Appendix I Classification Useful Arts. Class No. 179. Useful arts : general. 1 80. Patents. Exhibitions. 181. Mechanics. Philosophy of machinery. 182. Properties of materials. 183. Mechanical drawing. 184. Hydro-mechanics. Aeronautics. 185. Steam and the steam engine. 1 86. Marine engineering. Steam navigation. 187. The locomotive. Railroads. Street railroads. 1 88. Electrical engineering. 189. Civil engineering. 190. Military art and science. 191. Drainage and sewerage. 192. Water supply. 193. Burial of the dead. Cremation. 194. Bridge building. 195. Precious metals. 196. Iron and steel ; other metals. 197. Mining. Smelting. 198. Coal. Oil. Fuels. 199. Manufactures from metals. 200. Wood. 201. Textile. Production of cotton, wool, etc. 202. Dyeing, etc. 203. Chemical technology. 204. Silk culture and manufacture. 205. Carpentry and woodwork. Building. 206. Masonry and brickwork. 207. Plumbing and house sanitation. 208. Warming and ventilation. 209. Constructive arts and trades, not otherwise specified. Appendix I Classification 129 Useful Arts (Continued). Class No. 210. Shipbuilding. Naval science. 211. Clocks, watches, etc. Scientific instruments. 212. Weights, measures, and coinage. 213. Writing. Phonography. Type- writing, etc. Business forms. 214. Printing. Bookbinding. 215. Mechanic arts not already specified. 216. Domestic economy. 217. Cookery and foods. 218. Hygiene. Public health. 219. Physical culture. Athletics. 2 20. Outdoor sports : general. 221. Hunting and fishing. 222. Boating. 223. Cycling. 224. Horse-racing. The horse. Veterinary science. 225. The dog. Falconry, etc. 226. Poultry. Pigeons. Pet animals. 227. Human anatomy and physiology. 228. Medicine; general. 229. Practical. 230. Nursing. 231. Agriculture; general. 232. Domestic animals. The dairy. 233. Care of lands. Agricultural drainage. 234. Forestry and hydrology. 235. Landscape gardening. Parks. Cemeteries. 236. Crops and their treatment. 237. Horticulture. 238. Floriculture. 239. Special products; honey, sugar, tobacco, etc. 240. Fisheries ; sea products. 9 130 Appendix I Classification Fine Arts, etc. Class No. 245. History, philosophy, and study of the fine arts. 246. ^Esthetics. 247. Archaeology. 248. Painting ; history and general works. 249. Italian school. 250. Other continental schools. 251. British and American. 252. Practical works. 253. Galleries and collections. 254. Sculpture ; general and modern. 255. Ancient. 256. Monumental art. Inscriptions. 257. Numismatics. 258. Bronzes. Bric-a-brac. 259. Pottery and porcelain. 260. Architecture; general. 261. Ancient. 262. Mediaeval and modern. 263. Practical works. 264. Decoration and ornament. 265. Drawing and design. 266. Art needlework, etc. Costume. 267. Illumination, alphabets, etc. 268. Engraving. 269. Collections of engravings, photographs, etc. 2 70. Photography. 271. Music; history and general works. 272. Instruments. 273. Singing. The voice. 274. Elocution and oratory. 275. Selections for recitation, etc. Appendix I Classification 131 Fine Arts, etc. (Continued). Class No. 276. Indoor amusements. 277. Games. Political and Social. 2 79. Political science ; general. Government. 280. Collected works of statesmen. 281. Freedom and democracy. 282. Suffrage and representation. 283. Administration. Civil service. 284. Municipal government. 285. Taxation. Public funds and debts. 286. Protection and free trade. 287. English constitution and government. 288. Other governments, outside of the United States. 289. United States government. 290. Slavery and secession. The negroes. 291. Indians and the United States. 292. Immigration. Foreign element. 293. Temperance in politics. 294. Public lands. 295. United States finances. 296. Foreign relations. 297. Party politics. Presidential elections. 298. Congress. 299. Public documents ; United States and States. 300. Law ; general. 301. International law. 302. Common law; text-books. Law reports. 303. Criminal law and trials. 304. Law of patents and copyright. 305 . Statutes. 132 Appendix I Classification Political and Social (Continued'). Class No. 306. Political economy. 307. Land and its tenure. 308. Labor and wages. Prices. Cooperation. 309. Trade unions. 310. Capital and investments. Interest. 311. Finance and banking. Money. 312. Corporations. Monopolies. 313. Socialism. Communism. 314. Population. 315. Marriage and divorce. The family. 316. Woman question. 317. Pauperism. 318. Public charities and corrections. 319. Prisons. Reformatories. 320. Crime. 321. Children, destitute and criminal. 322. Asylums. 323. Deaf and dumb, blind, idiots, etc. 324. Insanity and insane asylums. 325. Relief associations. Building societies. 326. Freemasons. 327. Other secret societies. 328. Clubs, etc. 329. Insurance. 330. Education; history, philosophy, etc. 331. Organization and superintendence. 332. Teaching and accessory work. 333. School discipline, buildings, and hygiene. 334. Kindergarten; child -culture. 335. Education of women. 336. Classical studies ; collegiate education. 337. Technical and industrial training. Appendix I Classification 133 Political and Social (Continued). Class No. 338. Professional training. 339. Educational institutions. 340. Chautauqua. Home culture. Summer schools. University extension. 341. Education in relation to religion and morals. 342. Statistics; methods, etc. Census reports. 343. Almanacs and annuals. 344. Other statistical works. 345. Commerce, general. 346. Of the United States. 347. Of other countries. 348. Internal commerce. Railroad transportation. Local transit. 349. Water transportation, canals, etc. 350. Post-office ; telegraph and telephone. Philosophy and Religion. 352. Philosophy; history, etc. 353. General works. Systems, etc. 354. Miscellanies. 355. Metaphysics. 356. Logic. 357. Psychology. 358. The will. 359. Memory. 360. Sleep, dreams, somnambulism. 361. Mesmerism. Psychical research. 362. Spiritualism, magic, witchcraft, etc. 363. Phrenology and physiognomy. 364. Moral philosophy. 365. Practical morals ; general. 134 Appendix I Classification Philosophy and Religion (Continued). Class No. 366. Temperance, tobacco, etc. 367. Amusements, Ethics of. 368. Manners and customs. 369. Minor morals, etiquette. 370. Religion and theology ; history and philosophy. 371. Natural theology. Science and religion. Evi- dences. 372. Miracles. Prayer. 373. Mythology; general. 374. Scandinavian and northern. 375. The Bible, whole or parts. 376. Inspiration, interpretation, authority, etc. 377. Concordances, dictionaries, illustrative works. 378. Commentaries; whole Bible. 379. Old Testament and parts thereof. 380. New " " " 381. Judaism. 382. Christian theology, general and historical. 383. Jesus Christ, the atonement, etc. 384. Death and the future state. 385. Other doctrines. 386. Sermons and didactic works. 387. Devotional books. Sunday-school books. 388. The church; general. 389. Ecclesiastical history. 390. Greek church. 391. Roman Catholic church. 392. The Reformation. 393. Protestantism. 394. Toleration and persecution ; religious liberty. 395. Church of England and Episcopal church. 396. Methodist Episcopal denomination. Appendix I Classification 135 Philosophy and Religion (Continued). Class No. 397. Baptist denomination. 398. Presbyterian denomination. 399. Congregational denomination. 400. Unitarian and Universalist denominations. 401. Other Christian denominations. 402. The Sabbath. 403. Public worship. Private and family worship. 404. Sacraments. 405 . Preaching. 406. Hymnology and church music. 407. The Sunday school; church accessories. 408. Missions ; general and foreign. 409. Home. 410. City. 411. Y. M. C. A. and similar organizations. 412. Mohammedanism. 