The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-07-30
coNNEcTrcUTs FREE LIBRARIES.

New Britain Wants a Library Building.
 July 29.-The number of public libra ries in Connecticut is increasing and
 many are joining the state library sys-
 tenn, which affords an annual appropri- ation from the state. The most recent
 ly organized free public library is that
 of New Fairfield, a town which has a
 population of six hundred and seventy
 The town at a recent meeting appropri-
 ated sixty dollars for the equipment of
 a building, and made an application to c. D. Hine, chairman of the Connecti-
 cut library committee, for similar sum. MT. Hine will start the library with about one hundred and twenty
 five books and the town and state will
 allow fifty dollars a year each for it's
 maintenance. The town of Stratford has also come under the state library system. This town has appropriated eight hundred dollars year for it's free library and it will receive one hundred dollars annually from the state. Strat- ford has one of the finest library build- ings in the state and is also equipped
 with valuable assortment of books.
 Professor Camp of the New Britain h. stitute paid a, visit to the Stratford Li- brary building this week, with view to obtaining an idea of the kind of build- ing wanted in this city. The total
 number of free public libraries now un- der the state system Is forty-one. The town of ndover the smallest in the state, and the town of Union, the sec
 ond smallest have free libraries. Since the state law went into effect in July, 1893, the state has paid out six thou sand dollars and the towns a like amount, and over seven thousand books
 have been bought by the state. Appli- cations have come in quite rapidly dur ing the past year and as conse- queuce, Chairman Hine of the library
 committee predicts that the state will
 shortly be paying out ten thousand dol- lars a year to free public libraries The total number of subscription libraries in the state, including the New Britain Institute, is fifty, and the total number of free public libraries, seventy-six MT. Hine is an enthusiast in the matter of absolutely free libraries, and he re- gards their constant growth, both in size and number, as @ healthy indica- | tion of a progressive and growing edu- cational sentiment throughout the state. He says that the number of | book-takers from the free public library
 exceed the private library by six to one
 In most of the smaller towns the free
 public library has become almost as i'm
 portant a feature as the school Its
 success has been beyond the expects- | tions of its founders, and its patronage
 has been ever increasing. More reading
 is being done by a larger class of peo-
 pie than would otherwise have been the
 case, and the books are of the very best
 character In selecting books for the
 smaller libraries, Mir. Hine chooses g
 sufficient variety of those works that
 are more generally needed and that vii
 be most widely read. The reports from
 many of the recently instituted libra
 ries are encouraging, and show that the | people are not only approaching the
 value of the library, but that they arg
 also contributing books and money to. wards its building up.