world, to the realm of books.

Thus at whatever point we examine the life of the present, we find it
basing itself on books, both for action and enjoyment, and that in an
ever-increasing degree. This truth is peculiarly evident to you as
librarians, since the facts of your own profession and the rapid growth
of libraries and library work afford one of the latest phases of this
general movement.

From 1875 to 1896 the number of libraries in the United States just
about doubled, increasing steadily, and adding, during this period,
about 2,000 libraries, or a little less than 100 per year. From 1896 to
1900, 1,350 libraries were added, or about 450 per year. From 1900 to
1903, 1,500 libraries were founded, or 500 per year. In the past ten
years the number of libraries must have doubled; a ratio growth at least
four times that of the population....

It is plain that the adjustment of the library to this movement of
men's minds towards books is the most important practical question for
all of us. Questions of management, of administration, of methods are
all of secondary importance beside this one--if, indeed they may be
called even secondary. For this change of base is a revolutionary
affair, not a mere matter of readjustment of detail, and it is no easy
task for the library to find itself in such a movement. Libraries are so
small a part of the national intellectual life, so small, in the mass,
for example, in comparison to the great universities, that their proper
influence and work are easily overlooked. There is sometimes danger that
they may be swept into currents guided by other forces rather than find
opportunity freely to contribute their own share to the movement.

Let us turn then to the more practical side of the question, and ask how
the library is adjusting itself, in this changed relation of men, where
it has best succeeded, and where it still has most to do. Let us ask
where experience seems to promise successful solution of problems, and
where the problems are in that stage in which only doubtful success can
be expected from experiments, and final solution still lies far before
us.

The library began as a place to keep books, permitting their use by the
public, but often under such restrictions as seem to indicate that this
service was granted "grudgingly and of necessity." Books and the high
life were in some obscure way correlated in the mind of the librarian,
and he too often seemed to feel that th