A village library successfully managed
James R. Garfield, in Public Libraries, October, 1896
Mentor, Ohio, is a village of but 500 people; therefore we are
somewhat limited in our ability to raise funds for carrying on library
work. But some six years ago 15 of us got together and began holding a
series of meetings every month, something in the nature of the old New
England township meeting, for the purpose of stirring up an interest
in town affairs, and in doing that we considered it necessary to have
some central point of interest around which we could all work, and
we chose as that the library. There had never been a library in the
village except a small circulating library. We all believed that the
use of books and the greater knowledge of books would be a common
center of interest around which we could all work and toward which we
would be glad to give work. The result of five years' work in this
way was that we now have a library of about 1600v., and two years ago,
acting under a general law of the state, we became incorporated,
and requested the village council to levy a tax for the work of the
library. We at that time had about 1000v. The council very readily saw
the advantage of this kind of work. They appreciated what was being
done for the citizens and schools of the state, and therefore they
levied a tax and turned the proceeds of the tax over to the library
board. In this way, you will see, the library board is kept entirely
aloof from politics. There are no elections by the people, nor is the
board appointed by any political officers. It is a self-constituted
body, a corporate body under the laws of this state, and as long as we
maintain our corporate existence the village may turn over the funds
to the library. We settled the difficulty of women's rights by having
an equal number of both men and women on the board, and then in order
to avoid the question of disruption of families we made the other
member of the family who was not on an honorary member of the board.
In this way we increased the number of workers and at the same time
satisfied the desire of many people to hold office.
But we found that 15, together with the supernumerary and honorary
members, were unwieldy, and the work practically devolved upon very
few of the members. Therefore, when we incorporated, we made an
executive board consisting of five members, and they had absolute
management of the library proper. They are elected every year from the
members of the association, and have absolute control of the library.
Although our library is supported by the village, we make it
absolutely free to anyone who desires to use it. Those outside the
village or township are required to put up a nominal deposit, merely
for the safe return of the book. We made this the ideal toward which
we are working--that the friendship of books is like the friendship
of men, it is worth nothing and avails nothing unless it is used
constantly and improved constantly.