PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 99 



a lock and key, and so cai-efully packed that it could be safely shipped by freight. 

 It was provided with a complete but simple system of blank records, so that it could 

 be placed upon a table or counter, unlocked, and be ready for as effective and 

 methodical work as any larger circulating library. In order to insure good care 

 for the volumes and a continuous local interest, the libraries were only sent to 

 communities which organized a local library association of twenty members who 

 agreed to care for the books and to place them where they would circulate freely 

 under the simple library rules prescribed. Each local association elected a secretary, 

 who acted as its executive officer, and each paid a fee of one dollar for each library 

 as a partial payment of the transportation charges. 



Twenty-six libraries in one county were sent out in this way. They were visited 

 about two months after by ]\Ir. Hutchins, and he found them even more popular 

 than had been expected. The most interesting accounts are given of the avidity 

 with which the young especially seized the books. The movement is yet too young 

 to allow of accurate statistics, yet they have proved that in Wisconsin, as in New 

 York and Michigan, they supply an urgent need that has not been supplied by any 

 other agency. 



They have carried into hundreds of homes new thoughts and information, higher 

 aspirations and ideals, new forces that are making for a better individual, family and 

 social life. Their books are warmly welcomed by families whose doors are closed 

 to the reformer or the missionary. Hundreds of small communities in Wisconsin 

 have attempted to do such work for themselves, but have nearly always failed. They 

 have raised money by entertainments or private subscriptions, and liave started 

 libraries with high hopes. In most cases their selection of books has been unfor- 

 tunate, and when the few entertaining books have been read by most of the patrons 

 and no new volumes are added the popular interest dies, and the library is either 

 put in an obscure place or its volumes are scattered. 



By the new system only wholesome and entertaining books are bought, and 

 they are constantly appealing to new readers until worn out by use, and not merely 

 shelf worn. Every six inonths a library is new to some public, and its arrival is a 

 matter of comment and draws new interest to the library station. The books are 

 bought at the lowest, and substantial editions are selected. They can be occasionally 

 examined and repaired, an important economy, for with books as with clothing, a 

 " stitch in time saves nine." In the making of rules and regulations a wide body 

 of experience can be drav/n upon, and in the printing much economy exercised. 



Finally, it practically takes the selection of the reading, of great numbers of 

 untrained readers from the hands of blind chance, and puts it in the custody of 

 trained experts, who can draw for assistance upon the library experience of the 

 world. Our great and costly system of public schools works unceasingly to teach 

 children how to read and then leaves too many of them to go through their adult 

 lives without using that power to the best advantage, because of lack of opportunity. 



The travelling libraries offer an unexpectedly cheap, efficient and practicable 

 method of broadening our educational system to include in its beneficent purposes 

 every one who goes out from the brief course of our common schools, and to enable 

 them to pursue a life-long system of education. 



Such a system as has been described seems feasible in Ontario. No part of 

 the Province is beyond reach by rail or steamer, and in no part need there be lack 

 of readers. Our school system, by providing school sections of moderate area, each 

 with its school-house and teacher, seems to have placed the machinery ready to 

 hand. In Wisconsin about one-third of the libraries are kept in the postoflfice. one- 

 half in farm houses and the remainder in small stores. But with the school master 

 as librarian and the school-house as the distributing post, the most widely-scattered 

 farm population could be easily reached, while the results of the daily tasks would 

 be more satisfactory. By supplying also in this way the smaller existing Public 

 Libraries, which are barely able to add to their collections, boxes of lOO new books 



