When I consider the debt which libraries and literature alike owe to the daily and weekly press, it is difficult to characterize with patience the Parthian arrow flung at it from the grave of a querulous millionaire, who will owe to these very newspapers the greater part of his success and his reputation. The father of the respectable testator, Doctor Benjamin Rush, has left on record many learned speculations concerning the signs and evidences of lunacy. We may now add to the number the vagaries of the author of a ponderous work on the human intellect, who gravely proposed to hand over to posterity an expurgated copy of the nineteenth century, with all its newspapers left out.

The Library of Congress, or, as it was called in its first general catalogue in 1815, "The Library of the United States," was founded in 1800, by the purchase of five thousand dollars' worth of books by act of Congress, upon the removal of the government to Washington. By the act of January 26, 1802, entitled "An act concerning the Library for the use of both Houses of Congress," this library was placed in charge of a joint committee of both Houses of Congress, consisting of three Senators and three Representatives, and a Librarian, to be appointed by the President of the United States. It had grown to the number of only 3,000 volumes in 1814, when the British army made a bonfire of our national Capitol, and the library was consumed in the ruins. The first library of Congress being thus destroyed, ex-President Jefferson, then living, involved in debt, and in his old age, at Monticello, offered his fine private library of 6,700 volumes to Congress, through friends in that body, the terms of payment to be made convenient to the public, and the price to be fixed by a committee. The proposition met with able advocacy and also with some warm opposition. It is illustrative of the crude conceptions regarding the uses of books which prevailed in the minds of some members, that the library was objected to on the somewhat incongruous grounds of embracing too many editions of the Bible, and a number of the French writers in skeptical philosophy. It was gravely proposed to pack up this portion of the library, and return it to the illustrious owner at Monticello, paying him for the remainder. More enlightened counsels, however, prevailed, and the nation became possessed, for about $23,000, of a good basis for a public library which might become worthy of the country. The collection thus formed grew by slow accretion until, in 1851, it had accumulated 55,000 volumes. On the 24th of December in that year, a defective flue in the Capitol set fire to the wood-work with which the whole library was surrounded, and the result was a conflagration, from which 20,000 volumes only were saved. Congress at once appropriated, with praiseworthy liberality, $75,000 for the purchase of new books, and $92,500 for rebuilding the library room in solid iron; the first instance of the employment of that safe and permanent material, so capable of the lightest and most beautiful architectural effects, in the entire interior structure of any public building. The appropriation of $75,000 was principally expended in the purchase of standard English literature, including complete sets of many important periodicals, and a selection of the more costly works in science and the fine arts. In 1866, two wings, each as large as the central library, and constructed of the same fire-proof material, were added to it, and quickly filled by the accession, the same year and the following, of two large libraries, that of the Smithsonian Institution, and the historical library of Peter Force, of Washington. The latter was the largest private library ever then brought together in the United States, but its chief value consisted in its possession of a very great proportion of the books relating to the settlement, history, topography, and politics of America, its 45,000 pamphlets, its files of early newspapers of the Revolution, its early printed books, and its rich assemblage of maps and manuscripts, many of the latter being original autographs of the highest historical interest, including military letters and papers of the period of the American Revolution. The Smithsonian library, the custody of which was accepted by Congress as a trust, is rich in scientific works in all the languages of Europe, and forms an extensive and appropriate supplement to the Library of Congress, the chief strength of which lies in jurisprudence, political science, history, and books relating to America. Yet no department of literature or science has been left unrepresented in its formation, and the fact has been kept steadily in view that the Library of the Government must become, sooner or later, a universal one. As the only library which is entitled to the benefit of the copyright law, by which copies of each publication for which the Government grants an exclusive right must be deposited in the National Library, this collection must become annually more important as an exponent of the growth of American literature. This wise provision of law prevents the dispersion or destruction of books that tend continually to disappear; a benefit to the cause of letters, the full value of which it requires slight reflection to estimate.

This National Library now embraces 840,000 volumes, besides about 250,000 pamphlets. It is freely open, as a library of reference and reading, to the whole people; but the books are not permitted to be drawn out, except by Senators and Representatives and a few officials for use at the seat of government. Its new, commodious and beautiful building, which may fitly be called the book-palace of the American people, open day and evening to all comers, is a delight to the eye, and to the mind.

* * * * *

The library of the Boston Athenaeum originated, in the year 1806, with a society of gentlemen of literary tastes, who aimed at creating a reading-room for the best foreign and American periodicals, together with a library of books. To this a gallery of art was subsequently added. The undertaking proved at once successful, leaving us to wonder why cultivated Boston, though abounding in special and parish libraries, should so long have done without a good general library; New York having anticipated her by fifty-two years, and Philadelphia by three-quarters of a century. The Athenaeum Library is peculiarly rich in files of American newspapers, both old and new, and its collection of early pamphlets is one of the largest in the country. In literature and science it embraces a heavy proportion of the best books, its total number of volumes being reckoned at 190,000. Its collection of books, pamphlets, and newspapers relating to the recent civil war is among the completest known. The price of a share in the Athenaeum is three hundred dollars, a large sum when compared with that of other proprietary libraries; but it involves much more valuable property-rights than any other. The annual assessment is five dollars to shareholders, who alone possess the right to draw books. The proprietors have also the power to grant free admission to others, and the library and reading-room are thus thrown open for reference to a wide range of readers.

The history of the Astor Library, opened in 1854, has been made too familiar by repeated publication to need repetition here. The generous founder gave two per cent. out of his fortune of $20,000,000 to create a free public library for the city which had given him all his wealth. The gift was a splendid one, greater than had ever before been given in money to found a library. Moreover, the $400,000 of Mr. Astor, half a century ago, appeared to be, and perhaps was, a larger sum relatively than four millions in New York of to-day. Yet it remains true that the bequest was but one-fiftieth part of the fortune of the donor, and that the growth and even the proper accommodation of the library must have stopped, but for the spontaneous supplementary gifts of the principal inheritors of his vast wealth.

The growth of the Astor library has been very slow, the annual income from what was left of Mr. Astor's $400,000 bequest, after defraying the cost of the library building, and the $100,000 expended for books at its foundation in 1848, having been so small as to necessitate a pinching economy, both in salaries of the library staff, and in the annual purchase of books. It was an example of a generous act performed in a niggardly way. But after the lapse of half a century, enlightened public policy, building upon the Astor foundation, and on the Lenox and Tilden bequests for founding public libraries in New York city, is about to equip that long neglected city with a library worthy of the name. There has already been gathered from these three united benefactions, a collection of no less than 450,000 volumes, making the New York Public Library take rank as the fourth, numerically, in the United States.

While no library in America has yet reached one million volumes, there are five libraries in Europe, which have passed the million mark. Some of these, it is true, are repositories of ancient and mediaeval literature, chiefly, with a considerable representation of the books of the last century, and but few accessions from the more modern press. Such, for the most part, are the numerous libraries of Italy, while others, like the Library of the British Museum, in London, and the National Library, at Paris, are about equally rich in ancient and modern literature. The one great advantage which European libraries possess over American consists in the stores of ancient literature which the accumulations of the past have given them. This advantage, so far as manuscripts and early printed books are concerned, can never be overcome. With one or two hundred thousand volumes as a basis, what but utter neglect can prevent a library from becoming a great and useful institution? The most moderate share of discrimination, applied to the selection of current literature, will keep up the character of the collection as a progressive one. But with nothing at all as a basis, as most of our large American libraries have started, it will take generations for us to overtake some of the vast collections of Europe—even numerically.

In the "American Almanac" for 1837 was published the earliest statistical account of American libraries which I have found. It is confined to a statement of the numerical contents of twenty public and university libraries, being all the American libraries which then (sixty years since) contained over 10,000 volumes each. The largest library in the United States at that date was that of the Philadelphia Library Company, which embraced 44,000 volumes. The first organized effort to collect the full statistics of libraries in the United States was made in 1849, by Professor C. C. Jewett, then librarian of the Smithsonian Institution, and the results were published in 1851, under the auspices of that institution, in a volume of 207 pages. It contains interesting notices of numerous libraries, only forty of which, however, contained as many as 10,000 volumes each. In 1859, Mr. W. J. Rhees, of the Smithsonian Institution, published "A Manual of Public Libraries, Institutions, and Societies in the United States," a large volume of 687 pages, filled with statistical information in great detail, and recording the number of volumes in 1338 libraries. This work was an expansion of that of Professor Jewett. The next publication of the statistics of American Libraries, of an official character, was published in "The National Almanac," Philadelphia, for the year 1864, pp. 58-62, and was prepared by the present writer. It gave the statistics of 104 libraries, each numbering 10,000 volumes or upwards, exhibiting a gratifying progress in all the larger collections, and commemorating the more advanced and vigorous of the new libraries which had sprung into life.

