The sun., 1919-07-20
CIR Eihrarians Unrnpr
CONDUCTED BY
FRANK PARKER STOCKBRIDGE.
TAKING TOO MUCH FOR GRANTED.


under the sun there is lot of work to be done by
writers and publishers in setting down on paper
and putting into print the vast volume of human
knowledge that is not yet recorded anywhere, or
that can be found only in such obscure and I'M
catalogued places that it might as well be nom
existent 49,.
In the big city libraries this sort Of information
is the object of special solcitude and painstaking
research and indexing the part of considerable
staff of library workers; some libraries, like the
one at Newark, seem able to answer any question
almost at a moments notice. The best even John
Cotton Dana can do, however, is to be prepared to
furnish the sort of information the inhabitants of
Newark might be expected to want when the
library happens to be in small city or a rural
village and has visible means of support but the
dog taxes, which provide the funds for the MAIN
tenance of Massachusetts, small town libraries it is
humanity and financially impossible to do that
Provineialisrn.
What the world needs Mr.. Dana said to me
one afternoon not long ago, 'is to have all OF its
elementary knowledge collected, classified and in
dexed' Once this was done, any library, however
small might be able to supply such information as
its patrons desired. At present however, there are
two obstacles in the paths of those who would find
libraries.
One of these is the unimaginative provincial
mind of many rural librarian. 1t never occurs to
the average country person that there is any one so
ignorant as not to know the fundamental things
about country life. Walter Pritchard Eaton, who
has been telling some truths about country libraries
in the Unpopular RevieW, wanted to plant blue
berries on some waste land Oh his Berkshire estate.
TO YNlo
that every one did not already know all about blue
berries anyway--had never occurred to the libra
rian. so though Government bulletins on blueberries
could have been had for the asking the library
didn have them
As often as NOT however, information which the
uniformed person needs simply doesn't exist in
print. Not very far from Mr.. Eaton's, the
west slope of the Berkshire Hills the writer has
sought in vain for information to how to keep
cider sweet The local library is not at fault; so
far can be asccrtaned there is book, pamphlet
or bulletin that contains this useful bit Of knowl-
edge, though every available publication of Fed
cral and State Agricultural departments has been
corrallnd and diligently scanned There seems to
be alternative for the would-be presser Of cider
but to bottle it with warning label to the effect
that it is likely at any time to become highly ntoxi-
cating-a procedure which a cynical friend sug-
gests might stimulate its sale!
Things Every One Knows?
The trouble here, as with so much other elemen-
tary knowledge, is that it is so elementary that
the experts who write on the general theme assume
the reader must already have it. Every physician
has taken the Hippocratic oath receiving his
degree, but half days search with medical
friend through the excellent library of the New
York Academy Of Medicine failed to disclose the
text of this ancient and splendid code of ethics.
The United States Public Health Service recently
published bulletin on sewage disposal that began
with the assumption that every one reading it al
ready knew all about the ordinary forms of septic
tanks. One reader at least, was as ignorant after
he had read it as when he opened it's pages; it was
not until he got hold of the catalogue of Chicago
mail order house that he really grasped the prin-
ciple of the septic tank sufficiently to enable him
to understand the Government s Instructions.
Not all Government publications, however, have
this fault The painstaking simplicity and concise
lucidity of the Farmers Bulletins and other popu-