Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-12-27
Library Extends Helpful Hand
To Thousands of Newcomers
Full Resources Made
Available Quickly,
Says Miss Herbert
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

AT its Central Library, seven
branches an six sub branches, the
librarian and staff Of the Washing
ton Free Public Library are meeting
the constantly varying and totally
unprecedented needs of thousands
of newcomers in this wartime city,
by means of trail-blazing type of
general information service. This
has won the complete approval of
its board of trustees and Of those
whom it serves with rapidity that
must be as current as today's news.
Our Public Library" according
to Miss Clara w. Herbert, the Ii
brarian, sis still fundamentally
tool of scholarship and a repository
OF the culture of the ages. But its
war aim, is to make its full resources
quickly and easily available to the
largest possible number of indivi-
duals who may require them as an
aid to the problems of their daily
life and living as for nourishment
to their souls"
How well this aim is working out
into practice was exemplifed in our
afternoon visit with Miss Herbert,
Ralph l.. Thompson, ranking as
sistant librarian, Mrs. Helen T.
Steinbarger, reader consultant in
adult education, and several of the
branch librarians.
Many Calls for Service.
BY virtue of their training and
special fitness, library assistants on
the general information switch
board at the Central Library, man
age to give the answers to every
imaginable kind of a call for service.
The some 80 queries which we lis
tened in on ran gamut of human
interest. They ranged from those
of anxious mothers desiring recipes
for cookies that could be sent very
long way to sons in the armed ser
vices, to war brides requiring help
on running households for two on
limited budgets, and the secreteriat
of various broadcasting studios, re-
questing immediate information on
specific location and pronunciation
OF geographical names, that literally
encircled the globe.
Perhaps as many as 20 distressed
and harassed newcomers to our city
none to politely demanded where
and how they could obtain the
necessary ration cards of which they
found themselves in immediate
need. Since library auditoriums at
the Mount Pleasant, Petworth,
Southeastern and Southwestern
branch libraries have been turned
over to the use of the rationing
boards for the several districts in
which they are located, the Central
Library does not attempt to answer
specific rationing questions in de-
tail, but in each instance supplies
the telephone number of the ration
Ing district in which the individual
lives. In innumerab{e cases, how
ever, library assistants at the vari-
Gus branches and subbranches have
endeavored to interpret the ration
ing forms to puzzled readers re-
questlng this service, and have
helped them to set down the an
sWers they have worked out in the
appropriate columns.
Reader Interest Query.
A refreshing reader interest query
came from an eager-voiced young
Californian who said that when she
left Los Angeles she was on the third
paragraph on page ITO of a certain
best seller, and hoped she wouldn't
have to cut too much of the red
tape she had heard so much about
in Washington before she could get
a copy of this book AS we hurried
on to one of the branches, she was
on her way to fill out her Wash
ington Public Library card.
The most GREATNESS telephone in
qulry to date was made by a marine.
IN town for few hours, who said
that he was In a terrible hurry, and
hoped he might be directed to the
Stage Door Canteen with as little
passing Of the buck as possible.
Later, he spent another nickel to
express his thanks, and to say that
he had not been disappointed.
AT the Southeastern branch, which
is near the Navy Yard, tall, ruddy,
young sailor, newly arrived from a
Great Lakes Navy training center,
was shyly asking the librarian in
charge whether she had some books
on marriage, for he was thinking of
tying the matrimonial knot. Some
directions as to how to find the
marriage license bureau might come
In handy, too, just in case his girl
decided she would meet him here
to get married. A Merchant Marine
ship survivor was interested in a