LIBRARY MUSINGS. — «r» — MERCER-STREET ACADEMY FOR GROWN PEOPLE. AMERICAN METHODS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 47, 25 February 1908, Page 3

LIBRARY MUSINGS. — «r» — MERCER -STREET ACADEMY FOR GROWN PEOPLE. AMERICAN METHODS.

"BOOKS OF REFERENCE." A short little paragraph in Th^ Po?fc Tporntly gave a somewhat ntisiactory iircount of the above, institution It Fl3tcd, among other things, that the subscribors bad becomo njore numerous during the past year; thai the depaitnicnts allocated to v;omen aiid children bad been well pationitcd since initiated. A member of The Poftt staff, with a" full knowledge of the subjret he. was writing about, had given a more accurate idea of tbo institution sonis time previously, and now comes along another ciitic, i\ho may not quite agree with either writer. IS IT UNPOPULAR? The truth about the Wellington Public Library is that it hap not been, and in not now, generally popular. It is perhaps the one educational establishment in the city which is distinctly unpopular. This is not a mere opinion ; it has been demonstrated, more than once or twice, by the citizens themselves. The Wellington burgess is now and again called upon to express his views as to the expediency •or otherwise of raising loans for stated specific purposes. Usually he- stays- at home and leaves the loan alone ; but if even a very small loan is proposed for expenditure in connection with tho library he turns out in sufficient numbers, and with evident determination, to oppose' it, and his emphatic "No!", lesoundu 1 through all the country from Thorndon to Miramar. Hence tli3 loan is nbt sanctioned. Now, when a ratepayer sajs "Xo" in a matter of this kind, he ]n ust have, or must think he has, sound reason for his refusal. It has been proposed, &o one toads, i to send to Chicago, or o&er large city j of the Great Republic, for information and ideas as to the conduct of libraries'. There are eighty -five millions of people in the United Spates, and, of couiso, many hundreds of small :md gieit establishments founded for the education and edification of tho claosas and masses. No doubt these pcopk: have taught, and probably will still teach, the wor'.d many things. They arc the inventors, perfecterf-, discoverers ot a thousand new methods, of hundreds of novel implement?, of uncountable new ' ideas. Their fi^st great achievement was the American axe. Host persons can remember what a clumsy, heavy, ineffective tool the old English axe was. The very shape and appearance of the article suggested the rude barbarian, it was not adapted at I all to the felling of trees in Pennsylvania, nor yet to the American bush and forest clearer. So the new axe was invented, and this weapon cannot ba improved upon ; it will cut down tho lnst tree in the world when the last wcodman attacks it! For the axe is an axe for all time. It is cutious, too, to notice' that tho? very same people who indented the American axe should also invent tho most scientific method known for grinding axes. Thi<s nc\r and useful art — useful, anyhow, 'to a considerable number of axe-grinders — has been acquired by various nations, and into such general favour has the method come that there are -now men grinding axes in al! parts of the earth on the American principle. People, to be sure, who can make shoes without leather may be expected to accomplish nmrfzing feats. POPULAR EDUCATION. With regard to libraries, however, they can do r.o more thin they have already done for inankicd in < tho way of innovation. As in the'^aio of tbo American ax\ th-.?y havo lonjj sihec arrived at perfectionj and (licit? lemains no rnoie to bo j learned. The whole system can be grasprd after tbepsiufcal of* two or throe boohs «md leporta. And there isn't, much 10 learn anyway, provided that the seekers i alter management knowledge are enthuf.hsts in cairying on the work of popular education. In fact, this very word \ ''enthusiasm states the greater part ■ of , the whole case, and tho word ';freo'' almost completes it. On© was cot exact, perhaps, ,in claiming for America." the exclusive discover}- of the magical power cf tho word ./'free" in popularising libraries. The clesire to avail themselves of free things and privileges has eharac* ! terissd the race — the human race — from Ike dawn of history, -Jvay, one may bo almost ceitain that had there been 'a free library anywhere about the land of Eden Eve would have gone in there, dragging Adam after l.er, and only leav- | ing the premises when sho had secured j tlir-ce books, instead of two, to take back I to her/ylvan houi?. Whgft the Americans ! really did was to observe this human I trait and qhsraeteri&ti-c— this ivas-c human pproductt — t ik<v some of it up and turn it to profitable and gocd account. It is a slight modification of the same Hf-tinct that has tilled Cuba-straot with a the shops of John Chinaman, and thus it comes about that a free binana or cnf. halfpenny in tho price of a. dozen oranges I 'has finally handed the Wellington fruit trade oyer to the yellow man and driven John Jtiill to push a coster cait on tho highway. People lilce, in every case, to get full value ior money paid ; but tney love hozthings f-till better, and if those persons who desire to popularise the Wellington libiary would make it a free institution j they Mould achieve their object and ton1 fer 'an immense benefit on the whole com- • munity. And why not '! The building and every book in it belongs to cicmociatic and progressive citizens. Standstill conservatism died in this, country ircTC than a quarter of a century ago, hnd the time has arrived for a liberal oange. We have fecarcely yet understood the immensely influential work done in America and other countries and States by the agenvy of freo hbrane. 1 -. The State of New Hampshire, so fnr hack j-s 189b, enacted a law which made obligatory t^e establishment of free libraries in all towns in thit State of a certain -'.7.3. This carries to its cxtipvne limit' Uic theory now almost universally ac ceptad in tho United States that a' fire public libraiy ranks with the public tjchcol <:s on a gear} 7 for popular ediu-;i-lion, whose maintenance is a duly of the community as a whole,, to us mcmbeis. Tlio present writer, glancing thiough a list of the fref libranes in tho Unilpcl Ktatss, war. amdz-'d at the magnitude of many of these institution* Here are just a few of them, mjlli the number oi printed volumes in circulation in each : — New Haven, 54,824: Fisk, 45,000; Jers.ey City, 72,963; Worcester, 124,196; Vermont, 40,000; Fait Lake City, 14,948 ; Brooklyn, 70.249 ; Utah, 30,000 j New York City, 163,405 ; v NewaTk, 74.687; Butto, 27.150; Mechanics, N.Y., 163,465. , POPULARISING THE LIBRARY 1 . There are other ways, however, of popularising the library, supposing that it is thought pipmaturo to make it entirely free. If the public knew that for the present subscribers,' fee t'.ev could t'tke home any book 'in tbr building not strictly a book of reference, a greatly-l'lru-.i^d number of people would join 1 1 to hbr.iry. It ; war. the laic librarian. .Mr. Rowe, \v)io, ,1 think, first initiated a sysl-pni whitli ha^ fended considerably to makii for unpopularity. There is not in tuis loloin — perhaps auyv. here — a mnn will) morp extensne book know!"d re tlu.i) Mi How p. possessed. A moic uiUciv read mai3 could hardly be found any-

