252 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



found rare psychological analyses, striking descriptions that have 

 become part of the everyday life of the cultivated ; and discus- 

 sions of social, political, and religious questions; and which 

 novels will best tell him of life in this city, in that country, on 

 the sea. In a word, the public's free public library will recog- 

 nize at last the public's demand for the novel ; will not attempt 

 to excuse it, to hide it, to make light of it, or to counteract it ; 

 but will make use of it as an educational force in itself, and as a 

 point of departure to more serious things. The novel reader is 

 not a hopeless case. If he be a confirmed novel reader and noth- 

 ing more, he has at least the reading habit, and in his youth can 

 in most cases be led from that habit to question and to think. 



The reference room of the free public library is in some sort 

 already here. Not a few libraries recognize the reasonableness 

 of a demand on the public's part for access to dictionaries, ency- 

 clopaedias, atlases, gazetteers, and the like. Under the modern 

 view the whole library becomes, of course, a great reference 

 room. But the reference department proper, even in the modern 

 public library, should contain ample accommodations in the way 

 of desks, tables, writing materials, etc., for the casual inquirer or 

 the student. 



In other departments the wants of the reader, the beginner 

 in learning, should be first supplied, books for the specialist 

 being added as rapidly and to as great an extent as actual 

 demand makes advisable and funds in hand make possible. No 

 money should be expended on mere literary curios or on histor- 

 ical knickknacks. The historical society and the antiquarian can 

 look after these things, and should not have the public purse for 

 their competitor. 



In accordance with the general spirit of the open-shelf method 

 of administration, great liberality should be shown in the issuing 

 of library cards. To the library itself for purposes of reference 

 every one who applies will, of course, be admitted, so he be clean 

 and reputable in appearance. To become an accredited borrower 

 of books from the library one should be asked to do no more 

 than sign some simple form of agreement. This, in addition to 

 the information which can be obtained from a few questions put 

 by librarian or assistants, with perhaps a reference to the city 

 directory, has proved to be enough in actual practice to prevent 

 the issuing of cards to people who wish them simply to make 

 way with the library's books. In spite of this fact, the custom 

 still holds in most libraries of demanding not only the signature 

 of the person who wishes to become a borrower to an elaborate 

 contract this signature to be written at the library itself but 

 also the signature of some accredited citizen who agrees to be- 

 come responsible for the borrower himself. This is entirely 



