A library may be likened to a bank where literary reserves are kept. It is organized to promote the circulation of a sound literary currency. The directors must see to it that, though there may be counterfeit and worthless money in the vaults, the cashier or librarian must pay over the counter for general circulation such only as will maintain the institution's standard of credit and confidence in the community. The gold basis must be maintained, and no “wild-cat” bills pass out through the window.
It grows increasingly evident that very few libraries in the world can indulge in the luxury or licence of buying all books written. The ambition to supply any man with any work he calls for must therefore be held in check. Thus it becomes increasingly important that much care and deliberation be exercised in the choice of books to be bought, whether to complete deficient departments or for the daily circulation. The purchase of poor books makes a market for poor authorship. Hereafter, less than ever should libraries be the dumping place for indiscreet publishers, for questionable or incompetent authors. The public library exists for civilization, that is, for moral ends. It is the record and history of civilization, as well as the ally of progress. It is the “friend and helper of all those who seek to live in the spirit.” For this reason, therefore, the character of the books in a library is of more importance than mere numbers; and the value of a library to the community may be imperfectly shown by the statistics of circulation. No aim can be higher, however, than having a good library, to make its resources known, and to multiply readers in the remotest and obscurest parts of our towns and cities.
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Trustees of Free Public Libraries
In introducing this topic, Mr. C.C. Soule, who spoke as a trustee of the Brookline Public Library, said that he had found little or nothing about it in existing library literature, and that his paper had been shown to a considerable number of both trustees and librarians and modified in accordance with their views. His analysis of the subject is somewhat closer than President Learned's.
Charles Carroll Soule was born in Boston June 25, 1842 and graduated at Harvard in 1862. After serving in the Civil War, which he left as a captain of Massachusetts volunteers he became a publisher and after 1889 was president of the Boston Book Co. He was an active member of the American Library Association. He died at his home in Brookline, Jan. 7, 1913
This paper considers the constitution of elective boards of trustees of free public libraries, intrusted with the appointment of librarians and full control of their libraries.
The subject can be naturally treated under the following heads: Size of the board; term of office; qualifications for the position; duties; individual and collective; organization; and relations with the librarian.