The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21

merchants and postmasters are generally selected to conduct the branch libraries, as their establishments are most central
 ly located and most frequently visited.
 The collections of books in their charge
 range from 100 to l50, although if this is
 not a sufficient number additional vol 1 umes will be sent on request. Four times | a year, or oftener the branch librarian boxes up the books for which he is re- | sponsible and returns them to the central 1 repository, receiving at once another col l lection.
 l The books thus forwarded are not the
 arbitrary hit-or-miss selection of the head 1 librarian, but conform to the desires Of l the local readers, as ascertained at the 1 branch itself Before any books are sent
 out the branch librarian receives a list 1 of the titles in every available travelling l collection. Each title is accompanied with a note explaining the character and con l tents of the books listed. The users of l the branch library then discusses these | lists, and the box of books which con tains the greatest number of works that | interest sthe greatest number of readers l is the box called for. If the contents of no one box prove interesting to the neigh borhood, the main library will make up d special selection upon request. In this way the rural book lover can obtain prac- tically any work he desires, for which there is an appreciable call.
 The kind of books read by the country people of Van Vert county are of an unusually high character. One represen- tative box contains a hundred works, dealing with such varied subjects as phi losophy, religion, sociology, language, science, the useful and fine arts, literature travel biography, history, and fiction Books for young people comprise about | ohe-fourth the entire list. Although these 1 books are selected for the use of farming communities exclusively, there is not d single entry on practical agriculture, as | it has been found that theer is no call for 1 this kind of reading. The fact that coun- | try folk apparently do not care to borrow l library books dealing with their own oc- cupation, may or may not be due to a l feeling .hae these are works which they would do better to buy outright, subject l to an extended and painstaking study, and
 retain for reference purposes.
 ] A most valuable feature of the Brum- 1 back Librarys work is the establishment | of loan collections for use in schools.
 These school libraries will be sent to any
 teacher who asks for them, the selection
 being made by the teacher or by the li- | brarian, as the borrower prefers. AL
 though this school library department is cnly about four years old, it has grown so rapidly that today all but about 10 of 1 the 125 country school teachers in Van l
 The selections wrich teachers may draw
 out for school use are as large as desired. | Usually as many books are taken as there are children in the room. These school
 sets are exchanged sometimes twice a month, out usually once a term, the inter- val being fixed by the teacher.
 In this way books dealing with his
 tory, geography and biography have been
 made popular subjects of reading among the school children of Van Vert county
 Nature studies and easy scientific. books
 are also in demand, while fairy tales,
 myths and legends provide the child with
 an enjoyable introduction to literature
 Occasionally members of school boards
 object to the introduction of library sets into the schools, on the ground that the children should give all their time to text
 books and the study of the three Rs
 However it is the experience of number
 of teachers that this supplementary
 reading las resulted in better school
 room disciples and an increased interes, in such subjects as geography and United States history.
 The work of the school library depart
 ment of the Brumback library is now broadening in an unexpected direction
 for the parents of school children are these loan collections as well as from the
 formally constituted branch libraries Thus Van Vert county provides that the
 whole world of books is brought to the
 very doorsteps of the remotest farm. l stead in it's borders by clearing house
 system of libraries which Commissioner Claxtons wishes to see in equally success.
 full operation throughout the United
 States.