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Cornell University Library 
 Z 665.A42 
 
 The library in the economy of the state, 
 
 3 1924 014 515 815 
 
 The New York Library Association 
 
 The Library in the Economy 
 of the State 
 
 Address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the 
 
 Association in Library Week at Richfield Springs 
 
 September 15th, 1916 
 
 BY 
 
 Charles Beatty Alexander, ll.d., uild. 
 
 a Regent of the University of the 
 State of New York 
 
US' 
 
 -e i^S/6,(. 
 
Permit me to thank you for the honor yon have done 
 ]ne in asking me to participate in your deliberations. I 
 recognize the fact that you have invited me to be here, not 
 only because I am a Kegent of the University of the State 
 of New York, but because I have been a member of its 
 Library Committee during the recent fruitful years, in 
 which the State Library has risen from its ashes to be- 
 come one of the great libraries of the nation. 
 
 It is a matter of regret to me and a subject of con- 
 dolence to you that you have not in my place the cultured 
 and delightful Chairman of that Committee, the Honor- 
 able Chester S. Lord, LL.D., whose fine career as a jour- 
 nalist, and whose high pursuit of letters have made him 
 an inspiration to his colleagues, and I am sure also to 
 those learned and accomplished men Avho serve the State 
 in its library activities, who have been unremitting in 
 their devotion to their great work. 
 
 To me the association with him and with them has 
 been a liberal education, and I cannot appear here in a 
 convention of librarians without acknowledging my per- 
 sonal debt to them. I allude particularly to the Director 
 of the State Library, James L. AVyer, Jr., M. L. S., and to 
 Frank K. Walter, M. A., M. L. S., of the State Library 
 School. 
 
 The New York Library Association has the distinction 
 of being the first state association actually organized for 
 the discussion of library questions, and the furtherance 
 of library work. Not only is it the oldest but it has the 
 added distinction of being the most widely known of the 
 state associations. Its annual meeting, popularly known 
 as "Library week," is second in interest and attendance 
 only to the meetings of the national body, the American 
 Library Association. In its membership, communities of 
 all sizes and types are represented, from the hamlet to 
 
the metropolis. Librarians from public libraries, from 
 schools and colleges, and from libraries devoted to very 
 special lines of work, mingle in its meetings to discuss the 
 matters common to their diverse fields. Perhaps no sim- 
 ilar body has so close or so cordial relations with the 
 official educational activities of its state, and none has 
 more independence of action or freedom in comment on 
 these state activities. In the carefully planned system of 
 library institutes which it conducts, with the cooperation 
 of the library divisions of the state's educational depart- 
 ment, it has gained for itself another claim to be included 
 among the great constructive educational forces of the 
 state. 
 
 In vieAV of the closeness of these relations, it is not 
 inappropriate to make a brief return to somewhat 
 familiar ground, and to review some of the reasons Avhich 
 have led the State of New York to consider libraries a 
 part of its educational system, to expect from them direct 
 educational results, and to encourage their establishment 
 throughout the state for the use of the public at public 
 expense. 
 
 There is, in general, an inborn i-e\erence for learning. 
 Whether this be an evidence of an innate longing for a 
 higher phase of individual and race development, or a tra- 
 ditional folk feeling still imposed upon us by centuries of 
 subordination to social caste, is a matter for the 
 psychologist or the anthropologist to decide. Enough for 
 us at present that it exists as a real force in our social 
 structure. It is, therefore, natural that the extension of 
 education, aside from the utilitarian ]>hases needed for 
 bare existence, should have followed the growth of 
 democracy. Among the Egyptians with their highly de- 
 veloped caste system, which included even a caste of 
 hereditary, registered thieves, education was monopolized 
 by the priests; in India to-day it is the Brahmin who feels 
 
bimself both the natural source aud receptacle of educa- 
 tion, and it is to the extension of education that the 
 opponents of the caste system look with greatest hope. 
 
 In Greece we seem to see an exception, but it is note- 
 worthy, that such general education as the Grecians had, 
 reached its highest development in democratic Athens. 
 But even in Athens the state had little concern with the 
 schools. "The State never thought of erecting public in- 
 stitutions to be maintained at the general expense. The 
 sort of an education the children received depended 
 mainly on the parents' oavu conscientiousness; some got 
 none at all".* 
 
 Education was necessarily too expensive for the 
 poorer classes. The schools of philosophy, too, though 
 well fitted to educate the wealthy, and those of excep- 
 tional ability, only increased the real class distinctions in 
 the apparent democracy. Athenian democracy failed, 
 largely because of the lack of a general educational sys- 
 tem to harmonize the social ideas of its different strata.f 
 
 As the warrior began to gain ascendency, and the 
 nobility, under whatever name it was recognized, began 
 to take its place beside the priest and even to dominate 
 him, it was natural that the ruling class should insist on 
 being admitted also to the real. and fancied advantages of 
 education. In many cases, both classes were combined 
 and the warrior -priest kept the same monopoly the 
 priest had previously enjoyed. In Assyria there were 
 temple schools and palace schools. The Spartans, who 
 carried military education and preparedness to a point 
 undreamed of in the wildest fancy of to-day, carefully ex- 
 cluded two of its recognized social castes, from the exces- 
 sive military training required of the fully qualified 
 Spartan. 
 
 * Becker. Charicles, tr. by F. Metcalfe, Bth ed., pp. 227-28. 
 t Grote. History of Greece. Chap. 16, passim; also Compayre, G. History 
 of Pedagogy. 1892, p. 40. 
 
In medieval times there were two roads to education. 
 The one, open only to sons of gentlemen or those of higher 
 rankj Avas strictly vocational, and consisted of service first 
 as a page, then as an esquire, in the castle of some other 
 noble; the other, through the door of the church,'' led 
 through the monastery school either to service in the 
 church itself or to some position in the state. These 
 monastery schools were fed by more elementary schools 
 for the laity in which instruction was often gratuitously 
 given.;- Despite the great good done by these schools, they 
 were only a partial solution of the problem, and education 
 never became even approximately general as long as it 
 was a nmttcr of cliaritable enterprise or private pliilau- 
 thropy, rather than a duty which the state owed itself in 
 the preparation of every citizen. 
 
 As long as the English suffrage remained in the hands 
 of a few, the so-called "public schools" like Rugby and 
 Harrow and Eton, and the Universities, dominated by 
 the gentry, seemed to be fairly adequate, Avhen supple- 
 mented by local parish schools, and those supported by 
 private enterprise. However much the university man 
 may scorn the "board school", open to all and supported 
 by public funds, and however glaring its deficiencies may 
 be, it has become more and more a necessity as English 
 democracy has increased.! 
 
