The problem is then to reach these few, and through them the community;
and this brings us to the second phase of the question. I do not find
that the problem has been solved; perhaps it is too recent. But
libraries have been attempting its solution by various methods and with
varying success.

The first and most successful attempt is that of the large libraries,
like that of Pittsburgh and the Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, which
maintain a technical library for the men--a library adequately housed in
its own rooms and administered by a special librarian. These technical
libraries for working men succeed in their aim of reaching many of the
class for which they are established. They offer not merely an
opportunity for reading, but that guidance in the use of books which all
classes of the community need, if they are to use books for a serious
purpose. They show us that success in this line of effort may be reached
if the library has an income sufficient to enable it to undertake the
task on a large scale.

This condition is, however, not that of most of the libraries which are
represented here. Our incomes are none too large for the work which we
must necessarily do for the general public. Such libraries must
ordinarily content themselves with offering to men opportunities for
reading without special guidance in the use of books. This work has been
attempted in a good many of the smaller libraries. They attempt to
provide masculine conditions for reading and reading material which will
appeal to men. The first includes a well-furnished, comfortable room for
men, where a man can come in his working clothes without feeling he is
out of place; smoking may be allowed or not--both plans are tried
without great difference in apparent result. The masculine reading
comprises newspapers and magazines; good books of literature which can
be left in the room (paper bound copies suggested); most important of
all are trade journals; if possible, files of the recent volumes of
these journals, selected according to the industries of each town; and
the most readable and most recent reference books on similar subjects.
In a word, a room is furnished with reading which will appeal to the
classes of men who do not ordinarily use libraries and who are not
greatly interested in literature.

This plan is good one and ought to be tried, but I believe the
conditions are exceptional under which it will reach large numbers of
men. Inertia an