LIBRARY NOTES AND NEWS.

HIS heading will cover all matters of library interest

not otherwise specialised under departments.

The home and foreign journals will be carefully gleaned with the object of rendering the information as complete as possible; but no matter how carefully our gleaning may be done there will be many items of interest escape our attention, to say nothing of the many that will not find their way into the journals at all.

It is obvious, therefore, that the completeness or incompleteness-as the case may be-of the information which we are enabled month by month to present to our readers will be largely determined by the interest which the individual members of the Library Association display in the conduct of their official organ. If each one will recognise the journal as his own, and do his part in its editing, by regularly contributing information respecting his own library, as well as other notes of local news likely to be acceptable to our readers, we shall be entitled to claim for the Record that it has justified its existence by clearly reflecting in its pages the doings of the "library world" in this country at least.

The briefest record of facts and dates is all that is required; but as accuracy is the most essential feature of these paragraphs, it is of the highest importance that each and every one should be vouched for by local knowledge.

UNITED KINGDOM.

BANFF: Offer of a Library to the Burgh.-The Banff Literary and Library Society have offered to the Town Council their library as a gift to the burgh. The Council unanimously expressed the opinion that they should in the public interest avail themselves of the offer, and Provost Munro gave notice that at the next meeting he would move that the offer be accepted, and that they resolve to adopt the Public Libraries Act. The society, whose books will form the nucleus of the proposed free library, was instituted in 1810 by five young lads in Banff, one of whom (Lewis W. Forbes), afterwards minister of Boharm, was Moderator

of the General Assembly in 1852, and another, Alex. Smith, wrote a chapter on Banff in the new Statistical Account, and was author of a work on the philosophy of morals. Catalogues of the library have been issued from time to time, and by the latest printed, two years ago, the books are shown to number over 6000. Mr. Robertson, librarian of the Free Library, Aberdeen, recently reported on the library, stating that there was a good deal that had a present interest chiefly for students, and for those who occasionally have to inquire into out-of-the-way incidents, and a goodly number of books such as any community of average reading taste and culture might well delight in. If, said Mr. Robertson, the library were to be lost to the existing community of Banff, it would, so far as much of it is concerned, be a difficult and an expensive matter to replace it, while some items could hardly be replaced.

BOOTLE: Exhibition of Printed Books.-In the public museum a small collection of books has recently been placed to illustrate the productions of the best printers from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Most of the specimens are loans from the private libraries of the librarian (Mr. J. J. Ogle), and of the sub-librarian (Mr. C. H. Hunt).

BOSTON (Lincs.): Subscription Library.-We are glad to note that the members of the Boston Spain Lane (Subscription) Library see no reason why the Free Library should have any detrimental effect upon their library. Experience elsewhere gives good reason for their hopefulness-the existence of a public library does not diminish but encourages reading in a community.

BRADWELL: Public Library not yet possible.-A representative meeting held to consider the advisability of establishing a public reading-room and library has regretfully decided that difficulties at present stand in the way of a scheme being adopted.

BRISTOL: Public Libraries and Museum.—A correspondence has taken place in the local press in the endeavour to show that a part of the proceeds of the rate of one halfpenny in the pound, levied under the Museums Act, has been diverted towards the maintenance expenses of the public libraries, and that the museum collection is accordingly "found wanting and unsatisfactory".

New Branch Library.-The Libraries Committee have recommended to the City Council the formation of a new branch library for North Bristol, at an estimated cost of £6000.

CAMPBELTOWN: Gift of a Library.-A Public Library and Museum has been presented by Mr. James Macalister Hall, of Tavy and Killean, and the Town Council have conferred the freedom of the burgh upon the donor.

CARDIFF: Welsh Account of the Free Libraries.-An interesting account (in Welsh) of the Cardiff Free Libraries appears in the January number of Cymru, a monthly magazine with a large circulation in Wales. The editor of Cymru (Mr. Owen M. Edwards, M.A., of Lincoln College, Oxford) is an enthusiastic supporter of the public library movement, and has done a great deal to promote adoptions of the Act in the principality.

CHATHAM: Gift of Books to Workmen's Institute Library.-The Workmen's Institute Library has benefited by the presentation of a considerable number of books subscribed for by several local residents.

CHELTENHAM: Proposed Art Gallery. -The Baron de Ferrières, who represented Cheltenham in Parliament from 1880 to 1885, has given 1000 towards the cost of adding an Art Gallery to the Free

Library, and proposes also to bequeath thirty of his best pictures to the gallery.

