foundation principles of
morality, truth, and sound sense must guide him. No quarter should be
given to books of doubtful morality. Fiction now finds a place in most
libraries open to any extent to the public, and this class of books
forms so large a part of the circulation of many libraries that it is
becoming a question of no small importance as to how far public funds
should be expended for such books as afford little else than pastime. A
public library is a public educator. It is not a sluice into which every
publisher may dump his entire wares; as educators, librarians and
managing boards have the right to maintain the purity of their
collections, and to protect them from inundations of worthless books.

The librarian should be alert to supply his readers with all they
require that will be helpful, as we have said; but, more than this, he
should lead them. He may do so by procuring works of standard worth, new
and old, that represent the best thought in any department of literature
or science.

Unless he has something of the spirit of the collector very much will
elude his grasp, and be, perhaps, utterly lost to his library. There are
the limited editions, now so limited in number; the privately printed
book; the first numbers of periodicals; the first reports of societies;
local histories and genealogies; memorial volumes, and the like,--works
whose value is enhanced by time.

A librarian, to be successful, must be a lover of books. The novice, in
applying for a librarianship, often puts it down as one of his cardinal
qualifications that he is fond of reading. To the active, toiling worker
this is not suggestive of business. A love of books very naturally
suggests a taste for reading, except when bibliomania is in the blood. A
true friend of books is not such because his collection embraces
Elzevirs and Aldines, or because they are in Grolier or Bedford
bindings, or printed on Whatman or Holland paper,--these are matters of
just pride,--but because the army of silent authors, marshalled under
his leadership, will diffuse light and knowledge wherever they go. The
librarian imbued with this spirit, if he finds time to read, will
reflect what he has read. It is to be feared that the librarian who
reads in these times is the exception; and yet there can be no question
that, if he could have each day an hour or two for reading,--time enough
to acquaint himself with the thought of the times, and occasionally
commune