413. Buddhism and other Oriental religions. 414. Heathenism. 415. Mormons, Shakers, etc. 416. Free thought. Rationalism. Positivism. Language and Literature. (English and American Literatures and Universal Literature excepted.) 421. Science of language. 422. Comparative philology. 423. Indo-European languages. 424. Other families of speech (not elsewhere speci- fied). 425. Folk-lore and popular antiquities. 426. Proverbs. 136 Appendix I Classification Language and Literature (Continued). Class No. 427. Myths and romances. 428. Classical languages and literature ; general. 429. Greek language, text-books, etc. 430. Greek authors. 431. Latin language, text-books, etc. 432. Latin authors. 433. English language, general. 434. Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, and early English ; text- books, also literature. 435. English grammar, usage and spelling. 436. English composition. Rhetoric (English and other) . 437. English dictionaries, synonymy, etc. 438. English dialects. Americanisms. 439. French language ; text-books, etc. 440. French literature ; histories, collections, etc. 441. French authors. 442. German language; text-books, etc. 443. German literature ; histories, etc. 444. German authors. 445. Italian language and literature. 446. Italian authors. 447. Spanish and Portuguese languages and litera- tures. 448. Spanish and Portuguese authors. 449. Scandinavian languages and literatures. 450. Scandinavian authors. 451. Other European languages and literatures. 452. Sanskrit and other Indian languages and litera- tures. 453. Semitic languages and literatures. 454. Chinese and Japanese languages and literatures. Appendix I Classification 137 Language and Literature (Continued}, Class No. 455. African languages and literatures. 456. American Indian languages and literatures. Reference-books and Special Classes. (In librarian's room and delivery room.) 461. Library economy. 462. Bibliography. 463. Manuscripts and rarities. 464. Catalogues of libraries. 465. National and trade bibliography. (In reading-room or reference-room.) 466. Cyclopaedias ; ordinary reference books. 467. Newspaper files. 468. Pamphlets. NOTE. Classes numbered 461 to 468 will naturally be dif- ferently treated according to circumstances. The arrangement and numbering here given are merely suggestions. APPENDIX II A FEW LIBRARIES HAVING SPECIAL COLLECTIONS N. B. The numbers following the names of the libraries refer to the list of subjects on the opposite page. A Albany, N. Y. . . State Library .... 4, 5 B Amherst, Mass. . . Amherst College. . . 37, Si C Ann Arbor, Mich. Univ of Michigan . . 3, 74 D Baltimore, Md. . . Johns Hopkins Univ. . 75, 7, 80 E Boston, Mass. . . . Athenaeum Library . . 66, 81 F Boston, Mass. . . . Public Library . . 29, 32, 74i , 76 G Boston, Mass. . . . State Library .... 50, 67 H Brooklyn, N. Y. . . Institute Library . . 36 J Brooklyn, N. Y. . . L. I. Histor. Society . 4 K Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University 4, 21, 25, 31, 37, 52, 75 L Chicago,' 111. . . . Newberry Library . . 4, 5, 58 M Chicago, 111. . . . Public Library . . . M, 7* N Easton, Penn. . . . Lafayette College . . 7 O Hartford, Conn. . . Theological Seminary . 13, 41 P Hartford, Conn. . . State Library .... 50 Q Haverford, Penn. . . Haverford College . 35 R Ithaca, N. Y. . . . Cornell University . . 3i, 34, 39i 48. 65, 75 S Lewiston, Me. . . . Bates College .... 63 T Madison, N. J. . . Drew Theol. Seminary 4'i 54 U Madison, Wis. . . . State Histor Society . 4, 52, 74, 82 V Madison, Wis. . . . Univ. of Wisconsin . . 60 W Marietta, O. . . . Marietta Colle ;e . . . 57 X New Bedford, Mass. Public Library ... 35 Y New Brunswick, N.J. Theological Seminary . '3, 27 Z New Haven, Conn. . Yale University . 4, 19, 23, 46, 62, 71 A A New York, N. Y. . American Geog Society 36 BB New York, N. Y. . Am. Mus. Nat Hist. . 59, 63 CC New York, N. Y. . Astor Library .... 42,68 DD New York, N. Y. . Columbia College . . I, 8, 25, 38, 40, 48. S3, 74 EE New York, N. Y. . Lenox Library . . . 2, 4, 5l 12, 13, '5. l6 > 24, 33, SD, S3, 74 FF New York, N. Y. Union Theol. Seminary 41 GG New York, N. Y. . Y. M. C. A 29, 30, 63 HH Oberlin, O Oberlin College . . . 75 JJ Philadelphia, Penn. . KK Philadelphia, Penn. . Academy Nat. Science Franklin Institute . . 59, 63 28 - 79 LL Philadelphia, Penn. . Historical Soc. of Penn. 22, 34 MM Philadelphia, Penn. . Library Company . . I 7> 2i 37, 41, 80 NN Philadelphia, Penn. . Mercantile Library . . 45, 47, 80 OO Philadelphia, Penn. . University of Penn. . 6, 19, 21, 46, 65, 67, 77 PP Princeton, N. J. . . Princeton College . . 7, 9, 1) 2 5, 80 QQ Princeton, N. J. . . Theological Seminary . n, 69 RK Providence, R. I. . Brown University . . 3, 74 SS Providence, R. I. . Public Library . . . 6 7i 75 80 TT St Louis, Mo. . . . Public Library . . 37, 44, 49, 59, 64, 67 UU St Paul, Minn. . . Historical Society . . 43, 61 VV Salem, Mass. . . . Essex Institute . . . 18, 26, 30 WW San Francisco, Cal. . Sutro Library .... 42, 55, 73 XX Syracuse, N. Y. . . Syracuse University 34 YY Wellesley, Mass. . . Wellesley College . . . 44 ZZ Woodstock, Md. . . Woodstock College. . 13, 7 Appendix II Special Collections 139 APPENDIX II SPECIAL COLLECTIONS IN SOME AMERICAN LIBRARIES N. B. The letters following the subjects refer to the libraries in the list on the opposite page. 1 Administrative law . . . DD 45 2 Aldines EE 46 3 American poetry. . . . RR 47 4 Americana A, J, K, L, U, Z, EE 48 5 Angling L, EE 49 6 Arabic literature . . . OO 50 7 Anglo-Saxon. . . . N, PP 51 8 Architecture DD 52 9 ARISTOTLE ..... PP 53 10 Astronomy PP 54 11 Baptism QQ 55 12 BEWICK EE 56 13 Bibles . . . . O, Y, EE, ZZ 57 14 Bohemian literature . . M 58 15 BUNYAN EE 59 16 BURNS, ROBERT . . . EE 60 17 Chess MM 61 18 China VV 62 19 Chinese literature . . Z, OO 63 20 Cincinnati, Society of . . MM 64 21 Classics K, OO 65 22 Colonial laws LL 66 23 Congregationalism ... Z 24 Cruikshank EE 25 DANTE . . . . K, DD, PP 67 26 Directories VV 27 Dutch theology .... Y 68 28 Electricity KK 69 29 Engravings .... F, GG 30 Fine arts GG, VV 70 Fish and fishing (See Angling) 71 31 Folklore and romances . K, R 72 32 FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN . F 73 33 French literature . . . EE 74 34 French revolution . R, LL, XX 35 Friends, Society of . . . Q, X 75 36 Geography . . . . H, A A 76 37 Geology . . B, K, MM, TT 38 GOETHE C, DD 39 History R 40 Huguenots DD 41 Hymnology . O, T, FF, MM 42 Incunabula . . . CC, WW 43 Indians, American . . . UU 81 44 Indians, American, Lan- 82 guage of .... TT, YY NOTE. This page and the preceding one have been compiled from Harvard Bibliographical Contributions, No. 45, by W. C. LANE and C. K. BOLTON ( Cam- bridge, 1892), which consult for additional and more detailed information. Ireland NX Japanese literature . . Z, OO JUNIUS NN KANT R, DL> Kindergarten .... TT Law A, G, P Lichenology B Maps K, U MARY, Queen of Scots . DD Methodism T Mexico WW MILTON EE Mississippi Valley ... W Music L, EE Natural history . BB, JJ, TT Norse literature ..." V Northwest, The ... UU Oriental languages ... Z Ornithology . . S, BB, GG, JJ Pedagogy TT Philology, Comparative . R, OO Photographs, Bratin . . E Poetry, American (See American poetry) Political economy G, OO, SS, TT Printing, Early .... Puritan writers .... Quakers (See Friends) Roman Catholic literature Russian literature . . . Scandinavian literature Semitic literature Shakespeariana . C, F, U, DD, EE, RR Slavery. . D, K, R, HH, SS Spanish and Portuguese literature F Spiritualism OO Switzerland, History, etc. D Technical science . . . KK United States. Civil war . D, MM, NN, PP, SS WASHINGTON, GEORGE . E West, The U CC QQ ZZ Z M WW APPENDIX III SUNDAY OPENING OF