Evening star., 1922-12-09

board of library trustees invited me
to come from q neigboring city to be
Washington's public librarian. l glad
ly accepted the offer, partly because 1
read in the annual report then cur
rent that the library had recently oc-
cupied Il handsome marble central
builCing. the gift Of Andrew Carnegie.
and that the great giver of library
buildings had offered Washington all
the money 1t needed to build branch
Turing. because l felt sure that with
the energy and devotion that l eX-
pected to put into my work it should
be possible within very few years
not only to develop the service of the
main library. but to build a system of
branch libraries, and through such Il
well rounded library system to give
the Public Library service that the
Intelligent population Of Washington
ought to have. I was even ambitious
to make the Washington Public Lii
brary system q model for other cities
throughout our land.
250.O0O Books in Library.
IF anybody had told me then that
il would be necessary to work for
seven years before even one branch
library. the one in the suburb Of Ia
eleven more years would elapse be-
fore a second branch. which we open
tonight. would be a reality, I would
have scoffed at any such idea. But
I did not then know my Washington.
nor the long. weary road that Is so
provements here. I did not realize
then as I do now what it means to
ring about public improvements.
elsewhere regarded as matters Of
course. in a city that has nothing to
say about its own Affairs.
nrdae that NAV pnf sAApo IN
dccry or minimize the actual accom-
plishments here let me point out that
eighteen years ago the library system
had but 10000 volumes and now we
have nearly 25o.ooo: that Just pre-
vious to that time. in the first year
that the central library was open. the
home circulation Of books was 27s.ooo
volumes and that last year we circu-
lated over a million volumes.
Congestion at Main Library.
These are by no means small
vorabiy with the records of libraries
OF certain other progressive American
cities. However. of the million VOL
umes lent for home use last year less
than $4,000 were circulated from our
one branch library. about 81, 1000 from
the voluntary agencies supervised by
the main library. about 100000 vol
umes through the grammar schools.
also promoted from the main library;
So that nearly 650.000 volumes were
lent directly from the central library.
This means congestion OF the service
there and the expense OF carfare to
most users Of the library.
Many cities smaller than Wash
ington have developed branch library
systems that serve their entire popu-
lattons conveniently. For example.
Indianapolis. with a little over 800. 900
population. has eighteen branches
eleven of which are in separate
buildings: Minneapolis. somewhat
smaller than Washington. has six
teen branches. ten Of which are in
separate buildings: Portland. Ore
with less than 100000 population. has
seventeen branches. eleven Of which
are in separate buildings.
Washington Far Behind.
Why is. Washington so far behind
in the development of it's system OF
branch Libraries? What must we do to
change the situation so that we can
speedily bring our public library sys-
TEN. not only up to the place where 1t
will compare favorably with other
American cities. but also 30 that it
may lead the van Of library progress
just as all Washingtonians are hoping
that soon our local public school sys-
tenn may become the model for
America?
I'VE are opening tonight a library
building. given by the Carnegie Cor
poration. whose trustees are eener-
ously Carrying out Mr.. CarneRte's
promise to US. in spite Of the inordi-
nate delay in accepting the original
offer. I am sure that voice The SEN
timents Of all in wishing that Mr..