Show current topic there is no effort for the improvement of the people e that has taken a more prominent form than that showing itself in the establishment and maintenance of public libraries the multiplicity of books their low cost and the natural love there is ot of reading have led to the popularizing of public libraries until few villages of any respectable size are without collEct collections iong of books to which the people have tree free I 1 access men of wealth have devoted their money to the establishment of large libraries and two of the very best of these in this country are in chicago the gifts of public spirited citizens who left their wealth for that purpose states generally have provided for the support of public libraries although the average state legislator haa about as much use for books as aa a d duck k has for an umbrella of all the state astl t minnesota has exhibited the best judgment in its laws relating to libraries thee is an annual appropriation made of to encourage the establishment of public school collections of books the law provides that 20 shall be given the first year and 10 annually thereafter to any school that raises an equal u or a greater um sum for a library the stimulus of which donation has resulted in a large excess of individual giving over the amount donated by the state this plan has been in operation for the last ten years and since it began over 1800 public school libraries have been established having an average of sixty five volumes vo lures each making a total of more than volumes this number of books large as it is is not so significant of public interest in the plan as the fact that the growth of each library is ig continuous while the number of them is steadily increasing the plan pursued in the state is not to purchase books at random or according to the whims of any one individual but to purchase a years quota of looks devoted to one special subject so that the result is the formation of a library especially adapted to reference purposes which supplements the educational cat ional work of the school proper while popular works of romance ana travels are not omitted the body ta ca the books may be considered as supplementary tary to the text books and the work of the teachers it is not probable that any equivalent sum appropriated for any other purpose brings the state of minnesota so large a return as the donated to the purchase of books for the public school libraries and the example of that state might profitably be followed by any other especially at the west where large cities are infrequent and technical libraries are rare ram |