THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX Ave

TIDEN FOUNTAINS,

VOL. 2

#

THE NEW Y. RK

ASTOR, LENOX AND

TILLEN FOUNDATIONS

1914

NO.1

Empty arguments and fears. To the
several instances cited in our last number,
showing how uniformly and rapidly the sub-
scription library enlarges its activities and
public service by abolishing its fee and operat-
ing as a free library, should be added the case
of the Katonah library, whose report has just
come to hand. For years the trustees of this
library hesitated to make it free, arguing that
the fee - only $1 a year- - was so low that in
such a well to do community any one could
join the library who wished; and fearing that
if people were given equal privileges whether
or not they contributed to its support, the in-
L347m-S9-3500 (7-7129)

come of the library would seriously suffer. In
spite of these objections, however, the advo-
cates of the free library in the association car-
ried their point in June 1908, and from July
I of that year the library has been entirely
free to all users. The report for the first year
under this new policy shows how empty had
been both the arguments and the fears which
had been urged against this step. With no
added facilities, hours of opening or cost of
administration, the library is now serving
more than three times the number of bor-
rowers as under it former rules, and is is-
suing about twice the number of books for

home reading. Such has been the increased good will in the community towards the library that the year's receipts, instead of being diminished by the abolishing of a compulsory fee, have been materially enlarged. Such instances show how little risk a library runs in assuming, that the more they do for a community, the more they will receive from that community.

Popular books of travel. The question is often asked by librarians and book committees: "As you do not advise libraries to purchase sets of the Stoddard or Burton Holmes lectures, what books would you recommend that cover similar ground and appeal to the same class of readers as these sets?" An attempt is made in this issue to answer this question, in the annotated list of popular travel compiled by Mrs Harron and Miss Eastwood. Great care, and labor have been spent in compiling this.dist, more than 800 books have been carefully examined and the judgment of many people in different places of authority and observation have been considered. While emphasis has been laid on truth of narrative and quality of style, the main thought of the compilers has been to select books that will be read with interest and delight by the same people who want such books as those of Stoddard or Holmes. result is a list from which librarians may select with confidence that they are buying good books and books which will not lie on the shelves idle.

The

The library and the farmer. The importance to the village and rural library of having on the shelves a liberal supply of the best and most interesting books on agriculture and horticulture would seem to need no urging. The library not only needs the patronage and respect of the whole community but should encourage this interest by a good collection of books on all subjects. To establish and maintain such a relation of mutual respect and helpfulness, it is necessary that the library do something more than provide on its shelves a means of entertainment for the farmers' wives and children. The farmer is preeminently a practical man. He is a utilitarian in his philosophy, and any theory or device or institution must show its worth in practical results before he will take it seri

ously.

Scientific farming and the agricultural college have won their way to the respect of the farmer, not by their logic but by their practical accomplishments, and only as the library can prove its value by the same tests will it have a secure place in his regard.

Some of us know of the incident reported by the librarian of a small city library in a neighboring state, of a wealthy farmer living in the neighborhood who had utterly no use for the library, regarding it as a superfluity and a passing fad. At a time when one of his valuable cows was sick and likely to die, in his perplexity he went to the library to see if by chance he might find any help there in treating the disease. The right book was found, and by its guidance the cow was saved. A short time after the farmer died and left $75,000 in his will to the library. Once convinced that the library was a place not merely for entertainment but for real help in the actual problems of life, the farmer was ready to be its firmest supporter. If the rural library wishes to be regarded as something better than a plaything by the hard-headed workers of the community, it must demonstrate its ability to help those workers in a positive and practical way. To aid librarians in equipping their libraries for this service, we publish in this number an annotated list of some 70 of the best books on agriculture now available for public libraries. The list has been selected by Professor Tuck of the State Agricultural College at Cornell and represents his best judgment as to the most desirable books in the different departments of agriculture.

The need of further library extension. The facts brought out by Miss Brown in her report to the New York Library Association on library conditions in rural New York are such as to give us pause and compel some sober reflections as to either the efficiency or sufficiency of our present methods of library extension in rural communities. So remarkable has been the growth of public libraries in the cities and larger villages of the State since 1893, so encouraging are the library statistics for the State when taken as a whole, and so prone are we to do our thinking in terms of the general or average, that the particular depressing facts regarding large sec

tions of the State have received all too little recognition. As pointed out by Mr Legler in discussing a similar problem in his own state, the average is no criterion of actual conditions. "The average wealth of one millionaire and nine penniless persons," he suggests, "is $100,000, but this does not make the nine any the richer." The average supply of free library books in New York State, according to last year's report to the Legislature, was 1000 books to every 2000 of the population, and the average circulation was 2000 books to every 1000 of the population, but these averages do not enrich in the least the million and a half population in the State who are as entirely without library privileges as if they lived in Russia. What makes the situation the more regretable is the fact, brought out so clearly in Miss Brown's report, that the people who are thus denied library privileges are the very ones who need them most and use them most when they are supplied. In this fact, however, and in the fact that rural needs are now receiving such new and earnest attention lies our strongest ground of encouragement. Fortunately we have been supplied by Miss Brown not only with the facts but with a definite, practical and inspiring program, and we have reason to believe that before another year is ended this program will be in successful operation in many rural communities.

The morality of books. The proverb, "One man's meat is another man's poison" is nowhere more applicable than in the matter of books and reading. So long as men differ in taste, character, mental and moral development, they will and ought to differ as to the books which are either mentally or morally good for them. A range of ideas that to one mind means an inspiring ascent, to another means a degrading descent. A moral atmosphere that to one soul is stimulating and bracing, to another is blighting and withering. When, therefore, a judgment is given by any authority as to the morality or immorality of a book, it should be taken for granted that the judgment is always subject to such modifications as are involved in this personal equation. No authority or book censor can relieve librarians, parents, teachers or friends of responsibility in recommending books to particular persons. For such recommendation a knowledge of the person is as indispensable

as a knowledge of books. But while recognizing this essential difficulty in passing on the moral character or influence of books, there are certain general principles or canons of judgment, a clear recognition of which will do much to clarify our ideas on this subject and give us a rational basis for action. A better statement and illustration of these principles, so far at least as they relate to fiction, we have never seen than that presented in this issue of New York Libraries by Miss Bacon, in her paper on Morality in fiction. We especially commend the paper to those librarians and committees who are at times surprised and confused by the judgment of the State Library authorities in their rejection of certain types of books, and their acceptance of others which on the surface at least appear far more questionable.

Prima function of public library. To the objection; so often raised against the free library movement; that in these days of cheap literature.the public library is a superfluity since any one can afford to buy the books he wants, the answer is made by a writer in the Library Association Record of England that instead of lessening the need of the public library, the very cheapness and abundance of books serve rather to emphasize that need; since the most valuable service of the library is not in its free supply of books to the public but in the skilled and disinterested selection that has gone to the making of the library and in the guidance that is thus provided for readers. The critics of the free library usually forget, says this writer, how few people there are who know enough of books to select the best, or even the tenth best, out of the mass that is offered. For the majority of readers the help and guidance of a well selected library are indispensable. To realize the importance of this point, he urges, it is only necessary to take note of the reading of those who procure their weekly supply from book stands and news agents, and compare it with the reading done by people of the same class or even lower who regularly borrow from the public library. While the reading of the latter may not be of as high a grade as might be desired, it will invariably be found, he maintains, to be far superior to that of the former.