The work of collecting and publishing the statistics of American Libraries has for years past been admirably performed by the United States Bureau of Education. Begun in 1875, that institution has issued four tabular statements of all libraries responding to its circulars of inquiry, and having (as last reported in 1897) one thousand volumes or upwards. Besides these invaluable reports, costing much careful labor and great expense, the Bureau of Education published, in 1876, an extensive work wholly devoted to the subject of libraries, bearing the title "Special Report on Public Libraries in the United States." This publication (now wholly out of print) consisted of 1222 pages, replete with information upon the history, management, and condition of American Libraries, under the editorship of S. R. Warren and S. N. Clark, of the Bureau of Education. It embraced many original contributions upon topics connected with library science, by experienced librarians, viz.: Messrs. W. F. Poole, Justin Winsor, C. A. Cutter, J. S. Billings, Theo. Gill, Melvil Dewey, O. H. Robinson, W. I. Fletcher, F. B. Perkins, H. A. Homes, A. R. Spofford, and others.

I have prepared a table of the numerical contents of the thirty-four largest libraries in this country in 1897, being all those having 100,000 volumes each or upwards:

Library of Congress, Washington, 840,000 Boston Public Library, Boston, 730,000 Harvard University Library, Cambridge, 510,000 New York Public Library, New York City, 450,000 University of Chicago Library, 335,000 New York State Library, Albany, 320,710 Yale University Library, New Haven, 285,000 New York Mercantile Library, New York, 270,000 Columbia University Library, New York, 260,000 Chicago Public Library, 235,385 Cincinnati Public Library, 223,043 Cornell University Library, Ithaca, N. Y., 220,000 Sutro Library, San Francisco, 206,300 Newberry Library, Chicago, 203,108 Philadelphia Library Company, 200,000 Philadelphia Mercantile Library, 190,000 Boston Athenaeum Library, 190,000 Enoch Pratt Library, Baltimore, 185,902 Philadelphia Mercantile Library, 183,000 Detroit Public Library, Detroit, Mich., 148,198 University of Pennsylvania Library, Phila., 140,000 Princeton University Library, Princeton, N. J., 135,000 Pennsylvania State Library, Harrisburg, 134,000 Peabody Institute Library, Baltimore, 130,000 Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, O., 129,000 St. Louis Public Library, 125,000 Mechanics and Tradesmen's Library, New York, 115,185 Free Public Library, Worcester, Mass., 115,000 San Francisco Public Library, 108,066 Philadelphia Free Library, 105,000 American Antiquarian Society Library, Worcester, Mass., 105,000 California State Library, Sacramento, 100,032 Massachusetts State Library, Boston, 100,000 New York Society Library, New York, 100,000

Public libraries endowed by private munificence form already a large class, and these are constantly increasing. Of the public libraries founded by individual bequest, some of the principal are the Public Library of New York, the Watkinson Library, at Hartford, the Peabody Institute Libraries, of Baltimore, and at Danvers and Peabody, Mass., the Newberry Library and the John Crerar Library at Chicago, the Sutro Library, San Francisco, the Enoch Pratt Library, Baltimore, and the Carnegie Libraries at Pittsburgh and Allegheny City, Pa. Nearly all of them are the growth of the last quarter of a century. The more prominent, in point of well equipped buildings or collections of books, are here named, including all which number ten thousand volumes each, or upwards, among the public libraries associated with the founder's name.

New York Public Library (Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations), 450,000 Newberry Library, Chicago, 203,100 Sutro Library, San Francisco, 206,300 Enoch Pratt Library, Baltimore, 185,900 Peabody Institute Library, Baltimore, 130,000 Davenport Library, Bath, N. Y., 90,000 Silas Bronson Library, Waterbury, Conn., 52,000 Pratt Institute Free Library, Brooklyn, N. Y., 51,000 Watkinson Library, Hartford, Conn., 47,000 Sage Library, New Brunswick, N. Y., 43,000 Case Library, Cleveland, Ohio, 40,000 Grosvenor Library, Buffalo, N. Y., 39,000 Forbes Library, Northampton, Mass., 36,000 Cooper Union Library, New York, 34,000 Fisk Free Public Library, New Orleans, 33,000 Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass., 33,000 Reynolds Library, Rochester, N. Y., 33,000 Carnegie Free Library, Allegheny, Pa., 30,000 Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, Vt., 30,000 Howard Memorial Library, New Orleans, 26,000 Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, Pa., 25,000 Sage Public Library, West Bay City, Mich., 25,000 Hoyt Public Library, Saginaw, Mich., 24,000 Osterhout Free Library, Wilkesbarre, Pa., 24,000 Seymour Library, Auburn, N. Y., 24,000 Hackley Public Library, Muskegon, Mich., 22,000 Willard Library, Evansville, Ind., 22,000 Otis Library, Norwich, Conn., 21,000 Morrison-Reeves Library, Richmond, Ind., 21,000 Baxter Memorial Library, Rutland, Vt., 20,000 Cornell Library Association, Ithaca, N. Y., 20,000 Thomas Crane Public Library, Quincy, Mass., 19,000 Dimmick Library, Mauch Chunk, Pa., 18,000 Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin, Ill., 17,000 Peabody Institute Library, Danvers, Mass., 17,000 Tufts Library, Weymouth, Mass., 17,000 Warder Public Library, Springfield, Ohio, 17,000 Withers Public Library, Bloomington, Ill., 15,000 Cary Library, Lexington, Mass., 15,000 Fritz Public Library, Chelsea, Mass., 15,000 Turner Free Library, Randolph, Mass., 15,000 Ames Free Library, North Easton, Mass., 14,000 Bigelow Free Library, Clinton, Mass., 14,000 Clarke Public Library, Coldwater, Mich., 14,000 Harris Institute Library, Woonsocket, R. I., 14,000 Merrick Public Library, Brookfield, Mass., 14,000 Robbins Library, Arlington, Mass., 14,000 Nevins Memorial Library, Methuen, Mass., 14,000 Sturgis Library, Barnstable, Mass., 13,000 Birchard Library, Fremont, Ohio, 12,500 James Prendergast Library, Jamestown, N. Y., 12,500 Rogers Free Library, Bristol, R. I., 12,300 Abbott Public Library, Marblehead, Mass., 12,000 Armour Institute, Chicago, Ill., 12,000 Beebe Town Library, Wakefield, Mass., 12,000 Carnegie Free Library, Braddock, Pa., 12,000 Goodnow Library, South Sudbury, Mass., 12,000 Millicent Library, Fairhaven, Mass., 12,000 Thayer Public Library, South Braintree, Mass., 11,000 Dyer Library, Saco, Maine, 10,500 Cossit Library, Memphis, Tenn., 10,000 Gloucester (Mass.) Sawyer Free Library, 10,000 Ferguson Library, Stamford, Conn., 10,000 Parlin Memorial Library, Everett, Mass., 10,000 Jennie D. Haynes Library, Alton, Ill., 10,000 Hornell Free Library, Hornellsville, N. Y., 10,000

Besides the preceding list, purposely confined to free libraries chiefly founded by individuals, which have reached the ten thousand volume mark, there are a multitude of others, too numerous to be named, having a less number of volumes. In fact, the public spirit which gives freely of private wealth to enlarge the intelligence of the community may be said to grow by emulation. Many men who have made fortunes have endowed their native places with libraries. It is yearly becoming more and more widely recognized that a man can build no monument to himself so honorable or so lasting as a free public library. Its influence is well nigh universal, and its benefits are perennial.

* * * * *

We now come to consider the city or town libraries, created or maintained by voluntary taxation. These, like the class of libraries founded by private munificence, are purely a modern growth. While the earliest movement in this direction in Great Britain dates back only to 1850, New Hampshire has the honor of adopting the first free public library law, in America, in the year 1849. Massachusetts followed in 1851, and the example was emulated by other States at various intervals, until there now remain but fifteen out of our forty-five States which have no public library law. The general provisions of these laws authorize any town or city to collect taxes by vote of the citizens for maintaining a public library, to be managed by trustees elected or appointed for the purpose.

But a more far-reaching provision for supplying the people with public libraries was adopted by New Hampshire (again the pioneer State), in 1895. This was nothing less than the passage of a State law making it compulsory on every town in New Hampshire to assess annually the sum of thirty dollars for every dollar of public taxes apportioned to such town, the amount to be appropriated to establish and maintain a free public library. Library trustees are to be elected, and in towns where no public library exists, the money is to be held by them, and to accumulate until the town is ready to establish a library.

This New Hampshire statute, making obligatory the supply of public information through books and periodicals in free libraries in every town, may fairly be termed the high-water mark of modern means for the diffusion of knowledge. This system of creating libraries proceeds upon the principle that intellectual enlightenment is as much a concern of the local government as sanitary regulations or public morality. Society has an interest that is common to all classes in the means that are provided for the education of the people. Among these means free town or city libraries are one of the most potent and useful. New Hampshire and Massachusetts, in nearly all of their towns and cities, have recognized the principle that public books are just as important to the general welfare as public lamps. What are everywhere needed are libraries open to the people as a matter of right, and not as a matter of favor.

The largest library in the country, save one (that at Washington), owes its origin and success to this principle, combined with some private munificence. The Boston Public Library is unquestionably one of the most widely useful collections of books open to the public in this country. Of all the greater collections, it is the only one which lends out books free of charge to all citizens. Instituted in 1852, its career has been one of rapid progress and ever widening usefulness. I shall not dwell upon it at length, as the facts regarding it have been more widely published than those relating to any other library.

