The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Traveling Libraries
TRAVELING LIBRARIES. A traveling library has been defined as “A collection of books lent for stated periods by a central library to a branch library, club, or other organization or, in some instances, to an individual.” The chief characteristics from which it derives its name are its temporary location in the place to which it is sent and the implication that any traveling library will or may be changed for others.
The date of the first traveling library is uncertain. Passing by the itinerant chapman and ballad-seller, the religious colporteur and the camp library of Napoleon I listed in Bourrienne's ‘Mémoires,’ the “Circulating schools” of Wales, promoted in 1730 by Griffith Jones, and the later similar schools of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland in the Highlands and the Scottish islands may be noted as forerunners of educational extension and its logical corollary, traveling libraries. The first really practicable traveling library plan seems to have been started by Samuel Brown in East Lothian, Scotland, in 1817, though it is stated that the principle had been used with some Scottish parish libraries as early as 1810. Brown procured 200 selected volumes “about two-thirds of which were of a moral and religious tendency, while the remainder comprised books of travel, agriculture, the mechanical arts and popular sciences.” Four libraries of 50 volumes each were stationed in Aberlady, Salton, Tyninghame and Gawald. In 20 years these libraries had increased to 3,850 volumes, distributed through 47 villages. Jean Frédéric Oberlin is said to have founded itinerant libraries in his parish of Waldbach in the Vosges Mountains at about the same time that the East Lothian libraries were established. Both of these early plans barely survived their founders.
A successful system of traveling libraries was begun by the public library of Melbourne in 1860. Oxford University in 1878 and Cambridge University soon after began to send out traveling libraries as an aid to their university extension courses.
Traveling Libraries in America. — The American lyceum movement demonstrated the need of libraries to conserve the results of its work. “Itinerating libraries” and a county system of traveling libraries were proposed as early as 1831. In 1848, the American Seaman's Friend Society began to furnish libraries to American ships, afterward extending its work to naval hospitals and life-saving stations. The United States government has supplied similar libraries to lighthouses. These were exchanged frequently. The first general American traveling libraries supported by public funds were authorized by the New York State legislature in 1892. The first library was sent out by the New York State Library in February 1893. Beginning with 10 libraries of 100 volumes each the circulation for the first fiscal year was 2,400 volumes. This increased in 1918-19 to a total circulation of 43,958 volumes sent out in 1,099 different collections, with a total stock of 100,641 volumes. Michigan and Montana enacted traveling-library legislation in 1895 and Wisconsin and Iowa in 1896.
Virtually every State library commission now maintains a traveling library system for the libraries of its own State. The work of the traveling libraries section of the Educational Extension Division of the University of the State of New York may be taken as typical of the more highly organized form of this work in the State commissions. This division will send traveling libraries “to any place in New York State, preference being given to places where it is difficult to provide good books for free circulation.” The State pays all transportation charges (other tban local cartage). Seven different types of traveling libraries are provided: (1) Libraries for general readers; (2) libraries for public schools, to supplement the school libraries but not to provide supplementary readers or textbooks; (3) libraries for small public libraries, to supplement local library collections where library funds are scanty; (4) libraries for children; (5) libraries for foreigners, in several foreign languages; (6) libraries for study clubs, granges, private schools, Sunday schools, churches, etc.; (7) house libraries for the individual or the single family, preferably in rural homes.
When the books in these libraries are available to all members of a community no fee is charged for the first 25 volumes. In the case of restricted use (as in classes 6 and 7) a small fee is charged. Small fees are also charged for volumes in excess of 25. The period of loan is from three months (in the case of house libraries) to one year (in case of schools and study clubs). The collections are of two types: fixed and open shelf. The former are lent as a unit and the borrower is allowed no substitutions for titles on the list. The latter are selected from the general collection of the extension department to meet, as far as possible, the specific desires of the organization or person borrowing the library. The fixed collection is more economical as it ensures the use of the whole collection; the open shelf collection is more flexible and, therefore, more satisfactory to most people. The tendency is toward the open shelf collection.
