USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > Town annual report of Andover 1940-1944 > Part 10
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In attempting any resumé of the year's activities, it is very difficult and almost impossible to do so without some preoccupa- tion as to what the future holds in store. Not for some time has that future been less certain. Never has it been more necessary that our public libraries be given increased support commensur- ate with their needs. Something of this thought is inherent in the statement made by John W. Studebaker, United States Commis- sioner of Education that "when people are burning books in other parts of the world, we ought to be distributing them with greater vigor for books are among the best allies in the fight to make democracy work."
Our constantly growing circulation-the 1940 circulation represents practically an 80% gain over 1930-seems good proof that Andover people have thought of their public library as one of the best of distributing centers for in the last decade they have borrowed a total of 960,414 books, many of which were read for entertainment and inspiration, many also for that kind of in- formation so essential to the formation of sound judgments.
The circulation gain for 1939 was 10%, for 1940 only 6%. No doubt increased employment due to defense preparations, more use of the radio due to growing tension in world affairs, the na- tional election, the active participation of many people in Red Cross and other relief work have taken time which might other- wise have been spent in reading. It is interesting that the begin- ning of a definite trend toward a loss of circulation in the adult department coincided with such world-shattering events as the fall of France, the evacuation of Dunkerque and the German bombing of England. Circulation figures often react very sensi- tively to economic, social and political upheavals. 68% of the year's gain was in books loaned to boys and girls which seems a very good omen for the future welfare of the library.
Adult fiction represented 68% of the total adult books circu- lated compared with 70% in 1939. It is significant that 98% of
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the gain in circulation of adult books was in the issue of books of non-fiction which may be an indication that people are turning to the more serious type of book. Biography led the field of non- fiction with Fine Arts a close second and Applied Arts and Litera- ture not far behind. The increased use of books in the field of Useful Arts and Applied Science may well be a trend of the times showing increased employment in the mechanical trades and defense industries. One might have expected greater use of books in the field of the social sciences. A slight increase in the circula- tion of books in this field is not sufficient to show any particular trend.
Last year the report called attention to the need for more ade- quate service to our outlying districts and for more specialized work with young people of high school age. We can report some progress in both directions.
On November 8, the library undertook a four months' demon- stration of bookmobile service to parts of Andover more than a mile distant from the Main Library. Since the new service has been in operation only two months, it is too soon to make any definite decision as to its success. Statistically the Book Bus can show a circulation of 1515 books divided very equally between books for adults and those for boys and girls and there has re- sulted an addition to the library of 84 new borrowers. That we have been able to undertake this experiment at this time has been in large part made possible because of the very generous gift of $200 from the Andover Evening Study Groups of Phillips Acade- my. We have also been extremely fortunate to have had the volunteer services of Miss Margaret Lane of Boxford, a trained librarian with long experience in work with boys and girls, who has given very generously of her time and effort each week on the Book Bus. It has been a thrilling experience to have gone out on the Book Bus and there are certain impressions and recollections that will remain with us always. For instance, we especially re- member the young radio enthusiast who, when shown copies of the Radio News, straight-way wanted to buy them; the little girl who so enjoyed "How It All Began" by Smalley that she wanted to keep it forever; the small black dog, our faithful visitor, who dashes excitedly from one end of the bus to the other and who seems quite competent to charge out books particularly when his small black paws are firmly planted on the bus charging desk;
.
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the girl who didn't really believe the Book Bus would come al- though she had read that it would; the busy mother, who in spite of limited time, wants to read the better books ; a teeming school bus load of children which disgorges its young passengers so quickly that the transfer from school bus to the Book Bus is made in a twinkling. Such statements as "At last something for the country people," or "If you'll only keep coming," are more eloquent than any other statement of fact as to how much the Book Bus has already meant to some communities.
