EDITOR'S TABLE. 



123 



TEE LIBRARY AS A LABORATORY. 



What the old proverb says of fire 

 that it is "a good servant but a bad 

 master" might with truth be applied 

 to books. It was the great defect of 

 the old-fashioned education that books 

 were allowed to get the mastery over 

 the pupil. But now, that the immedi- 

 ate study of things has gained the as- 

 cendency in the modern mode of teach- 

 ing many subjects, care must be taken 

 not to run into the opposite extreme, 

 and disregard books altogether. How 

 much aid a well-managed collection of 

 books can give to the student in any field 

 is clearly pointed out by Mr. George lies 

 in an article on The Library in Educa- 

 tion, published in The Week, of Toronto. 

 He says that, " although deposed from 

 the supreme station they once held, they 

 now occupy a place but little lower, and 

 a place broadened.by the scope of ideas 

 new in education. Every important ob- 

 servation, experiment, experience in any 

 of the unnumbered fields of science, or 

 of teaching, soon gets itself printed in a 

 book. Thus printed, it is in no sense 

 a substitute for individual use of eyes, 

 hands, and brain, but gives all these 

 information, guidance, suggestion, of 

 worth incalculable. . . . While in the 

 study of architecture, geology, or en- 

 gineering, the library is of increasing 

 worth as an aid to work and practice, 

 there are fields of research where it be- 

 comes the workshop itself. Research 

 in law, history, philosophy, economics, 

 literature generally, can only be pursued 

 where books are gathered together and 

 rightly ordered." The phrase " rightly 

 ordered " is an allusion to the immense 

 increase of value that librarians are now 

 giving to the collections in their charge 

 through improved organization. For- 

 merly the librarian deemed his duty 

 done if he faithfully guarded the books 

 in his care from loss or injury, and the 

 less they were used the less apprehen- 

 sions he had for their safety. The libra- 

 rian that is now coming to the front is 

 a being of a different kind. He is trained 



for his profession, and he has a much 

 broader conception of the work that be- 

 longs to him. " The new idea is," says 

 Mr. lies, "that he shall so vitalize his 

 library, that to make his books attract- 

 ive and useful shall be his chiefest care. 

 To that end he must know how to order 

 them and indicate their contents, so that 

 the whole capital intrusted to him shall 

 be instantly available for any inquirer's 

 purpose. He must be able to give seek- 

 ers guidance, have the tact and sympathy 

 to stimulate research, the kindly enthu- 

 siasm which promotes study by inviting 

 it to helpful stepping-stones." A libra- 

 ry under such management rises to the 

 plane of efficiency occupied by the labor- 

 atory. A modern laboratory designed 

 for students in one of the sciences, with 

 its convenient desks, drawers, and lock- 

 ers, its rows of bottles containing re- 

 agents, its apparatus especially devised 

 for the work to be done, its arrange- 

 ments for water, gas, and steam, its 

 compartments set off to secure special 

 conditions of light, air, or temperature, 

 and its collections systematically ar- 

 ranged for the comparison of specimens, 

 is a most satisfactory place to work in 

 To say that the modern library is ap- 

 proaching this character is the highest 

 praise that we can give it. 



Mr. lies devotes the rest of his article 

 to paying a well-deserved tribute to Mr. 

 Melvil Dewey, now Secretary to the 

 Board of Eegents of the University of 

 New York, and Librarian of the State 

 Library at Albany, as being one of the 

 leading spirits in bringing about modern 

 reforms in library administration. Be- 

 fore going to Albany, Mr. Dewey was for 

 five years Chief Librarian at Columbia 

 College, during which time he produced 

 there one of the finest examples of a 

 modern working library. The Colum- 

 bia College Library is open all day and 

 in the evening throughout the year, ex- 

 cept Sundays and Good Friday ; it has 

 a card-catalogue, which is the only kind 

 that can be kept constantly up to date ; 

 in this catalogue the titles are arranged 



