dicals that swarm
from a productive press, there are valid reasons why more attention
should be paid by the librarian to a careful preservation of a wise
selection of the best of all this current literature. The modern
newspaper and other periodical publications afford the fullest and
truest, and on the whole, the most impartial image of the age we live in,
that can be derived from a single source. Taken together, they afford the
richest material for the historian, or the student of politics, of
society, of literature, and of civilization in all its varied aspects.
What precious memorials of the day, even the advertisements and brief
paragraphs of the newspapers of a century ago afford us! While in a field
so vast, it is impossible for any one library to be more than a gleaner,
no such institution can afford to neglect the collection and preservation
of at least some of the more important newspapers from year to year. A
public library is not for one generation only, but it is for all time.
Opportunities once neglected of securing the current periodicals of any
age in continuous and complete form seldom or never recur. The principle
of selection will of course vary in different libraries and localities.
While the safest general rule is to secure the best and most
representative of all the journals, reviews, and magazines within the
limit of the funds which can be devoted to that purpose, there is another
principle which should largely guide the selection. In each locality, it
should be one leading object of the principal library to gather within
its walls the fullest representation possible, of the literature relating
to its own State and neighborhood. In every city and large town, the
local journals and other periodicals should form an indispensable part of
a public library collection. Where the means are wanting to purchase
these, the proprietors will frequently furnish them free of expense, for
public use; but no occasion should be lost of securing, immediately on
its issue from the press, every publication, large or small, which
relates to the local history or interests of the place where the library
is maintained.

While the files of the journals of any period furnish unquestionably the
best instruments for the history of that epoch, it is lamentable to
reflect that so little care has ever been taken to preserve a fair
representation of those of any age. The destiny of nearly all newspapers
is swift destruction; and