SKETCH OF A PUBLIC LIBRARY ESTABLISHMENT SUITABLE FOR THE CITY OF GLASGOW.1

By F. T. BARRETT, Librarian, Mitchell Library, Glasgow.

HE City of Glasgow possesses many and eminent claims to respect for the efforts made and the results accomplished by her citizens, in most of the objects which collectively go to make up municipal good government. In some of these efforts it may be said that the city, while working in the interests of her own people, has so secured those interests as to render a valuable service to other great town communities. By the wise daring of the scheme for bringing to the city an abundant supply of pure water from a distant highland loch, Glasgow conferred a lasting obligation on other great cities in similar circumstances, whose way is made plainer by the successful issue of her enterprise. The operations of the Glasgow Improvement Trust are understood to have furnished experience and information of the greatest value in guiding subsequent legislation, both general and local, for improving the conditions of crowded and unwholesome areas in great towns. The establishments in charge of the public health, and particularly the provisions for dealing with infectious diseases, are among the most carefully thought out, the most liberally equipped, and the most ably conducted in the kingdom. The police service is one of admittedly distinguished efficiency. The cause of public instruction is promoted by the School Board and other educational corporations with a thoroughness and success nowhere surpassed.

But it is not given to communities, any more than to individuals, to be perfect at all points; and it has come to pass that, in that department of public work and service in which we as an Association are especially interested, the question of public libraries has not received from the public, or from the leaders of opinion and action, that effective recognition which in other directions has led to results so beneficial.

You have heard from Mr. Brown the history of the efforts which have been made to secure the adoption of the Public Libraries Acts in Glasgow, and the failure of those efforts. I should think it unbecoming to offer any remark as to the causes of that want of success; but I may express my conviction that the failure is not final.

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I do not think that many, even of those who have hitherto thought it their duty to oppose the adoption of the Acts, would be content to believe that in the whole English-speaking world Glasgow will remain distinguished as the only great city in which the public library is not looked upon as coming within the proper sphere of public care and public charge. I believe further, that when the matter is finally taken up, it will be with a characteristic energy and thoroughness which will go far to make amends for its long postponement.

In this conviction, I have ventured to think that the visit to Glasgow of the Library Association provides a suitable opportunity for submitting a brief and slight general sketch of such a public library establishment as would be suitable to the requirements, and approximately sufficient for the needs of this large and varied population.

I am quite conscious that in such a sketch I can advance nothing which is not already familiar to most of those present, and in that respect I feel that an apology is due to the Association; but I trust that the local circumstances will be held to be a sufficient warrant for thus occupying your time.

In approaching the consideration of an establishment of public libraries suitable for an extensive, populous, and important city, such as Glasgow, two aspects of the question, one having regard to the kind of work to be done, or, perhaps, rather to the character of the privileges to be provided, and the other relating to the question of locality, or convenient nearness of the libraries to the homes of the people,---these two considerations must be kept in view together, with the object of placing the largest possible amount of the benefit of public libraries in positions the most convenient for the use of the inhabitants generally.

The work to be accomplished by a public library, at once well equipped and liberally and energetically administered, falls chiefly into four classes or kinds.

First, the providing and making accessible books for consultation or perusal within the library premises; this is by general usage called the reference department, the word reference not meaning, as has been supposed, that the books are solely what are called "works of reference," but only that they are to be referred to in the Library. In this department the chief characteristic should be that of comprehensiveness and generality. All schools of thought; all varieties of opinion in politics, philosophy, religion; all phases of experience; should be fully represented. In the reference library nothing is too great, and very few things are too small. It receives and preserves with equal propriety and equal care the greatest, rarest, costliest books, and the ephemeral tract, which is in everybody's hands to-day, but which the student or historian will hereafter search for and esteem an invaluable aid in his labours. I do not go the length of saying that a reference library should preserve all printed matter which may be offered to it, but a wise librarian will not reject even the most apparently valueless pamphlet or leaflet without anxious care. The reference library is obviously the proper repository of all special collections of books and pamphlets on particular subjects, whether relating to localities, or to political, social, or religious movements, to stated periods of history, or to individual branches of science or art or industry, or of whatever other kind. Here too will generally be preserved the files of newspapers and periodicals. The reference library should in brief be all things to all men, and should aim at furnishing information on all subjects on which inquiry may be made. How numerous and various these subjects are in actual experience will be well

shown in an interesting paper which my colleague Mr. Ingram will contribute to the proceedings of the present meeting.

