3. The boundaries of a unit of local library extension work can not follow the boundaries of political divisions. 4. No unit is suited to all needs; the unit must vary with social, industrial and educational conditions. 5. The essential characteristics of an efficient unit are: a. It must center in a library with considerable resources of books and funds. b. The existence of such a library presupposes the existence of a city or village of considerable size. C. Each unit must include a community of natural solidarity bound together by social, industrial and natural interests. 6. The natural order of extending library service into surrounding territory is that the value of library service must be demonstrated before funds are demanded. 7. The law providing for library extension should be such as to render contributions by one community to another voluntary rather than compulsory, and should permit any political division to contract with any other political division for library service. The CHAIRMAN: The library extension through the country has probably been developed in California more than in any other state in the Union, and we are now to hear the story of that development from Miss HARRIET G. EDDY, the county library organizer of the California state library. CALIFORNIA COUNTY FREE LIBRARIES What justifies county free libraries in California? The answer is CALIFORNIA. From the Mexican line, 1000 miles to the north; from the Ocean, 350 miles to the east; down to hard pan, and two miles straight up, every inch of California justifies the idea and existence of a county free library; from orange groves to snow banks every month in the year; from steam plows on the plains, to mills and mines in the mountains; from gas engine irrigating plants in the valleys to stupendous engineering enterprises among the peaks. Single counties bigger than some states, where you take a sleeper on a fast train at the county line at sundown, and reach the county seat only in time for breakfast next morning! Our fathers thought of California as the land of gold. It is rather the land of grain and alfalfa, the land of lumber, of salt, and of borax, the land of oil, the land of fruit, and fast becoming the land of rice and of cotton. Its vast extent has scattered its population; its topography has isolated it; its varied industries have diversified it; and necessities have made much of it keen-witted and intelligent. Why county free libraries in California? Climb into a county automobile with me and glimpse some of our opportunities and responsibilities. Here is the beautiful Capay valley, settled by intelligent, thoughtful, reading-loving English people, living thirty miles away from a library. Forget your native tongue now while we go to a Portuguese settlement up near the San Francisco Bay, where only a year ago an attorney said discouragingly: "No use to put a branch of the county free library down there. The people won't look at a book." But to-day they tell me that nearly all the children, and at least half the grown people are reading. From there we would go to one of our large counties where until a year ago, when the county free library was started, there was not one free library privilege within its confines, save the state traveling libraries of 50 volumes. There you would see at least eight thriving towns, almost cities, eager to be abreast with the procession of library supporting towns, yet diffident about undertaking the establish. ment of what has so often proved a mediocre institution. We pass farm colony after farm colony, growing up all over California with mushroom-like rapidity, desirous of having the best and most recent books on farming, but unable to buy them while meeting the heavy expenditures incident to the development of the new ranch. Has the gasoline given out? Then we will stop at one of the many oil leases, where you will be surprised, not only at the oil, but at the high quality of intelligence of the people, and where you will find your technical and professional books in steady demand. You will meet educated mothers who welcome your books by saying, "We do not want our children to grow up in bookless homes," a condition otherwise forced upon them as their nomadic life from lease to lease eliminates books from the home equipment. One mother wrote to the county librarian, "There's nothing out here to look at but the stars. Can't you please send us a book about them?" We would then visit a construction camp up in the Sierra Nevada mountains sixty miles from a railroad. Graduates and postgraduates from every notable college in the Union will greet you there, and you discover that the need for books is unprecedented, both because of previous opportunities which made books their portion in life, and because of present isolation, which makes books doubly welcome. When we have taken this trip and many others like unto it, and only then, are we in a position fairly to consider the subject of California county free libraries. They have been a natural and inevitable out. growth of California conditions and development. While the work of the county libraries in Maryland, Ohio, Oregon and other states has offered a background, those methods could be applied to California only when modified to meet California conditions. Owing to the reversal of ways of thinking and doing things which the newcomer must make if he will succeed here, it seems impossible for a stranger, or anyone who has not had opportunity to study conditions, to realize the problems which are confronted here in California, in attempting to provide complete library service. The immense size of the counties, with their population so scattered as to require endless small community centers for marketing; the breaking up of ranches into smaller acreages, and the consequent establishing of hundreds of colonies; the springing up of numerous small towns; the superior qual ity of readers in the oil leases, construction camps and other places calling for professionally trained men, all these reasons and undoubtedly many others have shown the futility of attempting to secure a library service for all the people by the use of the two conventional and timehonored methods, the municipal library, and the traveling libraries. Even though every municipality in this state were to have its own established library, nine-tenths of them would be too poorly supported to maintain more than a third rate reading room. And then what about the thousands of people living beyond the municipal line? The municipal library could not possibly shed its beneficent beam far enough to lighten the country gloom. Clearly, then, the municipal library does not solve the problem of complete library service. And even if there were a traveling library in