New-York tribune., 1876-10-02
LLRRARY DETELOPMENT.

bTlsh-a place OF lelSurely quiet, wherein INC
few monkish librarians, unvisited by the DUST
brush, live out their sOmnOlent lives. 10 the
librarian himself, scholar, general, and man OF
business in one, it is the busiest OF workshops
and of counting-rOOms, III which, to mention
but one detail an individual account must be
kent with each book and with each user of book
The library is, in a second sense, a great book
keeping establishment, and there are few mer-
camille houses that could boast such busllle IS
accuracy as enabled Mr.. WinsGr to report
last year that out of the million circu-
lation of the Boston Public Library
three times the number of volumes it
includes-Lut one copy in ten thousand
WAS lost. The catalogue alone, requiring the
headw0rk and handwork Of perhaps dozen
assistants, is business by itself, as Mr.. John
Fiske suggests to the public in his paper in
the current atlantic. AS he replies, accu-
rately, to the typical querist: We are always
making IA catalogue, and it will never be
"fnished.n The magnitude of the work, IN
the la ger libraries may be illustrated by the
facts that the catalogue of the British Museum
library, with its sixteen hundred elephant
foios. must have a library hall by itself, and
compcls a catalogue of the catalogue; and
that Mr.. Abbott's card catalogue at Harvard
is already ffty-one feet long. a catalogue,
moreover eptomizes the perpexities OF the
universe. Mr.. Cutter gives 2O5 rules, and OF
these many are mO0ted points, and the best
cure for the ref0rmers who propose to recon-
struct society on an "all-cmbmcing' plan
would be to set them a-cataloguing 1t is a
wonder that most librarians do not die from
brain fever or suicide
The growth of our own library system within
the century has been remarkable numerically,
but still more remarkable in development. In
the twcnty-six public libraries of 1776, with
their l6. 900 volumes, the librarian, who gave
a modicum of his time from some other pro-
fession, was little moro than jailer Of his
books. From the 2,95S public Libraries Of
more than five hundred volumes each, with
nm aggregate of 12,O39, ,724 volumes. cata-
logued by the Bureau of EducatiOn--the last
census recorded 55,6SO public and 107,673
private libraries, with n total OF 44,539, loo
volumes in all-the Boston Public Library
NAV be selected as cr0wning the system with
its highest development. Boston is proud Of
her schools, but here is the greatest school
house of them all, true university OF the
pcople With his Hand book for Readers
annotated catalogues and other means OF in
huencng readers, Mr.. Winsor is the most sue
cessful teacher of Boston, and he has for his
pupils the population of the whole Hub and
its radiatiug suburbs. How effective this
molding influence has been may be seen from
the steady growth of the proportion of Z" the
"best reading" recorded in successive annual
l. NJ
Spofford, Mr. Cutler, Mr. Poole, and dozen
more who have won national regulations,
have elevated the calling of the libra
rian to the rank of a profession. The
library system is now taking another
step forward. There is no calling in which CO.
operation is more useful or in which it has
been less used. \ thousand things could be
done, under n cooperative arrangement, once
for ALL where now each library wastes time
and money in doing them by itself. a cur
rent index to periodical literature, such as Mr.
Poole began, may be instanced. Then, too,
the experience of one library is in many things
the experience of all f; it is important that time
should be saved from this and given to the
d'6creata in which progress is to be mad. &.
The librarians have now awakened to all this,
ana tle STIMULUS Ol Ilc tOh'Chhii y'"h ''N'i''
likely to be more felt by our library system
than by any other specific interest
The Government will soon issue a report on
American libraries. In 1t a score of Our fore
most librarians give their experience and
counsel as to every feature OF library
economy, and by it the stock OF effective
library statistics is virtually doubled. 1t will
be recognized abroad as the most cOmprehen-
sye library volume yet produced, and at home
its influence will be to build up many new
libraries, and TO promote in an unusual degree
the effectiveness of those existent. Its COM
pilation was also the occasion of suggesting
the national, and now international, conference
of Librarians, which will open at Philadelphia
on Wednesday next. Twenty-Five years ago
gathering of the sort was held in this city, but
the field seemed not to be ripe for the present
work, which is the formation of permanent
national association of librarians. Simuta-
neOus with this movement is the establishment
of The american Library Journal, as medium
for the continuous exchange of experience
and suggestions and means OF centerlng CO.
operative work. The many who wonder
what librarians should have to talk about
may be enlightened by the programme
of the conference or the first num-
Der of the new monthly, both of which
present variety of papers from foremost
Librarians. With a cyclopedia, a congress, and
a journal, 1876 should leave the library inter-
est well provided. But the system will not be
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