Page 53 - Training for Librarianship Library Work As a Career

CHAPTER III

The Public Library

Twenty thousand public libraries are to
be found in the United States. Not a state
exists that does not have its quota of them.
In Massachusetts, for example, every town,
except one, has a public library; the solitary
exception joins with another town in sup-
porting a library which its residents may use.
In some states the public library has been
comparatively less developed, but the efforts
of the state library commissions and the
various library associations, and educational
authorities promise an unusual development
in the number of libraries in the next
few years.
The public library is everywhere recog-
nized to-day as having a place side by side
with the school. It has been called " the
"
people's university ; it is also being recog-
nized as a most effective agency in training
for democracy.
45