LIBRARY ECONOMY. PROGRESS OP. 



427 



sioner of Education (1884-'85) on library statis- 

 tics. 



This paper therefore takes up tin' subject in 

 its various brandies at that, point, bringing sta- 

 tistics, etc., up to date as far as possible, Fort n- 

 natcly for our purpose, appears just at this time 

 the second special " Report on the Public Libra- 

 rie- of the United States," as well as the "Sta- 

 tistics of Public Libraries in the United States 

 and Canada," for 1891, by West on Flint, statis- 

 tician of the Bureau of Kducation (Washington, 

 1893). The present has been called the golden 

 age of libraries in America; that it is so is due, 

 nmre than to any other cause, to the appreci- 

 ation of the work of libraries by the Federal 

 ami State governments, and to the generous 

 aid they have given to the undertakings of the 

 Library Association. Commissioner Harris, in 

 ln> letter of transmittal, says: 



Next after the school and the daily newspaper 

 dines the library in instructive power. These three 

 institutions are the great secular means which our 

 people have to prepare themselves for their singular 

 destiny. The school, for the most part, finds its func- 

 tion in teaching how to read ; the newspaper and tin- 

 library furnish what to read. It is clear that one ot 

 tlie moot important interests in education is to be 

 found in connecting closely the common school with 

 the public library. It is common to call a person 

 educated who. knows the rudimentary branches. . . . 

 I!y these he is enabled to help himself to the infor- 

 mation and wisdom stored up in the library. He is 

 prepared to begin the work of educating himself. To 

 M educated in any true sense of the word, he must 

 use the library, and master the experience of man- 

 kind. The scliool gives the preliminary preparation 

 for education, and the library gives the means by 

 which the individual completes and accomplishes his 

 education. 



Mr. Harris discusses at some length the ad- 

 vantages and disadvantages of both oral and 

 text-book methods of teaching, and says : " The 

 American school has some sort of justification 

 for its much-blamed adherence to the text-book 

 method. . . . What is good in our American 

 system points toward this preparation of the 

 pupil for independent study of the book by him- 

 self. It points toward acquiring the ability of 

 self-education by means of the library." He 

 then mentions a ' practical device " by which the 

 common school and the library can work to- 

 gether to the great advantage of the student, 

 namely, supplementary reading at home, and, 

 calling the library "the most important link in 

 the great movement that has recently spread 

 hither from England university and school ex- 

 tension," adds : 



Another great point is, that the books are taken 

 home by the pupils into families who have no accu- 

 mulation of DOORS, or, at best, only of such books as 

 lack popular interest. These books taken home are 

 picked up by the parents, and older brothers and 

 sisters, and read by them. This makes the supple- 

 mentary reading system an educator of the people as 

 people an extension of the school that is of vital im- 

 jmrtuiice. . . . The school, the newspaper, and tin- 

 library, working together in mutual helpfulness, \\ill 

 form the very potent means of education which is 

 necessary for the universal elevation of the people 

 that characterizes the history of the world al the 

 present day. 



Dr. Norrenberg, custodian University Library, 

 Kiel, Germany, in charge of the German library 

 exhibit at the World's Fair, who has made a 



careful study of American libraries and their 

 administration, said, in an address at < !.. 

 " Yon Americans are kind enough to v a 

 many is ahead in higher education and un: 

 tii-.. but I will say America is ahead of the whole 

 world in the education of the people by public 

 libraries." James 1). Brown, Librarian Clcrken- 

 well Public Library, London, says, in his report 

 to his commissioners of his visit to American 

 libraries and to the World's Congress of tl 

 lumbian Exposition: "In one very important 

 respect the American libraries are superior to 

 those of Britain, and that is the closer connec- 

 tion which has been established between schools 

 and other parts of the educational machinery 

 of the country. This has resulted in a more 

 generous recognition of public libraries than 

 has been obtained in Britain, and furnishes an 

 example which might well be copied by our 

 government, when an extended scheme of educa- 

 tion comes to be considered." 



It is undoubtedly along this line of new de- 

 parture that the libraries of the United States 

 have made their greatest and most admirable 

 progress in the past ten years. The function of 

 the public library as a public educator having 

 been recognized by Federal, State, and munici- 

 pal governments, the libraries' department is 

 everywhere being rapidly organized as a legiti- 

 mate and necessary part of the educational sys- 

 tem. The other forms of school and school-dis- 

 trict libraries having been found faulty and 

 cumbersome in mechanical detail (entailing upon 

 the school management duties and labor, addi- 

 tional to the work of teaching, impossible to 

 carry on efficiently and successfully), these libra- 

 ries are being, in many parts of the country, 

 merged in the public libraries. Several of t In- 

 largest and finest libraries of the United States 

 are of this class notably the Public Library of 

 St. Louis a model of its kind. The schools are 

 relieved of the care of their necessarily small col- 

 lections of books, and are given all possible priv- 

 ileges in the use of the large libraries, which 

 themselves, being usually under the control of 

 the boards of education, are being specially 

 adapted to educational work. This is the cen- 

 tral idea of the unique and new library law of 

 the State of New York, which places all such in- 

 stitutions under the control of the Regents of the 

 University. As an adjunct of university exten- 

 sion work, traveling libraries, with their anno- 

 tated lists and appliances for carrying on the 

 work of the library, are sent out free of charge 

 from the Public Libraries Department of the 

 State Library at Albany to any town or village 

 of the State which may make application for 

 such privileges to the Regents of the University. 



Another growing educational feature of the 

 public libraries is their union, usually under one 

 roof, with art, industrial, and trade institutes. 

 as the Buffalo Library and the Pratt Institute of 

 Brooklyn. This kind of library has notable ex- 

 amples of long standing in England, as the Bir- 

 mingham Public Library and Art Institute, and 

 the Liverpool Free Library. 



Statistics. The following is a summary of 

 the second volume of "Statistics of Public Li- 

 braries in the United States," issued in 1892 : 



The list in the flret volume endeavored to record all 

 libraries of 300 or more volumes, while the second 



