Public libraries play a very important part in
promoting the progress of knowledge. They bring within our reach valuable books
which we could not afford to purchase for ourselves. They are particularly
useful for poor students, whose education would be hampered with almost
insuperable difficulties if they were confined to such books as they could buy
for themselves or borrow from private individuals. Even those who are better
off cannot afford to buy all the books they require for their studies. For
instance, such a work as the Encyclopedia Britannica is an invaluable book of
reference; yet how few can afford the expense of adding it to their private
store of books There are many other such compilations to which scholars have
constantly to refer large, dictionaries of the English language, biographical
dictionaries, classical dictionaries, dictionaries of antiquities, dictionaries
of bibliography which are scarcely to be found any where else but in the great
public libraries, and are therefore open to poor and rich alike. In addition to
books of general reference, students in every branch of study have often to
consult expensive books that are beyond the reach of their limited means. In
such cases they trust to the public library to supplement the deficiencies of
their own bookshelves which only contain the necessary textbooks.
A well-managed library, besides supply many
valuable books not to the got elsewhere, is very conducive to educational
progress in other ways. At his own home a student may be liable to continual
interruptions and distractions which break the thread of his ideas and make it
difficult for him to concentrate his attention on his books. In a library he
finds himself in a large apartment where
Silence reigns, and from which the noises and worries of the
outer world are carefully excluded. The very air of the place and the spectacle
of so many students silently absorbed in their books inspire studies thoughts
and a spirit of calm reflection. The large circular reading room of the British
Museum, which contains seats for three hundred readers, is a model on a large
scale of what such institutions ought to be. The commoner books of reference
are arranged on the lower shelves round the room, and can be taken down by any
one, without asking permission from the librarian. For more special books
application is made on a written form by the reader, who quietly waits in his
seat until the librarian brings them to him.
The combination of free consultation of common
books of reference, with written application for special books, ought to be
followed, as far as possible, in every public library. A student often goes to
the reading room for the purpose of discovering or verifying a number of
points, which he expects to find settled in some encyclopedia or biographical
dictionary, although he does not know exactly in which encyclopedia or in which
volume he will find them. In such cases it is an irritating restriction to be
compelled to apply in writing for each of the books that may help to settle the
point. To do so also gives much extra trouble to the librarian, trouble which
is quite unnecessary, because there is no danger of dishonest persons slipping
great volumes of encyclopedias into their pockets without immediate detection.
The librarian can soon determine the large reference books that are most
commonly called for, put them on the table for general use, and issue all other
books after receiving receipts for them from the applicants. Libraries managed
on some such principles should be opened for the use of the general public in
the great cities of every civilized country.
A large public library is also the store-house of
books that would in time be lost to the world if there were no such places to keeps
them long after they have ceased to be read by the general public. Such
libraries as the Bodleian at Oxford and the British Museum in London can claim
by law a copy of every book that i published. Many old books thus preserved
will be of the greatest value to future historians and literary critics.