The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-11-15

and life membership was issued. There was no second response and 1t was decided to repeal the plan and to return the one payment. When the cir cumstances were explained to the sender of the check he declined to re- linquish his life membership or to &C., cept in exchange the money he had paid for It. Today MT Bertram Jacobs is life member of the library, the only person who has ever had that distinc-
 tion.
 The ladies of the several women's clubs
 were from the first most faithful and
 diligent patrons of the library. The books
 which the clubs bought were placed in
 the library for circulation among the
 members, and other books needed in the
 clubs were bought by the library Little
 by little. year by year, the library grew
 until it became an important factor in
 the school life and in literary life else- where in the city. Special emphasis was placed on the monthly magazines and other current periodicals. At the end of each year these were bound and placed in the reference department, with the
 result that the library now has one of the most complete collections of bound
 periodicals of any southern library. In 1902 the library was again moved. It had outgrown its quarters in the Ems len building and the space was needed 1 for classes The new city hall had been 1 completed and part of the fourth floor | had been reserved for the library. There 1 it had better opportunity to grow. The | schools through their entertainments dur | ing a period of 16 years, had invested
 some s15,00o in books and periodicals for
 the library. A librarian was employed | by the board of education and paid as
 any teacher. The books were recata- 1 logged and card indexed and the service was extended. Juvenile books were em- I phasized and subsidiary school libraries were formed. Six of these. each con 1 taining 100 books. were formed and sent to the six grammar schools. These were | exchanged among the schools that each school had the use during the year l of 600 books. This plan was employed | for several years until the schools be- | gan to collect their own libraries.
 In 1908 the Birmingham Library asso- ciation was formed to cooperate with l the board of education for the benefit of i, the library, for that board had no funds
 for purchasing books, though it employed the librarian and furnished the equip | ment of the library rooms
 | On October l. 1909 the board of ed- ucation made the library entirely free 1 to the public, and Miss Lila Chapman ! was secured librarian. In the same l year a branch library was established at 1 Woodlawn. On the first day of January
 
 1 annexation of the suburbs. Three of
 these. Avondale. Ensley and West End 1 had erected Carnegie library buildings, 1 each costing Sl00o0. These libraries. to- 1 gether with the central library and the 1 Woodlawn branch. formed a system. and l all except the Avondale library were
 controlled by the board of education. The addition of these libraries greatly l increased the responsibility and the. ex- 1 pense of maintaining the library work ! and 1t was decided to put it in charge l of a special library board instead of continuing it through the board of ed- | ucation.
 l Here ended the official connection of l the board of education and the schools
 with the library. The work of the schools
 with the library represents one of the distinctly important civic enterprises. l Much of the work was done personally | by Dr. Phillips. 1t was he and the work .
 CTS aiding him who secured the library. | It has been kept abreast with the | times since it was begun and its efficiency 1 and success now needs no comment.