Z(^5 A^ Al v> m m ^^= _ m A = r.' ^^^ ^ H — J> ? = i^^ :z3 4 = = -^ ^ — < r^— ^ 4 Hadley Why Do We Need a Public Library? LIBRARY TRACT. No. 10 Revised Edition of Tract No. 1 WHY DO WE NEED A PUBUC UBRARY? MATERIAL FOR A LIBltARY CAMPAIGN Complied by CHALMERS EADLEY Sec'y American Library Association % AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION PUBLISmNG BOARD 1 WASHINGTON STREET, CHICAGO 1910 PUBLICATIONS OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION PUBLISHING BOARD Pottage on hook pubHc 3 It furnishes information to teachers, ministers, jour- nalists, plijsicians, legislators, all persons upon whose work depend the intellectual, moral, sanitary and politi- cal welfare and advancement of the people. 4 It furnishes books and periodicals for the technical instruction and information of mechanics, artisans, manu- facturers, engineers and all others whose work requires technical knowledge — of all persons upon whom depends the industrial progress of the cit}-. 5 It is of incalculable benefit to the city by affording to thousands the highest and purest entertainment, and thus lessening crime and disorder. 6 It makes the citj' a more desirable place of resi- dence, and thus retains the best citizens and attracts oth- ers of the same character. 7 More than any other agency, it elevates the general standard of intelligence throughout the great body of the community, upon which its material prosperity, as well as its moral and political well-being, must depend. Finall}-, the public library includes potentiall}- all otlier means of- social betterment. A librar}' is a living organ- ism, having within itself the capacity of infinite growth and reproduction. It may found a dozen museums and hospitals, kindle the train of thought that produces benefi- cent inventions, and inspire to noble deeds of every kind, all the while imparting intelligence and inculcating in- dustry, thrift, morality, public spirit and all those qualities that constitute the wealth and well-being of a community. F. M. CRUNDEN. WHAT A FREE LIBRARY DOES FOR A COUNTRY TOWN 1 It keeps boys at home in the evening by giving them well-written stories of adventure. 2 It gives teachers and pui)ils interesting books to aid their school work in history and geograiihy. and makes better citizens of them by enlarging tin ir knowledge of their crumtry and its growth. G MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 3 It provides l)Ooks on the care of children and ani- mals, cookcrj' and liousckeeping, l)uilding and gardening, and teaclios joung readers how to make simple dj-namos, telepiiones and other machine.--. 4 It lielps cluh> tliat are studying history, literature or life in other countries, and throws liglit upon Sunday- scliool lessons. 5 It furnishes books of selections for reading aloud, suggestions for entertainments ;ind home amusements, and hints on correct speech and good manners. 6 It teaches the names and habits of the plants, birds and insects of the neighborhood, and the differences in soil and rock. 7 It tells the story of the town from its settlement, and keeps a record of all important events in its history. 8 It oflfers pleasant and wholesome stories to readers of all ages. CAROLINE M. HEWINS. Let tlie bo\'s find in the free library wholesome books of adventure, and tales such as a I)oy likes; let the girls find the stories which delight them and give their fancy and imagination exercise; let the tired housewife find the novels which will transport her to an ideal realm of love and happiness; let the liard worked man, instead of being expected always to read "improving" books of history or politics, choose that which will give him relaxation of mind and nerve — perhaps the "Innocents Abroad." or Josh Billings's "Allminax," or "Samanthy at Saratoga." W. I. FLETCHER. WHY WE NEED A LIBRARY A public library in our community would be an influence for good every day in the week. It would make the town more attractive to the class of people we want as residents and neighbors. It would mould the characters of tlie children in our homes. A good library would get gifts from wealthy citizens. MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 7 Xo other public institution offers so fitting an opportunity for a public-spirited citizen to help his neighbors and win their approval and affection. A library in would be the center of our intellectual life and would stimulate the growth of all kinds of clubs for study and debating. It is a great part of our education to know how to find facts. Xo man knows everything, but the man who knows how to find an indispensable fact quickly has the best sub- >titute for such knowledge. We need a librarj' to carry forward in a better manner the education of the children who leave school: to give them a better chance for self- education. We need it to give thoughts and inspiration to the teachers of the people, those who in the schoolroom or pulpit, on tlie rostrum, or with the pen attempt to in- struct or lead their fellow citizens. We need it to help our mechanics in their employments, to give them the best thoughts of the best workers in their lines, whether these thoughts come in books or papers or magazines. WISCOXSIX FREE LIBRARY COMMISSIOX. Tiie public library is an adult school; it is a perpetual and life-long continuation class: it is the greatest educa- tional factor that we have: and the librarian is i)ecoming our most important teacher and guide. SIR WALTER BESANT. WHAT A LIBRARY DOES FOR A TOWN 1 Completes its educational equipment, carrying on and giving permanent value to the work of the schools. 2 Gives the children of all classes a chance to know and love the best in literature. Without the public library such a chance is limitid to the very few. .3 Minimizes the sale and reading of vicious literature in the community, thus promoting mental and moral lualth. 4 Effects a great saving in money to every reader in the community. The library is tlic ai)plication of common S MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN sense to the problem of supply and demand. Through it every reader in the town can secure at a given cost from lOO to looo times the material for reading or study that he could secure by acting individually. 5 Appealing to all classes, sects and degrees of intel- ligence, it is a strong unifying factor in the life of^ town. 6 The library is the one thing in which every town, however poor or isolated, can have something as good and in>piring as the greatest city can offer. Neither Boston nor New York can provide better books to its readers than the humblest town library can easily own and supply. 7 Slowly but inevitably raises the intellectual tone of a place. 8 Adds to the material value of property. Real estate agents in the suburbs of large cities never fail to adver- tise the presence of a library, if there be one, as giving added value to the lots or houses they have for sale. A. W. in NEW YORK LIBRARIES. HELPFUL THINGS DONE BY LIBRARIES FOR TEACHERS AND CHILDREN 1 Graded lists (sometimes annotated) of books suitable for children are printed as part of the library's finding lists. 2 Bulletins of books for special days are printed. 3 Lists of books on special subjects are printed. 4 Topics being studied in the schools are illustrated by special exhibits at the libraries. 5 Study rooms in the libraries are maintained for the pupils of the high schools and the higher grammar grades. 6 Children's or young people's rooms are maintained at the libraries, where the children may come into person- al contact with a trained children's librarian and with hun- dreds of books on open shelves. 7 Story hours or readings for children are conducted at the libraries. 8 Training in reference work, in the use of books and libraries, in the use of finding lists, card catalogs. MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 9 indexes, etc., is given bj- Hbrarj^ assistants: (a) to teachers at the librarj-; (b) at the librarj- to individual pupils and classes that come there^ (c) at the schools to the pupils in their rooms. 9 Lectures on classification, bibliographies, and cata- logs are given by members of the library staff for teach- ers and normal school students. 10 Special stud}' rooms for teachers are provided. 11 Special educational collections are shelved for use by the teachers. 12 Cases of about 50 books (traveling libraries as it were) are prepared by libraries and sent to schoolrooms to remain for a year or less, teachers to issue books for home use. 13 Branch reading — and delivery — rooms are opened in schools, in charge of library assistants, with supply of books on hand for circulation and facilities for drawing others from the main library. 14 Assistant librarians are placed in charge of work with schools. 15 In large cities complete branch libraries are estab- lished in schools on the outskirts of the cities. 16 Special collections of books arc furnished to vaca- tion schools. 17 Special cards are issued to teachers on wliich they may draw more than tlic usual number of volumes at a time. 18 Teachers and principals are allowed to draw a num- ber of volumes for (a) reading by children at school; (b) reading by children at home. PUBLIC LIBRARIES. LIBRARIES, A PUBLIC BENEFACTION A library is not a luxury; it is not for the cultured few: it is not merely for the scientific; it is not for any intel- lectual cult or exclusive literary set. It is a great, broad, universal public benefactir)n. It lifts the entire communi- ty; it is the rinht arm of the intellectual development of the people, ministering to the wants of those who arc 10 MATERIAL 1-OR A J'L ISLIC LIBKAKV CAMPAIGN already educated and spreading a universal desire for edu- cation. It is the upper story of the public school system, while it is a broad field wherein ripe scholars may find a fuller training fur tlicir already highly developed faculties. It is above all a splendid instrument for the education and culture of those vast masses of boys and girls that are denied the high privileges of the systematic training of the schools. C. C. THACH. The function of tlic library as an institution of socictj', is the development and enrichment of human life in tlic entire community by bringing to all the people the books that belong to them. SALOME CUTLER FAIRCHILD. MEANING OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY Cities and towns are now for the first time, and chiefiy in this country, erecting altars to the gods of good fel- lowship, joy and learning. These altars are our public libraries. We had long ago our buildings of city and state, our halls of legislation, our courts of justice. But these all speak more or less of wrongdoing, of justice and injustice, of repression. Most of them touch on partisan- ship and bitterness of feeling. We have had, since many