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Show PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOKS. In an editorial page quotation and comment tho Doseret Nows last night had the following: "There should be a lopplnc off of t he-supply he-supply of current li.qht notion by our libraries. Many libraries havo a larye proportion of works of this sort, because a. large circulation of their volumes is n Rood thinp to show when money for the libraries Is wanted from clly councils. There are many other facilities for supplying1 sup-plying1 the demand for this type of literature litera-ture cheaply, and I doubt tho wisdom of doing" it ' public expense through the libraries. Even if their circulation should be cut down one-half, the libraries oui?ht lo reform ln this matter." said Mr. Herbert Her-bert Putnam, librarian of tho Library of Congress, in a recent address in Philadelphia. Phila-delphia. And every word is true and should be heeded by librarians and library boards. There is not the least question in tho world about tho truth of that, nor is thero any reason why library boards in general should not act upon the suggestion sug-gestion of Librarian Putnam. The Hood of light fiction, most of it absolutely no account, which encumbers the shelves of public libraries and which costE the taxpayers a good sum of money that ought lo be devoted to a better purpose and that fosters listlessiicss and laziness in the young, through their wallowing in it, is fast getting to bo a I public nuisance. Tho timo spont in reading it would bo a good deal better spent in some profitable occupation. Tho sorl of reading that is indulged in by those who make a specialty of being be-ing "up" on all this trashy fiction is a class of reading that is absolutely injurious to tho mind and induces habits hab-its of idleness that aro hard to break away from. Somo three or four years ago Tho Tribune, applying this sentiment to tho Sait Lako frco public library, voiced prceisoly i.ho samo idea as that above quoted from Librarian Putnam. This aroused a storm of indignation hero which was out of all proportion to tho mildness and reasonableness of the suggestion sug-gestion made. Wo hope that wo shall not bo counted ns a red-hunded offender of-fender and breaker of the peaco if wo renew tho suggestion on our own account, ac-count, and insist that the public library of Salt Lako City should tako some notice no-tice of this bolter opinion of library oxperts ns voiced by Mr. Putnam. Thcro is altogether loo much useless, no-account no-account fiction bought by pnblio money for tho Salt Lako free publio library. And while we are on the subject wo will add that there is too little ovidence of any plan of purchases looking towards to-wards a well-defined object in supplying supply-ing tho library and in ouriehing it with appropriate hooks and manuscripts such as ono would naturally expect to find in tho public library of this city. Thcro is a curious neglect of those things that aro especially appropriate for a public library here, ond that any student coming com-ing here for information on local attairB would expect to find in this public library. li-brary. Salt Lako should havo in this collection of books everything relating to tho Mormon question, for and ngainst; everything relating to the explorations ex-plorations of this "Western country, and everything relating to tho flora and and fauna of all this mountain region. So far as wo arc aware, thero has novcr been anj' well-defined or persistent purpose pur-pose to make such a collection, and we submit that surely it is high imn to bo-gin. bo-gin. jNIany precious manuscripts and books arc getting out of print or ocou-pying ocou-pying th5 position of sole oxistont copies in other libraries, that ouht to be horc. "We consider that it is high timo for the Salt Lake Public Library board to wake up on this question, devote de-vote less timo to the purchaao of current cur-rent novels, and begin and pursue with diligonco a plan of collecting all tho works, both in nrint and manuscript, that are possible to get relaiiug to tho peculiarities of this country, in" exploration, explora-tion, in settlement,' in aboriginal occu- Dancy, in exploitation, in all the con- ' troversies that have waged hero on every leading question, and, in general, gen-eral, to mnkc this library a fountain of knowledge on all the thingfrolating to this region. Surely that would bo in every way more commendable than lo spend money for the purchase of books that havo no particular relation to the inhabitants of Utah fr their environments. environ-ments. Wo trust that the library board will not lnkc this suggestion amiss or in an unfriendly spirit, but will rise lo tho occasion and provide for the collection collec-tion here of just the sort of library I hat men of intelligence and of an investigating in-vestigating spirit would naturally expect ex-pect Lo find in Salt Lake. |