The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1931-12-18
STEADY GROWTH OF
LIBRARY RECOUNTED

donated about 200 books which
were placed in W. v. D. Chapman's
store and, under his care, We're
loaned to those who would pay
$1.00 a year membership. Later,
when he closed out, they were
placed in the Walters Drug store.
Jan. is, 1917, The Herald said,
"At the last meeting of the Civic
League (now Women's club it
was decided they would take
charge of the Public Library.
The women checked up on missing
books and ordered others. Later,
however, probably 1918 or 1919,
the books were put into the school
library. A few years later the
Presbyterian Aid collected a small
library and opened it to the public
Nov. 25, 1925. By July 1926 this
had grown to such proportions
that the Presbyterians thought it
should be sponsored by an organ
ization representing the entire
community.
About September 1926, the Fed
Grated Women's club grasped the
opportunity of buying a private Ii
brary of 300 books, and having
no convenient public place to put
them, sent a committee composed
of Mesdames Lowell, Flint and
Kelly to the city council asking
them if they would permit books to
be placed in a room in the city hall
as the beginning of a city library.
The Council not only gave their
consent but offered the services of
the city clerk as librarian. Fred
Williams, who loved books, and
therefore took a great interest
in them drew up a set of library
rules. The books were numbered,
indexed and ready for the public.
The membership cards were Csc
each.
About this time the school gave
back some of the books the club
had given them and the Presby-
terrain Aid gave their library. The
library committee, Madames w.
G. Johnson, Thos. r. Forbes and |.
L. Jensen and assistants put on
a drive and the generous response
added 200 more books.
Many hundreds of books have
been donated by friends who have
left town and others who believe
the next best thing after reading
a book it to give it to others to
read.
The Club in the meantime had
put on a vaudeville program at
the Liberty for the benefit of the
library.
At the city election April, 1927,
city support of the library carried
with only eight dissenting votes.
The Woman's club has at differ
ent times purchased books from
Mr.. Huxsol. While the books are
not new in either n they were
the best and newest sellers six
months or a year before. He has
at present 80 such books that he
will sell us for $3.50.
There have been 300 new books
purchased. While our library is
large for a small town, many
books are not standard literature
and some are not good reading
while others have some of the
lost. The children are the
ones who use the books the most
and it is up to us to see that they
have good, clean literature to
broaden their minds as well as for
their amusement.
The library committee not feel
ing themselves capable to select
the books that were most used
and needed by school children,
asked that a subcommittee con-
sisting of Miss Donahue, Mrs. Nc
Farlan and Mrs. Livingston be ap-
pointed to submit lists of books.
After being appointed, two lists
were very carefully selected.
Just recently the third list of
books, 121 in all, was mailed to
three publishing houses and as
soon as we hear from Chicago, the
new books will be ordered from
the firm giving us the best prices.
At the present time we have re-
1893 books in all. Some
are worn out with the constant
handling of hundreds of little
hands, and a few lost or taken a.
way.
Mr.. LEM, who at present, is in
charge of the library, is very ably
care of the work. His duties
are many and he is very busy, yet
he keeps a perfect record of every
cent taken in.
In looking over his books l found
that S85 cards had been issued in
the six years, giving the library
the added sum of S221.25.
In the past year there were 176
Of these issued, making a total Of
These careful librarians also set
down the amount of fines for each
and l found it amounted to
(the price Of carelessness),
he smallest was 41c in one month