The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-19
TABARD IN SYSTEM
CIRCULATING LIBRARY SCHEME
WILL DE INAUGURATED
BY GEORGIA HISTORICAL
1890 OF LATEST BOOKS WILL BE
AVAILABLE EACH YEAR

AVAILABLE EACH YEAR
system VIII lie Instituted at once.
Meets Favor of Library Commit
tee-WilI Entail No Additional Ex-
pense to Members of the Society.
VIII Have Choice of 125 New Books
Monthly From n Large Catalogue.
Plan Has Been Endorsed and sub
scrIbed To by Many of Leading
Libraries.
Within a short while the Tabard
Inn Library system will be inaugurat-
ed at the Georgia Historical Society.
The Library Committee, which has had
the project under advisement, has ar
rived at a favorable decision, and the
scheme will become operative next
month, after the annual meeting of the
society on Feb. IL.
The institution OF the system means
that during each year the society will
receive 1900 of the newest and most
popular books of It's own selection from
a large catalogue. The library will
make no extra charge to its members
for these books, which will be placed
on the same footing as the other books
in the library, except that the time
for which they are loaned is limited to
one week.
The Inauguration OF the system will
free the society OF the embarrassment
OF purchasing books to supply tenn
porary demand, and will save the
library considerable expense, besides
providing better service. BY the sys-
tenn the society will be enabled to Sc
cure a sufficient number OF such books
as IL does not desire to acquire per-
manent possession of. but which are
much needed during the period of their
popularity.
Demand for Books.
Each year IL has been the rule OF the
society to expend a certain fund for
such books as are needed i'm the
| library The increasing demand for
the modern novel has necessitated the
expenditure of considerable sum for
| books, which, though possessing merit.
| nave but transient popularity, and
the permanent possession of which is
not so much desired as are books of
another character. BY the Institution
OF the Tabard Inn system, the society
| expects to be able to spend this fund
for such books, only. as are desired
permanentiySreservin portion of the
fund to meet the rental price of the
| system.
Seventy-five per cent. of the pa
irons or the society are novel readers.
Al any rate, of the reading done, that
per cent. is confined almost entirely to
novels. The call for the popular novel
mas become SO great that the society
has often been obliged to secure half
a dozen, or more, copies of a single
work. This same book, a year later,
was seldom called for, and was much
less valuable than numerous other vol
umes which might have been bought
with the fund; and yet the society is
In possession of six such volumes.
The Call for Fiction.
The desire for the latter day novel
increases each year. The Board of
Managers and the Library Committee
have for some time felt the need of
just such service as the new sys-
tenn is intended to supply; and the
members of both boarus are heartily
in favor of the institution of the
Tabard Inn system. 1t has been in
augurated I'm many of the principal
libraries of the country and has prov
EN- successful and popular.
The Tabard Inn Library is an out
growth of the Book Lovers Library.
BY a fixed rental the society receives
the service for a year. 1t Is allowed
10 select l25 books each month from
catalogue which contains all of the
most popular books of the day. The
rental includes transportation both
ways. The society does not become
the owner of the books, but at the end
OF the month orders news books and
returns the old ones, the scheme being
that OF circulating library.
Plan of the Tabard Inn.
Mr.. William Harden, secretary of
the society, has been in correspondence
with the company at Philadelphia, rel
alive to certain features of the sys-
tenn He has found that the society
Will be permitted to retain a book
longer than a month should 1t so de-
sire, the books SO held being counted
as one of the number which is for
warded the following month The So
ciety Will be saved the expense of
cataloguing the books as they arrive.
and at the end of the service will be
relieved of the books.
The result will be that the society
viii have q large library OF current
literature all Of the time, and that the
addition made to the shelves will, in
the future be mainly books of anoth-
er character, though, of course, there
will be a large number of the best
novels purchased still.
feature of the system, which may
or may not be put in operation by
the society, as 1t chooses, is an ar
rangement whereby any one may
draw a book from the library, carry
1t away on his travels, exchange IL
In any of the many towns and cities
where the system is in vogue, and re-
turn the one SO obtained to the library
here, instead of the one originally
drawn, paying five cents for the ex-
change In other cities. The system
has become so popular that many of
its patrons are urging its extension so
as to provide 5000 books a year in
stead of 1000.