The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-24
 LIBRARY QUARTERS MUCH TOO SMALL Reading Room Grows More Popular Every Day NEW BUILDING CAMPAIGN Meeting of Association Will Be Held Tuesday Night and Project Will Probably Be Taken Up
 With vigor.
NEW BUILDING CAMPAIGN

! The Birmingham Public Library is en-
 toying steady growth After having
 been open to the public for three weeks
 the enrolment of members has increased
 over TOO and a large number of others
 have entered application for membership.
 In addition to these something like 400 | applicants who live in East Lake Wood lawn, North Birmingham and other su-
 burbs have been turned away, library
 regulations preventing their reception un-
 til the Greater Birmingham bill goes into ! effect January l.
 The library has increased greatly in
 popularity since the opening on October l l. The reading rooms are at timse quite l inadequate for the daily increasing num-
 Der of visitors. The Board of Education l has been forced to provide number cf
 new chairs, patrons having heretorore been I turned away because of the limited seat l ing capacity. The need of a new buid- ing or more adequate quarters Is strongly | felt by the library officials. The two
 librarians, Miss Roberts and Miss Chap 1 man, find themselves rushed to comply l with the dems nds of members and wis itors, and it is probable that number of assistants will have to be engaged | The reference department, too Is being
 more freely made use of. The room pro vided for this purpose is already begin ] ming to be found inadequate, and the gallery of the council chamber will be foored over to provide ampler quarters The juvenile depart ment is likewise grow ing in popularity and the few books at hande are regularly in use.
 New Building Project.
 The campaign for greater library is ! being actively begun. Plans have already been submitted for the proposed new building and the matter will not be al 1 lowed to rest until the object of the lib- rary packers is fully accomplished , meeting of the executive board of the Public Library association will be held
 Tuesday night. when the matter of the new building will be broached and dis cussed. It is expected that definite action , will be taken at this meeting on the pro- | posal made some time ago by Andrew Carnegie. 1t will be remembered that
 MT Carnegie stated that he will donate
 s10O,000 for the establishment of lib rary in Birmingham, provided an addi- 'C. The proposed plan of using the coure house building for new library quarters was naturally made impracticable by the defeat of the bond issue in the last election. No utterances have been made on the subject since the election but the library builders are by no means dis heartened. The campaign to be begun
 with the meeting of the association Tues day night will be furthered with all yigor until the desired ends are brought about in the building and equipment of S2oQ.- 900 public library.
 The campaign will be an educational movement one in which the schools or the state will take an active part Thurs day November f. will be library day in all the schools of Alabama and appro- priate exercises will be arranged for the occasion. It is the object in this man ner to work up library spirit in the state, the primary consideration being to get the children interested.
 Library day will be htly observed in schools of this city. Programmes will be carried out in each grade of the gram mar schools and special exercises will be held at the High school It will also be the occasion of book reception to be held at the rooms of the public library.
 All interested in library work are re- quested to visit the library and make a donation of at least one book It is pointed out that the books donated will
 be a material addition to the library, while the public interest thus aroused will be of great benefit
 Cooperation of Public.
 Since the opening of the library much evidence has been hsd of livelier spirit of cooperation in business as well as literary circles. Interest has been mani fested in the library by persons hereto fore indifferent and a desireehas been ex- pressed by new-made friends to do all in their power for it's betterment
 The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railway company through its president, George Gordon Crawford, evinced it's interest in the work by donating a valuable set of reference books on technical subjects the value of which was considerably more than $500 Other donations of cash and books have since been received, and 1t is clearly seen that public interest is growing Mrs. M, F. Stevens, pro- prietress of the Gold Lion Lunch room, has consented to holding benefit day at that cafe, the entire proceeds to go to the library. The date of this will be