The breadth and limitation of book buying should be determined by the needs of the public rather than from the ratings of the books which are being published. We should find the books that are best fitted for the people who are to use them, rather than to try to fit the people to the books which we may consider as the most desirable. The questions so often raised as to the admittance to the library shelves of some books of fiction of doubtful morals or the latest piece of erotic literature seem very trivial when we consider the problems that face us in the broad field of library work. The library is a public enterprise for public good, and not merely a coöperative scheme for the purpose of obtaining cheap reading, nor a bibliographical storehouse. The important question is whether the books we are asked to buy will serve any legitimate end of library service.
Most of our American cities resemble each other in the exceedingly complex character of their population, each of whose varied elements has more or less claim on the services of the public library. While it is not possible to classify definitely the residents of a city for library purposes, there are certain large groups which we may recognize.
In the first place, the public library has to serve, as libraries of all times have served, those who have had all the advantages of systematic education—those in the learned professions and in other walks of life who have had given to them, through college and university training, a wider vision than that of the average citizen; those who have had given to them at least the knowledge of the existence of the store of accumulated thought and of the records of the past. Upon these more fortunate ones rests the responsibility, in a large measure, of carrying the torch of knowledge and civilization a little farther with each generation. The public library does not pretend to act as a guide to this part of the community, but it must serve as its laboratory and as its source of supply.
A second group which includes a large part of our population is made up of those who have had the advantage of the full course of the grammar school, with the smaller number who have had that of the high school. From this group come not only the clerks in our stores and offices, but men in the more skilled occupations, and also many business men and employers of labor. Some of these are existing through gray, narrow, uneventful, toilsome lives, while others take a large and leading part in all that concerns the life of the community and in the moulding of public opinion. It includes men of many creeds and civilizations, prejudices, desires and ambitions; of many degrees of culture and taste, high and low; influenced by very different inheritance, associations and opportunities.
Some gain through application most of the advantages of the best training, while others not only fail to make use of, but often practically lose the education the city has given them. For the larger number of this group there are great possibilities for good in the means of education and cultivation which are now being provided by the municipality.
How may the public library best meet the needs of these people, so many and so diverse? How may it give to those who lack it that which will enliven, improve, stimulate and cultivate, creating not only the desire for what is best in life, but supplying the essence so far as it may be gained from the stimulus and inspiration of books? How may we give others the practical knowledge that is needed by them in their varied occupations and activities?
Probably the most potential group in our cities is that large one made up of the children of the immigrants. If they can be lifted by education, if their taste can be guided and directed toward better desires, the help which the library is able to give will act as a tremendous force for good. If these children are left alone to indulge in what is vicious and demoralizing in the life of the crowded sections of the cities, they will become a menace to the municipal life. Their parents have little to give them. The schools have on an average a brief five years in which to influence these children, but they do send them out with the power to read English. The public library may exert its influence not only during their school life, but if it acquires a hold upon them at that time, it will continue to be an influence for good upon these future rulers of the city.
Is it not possible, in a small way at least, to cultivate their taste and give them some desire to read what is worth while?
The broad base upon which city life rests is still another group made up usually of the newcomers from many lands. A very large number have little or no education excepting such as their toil has brought them. Many are able to read their native tongue, but all their traditions and all their lore is that of other lands and literatures. We find that many of the more intelligent among them have brought, in addition to their muscular strength, much that might enrich their adopted country if it could find means of expression. They constitute a danger in our life only when lacking the knowledge of our tongue, our ways and our ideals, and when in ignorance of the adjustment of our government by the popular will, they become the prey of the demagogue. He easily gains a blind following among the ignorant by preaching class hatred and a kind of discontent which is unrighteous.
Library work among these people should not only act as a safeguard, but may prove an opportunity for some at least to attain a broader life by awakening the desire for knowledge and the ability to grow which comes with the reading habit and the knowing how to use books.