LIBRARIES MANY of the larger public libraries are open during some part of Sunday for the use of books in the building. In one city and town after another, beginning with Cincinnati in 1870, the question has been brought up and discussed, with the nearly uniform result of a favorable decision, owing largely to a strong backing of the movement by clergymen and other religious and moral leaders. Sunday opening has now passed the stage of theory and experiment, as is evidenced by the following ex- pressions from prominent librarians, cited in an elabo- rate paper on this subject presented to the St Louis Conference of the American Library Association in 1889, by Miss MARY S. CUTLER, of the New York State Library ; and her paper, with the discussion that fol- lowed its reading, will be found in the Library Journal, xiv. (1889), 176-191, 279-281. D r W. F. POOLE, of Chicago, says, ' I have for twenty years been theoretically and prac- tically in favor of Sunday opening.' M r S. S. GREEN, Librarian of the Worcester Public Library, says, ' I am confident that the cause of good morals has been largely promoted by having it [the reading-room] open on Sunday.' Appendix III Sunday Opening 141 M r J. N. LARNED, Librarian of the Buffalo Library, says, ' The results . . . have more than vindicated the wis- dom of those who advocated this measure, and have re- moved, I think, whatever slight hesitancies there may have been in conservative minds.' Miss E. M. COE, Librarian of the New York Free Circulating Library, says, ' The result of the Sunday work seems to answer every objection which can be made to Sunday opening.' M r JUSTIN WINSOR, then librarian of the Public Li- brary of Boston, said in 1877, * People who were once tortured with the idea [of Sun- day opening] now accept it. ... I do not believe in forc- ing; I do believe in ripening. In any community the time for benefactions and philanthropy on Sunday will ripen in the end.' To Miss CUTLER'S paper was appended a tabular statement of the replies received from 222 libraries to which she sent a letter of inquiry. Under the head of reasons for or against, many interesting and some amusing remarks are quoted. A perusal of the whole statement will afford a good general idea of public sentiment on this question in the different communities. A summary of the statistical table shows that of the libraries from which answers were received, the follow- ing number were open on some part of Sunday ; 35 out of 105 free libraries, 12 out of 40 subscription libraries, 12 out of 59 college libraries, and 3 out of ii theological seminary libraries. In only about six public libraries in the country, all 142 Appendix III Sunday Opening located in the West, are books delivered on Sunday for home use. The question of Sunday opening has been much dis- cussed on religious and moral grounds. While serious objection to it is made by strict constructionists of the sacredness of the day, it is held by many that a just view of the Christian rest-day, in which ' it is lawful to do good,' justifies and demands such pro- vision for the needs of the people as Sunday opening affords. If the people are not shut out from the public park on Sunday, why should they be excluded from the library? When the question is looked at from a humanitarian and charitable point of view, it is generally conceded that the positive social and moral advantages of this movement outweigh all the argu- ments against it. APPENDIX IV GIFTS TO LIBRARIES ATTENTION has been called in the first chapter of this book (page 18) to the remarkable manner in which the progress of the library movement has been signalized by bequests and donations from individuals. The table occupying the following pages exhibits some of the chief of these gifts, but is confined to the larger ones, nearly every one mentioned amounting to $50,000 or more. If space permitted, it would be interesting to extend the list to include the numerous smaller gifts, made not so often to found a library or provide it with a building, as to furnish it with the means of procuring books in some special department. This is the case with many of the instances given in Appendix II. It is matter for surprise how large a showing will be made by a small annual sum wisely expended in a collection of books. A fund of $1,000, left to Amherst College by the late Rev d JONATHAN BRACE, D.D., has in twelve years pro- vided a fine collection of modern theology, the fund remaining intact. In the Boston Public Library a fund of $2,000 supports the BENJAMIN FRANKLIN col- lection, and one of $4,000 the TICKNOR Library of Spanish and Portuguese literature ; a fund of $3,000 maintains the collection of books on Ohio in the Cin- cinnati Public Library. Many other examples might be given to show the exceeding utility of such funds. How can a small sum of money be invested to do more good, and bring greater honor through the years to the name of its donor? 144 Appendix IV Gifts to Libraries c a o oooo oooo o 000 00 ^) 10 o 1 ^1 O OOOO O O ^^ O u~> *N B t>. 10 N O O Q O O vO O to r>. o ^ ^ < 1-1 "* b 8 J N CJ fe ' g 5 . D BEQUES STA TES o c o a i ' a 1 111 -iiS ! u! . >; H M W Q W . H O < s 3 ^g ri| S-| * * o- M j23 S * < S3 " " S w SB ^ W pj^^j , 1 1/3 2 *" 0) T3 >,>, ^ !7 o o o " ^ fe ^: s ^ ^ to ^ K 1 !i ull ffi 333 (U ID fc ^ S [y 2j 2 to o '.2 lit & ^ o "o B >> EN o lllli'P.lllliS |||l|ilo|||||i 'J-d 2 2 h-^ S c 2 O tn re (o c c 0) tuoj^ ^ -r 1 - - d c is >- K*I ii i-i rt u o >-i re rt to fQ n PH n! P5 M 60 3 3 Appendix IV Gifts to Libraries 145 0000000000 s Q Q 00 8888800080888 o 8 8 o 888 888 80 IO M ^OO~ QO^>^f>^>^fc^.^>^r>OQ f) TfOoOOO O> N OO T >/1 1^ vo O LO N o o \n\Q LO a O O O O"o"ro OO" N LT) LO U^IOTJ- O O ^ M M 1-H * N M fj IO *. rn - -g . . -Q .a . o 5 wS I en -QiS?wy S VERSE OOLIDGE HNS . )WLAND s < ^ a > M s W w < >" a KM w w !3 ^ L. L3 u j f^^M y w gffi r^' E ' J H S w ^^ (a '""''"' O w^ ^ffi I ^i[li|i||l^f|iyp|i ill S| . .. . . . . . . . . . - o S -3233 = ^2 ^3^S33Z3 = S3 f-y SD 33 S 3 3333--; > 3 h ij3CSS3S3Co'-3 kSj^rt 33 W P-, U CL, OH (X, P* S ^ O, B pu O 0- Cu Su PU, CH < fe U d, K E cfi PH d. = H'^o^a~Sl^a3-ac-S^^^-5-Sg.Sf :/:S ii-^:^OTEiuc.t:oSu>--rcr=S-"^ u ---' u 5 1 rtmul3ort-CoS.t;2rt'5 fe oJ? a a s 146 Appendix IV Gifts to Libraries c ! o c Q 1 O O O O O O O O O O O O xo Q cf O~ to O ""1 ON ^ XO CO O O LO O O ^O O r^ O to O M O rf M* w" IO O t>. 'S- Q c o Q : 4* -o^ I* -1 fH OS H U 5 ^ (fl ^ 6 c . . . .uu . a K rt rt u )-< rt [l3 13 c *o rt rt s V a X <" , D. Cu 3 O O UO O J _ [ X-'O O rt UTS'OUO.G 3 3 33 glnaj.l) oi3 O 3^^33tn .'7) X O CO U W ri 3 APPENDIX V STATISTICS ONE HUNDRED LARGEST FREE PUBLIC LI- BRARIES IN THE UNITED STATES USE has been made of the best available informa- tion in getting at the names of the libraries entitled to a place in the following list. Omissions to which attention may be called will be rectified in future editions. It is interesting to observe that only three or four free public libraries in the country beyond the hun- dred here named have over 10,000 volumes, so that the number exceeding that limit of size may fairly be placed at one hundred. In nearly every case the facts and figures here given were obtained by direct inquiry from the libraries themselves, during November, 1893. 148 Appendix V One Hundred Libraries OOO OOO OOO OOOvOOOOO >c o o ooo WlOO f"} to * a OO 00 OO OO CO O30 CO I^CO t^XJ CO t^OO \O CO CO OO CO OO OO OO OO OO CO CO CO CO CO OO OO CO CO . a a .I 3 o o o o 3 d 3 3 ooooWoooo 5 J S Appendix V One Hundred Libraries 149 o *f\ pT 8 o_ o o o^o 8 o OO OOOvDOONOONvOOOOO OO OOO^OOfOO t^oo -^- O O O O 8O r^ O O "-. O <~i O O 1- o o oo o o t^ t-. - *& 8 o_ w O ro O oo O O f.