426.

426. When we come to consider the printed records of any locality, we are surprised at their extent. These, again, can be set out in a brief tabular form:

These headings cover a wide area, but the presence of every form of material named is desirable in the local collection.

427.

427. For the purposes of the local collection an author may be defined as 1, a writer who is born, and educated in whole or part, in a town, or whose family is indigenous in it; 2, residents of some years’ standing or whose works reflect the locality; 3, authors of utterances or writings made in, or upon, or addressed to the locality; 4, public men, officials, etc.; 5, any minister, public speaker, etc., who holds office or meetings in the town; 6, all local bodies, public or private—the municipality, churches, societies, clubs, etc.; and 7, all local tradesmen—catalogues, etc.

It is a prime duty of every public library to collect locally printed books; the lacunæ in our national bibliography have been lamentable in the past in regard to locally and privately printed books, owing to the lack of such collecting, and they are not likely to decrease if this duty is not vigorously undertaken by the librarian of to-day. The search must be specially eager for the privately issued volume, but however limited the author intends his circulation to be, he is usually quite persuadable as far as a copy for the local collection goes. Local newspapers, it is obvious, are material of cardinal value. Every one of them must be collected, bound, and to some extent indexed. And similar if somewhat lesser value attaches to every periodical whatsoever—be it the issue of a sect, school, institution, trader, party, club, or any other body—published in the town. It is a curious fact that few libraries possess, for instance, sets of the various church magazines. These are, usually, of course, made up of a London-published religious periodical inset in sheets dealing with the particular church that distributes them. The inset may be discarded, but the local part should certainly be collected from every such periodical issued locally. Few records are more important than this.

The local collection must certainly include all local acts, bye-laws, orders in Council that have a local bearing. It is remarkable how many of these there are for even supposedly insignificant areas.

Novels and other imaginative literature, which have a local setting, come clearly into the collection. It is a curious fact that the modern novel of this character is frequently missed. It seems all the more important to collect it when we know that the average “selling life” of a six-shilling novel is about six weeks, and its public life quite often not much longer. Only the local library can—or ought—to save much of this fiction and imaginative writing.

References to the district in outside newspapers and periodicals should always be kept. Even when they are founded on the material in the local newspapers they are usually coloured by the outside view, or are in better perspective than the local writer can bring to bear upon whatever is under discussion.