=178.= It may be taken as a somewhat strong statement, that there are not more than 50,000 books, excluding duplicates of popular works and those in more than one volume, worthy of preservation in any public municipal library. The truth is that, of real, living works of literary and human interest, there are perhaps not more than 20,000 in the English language, but the larger figure is preferred in order to cover the world’s literary output fully. Let anyone who doubts this try to compile a list of even 5000 books of permanent literary or other interest, in order to find what a difficult task it is. No doubt the difficulty of selection is the main reason why some public libraries grow up in a haphazard way, because it is a work which demands not only persevering industry, but an encyclopædic knowledge of literature and the contents of books. Nevertheless, this difficulty of selection, and the limitation of the field of selection, are powerful reasons why municipal libraries should abandon the museum or storage ideal, and go boldly for making the workshop or practical utility ideal the one most worthy of realization. In Chapter VIII. it has already been pointed out to what extent British libraries have fostered indiscriminate collecting, often at the expense of efficiency, while the workshop plan of library has been comparatively neglected. Even if municipal libraries had unlimited resources, the wisdom of indiscriminate collecting would be doubtful; especially as many special libraries are doing the work. Specialization should be the watchword of the future, owing to the enormous literary activity of recent times, and the branch of specialization which public libraries should adopt is careful _selection_ of books and equally careful _rejection_ of all which have outlived their day and purpose, or become “dull, stale and unprofitable.” Public library buildings should be erected, not on the principle of storing as many books as can possibly be collected in fifty years’ time, but of restricting the book accommodation to the reasonable limits which careful selection and cautious discarding will fix, and increasing the space available for readers, and giving them only the very best literature, imaginative or instructive, that the world has to offer. =179.= It is a hazardous undertaking to lay down any particular rules for the formation of a British municipal library, and especially to state what proportions each class of literature should assume. Equally futile is it to take any figure as the average price which each volume in a library should cost. Although 4s. 5d. has been adopted as an average price, this must only be regarded as a mere basis for a calculation which simply aims at being a suggestion. Practically every public library differs in its needs according to its income and the special industries and character of the people in the town where it is situated.