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Country Library, Clearing-House BOOKS
Every inhabitant of the United
States, no matter how far from the
centers of population, will have prac
tically as good library facilities as are
now enjoyed by the average city dwel
ler, if plans for the establishment of a
new type of book-distributing agency
work out according to the anticipa
tions of the United States Commis
sioner of Education, Dr. P. P. Claxton,
who is personally interested in their
development. As the rural population
of the United States numbers about 55
per cent of the total population, the
new library plan may have the effect
of doubling the effectiveness of libra
ries, and of raising the standard of
culture in this country to a corre
sponding degree.
The basis of the new scheme of
book distribution is the establishment
of libraries supported not by the
state, city, or town, as at present, but
by the county, with a central clear
ing-house and branches at every post
office, town hall, school, or other cen
ter of community life. Under this
plan, many sections of the country
which at present have no libraries will
be enabled to establish them. If a
given county has no community large
enough to support a library unaided,
the county library plan will enable all
the communities to club their re
sources by levying a county tax for
library purposes, a free use of the
books so obtained being insured by a
system of branches maintained at
common meeting places. Thus every
time a rural resident goes to the near
est store, or every time his child goes
to school, he will find a well-equipped
library at his elbow.
Like the traveling libraries main
tained by a number of states, the
county library aims to find “a book for
every man, and a man for every
book.” Although the two institutions
have much in common, the more re
stricted territory covered by the coun
ty library allows it to adapt itself
more closely to local needs than is
possible for the state book-distribut
ing agency.
The county-library plan has already
been put into successful operation in
Van Wert county, Ohio, where a main
depository and fifteen branches are
maintained at an expenditure of be
tween $6,000 and $7,000 a year, this
sum being raised by levying a half
mill county tax. The same appropri
ation also covered the cost last year
of placing 89 additional branch libra
ries in the public schools. Fourteen
counties in Wisconsin are now enjoy
ing similar facilities.
The city library of Nashville, Tenn.,
has already adopted some of the fea
tures of the county-library plan, while
a number of Carnegie libraries all over
the country are also considering the
same extension of their activities.
Maryland, likewise, has made provis
ion for county libraries, which are
operated with state support.
“I consider the county-library plan
an important step in the educational
development of this country,” said
Dr. Claxton yesterday. “As is well
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known, the schooling of most persons
is of such short duration that their
cultural development must be obtain
ed principally by their own efforts
from books, and any plan which will
increase the number and availability
of the books at their command will
naturally be an important factor in
raising the standard of the average
person’s education.
“Generally speaking, the cities of
the United States are well supplied
with library facilities. However, there
still remains the great problem of
giving the rural citizen the same op
portunities of contact with the world
of books as are enjoyed by his city
brother. Personally, I believe that the
inhabitants of rural districts profit
even more from reading than do those
who live in our centers of population.
My own experience, as well as that of
other educators, has been that coun
try people read better books than
townfolk; they read better books, and
get more out of them.
,“The ultimate effect of aiding the
reading habit among the rural citi
zens, therefore, may readily be not
only to increase the number of read
ers in this country, but also to raise
the standard of reading, and conse
quently the standard of life and cul
ture.”
Dr. Claxton went on to say that his
advocacy of the country library was
based on his personal observation of
the Brumback Library of Van Wert
county, Ohio, which is at present one
of the few institutions of this kind in
the country. The Brumback County
Library is the result of the will of the
late John Sanford (Brumback, a mer
chant and banker of Van Wert, who
directed that $19,060 from his estate
sfiould be devoted to the erection and
furnishing of a library building as a
free gift to Van Wert county, if the
county would provide for its mainte
nance and its equipment of books.
Later Mr. Brumback’s children and
heirs increased this donation to $50,-
000. With the money realized from a
county tax levy, some 3,000 books
were purchased in 1899, and these,
together with 1,600 others turned over
by the merger of an existing library,
formed the nucleus of the present col
lection.
The library building erected by the
Brumback estate was turned over to
the county in 1901. It is a beautiful
structure in the Gothic-Romanesque
style of architecture, built of Bedford
blue sandstone, with a tile and mar
ble interior, fire-proofed throughout.
The book stacks have a capacity of
25,000 volumes. With the handsome
park in which it is located, the Brum
back Library has become one of the
show places of Van Wert.
This is the central depository for
the county’s system of branch libra
ries and school libraries. The branch
es are in charge of librarians who are
paid SSO a year, and are made respon
sible for the safe-keeping of the books
sent them. Rural merchants and post
masters are generally selected to con
duct the branch libraries, as their es
tablishments are most centrally lo
cated and most frequently visited. The
collections of books in their charge
range from 100 to 150, although if this
is not a sufficient number additional
volumes will be sent on request. Four
times a year, or oftener, the branch
librarian boxes up the books for
which he is responsible and returns
them to the central depository, receiv
ing at once another collection.
The books thus forwarded are not
the arbitrary hit-or-miss selection of
the head librarian, but conform to
the desires of the local readers, as
ascertained at the branch itself. Be
fore any books are sent out the branch
librarian receive a list of the titles
in every available traveling collection.
The Golden Age for February 15, 1912.
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Each title is accompanied with a note
explaining the character and contents
of the books listed. The users of the
branch library then discuss these lists,
and the box of books which contains
the greatest number of works that in
terest the greatest number of read
ers is the box called for. If the con
tents of no one box prove interesting
to the neighborhood, the main library
will make up a special selection upon
request. In this way the rural book
lover can obtain practically any work
he desires, for which there is an ap
preciable call.
The kind of books read by the
country people of Van Wert county
are of an unusually high character.
One representative box contains a
hundred works, dealing with such va
ried subjects as philosophy, religion,
sociology, language, science, the use*
15