LIBRARY CENSORS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11750, 26 November 1903, Page 6

LIBRARY CENSORS.

TO Tlrt EDITOR OF TBC PRF.9S. Sir, —Permit mc to say, wish reference to your reply to my tetter, that it'does not foilow. bctaus* tniue is uwd in iwlecitTifr books, that the library should be brought to the level of a Sunday School affair. It is quite true that many of our standard pcct-tT and early-dramatists" writings ar* highly objectionable, yet they are in the library. Xo library would be complete without them. In many cast**, however,-tbx-y aro in the reference section, and, in any "case, this literature is not in general circulation amongst subscribers. What is desirable, as you admit, is that the general tone of r.he library should bu of a healthy character, and experience shows that probably at least 90 per cent, of the books taken out is unfortunately of the fiction class. It is all the mere necessary, therefore, that tha institution should not be the medium of circulating amongst the youth of our city highly debatable works which tend to *ur;deraine morality and Rip the very foundations of our social life. I confess I may be a bit antiquated in taking theee views, but holding them, I prefer to err on the side of caution rather than.in the opposite direction. Possibly all my colleagues on the Library Committee do not share my views, ac I may say that only recently a novel came into any hands from the library, vrhich, after perusal, I declined to allow any of the members of my family to read. Having taid so much, I do not think further correspondence on my part is necessary, except to add that the men who control the reading of a community havo a great responsibility, and too much care cannot be token in carrying out their duties. Personally, as those who know mc will ndmit, I am not very straight-laced, but I know too well the tremendous influence exerted by literature on national and individual life, not to realise the importance of weking 1o promote pure and elevating reading.—Yours, etc., G. W. RUSSELL. [We fully agree with our correspondent that "those who control the reading of a community have a great responsibility, and too much care cannot be taken in carrying out their duties." When, he tells us, however, as he did ye&torday in effect, that, as a member of the Public Library Committee he has made it a rule to place no book on the shelves of the library which lie would not put into the hands of a young girl, we feel bound to pay that lie has mistaken both the nature of the institution and his own duties and functions in relations thereto.—Ed. "The Press."]