The sun., 1919-04-20
CIR Tihrarian's Gnritrr
CONDUCTED BY
FRANK PARKER STOCKBRIDGE.
WHAT IS A LIBRARY?

L that, because its trustees happen to be broad
minded men and women with sense enough to pick
the right sort of librarian and then let him alone,
has become the centre and clearing house Of infor
nation on every conceivable subject for the people
of the whole city. Business men telephone to the
library to find out where they can get information
as to how to pack hardware for shipment to Peru
Lawyers call up for information about the consti
buttons and statutes Of other States Even such
inquiries as railroad train schedules are not in
frequent, so complete is the reliance Of the people
Of the community upon the ibrary's ability to
answer any question, whether it is to be found i'll
books or not. Of course the librarian does not
know the answer to all the questions asked but he
or his assistants usually direct the inquirer
TO the proper place to obtain the information sought
Through such service this library has become some
thing more than mere handsome building of stone
to be pointed out to visitors in tho same admirng
way that the new court house and county Jail are
Indicated .... .. p. t
Museum, Theatre Anything!
b I know another public library that has become a
museum Of the fine arts the best museum in its
community. In its galleries are splendid paintings
and beautiful statuary; its loan exhibitions draw
crowds. People who visit the city in which this
library is frequently comment on the architectural
attractiveness Of the dwellings therein and upon the
high average level Of taste displayed in their fur
nshing and decorations the residents attribute this
to the influence of the library
know another public library which has an
auditorium that will seat perhaps thousand peo-
pie, where illustrated lectures, motion picture
hlbltons of the higher type, gatherings of the
people for the discussion of community problems are
held. This library, too, is living vital factor in
the affairs of its community.
Here is library that lends monograph records
and perforated music rolls; here is another that
every day, in its children room, has an intelligent
and sympathetic young woman read pretty stories
aloud to the little ones here is another library that
lends picture puzzles.
All of these and many other forms of activity
that have little or nothing to do with books and
reading practised by many libraries in different
parts of the country. And because most people
judge any institution by its most obvious and
superficial characteristics and manifestations many
people-perhaps most people-in the towns where
the libraries do these things think Of the books in
the library of secondary interest, if they think Of
the books at all
But-Books First.
The problem of the librarian is more complex
than that Of any other public servant. and some
times it if. in the effort to solve that part
of the problem which has to do with getting people
interested in the library institution the more
vital problem that Of getting them interested in
books and reading were overlooked. For it is the
books, after ALL that make library something more
than an information bureau motion picture
theatre community centre or an art museum
And nobody gets the fullest measure of value from
the public library by any other means than by
reading the books which it contains 1t is poor
library, indeed, that does not contain books which
cannot find anywhere else; and after all is said
and done, all the current fiction and the uptodate
helpful vocational books and the rest Of them
have been got into circulation, the most important
of the library's functions has not been performed
unless from year to year there is a growth in the
number Of those who come to it for the real books
the volumes in which men and women have revealed
themselves and set down their inmost thoughts,
consciously unconsciously, and through the
persual of which the reader can as by no other
means, gain balanced sense of the possibilities and
the limitations of humanity and life.
1t is a narrow conception Of the public library