Border regions are those of greatest interest, for they are regions of contact and therefore places where things happen. This is a border region between the field of the librarian and that of the teacher. Its activities are the sole justification for the name “library teacher” bestowed upon assistants in many of the homelier city districts. Here the librarian must tread warily. He can not push or pull; he must effect what he desires by making it attractive to the reader. In the five following papers this function is somewhat elaborated—a very modern phase of library work and one most nearly concerned with its socialization.
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PROBABLE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL OUTCOME OF THE RAPID INCREASE OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES
A paper by Rev. Dr. Pierce, then editor of Zion's Herald, a Methodist publication, read at the Lake George Conference of the American Library Association in 1885. Notably free from the caution and hesitancy then often appearing in the public utterances of the clergy regarding popular libraries, and full of belief that their power of guidance would make them “powerful elements of culture.”
Bradford Kinney Pierce was born in Royalton, Vt., February 3, 1819, and graduated at Wesleyan University in 1841. Entering the Methodist Episcopal ministry, he was also occupied for many years as teacher and editor, being agent of the Sunday School Union in 1845-56, editing Zion's Herald in 1872-88 and then serving as librarian of the Free Library at Newton, Mass., in addition to his other duties, until his death, April 19, 1889. He has been called “the Nestor of New England Methodism.”
The free public library is now becoming the favorite posthumous beneficiary of our men of wealth. Heretofore it has hardly been esteemed respectable in the vicinity of Boston for a man of fortune to die without leaving a generous bequest to Harvard College or to the Massachusetts General Hospital. The city and town library is now beginning to share liberally in these testamentary benefactions. The college requires too considerable a sum in our days to be often adequately endowed by the estate of one patron, but the library can be established and be quite amply appointed by the accumulation of one public-spirited citizen, and be made to become his most-honored and permanent memorial. Every town of any size in our New England and Northern States either has, or will soon have, one of these people's universities, through the individual gift of a generous citizen, or by public establishment.
This general gathering of large bodies of books in all our principal towns, opened freely to all ages, can but produce a manifest influence for good or evil in the community. The familiar and forcible response to the objection made to the establishment of so many small colleges in the land, rather than securing their consecration and abundant endowment and appointment in a few centres, is that the “fresh-water institution,” so called, brings the opportunities for a liberal culture near to thousands who could not otherwise be prompted to make the incident sacrifices to secure an advanced education. The immediate presence itself of the institution is an inspiration to study. So the presence of the numerous libraries, with their wide-open doors to all, and their attractive shelves, becomes a powerful incitement to those who otherwise would hardly think of seeking enjoyment or profit in reading. The statistics of these city and town libraries fully confirm this à-priori presumption as to their influence in awakening and cultivating an interest in books among all classes. And this influence of books upon a reading community is very powerful. It is more subtle than human companionship. The latter strongly affects and moulds the character; but books reach us at lower depths. They inspire us more profoundly; they touch our whole being, intellect, heart, and executive purpose; they imperceptibly create or modify our ethical standards; they become our models of life and conduct; they lay hold of our highest and most sacred sentiments and color our views of the life beyond.