there should be one place in education where there is no brimstone and treacle, no Mr. Squeers, and no Smikes. "For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as the soul whose progeny they are." The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: A curiosity which has existed since libraries were first started is about to be gratified. We are to get the answer to the question, "What do the people want?" from MISS JESSIE WELLES, of the Carnegie library of Pittsburgh. WHAT DO THE PEOPLE WANT?[3] If we are to believe the voices in the air the people want some big things, for it is a notable fact that the things most loudly demanded are wanted by a few people for all the people. The socialistic group wants a coöperative industrial system for everybody, another familiar group in no uncertain voice demands votes for all, whether we want them or not, and there is a third group to which our president has referred, the members of which think that they see in universal education a panacea for the ills of state and society. Of this group all librarians must be at least ex-officio members while librarians in public libraries must work definitely toward the end which it avows. [3] Abstract. How are we doing this? It will not serve to take refuge back of the statement that our only hope for universal education is with the child. We have a duty toward the adult as well as toward the child, and our aim must be not to get people to read books but to get all the people to read the right books, the books best adapted for their individual development. Are we supplying the right books? For book selection, a well nigh perfect technique has been established, but is technique enough? Knowledge of books and of technique are imperative but the librarian who supplies the right books to all the people must know and understand his fellowmen. Who are the people whom we are to serve? Do we perchance throw them into one great group and call them the public as distinguished from librarians? Who are we but "the public" to the actor, the artist, the man in the railway office? No, a wise providence has endowed men with a great variety of characters and temperaments, and when environment has further complicated matters, we must try to understand them all. For our present purpose let us group the people on the basis of a taste for knowledge. Some people are born with a thirst for knowledge, some acquire a taste for it through early training and environment and some must have knowledge thrust upon them if they are to have it at all. Of book selection for the educated in any of these groups this paper does not deal. The subject has been discussed often and well, and while we have by no means reached the point where we no longer need to study how to serve them, the question is not a gravely puzzling one.