wh<?r-' But, strange io jsay, his very fondness lor books w.'S a disadvantage to the puLlic. Xc loved books as a mother lovos her childien, nnd prudeed to let them out«of his tight, nfrnul they would get foiled or r.pnilcd 'As a con^equunco, nearly cveiy book of liteiary v.'lue w.is daw-ed »s a referenre hook, and could not be tjjwn out of the building. Most of theP 1 volumes — thousands of them— were written to b? read, net nrercly referred to. It is, of coui>e, not rus>y, and occasionally not practicable, to decide at the time of publication what a reference book is. Some novels, for example, become reference books after years have rolled, while otivji- — good leference books maybe when published, such as travels, explorations, and some memoirs —become obsolete as, time passes, and ceare to be of reference value It is obviously ab.suid, however, to place, books like •Hoilcy"? Life of (Gladstone, Kpcncer's Autobiography, or Huxley's Life and Letteis on reference shelves before the pcopb have read them, and to keep £hem still there when everybody wants to react , them. The methods which have practically locked up countless numbsrs of such works iemind one of what the Xoith Queensland blacks did with the slTay white man they found wandering over their desert plains. They made a prisoner of him, but treated him with the greatest kindness. They lormed a wide circle round him, set him in the centre, sat down on the ground, put their elbows on tlieir kriess and their hands under their chins, silently contemplating the clothes and exterior of their captive for hours and hours at a time. He was glad to escape eventually. Nothing worth mentioning is to be gained by contemplating ever so 'vast an array of books on shelves. RICHARDSON RAE.