Dr. Klotz said in part:
It should be assumed that when one accepts the appointment as library
trustee he accepts therewith the duties and responsibilities of such
position. He who treats them with indifference is a source of weakness
to the board. There is no room on a library board for a man who accepts
the appointment "just for the honor of it." The trustee must be seized
with the fundamental idea and principle that the public library is
the people's university, that it is the fountain to which all have
access, whose wholesome waters shall give renewed life and intellectual
strength.
The trustee's first duty is to see that the library receives adequate
municipal support. This is seldom an easy matter. It generally requires
a good deal of missionary work,--through the newspapers, through
personal appeals to councillors, through public addresses before the
council or otherwise. The public must be told of its need, which it
frequently does not recognize. The trustee must exercise the influence
of an educator.
The work of the trustee is often discouraging and disheartening, and
may take years to attain a particular end. Our public libraries act
favors the carrying out of some definite plan, because an appointee
holds office for several years, giving him an opportunity of thoroughly
familiarizing himself with the whole range of library affairs to the
great advantage of the best interests of the public and of the library.
A further advantage of this tenure of office is that it permits of what
is in athletics called "team work." We know how effective it is in this
latter respect, and so it is too with a library board. I have reason to
refer to this, because all libraries in Ontario are not so constituted
that "team work" can be efficiently carried out. I allude to libraries
whose board has no fixed continuity. With a continuity to the board
definite plans may be formulated that one knows in advance will take
years to carry out, but if there is no continuity to the board, each
new board will have its own notion, using the term notion advisedly,
in contradistinction to the matured plan, for it is not to be expected
that new men, thrown into new surroundings, faced by problems wholly or
nearly wholly foreign to them, can act with that intelligence, with the
large-mindedness essential to the best interests of the community. The
fault lies not with the men, but with the system.
One of the first considerations is the public. The trustee should
know his public well, just as a physician can only treat his patient
intelligently after having made a thorough diagnosis. The people of
one town may differ from those of another town, their industries and
interests may be different so that a successful course adopted by a
board in one place may not meet with the same success in another,
and as the people, the citizens, are to be beneficiaries of a public
library, it is all-important that their needs be closely studied.
It must ever be the aim of the trustee to try to give the greatest
good to the greatest number, without however neglecting to provide
opportunities within reasonable limits commensurate with the funds
available to the exceptional artisan, mechanic or bright young man who
is anxious to pursue his work beyond the ordinary. It can be truly
said that even those who do not use the library are to a greater or
less extent benefited by it through the environment of those who do
use it. One of the functions of a library, and one that generally
appeals most to those that control the purse strings, is to increase
the industrial productiveness of the people of the respective town
or municipality. Take a town for example whose industries are almost
wholly those of cabinet making. It should be the duty of a trustee to
see that the library and reading room is especially rich and complete
in all that pertains to cabinet making; to carpentering; the different
kinds of wood; designing; drawing and everything that may further
the artisan's skill and thereby his productiveness. For we must ever
remember that the commercial success of a nation rests on the skill
and productiveness of its artisans. This function of the public
library is one that may be measured in dollars and cents, but the
other function--of making better men and women, of character-building,
of brightening homes by the perusal of good literature, of wholesome
fiction, of making better citizens, of appreciating the rights as
well as the responsibilities of citizenship, these things can not be
measured in coin, but they make for a nation's progress and stability.
The most important office is of course the librarian, and the success
of the library depends more upon him, or her, than upon any one else;
for a poor library board and a good librarian are preferable to a good
board and poor librarian.
Hence it is a most important duty of the trustee to see that the
services of a good librarian be obtained, not merely an automaton that
hands out books and checks off those returned. The day of utilizing
men or women whose usefulness in other fields has vanished is past and
such should be kept out of the library. What is wanted is a person
who has enthusiasm for the work, who has studied library work and
methods, who in an unostentatious and quiet way will be helpful to
the readers, who can guide particularly the younger readers in their
choice of literature, who can encourage the formation of reading clubs
and societies, who can make the library and reading room, especially
for small libraries, cheerful and attractive by little devices, and
by his or her own attitude to the users of the library add much to
its usefulness and influence for good. The next duty of the trustee
is to see that adequate remuneration be given for the services
rendered. The good librarian is in love with his work and is quite
willing to sacrifice something on that account to follow a chosen
vocation. But that is no reason why inadequate remuneration should
be accorded. Let the librarian feel that he is getting a fair reward
for his services, co-operate with him, assist him in his endeavors to
improve the usefulness of the library, let him feel that he has the
good-will of the board, and do not throw all the responsibility of the
whole management and its aims upon his shoulders. Do not dampen his
enthusiasm and zeal by indifference and simply perfunctory attendance
at meetings, or absence altogether. The library requires the undivided
attention of both librarian and trustees. Bear in mind that it is an
educational institution of the town with a larger attendance than that
of the schools. It cannot too strongly be urged upon the trustees and
board that a mere collection of books does not constitute a public
library, it requires the connecting link, the librarian, to bind those
two words more closely together--the public and the library, and the
more intimately will they be connected the more efficient the librarian
is.
A trustee should make a point of becoming somewhat acquainted with what
other libraries are doing, as found in reports and publications. He
may at times get thereby new ideas or pointers that may be applicable
in his own library. Again if he has occasion to travel and has an hour
or so to spare in a town or city where there is a public library, he
should go there, "nose" about, and he will find that the visit is
profitable. The trustees should within their means make the library and
room or rooms as cheerful and comfortable as possible. Let the rooms be
well lighted and the light so distributed as to be restful to the eyes.
Try to make the library the most attractive place in town. That in
itself is a standing temperance sermon, without being preached, which
many people do not like.
Believe in the library as an educational institution for all the
people, young and old; believe in the library as an aid for technical
education; believe in the library as a good thing for your town; and
believe in the library as making for a strong and progressive nation.
This paper was followed by one by Mr. WALTER R. NURSEY, inspector of
public libraries of the province of Ontario, on