In conclusion, it may be stated that Mr. Adams does not claim that the plan of weeding out libraries adopted at Quincy has never been thought of before. He was not indebted to any book for the idea, but it had occurred to other persons before. Action upon it had always been recommended. Mr. Adams has taken the bull by the horns. He has put the plan in execution and to a considerable extent has systematized it. He has also called attention to it and made it a living subject for discussion. RELATION OF FREE PUBLIC LIBRARIES TO THE COMMUNITY Presentations of Library questions to the general reading public from authoritative sources are exceptionally hard to find, even at the present day. The one reprinted below was contributed to _The North American Review_ for June, 1898, by Herbert Putnam, then librarian of the Boston Public Library. Herbert Putnam was born in New York, Sept. 20, 1861, the youngest son of the founder of the publishing house. He graduated at Harvard in 1883 and studied law. He served as librarian in Minneapolis, first of the Atheneum and then of the Public Library in 1884-91, meanwhile being admitted to the bar in 1886. He practised law in Boston in 1892-95, but in the latter year became librarian of the Boston Public Library, serving until appointed in 1899 Librarian of Congress. His administration has been marked by the development of this institution along the line of service of a national library. During the great war he was Director of Library War Service. Free libraries have existed for less than a half a century. Their establishment assumed that books are beneficial: but it involved also the assertion that it is the proper function of government to supply books to such of its citizens as may require them at the expense of the community as a whole.