LIBRARY PROGRESS IN AMERICA. 135 



public libraries. The Wisconsin commission has furnished the model 

 which has generally been followed in the west, while the Massachusetts 

 commission has been the type for the eastern states. The western 

 commissions have had somewhat more legal authority, as well as larger 

 sums to expend, and have usually employed more officers than have 

 those in the east. The future will doubtless see an extension of this 

 benevolent state supervision and help. It must be confessed that no 

 other influence has been so potent in the improvement of the condition 

 and administration of the smaller and more backward libraries as 

 these commissions. They have fully justified their right to exist. 

 They have also furthered to a remarkable extent the creation of new 

 libraries in communities not previously possessing them. ' Traveling 

 libraries/ small collections of some fifty books, have been called into 

 being and managed largely through the commissions. These small 

 collections are sent to rural communities, and even to places in large 

 cities where they are desired, are kept for a few weeks, and exchanged 

 for another set. They have commended themselves most highly to 

 those interested in bringing books to people who have few or none. 



This leads us naturally to a consideration of what may be termed 

 the missionary spirit in library work. It may be remarked in passing 

 that this seems a peculiarly American development, and that in general 

 a growing consciousness of the possibilities a high and useful service 

 in the life of the municipality has been one of the conspicuous features 

 of the public library movement. The librarian who regards himself 

 as a missionary of the book has been much in evidence of late, and on 

 the whole has been both efficient and sane. The idea that he is a cus- 

 todian of books merely has ceased in large measure to be the librarian's 

 conception of his office. He is rather a guide and helper to the use of 

 books. " The best that can be said for any book in this library," said 

 an enthusiastic leader in this sort of work, " is that it is entirely worn 

 out, and we must buy two new copies of it." This was in answer to the 

 faint protest of an elder librarian to the effect that children should 

 not be allowed in libraries because they wore out the books by reading 

 them so much. This zeal for helping others to books, to the right 

 books, has resulted in many reforms in the internal arrangement of 

 library buildings and in the relations of the administration to the 

 public. As a rule, the newer libraries are allowing a great amount of 

 freedom in direct access to the shelves on the part of all users of the 

 library. Many of the more recent buildings have been planned so that 

 the visitor may go directly to the shelves, and many of the older 

 buildings have been remodeled to permit this practise. In almost every 

 way this has been a gain. There has come with it no small loss of 

 books, but that loss is insignificant in view of the greatly increased use 

 of the libraries which has resulted from easy personal contact with 