Under the permissive library laws of thirty States, there had been formed up to 1896, when the last comprehensive statistics were gathered, about 1,200 free public libraries, supported by taxation, in the United States.

A still more widely successful means of securing a library foundation that shall be permanent is found in uniting private benefactions with public money to found or to maintain a library. Many public-spirited citizens, fortunately endowed with large means, have offered to erect library buildings in certain places, on condition that the local authorities would provide the books, and the means of maintaining a free library. Such generous offers, whether coupled with the condition of perpetuating the donor's name with that of the library, or leaving the gift unhampered, so that the library may bear the name of the town or city of its location, have generally been accepted by municipal bodies, or by popular vote. This secures, in most cases, a good working library of choice reading, as well as its steady annual growth and management, free of the heavy expense of building, of which the tax-payers are relieved. The many munificent gifts of library buildings by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, to American towns and cities, and to some in his native Scotland, are worthy of special note. And the reader will see from the long list heretofore given of the more considerable public libraries to be credited wholly or in part to private munificence, that American men of wealth have not been wanting as public benefactors.

In some cases, whole libraries have been given to a town or village where a public library already existed, or liberal gifts or bequests of money, to be expended in the enrichment of such libraries, have been bestowed. Very interesting lists of benefactions for the benefit of libraries may be found in the volumes of the Library Journal, New York. It is with regret that candor requires me to add, that several proffers of fine library buildings to certain places, coupled with the condition that the municipal authorities would establish and maintain a free library, have remained without acceptance, thus forfeiting a liberal endowment. Where public education has been so neglected as to render possible such a niggardly, penny-wise and pound-foolish policy, there is manifestly signal need of every means of enlightenment.

* * * * *

We now come to the various State libraries founded at the public charge, and designed primarily for the use of the respective legislatures of the States. The earliest of these is the New Hampshire State Library, established in 1790, and the largest is the New York State Library, at Albany, founded in 1818, now embracing 325,000 volumes, and distinguished alike by the value of its stores and the liberality of its management. The reason for being of a State library is obviously and primarily to furnish the legislative body and State courts with such ample books of reference in jurisprudence, history, science, etc., as will aid them in the intelligent discharge of their duties as law-makers and judges of the law. The library thus existing at each State capital may well be opened to the public for reading and reference, thus greatly enlarging its usefulness.

Every State in the Union has now at least a legislative library, although the most of them consist chiefly of laws and legislative documents, with a few works of reference superadded; and their direct usefulness to the public is therefore very circumscribed. The New York State Library is a model of what a great public library should be in the capital of a State. In it are gathered a great proportion of the best books in each department of literature and science, while indefatigable efforts have been made to enrich it in whatever relates to American history and polity. Its reading-room is freely opened to the public during many hours daily. But a State library should never be made a library of circulation, since its utility as a reference library, having its books always in for those who seek them, would thereby be destroyed. Even under the existing system, with the privilege of drawing books out confined to the Legislature, some of the State libraries have been depleted and despoiled of many of their most valuable books, through loaning them freely on the orders of members. The sense of responsibility is far less in the case of borrowed books which are government property, than in other cases. The only safe rule for keeping a government library from being scattered, is strict refusal of orders for loaning to any one not legally entitled to draw books, and short terms of withdrawal to legislators, with enforcement of a rule of replacement, at their expense, as to all books not returned at the end of each session.

* * * * *

There is one class of libraries not yet touched upon, namely, school district libraries. These originated for the first time in a legally organized system, through an act of the New York State Legislature in 1835, authorizing the voters in each school district to levy a tax of twenty dollars with which to start a library, and ten dollars a year for adding to the same. These were not to be for the schools alone, but for all the people living in the district where the school was located. This was supplemented in 1838 by a State appropriation of $55,000 a year, from New York's share of the surplus revenue fund distributed by Congress to the States in 1837, and the income of which was devoted by New York to enlarging the school district libraries. After spending nearly two millions of dollars on these libraries in forty years, the system was found to have been so far a failure that the volumes in the libraries had decreased from 1,600,000 to 700,000 volumes.

This extraordinary and deplorable result was attributed to several distinct causes. 1st. No proper responsibility as to the use and return of books was enforced. 2d. The insignificance of the sum raised by taxation in each district prevented any considerable supply of books from being acquired. 3d. The funds were largely devoted to buying the same books in each school district, instead of being expended in building up a large and varied collection. Thus the system produced innumerable petty libraries of duplicates, enriching publishers and booksellers, while impoverishing the community. The school district library system, in short, while promising much in theory, in the way of public intelligence, broke down completely in practice. The people quickly lost interest in libraries which gave them so little variety in books, either of instruction or of recreation.

Although widely introduced in other States besides New York, from 1837 to 1877, it proved an admitted failure in all. Much public money, raised by taxation of the people, was squandered upon sets of books, selected by State authority, and often of inferior interest and utility. Finally, it was recognized that school district libraries were an evanescent dream, and that town libraries must take their place. This instructive chapter in Library history shows an experience by which much was learned, though the lesson was a costly one.

The Historical libraries of the country are numerous, and some of the larger ones are rich in printed Americana, and in historical manuscripts. The oldest is that of the Massachusetts Historical Society, founded in 1791, and among the most extensive are those of the New York Historical Society, American Antiquarian Society, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the New England Historic-genealogical Society, and the Wisconsin State Historical Society. There are no less than 230 historical societies in the U. S., some forty of which are State associations.

The Mercantile libraries are properly a branch of the proprietary, though depending mostly upon annual subscriptions. The earliest of these was the Boston Mercantile Library, founded in 1820, and followed closely by the New York Mercantile the same year, the Philadelphia in 1821, and the Cincinnati Mercantile in 1835.

Next we have the professional libraries, law, medical, scientific, and, in several cities, theological. These supply a want of each of these professions seldom met by the public collections, and are proportionately valuable.

* * * * *

The most recent plan for the wide diffusion of popular books is the travelling library. This originated in New York in 1893, when the Legislature empowered the Regents of the State University (a body of trustees having charge of all library interests in that State) to send out selections of books to any community without a library, on request of 25 resident taxpayers. The results were most beneficial, the sole expense being five dollars for each library.

Travelling libraries, (mostly of fifty volumes each) have been set on foot in Massachusetts, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and other States, and, as the system appears capable of indefinite expansion, great results are anticipated in the direction of the public intelligence. It is pointed out that while the State, by its free school system, trains all the people to read, it should not leave the quality of their reading to chance or to utter neglect, when a few cents per capita annually would help them to an education of inestimable value in after life.

Some objections, on the other hand, have been urged to the system, as introducing features of paternalism into State government, and taking out of the hands of individual generosity and local effort and enterprise what belongs properly to such agencies. The vexed question of the proper function and limitations of State control in the domain of education cannot here be entered upon.

In the volume last published of statistics of American libraries, that of 1897, great progress was shown in the five years since 1891. The record of libraries reported in 1896 embraced 4,026 collections, being all which contained over 1,000 volumes each. The increase in volumes in the five years was a little over seven millions, the aggregate of the 4,026 libraries being 33,051,872 volumes. This increase was over 27 per cent. in only five years.

If the good work so splendidly begun, in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and some of the Western States, in establishing libraries through public taxation and private munificence, can only be extended in the Southern and Middle States, the century now about to dawn will witness an advance quite as remarkable as we have seen in the latter years of the century about to close.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] MS. Records of the Virginia Company, in the Library of Congress.



CHAPTER 16.

LIBRARY BUILDINGS AND FURNISHINGS.

Proceeding now to the subject of library buildings, reading-rooms, and furnishings, it must be remarked at the outset that very few rules can be laid down which are of universal application. The architectural plans, exterior and interior, of such great institutions as the Library of Congress, or the Boston Public Library, with their costly marbles, splendid mural decorations, and electric book-serving machinery, afford no model for the library building in the country village. Where the government of a nation or a wealthy city has millions to devote for providing a magnificent book-palace for its library, the smaller cities or towns have only a few thousands. So much the more important is it, that a thoroughly well-considered plan for building should be marked out before beginning to build, that no dollars should be wasted, or costly alterations required, in order to fit the interior for all the uses of a library.

The need of this caution will be abundantly evident, in the light of the unfit and inconvenient constructions seen in so many public libraries, all over the country. So general has been the want of carefully planned and well-executed structures for books, that it may fairly be said that mistakes have been the rule, and fit adaptation the exception. For twenty years past, at every meeting of the American Library Association, the reports upon library buildings have deplored the waste of money in well-meant edifices designed to accommodate the library service, but successful only in obstructing it. Even in so recent a construction as the Boston Public Library building, so many defects and inconveniences were found after it was supposed to have been finished, that rooms had to be torn out and re-constructed on three floors, while the pneumatic tube system had been found so noisy as to be a public nuisance, and had to be replaced by a later improved construction.