^C OOOOOOOOO-1-OOO O -*OO OOOO"-OOOOOOO'<-> OOMOOOOOOO <^OO O O O % ^> " O O O' "J- f. O O O O !>. O O O O O v~t ~ O coro !? ^^^^^^s ****& oo oo vO 00 H oo o oo oo oo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooocooooo CLARA M. SMITH .... EVELYN S. LEWIS .... . . z MARY H. CURRAN ALICE C. FURBISH BERNARD C. STEINER > a ri S- M " "y h^ ^ * j-Jfrt^Xfttl^.. ^Qi * IB M ?S S P^ 1 52*5 * % *^^ oftt ?S 55 2 ftl 2 i.Ji[>^J^WwO^* I '*C< *^C/3 l^i-allSSj^iaSj! S z 3 * S * $ea z << _o 3 < K . g . . s a g "^ pC c e c<; 2 PH g 2 | 9 3 O W (kOf04(XtpLt ^ i2 E. " S. CTS^jbS^jo T3Tu > c: []jE C 5!S o ^"S i S SoS3_gJj2^ T3 . *O . . "cj c s^ >> a 3 S 67: c"H 150 Appendix V One Hundred Libraries ** G 11 o o o o o o o o o o O 00 O o o O o o o o r^or>.o ooo O O -<1-int^O OOO O O \o*^tOO OOO c < *r^o co to O in Tf tO""> CM * m in in M Tt- Tf vOCOHiCM OOMCM in N l ! g-E So . J B; . tj H * "& * W 5 5U . o < a . g -B ^ a - ! ^j, ill 2 fe" | &> (*"< j 2^5 w ^ w 5g 2 SgsS SSS ^S g 55|B^ S2S Ufe A QuSK OfeO b 2 .9 j_) o 1 " K ft,ft< 2 . .5.5.5 ^ So (, ft, ft, 33 W J3-Q HHH4 33 3 3333 333 8 . | 8 M .A . . ... Name of PI Massachuset Watertown Woburn Worcester . - tn g *'S- ' o g^d Minneapolis St Paul . Missouri VI >> '> I ^ .t: ' ' tn ^ "^-r! * IB ^ U O lUitliilfrll *OUPS*A Appendix V One Hundred Libraries 151 O O O O "^ O O O O M SO O O O OO OOO O O . o o o n OOOOOOwiOl^O O O OS OOOt^O"->OOO -OT OOOOO~O"-O I-IMOO o o vooo O O t^ G^ O o r^ -^-OO t^ o ro 2 < ^*fttl Hcd^ W^2^o^O>^-* ^^^ ^CtfWffiOQ^ioQ S^^ DCQ^ > < -f^L) *^>^ ^>:2wHOi-2 2*2: fe S^2Sza!U< 3Z2 .C<" :< ' * w < ~ < " ,' ^ ^ DAVID STEVENS . MINERVA A. SANDER WILLIAM E. FOSTER ANNA METCALF . SARAH C. HAGAR . LOUISE L. BARTLETT EMMA E. ROSE GEORGIA R. HOUGH THERESA WEST . raries in New York, see nol | to :H s s 3 o ' .is '-o | * ' -g,"| . c | o w 1 * Hill Hi! J:S M * * . O */; ' -'. " *s " c J.- * 53 ' u "J cgj 3>-t " fi SKI 5 ,?O2Zcuaig 2 33 New Hampshire 42 34 175,000 464 Illinois . . . 42 35 520,000 130 Michigan . . . 38 26 293,000 139 Rhode Island . 26 13 l8o,OOO 522 New York . . 24 it 33 5. 56 Indiana . . . 23 13 1 50,000 68 Connecticut . . 23 2OO,OOO 269 California . . 21 18 2IO,OOO 174 Ohio .... 21 IS 395,000 107 Iowa .... 16 ii 68,000 35 Vermont . . . IS i 100,000 300 Maine .... 14 8 93,000 140 Wisconsin . . 9 9 120,000 7i Kansas . . . 9 7 32.000 21 New Jersey . . 9 4 IOO.OCO 69 Minnesota . . 8 7 105.000 73 Pennsylvania 7 o 35,000 7 Missouri . . . 4 i 104,000 39 Colorado . . . 3 2 20,000 48 Note to 2d edition. As to New York, it should be said that the public-school libraries (not included in the statistics here given) go far to make up for the lack of others, especially where they have been consolidated as ' Union ' or ' Central ' libra- ries. Including these, the report for 1893 on libraries in New York gives a list of 137 free libraries of over 1,000 volumes each, with a total of over 800,000 volumes, or 142 for every 1,000 of population. The following libraries in the State of New York should have been included in the table of ' One hundred largest free public libraries,' p. 151. Their omission was due to the fact that each of them is connected with an institution having paid member- ship. But they are actually free to the public for circulation as well as for reference : Apprentices' Library, N. Y. City .... 97,000 vols. Pratt Institute, Brooklyn 452OO " Young Men's Association. Troy .... 31,258 " Aguilar Free Library, N. Y. City .... 21,363 " 6 3 e >!5 o 2 * i < r 1 t* B s CO " "^ a 1 o IH: N | n ff C5 j j 2 | # w H II ^ 1 'o V / u I 4 9 | / J T5 | d _ II 5 !s > >^ APPENDIX VI LIBRARY RULES THE rules of the Public library of Newark, New Jersey, M r FRANK P. HILL, Librarian, are here given, being in the main those in use in the best class of libraries generally. ARTICLE i. The library shall be open for the delivery and return of books every week day from 9 A. M. to 8.30 ?. M , legal holidays excepted. ARTICLE 2. Any resident of Newark over fourteen years of age shall be entitled to the use of the library by signing the proper application and agreement. 1 Non- residents may take books from the library on payment of three dollars per year ; temporary residents may have the same privilege on payment of fifty cents per month. Ap- plications must be renewed every three years. ARTICLE 3. Minors under eighteen years of age will be required to furnish the written consent and guarantee of parents, guardian, or some person satisfactory to the Trustees or Librarian. All applications must be signed at the library. ARTICLE 4. Each person entitled to draw books from the library will be supplied with a card, inscribed with his 1 Many public libraries employ a system of ' guaranties,' as de- scribed in the following regulation of the Silas Bronson library, Water- bury, Connecticut : Any resident of the city may take books from the library, after depositing with the Librarian a written guaranty, signed by a resident freeholder or other responsible person, that the books loaned shall be duly returned and that all fines and penalties . . . shall be paid. This regulation was drawn by D r W. F. POOLE, who has introduced a similar one in the other libraries of which he has had charge, finding it the most satisfactory method of securing the library against loss. Appendix VI Library Rules 157 or her name, residence, and register number. This card must be presented whenever a book is taken, returned, or renewed. If lost, it will be replaced after seven days upon payment of ten cents, or, without fee, at the expiration of twenty days. Immediate notice of a change of residence must be given at the library. The registered holder of a card is in all cases responsible for books drawn by means of the card by whomsoever presented, and for all fines accrued on the same. ARTICLE 5. For teachers in public or private schools of good standing, teacher cards may be issued, one for each teacher, upon which six books at each time may be taken out for the use of their pupils. These books shall be upon subjects connected with the studies of the school. Teachers shall be responsible for all books so taken, and shall return any such book upon a written notification of the Librarian that the book is desired by another person. ARTICLE 6. The Librarian shall keep a record of the names of the persons entitled to the use of the library. ARTICLE 7. One volume 2 may be taken out at a time and retained two weeks (unless labelled ' Seven-day book '), and may be renewed once for the same period. Seven-day books cannot be renewed. Any book, except fiction, may be reserved on payment of two cents. ARTICLE 8. Books of reference and those deemed by the Book Committee unsuitable for general circulation shall not be loaned for home use, except upon special per- mission of the Committee or Librarian. Such books will be designated in the printed catalogue by a *; and in the card catalogue by the letter ' R ' (in red), placed above the call number. ARTICLE 9. A fine of two cents a day shall be im- posed if a book is kept overtime, and at the expiration of three weeks (if the book is not returned), a messenger will be sent for the book, and shall have authority to collect the fine incurred, and an additional fee of twenty cents 2 In some libraries two or three volumes of one work are allowed to be taken at one time, thereby avoiding the confusion otherwise arising from several persons trying to read the same work at the same time. 158 Appendix VI Library Rules for such messenger service. No book will be delivered to the person incurring the fine until it is paid. ARTICLE 10. Books are not to be exchanged the same day they are taken out, unless mistakes have been made by the library attendants. ARTICLE n. If any