Page:Library Administration, 1898.djvu/195

 either as dealing with phases of life that are best kept from their knowledge, or as being too valuable to be entrusted to unthinking hands. The limit of age for this purpose is variously fixed in various countries. The severest rule is that of the British Museum, where no one under the age of twenty-one is admitted as a reader. The standard at the French National Library (Salle Publique) is sixteen years. No regulations accept a lower limit than sixteen years, which is the lenient standard of the Government libraries in Italy. The high standard of the British Museum is probably due to its being unconnected with a university, since a rider to the age-regulation provides that the fact of a person being engaged in preparing for an examination shall not be considered as a claim for the relaxation of the age-limit.

The case of popular free libraries is different in this respect. They are, if zealously managed, essentially propagandist, and aim at inducing people to read. To this end they rightly endeavour to catch their readers young, and the juvenile department is the object of particular care. In the United States library authorities sometimes go so far as to placard the town with inviting posters, to compel the children to come in. At a meeting of the Wisconsin Library Association (1897) we find among the papers read one on "The Best Twenty-five Books for a Child Five to Eleven