CONTENTS

PREFACE[5]
THE LIBRARY AND SOCIETY[13]
GENERAL COMMUNITY RELATIONS[15]
The Historical Evolution of the Free Public Library in America and Its True Function in the Community; Dedication Address at Sage Library. (Library Journal, 1884, p. 40)[17]
Moses Coit Tyler.
The Library as a Field for Philanthropy. (Extract from “The Best Fields for Philanthropy,” North American Review, December, 1889.)[33]
Andrew Carnegie.
The Idea of a Popular Library. (“Life, Letters, and Journals,” Vol. 2, 1851.)[49]
George Ticknor.
The Function of a Town Library. (“Protection of Majorities,”) 1875[55]
Josiah P. Quincy.
The Free Public Library. (Extract from “Men and Women,” 1888.)[63]
Thomas W. Higginson.
Two Fundamentals. (Library Journal, 1896, p. 446.)[67]
Mary Salome Cutler.
What a Library Should Be, and What It Can Do. (Public Libraries, 1899, p. 269.)[75]
Melvil Dewey
The Public Library in American Life. (Library Journal, 1905, p. 925.)[79]
Hugo Munsterberg.
Books and the Public Library; Dedication Address of Chelsea Library. (Library Journal, 1886, p. 10.)[87]
James Russell Lowell.
The Influence of Good Books; Dedication Address, Spencer Library, Mass. (Library Journal, 1889, p. 380.)[101]
Robert Collyer.
Books and Life. (Library Journal, 1906, p. 203.)[109]
Edward Asahel Birge.
Address at the Dedication of the Boston Public Library. (“Orations and Speeches”, Boston, 1859; Vol. III.)[127]
Edward Everett.
Address at a Meeting in Favor of the New York Free Circulating Library. (Library Journal, 1890, p. 107.)[139]
Grover Cleveland.
Addresses at the Opening of the Wadsworth Athenæum Library, Hartford, Conn. (Library Journal, 1893, p. 18.)[145]
Charles Dudley Warner.
Charles Hopkins Clark.
Libraries as Leaven; Dedication address, Madison Public Library. (American Bibliopolist, 1875, p. 189.)[149]
James Davie Butler.
The Free Public Library. (American Magazine of Civics, 1895, p. 469.)[169]
Henry Hervey Barber.
THE COMMUNITY'S SERVICE TO THE LIBRARY[183]
The Relation of the State to the Public Library. (Transactions of the Second International Library Conference, London, 1898, p. 19.)[185]
Melvil Dewey.
Methods of Securing the Interest of a Community. (Library Journal, 1880, p. 245.)[193]
William Eaton Foster.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT[199]
Free Libraries: An Argument against Public Support. (“A Plea for Liberty,” ed. by Thos. Mackay, 3rd ed., London, 1894, p. 260.)[201]
M.D. O'Brien.
Arguments for Public Support of Public Libraries: a Rejoinder to the Foregoing. (Library Journal, 1891, p. 39, Conference No.)[215]
William Eaton Foster.
Public Libraries and the Public, with Special References to San Francisco. (Library Journal, 1885, p. 223.)[231]
Frederic Beecher Perkins.
The Levy of Library Tribute; Presidential Address to the A.L.A. (Library Journal, 1895, Conference No., p. 1.)[243]
Henry Munson Utley.
ALTERNATIVES TO TAX SUPPORT[251]
If Not a Tax-Supported Library—What? (Iowa Library Quarterly, April, 1903, p. 21.)[253]
Anonymous.
Cooperation Between Library and Community. (University of New York, Home Education Bulletin 31, p. 131.)[257]
M. Anna Tarbell.
BOARDS OF TRUSTEES[265]
Library Work from the Trustees' Standpoint. (Library Journal, 1890, Conference No., p. 23.)[267]
John Calvin Learned.
Trustees of Free Public Libraries. (Library Journal, 1890, Conference No., p. 19.)[271]
Charles Carroll Soule.
Duties of Trustees and Their Relations to Libraries. (Library Journal, 1890, Conference No., p. 24.)[279]
Samuel Swett Green.
THE LIBRARY'S SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY[285]
Some Popular Objections to Public Libraries. (Library Journal, 1876, p. 45.)[287]
William Frederick Poole.
How to Use a Library: Addresses at Pittsfield, Mass. (Library Journal, 1884, p. 25.)[297]
James Mascarene Hubbard.
