Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-11-17

At the approachine session Of Congress
the effort will be renewed to secure the
creation Of free public circulating library
and reading rooms for the city OF WASH
ington. The obstacle to success In the past
has not been lack of books. but lack Of
place in which to put the books. A habita-
ton for the library is the need, not the IL
brary itself. Out Of the 10000 volumes in
the departmental libraries, there are be-
tween 1000 and 1000 which are not tech
meal or reference works. adapted exclu-
stvely for the use of the department off,
cials, but are suitable only for a popular
circulating library, and are put by the
clerks to this use. Librarian Spofford
says that there are thousands Of duplicate
copyright books in the library Of Congress
which are available for the purpose Of a
circulating library of the kind described.
Either Of these sources would supply good
nucleus for Washington's public library.
Combine them and an extensive and valua-
BILE collection at once springs into being.
But having secured the books, the problem
is where to house them. A Senate discus
sion developed the fact that the city Of
Washington Is supposed to have the use Of
its so-called City Post Office building only
so far as the ground floor Is concerned,
and that promises had been made which
all the other available space on the eight
floors of the new building. OF course the
natural procedure would be to put Wash
ngton's post office. washington's municipal
government and washington's public Ii
brary in the same building, grouping as far
as possible all the local institutions under
one roof. But assuming that it may be de-
cided that one-eighth of the available space
Of Washington's post office building is
enough for Washington, and that the other
seven-eighths viii be used by Uncle Sam
for his own purposes, the question will
then arise, what place Is attainable for the
public library? The people of Washington
want a library and are not particular about
its location. The approaching completion
of the new building Of the great library Of
Congress suggests the possibility that a
corner may be found there for Washing
tons library. The present library of Con-
gress contains 6S5. 900 books and $4,000 PAM
phlets. The new building, when completed.
will furnish room for 45Oc, 900 books and un-
limited room for pamphlets, so that there Is
a considerable margin of space available
on which to figure The great body of
books in the lib airy of Congress are, of
course. of a character to be studied by stu
dents with leisure, and cannot we'll be
taken from the building. But there is
space in the new structure for two distinct
libraries under different regulations and
with varying purposes. Thousands OF vol
umes of the present collection which have
been standing on the floor in heaps unacces-
sible for lack Of shelf room are now to be
made. available. Why not go a step far
Their and make such of the works as are
suitable available at home as well as In
the library itself and available during
hours which will not prohibit the working
men and the school or college youth from
the easy enjoyment Of these literary treas
ures? 1t would seem that the Washington
Library could be created as intended, and
be given space in the new building without
disturbing in any way the national library
proper. With development Of the Peoples
Library, branches might be established in
different parts of the city to facilitate the
operation OF its circulating feature, the
building on Capitol Hill serving as the GEN.
trail supply station.
There are a million and a quarter of
books in Washington, one-twentieth of the
whole OF the literary treasures of the
United States. But they are practically ac
cessfble only to a small fraction of the city's
population. We have here no adeouate
public circulating library and reading
rooms such as very many European cities
and villages, nearly every little New Eng
land village, and many American cities en-
JOY. Washington's condition Is like the for
mer state of its Scotch neighbor, of which
1t was said: Edinburgh without a free
library of the kind was like a man starving
In the midst Of a granary" Surely the
capitals literary famine will be relieved nv
the coming Congress. II the kind of relief
suggested is not acceptable, some other
should be devised. But the discreditabls
condition pointed out should no longer be
permitted to exist.