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Page 13
Do not pander to any sect, creed, or partisan taste. Buy largely
books costing from 50 cents to $2, found in so many of the series now
published. These are fresh, up-to-date, written for the most part by
competent men, and are reliable. They are not dull, because no one can
afford to be dull in a 12mo volume. As a general thing they are well
made, supplied with maps and illustrations when needed, and have
indexes. Put much of your money into the history, travel, and
literature of your own country first, and then see what you have left
for Greece and Rome. The common people nowadays should be encouraged
in their interest in their own country, its description, history,
politics, biography, mineral resources, literature. The people will
inquire for these books, and they should be provided for them. Wait
until the library is larger before investing much money in the history
of worn out empires, simply because such and such a person wants them,
or because some library anywhere from two to twenty times as large has
them. Use common sense and much of it.
Put into the people's hands books worthy of their respect, then insist
that they be handled carefully and treated always with consideration.
Expensive books; that is, books which are first-class in paper, ink,
and binding, are generally better worth their cost than cheap ones.
In the first purchases buy largely for children. They are the
library's best pupils. They are more easily trained to enjoy good
books than their elders. Through them the homes are best reached. They
will, by their free use of the library, and by their approval of it,
do much to add to its popularity. The best books for children will be
enjoyed by all.
In selecting fiction, get from the older librarians a statement of
what are the most popular of the wholesome novels found on their
shelves. A better guide than this it will be difficult to find.
Fiction is of the greatest value in developing a taste for reading.
Everyone should be familiar with the great works of imagination.
Nearly all the greatest literature of the world is fiction. The
educational value of the novel is not often questioned.
But don't buy a novel simply because it is popular. If you follow that
line you will end with the cheapest kind of stuff. Some librarians
pretend that they must buy to please the public taste; that they can't
use their own judgment in selecting books for a library which the
public purse supports. Why these librarians don't supply the Police
gazette it is difficult to understand. "The public" would like
it--some of them. We select school committees and superintendents and
teachers to run our schools. We ask them to inform themselves on the
subject and give us the best education they can. They don't try to
suit everybody. They try to furnish the best. Library trustees and
librarian are in a like case. The silly, the weak, the sloppy, the
wishy-washy novel, the sickly love story, the belated tract, the crude
hodge-podge of stilted conversation, impossible incident, and moral
platitude or moral bosh for children--these are not needed. It is as
bad to buy them and circulate them, knowingly, as it would be for our
school authorities to install in our schoolrooms as teachers romantic,
giggling girls and smarty boys. Buy good novels, those the wise
approve of, in good type, paper, and binding; keep plenty of copies of
each on hand; put them where your readers can handle them; add a few
each year of the best only of the latest novels, and those chiefly
on trial (not to be bought again if found not to have real merit) and
your public will be satisfied, and your library will be all the time
raising the taste of the community.
Some books should not be put, at least not without comment, into the
hands of young people. Other books, some people think, should not be
read by young people. Other books, some people think, should not be
in a public library at all. A good course to follow in regard to such
books is to consider the temper of your community and put into the
library as many of them as are noteworthy in a literary way as your
public and your resources permit.
In other departments follow at first the guidance of some one of the
good book lists now available.
Other things being equal, American scientific books are preferable
to those by foreign authors. In all departments select the latest
editions, and, at first, the recent book rather than the older book.
The proportion of books in the different departments of knowledge must
vary greatly in different libraries. The following is a good general
guide:
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