urgent need for something in the way of periodical covers, which will last for a few years without wearing out; most of the materials used in their manufacture being all more or less open to objection on account of liability to speedy deterioration. Periodicals allowed to lie about loosely soon acquire a dirty and ragged appearance, and always make a room untidy. The newsroom stock ought to consist of almost every variety of journal and periodical possible to be acquired by purchase or donation. The principal London, provincial, and foreign newspapers; weekly trade, commercial, technical, literary, and scientific periodicals; time tables; monthly and quarterly magazines and miscellanies should be applied as abundantly as possible, so that the newsroom may be representative of every phase of thought and opinion, past and current political and scientific movement, and be, in general, a centre for the spread of information on every conceivable topic.

Binding. For Public Library purposes all bindings should be strong and durable; finish being a secondary consideration. Various materials have been tried, and at one time it was thought that in buckram a cheap and lasting binding stuff had been discovered which would supersede everything, but there has since been good reason found to doubt its suitability. Among leathers which have stood the tests of wear and tear as well as any, are good Persian morocco and pigskin. Some recent improvements in the methods of dressing the latter have led to a very extensive adoption of this material. A book bound in half pigskin according to the following specification will stand almost anything short of use as a fire-brick.

"Books to be well beaten or rolled. Sew one sheet on, on strong tapes, the first and last sheets or sections to be enclosed at back in linen strips. Tapes to be firmly secured between splitboards. Backs made close and flexible, without bands, but with blind fillets in imitation of bands. Half-bound in pig-skin, smooth cloth sides [and if thought necessary-vellum corners]. Top edge to be cut, sprinkled and burnished, fore and bottom edges left with proof. End papers of stout coloured paper secured to linen strip which should be sewed with first and last sections, with at least one white leaf before and after printed matter. Cloth joints in all books, and plates to be mounted on linen guards. Lettered on back in gold with title, author, and number. Four tapes to be allowed to a 7 inch 8vo, other sizes in proportion."

Calf and Russia leathers should never be used on any account. It is well always to put books in circulation in the publishers' cloth bindings, and let popularity and use distinguish those which should be strongly bound in leather. There is absolutely no economy in buying 2s. novels in sheets for 1s. 4d., and having them bound in leather for say 1s. 4d. extra, making the first cost of the book 2s. 8d. It is much cheaper in the end and more judicious to take the wear out of the original binding even though it be only paper boards, as there is always a risk of books never being in demand, and the cost of binding them is thrown

away, to say nothing of the disproportionate charge for binding during the early years of the library. An ordinary railway novel costing say 1s. 5d., will last six months and more with ordinary usage, and it is time enough to think of putting it into a strong binding when it has proved that it is necessary. A very cogent reason for not binding cheap books in leather from the sheets or when new, is that the paper on which they are printed is always of a poor, brittle quality, and will perish long before the boards are worn out. To recase a new copy in the old boards is not always satisfactory, and in any case it involves too much money for mere binding. There are plenty of cheap leather bindings into which such books can be be put when the original covers are sufficiently worn, and then the 1s. 5d. novel can be strongly re-bound for about 10d. extra, making the total cost 2s. 3d., and with the promise of outlasting the original leather copy purchased and bound at a cost of 2s. 8d. The difference between binding such books as Mrs. Wood's novels in leather when new and letting them first wear out the original cloth boards is simply this. A cloth copy of "East Lynne" can be bought in London for 2s. 4d. With constant use and no ill-treatment it will remain in fair condition for twelve or eighteen months. It can then be re-bound in half pigskin for another 1s. 4d., and will probably last another two years, at the end of which time it will be very dirty. A copy bought in sheets and bound in half pigskin will cost at least 4s., more likely 4s. 4d., as they are not usually supplied in sheets, and will last with fair hard usage at least two years, when it will be found, because not overhauled or re-stitched, that paper and sewing alike are in a degenerated state. A new copy can possibly be re-cased in the old and now very shabby boards, but even then the fresh cost will be nearly 3s. When a book is bound from the sheets or re-bound in leather when new, and is never taken out, the error in this case consists in throwing away money on useless binding.

There are many other minor points in connection with Public Library administration, about which information could be given, but as they depend altogether upon the main system adopted, it will perhaps be best to leave the question of their settlement alone. There is nothing more salutary and suggestive than a visit to some neighbouring libraries, so far as the adoption of matters of detail is concerned. Indeed, there is probably no better advice to be given with regard to all matters connected with library work, than to urge a frequent intercourse with every librarian within reach. In the appendices are a variety of forms as examples in illustration of the points touched on in the foregoing chapters.

PART III.

CHAPTER XXI.

The Future of Public Libraries, and what Remains to be Accomplished.

