The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1891-04-05
LIBRARY PLANS
Progress Of the Negotia-
tons for the Hudson
County Bank Base
lnent.
NINE THOUSAND BOOKS 10 START
Hard Work Needed to Complete the
Catalogue by May /.

THE JERSEY Cry NEWS announced ex
clusiyely on Friday that the trustees OF
the Free Public Library were negotiating
for lease of the basement OF the Hudson
County National Bank, TO be used as
reading room in conjunction with theFree
Library. As the splendid stone structure
directly adjoins that in which the library
is located, direct communication can be
established
President Washburn. OF the Hudson
County Bank, told me yesterday that the
negotiations had not yet closed between
the bank directors aud the library trus-
tees, but it was safe to predict that the
trustees would finally secure the much
desired lease.
The basement In which 1t Is proposed to
locate the reading room Is one large room
which takes up all the space upon which
the main building stands. 1t Is we'll
lighted and ventilated, and easy OF access
from both Washington and York streets.
1t is already supplied with ornamented
chandeliers. The trustees propose to fur
nish this room with chairs and tables to
accommodate over seventy readers at one
time. 1t will be supplied with over three
hundred periodicals of the day.
The room In the basement OF the wing
10 the rear of the main building will be
utteu up Tor the use OF the trustees
HARD AT WORK
A peep into the new library room this
morning revealed TO JERSEY CRY NEWS
| reporters gaze the sight of Librarian
I Cole and histdozen assistants, ten Of whom
are young ladies fnsy as bees cataloging,
classifying, arranging and shelving the
| 5000 new volumes wbicht he trustees have
volumes from the High School library
make up 5000 volumes already ia posses
I sion of the trustees. Three thousand
more will be catalogued and shelved be-
fore the library is open to the public.
The cataloguing department is at
present under the charge Of Miss Bur.
dick, whose services have been sought by
| the libraries all over the country.
1T is proposed to locate the reference
| department directly In rear of the cases, y
said Librarian Cole. The cataIogning de-
partment will be in the rear of the base
ment. The reference department. will be
| furnished with chairs aud tables, aud will
accommodate about twenty persons You
see we anticipate no great crowd
at any one time In this department., unless
it be school children looking for refer
enbes In writing compositions We have
already ten cases, the majority of them
double ones; but we will be obliged to put
In several more
TO OPEN MAY1
Librarian Cole said he hoped to be able
to throw open the doors to the general
public, with twelve thousand volumes on
the shelves, on or about May /.
We have been progressing fiuely,v he
said. II are able to open by March ! the
amount of work accomplished from the
start will nave been done in half the
time. usually required. The public may
have grown somewhat impatient, but
they little know how much work is TO ce
done before such library can be proper
ly opened"
How will the library compare wi TIL
those of other cities the size of Jersey
Cityf" asked the reporter.
with the exception of the number of
volumes, 1t will be one of the finest IN the
country. OF course, we've got to grow. y
Mr.. Cole has found q valuable assistant
in the person Of Mr.. Arthur Herzog. Ac-
cession Clerk j. L. F. O'Connor, who is
also to be Police Justice Kimmer-
ly's clerk, told me that printed
catalogues would soon be ready for cir
culation at "a small sum apiece, few
cents perhaps. AS to the matter Of dupli-
eating populsr works Mr.. O'Connor said
none but those of standard authors, such
as Dickens, Thackeray, Lever and others
would be duplicated.