Facsimile PDF - Online Library of Liberty

THE RATIONALE OF FREE PUBLIC WBRARKES.
library by the use of these Indicators ia very remarkable.
Thus it is stated that in the beds Publio Libmy books an
be easily issued by the use of Elliot’s Indicator a$ the mte of
76 per hour, at a cost of $21 38. 3d. per 1,000 volumes. In
the Leeds Mechenios’ Institution books were isaued without an
Indicator at the rate of 11 per hour, at a cost of 85 6s. per
1,000. At Sonth Shields as many as 169 volumes have been
issued in one hour, being at the rate of nearly one volume per
minute for each member of the staff I At Wolverhampton one
librarian, assisted by two boys, effected a total issue in one
year of 97,800 books. Technical details of this sort may seem
trifling, but they are really of great importonce in showing
what ingenuity and systematisation can do in bringing the
bevt classes of literature within the reach of the people.
Looking back over ten, fifteen, or twenty years, it is surprising
to notice what an advance has been accomplished in
our notions of library economy and etxension. This is greatly
due, I believe, to the reflex effect of American activity. A
glance through the Specie1 Report on the Public Libraries
in the United States of America, their history, condition, and
management, issued at Washington in 1876, shows how wide
are the American ideas of Library management. The Library
Journal, edited by Mr. Melvil Dewey, and forming the official
organ of the American and English Library Associations,
supplies equally striking evidence of Library enterprise. The
Library Association of the United Kingdom may have been
inspired by the American spirit of associated labour, but it has
soon become a thoroughly British body. I doubt whether any
nssociation could be named, which, in two short years, or,
including the preliminary conference of librarians, in three
years, has done more real and useful work. The two Annual
Reports, together with the Conference Report, owe much to
the editing which they have received from Mr. Henry R.
Tedder and Mr. Ernest Thomas. The indexes prepared by
Mr. Tedder are models of the indexing art, and must almost
Batisfy the requirements of t,he Index Society. These %porta,
too, will probably be sought after by bibliophiles on account
Of their beautiful typographid execution, dae to Messra.
E 2