Frank Avery Hutchins

“ In the matter of fees the States which buy the books generally follow the New York plan and charge three dollars for each visit of a library of fifty volumes, and the State pays the transportation charges. Associations generally charge no fees, and make the recipients pay all transportation charges. Theoretically it is not right to give people "something for nothing," but practically it is certain that there are communities, where libraries are woefully needed, which will not pay a cent for them ”

“ Until seven years ago, however, there was no systematic and continued effort to give free access to collections of good books to farmers and the residents of small villages. The almost universal lack of library privileges in rural communities has not arisen so much from failure to appreciate books as from certain practical difficulties in the methods of supplying them. The writer has visited scores of small communities, in a state which may fairly be regarded as typical, and has found very few in which public libraries have not at some time been started. ”

“ Libraries made up of gifts from private libraries have rarely been permanently successful. The people who have tried to lay up treasures in heaven by contributing old books to traveling libraries have often injured a most worthy cause.
Libraries in country communities should be in homes or public places where people feel free to go. If the books are to help the families that need them most, they must be in charge of people who seek every opportunity to reach such families. It frequently happens that librarians who mean well weary in well doing. ”

“ There is no better way of educating them than to supply them from traveling libraries furnished by private associations working from a central library. Associations, like women's clubs and organizations of normal school students, have done so much good with traveling libraries, when they have managed them wisely, that it seems best to state the conditions necessary to succeed, frankly, and in some detail. ”

“ While associations have not been as successful as organizations supported by the State in securing the establishment of permanent libraries, they have been very successful in other important fields where those who give and those who receive can meet. It is clear that our city and village libraries should be free to neighboring farmers, but the farmers do not generally appreciate the value of the libraries, and are unwilling to bear a fair share of the burden of supporting them. ”

“ An association working from a central library and covering a county can have occasional meetings in the field and at the central station, which will inspire the isolated workers, cultivate the "library spirit," and ultimately lead people to study as well as read. ”

“ The ease with which the new plan of library extension may be adapted to meet various needs may be shown in a rapid summary of the work done by a few systems of traveling libraries. Some women in New Jersey have used them to lighten the long winter days and evenings of the brave men who belong to the life-saving service, and that State has now taken up the traveling library as a definite part of the work of its State Library; other women, in Salt Lake City, send them regularly to remote valleys in Utah ”

“ Wherever suitable volumes were bought and new books were frequently supplied, the libraries flourished as vigorously in the country as in the city. It was evident then that if some plan could be devised to give country people books selected by educated buyers, and to give them fresh books at frequent intervals, the problem of giving farmers successful libraries would be solved, but no practical solution was suggested until 1892. ”

“ As to the first and most important result to be secured through traveling libraries, experience seems to prove that those managed by state commissions lead more surely and quickly to the establishment of public libraries than those managed by associations. In New York a large number of public libraries have sprung up in communities which were first supplied by traveling libraries. In Wisconsin the smaller libraries have brought about the founding of twenty local libraries in small villages during the past two years. ”

“ State commissions have succeeded better than private associations in establishing permanent libraries because they work largely to that end and can offer more effective assistance in organizing new libraries. They put their traveling libraries more generally in the villages, while the sympathy of the women's clubs is more often aroused by the needs of the women and children on the farms. ”

“ Traveling libraries must have books that will interest the people whom they are intended to benefit; they must be put in the right places, in charge of the right people, and they must be carefully supervised. The most needy places must have carefully chosen books. An habitual reader will read any respectable book rather than be idle, but the range of books that will hold untrained readers is very limited. ”

“ In selecting, classifying, and preparing the books, in examining and mending them, the work will ordinarily be better done if it is under the charge of a trained librarian, and it will be done more economically if it is done in a good public library. ”

“ Strong state associations can also help isolated study clubs by sending out libraries on special subjects. As such libraries go to clubs of intelligent people, they do not need careful supervision to secure good results. ”

“ In Idaho, California, Nebraska, Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, and many other States, women's clubs are doing the same work for miners, lumbermen, farmers, and sailors. The people of British Columbia and New Zealand are successfully imitating their American cousins in this work. In Massachusetts, where nearly every community has its public library, the Woman's Educational Association is doing a most helpful work by using traveling libraries to strengthen the weak public libraries in the hill towns. ”

“ There will also be a permanent need for traveling libraries in supplementing the scant collections of the smaller libraries and in supplying the temporary needs of isolated study clubs. A special library on American history with a suggestive outline may incite careful study in a score of villages before its brief life is ended, when the meagre local opportunities would discourage students. ”

“ They need the encouragement of occasional visits from enthusiastic leaders. If personal visits are not practicable, they should receive frequent letters. Above all they need the stimulus of a hearty appreciation of their work, for their work is often trying. ”

“ In other places the books are sent in strong packing-cases, and the communities receiving them provide their own shelving. The latter plan is the most economical, and is growing in favor where economy must be practiced. ”

“ In the same year a library commission was established in Maine, and the legislature appropriated $2500 for its use in buying traveling libraries. Fifteen hundred dollars of this amount is available now and the remainder will be given in 1900.
While the legislatures of many States have been besieged for appropriations for the new system of popular education, only those mentioned have given money directly for books. The failure to get aid in other States has not stayed the rapid progress of the movement. ”

“ The number of books in the different traveling libraries varies, but usually there are from thirty-five to fifty in those containing books for general readers, and from fifteen to thirty in those for study clubs. ”