The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-07-16

entertaining and that sort Of thing
In the summer they don't read very
much OF anything.
But say. when there's n civil ser
vice examination coming on and there
are a few vacancies for women. they
come in as soon as the doors open
and stay ALL day and study We have
big attendance of men, too, when
there's an examination in the otIing,
could be used in making explosives,
woman wanted little information on
canning methods for fish and vegeta-
bles while another investigator want
ed to know just what causes the phos-
phorescence often noticed in deCaying
stumps and wood.
There was a long array OF queries:
How to make inNisi hle inks What Is
coprs and how is It prepared? When
was Clusters last fight? How is nj
troGen obtained from the air? What
is the best way to read blue print?
What does F. y. @ mean. isn't 4
French or Latin phrase? Are the
James BOYS all dead? How is potash
extracted from kelp2 Who started the
European war? When and where did
Eddie HanIon knock out Young Cor
belt in twenty rounds? what Is the
amount af coal consumed in the State
Of Washington
Would Middleton Island, Alaska, be
q good place TO start a farm? How
is the word cafeteria" pronounced?
bat they read pretty much the same
kind of material all the time. Some
OF them mostly young fellows-read
poetry in the spring; but, taken as
whole. they're strong for statistics.
~ man who was "a visitor here for
some time told me that he never made
plore than 50 a day IN his life till he
starLe4i E;adying He Is now a LICENSED
engineer getting 81 e'day, This il
brary aud its patrons are fortunate in
having Claude s. Thompson. a grad
nate engineer OF the University OF
Washington, in charge OF the tech
meal department He is able 10 direct
students to exactly what they re-
quire.'
Telephone Inquiries.
The visitor wandered off TO the tele-
phone inquiry department
DO we get many inquiries?" she
repeated We'll here's a few that
I've answered today" She handed
over a bundle of notes.
The interroEations, all OF which
were answered, covered every con-
ceivsb BILE subject One man wanted 10
know the metallurgy OF antimony, an
other desired knowledge OF the prod
ucts of wood distillates and how they
who wrote the poem with the re-
frain, That's where the West begins"
and who published it7 DID the IL
brary have the geneaology OF Minnie
Schultz, OF kitchkan? What land
does King County ownr What makes
the best combination salad? What is
the per capita tax In Seattle? What
Is the tax rate in Osceola. Michigan?
What is the best soil for potatoes
| Could the library furnish a suggestion
for games at the children's party?
There were many others-scores of
them.
Most Questions Answered.
TT looks dificult at first to an
swer all those questions" the clerk
explained. In almost every instance
the desired information was given
over the telephone The reference
room Is divided into four sections
general reference art. technology and
! periodicals, which includes newspa-
pers. There are 1900 books in these
different departments, They cover
every conceivable subject, and infor-
nation is found through a card index
system.
/ ''Of course, we don't pretend always
to give the information right away,
but as general thing an answer is
| found In ten or fifteen minutes. Call
ing up the library for Information has
become more popular since the town
went dry. The people seem to have
more time to search for knowledge.
Answering the questions gets to be
matter OF routine, but there are just
enough funny questions asked every
day to lend little humor to the situ-
alton"
The visitors decided to take a look
around. He drifted into the circula-
ton department Miss Zulema Kos
tomalatsky was In charge. Miss Kos
tomalatsky Is shark" on books. She
was librarian at Pittsburg for several
Christmas Reading Light.