OTHER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 397 



"rural betterment" passed current, if not, indeed, before it had 

 been coined, many attempts were made to open to the country 

 boy and girl the educational opportunities found in good books 

 and to relieve the dull monotony of the country life by attractive 

 reading matter. In at least thirty-three states efforts are now 

 being made to send good books to country districts. 



Sometimes the books are furnished by the public library of an 

 adjoining city. Occasionally a township supplies its own needs 

 with local funds. In many cases the county is the unit and owns 

 and circulates the books. Most frequently, however, the work is 

 done by state library commissions, which, by sending out travel- 

 ing libraries, reach hundreds of communities which otherwise 

 would be without books. In a few instances the books have been 

 taken to the very door of the farmhouse, as in Delaware and in 

 Maryland, where book wagons make periodical rounds. There 

 traveling libraries are collections of from thirty-five to one hun- 

 dred books which are packed in stout wooden cases and sent out 

 by the state or the county, as the case may be. They are made 

 up of the best popular books in fiction, history, travel, biography, 

 science and literature, and are suited to the needs of both adults 

 and children. Where there is a local need there may be added 

 a selection of books printed in German, Norwegian, Bohemian, 

 Danish, Polish or Yiddish in order that those older rural resi- 

 dents who cannot read the English language may be served. 

 All forms of the traveling library are intended for farming 

 communities and for those small villages which do not enjoy 

 public library privileges. 



If a few persons in a community are sufficiently interested in 

 any subject to make a serious study of it they are furnished a 

 collection of books which, with a study outline, enable them to 

 constitute themselves a study club. There is practically no limit 

 to the number of topics which may be studied in this way. Ma- 

 terial of various kinds, books, pamphlets, periodicals, and pic- 

 tures will be sent upon' any subject from Egyptian history to 

 the latest phase of the up-to-date sociological problem. The de- 

 sires of every one are met as nearly as possible, whether he wishes 

 to make a study of Flemish art or to learn the best way of pre- 

 venting potato so;il>. 



When the people of any community have read a library it is 