 It sometimes surprises one to remember tliat free 
 public education is scarcely more than a century old in 
 NeAV York State and, in many parts of the country, of 
 even more recent date. Compulsory education, which is 
 the logical outcome of the idea that education is neces- 
 sary, not merely desirable, in a state in whose government 
 all have a share, is of much later enactment and is not yet 
 accepted gratefully by many who are its chief beneficiaries. 
 
 • Hallanij H. Europe during the middle ages. Chap. IX. 
 
 t BucMngJiam, L. A. Bible in the middle ages. 1853, p. 171. 
 
 i Chancellor Whitelaw Reid.. Education in England. 1907, pp. 3-4. 
 
The wonderful development of systems of elementary 
 schools, dealing with immature pupils whose education 
 must necessarily be chiefly received through direct in- 
 struction, has sometimes made teacher and public alike 
 forget in practice what has always been accepted in 
 theory, namely, that education is a process of which direct 
 instruction is only a part. The school has been em- 
 phasized; the library, the museum and other sources of 
 education have often been neglected. 
 
 That libraries and schools have been associated so 
 closely, throughout the ages, is sO' often forgotten that a 
 summary of some historical facts regarding library de- 
 velopment may not be inappropriate in a conference of 
 librarians. 
 
 The beginning of libraries lies so far back in the 
 shadows of antiquity that one cannot with certainty say 
 where or how they began or when the votive offering or 
 the ceremonial object inscribed Avith mystic symbols gave 
 place to the more formal written record of religious 
 formula, or of kingly prowess. There are reasons for be- 
 lieving that at first the library, like writing, was confined 
 to the priestly class.* 
 
 * In primitive communities tlie priest or holy man would naturally be the first 
 to lay claim to knowledge other than that necesEary to sustain lite. He would 
 teach, and would And it necessary to transmit his teaching, either to the memory 
 ol his elected successor, or by recording it after the invention ot written signs. 
 Only a, priest, probably, would be competent to record the deed of chieftains and 
 kings ; and much evidence might be adduced showing that in very early times 
 priests did compile such annals. Hence we might expect the earliest libraries to com- 
 prise only records of ecclesiastical mysteries or religious doctrines, and of historic 
 events, preserved in or near sanctuaries. The evidence bears out this expectation 
 very consistently. Moses, we are told, was directed to preserve the divine law in 
 the ark. In ancient Egypt libraries were attached to temples. Diodorus of Sicily 
 tells us how Egyptian priests "had in their sacred books, transmitted from the 
 olden time written descriptions ot all their kings". Among the Babylonians and 
 the Romans records were preserved in temples ; the Greeks, we are told, "preserved 
 the inost ancient traditions" in or near sanctuaries. At the present time Tibet's 
 principal library is stored in the Lamaist temple. Among the Aztecs the highest 
 ranks of the priesthood kept the State and other archives ; and their manuscripts 
 were evidently associated with their religion, because the Spanish eonquerors col- 
 lected all they could lay hands upon and burned them as magic scrolls, "symbols 
 ot a pestilent superstitution" Savage, E. A. Story of libraries. P. 1, et seq. 
 
 In very early times, and in much later times among primitive peoples, even 
 the art of writing itself was often kept a secret mystery in the custody of priests. 
 The name "hieroglyphics" points in this same direction, and the temple collections 
 of sacred books the so-called books of Thoth and books Hermes, point in the aanie 
 direction. Richardson, E. G. Beginning of libraries, p. 143. 
 
So valuable a thing as Avriting, and the extension of 
 memory by the written word could not long remain the 
 possession of any one class, and very early the temple 
 library and the royal library existed either side by side or 
 merged into one.* 
 
 When the Jews invaded Canaan, one of the cities they 
 took was Kirjath Sepher, a name which has commonly 
 been interpreted "the City of Books". Though some 
 critics attack the accuracy of this meaning, there is good 
 ground for believing that this early biblical reference 
 really means that libraries existed in remote biblical 
 times, i" 
 
 In the ruins of Nineveh and of Knossos in Crete re- 
 mains of libraries exist in connection with royal palaces. 
 The tyrants of Greece, the Ptolemies at Alexandria, the 
 kings of Pergamus, and Augustus and his successors at 
 Rome were noted for the zeal with which they founded 
 and maintained libraries. So well known as book- 
 collectors did many of the emperors become that syco- 
 phants often sought to win their favor by pretending also 
 a zeal for book collection. Lucian in his "Remarks ad- 
 dressed to an illiterate book-fancier" satirizes this ten- 
 dency as follows : 
 
 "The cause of vour bibliomania is clear enoush; I 
 must have been dozing or I should have seen it long ago. 
 This is your idea of strategy; you know the Emperor's 
 scholarly tastes, and his respect for culture, and you think 
 
 * "At one time we looked upon the two Ramasesean libraries mentioned by 
 Diodorus as the earliest examples of such institutions, if, Indeed, they were not 
 fabulous. Now we have indisputable evidence at libraries at a much earlier date 
 While excavating among the mounds of the Babylonian city of Nippur, Professor 
 Hilprecht, an American scholar, exposed a series of rooms in which were stored 
 neatly upon shelves of unbaked clay, about 25,000 clay tablets forming part of the 
 temple library during the latter half of the third millennium B. C. The library 
 was either wholly or partly an adjunct to the temple school." Savage E A 
 Story of libraries, p. 2, et seq. 
 
 t Hastings. Dictionary of the Bible (see Kirjath Sepher) ; Richardson E C 
 Biblical libraries, p. 88 ; Sayce, A. H. Higher- criticism and the monume^tts n 
 54 ; also, Hastings, op. ctt. under Deblr. ' ' " 
 
it will be worth something to you if he hears of your 
 literary pursuits. Once let your name be mentioned to 
 him as a great buyer and, collector of books, and you 
 reckon that your fortune is made."* 
 
 Though there is evidence that many of these libraries 
 were free, with a rather high type of organization, their 
 use was largely confined to the nobles, or at least the 
 gentry or leisure class. The making of books was cliiefly 
 in the hands of the learned men, whom the accidents of 
 war had made slaves. 
 
 The plebian or alien slave, however, though exalted 
 by a turn of fortune to the place of the patrician, 
 did not feel much sympathy for institutions not essen- 
 tially plebian in character. The imperial libraries, and 
 the private collections of wealthy citizens appealed to the 
 unpolished barbarian as little as a futurist picture or 
 vers libre appeal to a cottager whose ideas of art are 
 bounded by a "crayon enlargement" or who considers 
 Will Carleton the greatest American poet. It was as in- 
 evitable that the barbarian invasions should mean the ex- 
 tinction of the great libraries, as that the introduction 
 of Roman culture into Egypt had meant, as regrettable 
 results of military tactics, the destruction of the great 
 Alexandrian libraries. 
 
