A Book for All Readers / An Aid to the Collection, Use, and Preservation of Books and the Formation of Public and Private Libraries

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.

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.

CHAPTER 16.

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 10½ 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 7½ 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.

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 coöperation 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.

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.