STUDIES ON MUSEUMS AND KINDRED INSTITUTIONS. 407 



conse(}uentl y the gToate.st imag-inable liberalit}' prevails, together with 

 exemphiry and painstaking order. An}- resident of Butialo may bor- 

 row any book for fourteen days free. A neglect to follow any of the 

 rules is punished by tines, which in 1899 reached a total of $2,750." 

 The librar}" is open dail}" from 8.30 or 9 a. m. to 9 p. m. (with electric 

 lighting); also on Saturda3^s and holidays from 11 a. m. to 9 p. m., 

 I)ut on these da3's books are not loaned out. The children's depart- 

 ment is open on school days from 2.30 p. m. until or 7 p. m., and 

 on Saturdays and holida3^s, that is to sav% days on which the schools 

 are closed, from 9 a. m. until 6 or 7 p. m.; Sunda\^ from 2 p. m. until 

 6 p. m. 



Each room has direct telephone communication with ever}^ other 

 room. The building being fireproof, it is thought sufficient to depend 

 upon vigilance without any other precautionary measures. The heat- 

 ing is by steam. The engines are located in a separate house. 



A characteristic feature of this library, which, indeed, exists else- 

 where, though only in a few places, is the open-shelf department. A 

 collection of 17,000 volumes, in wall cases in a room 70 by 30 feet 

 large, is here, under supervision, directly accessible to the public, not 

 only to read on the spot, but particularly to choose for home use. 

 Anyone can go right up to the shelves and take the books out. This is 

 not a so-called reference library, such as every important lil)rary pos- 

 sesses in reference works, dictionaries, and the like (there is also sucii 

 a reference librarj' of 2,000 volumes), but the section was established in 

 order to afford the reader an opportunity to select the books them- 

 selves instead of by title only. This method is so popular that in 

 1899 each book was loaned out on an average sixteen times. The col- 

 lection also includes German (S77) and French l)ooks. Of the 17,000 

 volumes, 10,000 relate to fiction. 



In 1899, 888,000 volumes, all told, were loaned out to 57,000 per- 

 sons in three hundred and live days,* of which 67 per cent were fic- 



f' A book may l)e taken out for fourteen daj's and once renewed for an equal length 

 of time. Some new books are lent for one week only. Whoever keeps a book over 

 time is Hned two cents a da}'. The comparatively large total of fines is composed 

 almost entirely of fines for one, two, or three days. Compensation must be made 

 for damages, and lost books must be replaced. Whoever fails to meet his obligations 

 receives no more l)ooks. 



In the New York State Lil)rary at All)any (previously referred to) there is a fine of 

 one cent a day for keeping a book over time. For taking a book out of the library 

 without having it entered the fine is 50 cents. The rules are here very detailed in 

 their conception (see Eighty-first Annual Rei)ort of the New York State Library, 

 1899, pp. 63-67). Formerly in a small town of Ontario, Canada, a borrower was fined 

 a half a farthing per shilling of its value for every drop of tallow which lie allowed 

 to fall on a book. This rule is so curious tliat I can not refrain from, mentioning it. 



''The Boston Public Library lent out 1,200,000 books in 1898, the public library 

 in Chicago 1,P.00,000 (1899, 1,700,000), that in Philadelphia 1,600,000, that m Cleve- 

 land 900,000, St. Louis 600,000, Pittsburg 100,000, Indianapolis ;>00, 000, etc. 



