EDITOR'S TABLE. 



699 



probably one third of the whole number have 

 no contemporaneous value, and are rarely 

 used by the patrons of the library. It is 

 nevertheless found that the whole Dumber of 

 volumes circulated during the year is liit/JSO ; 

 and, assuming that the number of available 

 books in the library is 4,000, these figures 

 would show that each volume has been cir- 

 culated over seventeen times. This percent- 

 age of usage is most gratifying, and, when 

 compared with the returns from other libra- 

 ries, may justly be pronounced extraordinary. 

 It also appears that but sixty-four per cent of 

 the circulation is of works of fiction a much 

 smaller percentage than in other libraries ; 

 while out of the whole number of books cir- 

 culated during the year but six, volumes have 

 been lost. 



The reading-room is also a demonstrated 

 success. The total number of readers was 

 9,605, and they are found chiefly to belong, 

 together with the great majority of the pa- 

 trons of the Library, to that very class in the 

 community which it is most desirable to fur- 

 nish with wholesome intellectual food, and 

 which it was hoped might be reached by this 

 library, namely, young persons of both sexes 

 between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one 

 years. The publication of bulletins that is, 

 lists of works, or newspaper and magazine 

 articles, upon the more important subjects 

 which from time to time come before the pub- 

 lic has been continued, and the suggestions 

 made in them are found to be quickly and 

 generally used. 



So unexpected and so encouraging 

 are these results that they have natural- 

 ly created a desire to extend the bene- 

 fits of the undertaking, and it has ac- 

 cordingly been proposed to carry out 

 the plan systematically by the establish- 

 ment of free circulating libraries in va- 

 rious parts of the city, so as to make 

 them readily accessible to all the popu- 

 lation. In regard to this project, it is 

 further remarked in the report: 



The trustees have carefully considered 

 what has seemed to them as the best means 

 of conducting the work of the society, and 

 have decided upon a general system by which 

 the most good should result to flfcose requiring 

 then- aid. It is proposed to establish small 

 libraries, located in the centers of the poorest 

 and most thickly-settled districts of the city. 

 The books are to be selected with special ref- 

 erence to the wants of each commuuity, care- 



fully excluding all works of doubtful influ- 

 ence for good. Beading-rooms would l>e 

 attached to each circulating library ; and, as 

 the libraries are to be small, readers will be 

 able to receive more than the usual attention 

 at the hands of the librarians. 



In furtherance of this idea, a public 

 meeting was recently held in the ball 

 of the Union League Club, presided 

 over by the mayor, in which several of 

 our most eminent public men made 

 interesting addresses upon the subject. 

 Dr. Hall gave the project his cor- 

 dial approbation, and spoke ably and 

 impressively of the need there is to 

 carry out, on a liberal scale, an enter- 

 prise that will be productive of great 

 good and of good alone. He referred 

 to the discontent and agitation among 

 the poorer and laboring classes which 

 are liable to take a dangerous form un- 

 der the misguiding influence of visionary 

 social theorists, and for which the only 

 remedy is the wider diffusion of sound 

 information among the people. Mr. 

 Joseph Choate also spoke effectively in 

 behalf of the enterprise. He called 

 emphatic attention to the destitution 

 of wholesome reading-matter on the 

 part of the great mass of the city popu- 

 lation, and which is but very partial- 

 ly realized by people who have been 

 brought up in the midst of a super- 

 fluous abundance of books. He showed 

 how inadequate, and impracticable for 

 popular use, are our present library 

 facilities, and he made a vigorous ap- 

 peal for the opening of the free cir- 

 culating libraries on Sunday the only 

 leisure day of the working-classes, and 

 the day on which they are most ex- 

 posed to the temptation of questionable 

 places of resort. Other speakers fol- 

 lowed, urging the claims of this popu- 

 lar library system upon the attention 

 of men of wealth, and asking for it so 

 generous a support that the trustees 

 will be able to carry out their plan 

 promptly and effectively. 



