Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/20

10 Committee with yet a little more than the penny, they would find both committee and librarian ready as before to give a good account of it. From conditions within and around it, Aberdeen occupies a special place as an educational centre, and in that centre the Public Library has a part to play which can be filled by no other institution, and the importance and utility of which are limited only by its resources. As the only public library of any great size north of Dundee, it is as it were a beacon of light and leading for the whole of the north of Scotland. It has ever been for me, as librarian, not the least source of genuine pleasure, even while it was mingled with responsibility, that I have been able to stretch a helping hand to many an inquirer dwelling apart in regions certainly not contemplated by the citizens of Aberdeen when they adopted the Public Libraries Act, but I daresay they make their less favoured fellow-countrymen heartily welcome to any crumbs that fall from their better-spread table.

I ought not to conclude this brief sketch of the Public Library without mention of its good fortune in the matter of book gifts. These have been numerous and varied, but three gifts in particular stand out, conspicuous by their size and value. One of these is the collection of books and handsome bookcases which came from the late Dr. Francis Edmond, of Kingswells, who was throughout a good friend to the Library. It embraces 1,300 volumes of general literature, many of them rare and fine editions of classic works in beautiful binding. Then there is tiie valuable, and in some respects unique, collection of overdo volumes almost exclusively connected with music, and especially with the music of Scotland, which Mr. James Walker, of this city, after spending many years and much money in bringing it together, wisely and generously handed over to the Public Library as its proper home, and to it, I am happy to say, he still makes additions. Lastly, I may mention the collection of some 1,600 volumes which belonged to my brother, the late Professor Croom Robertson, and which is specially rich in works of philosophical and sociological interest. These three collections, while as to their subject matter they are ranked in the general stock of the library, are each kept together and apart, so that they form enduring memorials of the interest which those whose names they bear severally took in the library. And surely no better way could be found of keeping green the memory of anyone in the community with which he was connected, than this of a good collection of books, which is ever before the eyes of the citizens and of which all are freely invited to make use.