As to the standard and popular monthlies and quarterlies there seems to be no question; they should be taken freely.

The magazines furnish us with the best fiction, the best poetry, the best essays, the best discussions of all subjects, old and new, and the latest science.

It is a question if many a village library would not do more, vastly more, to stimulate the mental life of its community, and to broaden its views and sympathies, and to encourage study, if it diverted a far larger part of its income than it now does from inferior books, and especially inferior novels, to weekly journals and popular and standard magazines.

It is not yet fully impressed upon us that the thing the community needs is not a "library"-- it may have a street lined with "libraries" and still dwell in the outer darkness--but contact with the printed page.

Get this contact first, then, by means of attractive rooms, and clean, wholesome, interesting periodicals and books, and let the well rounded students' collection of books come on as it will.
From 5 to 20 per cent can very often be saved on the cost of periodicals by ordering them through a reliable subscription agency.
The custom is extending of taking extra numbers of the popular magazines and lending them as if they were books though generally for a shorter period and without the privilege of renewal.