THE COMMUNITY THAT WOULD HAVE A LIBRARY By Reba Wakefield Betty Jean, a neighborhood doll, sits in the store window of the Hamline Branch Library in St. Paul, inviting the children to come in and read. A nue. a LMOST twenty years ago a few for- Later the Main Library assumed the obli ward-looking persons decided that their gation of financing the station, moving it to community in St. Paul should have a library. a more convenient location on Snelling AveA deposit station was procured from the Pub- Here the circulation increased rapidly. lib Library and housed in a millinery shop, It was about this time that a library site the shop-keeper being paid by the library on was purchased, the money being raised by the basis of one penny per book circulated popular subscription, and given to the city. This deposit of books was moved from place to place until 1914, when the Mothers' Club The library in a store of a nearby school came to the rescue. They In 1919, because it seemed unwise to conrented and furnished two rooms. A larger tinue the station on a penny-a-book basis, a collection of books was secured and the library assistant was put in charge. A perneighborhood postmistress agreed to take manent collection of books was started, formcharge of it in connection with the postal ing the nucleus of a branch library. Again station. The Mothers' Club urged everyone in 1921 the branch was moved to a larger to take books. One cheerful mother came store building where it still continues to give often, selected an armful of books at random, the best service possible with the present had them charged, and left feeling that she equipment. had performed a civic duty. Thus the cir- That the Hamline Branch should not reculation increased. main in these cramped quarters but should ous have a building adequate to the needs of the E. Churches. F. Allied Social Agencies. community was the object of a survey' made by the librarian in 1925. It is a study of II. Building and Equipment. the Hamline Community involving those so A. Present location. cial groups served by the present library facil B. Tentative plans for a new library building. ities, and those whose interests may be served in the future by an enlarged branch III. Book Collection. with a modern, adequate building and equip- IV. Organization. ment. With the charts, maps, and pictures, V. Staff. it was an illuminating study, and has proved Our community is in that part of St. Paul very helpful. called Midway, a rapidly growing district, fast becoming a center of education and of Outline of survey industry. All data given in the survey refer The survey was divided in the following to an area inclosed by a circle drawn with way: a mile radius, having the Hamline Branch as I. Community. the center. The estimated population of this A. Size. area (1920 census) was 17,700 people. B. Type of population. In order to obtain some idea of the variC. Location of Branch Library judged nationalities represented, questionnaire by : cards were sent to all the schools of the 1. The distance from the Public community. The result obtained compared library and other branches. 2. Nearness to local business or so closely with that of the 1920 census reresidence center. port that we used it as a basis for the na3. Convenience to carlines and tionality chart CANADA residents SNORWAYS prove the need of a library Circulation increase. circulation. Per capita circulation. DENKIN 144 Exhibits. Bulletin boards. I. What proportion of teachers Chart I tion of Nationalities in an area of 17,700 population 3. Talks given in schools. served by the Hamline Branch of St. Paul. 4. Instruction given school children. We found that the majority of our patrons 6. Number in the community. are conversant with the English language. Of (1) Under the direction of Prof. A. Z. Mann of the Sociological Dep't of Hamline University. at Northwestern University. (2) We were indebted to the City Planning Board for many excellent maps and other material. a. I. a. to Now the foreign born the Scandinavian race predominates. The branch does not own a collection of foreign books, but has a small collection borrowed from the Main Library. This is changed as often as necessary. Educational center The Hamline community is an educational center. There are four grade schools, two parochial schools, a junior high school, an academy, a college, a Bible school, and a University. Besides these we give service to students of other high schools and colleges. It may also be called a religious center for it has nine churches of various denominations. There is a live Midway Club, a progressive Commercial Club, two wide-awake ParentTeacher associations, a local Y. M. C. A., and five active women's clubs. The Hamline Branch Library is housed in a store building, one story in height, and has a floor space of 48 x 22 feet. The light is obtained from the plate glass windows in front and side, and one small window in the The problem of ventilation is still unsolved. rear. Ideal location The Hamline Branch Library is located in the right place. It is within walking distance of the schools, near the transfer point of iwo car-lines, and it does not encroach upon the territory of any other branch. It is in the heart of the business district, and in the center of a residential section whose population continues to increase. The character of the people in this community will undoubtedly remain the same as the presence of Hamline University tends to stabilize the type of people. The City Planning Board has made this a residential zone with the exception of the main business center. The people for the most part are booklovers. They want their children to learn to love and to appreciate good books. The statistical records of the library show exceptional growth. The juvenile and adult circulation are almost the same. The circulation of non-fiction is increasing. The reference books are constantly in use, as are the clipping, picture and pamphlet files. The circulation increase from 1919 to the present date has been remarkable. See Chart II. Altho we have the smallest book collection of any branch in the city, we have the largest circulation. See Chart III. Furnishings