Show I t t I 0 f AS S TO NOVELS i 4 I I 44 I IThe The question of fiction in our public library Is Isone Isone one that has agitated every reading community from Maine to California for jOt the past twenty five years yeats Statistics sho show that until recent years the average proportion of fiction r read in the general circulating libraries of the reached 85 country percent per percent percent cent as against 15 per cent for all other classes of literature The influx of the cheap editions of the stan standard la d authors somewhat lessened the dem nd for fiction on at the public institutions but it was no indication that the public had changed its tastes y Within thin the past year our book publishers have been crowding the shelves of the circulating libraries with priced high-priced novels Many public libraries have hare been en called upon to buy scores of copies of the latest thing out gut merely to satisfy a fleeting demand de de- de- de mand Many l of these so-called so works s are mere literary ephemera with a popularity that ends with the day The second hand stalls book-stalls groan with last years year's 1 novels offered at 10 cents and no buyers St Still lI some of the best librarians in the country hold that it is better to have the public reading these light productions than not to be reading reading reading read read- ing at all A public library is a public institution and the people have hate a right to say what books shall go upon its shelves A wise purchasing book-purchasing committee com corn- aided b by a judicious librarian n can do rn much ch to guide J the lie e. e public taste taste without t diminishing the popularity of the library The subject ct deserves thor thorough nigh discussion on a all l sides |