In our own library we have letters and requests from farmers; we preserve the records of their institutes and granges. One who had only half an hour a day to read asked for a volume of Jefferson, Shakespeare, or a good book on chiggers. If he could find out how to get rid of the chiggers, I would prefer that book to Jefferson, whose apotheosis is sadly overworked. That farmer's request was not so fascinating as that of a teacher who wanted a book on "the history of the human people." This is a sample of Indiana readers. Indiana, the home of authors! (I want to express my opinion in parenthesis here, that this Indiana literature talk is also sadly overworked.)
All this concerns special classes of people and books. But the general reader must be looked after. If democratization of books and reading is our keynote, and I think it is, then the citizen who wants to read on history, poetry, art, sociology, religion, must not be neglected. State-wide means much. It means an open mind for all the demos.
Our central library shall not be a trade shop, not for the bourgeoisie, but a mentor, a guide, a place of refinement and culture. Not for the practical man only—he usually does not know anything and does not want to; he has no breadth of view. Looking up a trade item or a report or some figures is good and useful; so is loving a poet because it is at the foundation of character and education.
We have recently been informed—no, we have been told—that to talk about reading, culture, the love of knowledge, is "flapdoodle." A citizen may be benefited by knowing how many miles of railroad are in his county, or what amount of money his city spends, but he will be just as much benefited by reading a lofty poem of André Chénier, Le Jeu de Paume for example, or a stanza of William Dwight Moody's, not that he will make money, but something far better.
What I want to say is that the state library shall extend the love of learning, of literature, or art and all their kin to the furthest boundaries of the state in order that all may know that here is a fountain whence all may receive instruction and refreshment. Why should the business man not read something besides the newspaper, the statements of which are denied the next day? Yet most men read nothing else. If his own town library is small let him call upon the state library and let the state library be ready to help. I believe that lending books must still be granted to the state library. We have calls from lovers of reading from every corner of Indiana, from men who love culture, knowledge and literature. These we propose to accommodate as long as the law permits. This observation is made because it has been said repeatedly that the state library shall deal in documents, reports and reference books.
We have many foreigners in Indiana. When these cannot secure what is wanted at their local library I want them to come to us, as recently happened when the Roumanians wanted the text of their native poets and something about their provincial capital Nagygebin.
I trust that we may all have one great library for reference with a minimum of popular fiction—a library that is a guide to scholarship and knowledge, a library where every man who loves to read may turn himself out to grass and browse, browse deeply. Herein will we have state-wide influence.
May I group these influences as a summary:—the personality, fitness and scholarship of the State Librarian; the bibliographical center may well be the state library; the legislative reference for the Assembly and officials; the gathering and preserving of the history and archives of the state along with the encouragement among the people to preserve local historical material; the collecting of newspapers representing the entire commonwealth; the creation of a periodical center in the state library; close connection with schools, colleges and all kinds of organizations, social, literary, commercial, etc.; assistance for all the state institutions, educational, charitable, and correctional; close relation with the women's clubs; assistance to the farmer and the foreigner in isolated localities; the center for general culture and love of knowledge where every citizen may continue to go to school.
The PRESIDENT: Mr. Lester in his paper referred to the bill-drafting department of a legislative reference bureau and Mr. Brown has just referred to the man behind the counter. We may perhaps feel that modern conditions require two men behind the counter in government: the one who prepares the ammunition and the one who fires it; and perhaps the more important is the one who prepares the ammunition; the one who draws up the law, leaving to the legislature the more perfunctory service of applying the match. Mr. MATTHEW S. DUDGEON has served in the capacity of director of the bill drafting department of the Wisconsin legislative bureau and I believe that since he has assumed the duties of the executive officer of the Wisconsin Library Commission he has continued to perform that service. We shall be glad to hear from him this morning as to