centuries, in all our cities, the many meeting places of re- ligious sects — our chapels, cliurclies and cathedrals. The^' stand for so much that is good, but they have not brought together the communities in which they are placed. A church is not always the center of the best life of all who live within the shadow of its spire. For several generations we have been building temples to the gods of learning and good citizenship — our schools. And they have come nearer to bringing together for the highest purpose the best impulses of all of us than have any other institutions. P.ut they are all not yet, as some day they will be, for both old and young. Then they speak of discipline, of master and pupil, instead only of pure and simple fellowship in studies. MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 11 And so we are for the first time in all history, building, in our public libraries, temples of happiness and wisdom common to us all. No other institution which society has brought forth is so wide in its scope; so universal in its appeal; so near to every one of us; so inviting to both young and old: so fit to teach, without arrogance, the ignorant and. without faltering, the wisest. The public library is to be the center of all the activi- ties that make for social etificiency. It is to do more to bind into one civic whole and to develop the feeling that you are citizens of no mean cit\% than any other institu- tion you have yet established or tlian we can as yet con- ceive. J. C. DANA. PUBLIC LIBRARIES. A WORLD-WIDE MOVE- MENT The world-wide library movement of the past few years is an important factor in the educational world. The pub- lic library is now recognized as one of the most effective of the preventive measures advocated by modern social students. It is considered an essential part of any system of public education, affording opportunity for self-educa- tion, and supplementing the average five years of school life. Educators now realize that the school offers but the beginning of education, and that the library is its necessary complement and supplement. Tliis increase of library fa- cilities has greatly influenced school work, in bringing home to teachers the fact that it is as important to teach what to read as to give chiUlren the ability to read. Tlie library of to-day is not wholly for recreation, but it is tiie people's university. It is entitled to the same considera- tion which is given to the public schools, and to the same sort of support. Tlie wliole conception their pan-iits and worthy citizens of our great re public. 14 MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN Such is the product of a Free Public Library. Is it not worth the small pittance it will cost? Many a laboring man spends more money in a week for tobacco than the maintenance of a library would cost him in a year. Is not the education and the development of our bright boys and girls worth a little self-denial? We all desire that our children shall have better oppor- tunities than we have had, and not have to work as we have worked. Here is an opportunity to help them help themselves, which is the very best help that can be given any one. Let 's be "boosters" and help ourselves, help our town, and help our boys and girls by unitedly supporting the library proposition. IOWA LIBRARY COMMISSION. REASONS FOR HAVING A FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY Public libraries have without delay become an essential part of a public education system and are as clearly useful as the public schools. They are not only classed witli schools, but have generally become influential adjuncts of the public schools. The number of readers is rapidly in- creasing and the character of the books is constantly im- proving. Xot infrequently the objection is heard that the public libraries arc opening the doors to light and useless books; that reading can be. and often is, carried to a vicious and enervating excess, and therefore tliat the libraries' influ- ence is doubtful and on the whole not good. This argu- ment does not need elaborate exposure. The main purpose of the library is to counteract and check the circulation and influence of the empty and not infrequently vicious books that are so rife. A visit to any nev.s-stand will disclose a world of low and demoralizing ■■penny dreadfuls" and other trash. These are bought by boys and girls because they want to read and can nowhere else obtain reading material. This deluge of worthless periodicals and books can Ije counteracted only by gratui- tous supplies from the public library. MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGX 15 Whether these counteracting books be fiction or not, the}- maj' be pure and harmless, and often of intellectual merit and moral excellence. The question is not whether people shall read fiction — for read it they will — but whether they are to have good fiction instead of worthless and harmful trash. The tendency to read inferior books can soon be checked by a good library. If the attention of the children in school is directed to good books, and the free library con- tains such books, there will be no thought of the news- stand as the place for finding reading matter. The economical reason for establishing free public li- braries is the fact that public officers and public taxation manage and support them efficiently and make them avail- able to the largest number of readers. By means of a free library there is the best utilization of effort and of re- sources at a small cost to individuals. While a private library may greatly delight and improve the owner and his immediate circle of friends, it is a lux- ury to which he and they only can resort. A library charging a fee may bring comfort to a re- spectable board of directors by ministering to a small and financially independent circle of book-takers, by its free- dom from the rush of numerous and eager readers, and by strict conformity to the notions and vagaries of the managers. But such a library never realizes the highest utility. The greater part of the books lie untouched upon the shelves, and compared with the free library it is a lame and impotent aff^air. The books of a public library actively pervade the com- munity; they reach and are influential with very large numbers and the utility of the common possession — books — is multiiilicd without limit. Before several of our towns lies the question of opening to all what is now limited to those who pay a fee. This is not merely a limitation — it is practically a prohibition. Whether right or wrong, human beings as at present constituted will not frequent in large numbers libraries tliat charge a lee. The spirit of the age and the tendency l(j MATERIAL I'OK A Pini.lC LIDKARY IWMIWICN of liberal coiniminilics arr entirely in favor of furnishing tills means of education and amusement without charge. Certainly towns which can maintain by taxation, paupers, parks, higlnvays and schools have no reasonable ground for denying free reading to tluir inhabitants. These towns spend vast sums of money in providing education, and yet omit the small extra expenditure which would enable young men and women to continue their education. The experience of Library Commissions of various states has amply demonstrated that libraries and literature are sought for and appreciated quite as mucli by rural communities as by tlie larger towns, and not infre(iuently the appreciation is apparently keener, because of the ab- sence of interests and amusements other than those pro- vided by the library. There is now no real reason why every part of this state may not enjoy tlie advantages and pleasures of book distribution, for concentration of effort in the small towns elsewhere has provided efficient, at- tractive and economical libraries, and could as well do so liere. F. A. HUTCHINS. MISSION OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY It is our business in tliis country to get at tlie best meth- ods to govern ourselves. How many of our ])cst people have paused to reflect on what that means, and on all it means? It means that now we have about 80,000,000 of sovereigns. It was all very well when wc were a little confederation of homogeneous stock stretching along the Atlantic sea-board. We had our dissensions then, but our population was permeated with the principles of our gov- ernment. In one hundred years wc have swelled from a handful to 80,000,000, and a large part of them made up of additions from the nations of the earth, and not the self- governing nations. .And the problem is to educate the children of these, as well as our own cliildrcn, in tlie prin- ciples of that government of which they arc an essentia) and vital part. MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 17 This is the first problem, and if it is not attended to, our gOAernment will crumble away and decay from neg- lect. We do not want denizens in this state and this na- tion, we want citizens. We do not want ward politics, but we do want government as our forefathers understood it. And it is the duty of every right-minded citizen to work unfalteringly for this end. The question is one of expediency. We want citizens. And the public school and the pub- lic library are the places where citizens are made. There- fore we must labor for and support these institutions first and foremost. To a very great extent, the librarian is the custodian of public morals and the moulder of pub- lic men. The librarian must, and he usually does, feel his re- sponsibility. The word "responsibility" should be given e(|ual weight with the word 'iibertj'" and emblazoned be- side it, and it is these two things that the public libra- rian through his knowledge of good literature must im- press upon our coming generations — "liberty and respon- sibility." WINSTON CHURCHILL. LIBRARY EXTENSION Our public scliools arc doing a great work, but, after all, "the older generation remains untouched, and the as- similation of the younger can hardly be complete or cer- tain as long as the homes of the parents remain compara- tively unaffected." For those whose early education has been neglected either by reason of family circumstances or because of wayward disposition, and who realize tluir need before it is too late, there are night schools, busi- ness courses and correspondence sciiool courses, with tlic minor advantages and stimulus offered l)y public lecture rrturses. Volunteer study clubs and societies for research arc being organized in great numbers. And, more potent and more forceful, more universal in its application tlian all these because better organized, better equipped ;ind readier to avail itself of all existing afiiliating agencies, is IS MM ERIAL 1-OR A PLBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN tluit national movement wliicli lias become known for want ul' a better term as library extension. Library extension aims to supply to every man, woman and child, cither through its own resources or by co-oper- ation with other affiliated agencies, what each community, or anj- group in any community, or any individual in the community may require for mental stimulus, intellectual recreation or practical knowledge and information useful in one's daily occupation. HENRY E. LEGLER. The opening of a free puljlic library is a most important event in the history of any town. A college training is an excellent thing; but, after all, the better part of every man's education is that which he gives himself, and it is for this that a good lil)rary should furnish the opportun- ity and the means. All that is primarily needful in order to use a library is tlie ability to read; primarily, for there must also be the inclination, and after that, some guidance in reading well. