NEW YORK: PUBLICATION OFFICE, 28 ELM STREET (Near Duane). LONDON: SOLD BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & Co., PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD. YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION, $5.00. MONTHLY NUMBERS, 50 cts. Price to Europe, or other countries in the Union, 20s. per annum ; single numbers, 28. Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N. Y., as second-class matter. EDW. G. ALLEN'S London Agency for American Libraries, 28 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON. (FORMERLY RICH & SONS.) EDW. G. ALLEN devotes himself entirely to library business. His long experience enables him to execute the orders of correspondents promptly, cheaply, and with thorough efficiency. His connection with all the Book Dealers in the United Kingdom gives him the command of the British Book Market, and qualifies him to serve his customers with special advantage, and to bring promptly under their notice all the stores of Literature, old and new, on sale in Great Britain. Books Supplied at a Small Commission on the Cost Price, with the usual Trade deductions, and forwarded by the quickest and cheapest routes. Second-hand Catalogues by early Mails, and no Commission charged on Orders from them. Periodicals and Newspapers Posted Promptly. No expensive sub-agencies at home or abroad. Foreign books on easy terms. Cheap and Durable for Circulating Libraries. Specially Strong for Books of Reference. Superior We have been, for the last twenty years, personally cognizant of Mr. Allen's faitnfulness to the interests of his American customers. When a resident in Washington, ten years ago, we found that the immense Congressional Library largely supplied its shelves through Mr. Allen's London Agency. Many of the extensive libraries belonging to the Universities and Colleges in the East have also secured their Foreign Books from the same source, and we have heard from the officers of these Institutions frequent testimony to the scrupulous exactness with which their orders were always filled. "We cannot, therefore, do a greater service to the Colleges and Universities of the West, to which these presents shall come, than to advise that they employ this inexpensive agency for replenishing their Libraries with English Books."-PRESIDENT WELCH, Iowa State Agricultural College. "No better indorsement of Mr. Allen's Agency is possible than the list of leading libraries that continue to use it. For 30 years, strict integrity and unexcelled facilities have held the oid and made new patrons. The very large business built up demands only a small commission instead of the customary 10 per cent. A library can safely entrust all its London orders to Mr. Allen without getting other estimates and fee sure that it is not making a mistake."-MELVIL DEWEY, State Library, New York. Edw. G. Allen's American Library Agency, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON. MEMBER AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. SPECIAL TERMS For large orderS. VOL. 20. nam, do during his service are the best evidence of the real usefulness of what is ordinarily known as civil service reform. It is gratifying to note that Mr. Ames has in hand a new and enlarged edition of his "Check-list of Congressional and other documents," and of his “Finding-list,” and also a new index giving a list of the principal speeches on important subjects of Congressmen from the 43d to the 52d Congress, as found in the It is to be hoped that Mr. Ames, as superintendent of documents in the Government Printing Office under the new public documents law, may have opportunity to carry forward the work he has so successfully prosecuted for these many years. THE Boston Public Library and all who have to do with it are to be congratulated on the selection for the post of librarian of Mr. Herbert Putwho is one of the best examples among the younger men of the library calling as a profession. Mr. Putnam has hereditary fitness for the calling of a librarian, since his father, George Palmer Putnam, was not only one of the most literary among the American publishers of a generation ago who helped to found an Am-Congressional Record, with a reference to votes, erican literature, but was also imbued most thoroughly with the altruistic spirit which is today a leading motive in the true librarian. In the Minneapolis Public Library Mr. Putnam made his mark as a working librarian, and since his retirement from that library he has had experience in another profession as a graduate of the Columbia Law School, which will be undoubtedly of benefit to him in broadening his views as he returns to the library field. The opportunity before him is magnificent, and there is every reason to believe that he will be worthy of the opportunity. We trust to see the Boston Public Library under his directorate and inspiration re-health, for it has been reported within the past turning to its old prominence among American libraries. The new building is now open to the public and will, for the time, be the Mecca of American librarians. As the Library Conference of 1895 is to be held in the West, it may not be amiss to suggest that Boston, with a mountain or seaside annex, may, under the new circumstances, be a proper place of meeting for 