The woman's club and the travelling library seem made for each other. So
perfectly does the travelling library supply a suitable channel for the
energies of the woman's club, and so admirably does the woman's club
seem fitted for the work of sending out travelling libraries, that the
one seems the natural and perfect complement of the other.
What a box of well-selected reading matter means to a rural community
probably only those know who have lived in a rural community without
the box. Others must draw upon their imaginations to picture farm homes
without other current literature than a weekly local paper whose "patent
inside" contains all the news they receive of the world's work; homes
where the family Bible--not always present--and the children's school
books form the only bound volumes of the family library, where even the
deservedly ephemeral literature of the daily paper and the 10-cent
magazine are unknown, though rural free mail delivery will soon alter
this.
With numberless such communities on the one hand, we have on the other
numerous women's clubs organized for self-improvement and "mutual aid,"
to use the fine phrase of Prince Kropotkin. And so closely are human
interests interwoven that "mutual aid" means self-improvement, and
self-improvement "mutual aid." It is doubtful if any form of educational
endeavor undertaken by women's clubs is so fruitful in good results as
the travelling library. It is the most practical form of educational
work as yet undertaken by these organizations. The work of the Illinois
Federation of Women's Clubs in this direction has been under the
supervision of the library extension committee of that organization.
More than one-third of the clubs of the state are now engaged in
travelling library work. The number of libraries in circulation has
doubled in the past year.
The plan usually adopted in the formation of a travelling library is for
each member of a club to donate one or more books. A Parmelee or other
suitable trunk bookcase is purchased for the collection, usually
consisting of about 50 volumes, a record-book is provided, each volume
is furnished with a library catalog and the rules for borrowers
recommended by the committee, and the library is then ready to begin its
travels.
Several libraries are grouped into county circuits--a unique feature of
the Illinois plan--of four or more to a circuit. Two years has been
found to be the average life of a travelling library, and a circuit of
four libraries remaining in each community for six months will thus
supply four communities with travelling libraries for two years.
With regard to the composition of the travelling library, the committee
recommends that each library consist of about 50 volumes; that of these
one-half shall be juveniles; that fiction shall be carefully selected,
preference being given to standard works, those which have stood the
test of time; that everything of a theological bias shall be excluded;
that biographies, travels and nature studies and stories are
particularly desirable, with other suggestions for particular
communities or of a general character. We lay particular stress upon the
proportion of juveniles being at least one-half, for the reason not only
that children and young people are generally the most numerous class of
readers, but also because many adults, unaccustomed to much reading,
find juvenile literature more readily comprehensible. Considering the
fact that our libraries are almost wholly the result of voluntary
donation, it is remarkable and, indeed, extremely gratifying that the
libraries sent out are of such a high degree of literary excellence. The
outcome of the heterogeneous tastes of club members, they seem admirably
adapted to the equally heterogeneous tastes of the communities to which
they are sent. Improvement, however, is always possible, and for the
coming year we have model lists of books drawn up as guides, if not
patterns, for future libraries.
In states where a public travelling library system does not yet exist,
the women's clubs seem excellently qualified for inaugurating and
maintaining such a system until the time comes, as it surely will, when
every state has its library commission and its travelling library fund.