The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-31
LIBRARY READING ROOMS.
characteristics of These Places I'm
Large and Small Towns.
New York Evening Sun.

New York Evening Sun.
The similarity of all reference rooms in
all large libraries is so patent that it posi-
bly, escapes the attention of the library
habitues who enter the leather swing doors
not TO see what is before their eyes, but to
e%lucidate some reconcile point or summon
some obscure document from it's merited
oblivion. Still, in the intervals of leisure,
in which the most erudite of scholars is at
the mercy of the most illiterate of call
boys, one would think that the habitues
could not avoid taking the scene before
them into consideration, and also the fact
that, unaffected by the accidents of time
and place, the scene is repeated indefinitely
along the cultured shore" The first
point held IN common Is the total absence
of air; for this is substituted a solution of
dust and of all the inclement weathers of
the preceding decade. The second is an
arrangement OF light by which the person
consulting the card catalogue inevitably
stands in his own light. The third is the
duplication of the type of habitue.
Any W~el-conducted library should have
grouped about its reference room the fol-
lowing persons. Several teachers, busily
examining from textbooks not used in their
schools interesting items which will give
an effect OF omniscience to their morrow'S
instruction. These are studiously indiffer-
ent TO the presence of a few school children
busily collecting from encyclopedias bases
AOA NoAhPOSilAOliS OA LIE OlOTY Oh the
Seven Edwards" or THE History of Our
Mining Industries or 18th Character of
Jane Austen as Seen in Her Works" Seat
ed close by the desk of the sympathetic
librarian is q clubwoman, whose paper on
The Comparative Positions OF Women in
Guinea and in Hayti' falls due on the fol-
lowing day and whose preparations have
been delayed until the eleventh hour be-
cause her children have been having the
measles and her rooms have been papered.
Now, however, with an index at her elbow
and a pile of magazines opened before her,
she is covering page after page with mar
velous facility. Near by, ambushed behind
monstrous books, is the gray-haired lady
with an affecting air of gentility. whose
profession it is to investigate the genealo-
gies OF those whose interest in ancestral
matters has been suddenly reused from a
slumber of generations. Here and there
are more casual visitants, who at some
former time, under the stress of some par
tlcular theme, have contracted the refer
ence-room habit, and have never been able
10 break entirely loose. In the darkest and
stuffiest corners may be discovered the peo-
pie upon whom the habit has become hope
lessly fixed. Pallid and rumpled, they
crouch over their pages. muttering To
themselves in either major or minor keys
as the text iatters or vexes them.
one or these rooms afforded a young wom-
an such diversion that she chose il for her
literary workshop. But one day a stout
old gentleman came putting UP to her to
demand where he could find a lead pencil
and all the books on the French RevoIntion
E@&N nv was III
spectator but an actor. she gathered to-
gether her fountain pen, notebooks. manu-
script, yellow, pink and blue slips, pencils.
elastic bands, erasers and eyeglasses and
fled the place.
Quite of a different order are the small
town Libraries. There the open door cannot
but introduce a current OF fresh air. even
though internationally: and as card cata-
logues are unknown, there is one cause less
for grumbllng. In these libraries there
Is d legend TO the effect that talking is NOT
allowed, and in Difference to this neonIe
on entering usually address the librarian
seated behind a little open ~swing-door re-
Vealing her head and shOulders-in a sepuI-
chral whisper. But by the time the elah-
crate system is completed by which the
record OF their returned books is kept. they
and the librarian are chatting away i'm their
normal voices upon any topics which the
books could never have suggested Then
comes the deliberate process of selecting
other books. To aid in this. the advice
of all chance omers is solicited. In case
the choice has 10 be made in solitude how
ever, there Is at least the guide of a bOok's
physical condition. If it has once come TO
pieces, and has been rebound in marbled
covers. IL is probably safe. If it is vet stiff
up its spine and bears the stamp of mod
ernity in its fresh manila paper cover II
has not received the village approval and
she is a rash soul who takes il at her
own risk. The librarian looks askance at
such adventurous spirits and makes a dab
at the volume with her rubber stamn as IL
washing her hands of all responsibilitv, As
TO the town library reading room. thar if
properly conducted. is an alcOve leading off
from the delivery desk. and is utilized &c .
meeting place for women going on errands
together; whtle the racks, scantilv fTed
with magazines uncut EXCEPT at rba iIf,s
for bundles while their owners run untown
TO make a few calls" Fancy the seIf-ra-
speeding. progressive town without its Ii
braryi As we'll fancy a Puritan settlement
without It's nearing house