1896. In his last report, dated December 6, 1894, but evidently postscripted later, Mr. John G. Ames makes his valedictory as superintendent of documents in the Interior department. The summary which he gives of his work in this field for the past 20 years is of interest, and every librarian has reason to confirm his statement that from the beginning he has regarded a public office as a public trust - long before that phrase became a popular catchword—and has sought to make his office in the largest measure helpful to officers of the Government, to Congress, to libraries, and to every interest with which the office had any established relations. In fact, the results of Mr. Ames' permanence in office and the good work he has been enabled to WITH the change in the administration of public documents one subject again thrusts itself upon attention - the storage of the enormous mass of papers now rotting in the vaults of the capitol building. The subject has literally thrust itself upon the attention of members of Congress through their noses and through effect on their month that the rotting of these documents and of the floors beneath them is becoming a serious menace to the healthfulness of the building in its inhabited parts. The Government Printing Office is a shambling and dangerous building, already strained too close to its factor of safety, and provision for a better building has been prevented from year to year by unseemly realestate wrangles which have had their effect in Congress. There is one suggestion of remedy which we think should be heard the possibility of utilizing, and at once, a part of the new Congressional Library for this purpose of sorting out, reorganizing, disposing of rubbish and storing the remainder of public documents for use. There will be ample room in the new edifice for this purpose, and within a few years the existing mass of documents and records will have been sorted and sifted out and a great proportion of it disposed of as useless. We commend this suggestion to the authorities for their consideration, although it may be distasteful to Librarian Spofford and Engineer Green to consider so base a use as they might think it for even the basement of their fine new building. THE giving of libraries has become an ordinary thing nowadays, and hardly a week passes in which some city or town does not become the happy possessor of a pretty and suitable library building, the gift of some wealthy friend or fellow-townsman. It is rare when such gifts are not appreciated; rarer still is it for the giver to withdraw the gift "for cause." Yet this has been the unfortunate result of the gift of a memorial library to Ansonia, Ct. The library was erected, equipped, and presented to the town by Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes in 1892, as a memorial to her grandfather, Anson G. Phelps, the founder of Ansonia. It is a handsome building, well equipped, and stocked with several thousand books, representing a total cost of some $60,000 - certainly a most welcome addition to any town. Yet after two years of bickering and wrangling on the part of the local authorities, the incensed and disappointed giver has withdrawn the gift, and the library is closed, it is said permanently. There seems little question that the onus of responsibility for this regrettable event rests with the town officials. They appear to have regard- | ed the library as a new factor in local politics, to be "worked for all it was worth." It was taxed to the limit, and the taxes were energetically and promptly collected; but the proverbial last straw came when the authorities appointed one of their political protégés as librarian, fixed his salary to suit themselves and applied to Miss Stokes for its payment. The lack of public spirit and appreciation displayed throughout seems to have been deplorable. The authorities, on their side, plead burdensome restrictions, irritating regulations, and an undue expense for maintenance. Ansonia might be a good place for some of the energetic missionaries of the A. L. A. to start a library revival, in the hope of awakening recognition and appreciation of the use, benefit, and educational influence of a good library. When such a revival is effected, the next step would be the reopening of the library and the consignment of past mistakes to a kindly oblivion. THE reform wave that recently swept over the city of New York has not, it seems, included the city library within its cleansing flood. Few New Yorkers know that the city possesses a library, save when an incoming administration brings the usual rush of would-be office-holders; but for years the library has had a torpid existence in one of the rooms of the city hall. For years, too, the post of librarian has been one of the "soft snaps" appertaining to the faithful henchmen of "the party." The library itself is rather a sorry affair. It contained the nucleus of a good collection, but many of the books have been carried off from time to time, and the room has generally served as a loungingplace for city hall politicians. In 1893 an incumbent who, it is said, could neither read nor write, was succeeded by a journalist who was energetic, intelligent, and appreciative of what the library should be. Mr. Curtis set himself the task of