OTHER LIBRARIES IN COLUMBUS.

INSTITUTION FOR FEEBLE MINDED YOUTH.

DR. G. A. DOREN, SUPERINTENDENT.

This institution has a well equipped library. In the medical department are 750 volumes; in the children's department are 2,305 volumes.

OHIO PENITENTIARY.

The Ohio Penitentiary has a carefully selected library of over 2,000 volumes. Rev. D. J. Starr, chaplain of the Penitentiary, is librarian.

STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

In recent years many additions have been made to the library of the society. It contains publications of other historical societies and many historical periodicals. It now numbers about 1,200 volumes.

INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

Pupils and students in this institution are naturally great readers. The library is supplied with choice literature and extensively used. About 3,000 volumes are on the shelves. Superintendent J. W. Jones is librarian.

OLD NORTHWEST GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY.

The Old Northwest Genealogical Society has already accumulated 755 books and pamphlets. Every item of the collection is of genealogical value. Dr. L. C. Herrick is librarian.

RAILWAY Y. M. C. A.

In the reading rooms of the Association is a small library. About fifty carefully selected periodicals are kept on file. E. Dow Bancroft is secretary.

STARLING MEDICAL COLLEGE.

Starling Medical College has the oldest and largest medical library in Columbus. It numbers about 6,000 volumes. Dr. Adolph Feiel is librarian.

room.

COLUMBUS Y. M. C. A.

W. T. PERKINS, SECRETARY.

The Association has a modern and thoroughly equipped reading
About one hundred periodicals are kept on file. In this room is

also kept a small library of choice books.

OHIO MEDICAL UNIVERSITY.

Although but recently established, the Ohio Medical University library has on its shelves 1,200 books and pamphlets. Miss Frances Hayden is librarian.

STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.

The State Board of Health has a library of about 3,000 volumes for the use of the department. Dr. C. O. Probst, Secretary of the Board, recently had Dr. G. E. Wire classify the books and pamphlets. The collection of books on sanitation and related subjects is especially strong.

STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

The Ohio State Board of Agriculture has in its library about 7,000 volumes. These constitute an excellent up-to-date reference library on agriculture. The collection includes many bound periodicals. Under the direction of the librarian, Mrs. J. R. Cheetam, the books have recently been classified by the Dewey decimal system.

CAPITAL UNIVERSITY.

The Capital University and Theological Seminary has a fine collection of books in the German language. The library numbers about 8,000 volumes. Prof. A. Pflueger is librarian.

LAW LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.

This Association has a library of 4.500 volumes in the court house of Franklin county. The library is open to members of the Association. Librarian, Chas. T. Keech.

GIRLS' ENGLISH AND CLASSICAL SCHOOL.

This institution has a fine library of 2,500 volumes.

It is open for purposes of reference to teachers and students. Miss Lucretia M. Phelps is librarian.

CORNING.

CORNING BOOK EXCHANGE

In March, 1895, thirteen members organized the Corning Book Exchange and loaned it twenty-six books. These were kept on the shelves: of the Sunday Creek Coal Company's store. No money was then paid in. At the end of three months each member replaced the two books he had loaned by two others. Seven new members were admitted and each member then belonging contributed twenty-five cents, which was expended for books.

At the end of each six months we admitted new members and each member of the Exchange paid twenty-five cents dues. The money received was invested in books. The membership is now seventy-five. The borrowed books have all been returned, and with the dues more than 500 volumes have been bought.

An admission fee of $2.00 is charged. If a second member of a family wishes to join, only fifty cents is charged as admission fee. Dues

are twenty-five cents, payable June 1st and January 1st, making fifty cents for the year.

Most of the books are works of fiction. A few volumes are historical. About one hundred are for children. One-half of the books are kept at the Sunday Creek Store. The remainder are on the shelves of Garrison and Roof's Hardware Store. No one receives any remuneration for handling the books.