One leading cause for the mistakes which are so patent in our library buildings is that they are not planned by librarians but mainly by architects. The library authorities commonly take it for granted that the able architect is master of his profession, and entrust him with the whole design, leaving out of account the librarian, as a mere subordinate, entitled only to secondary consideration. The result is a plan which exhibits, in its prominent features, the architect's skill in effective pilasters, pillars, architraves, cornices, and balustrades, while the library apartments which these features ornament are planned, not for convenient and rapid book-service, but mainly for show. It is the interest of architects to magnify their profession: and as none of them has ever been, or ever will be a librarian, they cannot be expected to carry into effect unaided, what they have never learned; namely, the interior arrangements which will best meet the utilities of the library service. Here is where the librarian's practical experience, or his observation of the successes or failures in the reading-room and delivery service of other libraries, should imperatively be called in. Let him demonstrate to the governing board that he knows what is needed for prompt and economical administration, and they will heed his judgment, if they are reasonable men. While it belongs to the architect to plan, according to his own ideas, the outside of the building, the inside should be planned by the architect in direct concert with the librarian, in all save merely ornamental or finishing work.

We do not erect a building and then determine whether it is to be a school house or a church: it is planned from the start with strict reference to the utilities involved; and so should it always be with a library.

In treating this subject, I shall not occupy space in outlining the proper scheme of building and interior arrangement for a great library, with its many distinct departments, for such institutions are the exceptions, while most libraries come within the rule of very moderate size, and comparatively inexpensive equipment. The first requisite for a public library, then, is a good location. It is important that this should be central, but it is equally important that the building should be isolated—that is, with proper open space on all sides, and not located in a block with other buildings. Many libraries have been destroyed or seriously damaged by fire originating in neighboring buildings, or in other apartments in the same building; while fires in separate library buildings have been extremely rare. It would be a wise provision to secure a library lot sufficiently large in area to admit of further additions to the building, both in the rear and at the side; and with slight addition to the cost, the walls and their supports may be so planned as to admit of this. Committees are seldom willing to incur the expense of an edifice large enough to provide for very prolonged growth of their collection; and the result is that the country is full of overcrowded libraries, without money to build, and prevented from expanding on the spot because no foresight was exercised in the original construction or land purchase, to provide for ready increase of space by widening out, and removing an outer wall so as to connect the old building with the new addition. If a library has 10,000 volumes, it would be very short-sighted policy to plan an edifice to contain less than 40,000, which it is likely to reach in from ten to forty years.

The next requisite to a central and sufficient site is that the location must be dry and airy. Any low site, especially in river towns, will be damp, and among the enemies of books, moisture holds a foremost place. Next, the site should afford light on all sides, and if necessary to place it near any thoroughfare, it should be set back so as to afford ample light and ventilation in front.

It need hardly be said that every library building should be fire-proof, after the many costly lessons we have had of the burning of public libraries at home and abroad. The material for the outside walls may be brick or stone, according to taste or relative cost. Brick is good enough, and if of the best quality, and treated with stone trimmings, is capable of sufficiently ornate effects, and is quite as durable as any granite or marble. No temptation of cheapness should ever be allowed to introduce wood in any part of the construction: walls, floors, and roof should be only of brick, stone, iron, or slate. A wooden roof is nothing but a tinder-box that invites the flames.

In general, two stories is a sufficient height for library buildings, except in those of the largest class, and the upper floors may be amply lighted by sky-lights. The side-lights can hardly be too numerous: yet I have seen library buildings running back from a street fifty to seventy-five feet, without a single window in either of the side walls. The result was to throw all the books on shelves into a gloomy shade for many hours of each day.

The interior construction should be so managed as to effect the finding and delivery of books to readers with the greatest possible economy of time and space. No shelves should be placed higher than can be reached by hand without mounting upon any steps or ladders; i. e., seven to seven and a half feet. The system of shelving should all be constructed of iron or steel, instead of surrounding the books on three sides with combustible wood, as is done in most libraries. Shelves of oxidized metal will be found smooth enough to prevent any abrasion of bindings. Shelves should be easily adjustable to any height, to accommodate the various sizes of books.

In calculating shelf capacity, one and a half inches thickness a volume is a fair average, so that each hundred volumes would require about thirteen feet of linear shelf measurement. The space between uprights, that is, the length of each shelf, should not exceed two and a half feet. All spaces between shelves should be 101/2 or 11 inches high, to accommodate large octavos indiscriminately with smaller sizes; and a base shelf for quartos and folios, at a proper height from the floor, will restrict the number of shelves to six in each tier.

In the arrangement of the cases or book-stacks, the most economical method is to place book-cases of double face, not less than three feet apart, approached by aisles on either side, so as to afford free passage for two persons meeting or passing one another. The cases may be about ten feet each in length. There should be electric lights between all cases, to be turned on only when books are sought. The cases should be set at right angles to the wall, two or three feet from it, with the light from abundant windows coming in between them. The width of shelves may be from 16 to 18 inches in these double cases, thus giving about eight to nine inches depth to each side. No partition is required between the two sides.

It should be stated that the light obtained from windows, when thrown more than twenty feet, among cases of books on shelves, becomes too feeble for effective use in finding books. This fact should be considered in advance, while plans of construction, lighting, and interior arrangement are being made. All experience has shown that too much light cannot be had in any public library.

Railings and stair-cases for the second or upper floors should be of perforated iron.

The reading-room should be distinct from the book delivery or charging-room, to secure quiet for readers at all hours, avoiding the pressure, hurry and noise of conversation inevitable in a lending library or department. In the reading-room should be shelved a liberal supply of books of reference, and bibliographies, open without tickets to the readers. Next the central desk there should be shelves for the deposit of books reserved day by day for the use of readers. The library chairs, of whatever pattern may be preferred, should always combine the two requisites of strength and lightness. The floor should be covered with linoleum, or some similar floor covering, to deaden sound. Woolen carpets, those perennial breeders of dust, are an abomination.

In a library reading-room of any considerable size, each reader should be provided with table or desk room, not flat but sloping at a moderate angle, and allowing about three feet of space for each reader. These appliances for study need not be single pieces of furniture, but made in sections to accommodate from three to six readers at each. About thirty inches from the floor is a proper height.

For large dictionaries, atlases, or other bulky volumes, the adjustable revolving case, mounted on a pedestal, should be used.

For moving any large number of volumes about the library, book-trucks or barrows, with noiseless rubber wheels, are required.

Every library will need one or more catalogue cases to hold the alphabetical card catalogue. These are made with a maximum of skill by the Library Bureau, Boston.

The location of the issue-counter or desk is of cardinal importance. It should be located near the centre of the system of book-cases, or near the entrance to the stack, so as to minimize the time consumed in collecting the books wanted. It should also have a full supply of light, and this may be secured by a location directly in front of a large side window. Readers are impatient of delay, and the farther the books are from the issue-counter the longer they will have to wait for them.

Among modern designs for libraries, that of Dr. W. F. Poole, adapted for the Newberry Library, Chicago, is notable for dividing the library into many departments or separate rooms, the book shelves occupying one half the height of each, or 71/2 feet out of 15, the remaining space being occupied by windows. This construction, of course, does not furnish as compact storage for books as the stack system. It is claimed to possess the advantage of extraordinarily good light, and of aiding the researches of readers. But it has the disadvantage of requiring readers to visit widely separated rooms to pursue studies involving several subjects, and of mounting in elevators to reach some departments. A system which brings the books to the reader, instead of the readers travelling after the books, would appear to be more practically useful to the public, with whom time is of cardinal importance.

In all libraries, there should be a receiving or packing room, where boxes and parcels of books are opened and books mended, collated, and prepared for the shelves. This room may well be in a dry and well lighted basement. Two small cloak-rooms for wraps will be needed, one for each sex. Two toilet rooms or lavatories should be provided. A room for the library directors or trustees, and one for the librarian, are essential in libraries of much extent. A janitor's room or sleeping quarters sometimes needs to be provided. A storage room for blanks, stationery, catalogues, etc., will be necessary in libraries of much extent. A periodical room is sometimes provided, distinct from the reading-room or the delivery department. In this case, if several hundred periodicals are taken, an attendant should be always present to serve them to readers, from the shelves or cases where they should be kept in alphabetical order. Without this, and a ticket system to keep track of what are in use, no one can readily find what is needed, nor ascertain whether it is in a reader's hands when sought for. System and the alphabet alone will solve all difficulties.

As to the space required for readers in a periodical room, it may be assumed that about five hundred square feet will accommodate twenty-five readers, and the same proportion for a larger number at one time. A room twenty-five by forty would seat fifty readers, while one twenty-five by twenty would accommodate twenty-five readers, with proper space for tables, &c. The files for newspapers are referred to in another chapter on periodicals.

In a library building, the heating and ventilation are of prime importance. Upon their proper regulation largely depends the health and consequently the efficiency of all employed, as well as the comfort of the reading public. There is no space to enter upon specific descriptions, for which the many conflicting systems, with experience of their practical working, should be examined. Suffice it to say in general, that a temperature not far below nor above 70 degrees Fahrenheit should be aimed at; that the furnace, with its attendant nuisances of noise, dust, and odors, should be outside the library building—not under it; and that electric lighting alone should be used, gas being highly injurious to the welfare of books.

