The Connecticut labor news., 1923-10-27

l American Machinist, Building Age
 Sheet Metal Worker, Machinery
 Power and Engineering News-Rec-
 ord. As samples of the many ques-
 tions ~on which the library has been
 asked to furnish information, the fol lowing are representative:
 How to build a concrete garage l side elevation of an oil burning loco
 motive,, formulas for metal polishes unifow steam engines, Gridley's au- l tomatic spindle machine and how to build fireplace. The public library has many books on the history of the labor movement and trade unions in America and foreign countries, in cluding, of course, MT. Gompers' works.
 In thinking about the work of a city public library one is often re- minded of that much quoted phrase "a peoples university. More and more that IS what a public library is coming to be- After all, there is mighty little which an earnest student could not learn by serious reading in a public library such as ours in New Haven. It may be a little easier for a man to get an education in uni versity but 1t is sometimes forgot ten that most of what young men learn at the university comes out of books. For the most part a univer- Psity education consists of series of lectures supplemented by assigned readings from books. In most cases the books are written by college pro- fessors and are based on their own lectures In fact 1t Is not at all un- usual for a professor to publish his lecture notes in book form, which means that they at once become avail able to large number of people who are not university students. Many of the books in the New Haven public library. including books on business and the trades, have been written by college professors who are telling the vry sam story in this popualr form that they have told in the lecture room in some university And the public library provides not only the books, but a staff of educated ibrar- ians who are in charge of various desks throughout the building and who are employed by the city for no other purpose than to assist library readers in getting what they want, They will help you select your books, they will look up magazine articles for you, and they vii leven suggest courses of reading on certain sub jects.
 If you are interested in Napoleon, they will select for you some popular account of his life; and in the same way if you desire to better your posi- tion by reading about some technical subject like pattern making, they will select books for you on pattern mak ing. Furthermore, if you want a cer- tain book which you find the library does not oxUn tha 1ihrorx, ptc will let you know why the library has if 1t is new book, will usually order it for you, sending you a post card when if is received The library IS always glad to receive suggestions for purchase from the public, and only lack of funds prevents the i'm mediate addition of any worth while book for which a reader asks.
 And in presenting this brief de scriptionl of your public library 1t is done with full understanding that the library lacks a great many books it ought to have; that it's staff IS too small to take care of the legitimate demands of the public as they ought to be taken care of; and that it is not doing great many useful things that public libraries in other cities are doing. More particularly, the public library is doing practically nothing for the factory worker in the way of helping him, through books and advice, to better his con dition It will help him if he calls at the library buildings, but it is not takin gthe library to the factory as is done in many other cities nowa- days.