1 Establishment and maintenance.—­Authorize the governing body in connection with the voters of any city, town, county, school district, or other political body that has power to levy and collect taxes, to establish and maintain a public library for the free use of the people.  Provide also for joint establishment and maintenance, for aiding a free library with public money, and for contract with some existing library for general or special library privileges.  Provide for maintenance by regular annual rate of tax.  Authorize special tax or bonds to provide rooms, land, or buildings.  Provide that on petition of 25 or 50 taxpayers the questions of establishment, rate of tax, and bonds shall first be decided by vote of the people at general or special election, to be changed only by another vote.

Note.—­It is believed that there need be no limit of rate placed in the state law, as a community is not at all likely to vote to tax itself too high for library support.  The people of a small place will, in fact, often fail to realize that in order to raise money enough to accomplish their object the tax rate must be higher than in a large place.  It is not impossible that communities will, by and by, spend about as much in support of their public libraries as in support of their public schools.

2 Management.—­Establish an independent board of trustees and place the management wholly in its hands.  Constitute the library a public corporation, with power to acquire, hold, transfer, and lease property, and to receive donations and bequests.  Secure a permanent board with gradual change of membership, the number of members to be not less than three, and the term of office certainly to be not less than three years.

Note.—­In order to remove public library management from the influences of party politics, the library and its property should be wholly left to the control of trustees selected from citizens of recognized fitness for such a duty.  Ex-officio membership in a library board should generally be avoided, especially in case of a small board; fitness for the position alone should be considered.  Experience seems to show that in cities the proper board of trustees can best be secured through appointment by the mayor and confirmation by the council.  It is a good way to provide for five trustees, one to be appointed each year for a term of five years.  This number is large enough to be representative, and small enough to avoid the great difficulty in securing a quorum if the number is large.  The length of term in connection with gradual change of membership encourages careful planning, and it secures the much needed continuity of management and political independence.  And yet there is sufficient change of officers so that the board will not be too far removed from the public will.

3 Miscellaneous.—­State the purpose of a public library broadly, perhaps in the form of a definition.  Make possible the maintenance of loan, reference, reading room, museum, lecture, and allied educational features, and of branches.  Prescribe mode for changing form of organization of an existing library to conform to new law.  Impose penalties for theft, mutilation, over-detention, and disturbance.  Provide for distributing all publications of the state free to public libraries.