Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-12-02

ment oil attendants 10 take charge of the library
and furnish the books to those who may visit it
on that day, would not violate the statutes of
the commonwealth in relation to the observance
of the Lords day" The action of the city
government was communicated to the di-
rectors OF the library, and at the
next meeting of the board a special committee
was appointed to consider the matter. AT the
October meeting a report was presented by
majority Of the committee fayorng the
proposed opening, but definite action
was postponed until the November
meeting, which was held Saturday after.
noon. A set of resolutions as to the use of the
library on Sunday, drawn up by the reading
room committee, was presented and considered
The general plan is that the Green library
below, will be open to the public
between the hours OF two and nine p NJ. on
Sunday The rooms will be III charge of an as
sistant, and the same facilities for reference will
| he afforded as on other days. The circulating
| department will not be open for the receipt Or
delivery of books by card. The librarian will
make an official announcement in few days in
regard to the matter. The library will be opened
for the FIRST time next Sunday.
The two reports Of the committee are pub
lshed below as a matter of interest as well as of
record. The majority report was accepted and
all its recommendations adopted:
MAJORITY REPORT.
10 the Board Of Directors Ofhe Free PYbtic Iydry.
Inc committee appointed to consider the request
of the city council that the Green library and the
readlng-roOm be opened TO the public use on sun
fIf. E.e a.. l.
atOns
In the belief that the formal requests of the city
council IN matters relating to the public library
should be fayorably received by this board unless
good reasons appear TO the contrary, the committee
nave sought for objections to the action now asked
Tor and believe that they are mainly eomprehended
IN the following: that the Sunday opening OF any
part Of the public library is Illegal that it violates
the sanctlty of the day and that it is an expert
ment of doubtful promise
The hrst of these objec lions has been pronounced
by the legal adviser of the city to be without good
foundation, and therefore will not be discussed in
this report.
Whether the Sunday use of public library or
reading is contrary to the spirit of the chris
nan rehglon is question upon which great diver
SHY OF OPINION may be expected to exist. Probably
most thlnFlng men will grant that large part of
the literature which is worth reading on the six
Wofklns days may properly and probably be also
read on Sunday; and few will DENY that such usq
OF a PORTION of the day is much to be
preferred to the ordinary pastimes of that
large part OF she community to whom Sunday is
benefit from such use of Sunday leisure must vary
with the opportunity tor the judcious choice OF
DOCKS and Tor their comfortable study. Some few
wealthy men possess large, well chosen collections
OF books from which their own varying wants can
be promptly satisfied but the mass of our citizens
own few good books except those contained in the
pubic library, which under the present rules can
give but scanty supplies for reading upon Sunday,
although liberal enough on the other days, when
working people have far less time and disposition
iOr mental e&ertlon. AT present, person can dur
ing the week, select from the brief printed cata-
logue of the circulating department. a single vol
ume which he can keep for his Sunday use Not
only is ms choice to some extent a blind one and
further hampered by the fact that new and noted
books are sought by many at once, but the collec-
ton from which he must select is, on the average
much less fit for Sunday use than the books in the
Green library, or the periodical literature in the
reading room.
lie may be justly urged that we have no right to
demand the services OF the librarian or his assistants
on Sunday, but this theoretical difficulty has been
FOUND to vanish whenever the plan proposed has
Deen carried into effect. For many years the read.
ing rooms OF the Boston Atheneum and of the
Lowell mechanics association have been omen on
sunday to those entitled to use them on other DAYS
more recently the Mercantile library associations of
fhlladelphla, Cincinnati and st. Louis have
ADOPTED the same plan. These are private estab-
nshments IN the sense that certain payments for
the most part small annual fees, are required of
those VINO would use the privileges they offer. The
doors OF the public library of Cincinnati and of the
Pubic school library of ST. Louis have for some
niue Time been open on Sunday, and within a few
DAYS after much elaboration, the same course mas
been followed at the Cooper Institute in New York
Inc experience of all these institutions as en-
bodied in printed reports and in letters received by
our librarian, is strongly favorable TO the measure
proposed, which can no longer be said TO offer
doubtful benefit. The Sunday visitors have every
where been found TO steadily increase in number
TO seek for the most part literature suited to the
day, and to be well disposed and orderly while no
Uhculty has been found in obtaining the cheerfuly
reno services Of experienced attendants. In
the belief that thereby the people will receive still
greater benefit from their library and that here. as
elsewhere theoretical objections will yield to the re-
suits Of experience, the committee recommend that
on and after the first Sunday November next the
9feen library and reading room be opened to pub
city council.
=, The committee lwould respectfully suggest that
the committee on the reading room be authorized
to open the rooms and provide, under temporary
rules, proper attendant between the hours of one
and nine P. NJ on the Sundays of the month of No.
vemOer, and that the same committee be requested
to prepare suitable rules and regulations for future
guidance and to present them to the board of di-
rectOrs at the regular meeting in November
Respectfully submitted,
GEO. +. FRANCIS,
fl. A. MARSH,
A majority of the committee