different departments of knowledge must
vary greatly in different libraries. The following is a good general
guide:

Per cent.
General works .04
Philosophy .01
Religion .02
Sociology .09
Philology .01
Science .08
Useful arts .06
Fine arts .04
Literature .12
Biography .10
History .13
Travels .10
Fiction .20
____
Total 100

Local interest should be fostered by buying freely books on local
history and science and books by local authors.

The librarian should keep informed of coming events, and see that the
library is provided with the books for which there is sure to be a
future demand. He should avoid personal hobbies and be impartial on
all controversial questions. He should not be overconfident in his
knowledge of what will elevate and refine the community.

It is better to buy 10 extra copies of a wholesome book wanted by the
public than one copy each of 10 other books which will not be read.

Do not waste time, energy, and money--certainly not in the early days
of the library--in securing or arranging public documents, save a few
of purely local value. Take them if offered and store them.

Do not be too much impressed by the local history plea, and spend
precious money on rare volumes or old journals in this line.

Certain work can judiciously be done toward collecting and preserving
materials for local history that will involve neither expense nor
much labor, and this the librarian should do. Do not turn the public
library, which is chiefly to be considered as a branch of a live,
everyday system of popular education, into a local antiquarian
society; but simply let it serve incidentally as a picker-up of
unconsidered trifles. A wide-awake, scholarly librarian will like his
town, and delight in at least some study of its antecedents. And such
a librarian need not be a crank, but must needs be an enterprising,
wide-awake, appreciative student, who can scent the tastes and needs
of posterity.

Put no money into rare books. A book which was out of print 10 years
or 200 years ago, and has not insisted upon republication since, has,
ordinarily, no place in the active, free public library. If you get
it, sell it and buy a live book.

The free public library should encourage its