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. THE LIBRARY— PLEASURE AND PROFIT We cannot remind ourselves too frcciuently that a fun- damental i)urposc of good books, and so of the library which possesses them, is to give pleasure, and that the li- brary ought to be more closely and peculiarly associated with pleasure than any other institution supported by the public. Life for most of us is suf^ciently dull and colorless. The workday aspect of the world is always with us and oppresses us. For the average man and woman, whose ed- ucation has been limited, whose imagination has lacked all wider opportunity for cultivation, the easiest escape from the cares of daily life, from the depressing monot- ony of daily routine, will be through the avenue opened by the story, the people's road out of a care-filled life, ever since the days of "Arabian Nights." Such readers MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBR.iRY CAMFAIGX 19 as these desire fiction and ought to have it. If their imagination can be cultivated to the point of reaching similar freedom from care through poetry-, througli tlie drama, or through any of the higher forms of literature, so much the better. The librarj-'s message is to men and women cramped b}' toil and narrowed by routine, ever seeking some way out of this troublesome world into that larger realm which is more trulj- ours because it is our creation and that of our fellows. This wider world, in its friendliness and homelikencss, the library must repre- sent. The library is where the readers are introduced to the friendship of authors and their books. There they are at home and there we too may be at home. Old and young, rich and poor, wise and simple, men and women and chil- dren, there we may meet new friends on kindly and famil- iar terms and widen our thoughts as we learn of their wisdom and their wit. Still better, there we may renew our acquaintance with old friends and feel the contracted horizon of our lives again enlarge as we meet them once more. New friends and old, they all greet us with an assured welcome and yield to us the best which they can give, or we receive. We come to them not to learn les- sons but to be with them for a little while and to live with them that larger and truer life which their presence creates for us. Thus the library performs its high and noble duty of helping men to live, "not by bread alone, but by every word of God," who, through good books, has been speak- ing to the generations of mtn not only for their instruc- tion but even more for their delight. E. .'\. RTRGE. VALUE OF FREE LIBRARIES The best proof of the value of public libraries lies in the cordial support given them by all the i)c'0])lc, when they are manage*! on broad, sensible lines. Sudi institutions contribute to the fund of wholesome recreation tliat sweetens life and to the wider knowledge that broadens it. 20 MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN They give ambition, knowledge and inspiration to boys and girls from sordid liomcs, and win them from various forms of dissipation. Tlioy form a central home where citizens of all creeds and conditions find a common ground of useful endeavor. Libraries are needed to furnisli tlie pupils of our schools the incentive and tlic opportunity for wider study; to teach tlu-m "tlie art and science of reading for a purpose," to give to boys and girls with a hidden talent the chance to discover and develop it: to give to mechanics and arti- sans a chance to know what their ambitious fellows are doing; to give men and women, weary and worn from treading a narrow round, excursions in fresh and delightful fields; to give to clubs for study and recreation, material for better work, and, last but not least, to give wholesome employment to all classes for those idle hours that wreck more lives tlian any other cause. F. A. HUTCHINS. "Even now many wise men are agreed that the love of books, as mere things of sentiment, and the reading of good books, as mere habit, are incomparably better re- sults of schooling than any of the definite knowledge which the best of teachers can store into pupils' minds. Teaching how to read is of less importance in the intelli- gence of a generation than the teaching what to read." THE BOOKLESS MAN The bookless man does not understand his own loss. He does not know the leanness in which his mind is kept Ijy want of the food which he rejects. He does not know what starving of imagination and of thought he has inflicted upon himself. He has suffered his interest in the things which make up God's knowable universe to shrink until it reaches no farther than his eyes can see and his ears can hear. The books which he scorns are the telescopes and reflectors and reverberators of our in- tellectual life, holding in themselves a hundred magical powers for the overcoming of space and time, and for MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAICX 21 giving the range of knowledge which belongs to a really cultivated mind. There is no equal substitute for them. There is nothing else which will so break for us the poor hobble of everyday sights and sounds and habits and tasks, bj- which our thinking and feeling are naturally tethered to a little worn round. J. N. LARNED. THE LIBRARY'S EDUCATIONAL MISSION To the great mass of boys and girls the school can barely give the tools with which to get an education be- fore they are forced to begin their life work as breadwin- ners. Few are optimistic enough to hope that we can change this condition very rapidly. The great problem of the day is, therefore, to carry on the education after the elementary steps have been taken in the free public schools. There are numerous agencies at work in this di- rection — reading rooms, reference and lending libraries, museums, summer, vacation and night schools, corre- spondence and other forms of extension teaching: l)ut I)y far the greatest agent is good reading. An educational system which contents itself with teaching to read and then fails to see that the best reading is provided, when undesirable reading is so cheap and plentiful as to be a constant menace to the public good, is as inconsistent and absurd as to teach our children the expert use of tlie knife, fork and spoon, and then provide them witli no food. The most important movement before the profes- sional educators to-day, is the broadening going on so rapidly in tlieir duties to their profession and to the pub- lic. Too many have thought of their work as limited to schools for the young during a short period of tuition. The true conception is that we should be responsible for higher as well as elementary education, for adults as well as for children, for educational work in the homes as well as in the schoolhouses, and during life as well as for a limited course. In a nutshell, tlie motto of the extended work should l)e "higher education for adults, at home, during life." MELVIL DEWEY. 22 MATERIAL FOR A Pl'HLIC LIBRARY CAMl'AlUX THE FREEDOM OF BOOKS The free town library is wholly a product of the last half century. It is the crowning creature of democracy for its own higher culture. There is nothing conceivable to surpass it as an agency in popular education. Schools, colleges, lectures, classes, clubs and societies, scientific and literary, are tributaries to it — primaries, feeders. It takes up the work of all of them to utilize it, to carry it on, and make more of it. Future time will perfect it, and will perfect the institutions out of which and over which it has grown; but it is not possible for the future to bring any new gift of enlightenment to men that will be greater, in kind, than the free diffusion of thought and knowledge as stored in the better literature of the world. The true literature that we garner in our libraries is the deathless thought, the immortal trutli, the imperish- able quickenings and revelations which genius — the rare gift to now and then one of the human race — has been frugally, steadily planting in the fertile soil of written speech, from the generations of the hymn writers of the F.uphrates and the Indus to the generations now alive. There is nothing save the air we breathe that we have common rights in so sacred and so clear, and there is no other public treasure which so reasonably demands to be kept and cared for and distributed for common enjoy- ment at common cost. Free corn in old Rome bribed a mob and kept it pas- sive. By free books and what goes with them in modern America we mean to erase the mob from existence. There lies the cardinal difference between a civilization which perished and a civilization tliat will endure. J. N. LARNED. GOOD BOOKS The library offers the advantages of good society to many who could not otherwise enjoy them. This is one of the most important influences that tells on individual character. A man is not only known by the company he MATERIAL l=OR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 23 keeps, but to a great extent he is made or unmade by his associates. A great part of what we learn and much of what we are is absorbed unconsciously from our en- vironment. Now books are written — at least the good books — by men and women of the better sort. They are people of marked intelligence and refinement. They have just views of truth and duty and are able to reveal to us many secrets respecting the life that is being lived around us. They are interpreters and guides in all lines of human activity and service. To be intimate with them is good society. If then we can bring all these choice spirits by their books into our village and introduce them to our children and our neighbors, even to the poorest, and let them talk to all who will listen, we have done something, we have done much to raise the tone of general intelli- gence and refinement. Here is tlic great opportunity to reach the homes of the poor and the careless and even of the baser sort with new light. The