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Show -i iii Tl 1 LibraHeS PuM Libraries kT Aid the Indus-fV Indus-fV O r M r S trial Workers U : ( By DR. IIORACB O. WADLIN, f Librarian. DosIod Tulillc Library. 0' f ""HUE public library provides for the industrial worker the books ! HP that can help him to hotter work and higher pay. It provides opportunities in this direction never before open, not yet fully used, and only partly appreciated. Nevertheless, many, young fl9pl men especially, are using them to their own profit, and ul-tCJT ul-tCJT I timatcly to the benefit of the community. Others will follow 1 1 mffiwtA ''r cxnmP' ns nc advantages become more clearly seen. KwiUvk 'iS ullfrtiinti-'ly true that many persons have been KakfWavI drawn into our industries without much preparation. They t have, so to speak, drifted into them, pressed by the necessity of earning a living, without training in an industrial school, and, under the conditions of the modern factory system, even without such training as the old apprentice system provided. Their knowledge is limited to what they can pick up in the place into which they drift. They usually becomo mere cogs in a machine, without individual initiative, doing one of n few things well, but without hope of advancing to the higher positions, which require a foundation of technical knowledge only to be obtained from books. It goes without saying that the more a man knows the more useful lie becomes, and the knowledge and experience of the past is crystallized in books. The men who have advanced in the modern world, which is distinctively a world of industry, are those who have supplemented native talent and keen observation of men and things by wide reading. Formerly books were hard to obtain. The boy Lincoln reading at night the coveted volumes by the light of the log fire, the printer's apprentice Franklin, going go-ing without bread that he might possess books, these arc typc3 of the hard conditions under which, in the old days, the intluenco of the printed book x operated to enlarge the individual life. But to-day the public library, practically everywhere, supplies freely all these indispensable aids. Its attendants arc ready to counsel and advise ad-vise those who need help in selecting the best books. No one need hesitate to nsk for such help. The modern library is, above all things, a demccratio institution, and welcomes those who come to it with a serious purpose. Besides the books of general information, useful to every industrial worker, the library supplies the special books relating to the various industries, indus-tries, books on building, on metal working, on the Textile processes, on agriculture, on industrial chemistry, on the now developments in electricity, electrici-ty, and many others. These enable a workman to obtain a broad general view of his trade, or of the sciences which affect it, a view ho seldom gets in the shop or factory. There arc also books on design, and on elementary mechanics, adapted to the comprehension of the ordinary workingman I or woman, not written in terms that presuppose a college education.. Many books, especially those treating of the fine art side of industry, arc so expensive ex-pensive that the wage earner cannot himself buy them, even if disposed to do so. These the well-equipped public library supplies, and it so displays and advertises its resources that those who would benefit by them may know where and how they can bo used. : The larger libraries in industrial towns also do useful work by means , of exhibitions and lectures on industrial subjects, intended to improve tho taste and raise tho standard of skill among artisans. Such, for example, f arc the three lectures on printing, arranged in co-operation with tho Bos ton society of printers, and given in the freo lecturo courso this winter at tho Boston public library. Eventually, as tho important plans for enlarging tho opportunities for industrial education in Massachusetts arc carried into effect, public libraries li-braries will be found important adjuncts in supplying tho essential literary liter-ary material required, just as they al- sf A ' ready co-opcrato with tho existing TKtVzCf public schools. |