borrower lose or materially in- jure a book, paper, or magazine belonging to the library or reading rooms, he shall furnish another copy of the same or later edition, or pay the Librarian's appraisement, at his option. If the book so lost or injured be a part of a set, he shall replace or pay for the entire set, and may thereupon receive the remaining volumes as his property. Writing in books is strictly prohibited. ARTICLE 12. Persons desiring library books for use in the reading rooms or reference department, may obtain them by filling out the slips prepared for that purpose, and such books shall not be taken from the building. ARTICLE 13. Persons desirous of having certain books added to the library, are requested to give titles of them to the Librarian, to be suggested for the consideration of the Book Committee. ARTICLE 14. Any person abusing the privileges of the library, or violating any of the foregoing regulations, shall be temporarily suspended from the use of the library, and the case shall be reported to the Library Committee for proper action thereon. BIOGRAPHIC SKETCHES OF LIBRARIANS WHOSE PORTRAITS APPEAR IN THIS BOOK William Frederick Pcole, LL-^>. (page 31), late Librarian New- berry Library, Chicago. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1821, and graduated at Yale College in 1849, ne na d already begun his life-work, being in his senior year librarian of his college society, the Brothers in Unity, and having brought out in 1848 the first edition of his famous Index to Periodical Literature. He was Librarian successively of the Boston Mercantile Library, the Boston Athenaeum, Cincinnati Public Library, and Chicago Public Library before assuming his latest position. A member, in 1853, of the first librarians' convention, he was prominent in the American Library Association from its inception in 1876, and was its president in 1886-88. From the first, D r POOLE has been a recognized authority on all practical matters of library management, and very many of the methods now widely in vogue were of his originating. The second edition of his Index was published in 1853, and the third in 1882, followed by supplements in 1887 and 1892. D r POOLE made many important a n- tributions to the periodical press on American history, his attention being devoted chiefly to constructive criticism of careless or biased writers, calcu- lated to promote sound and wholesome historical views. He has thus shed much light on disputed points in the history of witchcraft in America, r.nd in regard to the ordinance of 1787. His high standing as a historical writer is evidenced by his selection, in 1887, as president of the American His- torical Association. His death, occurring March ist, 1894. just after the removal of his library into its new building, which stands as his monument, was tha severest loss American librarianship has known. Ainsworth Rand Spofford, LL.D- (page 80), Librarian of Con- gress. Born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, in 1825, he engaged in busi- ness in Cincinnati as bookseller and publisher, but left that occupation in 1861 to become first assistant librarian of Congress. Three years later he was made Librarian. In the thirty years of his administration the library has grown from 70,000 volumes to nearly 700,000; and for many years its quarters have been so inadequate that it has required skill amounting to genius to administer the library to the satisfaction of its patrons. D' SPOFFORD has been equal to the emergency, and his wide knowledge of books and marvellous memory have made his services invaluable to the members of Congress and other government officers. Since 1870, the copy- right office has been combined with that of Librarian of Congress, adding largely to the labors and responsibilities of his position. D r SPOFFORD has been active as a writer, having edited The American Almanac from 1878 to 160 Biographic Sketches 1889, the Library of Choice Literature, 1881-88 (10 volumes), the Libraryof Wit and Humor, 1885(5 volumes), and A Manual of Parliamentary Rules. George Ticknor, LL.D. (page 16), was born in Boston, in 1791, and died there at the age of eighty. Graduating from Dartmouth College at 16, he spent several years in study in Europe, and on his return was pro- fessor of modern languages and literature at Harvard College for fifteen years. He virtually created his department, and brought it up to the highest efficiency. Combining brilliant scholarship with sound practical wisdom, he was a man of great influence outside the college as well as within. When the Boston Public library was founded, he really gave to the movement its popular direction, and in so doing moulded the whole future of the public library system in America. A firm believer in culture for the masses, he gave to the Boston library his collection of Spanish and Portuguese literature, the largest in the United States. The History of Spanish Literature, 1849 (3 volumes), was the great literary work of his life. M r TICKNOR also wrote and translated several other works, and in 1864 published a Life of VV. H. PRESCOTT. His own Life, Letters, and Journals (2 volumes), appeared in 1870. Justin Winsor, LL.D. (page 65), Librarian of Harvard University. Born in Boston in 1831, and educated at Harvard College and the Univer- sity of Heidelberg, in 1868 he was appointed Superintendent of the Bos- ton Public library, where he remained until 1877, when he accepted the librarianship at Harvard. His nine years in the Boston library were marked by rapid growth and development in the institution, and the ad- mirable system of administration which has made the library a model one owes much to his wise and skilful direction. The library was called on to meet increasing demands from scholars on the one hand, and on the other from the people ; D r WINSOR'S scholarly tastes were so combined with a large appreciation of the mission of the library to the masses of the peo- ple as to make his administration favorable to both. The library secured at that time many of the valuable special collections for which it is distin- guished, and at the same time increased greatly in popularity and in useful- ness through its circulating department. At Harvard, while administering the library with the same marked ability, D r WINSOR has completed a large amount of literary work in his favorite departments, American his- tory and cartography, and Shakespearian bibliography. He was the first president of the American Library Association, holding the office for ten years, and has always been one of its most valued members. He has also been president of the American Historical Association, and is a leading member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. D' WINSOR'S principal publications are the History of Duxbury, 1849, The Original Folios and Quartos of Shakespeare, 1877, Memorial History of Boston, 1880-82 (4 vol- umes), and Narrative and Critical History of America, 1886-89 (8 vol- umes). He is now at work on what is in effect a History of American Geography, of which his lohnnbus, 1891, and his Cartier to Frontenac, 1894, are two f tne intended six volumes. INDEX ABBOT, ABIEL, 103 Access to shelves, 76 Accession-book, 65 ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS, and the Crane library, 118 Age limit for book borrowers, 156 Akron, O., Public library, 151 Alabama, no free libraries in, 153 ALBRIGHT, J. J., gift to Scranton, Pa., 146 Alexandrian library, 10 ALLAN, JESSIE, 150 Allegheny, Pa., Carnegie library, 146, 1 5 I ALLEN, M" MARY, gift to Hendale, O., 146 American Library Association, 85 ; meetings of, 88 A. L. A. Index, 6^, 90 AMES, Mr and M" OLIVER, gift to No. Easton, Mass., 145 Amherst College library, 107 ; stack building, view, 40 ; BRACE Collec- tion, 143 Analytical catalogue entries, 62 Arkansas, Libraries in, 152 Arlington, Mass., Public library, 145 ARNOLD, E. C., 149 Artisans, value of libraries to, 34-36 Assyrian libraries, 9 Astor library, 108 ; building, 40 ; cost of serials, 116; endowment, 146 Aurora, 111., Public library, 148 BAIN, JAMES, Jun r , 113 BALL, LUCY, 150 BALLARD, HARLAN H. 149 Baltimore, libraries of, 100; gifts to libraries, 144 Baltimore, Enoch Pratt library, 145, 149 Bancroft library, San Francisco, 108 Bangor, Me., Public library, 144, 149 BARTLETT, LOUISE L., 151 BASSETT, HOMER F., 148 BATES, JOSHUA, gift to Boston, 18, X 45 BAXTER, H. H., founder library, Rutland, Vt., 146 BAXTER, JAMES P., gift to public library, Portland, Me., 144 Bay City, Mich., Public library, 150 Belchertown, Mass., Clapp library, 45 Belfast, Me., Public library, 144 Belleville. 