Miscellaneous Papers. 321 



FUTURE OF THE KANSAS ACADEMY LIBRARY AND 

 BOOK COLLECTIONS IN THE STATEHOUSE. 



By J. T. LovEWELL, Topeka. 



npHERE are in our statehouse collections of books which, if 

 ^ united under one administration, would give us by far the 

 largest library in Kansas. 



First, we have the state library, which is directly under the 

 management of the justices of the supreme court, who appoint the 

 librarian and make rules for the acquisition, care and use of books, 

 in accordance with the statutes enacted from time to time. Natur- 

 ally, it was at first a law library, and this feature must ever con- 

 tinue its foremost purpose. The exchanges among the states of 

 court reports and legislative proceedings bring a constantly in- 

 creasing influx of books which are indispensable to lawyers, and no 

 other law libraries can claim to equal our state libraries in the ex- 

 tent and richness of this class of books. 



But our state library is not limited to legal treatises. Annual 

 appropriations are made for the purchase of books of any kind, and 

 exchanges are also made of our state publications for books of 

 every character published by other states or institutions. It is a 

 repository to which are sent all publications of the government at 

 Washington, many departments of which are prolific of books. 

 The statutes provide for all expenses of this library, and its print- 

 ing and binding are done at the state printing plant, on requisition 

 of the librarian. The Stormont medical library is a distinct de- 

 partment of the state library, under charge of the state librarian, 

 who acts with a committee of the State Medical Society in making 

 rules and purchasing books from the income of the Stormont fund 

 of $5000. 



The traveling library is under charge of another commission, 

 three of whom are appointed by the justices, and the fourth is the 

 president of the Social Federation of Clubs. This organization 

 was started by the Kansas Federation of Women's Clubs, and de- 

 signed to disseminate the advantages of books throughout the state 

 where there are no large libraries, and is proving very acceptable 

 to the general public. The legislature of 1909 made provision for 

 still another branch of the state library, to be known as "the legis- 

 lative reference library," but it is not a distinct commission, and, 

 so far as at present developed, is in the hands of an assistant, who 

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