books will interest and meet the craving for knowledge which everybody has, and then will come into confidential relations with many a reader, starting new trains of thought, suggesting new ideas, offering sympa- thy and kindling faith. The friendless will gain friends and these friends wdl do tlicm good. In such ways, this institution, the public library, is cal- culated to enlarge and enrich the community's life. WILLIAM R. EASTMAN. PLACE AND PURPOSE OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY The place now assigned the public lilMary. by very gen- eral con.scnt, is tiiat of an integral part of our system of public and free education. On no other theory lias it sure and lasting foundation; on no other theory may it be su])- ])orted by general taxation; on no other theory can it be wisely and consistently administered. A public tax can be levied for tli' maintenanc*' <>f a ])ublic library only upon tlie principle wliich underlies all righteous public 21 MATERIAL FOR A rVBUC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN taxation, not tliat tlic taxpayer wants something and will receive it in proportion to the amount of his contrihntion, hut tliat the puhlic wants something of such general in- terest and value tiiat all property-owners may be asked and required to contribute towards its cost. The demand for intelligent and eflfective citizenship is increasing daily, for two reasons: First — The problems of public life and of public service, of communal exist- ence, are daily becoming more complex, inore difficult of satisfactory solution. Second — We are recognizing more clearly than ever before that our present success and pres- tige are due to the fact that more tlian any other people in the world's history have we succeeded in securing that active participation and practical co-operation of the whole people in all public affairs. In the whole people are we finding and are we to find wholesomeness and strength. But coincident witli this discovery, this keen realization of the place and value of all in advancing the common in- terests of all, has come the feeling: First — That the com- mon public schools must be made good enough for all; and. Second — That even at their best they are insufficient. The five school years (average) of the American child constitute a very narrow portal through which to enter upon the privileges and duties of life, as we desire life to be to every child born under the flag. There is need of far more information, instruction, inspiration and up- lift than can possibly be secured in that limited time. Casting about for a satisfactory supplement and com- plement for the public schools, we find the public library ready to render exactly this service; to make it possible for the adult to continue through life the growth begun in childhood in the public school. Only in this way and by this means can we hope to continue the common .\merican people as the most uncommon people which the world has yet known. Henceforth, then, these two must go hand in hand, neither trenching upon the field of the other, neither bur- dening or hampering the other, each helping the other. The public school must take the initiative, determini"ng MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 25 lines of thought and work, developing in each child the power to act and the tendency to act. making full use of the public library as an effective ally in all its current work, and making such use of it as to create in each pu- pil the library habit, to last through life. The public li- brary must respond by every possible supplementary ef- fort, by most intelligent co-operation, by most sympathetic and effective assistance, and by giving pupils a wel- come which they will feel holds good till waning physical powers make further use of the library impossible. NATIONAL EDUCATION ASS'N REPORT, 1906. The most imperative duty of the state is the univer- sal education of the masses. No money which can be usefully spent for this indispensable end should be denied. Public sentiment should, on the contrary, approve the doctrine that the more that can be judiciously spent, the better for the country. There is no insurance of nations so cheap as the enlightenment of the people. ANDREW CARNEGIE. PUBLIC LIBRARY IS PUBLIC CO-OPERATION A public library is the flower of the modern forms of co-operation, which secures for the individual, luxuries which he could not afford otherwise. Instead of buying so many books and magazines which wear out on the shelves after one reading, let us "pool our issues" and put the multitude of small sums in one fund, buy the best at the lowest prices, and then use the vol- umes so bought for the good of all. We need spend no more money each year for literature, but we need to save the wastage due to unused books, foolish purcliases, book agents, commissions, and needless profits — and we can have a public library without otlicr cost. A good public library in this town may help our neigh- boring farmers as well as our townspeople. They cannot support public libraries in their small communities. Their small school libraries give the children a taste for read- 2ti MATERIAL I-OK A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN ing, but give tluin nutliing to gralif}- tliat taste when tliey leave school. Let us join our forces for nuitual advantage and get a better librar}- and a wider eonmiunit}' of inter- ests. WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION. USE OF LIBRARIES FOR REFERENCE An ability to glean information quickly and accurately from books and periodicals, to catch a fact when it is needed and useful, is an indispensable factor in that self- education which all citizens should add to the education obtained in the schools. The schools cannot give a wide range of knowledge, but they can give the desire for knowledge, and tlie library can give the opportunity to gain it. Nearly every branch tauglit in the schools may be liglit- ened and made more interesting l)y supplementary infor- mation gained from a good library. The pupil who is studying the life of Washington should find many inter- esting facts concerning him and his time and associates, not given in any of the formal biographies. lie will find an article on Washington in the "Young Folks' Cyclopedia of Persons and Places," but if he knows how to use the in- dex he can find fourteen other articles in the same vol- ume in which Washington is mentioned. A large ency- clopedia will give scores of facts wanted, under various articles treating of important events in the latter colo- nial and earlier national history of our country; in articles on places, customs, epochs, battles, and soldiers and statesmen who were Washington's contemporaries. A teacher cannot train a large number of young people to habits of thorough investigation in a brief time, but she can easily train a few, one or two at a time, and they will help to train others. F. A. HUTCmXS. MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 27 THE MODERN LIBRARY MOVEMENT The modern library movement is a movement to in- crease by every possible means the accessibility of books, to stimulate their reading and to create a demand for the best. Its motive is helpfulness; its scope, instruction and recreation; its purpose, tlie enlightenment of all; its as- pirations, still greater usefulness. It is a distinctive movement, because it recognizes, as never before, the in- finite possibilities of the public library, and because it has done everything witliin its power to develop those possi- bilities. Among the peculiar relations that a library sustains to a community, which the movement has made clear and greatly advanced, are its relations to the school and uni- versity extension. The education of an individual is co- incident with the life of that individual. It is carried on by the influences and appliances of the family, vocation, government, the church, the press, the school and the li- brary. The library is unsectarian, and hence occupies a field independent of tlie church. It furnishes a founda- tion for an intelligent reading of paper and magazine. It is the complement and supplement of the school, co-op- erating with the teacher in the work of educating the child, and furnisliing the means for continuing that edu- cation after the cliild has gone out from the scliool. Tliose are important relations. From the l)eginning the child is taught the value of books. In the kindergarten period he learns that they contain beautiful pictures: in the gram- mar grades they do much to make history and geogra- phy attractive: in the liigli school they are indispensable as works of reference. Were it not for the liljrary, liie education of tlie masses would, in most cases, cease when the doors of the school swung in after them for the last time: l)Ut it keeps those doors wide open, and is, in the truest sense of the word. the university of the people, 'ihe library is as much a part of the educational system of a community as the public school, and is coming more and more to be regard- 28 MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN ed witli tlic same respect and supported in the same gen- erous manner. The public library of to-day is an active, potential force, serving the present, and silently helping to develop the civilization of the future. The spirit of the modern li- brary movement whicli surrounds it is thoroughly pro- gressive, and tlioroughly in sympathy with the people. It believes that the true function of the library is to serve the people, and that the only test of success is usefulness. JOSEPH LEROY HARRISON. THE PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY There is no institution so intimately, so universally, so constantly connected with the life of the whole people as tlie free public library — no instrumentality that can do so much to civilize society. The public schools alone can- not accomplish the task of elevating mankind to even the most modest ideal of a well ordered society. Our public schools have been the chief source of the greater general intelligence and licnce the industrial su- periority of our citizens over those of other countries. But the public schools cannot accomplish impossibilities. They are not to blame for the fact that they can reach the great majority during only six or eight years, or that only one and one half per cent of tlie children in the United States go through the high school. But wherever there is a public library, the teachers are to blame if they do not graduate all their pupils, at whatever age they may leave school, into the People's University. General intelligence is the necessary foundation of pros- perity and social order. The public library is one of the chief agencies, if not the most potent and far-reaching agency, for promoting gen- eral