The legal duties of these trustees consist in the general management, regulation and control of the library and reading room entailing the securing, erecting or renting of the necessary buildings for the purpose of the library and reading room, and the purchase of books, newspapers, magazines, maps, etc., illustrative of the arts and sciences for the library reading room and museum. These responsibilities are further increased by the necessity for keeping the building and its contents in a proper state of preservation and repair and to provide the necessary fuel, lighting and other necessaries and accommodations and also the appointment or dismissal at pleasure of the officers and servants of the board.
The board is also obliged to make rules for the use of the library reading room and museum and for the admission of the public thereto and for the general management of the library; its reading room, museum, evening classes and art school, and of all property under its control. For breaches of any of its rules, it may impose penalties not exceeding $10.
At least two out of these nine trustees, should be women; women who have won a record for activity and good common sense in their departments of business.
It is also the duty of the faithful trustee to encourage the public to realize that it is the librarian, not the trustee, who is the real pilot of the ship, and jealously uphold the hands of that important official. Unfortunately the library has sometimes been converted into an asylum for the village derelict whose unfitness for any ordinary business pursuits would seem to be the highest passport possible, his incapacity emphasizing in the minds of some trustees his apparent suitability for the position.
Summarizing the situation, we find the general importance of the position of a trustee viewed from the "library act" point of view, to be that
(1) He holds the property of the library in trust for the whole community.
(2) That the board has the same standing as any other corporate public body, town council, school board, board of education, etc.
(3) That the trustees alone can manage public library affairs and that they have the exclusive authority to pay rent, to build or to sell property, subject to the statutory provisions.
(4) That they have the power both to raise and expend money for library purposes.
(5) That they can demand certain moneys from the municipal council, ranging from a quarter of a mill up to three-quarters of a mill on the dollar of the total annual assessment at the will of the ratepayers.