New-York tribune., 1922-10-16
By Selma Robinson


throughout the period was en-
s..,,oved Il the Seward Park branch of
sths library was kept busy answering
Anost ouestions with one reply: That's
mot in stock to-day"
The older readers took their dis
3srpointnent philosophically enough,
xhcpin1 that they could probably get
g@rhat they wanted at another branch.
sBut The children went back to the
Fshelves to search for something nearly
{as rood or to their homes, wondering
what they could say to their teachers
next day when they failed to report
sDn the books they had been assigned
to read.
The busiest time of the day for
Seward Park is the hour after school.
The library is in the heart of school
district, and Immediately after 8
o'clock the children troop up the wide
etone steps. From my seat at the in
formation desk I could watch them as
ahey scuffed along, with their school
Bags over their arms, not waiting to
10 home first, in their eagerness to
ket . good book while there was still
selection to CHOOSE from.
With about two hundred noisy. hur-
fYing children swarming through the
room The children's department is too
much for one librarian to handle alone.
Most of the children are too young to
consult the book file or find the books
they need, and the librarian must do
the work for them.
One child asked me for Little LORD
huntleroy."
Can't Find Lord Fauntleroy
ave gonna have act in school," she
told me, "and / gotta be the boy, so
have to learn my part"
gave her the number Of the book
/ from the file and told her where she
might find it. Three minutes later
che returned, without the book.
1T amt there"
turned to the boy next to me. who
wasn't in stock. Some other boys had
been there before him. Woulda't q
hook on the Boy Scouts do just as
wslll He granted and walked away.
Ehsal saw the little girl again. She
vas sanding near my desk, but not
looking ST me. Her face was tragic.
TsFeHt you found that book YETI"
asked She shook her head and her
gts grew teary.
Don't cry" / coaxed "why didn't
you come back to me and ask me again
for the book?''
She said she was afraid I would
Apler" at her If she bothered me
10 much. We found a copy of Lord
iiuntleroy' on one of the tables and
hewent off contented.
Mss O'Connor, the assistant branch
MARIAN, told me of hundreds of sim
s 1r cases. She makes it point to
phce the books in tho hands of the
would leave without them. When the
librarian appears on the floor focl
Of girls and boys cling to her, waving
their hands in her face for attention
She finds books for them as if by
magic: one on table, where it should
not be: another on a wrong shelf, still
another inside the main desk to which
1t had just been returned.
On some days there is q heavy de-
lnand for poem required for school
During my apprentice Lucy Lar
CONS poems we're called for. The first
three girls were supplied, but when
the rest of a class of thirty or forty
arrived there were no more copies to
80 around. Some of the girls waited
an hour, and few hit ON the idea of
writing the poem into their notebooks.
why don't you find out beforehand
from their teachers what books will
be assigned to the Students" asked
On assistant, $50 that you may have
kaem when the rush starts p
Lack Of Funds the Reason
The librarian smiled tolerantly. She
explained that the branch needed every
one OF its assistants to help with rou-
1ne work. II there were more money,
s1e said, it might be possible to EN-
pioy an extra assistant, for co-opera-
uon with the schools is important, not
oniy to supply the books that are need
Cd, but to Instruct the children through