CHESTER: A Shower of Gifts.-The Town Council has received from Alderman Sir Thomas Frost a cheque for £1400 in payment of the purchase money of what was formerly the Mechanics' Institute, but is now the Public Library. From Mr. William Brown, a former member of the Corporation, the institution has received a gift of 4000 volumes valued at £600. From the Duke of Westminster a donation of £100, and from a prominent member of the Town Council a similar donation will be announced at the next Council meeting. In addition to the above gifts valuable grants of books have been made by H.M. Stationery Office and the Corporation of the City of London. The library building still carries a debt of something over £3000, to extin guish which an appeal will shortly be made to the citizens, and a ready response is anticipated. A number of Welsh papers and other publications have recently been added to the library.

Open Access abolished.-The system of "open access" has been abolished in the reference library, three books having lately been stolen. This decision has been arrived at in view of a very valuable addition that will shortly be made to this department, the committee considering it unwise to continue to allow readers free access to the shelves. It has thus been proved by actual experience that at Chester "open access" is a failure in both departments. The system was given a six months' trial in the lending department shortly before the present librarian (Mr. E. H. Caddie) was appointed, but with disastrous

results.

CHORLEY (Lancs.): Gift of Books to the Library.-Sir Henry Tate, Bart., has offered a gift of £500 towards the purchase of books for the Free Library building which Mr. Herbert Parke has presented to the town. The offer has been accepted with the cordial thanks of the Town Council.

CRIEFF: Minister secures one of the "Plums".-The Rev. W. R. Simpson, Baptist minister, has been elected by the governors as librarian of the Taylor's Trust Free Library, at a weekly salary which we refrain from mentioning, suffice it to say that the amount is sadly inadequate. Librarians are still cheap to-day!

DUBLIN: Newspaper Files in the National Library.-Strong comment is made on the absence of files of the Irish newspapers from the National Library, and the Dublin press contrasts the usefulness, or rather, the lack of usefulness, of the library in this respect with the British Museum, where every Irish newspaper is filed. The blame for all deficiencies in the National Library is laid not upon the officers, whose zeal and energy is loudly praised, but at the door of the Treasury, the Government grant being regarded as parsimonious in the

extreme.

EDINBURGH: National Library for Scotland suggested.-A correspondent of The Scotsman advocates the creation of a Scottish National Library, the Advocates' Library to be used as the basis, and in pointing out that the historical treasures relating to Scotland should be found in the metropolis in preference to London, suggests that such an institution would be a fitting Gladstone Memorial. Dr. Common, the writer of the letter, is taken to task by, amongst others, Mr. George Saintsbury for his lack of recognition of the University Library and the Edinburgh Public Library in this direction.

A Scott MS. for the Advocates' Library.-By the will of the late Sir

William Augustus Fraser, the original manuscript of " Marmion" is to rest in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh. The manuscript was preserved by Ballantyne at the request of Constable, after whose failure it was bought by Cadell. The latter's manuscripts were disposed of in 1867, when "Marmion" sold for 191 guineas. The original of "Waverley" is also in the Advocates' Library. It wants, however, the leaves of the opening chapter, which were bought at Cadell's sale by Mr. Hope Scott, of Abbotsford. Some years ago six of the leaves were offered to the Advocates' Library at the price of £10 per leaf, but the offer was declined.-Rochester, N.Ỹ., Union and Advertiser.

FARSLEY (Yorks.): Movement for a Public Library. The ratepayers, in public meeting, have requested the Urban District Council to take a poll to ascertain the opinions of the ratepayers on the adoption of the "Public Libraries Acts," with a proviso that the question "Are you in favour of the rate being one halfpenny or one penny in the pound" be printed on the voting papers. It may here be pointed out that a poll cannot be taken, as, by the amending Act of 1893, the consent of the urban authority, given by resolution, has been substituted for the consent of the ratepayers in an urban district.

GALASHIELS: The Libraries of the Town.--Mr. Robert Hall, in his recently published "History of Galashiels," has written an interesting and exhaustive account of the libraries of the town. The institutions noticed are three in number-the Subscription Library, founded by the Rev. Dr. Douglas (the originator of the "Gentlemen's Library" in Selkirk), the Mechanics' Institute established in 1837, the "wreck" of which institution was handed over to the Public Library Committee in 1873, and the Public Library, created under municipal authority by the adoption of the Acts in 1872.