 Since the Christian church was the one cohesive force 
 of the early centuries of the Christian era, it is not sur- 
 prising that its monasteries became the refuge of such 
 collections of books as had survived either in original or 
 in copy. . 
 
 The monasteries, without the libraries of imperial 
 Rome, would have been chiefly theological libraries or 
 
 * Lucian. Works, trans, by Fowler. Oxtord, 1905 ; vol. 3, p. 275. IIpos toi/ 
 
 a-rrai^evrov koX ttoXKo. /Si^Xi'a btvovfievov, § 22. 
 
 Savage. Chap. 1, passim. 
 
 Boyd, E. E. Public libraries and literary culture in ancient Rome. 1916, 
 passiTn. 
 
8 
 
 books of devotion, unredeemed by much literature of 
 great merit, other than that of the Bible. 
 
 As it was, sacred and profane mingled in the scriptoria 
 and on the shelves of the monastery library. To many a 
 monk, Virgil and Homer were more familiar than the 
 Hebrew Prophets. Though from many parchments the 
 Greek and Latin classic was erased to make room for the 
 homily or the discussion of some theological point, the 
 taste of the cleric in many cases overcame his ecclesias- 
 tical scruples, and the profane literature remained. It 
 could not be otherwise in times when Aristotle, Plato and 
 Pliny were considered authorities, when Virgil was 
 placed just outside the gates of heaven, and when Seneca 
 and Socrates were constantly cited on ethical points by 
 the Christian fathers. 
 
 The cheap slave labor which had made possible the 
 large collections of the Romans was no longer available.* 
 The careful, elaborate text of the cloister, the beautiful 
 illuminations, made reproduction of books a slow and 
 costly process. Constant fighting fostered by the absence 
 of strong states, made the ruling classes quite indifferent 
 to learning. Charlemagne and Alfred were exceptions in 
 their zeal to promote literature, but it is said that even 
 Charlemagne never learned to write. The average noble 
 despised the learning of the clerk. 
 
 During the ages when schools were all but non- 
 existent, it was the library of the monastery which kept 
 alive such learning as there was, and which paved the way 
 for the remarkable rise &nd development of the medieval 
 university. The earliest universities were student groups 
 brought together by the fame of some great scholar like 
 
 • "It is believed by modern scholars that books were by no means rare in Romp 
 among the well-to-do classes and must usually have sold at very moderate nrioe^ • 
 and that books in the early days of the Empire probably cost less than book^ at 
 the present time containing an equal amount ol subject-matter This was made 
 possible through ttio pxoeedingly i-heap labor rendered by numerous slaves of hio^h 
 intelligence." Boyd, t/j. lil., p. U-. "'s" 
 
9 
 
 Alcuin of York, Lanfranc of Pavia, Anselm, William of 
 Champeaux or Abelard.* 
 
 It is interesting to note that at the University of Paris 
 in the 14th century there were scores of scribes, book- 
 sellers, parchment makers, binders, etc., all under the 
 control of the university, who, by their combined efforts 
 supplied in part the lack of books available for consulta- 
 tion in the university library. St. Benedict in the 6th 
 century formulated his famous rule "Of daily manual 
 labor" in which he enjoined daily reading of books from 
 the monastery library.f 
 
 This rule, based on the earlier one of Augustine, was 
 adopted either in its entirety or with slight modifications, 
 by all the Benedictine monasteries and by many others. 
 To provide the books for reading it became necessary to 
 establish libraries, t 
 
 * "In the medieval period diverse opinions in tlie great field of theology vfere 
 a source ot disturbance that often proved most painful and serious. And this 
 diversity was the result of ignorance on the part of great numbers of the clergy. 
 Paganism, pantheism, materialism, and other 'isms' bred or imported, were in per- 
 petual conflict. Heresies abounded. Even the sacred orders within the church 
 could not always understand the Scriptures exactly alike. There must needs be 
 enlightennaent on the one hand or suppression on the other, if the church would 
 avoid the trials and periods of perpetual conflict. The printing press had not yet 
 come, and the making of manuscript copies by the thousand was tedious and 
 unsatisfactory. A common center or centers, where the living teacher could in 
 person present, explain and reenforce or overthrow the resurrected Grecian or any 
 other philosophy whatsoever that had been or might be offered, was a necessity." 
 Hoyt, J. W. University of Paris during the middle ages. In Report of the 
 U. S. Commissioner of Education for 1904, pp. 522-23. 
 
 t "Idleness is the enemy of the soul ; hence brethren ought, at certain seasons, 
 to occupy themselves with manual labour, and again, at certain hours, with holy 
 reading. 
 
 Between Easter and the calends of October let them apply themselves to read- 
 ing the fourth hour till near the sixth hour. After the sixth hour, when they rise 
 from table, let them rest on their beds in complete silence ; or, if any one should 
 wish to read to himself, let him do so in such a way as not to disturb any one 
 
 ' From the calends ot October to the Beginning of Lent let them apply them- 
 selves to reading until the second hour. . . . During Lent, let them apply 
 themselves to reading from morning until the end of the third hour 
 and, in these days of Lent, let them receive a book apiece from the library, and 
 read it straight through. These books are to be given out at the beginning of 
 Lent. It is important that one or two seniors should be appointed to go round the 
 monastery at the hours when brethren are engaged In reading, in case some ill- 
 conditioned brother should be giving himself up to sloth or idle talk, instead of 
 reading steadily ; so that not only is he useless to himself, but incites others to do 
 wrong." Quoted by Clark, J. W. Libraries in the medieval and renaissance 
 periods. 1894, p. 14. 
 
 % "We may fairly conclude that by the end of the eleventh century Bene- 
 dictine houses possessed two sets of books : (1) those which were distributed among 
 the brethren : ( 2 ) those which were kept in some safe place, probably the church, 
 as part of the valuables of the House, or, to adopt modern phrases, they had a 
 lending library and a library of reference. The Augustinians go a step farther 
 
10 
 
 Even earlier the Irish monks had made their monas- 
 teries centers of literary study to which students came 
 from the whole civilized world and from which monks 
 went to Scotland, France and to St. Gall on the Isle of 
 Constance carrying with them not only a zeal for Chris- 
 tianity but the knowledge of the classics.* 
 
 Thus the monastery with its library, its facilities for 
 study and its almost complete monopoly of learned men, 
 easily became the precursor of the university. In many 
 cases the libraries were large even when measured by com- 
 paratively modern standards. Even in the 10th century 
 the Abbey of Novalise in Piedmont had 6,000 volumes. 
 
