Introduction to a Discussion on the Blacking Out of Sporting News in Free Libraries. 1 T AM here as the apologist of a system which has met with no small amount of criticism, and in some quarters, of severe opposition, and perhaps there may be some degree of fitness in the permission accorded to me to open the debate on this subject, inasmuch as it was at the library with which I am connected that the novel, and at first sight questionable method of dealing with a long-felt nuisance was first attempted. We had long suffered from the annoyance caused by the numbers of rough and ill-behaved fellows who, in spite of all efforts, persisted in disturbing the peace of the reading rooms, and interfering with the comfort of quiet readers at the newspaper stands. Having no taste for reading whatever, beyond the latest tips, programmes, and results of races, and having exhausted these, they would beguile the time of waiting for the arrival of other papers by various loutish tricks, until, in spite of every effort, the reading-rooms and especially a small branch news- room which was not under direct supervision were shunned by the better class of ratepayers. Under these circumstances the committee thought fit to approve of a plan I had had in my mind for some time, of blacking out the portions of newspapers containing information in reference to betting and horse-racing. Of course this novel procedure evoked a good deal of hostile criticism, and various objections were raised against it ; but the number of inquiries which I received from various libraries proved that we were not the only sufferers from the betting nuisance, and that there were others ready to follow in our path, if it proved a safe and feasible way out of the difficulty. Among those who adopted this course, within a few weeks of its intro- duction at Aston, were the public library authorities of Wolverhampton, Leicester, Stockport, and Middlesbrough, and the question was under consideration by the committee of several other important public libraries. 1 Communicated to the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Library Associa- tion, Aberdeen, September, 1893. II