intelligence. Therefore, money devoted to the maintenance of a pub- lic library is money well invested by a community. F. M. CRUXDEN. MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBR.IRY CAMPAIGN 29 PUBLIC LIBRARY, A PUBLIC NECESSITY Any consideration of a public library project is compli- mentary to a community, sbowing, as it does, a sense of civic responsibility and a desire for future progress which are commendable. No town can hope to live up to its greatest possibilities without a public library, and none with a sincere desire need be denied the blessings which result from such an institution. There are few communities which would not provide for a public library, if its advantages were appreciated, for it is a remedy for many ills and is all-embracing in its scope. It vitalizes school work, and receiving the pupil from the school, the library continues his education throughout life. It is a home missionary, sending its messengers, the books, into every shop and home. With true missionary zeal, it not only sends help, but opens its doors to every man, woman and child. In most towns, there are scores of j^oung men and boys whose evenings are spent in loafing about the streets, and to these the library offers an attractive meeting place, where the time may be spent with jolly, wise friends in the books. The library substitutes better for poorer reading, and pro- vides story hours for the children who are eager to hear l)cfore they are able to read. It also increases the earn- ing capacity of people, by supplying information and ad- vice on the work they are doing. Increased taxation is one of tlic greatest hindrances to the opening of a public library, l)ut any institution which cnriciies and uplifts tlie lives of the people, is tlie great- est economy. Any attempt to conduct civic affairs with- out a reasonable expenditure of money for such int1u- rnces is the grossest extravagance. No economy results from ignorance and vice, and the public library has long since established its claim as one of the most potent reme- dies for such conditions. It is no exaggeration to state tliat every dollar expend- ed for library purposes is returned to the community ten- fold, \V)\. necessarily in dollars and cents, but in the more ■M) MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN permanent, more valuable assets of greater happiness, eomfort and progress of the people. A city is llie express- ion of every life within its borders, and every increase in progress and efficiency in the individual citizen, is prog- ress for the whole. Tlie most valuable things usually are obtained at some sacrilke, and the many advantages from a public library are certainly worth paying for. Hundreds of small cities and towns tax themselves for electric plants and count themselves fortunate. Xo one seems to regret this taxa- tion for electric liuhts which illuminate the citizen's way at night. Should there not be an equal or greater readiness on the part of a community to establish a library and so illuminate the mental horizon of every citizen? A public library is a necessity, not a luxury. Every community which realizes this and establishes a library, proclaims itself an intelligent, progressive town and one worth living in. CH ALGIERS HADLEY. The opening of a free public library is a most impor- tant event in any town. Tliere is no way in which a com- munity can more benefit itself than in the establishment of a library which shall be free to all citizens. WILLIAM McKINLEY. PUBLIC LIBRARY, A PUBLIC OPPORTUNITY Modern industrialism exacts from the artisan and the worker in every branch, skill and knowledge not dreamed of years ago. He who would not be trampled under foot needs to keep pace with the onward sweep in his particu- lar craft. The public library furnishes to the ambitious artisan the opportunity to rise. Upon its shelves he may find the latest and the best in invention and in method and in knowledge. Never in the history of the country has there been such a desire manifested among the adult population for continued education as may be noted to- day. Does it not speak eloquently of ambition to rise above circumstances — that same spirit that we have ad- MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 31 mired in our Franklins and our Lincolns and the long roll of self-made men whose lives we are proud to recall? And so library extension takes note of adult education, and combining its forces with university extension, realizes that broader movement variously termed home education, popular education and the people's college. The library gives heed to the future, and thus does not neglect tla- child. The intelligent work of the children's librarian, supplementing the related work of the teacher, aims to develop the individual talent or dormant resource which finds no chance for expression where children are necessarily treated as masses. And we may never know what society has lost by failure to quicken into life this dormant talent for invention, for art, for literature, for philosophy. "The loss to society of the unearned incre- ment is trivial compared to the loss of the undiscovered resource." Had retarding influences affected half a dozen men whom we could readily name — Morse, Fulton, Steph- enson, Edison, Bell, Marconi — we might to-day be without the locomotive, the steamship, the telegraph, the tele- phone — the myriad marvels of electricity that to-day seem commonplaces. What we have actually lost during this great century of scientific development we can never know. Xor must we forget that invention is the result of cumu- lated knowledge which the fertile brain of man utilizes in new directions, and that the preservation of the knowl- edge and experience of the centuries is the province of the public library, where all alike may have access to its riches. The ideal democracy is the democracy of knowl- edge and of learning. The library endeavors, by applying the traveling library I)rinciple to collections of pictures, by means of the illus- trated lecture and otherwise, to cultivate among tiie peo- ple an appreciation of the beautiful and artistic tiiat shall ultimately find expression in the home and its surround- ings. The library believes, too, tliat recreative reading is a legitimate function. We hold, with William Morton Payne, that a sparkling and sprightly story, which may 32 MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN be read in an hour and wliich will leave the reader with a good conscience and a sense of cheerfulness, has its merits. In this work-a-day world of ours we need a bit of cheer for the hours which ought to be restful as well as resting liours. Lil)rary extension is imbued with op- timism; its broadening field is educational, sociological, recreative. Unblindcd to the evils of the day, its promot- ers realize inability to amend them except by educational processes affecting all tlio people. They do not preach the gospel of discontent, but seek realization of condi- tions which shall bring about contentment and happiness. That, after all, for tiie welfare of the people, wants need be but few and easily supplied. He who has food, rai- ment and slielter in reasonable degree, access to the in- tellectual wealth of the world in public libraries, to the riches created by the master painters and sculptors, found in public galleries and museums, to the untrammeled use of public parks and drives, and the many other universal advantages which are now so increasingly many, need not envy the richest men on cartli. Many a millionaire is poorer than the most humble of his employees, for ex- cessive wealth brings its own train of evils to torment its possessor. Commercial success is a legitimate endeavor among men, and thrift is to be commended, but when these degenerate into greed, pity and not envy should be the meed of the man seized with the money disease. HEXRY E. LEGLER. THE LIBRARY AND THE WORKERS My opinion of the public lilirary from a workingman's standpoint is, that it is the greatest boon that could pos- sibly be conferred upon him. It places him at once upon the level with the millionaire, the student and the philoso- pher. It opens for him (whose poverty would otherwise debar him) the vast fields of literature. Here he may wan- der at will with the master minds of humanity, hand in hand with the great thinkers of the ages, open his mind and heart to the lessons taught by those great leaders of MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 33 men who have conquered nations and shaped the desti- nies of the human race. Here he may associate with the greatest, the wisest and the best. There is no limit to the possibilities of possessing knowledge which is power, with- out money and without price. The public library should be managed in the best interests of the workingman, and the books should be purchased mainly with his welfare in view. The capitalist can buy and own his own books. The workingman cannot do this. Tlie children of the work- ingman must get from the pu1)lic library the general books of reference which the business man has in his home. The children of the workingman must have these books in order properly to do their school work and thor- oughly understand it. Their teachers require this. The children of the workingman have their schools as well as the library. Their work in tlie schools and the work in the library go hand in hand, but the workingman himself has onl)^ the library for his school and must, of necessitj% go there. His schoolroom is the reference room, for tlie knowledge he gains in that department lie can at once put into practical use in any capacity in which he may be employed. The question arises, having presented those opportuni- ties to the workingman, will lie take advantage of tluni? I answer, he surely will. It is now more than twenty years since I joined a labor organization, tlie "Stone-cut- ters' Union" of Minneapolis. Since that time I Iiavc al- waj's been affiliated with organized workingmcn. Dur- ing all these years the workingman lias taken advantage of every opportunity to better tlie condition of liimsclf, his fellow workman and his employer. He has learned to be more patient, more conservative and more trust- worthy. His hours of labor have been shortened, his wages are liighcr, and labor-saving machinery l).is made his work lightir. lie lives in a better luniic, his family is better provided for and, best of all. his children are bet- ter educated. What has wrought those great changes in the conditions of the workingman? What lias enabh d liini to keep up with the swift march uf progress during tliese 34 MATERIAL FOR A J'lBIJC L/HKAKV CAMPAIGN many years? 