In calculating the space required for books shelved as has been heretofore suggested, it may be approximately stated that every one thousand volumes will require at least eighty to one hundred square feet of floor measurement. Thus, a library of 10,000 volumes would occupy an area of nearly one thousand square feet. But it is necessary to provide also for the continual growth of the collection. To do this, experience shows that in any flourishing public library, space should be reserved for three or four times the number of volumes in actual possession. If rooms are hired for the books, because of inability to build, the library should be so arranged as to leave each alternate shelf vacant for additions, or, in the more rapidly growing divisions, a still greater space. This will permit accessions to be shelved with their related books, without the trouble of frequently moving and re-arranging large divisions of the library. This latter is a very laborious process, and should be resorted to only under compulsion. The preventive remedy, of making sure of space in advance, by leaving a sufficiency of unoccupied shelves in every division of the library, is the true one.

In some libraries, a separate reading-room for ladies is provided. Mr. W. F. Poole records that in Cincinnati such a room was opened at the instance of the library directors. The result was that the ladies made it a kind of social rendezvous, where they talked over society matters, and exhibited the bargains made in their shopping excursions. Ladies who came to study preferred the general reading room, where they found every comfort among well conducted gentlemen, and the "ladies' reading-room" was abandoned, as not fulfilling its object. The same experiment in the Chicago Public Library had the same result.

Some libraries in the larger towns provide a special reading-room for children; and this accomplishes a two-fold object, namely, to keep the public reading-room free from flocks of little people in pursuit of books under difficulties, and to furnish the boys and girls with accommodations of their own. It may be suggested as an objection, that the dividing line as to age is difficult to be drawn: but let each applicant be questioned, and if falling below twelve, or fifteen, or whatever the age limit may be, directed to the juvenile reading-room, and there need be no trouble. Of course there will be some quite young readers who are gifted with intelligence beyond their years, and who may dislike to be reckoned as children; but library rules are not made to suit exceptions, but for the average; and as no book need be refused to any applicant in the juvenile department, no just cause of complaint can arise.

In some libraries, and those usually of the larger size, an art room is provided, where students of works on painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts can go, and have about them whatever treasures the library may contain in that attractive field. The advantages of this provision are, first, to save the necessity of handling and carrying so many heavy volumes of galleries of art and illustrated books to the general reading-room, and back again, and secondly, to enable those in charge of the art department to exercise more strict supervision in enforcing careful and cleanly treatment of the finest books in the library, than can be maintained in the miscellaneous crowd of readers in the main reading-room. The objections to it concern the general want of room to set apart for this purpose, and the desirability of concentrating the use of books in one main hall or reading-room. Circumstances and experience should determine the question for each library.

Some public libraries, and especially those constructed in recent years, are provided with a lecture-hall, or a large room for public meetings, concerts, or occasionally, even an opera-house, in the same building with the library. There are some excellent arguments in favor of this; and especially where a public benefactor donates to a city a building which combines both uses. The building given by Mr. Andrew Carnegie to the Public Library of Washington will be provided with a small hall suited to meetings, &c. But in all cases, such a public hall should be so isolated from the library reading-room as not to annoy readers, to whom quiet is essential. This end can be effected by having the intervening walls and floors so constructed as completely to deaden sound. A wholly distinct entrance should also be provided, not communicating with the doors and passages leading to the library.

Comparisons are sometimes made as to the relative cost of library buildings to the number of volumes they are designed to accommodate; but such estimates are misleading. The cost of an edifice in which architectural beauty and interior decoration concur to make it a permanent ornament to a city or town, need not be charged up at so much per volume. Buildings for libraries have cost all the way from twenty-five cents up to $4. for each volume stored. The Library of Congress, which cost six million dollars, and will ultimately accommodate 4,500,000 volumes, cost about $1.36 per volume. But it contains besides books, some half a million musical compositions, works of graphic art, maps and charts, etc.

The comparative cost of some library buildings erected in recent years, with ultimate capacity of each, may be of interest. Kansas City Public Library, 132+144, 125,000 vols., $200,000. Newark, N. J. Free Library, 138+216, 400,000 vols., $188,000. Forbes Library, Northampton, Mass. (granite), 107+137, 250,000 vols., $134,000. Fall River, Ms. Library, 80+130, 250,000 vols., $100,000. Peoria, Ill. Public Library (brick), 76+135, $70,000. Smiley Memorial Library, Redlands, Cal. (brick), 96+100, $50,000. Reuben Hoar Library, Littleton, Mass. (brick), 50+57, 25,000 vols., $25,000. Rogers Memorial Library, Southworth, N. Y. 70+100, 20,000 vols., $20,000. Belfast (Me.) Free Library (granite), 27+54, $10,000. Gail-Borden Public Library, Elgin, Ill. (brick), 28+52, $9,000. Warwick, Mass. Public Library (wood), 45+60, 5,000 vols., $5,000.

The largely increased number of public library buildings erected in recent years is a most cheering sign of the times. Since 1895, eleven extensive new library buildings have been opened: namely, the Library of Congress, the Boston Public Library, the Pratt Institute Library, Brooklyn, the Columbia University Library, New York, the Princeton, N. J. University Library, the Hart Memorial Library, of Troy, N. Y., the Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, the Chicago Public Library, the Peoria, Ill. Public Library, the Kansas City, Mo. Public Library, and the Omaha, Neb. Public Library.

And there are provided for eight more public library buildings, costing more than $100,000 each; namely, the Providence, R. I. Public Library, the Lynn, Mass. Public Library, the Fall River, Mass. Public Library, the Newark, N. J. Free Public Library, the Milwaukee, Wis. Public Library and Museum, the Wisconsin State Historical Society Library, Madison, the New York Public Library, and the Jersey City Public Library.

To these will be added within the year 1900, as is confidently expected, the Washington City Public Library, the gift of Andrew Carnegie, to cost $300,000.

No philanthropist can ever find a nobler object for his fortune, or a more enduring monument to his memory, than the founding of a free public library. The year 1899 has witnessed a new gift by Mr. Carnegie of a one hundred thousand dollar library to Atlanta, the Capital of Georgia, on condition that the city will provide a site, and $5,000 a year for the maintenance of the library. Cities in the east are emulating one another in providing public library buildings of greater or less cost. If the town library cannot have magnificence, it need not have meanness. A competition among architects selected to submit plans is becoming the favorite method of preparing to build. Five of the more extensive libraries have secured competitive plans of late from which to select—namely, the New York Public Library, the Jersey City Public Library, the Newark Free Public Library, the Lynn Public Library, and the Phoebe Hearst building for the University of California, which is to be planned for a library of 750,000 volumes. It is gratifying to add that in several recent provisions made for erecting large and important structures, the librarian was made a member of the building committee—i. e., in the New York Public Library, the Newark Free Public Library, and the Lynn Public Library.



CHAPTER 17.

LIBRARY MANAGERS OR TRUSTEES.

We now come to consider the management of libraries as entrusted to boards of directors, trustees or library managers. These relations have a most intimate bearing upon the foundation, the progress and the consequent success of any library. Where a liberal intelligence and a hearty cooeperation are found in those constituting the library board, the affairs of the institution will be managed with the best results. Where a narrow-minded and dictatorial spirit is manifested, even by a portion of those supervising a public library, it will require a large endowment both of patience and of tact in the librarian, to accomplish those aims which involve the highest usefulness.

Boards of library trustees vary in number, usually from three to nine or more. A board of three or five is found in practice more active and efficient than a larger number. The zeal and responsibility felt is apt to diminish in direct proportion to the increased numbers of the board. An odd number is preferable, to avoid an equal division of opinion upon any question to be determined.

In town or city libraries, the mode of selection of library trustees varies much. Sometimes the mayor appoints the library board, sometimes they are chosen by the city council, and sometimes elected by the people, at the annual selection of school or municipal officers. The term of service (most usually three years) should be so arranged that retirement of any members should always leave two at least who have had experience on the board. Library trustees serve without salary, the high honor of so serving the public counting for much.

The librarian is often made secretary of the trustees, and then he keeps the record of their transactions. He should never be made treasurer of the library funds, which would involve labor and responsibility incompatible with the manifold duties of the superintendent of a library. In case of a library supported by municipal taxation, the town treasurer may well serve as library treasurer also, or the trustees can choose one from their own board. The librarian, however, should be empowered to collect book fines or other dues, to be deposited with the treasurer at regular intervals, and he should have a small fund at disposal for such petty library expenses as constantly arise. All bills for books and other purchases, and all salaries of persons employed in the library should be paid by the treasurer.

The meetings of the trustees should be attended by the librarian, who must always be ready to supply all information as to the workings of the library, the needs for books, etc. Frequently the trustees divide up the business before them, appointing sub-committees on book selections, on library finances, on administration, furnishings, &c., with a view to prompt action.

If a library receives endowments, money gifts or legacies, they are held and administered by the trustees as a body corporate, the same as the funds annually appropriated for library maintenance and increase. Their annual report to the council, or municipal authorities, should exhibit the amount of money received from all sources in detail, and the amount expended for all purposes, in detail; also, the number of books purchased in the year, the aggregate of volumes in the library, the number of readers, and other facts of general interest.

