Page:Library Legislation - Yust - 1921.djvu/7

Rh to insure the preservation and usefulness of the books. Hence interest declined, the books gradually disappeared, and the plan was abandoned. In the rural sections the school district was too small a unit while in the towns and cities a different method of organization was developing.

Although these school libraries were acknowledged failures, they nevertheless performed a useful function in preparing public sentiment for another step in advance. Their value was twofold: they embodied the theory strongly advocated by so eminent an educator as Horace Mann that public libraries are an essential part of a complete system of public education. In this way they were instrumental in educating the people to the need and value of reading. At the same time they served as an important object-lesson in the proper method of library support, namely, through public taxation. The New York law creating them is "the first known law of a state allowing the people to tax themselves to maintain genuine public libraries." They are therefore properly "acknowledged to have been the transition link between the subscription library and the town library."

Some large modern libraries organized and are still operating under this type of law with modifications. Notable examples are the public libraries of Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Kansas City.

In 1848 a special law was passed by Massachusetts authorizing the city of Boston to levy a tax of $5,000 for the support of a free public library. In 1849 New Hampshire passed a similar law, but made it apply to the entire state, as Massachusetts did two years later on the application of other cities and towns. This extension of the provisions of the Boston law from one city to all the cities and towns in the state marks the third stage of legislative development. New Hampshire therefore has the honor of having enacted the first general law for establishing and maintaining free public libraries by towns through municipal taxation.