Ontario; Provincial Library Service
Published: 2015-07-20
Total Pages: 366
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Excerpt from Ontario Library Review, Vol. 1 Notice for Trustees. - Library boards are urged to encourage their librarians and assistants to attend the short course library training school. No library can do its best work without modern methods and a librarian with a knowledge of modern library science. A board that does less than its best for its people is unfair to them and unworthy of their trust. No pains have been spared to make this course of the highest order. Charles Canniff James, C.M.G., M.A., L.L.D., F.R.S.C., Dominion Commissioner of Agriculture. - "Discoveries in rural life," by Dr C. C. James, was written especially for this number of the Review. The author died suddenly on a radial railway car in St. Catharines while on his way to visit his son on June 23rd. The paper is probably the last public writing from Dr. James' pen. He was deeply interested in the rural population of Canada, and very recently expressed a desire to co-operate with the library workers of the Province in a study of the rural free library problem. Dr. James was the evening speaker at the recent meeting of the Ontario library association, where he dealt with the subject "Agriculture and the war." The address was highly appreciated by a large number of delegates and their friends. He rendered valuable service to his country in the interest of agriculture and science, and was noted as a lecturer and author. His published works include: "Early history of the town of Amherstburg," "The second legislature of Upper Canada," "A Tennyson pilgrimage, and Tennyson, the imperialist," "The downfall of the Huron nation," "A bibliography of Canadian poetry," "The romance of Ontario: or the peopling of the Province." The untimely death of this great Canadian is deeply regretted by all who knew him either personally or by reputation. Rural Library. - Mr. Edgar M. Zavitz, farmer - plus, tells an interesting little story in this number. Mr. Zavitz is a Quaker and a university graduate. He is a farmer, a lover of the great out-of-doors, and is on good terms with the birds, flowers, and trees, and takes an interest in the welfare of the young people - and older ones, too - of his community. On his return from college, several years ago, Mr. Zavitz foresaw how much a library would mean to the community around Coldstream. That place is on R.R. 2, Ilderton, and consists of a store and library, a township hall, a Friends meeting-house and a farm-house or two. It is, therefore, as small as a place can be and have an identity. They have a good library, of 2,500 volumes, and there are a number of interested workers on the library board. Some people tell us that larger places cannot maintain a library and offer excuses innumerable, the story of Coldstream is rather hard on their arguments and plausible excuses. The Mechanic and the Book. - An important point concerning the mechanic and the book is "sent home" in this number by Mr. J.Davis Barnett, retired civil engineer. Mr. Barnett is qualified to speak on the subject from experience. He was for some years assistant mechanical superintendent of the G.T.R., and subsequently mechanical superintendent of the Midland railway. He is a M.I.M.E., and A.M.I.C.E., and a charter member of the Canadian society of civil engineers. Mr. Barnett's library is, possibly, the largest private library in Canada; it contains 35,000 volumes, 1,500 of which are Shakespeariana. Books and Disease. - We are indebted to H. W. Hill, M.B., M.A., D.P.H., director of the Provincial Institute of Public Health for a few words on books as carriers of disease. Library workers will be pleased to be able to quote an authority like Dr. Hill and say that the chances of transmitting disease through books are very slight. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