every unincorporated community in the state, what could it avail for full library service, with its fifty miscellaneous books kept for three months? What would it mean, for instance, to the engineer who wishes to spend his spare time studying some of the books published since he left school? or to the ranchman who wants the latest books on alfalfa? or to the union high school located out at some country cross-roads? But even granted that state traveling libraries could furnish adequate service, the extravagance of transportation and duplication would be prohibitive. It is, however, too highly theoretical even to suppose such a service, for with the state library as a wholesale distributor of books through unlimited traveling libraries, the medium of connection between book and borrower would be too elusive, too filmy. To get the best results, there must be more concrete relations, a definite means of service through a more personal supervision. That is, in a huge state like this, traveling libraries have proved to be a good whetstone to sharpen a library appetite, but scarcely a good meal with which to satisfy it. Instead of having the state library deal directly with the people. it is better to have much smaller units as a base, presided over by a live, enthusiastic person who knows the people and who gives them direct personal service, leaving the state library to its more legitimate work of supplementing and COordinating the smaller units. The state library is usually an abstraction in the minds of most people. The institution that is most concrete and is personified in the work of its librarian can secure most effective results. With a conviction, then, that California had its own peculiar problem to work out; that it wished only to evolve a plan by which all the people of this state might receive library service; that half service is not business-like; and that a library has demonstrated its right to be conducted along sound business lines,-with this conviction, California set herself single-mindedly to the task of looking towards the best library interests of her people. What factors must be considered before the best results could be induced? What conditions were hampering the present attempts at library service? First, not a library could be found in the entire state which had sufficient funds to promote all the plans for advancement which it could well be justified and expected to undertake; clearly then it was the part of wisdom to seek means to secure more funds; second, the endless duplication in schools and libraries of the first few thousand books in numerous small towns showed the need of co-ordination with a larger unit as the base; third, the small libraries with their pittance of income prohibit trained workers, and it was clear that if library service is to become a science, professional supervision must be provided. And finally what unit would insure service to everybody? Only one answer to these propositions was inevitable: The county. In California the county is the unit of civil government which corresponds to the township of many of the eastern states. The county high school here corresponds to the township high schools around Chicago. The county, then, offered a logical unit, already organized, and affording machinery for library development which make artificial organizations unnecessary. Then, too, the county represents enough valuation to insure adequate financial aid; moreover, its size is great enough to justify trained supervision. It would also furnish opportunity for co-operation and co-ordination, checking useless duplication, minimizing wasted effort and useless expense. And finally, with every county in the state organized, it would give all the people a library service. Every reasoning, then, justified the adoption of the county as a library unit, and with this base, the first county free library law was passed in 1909, with these as its principal features: 1. The entire county was made the unit for library service. 2. Any municipality might withdraw if it did not wish to be a part of the system. 3. The county librarian, who was to be certificated, was given large power in carrying on the work. 4. A committee of the county board of supervisors constituted the library board. 5. An alternative or contract plan could be entered into between the supervisors and any library board, by which the library could in return for an appropriation of county money render library service to the entire county. Probably no upward pull has ever been attempted in any undertaking by any organization in history, but what has had its difficulties, its setbacks and its obstacles. And the progress of county free library work in California has been no exception. Its difficulties came from two widely dif ferent sources: objections on the part of some library people, and defects in the law itself. The objections from the library side were that the county as a whole was made the unit, from which the municipality not wishing to be included must withdraw; and even when withdrawn its position was deemed to be insecure, since the city trustees could cause it to be inIcluded by their own vote. The other objection by some libraries was to the control by the supervisors. As for the form of the law, it was fatally defective in the conflict between two sections. The original plan had been to put the county free libraries into operation through petitions, just as in the law providing for the establishment of municipal libraries. But during the passage of the bill through the legislature, amendments were inserted requiring an election. The sections providing for this did not accord, however, and so rendered the law inoperative, except in the section providing for a contract between the county and a city library. Notwithstanding the objections made to the content of the law from the libraries, and notwithstanding its inherent defects from the legal side, it was a matter of deep significance, and most encouraging to those whose hearts were alive to the hope of improving library service, that the work of organizing and developing the counties went forward with an impetus that nothing could stop. The eagerness of the people for the adoption of the plan was instantaneous, for they saw possibilities for library privileges such as they had not before dreamed of. The plan appealed to them as comprehensive, logical, economical, and business-like, designed to get what the business world is seeking more and more these daysresults. Eleven counties in quick succession adopted the contract plan, making in all twelve counties in the state, which are now giving county free library service, for Sacramento county had pioneered the work even before the formal passage of the law. The mere mention of