18 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
be occupied by those of another course. In supplying these clubs 
with the books necessary for carrying on their studies we are able to 
make a comparatively small library of great educational use.” 
The Osterhout Free Library, at Wilkesbarre, Penn., is an interest- 
ing architectural example of a church building transferred into a 
library. Special attention is directed here to the children’s depart- 
ment. The librarian, Miss H. P. James, says of this department of 
her library: — “In selecting our books, I was careful to leave out all 
sensational reading and give the preference to stories with some his- 
torical basis. We have a good store of Henty’s books, and have 
appended a note to each entry, showing the time of the incidents 
covered. Of course we have also all the books of Coffin, Drake, Knox, 
Butterworth, French and Scudder. In the reference room I have a 
goodly constituency of small readers with ragged clothes, not very clean 
faces, but their hands are clean. The lavatory close by the door is 
visited before they come to me for books, as they have learned that 
it is indispensable. I feared that the beauty of the room might ,be 
a little forbidding, but they don’t mind it in the least. A better 
behaved set than the little ragamuffins are, it would be hard to find.” 
This feature of modern librarianship—the reaching out after the 
children, bringing them into the library, placing them at their ease 
in a special room where tables and chairs are made to fit their small 
bodies, and providing them with the books they desire — is one of 
the most notable and praiseworthy developments in American libraries. 
Nearly all the best city libraries in the United States have special 
provision for children, a children’s department, where they are wel- 
comed sympathetically, and taught at the very threshold of life to 
cultivate the love of reading and the love of good books. 
One of the largest and most progressive of the western libraries 
is that of Cincinnati, which was established on its present footing in 
1867. It contains about 150,000 books, besides pamphlets. The 
main library is a very handsome and well-equipped building, and there 
are two branches besides. 
The Newberry Library, in Chicago, is chiefly notable on account 
of its unique plan for classifying and arranging books, devised and 
carried out by Dr. Poole, the original compiler of that famous and: 
indispensable work, “ Poole’s Index.” In the Newberry Library the 
several branches of human knowledge are shelved in different rooms, 
arranged on a symmetrical plan, with provision for the addition of 
other rooms as the growth of the library should call for further sub- 
division. The building is simple in form, but substantially constructed, 
and provided with every modern library convenience. Carrying out 
Mr. Poole’s plan, the books are not shelved in stacks, but in a single 
