falsehood precisely on the same plane.  The science or the economics in a good novel may be bad and that in a poor novel may be good.  Then again, it dilutes the interesting matter with triviality.  It is right that those who want to know how and when and under what circumstances Edwin and Angelina concluded to get married should have an opportunity of doing so, but it is obviously unfair that the man who likes the political discussions put into the mouth of Edwin’s uncle, or the clever descriptions of country-life incident to the courtship, should be burdened with information of this sort, in which he has little interest.

To those who are interested in the increase of non-fiction percentages I would therefore say:  devise some means of working upon the authors.  These gentry are yet ignorant of the existence of a special library public.  Some day they will wake up, and then fiction will be relieved from the burden that oppresses it at present—­of carrying most of the interesting philosophy, religion, history and social science, in addition to doing its own proper work.

Meanwhile the librarian, who is interested in advertising ideas, must do what he can with his material.  There is still a saving remnant of interesting non-fiction, and there is a goodly body of readers whose antecedent interest in certain subjects is great enough to attract them to almost any book on those subjects.  I have purposely avoided the discussion here of the details of library publicity, which has been well done elsewhere; but I cannot refrain from expressing my opinion that the ordinary work of the library and its stock of books if properly displayed, are more effective than any other means that can be used for the purpose.  From a series of articles entitled “How to Start Libraries in Small Towns” by A.M.  Pendleton, I quote the following, which appears in The Library Journal for May 13, 1877: 

“Plant it [the library] among the people, where its presence will be seen and felt,...  Other things being equal, it is better to have it upon the first floor, so that passers-by will see its goodly array of books and be tempted to inspect them.”

Excellent advice; we might take it if we had not built our libraries as far away from the street as possible and lifted them up on as high a pedestal as our money would buy.  Who, passing by a modern library building, branch or central, can by any possibility see through the windows enough of the interior to tell whether it is a library rather than a postoffice, a bank, or an office?

Before moving into its new home the St. Louis Public Library occupied temporarily a business building having a row of six large plate-glass windows on one side, directly on the sidewalk, enabling passers-by to see clearly all that went on in the adult lending-delivery room.  The effect on the circulation was noteworthy.  During the last months of our occupancy we went further and utilized each of the windows for a book display.