246 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



its own ; a recognition of the great educational value of the labo- 

 ratory method in library administration ; and the widening of its 

 field of work which a library gains by the added attractions of 

 free access to its shelves these considerations, save in certain 

 peculiar cases, seem to decide the question of the proper policy of 

 the public library toward its public. That more communities do 

 not now demand the adoption of the system of open shelves in 

 their public libraries is due largely to the conservatism of library 

 boards, and to an unreasoning submission to authority on the 

 part of the reading public. Even the enlightened are slow to ask 

 for a right before they have exercised it and experienced its ad- 

 vantages. 



These statements of proper library methods will seem to the 

 reader who is not familiar with public library methods as they 

 are, simple, commonplace, and self-evident. He may well wonder 

 why one takes the trouble to repeat them in print. By way of 

 justification it should be said that the manner of conducting a 

 public library now in almost universal use in this country is this : 

 Between the books and the would-be users of them is placed an 

 insurmountable barrier. At this barrier stand librarian and at- 

 tendants. The reader or student flounders about in a list of the 

 library's books until he arrives at a guess it is often not more 

 than a guess at the titles of the books he wishes. A list of these 

 books he hands over the barrier to the attendant, and of them the 

 attendant brings him the first one that happens to be in. Perhaps 

 he wishes to make a study of some subject. Generally, in such a 

 case, he must make out a list from a brief catalogue of the books 

 which he thinks may help him, and of the titles of articles which 

 he surmises will be useful in files of periodicals or proceedings. 

 This list, handed to the attendant, brings him some of the things 

 called for. Half of them are probably not what he expected, and 

 he must try again. Always between him and the sources of in- 

 formation the personality of librarian or attendant obtrudes itself. 

 His wants must trickle over a library counter, and then must fil- 

 ter through the mind of a custodian who is perhaps not very intel- 

 ligent and is probably not very sympathetic, before they can be 

 satisfied by contact with the books themselves. In a good many 

 libraries a few reference books are placed where any one can 

 reach them. But this is in most cases the limit of the concession, 

 made to the demand for immediate contact with the library's re- 

 sources. The new library in Boston has stored the most of its 

 popular books, the books which the majority of its patrons most 

 call for, in a dark warehouse, lighted only by artificial light, and 

 reached, as far as the borrower is concerned, only by mechanical 

 contrivances which compel a wait of nearly ten minutes for every 

 book called for. The borrower can not see the books ; he can not 



