The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-18
WHAT WE READ.
People Who Patronize the Public Library
Reading Room, and What They Call For.

/ The other evening Journal reporter dropped
into the reading-room of the city library. Nearly
every chair was occupied. City Librarian Hooper
being disengaged, the reporter took advantage of
the time to ask him number of questions do
we ever have more readers than are now heres
! Oh, yes. On Sunday afternoon the room is
always filed every seat being taken. What do
they read! Magazines, periodicals. works of
reference-anything that is in the library. except
works of fiction. The last named may be seen,
too, but only as reference, as it would not do to
allow people to sit here all day immersed in nov
els. The reading-room is well patronized on
Saturdays and on Mondays, also. From to 5
o'clock in the afternoon is the busiest time both
in the reading room and in letting out books for
| home use, as the children stop at that hour
coming from school You can see here both
sexes and all ages and conditions, from children
six years old up to octogenarians Many street
WATTS bootblacks and newsboys drift in. They
are made to wash their hands, and are'then
waited upon. We are glad to encourage these
boys and hope more of them will come in.
They all want picture books and papers, and ask
| particularly for pictures about the war. There
/ is great demand for illustrated papers, and
eAOy e"AO SOA ooAHAy NSAy 'AhpviV"dV ASsoNAS "
the library, being, undoubtedly. great educators.
"Funny things happen occasionally. The hand
writing and spelling on some of the slips made
out in the reading-room would puzzle Phila-
delphia lawyer to decipher. A little German
girl, the other day, handed in slip which bore
| the word 'Ensicripetum.' We had about given up
guessing what it could possibly mean when it
dawned upon one of us as revelation, and she
was given the American Cyclopedia, which was
what she wanted.
mo one in the readingroom is allowed to
talk above whisper, as conversation interferes
with the readers. Some time ago boy came in
who wanted picture-book One of the attend
| ants selected volume that exactly suited his
taste, and few days afterward he returned and
wanting to read some more, or at least to see the
| pictures, presented a slip upon which he had in
scribed 'Warblers Whigly Pond That
almost drove the entire force frantic. What
do you suppose he wantedl 1t was the
| boys effort to letter the whispered name of the
paper he had had before-Harper's Weekly pa
| per! Another patron, a German, presented a
| slip calling for Harpris Martratice News We
| supposed that 'martratice' was effort at the
word illustrated and as there is no Harpers H.
Illustrated News we gave him Frank Lesie's
| Illustrated. 1t wasn't what he wanted at all.
| He wanted Puck How that person who bulled
with the delightful precision of an Irshman ever
| came to be German can't understand"
| What number of periodicals and newspapers
| do you take9" inquired the reporter.
| Eve take regularly 165 periodicals and news
papers, American and English. We get the
| London Daily Times, the New York Herald,
daily, and one French and one German daily,
besides all the Indianapolis papers, daily and
weekly In scientific periodical literature we
get the Popular Science Monthly, American Jour
| 90 a.A-
Naturalist, Boston Journal of Chemistry The En-
| gineer, published in London, Franklin Institute
| Journal Hardwick's Science Gossip Manufact-
urer and Builder, Nature, Monthly Weather Re-
| view, chronological Journal, Sanitary Engineer
Scientific American and Supplement- Van Nos
| trand's Engineering Magazine Iron Age Rail
| way Gazette. Besides these we get the Medical
| News, Brain London Lancet, Physio- Medical
| Journal, American Journal of Medical Sciences,
Journal of Speculative Philosophy Mind, Bicy-
| cling World, The Field, Forest and Stream
''We have all the leading critical, literary and
| miscellaneous magazines, American, French and
English. Twelve religious and theological eight
juvenile, three educational, six art, architect
| ure and music. We have every number from
the beginning. and the beginning ones are not
reprints but originals. of the Gentlemans Maya
zine, OF London, from l73l This is the first
magazine published In the spirited newspaper
discussion of few months ago, as to whether
Washington was or was not dictator for a
time, the Gentleman's Magazine proved to be
contemporaneous history and authority, and
settled it that Washington was appointed dicta-
| tor We have every volume of the Edinburg
Review complete from the first number issued in
1901. Here are illustrated weekly papers,
French, German, Italian and Danish These
foreign illustrated papers are all much called for
and so well read that we feel we'll paid for keep
ing them. Nothing is kept here that is notin de-
mand
1--WE also have Blackwood's and Maemillan's
magazines, as well as others, from the first
Here is Notes and Queries, seventy five volumes,
with the indexes, very valuable work. In max
ing up the new library index a table was made
carefully giving the contents of the reports of
the Geologist of Indiana 1t unlocked all these
books, which hitherto have been as
buried treasure, and now there is
great demand for those reports Much
of this is due to the fact that the school chdr en-
have recently been engaged in gathering in
formation on Indiana's resources, and these re-
ports have aided them largely to make good
study of the subject.
You keep all sorts of statistics here" said
the reporter, have you ever calculated how
much per volume it costs to place the books in
the hands of the readers"
1--WE have figured on that very thing" said
Mr.. Hooper. 1--WE place books in the hands of
the reader at cost of two and three tenths cents
per volume for services That is, every time
book goes out we estimate that it costs that much
to the library fund. By the way, the lowest
record / find outside of this city is three and
tenth cents per volume Our circulation
last year was ilbtc ONoT quarter Oh mlIl10n,
and not book was lost that we have not recov-
cred for. At the end of each year we know.
By keeping record of the slips, just how
many times every book, magazine or
paper has been used. AS to the
readingroom attendance on last Saturday we
gave out 376 periodicals and 262 books on last
Sunday we gave out 258 periodicals and 200
books. This reading-room is great boon to the
teachers in the public schools who, whenever
the young idea gets too aggressive in its demand
for information. which often takas fha form of
very puzzlng questions, can relieve themselves
and escape complications by sending the inquir-
ing pupil here. February is the busiest month
in the reading-roon, more pieces being looked
at per day in that month than in any other.
1--WE have London Punch complete from the
beginning, in 1916 AS I said, we get the Lon
don Times daily. 1 have been in the
habit, from time to time when dis