This year the library has extended its services in a limited way to the high school library where, since last April in response to a request from both Mr. Hamblin and Mr. Sherman, the librarian has given two hours daily in a reader's advisory capacity. Since November Miss Ruhl has given this service at the school library each Friday. During the summer all the circulating books in the school library were reclassified and reaccessioned. A careful record of the circulation of books since September shows a total of 1262 issued. Approximately 305 boys and girls out of a total enrollment of 354 have made use in some degree of the Goldsmith Library this fall. Any measure of success which the library has had in this undertaking has been in large part due to the interest and cooperation of the high school. As was brought out in last year's report, the value of this service to boys and girls who live at a distance from the Main Library and who therefore do not have the equal freedom of its use, constitutes an important argu- ment for the extension of the library facilities to both schools.
For some time we have felt that in some instances boys and girls going on to high school have been lost to the library during the very time when it could be of great service to them. Last June in an effort to make the transition from the Boys' and Girls' Room to the Adult Department easier, boys and girls in the ninth grade visited the library where they were given an orientation tour, books talks and a vacation reading list. About 120 boys and girls signed for adult cards. An analysis of the books which they borrowed at that time was indicative of the diversity of interests among the same age groups. One group in particular of mechani- cally-minded boys must have gone away from the library with a very good idea of its resources in the fields of aeronautics, engin- eering, radio, shop mathematics and machinery. In addition a small section of the shelves has been set aside as a young people's
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collection which we hope may serve as a spring board to the larger collection.
The use of the Henry C. Sanborn Library at the Junior High School has grown by leaps and bounds as is shown by the circula- tion figures for the year. 5,905 books were loaned to boys and girls and teachers, an average of 595 books a month and an in- crease of 1633 over 1939. It would seem evident that most junior high school boys and girls would agree with the last statement of the boy who said, "You know, I never have been in a library be- fore. It's fun!" Since January Miss Robinson has been devoting five and one-half hours daily at the junior high school library and the increase in the use may well be traced to that fact.
On October 31, the Andover Junior High School and the Me- morial Hall Library shared in presenting to the Junior High School assembly Mr. John J. Cronan, story-teller for many years at the Boston Public Library, who has done much to introduce boys and girls throughout New England to fine books. Evidence of the enthusiasm with which Andover boys and girls received Mr. Cronan was shown in the requests for the books which he introduced-one book in particular being asked för by more than fifty boys and girls.
Instruction in the use of the library, the catalog and selected reference books was given by the staff of the Boys' and Girls' Room to 425 boys and girls in the seventh, eighth, ninth grades at the Junior High School, the seventh and eighth grades at St. Augustine's and the sixth, seventh and eighth grades at the Briggs-Allen School.
This has been a busy year in our Boys' and Girls' Room with many interesting activities carried on. Among them were a Spring Book Festival, Saturday morning reading and story hours, a vacation reading project and the annual Book Week celebration. The Book Week celebration this year took the form of a book fair. Mother Goose characters, dressed and loaned by Mrs. Mark Surette, vied with one another for the boys' and girls' interest. As befitting a book fair, the different days were given over to celebrations and A. A. Milne, Robert Louis Stevenson and John Newbery were among those honored. The week came to an end with a special book week story hour attended by about fifty children.
An increase in the circulation of books in the Fine Arts attests
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the interest of Andover people in this subject and may in part be due to the number of books on art and music which have been added to the library during the past year. A check-up on circula- tion reveals the great popularity of Peyton Boswell's "Modern Painting in America," Thomas Craven's "Treasury of American Prints," Rockwell Kent's "World Famous Paintings" and last year's favorite the "Treasury of Art Masterpieces." We have made a beginning in building up our collection of musical scores. Several opera scores, librettos, the Scribner Radio Music Library, collections of songs, five volumes of the Pianist's Music Shelf have been added during the past year. No one need doubt that there is a borrowing public for these books for they have been in constant circulation since their addition to the library. As a case in point the eight volumes of the Scribner Radio Music Library have circulated more than fifty times since mid-September.
Today we hear much about the need for vocational guidance and the library can perform an important function by providing up-to-date books and pamphlets on this subject and can and should aid all groups in the community which are concerned with guidance and placement. The several services to which the library has subscribed have been in constant demand and promise to continue to be.
