y
expert service; that the most hurtful criticism would be
attacks after inevitable cases where some one would greatly
wish a book that had been withdrawn as useless; that the
printed catalogs already circulated would be made
untrustworthy by parting with any volume included; that what
one wise and learned man would throw out as trash, another
equally wise and learned would consider specially valuable
because of differing personal equations. In short, that
however excellent in theory, it was perhaps the most
difficult thing in librarianship to put successfully in
practice.

While few favored "weeding out" simply to gain room by
getting rid of books little wanted, many believe in
transferring to other libraries which have a distinctly
greater need of them.--M.D.

A resident of a Massachusetts town to which the Commonwealth was about
to give $100 worth of books came to secure my influence as a member of
the State free public library commission to have a large part of the
$100 spent for rare and expensive books on Massachusetts history. As a
large and valuable library made up principally of books of that class
was soon to be given to another small town in the same county, it would
have been manifestly unwise to grant this request. It seems unwise also
to place a students' library in a small town where there are few who
will use it. It would be better to give the library to a flourishing
institution at a county seat, on condition that it shall be open for
free consultation by all residents of the county, and that, under proper
rules, books may be lent from it to inhabitants of smaller towns for use
at home.

In this way the library would be so placed that most persons wishing to
make investigations would have the books near home, and the
comparatively few investigators in the smaller towns, such as the man in
the town first mentioned, would also have their interests provided for.

The trustees of the Thomas Crane Public Library at Quincy, Mass., have
concluded, utilizing the experience of many years, that a working
library of 15,000 volumes is sufficient to supply the general wants of
the 20,000 residents of the city. It is proposed not to let the library
grow beyond 20,000 volumes while the wants of the city remain what they
are, and when it exceeds that number of volumes to cut it down by taking
out books that never have been needed in a popular library lik