1 will ;in.s\vi.r in one word, Education. Just such inslitution.s as the puljlic library have made this pos- sible, and the public library has given the largest share. JOHN P. BUCKLEY. A WORLD WITHOUT BOOKS What if there were no letters and no books? Think what your state would be in a situation like that! Think what it would be to know nothing, for example, of the way in wliich American independence iiad been won, and the fedora! repul)lic of tlic United States constructed; nothing of IJunkcr Hill; nothing of George Washington; except the little, half true and half mistaken, that your fathers could remember, of what their fathers had repeat- ed, of wliat tlieir fathers had told to tiiem. Tliink what it would be to have nothing but shadowy traditions of the voyage of Columbus, of the coming of the Mayliower pilgrims, and of all the planting of life in the New World from Old World stocks, like Greek legends of the Argo- nauts and of the Heraclidae! Think what it would be to know no more of the origins of the English people, their rise and their growtli in greatness, than the Romans knew of their Latin beginnings; and to know no more of Rome herself than we might guess from the ruins she has left! Think what it would be to have the whole story of Athens and Greece dropped out of our knowledge, and to i)e una- ware that Marathon was ever fought, or that one like Soc- rates had ever lived! Think what it would be to have no line from Homer, no thought from Plato, no message from Isaiah, no Sermon on the Mount, nor any parable from the lips of Jesus! Can you imagine a world intellectually famine-smitten like that — a bookless world — and not shrink with horror from the thought of being condemned to it? Yet the men and women who take nothing from letters and books are choosing to live as thougli mankind did actually wallow in the awful darkness of tliat state from which writing and books have rescued us. For them, it MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 35 is as if no ship had ever come from the far shores of old Time where their ancestry dwelt; and the interest of ex- istence to them is huddled in the pett}- space of their own few years, between walls of mist which thicken as impen- etrabl}' behind them as before. How can life be worth living on such terms as that? How can man or woman be content with so little, when so much is ofifcred? J. N. LARNED. BOOKLESS HOMES The bookless homes of the well-to-do people are famil- iar to all. Inside those walls no books are to be found but a few gift books, chosen for their bindings rather than their contents, and perhaps others which some agent has pressed upon them. What can be done to stimulate reading in these homes? Ten-cent magazines and ciicap stories are devoured by mother and daughters to the de- struction of sane thoughts and connected ideas. The man of the house each day reads his newspaper, containing ac- counts of crimes, accidents and the funny paper. Happily, it also contains articles of travel, invention and discovery, otherwise his brain would be weakened. Young people come from iliesc ])Ookless homes to col- lege each year, showing great confusion of ideas, vacuity of mind and utter lack of information. They need us, need libraries, need the force of the state to help them. Ninety-four per cent of our young people never get into college. Xincty per cent, it is said, never go to school after they have passed the age of fourteen years. The contribution of tlu- library is to elevate the stand- ard of the town. Books depicting noble, earnest, well- meaning lives will cause the social standard to jirogress, and otlier standards with it. ORKGON lJi',R.\RV COM .M LS.SIQN. 36 MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN NEED OF FREE LIBRARIES A library is an essential part of a broad system of edu- cation, and a community sliould tliink it as discreditable to be witiiout a well-conducted free public library as to be without a good school, if it is the duty of the state to give each future citizen an opportunity to learn to road, it is equally its dutj' to give eacli citizen an op- portunity to use that power wisely for himself and the state. Wholesome literature can be furnished to all the readers in a community at a fraction of the cost neces- sarj' to teach them to read, and the power to read may then become a means to a life-long education. The books tliat a boy reads for pleasure do more to determine his ideals and shape his character than the text-books he studies in the schools. Bad and indifferent literature is now so common that the boys will have some sort of reading. If they have a good public library they will read wholesome books and learn to admire Washing- ton, Lincoln and other great men. Without a library many of them will gloat over the exploits of depraved men and women, and their earliest ambitions will be tainted. Each town needs a library to furnish more practice in reading for the little folks in school; it needs it to give the boys and girls who have learned to read a taste for wholesome literature that informs and inspires; it needs it as a center for an intellectual and spiritual activity that shall leaven the whole community and make healthful and inspiring themes the burden of the common thought — substituting, by natural methods, clean conversation and literature for petty gossip, scandal and oral anrl printed teachings in vice. F. A. HUTCIIIXS. THE LIBRARY AND BOYS "In Madison, N. J., a bird club of boys met twice a week, once for study and once for an expedition, and found the library's resources on this topic to be of inter- MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 37 est and value. How to utilize profitably the activities of a 'gang' of boys is wortli much planning. One librarian is reported to have started a chair-caning class to inter- est restless boys; another had a museum of flowers and in- sects, another conducted a branch of the flower mission. Not less interesting, and perhaps more instructive, is a series of talks on Indian legends accompanied by hunt- ing expeditions for the half-buried implements and relics found in almost every meadow in some parts of the coun- try. Boys are eager to learn about natural history and natural science, and thej' will be encouraged at the pub- lic library." IRENE VAN KLEECK. THE LIBRARY Get good books; give them a home attractive to readers of good books; name a friend of good books as mistress of this home — and you have a library; all share in its support and all get pleasure and profit from it if they will; without divisions religious, politic or social, it unites all in the pursuit of high pleasure and sound learning, and gives that common interest in a common concern which is the basis of all local pride. If you have rightly read a book, that book is yours. You cannot always choose your companions; you can always choose your books. You can, if you will, spend a few minutes every day with the best and wisest men and women the world has ever known. The i)coplc you have known, the things you have said and done, and the books you have read, all these arc now a part of you. You like yourself better when you arc with people who are well-l)red and clever; you respect yourself more wlien you are reading a briglit and wholesome book, for you arc tlien in llic company of the wise. J. C. DANA. After tlie cluircli and llie school, the free pui)lic library is tl'.e most effective inlluencc for good in America. I "he moral, mental and material benefits to be derived from a 38 MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN carefully selected collection of good books, free for the use of all the people, cannot be overestimated. No com- munity can afford to be without a library. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. SHALL WE BE LOYAL TO THE CITY OF OUR HOME? The opportunity is at luuid to answer this question. A generous gift is offered, shall we accept it? We can have dollars for a public use, if we will promise to support the use to which this money is dedicated- Shall have a free public library? It is up to us, her citizens. We have passed the stage of a country town and are ranked and cataloged as a modern, progressive city, en- joying many of the advantages of the larger cities. Why is this true? Because tlie progressive spirit and sentiment have always triumphed in her onward march. Because, inspired by a public spirit, her people have*joined hands, and shoulder to shoulder labored for all that pertains to religious, moral, social, industrial, educational and mate- rial development. Let us keep marching on. Many towns in the state, nearly all those in the counties surrounding us, are accepting Carnegie gifts for libraries. \\ ill it not humiliate and degrade us in the eyes of the jieople of the state if we decree against a public library? Let us not detract from our well deserved and established reputation for progressiveness by such a mistake. We ap- l)eal to public spirit; to pride of city; to pride of home, and urge you to register your vote in favor of this enter- prise. IOWA LIBRARY COMMISSION. The system of free public libraries now being estab- li^iied in this country is the most important development of modern times. The library is a center from which radiates an ever widening influence for the enlightenment, the uplift, the advancement of the community. WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN. MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 39 THE SCHOOL'S GREATEST BOON The greatest boon that the system of public schools, or the college, or the university, can confer upon any boy or girl is to teach him or her to use a great collection of lit- erature, to teach them how to read; and to plant within their hearts an irresistible impulse and an indestructible delight in so doing. What profits it a man to learn how to read if he does not read? For what purpose is the mind trained and developed by the process of systematic study in the schools if it is not inspired to go farther into the realms of knowledge? Is it a rational procedure for one, upon the completion of his course of training, to discontinue all further investigation and to lay aside what little love for learning and literature and philosophy and science that may have 1)ecn aroused in his bosom by school or college inspirations? And how is this advan- cing and widening of one's horizon by means of the accu- mulated stores of knowledge gathered by the previous generations of the world's strong thinkers and beautiful writers to be secured, other than by a collection of good books, by a library? C. C. THACH. BOOKS AND STUDY WORK Have our missionary societies access to Bliss's "En- cyclopedia of Missions." or to Dennis's great "Missions and Christian Progress"? Do our Bible students know Moulton's "Literary Study of the Bil)le"? — a book so il- luminating as to seem almost itself inspired. How many of the members of the young people's societies of our churches have access to a standard concordance, Bible