How to Form a Library, 2nd ed

by Henry B. Wheatley

In 1868 Mr. Mullins read a paper before a Meeting of the Social Science Association at Birmingham, on the management of Free Libraries, and, in its reprinted form, this has become a Handbook on the subject: "Free Libraries and News-rooms, their Formation and Management. By J.D. Mullins, Chief Librarian, Birmingham Free Libraries. Third edition. London, Sotheran and Co., 1879." An appendix contains copies of the Free Libraries Acts and Amendments, and a "Short List of Books for a Free Lending Library, ranging in price from 1s. to 7s. 6d. per volume."

Mr. Axon read a paper on the Formation of Small Libraries intended for the Co-Operative Congress in 1869, which was reprinted as a pamphlet of eight pages: "Hints on the Formation of Small Libraries intended for Public Use. By Wm. E.A. Axon. London, N. Trübner and Co."

Mr. A.R. Spofford has given a valuable list of books and articles in periodicals, on the subject of Libraries in chapter 36 (Library Bibliography), of the Report on Public Libraries in the U.S. (1876).

The volume of Transactions and Proceedings of the Conference of Librarians, London, 1877, contains two papers on the Selection of Books, one by Mr. Robert Harrison, Librarian of the London Library, and the other by the late Mr. James M. Anderson, Assistant Librarian of the University of St. Andrews. Mr. Harrison gives the following as the three guiding principles of selection in forming a library: 1. Policy; 2. Utility; 3. Special or Local Appropriateness; and he deals with each successively. Mr. Anderson writes that "the selection of books should invariably be made (1) in relation to the library itself, and (2) in relation to those using it."

We have chiefly to do with the formation of libraries, and therefore the use made of them when they are formed cannot well be enlarged upon here, but a passing note may be made on the proposal which has been much discussed of late years, viz. that for Professorships of Books and Reading. The United States Report on Public Libraries contains a chapter on this subject by F.B. Perkins and William Matthews (pp. 230-251), and Mr. Axon also contributed a paper at the First Annual Meeting of the Library Association. The value of such chairs, if well filled, is self-evident, for it takes a man a long time (without teaching) to learn how best to use books, but very special men would be required as Professors. America has done much to show what the duties of such a Professor should be, and Harvard College is specially fortunate in possessing an officer in Mr. Justin Winsor who is both a model librarian and a practical teacher of the art of how best to use the books under his charge.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "The Library Companion, or the Young Man's Guide and the Old Man's Comfort in the Choice of a Library. By the Rev. T.F. Dibdin, F.R.S., A.S., London, 1824."

[2] The Best Reading: Hints on the Selection of Books; on the Formation of Libraries, Public and Private; on Courses of Reading, etc., with a Classified Bibliography for every reference. Fourth revised and enlarged edition, continued to August, 1876, with the addition of Select Lists of the best French, German, Spanish, and Italian Literature. Edited by Frederic Beecher Perkins; New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1881. Second Series, 1876 to 1882, by Lynds E. Jones.

[3] Dr. Richard Garnett read an interesting paper on this book under the title of Librarianship in the Seventeenth Century, before the Library Association. See Library Chronicle, vol. i. p. 1 (1884).