The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-07-10
THE LIBRARY and
THE COMMUNITY
Continued from Page Nine. }

should give the teacher the confidence
| Of resting back upon an extensive col
lection instead of relying upon single
textbook. The cultural side of the
child IS reading should also be accom-,
| modated. Such provision means lib
| eral per cent of children s books, espe,
cially in the departments of fiction,
| legend, travel, biography and popular
science. Beyond this the demand of
the school would seem to be for well
rounded collection, with whatever en-
phasis exists resting on the reference
section. The needs of the school out
lined, the library may well begin to
define its responsibility to the commu-
nifty. Comparison with the purposes Of
| other local institutions suggests itself
as part of the process of elimination.
The Honolulu Library and Reading
Room Association has taken the place
largely of public library Its quarters
|, have been open to the public. Its funds
have gone to supply collection cover
ing a broad range of subjects in an
swer to the desires of a miscellaneous
clientele. While it seeks to offer some
| thing in all fields of knowledge, it has
no doubt given large share of atten-
! L1ou 10 ll&Ht lItSIdtulC anu nCOIOA' II
case of consolidation with the proposed
public library its position will be altered
little. Possibly some of the methods
of city systems on the mainland will
come within its practise. But it will
still be general library, not special
izing in any department. AS for other
institutions, each has its field. The
| Federal experiment station will no
doubt build up as thorough an agrieul-
| tural library as the territory will re-
quire. The bureau of forestry will take
| care of horticulture, while the College
of Hawaii and the Bishop Museum will
always be strong on general scientific
and technical works. The College of
Hawaii, moreover, has been made a
depository for government documents.
From certain spheres, therefore, we
are excluded. There is no call for ours
to be general, document or a seien,
tife library. What remains2 It would
seem that in no way could Cooke
library more helpfully serve the com
munity than by building up an efficient
reference. collection in the fields that
remain to it. By the term reference
arr meant on the one hand such books
as serve the student in his serious
work, whether in pursuance of class
room assignments, in preparing for de.
bate, or independent investigation; and
such books as satisfy the casual user
in following the suggestions of his read,
ing, in solving perplexing question,
or in answering an occasional but press
| ing need of information On the other
| hand the term reference implies some
thing as to the nature of the books in
question. For the most part they are
classed as reference books because they
are unsuited for circulation by reason
| of great size, high value, or constant
| use in the library. They include bibli-
ographies and guides to study, dietion
aries, encyclopedias, concordanees, year
| books. compilations of statistics, collee-
| lions of pictures and music, exhaustive
and expensive treatises on any subject.
Above all should be mentioned sets of
| bound magazines. The material con.
| tanned in these last constitutes a fund
| of limitless wealth--wealth which is
| available the moment it reaches the
library. No days and years of painful
challenging need be spent on this, for
| it has been eatalogued to order by the
| great indexes to periodicals. 1t is
| worth much, for example, to satisfy
| at stroke the needs of club woman
who is called upon to write a paper
/ upon the coinage of Afghanistan; to
| furnish material for a commencement
theme by tracing in contemporary
magazine articles the history of aerial
navigation-a subject which has prob
| ably not yet been treated in historical
form; to supply to the debater of a
| fiscal question Clay's speech on the
removal of deposits; TO have ready for
| the plantation manager a description of
early methods of expelling molasses and
syrup from sugar. to furnish a distract,
i ed editor timely illustrations of Madras
when a calamity or an uprising focuses
| public attention on that city, to pro-
| vide legislator the latest material on
| the status of commission government.
Nowhere ear a large subject be ap'
preached from as many sides as in the
periodicals. Nowhere can an obscure
point be sought with so great prospect
of success. The purpose, Of course
| would not be to restrict a reference
collection to magazines. Is felt, how
ever, that this feature deserves men
ton, and that emphasis on the value
of the material contained in it helpi
to define the reference field generally
Cooke library should have policy
Its duty to the school points to tn
liberal purchase of class room aids ant
an even more extensive requirement o
suitable ehildren's reading It's deb
to the Territory may well be the es
Enlistment of reference hbrar,,
which, so far as its scope reaches, shall
be the final resource of our citizens
Such a direction of its effort woul
mean a maximum of attention TO tina
which is most worthy of preserving
Froude has said; mot ali things al
worth relating, or all historical figure
= worth preserving; but some things an
some persons deserve to be commemo
ated eternally. Narratives of admirab
deeds, faithfully told by loyal an
honest men, are the true jewels of hi
tory, the diamonds in the gener
gravel heap. We can leave the gray
where it lies, sIts1ng the gems fro
the middle of it. The base and me;
may be forgotten; the good and t
n beautiful alone deserve to surviy
:. Each age viii have its creeds and
PHILOSOPHERS. despising all that we
before, and in it's turn to be despls
by the next. cage age will have
political panaceas for all human IL