The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-07-22
OUR $46,OOO LIBRARY.
1t Is Third in Circulation
Among the Free Ii
braries of the
Country.
WHERE THE MONEY GOES
Running Expenses $40, 600 a Year
Fiction Wears Out Fast-Dr.
Gordon Gives Facts.

The trustees of the Free Public Library
will receive during the coming fiscal year,
according to the recently announced
budget, s46,262.TS, BY law they are en-
| titled to sum each year reaching some
where in the neighhorhood of $4,000.
The trustees are entitled to about $4,000
on judgments recovered against the city,
| and no less parsonage than President
| John Edelstein of the Finance Board said
last night to a NEWS reporter that the
| allotment was male in good faith, and
| that the trustees would receive the full
amount due them. There will be no law
| suit this year over the amount claimed by
| the trustees.
| WHAT THEY WILL DO WITH IT.
DR.. Leonard j. Gordon, President OF
| the Board of Trustees, was asked how his
Boald proposed to expend the big sum
| coming 10 them.
"My dear sir,' said the Doctor, thor
| ougly interested in the subject, come
| with me down to the Library rooms and
| I'll quickly show you how such an
| amount can be expended and scarcely be
! felt. People have but little idea of what
a concern our Free Library is. 1t is an
established institution. and you May
think am boasting when I say that in
| point of circulation we already stand third
| in the list of Free Public Libraries
| throughout the United States"
| / asked the Doctor what two cities
| claimed supremacy in the matter of utiliZ
| ing free channels for Intellectual storage.
| The Doctor was not sure. but he thought
| the free libraries of Boston and Chicago
| were ahead.
"From July l, 1891, to July l, 1892, the
Inir lott ion, ofr
796 books" he said. E'We have only
| about %. 600 volumes in our library, and
| when you calculate upon the number of
| times each of the popular books passes
| through the hands of the readers. you
will readily see point in the matter of
wear and tear of the books"
| HARD WORKED FICTION.
| At the Library the Doctor showed me
stacks Of books that were sadly in need of
| repair.
II anticipate" he said, "that during
| the coming year our entire fiction list will
| have to be replaced. The item of binding
| and reblnding alone is a matter, of $1,000 u
year. For you see when these books be-
| come dilapidated they are Immediately
| sent to the binders and rebound, and
here, as you see,-" pointing to a pile, OF
| paper backed novels on table-"Uhese
| books are only published in this form.
| We have calls for them and we mean to
supply them. But we must first have
| them properly bound or they would
not last any time. Look at
| this book. Let rs examine this card
| moment"-and the Doctor picked up a
book that looked dilapidated and thumb
| worn: and after examining the card in
the pook-pocket, remarked:-''l hat book
| has passed through the hands of forty-five
| different persons VINO called for it, inde-
| pendent of others who read it while 1t
was in the care Of any one of the forty-fVe
| callers for it.
VAST WORK.
"Now," continued the doctor, "I want
| to call your attention to the fact that the
| running of a central library like this,
| with eight branches in different sections
| of the city, cannot be done with few
| thousand dollars. In this scheme of
| keeping track of every one of our twenty
| five thousand books, with collections
| from the eight stations in the morning
and redelivering in she afternoon over q
| route twenty-one miles long, entails con-
siderable labor. This is why such force
is necessary. 1t keeps our Librarian, ,cata-
| loguer and runners busy. BY runners.
mean the young girls you see flying
around through the aisles examining
cards. tabulating, searching for books
| and the like. For every book that goes
| out at least eleven entries are made" and
| then the Doctor insisted on explaining
| the mysteries of the elaborate system by
| WuICu Tue GfuSU06S diO 0D&DleQ 10 Keep
| track of any one of the twenty-five thou
sand books, and to place it inside of half
a minute, even to the amount of the fine
| against derelict holder; aud the cash
| box last night showed that SLIGO had been
! collected as two cent fines during the day
| This elaborate system has been alre ady
| described in THE JERSEY CITY NEWS.
| "Now these girls" said the Doctor,
| ''aSe receiving only So a week. They are
| doing hard, intelligent work, and think
| they should be better paid.
| WHAT IT COSTS.
"Even as we are running at present, If
it is the amount of salary paid the en-
| ployes you are after, will say right here
1t costs $4,000 q year to run the librsry
| without purchasing single book. You
| may think that eXtravagant, but COM
pare the payroll of our free library with
that of Newark. Newark's free library
| payroll is $1,000 month, ours is $3.50.
| We are paying $4,000 year rent Our
lights cost us 81 200 year. Our reading
room, with it's three hundred and odd
| periodicals, which was visited during
| the month of June by 4,052 persons, COSTS
| us $1,000 year. There are SO many
| items that use our money it is almost
impossible to know where to start in to
! give you a fair list of items OF eXpendi-
| ture. Why, look at this set of books.
| We had hundreds of calls for it, as a book
of reference 1t is the Century Dictton-
ary, and the set above cost US $70.n
''Still. Doctor, SAG 600 is good round
| sum. How far do you propose to increase
the present number OF %, 900 volumes?'
'rhat I cannot answer just now. The
fact is, a good portion Of the sum allotted
| to us Will go to replacing our fiction list.
| which, as | said before, is wearing out"
/ Your rent is high. Would it not be
cheaper to put up Library buildinR?"
! asked.
1--WE certainly anticipate having a
building of our own some day, aud we
are going to have it as soon as we pos
sibly can."
Fell Over the Bannister.
| fAodfrau purcyoI of Nawr,orLat apd C,1