The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-02-03
554,7O3 Volumes Loaned For Home
 Use During Year
| 1000 Gain Past Twelve Months-48,000 Over Two Year Period-Patronage at Branches Reflects Increased Interest of Reading Public Over Sectional Areas

to the executive committee of tho
 library board of agents in tho
 summer of 1930 and at the writing
 of the 1880 annual report, a vott
 of the board of police com mission.
 CTS, turning this unused police pre-
 cinct over to the library, was be-
 ing awaited before the work oi
 alteration could be begun. The
 result, with cells and partitions
 removed, 8 staircase built connect
 ing the upper and lower rooms and
 the whole remodelled and redecor-
 ated, is two attractive well lighted
 rooms, one for children and one
 for adults. Repairs were made
 to the entrance porch, a cement
 walk laid from the street and con
 siderable grading done around the
 approach to the building. The chil-
 dren of Waterville, who for the
 most part formerly received their
 library books through the class
 room collections sent to the Spra- que school, now have a room of
 their own and their appreciation
 of the new arrangement is cx-
 pressed quite satisfactorily to us
 in 75 per cent gain in children g
 circulation for the year, all of
 which was recorded after the open
 ing of the new children's room in September. The adult gain for the year was 14.5 per cent and the average daily circulation since the first of September is given as ap- proximately 198 volumes, III of
 which were adult and S7 juvenile. This is a combined daily average increase of 63 per cent.
 The time is not long distant when
 we shall have to consider making some more adequate provision for the Brooklyn branch also. This, by far the busiest of our branches, circulating as it does some 50,000 books a year. is operating in a room 20x30 feet in size. We have in the location of this Brooklyn branch building an almost ideal site, on the main street and in the very center of the Brooklyn com munity and were we to put up a building of our own we could not hope to obtain a better location for if. Therefore our best solution of this problem would seem to be an enlargement of the present room by adding to it several adjoining rooms and closets now being used for storage purposes. Although it may not be possible to contemp- late any improvement during the year 19"2 this is something which should be kept in mind if the Brooklyn branch is to have any chance for further development. {,
 The Rose Hill branch Is already contradictinfg an opinion express ed in my report of two years ago that it's nearness to the central li- brary was responsible for the fact that 1t had in the fifteen years of it's existence never equalled in cir culation the records established in it's earliest years, and it was my unexpressed belief that it could for the year 1881 with circula - has for the past six years been registering a gradual increase but for the year 1931( with a circula tion of 29,575 volumes it has sue ceeded in surpassing all previous records except that of 1914, it's first complete year.
 A self charging method of book was instituted during the year as an experiment at the Rose Hill branch and the experi- ment proved to be highly success ful. Based on the principle that in banks peoples of all levels of education make out deposit slips before approaching the tellers window and although hundreds of dollars may be involved only a bank clerks verification in each case is needed, books are now be- ing charged by the borrowers themselves, children in the major ity of cases, and presented at the desk for verification. Very few mistakes have occurred and as a time saver in reducing routine operations the system is a distant success. We have, because of it been able to transfer one of the two assistants at this branch to the Waterville branch where the chill dren's and adult departments, now in separate rooms, require two people in attendance. In these days of increased book circulation many libraries are experimenting with new methods of book charging. and we want to be ready to abandon the old methods and adopt new ones, which We have tried out as the need for doing so makes itself felt in ony of our branches or in the central library.
 The Loan Department.
 This department of the central library circulating. in 1881, 83 per cent of the adult book distribution of the entire system may be said to furnish one of the best meas ures of the library's usefulness to the people of Waterbury during this period of unemployment. The one constant criticism of our ser vice has been that there is a pitt ful lack of new books and com parison of adult book purchases of 1881 with those of 1929 shows that We are now buying only about two- thirds as many books as we were buying two years ago. Yet this in 1891 circulated some 26,000 more books than in 1929.
 Sixty written requests for cer- tain new books of the year had to be refused and d letter of explan- ation sent in each case saying that the library desired to en- courage book recommendation from it's readers and would ordin- arily have purchased the book asked for, it was not possible from 8 comparatively small appropria- ton to purchase every book for which request was filed. This number did not include those books which for one reason or another would have at any time been con sidered unsuitable for purchase, put simply those which if included would have to be bought at the expense of other books which in our judgment seemed to be of more lasting value.
 Reserve requests for books num- 1ered 4,744, a gain of 600 over the number for 1930. Many of the books reserved are in such great demand that people are forced to wait their turn weeks and some- times months before getting them. Fiction always takes the lead but It is interesting to note that im- portant and worthwhile novels such as Shadows on the Rock" oy Villa Gather "The Good Earth by Pearl Buck and "A Lantern in Her Hand" by Bess Streeter Aid rich were among those constantly