ighest in every literature which
they can read.

I would like to commend to my young friends who desire to profit by
the use of this library the habit of reading with some system and of
making brief notes upon the contents of the books they read. If, for
instance, you are studying the history of some period, ascertain what
works you need to study and finish such parts of them as concern your
theme. Do not feel obliged to read the whole of a large treatise, but
select such chapters as touch on the subject in hand, and omit the rest
for the time. Young students often get swamped and lose their way in
Serbonian bogs of learning, when they need to explore only a simple and
plain pathway to a specific destination. Have a purpose and a plan and
adhere to it in spite of alluring temptations to turn aside into
attractive fields that are remote from your subject. If in a note book
you will on finishing a work jot down the points of importance in the
volume and the references to the page or chapter, you will frequently
find it of the greatest service to run over these notes and refresh your
memory. If you are disposed to add some words of comment or criticism on
the book, that practice also will make you a more attractive reader, and
will make an interesting record for you to consult.

COMMUNITY CENTER SERVICE

This is the newest phase of library work and the most
convincing evidence of its socialization. There is little in
print about its early stages; its classics are still in the
making. We quote only three papers here.

THE LIBRARY AS A SOCIAL CENTRE

The opening address at the Red Wing meeting of the Minnesota
Library Association, Oct. 12, 1905, by Miss Countryman,
librarian of the Minneapolis Public Library. The "public,"
Miss Countryman thinks, "is no indefinite, intangible
somebody; it is just 'we'"--the statement of library
socialization in a nutshell.

Gratia Alta Countryman was born at Hastings, Minn., in
November, 1866, and graduated, with the B.S. degree, at the
University of Minnesota in 1889. In that same year she
entered the service of the Minneapolis Public Library, and
she was assistant librarian at the resignation of Dr. James
K. Hosmer in 1904, succeeding him as librarian.

During these latter days of enormous library activity, we have been
conscientiously examining the functions of a library; we have been
trying all sort