The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-02-04
$Nl,sls.64

yet keep 1t in character with .
 colonial house.
 Repair of an old English clock.
 How to remove iodine from cot-
 ton.
 A public library, if 1t plays an active part in the life of the com- munity, is not only aware of local. national and world events. It also anticipates their effect upon the lives of individuals and groups in the community. prepares for prob- able shift in the focus of public in- terests and needs, and is ready to meet demands before they are made. A year ago the functions of the Ma uonal Defense Council meant little to the average person, yet & year ago a report of the work of the Business and Technical Department of the Bronson Library mentioned the purchase. by that department of books on machine shop work be- cause those books were recommend ed by the National Defense Council. These books were subsequently, used for engineering defense courses given in Waterbury.
 This department today has fre- quent requests for information on bombs, fire fighting, bomb shelter construction, black-out materials and industrial camoufiage. It comes to the aid of the working man who nLc to odd $1 hta tnShr{ro1 efp}11 of the research worker engaged in finding substitutes to replace short ages in such vital materials as rub Der and various chemicals, of the factory executive asking for statis- tical tables on national production and consumption.
 Children's Department
 In summing up the work of the Childrens Department for the year, we are sorry to have to report that no school deposit libraries have been added to the ' listed at the end of l94O and 1t is unlikely that any more can be opened without a larger chil- dren,s department staff. This is unfortunate in view of the popu- larity of the deposit system, voiced by both pupils and teachers. Rec ordE show that children in the schools having this new and im- proved system read 8 books each during the school year, while chil- dren using the old box system read only IS books each. The first school deposit library ras opened in 1897 and the seventh early in 194O. AL though the outlook does not seem too hopeful at the moment, we look forward to the eventual conversion of the entire box system still in use in 20 schools. In the schools having the new deposit Sytem, g. collection of several hundred vol urnes on shelves in a library room" has replaced the old box system in use since 1904.
 Almost from the beginning of the year the children,s department has benefited from the use of IVA as- sistants. Assigned to routine work in the children's room at the cen- tral library. school or branch libraries. they have released staff members for much additional work of a supervisory nature. AS re- suit more than the usual number of classroom visits were made, addi- tional story hours were held, vaca- ton projects undertaken, special displays worked out and graded lists of books compiled and mimeo- grsphed.
 Victory Book Drive
 One of the most important con- tributions which the public libraries of the United States have been called upon to make so far in this war Is the particularly fitting task of collecting reading matter for the men in service today. While activi- ties of the Bronson Library in this Victory Book Drive are beyond the scope of this l941 report. 1t seems fitting that our recent work in this