James Duff Brown

“ As a rule, educated and well-read people should never be assisted in any way in their reading or choice of books, because they are almost sure to resent even well-meant efforts, as an officious intrusion into the sanctity of their own superior knowledge. And, no doubt, it is somewhat of an insult to a thorough-going specialist to have some less-learned bibliographer thrusting forth with his selection of books and annotations, as a kind of last word on the subject. ”

“ If all the books are in the 'Library' one has to endure the nuisance of demands for particular works, coming from the kitchen, drawing-room, or bedroom, and the difficulty of securing their prompt and accurate return. It also imposes upon the butler, the maid-of-all-work, or whoever admits and attends upon callers, the awful responsibility of procuring from the library a pass-time book to amuse the waiting visitor in the drawing-room. ”

“ By literature they seem to recognize only novels and poetry; never, as a rule, the books in which are recorded the world's history; the facts of life as seen by successive observers; the technique, history and special advantages of every trade, process or profession; the wisdom of the world's best men; in short, the only permanent records of what has already been accomplished by human beings in every department of life. ”

“ A library being but a collection of books, it becomes business men to assemble as many as possible in the shortest time, in order, perhaps, to outshine an adjoining township, or to satisfy the ratepayers that they are hard at work in the interests of education! To many library committeemen a book is just a book, and like bricks, or paving stones, or potatoes, or other realizable stock, the bigger the accumulation the better. ”

“ It is not only important that the most artistic and amusing picture-books should be chosen, but that some means should be taken to preserve the books from wanton destruction. It is bad enough to see a common, garish, and inartistic book being used to wipe the floor or thrash the fender, but it is positively criminal to allow the works of Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott, and Kate Greenaway—to name no others—to be used in this cruel manner by youngsters who have not been taught to discriminate. ”

“ In buying books for young children, therefore, care should be taken to select only those which have high artistic value, or which give accurate delineations of natural and familiar objects, rather than those cheap and nasty productions which in colour and design are second cousins to the mock valentines of our youth. It may be noted that, when a baby's interest in pictorial literature begins to abate, or to assume a destructive form, an old newspaper makes a most effective substitute for a picture-book. ”

“ It is needless to repeat what has already been said about the in-difference of shopkeepers to their technical literature and journals. It is, unfortunately, a fact too well known to the publishers who bravely undertake the thankless task of giving tradesmen, in book form, an equivalent for the technical training which our own Government neglects, while other nations are pushing ahead and injuring the old British reputation for quality and accuracy in every kind of manufacture and machine. ”

“ But, instead of equipping himself with the tools of knowledge for the benefit of himself or his family, he prefers to grope blindly along in his own pigheaded way, like his fathers before him, a prey to every intelligent American or German who cares to take advantage of his blunt indifference to the power and value of book-learning. ”

“ The most desirable books for a small Children's Home Library are those which can be used by generation after generation of youngsters without becoming tiresome, and which the same child can read over and over again without much loss of interest. In other words, books which have proved their power to interest and even instruct children, by awakening their perceptive faculties, through many years of existence. Imaginative literature, particularly in a prose form, seems to be the class which proves most permanently attractive to all kinds of children. ”

“ It is very surprising, considering the vast number of books produced, how little real influence literature has on the life and concerns of the ordinary man. If journalistic literature be excluded, it is doubtful if books are used by more than one man in ten as they are intended to be used, namely, as machines or tools designed to simplify the multifarious details of every-day life. Take, for example, the case of the prosperous publican—or more politely, the Licensed Victualler—who is best equipped with the material means required for library formation. ”

“ One of the most effectual hindrances to the selection of suitable books for school libraries is the want of sufficient funds. It is the same disability which hampers the work of municipal libraries, and indeed everybody, save a few American and Hebrew millionaires. Unless an adequate grant is made for the purchase of new, and the renewal of worn-out books, no school library can possibly be equipped with good books, or maintained in a fair condition of efficiency. Most of the school libraries are divisible into two categories—the Used and the Unused. ”

“ In the Lending Department it is desirable to make the choice of books as easy and satisfactory as possible, and for this reason, elaborate mechanical devices for registering the issues of books and indicating them 'in' and 'out' are absolutely unnecessary. It is absurd to find municipal libraries in small towns fitted up with a huge rampart of indicator for the purpose of recording a daily issue of about 50 to 100 volumes. It is like employing a steam engine to sharpen one pencil! ”

“ INTRODUCTION Of all the difficult, hazardous and thankless tasks which well-meaning persons can choose for the improvement of their fellows, perhaps none is so unproductive, in some quarters, as book-selection and the recommendation of reading matter. In ninety cases out of a hundred, persons who read books recommended by others will contemn the judgment and taste of the recommender, and even hint at a certain lack of knowledge and critical perception. ”

