New Britain herald., 1926-05-05
LIBRARY FAILING
 ID MEET DEMANDS
Lack of Facilities Stressed in
 Miss Browns Report

Handicapped by lack of facilities,
 the New Britain Institute library functioned as best it could during the past year, according to a report made to the board of directors bv the librarian. Miss Greta Brown. In the words of Miss Brown, the li- bTary failed to meet the demand upon its resources and did not at tempt to create 6 demand, which, she believes, should be done in 4 progressive institution.
 Miss Brown strikes a note of re- gret over the closing of the East street branch. In spite of this cur tailment of service, the library is- sued 266,502 books for home use, a gain of 14,775 over last year. The total number Of new card holders was 2,S55, which was 3S5 less than last year. This, Miss Brown be- heVes, may be partly accounted for by the discontinuance of the East street branch.
 A report on the museum connect ed with the institute was made to the board by Miss Fanny Brown,
 The librarians report follows:
 Just 50 years ago the librarians of this country began what is known as the modern library movement and organized as a national group with the establishment of the American Library association. The distinc- lively modern features of American libraries, besides public support. are free access to the books, work with children, cooperation with schools, branch libraries, special collections (sucl as art, scientific and business 1brarles) and advertising to make known to the people the possibilities of library service. But before the modern movement we had libraries: the church or parish, town Gone of these was opened in our own state at Salisbury in 18o5) society and subscription libraries. The New Britain Institute has progressed through all these stages and while 1t has not gone ahead as rapidly as some of us have desired still its history is an honorable one and we today are under obligation to make and keep it vital to the best inter- ests of our community. One of the leading librarians of the United States, Dr. Arthur Bostwick writes in a recent book: The library Is 2 dis trioutor and as such must obey the laws that all distributors obey if they succeed in the largest sense.'
 Now the successful distributor ! IS he who does not sit down to wait i for customers, he takes the whole community as a group of possible | clients, he tries to suit each and to . create a demand for his goods where none exists. Such conDari- son Of the work of q library with . trade is distasteful 10 some persons but this is a case where the children Of this world are wiser in their gen. i eTation than the children Of light
 T quote this statement because our library has reached the point where 1t must expand, or decidedly shrink. In fact, the most important single event during our library year just passed was slump, the closing or the East street branch, after 15 years Of increasing service.
 The Books
 The total number of books is- sued for home use was c66,5o2, a gain Of 14,775 over last year, al- hough East street closed the first of November. It is worthy of note that the East street room had cir of 1922 during the seven months of the year 1t was open for few hours a day, three times q week Even these figures do not show the entire use of the hooks