 The invention of printing, followed so closely by the 
 revival of learning, multiplied not only books, but readers 
 of books. The wandering scholar and the studious monk, 
 freed from the necessity of copying the books they needed, 
 or of buying them at a high price from scribes, felt more 
 and more the desirability of going beyond the very few 
 text-books which had formerly been deemed sufficient. 
 Learning became secularized, and the university library 
 grew, in proportion as the monastery library lessened, in 
 
 than the Benedictines and the Orders derived from them, for they prescribe the 
 kind of press in which the books are to be kept. Both tbey and the Pre- 
 monstratinsians permit their books to be lent on the receipt of a pledge of 
 sufficient value. Lastly, the Friars, though they were established on the principle 
 of holding no possessions of any kind, some found that books were indispensable ; 
 that, in the words of a Normal Bishop, Claustium sine armaria^ casteum sine 
 arm&itario (A cloister without a library is a castle without an armory). So 
 by a strange irony, it came to pass that their libraries excelled those of most other 
 orders as Richard de Bury testifies in the PhiloMtlon/' Clark, op. cit.^ pp. 18—19. 
 
 * "While the vigor of Christianity in Italy, and Gaul and Spain was exhausted 
 in a bare struggle for life, Ireland, which remained unscourged by Invaders, drew 
 from its conversion an energy such as it has never known since. 
 The science and biblical knowledge which fled from the Continent took refuge in 
 its schools. . . . Irish missionaries labored among the Picts of the High- 
 lands and among the Frisians of the northern seas. An Irish missionary 
 Columbia, founded monasteries in Burgundy and the Apennines. The Canton of 
 St. Gall still commemorates in Its name another Irish missionary before whom the 
 spirits of blood and fell fled waiting over the waters of the Lake of Constance " 
 Green, J. R. History of the English People, § 49. usiaaiLe. 
 
 "Modern historians have at last appreciated the blaze of life reliKions 
 literary and artistic, which was kindled by Christianity in the "Isle of Saints"' 
 within a century after St. Patrick's coming (about A. D. 450) ; how the enthusiasm' 
 kindled by Christianity in the Celtic nature so far transcended the limits of the 
 island, and indeed of Great Britain, that Irish missionaries and monks were soon 
 found in the chief religious centres of Gaul, Germany, Switzerland and North 
 Italy, while foreigners found their toilsome way to Ireland to learn Grooti" 
 Madern, F. Books in manuscript. 1893, pp. 27-28. uieei... 
 
11 
 
 importance. The religious wars of the 16th century de- 
 stroyed many of the monastic libraries. In France 151 
 were pillaged.; in England more than 700 monasteries or 
 church schools were victims. Even the university 
 libraries suffered, though in less degree, in the general 
 social upheaval.* 
 
 The bright side to this dark picture is the fact that, 
 in the general breaking down of the barriers set up by 
 the clergy and by the professional classes, who had fre- 
 quented the university schools of arts, medicine, theology 
 and law, learning became more and more popularized, the 
 reading of books more general and the formation of pri- 
 vate collections of books more common. It is possible 
 that the use of libraries, if it did not actually diminish, at 
 least showed no large relative increase over that of the 
 middle ages. Indeed there are indications that the 
 medieval library rules were more liberal than those which 
 often prevailed rather generally from the 16th to the early 
 19th century. One is accustomed to think of "the books 
 in chains", but the chained books were available for all 
 purposes, except for private acquisition, and were cer- 
 tainly more hospitable to the reader than the locked doors 
 so common in American college libraries as late as the 
 middle 19th century. I myself on visiting a remark- 
 able collection of editions of Virgil in Oxford was 
 informed that the undergraduates had no access to it. An 
 Englishman, writing in 1853, bewails the loss of this 
 medieval liberality. He says: "Since the Monastic 
 Libraries, so thickly scattered throughout Europe in the 
 Middle Ages, were, in the fullest sense of the term, Public 
 Libraries, and placed their volumes within the reach of 
 all who sought to peruse them, even at their own firesides, 
 the price of books was a matter of far less importance 
 than it would have been, had less extensive advantages 
 
 • Buckingham, L. A. Bible in the middle ages. 1853, pp. 155-62. 
 
12 
 
 been offered, to those who desired to consecrate their 
 leisure hours to intellectual pursuits; the student could 
 pursue his toils, at some disadvantage, truly, but without 
 serious obstacle, without possessing a library of his own, 
 when the volumes which adorned the shelves of the Abbey 
 were open to his access and might be carried to his house ; 
 in the facility with which he could obtain from the Monks 
 the loan of valuable books, the scholar of those days en- 
 joyed a privilege which is sought in vain by him who 
 treads in his footsteps in the nineteenth century."* 
 
 It is interesting to note that, as has been indicated, 
 both ancient and medieval scholars seem to have con- 
 sidered the library a necessary adjunct to education. 
 Temple libraries flourished wherever the priestly class 
 was dominant; the growth in monastery libraries kept 
 pace with the growth in power and influence of the 
 medieval church. Royal libraries, as at Eome, at the 
 court of Charlemagne, and at Florence under the Medicis 
 flourished when culture in general flourished. Whether 
 feared as an arsenal of the black arts and destroyed by the 
 superstitious as so many volumes were in the days of the 
 reformation)- or apostrophised as they, "Who alone are 
 liberal and free, who give to all who ask of you and en- 
 franchise all who serve you faithfully"$ the book and the 
 library were everywhere recognized as powers for weal or 
 woe to the state. They were founded or supported by the 
 state, by the church or the university all of which were 
 public institutions. They were everywhere looked on as 
 the source from which the scholar and the investigator 
 could draw information. Xowhere did the private library 
 take their place. Even the great book collectors in manv 
 
 * Buckingham, L». A. Op. cit., p. 162. 
 
 t "The books marked with red, were generally condemned at a venture for 
 'Popery', and where circles and mathematical figures were found, they were looked 
 upon as compositions of magic, and either torn or burnt." Buckingham o« cit 
 p. 158. 
 
 t De Bury. Philobiblon, Chap. I, § 27. 
 
13 
 
 cases, donated their collections to monasteries or to 
 universities. 
 
