thousands of unshelved volumes. Naught cares he. It is not
because he is short of reading that he buys. It is because
he is drawn by that fascinating, never-to-be-accounted-for,
and inexpressible ardor of the pursuit. I have a friend who
says he would rather attend a book auction than spend an
evening with the President, or with our greatest general, or
with a literary lion like Tennyson or Browning."

SELECTING FOR A PUBLIC LIBRARY

By Arthur E. Bostwick.

In selecting books for a public library, the two things generally
taken into account are the public desire and the public need. The
different values attached to each of these two factors may be said to
determine the policy of the library in book-buying. The extreme cases,
where full force is given to one factor while the other is entirely
disregarded, do not, of course, exist. Libraries do not purchase every
book that is asked for, without considering whether such purchases are
right and proper. Nor do they, on the other hand, disregard popular
demand altogether and purchase from a list made up solely with regard
to what the community ought to read rather than what it wants to read.
Between these two extremes, however, there may be an indefinite number
of means. A librarian may, for instance, purchase chiefly books in
general demand, exercising judgment in disregarding such requests as
he may deem improper. Or he may buy chiefly those books that in his
opinion should be read in his community, listening to the voice of the
public only when it becomes importunate. Several considerations may
have part in influencing his course in this regard. In the first
place, a library with plenty of money at command may in a measure
follow both plans; in other words, it may buy not only all the good
books that the public wants to read, but those also that it should
read. The more limited the appropriation for book purchase, the more
pressing becomes the need that the librarian should decide on a
precise policy. Again, a library whose books are for general
circulation would naturally give more heed to popular demand than a
reference library used chiefly by students. Further, an endowed
institution, not dependent on public support, could afford to
disregard the public wishes to an extent impossible in the case of a
library whose expenses are paid by the municipality from the proceeds
of taxation. Above and beyond all these considerations,