Evening star., 1951-05-03
Falls Church, Va, Is One for the Book
By Mary McGrory

TT MORE and more Americans are
sitting in the dark with their eyes
glued to screen across the living room,
you couldn't prove it by the Falls Church
Library. In that thriving little inStitu-
ton. they just can't get enough of an
earlier invention Of the late Johannes
Gutenberg.
While Prof. Hooton means that "tele-
vision Is reducing mankind to illiteracy,"
the number of card-carrying library pa
irons in Falls Church has scared to S.
600. Arlington and Alexandria though
their rooftops sprout thickly with TV
antennas- report similar boom. The
population of Falls Church has shot up
to 5000. Library circulation has kept
pace, with an increase Of 51.8 per cent
within the last year.
Just why there should be this bargain
counter-type rush for the printed word,
the gratified librarian, Miss Jewel Drick-
amer, doesn't really know. She has
little time to analyze the question,
Monday, some 500 books change hands
the month of March, over 5000 Of the
library's 10000 volumes were checked
out to readers.
Miss Drickamer, an alumna Of public
libraries in Cleveland, Hartford and the
District, has never seen anything quite
like the Falls Church contingent. They
are the most constant, avid public she
has ever known.
Most of the people who come rolling
up to the old Ellison house, where the
library has been quartered since Sep
tember, 1850, are people who have read
a book. Their taste Is excellent, and
very catholic And they expect Of the
library the kind Of reference service to
which city-bred library addicts are ac-
customed. They want to know every
thing-from how to make Elizabethan
Twelfth Night masks to the feeding
habits Of parakeets. And the staff
knows that the books are used. Train
ing You to Train Your Dog" for in
stance. an enormously popular item, has
chewed cover, attesting contact with
source most intimately concerned.
The library does a rushing business
In non-fiction as well as fiction, which
gives some indication that the readers
aren't just killing time. Some 26 inn
patient clients are down on the reserve
list for Boswell's London Journal"
Another 20 are waiting for Cecil Wood
ham-Smith's distinguished biography of
Florence Nightingale.
Besides their discrimination, the Falls
Church public appears to have solidarity.
The pilgrimage to the library is family
affair. Certain families have regular
nights Once inside, they scatter-father
to the nom fiction, mother to the maga-
zine rack and children to the juveniles
on the low shelves. Apparently, accord
ing to the staff, they are all haunted by
the thought that they may find them
selves without book. Most Of them
stock up with the maximum number al
lowed-5 per adult. 3 per child
every week. One public-spirited woman
from Vienna collects reading matter for
all her neighbors. Every Monday. she
staggers out with load of 20 books.
One patron, fairly typical, goes as
often as three times week, in company
with her husband and two children. I'VE
can't afford to buy books and we love to
read" she says.
1--WE never miss Monday. Yes, we
have television set. But if I'm deep in
{. book, won't stop to watch it-even
If it's program I'm interested in"
With such traffic In fair weather and
foul, the library has not been able to
maintain all the reflnements of cata-
loguing and processing dear to the
trained Librarians heart. Very often,
too, the calm of the Office is disturbed
by the children, who feel quite at home
there because they think it is a kitchen
as indeed, it is. It gives the library
coy air, with the newly shellacked
books drying on the white enamel stove
and books waiting for labels resting On
the drainboard of the sink. Every night,
the librarian puts into the oven the Jar
of money received in hardness fines.
The children also are much taken
with the secret stairway that is feature
Of the ante bellum manSion-just across
from the circulation desk. It is, of
course. little flip that your ordinary
library couldn't begin to provide Even
hardened Hopalong Cassidy fans sue
cumb.
In difference to the teen-agers, who
have suddenly begun coming In looking
for poetry. the librarian has set aside
a special poetry corner She doesn't
know yet if the demand will wear itself
out with the springtime.
Miss Drickamer has found the COM
munity more than willing to lend hand
at the library. The pamphlet rack was
made by cabinetmaker who dropped in
one day to find out what he could
do to help. The Womans Club of Falls
Church has voted 5000 for books,
particularly for children, and has pro-
vided volunteer worker for the library
every Thursday night-a gesture that
is especially appreciated, since the staff
has only one full-time worker besides
the librarian and five part-time assist
ants.
Upstairs in the library-where Miss
Drickamer hopes one day to see quiet
reference room far from the milling
borrowers-the Great Books" group
meets every other Thursday night.
Usually the Great Books Institute sug-
gests that organizers collect about 30
people, in the, expectation that the group
eventually will dwindle down to about
eight serious thinkers. The Falls Church
TIL: J IT,