The Audubon Societies 



237 



LIBRARIES AND BIRD-PROTECTION 



The public libraries in the United 

 States and Canada number perhaps 6,000, 

 not counting those of schools and colleges. 

 New York State alone has 576 according to 

 last accounts, and no considerable town or 

 village in New England lacks something of 

 the sort. All these ought to be, and most 

 of them are in varying degree, not only 

 reservoirs of information but fountains of 

 improving influence. Whether this latter 

 usefulness is exerted depends largely on 

 the initiative and energy of the librarian, 

 but in many cases where this is not appar- 

 ent it may be. roused, willingly enough, 

 by tactful suggestions from without. 



One of the directions in which a library 

 may serve its community well is in 

 stimulating and promoting an interest in 

 birds and bird-protection among the 

 younger readers of its books. A long list 

 of libraries might be made that have done 

 this to great advantage, and some of them 

 have been conspicuous in this service. In 

 Columbus, Ohio, for example, in Brook- 

 line, Mass., and elsewhere, the library has 

 furnished not only a reading-room for 

 flourishing Audubon Societies or bird 

 clubs, but space for extensive exhibitions 

 that have awakened the whole town to the 

 value of the subject. 



Many librarians have been themselves 

 the organizers of bird clubs. Junior Audu- 

 bon Classes, and similar movements, and 

 have freely opened their facilities for 

 study. One such, in California, has placed 

 dozens of nesting-boxes, food-tables, baths 

 and other bird-attracting apparatus on 

 the library grounds, and has gathered 

 about her a club of more than 150 school- 

 teachers and pupils. 



When such personal leadership is not 

 taken, much may yet be done by a 

 librarian to help in this matter. The need 

 of books of reference for bird-students 

 should be recognized and such books sup- 

 plied. Some of them are too costly to be 

 bought by the ordinary child, yet should 

 be accessible to him. It is the function 

 of the library to provide them. Such peri- 

 odicals as Bird-Lore, The Condor, and 