dictionary, or a dictionary of sects and doctrines? Has tlic W. C. T. U. the reports of the Committee of Fifty, that great committee of master minds, wlio made exhaustive investigation and authoritative reports on the various as- pects of the liquor question? Have the Masons a history of free-masonry? Has tlie Shakespeare Club books on Shakespeare, and is the Political Ecjuality Club actjuainted U) MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN with standard works on political science and the fran- chise? Who has a good "Cyclopedia of Quotations," or a "Reader's Handbook," where we can satisfy our curi- osity regarding allusions to "Fair Rosamond," "Apples of Hesperia," "Atlantis" and "Captain Cuttle"? If we were to see a farmer laboriously cutting his wheat witli a scythe, tying it into bundles by hand, and then carrying the bundles on his back to the barn, we would think lie was crazy. Is it not as foolish, however, for us in our study work to do without the suitable tools and helps which we might have in a public library? IIOLLEY (X. Y.) STANDARD. WHY CITIES SUPPORT PUBLIC LIBRARIES The proposition that only an enlightened and an intelli- gent people can make self-government a success is so self- evident as to make argument but a vain repetition of empty words. And yet we know tliat the public school side of our system of free public education is as yet only able to secure five years' schooling for the average child in tliis country — an all too narrow portal through which to enter upon successful citizenship. There is an impera- tive demand, then, for the establishment and the develop- ment and for the wise administration of that otlu-r brancli of our system of free public education which we know as the public library. We must understand clearly that the l)eneficent result of this system of education is just as possible to the son of the peasant as to the son of the president, is just as helpful to the blacksmith as to the barrister, to the farmer as to the philosopher: and in its possibilities and in its helpfulness is a constant blessing to all and througii all, and is needed by all alike. The most worthy mind, that which is of most value to the world, is the well-informed mind wliich is i)uMic and large. Only through the development of such, both as leaders and as followers, can all classes be brought into an understanding of each other, can we preserve true re- MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 41 publican equality, can we avoid that insulation and seclu- sion which are unwholesome and unworthy of true Ameri- can manhood. The state has no resources at all compar- able with its citizens. A man is worth to himself just what he is capable of enjoying, and he is worth to the state just what he is capable of imparting. These form an exact and true measure of every man. The greatest pos- itive strength and value, therefore, must alwaj's be asso- ciated with the greatest positive and practical develop- ment of every faculty and power. This, then, is the true basis of taxation for public li- braries. Such a tax is subject to all the canons of usual taxation, and may be defended and must be defended upon precisel}' the same grounds as we defend the tax for the public schools. JAMES HULME CANFIELD. WHY MR. CARNEGIE ESTABLISHES LIBRARIES I choose free libraries as the best agencies for improv- ing the masses of the people, because they give nothing for nothing. They only help those who help themselves. They never pauperize. They reach the aspiring, and open to these the chief treasures of the world — those stored up in books. A taste for reading drives out lower tastes. Besides this, I believe good fiction one of the most beneficial reliefs to the monotonous lives of the poor. For these and other reasons I prefer the free public library to most if not any other agencies for the happiness and improvement of a community. ANDREW CARNEGIE. TO TEACHERS Libraries are established that they may gather together the best of the fruits of the tree of human speech, spread them before men in all liberality and invite all to enjoy them. The schools arc in part established that they may tell the young how to enjoy this feast. They do tliis. They teach the young to read. They imt tluin in tourji 42 MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN with wonls and phrases; they point out to them the de- lectahlo mountains of liuman tliouglit and action, and then let them go. It is to be himented that they go so soon. At twelve, at thirteen, at fourteen at the most, these young men and women, wliose lives could be so broadened, sweetened, mellowed, humanized by a few %-ears" daily contact with the wisest, noblest, wittiest of our kind as their own words portray them — at this early age, when reading has iiardly begun, they leave school, and tliey leave almost all of the best reading at the same time. If, now, you can bring these young citizens into sympatlij' with the books the libraries would persuade them to read: if you can impress upon them the reading habit; then the libraries can supplement your good work; will rejoice in empty shelves; will feel tliat they are not in vain; and the coming generations will delight, one and all, in that which good books can give; will speak more plainly; will think more clearly; will be less often led astray by false prophets of every kind; will see that all men are of the one country of humanity; and will — to sum it all — be better citizens of a good state. I believe you will find there is something yet to do in reading in which the library can be of help. Reading comes by practice. The practice which a pupil gets dur- ing school hours does not make him a quick and .skilful reader. There is not enough of it. If you encourage the reading habit, and lead that habit, as you easily can, along good lines, your pupils will gain much, simply in knowl- edge of words, in ability to get the meaning out of print, even though we say nothing of the help their reading will give them in other ways. J. C. DANA. RIGHT USE OF BOOKS When we consider how much tlic education that is con- tinued after schooltime depends upon tlic right use of Ijooks, we can hardlj' be too emphatic in asserting that something of that use should be learned in the school. Yet almost nothing of the sort really is learned. The MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGX 43 average student in high school does not know the dif- ference between a table of contents and an index, does not know what a concordance is, does not know how to find what he wants in an encyclopedia, does not even know that a dictionary has many other uses besides that of supplying definitions. Still more pitiful is his naive assumption that a book is a book, and that what book it is does not particularly matter. It is tlie commonest of all experiences to hear a student say that he has got a given statement from a book, and to find him quite in- capable of naming the book. That the source of informa- tion, as long as that information is printed somewhere, should be of any consequence, is quite surprising to him, and still more the suggestion that it is also his dutj' to have some sort of an opinion concerning the value and credibility of the authority lie thus blindly quotes. If the school library, and the instruction given in connection with it, should do no more than impress these two elementary principles upon the minds of the whole student body, it would go far towards accounting for itself as an educa- tional means. That it may, and should, do much more than this is the proposition that we have sought to main- tain, and wc do not see how its essential reasonableness may be gainsaid. DIAL, Feb. i, 1906. THE TRUE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY The library supplies information for mcclianics and workingmen of every class. Just as the system of ap- prenticeship declines and employers require trained help- ers, must tlie usefulness of tlic library increase. Library work offers great opportunity for philanthropy, and philantliropy of the higlur form, because its work is preventive, rather than positive. It anticipates evil by substituting tlie antidote l)eforehand. It fosters the love of what is good and uplifting before low tastes have become a chronic propensity. Pleasure in sucli books as the library would furnish to young readers will interest the mind and occupy tlie thoughts exclusive of those evil 44 MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN practices invited by the open door of idleness. Tlic chil- dren generally conie of their own free will; they are in- fluenced silently, unconsciously to themselves; they feel themselves welcome, loved, respected. Self-respect, the mighty power to lift and keep erect, is fostered and de- veloped. The work of the library is for civic education and the making of good citizens, a form of patriotism made im- perative for the millions of foreigners coming yearly to our shores. The public library offers common ground to all. There are no social lines to bar the entrance; the doors open at every touch, if only the simple etiquette of quiet, earnest bearing is observed. No creeds arc to be subscribed to, the rich and poor meet together in absolute indepen- dence. Even the aristocracy of intellect does not count in the people's university. Tlic ideal public library realizes the true spirit of democracy. WALLER IRENE BULLOCK. THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AS THE CENTER OF THE COMMUNITY In more than one locality the local ])ul)lic library has come to be recognized as the natural local center of the community, around which revolve the local studies, the local industries, and all the various local interests of the town or village. Here, for instance, is the home of the local historical society; here also is the home of the local camera club; of the natural history society; of the study club and debating societies. Why is this? It is because those in charge of the library have so thoroughly realized the fact that in a community the interests of all are the interests of each, and that while this is true of other institutions as related to each other, yet there is no one of them on Avhich the lines of interest so invari- ablj" converge from all the others — as "all roads lead to Rome." W. E. FOSTER. MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMFAIUN 4.5 PUBLIC LIBRARIES The very presence of a public library has a meaning and exerts a power for good. Especially is this the case when this presence is made evident by a separate and worthy building. The building which stands for books, for knowledge, for the records of human experience; a house not just like other houses but with marks of perma- nence, dignity and grace, and evidently so contrived as to call the people in and to distribute freely to them