Dr. Steiner: It seems to me we should try distinctly for county libraries. In the southern states at least there is no question about it; you have got to have county libraries. I started with the idea of the local township libraries, but we must wait until we have a township. My idea is, in any county wherein there are no incorporated municipalities or where the incorporated municipalities do not care to support libraries, the county library is the proper thing. In the south the county takes the place of the town in New England; it is the taxing unit, the unit in which all the local administration is carried on.
Mr. Huse: It seems to me that for the south, as stated by the gentlemen here from Maryland and from North Carolina, the county system is very probably the best one; but in New England we could not work by a county unit, any more than the people of North Carolina and even further down south could run a toboggan slide nine months in the year—they would not have the ice; we haven't the counties. At least, we have the counties, but they are of no importance to us except to have court houses, and courts of justice. Now, each state must solve this problem according to its own conditions and according to the desires and enthusiasm of its own workers. The gentleman from Maryland, I haven't any doubt, will soon have the county system operating fully and successfully in his state, and the same will be true in North Carolina and throughout the south; whereas in New England it won't be done because the county is not a unit. In Wisconsin and New York, Mr. Dewey and Mr. Hutchins, and the men and women who know more than they do, will run the library system safely; whether it is state or county. But we cannot adopt any general rule or take any general expression of opinion, for the people in each state must work out their own salvation according to their own condition.
Mr. Dewey: There are a number of other topics that have been specially asked for.
Can state commissions provide travelling libraries for hamlets which furnish the money, and make such hamlets travelling library stations?
Mr. Hutchins: I wish to say a few words on that question. All through Wisconsin, when we started travelling libraries, some people found that there was a chance to make money by using the idea in a commercial way. They went to communities which had heard of the travelling libraries, raised $150 or so for "subscription" and then sent about ten dollars' worth of books once in six months. Now, the plan we have worked out may be best described by this illustration: about a year ago Miss Stearns heard that there was a little hamlet of fishermen far up in the state on a point which juts out into Lake Michigan. It included about a hundred people who had heard of the travelling libraries, but they did not want to be indebted for a gift or a charity, and so they had a series of entertainments, and raised fifty dollars. They sent the money down to us and we agreed to buy a library in their name. That library was the contribution of the fishermen of the hamlet of Jacksonport, and the hamlet was made a travelling library station. You can see how such a method works out. The second point is, that in communities where there are a hundred people or so, and conditions are favorable, we offer to give them travelling libraries on condition that they establish permanent public libraries on lines that are satisfactory to us. We take care of the travelling libraries and they take care of the local libraries.
It seems to me, that in this method we have struck finally the correct principle, the principle of self-support. The state takes the money and gives trained service in the selection of the books, in taking care of them, and in keeping the books travelling around their circuit. The citizens pay for their books, and have the feeling that they belong to an organization. More than all, when they are collecting their library fund, giving their little "dime socials," contributing two dollars or five dollars apiece, they are advertising that library, and it seems to me that the library that is coming to them that way means far more than the library that is given to them as a charity.
Mr. Galbreath: Mr. Hutchins, how often do the communities raise that fifty dollars?
Mr. Hutchins: They raise fifty dollars once, and for that the state engages to send them libraries during the life of the library given by them, which we estimate to be about six years.
Mr. Dewey: What shall be the unit of circulation—the cataloged library or the single book or combination?
Mr. Brigham: We have tried both in Iowa. One of the twins is growing faster than the other, and of course that is the hopeful one.