All accounts against the library are first audited by the proper sub-committee, and payment ordered by the full board, by order on the treasurer. The accounts for all these expenditures should be kept by the treasurer, who should inform the librarian periodically as to balances.

The selection of books for a public library is a delicate and responsible duty, involving wider literary and scientific knowledge than falls to the lot of most trustees of libraries. There are sometimes specially qualified professional men or widely read scholars on such boards, whose services in recruiting the library are of great value. More frequently there are one or more men with hobbies, who would spend the library funds much too freely upon a class of books of no general interest. Thus, one trustee who plays golf may urge the purchase of all the various books upon that game, when one or at most two of the best should supply all needful demands. Another may want to add to the library about all the published books on the horse; another, who is a physician, may recommend adding a lot of medical books to the collection, utterly useless to the general reader. Beware of the man who has a hobby, either as librarian or as library trustee; he will aim to expend too much money on books which suit his own taste, but which have little general utility. Two mischiefs result from such a course: the library gets books which very few people read, and its funds are diverted from buying many books that may be of prime importance.

Trustees, although usually, (at least the majority of them) persons of culture and intelligence, cannot be expected to be bibliographers, nor to be familiar with the great range of new books that continually pour from the press. They have their own business or profession to engage them, and are commonly far too busy to study catalogues, or to follow the journals of the publishing world. So these busy men, charged with the oversight of the library interests, call to their aid an expert, and that expert is the librarian. It is his interest and his business to know far more than they do both of what the library already contains, and what it most needs. It is his to peruse the critical journals and reviews, as well as the literary notices of the select daily press, and to be prepared to recommend what works to purchase. He must always accompany his lists of wants with the prices, or at least the approximate cost of each, and the aggregate amount. If the trustees or book committee think the sum too large to be voted at any one time from the fund at their disposal, the librarian must know what can best be postponed, as well as what is most indispensable for the immediate wants of the library. If they object to any works on the list, he should be prepared to explain the quality and character of those called in question, and why the library, in his judgment, should possess them. If the list is largely cut down, and he considers himself hardly used, he should meet the disappointment with entire good humor, and try again when the members of the committee are in better mood, or funds in better supply.

It is very customary for boards of library officers to assume the charge of the administration so far as regards the library staff, and to make appointments, promotions or removals at their own pleasure. In most libraries, however, this power is exercised mainly on the advice or selection of the librarian, his action being confirmed when there is no serious objection. In still other cases, the librarian is left wholly free to choose the assistants. This is perhaps the course most likely to secure efficient service, since his judgment, if he is a person of tried capacity and mature experience, will lead to the selection of the fittest candidates, for the work which he alone thoroughly knows. No library trustee can put himself fully in the place of a librarian, and see for himself the multitude of occasions arising in the daily work of the library, where promptness, tact, and wide knowledge of books will make a success, and the want of any of these qualities a failure. Still less can he judge the competency or incompetency of one who is to be employed in the difficult and exact work of cataloguing books. Besides, there is always the hazard that trustees, or some of them, may have personal favorites or relatives to prefer, and will use their influence to secure the appointment or promotion of utterly uninstructed persons, in place of such candidates as are known to the librarian to be best qualified. In no case should any person be employed without full examination as to fitness for library work, conducted either by the librarian, or by a committee of which the librarian is a member or chief examiner. A probationary trial should also follow before final appointment.

The power of patronage, if unchecked by this safeguard, will result in filling any library with incompetents, to the serious detriment of the service on which its usefulness depends. The librarian cannot keep a training school for inexperts: he has no time for this, and he indispensably needs and should have assistants who are competent to their duties, from their first entrance upon them. As he is held responsible for all results, in the conduct of the library, both by the trustees and by the public, he should have the power, or at least the approximate power, to select the means by which those results are to be attained.

In the Boston Public Library, all appointments are made by the trustees upon nomination by the librarian, after an examination somewhat similar to that of the civil service, but by a board of library experts. In the British Museum Library, the selection and promotion of members of the staff are passed upon by the trustees, having the recommendation of the principal librarian before them. In the Library of Congress, appointments are made directly by the librarian after a probationary trial, with previous examination as to education, former experience or employments, attainments, and fitness for library service.

In smaller libraries, both in this country and abroad, a great diversity of usage prevails. Instances are rare in which the librarian has the uncontrolled power of appointment, promotion and removal. The requirement of examinations to test the fitness of candidates is extending, and since the establishment of five or six permanent schools of library science in the United States, with their graduates well equipped for library work, there is no longer any excuse for putting novices in charge of libraries—institutions where wide knowledge and thorough training are more indispensable than in any other profession whatever.

In State libraries, no uniformity prevails as to control. In some States, the governor has the appointment of the librarian, while in others, he is an elective officer, the State Legislature being the electors. As governors rarely continue in office longer than two or three years, the tenure of a librarian under them is precarious, and a most valuable officer may at any time be superseded by another who would have to learn all that the other knows. The result is rarely favorable to the efficient administration of the library. In a business absolutely demanding the very largest compass of literary and scientific knowledge, frequent rotation in office is clearly out of place. In a public or State library, every added year of experience adds incalculably to the value of a librarian's services, provided he is of active habits, and full of zeal to make his acquired knowledge constantly useful to those who use the library. Partizan politics, with their frequent changes, if suffered to displace a tried librarian and staff, will be sure to defeat the highest usefulness of any library. What can a political appointee, a man totally without either library training or library experience, do with the tools of which he has never learned the use? It will take him years to learn, and by the time he has learned, some other political party coming uppermost will probably displace him, to make room for another novice, on the principle that "to the victors belong the spoils" of office. Meanwhile, "the hungry sheep look up and are not fed," as Milton sings—that is, readers are deprived of expert and intelligent guidance.

This bane of political jobbery has not been confined to the libraries of States, but has invaded the management of many city and town libraries also. We have yet to learn of any benefit resulting to those who use the libraries.

In the case of a few of the State libraries, trustees or library commissioners or boards of control have been provided by law, but in others, a joint library committee, composed of members of both houses of the Legislature, has charge of the library interests. This is also the case in the Library of Congress at Washington, where three Senators and three Representatives constitute the Joint Committee of both Houses of Congress on the Library. The membership of this committee, as of all others in Congress, is subject to change biennially. It has been proposed to secure a more permanent and careful supervision of this National Library by adding to the Joint Committee of Congress three or more trustees of eminent qualifications, elected by Congress, as the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution now are, for a longer term of years. The trustees of the British Museum are appointed by the Crown, their tenure of office being for life.

In several States the librarian is appointed by the supreme court, as the State libraries are composed more largely of law books, than of miscellaneous literature, and special knowledge of case law, and the principles of jurisprudence, is demanded of the librarian.

Where the trustees of a public library are elected by the people, they have in their own hands the power of choosing men who are far above party considerations, and they should exercise it. In no department of life is the maxim—"the tools to the hands that can use them," more important than in the case of librarians and boards of managers of libraries. The value of skilled labor over the unskilled is everywhere recognized in the business of the world, by more certain employment and larger compensation: and why should it not be so in libraries?



CHAPTER 18.

LIBRARY REGULATIONS.

No feature in library administration is more important than the regulations under which the service of the library is conducted. Upon their propriety and regular enforcement depends very much of the utility of the collection.

Rules are of two kinds, those which concern the librarian and assistants, and those which concern the public resorting to the library. Of the first class are the regulations as to hours, division of labor, leaves or vacations of employees, &c. The larger the library, and consequently the force employed, the more important is a careful adjustment of relative duties, and of the times and seasons to be devoted to them. The assignment of work to the various assistants will naturally depend upon their respective qualifications. Those who know Latin, and two or more of the modern languages, would probably be employed upon the catalogue. Those who are familiar with the range of books published, in literature and science, will be best qualified for the service of the reading-room, which involves the supply of books and information. In direct proportion to the breadth of information possessed by any one, will be his usefulness in promptly supplying the wants of readers. Nothing is so satisfactory to students in libraries, or to the casual seekers of information of any kind, as to find their wants immediately supplied. The reader whom an intelligent librarian or assistant answers at once is grateful to the whole establishment; while the reader who is required to wait ten to twenty minutes for what he wants, becomes impatient and sometimes querulous, or leaves the library unsatisfied.

One rule of service at the library desk or counter should be that every assistant there employed should deem it his duty to aid immediately any one who is waiting, no matter what other concerns may engage his attention. In other words, the one primary rule of a public library should be that the service of the public is always paramount. All other considerations should be subordinate to that.

It is desirable that assistants in every library should learn all departments of library work, cataloguing, supplying books and information, preparing books for the shelves, etc. This will enable each assistant to take the place of another in case of absence, a most important point. It will also help to qualify the more expert for promotion.

A second rule for internal administration in any library should be that all books are to be distributed, or replaced upon their shelves, daily. If this is not systematically done, the library will tend to fall into chaos. And even a small number of volumes not in their places will embarrass the attendants seeking them, and often deprive readers of their use—a thing to be always sedulously avoided.