the Sacramento county free library is the touchstone to awaken the happiest and fullest feelings of reminiscence. I am glad that my first connection with the work was from the people's side of it; that my first impression, and the indelible one, of the true purpose of the county free library is service and always service, that every means to bring this about must always be a means, and only a means, and never magnified in its importance to endanger or overshadow the end. We never want to be in the embarrassing position of the traveler who could not see the woods for the trees. Nor do we want to be like the business firm that had just adopted a new but complicated system of administration. On being asked how it was working out, the manager rubbed his hands in satisfaction and said, "Fine! just fine! We know to a cent about every department." "How's business?" the first man asked. The manager looked rather blank and then said, "Business? Why, we've been SO busy getting the system to work that we haven't done any business." The teacher thinks because the class room order is good that the school is a success. Libraries and librarians, like all other professions, are apt to confuse the issue, to mistake the means for the end. In a big issue like this, the library is liable to entangle itself in meshes of confusion, mistaking the mechanics of organization for the single-hearted purpose-which is service. So I reiterate, that I am glad my first idea came from the people's end of it. I shall all my life be proud of that branch, acquaintance with the county free librarv number 1, which we had in our country high school. The library had the goods. We wanted the goods. The county free library established the connection. That was the whole story, a very simple one. If any of you have ever faced the problem of making bricks without straw, you can appreciate what it means to try to make a first class high school without the laboratory service that a library affords. But we got the service that year. Think of one country high school having over $2,000 worth of books put on its shelves for use as it needed them throughout the year! Is it any wonder that high schools all over the state, as they hear of this beautiful new plan, are eager for it! Is it any wonder that as the work of information and organization has been carried on, people in the county make every effort in their power to help toward success. One high school principal said, "We'll go on our hands and knees to the county officials." Others said, "We'll snow them under with petitions." This method has been necessary in only one county, however, for usually the county super visors are as keen to see that the adop tion of the plan will bring satisfaction to their people, as the people are eager to see it adopted. The time so far actually spent in the starting of county free libraries has been ten months. One ultra conservative county required the combined efforts of two organizers for a month. No particular opposition existed, but merely a desire on the part of the officials to be thoroughly informed that the people wanted the library. The very next county required only four days, and resulted in an appropriation of $5,200. Another county bade fair to take up the plan with only a three days' canvass; the supervisors were ready to, but an unexpected legal question caused the final action to be postponed two weeks. The ultimate appropriation of $12,000 made the two weeks seem trivial. Still another county voted $10,000 after only a week's missionary work. They tell me that organizing work is easier here than in most states. I do not know, as my experience is limited. We have met temporary difficulties here in various ways. Sometimes the plea is that the county first needs good roads; sometimes the bridges have all been washed out by last winter's rain; once the county superintendent of schools wanted us to wait till the county had voted bonds for a new high school. But opposition is never met from the general public, for they want the library service; and only one board of supervisors was completely indifferent, but you will agree with me that the circumstances were extenuating; they really were not to be held responsible for their strange actions; they were in the throes of a hotly contested primary election, a condition which being undergone for the first time in our state produced symptoms of incipient insanity. The work of organization under the contract plan continued till it seemed wise not to carry it any farther, but wait for the new law, which was inevitable both because of the defects in the first one and the objections to it. The utmost care was taken to eliminate completely these two difficulties, by continued conferences and submitting the proposed bill to library folk who had found reason to complain; and by having the bill completely constitutionalized by expert lawyers and approved from the attorneygeneral's office. Only expressions of satisfaction and congratulation have come from all sources over the result of these efforts, and there now stands as a consequence upon the statute books of California a county free library law which we are confident will prove to be all that every one hopes for a medium of library service to all who wish. I do not mean by that, that we consider it final. We are seeking only results. If this plan does not give them the desired results, or if a better one appears, we shall greet the new, and lay aside the old, with the same open mindedness that now infuses itself into the present conduct of the work. We believe, however, that the new law offers an elastic medium to meet our present needs. It contains seventeen sections, and attempts to cover whatever points may be logically a part of the county free library's policy. It differs from the former law, which it repeals, in a half dozen or more vital features. First of all, the establishment of the county free library is left entirely permissive with the board of supervisors, no petition or election being called for, as it had been proved conclusively by the work of organization that boards of supervisors will, if they think best for the county, take up the work on their own initiative. A provision for a notice to be published three times before establishment gives sufficient publicity to the contemplated action. The second main point of difference is that while the former law included the entire county as a unit, with provisions for a municipality to stay out, the present law turns the whole plan diametrically around, making the unit to start with only that portion of the county not receiving public library service. If a town has no library, it is included; if it has a library, it is automatically excluded. Two plans are provided however, by |