By a great expert in library field-work as done by one of
our most active library commissions. Miss Lutie E. Stearns,
of whom a sketch will be found in Vol. I. of this series, is
now a lecturer at large, but at the writing of this paper,
which is reprinted from _The Wisconsin Library Bulletin_ for
May, 1911, she was in the service of the Library Commission
of that state.
It is coming to be an axiom in library economy that "the worth of a book
is in its use." For this reason, librarians everywhere are devoting
themselves to what is called "library extension" through the building of
branches, and the establishment of deposit stations in schools,
factories, stores, club-houses, police stations, fire-engine houses,
etc. Experience has shown that where no efforts are made along the line
of library extension only 10 per cent. or at the most 20 per cent. of
the people are reached in any given community. If we wish to have
wholesome literature become "the burden of the common thought" we must
place good books within easy reach of all. Libraries should be quick to
realize that the social centre offers a most excellent opportunity to
reach those that might not otherwise take the time to avail themselves
of library privileges. The free public library should therefore be made
an important part of social centre work through active and sympathetic
cooperation.
Where libraries can afford proper facilities, there is no reason why
the library building should not serve as the social centre for the
community, as this institution differs from the schoolhouse, in cities
where parochial schools exist, in being neutral on the religious
question and therefore acceptable to all denominations. Wherever the
social centre may be, whether in library building or schoolhouse, strong
emphasis should be placed on the use of books. A special librarian, of
peculiar fitness, should be appointed either by the library or the
social centre authorities. This man or woman should be earnestly
altruistic in his or her desire to fit the right book to the right
person at the right time. It may be that this will mean the issuance of
a primer in English to an adult Slav who has recently arrived in this
country, or it may be the loan of a novel more wholesome in tone though
just as sentimental as one by Bertha M. Clay, the author requested.
Again, the leader of the boy gang may be persuaded to give up the
reading of the lurid "nickel library" in favor of Custer and Grinnell's
truthful Indian experiences. Such selection involves a wide range of
books in the social centre library, from well-bound and attractive
editions of the classics down to the latest, most wholesome novel. The
boys that frequent the gymnasium may be won by Barbour's latest football
story. The raffia worker should find interest in Priestman's
Handicrafts. An up-to-date and authoritative encyclopedia, a good
dictionary, a World almanac, and other popular reference books should be
supplied and instruction given in their use. Debating material should be
sought and every inducement offered for individual research.
Those who cannot afford to take correspondence courses in the various
trades and crafts should find material in the social centre library for
self-education. James Russell Lowell has said that the best part of
every man's education is that which he gives himself, and it is for this
that the library at the social centre should furnish the opportunity and
the means. Again, there should be books of a cheerful sort for tired
workers so that, as in William Morris's Earthly Paradise, they may
"Forget six counties overhung with smoke,
Forget the snorting steam and piston stroke."
Wholesome novels should be found in plenty for both men and women,
together with books that inspire with courage for life's daily round,
such as Hugh Black's Work, Gannett's Blessed be drudgery, Hyde's Art of
optimism, Emerson's Character and heroism, and Wagner's Courage. Each
book in the library's collection should serve one or all three
purposes--to inform, to inspire, or to refresh.
The rules for the issuance of books should be made as simple as
possible. Borrowers should not be restricted to one book at a time if
more can be used; that is, a novel should be loaned with a book for
study. No guarantee should be required except the borrower's signature.
A reading room should be made an attractive feature in connection with
the issuance of books. The library and reading room should be well
lighted and heated, and order and quiet should be insisted upon. The
reading table should be supplied with an abundance of the best of the
popular magazines. The Technical World, Popular mechanics, Amateur work,
and the Scientific American, will be found to be strong magnets for
attracting the interest of the boys and young men. The World's work,
Collier's weekly, and the American magazine, are the three great
exponents of optimism in our national life which should find a place on
the reading room tables, as should McClure's, Everybody's, Hampton's,
Scribner's, Harper's, Century, and the Atlantic. In the small towns the
local paper and one or two of the near-by metropolitan dailies should
also be taken.
Attractive libraries and reading rooms make less attractive the
seductions of other places. George Eliot said long ago, "Important as it
is to direct the industries of men, it is not so important as to wisely
direct their leisure." It is indeed true, as a critic of our national
life has said, that "The use of a nation's leisure is the test of its
civilization." To win people to a love of good literature, to bring back
the old days of reading and meditation, are two of the great problems
that confront the present-day librarian. In the words of one earnest
library worker, "The modern library movement is a movement to increase
by every possible means the accessibility of books, to stimulate their
reading and to create a demand for the best. Its motive is helpfulness;
its scope, instruction and recreation; its purpose, the enlightenment of
all; its aspiration, still greater usefulness."