During the month of February, 1900, 61 per cent. were fiction, while for the first four months of this year (1900) only 62.4 per cent. were fiction. These figures show that the growth of circulation has been quite largely upon subjects other than fiction.

Another test of the value of a library's work is to be found in the use of its reference department. Figures and averages here are impracticable, but the growth of the use of this department has been much greater than that of the circulating department. The management of the library has laid special emphasis upon this department, seeking to make it as complete as possible with limited means and limited space. Every effort has been put forth to make it of value to the student class, while open shelves, easy chairs, noiseless cork carpet, convenient tables, good light and pleasing surroundings are doing much to attract people who would otherwise spend their time elsewhere.

Sidney is not blessed with a university or college to act as an intellectual center from which educational impulses and influences might radiate. It has been the desire of the management to make the Public Library the intellectual center of Sidney, and the efforts put forth to that end have received a hearty response from the people.

University Extension lecture courses have been so planned and conducted as to create a demand upon the library, a demand which the library management has taken great pleasure in supplying to the utmost. Study clubs and reading clubs of various sorts have been encouraged to organize, relying upon the library to supply their needs. Then, the teachers of the public schools have been encouraged to go to the library themselves, as well as to send their pupils there, for books to be used in a supplementary way in all of the grades, and upon all subjects.

This has been found a very effective way of introducing the library to the young people, and thus getting them into the habit of relying upon it as a place where they may seek for information upon all subjects.

What in the foregoing sketch has been called the "Management" of the Sidney Public Library is composed of the following:

SOUTH SOLON.

STOKES TOWNSHIP LIBRARY.

The history of the Stokes Township Library is brief. The idea was first suggested by a little surplus accumulating each year from our township high school commencements, an admission fee being charged, the receipts slightly exceeding the expenditures.

This sum was invested in books, the school board kindly purchasing a nice case. Soon there was felt a need of more books and a greater variety of authors. In order to secure the necessary funds the schools of South Solon gave a literary entertainment at the town hall and charged a small admission fee. Happy to say, there was a packed house and a neat sum was realized, which was invested in books. By this time we were in a position to use our best judgment in selecting new books, and it is declared by good authority that we have a well selected set of books for our library.

On December 19, 1896, it was opened to the public. While it was established mainly for the benefit of the schools, yet it is free to all the public. A list of the names of the books and their numbers is kept, also the price of each, so that if a book is lost it can be replaced by the person who lost it. When a book is taken out the name of the person, the number of the book and the date of issue are recorded. A book can be kept for two weeks and then renewed for two weeks. Otherwise a fee of two cents per day is charged for over time. By this record it is easy to see who is most interested in books and what class of literature one is inclined to read. We have a list of names of all those who have taken out books for the past four years, which is now an interesting record. The books are kept in the school building and each year in charge of some one of the teachers. We have now about 225 volumes including some works of nearly all standard authors. Having taxed the capacity of our book case to the utmost, no additions have been made to our library recently.

D. J. SCHURR, Superintendent.

SPRINGFIELD.

THE WARDER PUBLIC LIBRARY.

The Warder Public Library is the outgrowth of an institution organized under an ordinance of the Council of the City of Springfield, April 2, 1872, which had been adopted in pursuance of the State law, authorzing and providing for the establishment and maintenance of public fibraries. According to the provisions of this ordinance a free public ibrary and reading room is supported by the annual appropriations made

by the City Council. The funds are expended by a Board of Trustees chosen by the City Council, of which the president of the Council is a member ex officio.

Under this act the library was first located on the second floor in the Black Opera House building, and opened to the public on June 8, 1872.

The accumulations of books which had passed from one to the other of the various short-lived Library Associations in the city-and of new books, mainly of the then famous Tauchnitz and Bohn collections, aggregating about 3,300 volumes-formed the then Springfield Public Library. At the close of the first year donations and purchases had increased this number to 3,840 volumes. The public interest in the library then quickened. It was soon found that more commodious quarters were necessary to accommodate the increasing patronage. The second floor of the north side of the Union building on Fountain avenue was found not too large, and in August, 1877, it was removed to that place, where it remained for nearly thirteen years, enjoying a generous expansion of increasing volumes and a corresponding patronage.

The present elegant building, now the permanent home of the Library, was the gift of a gentleman, Benjamin H. Warder, who had passed the better part of his life in the city of Springfield. Having accumulated a fortune, he removed to Washington, D. C.; but with that true instinct of gentle blood, ever mindful of and grateful to the city of his earlier life, and desiring to perpetuate the memory of his respected parents, who had also been residents of Springfield, he erected the present structure of architectural beauty and tasteful finish, and dedicated it to their memory. At the portal was placed by Mr. Warder, this:

MEMORIAL TABLET.

THIS LIBRARY HAS BEEN ERECTED IN MEMORY OF

JEREMIAH AND ANN H. WARDER,

BY THEIR SON,

BENJAMIN HEAD WARDER.

IT IS GIVEN TO THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF SPRINGFLELD, O.,

FOR THEIR FREE ENJOYMENT,

AND LEFT IN THEIR CHARGE FOREVER.

This suitable and generous act has enshrined the memory of the donor in the hearts of the people of Springfield. It will remain, until the last stone crumbles, as a monument to his beneficence.

The Library was removed to this new building in May, 1890, where, under the fostering influence of an appreciative public, it has already grown to such proportions that additional room to meet the constantly increasing demands for the best literature is the ever-present problem with the Board of Trustees.

SPRINGFIELD.

ZIMMERMAN LIBRARY, WITTENBERG COLLEGE.

The library of Wittenberg College begins its history with the year the institution was founded-eighteen hundred and forty-four. Before the college was really organized and permanently located, Dr. Ezra Keller, who soon afterwards became the first president, was sent out by the board of directors to collect funds for the college and books for a library, from friends of the new enterprise living in the eastern part of the state. As it was the object of the founders to establish an institution where young men would be educated for the ministry, it was somewhat of a coincidence that the first books given to the library were D'Aubigne's "History of the Reformation." These five volumes now showing the marks of many years of usefulness, became the nucleus around which the library has slowly grown for the last fifty-five years.

In 1876 Prof. B. F. Prince, realizing the great need of gathering all the books together and placing them in some room adapted to the purpose, asked permission of the faculty to make the change. His request was at once granted and a room given him, which he himself fitted up with cases. Prof. Prince was then appointed librarian and from that time a new era began. The library was opened on several days of each week for a few hours and records were kept of all books loaned out. In this place the library remained for ten years and under the new conditions began to grow and become of practical value.

But in the meantime the students were not without the advantages of a library, limited though those advantages were.

Soon after the organization of the college, two literary societies were formed and each began immediately to collect and purchase books for a library. The intense rivalry existing between these two societies. led each to try to surpass the other by every means possible, and as a result much of their interest centered in their respective libraries. Before many years had passed by, each society had secured a small but permanent library fund from which to purchase books.

In 1886, when the new recitation hall was erected, a large and convenient room was constructed for library purposes. In this new home the college and both society libraries were kept separate. The new system of making all books accessible to the students materially increased the usefulness of the library.

In 1891 the family of Mr. John Zimmerman gave to the college a beautiful little building known as Zimmerman Library, which they had erected in memory of a son and brother. Mr. John L. Zimmerman, of the class of '79, took the most active interest in the gift, and the fact that the college now possesses a building exclusively for library purposes is due to his timely assistance, and thoughtfulness in regard to all things connected with the institution.