In the Library of Congress, the replacement of books upon the shelves is carried out much more frequently than once daily. As fast as books come in at the central desk by the returns of readers, they are sent back through the book-carriers, to the proper floors, where the outside label-numbers indicate that they belong, and replaced by the attendant there on their proper shelves. These mechanical book-carriers run all day, by electric power, supplied by a dynamo in the basement, and, with their endless chain and attached boxes constantly revolving, they furnish a near approach to perpetual motion. Thus I have seen a set of Macaulay's England, called for by ticket from the reading-room, arrive in three minutes from the outlying book-repository or iron stack, several hundreds of feet distant on an upper floor, placed on the reader's table, referred to, and returned at once, then placed in the book-carrier by the desk attendant, received back on its proper floor, and distributed to its own shelf by the attendant there, all within half an hour after the reader's application. Another rule to be observed by the reading-room attendants is to examine all call-slips, or readers' tickets, remaining uncalled for at the close of each day's business, and see if the books on them are present in the library. This precaution is demanded by the security of the collection, as well as by the good order and arrangement of the library. Neglect of it may lead to losses or misplacements, which might be prevented by careful and unremitting observance of this rule.

Another rule of eminent propriety is that librarians or assistants are not to read newspapers during library hours. When there happen to be no readers waiting to be helped, the time should be constantly occupied with other library work. There is no library large enough to be worthy of the name, that does not have arrears of work incessantly waiting to be done. And while this is the case, no library time should be wasted upon periodicals, which should be perused only outside of library hours. If one person employed in a library reads the newspaper or magazine, the bad example is likely to be followed by others. Thus serious inattention to the wants of readers, as well as neglect of library work postponed, will be sure to follow.

A fourth rule, resting upon the same reason, should prevent any long sustained gossip or conversation during library hours. That time belongs explicitly to the public or to the work of the library. The rule of silence which is enforced upon the public in the interest of readers should not be broken by the library managers themselves. Such brief question and answer as emergency or the needful business of the library requires should be conducted in a low tone, and soon ended. Library administration is a business, and must be conducted in a business way. No library can properly be turned into a place of conversation.

All differences or disputes between attendants as to the work to be done by each, or methods, or any other question leading to dissension, should be promptly and decisively settled by the librarian, and of course cheerfully submitted to by all. Good order and discipline require that there should be only one final authority in any library. Controversies are not only unseemly in themselves, but they are time-consuming, and are liable to be overheard by readers, to the prejudice of those who engage in them.

Another rule to be observed is to examine all books returned, as carefully as a glance through the volume will permit, to detect any missing or started leaves, or injury to bindings. No volume bearing marks of dilapidation of any kind should be permitted to go back to the shelves, or be given to readers, but placed in a bindery reserve for needful repairs.

It should hardly be necessary to say that all those connected with a public library should be carefully observant of hours, and be always in their places, unless excused. The discipline of every library should be firm in this respect, and dilatory or tardy assistants brought to regard the rule of prompt and regular service. "No absence without leave" should be mentally posted in the consciousness and the conscience of every one.

Another rule should limit the time for mid-day refreshment, and so arrange it that the various persons employed go at different hours. As to time employed, half-an-hour for lunch, as allowed in the Washington departments, is long enough in any library.

Furloughs or vacations should be regulated to suit the library service, and not allow several to be absent at the same time. As to length of vacation time, few libraries can afford the very liberal fashion of twelve months wages for eleven months work, as prevalent in the Washington Departments. The average vacation time of business houses—about two weeks—more nearly corresponds to that allowed in the smaller public libraries. Out of 173 libraries reporting in 1893, 61 allowed four weeks or more vacation, 27 three weeks, 54 two weeks, and 31 none. But in cases of actual illness, the rule of liberality should be followed, and no deduction of wages should follow temporary disability.

Where many library attendants are employed, all should be required to enter on a daily record sheet or book, the hour of beginning work. Then the rule of no absence without special leave should be enforced as to all during the day.

We now come to such rules of library administration as concern the readers, or the public. The rule of silence, or total abstinence from loud talking, should be laid down and enforced. This is essential for the protection of every reader from annoyance or interruption in his pursuits. The rule should be printed on all readers' tickets, and it is well also to post the word SILENCE, in large letters, in two or more conspicuous places in the reading-room. This will give a continual reminder to all of what is expected, and will usually prevent any loud conversation. While absolute silence is impossible in any public library, the inquiries and answers at the desk can always be made in a low and even tone, which need attract no attention from any readers, if removed only a few feet distant. As there are always persons among readers who will talk, notwithstanding rules, they should be checked by a courteous reminder from the librarian, rather than from any subordinate. This—for the obvious reason that admonition from the highest authority carries the greatest weight.

Another rule, which should always be printed on the call-slips, or readers' tickets, is the requirement to return books and receive back their tickets always before leaving the library. This duty is very commonly neglected, from the utter carelessness of many readers, who do not realize that signing their ticket for any book holds them responsible for it until it is returned. Many are unwilling to spend a moment's time in waiting for a ticket to be returned to them. Many will leave their books on tables or seats where they were reading, and go away without reclaiming their receipts. While complete observance of this rule is of course hopeless of attainment in a country where free and easy manners prevail, every librarian should endeavor to secure at least an approximate compliance with a rule adopted alike for the security and good order of the library, and the efficient service of the reader.

All readers should be privileged to reserve books from day to day which they have not completed the use of, and instructed always to give notice of such reservation before leaving the library. This saves much time, both to the reader and to the librarian in sending repeatedly for books put away needlessly.

In a circulating library, a fixed rule limiting the time for which a book may be kept, is essential. This may be from three days to two weeks, according to the demand for the book, but it should not exceed the latter period. Still, a renewal term may be conceded, provided the book is not otherwise called for. A small fine of so much a day for each volume kept out beyond the time prescribed by the rule, will often secure prompt return, and is the usage in most libraries where books are lent out. In the Boston Public Library no renewals are allowed. A rule requiring the replacement or repair of books damaged while in the hands of a reader should be printed and enforced. It may properly be waived where the damage is slight or unavoidable.

In public circulating libraries, a rule of registration is required, and in some libraries of reference also; but in the Library of Congress all readers over sixteen are admitted without any formality or registration whatever.

In popular libraries, the need of a registry list of those entitled to borrow books, is obvious, to prevent the issue to improper or unauthorized persons; as, for example, residents of another town, or persons under the prescribed age of admission to library privileges. A printed library card should be issued to each person privileged to draw books; corresponding in number to the page or index-card of the library record. Each card should bear the full name and address of the applicant, and be signed with an obligation to obey the rules of the library. On this card all books drawn may be entered, always with month and day date, and credited with date of return, the parallel entries being at the same time made in the library charging record.

Library cards of registration should be issued for a limited period, say twelve months, in order to bring all persons to a systematic review of their privilege, and should be renewed annually, so long as the holder is entitled to registration. No books should be issued except to those presenting registration cards, together with a call-slip or ticket for the book wanted.

Another rule should fix a limit to the number of volumes to be drawn by any reader. Two volumes out at any one time would be a fair limit. If made more to all readers, there is likely to be sometimes a scarcity of books to be drawn upon; and if a few readers are permitted to draw more than others, the charge of undue favoritism will be justified.

Another rule should be that any incivility or neglect on the part of any library attendant should be reported to the librarian. In such cases, the attendant should always be heard, before any admonition or censure is bestowed.

An almost necessary rule in most libraries is that no book should be taken from the shelves by any person not employed in the library. The exceptions are of course, the books provided expressly for the free and open reference of the readers.

Another essential rule is that no writing or marks may be made in any library book or periodical; nor is any turning down of leaves permitted. A printed warning is important to the effect that any cutting or defacing of library books or periodicals is a penal offense, and will be prosecuted according to law.

The regulations for admission to library privileges are important. In this country the age limitation is more liberal than in Europe. The Boston Public Library, for example, is free to all persons over twelve years of age. In the Library of Congress, the age limit is sixteen years or upward, to entitle one to the privileges of a reader. In the Astor Library, none are admitted under nineteen, and in the British Museum Library none below twenty-one years.

The hours during which the library is open should be printed as part of the regulations.

All the library rules should be printed and furnished to the public. The most essential of them, if carefully expressed in few words, can be grouped in a single small sheet, of 16mo. size or less, and pasted in the inside cover of every book belonging to the library. Better still, (and it will save expense in printing) let the few simple rules, in small but legible type, form a part of the book plate, or library label, which goes on the left-hand inner cover of each volume. Thus every reader will have before him, in daily prominence, the regulations which he is to observe, and no excuse can be pleaded of ignorance of the rules.

As no law is ever long respected unless it is enforced, so no regulations are likely to be observed unless adhered to in every library. Rules are a most essential part of library administration, and it should be a primary object of every librarian or assistant to see that they are observed by all.



CHAPTER 19.

LIBRARY REPORTS AND ADVERTISING.

We now come to consider the annual reports of librarians. These should be made to the trustees or board of library control, by whatever name it may be known, and should be addressed to the chairman, as the organ of the board. In the preparation of such reports, two conditions are equally essential—conciseness and comprehensiveness. Every item in the administration, frequentation, and increase of the library should be separately treated, but each should be condensed into the smallest compass consistent with clear statement. Very long reports are costly to publish, and moreover, have small chance of being read. In fact, the wide perusal of any report is in direct proportion to its brevity.

