which authorizes a tax for the support of a public library? Your state
library commission, if you have one, will tell you if your state
gives aid to local public libraries. It will also tell you about your
library law. If you have no library commission, consult a lawyer and
get from him a careful statement of what can be done under present
statutory regulations. If your state has no library law, or none which
seems appropriate in your community, it may be necessary to suspend
all work, save the fostering of a sentiment favorable to a library,
until a good law is secured.

In chapters 44 and 45 will be found a list of state library
commissions, important provisions in library laws, and the names of
the states having the best library laws at present.

Before taking any definite steps, learn about the beginnings of other
libraries by writing to people who have had experience, and especially
to libraries in communities similar in size and character to your own.
Write to some of the new libraries in other towns and villages of
your state, and learn how they began. Visit several such libraries, if
possible, the smaller the better if you are starting on a small scale.




CHAPTER II

Preliminary work


Often it is not well to lay great plans and invoke state aid at the