A Library Primer (1899)/Chapter XI

The selection of books should be left to the librarian, under the general direction of trustees or book committee.

There should be made at the start a collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, gazetteers, and scientific compendiums, which should not be lent. The extent of this collection will depend on the scope and purposes of the library. No library, however small, can dispense with some books of reference. But for a small library don't buy expensive works. The Encyclopædia Britannica is an example of what not to get.

There must be taken into consideration, in determining the character of the books to be purchased, these factors among others:

a) Presence or absence of other libraries in the vicinity, and their character, if present.

b) The avowed purposes of the free, tax-supported public library, to-wit: 1) To help people to be happy; 2) to help them to become wise; 3) to encourage them to be good.

c) The amount of money to be expended and the sum that will probably be available for each succeeding year.

d) The manner in which the books are to be used; whether they are to be lent, or are to be used only for reference, or are to form both a reference and a lending library.

e) The class of people by whom they are to be used, and if children, whether for school work only, or for general reading, or for both.

f) The occupations and leading local interests of the community.

g) The character and average degree of intelligence of the community.

h) The habits, as to reading and study, of those who will use the library.

The village library, in its early days, can well afford to begin at the level of the community's average reading. At the same time it must always try to go a little ahead of the demands of the people, and develop a taste and desire for the very best books it can get. The masses of the people have very little of literary culture. It is the purpose of the public library to develop this by creating in them the habit of reading. As a rule people read books which are above their own intellectual and moral standard, and hence are benefited by reading. The reading of books generally leads to the reading of better books.

Then do not aim too high. Avoid trash, but do not buy literature which will not be read simply because it is standard or classic. Remember that the public library is a popular institution in every sense of the word; that it has become possible only by the approval of the majority of the population, and that the majority of the population is confined in its turn to a majority of people of the most commonplace kind.

Do not pander to any sect, creed, or partisan taste. Buy largely books costing from 50 cents to $2, found in so many of the series now published. These are fresh, up-to-date, written for the most part by competent men, and are reliable. They are not dull, because no one can afford to be dull in a 12mo volume. As a general thing they are well made, supplied with maps and illustrations when needed, and have indexes. Put much of your money into the history, travel, and literature of your own country first, and then see what you have left for Greece and Rome. The common people nowadays should be encouraged in their interest in their own country, its description, history, politics, biography, mineral resources, literature. The people will inquire for these books, and they should be provided for them. Wait until the library is larger before investing much money in the history of worn out empires, simply because such and such a person wants them, or because some library anywhere from two to twenty times as large has them. Use common sense and much of it.

Put into the people's hands books worthy of their respect, then insist that they be handled carefully and treated always with consideration. Expensive books; that is, books which are first-class in paper, ink, and binding, are generally better worth their cost than cheap ones.

In the first purchases buy largely for children. They are the library's best pupils. They are more easily trained to enjoy good books than their elders. Through them the homes are best reached. They will, by their free use of the library, and by their approval of it, do much to add to its popularity. The best books for children will be enjoyed by all.

In selecting fiction, get from the older librarians a statement of what are the most popular of the wholesome novels found on their shelves. A better guide than this it will be difficult to find. Fiction is of the greatest value in developing a taste for reading. Everyone should be familiar with the great works of imagination. Nearly all the greatest literature of the world is fiction. The educational value of the novel is not often questioned.

But don't buy a novel simply because it is popular. If you follow that line you will end with the cheapest kind of stuff. Some librarians pretend that they must buy to please the public taste; that they can't use their own judgment in selecting books for a library which the public purse supports. Why these librarians don't supply the Police gazette it is difficult to understand. "The public" would like it—some of them. We select school committees and superintendents and teachers to run our schools. We ask them to inform themselves on the subject and give us the best education they can. They don't try to suit everybody. They try to furnish the best. Library trustees and librarian are in a like case. The silly, the weak, the sloppy, the wishy-washy novel, the sickly love story, the belated tract, the crude hodge-podge of stilted conversation, impossible incident, and moral platitude or moral bosh for children—these are not needed. It is as bad to buy them and circulate them, knowingly, as it would be for our school authorities to install in our schoolrooms as teachers romantic, giggling girls and smarty boys. Buy good novels, those the wise approve of, in good type, paper, and binding; keep plenty of copies of each on hand; put them where your readers can handle them; add a few each year of the best only of the latest novels, and those chiefly on trial (not to be bought again if found not to have real merit) and your public will be satisfied, and your library will be all the time raising the taste of the community.

Some books should not be put, at least not without comment, into the hands of young people. Other books, some people think, should not be read by young people. Other books, some people think, should not be in a public library at all. A good course to follow in regard to such books is to consider the temper of your community and put into the library as many of them as are noteworthy in a literary way as your public and your resources permit.

In other departments follow at first the guidance of some one of the good book lists now available.

Books on zoölogy, geology, and botany should be by American in preference to foreign authors. In all departments select the latest editions, and, at first, the recent book rather than the older book.

The proportion of books in the different departments of knowledge must vary greatly in different libraries. The following is a good general guide:

Local interest should be fostered by buying freely books on local history and science and books by local authors.

The librarian should keep informed of coming events, and see that the library is provided with the books for which there is sure to be a future demand. He should avoid personal hobbies and be impartial on all controversial questions. He should not be overconfident in his knowledge of what will elevate and refine the community.

It is better to buy 10 extra copies of a wholesome book wanted by the public than one copy each of 10 other books which will not be read.

Do not waste time, energy, and money—certainly not in the early days of the library—in securing or arranging public documents, save a few of purely local value. Take them if offered and store them.

Do not be too much impressed by the local history plea, and spend precious money on rare volumes or old journals in this line.

Certain work can judiciously be done toward collecting and preserving materials for local history that will involve neither expense nor much labor, and this the librarian should do. Do not turn the public library, which is chiefly to be considered as a branch of a live, everyday system of popular education, into a local antiquarian society; but simply let it serve incidentally as a picker-up of unconsidered trifles. A wide-awake, scholarly librarian will like his town, and delight in at least some study of its antecedents. And such a librarian need not be a crank, but must needs be an enterprising, wide-awake, appreciative student, who can scent the tastes and needs of posterity.

Put no money into rare books. A book which was out of print 10 years or 200 years ago, and has not insisted upon republication since, has, ordinarily, no place in the active, free public library. If you get it, sell it and buy a live book.

The free public library should encourage its readers to suggest books not in the library, by providing blanks for that purpose, and paying courteous attention to all requests.

Ask by letter, by circulars, and by notes in the local papers, for gifts of books, money, and periodicals. Acknowledge every gift. Remember that one who has helped the library, be it ever so little, has thereby become interested in it, and is its friend.