4 A state central authority.—Establish a state library commission; appointments on this commission to be made by the governor and confirmed by the senate, one each year for a term of five years. Make the commission the head of the public library system of the state with supervisory powers. Let the commission [manage the state library entirely, and center all its work at that institution.] Let it be the duty of the commission, whenever it is asked, to give advice and instruction in organization and administration to the libraries in the state; to receive reports from these libraries and to publish an annual report; to manage the distribution of state aid, and to manage a system of traveling libraries.
Note.—Within a few years each of several states has provided for a state library commission, to be in some sense the head of the public library system of the state, as the state board of education is the head of the public school system of the state. By having small traveling libraries of 50 or 100v. each, to lend for a few months to localities that have no libraries, and by having a little state aid to distribute wisely, the state library commission is able to encourage communities to do more for themselves in a library way than they otherwise would. There may be cases where the work of the commission might better be centered at the state university library. The state library commission has proved to be a useful agency wherever tried, and the plan seems likely to spread throughout the country. In Wyoming the income from 30,000 acres of state land forms a library fund. It would seem probable that other states will adopt this plan. By far the most complete and successful state system that has yet been organized is that of New York, where all centers in the state library at Albany as headquarters.
Reading matter on library legislation
The report of the United States commissioner of education for 1895-96 contains a compilation of the library laws of all the states. Every year new laws and amendments are enacted in several of the states, and the advance is very marked. The laws of New York, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Illinois are among the best.
The three most essential things to be provided for in a good state library law are:
1 A sure and steady revenue.
2 Careful and consecutive management.
3 A central library authority.
In attempting to alter or make new laws, these essentials should be kept clearly in mind, but special conditions peculiar to each state dictate modifications of any general plan. Anyone interested in the matter could read the general articles upon the subject and the various state laws, and then, with the assistance of the best legal talent to be obtained, frame an act appropriate to the conditions of his state.