Evening star., 1942-10-14
Public Library Reports

Perhaps never again in the expert
ence of any living person will library
facilities and services be simply what
they were before the start of the
second World War. No man or
woman or little child now considers
a library merely as a relatively
comfortable place in which to
read or from which to borrow
books for recreation only. Within
the past few months a fundamental
change has occurred in both the
demand made upon public libraries
and the methods devised to meet
that demand. Evidence of the de-
Velopment of new requirements and
new techniques is furnished by the
reports of the Board of Trustees and
the librarian of the Washington
Public Library, recently filed with the
Cor miSsioners of the District of
Columbia
Nearly 5000 new registered borrow
ers applied for books during the past
fiscal year. These patrons represent
an "intensifcation of peoples needs
for library service" They are not
idlers, seeking amusement, but,
rather, in large part Government
employees with y serious problems"
requiring assistance of one sort or
another. People turned to the
library for information in regard to
the causes of the war and the coun-
tries engaged in it; for the necessary
qualifications for service in the
armed forces, for regulations in con-
nection with civilian defense, for
books on nutrition, child care, voca-
tlonal material in preparation for
civil service examinations and for
books on personnel management and
other phases of Government work"
The librarian, Miss Clara w. Her
bert, quotes member of her staff
as finding that: Men going into new
technical positions ask about the
tempering of steel, the effect of weld
ing on the eyes, the use of plastics,
safety devices in air compression,
bouyancy and stability in ship build
ing, cotton classifying and marketing,
machine bookkeeping methods, radio
physics, personnel administration
information on all types of civil
service positions, especially as pur-
chasing agents, dietitians, naval
architects, mail carriers, typists and
file clerks. A great many young men
taking entrance examinations for the
Air Corps or Coast Guard ask for
quick reviews of science, mathe-
matics. history and current events.
Students and grownups come for
historical background material on
the European and Pacific struggles,
Wilson'S fourteen points, Munich,
pan-GermaniSm, the Tanaka plan
and Latin America"
Certainly, the library has become
"a great instrument for the diff
fusion Of knowledge more
and more a focal point in the COM
munity." Miss Herbert cites PreSi-
dent Roosevelt as saying libraries
are essential to the functioning
of a democratic society" and con-
tinueS: The aim of the public library
must be to provide the community
which 1t serves with the best books
in each subject at the time of great
est need. This means education,
In its more formal aspect, through the
widening Of horizons - The con-
slant aim Of the library Is to make
its full resources quickly and easily
available to the largest possible num-
Der of individuals both as tools for
living and 'nourishment for the
soul"
Reviewing such sentiments. the
average citizen will vision the library
as part of the national defense and
es part of the civilization which is
being defended. In both respects, it
justifies and merits its existence as
an institution publicly owned and
operated