these wise and entertaining books, must be a positive influence in itself. The children know- it for what it is. Old and young, rich and poor, recognize its meaning. It embodies the great idea of a man learning and growing by his association with the wisdom and experience of other men. It is the great clearing house of human intelligence where knowledge is mutually exchanged and every one can learn what the rest know. It tells the lowest and meanest and most ig- norant that here is the opportunity open to everybody to know, and therefore that books are a common concern of the village, by which it sets great store. If, on the other hand, the public library is neglected, or starved with excessive thrift, or if it is crowded into a corner, opened at rare intervals and approached with difficulty, all this influence is lost. The increase of reading tends to a general broadening of life. Human nature is selfish so long as tlie man is isolated, for he is controlled by his impulses and passions, and guided by his own narrow ideas. Our views of life are moulded by reading. The rec- ords are here, describing lands and people we have never seen, centuries in which we have not lived, men who passed oflf the stage in past ages. The discoveries of science, tlic developments of workmanship, the growth of civili- zation; thought, wit, fancy, feeling, which has appealed to the world, and that study, the study of man, is illustrated in in finitely diverse forms of story and song; all these are in books and they give us the advantage of wide hori- 10 MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN zons and enlarged acquaintance with life. A community leavened with such intUiences, where people generally un- derstand, where all grow up from their youth to know, to think, to communicate and to have common acquaint- ance with the past and the distance and with the secrets of nature, and all the many ways of doing tilings, is a stronger, happier and more prosperous community be- cause of that very fact, and the books are plainly a means to so desirable an end. W. R. EASTMAN. HOW A LIBRARY HELPED THE BOYS As the children have grown up since our library was established, it is wonderful how their demands for books have widened. A boy in his casual reading finds some particular liranch of study, in science, mechanics, art or politics, wliich arouses a sleeping instinct. Straightway he forsakes his stories and his plays and goes to the li- brary to satisfy his new desires. Year by year the de- mand upon the library has broadened and books have been added treating of electricity, the X-ray, wireless telegraphy, mending bicycles, telephones, bee-keeping, care of pet animals, political, social and economic ques- tions, and still the books do not meet all demands. New subjects arc called for and new books must be bought. BEAVER DAM ARGUS. Side by side in tlie wilderness, our forefathers planted the church and the school; and on these two supports the nation has stood firm and grown great. But a tripod is necessary for stable equilibrium. As the country has grown, its industrial, economic and political problems have grown more numerous and more complex, and tlic nation required a broader base of intelligence and moral- ity for its security and perpetuity. The third support for a wider and higher national life has been found in tlie public library, which co-operating with the school, doubles the value of the education the child receives in school and further incites and furnishes him with facilities for doing MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGX 47 so. It also enables the adult to make up for the oppor- tunities he neglected or, more often, did not have in early life. It does this, too, at an expense to the com- munity of not more than one tenth of the cost per capita of school education. F. M. CRUXDEN. THE LIBRARY SUPPORT This is the fundamental matter after all — money. Whence shall the funds come? The church plan, the clul) plan — all are dependent on the spasmodic and irregular support that results from the labors of a soliciting com- mittee using persuasive arguments with business men and others. There are certain expenses that are absolutely essential — books first and most, a room for which, prob- ably, rent must be paid (though some generous citizen may give the use of it), periodicals to be subscribed for, heat, light, table, chairs, etc., besides the most important feature of the w^hole scheme — the librarian. The wisest form of organization is the tax-supported free public library. Is it desirable that the small town shall in its beginning in library matters attempt at once to secure a municipal tax to found and maintain a free public library under the state law? There are those who believe this is the onlj' way to make a beginning. Even- tually, if not in the beginning, the free public library on a rate or tax-supported basis is the most desirable form of library organization. ALICE S. TYLER. WHY THE FREE LIBRARY SHOULD BE SUPPORTED BY TAXATION 1 Such a tax puts the library on tlic right basis as a public institution. The purpose of the library is the same as that of the school — public education, the enlargement and enrichment of the intellectual life of the community — and it should, therefore, be supported on tlie same grounds and by the same methods as the school. 2 Tiie library supported Ijy local taxation ceases to 4S MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN be a cliarity, contrilnucd by the lew to the many, and be- comes tlie right aiul property of all. When 1 use a li- brary supported by private gifts, I am accepting a favor; wlion 1 use a library supported by public tax, I am using what is mine by right. The tax tlius promotes a feeling of independence and self-respect in the library's patrons. 3 Taxation is the easiest and fairest way to raise the needed money. Five hundred dollars raised by entertain- ments, subscriptions, sales, etc., means a great burden of labor, care and expense to a few, and usually to net that sum a very much larger sum must be expended, while $500 spread on the tax rolls would hardly be felt even by the largest taxpayer. 4 It adds dignity to the library and increases the re- spect in whicli it is held. To be made each year an object of charity for which private subscriptions are solicited and rummage sales licld tends to bring it into contempt and greatly lowers its influence in the community. 5 A stated tax, yielding a known and fixed income, en- ables the trustees to pursue a consistent and stable plan for library development, such as is impossible where the income is dependent on fluctuating impulse or efifort. 6 There is no village tax levied from which the people can get so large a return for so little money. A $500 tax in a village of 3,000 people is e(iuivalent to about 16 cents for each resident. For tliis insignificant sum each person in the village is ofifered a pleasant reading room, as good as that supplied by many a club, a dozen or more of the best periodicals, a collection of books such as only a very few of the more wealthy can possess as individuals, and about $200 worth of new books to read every year. NEW YORK LIBRARIES. SOME ADVANTAGES OF MUNICIPAL CONTROL First — A free public library under municipal control has a regular, known income, wliicli increases witli tlie growth of the municipality. Second — It is not dependent >olcly upon .■subscriptions, MATERIAL FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY CAMPAIGN 49 contributions and the proceeds of entertainments arranged for its benefit. Third — With an income that is certain, the trustees are able to make plans for the future, and more economically adn\inister the affairs of the library. Fourth — A municipally-controlled library is owned by the people, and experience has demonstrated that they take a much greater interest in an institution belonging to them. Fifth — Public libraries supplement the work of the pub- lic schools. "Reading maketh a full man," wrote Lord Bacon; and Thomas Carlyle thus expressed the same idea: "Tlie true university of these daj's is a collection of books." Libraries, like the schools, should be sup- ported by the people. Sixth — The library is not a charity; neitlicr should it be regarded as a luxury, but rather as a necessity, and be maintained in the same manner that the schools, parks, fire departments and public roads are maintained — through the tax levy. Seventh — Where all contribute the burden is not felt; each aiding according to liis ability. Eighth — Permanency is acquired for the library, and many valuable governmental, state and other publications may be obtained without cost, a privilege that is often denied to subscription libraries. Ninth — The trustees and lilirarian arc not hampered in their work by inability to collect subscriptions or the fail- ure of an entertainment to return a profit. Tenth — There is a more efficient and closer co-operation uith tlie public school> and other municipal institutions and interests. Flevcnth — Public ownership secures more democratic ser\ice and I)roadness in administration. i"inally— All are interested in a Free Public Library, and in an emergency there will l)c a more generous response to an appeal for financial a•^sistancc■. NEW JERSEY PUBLIC LIBRARY COMMISSION. ForelfEn Book Lists List of selected German books. 50c. List of Hungarian books. 15c. List of French books. 25c. List of French fiction. 5c. List of Norwegian and Danish books. 25c. Library Tracts (5c. each) 2 How to start a public library, by Dr. G. E. Wire. 3 Traveling libraries, by F. A. Hutchins. \ Library rooms and buildings, by C. C. Soule. 5 Notes from the art section of a library, by C. A. Cutter. 8 A village library, by Mary Anna Tarbell. 9 Training for librarianship. 10 Why do we need a public library? Material for a library campaign, by Chalmers Hadley. Library Handbooks (15c each) 1 Essentials in library administration, by L. E. Stearns. 2 Cataloging for small libraries, by Theresa Hitchler. 3 Management of traveling libraries, by Edna D. Bullock. 1 Aids in book selection, by Alice B. Kroeger. 5 Binding for small libraries. () Mending and repair of books, by Margaret W. Browne. Card Publications I Catalog cards for current periodical publications. -for various sets of periodicals and for books of composite authorship. 3 —for current books in English and American history, with annotations. I —for current bibliographical publications. "> —for photo-reproductions of modern language texts before 1600 in American college libraries. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. rro-y "' IR5] Form L'J-3Um-ll, '50(2554)444 yfyj? TTT»7?AKY r,-nrL-T?«Si' PAMPHLET BINDE ManafoehittJ hp GAYLORO BAOS. U< Syrtcut*, N. Y. Stockton, CM. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY tP^r:s^M ■:',;*?Si^V'.'..