Saturday, June 16, 2018

Our Community Needs a Public Library, Says Mrs. Phifer, 1916

“The Need of a Public Library” by Mrs. Roscoe Phifer, from the June 16, 1916 issue of The Monroe Journal.

Any consideration of a public library project is complimentary to a community, showing, as it does, a sense of civic responsibility and a desire for future progress, which are commendable. There are few communities which would not provide for a public library if its advantages were appreciated, for it is a remedy for many ills and is all embracing in its scope. It is an educational institution, it vitalizes school work, and continues the pupil’s education throughout life. It is a home missionary sending its messengers, the books, into every home and shop. It not only sends help, but opens its doors to every man, woman and child.
In most towns there are scores of young men and boys whose evenings are spent in loafing about the streets, and to these, the library offers an attractive meeting place where the time may be spent with jolly wise friends in the books. It provides a wholesome substitute for vicious shows and other questionable amusements, it substitutes better for poorer reading, and provides story hours for the children who are eager to hear before they are able to read. It also increases the earning capacity of people by supplying information and advice on the work they are doing. One of the most important services a library can render is the industrial service. If the librarian and trustees desire to help the people, their first duty is to study the industries of the city and find out just what literature will be of service to those people. After finding out what sort of work the people are doing, they will get the books on the trades, arts, mechanics, etc., and advertise them. The librarian will also issue lists of books on carpentry and distribute them to men who would be interested in such books. Lists of books on horticulture will go to the florist, lists of books on poultry to the poultryman and lists of books on textiles to the textile workers and designers. Such a course has been successfully carried out as is shown in the case of a young man who borrowed from the library three books on machinery. His salary increased to $2.50 per day and he said, “Three months hence when I have mastered these books, I will get $3.50 per day and I shall be worth it too.” A young fellow in a textile mill, who frequented the library invented and patented three loom devices and was promoted to assistant superintendent.
So you see the old idea of a library as a placid storehouse of books used only by scholars, or those who cared enough for reading to pay for the privilege, has given way to a new idea—that of a live, active institution, aiming to supply the books needed by the community, supported, not by a few, but by the entire community, and for the free use of any responsible person. It is for use of all ages, from the little tot, who wants picture books and first readers, to the old man and woman who find a taste for reading a great pleasure. It is for all classes, the workman, the farmer, the plumber, the business man, as well as the lawyer, the doctor or the minister. The library has been well called “the true university of the people,” for its usefulness as an educational force is only limited by its resources and the capacity of its librarian to put what it contains at the command of the public.
Again the library can be made to exert a great civic force. In the small town especially it is true that the library with its rooms for meetings of various kinds is made a sort of civic center. The children are taught to care for public property by keeping the books clean, and to have clean hands when using them; also to respect the rights of others by keeping quiet when in the building.
No feature of modern library development is more important than work with the children. Librarians who work for the intellectual growth of mankind must devote their energies toward instilling the “library habit” in the child, who is the most important factor in the community. The children will be effective friends of the library in their homes now, and as men and women they will have a deep interest in it which shall be for all time. The taste for reading of a man or woman is already formed, but the child, as a rule, is ready to read anything you suggest. He does not clamor for something new, his mind is open to receive any influence that may be brought to bear upon it. If the child’s reading is controlled by the co-operation of parent, teacher and librarian, he will have little pleasure in reading some of our modern fiction.
The public libraries are doing a large work for the recreation and pleasure of the people, too, and this is by no means to be counted a small contribution. But the spreading of information, the encouragement of city betterment, the development of patriotism, giving an opportunity for the increasing of intelligence, enabling one to act wisely upon public questions, furnishing material for the formation of independent opinion upon political and social conditions of our own day, these are some of the functions of the public library that are of the highest value.
                                --Mrs. Roscoe Phifer
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