The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-12-14
rrrom The Bo,.on Advessiser.l 3
Tho Future OF libraries.

i - = 49,
Among the many important events OF tne
,,ast twpnty>fsve years which the future nus
tor;aa viii chronicle. the extraordinary
Growth Of the public libraries Will DC nos tne
.ssssf interesting. There are now 10 the
limited States I84,sl5 public horaries tin-
sSr,iiup Snnday.school collecHoasss contain
in,, AZ los. 9as volumes. Yet, marvellous as
hss heen the increase both In the number OF
libraries and In the extent aud value OF their
contents. an increase we'll illustrated infthe
Growth Of the British Museum collection
s,nee 1883 nom 2s5.000 to 100000
volumes. their future history must be more
astonishing than tifeir past. For Wnen
ere consider the new fields which
each year opens to us in every department
of knowledge; when we think Of the new
countries which are being colonized, each OF
which already mas or soon will have q lltera'
ture peculiar 10 itself; when we remember
that in japan, China, and India, and to & less
extent throughout Asia, there is an inteiiec-
tual excitement which cannot fail 10 tne neA,
fifty wears to be abundantly productive; anu
when to these considerations We ana the iacs
| that our system of education is raising up q
large and Continually increasing class OF per.
sons with decided literary tastes joined WIN
1.-The power to write fairly we'll, it will be evil
dent that the past furnishes no sure criterlon
| on which judgment to the future may DC
based. Of this only can we De reasonau'y
| certain. that the annual production Of books
interesting to the general reader Will IN.
| crease in far greater ratio in the coming ball
century than It has done in that now draw
| ing TO a close. In view OF this, the magma
ton fails in the attempt to conceive the num-
her of volumes which will line the interim
pable shelves and crowdthe numberless al
coyes of the great public libraries 10 1920.
| But it should be borne in mind that it Is
not books alone which will form these vast
| collections of the printed memorials OF mans
| life and work. The newspapers, not simply
| of q single city or State, but of every coun'
try. will find place in them. Very prooa
| bly. by some perfected system of exchange,
the principal libraries will be able to obtain
all the leading papers published in every
Quarter of the globe. When this is done,
and the daily and weekly papers OF the
great Oriental cities, in addition to those oil
Europe and America, are received, the mum
beers of the present day will appear insisnif'
can't BY contrast. And yet, II all the news
papers taken at the British Museum were
but side by side, they would stretch
a mile. So, too, unless the nature of the
librarian of the future be changed, which IS
to preserve every printed scrap OF paper,
these will be stored away in innumeraDie
scrap books, the posters on the walls, the
handbills strewn about the streets, the ad'
yertisements infinite in number ana Varlety-
all. i'm fact. the ephemeral publications
| which will best illustrate to future age
tbe dajly life of this. Add to all these the
Observation-Disclosures are now l2,O00 taken az
| the British Museum, extending mile
and threequarters--the publications Oh
! learned societies, the occasional pamphlets,
the official papers, the reports of the various
departments of the various towns, municipal,
state, and national governments, ana one
| begins to have some faint conception OF the
| yastness of the library of the future. Yet
our brief outline is not complete without an
| alusion to the fact that the growth OF libra.
ries is not wholly by the acquisition OF new
| works, but will always be more or less
owing to the absorption Of private Libraries.
Those large and valuable collections which
doubtless will continue to be found here and
there in the houses of the wealthy will in
time find their way either by gift or by pur.
chase to the shelves of the public libraries.
Now, the most serious problem to be solved
| is not to lind room for these collections.
This is difficulty which may possibly be
met, in respect to newspapers and similar
publications, by reproducing them in micro.
scopic proportions through the aid OF pho.
Biography. Nor will there be any special
difficulty in cataloguing the contents OF the
largest library. But the grand problem to
be solved is, How shall these enormous
stores of literature be made accessible to
the reading public? The British Mu-
seum's written catalogue for its million
books is contained in 1922 volumes.
Should the printed catalogue of the
French national library be completed on
the scale with which it has been com.
menced it would fill nearly three
hundred large octave volumes for mil
lion and half books. But when the book,
reach ten millions, to consult catalogue OF
| fifteen thousand volumes will be herculean
| labor. But with the solution of this problem
we need hardly trouble ourselves at present.
| Very likely the officially will be greatly les
sened by the division Of the books into
| classes, to be kept in separate halls, each
with its own catalogue. 1t is hard to ina
CINE, and yet it is not impossible, that many
now using the public library may live to see
| its multitudlnous treasures housed in some
vast building or connected buildings, with
| its theological, historical, newspaper, poetry
halls, and dozen others, each with thelI
million volumes.