T

HE future historian writing upon the present decade will be compelled to take into account the part which Public Libraries are taking in the education of the people. And it is safe to prophesy that at the rate of progress which is being made, the historian dealing with the first part of the twentieth century will acknowledge these citizens' institutions as occupying a foremost place in the nation's life. Although much good was accomplished during the first twenty years after Ewart's Act, the real impetus came with the passing of the Elementary Education Act of 1870, and the next bound forward will come with assisted or free education now an accomplished fact. Now that desirable time has been reached, the position of Public Libraries and Museums will soon be as clearly defined in the nation's chart as the prisons and policemen are to-day. It is a well-known fact that the fees which are paid represent only a small proportion of the amount which the teaching costs. And not only so, but the existence of these fees is a continual hindrance to the working of the Act of 1870. The effect of the fee is to keep out of the Board Schools thousands of children who ought to be in them; and the attempt to enforce its payment increases the odium which almost necessarily attends upon compulsion. The remitting of fees in the case of proved inability to pay them is demoralizing in its effect, and a waste of time on the part of the officials and teachers. The annual grant of £20,000 for elementary education, which was commenced in 1834, has grown by leaps and bounds. In a little more than twenty years it had become nearly half-a-million for Great Britain alone. In thirty years it had increased by close upon another quarter of a million. And in fifty years it had touched three millions. And that sum, vast as it was, represented only the amount granted from the national exchequer, being supplemented by an even larger total raised by local rates.

How far enhanced imperial taxation will take the place of local rating is a question which has not yet been seriously examined. But for educational purposes imperial as an alternative to local rating would appear the better plan. The grant of free education to Scotland brought us to the eve of a similar step for the rest of the United Kingdom and Ireland. When this system is in full operation, and has had time to become consolidated, there will begin the real reign of power of Public Libraries. They will take their place, as they have never yet done, in the educational machinery of the country. And for that work they are preparing themselves in a way which is highly creditable to the individual institutions, and to the work as now forming one huge whole. It is no secret that some are struggling to make ends meet on a revenue which is not sufficiently large to keep the wolf from the door the wolf in this case being the demand for an increased supply of books and branch libraries. The concern of all friends of the movement is for those institutions of the rank and file. It is, with many of these, one perpetual attempt to meet their expenditure and yet keep the shelves replenished. But even their future is not by any means so gloomy as some have tried to make out, and anyone looking at their record with unprejudiced minds cannot fail to conclude that the best is being made of everything.

It is clear that second only in importance to the provision of mental food in the establishment of these Public Libraries comes the need for some means of utilizing the books which they contain to the greatest advantage. Everyone has probably heard of some little society of young ladies who undertake to spend a certain time each day in the perusal of a literary classic. These little groups of people are a very general symptom of a want which is widely felt of some direction, some advice and superintendence, of the efforts which so many are eager to make for self-instruction. According to Bacon, who observed that libraries are as the shrines where all the relics of saints are preserved and reposed, "some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." There is no section of the work of these institutions to which more careful attention will have to be directed than this. The need of library finger-posts is becoming as vital as is the existence of the libraries. The best thing for one seeking some direction as to what to read is to attend the classes of a neighbouring college, or to enter as a student for a university extension course, but there are thousands to whom neither alternative is possible. The Home Reading Circles Union, as a new form of university extension, is specially designed to supply the want. This provides for the direction of the studies of any small group of readers who will form a local circle. It is intended to direct home reading, to bring the members of the circles under the personal influence of men who have studied the special subject, to test the work done, and issue certificates of proficiency, and finally to arrange for summer gatherings of members of various circles similar to the recent

meeting of university extension students at Oxford. At present there is no doubt that many busy men go to the Public Library as a distraction from the cares of life, and as a pleasant setoff to the toils and troubles of the day. The choice is not between this and nothing, but between this and something worse; between harmless amusement to the mind or fancy and the more gross pleasures which will come in and take up the time for which no other occupation has been found. A Public Library may be started with higher aims and may serve higher ends, but it will be of most use to its neighbourhood by being so furnished as to meet all tastes. Works of fiction, and travellers' tales-not always to be distinguished from fiction, and so much the more attractive on that account-will always form a great part of a well-stocked Public Library. The purpose of its founders may be to instruct and not only to amuse; but if they are to do either effectively they must be satisfied to do both, and must not look too curiously into the proportions between the two results, for they will probably be disappointed if they do.

At a Public Library the great body of readers are not particular on the score of what is called originality, provided they find the style pleasant and the interest sustained. It is to be feared that most of us read less in order to improve our minds than to occupy our leisure hours. "Happy is it," said Goethe on one occasion, "that we do not know who those are for whom we write." There is certainly one class of writers who seem to know very well the class for whom they write, and those are the producers of the gutter literature of which there is always such a prolific stock. With very many thousands of school children, all that has yet been placed within their reach is the penny dreadful, the character of which does not improve one iota as time advances. To follow Dr. Johnson's plan of taking a walk down Fleet Street would reveal to any observant person, if he would take in his perambulations the courts and alleys surrounding that street, what an enormous trade is done in this class of literature. This would be driven home in his mind by seeing this filthy stuff being devoured by scores of printers' boys during the dinner hour, which has to be usually spent in the streets. It is in combating the influence of this class of literature that the future of our Public Libraries will be very largely occupied. The mountains of such rubbish issued from the press is so great that its influences for evil have scarcely yet been universally realized. Useful as Public Libraries are, they have as yet only touched the fringe of the working population. It is the poor student who has chiefly gained by the publication, now fortunately increasing at a rapid rate, of cheap editions of standard authors. This most deserving class of persons has too long been forced to regard the books urgently needed for further study much as the ragged urchin regards the tempting dainties in the confectioner's window-as treasures beyond his reach. Who knows what the loss to science or literature may not have been owing to the practical scarcity of books? What with Public Libraries and cheap classics, better