ncreasing expense, more
room, more books--which must be more frequently renewed--and a larger
library staff. It means the attempt to do efficiently several lines of
intellectual work for the public instead of purveying literature for
those who desire it. This new work the library can readily accomplish,
but not with the staff which was sufficient for the old duties. Any
library can provide, for example, the list of desiderata mentioned in
the _Independent's_ article, which could easily be extended. They can
all be furnished by the library as the public wants them and will pay
for them. They cannot be, and ought not to be, supplied by an already
overworked library staff of two or three persons.

The library, therefore, should not enter upon these duties blindly or
ignorantly. It is a great task which is thus undertaken--to educate the
community to use books and to guide it in that use. Although small
beginnings are possible, the work will inevitably grow on our hands just
as that of the schools and colleges has done, and for similar reasons.
But whatever difficulties lie in the way of their performance, it is
plain that the library must assume these new duties. With many
experiments, with many failures, with many partial successes, the
library will extend its teachings, its conscious influences, until they
touch the life of the community at every point.

In this rambling talk I have discussed library work as it looks forward
to new problems, and have devoted only a word, and that perhaps a rather
disparaging one, to the traditional use of the library. I would not
leave the subject in this way. For the traditional use of books remains
and will remain the center of library work and the main source of its
best influences. The problem of the library to-day, looked at from
within and not from without, and in relation to other agencies, is
essentially that which confronts the university. Both institutions once
stood for culture and for culture exclusively. Both are now challenged
by the spirit of the newer time and are called upon to justify
themselves as public utilities. This they must do, and that in full
measure, but there is a real danger that both, in the multiplicity of
the new duties thus forced upon them, may forget the weighty words,
"these ought ye to do and not leave the other undone." For, after all,
the highest public utility which the library offers, or can offer, is
the opportunity to cultivate the friendship