The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-02-06

 dertAken only because an oppor. tunity was afforded of doing 1t with labor furnished by the CWA and its successor the EZRA. It is none the less grat- flying that 1t was done for this reason.
 The work completed could through by the library itself only over a period of years. All materials were furnished by the library and the amount expend- ed under the repair item is therefore somewhat out of scale with other expenditures for the year and with amounts spent for repairs during previous depres- sion years. This seemingly large expenditure at this time is. how ever, perhaps justified when we consider how much the work would have cost in normal times when the library would have paid not only for materials but for labor as well. It seems furth. CT Justified when we realize that in doing this work we were co. operating with the federal emcr- gency relief administrations in giving employment to a number of men over a period of some months.
 WORK OF THE LIBRARY
 The total number of books cir- culated during the year was 44B,847 as against 529,O49 in 1898 and 588,465 in 1882. This represents a 10 per cent loss in 1888 and a 14 per cent loss in 1884, or a net drop of 24 per cent from the record circulation of 1932 and carries us back al. most to the 1927 level and the years before the depression. Losses in circulation were re- ported pretty generally through out the system but principally In the adult departments. The only lation of children's books through the school deposit col- lections and the gain here was a very slight one. The total circu- lation recorded was distributed as follows:
 Adult department
 of the main
 library .44h per cent Children's room of
 the main lib-
 rary .14h per cent Brooklyn branch.. 7M per cent Rose Hill branch. 6 per cent Waterville branch. per cent School deposits. .23 per cent Fairgrounds and
 ot her special
 deposits ..001s per cent
 There was no noticeable de- crease in the number of people using books, magazines and newspapers in the reading and reference rooms of the central library.
 Request for information an. swered by the reference. de- partment numbered S692; re- quests for information answered by the business and industrial department numbered 2b1l. This Is net gain of 149 ques- tions,
 40 school visits were made by members of the childrens de- pertinent staff.
 ga classes came to the chil- dren's room for instruction in the use of the library.
 24 weekly radio talks were t... IA rk t,as, Station WATR.
 This last mentioned activity was a new venture for the lib- rary. Through 1t we hope to make the library better known to the people of Waterbury. A few of the talks given are list- ed:
 Books for vacation reading.
 Connecticut's tercentenary.
 With Louis Adamic in Yugo. slavia Following the assassina- ton of King Alexander).
 Books which may have es- caped you.
 Leisure time activities.
 Business books on parade.
 Make this a book Christmas.
 THE BOOK COLLECTION
 From the founding of the lib- rary in 1869 the book collection was added to and built up year by year until the years 1883 and 1884. In 1888 and again In 1884 the number of books added did not offset the number worn out or discarded as obsolete. This Is a matter for some concern since many of the books on the lib- rary's shelves today arc also ready to be discarded for they can scarcely be said to ,havo wlthstood the wear and tear to which they were subjected, dur ing the depression years. How ever, many of these worn out books are kept on the shelves because the library with | 50 per cent reduction in it's book appropriation cannot hope to replace them and at the same time tuy even 6 representative selection of the new books pub. lished each year. It may be pointed out that the circulation haa drnfned and that nraaufn.