The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-18
LIBRARY CREDIT TO CITY Most Modern In Country For Size Of City
 Served

Talladega has a public library. that | IS monument to its intellectuality. No city of similar size in the country boasts more modern institution.
 Mrs L. M. JemisOn presented the site on South street to the city and county in 1907 and has since spent much of her own money on its improve ment and Identification.
 The site IS crowned with an architec- tural gem of Greek pattern in the way of a buIdings the gift of that great American phiianthropist, now gone, Mir. Andrew Carnegie, monuments to whose wisdom and generosity rise in nearly every city in America. At the time the building was thought ample for all needss but if is already filled with val uabls books and reference works of every description. Ten thousand, four hundred eatalOgued works classified to the last analyais grace its shelves, pre- sided over by q graduate American Library association librarian and an able assistant. Every subject, past and contemporary is at the finger-tips of these librarians and that they are used constantly is evidenced by the fact that over S4,0OO books were sent out and brought in for the past F months, GOV ering almost every subject of interest. The automobile has brought the linn it's of the county to the library doors, 50 county public schools, half a dozen city. state and industrial institutions, dozen clubs in our own and other tOwns-aIl draw on it for information of every description, for they have come to know that it is here for them on moments notice.
 Maintenance Funds
 Its ,maintenanee is derived from vari- Ous sOuIces- The city of TaIladega gives it $1O0 month and its principal benefaetor. AErs-S Jemison, volunteers annually $500 during her lifetime, be- sides having set aside $10yO00 worth of city bonds whose $500 interest annually sustains the book fund. This good woman also supplements the meager, salaries paid and brings up deficits from time to time, all of which will be sOrely missed when she leaves for her celestial homecoming. Other friends also contribute to the funds, while the county commissioners kindly appro- priate $500 year to it's upkeep. As high as 2JO books are given out some Saturdays. the average daily output the past F months being about 13O. Its service has practically doubled the past 10 years with only the same library force to handle it. which means that other assistants will soon be needed, for which the public should be prepared to pay.
 The replacement value of the building and grounds alone is around $35, 900, while the contents bring it well up to S5O.OOO, all being the property of the community and due largely to the ini- tiative and -spiritedness of men like H. L. MeElderry, the late Dr. John son and others, with Mir. Carnegie and Mrs. JemisOn in the background with means to make it possible.
 ! Five Directors
 | The library is under control of a board of five directors approved by the \ city commission, a graduate librarian and an assistant. It is open from 9 ! a. m. until 3 p. m. It has m0re than I 2-OOO adult subscribers who patronize it and 1, 800 juveniles, covering every beat in the county and almost every post office Daily newspapers, including TSIladega, Birmingham, Montgomery and New York, are on it's tables, to- sether with the best current maga- ximes of their several kinds. The refer enee room is full of the best eneyclO- pedias, geOgraphies and technical and export text books and every department in the building so thoroughly classified and systematized that any subject in print may be had almost immediately
 on request