Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-03-14
81 Reasons for
Aiding LibrGry's
Book Fund Drive

Engineers and technical experts have
a right to expect to and IN the library
files Of the proceedings and publications
Of the societies with which they are con-
nected. The cost of membership In these
associations is from s. to $40 a year, sums
which have been prohibitive because 0t
the lack Of book money. The library is
constantly meeting with insistent de
mands for these proceedings Other IL
braries of this size have full files Of the
publications of such societies as the
American Society of Mechanical Engi
neers, American Institute Of Electrical
Engineers. American Society for Testing
Materials, American Water Works Asso-
citation and many others. The Indianap
oils library has none Of these.
indianapolis, one of the leading eenters
of the automobile industry, should have
a library fully equipped with all the lat
est and best material on manufacture,
selling, repair and operation Of automO-
biles and on all related subjects of inter
est both to amateur and expert, owner
and manufacturer. The library has pur-
chased only thirty five new titles on these
subjects during the three years In the
new building. During the fiscal year
1919-1920 alone there were over fifty new
books published in the United States
dealing with some immediate phase of
automobile manufacture. 1t is no I'M
usual thing to take a patron to the auto
mobile shelf and find not a single book
there. 1t will take a long time to win
these disappointed patrons back to the
library.
Aviation is a subject which is Of inter
est to readers from the ages Of 10 to so.
1t calls for a wide range of literature on
the subject, from the elementary, ex-
tremely popular book, to the strictly
mathematical treatise. useful only to the
expert. Time and again the library has
had to turn away an ex-service man who
knew enough about his subject to need
scientific. strictly up-to-date treatise.
These books are expensive The best
book on aero engines, just recently off
the press, sells at $40. 1t is needed both
at the Central Library and at several
of the branches but the library can now
afford but one copy. Constantly recur-
ring cases like this have so weakened the
collection Of technical books as to make
it of very little use to the trained man.
The library has a collection of medical
books and magazines which is rapidly
losing it's patronage because of lack of
new books and an adequate collection of
medical magazines. Too much depends
on up to- the minute information in the
field of medicine for a physician to rely
on literature which is ever so slightly out
of date During 1920 there were only
fifteen new books added to the collection.
The list of medical magazines is so short
as to be practically useless. During 1920
the library had only 500 to spend on
these magazines and half of this sum had
to be begged from outside sources. A
medical magazine costs from Sc to S12
year, so that with such lack of funds
many had to be dropped from the sub
scription list last year and only fifteen
magazines could be retained on the list
For a live medical collection such a num-
Der is far too meager.