The large city libraries maintain similar systems. Their “deposit stations” are essentially traveling library collections. In addition, smaller collections of books are sent to clubs, schcols, organized societies, police and fire stations and many other types of organizations. The New York Free Circulating Library, which had for several years supplied traveling libraries to schools, in 1897 established a traveling library department. This, which is now the Extension Division of the New York Public Library, in 1918 sent out 46,402 volumes to 417 agencies. The Free Library of Philadelphia began its traveling library work in 1896. A typical example of the use of traveling library books is seen in the Saint Louis Public Library which reports a circulation of 240,883 volumes in the fiscal year 1918-19.
An interesting variant of the traveling library is the book-wagon or automobile which delivers books along definite routes radiating from some library centre. The pioneer book-wagon in the United States was started in April 1905 by Miss Mary L. Titcomb of the Washington County Free Library of Hagerstown, Md. The Connecticut Public Library Committee and the Delaware State Library Commission have also maintained book-wagons. Book-wagons have also been used in parts of Wisconsin. A local book delivery automobile has recently been put into service by the Endicott (N. Y.) Free Library. To some extent rural mail delivery wagons have been used for traveling library purposes but the possibilities in this direction are capable of much greater development.
Several unsuccessful attempts have been made to establish traveling libraries on a commercial basis. The best known of these, the Booklover's Library and the Tabard Inn Library, founded in Philadelphia in 1900 and 1902 respectively, were measurably successful for some time.
Educational Significance of the Traveling Library. — The traveling library idea has spread throughout the civilized world and the small collection of books changed frequently is known in many places in which the more elaborate public library is as yet unknown. The late war was instrumental in giving the idea greater prominence than ever before. The case of books supplied by the Red Cross, the American Library Association or other relief organizations followed the troops into the trenches as well as into the camp and hospital and prison camps. It was a familiar sight on every war vessel or transport. The Germans as well as the Allies were quick to see the value of the traveling library in maintaining morale.
The great advantages of the traveling library are economy, mobility and adaptability. The collection is limited to books definitely chosen for some purpose. The obsolete and useless are eliminated. The frequent change of collections gives each group or community receiving the hbraries access to the volumes in all the groups. Books on timely topics or those needed to meet changes in community taste can in this way be provided at a minimum cost. The traveling library can be put into the home, the store, the grange or wherever people congregate. It is not limited to any one place. No permanent building or special assistant is needed to make it give fairly satisfactory service if intelligence in selection is shown by the library which issues it. The only records needed are the simplest types of lending records.
The traveling library is of special significance in four different directions: in providing the rural population and special organisations with library facilities, in aiding the rural schools to keep their instruction abreast of the times, in promoting educational extension movements of all lands and in promoting the establishment and development of permanent libraries. The town and village libraries aided by the county library systems, are beginning to provide much more adequate library service for the rural population than formerly. (See Rural Libraries). Nevertheless, there will always be a considerable portion of the population for which the traveling library will furnish the only really convenient access to good books. Even the proposed extension of the parcel post service for library books at reduced rates will supplement, not supersede, the larger collection of the traveling library. The factory and the machine shop, the social club and the fraternal organization also find it much to their advantage to have immediately at hand a small, well-chosen collection of books changed often enough to prevent their becoming stale.
The rapid and extensive changes in school curricula and the modern methods of teaching, most of which imply considerable use of material outside the textbook, are making the school library more than ever an essential part of the well-equipped school. The rural and small town schools, no less than the schools in the large cities, need fresh books in their libraries. In most cases the funds available for this purpose are inadequate. The traveling library sent by the State Library Commission, the State Department of Education or other central agency, can fill this need better and at less expense than the local school board. It can supply the books needed to supplement the standard books, the reference books and the supplementary readers and textbooks which the school must have as a permanent part of its equipment. In many cases, the traveling library will show whether or not the desired book is really needed permanently. The value of the traveling library is so well recognized by teachers that practically no central distributing agency can supply the demand made by the schools for this service. In many cities {e.g., Rochester, N. Y., Buffalo, N. Y., Cleveland, Ohio, Portland, Ore., etc.), the public library has a regularly organized system of classroom libraries, changed at regular intervals and intended to supplement the school work. See also School Libraries.
