The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-05-22
more ROME NEEDED
BY CITY LIBRARY
Board of Education Expected
- -,
to Expand Library.
TO WORK WITH COUNCIL
Plan to Put in Elevator and
Move the Quarters.

The present quarters are entirely made
quate to the needs of the city library and
the school board and city council are go
fng to be asked to remedy this The an
nuai meeting of the board will be held
tomorrow evening and the patterns Of the
library are in hopes that library i'm
provements will be considered
There are fifteen hundred government
publications in the city library that are
not accessible to the public because there
is no room for them there, and there is
some show of getting couple of thou
sand more If accommodations can be
made for them. The friends Of the IL
brary are anxious that these works be
placed where they can be used
Among the government publications
mentioned are some very valuable maps
and historical compilations relating to
the civil war, documents Of more than
usual interest to old soldiers
1t will be revelation to some to know
that 81, 900 read annually in a room no
larger than the sitting room in pri-
pate Residence of an average size This
means two hundred readers per day,
,ehich is now the average daily attend
ance of readers
The membership of the library is now
about 1900, the holders of new cards num-
bering no less than 5,249. This IS a
showing Of growth that is nothing less
than phenomenal, and something that
Wichita can congratulate itself on. The
present weekly growth of the member
ship is about 100 The growth Of the
membership is positively striking, COM
pared with the addition of books during
the past year, which did not exceed 200
Many more books are needed, but they
cannot be accommodated because there is
no shelf room for them. only 5000 books
are now accessible not quite two books
for each member or card holder, and If
each card holder took out a book week
there would practically be none left
The attendants at the library >re three
Miss Anna Weigand. Miss X. \. Cos
sett and Miss Laura Bell. They each
work eight hours and two of them are
always present during the twelve bust
ness hours of the library. They do much
for the success of the library for, with
the limited room space available for the
readers and the comparatively few books
in the library, compared to the number of
readers. it takes some figuring, and a
good deal of human patience, to accom-
modate 1909 persons.
Miss Anna Weigand. chief librarian,
has fine managerial talent and is an en-
thusiastic worker. She takes an absorb
ing interest in the duties of her Office and
her knowledge of the books, and the
shelves they are in, is something remark
able. It is no easy matter to conduct
business having 1000 customers or pa
irons. and none but woman of first
class business ability could 10 it.
There is an inclination on the part of
the school board to do something for
the library but IT needs the cooperation
of the city council. If the l3tter body
will put In an eIevator-the cost of which
Is $S,e0G-tha school beard would. it is
said on good authority, place the library
on the upper floor and maintain the cost
of operating the elevator. BY this ar
rangement separate place could be
maintained for works Of reference and
the reading space could he enlarged so as
to accommodate 4 great many more peo-
pie
The friends of the library are looking
Tor better things from the new board of
education.