The second principal department of the work of a public library consists in the providing and issuing books for reading at home by all who may qualify under the regulations as borrowers. The considerations which govern the selection of books for this department differ materially from those applicable to the reference library. It would obviously be highly improper to expose to the risks of general circulation books of a costly character, or which, if lost or injured, it would be difficult to replace. It would be inconvenient also, and of doubtful wisdom, to encumber the lending library with much of the ephemeral matter which is rightly preserved in the reference library. An endeavour should of course be made to provide for home reading the standard works in all branches of literature, in editions which can be replaced when worn out. On the somewhat vexed question of the reading of fiction in public libraries, a moderate course is probably the wisest. I venture to think a profuse and indiscriminate admission of novels an error of judgment. On the other hand, it must be borne in mind that much of the best of modern literature exists in the form of the novel, and it would be unreasonable and indefensible to refuse to provide a fairly liberal supply of such works in this class as time and the public judgment have marked with approval. Naturally the best modern works in history, in biography, in criticism, in science and art, and in political and social economy should be added to the lending libraries as soon as they can be had at a moderate cost.

The third main division in the present classification of library work is the newsroom, in which are exhibited to all who come the principal newspapers and other issues of the periodical press. It is probable that this is, when fully developed, the most popular and profitable of all the parts of a library service; that is, that in proportion to its cost it gives more advantage to a larger number of persons than either of the other departments. The serials placed at the service of the public will of course include representative journals of all kinds, whether issued daily or at longer periods, and representing interests of whatever kind, literary, artistic, scientific, technical, commercial, political, religious, or general.

The fourth and last special feature of library work which I propose to mention is one which has received much more attention in the United States than with us, and which, though I entertain a strong conviction of its future importance and usefulness, I am not now prepared to do more than indicate. It consists in the association of the public libraries with the public schools in the work of public instruction, and by means of special classes in the use of books, studies in bibliography, suitable courses of reading, etc., making the libraries directly contributory to the promotion of education. For the purpose of applying to Glasgow this sketch of the constituent parts of a system of public libraries, I shall take the freedom of assuming that the present artificial boundaries of the city will have ceased to exist, and that this great community, now divided, will have become one in name, in interest, and in government. The population may be taken as rapidly approaching 800,000, occupying an area of some 14,000 acres, with an annual rateable value somewhat exceeding £4,000,000..

For the service of such a community as this, the public library establishment should comprise a central and not less than ten branch libraries, and each of these eleven libraries should include in a greater or less degree all the four elements of usefulness which have been described. As to the appropriate extent of the central collection, it

is not necessary to offer any very precise indication, beyond saying that it cannot be too large. An eminent authority has laid it down, that the public library of any city or town ought to contain as many volumes as there are inhabitants. It will require the effort of many years, probably of some generations, and the continuous help of many friends, before that standard can be attained in Glasgow; but a quarter of a million of volumes might be reasonably looked to as possible perhaps even so soon as the end of the present century; and a quarter of a million volumes, judiciously selected and adequately catalogued, would constitute a central library not unworthy of the city.

Towards such a library, there is already an extensive, important and valuable commencement in the three public libraries now existing in the city, which contain together more than 120,000 volumes.

I do not propose to enter on any discussion of the precise manner in which these now-existing library trusts would be associated or combined with a general scheme of public libraries; but it cannot be doubted that when the time comes means will be found by which they will be brought into harmonious and beneficial co-operation, while still retaining their several distinctive names, and the particular characteristics which they have developed.

The directors of Stirling's Library have printed for your information an interesting account of that institution, compiled by Mr. Mason, from which you will learn that now, on the eve of the completion of its century, it is more efficient, more vigorous, and more useful than at any previous period of its history. The reference library established under the bequest of George Baillie, known as Baillie's Institution, has been comparatively recently opened, and promises to become a valuable and important library for consultation and research.

The Mitchell Library, opened towards the end of 1877, has had an unusually rapid development, and may now be reckoned among the more considerable of provincial libraries, containing as it does about 80,000 volumes, with an annual average of reading amounting to some 400,000 volumes. The history of the library is so well known as to render it unnecessary to engage your attention with it at any length. It has been one of great and continuous progress. Favourable circumstances led to the acquisition of a number of large and important collections, by bequest, by gift, and by purchase. In some branches of literature, especially in subjects relating particularly to Scotland and to Scottish history, the collections in the library have become so considerable that any calamity befalling them would be a grave public misfortune; and this leads to the remark that the present position of the Library as regards premises is to the last degree unfortunate. The Library is not reasonably safe. The insufficiency of space entails the most serious inconveniences in its working; while the accommodation for the public has in years past been so overtaxed as to render proper ventilation impossible, and to bring upon it its present unhappy notoriety as one of the least satisfactory of public buildings in respect of sanitary considerations.

These three libraries taken together would, if so applied, form a most advantageous starting point for the gradual formation of a really worthy central collection.

The ten branch libraries suggested would be so distributed throughout the city that each citizen would have one near his home, and placed at points easy of access to the population they were intended to serve. At each there would be the collection of books for home reading, a small but carefully chosen reference collection, and a well