Book excerpt: Excerpt from Hints to Small Libraries Admitting the wisdom of the saying that "children should be seen and not heard" and the fact that Pratt Institute 1 Free library is still of tender years, it is also not to be denied that there comes a time when even children must speak and abide by the consequences. The library has had so many letters from persons at a distance, as well as many visitors, asking advice or suggestions in regard to the starting or reorganizing of small libraries or the best methods of carrying them on, that it seems best to put its suggestions into tangible form. They profess to be no more than suggestions; some of them the library has tried, others it has heard of and thought reasonable. The main endeavor throughout these few chapters has been to keep in mind the fact that there are libraries scattered all over the country that have very little of anything but ambition and good will to go upon. Their stock of money, labor, and time is limited, wherefore it is of no use to recommend to them tools or processes that require much of these commodities. The trained librarian will not feel the need of such a pamphlet as this, since he or she probably knows of or could evolve a system equally well or better adapted to the circumstances, so the audience sifts itself down to small libraries which have to consider economy, whose librarians are not trained and have no opportunity to take training. And even for them, it is hoped these suggestions may be only a point of departure from which to continue their own investigations in the field of library economy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.