Putnam patriot., 1919-03-21
OUR PITRI,IC
 LIBRARY
To the Editor of The Patriot:

fire department have been smoothed
 over and harmony once more pre-
 calls; and in as much as we now have
 a chief of police, and that department
 of the municipal government has re-
 tired from the spot light of activity
 is it not prpoer to turn the attention
 to other branches of the city. and in quire into the running of some of
 these? And one of the things that
 offers a problem is the Putnam Pub
 lie Library. l do not believe in crit
 icising just for the sake of stirring things up and making criticism. But do believe in honest and construct
 i've criticism.
 There are two matters in connec- tion with the Putnam Library that should be given consideration. The first of these is the purchasing of the books for circulation; and the second is the placing of these books into cir culation.
 A careful observer will notice that a "queer" and unusual lot of books are finding their way onto the shelves of late-for which, of course, public 1 funds have paid the bills, except those coming as gifts from the state During the past year more books have been added to the library than during any previous year in the library's his. | tory. And many of these have been in the non-fiction line. These have been books on trading, manufaetur- ing, banking. etiquette, farming, ad infnitum And of special mention should be the works, profound and deep, on psycho-analysis, life after death and spiritualism, which are ap- bearing in abundance, The objection able thing about the addition of so many books of this latter nature is, that consultation of the library rec ords shows that the greater part of them have never been removed from I,the library by readers, and that there is scarcely any call for such works. And yet as the months roll by the sup ply of spiritualistic books grows steadily.
 In as much as there is. no circula- tion for this type of reading, and no demand for it by the reading public, is it not eNtravagant to keep stocking the library with such books? The very limited call for such reading matter I understand can be met by borrowing from city libraries, that are always willing to cooperate in providing books of limited circulation to smaller libraries.
 This leads to the question: Who buys the books for the Putnam Public Library? Formerly anyone could give suggestions to the librarian, who I would see that such suggestions | reached the library board. Teachers of our public schools were asked to make up lists of desirable books ] fiction and non-fiction. The librarian herself offered helpful suggestions. And who is in a better position to know what the public likes than the 1 librarian? But this is no longer done. Undoubtedly the library board would gladly receive sugges- tions for books to purchase-but there is no urgent soliciting done at present As result, as far as can be determined the buying of books l for the Putnam library rests in the hands of one man-who alone uses his discretion in compiling the lists of books to be purchased, and which the board subsequently endorses.
 l But what is more regrettable IS that when the newly purchased books arrive in Putnam, they are placed di- rectly into circulation, and do not re- ceive a preliminary reading. This IS unwise Recently a number of books have been discovered by mature readers that were deemed by them as unfit for public reading, and books which no thoughtful mother would all low in the hands of her sons or daughters. When such books are dis covered they are speedily destroyed but they have been paid for, and the public pockets the losses.
 There are plenty of clean books, and these should be on the shelves there is absolutely no excuse for one l, improper book to be there. They l should be eliminated before being put l into circulation. and not after. 1 There is also much to be said about | the purchasing of non-fiction books. I Many of those now being bought are 1 never taken out by readers, which would indicate that they are not the l type of book being demanded by Put nam readers. Such non-fction books | should be selected with as much care as the novels, and also should be giv- en a preliminary reading before add ing to the library.
 l I have tried to be fair in the above criticism. l have presented the facts | as believe them to be true. If there