179.
179. It is a hazardous undertaking to lay down any particular rules for the formation of a British municipal library, and especially to state what proportions each class of literature should assume. Equally futile is it to take any figure as the average price which each volume in a library should cost. Although 4s. 5d. has been adopted as an average price, this must only be regarded as a mere basis for a calculation which simply aims at being a suggestion. Practically every public library differs in its needs according to its income and the special industries and character of the people in the town where it is situated.
180.
180. Attempts have been made at various times by different authorities to lay down the proportions of every class of literature which should be represented in public libraries. The following figures are given for what they are worth, and not by any means as a hard and fast guide to be followed:—
Percentages of Classes of Literature
represented in Public Libraries, etc.
| Class | 000 | General Works | 3 |
| 100 | Philosophy | 4 | |
| 200 | Religion | 5 | |
| 300 | Sociology | 7 | |
| 400 | Philology | 4 | |
| 500 | Science | 9 | |
| 600 | Useful Arts | 9 | |
| 700 | Fine and Recreative Arts | 7 | |
| 800 | Literature | 28 | |
| 900 | History | 8 | |
| Biography | 8 | ||
| Travel | 8 | ||
| 100 | |||
There are one or two changes which modern practice will make probable in these percentages, such as increases in the percentages of classes 5-7 and a decrease in class 8. The attention now bestowed upon technical education and the universal provision of music texts will almost inevitably increase these classes at the expense of some other classes.
181.
181. Imaginative literature rightly takes first place in the representation of classes, and when made up of Prose Fiction, Poetry, Music and Painting, accounts for about 33 per cent. of the whole. Although Bacon in his classification of human knowledge places Imagination as represented by Poetry at the end of his scheme, thereby, perhaps, indicating his opinion of its comparative importance, there can be no doubt that as regards popularity, importance and longevity it easily maintains first place in the minds and hearts of a majority of the human race. Whose are the great names in literature? The philosophers, or historians, or scientists? None of these. The story-teller, the song-writer, the singer and the artist completely overshadow all other kinds of literary and scientific genius, and monopolize a foremost position of honour among mankind, because, after all, they are the greatest teachers as well as the most capable entertainers. Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe, Cervantes, Molière, Balzac, Hugo, Scott, Dickens, Fielding, Thackeray, Burns, Byron, Milton, Beethoven, Handel, Wagner, Titian, Raphael, Turner, Rembrandt, and so on in endless variety, are infinitely greater and more treasured names to thousands of human beings than any of the exponents of more formal and exact knowledge. The story-teller and the singer will be remembered long after philosophies, and systems of history and science are as mouldering and forgotten as the ruins of ancient Babylon. The great majority of the people of all nations will much rather sing with the singers than chop logic with the philosophers, and this is at once a reason and justification for imaginative literature occupying the leading place in all public libraries. It has become the fashion for a certain section of librarians, a few public men and a considerable number of newspapers, to lament in doleful accents the popularity and preponderance of fiction reading in all kinds of lending libraries. But surely Fiction, as the most hardy and flourishing form of literary endeavour, which has been built up by the contributions of some of the greatest minds of all nations, cannot be denied its rightful place because certain narrow-minded persons think it fashionable to denounce the whole policy of public libraries? Whether they choose to do so or not matters very little, since it is quite evident that imaginative literature is going to survive, whatever happens, as it has done with extraordinary strength and vitality, through ages of change and destruction; while philosophical, political and social systems have appeared and disappeared in endless procession. This is a reason why imaginative literature should occupy a foremost place in public libraries, and the theory of the survival of the fittest is amply proved by the vitality of prose fiction, poetry and music, which entitles them to receive the attention due to their importance in the regard of mankind.