The trustee's first duty is to see that the library receives adequate municipal support. This is seldom an easy matter. It generally requires a good deal of missionary work,—through the newspapers, through personal appeals to councillors, through public addresses before the council or otherwise. The public must be told of its need, which it frequently does not recognize. The trustee must exercise the influence of an educator.
The work of the trustee is often discouraging and disheartening, and may take years to attain a particular end. Our public libraries act favors the carrying out of some definite plan, because an appointee holds office for several years, giving him an opportunity of thoroughly familiarizing himself with the whole range of library affairs to the great advantage of the best interests of the public and of the library. A further advantage of this tenure of office is that it permits of what is in athletics called "team work." We know how effective it is in this latter respect, and so it is too with a library board. I have reason to refer to this, because all libraries in Ontario are not so constituted that "team work" can be efficiently carried out. I allude to libraries whose board has no fixed continuity. With a continuity to the board definite plans may be formulated that one knows in advance will take years to carry out, but if there is no continuity to the board, each new board will have its own notion, using the term notion advisedly, in contradistinction to the matured plan, for it is not to be expected that new men, thrown into new surroundings, faced by problems wholly or nearly wholly foreign to them, can act with that intelligence, with the large-mindedness essential to the best interests of the community. The fault lies not with the men, but with the system.
One of the first considerations is the public. The trustee should know his public well, just as a physician can only treat his patient intelligently after having made a thorough diagnosis. The people of one town may differ from those of another town, their industries and interests may be different so that a successful course adopted by a board in one place may not meet with the same success in another, and as the people, the citizens, are to be beneficiaries of a public library, it is all-important that their needs be closely studied. It must ever be the aim of the trustee to try to give the greatest good to the greatest number, without however neglecting to provide opportunities within reasonable limits commensurate with the funds available to the exceptional artisan, mechanic or bright young man who is anxious to pursue his work beyond the ordinary. It can be truly said that even those who do not use the library are to a greater or less extent benefited by it through the environment of those who do use it. One of the functions of a library, and one that generally appeals most to those that control the purse strings, is to increase the industrial productiveness of the people of the respective town or municipality. Take a town for example whose industries are almost wholly those of cabinet making. It should be the duty of a trustee to see that the library and reading room is especially rich and complete in all that pertains to cabinet making; to carpentering; the different kinds of wood; designing; drawing and everything that may further the artisan's skill and thereby his productiveness. For we must ever remember that the commercial success of a nation rests on the skill and productiveness of its artisans. This function of the public library is one that may be measured in dollars and cents, but the other function—of making better men and women, of character-building, of brightening homes by the perusal of good literature, of wholesome fiction, of making better citizens, of appreciating the rights as well as the responsibilities of citizenship, these things can not be measured in coin, but they make for a nation's progress and stability.
The most important office is of course the librarian, and the success of the library depends more upon him, or her, than upon any one else; for a poor library board and a good librarian are preferable to a good board and poor librarian.
Hence it is a most important duty of the trustee to see that the services of a good librarian be obtained, not merely an automaton that hands out books and checks off those returned. The day of utilizing men or women whose usefulness in other fields has vanished is past and such should be kept out of the library. What is wanted is a person who has enthusiasm for the work, who has studied library work and methods, who in an unostentatious and quiet way will be helpful to the readers, who can guide particularly the younger readers in their choice of literature, who can encourage the formation of reading clubs and societies, who can make the library and reading room, especially for small libraries, cheerful and attractive by little devices, and by his or her own attitude to the users of the library add much to its usefulness and influence for good. The next duty of the trustee is to see that adequate remuneration be given for the services rendered. The good librarian is in love with his work and is quite willing to sacrifice something on that account to follow a chosen vocation. But that is no reason why inadequate remuneration should be accorded. Let the librarian feel that he is getting a fair reward for his services, co-operate with him, assist him in his endeavors to improve the usefulness of the library, let him feel that he has the good-will of the board, and do not throw all the responsibility of the whole management and its aims upon his shoulders. Do not dampen his enthusiasm and zeal by indifference and simply perfunctory attendance at meetings, or absence altogether. The library requires the undivided attention of both librarian and trustees. Bear in mind that it is an educational institution of the town with a larger attendance than that of the schools. It cannot too strongly be urged upon the trustees and board that a mere collection of books does not constitute a public library, it requires the connecting link, the librarian, to bind those two words more closely together—the public and the library, and the more intimately will they be connected the more efficient the librarian is.
A trustee should make a point of becoming somewhat acquainted with what other libraries are doing, as found in reports and publications. He may at times get thereby new ideas or pointers that may be applicable in his own library. Again if he has occasion to travel and has an hour or so to spare in a town or city where there is a public library, he should go there, "nose" about, and he will find that the visit is profitable. The trustees should within their means make the library and room or rooms as cheerful and comfortable as possible. Let the rooms be well lighted and the light so distributed as to be restful to the eyes. Try to make the library the most attractive place in town. That in itself is a standing temperance sermon, without being preached, which many people do not like.
Believe in the library as an educational institution for all the people, young and old; believe in the library as an aid for technical education; believe in the library as a good thing for your town; and believe in the library as making for a strong and progressive nation.
This paper was followed by one by Mr. WALTER R. NURSEY, inspector of public libraries of the province of Ontario, on
THE TRUSTEE'S DUTY TO THE PUBLIC
Mr. Nursey said in part: