Part 35
Hamilton County is not a flat region. The old part of the city of Cincinnati is located on what might be called the river bottoms, though the land is, most of it, at a safe height above the river floods. Half a mile or a mile back from the river there are sharp rises of four hundred or five hundred feet to the hill tops, on which the newer portions of the city are built. Again, these hill tops are not tablelands but are cut here and there by deep gorges. The hilly character of the county adds to the difficulty of transportation. It is slow work for a wagon to climb the steep ascent from the old city to the suburbs. The library does not have its own service of wagons, but depends on the local expresses. There are portions of the county with which there is no regular system of communication by stage or express. It is in these regions, more or less inaccessible, though not uninhabited, that the authorities of the library have placed travelling libraries. Twelve of these travelling libraries were sent out in March of this year. In each library there are 62 or 63 books. New books were purchased for the purpose, books of a character likely to interest the readers, the new novels with a 40% sprinkling of the best classed literature. The travelling libraries were arranged in three circuits of four each. Each library containing 62 or 63 books, the four libraries in a circuit contain 250 volumes. The books in circuit A are the same as those in circuit B and as in circuit C. The libraries were placed with school teachers. Right here a difficulty has arisen on account of the closing of the schools for the summer. The country schools have rather long vacations. Some of the teachers are willing to care for their libraries during the summer and see that they are open to the patrons. Some are not in a position to undertake this work. For the summer months there has been a gathering of these 12 travelling libraries at less than 12 stations. The idea has been, in general, that one of these travelling libraries should remain about six months at a station before it is moved on.
The Public Library has also sent out 36 travelling libraries to the 36 fire companies of the city. Each of these smaller travelling libraries contains 20 volumes and they have been moved more rapidly than the larger travelling libraries sent to the remote parts of the county. The deliveries to the delivery stations vary. With some there is a daily delivery, with others triweekly, for a few twice a week and there are two which have but one delivery a week.
There are a good many women's clubs in Hamilton County, Ohio. Last winter we received programs from 37 of these clubs, and reading lists were prepared on these programs by the cataloging department. A club alcove was set aside and an attendant assigned to aid any of the members of the clubs visiting the library for study on the papers which were to be read. We have not attempted to send out selected lots of books for the clubs in the suburban districts. Much better work can be done for the readers if they will only come to the central library; and it cripples the resources of the library to scatter its reference books far and wide. We have sent such selected lots of books for limited periods to the university for the use of the students and professors, but, in general, for such reference work the policy has been to encourage the use of the central library.
This brings me to the consideration of whether there is any advantage in the system of county libraries. No very great expense is involved in a journey from the most remote corner of Hamilton County to the central library in the city. Those who are intent upon serious study can, in most cases, make a journey of 15 or 20 miles. At the central library with a concentration of financial resources there can but be a more valuable collection of books. On the other hand, it is perfectly feasible for the officers of the library to visit even the most remote portions of the county and by personal interview estimate the character of the people whom they have to serve; with the result of a more intelligent distribution of books in the outlying districts. Serious study is provided for at the central library, while desultory reading is supplied through the delivery stations and travelling libraries.
Dr. STEINER: It seems to me that it depends somewhat upon your unit of local government as to how much you need a county library. I should think in Massachusetts or Connecticut the county library would be rather an unfortunate enterprise, unless used in connection with the town libraries. But in many of the southern states the county library is going to be almost indispensable. With us the unit of local government is the county, except in the case of the incorporated municipality. There is a county in Maryland with 75,000 people without a single municipality. The county commissioners attend to the minutest details of administration in that county. It is manifestly unwise that the state should take all the functions of the local library. But it seems that in the states where we have no township system, or where the township system is little developed, the county library is at present a necessity.
Mr. DEWEY: How do you support the schools?
Dr. STEINER: By a county tax. We have school districts; but their only function is to have district trustees, appointed by the county commissioners, whose duty it is to take care of the school house and appoint teachers. The taxes are raised by the county. It is the same in other southern states, so far as I know.
W. T. PORTER: Mr. Hodges has said that the Public Library of Cincinnati was a county library. Possibly that was a little misnomer, in that the library still remains the Public Library of Cincinnati, but we have extended the privileges of that library to the county at large. That was done under act of legislature of 1898, continuing the board of trustees of the public library in office, and then authorizing that board of trustees to make a levy upon the county for the maintenance of the library.
Miss STEARNS: How much of the county is embraced outside of the city of Cincinnati?
Mr. PORTER: We have about 14 townships outside of Cincinnati township. Our county is possibly 28 miles in extent.
Miss STEARNS: Then it is a small county that you supply?
Mr. PORTER: It is a small county, but the population is extensive. We commenced the county delivery system in June, 1899. Up to the present, and through the stations alone, there have been about 7500 new registrations, and we are to-day, through our stations, carrying 20,000 books.
Mr. DEWEY: This question seems to be of a city library extending its privileges. What I thought we were to talk about was whether the county should be used as a library unit. That is quite a different matter.
Mr. GALBREATH: But in this case the county here is the unit, and is taxed for the support of the library. There are no other public libraries in the county.
Mr. DEWEY: But there is a different side to the question. Suppose you take a rural community and establish a county library there? I think it would be a great extravagance to maintain not only local libraries throughout the state, but also county libraries; it is going to cost too much.
Miss STEARNS: Would it not be better to have a central library?
Mr. PORTER: We have also in Ohio, something which approaches the county idea, known as our Van Wert law. The state of Ohio, by an act, authorized the county commissioners of any county to accept library donations, funds, or building. Upon the acceptance of that donation the county can be required to maintain a library within the building. In Van Wert county, the Brumback Library building and grounds were given in this way and the agreement was made with the county commissioners, that they maintain thereafter a library.
Mr. DEWEY: Our question is not whether such libraries should exist or can exist, but are they desirable?
Mr. HUSE: What is the use of asking questions that must be governed entirely by local conditions? This matter must be governed by local conditions.
Mr. BRIGHAM: We are trying a line of rural travelling libraries in three counties of our state, in advance of any county or state legislation. Miss Brown, of Lucas county, and myself, in correspondence, could see no reason why a travelling library sent to Sheridan should not go on to another point, and to another point, and so on, and then back to Sheridan, back to me, and then after it had made its rounds, take another start, and so on. We tried the plan and it has worked so well that we are now trying it in two other counties. What the development may be I do not know, but the satisfaction and the gratitude of the people in the small towns it reaches is worth all it has cost of extra effort.
Miss TYLER: The point of the plan is that the librarian of the county-seat library is responsible for the travelling library. She guards the books, watches over them and makes her library the point of distribution. She distributes the books through the county, they come back to her library for exchange, or are passed on to the next exchange, whichever is most convenient; but they come under her direction.
Mr. DEWEY: Let me state the point as I understand it. We are all agreed that we must have local libraries for the people. They can go from their homes into the library and take the books into their hands. If they are in the city almost every day they can utilize the large city library. When it comes to the question of sending books by mail or express we are all agreed that each state must have a state library and its own state commission. The question is, Should there be an intermediary point between a state library and the local library? It seems, at first thought, that there should be, because you would have a shorter distance to travel, but all commercial experience is against this. Manufacturers are closing factories all the while and paying transportation, because they can do their work more cheaply in one place. Thus, repair of books, checking lists, and all that kind of work can be done under a single executive at some central point in the state more cheaply than if there was a library in each county. In Wisconsin, with 71 counties, you would have 71 libraries and you would have to duplicate great quantities of books. My experience indicates that we can do this work more cheaply and more economically by putting the books under control of a central library. As to the extra distance, very often the identical trains that would take the books from a county seat would have brought them from the capital as it went through, so that they would have been received almost without delay. Is it going to pay to introduce a new ganglion--that is, the county library?
Dr. STEINER: Take Baltimore county in Maryland. There is a county with 75,000 people; it has an electric lighting system, a police court, fire engine houses; there are towns in that county of a thousand people. There is no government in that county except the board of county commissioners, who are as complete autocrats as the czar of Russia. There is no municipality in the county; there is one town which has 5000 people. You must have a county library with a county administration, because you cannot have anything but the county library; you cannot discriminate between one part of the county and another. That library must send books equally to all parts of the county; you cannot put it where the great centers of the population are, because you cannot deprive any citizen of the county of his right to draw books.
Mr. DEWEY: Of course, we are not discussing a peculiar condition such as exists in Maryland.
Dr. STEINER: It is not a peculiar condition; it is the condition of at least one-third of the United States.
Mr. GALBREATH: It seems to me that there is nothing peculiar about this condition. Of course, it differs from conditions in the north, but it includes a state government, to which the county is subordinate, and if I understand Mr. Dewey, it is his purpose to do this work from the state as a center, and the question he has raised is whether it is better to do it from the county as a center, or from the state as a center. I think that in our state it would be well to use the county as a center, for a time at least. However, I believe that in our state "benevolent neutrality"--to apply the term that Mr. Putnam used the other day--on the part of the state librarian toward these matters would be more effective than "benevolent assimilation," and we hope for much from the county library system.
Mr. DEWEY: It is a question of what we should encourage. Is it wise to do this work by the county unit or the state unit? It is largely an economic question. How can you give the people the best reading for the least amount of money?
R. P. HAYES: In North Carolina we have practically nothing in the library field and the question is, shall we try for county library development or state library development? I would like to get some definite word on that.
Dr. STEINER: It seems to me we should try distinctly for county libraries. In the southern states at least there is no question about it; you have got to have county libraries. I started with the idea of the local township libraries, but we must wait until we have a township. My idea is, in any county wherein there are no incorporated municipalities or where the incorporated municipalities do not care to support libraries, the county library is the proper thing. In the south the county takes the place of the town in New England; it is the taxing unit, the unit in which all the local administration is carried on.
Mr. HUSE: It seems to me that for the south, as stated by the gentlemen here from Maryland and from North Carolina, the county system is very probably the best one; but in New England we could not work by a county unit, any more than the people of North Carolina and even further down south could run a toboggan slide nine months in the year--they would not have the ice; we haven't the counties. At least, we have the counties, but they are of no importance to us except to have court houses, and courts of justice. Now, each state must solve this problem according to its own conditions and according to the desires and enthusiasm of its own workers. The gentleman from Maryland, I haven't any doubt, will soon have the county system operating fully and successfully in his state, and the same will be true in North Carolina and throughout the south; whereas in New England it won't be done because the county is not a unit. In Wisconsin and New York, Mr. Dewey and Mr. Hutchins, and the men and women who know more than they do, will run the library system safely; whether it is state or county. But we cannot adopt any general rule or take any general expression of opinion, for the people in each state must work out their own salvation according to their own condition.
Mr. DEWEY: There are a number of other topics that have been specially asked for.
Can state commissions provide travelling libraries for hamlets which furnish the money, and make such hamlets travelling library stations?
Mr. HUTCHINS: I wish to say a few words on that question. All through Wisconsin, when we started travelling libraries, some people found that there was a chance to make money by using the idea in a commercial way. They went to communities which had heard of the travelling libraries, raised $150 or so for "subscription" and then sent about ten dollars' worth of books once in six months. Now, the plan we have worked out may be best described by this illustration: about a year ago Miss Stearns heard that there was a little hamlet of fishermen far up in the state on a point which juts out into Lake Michigan. It included about a hundred people who had heard of the travelling libraries, but they did not want to be indebted for a gift or a charity, and so they had a series of entertainments, and raised fifty dollars. They sent the money down to us and we agreed to buy a library in their name. That library was the contribution of the fishermen of the hamlet of Jacksonport, and the hamlet was made a travelling library station. You can see how such a method works out. The second point is, that in communities where there are a hundred people or so, and conditions are favorable, we offer to give them travelling libraries on condition that they establish permanent public libraries on lines that are satisfactory to us. We take care of the travelling libraries and they take care of the local libraries.
It seems to me, that in this method we have struck finally the correct principle, the principle of self-support. The state takes the money and gives trained service in the selection of the books, in taking care of them, and in keeping the books travelling around their circuit. The citizens pay for their books, and have the feeling that they belong to an organization. More than all, when they are collecting their library fund, giving their little "dime socials," contributing two dollars or five dollars apiece, they are advertising that library, and it seems to me that the library that is coming to them that way means far more than the library that is given to them as a charity.
Mr. GALBREATH: Mr. Hutchins, how often do the communities raise that fifty dollars?
Mr. HUTCHINS: They raise fifty dollars once, and for that the state engages to send them libraries during the life of the library given by them, which we estimate to be about six years.
Mr. DEWEY: What shall be the unit of circulation--the cataloged library or the single book or combination?
Mr. BRIGHAM: We have tried both in Iowa. One of the twins is growing faster than the other, and of course that is the hopeful one.
Mr. DEWEY: Which one is that?
