PERRY COUNTY, INDIANA
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
Cannelton Enquirer. 12-07-1898
Town Libraries.
The legislature will be asked to amen
the laws establishing township libraries. The best way to amen it is to
wipe it off the books. The township library is a mistaken idea. The
average township is so large that a library cannot be so located as to
be of service to the entire township. Take Troy township for instance,
We have a Troy township library. Who knows where it is? Who cares? What
books are in this library? It is located in Tell City, what use is it
to Cannelton or Troy, or the township at large? At one time it was
stored in Cannelton, and we don’t suppose 3 people in town knew
where it was. At that time there was not a half dozen books of value in
it. There were many standard sets from which half the volumes were
gone, and many ponderous works 50 years out of date. Like Chambers’s
Encyclopedia, it had the latest news about the Roman Wars. At
that time $10 a year was paid for taking care of the musty stuff.
To be of use the library must be close at hand, in the towns and in the
school districts. A very few volumes in each schoolhouse will be of
more use to the pupils than hundreds at some remote point in the
township.