Best site for village library We are having much trouble and difference of opinion in choosing the site for our new library building. Please outline the principal points to be considered in making a wise choice. The following points will apply to most villages having a main business block or street of attached buildings: 1 Place the village library, as near as practicable, in the center where the greatest number of people habitually resort. Consider all sections and see to it that the people of no section have further to go in using the library than is necessary. No matter how attractive a site may be in itself, it is a very bad place for the library if it involves any unnecessary inconvenience for any considerable part of the public. Be guided in this respect by the same consideration that leads to the placing of the post office or a large store where most people naturally and habitually come. 2 But do not put the library on the main business street, or at least in the main business block. Reasons for this are: a The library requires a totally different atmosphere and spirit from that of the store or business office. It is a place for study, research, the cultivation of literary friendships. Books and book friendships have no natural relation with the business block. b The dust and noise of the main business street or block seriously interfere with the best work and best enjoyment of the library. Because of such dust and noise, it is often impossible to have the front windows open where the building is thus placed, and in summer this difficulty is a very serious matter. Such a location is no more pleasant for a library than for a private residence, and for much the same reason. c It has been found by experience that where libraries are thus placed directly on the main street, they are apt to be used by young and frivolous people, not for library purposes, but as a place to gather, gossip, stare into the street, watch the passers-by, make rendezvous and appointments, and thus inter fere with the more serious and dignified purposes of the library. Some times front windows have had to be made opaque, to avoid some of this abuse. d The expense involved in securing a site on the main business street is one that ought rarely or never to be incurred by a village library. Such sites are expensive because they are economically profitable for business concerns. In business competition, the expensive site may well prove the more profitable. The library is outside such competition, and it would be a waste for it to pay for a value which does not relate to its work. The main concern of the library is to provide the books, periodicals and library service that a community needs and wants, and there are almost no village libraries that have all the money that they can wisely use in this way. To put any unnecessary money into the ground is to deprive the people continuously of the full measure of reading and library service for which the institution was established, for which the public make appropriations and the donors make gifts. Rarely should a village library put more than one fifth of the value of its building into a site. A. W. Why the village needs a public library in addition to the school library This village of about 1000 population has a good school library which is free to the public for circulation. There are people here who are agitating for the establishment of an independent free library. How can such agitation be justified in a community as small as this? Would it not be obviously better to strengthen the one library we now have than to divide library interest and support between a school library and a public library? In The question is one whose answer depends entirely on the amount of interest and support that can be developed for an independent free library. If enough people really want such a library to assure it adequate and permanent support, the presence of a good school library is no argument against the movement. deed, the very excellence of the school library may be a reason why a good public library is needed. The following are some of the grounds on which a free library movement in your community may be not only justified but cordially supported by all who are interested in the higher life of the village: I A good public library will not weaken the school library; it will strengthen it. The more the adult population knows from experience of the pleasure and profit provided by a library, the more likely it is to insist that the school shall be adequately provided with books. Then too, the free library, by providing for the general public, will relieve the school library from this duty and thus enable it to devote all its resources to the peculiar needs of the school. 2 No matter how good your school library is, it cannot, in justice to its own specific constituency, adequately serve the general public. The more perfectly its collection, work and organization are adapted to its peculiar purposes, that is, the better it is as a school library, the less can it serve the full function of a public library. 3 The school library has an association in the public mind which almost everywhere acts as a bar to its general use by the public, even where it is open and free to all. For this reason, public libraries in large cities have found it to be the rule that school buildings even where they have the proper equipment, do not make good quarters for branch libraries to serve the general public. Statistics will show that in communities of similar size the circulation of books to the public will average five times greater where there are independent free libraries than where there are only school libraries free for circulation. 4 Each kind of a public institution will be best developed by a board devoted specifically to that institution. A school board, if it has the zeal and enthusiasm needed for its peculiar duties, will not be likely to have an equal zeal in providing public library service and privileges. A good school board will be, in its thought and interest "all school"; the library interests of the community should be in the hands of a board which in a similar way will be "all library." 5 The school library almost never provides for the hours of opening and service in which the convenience and desire of the general public are given first consideration. It may be doubted whether it has any right to do so. 6 The public library is peculiarly fitted to serve as a common and unifying center for all kinds of community interests and activities. It is the natural rallying point for reading and study clubs, improvement societies, dramatic and literary societies and other organizations for civic uplift. The school library rarely if ever is able to fill such a position in the community. 