Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/180

The Place of the Public Library in Relation to Ele- mentary, Secondary, and Higher Education : being, mainly, an account of the work accom- plished at the Wolverhampton Public Library Technical College. 1 TO those who attended the October meeting of this Associa- tion, the principal part of the title which I have chosen for the subject of this address, will be familiar. It is unnecessary to make any apology for again bringing up the subject of technical education and its relation to the work of a public library, for it is one of those subjects which should have a perennial interest for all who are interested in the development of education. In the following paper I purpose explaining, first of all, what I believe is the relation of libraries and education, and secondly, recording a portion of the interesting history of an institution in which the operations of the library and technical classes are carried on side by side, with the most successful and praise- worthy results. Carlyle, in one of his most charming addresses, has truly said, that " the true University of our days is a Collection of Books." If he is right and I do not think public librarians at any rate will disagree with him it follows that a library, in which the noblest thoughts of all time are collected, and in which the latest and most valuable discoveries in science are brought together, is an institution of the highest educational importance to the community in which it is situated ; and as such it appears to me that local authorities should, by some means or other, be induced to supply the best kind of instruction. What is the best kind of instruction we, as librarians judging from the dis- cussion which followed the reading of Mr. Axon's paper are fairly well agreed. 1 Read at a Monthly Meeting of the Library Association, December, 1893.