A GREAT CITY LIBRARY 



The Annual Meeting of the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba 

 was held March 8th in the Y.M.C.A. building, Winnipeg. Of the iv.o 

 papers read, one was by the President of the Society, the Rev. Dr. Bryce. 

 His subject, " A Great City Library," is of much importance to every class 

 of citizen. The following is the President's Address: — 



A full and well-selected Public Library is as necessary to the city as 

 the Board of Trade, the Parks Board or the Humane Society. At first 

 sight many persons may question this. The conception some have of a 

 Public Library is that it is a mere exchange for novel readers, a resort in 

 which to look up the latest magazines, and perhaps a haven for those of 

 more culture to get at the public expense the latest literary critique on the 

 revival of the Bronte cult, or more information on the interminable dispute 

 as to Carlyle and his domestic infelicities. 



These and like purposes the Public Library no doubt does serve. But 

 these are not the main purposes of a well provided library that takes seriously 

 the spread of knowledge or the increase of intelligence among the people. 

 General culture is certainly the purpose of the library, but when the city 

 undertakes a library it should aim at providing works for consultation on the 

 practical side of life — especially is this so in Winnipeg. 



Winnipeg is more than four hundred miles from St. Paul and Minnea- 

 polis — the nearest point where a great public library may be expected to rise ; 

 it is thirteen hundred from Toronto or Ottawa, the nearest Canadian cities 

 where a sufficient concentration of population and means is likely to provide 

 a great library. 



The isolated position of Winnipeg as the one great city of Western 

 Canada throws the greater responsibility on it to provide books — expensive 

 books — to supply information for our Western Provinces. Books are needed 

 — books covering all departments of the social, educational and legislative 

 demands of the provincial life. The city has many requirements — indus- 

 trial, manufacturing, business, statistical, legal, artistic, aesthetic, athletic, 

 intellectual and religious. 