7 Public libraries have shown a remarkable power to enlist the interest and devotion, of high-minded and generous people and to draw from such people material gifts and endowments. Last year 129 public libraries in this State received each $100 or over in personal gifts or bequests, the total amounting to nearly a million dollars. How many school libraries were thus remembered? Perhaps not more than ten, though the number of school libraries in the State is at least ten times greater than that of public libraries. And so has it been for the past twenty years. In New York Libraries for May 1914 page 88 are given statistics for 24 free libraries in villages averaging just 1000 population. Seventeen of these libraries have received from personal sources for building or endowment, gifts amounting to $335,000. How much of this large sum now devoted to public service, would have been lost to these communities except for the free libraries? 8 A public library, distinct from the school library, is needed in the interest of the school children themselves. A child who has known and used only the school library while attending school, is apt, on leaving school, to leave off using the library also; but the child, who while in school has learned the joy of a free and spontaneous use of books at a public library, is likely to continue that use through life. Thus, even to these for whom the school library is primarily maintained, a public library may well prove of more permanent value than the school library. NOTES AND NEWS OF NEW YORK LIBRARIES Albany. New York State Library. Recent gifts of importance received by the State Library include: a collection of 500 bound volumes, 5000 pamphlets and 50 bound volumes of manuscripts (all of historical value) from the library of the late Franklin B. Hough, historian of St Lawrence, Lewis, Franklin and Jefferson counties, donated by his children, Minnie M. and Romeyn B. Hough of Lowville; a complete bound file of the Ulster Republican 1835-61, its successor, the Kingston Argus, 1861-84, and the Kingston Daily Freeman, 1871-84, donated by the Kingston City Library; a copy of the notable catalog in four large folio volumes, of the Morgan collection of manuscripts and early printed books, given by Mr M. C. Lefferts of New York City, and a choice collection of 62 framed and 15 unframed photographs, litographs and prints of places and buildings of the city of Albany of historic interest and importance. Amsterdam. The free library has been benefited by a legacy of $100 from the late Georgina B. Teft. Athens. A circulation of 17,696 is reported by the D. R. Evarts Free Library for the year ending June 30th last, a new high record. This is an average of 9 books for each man, woman and child in the village and about 45 for each household. New books added to A. W. the collection during the year numbered 495, making a total stock of 3214 volumes. The cost of operation for the year, including purchase of books, was $1450. The income from invested funds amounted to $1550. It is a matter of pride to this small village that its public library circulation is considerably larger than that of its city neighbor across the river, though the latter has a population five times greater. Bedford Hills. A promising free library has been organized in the village during the past year, and in its resources and support has already far exceeded the thoughts and expectations of its founders. It was chartered by the Regents July 27, 1915, its application papers showing a collection of 797 volumes and a property valuation of $742. Belfast. The handsome memorial library building, erected and furnished at a cost of $20,000 and presented to the village as a gift by Mr Frank L. Bartlett of Olean, was formally opened to the public on August 4th last, by a reception under the auspices of the Hawthorne Club. The event was one of universal gratification and felicitation, representing an accomplishment far above the best hopes or dreams of those who founded this enterprise 14 years ago. Belmont. The free library issued last year 9251 volumes for home reading, the highest figure ever reported. A register of borrowers using the library during the year shows a total of 703, or nearly 70 per cent of the entire population. Berlin. Continuous and most encouraging growth is shown by the free town library. The collection now numbers 1636 volumes and the circulation last year was 4812. In five years the circulation has increased more than threefold. Binghamton. Items relating to the public library appearing in the news columns of the city's newspapers last year filled 76 columns of space. The achievement of such publicity without cost, save for the preparation of the news items, is especially commended in an editorial of the Binghamton Republic, which points out the peculiar difficulties the library has had to meet this past year in securing public recognition, "with a world war in progress, the political pot boiling fiercely for six months, and with a dozen big questions agitating the public mind and calling for space." "Needless to state," says the editor "the library shows growth in every department." Bolivar. The report of the free library for the past year is notable in two respects its remarkably low cost of operation and its high figures for circulation. Including the cost of adding 285 new books to its collection, its entire expenditure for the year was but $482, a clear demonstration that the possession of a Carnegie building does not always mean large cost of maintenance. The circulation numbered 13,502 volumes, an average of ten issues for each resident of the village. Bristol. The free library, after 15 years of struggle for existence and recognition, during which it has faced almost continuous poverty and many discouragements, has now reached a place of security and comparative strength. Its status as a public library has been definitely established by a vote of the town to provide it with an annual appropriation of $100, and its standing as a Regents institution has been strengthened by the granting of an absolute charter to replace the provisional charter granted at its founding in 1900. Brookyn: Bay Ridge High School. An interesting new departure is announced in the vocational department of the evening school for women the establishment of a course of study and training for public library work. The course is limited to those who have completed a