Every bit of space has been utilized to the best possible advantage so that the room does not look crowded or cluttered. There are fourteen golden oak chairs, four black windsor chairs, and eight red kindergarten chairs, but in spite of the heterogenous collection, the library has a very cozy and homey atmosphere. A special effort is made to keep it neat and attractive. The wee tots love their little red chairs and their small table plentifully supplied with scrap books. Specialized collections needed Our book collection is growing slowly. We are looking forward to the time when we can have more specialized collections—more books on electricity, plumbing, drafting, and automobile repair for the mechanics; more books on salesmanship, advertising, accounting, and commercial law, for the business man; books on first aid, hygiene, physiology, nursing, and psychology for the student There are two large hospitals in the community each having a large corps of Use of window space Being in a store building we have made excellent use of our window space for advertising purposes. One Christmas we had a fireplace with suggested book gifts arranged about it; another Christmas we had books on the life of Christ, and beautiful editions of Bible Stories exhibited against a blue background on which the Three Wise Men were silhouetted. During Children's Book Week, Betty Jean, a neighborhood doll, visited us and helped to display our books. It was a disappointment to give up this space, but our rapid growth necessitating more shelving room forced us to have low shelves built in both windows. We can, however, use the back of these shelves for posters and exhibits of various kinds. nurses. Chart II MONTHLY CIRCULATION CHART, showing the circulation of the Hamline Branch each month from January, 1920, to December, 1927. 10500 100000 95000 10000 90000 85000 80000 9000 75000 70000 65000 8000 60000 1927 55000 1926 1925 50000 7000 45000 40000 1923 1922 1924 35000 6000 35000 30000 25000 1921 5000 20000 15000 1920 10000 5000 4000 1000 AKLINGTON Rirt kview SI ANTHONY MARCI 3000 Chart III COMPARATIVE ANNUAL CHART, showing the annual circution and also the book collections of the four branch libraries in St. Paul, 1920-1927. MAKING A BIBLIOGRAPHY By Monroe N. Work O bibliography as something "ok interest . NE does not of making of a But such has been the case in the compiling of the Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America. This work, which has extended over a period of more than twenty years, has had a number of steps, and withal an interesting development. Vore than twenty years ago the writer, then a teacher of history at the Georgia State Industrial College, Savannah, became interested in the study of Africa. To carry on this study he secured books from the Library of Congress. To assist in systematizing the information collected he began to make a bibliography of the references. It came to his attention that the Library of Congress had cards on Africa which could be purchased. At a considerable sacrifice, the cards relating to Africa, several thousand in number, were purchased and a regular subscription to receive additional cards on Africa as they were listed by the Library was entered. Editor of Negro Year Book In 1912 the writer issued the first edition of the Negro Year Book. One section of it was a "Select Bibliography of the Negro" which contained 408 references. This was the beginning, in a systematic way, of the compiling of A Bibliography of the Negro. In each subsequent edition of the Negro Year Book the amount of the bibliographical material was increased and its scope widened. The writer, because of the increasing demand for bibliographical materials relating to the Negro, felt the need of a more ext led and comprehensive bibliography on this subject than had hitherto been published. In 1921 he collected the bibliographies which had been issued on the Negro and found that no one of them was at all extended or comprehensive. Atlanta University Studies No. 10, A Selected Bibliography of the Negro, compiled in 1905, contained 1,992 alphabetically arranged but unclassified references. In 1906 the Library of Congress compiled a bibliography, A Select List of References on the Negro Question. This contained 522 alpha betically arranged but unclassified references. The bibliographical section of the 1921-22 Negro Year Book contained 1,927 classified references. Carnegie grant In 1921 through a grant from the Carnegie Cooperation of New York to the Department of Records and Research of the Tuskegee Institute, the writer was enabled to begin systematically to compile an extended and comprehensive Bibliography of the Negro. All cards in the Library of Congress relating to the Negro were purchased. These were in addition to the cards that had been accumulating on Africa. It was felt from the beginning, that just as the Negro Year Book had been gradually developed from a national to a world standpoint, so this Bibliography of the Negro should be a compilation of references relating to the Negro throughout the world. It was thought that it would be best, however, to have the first edition consist entirely of references relating to the Negro in the United States. After working on this special compilation for five years and collecting more than 30,000 references of all sorts on the Negro, a classified list of some 10,000 references was compiled as a select Bibliography of the Negro in the United States with an appendix on the Negro in Africa. Negotiations to have the same published were begun. Dr. Stokes suggests amplification About this time, however, Dr. Anson Phelps Stokes, President of the Phelps-Stokes Fund and a trustee of Tuskegee Institute while on a visit to the institution during the 1926 Founder's Day week, chanced to see the bibliography and immediately became interested in it. He stated that it would be an important contribution to the literature relating to the Negro and suggested that the materials on Africa be increased and that the manuscript be submitted to an expert bibliographer. Thru the good offices of Dr. Stokes the manuscript was submitted to Dr. W. A. Slade, Chief Bibliographer of the Library of Con |