Evening star., 1951-09-30
Library Seeking
a Branches and
New Bus Unit
FiseoI 1853 Budget
Is $235,360 Higher
Than This Years
By Horriet Griffiths

The District Public Library pro-
poses to set up branches in Cleve-
land Park, Congress Heights, Fair
fax Village and Benning, as we'll
as to strengthen it's Bookmobile
service in the fiscal year beginning
next July /.
Funds for these purposes are in
the Library's $1,991 $50 budget es-
innate for the year, made public
by Commissioners last night. The
total is $235, 800 higher than this
years appropriation.
Application Pending.
The Cleveland Park service
would be established in the new
building authorized for this fiscal
year. Application is pending with
the United States Office of Edu-
cation for authority to begin con-
Struction in early 1852.
The National Production Au-
thority has authorized the educa-
ton Office to control ALLEGATION of
materials for schools and libraries,
District officials explained.
The library seeks $128,218 for
equipment, books, personnel and
other items for this new branch.
The three other new branches
would be set up in rented quarters
at an outlay of $137.819. Additional
money is sought to buy branch
sites in the Tenley, Congress
Heights and Fairfax Village areas.
Building "Outgrown."
The library said Tenley has been
served since 1927 by a branch To-
Gated in an old former police sta
ton, outgrown and inadequate.
Cited as an ideal branch loca-
ton in the area was the south
west corner of Wisconsin avenue
and Albemarle street NV, site
of the Janney School.
The estimates include $10,360
for plans and specifications for
the branch, to cost an estimated
$259,000.
The Congress Heights and Fair
fax Village areas do not have
convenient access to any library
facilities, the library said. The
Bookmobile, cannot meet the de-
mand. Rented quarters are pro-
posed, but the library wants to
get sites for permanent buildings
later.
Circulation is High.
The estimates also propose to
spend $38,500 for a second Book
mobile. In the fiscal year just
past, the Bookmobile circulation
was 1900 volumes. In June.
hourly circulation average was
1872. as compared with SOL at
Mt. Pleasant, the largest branch.
A second Bookmobile is needed,
the library said. if the trustees
revised branch development pro-
gram, which cuts the number of
proposed new branch buildings
from 81 to 10, is to succeed.
While the need for the facili-
ties is recognized, it was felt
another Bookmobile in addition to
the present one would allay the
need. The Bookmobile also would
be used, as is the first, to protest
locations before further plans are
made for new branches.
The library wants SO new en-
ployes, including staffs for the
four new branches and the Book
mobile. 1t proposes an organiza-
tion and methods examiner to
continue application of sound
management techniques and prac-
tIces to its operation.
S180,00O For Books.
Another library objection for
fiscal 1853 is to develop and i'm
prove its book collections, partic-
ularly at Central Library. Pro-
posed for expenditure on books is
$4,000, an increase of $65, 900
over this year.
The libreary seeks $26,200 to
modernize electric lighting at the
Central Library and Mt. Pleasant
Southwest and Petworth Branches.
1t asks $11.750 to rework lawns
at the Petworth, Georgetown. Ten
ley, Northeast and Chevy Chase
Branches.
Like other agencies, the library
has run into higher costs. Cards,
for instance, cost 68 per cent more
than they did in 1948.
Among new equipment requests,
the library asks for three Readex
machines. These, it said, will make
it possible to save space and get
important reference tools not now
in the collection at reduced cost.
An outlay of $46,50O is proposed
for completing renovation of the
Central Library basement. BY per-
mitting use of space now largely
wasted, the project is expected
to add to the life and usefulness
OF the building, now being sur