Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-08-30
THE NEEDS OF THE PUBLIC
LIBRARY. "

Editor Honolulu Star-Bulletin. -.
Sir: Two thousand miles from
mainland book stores and 5000 miles
from a big publishing center. so that
| Il takes six weeks 10 place book or
der, Honolulu is in pressing need OF
such engagements of its library as
viii make il satisfactory place Tor
reference work and give it fairly
complete stock of literature OF all
kinds H.:
The library CT Hawaii has been un-
der the new regime for only two
years and under the direction CT a
capable force it is making long steps
in the right direction, but it cannot
reach a reputable standard soon
enough unless it receives large ap-
preparation with which to lay in a
stock OF sorely needed volumes The
government should vote a large sum
to be at once invested according. to
the direction of the library's book
committee. IT,: :s..
Owing to the .nadequacy of the pre-
sent stock anyone in this city attempt
ing the most elementary research will
find himself working under great
handicap for the simple reason that
he has access to no primary sources.
To send to the mainland for books is
a process at once slow and expensive
and requires a deal of foresight and a
very elastic pocketbook, yet the tax
payers of Honolulu have been reduced
by the inefficiency of the territorial
library to the necessity of building UP
their private book collections and Oft
en- to the purchase of books of the
most temporary value.
At a period when most people think
in quotation marks and try to con-
dense the wcrld into bookcase rath-
er than go out to learn of it for
themselves, the importance of excel
lent libraries cannot be oyerestimated
in any place, but in the case of Ha-
wall its isolation renders such a need
At the present time the Library of
Hawaii has reached the same rank as
the town library OF some interior vii.
lage in the states. 1t has an excellent
range of reading material of a gener-
al nature. 1t can furnish great deal
OF amusing printed matter, but very
little that will encourage serious study
or stimulate thought. This Is partly
attributed to the TACT that 1t has not
yet recovered from the time when it
was subscription library; partly to.
the fact that the demands of the rank
and file of the reading public are
catered to. In a word, the library is
IN danger of being built up according
to the desires of children and @tlred
businessmen" ,.,. i, g.
BY all means let the children have
heir fairy tales and Their .romances,
their Sinbad, the Uncas and their
Long John Silver, and all tile other
1esperadoes who ever stalked Through |
he glorious pages of Stevenson or
he Arabian Nights; but the tired |
businessman" and his equally tired /
wife come under a different category
Let the man who has exhausted his |
for thought by sqhabblng !
,yer phone or yelling at stenogra.
)her, and his wife, who is equally |
yearied by balancing a teacup the /
while she registers epigrams on her
leighbor,s gowns, buy their own books
t is crime for a public institution
o furnish them free material for their
Intellectual debauches. Those who
,elieve the sins of intemperance are
confined to such abuse of the body as
in LIQUOR are pit
bly, mistaken. There are mental in
far more injurious, and I
me who values the health of the mind
IS well as the health of the stomach |
will esteem people who habitually In
lulge in R. w. Chambers or the es-
eemed Gouverneur Morris to be bet
er than drunkards. Unfortunately
he moral standards seem to be per-
ectly filled by people with clean
tomachs and empty heads, and there
5 no condemnation due for those who
cad authors who at their best can do
10 more than produce miserable carl
atures Of human nature and at their
worst fill the mind of the reader with
ilthy insinuation. -. ::.s.-
But in spite of these facts the wish /
s of the tired businessman and wife"
argely determine the nature of the
looks which are kept in the library.
! few statistics prove this eloauently. /
The volumes of philosophy purchas-
d in the last year were "a, of religion /
0. of literature lunder which anoma-
Gus title are gathered poetry and
rama and kindred works, in other
words the finest products of mans
319, but of fiction no
ess than 1925, a remarkable record
indeed. ~" -. j.. .ari. .>-'.*E
And even in fiction there are fur
her interesting facts to note. We |.
iscover with surprise some Is vol
mes of the esteemed R. w. Cham
ers. while the brilliant Theophile
Iantier is accorded two volumes of |