 The Mazarin Library, the Bodleian, the Pepsyean col- 
 lection at Cambridge, were the forerunners of the Astor, 
 the Lenox, and the Widener libraries of today.* 
 
 Few scholars had large collections. The great Mather 
 library built up by several generations, does not fill even 
 a very small room in the American Antiquarian Society 
 at Worcester. The collections of Samuel Pepys, the 
 work of a lifetime, fill only a few cases in the Magdalen 
 College Library at Cambridge University. 
 
 Nevertheless the library was largely considered an op- 
 tional workshop for the gifted few, and in later times be- 
 came as much subordinated to the fixed curriculum of the 
 schools of all grades, as was the case in the medieval 
 school in which scarcity of books made a fixed course al- 
 most unavoidable. 
 
 The library of the average man before the last century 
 was nearly negligible, judged by present notions. In the 
 outfit sent by Patroon Van Rensselaer to Johannes 
 Megapolensis, the first pastor of what is now the "Capitol 
 district of New York State", was a library of 17 titles, 
 in 25 volumes, for pastoral use.f The patroon apparently 
 thought this quite sufficient in quantity as well as quality. 
 In the inventory of an estate in colonial New York ( May 
 6,- 1613 ) , 19 books, 18 pamphlets, 17 manuscript volumes 
 and 11 pictures are mentioned. This was evidently a 
 typical private library of the better class. J' 
 
 Despite the inadequacy of private collections, the fixed 
 curricula of the school seem to have given a fictitious 
 definiteness to education, which discouraged rather than 
 encouraged the growth of libraries. In colonial America, 
 the state was dominated by the clergy and the man of 
 
 * Buckingham, op. cit., pp. 133-35. 
 
 t Ecclesiastical history of the State of N. T., pp. 155-56. 
 
 t nid, p. 168. 
 
14 
 
 family. The library was largely considered the perquisite 
 of the leaders of public opinion and not the continuation 
 school for the self -culture of the multitude. 
 
 This deficiency was recognized by far-sighted men 
 who began in the latter part of the 18th century, to estab- 
 lish society libraries, whose privileges were open to sub- 
 scribers. 
 
 "The many-sided Franklin" had seen the need much 
 earlier and in 1731 he founded the library of the Junto, 
 a club which he had also founded as "a club of mutual 
 improvement". In October, 1732, the library was opened 
 for the use of the members. This afterward developed 
 into The Library Company of Philadelphia, which still 
 exists as the oldest, and one of the most flourishing sub- 
 scription libraries still extant. Franklin says of this 
 library, "This was the mother of all North American sub- 
 scription libraries, now so numerous. These libraries have 
 improved the general conversation of the Americans, 
 made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent 
 as most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps 
 have contributed in some degree to the stand so generally 
 made throughout the colonies in defense of their privi- 
 leges."* 
 
 Those "practical" people who see in libraries an orna- 
 ment rather than an organic part of education, a harm- 
 less civic amusement center rather than an institution 
 whose claims to public support are based on public needs, 
 will do well to remember this opinion of the eminently 
 practical Franklin and to recall further that in his "Pro- 
 jiosals Relative to the Echication of Youth in Pennsi/1- 
 vunia'' written in 1749 he insists "That the house be 
 furnished with a library if in the country (if in the town 
 the town libraries will serve ) ".f 
 
 * Franklin. Autobiograpliy. Chap. V. 
 
 t Franklin. Proposals relating to the Education of Youth in PcnnsvUanin 
 Quoted in Report of the V. S. Commission of Education, 1902, v. 1, p. 183 
 
15 
 
 It is refreshing to note with what ease he solved the 
 vexed question of the relationship of school and public 
 library. 
 
 His attitude toward public library facilities is shown 
 in another way : 
 
 "In 1784 a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in 
 its sixth year, took upon itself his name, and, sending 
 notice of the honor, informed him that they would build 
 a suitable tower to their church if he would present them 
 with a bell. His famous reply asking them to accept a 
 gift of books instead of a bell, 'sense being preferable to 
 sound', led to the founding of a public library in the 
 town".* 
 
 Subscription libraries were founded in great numbers 
 in his time and in the first half of the nineteenth century, 
 in nearly all parts of the country. Though not free, in 
 the modem sense of being supported by tax instead of by 
 direct dues imposed on members, they were more nearly 
 free and more nearly democratic, than their name indi- 
 cates. They kept pace with the inadequate instructional 
 advantages offered by the average school and opened the 
 way for the later free tax-supported public library.f 
 
 * Thrope, F, N. Franklin's Influence in American Education in Report of 
 U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1902, v. 1, p. 128. 
 
 To Richard Price 
 
 Passy, March IS, 1785. 
 Dear Friend, 
 
 My nephew, Mr. Williams, will have the honor of delivering you this line. 
 It is to request from you a List of a few good Books, to the Value of ahout 
 Twenty-five Pounds, such as are most proper to unculcate Principles of sound 
 Religion and just Grovernment. A New Town in the State of Massachusetts having 
 done me the honors of naming itself after me, and proposing to huild a Steeple to 
 their meeting-house if I would give them a Bell, I have advis'd the sparing them- 
 selves the Expense of a Steeple for the present, and that they would accept of 
 Books instead of a Bell, Sense being preferable to Sound. These are therefore 
 intended as the Commencement of a little Parochial Library for the Us© of a 
 Society of intelligent, respectable Farmers, such as our Country People generally 
 consist of . . . 
 
 B. Frankin. 
 
 In Writings of Benjamin Franklin collected by A. H. Smyth, 1906, v. 9, 
 p. 300. 
 
 t It is quite common to look upon the later movements by which libraries 
 came to be supported by public funds derived from taxation as marking the begin- 
 ning of the publiq library. In one sense this view is correct ; but when it is noted 
 how naturally and inevitable the public library of Franklin's institution has 
 
16 
 
 Libraries of the present, are, therefore, a modernized 
 rather than a purely modern institution. Their develop- 
 ment is not so much a new contribution to education, as a 
 remarkable enlargement of a field whose possibilities have 
 heretofore been but partly recognized. They have three 
 strong claims to respect : their present achievements, their 
 promise for the future and their more than creditable 
 past. 
 
 The schools and libraries of Xew York State followed 
 the general course from education for the few to that 
 provided for all. 
 
