The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-05
LIBRARY BOARD
 MEETS TONIGHT Especial Effort to Interest Work
 Ing Men In Movement OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED Atlanta Man Tells of Great Benefit ! the Public Library There Has
 Proved te se to lts Cltlxens.

The executive board of the Public Llb- rary association will hold a meeting to- night at the office of Governor Sims, at which full attendance of all members of the board ia desired, Those who will pected to advise the board of their in- ability to serve
 The officers and board are we'll pleased with the results of the movement SC far, and now that the labor troubles with which Birmingham has been disturbed re- gently are settling down they believe it will 70 forward with renewed energy. The laborlng people are great beneficlaries of public library and the committee Is depending upon their support and CO., operation to great extent for the build ing of this library.
 Need Is More Apparent,
 Tho need of library in Birmingham Is becoming more and moro apparent every day to nearly every one There arc thousand1 of persons in Birmingham in comfortable circumstances who find theni- selves handicapped in tho securing of books and to whom the fact that they ~ practically any book they want for few days free of cost will prove of incalcuable benefit Books every subject will be kept and anyone desiring to indulge in re- search will have chance to do so.
 There will be several reading rooms and anyone desiring to do so can go to the library, select e book, magazine or paper from the shelves and have quiet place with comfortable chairs in which he can read. It Is pointed out that there are hundreds of young men living in boarding houses here who would take advantage of this opportunity to spend their evenings at the library.
 citizen of Atlanta was discussing the advantages of a public library last night and told of one of the many good results of the establishment of a public library in that city. He said:
 Concrete Example Cited.
 "A young man IS years of age was em- ployed in one of the electric shops there as helper. He had practically no ambl- tion and had only attended school for about three years during his life. A crowd of the electricians were eating dinner together one day when the subject of how 0 man could improve himself came up, and an illustration was cited of how a man had learned to read and write after te was 9 years of age and had then lade q mark in the world Somehow his awakened the desire for knowledge in ihis young man and made him think.
 Tt so happened that after finishing his dinner he was instructed to go to the pub lc library and help one of the electrians who were working there. He had never been in it before and was delighted when of it and could come there and read whenever he wished He went back that same night and discovered the text books of the last grade in which he had been. He commenced studying them again, going to the library every night. He did this every night and by the end of a year had been through every book studied in the grammar schools. He then took Up the books studied in the high school and also began taking a correspondence course in electricity.
 "The ambition awakened by this study has caused him to work harder and he soon became a first-cass electrician. He persued all the electrical books in the library and began to be regarded as being one of the best informed persons in re- gard to electricity in Atlanta. As re- suit of this study in public library he was offered and accepted very respon- sible position in a large electrical com pany in the east at the age of 2 years"