The Alaska citizen., 1916-04-24
OUR LIBRARY.

a" H..n f.- line wc-r"n u . W.H.a- rsIr .ub of Fair aHhz th. I-or. of ii. Gaurs. = vaau Memorial library wa.-lt as.r aa-a .a-ea aIma-f 5ne ,aaa = Uar al.u -.nH arion Nt, 'h, ar a.f asr sunmet and fail by sas sea af the fact that the board of frlstaas of thD library could not .aH way ra make ends maet dur ing taa winter and keep tho tnsln lion open the women came to tae rr-ue and bs all manner of mean .r .u#.re solicitations benefits. atc., ..a t1a Library through in good -rane
 .T nny added another page to
 fir h-ra If laurcls last Tuesday nfsat when. with the very valuable assistance of the management of Thornc's theatre, they gave a nov ing picture show for the benefit of the library. netting thereby the sum of S1oS75. The total receipts of the entertainment were s152 E. the expense incidental to giving the show being s44 The affair was directly under tho mauagement of the library board of the Civic club the pictures being furnished by the theatre nan asolnent
 r - 5rcl0od early last fall that the Civic cIut should undertake the management of the library as one of the important works which the body set aside for themselves to 1o The institution was deeply in debt at the time. and it was neces- -ary that the debt be paid off and that means be provided to keer 1t 1non during the winter.
 Therefore. the first move of the women was to solicit a fund to be n=at Tor the purpose of paving off .#a aabt about $500 being collected tH thi= manner The next move was 10 increase the patronage of the institution This was done by inducing the people of the city to take out borrowers cards. with the result that there was quite an addi- tton to the sum already collected
 The library building as well as the bookshelves and other parts of the interior was badly in need of re- pair when the Civic club decided -n take the institution over Thece- fore something like six weeks were spent in completely renovating the place Expert carpenter work vas hired. but in a great many instances men out of work offered their ser vices to the library board of the Civic club. their only compensation being their keep while they were working and the privilege of aard allowing them to borrow books from the library.
 Then came a tag day dance, an affair which will never be forgotten by those who attended it. The dance was the means of adding fur ther to the fund TOT the support of the library And wood was sold to the library board at a cut price by well known local business man. enabling the board to heat the institution at less cost than dur ing any winter il has been open, 1 Cataloguing the books was big job, but it was finally accomplished. and therefore, today it is highly probable that a seeker after knowl- edge such as he can learn from books will find what he is looking for in five minutes after he starts his search on the shelves of the Ii JTary.
 Therefore with evidence of such good work at hand, it cannot be doubted that the best move ever made in connection with the li- bTaTy was when the management of the institution was turned over to i the Civic club. For, as can readily be seen, the women have applied . themselves to their work with such Geal that they have made what last fall was a declining institution, bid ding fair to go to the wall for lack of support. into one of the show places of the city which can be pointed out with pride to the tour ists who come to Fairbanks during 1 the coming summer.
 l Then let the good work go on. 1 For within less than six more short months the days will be shortening again. And there will be the same chill in the night air which pre- yails at the present time, preaag ing, however winter instead of spring, and probably meaning that the usual number of homeless men will seek the warmth of the library l for recreative reading.
 But this end cannot be accom- 1 plished by the women of the Civic club alone. They need and deserve l the support of the entire community, particularly In this undertaking, It is therefore very probable that some time during the summer another ef-