ch in placing before them what they
most need. The one cardinal design of a library--to supply the largest
amount of information in the shortest time, is subverted by any
disorganizing scheme. If the library be administered on the just
principle of "the greatest good to the greatest number," then such
individual favoritism should never be allowed.

It may, indeed, be claimed that there is no rule without some valid
exceptions; but these exceptions should never be permitted to defeat the
cardinal object of the rule--which is to keep every book strictly in its
own place. Let the exception be confined to allowing an occasional
inspection of the shelves in the company of a library attendant, and
there will be no trouble.

But there is another danger, aside from the misplacement of books.
Experience has shown that thefts or mutilations of books have been
numerous, in direct proportion to the extension of freedom and
opportunity to those frequenting the library. Literary men and
book-lovers are frequently book-collectors also; and the temptation to
take what is often too loosely considered public property is sometimes
yielded to by persons whose character and standing may render them the
least suspected. In one of the largest lending libraries in this country,
the purloining of books had been carried so far, that the authorities had
to provide a wire fence all around the reading room, to keep the readers
from access to the shelves. The result was soon seen in the reduction of
the number of books stolen from 700 volumes to 300 volumes a year.

After several years' experience of the Astor Library in opening its
alcoves to readers (amounting to practical free admission to the shelves
to all calling themselves special students) the losses and mutilations of
books became so serious, that alcove admissions have been greatly
curtailed.

At the Conference of Librarians in London, in 1877, the subject of
admission or non-admission to the shelves was discussed with the result
that opinions were preponderantly adverse to the free range of the
library by readers. It was pointed out that libraries are established and
maintained at great cost for serious purposes of reading and study, and
that these ends are best subserved by systematic service at a common
centre--not by letting the readers scatter themselves about the library
shelves. To one speaker who held that every one in a free public library
had the right to go to the shelves, a