The Boston Public Library [pp. 629-631]

THE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY.
ment of a yearly fee, and aim more to supply demands than to organ ize a library of just proportions of all ingredients. They will fulfil
their objects by providing novels and the books of the day in quick
response to the calls therefor.
Other libraries resemble the Astor in being for reference only,
and from which no volume can be taken away even for the shortest
time. They are extremely valuable, as the records of this institution
will amply show, and one cannot but be gratified to notice the great
number of students, of all sorts of industries and questions, who daily
draw upon its treasures.
The library under consideration combines the advantages of both
kinds without the many faults.
For example, it is not the policy of its superintendent, in supply ing the Lower Hall and branches, to keep pace with the possible de mand for lighter books. A liberal number of every volume, not actu ally vicious, is freely purchased upon publication, and placed upon
the shelves. They are at once entered upon the catalogues, and are
henceforth at the use of the people. He justly says that, were he so
disposed, he could at any time bring the circulation of such books up
to a fabulous amount, by merely providing them in answer to the
calls. The demand is practically without limit, and he could sink the
comparative use of scholarly books to so small an ebb, that philan thropists would think of shutting up the library as a popular nuisance.
The number of novels taken from any library is no criterion of the
general bent of the public taste. It may be made to appear good or
bad, just in proportion as books are provided.
Again, it is the perpetual tendency of the management to expose
its library in the fullest possible manner; to bring the books and the
public into free and open contact, consistent with true benefit.
One after another the various restrictions and protections have
fallen away, and the utmost ingenuity has constantly sought to make
the intercourse perfectly free and simple.
Perhaps a word or two describing the building would not be amiss,
as help to a proper understanding of what is remarked of its contents.
It was erected in i857, is built of brick and freestone, and faces
the northeast, and looks upon the Common. It is upon Boylston Street.
It consists of two libraries in reality: one made up of books of a
popular type, novels, dramas, poetry, travels, etc.; and the other of
books better loved by scholars-the first, in fact, being the collection
for the general reader, and the latter for the student.
The former is upon the street-floor, and is locally termed the
Lower Hall. As one enters through a tiled hallway, he emerges upon
the delivery-room, where subscribers apply for and receive their
books. The library is in the rear, in another apartment.
At the right of the main entrance is the reading-room, with its
doors opening from the delivery-room, and on the opposite side is an other room, used to contain works of art.
Above, with stairs leading to it from both sides of the hallway,
immediately within the outer door, is Bates Hall, occupying the entire
second floor and upper galleries of the main building.
In the rear of the building are two towers, one occupied by a
staircase and hoisting-apparatus, and the other by the private offices
of the superintendent and his assistant.
Every possible convenience which enables rapid business between
borrowers and the libraries is freely supplied.
The slips, upon which it is necessary to write one's name, address,
and the number of the required book, lie openly at hand, together
with pencils attached to the desk. Catalogues, and the latest bul letins of additions, are scattered everywhere, displaying, in large
print, the titles and numbers of the books. The more recent acquisi tions are heralded upon written slips, posted in plain sight until it is
possible to print them and place them in their proper places.
In the Lower-Hall delivery-room there is a device for the expedition
* of work, in the shape of an indicator. It consists of a large frame,
set in a conspicuous place, and which displays the numbers of the
most popular books. When all the volumes (in many cases there are
several duplicates) of any work are exhausted, its number in the
frame disappears from the sight of the would-be borrower, who is
thus saved the useless trouble of applying for it.
It is in this somewhat limited apartment that a visitor gets his
first hint of the magnitude of the operations of the library.
At all hours of the day groups of people throng it and quietly pur sue their objects. At one desk they return the volumes which are
read, and apply for others; while at another desk the distinct but
monotonous voice of the attendant calls, at intervals, the names of
those for whom books are ready, or those whose application has been
fruitless.
At six in the evening, when the schools have emptied, and all
workers of both sexes are free to go to their homes, this room becomes one of the sights of the city. It fills to repletion. Children
throng its floor, and are wonderfully sharp to the little tricks of competition for early attention. It is amusing to see with what rapidity
an old stager of twelve years, with a cropped head and a quick eye,
will put his errand through. He wifl monopolize a wide section of
desk-room with extended elbows, pounce in a single flourish upon the
exact catalogue out of the many, get his number out of the multitude
of other numbers, pencil it and his name with precise care upon his
paper, and deliver it up to the clerk, all while an unaccustomed visitor will be engaged in the first part of the transaction, namely, deciding what book he would like to have. This well done, the boy must
await developments; and, American-like, he improves the interval.
He goes to the adjacent readingsroom, and, securing an illustrated
paper, sits himself down within sound of the attendant's voice, to
wait and read until his book or disappointment turns up.
It would be a curious search to hunt up the visiting-places of
these volumes. Some legislative or municipal commission-I forget
which-recently made a report in which these books figure in a singular manner. They seem to be a part of the most obscure homes, and
the close friends of the most unlovable and shabbiest of people. They
came to light in spots so secluded that education had penetrated only
enough to permit one of the family to.,stumble over the words and
guess rudely at the meaning. They appeared in any odd cellar where
poverty forced people to burrow, and had robbed them of every pleasure but that of reading; and, also, in hot garrets, in crowded rooms
full of all the distresses of improvidence, waste, hard labor, and
wretched pay.
The assembled crowd is often motley. But, the more motley, the
more various and dissimilar its ingredients, the better the proof of the
wide-spread influence of the library. Rich and poor assemble together and alike in this narrow dispensary, and a great many of them too.
The library has a flourishing branch at East Boston; but the following figures relate only to the Lower Hall of the Central Library:
The daily average delivery for the first week in May, for the last
three years, has been as follows: 1871, 799; 1870, 685; 1869, 609.
On the 6th of May there occurred the largest delivery of the current year, namely, 1,368 volumes.' Repeat this, or nearly this, three
hundred times a year, in a community already worked upon by public
schools of the highest order, and you will cease to wonder that a high
general intelligence is the result.
In this Lower Hall there are now about 30,700 volumes, comprising the very best books of the classes already enumerated, and which
are almost as open to the readers as if they stood upon the streetcorner and were thrust into the hands of the people as they passed.
The figures, which relate to what is termed the reading-room, are
also surprising and pleasing as well.
This is a lofty, oblong apartment, well frescoed, painted, and
lighted. It is supplied with furniture of the best description, and all
the attributes of the place-the gas-fixtures, the wainscoting, and the
tables-display excellent workmanship.
The conduct of this room differs widely in the most essential point
from similar rooms in other libraries. Its papers are not displayed,
but are kept at the desk of an attendant, who deals them out on a
requisition from the reader.
One must write his name and address, together with the name of
the paper required, upon a slip of paper, and, in return for it, the article is put into his hand, and he may carry it anywhere in the room,
and keep it all day if he chooses. This method is an excellent preservative of the papers, an economizer of room, and is far more satisfactory to the reader, as he is enabled to read the text of his paper at
leisure, where, in another case, he would be obliged to content himself by merely looking at the pictures, on account of the presence
of others who wish his place. Each publication is represented by
several duplicates, Harper's,fagazine reaching the high number of
eleven.
The total number of periodicals, which includes French, German,
Italian, and English, is 374. This is very large.
The total use, last year, was by 193,417 readers, who demanded
269,150 issues.
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