ITINERATING LIBRARIES are small collections of books' for popular reading con tained hi boxes, one after being stationed in a village for a certain length of time, is transferred to another village, when another takes its place; and so ou with any, assigned number of boxes, each with its special assortment. The principle of shiLing about boxes of books in this way in rural districts is referred to in the memoirs o't, Oberlin (q.v.), and has been long known in Wales, as well as the Highlands;. but it met, with no significant approval until it was improved upon and carried practically into effect on abroad scale by Samuel Brown, a merchant in Haddington (died 1889), who,' taking a deep interest in popular instruction, set on foot itinerating libraries in several villages of East Lothian, 1817. The books were assorted to the extent of 50 volumes in a box. At first there were four boxes; and as the time allowed for each was two years, at a village, the inhabitants of four villages had the perusal of 200 volumes in the spacd of eight years, at one-fourth the expense of the whole. The undertaking was begun
and locally superintended from motives of benevolence, and the books were supplied gratuitously. The success attending this economic method of establishing libraries in a country district led to its extension over a wider sphere, on the principle of readers paying a small sum per annum, also of forming the assortments of books from the used new works in a central subscription library. There are several itinerating divisions in use in East Lothian and other parts of Scotland, as also in England, and 12 divisions were some time ago transmitted to Jamaica, where they were to he under the charge of missionaries. From all that can be gathered, the establishment of libraries of this sim ple class proves a valuable auxiliary to schools, churches, and other agencies of social improvement. For a variety of particulars on the subject, see a small volume, Some Account Itinerating Libraries and their Founder (Ed•i. 1856).