A Library Primer Part 4

In selecting fiction, get from the older librarians a statement of what are the most popular of the wholesome novels found on their shelves. A better guide than this it will be difficult to find.

Fiction is of the greatest value in developing a taste for reading.

Everyone should be familiar with the great works of imagination.

Nearly all the greatest literature of the world is fiction. The educational value of the novel is not often questioned.

But don't buy a novel simply because it is popular. If you follow that line you will end with the cheapest kind of stuff. Some librarians pretend that they must buy to please the public taste; that they can't use their own judgment in selecting books for a library which the public purse supports. Why these librarians don't supply the Police gazette it is difficult to understand. "The public" would like it--some of them. We select school committees and superintendents and teachers to run our schools. We ask them to inform themselves on the subject and give us the best education they can. They don't try to suit everybody. They try to furnish the best. Library trustees and librarian are in a like case. The silly, the weak, the sloppy, the wishy-washy novel, the sickly love story, the belated tract, the crude hodge-podge of stilted conversation, impossible incident, and moral plat.i.tude or moral bosh for children--these are not needed. It is as bad to buy them and circulate them, knowingly, as it would be for our school authorities to install in our schoolrooms as teachers romantic, giggling girls and smarty boys. Buy good novels, those the wise approve of, in good type, paper, and binding; keep plenty of copies of each on hand; put them where your readers can handle them; add a few each year of the best only of the latest novels, and those chiefly on trial (not to be bought again if found not to have real merit) and your public will be satisfied, and your library will be all the time raising the taste of the community.

Some books should not be put, at least not without comment, into the hands of young people. Other books, some people think, should not be read by young people. Other books, some people think, should not be in a public library at all. A good course to follow in regard to such books is to consider the temper of your community and put into the library as many of them as are noteworthy in a literary way as your public and your resources permit.

In other departments follow at first the guidance of some one of the good book lists now available.

Other things being equal, American scientific books are preferable to those by foreign authors. In all departments select the latest editions, and, at first, the recent book rather than the older book.

The proportion of books in the different departments of knowledge must vary greatly in different libraries. The following is a good general guide:

Per cent.

General works .04 Philosophy .01 Religion .02 Sociology .09 Philology .01 Science .08 Useful arts .06 Fine arts .04 Literature .12 Biography .10 History .13 Travels .10 Fiction .20 ____ Total 100

Local interest should be fostered by buying freely books on local history and science and books by local authors.

The librarian should keep informed of coming events, and see that the library is provided with the books for which there is sure to be a future demand. He should avoid personal hobbies and be impartial on all controversial questions. He should not be overconfident in his knowledge of what will elevate and refine the community.

It is better to buy 10 extra copies of a wholesome book wanted by the public than one copy each of 10 other books which will not be read.

Do not waste time, energy, and money--certainly not in the early days of the library--in securing or arranging public doc.u.ments, save a few of purely local value. Take them if offered and store them.

Do not be too much impressed by the local history plea, and spend precious money on rare volumes or old journals in this line.

Certain work can judiciously be done toward collecting and preserving materials for local history that will involve neither expense nor much labor, and this the librarian should do. Do not turn the public library, which is chiefly to be considered as a branch of a live, everyday system of popular education, into a local antiquarian society; but simply let it serve incidentally as a picker-up of unconsidered trifles. A wide-awake, scholarly librarian will like his town, and delight in at least some study of its antecedents. And such a librarian need not be a crank, but must needs be an enterprising, wide-awake, appreciative student, who can scent the tastes and needs of posterity.

Put no money into rare books. A book which was out of print 10 years or 200 years ago, and has not insisted upon republication since, has, ordinarily, no place in the active, free public library. If you get it, sell it and buy a live book.

The free public library should encourage its readers to suggest books not in the library, by providing blanks for that purpose, and paying courteous attention to all requests.

Ask by letter, by circulars, and by notes in the local papers, for gifts of books, money, and periodicals. Acknowledge every gift.

Remember that one who has helped the library, be it ever so little, has thereby become interested in it, and is its friend.

CHAPTER XII

Reference books for a small library, compiled by C.A. Baker, of the Public library, Denver

This list includes about 75 books, costing about $550. It is arranged alphabetically. It is subdivided into four lists, arranged according to relative importance. This subdivision is shown by the numbers prefixed to each entry.

2. Adams, C.K. Manual of historical literature. 1889. O. Harper, cl.

$2.50.

1. Adams, O.F. Dictionary of American authors. 1897. O. Houghton, Mifflin, cl. $3.

1. Adler, G.J. Dictionary of the German and English languages. 1893.

Q. Appleton, mor. $5.

4. Allibone, S.A. Critical dictionary of English literature. 1891, 3 v. Q. Lippincott, sh. $22.50.

4. Allibone, S.A. Supplement to the critical dictionary of English literature, by J.F. Kirk. 1892, 2 v. Q. Lippincott, sh. $15.

1. Appleton's annual cyclopaedia and register of important events. Q.

Appleton, cl. $5.

3. Appleton's cyclopaedia of American biography. 1888-92, 6 v.Q.

Appleton, cl. $30, half mor. $42.

1. Appleton's cyclopaedia of applied mechanics, ed. by P. Benjamin.

1893, 2 v. Q. Appleton, sh. $15, half mor. $17.

2. Appleton's modern mechanism, supplement to Cyclopaedia of applied mechanics. 1892, 1 v. Q. Appleton, sh. $7.50, half mor. $8.50.

2. Bartlett, J., ed. Familiar quotations. 1892. O. Little, cl. $3.

3. Bliss, E.M., ed. Cyclopaedia of missions, 2 v. 1891. Q. Funk & Wagnalls, cl. $12.

1. Bliss, W.D.P. Cyclopaedia of social reform, including political economy, science, sociology, statistics, anarchism, charities, civil service, currency, land, etc. 1897. Q. Funk & Wagnalls, cl. $7.50, sh.

$9.50.

3. Brannt, W.T. and Wahl, W.H. Technico-chemical receipt book. 1895.

D. Baird, cl. $2.

1. Brewer, E.C. Reference library, 1885-98. 4 v. O. Lippincott. $13.

Dictionary of miracles, Historic notebook, Dictionary of phrase and fable, Reader's handbook.

2. Brown, E. and Strauss, A. Dictionary of American politics. 1895. D.

Burt, cl., $1.

1. Bryant, W.C, ed. Library of poetry and song. 1876. Q. Fords, Howard, cl., $5.

3. Century dictionary and cyclopaedia. (Century dictionary and the Century cyclopaedia of names combined with the atlas of the world.) 10 v. Prices from $60 to $150. Often can be picked up second-hand.

1. Century atlas of the world. 1897. F. Century Co., cl. $12.50, half mor. $15.

1. Century cyclopaedia of names, n.d. F. Century Co., cl. $10.50, buf.

$12.50.

(Note.--The two last are included in the Century dictionary and cyclopaedia, but can be bought separately.)

2. Chambers, R., ed. Book of days, 2 v. O. Lippincott. 1893. $7.

2. Champlin, J.D. jr. Young folks' cyclopaedia of common things. 1893.