Why We Need a Public Library: A Clip Sheet for Newspapers and Magazines

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American library association, 1927 - Advertising - 46 pages
 

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Page 12 - The innocence and completeness with which the child's spirit is rendered up to the book, its utter absorption and forgetfulness, make this a sight that always moves me strangely. A child does not read to criticize or compare, but just in the unsullied joy of finding itself in a new world.
Page 4 - After the church and the school, the free public library is the most effective influence for good in America.
Page 4 - I choose free libraries as the best agencies for improving the masses of the people, because they give nothing for nothing. They only help those who help themselves. They never pauperize. They reach the aspiring, and open to these the chief treasures of the world — those stored up in books. A taste for reading drives out lower tastes.
Page 7 - The most important duty of the State is the universal education of the masses. No money which can be usefully spent for this indispensable end, should be denied. Public sentiment should on the contrary approve the doctrine that the more that can be judiciously spent, the better for the country. There is no insurance of nations so cheap as the enlightenment of the people.
Page 7 - A college training is an excellent thing ; but, after all, the better part of every man's education is that which he gives himself, and it is for this that a good library should furnish the opportunity and the means.
Page 20 - This allowance of per capita revenue may need modification in the ease of very small or very large communities, or communities which are otherwise exceptional. Small communities may often obtain increased library service for the same expenditure per capita by enlarging the area of administration.
Page 21 - ... which are otherwise exceptional. Small communities may often obtain increased library service for the same expenditure per capita by enlarging the area of administration. The situation in large communities is often modified by the presence of good endowed libraries free for public use. Communities desiring their libraries to supply these needs extensively and with the highest grade of trained service, will find it necessary to provide a support much larger than the minimum of one dollar per capita.
Page 11 - A good story has created many an oasis in many an otherwise arid life. Many-sidedness of interest makes for good morals, and millions of our fellows step through the pages of a story book into a broader world than their nature and their circumstances ever permit them to visit. If anything is to stay the narrowing and hardening process which specialization of learning, specialization of inquiry and of industry and swift accumulation of wealth are setting up among us, it is a return to romance, poetry,...
Page 6 - The modern library movement is a movement to increase by every possible means the accessibility of books, to stimulate their reading and to create a demand for the best. Its motive is helpfulness ; its scope, instruction and recreation ; its purpose, the enlightenment of all ; its aspiration, still greater usefulness.
Page 17 - Books are keys to wisdom's treasure; Books are gates to lands of pleasure ; Books are paths that upward lead; Books are friends. Come let us read.

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