have one, and be willing to
study your people and all of their interests before you shape your
plans.

THE LIBRARY AND THE SOCIAL CENTRE

By a great expert in library field-work as done by one of
our most active library commissions. Miss Lutie E. Stearns,
of whom a sketch will be found in Vol. I. of this series, is
now a lecturer at large, but at the writing of this paper,
which is reprinted from _The Wisconsin Library Bulletin_ for
May, 1911, she was in the service of the Library Commission
of that state.

It is coming to be an axiom in library economy that "the worth of a book
is in its use." For this reason, librarians everywhere are devoting
themselves to what is called "library extension" through the building of
branches, and the establishment of deposit stations in schools,
factories, stores, club-houses, police stations, fire-engine houses,
etc. Experience has shown that where no efforts are made along the line
of library extension only 10 per cent. or at the most 20 per cent. of
the people are reached in any given community. If we wish to have
wholesome literature become "the burden of the common thought" we must
place good books within easy reach of all. Libraries should be quick to
realize that the social centre offers a most excellent opportunity to
reach those that might not otherwise take the time to avail themselves
of library privileges. The free public library should therefore be made
an important part of social centre work through active and sympathetic
cooperation.

Where libraries can afford proper facilities, there is no reason why
the library building should not serve as the social centre for the
community, as this institution differs from the schoolhouse, in cities
where parochial schools exist, in being neutral on the religious
question and therefore acceptable to all denominations. Wherever the
social centre may be, whether in library building or schoolhouse, strong
emphasis should be placed on the use of books. A special librarian, of
peculiar fitness, should be appointed either by the library or the
social centre authorities. This man or woman should be earnestly
altruistic in his or her desire to fit the right book to the right
person at the right time. It may be that this will mean the issuance of
a primer in English to an adult Slav who has recently arrived in this
country, or it may be the loan of a novel more wholesome in tone though
just as sentim