ns, on the other hand, have been urged to the system, as
introducing features of paternalism into State government, and taking out
of the hands of individual generosity and local effort and enterprise
what belongs properly to such agencies. The vexed question of the proper
function and limitations of State control in the domain of education
cannot here be entered upon.

In the volume last published of statistics of American libraries, that of
1897, great progress was shown in the five years since 1891. The record
of libraries reported in 1896 embraced 4,026 collections, being all which
contained over 1,000 volumes each. The increase in volumes in the five
years was a little over seven millions, the aggregate of the 4,026
libraries being 33,051,872 volumes. This increase was over 27 per cent.
in only five years.

If the good work so splendidly begun, in New England, New York,
Pennsylvania, and some of the Western States, in establishing libraries
through public taxation and private munificence, can only be extended in
the Southern and Middle States, the century now about to dawn will
witness an advance quite as remarkable as we have seen in the latter
years of the century about to close.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] MS. Records of the Virginia Company, in the Library of Congress.

CHAPTER 16.

LIBRARY BUILDINGS AND FURNISHINGS.

Proceeding now to the subject of library buildings, reading-rooms, and
furnishings, it must be remarked at the outset that very few rules can be
laid down which are of universal application. The architectural plans,
exterior and interior, of such great institutions as the Library of
Congress, or the Boston Public Library, with their costly marbles,
splendid mural decorations, and electric book-serving machinery, afford
no model for the library building in the country village. Where the
government of a nation or a wealthy city has millions to devote for
providing a magnificent book-palace for its library, the smaller cities
or towns have only a few thousands. So much the more important is it,
that a thoroughly well-considered plan for building should be marked out
before beginning to build, that no dollars should be wasted, or costly
alterations required, in order to fit the interior for all the uses of a
library.

The need of this caution will be abundantly evident, in the light of the
unfit and inconvenient constructions seen in so many public libraries,
all over the country. So general ha