DAYTON PUBLIC LIBRARY. REPORT OF LIBRARIAN AND LIBRARY BOARD FOR THE PERIOD FROM MAY 1, 1891, TO SEPTEMBER 1, 1892. Reclass. 12-15-30. NDL for D.F. GENTLEMEN: In submitting to you a statement of the work of the Dayton Public Library for the period from May 1, 1891, to September 1, 1892, the Library Board desires to call your attention especially to the admirably arranged report of the librarian, showing in tabular form all those details necessary to a complete understanding of the uses made of the Library by its patrons. The librarian's efficient management has been well supplemented by the intelligent and conscientious labors of her assistants, whose experience and accurate knowledge of our books derived from long continuance upon the Library force, seem to us to justify the policy of this Board and its predecessors in recognizing faithful and satisfactory service by permanence of employment. The circulation of works of fiction during the year ending May 1, 1892, was not equal to that of the preceding year. As one of the most serious problems confronting the management of every public library is the repression of a tendency to the indiscriminate reading of fiction, and particularly of juvenile fiction, to the exclusion of the better kinds of literature, the decrease in circulation in this direction is not a source of regret to this Board. On the other hand, the number of consultations of books, magazines, and periodicals at the Library is constantly growing. During the year ending May 1, 1892, these consultations numbered 24,274, as against 19,483 for the preceding year; while for the four months ending September 1, 1892, the number was 10,078, showing a steady and gratifying increase. This we attribute largely to the greater activity in certain lines of study and research upon the part of the women of Dayton, whose literary clubs have done much to bring into circulation, and into use by way of consultation, many of the best books upon the Library shelves. But the number of patrons of this, one of the most valuable and beneficent of our public institutions, is not what it should be. In a community of 70,000 people, with seventeen public schools and 9,300 school children, a total enrollment of 5,872 borrowers of all ages seems to us to indicate upon the part of the public, if not a want of knowledge of the value of the Library, at least of proper appreciation of it. There is no family in Dayton whose members may not reap benefit from the stores of the Library; there is no private library so complete that it does not lack many of the productions of the best and brightest minds which may be found in our catalogue. To the great majority of our people the 33,000 books accumulated here are an undiscovered country. We believe that few public libraries of equal size afford their patrons a better choice of literature in the various branches of learning. Science, art, history, travel, poetry, biography, fiction, all of these are here abundantly represented; and it has been our earnest desire constantly to add, in every department of literature, the latest and best productions of an ever increasing army of writers. The difficulty lies not in collecting, but in selecting books. The expense of maintaining this, people's Library is. borne by the people. If those who bear this burden will not avail themselves of its privileges, their neglect is a loss to them and an injustice to their children. The boys and girls of Dayton need the Library. They need it not to foster the reading of badly conceived and badly constructed fiction, to indulge in which is their natural tendency, but for the opportunity it gives them to find pleasure and profit in the choicest pages of biography, history, and travel. The value of the Library as an adjunct to the work of our public schools cannot be overestimated. Many of the teachers are availing themselves of special privileges extended through them to their scholars, and are thus encouraging and aiding the highest uses possible of this institution; but its greatest benefits can be brought to our children only through the appreciative coöperation of the parents themselves. And to them we look and appeal not only for an extended use of the Library on their own part, but for every practical suggestion whose adoption may tend to bring all of the children and youth of Dayton into intelligent contact with good reading. The members of this Board believe that the usefulness of the Library may be greatly enhanced by the gradual adoption of the plan of substations or branches established in quarters of the city distant from the center; and while no definite policy in this direction has as yet been determined upon, we hope, at some time in the near future, to make some experiments at moderate cost with a view to ascertaining the probable practical success of the plan, which has been followed with gratifying results in some eastern cities. During the last session of the legislature the law governing this Board was so revised and amended as to make it in its organization what it has always been in its practical operation,-non-partisan,—and in a measure, to widen its powers and extend its usefulness. In giving to this body a larger degree of independence in the administration of the financial and other affairs of the Library, it was felt that at the same time there should be established for the Board that bi-partisan character which its original promoters intended for it. The Board of Education, at our request, has lately appropriated funds sufficient to effect the much needed completion of the upper floor of the Library building with a view to establishing a public museum, to be open to the people of Dayton in connection with the Library. Many collections of great value have already been offered for this purpose, either as gifts or as loans, and some of these are now in our custody, awaiting only the fitting up of the museum to be made accessible to the public. The necessary plans have been prepared, and the work will be pushed to completion at the earliest possible day. The Library Board and the community have sustained a grave loss in the death of that wise, earnest, and untiring friend of the Library, Robert W. Steele, who died September 24, 1891. This was but one of the many channels of education and benefaction into which his love of learning and love of his fellows poured their united flow. A member of this Board for many years, and always an earnest believer in the importance and usefulness of the Library, Mr. Steele gave to its welfare a devotion whose influence will be felt for good in all the days to come. His place as a strong support to the Library will not soon be filled; and only as the years go by and the relations of Robert W. Steele to this institution become more widely known, will the public whom he so faithfully served realize the debt of gratitude they owe to his memory. Respectfully submitted, HENRY C. MARSHALL, ROBT. M. ALLEN, FRANK CONOVER (vice R. W. Steele, deceased), Dayton Library Board. 2 |