Page:The small library. A guide to the collection and care of books (IA smalllibraryguid00browiala).pdf/82

 volumes, he never asks how the different classes of literature are represented, but what is the average cost per volume? It is inevitable that it should be so, because the great majority of public library administrators are drawn from the ranks of the small tradesmen, persons interested in poor-law administration, and others to whom the question of an additional halfpenny on the local rates is of more importance than their chance of a niche in Paradise. They do not know, and cannot appreciate, the difference between a great classic in science and an elementary popular primer on the same subject. A school atlas at 3s. 6d. is more to be desired by such authorities than a 6 or 10 guinea atlas by a great firm of cartographers, because it is cheap, and keeps down the average per volume stocked, to the business-like limit of 1s. 6d. Their motto is—'Better twenty "remainder" novels at 1s. 3d. each, than one standard history or textbook of science'. No doubt a great deal of this disregard of the proper function of the public library and the importance of careful book-selection, arises from lack of competent advice. It is difficult in small places for the local authority to attract a duly qualified librarian, and they are forced, in consequence, to rely upon the instinct and assurance of a committee. In hundreds of cases their confidence is not misplaced, because there are men to be found on local boards who will cheerfully undertake any kind of duty, however special or technical, from the planning of water-works