ed the older
ones, from telling as they should in the average."

At the London Conference of Librarians (1877), Mr. P. Cowell, Librarian of
the Liverpool Public Library, read a paper on the admission of Fiction in
Free Public Libraries, where he discussed the subject in a very fair
manner, and deplored the high percentage of novel reading in these
libraries. At the Second Annual Meeting of the Library Association (1879)
Mr. J. Taylor Kay, Librarian of Owens College, Manchester, in his paper on
the Provision of Novels in Rate-supported Libraries, more completely
condemned this provision. He concluded his paper with these words:
"Clearly a hard and fast line must be drawn. A distinct refusal by the
library committees to purchase a single novel or tale would be appreciated
by the rate-payers. The suggestion of a sub-committee to read this
literature would not be tolerated, and no man whose time is of value would
undergo the infliction. The libraries would attain their true position,
and the donations would certainly be of a higher class, if the aims of the
committees were known to be higher. Manchester has already curtailed its
issues of novels. It has been in the vanguard on the education question:
and let us hope it will be true to its traditions, to its noble impulses,
and lead the van in directing the educational influence of the free
libraries, and striking out altogether any expenditure in the
dissemination of this literature."

This question probably would not have come to the front if it were not
that the educational value of Free Libraries, as the complement of Board
Schools, has been very properly put forward by their promoters. With this
aim in view, it does startle one somewhat to see the completely
disproportionate supply of novels in the Free Libraries. This often rises
to 75 per cent. of the total supply, and in some libraries even a higher
percentage has been reached. There are, however, exceptions. At the
Baltimore Peabody Institute Fiction did not rise to more than one-tenth of
the total reading. The following are some figures of subjects circulated
at that library above 1000:--

Belles Lettres 4598
Fiction 3999
Biography 2003
Greek and Latin Classics 1265
History (American) 1137
Law 1051
Natural History 1738
Theology 1168
Periodicals (Literary)