APPENDIX A EI 
torical novels! These documents are of interest to the scholar rather 
than to the general public. 
In Manitoba there are two public libraries, that of Winnipeg 
consisting of one central and two branch libraries, and that of Selkirk. 
The former contains 125,000 volumes, buildings and books being 
valued at $304,000; the latter contains about 5,000 volumes, the 
building being valued at about $10,000. 
In Saskatchewan there are ten public libraries, that at Regina 
being the largest with 14,725 volumes of which 6,282, or nearly 43 
per cent are fiction. The circulation at Regina for 1914 was 105,949, 
so that each book on the average was taken out about 7-2 times, 
which is an excellent showing, somewhat marred perhaps by the fact 
that of the works taken out by adults about 74 per cent were fiction, 
and of those taken out by juveniles about 70 per cent were of the same 
class. It is interesting tonote that at oneof the branch librariesin Regina 
provision is made for the foreign population; the circulation numbers 
record 2,840 German books, 397 Russian, and 181 Roumanian. 
Special efforts are made at Regina to interest the school children in 
the library, and to induce them to make use of the books. In every 
way the institution seems to be admirably administered. I have 
not been able to obtain statistics with respect to the nine other public 
libraries in Saskatchewan. The Public Libraries Act of Saskatchewan 
is an enlightened piece of legislation, and is destined to make the lib- 
raries an important educational influence, though their organization 
as a provincial system appears as yet incomplete. 
Alberta has but two public libraries, those at Calgary and Ed- 
monton, the beginnings at other places being regarded as negligible. 
The Calgary library has 25,977 volumes with buildings valued at 
$105,000; the Edmonton library has 35,192 volumes with buildings 
valued at $40,000. In Calgary about 71-2 per cent of the books 
taken out by adults, and about 57-7 per cent of those taken out 
by juveniles are fiction. Juvenile books lent are about 24 per cent. 
of the whole. In Edmonton about 79-5 per cent of books taken 
out by adults, and about 71-9 per cent of those taken out by juveniles 
are fiction. Juvenile books lent are about 17 per cent of the whole. 
In 1907 the Legislature passed a Public Libraries Act, modelled 
closely on that of Ontario and permitting the levying of a municipal 
library tax which must not exceed one mill on the dollar of assessment. 
Up to the present but little use appears to have been made of the 
Act; and though the libraries at Calgary and Edmonton are well 
administered, there seems to be no provincial library system, nor 
does there seem to be an official recognition of public libraries as part 
of the educational system of the Province. 
