Evening star., 1925-10-14
"a NEW BRANCH LIBRARIES
ARE ASKED OF COMMISSIONERS
DIR. Bowerman i'm Annual Report Urges That Long
Considered Plan for Books in Grade Schools
Be Put Into Operation.

various sections of the city. to advise
the Commissioners on the District 5
budget DR.. Rowerman told the Com
missioners. The Advisory Council has
given evidence Of its interest in the
library. having given :. most sympa
thetic hearing to the presentation of
the Ibrary's budeetary needs, and ex-
pressed themselves strongly in favor
of increasing the library's force so
that the closing of all libraries at 3
IN may be discontinued
The operation of the classification
act brought. according to the librarian.
increased salaries To practically the
entire staff at the beginning of the
year. and the turnover as result has
been much less than in former years,
with resulting higher efficiency.
1.O9o,533 Books Loaned.
Registration statistics show that
i9.4S3 applicants were registered dur
Ing the year, divided at follows: Cen
trail Library. 14i09: Mount Plea sa mt
branch. 1.471: Southea stern bra anch,
2,o4t: Takoma Park branch. 959; de
posit stations, 59T. The number of
cards in force at the close of the year
was 81 l.016. while 1902. .533 volumes
and 1868 mounted pictures were
loaned during the year. The libra ria n
called attention to the coming trans
fer OF the order, catalogue and bindery
supervision forces to larger quarters
on the second floor of the central
building and the opening for public
use in their former quarters of q new
division of biography and either Eng
lish or American history. Assistants
qualified to do advisory work will be
in charge. and the books will he ac-
ceSSR'le to readers without the formal
ity of presenting call slips and waiting
for books. The books on biography
and history Will be shelved in an open
shelf room on the first floor. next the
long room devoted to fiction. thus link
ing books of fact and fiction.
High School Branches Busy.
The Southeas stern and Takoma Park
branches spent satisfactory years of
progress, the work showing a stea DIV
! increase in volume. and demonstrated
In various ways their value to the
communities. it was declared. At the
lakoma Park branch $50 meetings
were held during the year, the Takoma
Park HorticuItsral Clubs eight flower
shows being the ones of most wide.
spread interest. The stations and high
schools division spent an active year.
The circulation through the high
| school libraries was 39.457 volumes,
an increase of ,S59 over the previous
year. 1t was a matter Of regret to
library officials, it is explained. that
one of the pioneer stations, the Y. NJ
| I. A, had to be discontinued owing,
to lack of funds, for the station was
widely used. particularly by college
and scientific men. The department
store stations have been supplied
with books by the Public Library
! under the supervision of their respec-
tive educational departments. Chill
| 1ren at the social settlements have
kept the librarians so busy receiving
and issuing books that little time has
been left to do individual work with
adults and high school pupils, the
commissioners were advised.
Reference Room Popular.
Requests for information on all ex-
cept technical and industrial subjects
were brought to the reference room
by persons in all walks of life, but
the proportion Of students, both high
school and college, young and mature
| was large, the report showed.
| Teachers. club women, authors. law
yers. religious workers, home makers,
persons with hobbies, casual readers,
have all turned to the reference room
/ for help. The librarian cited few
| questions to give an idea of the wide
| variety of subjects covered: A list
| of cities in Maryland and Virginia
having commission form of govern
| ment, the name of the colored boy
| who held Booths horse on the night
| Of Lincoln's assassination, the mean
| ing of the name "Shena ndoah," ma
| terial on the experience of other cities
With bathing beaches on rivers and
the pollution Of streams for bathing,