GLASGOW: Seeking Library powers under a local Act.-The Town Council on 9th December approved the Bill drawn up by the Parliamentary Bills Committee in pursuance of the Council's resolution of June last to go to Parliament for library powers under a local Act. The Bill proceeds generally on the lines of the Public Act, but contains clauses which will bring the Mitchell Library within its scope, and others which will enable the Town Council to enter into agreements with the governing bodies of Stirling's and of Baillie's Libraries.

HAWARDEN: Proposal to make St. Deiniol's Library the National Memorial to Mr. Gladstone.-It has been suggested by the Daily News that the proper place for a national memorial to England's great statesman is Hawarden, and that St. Deiniol's Library offers itself as a really fitting monument. During Mr. Gladstone's later years his great care was for St. Deiniol's Library, which at present is a humble tin building containing two book-rooms, one called the "Döllinger room," after the great scholar's great friend, which is given up to theological works, and the other called the "Humanity room," which is filled with general literature. This building occupies a noble site, with a glorious prospect over the mouth of the Dee, and the proposal is to construct a domed and galleried memorial hall which might contain St. Deiniol's, and be also a storehouse of innumerable other works, papers, relics and personal belongings of Mr. Gladstone-a shrine in which pilgrims to the Mecca of Liberalism might pay their devotions. What better or more fitting plan could be devised for keeping the memory of our great men green than by preserving their homes, and associating them in every possible way with the places they loved best? One of our contemporaries denounces the common practice of erecting statues of which there are already far too many in the land, and goes so far as to say that "they would be prepared to extend a free pardon with a hand

some yearly pension to any criminal who would cart away half of those that do exist". The suggestion is a welcome one to librarians, and we shall not be alone in thinking that no more fitting memorial could be erected to one who if a statesman first was certainly a book-lover next.

HAWORTH: For giving effect to the adoption of the Acts.-It is hoped to raise a fund of £700 for the erection of a public library in Haworth where the Acts have just been adopted.

HOVE: No new Library yet.-It has been reported to the Town Council that the negotiations for a site, on which to erect a new public library building, have fallen through, so that the entire question now remains in abeyance.

HULL: New Central Library.—The Local Government Board have sanctioned the borrowing of £6774 for the purchase of a site for the central library.

ILFRACOMBE: Adoption of the "Acts" to be considered.-A meeting of the District Council has been called to consider a proposal to adopt the "Public Libraries Acts".

LIVERPOOL: Public Library Reference Collection Inadequate.-At a meeting of the Library Committee of the Corporation, the chairman (Sir William Forwood) alluded to a remark made by Prof. Raleigh at the centenary celebration of the Liverpool Athenæum to the effect that there was no library in Liverpool at which scholars could properly pursue their literary studies. As the observation was made in public, and as there were 120,000 volumes in the public reference library, he saw Prof. Raleigh on the subject, and was assured by him that he had made the remark after consideration. There was not a library in Liverpool, the professor added, in which a student could write a complete work on any literary subject dealing with a long period. The Public Library of Liverpool was thought to be already fairly complete, but he (the speaker) asked the Bishop of London, as an authority, what test he could advise as to the completeness of the reference library. The bishop said that the London Library was the most complete in the country except the British Museum, and he suggested that they should compare the catalogue of the London Library, with its 200,000 volumes, with their own, and make up the omissions. During the last few years the Committee had been spending only about £300 a year on the reference library, and he suggested that they might have been starving that department. The chief librarian (Mr. Cowell) said he had in preparation a report on the reference library.

Proposal for Smoking Newsrooms.-A member of the Library Committee has suggested that smoking newsrooms should be provided, and, as the idea commended itself to the chairman, it will probably be taken into serious consideration. The Committee would do well in this connection to study the recently expressed opinions of physicians as to the principal cause of the spread of consumption and tuberculous disease.

LLANDUDNO: Proposed Museum.-An effort is being made to raise funds for the provision of a Museum in connection with the Public Library and Newsroom. With this object in view the Committee has already purchased the whole collection of fossils, coins and curios formed by the late Mr. Kendrick. Mr. Lawson Tait in contributing £10 10s. to the fund has expressed an opinion that there is abundant opportunity of forming a museum which should have an educational value in the teaching of geology and botany, and he has offered a second £10 10s. in prizes to young men who would procure good products and relics illustrative of local history, past and present. It is further