The influence of the press, too, seems to amount to little, in spite of the fact that the newspapers in New York have freely commented on the valuable work of the branch libraries and have called attention to it both in the news and editorial columns whenever occasion offered.  Do the readers of library books in New York shun the public-press, or do they pay scant heed to what they read therein?

Another somewhat noteworthy fact is that of the 449 persons who sought the library by advice of some one, only 89 were sent by teachers.  But perhaps this is unfair.  Of 265 boys and girls who thus came to the library, only 71 were sent by teachers.  This is a larger percentage, but it is still not so large as we might expect.

The difference between adults and children comes out quite strikingly in a few instances.  We should have foreseen this of course in the case of advice by teachers, which was reported by 71 children and only 18 adults as a reason for visiting the library.  Here we should not have expected this reason to be given by adults at all.  Doubtless these were chiefly young men and women who had used the library since their school-days.  In like manner the advice or injunction of relatives was more patent with children than with adults, the proportion here being 62 to 24.  This probably illustrates the power of parental injunction.  In another case the difference comes out in a wholly unexpected way.  Of the 71 persons who reported that they were attracted to the library by seeing the buildings, 57 were adults and only 14 children.  The same is true of those who were led in by seeing a sign, who numbered 41 adults to only 9 children.  This seems to show either that adults are more observant or that children are more diffident in following out an impulse of this kind.  It completely negatives the ordinary impression among librarians, at least in New York, where it has been believed that the sight of a library building, especially where the work going on inside is visible from the street, is a potent attraction to the young.  Some of the new branch buildings in New York have even been planned with a special view to the exercise of this kind of attraction.

The small number of persons who were attracted by printed matter, in library or general publications, were entirely adults.  The one instance where age seems to exercise no particular influence is that of the advice of friends, by which old and young alike seem to have profited.

The influence of sex does not appear clearly, although among those who followed the injunction of relatives the women and girls are slightly in the majority, and the four who were sent by clergymen were all women.  Of those who were attracted by the buildings 46 were male and 25 female, which may mean that men are somewhat more observant or less diffident than women.