Since May, 1900, Miss Sarah M. Holcombe has had the management of the Corning Book Exchange. Previous to that time I had the work in charge. All members seem to have the good of the Exchange at heart, and are ever willing to aid the management.

DAYTON.

AUGUSTA P. SMITH.

PUBLIC LIBRARY AND MUSEUM.

1805-99.

The First Library in Dayton.- Prior to 1835 the public library, in the sense in which we now understand the term, did not exist. For nearly a century before, throughout the colonies and under the various state governments, membership or association libraries, lyceums, etc., existed and were by law exempt from taxation. These libraries were "public" only in the sense that any person who cared to pay for the privilege might draw books from them. The New York law establishing a district school library system was the first to provide at public expense for free books. to be loaned without cost to the borrower. That was the beginning of the free public library of to-day.

The first "public" library incorporated in the State of Ohio was that of the "Social Library Society of Dayton" in 1805. It charged an annual membership fee of three dollars. The rules and regulations or "Constitution" have been reprinted from the only copy of them known to be in existence. The incorporators were Rev. William Robertson, Dr. John Elliott, William Miller, Benjamin Van Cleve, and John Folkerth. In 1835 the whole collection was sold at auction and the library ceased to exist.

Several other "public" libraries of the same character flourished between the years 1835 and 1847. In the latter year the Dayton Library Association was formed. This was also a membership library, but a much more prosperous one than its predecessors. It continued in operation until 1860 when all its books, and property in furniture and fixtures, were transferred by gift to the Public School Library and placed under the control of the Board of Education.

The Public Library.- Our free public library of to-day is the outgrowth of the union of these two libraries. The Public School Library grew out of the provisions of the Ohio School Library law of 1853 (modeled after the New York law referred to above), which provided for a tax of one-tenth of a mill on the dollar valuation to be devoted to library purposes. The purchase and distribution of books were placed in the hands of the State Superintendent of Instruction. Instead, however, of distributing to the several districts the quota books which should fall to the share of the Dayton schools, it was decided to keep them in one col

DAYTON PUBLIC LIBRARY.

lection and establish a central library. After receiving such books from the purchases of the State Superintendent as were suitable, he was requested to pay in money any balance due the city. The amount received from this source was $1,400 with which 1,250 volumes were bought. Location. The Library was opened in 1855, on the second floor of the U. B. Building, on the corner of Fourth and Main streets. In 1858 it was removed to the Central High School, on the corner of Fourth and Wilkinson, the present site of the Central District School. When, in 1860, the Public School Library came into possession of the property of the Dayton Library Association, it moved into the rooms of the latter in the Phillips Building, on the southeast corner of Main and Second.

Here it remained until removed to the old City Hall on the site of the present building. During the rebuilding of the latter, the Library occupied the second story of the old Journal building on Main street, and in 1876 resumed its quarters in the new city building, the west end over the market-house having been handsomely fitted to receive it.

In January of 1888 the Library building, erected in Cooper Park, was completed, and on the twenty-fourth of the month the Library was opened to the public in its present home.

Support. Founded under the provisions of the State law, with the single exception of the gift of the Dayton Library Association's collection of books, it has depended wholly for increase and support upon public taxation. When the tax levy of one-tenth of a mill provided under the State law of 1853 was suspended in 1856, its support was continued until 1860 by appropriations from the funds of the Board of Education. In that year the legislature passed an act under which the Board was empowered to levy one-tenth of a mill for the support of the Library.

Management. From 1856 until 1887 the management was under the direction of a committee of three appointed annually from the Board of Education. In March, 1887, an act of legislature was passed establishing the Library Board. This was amended in 1892, and in 1893, under the act incorporating the Museum, the Library Board became the Public Library and Museum Board. The text of thes successive acts is given herewith. Until the amended library law of 1892, the president of the Board of Education was a member ex-officio of the Library Board, and also acted as its president. The first Library Board was convened April 23, 1887.