“ Cases are on record of persons who have starved themselves in order to 'save up' for a sideboard, in which to store a few wedding presents and half a dozen bottles of soda-water; their ignorance, the while, of every vital fact of live being such, through neglect of the information contained in books, that they were incompetent to take part in a discussion on any subject. It is extraordinary to what an extent shrewd and naturally intelligent business men will speak about literature as frivolous and not worth consideration in the struggle for life. ”

“ No one who has engaged in the work of library formation can afford to neglect the bibliographies and suggestions of other collectors, and he who is called upon to systematically build up a library of literature representative of all subjects, cannot stay and watch that delightfully haphazard assembling of choice treasures, which is the chief pleasure of the private collector or Burtonite. ”

“ Loud-voiced, assertive, impatient, quarrelsome, unlovable, and generally offensive youngsters, who are the production of graded schools, ’snappy' literature, boastful school histories, and unbridled licence at home. The marvel is what becomes of these youthful and genteel American hooligans in after-life, because outside the vulgar, go-ahead commercial circles, one seldom meets among adults with the awful manners so characteristic of the American child. ”

“ Instead, we have guides and aids to book-selection which are suggestive rather than aggressively dogmatic, and which are intended for ordinary mortals who make no pretension to book-learning or knowledge of book-classification. Undoubtedly such folks exist now, as they have in all times, who are glad to have a little guidance on any unfamiliar subject, from some one who knows a little more than themselves ”

“ When the typical library committeeman is told that his library contains 5,000 volumes, he never asks how the different classes of literature are represented, but what is the average cost per volume? It is inevitable that it should be so, because the great majority of public library administrators are drawn from the ranks of the small tradesmen, persons interested in poor-law administration, and others to whom the question of an additional halfpenny on the local rates is of more importance than their chance of a niche in Paradise. ”

“ THE SMALL MUNICIPAL LIBRARY With certain honourable exceptions, the smaller municipal libraries of the United Kingdom may be said to become formed by a process which involves the accumulation of books to the exclusion of literature. In other words, the matter-of-fact business men who usually control such institutions, prefer in most cases to have quantity rather than quality, and desire to see a number of books, no matter how useless, rather than a well-selected library of representative literature. ”

“ The whole policy of directing the reading of children in grooves, according to some standard, fixed maybe by an unsympathetic adult, is an insult to the intelligence and humanity which reside in boys and girls, however much they may be concealed under the inanities their parents teach them. No doubt some of the mistaken notions as to the possibility of suiting books to ages have arisen from the frequent inquiries which present-giving relatives address to booksellers when they want books suitable for children of a certain age. ”

“ CLASSIFICATION However small a library may be, it should have its contents arranged according to a systematic classification, assembling as nearly as possible in one place all the books on one subject. The advantages of exact classification extend to every department of a library's work, but to none more than book-selection, shelf arrangement and cataloguing. ”

“ Even the Public Library has not yet eradicated the belief, prevalent in many minds, that books are not written on every conceivable subject. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, if the habitual users of Public Libraries are excepted, no man or woman dreams of consulting books for even the most elementary information. ”

“ Usually, the schoolmaster's list is full of vapid, colourless and goody-goody stuff which children will not read. They cannot be expected to take great delight in literature which is reminiscent of school lessons, or which is calculated to hurt their self-respect, by being what a London lad once contemptuously called them—'Kids' Books'. ”

“ THE HOUSEHOLD LIBRARY Every intelligent man, whether an enthusiastic book-lover or not, recognizes that books should form part of the fittings of every room in a house. Whether the apartment be a library, study, parlour, nursery, drawing-room, kitchen, bedroom, dining-room, boudoir, hall, or den, books of a suitable kind should form part of its equipment. ”

“ Indeed, it is very doubtful if Carroll's 'Alice' books are not really grown-up children's books. Many children care little for their elaborate fooling, though they politely acquiesce in the enthusiastic appreciation of their parents. There are others which may be regarded as more suitable for adults, but a long experience has convinced the writer that practically any good book possessing literary merit is suitable equally for old men of seventy and young boys of ten, provided they have any intelligence at all. The list above is merely a suggested beginning for a juvenile home library. ”

“ Those superior persons—the average business men—who are continually parading their great commercial acumen before the humbler folks who only rank as customers, seem to be singularly short-sighted in regard to the aid which literature can, and does, lend to business. They support but one form of literature, if it can be dignified with the name, Advertising, and in this respect they are to be commended as faithful patrons of the art of printing. ”

“ If it is not a wise and proper policy to commence with the authors generally recognized and acclaimed as the best in the realms of pure literature, what principle can be adopted as a guide to such an immense labyrinth as the field of general literature? ”

“ It is perhaps desirable, before quitting the subject of Household Libraries, to devote a little attention to a department which is generally overlooked, either because it is not considered sufficiently important, or from motives of mistaken delicacy. Sir Walter Scott, with the plain, honest frankness which characterized him, describes what arrangements he made at Abbotsford to make this part of his house attractive, by papering it with amusing caricatures; but very few others, save occasionally architects or builders, ever give the apartment in question a thought. ”