 Passing by the colonial period, we find the Univer- 
 sity of the State of New York founded in 1784 to super- 
 vise the Colleges of the State. In 1787 its field was 
 enlarged to include the care of all schools of academic 
 grade. The Regents themselves were not content with 
 this limitation of educational facilities. In 1787 one of 
 their committees reported that 
 
 "They feel themselves bound in faithfulness to add 
 that the erecting of public schools for teaching reading, 
 writing and arithmetic is an object of very ,great im- 
 portance, which ought not to be left to the discretion of 
 private men, but be promoted by public authority."'* 
 
 The system of elementary schools, of which the state is 
 justly proud, though repeatedly urged by the Regents, 
 was established later and put under the care of a separate 
 state department, Avhere it remained until 1904. when the 
 two departments were united. Neither the University nor 
 the Department of Public Instruction were forgetful of 
 
 grown into the more recent form, it is easy to preceive that in the establishcaent 
 of these subscription libraries, ttie public-library movement really began. From 
 tbe first Niese institutions were for the benefit, not of the few, but of the 
 many. . . The very general application to such associations of names 
 
 like "Young Men's Institute," implied that their members were not those of 
 comparatiye leisure and ease of circumstances, but rather those who, unable to 
 own books to any extent, must associate themselves in order to obtain their use 
 Fletcher, W. I. Public Ubrarws in America, 1894. p. 11. 
 
 • Quoted in Hough, F. B. Historical and statistical recoid of the Vniversitv 
 of the State of New York, 1784-1884, p. 4-7. * 
 
17 
 
 the importance of libraries. From the first the Regents 
 authorized the purchase from state funds of books and 
 apparatus for school and college use. As early as 1839 
 each academy was required to have a library of at least 
 f 150 in value. This requirement was gradually increased 
 until to-day no state can show a better average stock of 
 books in its high school libraries or better facilities for 
 increasing the number of these books. 
 
 In 1818 the New York State Library was founded as 
 "A public library for the use of the government and 
 people of the State." In 1844 it passed into the control of 
 the Regents. In 1845, the Regents became the trustees of 
 the State Museum of Natural History, now a part of the 
 Science Division of the University. 
 
 In 1834 the Department of Public Instruction took a 
 very advanced step by authorizing the establishment of 
 "district school libraries not primarily for school use, 
 though kept in the school-house, but for all the in- 
 habitants of the district." These were supported from 
 state funds.* 
 
 Largely through lack of proper supervision and of 
 competent librarians, these libraries fell so far short of 
 their intended purpose, that in 1889 Dr. Draper, then 
 State Superintendent of Public Instruction, urged provi- 
 sions for the separate establishment of free tax-supported 
 libraries, to be supervised by the Regents through the 
 State Library. This led to excellent legislation in 1892, 
 and to the remarkable growth of public libraries through- 
 out the State. Of this period Dr. Draper remarks : 
 
 "The appointment of Melvil Dewey to the secretary- 
 ship of the Board of Regents and the directorship of the 
 State Library in 1889 resulted speedily in much agitation 
 
 * While they were designated "school libraries", they were not chosen with 
 reference to the work of the schools and they were open to the free use of all the 
 people. They were commonly regarded as public libraries, administered through 
 the school system for convenience." Draper, A. S. Report of the N. Y. State 
 Ed^tcation Dep't., 1907, p. 619. 
 
18 
 
 not onlr of library expansion but also of a much w^der 
 understanding of the adaptation of libraries to public 
 and governmental uses as well as of much enlargement 
 of library and librarian functions concerning both scien- 
 tific study and the popular enlightenment."* 
 
 The State has thus in large measure recognized the 
 three leading aspects of education : (1) the direct instruc- 
 tional function of its schools of all kinds and grades; 
 (2) the encouragement of scientific research as shown in 
 the activities of the State Museum and of the State 
 Historian ; ( 3 ) the duty of the State to provide means for 
 voluntary self-culture, intellectual recreation and profes- 
 sional and vocational improvement. 
 
 There is no danger that so important a feature of its 
 work can ever be seriously neglected by the State. 
 
 Even at the risk of presenting nothing new, it is not 
 out of place as a matter of state pride to refer briefly 
 to some of the things which make the State conspicuous in 
 library matters. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to the fact that the 
 State Library from its inception was intended for state- 
 wide service. Even yet, many states in their state 
 libraries have not reached the place from which Xew York 
 started a century ago. The remarkable recovery of the 
 State Library from a disaster that might have been con- 
 sidered irremediable, the growth of its use not only within 
 its own walls but throughout the State by means of inter- 
 library loans, debate collections and package libraries 
 are familiar items in current library history. More and 
 more it is giving direct aid to state departments and to 
 the legislature and becoming truly a library "for the 
 people and the government of the state." 
 
 In 1808 Napoleon Bonaparte had his own travelling 
 camp library. Traveling parochial libraries were known 
 
 * Draper, A. S., op. cit., p. 620. 
 
19 
 
 almost as early in Scotland. For many years individual 
 libraries and other institutions have been accustomed to 
 lend small collections of books for limited periods. It 
 remained for New York to adopt and adapt these plans 
 and to make them of state-wide application. The growth 
 of this service has been limited only by lack of funds to 
 provide more material to send to applicants. There is 
 no corner of the state in which some libraiy or school, 
 or isolated family or even some individual lover of read- 
 ing, far from library facilities, has not been the bene- 
 ficiary of this part of our library service. 
 
 The lives of many blind men and women have been 
 cheered by the books in raised type which are so liberally 
 provided for them. Many a perplexed librarian or private 
 book-buyer has received much needed aid in the profitable 
 purchase of books. 
 
 Through its library organizers and other officials, the 
 state exercises a supervision over its libraries, similar to 
 that which is transforming the schools of the state from 
 an impressive aggregation of highly variable units, into a 
 well-knit, state-wide system. 
 
 As early as 1827 state appropriations were made for 
 the special training of teachers, and in 1844 the first 
 normal school of the state was established. In the absence 
 of any effective system of public libraries, the professional 
 training of librarians was longer delayed, but in 1889, 
 the Eegents took under their jurisdiction the first library 
 school, established at Columbia College two years before. 
 Of this school the late Prof. Schwab of Yale has said : "I 
 venture to say that no institution has ever made as rela- 
 tively large a contribution toward uplifting and ennobling 
 a learned profession."* In this work three other similar 
 schools have had a large part. 'SMth the schools at 
 Albany, Pratt Institute, the New York Public Library 
 
 • Proceedings. Dedication of the N. Y. State Education Building, 1907, p. 32. 
 
20 
 
 and Syracuse University, no other state is so amply pro- 
 vided with possibilities for training for library service. 
 
