[A Library Primer by John Cotton Dana]@TWC D-Link bookA Library Primer CHAPTER II 1/2
Preliminary work Often it is not well to lay great plans and invoke state aid at the very outset.
Make a beginning, even though it be small, is a good general rule.
This beginning, however petty it seems, will give a center for further effort, and will furnish practical illustrations for the arguments one may wish to use in trying to interest people in the movement. Each community has different needs, and begins its library under different conditions.
Consider then, whether you need most a library devoted chiefly to the work of helping the schools, or one to be used mainly for reference, or one that shall run largely to periodicals and be not much more than a reading room, or one particularly attractive to girls and women, or one that shall not be much more than a cheerful resting-place, attractive enough to draw man and boy from street corner and saloon.
Decide this question early, that all effort may be concentrated to one end, and that your young institution may suit the community in which it is to grow, and from which it is to gain its strength. Having decided to have a library, keep the movement well before the public.
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