This being premised, let us see what topics the librarian's report should deal with.

1. The progress of the library during the year must be viewed as most important. A statistical statement of accessions, giving volumes of books, and number of pamphlets separately, added during the year, should be followed by a statement of the aggregate of volumes and pamphlets in the collection. This is ascertained by actual count of the books upon the shelves, adding the number of volumes charged out, or in the bindery, or in readers' hands at the time of the enumeration. This count is far from a difficult or time-consuming affair, as there is a short-hand method of counting by which one person can easily arrive at the aggregate of a library of 100,000 volumes, in a single day of eight to ten hours. This is done by counting by twos or threes the rows of books as they stand on the shelves, passing the finger rapidly along the backs, from left to right and from top to bottom of the shelves. As fast as one hundred volumes are counted, simply write down a figure one; then, at the end of the second hundred, a figure two, and so on, always jotting down one figure the more for each hundred books counted. The last figure in the counter's memorandum will represent the number of hundreds of volumes the library contains. Thus, if the last figure is 92, the library has just 9,200 volumes. This rapid, and at the same time accurate method, by which any one of average quickness can easily count two hundred volumes a minute, saves all counting up by tallies of five or ten, and also all slow additions of figures, since one figure at the end multiplied by one hundred, expresses the whole.

2. Any specially noteworthy additions to the library should be briefly specified.

3. A list of donors of books during the year, with number of volumes given by each, should form part of the report. This may properly come at the end as an appendix.

4. A brief of the money income of the year, with sources whence derived, and of all expenditures, for books, salaries, contingent expenses, etc., should form a part of the report, unless reported separately by a treasurer of the library funds.

5. The statistics of a librarian's report, if of a lending library, should give the aggregate number of volumes circulated during the year, also the number of borrowers recorded who have used and who have not used the privilege of borrowing. The number of volumes used by readers in the reference or reading-room department should be given, as well as the aggregate of readers. It is usual in some library reports to classify the books used by readers, as, so many in history, poetry, travels, natural science, etc., but this involves labor and time quite out of proportion to its utility. Still, a comparative statement of the aggregate volumes of fiction read or drawn out, as against all other books, may be highly useful as an object lesson, if embodied in the library report.

6. A statement of the actual condition of the library, as to books, shelving accommodations, furniture, etc., with any needful suggestions for improvement, should be included in the annual report.

7. A well-considered suggestion of the value of contributions to the library in books or funds to enrich the collection, should not be overlooked.

8. The librarian should not forget a word of praise for his assistants, in the great and useful work of carrying on the library. This will tend to excite added zeal to excel, when the subordinates feel that their services are appreciated by their head, as well as by the public.

The preparation of an annual report affords some test of the librarian's skill and judgment. It should aim at plain and careful statement, and all rhetoric should be dispensed with. Divided into proper heads, a condensed statement of facts or suggestions under each should be made, and all repetition avoided.

Such a library report should never fail to set forth the great benefit to the community which a free use of its treasures implies, while urging the importance of building up the collection, through liberal gifts of books, periodicals, or money, thus enabling it to answer the wants of readers more fully, year by year. It will sometimes be a wise suggestion to be made in a librarian's report, that the library still lacks some specially important work, such as Larned's "History for Ready Reference," or the extensive "Dictionary of National Biography," or Brunet's Manuel du Libraire, or a set of Congressional Debates from the beginning; and such a suggestion may often bear fruit in leading some public-spirited citizen to supply the want by a timely contribution.

Of course, the annual report of every public library should be printed, and as pamphlets are seldom read, and tend rapidly to disappear, its publication in the newspapers is vastly more important than in any other form. While a pamphlet report may reach a few people, the newspaper reaches nearly all; and as a means of diffusing information in any community, it stands absolutely without rival. Whether the library reports shall be printed in pamphlet form or not is a matter of expediency, to be determined by the managing board. Funds are rarely ample enough, in the smaller town libraries, to justify the expense, in view of the small circulation which such reports receive, and it is much better to put the money into printing library catalogues, which every body needs and will use, than into library reports, which comparatively few will make any use of. A judicious compromise may be usefully made, by inducing some newspaper, which would print a liberal share of the report free of charge, as news, for public information, to put the whole in type and strike off a few hundred copies in sheet form or pages, at a moderate charge.

This would enable the library officers to distribute a goodly number, and to keep copies of each annual report for reference, without the expense of a pamphlet edition.

In some of the larger and more enterprising of city libraries, reports are made quarterly or monthly by the librarian. These of course are much more nearly up to date, and if they publish lists of books added to the library, they are correspondingly useful. Frequently they contain special bibliographies of books on certain subjects. Among these, the monthly bulletins of the Boston Public Library, Harvard University Library, New York Public Library, Salem, Mass., Public Library, and the Providence Public Library are specially numerous and important.

The relations of a public library to the local press of the city or town where it is situated will now be noticed. It is the interest of the librarian to extend the usefulness of the library by every means; and the most effective means is to make it widely known. In every place are found many who are quite ignorant of the stores of knowledge which lie at their doors in the free library. And among those who do know it and resort to it, are many who need to have their interest and attention aroused by frequent notices as to its progress, recent additions to its stores, etc. The more often the library is brought before the public by the press, the more interest will be taken in it by the community for whose information it exists.

It is of the utmost importance that the library conductors should have the active good will of all the newspaper editors in its vicinity. This will be acquired both by aiding them in all researches which the daily or frequent wants of their profession render necessary; and also, by giving them freely and often items of intelligence about the library for publication. Enterprising journals are perpetually on the hunt for new and varied matter to fill their columns. They send their reporters to the library to make "a story," as it is called, out of something in it or about it. These reporters are very seldom persons versed in books, or able to write understandingly or attractively about them. Left to themselves to construct "a story" out of a half hour's conversation with the librarian, the chances are that an article will be produced which contains nearly as many errors as matters of fact, with the names of authors or the titles of their books mis-spelled or altered, and with matters manufactured out of the reporter's fancy which formed no part of the interview, while what did form important features in it are perhaps omitted. The remedy, or rather the preventive of such inadequate reports of what the librarian would say to the public is to become his own reporter. The papers will willingly take for publication short "library notes," as they may be called, containing information about the library or its books, carefully type-written. This course at once secures accurate and authentic statements, and saves the time of the press reporters for other work.

Bear in mind always that the main object of such library notices is to attract attention, and encourage people to use the library. Thus there should be sought frequent opportunities of advertising the library by this best of all possible means, because it is the one which reaches the largest number. To do it well requires some skill and practice, and to do it often is quite as essential as to do it well. Keep the library continually before the public. What are the business houses which are most thronged with customers? They are those that advertise most persistently and attractively. So with the library; it will be more and more resorted to, in proportion as it keeps its name and its riches before the public eye.

A certain timeliness in these library notices should be cultivated. The papers are eager to get anything that illustrates what is uppermost in the public mind. If a local fair is in progress or preparing, give them a list of the best books the library has in that field; the history of the Philadelphia Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair, the Paris Expositions, &c. On another day, set forth the books on manufactures, horses, cattle, domestic animals, decorative art, &c. If there is a poultry exhibition, or a dog show, call public attention to the books on poultry or dogs. If an art exhibition, bring forward the titles of books on painting, sculpture, drawing, and the history of art, ancient and modern.

If some great man has died, as Bismarck or Gladstone, give the titles of any biographies or books about him, adding even references to notable magazine articles that have appeared. When the summer vacation is coming around, advertise your best books of travel, of summer resorts, of ocean voyages, of yachting, camping, fishing and shooting, golf and other out-door games, etc. If there is a Presidential campaign raging, make known the library's riches in political science, the history of administrations, and of nominating conventions, lives of the Presidents, books on elections, etc. If an international dispute or complication is on foot, publish the titles of your books on international law, and those on the history or resources of the country or countries involved; and when a war is in progress, books on military science, campaigns, battles, sieges, and the history of the contending nations will be timely and interesting.

Whatever you do in this direction, make it short and attractive. Organize your material, describe a specially interesting work by a reference to its style, or its illustrations, or its reputation, etc. Distribute your library notes impartially; that is, if several papers are published, be careful not to slight any of them. Find out the proper days to suit their want of matter, and never send in your notes when the paper is overcrowded. Always read a proof-slip of each article; time spent in going to a newspaper office to correct proof is well spent, for misprints always await the unwary who trusts to the accuracy of types.

If the library acquires any extensive or notable book, whether old or new, do not fail to make it known through the press. If any citizen gives a number of volumes to the library, let his good deeds have an appreciative notice, that others may go and do likewise.

Another feature of library advertising is the publication in the press of the titles of new books added to the library. As this is merely catalogue printing, however abbreviated in form the titles may be, it will usually (and very properly) be charged for by the newspapers. But it will pay, in the direction of inducing a much larger use of the library, and as the sole object of the institution is to contribute to public intelligence, it becomes library managers not to spare any expense so conducive to that result.