New-York tribune., 1896-02-03

eve il is tre opinion Of our directors that .neIe
is room for a library like ours and ior sIea a.
free public library also This library Is i,' ,ha ~,
any sense Il mOney-making irsttutioh' All 'i',
income of the library Is used in enlarsiis an"
improving IT, only about two-niths OF ou, M, lti-
come comes from the annual suDscrlDers' lhS
library is managed on a different pan lIoh,
many public libraries. Now long ago asKFu
the librarian Of the public library IN one oi u''
smaller cities how many copies OF pooh ,Ir;" rt.
Marcella for example. he purchaSt L. ti's
answer was one Now in the case O. such a
book We buy not Jess than thirty copies. ana
even then many Of our Subscribers nave 10 M',,
a long time for the chance TO read II. he, III
the matter Of reference ana c"nSuitatlol II theie
were only public library in the city IL WOULD
be n much more difficult busn' ss thah IL is
here Recently = lazy asked me II she might
moi have the privilege of using our relerenc"
department without paying for II. and she ex-
paned that she had beer trying to i"ok up GER
lain thing at The Pratt Library but had be-
come di.courageI because for every book on'
wanted there dozen or hfi'en nahuS were
SIR, fchcd out. on course. explained 10 h"E
that II would b. unfair to our SUBSCRIBERS 10
permit outsiders 10 make use 90 our library ior
not hing That shows. however IN" advantage
Of an institution like this. even il public library
ON y largo scale is established In brooklyn.
as | sinctr rely hope Il VIII he.
\ CENTRAL LIER AIRY \ND MANY BRANCHES.
What would he your id~e in regard to
public library"
II think there ought to be- a central insiiiu-
ton ana then would have branches in various
paris of the city-perhaps IA dozen or more IN
all | do not mean mere delivery stations. such
as our nbrary now has. but real branch
libraries each with "A stock Of 1000 or 1000
books IA reading room, and the like The build
ings Toy the branches need not be expensive but
they would need to be properly constructed ana
equipped with good lighting facilities, ventila-
;ion etc This is what they are doing In Bos-
ton to some extent. and II is the righ. way OF
making a library Of the greatest beneh' 10 the
greatest number. OF course, Il good dcal can
be ACCOMPLISHED by simply having stations at
which orders car br given aEd books delivered.
say twice day. IN Jersey city. am in
formed. more than half the clrc ulation %! the
public library IS secured by such stations ana
many people are enabled to use the library VINO
could not do II they had 10 travel TWO or
three miles in order to exchange their books.
Has there been any idea OF making the
Brooklyn Library free
Well" answered Mr.. Bardwell 'if the di-
rectors were assured Of sufficient income think
they would be glad to do IT, But think or the
changes that would hc necessary In the first
place we should have To have a much larger
staff Of assistants a. pnc". and almost quickly
We should need more room. There Is one eH-
permen' that should like to see tried. II II were
possible. That wouu be the reduction Of the
annual dues from s. To- the nominal sum OF 81.
That the number Of subscribe RS would be largely
increased have little doubt. but there again
the cost of runnin~ the library would b. in
creased. since We should rcqur" many more at
tend,nts"
In closing the in' rview Mr. Bardwel assured
his visitoT that the free library movement would
receive the hcarti"si support and furtherancc
not only from himself but from tho Office and
directors of the Brooklyn Library. even though
il would be impossible for them to turn over
their property 10 the Public Library Association.