In all the most recent public libraries, and in a very large number of the older, reorganized in the light of this reform, the public have the inestimable advantage of handling the books, and seeing, as it were in a bird’s-eye view, their relations to the other books in the sphere of knowledge or of art, before deciding what they want now and will want later on. This has had an immeasurable effect on the quality of the reading--on the education of the public taste. Only librarians know how difficult it used to be to lift a certain class of reader out of an old rut, to persuade him, or more often her, to try an unfamiliar author. Once get over the difficulties of an introduction to George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, or Tolstoy, and the devotee of Guy Boothby and Charles Garvice, who was stone-blind to the blandishments of the printed catalogue, will march on steadily in the new world that has been opened. It is the first step that counts in his literary salvation, and in an open access library the first step is pretty sure to be taken, if the contents have been well and tactfully selected. An inducement to read other things than fiction is offered in many progressive libraries. This is a general permission to borrow two books at a time, provided only one is a novel. Teachers and other privileged persons are often allowed as many as half-a-dozen at once. There is indeed no reason except insufficiency of stock why any intelligent reader should not be able to have three or four books together, and a great many arguments for liberality. Three are regularly allowed at Coventry, and in American libraries, generous concessions are made on any reasonable grounds; in some the daring principle of “Take as many as you like” is in vogue, and many libraries lend freely to all comers without the irritating insistence on local residence or local guarantee which rules over here. To a man pursuing a serious course of study it is a manifest advantage to have several works in hand; the habit should be encouraged. The cost will be considerable; but it will be a cost in books not buildings, since the extra books will usually be in the hands of readers and not in need of house-room and larger premises. The cost can and ought to be borne now that library incomes are more elastic, if authorities take a serious view of their responsibilities and the part they should play in the business of education. Look at the empty shelves in almost any popular library, and the nature of the problem will be apparent.