 The early establishment of school libraries has al- 
 ready been mentioned. Allusion has also been made to 
 the practical failure of most of these libraries because of 
 the lack of adequate management by the schools or ade- 
 quate supervision by the state. Many school authorities 
 who recognized the necessity of definite training in all 
 other directions, seemed to assume that the ability to 
 read intelligently and to choose books wisely was a 
 heaven-born instinct and not what it really is, a faculty 
 capable of improvement in all but an abnormal few. 
 The average school library, in consequence, has not done 
 its proper service. This state of affairs is rapidly chang- 
 ing. The School Libraries Division is bringing pressure 
 to bear on school board and teacher to make the school 
 library a part of the school that should be inspected as 
 closely, and judged as rigidly, as any other part of the 
 school work or equipment. The time is not far distant 
 when the school librarian will be chosen for her special 
 training and ability, and not with reference to the num- 
 ber of vacant class periods at her disposal. 
 
 The complexity of modern life has forced on every 
 form of productive human activity the need of the li- 
 brary. Even to keep from dropping behind in the march 
 of progress, it is necessary to use every bit of help avail- 
 able from the experience of others. The economic 
 boundaries of a country are world-wide. Waste and in- 
 efficiency in any place affect the markets of a continent. 
 No course of study in any school, whatever its rank, can 
 be more than a beginning for necessary further study. 
 The power of research, the desire for self -education, 
 whether for utilitarian or for cultural purposes, are not 
 merely things to be desired; they are fundamentals of 
 national as of personal progress. The technical school. 
 
21 
 
 and the industrial plant, have both their laboratory and 
 their reference library. More slowly but none the less 
 surely the truth is coming home to all thinking people, 
 that the agencies for voluntary and informal education, 
 and recreation, are no less essential than well-paved 
 streets and adequate fire protection. Increase of leisure 
 is a menace, not an asset to society, if it means more 
 time released for profitless or pernicious amusement. 
 The man untrained to use his leisure well, is as much a 
 menace as the untrained artisan. There was much sound 
 psychology in the old custom of making the seamen 
 scour the anchor in preference to having them breed 
 mutiny in the forecastle. A much sounder psychology 
 is shown in the provision of healthful means of recrea- 
 tion. The ship's library has prevented many a mutiny. 
 The army Y. M. C. A. tent has prevented desertions and 
 lessened the business of the groggery outside the camp. 
 
 There is another side to the question. Too much read- 
 ing may become a vice, and any considerable amount of 
 reading of harmful or worthless books works positive 
 injury. What of it? The ages are lurid with the fires 
 of religious persecution; many a scientist has become 
 mentally atrophied, or even insane, through unwise con- 
 centration on his specialty; leaders in business have be- 
 come social menaces to entire communities. This does 
 not prove that religion or science or business should be 
 abolished or neglected. As no other recreation does, 
 reading makes a man independent of his material condi- 
 tion, and his environment. The way to ensure good read- 
 ing is to supply it freely. There is always the likelihood 
 that individual tastes will not be suited but no movement 
 would make progress which would wait until all were 
 satisfied. 
 
 Nor is it necessary to deplore too much the fact that 
 the most carefully selected library will give offence to 
 
22 
 
 some sensitive souls. The New York Herald of August 
 15th, in speaking of criticisms of the New York Public 
 Library, says: 
 
 "Two letters were received at the Herald office yester- 
 day complaining of the fact that there were certain 
 kinds of books at the institution. Within the last year 
 probably fifty letters have been received asking how long 
 the citizens must suffer the presence of frightful volumes 
 ^vithin the walls of a public property. Lately the matter 
 has appeared to near a crisis and the concensus is that 
 the library is a blight, threat, menace and milestone. It 
 may be necessary to torpedo it. 
 
 One of the letters of yesterday complains that Oliver 
 Goldsmith's 'The Citizen of the World' attacked the 
 Chinese, and on August 9 a complaint was made that the 
 library had books which 'ran the Scotch into the 
 ground' . . All that remains is for a library 
 
 attendant to bite a reader. It's things like that which 
 start revolutions." 
 
 The day of the private library which is adequate for 
 all the needs of its owner is past as completely as the day 
 in which it was possible for the merchant to know per- 
 sonally all his customers, and those from whom he boujiht 
 his stock. It is still possible and in every way desirable 
 to have in one's possession the books he likes, the authors 
 of whom he makes companions and friends. We shall 
 never be truly an educated people until the f ami ly library, 
 selected not for decorative purposes, or as a patent of in- 
 tellectual respectability, but for frequent use, is a uni- 
 versal feature of our homes. There is a loss in depending 
 entirely on borrowed books. He who owns no books and 
 is content with the hurried calls of others' books, even 
 from public libraries, has never truly learned the jov of 
 reading. No man gets the most from life who does not 
 have a small circle of friends for companionship as well 
 as the larger circle of business or social acquaintances 
 
23 
 
 which modern life makes necessary. The real reader has 
 his private library of friends, however useful he may find 
 his acquaintances of the public library. 
 
 In vocational lines the matter is different. The book 
 which aids in gaining one's livelihood is a tool or a ma- 
 chine whose value is probably temporary and which is 
 almost certain to end sooner or later on the literary scraj) 
 heap. It is impossible for any one but a plutocrat, or an 
 institution to get even those of great practical value. 
 Few physicians can afford adequate private professional 
 libraries. The state has established law libraries in every 
 legal center, to enable the Courts and the Bar to have 
 access to the law. The library of a Newton or a Faraday 
 would be insufficient for the merest tyro in any scientific 
 pursuit to-day. 
 
 The progress of any country, as of any individual, 
 depends on its ability to apply past experiences to present 
 emergencies. Its safety depends on the judgment of its 
 leaders. In a democracy where every man is a potential 
 leader, and to some extent an actual one, national safety 
 lies only in wide-spread common-sense, good judgment, 
 and an intelligent appraisal of new ideas, before adopt- 
 ing them to the exclusion of the old. The agitator, like 
 the pioneer, is essential but not the only essential. The 
 axeman have labored in vain if the settlement cannot 
 keep communications with the older towns and cities in 
 the rear. The well-chosen library open to all on equal 
 terms justifies the statement recently made by President 
 Hibben to a group of librarians visiting Princeton 
 University : 
 
 "At this time, when the whole world seems rushing 
 on to an unknown future, you are holding fast to the 
 great articles of the past. You are guarding the sources 
 of knowledge. The library is to-day the only absolutely 
 democratic institution that man possesses. If those 
 
24 
 
 doors of the past did not matter we would close the doors 
 of our libraries. If we would go forward we must tate 
 the past with us."* 
 
 In New York State, as in few other places, the chang- 
 ing population makes it necessary to pursue without 
 intermission the process of making citizens. The battle 
 for democracy, for liberty without unbridled license, must 
 be always fought to be ever won. For this conflict the 
 State has, often with little deliberate plan, fortified her- 
 self everywhere by extending to her citizens a fair share 
 of good books. A writer in Ken; York Libraries, says: 
 