111., Public library, 148 Bequests to libraries, 18, 29, 143-5 Berlin, Canada, Public library, 112 BERTRAM, J., heirs of, gift to Salem, .Mass., 145 Bibliographies, use of, 63, 64 Birchard library, Fremont, O., 151 BLACKSTONE, J. B., gift to Branford, Conn., 144 BOLTON, CHARLES K., 149 Bookcases, 49, 50 Books, care in treatment of, 70; re- commended for purchase, 71, 158 Booksellers, purchases from. 72 BORROWS, J. M.. 151 Boston public library, 15, 16, 18; old building, 40 ; new building, 41 ; view of new building, frontispiece; FRANKLIN collection, 143 ; Tick- nor library, 143; statistics, 145, 149 BRACE, JONATHAN, D. D. 143 Branch libraries, Baltimore, 102 Branford, Conn.. Public library, 144 Brantford. Can.. Public library, 112 BRETT, WILLIAM H.. 151 BREWSTER, JOHN, gift to \Volfboro, N. H. 146 1 62 Index Bridgeport, Conn., Public library, 144, 148 British Museum, PANIZZI'S reforms in, 13; catalogue in MS., 58 BRONSON, SILAS, gift to Waterbury, Ct., 144 Brookline, Mass., Public library, 149; children's room in library, 77 Brown University library, 107 BROWNING, ELIZA G., 148 BKYCE, JAMES P., 148 Buildings, see Library buildings BUMPAS, A. L., 149 BUNCHER, M rs M. J., 150 Burlington, Iowa. Public library, 149 Burlington, Vt., Fletcher library, 151 California, libraries in, 154 Cambridge, Mass., Public library, 145, 149 Canada, libraries in, 111-114 CAPEN, EDWARD, 149 Card catalogues, illustration, 58, 60 Card used by book borrowers, 156 CARLYLE, THOMAS, 78 Carnegie libraries, Allegheny and Pittsburgh, Pa., 146, 151 CARR, HENRY {., 151 CASE, LEONARD, founder library, Cleveland, O., 146 Catalogue, British Museum MS., 58; dictionary, 61 ; of library of Sur- geon-General's office, 105; com- bined, of several libraries, 119 Catalogues, educational, 33 ; printed, 57; card, 58, 60; classified, 62 note Catalogue entries, author, subject, and title, 61 ; analytical, 62 Cataloguing, co-operative, 63 Catskills, librarians' meeting at, 1888, 89 Central agencies, 118, 119 Charging systems, 66 CHASE, FREDERICK A., 149 Chatham, Can., Public library, 112 Cheap editions of books, 69 Chelsea, Mass., Public library, 145 CHENEY, JOHN VANCE, 148 Chicago, library meeting and exhibit, (1893) 91, 92; libraries in, endow- ments of, 144 Chicago Public library, 148 ; new building, view, 23 University of, 107 Chicopee, Mass , Public library, 39 Children, provision for, in libraries, 77 Chilicothe. O., Public library, 151 Cincinnati Public library, 151 ; books on Ohio, 143 CLAPP, JOHN F., gift to Belcher- town, Mass., 145 Class-lists, 62 note Classification of books, 52-57 ; scheme of, 121-137 Classified catalogues, 62 note Cleveland Public library, 146, 151 CLOWDSLEY, W. F.. 148 Clubs, libraries of, 109 COE, ELLEN M., 151; on Sunday opening, 140 COLE, GEO. WATSON, 150 Collation of books, 66 College libraries, 106, 107 COLLINS, ALFRED S., 151 Colorado, libraries in, 154 Columbia College library, 106, 107 Compulsory library laws, 27 Concord, Mass., Public library, 145, 149 Concord, N. H , Public library, 150 Congressional library, new building, 44, 45 ; plan, 42 ; view, 73 Connecticut, libraries in, 16, 23, 154 Connecticut Courani on libraries, (1774) 12 CONVERSE, M r and M rs , gift to Mai- den, Mass., 145 COOLIDGE, T. JEFFERSON, gift to Manchester, Mass., 145 Co-operation of libraries, 116, 117 Co-operative cataloguing, 63 Cornell University library, 106, 107 COSSITT, F. H., gift to Memphis, Tenn., 146 Cost of library books, 70 Covering of books, 66 CRANE, THOMAS, heirs of, gift to Quincy, Mass., 145 CRERAR, JOHN, founder library, Chicago, 144 CROMBIE, H., 150 CRUNDEN, FREDERICK M., 150; on value of free library, 38, 39 ; Pres. Amer. Lib. Assoc., 88 Index 163 Culture through reading, 37 Cumberland, Richard, and the Que- bec library, 1 1 1 CURRAN, MARY H., 149 CUTLER, MARY S., on Sunday open- ing, 140 CUTTER, C. A., rules for cataloguing, 64 note; Pres. Amer. Lib. Assoc., 88 CUTTER, WILLIAM R., 150 DANA, JOHN COTTON, 148 Dartmouth College library, 107 Dayton, O., Public library, 151 Decatur, 111 , Public library, 148 Delaware, no free libraries in, 153 Denver, Col., Public library, 148 Detroit, Mich., Public library, 150 DEVVEY, MELVIL, 87; Pres. Amer. Lib. Association, 88 DICKENS, C., novels, 34 note Dictionary catalogue, 61 District school libraries, 21 Dover, N. H., Public library, 150 DOWSE, THOMAS, gifts to Boston Public library, 18 DRYDEN, MINTA I., 151 DUCHE, JACOB, cited, 95 East Saginaw, Mich., Hoyt library, 145 EDGELL, MOSES, gift to Public lib- rary, Framingham, Mass., 145 EDGERTON, M. PAULINE, 151 Educational work of the library, 36, 78 EDWARDS, E., Memoirs of Libraries, cited, 64 note Electric light, 50, 51, 74 Elgin, 111., Gail Borden library, 148 Endowment fund of the Amer. Lib. Association, 90 England, library movement in, 13, n, 22 ; American librarians' visit to, 89 Enoch Pratt Free library of Balti- more, 100 ESTABROOK. CHARLES, 151 I EVANS, ALICE G , 148 Evansville, Ind., Willard library, 148 EVERETT, EDWARD, and Boston Public library, 17 Fair Haven, Mass., Millicent library, 145 Fees, Library, and popular use, 11 Fiction, 31-34 Fines on books, 157 Court, applied to library sup- port, 24 Fireplace in reading-room, 75 First free library, 102 Fitchburg, Mass., Wallace library 145, 149 FITZ, EUSTACE C., gift to Chelsea, Mass., 145 FLETCHER, WILLIAM I., Pres Amer. Lib. Assoc., 88 Fletcher library, Burlington, Vt., 151 FLINT, WESTON, 152 Florida, libraries in, 152 FOLSOM, CHARLES, at ist library convention (1853) 85 Fond du Lac, Wis., Public library, Forbes library, Northampton, Mass., 46, 145 ; view, 46 ; plan, 48 FOSTER, WILLIAM E., 151 Framingham, Mass., Public library, 145 FRANKLIN, B., and public libraries, 10 ; Philadelphia Library, 93 ; col- lection on, Boston Public library, 43 Free" libraries, GEORGE TICKNOR'S idea of, 17; vs. other public libra- ries, icg, no Free use of libraries vs. fees, 38, 39 Fremont, O., Birchard library, 151 FURBISH, ALICE C., 149 GALE, S. C., founder library, Holden Mass., 145 Galesbur;. 