Mr. Wellman, of Springfield, Mass., asked how to rouse interest in prison libraries in a state where there is no interest. Miss Curtis said that one should avoid rousing general public criticism, as this would antagonize the prison authorities; that it was better to use the slow method of getting the heads of the institutions and the board controlling the prisons interested. The state library commission should do this. A general article in the press on the value of good prison libraries might be desirable, but one should by all means avoid anything approaching a sensational story about special cases. As an example of how to rouse interest, Mr. Wynkoop spoke of the number of New York Libraries, published in February, 1913, which was devoted largely to libraries in state institutions. Copies of this were sent to all trustees of state institutions in New York state, to members of legislative committees dealing with charitable and reformatory institutions, to members of sociological societies, to mayors and sheriffs, to most of the leading newspapers of the state, and to others of influence. About 700 copies were sent out in this way. There have been some evident results. In Syracuse, Rochester, Bath, Jamestown, and some other places, the papers have had notices about the need of better libraries in prisons and jails, and the authorities have in some cases taken steps to improve conditions. In answer to questions, Mr. Wynkoop said that he did not make direct criticism of the present library conditions in prisons, but spoke of the poor economy of spending so little on them. The maximum amount spent on the library of any institution in New York state is $500, though expenditures for other purposes may run into the millions.
It was suggested that public libraries should supply local jails with reading matter. Miss Clarke stated that in the state prison at Auburn, magazines are taken for the officials, but are not loaned to the prisoners. An offer of discarded but usable books from the public library to the jail was refused, because the prisoners would cut out the pictures and put them on the wall.
Miss Charlotte Templeton, secretary of the Nebraska public library commission, next spoke on libraries in reformatories. This is a somewhat more hopeful group than the prisons. The inmates are often below the average physically, somewhat bitter, and frightened, and sobered by their first contact with the law. The reformatory must build them up; physically, mentally, and in the power of self-support. In this the library is a valuable adjunct. It should contain simple books on civics, books to help the foreigner learn English, and books on the technical subjects taught in the prison. There is also a use for books as a means of recreation. These may put the inmate in a better attitude toward life, and may be the entering wedge for more serious reading. They should, therefore, be the first line of attack. Again, a prisoner may accept moral training from a book that he would not from a person. The books on conduct are much read. Jordan's "Self-control," Grenfell's "Men's helpers," and some of the new thought books are much read. One prisoner said, "If I had had that book three years ago I should not be here now." Magazines are generally taken, but as a supplement to the collection of books. They include many on current events and on technical work, and some that are taken mainly for their pictures. Country Life and Baseball are very popular. In conclusion, Miss Templeton said that the reformatory library is much like a public library, and should be administered in a similar way. In this way, the inmates would become familiar with the use of such a library, would form the "library habit," and be more likely to feel at home in the public library on their release.
Miss EDITH KATHLEEN JONES, librarian at McLean Hospital, Waverley, Mass., then read the following paper:
SOME PROBLEMS OF THE INSTITUTION LIBRARY ORGANIZER IN THE STATE HOSPITALS
Last year I had the pleasure of telling you something of library work in one of the large private hospitals for the insane; this year I want to speak of some of the problems the institution organizer will meet when she undertakes to set in order the libraries of the state hospitals.
In the first place, unless she is fortunate enough to be appointed by the State Board of Control or State Board of Insanity or their equivalent, she may at times feel that she is looked upon a little bit as an outsider by the hospital staff, as one who does not understand hospital conditions and who belongs to an entirely different order of things. She may even meet what seems to her indifference or actual antagonism on the part of a few superintendents.
The fact is, the library to librarians is of supreme importance, but the library to the average hospital superintendent is merely one method of providing entertainment or employment for his patients. He is much more interested in the new social service movement and the study of eugenics and heredity than he is in the general library, which, to his mind, is simply a part of the therapeutic system and even as such ranks far below useful employment and arts and crafts work.
This indifference or antagonism does not arise from any personal feeling nor is it confined to the library. It is the natural outcome of the peculiar organization demanded in a hospital for the insane, a general distrust of any outside interference in any department, and a thorough conviction that each hospital is entirely competent to manage its own affairs. In one state the state board refused the offer of the state library committee to organize its institution libraries for these very reasons. In another state, where the possibility of the state board appointing an institution librarian of its own is under discussion, one superintendent remarked that he "could only say this; if it must come he was thankful it was coming from the inside, through the board and from one who knew hospital conditions."
Another reason for this seeming indifference on the part of the superintendents is that, in the East at any rate, a state hospital is always poor. It is poor and it is crowded, and its superintendent is harrassed with having his requests for better accommodations for his patients, a new power house, larger kitchens and laundries, or quarters for his married men nurses turned down; with trying to get larger appropriations from the state legislature; with endeavoring to feed and clothe and house 1,200 patients on an appropriation and in quarters designed for 1,000 at the most. He probably has cut down his expenses in every conceivable direction, and he can not see the use of spending money for books which the majority of his patients will not read. And there is this to be said for his point of view, that while there are many educated and cultivated persons in all the state hospitals, the majority of them are foreigners and illiterates from the mill and factory-hand classes and from the slums of the cities. In New York state alone, in 1906, forty-six per cent of the whole number of patients admitted to the New York hospitals were of foreign birth. And I might add, to show the menace of the class of people we are letting into our country, that forty-six per cent of the insane were aliens, while only twenty-six per cent of the whole population of the state were of foreign birth. Add to these the outcasts from the slums and you have a good idea of the make-up of the state hospitals and asylums, and you will not wonder that many superintendents shake their heads when libraries are mentioned.