The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-04-01
ANNUAL REPORTS Y. M. A.
Presidents Report.

| Ereblueuts REPORT
To the Young Mems Association. Gen.
TLEMEN: Your attention is invited to
the reports herewith furnished of the
Library Committee, the Librarian and
the Finance Committee, for the year
ending March 81, 1892.
These reports indicate reasonable
amount of activity on the part of your
committees and point to results which
certainly are encouraging to future
effort.
The energy of the Board has been, to
gratifying degree, concentrated upon
the problem of pOpularizing the library
while maintaining its high standard of
literary excellence. To the accomplish
ment of this end certain constitutional
changes have been made which will be
appreciated by the public.
BY modification of Art. VII each
ticket sold is made good for an entire
year from the date of its purchase,
and constitutes its holder at the time of
the election voter, all other conditions
of the franchise having been fulfilled.
Again, the extension of the time
| during which the library is open to the
public will be of special advantage to the
teachers and pupils of our schools. The
two hours added are from to 2 p. m.
and from to p. m. Even this extern
sion does not wholly meet the wants of
a reading community, and we should not
rest satisfied until the doors are open
without intermissiOn from a. IN. to 9.
| p. m.
The number of readers is increasing.
Ninety-three cards were in use during the
year 1S90-91, while during the year Just
closed the number has risen to 113 A
single ticket avails, as rule, for house
hold. Taking into account the number
of persons who consult the library with
out taking out books, the Librarian es-
Inmates that from five to six hundred of
our people take advantage of the gifts of
literature offered them. If the project
is carried out of placing the library down
stairs, and if such facilities for students
and note-takers are provided as are often
found nowadays, we may hope for
deeper appreciation and rapidly in
creasing patronage of this admirable in
stitutiOn.
The Board is to be congratulated on
the interest shown at its business meet
ings, regular and special. 1t may suffer
being reminded, however that the in
terests of a growing plant of the kind
we are considering, require the constant
vigilance of all whom the public entrust
with its care and culture.
CHARLES r. SEYMOUR. President.
Library Committees Report.
Gentlemen ofthe Y. n. A.:-This Com
mittee finds brief report entirely made
quate even to touch upon all the import
ant topics which would seem to claim at
tention at your hands. The classification
of the books, the purchase of new vol
umes, the reading room and its periodi-
Gals, the services of the Librarian and
+to,, IL
ton in special as well as in general
way.
The great task of cataloguing the
books, undertaken some time ago by
Miss Mabel Norton. has by her untiring
labor and the aid of the Librarian
been completed. This card catalogue
wonderfully comprehensive and yet the
perfection of simplicity, is always in
stantly available and always up to date.
lis a catalogue that grows with the Lii
brary, and one that shows at glance all
that the collection contains upon given
subject. In this work Miss Nor
ton has rendered great service to the
reading public of Bennington, and it has
been done by her as an afTectionate and
unselfish gratuity What she has ac-
complished needs only to be Intelligent
lv examined to have its lasting value
Previously to this Committees urging
the removal of the library to the rooms
down stairs, more book-room in the
present quarters was much needed. Act
ing under instructions from the Board,
the Committee met this demand by the
purchase of movable case, affording
about two hundred linear feet OF shelf
room. About the same time an addi-
tional incandescent light was placed in
the passageway between the library and
tae reading room. 1t is our pleasure to
retort also that large list of worn books
and several volumes of magazines have
been neatly and substantially bound and
the value of the Library thereby much in
creased.
One of the most important duties of
the Library Committee is the purchase
of new books. We report the following
additions during the year: Words and
their Uses: Educational RefOrmers;
Psychology by Sully; Lectures on Art;
Philosophy of Education; Contributions
to Educational Science; Habit in Educa-
ton; Emile; Intellectual Development
of Europe; Lights of Two Centuries;
Light of the World; Leonard and Ger
trude: Aesthetics; Ilios; Pompeii; Gaia
combs of Rome; Field Book of Botany;
Picciola; Esoteric Buddhism; Woman'S
Work; New Senior at Andover; Name
less Nobleman; DR.. lie Baron; New Eng
Ian Nun; Humble Romance; j Ohm Ward,
Preacher; How the Other Half Lives;
Life of Wendell Phillips; Our Italy;
Great Value of Success; Image Christi:
Petrarch; Taking of LOuisburg; PoOles
Index; Strangers and Wayfarers; Five
Little Peppers and How they Grew;
Nibelungen Leib; Anne WoOlsOn; Muir
vale Eastman; Donald Grant; Life of
Longfellow, 8 vols; Lavoulaye's Social
ism; Sartor Resartus; English Lands;
Life of Pericles Life of Hannibal; Life
of Kavanaugh; Talks with Athenian
Youths; New York Guide Book; Japan
ese Girls; Log of Jack Tar; Henry Es-
mond; May Martin; The Rangers Mar
ius the Epicurian; Life of Thackeray-
Tropical Africa Rhoderick Hume;
Gladstone's Homeric Study; Science and
Art of Education; Life of Pestolozzi;
Theodore the Goth; Outline Study of
Man; Life of Michael Angelo, vol. Ma
ture; The Vikings; Gustavus Adolphus;
Life of Nelson Laurie's Comenius;
Friend Olivia; Historic Note Book:
Beecher's Life of Christ. vols; Life of
Columbus; Travelling Law School; The
Gospels are True Histories ;Perez's First
Trhraa VaarS of Childhood. HOOpnr'S