Adaptation of Libraries to Constituencies; World's Library Congress, Chicago Exposition. (Education Bureau Report, Chap. IX., Part II, p. 658, 1892-93.)[307]
Samuel Swett Green.
Relation of Free Public Libraries to the Community. (North American Review, 1898, p. 660.)[315]
Herbert Putnam.
The Public Library: Its Uses to the Municipality. (Library Journal, 1903, p. 293.)[329]
John Shaw Billings.
The Library: a Plea for Its Recognition. (International Congress of Arts and Science, St. Louis Exposition. Library Journal, 1904, Conference No., p. 1.)[333]
Frederick Morgan Crunden.
The Library as a Factor in Modern Civilization. (Library Journal, 1906, Conference No., p. 18.)[343]
William Herbert Perry Faunce.
THE PROVISION OF BOOKS[349]
The Librarian and His Constituents. (Library Journal, 1886, p. 229.)[351]
Reuben Brooks Poole.
The Usefulness of Libraries in Small Towns. (Library Journal, 1883, p. 227.)[359]
Theresa Hubbell West.
Address at the Dedication of the University of Pennsylvania Library. (Library Journal, 1891, p. 108.)[365]
Talcott Williams.
COLLECTION OF INFORMATION[379]
Libraries As Bureaus of Information. (Library Journal, 1896, p. 324.)[381]
Samuel Swett Green.
The Library Friend. (Library Journal, 1901, p. 197.)[387]
Winifred Louise Taylor.
CONTROL AND GUIDANCE OF READING[395]
Probable Intellectual and Moral Outcome of the Rapid Increase of Public Libraries. (Library Journal, 1885, p. 234.)[397]
Bradford Kinney Pierce.
Possibilities of Public Libraries in Manufacturing Communities. (Library Journal, 1887, p. 395.)[401]
Minerva Amanda Sanders.
Presidential Address, Lake Placid Conference. (Library Journal, 1894, Conference No., p. 1.)[411]
Joseph Nelson Larned.
The Library as an Inspirational Force. (Public Libraries, 1899, p. 102.)[419]
Sam Walter Foss.
The Use of the Public Library; Ryerson Library Dedication Address. (Library Journal, 1904, p. 592.)[425]
James Burrill Angell.
COMMUNITY CENTER SERVICE[431]
The Library as a Social Centre. (Public Libraries, 1906, p. 5.)[433]
Gratia Alta Countryman.
The Library and the Social Centre. (Wisconsin Library Bulletin, 1911, p. 84.)[439]
Lutie Eugenia Stearns.
Where Neighbors Meet. (From St. Louis Public Library report, 1916-17.)[443]
Margery Closey Quigley.
What of the Future? (Library Journal, 1897, Conference No., p. 5.)[453]
Frederick Morgan Crunden.
INDEX[459]

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THE LIBRARY AND SOCIETY

Recent progress in all directions—political, educational, industrial, hygienic—has been marked by the growth and strengthening of a social consciousness. It is this chiefly that has differentiated the modern library from its predecessors and has made prominent our present insistence on the reader as well as the book, as a fundamental element in what we are doing. At first evident only in a general and somewhat vague recognition, by writers and speakers, of a vital relation between libraries and the communities that they serve, it later crystallized into definite discussions of their reciprocal service—that of the community to the library, consisting of financial, material and moral support expressing itself partly in the appointment of adequate boards of trustees and their proper backing, and that of the library to the community, showing itself largely in the provision of books, the collection of information, the control and guidance of reading, and so-called “community-centre” service. These facts have guided the grouping and sequence of the papers and addresses that make up the present volume. The authors, it will be noticed, include more statesmen, publicists, and professional men, and fewer librarians, than was the case with the two previous volumes, thus reflecting the greater generality and wider interest of the subject.