XLII, Rules for trustees and employes 140

  XLIII, Reports 146

   XLIV, Library legislation 147

    XLV, A.L.A. and other library associations 152

   XLVI, Library schools and classes 154

  XLVII, Library department of N.E.A. 156

 XLVIII, Young people and the schools 157

   XLIX, How can the library assist the school? 160

      L, Children’s room 163

     LI, Schoolroom libraries 164

    LII, Children’s home libraries 166

   LIII, Literary clubs and libraries 168

    LIV, Museums, lectures, etc. 170

    LV, Rules for the care of photographs 171

Library Primer

CHAPTER I

The beginnings—­Library law

If the establishment of a free public library in your town is under consideration, the first question is probably this:  Is there a statute which authorizes a tax for the support of a public library?  Your state library commission, if you have one, will tell you if your state gives aid to local public libraries.  It will also tell you about your library law.  If you have no library commission, consult a lawyer and get from him a careful statement of what can be done under present statutory regulations.  If your state has no library law, or none which seems appropriate in your community, it may be necessary to suspend all work, save the fostering of a sentiment favorable to a library, until a good law is secured.

In chapters 44 and 45 will be found a list of state library commissions, important provisions in library laws, and the names of the states having the best library laws at present.

Before taking any definite steps, learn about the beginnings of other libraries by writing to people who have had experience, and especially to libraries in communities similar in size and character to your own.  Write to some of the new libraries in other towns and villages of your state, and learn how they began.  Visit several such libraries, if possible, the smaller the better if you are starting on a small scale.

CHAPTER II

Preliminary work

Often it is not well to lay great plans and invoke state aid at the very outset.  Make a beginning, even though it be small, is a good general rule.  This beginning, however petty it seems, will give a center for further effort, and will furnish practical illustrations for the arguments one may wish to use in trying to interest people in the movement.