reorganizing, arranging, and improving, and he put the library in better shape, with promise of future improvement. It was thought that he would be continued in office and that the library might in time become a credit to the city. But the new Board of Aldermen thought otherwise. The $1000 "berth" was bestowed upon a tailor who possessed a potent "pull," and the library, it may be assumed, is relegated to its former condition of dust and desuetude. It is really unnecessary to comment upon this episode; but as an object-lesson in the workings of “practical politics” it is not to be despised. We can only give thanks that public sentiment is really awakening in such matters, and trust that in time the clutches of the boss will be loosed from all state and municipal libraries, as well as from the other public offices that have so long been his prey. ADAPTATION OF LIBRARIES TO LOCAL NEEDS.* BY A. L. PECK, Librarian Gloversville (N. Y.) Public Library. ADAPTATION to environment is undoubtedly | the librarian ever so faithful, but if the town is 'one of nature's great laws which is found verified in all conditions of life, in all spheres of human activity and enterprise. The fittest only survives by strict obedience to this law of adaptation and the great struggle for existence becomes comparatively easy by quick and careful adaptation to circumstances, to individual, to local needs. Starting from these premises, it must be conceded that libraries, in order to prosper, indeed in order to justify their existence, must fulfil the purpose for which they are maintained, and can only do so by adapting themselves to local needs. I am even inclined to go a step further and maintain that wherever there is a struggling, languishing library it has become so by not complying with this principle of adaptation to local needs, neither have I any doubt but that by careful and painstaking efforts many of these institutions might be resuscitated and become not only useful but actually necessary, yea, indispensable, to their respective localities. I am fully aware that there is no "royal road" to this "adaptation to local needs," and that each institution must work out its "own salvation with fear and trembling." I do also believe, however, that there are a few general principles upon which all efforts to make a library useful and adapted to its own community can be based. These I shall attempt to indicate, and also submit for your kind consideration a concise report of the work in this direction as done by a few of the libraries of the state of New York. Moral agencies: All of us agree that the library must be founded on strictly moral principles, not only excluding from its shelves every book of dubious character, but also by a painstaking and scrupulous selection of books that are pure and elevating. In small localities, it is very important that the librarian and the directors of libraries should make an effort to interest themselves in the publications offered for sale by the local dealers. The library may be ever so carefully selected, swamped by police news, penny dreadfuls, and all the so-called "black literature," the good work of the library will not only be hindered, but constantly counteracted. For this reason I would suggest to every librarian: make yourself acquainted with your local dealer or dealers, and by befriending them, make them understand that it will be to their interest to co-operate with the library in its effort to supply nothing but the best and purest literature. If, actuated by what may be called "inborn depravity," your local dealer should not be willing to co-operate with the library, then insist that he complies with the statutory enactment, Chapter 380, of the laws of New York of 1884, for this will tend to restrict the evil. Educational agencies: There is no part of library work more productive of usefulness and general appreciation than that done by the library as an educational institution. The co-operation of library and school has been so ably discussed, and so much valuable material is available in the volumes of the LIBRARY JOURNAL, that I simply mention this valuable means of adaptation to local needs. However, I would like to call attention to the fact, that in order to co-operate with the schools, the library must directly aid and supplement the teachers' work. To do this it will be necessary for the librarian to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the curriculum of the school, from the kindergarten to the high school. The superintendent or principal will always be ready to supply the library with a copy of the course of study. As soon as the teachers understand that the librarian is willing and able to aid them in their work, they will not hesitate to make their wants known, and gladly furnish full information regarding their school programs. The librarian must know the requirements and needs of each grade. In places where the schools are subject to the visitation of the Regents of the University, it will be found of great advantage for the librarian to make himself fully conversant with the syllabus and circular * Read at joint meeting of N. Y. Library Association of special topics published by the authorities. and N. Y. Library Club, Jan. 10-12, 1895. Bring together all the material the library con |