 "With 10 per cent, of the population of the whole 
 United States, New York has about 20 per cent, of the 
 books in the public and society libraries of the country, 
 24 per cent, of the circulation, 22 per cent, of the library 
 income, 39 per cent, of the value in buildings and grounds 
 and 38 per cent, of the total value of library endow- 
 ments."t 
 
 This is a creditable record and one that should incite 
 every librarian to make an even better one in the future. 
 A glance at the lines along which the state has already 
 shown great library development, suggests even greater 
 developments in the same directions. The work which 
 the State Library, the Educational Extension Division, 
 and many local libraries, are doing to extend library 
 privileges to all parts of the state, should be supplemented 
 by much more work on the part of local libraries. 
 Despite what has been done, much remains undone. It 
 is asserted that 1,400,000 people of the state are still 
 without reasonable library facilities ; that, at the present 
 rate of increase, it will be at least twenty years before 
 every village of more than 500 inhabitants will have a 
 public library and that even then a population of about 
 
 • Quoted in Dial, July 15, 1916. 
 
 t New York Libraries, Feb., 1916, p. 60. 
 
25 
 
 a million will have access to no librai-y beyond the small 
 one in the rural school.* 
 
 If the desired result is. to he reached quickly and 
 economically, the methods and results in all libraries re- 
 ceiving public money, must be as closely supervised, and 
 as frankly criticised, as those of any other institution 
 receiving- piiblic funds. 
 
 The higher standard of service which will result from 
 closer inspection will of necessity bring more general 
 public recognition of the claim of the librarian as A^ell as 
 the library to public support. Better service to the public 
 must always precede public assent to better pay for better 
 service. It must never be forgotten that we may provide 
 stately buildings and all the card catalogues and other 
 appliances and all the machinery of a public library and 
 yet fail to provide the most important of all, a well 
 equipped sympathetic and intelligent librarian. This 
 must appeal to every one who has had occasion to make 
 researches in a library. 
 
 It is the personal equation of the man or woman in 
 charge of the books which counts more than all beside. 
 At present many otherwise intelligent people consider the 
 library an architectural feature, instead of an educa- 
 tional institution. There must be no further danger of 
 the serious proposal made sometime ago by an economical 
 official in a city of this state, who desired to discontinue 
 the library appropriation and use the library building 
 for the new jail, which he felt necessary for the com- 
 munity's welfare. The proposal, by the way, was igno- 
 miniously defeated by the protests of citizens to whom 
 the library had been both a pleasure and a profit. The 
 desire for handsome buildings is commendable, but not 
 when it results in turning a cultural institution into a 
 memorial Avith just enough books, and just enough service 
 
 * New YorTt, Libraries, May, 1916, p. 76. 
 
26 
 
 to keep it from being quite unvisited and the donor's name 
 forgotten. 
 
 Valuable as libraries already are to any one anxious 
 for, or trained in habits of self-culture, willing as they 
 are to cooperate Avitli any agency for public betterment, 
 there are many possibilities, unrealized as yet, of closer 
 articulation with other educational forces of the state. 
 The work of the library is often so widely scattered as to 
 lose much force through its excessive individuality. It 
 should be possible, without losing this great virtue of 
 being the only really elective course extant, to modify 
 so as to meet modern demands. The old plan of Uni- 
 versity extension whicli flourished for a time in connection 
 with the libraries of the state, and which, chiefly through 
 the efforts of Regent ►Sexton, now the honored Chancellor 
 of the University, and Dr. Melvil Dewey, was the real 
 force which gave the traveling library system its first 
 auspicious start. In addition to the work Avith local 
 clubs, organically connected courses might be planned 
 which would serve, not as a substitute for the school, but 
 which would bring many of the advantages of the school 
 to thousands now unable to benefit by either secondai-y 
 school or college. The library cannot do this to best ad- 
 vantage alone, but in any such system, whether initiated 
 by library or by school, the library is an indispensable 
 adjunct.* 
 
 It is the duty of the Regents, as the official custodians 
 of all the educational interests of the state, to encourage 
 
 • "From the schoolman's standpoint, the library ought to be a "sort of 
 universal first aid station to every adult in perplexity. It seems to be naturally 
 fitted beyond any other institution tor this service. The criticism ot the school- 
 man on the library's activities is that it has not organized this educational work 
 with the adult so as to malce It really efficient. . . . From the standpoint 
 ot an educator, every time an individual comes into the library with a real intire"t 
 and a real problem, you have a potential educaUonal course of study or research 
 presented. . . . In cooperation with the efforts ot the school, the library 
 could undoubtedly develop a system ot adult education which would he a« ari» 
 quate for the average adult at work as the college course is .rte" 
 quate for the young man and young woman ot greater leisure " President T H 
 Finley, ot the University ot the State of New York, in New Ymk Libranes. Xo"' 
 
l'( 
 
 iiuy movements tli.it tend to make for better citizenship, 
 iind richer personal life. Measured by this test the 
 libraries of the state richly merit such encouragement. 
 They have added a neAV chapter to the honorable history 
 of library work. They have done their work in most 
 instances in a spirit of real service entirely out of pro- 
 portion to their pecuniary reward. They have antici- 
 pated much that is best in modern education. They 
 stand ready to aid any one to help himself. In their 
 freedom from compulsion, and their giving to their users 
 just as much as the user's industry and capacity enable 
 him to get for himself they are exponents of both the 
 freedom and the responsibility of democracy. The large 
 measure of freedom from official restraint they enjoy in 
 their work is due more to confidence in their integrity 
 i'.nd efficiency than to indifference. They seem sure to 
 develop their work still further, to be conducted even 
 more frequently by workers as willing and efficient, as 
 the best librarians of the present, and with even broader 
 scope for their work. To further such ends, it seems not 
 so much a prophecy, us a plain statement of fact to say 
 that the Regents of the University of the State of New 
 York will in the future shoAV not only the same interest 
 as in the past but move interest, and an even greater 
 disposition, to secure for the libraries of the state, as 
 far as possible, a greater measure of public recognition 
 and support, and to lead the people of the state to appi'e- 
 ciate that noble body of men and women, represented 
 here, who oftentimes unsustained by fellowship or en- 
 couragement and far from their homes keep alight the 
 fires of intellectvial activity and research. So that the 
 (lay may soon come when the great professional librarians 
 may be appreciated at their true worth, as the peers of 
 the great teachers, the great physicians, the great advo- 
 cates of the State.