111., Public library, 148 Gardner, Mass., Public library, 145 GARLAND, CAROLINE H., 150 GAST, HARRIET A., 151 164 Index Geneseo, N. Y.,' Wadsworth library, I 5 I Georgia, libraries in, 152 Gifts to libraries, 18, 29, 143 ; table of, 144-146 OILMAN, President D. C., cited, 73 Glendale, O., Public library, 146 GOSLEE, Miss, 148 Government and libraries, 14 Grand Rapids, Mich., Public library, 150 GREEN, SAMUEL S.. 150 ; Pres. Amer. Lib. Assoc., 88 ; on Sunday opening, 140 Grosvenor library, Buffalo, 108 Guaranties for book borrowers, 156 Guelph, Canada, Public library, 112 GUILD, REUBEN A., 85, 86; 'The Librarian's Manual,' 86 H Hackley library, Muskegon, Mich., 145, 150 HAGAR, SARAH C., 151 HALE, E. J. M., gift to Public li- brary, Haverhill, Mass., 145 "Halifax, N. S., Legislative library, 114 HALL, HENRY, gift to St Paul, Minn., 145 Hamilton, Can., Public library, 112 Harris Institute, Woonsocket, R. I., '5 1 HARRIS, WILLIAM T., 152 Hartford, Conn., Libraries in, 16 note, 117; Watkinson library, 144; Pub- lic library, 148 Harvard University library, 106 ; Ley- den system of catalogue in, 59; Cost of serials in, 1 16 HARVEY, Miss C. C., 148 HAVEN, SAMUEL F., at ist library convention (1853) 85 Haverhill, Mass., Public library, 145, 149 HAYWARD, ALMIRA L., 149 HAZARD, M^ WILLIAM A., gift to found Tilden library, 101 note HAZELTON, W. P., gift to Stockton, Cal., 1^4 HEDGE, FREDERIC H., 149 HERSEY, SAMUEL F., gift to Ban gor, Me., 144 HEWINS, CAROLINE M., 148 HEYWOOD, L., Heirs of, gifts to Gardner, Mass., 145 HILD, FREDERICK H., 148 HILL, FRANK P., 150, 156 HILLS, AGNES, 148 Historical Society libraries, 104 Holden, Mass., Gale library, 145 HOSMER, JAMES K., 99, 150 HOUGH, GEORGIA, 151 HOUGHTON, JOHN C., 149 HOVEY, E. C., 91 HOWARD, ANNIE T., gift to New Orleans. 144 HOWLAND, GEORGE, Jr., gift to New Bedford, Mass., 97 HOWLAND, SYLVIA ANN, gift to New Bedford, Mass., 97, 145 HOYT, JESSE, gift to E. Saginaw Mich., 145 Idaho, no free libraries in, 153 Ilion, N. Y., Public library, 146 Illinois, library law, 23 ; libraries in, J 54 Index, Poole's, see POOLE, W. F. , to scientific transactions, proposed, 86 ; to general literature, 90 Indexer, Rudolph, 59 Indexes, 63 Indiana, libraries in, 154 Indianapolis, Ind., Public library, 148 Indicator, the, 113 Industrial benefits of libraries, 34-36 INGRAHAM, R. C., 149 Injuries to books, regulations, 158 Iowa, libraries in, 154 Jackson, Mich., Public library, 150 JAMES, HANNAH P., 151 JERMAIN, M r * F. D., 151 Jersey City, Public library, 150 JEVONS, W. S., on public libraries, 39 JEWETT, C. C., So; at ist library convention (1853), 85 Johns Hopkins University library, 107 JONES, GARDNER M., 149 Index 165 Kalamazoo, Mich., Public library, 150 Kansas, libraries in, 154 Kansas City, Mo., Public library, 150 KELLY, HIRAM, gift to Chicago Pub- lic library, 144 KELSO, TESSA L., 148 Labelling books, 66 Lafayette, Ind., Public library, 148 LAIDLEY, CAROLINE S., 149 LAMPREY, MARY L., 149 Lancaster, Mass., Public library, 149 LARNED, J. N., on Sunday opening 140; President A. L. A'., 88 Lawrence, Mass., Public library, 149 Laws, see Library laws LEA, HENRY C., gift to Philadelphia Library Co., 146 LECOMB, DANIEL, 150 Lectures and libraries, 14 Lehigh University library, 107 Lenox library, 108, 146 LEWIS, EVELYN S., 149 Leyden University library : interior view, 10 ; catalogue, 59 Librarian's duty to his successors, 120 'Librarian's Manual, The,' by K. A. GUILD, 86 Librarians, qualifications of, 81 ; spe- cialists as, 8 1 ; training of, 82 ; women as. 83 : convention of, N. Y., I ^53> 85 ; Association of, pro- posed in 1853, 86; associations of, local, 91 ; see American Library Association Librarianship, 80 Library associations, 91 Library buildings, 40 ; memorial, 18 ; fire-proof, 44 ; expense of, 47 ; in- ternal arrangement, 47, 48 Amherst College, view of stack, 40; Astor, 40; Boston Public, 41, 51 note, view, frontispiece ; Chicago Public, view, 23 ; Congressional, 44, 45, view, 73, plan, 42 ; Forbes, 46 nofe, view, 46, plan, 48 ; Harvard University, view, 106 ; Leyden University, view (1600), 10; Min- neapolis Public, 98, 99, view, 99 ; New York Mercantile, 46 note, view, 50; Newberry 41, 45, view, 45 ; Peabody Institute, 40 ; Ridg- way, 96, view 96 Library Bureau, 60 Library clubs, 91 Library Commissions, State, 24, 118 Library Journal, 90 Library laws, 15, 20-28 Lighting of book-rooms, 50 ; of read- ing-rooms, 47, 48, 51, 74 Linotype, 62 Loans, record of, 66 LOGAN, JAMES, and the Philadelphia library, 94 Los Angeles, Cal., Public library, 148 Lost books, regulations, 157, 158 Louisiana, libraries in, 152 Lowell. Mass., Public library, 149 LUBBOCK, Sir JOHN, 39 I.yc2iim lectures, 14 Lynn, Mass., Public library, 145, 149 M McCAINE, M^ H. J., IjO Madison, Wis., Public library, 151 Maine library law, 21, 22 ; libraries in, 154 Maiden, Mass., Public library. '.45, 149 Management of libraries, Laws regu- lating, 23 Manchester, Mass., Public library, 145 Manchester, N. H., Public library, 150 Marking books, 66 MARVIN, KATHARINE M., 149 Maryland, libraries in, 152 Massachusetts, library law, 15, 21, 22 ; Library Commission, 24, 103; li- braries in, 25, 154 Mechanics Institutes in Canada, 112 Medford, Mass., Public library, 149 Memphis, Tenn., Cossitt library, 146 METCALF, ANNA, 151 Methuen, Mass. ? Kevins library, 145 Michigan, libraries in, 154 University of, library, 107 Middle Ages, libraries in, 10 Milwaukee, Wis.. Public library, 151 Minneapolis Public library, 98, 1451 1 50 ; view, 99 Minnesota, libraries in, 154 166 Index Missionary aspect of libraries, 12, 37, 38 Mississippi, libraries in, 152 Missouri, libraries in, 154 Montana, libraries in, 152 Montreal, Canada, McGill University library, 114; Montreal College li- brary, 114 Moral value of libraries, 37, 38 MUNROE, WILLIAM, gift to Concord, Mass., 145 Museums with libraries, 99 Muskegon, Mich., Hackley library, 145, 150 N Nashua, N. H., Public library, 150 Nebraska, libraries in, 152 NEUBAUER, MARGUERITE, 148 Nevada, no free libraries in, 153 NEVINS, D., heirs of, gift to Me- thuen, Mass., 145 New Bedford, Mass., Public library, 96, 145, 149 New books vs. old, 71 New England Historic Genealogical Society, 104 New Hampshire, library laws, 21, 22, 27; Library Commission, 25; li- braries in, 103, 154 New Haven, Conn., Public library, 148 New Jersey, libraries in, 154 New London, Conn., Public library, 148 New Orleans, Howard library, 144 New York City, Library Club, Hand- book of, 119; libraries in, endow- ments of, 146; Free Circulating library, 151; Y. M. C. A. library, 146; Apprentices', 1 54; Aguilar,i54 New York State, libraries in, 16, 119, 154 ; library law, 25 ; Regents and libraries, 25 ; State library, 26 Newark, N. J., Public library, 150, rules, 156 Newberry library, Chicago, 108, 144 ; building, 41, 44, 45 ; view, 45 NEWBERRY, WALTER, 144 Newburgh, N. Y., Public library, 151 Newburyport, Mass., Public library, 149 Newport, N. H., Public library, 146 Newport, R. I., People's library, 151 Newton, Mass., Public library, 149 NIBLO, W., 146 NORRIS, J , gift to Trenton, Mo., 146 Northampton, Mass., Forbes library, 145; building, 46; Public, 149 North Carolina, no free libraries in, '53 North Dakota, no free libraries in, 1 53 North Easton, Mass., Ames library, i45> M9 NORTON, Gen. CHARLES B., 86 Norwich, Conn., Otis library, 148 NOVES, S. B., So Oakland, Cal., Public library, 148 Odd Fellows' library, San Francisco, 1 08 Ohio, library law, 21 ; books on, in Cincinnati Public library, 143 ; li- braries in, 154 Omaha, Neb., Public library, 146, 150 One hundred largest libraries, 148 Ossgon, no free libraries in, 153 Osterhout library, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., 146, 151 OSTRANDER, M r M. F., 150 Ottawa, Canada, Parliamentary li- brary, 114 PANIZZI, ANTHONY, 13, 80 PARSONS, M A. F., 150 PARSONS, JOHN D., 149 Paterson, N. J., Public library, 151 Pawtucket, R. I., Public library, 151 PEABODY, GEORGE, 144 Peabody Institute, Baltimore, 108 ; building, 40 Peabody, Mass., Peabody Institute, 149 Pennsylvania, libraries in, 154 University of, library, 107 Peoria, 111., Public library, 39, 148 Periodicals, Poole's Index to, 63, 90 ; bound sets of, in reading room, 75 ; combined catalogue of, 119 Peterboro', N. H., Public library, 102 PETERSON, HENRY F., 148 PETTINGILL, CATHERINE B.,gift to Bridgeport, Conn., 144 Index 167 Philadelphia Library Co., n, 12, 20, 93-96, 146; Ridgway branch build- ing, view, 96 PHILLIPS, ELIZABETH, 148 Pittsburgh, Pa., Public library, 146 Pittsfield, Mass., Berkshire Athe- n.