Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-22
LISTEN TO. ADDRESSES
MEMBERS OF LIBRARY AsSoCIA-
TON HOLD MEETING.
Libraries in the Old World Discussed
Election of Officers for En-
suingaYear.

The last regular meeting of the District
OF Columbia LibrarN Association for the
year 1894 was heidi last evening in the
lecture room OF the Carnegie Public III
brarv. Addresses were delivered by DR..
AInsworth r. Spofford. assistant Librarian
of Congress. and DR.. Ernest &. Rlchard-
sen. president of the American Library
Association. The opening hour of the meet
ing was consumed with the consideration OF
routine business followed by ballotinS for
officers for the year 1905.
DR.. Spofford was introduced by the pre-
siding officer and spoke upon Some Obser-
vations in Spanish and Italian Libraries
He gave "reminiscences of his tour to the
Mediterranean and cited interesting expert
eBces of his visits to about twenty OF the
leading libraries in Europe.
After prefacing his remarks with the
statement that he found Spanish as well
as Italian libraries rich in the lore OF an
tiuuity. but NOSE of them poor in modern
science and literature. he went into de-
tail as to their scope and character III
braries must be judged. he said. by me
quality and not the quantity of their books.
In the library of ST. Marks. Venice, l was
surprised to find that only 10000 volumes
OUT of its total of 400 go had been used by
readers in an entire year. This was only
~. per cent of the whole number of books
as against 30 per cent of the 1,190,000 vol
uEieS IN the Library or congress.
From the National Library of Spain only
one-twelfth as many books We're used as
from the Library of Congress.
Not Reading People.
The conclusion is therefore inevitable, he
said, that the oldest nations of Europe, in
spite of their heritage of centuries of learn
ing, not reading people, while the
American people, whatever may be their
q q
of them DR.. Spofford was shown the pub
lie library at Barcelona, the most extensive
library of historical manuscripts in all Eu-
rope. The building contains J. 100000 docu-
ments. 1t was the only library he visited,
he said, in which the volumes were bound
uniformly. In the older libraries of Europe
this method of binding is quite general.
DIR. Spofford also spoke of the National LII
brary of Rome, which contains largely the
libraries of monastic institutions whose
books were transferred to Rome when the
government of United Italy took the place
of the temporal power of the papacy. He
dwelt at some length upon the richness of
books manuscripts, as well as the vast
wealth in arts and ornaments of gold and
silver which are treasured there, represent
ing innumera BILE tokens to the pOpes from
the crowned heads of Europe for ages past
1t seemed that the choicest treasures of the
continent had been poured into this place.
DR.. f. c. Richardson discussed briefly
upon the theme ''rraveling Students versus
Travelling Books" DR.. Richardson touched
upon the difficulty which INSTRUCTED the
path of the researcher in this country, COM
pairing the high postal rates for book trans
portation with the much more reasonable
parcelspost rates on the continent.
Mr.. Herbert Putnam, lbrarian-.of Con-
gress and former president of the Public
Library Association, was introduced to the
audience by the president and discussed the
two papers presented. He cited the Lodge
and Lawrence bills now in Congress- which,
he said, if enacted into a law will make a
uniform postage rate on books, thus great
ly helping 70 remove obstacles in the scheme
OF .,tle travelling OF hooks,