The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-02-14

80 days for fresh supplies. To the
branches as many as 800 books are
first loaned as a neucIus, exchanges
being made of new material every 10I
days.
6. Printed bulletins and book
lists are issued regularly; and occas-
ional exhibits are made on special
subjects Qoans generally, Of larger
libraries, such as the Congressional
which do duty afterwards at the
branches.
Free Delivery System
Z. Last and prime distinction
books are delivered, without cost, by
the library's now famous library
wagon, mot only to all the schools,
deposit stations and branches in the
county, but for several years past,
from house to house, and the two
horse vehicle has lately been ex-
changed for much quicker library
automobile. This delivery wagon,
built especially to hold several cases
OF books for the stations as we'll as
more than 200 volumes On shelves,
goes on it's e successive routes two
days of each week, weather permit
ting, covering every two months, the
entire county, even to the ''most dis
tant outposts.' This too, remember,
over an area of about 500 square
miles and serving rural population
of more than $4,000, in addition to
the $4,000 citizens of Hagerstown.
AS Miss Titcomb says in one of her
interesting reports: NO better
method has been devised Of reach
ing the dweller in the back country.
We all know that we might wait
long before a busy farmer would
drive fie 10 or 1 5 miles for a covet-
ed volume. The man who drives the
wagon at once establishes a human
relationship between the library and
the farmer, thing no deposit sta
ton can do. Phychologically, too,
the wagon is the thing. 1t is the un-
known brought to the very thresh-
old AS impossible to resist the pack
of the pedlar from the Orient as a
shelf full of books when the doors Of
the wagon are opened at ones gate
way" incidentally I may mention
that inquiries as to the operation of
| this book wagon have come from as
| far away as JAPAN
The Washington county library
has about 100 volumes, with a per-
| iodical list of over so, with large
collection of reference works not
| loaned. It's circulat ion in 1910 was
1O7,741 books.
| It's income is derived partly from
| interest on small endowment, more
largely by annual preparations
from both city and county. Andrew
| Carnegie has recently given SIS, 900
to aid with it's extension work.
The Working Personnel
It's force consists of the librarian,
children's librarian, a cataloguer
and school librarian, a desA attend
ant and the driver of the delivery
wagon, with a salary list hf about
$4,000. With the exceptioE of the
unique auto-deliyery, the ] work OF
the Hagerstown institution Us ipracti-
cally similar to that of othdb modern
public libraries.
1t was the first, | believe fto adopt
the county as the. library unit-ar
idea that is steAdily growing in ia,
vor. 1t is now statewide ~ Cali
fornia, and has been adopted locally
in Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota Ne
braska. New York, North Carolina
Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee and Wis
consin (Bureau OF Educational re
port 1920. In most OF these state:
the law provides for rural extension
work by the state, county or town
ship, and, in some cases. the city Ii
brary at the county seat serves a:
the county library, after the Hagers
town model.
1t may be now an idle dream, bu
let US have vision of such a cen
trail library in every county seat il
South Carolina, the capstone of tn,
county's public school system ant
like it supported by a special tax
Belonging to the people, it is freel,
used by them. Here the workers il
all the arts and professions come L
quicken and deepen their knowledg
and thereby increase their earnin:
capacity Here the citizen OF what
ever creed or condition comes TO pos
himself on the social and politica
questions of the day. Here TIL
young man finds, in good books an,
attractive environment, a safeguart
against the low resort and the litera
ture that poisons. Here the wear
come for recreation, for reading tina