-eum, 149 ' Plea for Liberty ' against public li- braries, 14 POOLE, \V. F., portrait, 31 ; on fic- tion, 34; on library buildings, 44, 45 ; Index to Periodicals, 63, 90 ; Organization, etc , of Libraries, cited, 67 not; ; present at ist library con- vention (1853) 85 ; Prcs. Amer. Lib. Assoc., 88 ; guaranties, 1 56 ; biog. sketch, 159 Portland, Me., Public library, 144, '49 Portland, Ore., library, 146 Portsmouth, N. H., Public library, 150 Postage on library books, 118 Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Public, 151 PRATT, ENOCH, founder library, Bal- timore, 145 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 154 Princeton College library, 107 Progress of libraries, 115 Providence, R. I., Public library, 151 Public schools and libraries, 14 Public sentiment and libraries, 28 Publishing Section, Amer. Lib. Asso- ciation, 90 Purchase of books, 71 PUTNAM, HERBERT, 99 Quebec, subscription library in (1779), in ; Legislative library, 114 ; Laval University library, 114 QUINCY, JOSIAH, Jr., and Boston public library, 15 Quincy, Mass., Thomas Crane library, 145, 149; new policy of, 118 R Reading, GEORGE TICKNOR on, 17; recreative, 31 ; guidance of, 32, 33 Reading-rooms, 47, 48, 73-76; warm- ing of, 75 Recreative reading, 31 Redwood library, Newport, R. I., 12 REED, B\ RON, gift to Public library, Omaha, Neb., 146 Reference books, 48 ; in reading-room, 75; regulations, 157 Reterence libraries, 73, 108 Reference work, 73 ' Relative ' location of books, 56 note Religious value of libraries, 37, 38 Renewals of books, 157 Residence of borrowers, change!, 157 Revolution, the, and the library movement, 10 Reynolds library, Rochester, N. Y., 146, 151 Rhode Island, libraries in, 154 RICE, PRESCOTT C., 149 RICE, WILLIAM, 149 RICH, ROBERT E., 150 RICHARDS, DEXTER, gift to New- port, N. H., 146 RICHARDSON, MARY A., 148 Richmond. Ind., Morrison- Reeves li- brary, 148 Ridgway branch, Phila. Library, 96; view, 96 RINDGE, FREDERICK H., gift to Cambridge, Mass., 145 RINEHART, \V. H., gift to Peabody Inst., Baltimore, 144 ROBBINS, M's ELI, gift to Arlington, Mass., 145 ROBERTS, ISABELLA C , 150 Rochester, N. Y., Reynolds library, 146, isi Rockford, 111., Public library, 148 ROSE, EMMA E., 151 ROWLAND, WILLIAM L., 148 Royal Society's Catalogue of Scien- tific Papers, 86 Rudolph indexer. 59 Rules, library, 156 RUSH, JAMES, gift to the Phila.del- phia Library, 95, 146 Rutland, Vt., Baxter library, 146 RYERSON, D r , and public libraries in Ontario, in Sacramento, Cal., 'Indicator' used at, 114 note 1 68 Index Sage library, West Bay City, Mich., 145, 150 SAGE, H. W., gives library building to Cornell University, 107; gift to West Bay City, Mich., 145 St Catherines, Canada, Public library, 112 St Johnsbury Athenanim, Vt., 151 St Louis, Mo., Public library, 150; made free, 38 note St Paul, Minn., Public library, 145, 150 Salem, Mass., Public library. 145, 149 San Francisco, Libraries in, ic8 ; Public library, 148 ; fiction list, 33 SANDERS, M r; > MINERVA H., 151 SARGENT, MARY E., 149 SCANTLIN, Miss, 148 School district libraries, 21 Schools and libraries, 77 Scientific libraries, 105 SCOTT, Sir WALTER, value of novels of, 34 note SCOVILLE, JAMES W., founder Insti- tute, Chicago, 144 Scranton, Pa., Public library, 146, 151 SEAMANS, C. W., gift to llion, N. Y., 146 Selection of books, 68 Serials, cost of, 116 Seven-day books, 157 Shelf-list, 65 Shelf-numbers, 56 note Shelving, 49, 50 SHEPARD, RUTH C., 151 SHUTE, M rs , gift to Lynn, Mass., 145 SICKLEY, JOHN C., 151 Simcoe, Canada, Public library, 112 SMITH, CLARA M., 149 SMITH, ELLA M., gift to Portland, Ore., library, 146 SMITH, LLOYD P., 80, 95 ; at ist convention (1853) 85 Socialism and libraries, 14, 18 Societies, index to transactions of, proposed, 86 South Carolina, no free libraries in, 1 53 South Dakota, libraries in, 152 Special collections, 138, 139, 143 SPENCER, HERBERT, 14 SPENCER, KIRBY, gift to Minne- apolis, 98, 145 SPOFFORD, A. K., portrait, 80; biog. sketch, 159 Springfield, 111., Public library, 148 Springfield, Mass., Public library, 149; made free, 39 Springfield, O., Public library, 151 Stack system of building, 41-44, 49 Stamping books, 66 State, the, and libraries, 14 State libraries, 104 Statistics of libraries, 147-154 STAUFENBIEL, F. J., 148 STEIN, VIRGINIA, 148 STEINER, BERNARD C., 149 STETSON, WILLIS K., 148 STEVENS, DAVID, 151 STEVENSON, WILLIAM M., 151 Stockton, Cal., Public library, 144, 148 Subject-catalogue, 61, 62 Subscription libraries, n, 96 Sunday opening of libraries, 140 Support of libraries by court dues, 24 Surgeon-General's office, Washington, library of, 105 Sutro library, San Francisco, 108 Taunton, Mass., Public library, 1 50 Taxation, libraries exempted from, 12, 20; libraries supported by, 22, 1 54 ; limited, for library purposes, 22 TAYLOR, BAYARD, gift to Minneapo- lis, 98 Teachers and libraries, 78 ; extra books allowed, 157 Tennessee, libraries in, 152 Texas, libraries in, 152 THURSTON, ELIZABETH P., 149 TICKNOR, GEORGE, and Boston pub- lic library, 16 ; portrait, 16; Span- ish and Portuguese library, 143; biog. sketch, 160 TILDEN, S. J , bequest to New York City, 101 note Toledo, O., Public library, 151 Topeka, Kans., Public library, 149 Toronto, Public library, 112; Legis- lative library, 114 ; University li- brary, 1 1 4 Trenton, Mo., Public library, 146 Troy, N. Y., Y. M. Assoc., 154 TRUMBULL, JONATHAN, 148 Trustees of libraries, 23 Index 169 u United States Bureau of Education, Statistics of libraries, 152 University, library not a, 78 University extension, 77, 78 University libraries, 106 UPTON, J. WARREN, 149 UTLEY, HENRY M., 88, 150 Vermont, library law, 21 ; libraries in. 154 Virginia, no free libraries in, 153 Volumes, books in several, 157 note W Wadsworth library, Geneseo, N. Y., 5 ! WALDO, CELIA F., 150 WALLACE, RODNEY, gift to Fitch- burg, Mass., 146 Washington. City of, libraries in, 105 Washington, State of, libraries in, 152 Waterbury, Conn., Silas Bronson li- brary, 144, 148 Waterloo, Can., Public library, 112 Watertown, Mass., Public library, 150 Watkinson, David, and Hartford li- braries, 1 08, 117, 1 1 8, 144 WEST, THERESA, 151 West, the, libraries in, 15 West Bay City, Mich., Sage library, M5> !5 West Virginia, libraries in, 152 U'HELPLEY, A. W., 151 WHITNEY, CARRIE W., 150 \\HITNEY, ELLEN F., 149 WHITNEY, SOLON F., 150 WHITTIER, J. H., on State aid to libraries, 27 Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Osterhout library, 146, 151 WILLCOX, E. S., 148 WILLIAMS, Miss L. A., 149 WILSON, N., gift to Belfast, Me., 144 WINCHESTER, GEORGE F., 151 WINSOR, JUSTIN, portrait, 65; Pres. Amer. Lib. Assoc., 87, 88 ; on co- operation of libraries, 119 note ; on Sunday opening, 140; biog. sketch, 1 60 WINTHROP, R. C., 9 Wisconsin, libraries in, 154 Woburn, Mass.. Public library, 150 Wolfboro', N. H., Public library, 146 Women as librarians, 83 WOOD, JULIA S., 150 WOODWARD, R. C., 151 Woonsocket, R. I., Harris Institute, I 5 I Worcester, Mass., Public library, i !jo World's Fair (1893) library exhibit at, 91. 92 WRIGLEY, M rs S. A , 148 Wyoming, libraries in, 152 Yale University library, 29. 106 Young, reading for the, Sargent on, 9 Y. M. C. A. libraries. 108; of New York, 59 Young Men's Institutes, n UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES COLLEGE LIBRARY This book is due on the last date stamped below. Febl3 63 ** *. v- . WEC-D CQL 08. 1977 677 College Libra APR 2 1 lib, APR1( JlfNS REC'D COL M 6780 MAY 3 19178 Slip-25m-9,'60 (B2<936s4 ) 4280 UCLA-College Library Z 731 F63 L 005 689 1 70 8 Library Z 731 P63 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY WH SANTA B, ARY'