Mr. BRIGHAM: That is the individual, or the single book as the unit, rather than the travelling library; but I believe that the shelf-listed library will always exist. The shelf-listed library of 50 or 25 books must be a necessity in the communities where there are no libraries, and I am sorry to say that there are a great many communities of that sort; but the communities in which there are libraries are increasing, and wherever there is a local library, or wherever there is a woman's club, there the single book can be used to the best advantage. There are disadvantages in the use of the shelf-listed library. Before we adopted the new system, we often had requests for library no. 38 or no. 53, and later found that the request arose from the fact that there was a single book, or perhaps two books in that library, that some one wanted, while the rest of the volumes would come back comparatively unused. That was not good business economy. We might better have sent those two books, and I became more and more impressed with this fact, and was finally able to partially adopt the other plan. We have now perhaps 2000 books on our shelves that are issued separately; but we have nearly 5000 tied up in libraries. Both classes are in use, but the expense to the local library of getting our collection of 50 books for the sake of using perhaps two volumes is unnecessary. I am more and more impressed with the fact--though the remark may be unorthodox--that there is prevalent a little fad for spending money for administration, and spending it not always economically. I believe in spending money freely for administration that is approved by good common sense; beyond that it is a woful waste of money. And so I would keep the use of the single book in mind. The women's clubs as you know, are studying more and more, and are doing less and less miscellaneous reading. Suppose we are trying to meet the wants of the women's clubs. We put up a library covering the Victorian period in literature, and we find that some one wants a certain number of books on the lake poets. What is the use of sending the entire library? We may have a library made up on the lake poets. Then, suppose one librarian or one secretary writes for what we may have on Coleridge, another wishes material on Wordsworth. Why not send the Coleridge books to the one, and the Wordsworth books to the other? In that way, make the books count. We should not be penurious in the matter of expenditure for cases or for printing, or for any other working tools, but we should always keep in mind that the essential thing is the book, and if we can get on without the book case, or without the cover that envelops it, or without the shipping case, or without the combination book case and shipping case, all the better. We cannot get along without them altogether, but we can send small packages all over the state wrapped in paper, and can get rid of a great deal of expense.
Mr. DEWEY: When you send ten books, of course send them in paper, but when you send 50 or 100, send them in boxes; that is cheaper. This is a mere shipping question.
Adjourned.
WORK OF STATE LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS AND WOMEN'S CLUBS IN ADVANCING LIBRARY INTERESTS: ROUND TABLE MEETING.
The work that can be done by state library associations and women's clubs to advance library interests was considered in a "round table" meeting, held in the assembly room, Fountain Spring House, on the morning of Wednesday, July 10. Miss MARILLA WAITE FREEMAN presided as chairman.
Miss FREEMAN: At the Montreal conference last year a round table meeting of officers of state library associations was held for the discussion of questions affecting association work. Certain subjects, some of which were informally discussed at that time, seem naturally to invite our attention at the present session. We are to consider the object and functions of state library associations--whether they should attempt other lines of effort than the holding of a general meeting; what principles as to time and place of meeting, topics, and participants should govern the preparation of a program. With this general subject has been joined the allied topic of the work of women's clubs in advancing library interests. Few of us fully comprehend even yet the amount of effective library extension work which has been and is being accomplished by club women in almost every state of the Union. I have asked representative members from some of the states which have been working along these lines to tell us of their work. We shall hear first from Mr. J. C. Dana, of the City Library, Springfield, Mass., the Western Massachusetts Club, and the Massachusetts Library Club, on
WHAT THE WORK OF STATE LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS SHOULD BE.
J. C. DANA: Perhaps the chief purposes of a state library association are to arouse an interest in libraries among the public and to increase the knowledge and enthusiasm of the members of the profession. The mistake is often made of thinking that the chief purpose of an association is to hold an annual meeting. It is thought that the annual meeting once provided with a good program, and that well carried through, the work of the association for the whole year is done. There could not be a greater mistake. The benefits of a state association come largely from correspondence between members, the preparation for the meeting, and the securing of ideas, new methods and statistics by circulating letters among members, and the publication in newspapers and elsewhere of notes about the meeting which is to come and the meetings which have been. One is almost tempted to say that a library association performs its duty better if it is active during the year--carrying on correspondence and thoroughly advertising itself--and holds no meeting whatever, than it does if it holds an annual meeting and does not advertise.