East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1905-11-03
ARE FIVE LIBRARIES
STATE COMMISSION is
MAKING SOME PROGRESS
Miss Cornella Marvin, Secretary OF the
State Library Commission Discusses
the Subject in General Terms and
Gives Some Excellent Advice To All
Towns Starting Libraries.

Secretary Cornelia Marvin, of the
Oregon library commission is working
hard and making good progress In
getting the travelling libraries in cir
culation, says the Salem Statesman.
Up to the present time there are five
placed, two packed for shipment and
orders received for seven more. These
will be sent out as soon as possible.
She now has on hand about $500 but
orders placed for books which will al
most absorb that amount, leaving a
small surplus for emergencies.
The commission is awaiting further
contributions to the travelling library
fund in order that large and first
class stock OF books may be kept on
hand kept in circulation throughout
the state When all of the books or
dered arrive there will be enough for
about "a libraries. which is considered
a splendid start
Miss Marvin is also directing her at
tention to the selection of books for
district libraries, or in assisting the
district library boards in making their
selections. Some little difficulty is
being met on account of the limited
amount of money which some of the
districts have available for library
purposes, one having only IS cents,
while there are several who have less
than a dollar.
The Salem district has about 1884
TO invest in a district library. and like
other large school districts, where
provisions are made for Libraries, the
board will adopt the circulating IL
brary system, dividing the list of books
into separate lists of about so each
and place them in the different grades
between the first and sixth, but later
on as the fund increases other grades
will be added until the system is COM
plete.
Miss Marvin says this is the only
practical and satisfactory system to
adopt as 1t has a tendency to cultivate
in young readers the appetite for good
books and prepare his immature mind
for the heavier subjects that come in
the high school courses. Miss Marvin
speaks very highly of the short
stories as contained in the current
numbers of the Youths Companion
and kindred publications and hopes
the subscribers to these periodicals
will preserve their copies and donate
them to the work of the commission
These papers, she says, may be fas
tened together, six copies in a boob
with serial stories complete and sen
out with the travelling libraries. She
thinks there are no stories so benefi
cial and absorbing to the young mind
and especially those of the rural dis
tricts which seldom get to see cop!
of a Youths Companion, and the ad
dition of these publications to tn,
travelling libraries will be very valua
BILE.
She speaks in the same terms o
current magazines and trusts the peo
pie will cultivate the habit of sending
their cast-away numbers to the com
mission to be put TO good use indefin
itely. In this respect she recommend
the establishment of a magazine
clearing house, and says:
"A collection of bound magazines 4
invaluable for reference work in a II
brary. Many of the new cities of tn,
west are without the stories of OLE
magazines which may be found II
older places. No class of public Ii
brary books is so expensive to buy
The commission could use back mum
bers of illustrated magazines to SEN
to places which need reading matte
and cannot be supplied with travelling
libraries. We should ship with eacl
travelling library a number of maga
zines which may be kept at the sta
ton and distributed outside the towns
This means that we must have
magazine clearing house for receiv
ing all the magazines which can b
collected throughout the older section
of the state. on account of the loca
ton and limited help of the commits
sion. and because of the cost of trans
portation, l recommend that the II
braries of Portland and Baker Cit
be asked to act for the commission Il
this matter in their local cities