Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-03-13

Libraries +" Mr.. Little gave the following:
~ feel dcply the Importance of the sub
ject to which the next 20 minutes are de
voted. A well organized and differed freq
public library should constantly grow in
favor and in influence with its community.
Books are the food for this growth. Moth
ing else can take their place. If these
books are not well selected if they are not
such that the library can digest, assinlilate
and convert SO to speak, into flesh and
muscle, there is not only no increase in
strength, but an added strain and burden
to an organism a: first symmetrical and
we will suppose in good working order
Important as the subject is however, 1t
is, CT course impossible to treat it exhaus-
lively, and / will group what / have to
say under two heads; the difficulties in
cdent to the proper selection and the
methods that may be taken to avoid or
lessen these difficulties.
The first and great difficulty is to de-
eide wisely aud fairly how fac any particu
lar free public lbary is to go in furnish
ing entertaining rs distinct from instruc
tive or educational reading to its patrons
In II word, how much can it spend on
popular novels and Juveniles. Few of us
who are not directly connected with free
libraries in large places can realize the
large amount of money that can be spent
in meeting the demand for such books. !
once heard Judge Chamberlain, when in
charge of the Boston public library, say
that he could increase its circulation by
so, 200, by simply buying a few hundred
copies of Oliver Optic and Horatio Alger S
last books
when the Trilby rage was upon US.
even the smallest library could have used
a half dozen copies, if it sincerely at
tempted to meet the demands of its read
ers. Since Miss Evans published Miss
Beulah" and " st. Elmo" there have APP
peared some of the best novels OF Dickens,
Thackeray and George Eliot. and yet
venture to say that it would cost any pub
lie library three times as much to meet
the demand for books of the former as of
the latter type. In word, popular AMI
sensational novels are of the nature Ct
sweetmeats If IA free library furnishes
| candy, the demand will be large
"A second difficulty lies in avoiding i'm
moral books. Every one agrees that n
public library must not lower the moral
tone of community. Every one agre s
that the public circulation of some books
will lower the moral tone. But no one
agrees as to Just what books will do this
We have all grades Of opinion, from good
old DR.. John Todd on one hand, who
would rule out Sir Walter Scott himself
down to the latest and loudest advocate
of art for arts sake, who protests against
the shutting out Of the most realistic
French novel if only it be written by lola
or some one who has won "A literary repu-
taUion. The difficulty is increased by the
obvious fact that what is food for one per
son may be poison TO another.
"A book, moreover. whose aid Is to ele
vate and improve, may have such marke d
blem!shes in places against good taste, not
to say decency, as to make it problemati-
cal whether these purple blotchos will not
more than neutralize the good to come
from the book itself. For instance,
should on the whole rule out Of public
library on this ground, a book by Dr. Die
Lewis, entitled Chastity, and written
with the best Of motives. But the most
dangerous and at the same time the most
difficult to guard against, are novels writ
ten by authors of high literary standing
and issued by houses of good rcpute, which
UtNCELiltltSs nave E4hiltE StstitCLGu bnEuuSu
them or woven into their texture what
must in plain English be called filth. II
may not be that the words themselves are
coarse, but the thing described is nasty.
You can not touch pitch without being
soled. There are certain descriptions of
vice and sin which are given in such de
tail with such realism that one can not
read aud comprehend them without being
more or less polluted. The danger from
such books is increased when, AS happened
lately, they appear 10 two forms Mr.
Hardy novel of Judo the Obscure came
out as serial In Harper Monthly. Put
lshed as separate book by the same firm,
we find in 1t page after page of objection
able matter to which the editor of I'll e
magazine refused admittance but which
the publishers and author have insistf d
the public libraries should place hefoi e
their patrons. if they buy the novel
THE third and last difficulty which
will mention is that of ascertaining before
purchase which among half dozen new
books on some subject Of general interest
is the best for the library in question
Happy the library rich enough to buy
them all and make trial for itself. Most
of us are compelled to select and our
trouble in deciding lies partly in the num-
| Der of books, partly IN the high character
which. judging from the advertisements
every one of them has In a word, thcl c
are q great many good books that we can
not buy.
In the first place, think that all selcc-
ton of new books for free public library
Should aim at: what, for want of a better
term, I may call symmetry. In. other
words, the solicitors must have a certain
ideal before them. That ideal must
obviously vary with different communi-
ties But it must exist and to degree
control the purchases. In one place it
may call for the expenditure Of half the
income in buying fiction, in another
town it may call for the purchase of books
on the useful arts to an extent at which a
college library would stand absshed. The
point is that the buying must not be
haphazard.
My own experience in library work
leads me to feel more and more strongly
the necessity of the librarians having
some knowlef &c of the scope and charac-
ter of every new book added to his collec-
ton. He cannot, of course, always gain
it from personal examination of the
volume but let him strive to obtain it
| ~ Ia