Traveling Libraries in New York, Michigan, Wisconsin
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TRAVELING LIBRARIES IN NEW YORK, MICHIGAN, WISCONSIN AND IOWA. By ALICE LOUISE WING. THESIS EOR THE DEGREE OE BACHELOR OE LIBRARY SCIENCE IN THE STATE LIBRARY SCHOOL of the UNIVERSITY OE ILLINOIS PRESENTED JUNE, 1904 15^ 7-£( 15^ y / ^ ( W w 7 xi ^ ** 17,M ** ^ snc 'E.V UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS %^'oQy 190 4" THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY m . AJCJL...C j JOAAJ ljQJ l _ ENTITLED .IjJ^UAZUJLD AXL H j u u u - c o J t AJ^CCn^Q-C^X......CLrv\JcL......3....CTUJXL IS APPROVED BY ME AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE 66141 CONTENTS Page. Introduction--- ---------- •----- -------------- -——— 1 . New York traveling libraries P o u n d i n g -- ---- ------------- *--- -— --------------7. P l a n --------------------- 8 . Composition ------ ---9. Conditions Imposed ---------- — ■--— -----— 10. R u l e s ------- - — ------------- ------- ---------- ----ll. Special Features ----------- ---------- Appropriations and Statistics---- - — 16. Results -------- ----------------------------------is. Sample F o r m s ----------------- ---------- ---- -19» Michigan traveling libraries F o u n d i n g --- -— ----- ------------ — ------------- 39. Plan -------= --- .-- ----40. Composition — ------ --40. Conditions Imposed ------— -------------------- -41. R u l e s ---— ---- -----— ------— — 43. Appropriations and Statistics--- ----- - — —.---44. R e s u l t s -- ----------------- ------------ ---------44. Other loans made by state l i b r a r y -- -----------45. Sample Forms --------- -------- 49. Wisconsin traveling libraries Founding — ----------------------------------- —-59, Plan ------------ 61. Page. Composition-- ---------- -— ----------,-52, Conditions Imposed --------------------- --63. R u l e s ------ --65. Special Features -- — ---------- ------ -------- 66. Appropriations and Statistics------------------69. Results — ---------- ------- -— ■— ------- Sample Forms ------------------ --------- -— ---72. Iowa traveling libraries F o u n d i n g ------------------ 83. Plan ------------- --■--------- ----- — -- ---- -84. Composition -------------------■---— ------------ 84. Conditions Imposed ------ -85. Rules -------------- -86. Special Features -------- --87. Appropriations and Statistics------------------88. Results ---------- 90. Sample F o r m s ------------------------------ -— 91. 1 - INTRODUCTION. The traveling library movement in this country has grown out of a desire to bring good reading into the homes of the country people and of those living in remote villages. The public library has been called a laboratory in which our people may work to supple ment the small store of knowledge gained in the public schools. It was felt that the people of the country districts, as well as the residents of the towns and cities must be provided with books which would bring them something of the spirit of the present age and the best thought of all time. These small communities could not afford to maintain public libraries so it became necessary to devise some scheme by which books could be brought at frequent intervals to these isolated districts, for the mere cost of transportation. It was obviously a matter in which the state should be interested and the question did actually come before the different state legislatures in turn, with the result that laws were passed and appropriations made for the carrying on of state systems of traveling libraries. It was in 1892 that New York state, the leader in all edu cational movements, passed a law providing for the maintenance of a system of traveling libraries. The work was to be carried on through the agency of the state library and a detailed plan of operation was there devised. At first small fixed collections of fifty volumes were sent out to farming districts, university extension centers and small villages, but the work has grown until now special study libra ries, pictures and lantern slides find their way to small communities. The New York system, described in full in the main part of this thesis, has served as a model for nearly all the state systems sub sequently adopted. Michigan in 1895 became the second state to establish a system of traveling libraries. Mrs. Spencer, the state librarian, was most instrumental in interesting members of the state legisla ture in the work and in leading them to pass a law for the adoption of a state system. The plan as finally settled upon is modeled very closely after the New York system, though as yet it has not been so fully developed as in that state. In 1896 traveling libraries began to circulate in Wisconsin, at first entirely through private sources The state library here is not concerned with the work, the system being entirely under the control of the state library commission. Ohio and Iowa also secured the legislation necessary for carrying on traveling library work in 1896 and closely after followed Minnesota, Kansas, Maine and Pennsylvania. At the present time, with the ex ception of ten states, every state in the union has some sort of traveling library system, either maintained by the state or through the aid of clubs and private gifts. Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico., South Dakota, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming have as yet no traveling libraries in circula tion. It is probably no exaggeration to say that there has been nothing which has relieved the monotony in the lives of the farming people to such an extent, as the access to the books sent out in these traveling collections. In YTisconsin, the commission has re ceived letters from different people, who have used the libraries, expressing in the warmest terms gratitude for the privilege of bor rowing the books and delight in reading them. A woman in Saratoga, Wisconsin wrote, "Those who have never "been de prived of the privilege of obtaining good books whenever they wished, do not appreciate the blessing they are to those to whom an occa sional book comes as an honored guest. You who can have your pick of thousands, little know with what delight one who is debarred from all reading, except newspapers, will devour a chance book which comes in his way. Living in the country, twelve miles from the near est library, I know whereof I speak." The State federations of women's clubs in several of the states, especially in the South, have taken up the work with great zest and carried it on in a most intelligent and practical way. In Colorado, Kentucky, Missouri, Oregon and Utah the traveling libraries are entirely in charge of the women’s clubs and in other states they send out a number of libraries. In Massachusetts, the Women' edu cational association carries on the work, supplementing the work of the Massachusetts public library commission. The systems in the different states vary with the special needs and are developed in proportion to the amount of money the states can expend. The idea is the same throughout, to give the people who do not have the advantages of public libraries, access to collections of books which are exchanged often enough to secure vari ety and freshness. An editorial in the Nebraska Independent for January 7, 1896, in urging the adoption of a system of traveling libraries in that state, gave voice to this sentiment: "The travel ing library does something more than simply supply a dearth of books. It creates a desire for books in quarters where no such desire has yet existed. Then follows the establishment of the public library and no knight ever fared forth in a worthier cause." In all the states which have adopted traveling library systems it has been found that this method of "broadening our system of popular education" is both practical and economical. The travel ing library movement has resulted in making good literature, chosen by persons who have the library experience of the country at their command, easily accessible to people in districts remote from pub lic libraries. It has proved itself economical for the books are bought at the lowest price and sent out ready for circulation from central offices, so duplication in preparing the books for the shel ves is avoided. The plan of exchanging the books at frequent inter vals serves to keep up a continual interest in the libraries. Mr. Frank Hutchins, until very recently secretary of the Wisconsin free library commission, in his pamphlet on Free traveling libraries in up Wisconsin, has summed*the merits of the movement quite happily in these words: "The traveling library gives an abundant supply of wholesome literature to the people of small communities at a slight cost, and not only excites their interest in such literature but confines their reading to it until their tastes are formed. It is a free day and night school, which does not close on Saturdays or Sundays or for long vacations. It instructs, inspires and amuses the old as well as the young and its curriculum is so broad that it helps the housewife in the kitchen, the husbandman in the field, the mechanic in his shop, the teacher in her school, the invalid in the sick room, the boy in his play and the citizen in his civic duties. It leaves no room for bad literature and keeps it from circulating without resort to threats, by the most natural and wholesome methods The traveling library systems of New York, Michigan, Wis- ohosen consin and Iowa have been^by the compiler of this thesis as being representative and of most interest perhaps, because of a farther development than is to he found in other of the state systems, due to a longer period of operation. All of these four systems have some interesting special features, and while a few of the states, notably Ohio, Indiana and Minnesota have systems nearly as well devel oped as the last three chosen, the special details have not as yet been so carefully worked out as in the systems chosen. There are no state systems of traveling libraries which equal that of New York for completeness of detail and the sending out of special collections. The Summary of traveling library systems published in 1901 by the Home education department of the University of the state of New York, gives in a brief form the principal features of the travel ing library systems in operation in the several states.