separate it more completely from injurious partisan and personal
politics.

THE COMMUNITY'S SERVICE TO THE LIBRARY

The Public Library, like the Public School, is the creature
of the community, which owes it provision for keeping it in
condition to render the service for which it was created.
This duty of course, includes adequate financial support but
does not end here. Among the most important adjuncts to such
support are the aid that can be given by enlightened public
opinion and by organized groups in the maintenance of
liberal and helpful policies, and the appointment of a
governing board equally conscious of its responsibilities
and its limitations.

THE RELATION OF THE STATE TO THE PUBLIC LIBRARY

This statement of first principles was made by Melvil Dewey
at the Second International Library Conference, held in
London, July 13-16, 1897, and is reprinted from the
Transactions and Proceedings of the Conference (London,
1898). In reading this address, it must be kept in mind that
it was made to Englishmen, whose conception of the functions
of a public library were then, as now, much more
conservative than ours. A sketch of Dr. Dewey will be found
in Vol. I. of this series.

We have been listening to an admirable account of the development of the
library movement from earliest times to the present day, and I venture
to believe that when the history of the age in which we live is written,
and is looked back upon by those who shall come after, it will be known
distinctively as the "Library Age."

Libraries of one sort or another have existed from the beginning of
human history, and we are now well into the fifth century since the
invention of printing; so that it would seem as if there had been
abundant time for library development. But so great an institution as
the modern library is of slow growth. It has taken a thousand years to
develop our school system from university down to kindergarten. The
public library is much more rapidly going through corresponding stages
in order to come to its own. The original library was a reservoir,
getting in and keeping safely, a storehouse for posterity. That was and
is a great function, for which I have profound respect. Then, after many
centuries, came another library epoch, for which we all feel still
greater respect. The cistern was made a fountain; giving out was seen to
be more