Practically every well-devised scheme of educational extension, whether lyceum movement, university extension centre, study club, correspondence course, Chautauqua movement or Sunday school, has recognized the need of a small library to conserve and amplify the results of the instruction. The courses on a commercial basis have rather generally tried to sell personal collections to their patrons. Those without commercial intent have usually seen the need of larger, more flexible collections, available to all taking the extension work and subject to changes frequent enough to maintain variety. The traveling library has demonstrated its value in these cases. It has made it possible for the educational work to be varied in subject. It has enabled the ambitious student to go far beyond the limits of the lecture or the prescribed textbook. It has made true Carlyle's oft-quoted statement, “The true university of these days is a collection of books.”
The development of traveling library systems has in most cases been followed by the establishment of permanent public libraries or the further development of those already established. The advantages of the traveling library are so manifest under such a variety of conditions that State legislatures have rather generally been willing to make some appropriations for their establishment and support. The traveling library implies a central administrative agency. This has required the formation of a State Library Commission or a similar body charged with the supervision of traveling library work. The traveling library, when intelligently used, has generally shown the need of larger, more stable collections of books than the library commission could supply. The logical result has been an agitation, by the study club, the school or the other organization using the traveling library, for a permanent public library. Many of the smaller libraries in all parts of the country have originated in this way. The “County system” has been the result as well as the cause of traveling libraries. The contribution of the American Library Association's war service libraries deserves special mention. Up to 1 Sept, 1919 the association had given 70 collections comprising 22,325 volumes to reconstruction units, colleges, universities and other permanent organizations in nearly 20 of the present countries of Europe and Asia. These collections are composed of books formerly used in the traveling libraries furnished the army, the navy and the marine corps through the American Library Association and other relief agencies.
Complete statistics of traveling libraries are rather difficult to obtain. As previously intimated, virtually every State Library Commission, every large pubhc library, many extension departments of universities and an increasing number of commercial corporations maintain them. Different methods of calculating circulation and different interpretations of the term “traveling libraries” further complicate the matter. The more important original sources are indicated in the appended bibliography.
Bibliography. — Many references are included in Cannons, H. G. T., ‘Bibliography of Library Economy’ (London 1910), and in ‘Library Work, Cumulated’ (Minneapolis 1912). Current statistics of State systems are included in the ‘League of Library Commissions Handbook’ and in the bulletins of the various commissions. Statistics of city systems are to be found in the reports of the individual libraries. For the early history of the movement consult Brown, Samuel, ‘Some Account of Itinerating Libraries and their Founder’ (Edinburgh 1856); Brown, Wm., ‘Memoir Relative to Itinerating Libraries’ (Edinburgh 1836; reprinted New York 1836); University of the State of New York, ‘Study clubs: annual report 1897’ (Albany 1898; Extension Bulletin 23); ‘Libraries and University Extension’ (Albany 1892; Extension Bulletin 4); Dewey, Melvil, and Avery, Myrtilla, ‘Traveling Libraries’ (Albany 1901; Home Education Bulletin 40); and Adams, H. B., ‘Public Libraries and Popular Education’ (Albany 1900; Home Education Bulletin 31). On organization and management consult Hutchins, F. A., ‘Traveling Libraries’ (Boston 1902; American Library Association, Library Tract 3); Bullock, Edna D., ‘Management of Traveling Libraries’ (Boston 1907; American Library Association Library Handbook 3); Eastman, Linda A., ‘Branch Libraries and other Distributing Agencies’ (Chicago 1911; American Library Association Manual, chap. xv). Koch, T. W., ‘Books in the War’ (Boston 1919) describes the traveling library service of the different countries in the World War.