regular high school course or its equivalent. It is believed that this is the first instance where specific training for library work has been undertaken by a public night school. Brooklyn: Pratt Institute Free Library. Great increase in the facilities and use of the public library system do not seem to interfere with the use of this admirably managed and popular library. The circulation last year was 222,626 volumes compared with 141,503 two years ago. More significant than the extent of the circulation is its quality, only a trifle more than half being fiction. Canastota. Individual borrowers drawing books from the public library last year for home use numbered 1749, a little more than one-half the population of the village. Canton. Developments of importance at the free library this past year have been the perfecting of its inner organization, including the installation of a model subject catalog, and the establishment of a regular children's story hour. Improvements in the matter of organization were effected in March when a senior of the New York State Library School, Mr Donald B. Gilchrist, gave a month of his course in professional training to the practical problem of this particular library. His ideas, interest and work are shown not only in a better library system but in a general quickening of effort and enterprise. The library numbers 6860 volumes, has a registry of 2363 borrowers, and last year circulated 28,707 volumes, or more than 10 for each resident of the village. Carmel. In its handsome new building the free library has more than doubled its service to readers and borrowers. The circulation last year numbered 6014 volumes. Five years ago the annual circulation was 2495. Carthage. The vexed question as to a site for the new library building, about which a disturbing controversy was threatened, has been happily settled, and a lot has been purchased which will admirably meet the purposes of the library. Early action will now be taken to proceed with the new building. Castile. For the last year the Cordelia A. Greene Library reports a stock of 4400 volumes, a list of 32 periodicals on file and a circulation of 5000. The library was founded in 1897 by the late Doctor Greene and the present handsome library building was dedicated on Christmas day, 1903. The library has been fortunate in the receipt of several legacies. Cazenovia. Previous records for circulation are more than maintained by the public library, the report for the past year showing a total issue for home use of 35,385 volumes. The larger part of this issue was fiction, as is the case with most libraries, but there was an issue of 3482 volumes of nonfiction and 4747 magazines. A gift of $3000 was received during the year from an unnamed donor. Chatham. Out of a total circulation of 22,838 volumes last year, the public library issued 8210 works of nonfiction. This excellent showing is largely due to the systematic cooperation of work with the schools. The annual issue of books for home use has increased by 10,000 volumes in the last five years. Clinton. The endowment fund of the Kirkland Town Library has been increased by a gift of $500 from Mr Clinton Scollard, the poet, and of $50 from Mr Van Deventer. A change in librarians has been necessitated by the resignation of Miss Sara Morris, who has served in that capacity for the past ten years. Miss Ruth Raymond has been chosen as her successor. Colton. The Hepburn Library reports for the year ending June 30, 1915, a circulation of 9640 volumes, of which 3035 were other than fiction. In proportion to population, this library makes the largest showing both as to total circulation and the circulation of nonfiction of any library in St Lawrence county. In its building and financial resources it is equally notable. Coxsackie. Books borrowed from the Heermance Memorial Library last year numbered 23,886 volumes, an average of nearly 10 for each man, woman and child in the village, or 50 for each household. Of these books, 6341 were other than fiction. Both circulation and use of books in the library building have shown steady and large increases during the past five years. Cutchogue. A free library project for the village which has been under consideration and discussion for several years, has now taken definite form and on September 16, 1915, the Cutchogue Free Library was formally chartered by the Regents and given a grant of $100 for the purchase of books. Free library privileges are thus brought to a population of 1200. Diamond Point. The establishment of a "children's hour" and a more generous purchase of children's books, have greatly increased the popularity and use of the free library on the part of the young people. A small supply of books is now kept regularly at the post office and borrowers may here exchange books daily during business hours. Dolgeville. "Library Field Day" has now become a regular feature of the village life. Its fourth annual observance was held at High Falls Park June 26th, consisting of various kinds of athletic competitions for prizes, the sale of refreshments and other activities for promoting good fellowship and a generous expenditure of money in the library's behalf. Receipts from the celebration this summer amounted to $232. Other forms of entertainment during the year netted the library $620. Out of the year's receipts $200 was set aside for a permanent interest fund. Dunkirk. By cooperation between the Polish Alliance, the public school board and the free library, a library for the special use of the Polish population has been established in a room of one of the public schools of the city. The library is open Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons, the librarian being provided by the Polish Alliance, and the books by the three bodies cooperating. Both Polish and English books are provided. East Hampton. Progress in all lines of work and development is reported by the free library for the past year; 633 volumes were added to the book collection, 251 new borrowers were registered and 13,668 volumes were issued for home reading. With the important assistance of a student from the State Library School who gave a month to this service, the card catalog has been completed and the general organization of the library greatly improved. Individual gifts for the year amounted to $489, of which Mr J. B. Ford contributed $150 for the special purpose of perfecting the catalog and Mr C. G. Thompson gave $100 for general purposes of the library. Perhaps the most notable development has been the voting of an annual appropriation of $400 by the school district. |