ly contribution.

Of course, the annual report of every public library should be printed,
and as pamphlets are seldom read, and tend rapidly to disappear, its
publication in the newspapers is vastly more important than in any other
form. While a pamphlet report may reach a few people, the newspaper
reaches nearly all; and as a means of diffusing information in any
community, it stands absolutely without rival. Whether the library
reports shall be printed in pamphlet form or not is a matter of
expediency, to be determined by the managing board. Funds are rarely
ample enough, in the smaller town libraries, to justify the expense, in
view of the small circulation which such reports receive, and it is much
better to put the money into printing library catalogues, which every
body needs and will use, than into library reports, which comparatively
few will make any use of. A judicious compromise may be usefully made, by
inducing some newspaper, which would print a liberal share of the report
free of charge, as news, for public information, to put the whole in type
and strike off a few hundred copies in sheet form or pages, at a moderate
charge.

This would enable the library officers to distribute a goodly number, and
to keep copies of each annual report for reference, without the expense
of a pamphlet edition.

In some of the larger and more enterprising of city libraries, reports
are made quarterly or monthly by the librarian. These of course are much
more nearly up to date, and if they publish lists of books added to the
library, they are correspondingly useful. Frequently they contain special
bibliographies of books on certain subjects. Among these, the monthly
bulletins of the Boston Public Library, Harvard University Library, New
York Public Library, Salem, Mass., Public Library, and the Providence
Public Library are specially numerous and important.

The relations of a public library to the local press of the city or town
where it is situated will now be noticed. It is the interest of the
librarian to extend the usefulness of the library by every means; and the
most effective means is to make it widely known. In every place are found
many who are quite ignorant of the stores of knowledge which lie at their
doors in the free library. And among those who do know it and resort to
it, are many who need to have their interest and attention aroused by
frequent notices as to its progress, recent additions to its stores, et