We have attempted this year to build up a collection of pamph- lets and the circulation of 1307 this year compared with 24 last seems to indicate that there is a need for this type of material. In these days of constantly shifting opinion, swiftly moving world events, the most attractive, up-to-the-minute, concise and au- thentic information is to be found in such publications as Head- line Books, World Affairs Pamphlets, Town Meeting of the Air Bulletins and Propaganda Analysis. Together with pamphlets, magazines constitute the best source of timely well-written ma- terial on current issues and often make it unnecessary for the library to purchase each new book which makes its appearance on contemporary questions.
More and more the library should become the focal point for educational and cultural activities in the community. A first step in that direction was taken when a League of Women Voters' study group on the Development of American Democracy was held this fall in the library. Another innovation but one which deserves to become a custom was the meeting of the Parent-
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Teachers Association which was held in the library hall on Novem- ber 20. More than two hundred parents, teachers and friends attend- ed this meeting which was in celebration of Book Week. The pro- gram consisted of a panel discussion on the theme "Good Books- Good Friends" put on by the ninth graders of the Andover Junior High School, a book character parade and quiz sponsored by the Goldsmith Library Club of Punchard High School and brief book reviews by the Librarian and Children's Librarian. The Andover Book Store and the Corner Book Store generously loaned some of the attractive fall books which, with the book week posters and lovely flower prints, made the hall a very gay place. It was a cooperative affair from beginning to end and we are grateful to all who helped to make the evening a success. Such use of the hall seems a far more living memorial to the Civil War Veterans than a Memorial Hall which comes to half-life but once a year.
The library of today serves not only within its walls but recog- nizes a need of going out beyond the physical limitations of its building to serve wherever it can. In cooperation with the Ando- ver Evening Study Groups last winter, the library arranged a series of exhibits of pertinent books, magazines and pamphlets which were available for consultation and loan at practically every meeting of the course "Backgrounds of War." In tangible results the book exhibits may not have been a spectacular success since few books were circulated and few new borrowers registered. However the effort seems tremendously worth-while because it focused attention on the public library and the kind of books that one might reasonably expect to find there.
"What is America Reading?", a feature of one of the Sunday book review supplements lists each week the books in greatest demand the country over. Taken by and large these are the books in most demand at the Memorial Hall Library. We have had to buy several copies of "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Oliver Wiswell," "The Family," "I Married Adventure," "You Can't Go Home Again," "Mrs. Miniver," "How Green Was My Valley," "Tre- lawny" in order to meet the demand. Possibly posterity will be as interested in what we as a nation read in 1940 as we are in the books which were widely read thirty or forty years ago-the pro- totype of today's best sellers. Much social history can be written around the trend in books over a period of years.
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However the books of the past have not been entirely neglected for although they do not circulate so freely, there are always readers for them. Perhaps if, as it has been suggested, circulation were counted on some basis with relationship to real worth, the books of the past would not come off so badly.
In these days when many familiar and usual services are being reappraised, there has been within the ranks of the library pro- fession much discussion concerning the library's obligation to cater to the individual taste of every tax payer. With limited budgets and great demands upon them, some librarians contend that the purchase of trivial books is an unjustifiable use of public funds. By trivial books they mean no doubt so-called books of escape, books for casual reading. It is interesting that a member of the faculty of no less place than the University of Chicago argues that "escape reading has an important function in our present society" for he maintains that we need this type of read- ing the better to cope with the exigencies of present-day living. Be that as it may, we have always felt that it was important that people read even though what they read be not the highest type of literature and that entertainment is a legitimate by-product of reading. Let the library buy its books for escape reading and entertainment but let it also buy those books without which it can lay no claim to being an educational institution.
The interest which was shown in the exhibit of books purchased with the two hundred dollars given by the Andover Evening Study Groups last year should go far toward restoring one's faith that there are many people who appreciate books of perma- nent worth. Seventy people reserved fifty of the books in the ex- hibit. The variety of interests was shown in the books which they reserved : "Candide," "Winesburg, Ohio," "Collected Poems of Robinson Jeffers," "Abraham Lincoln: the War Years"-to mention but a few. It also proved what we have long known that fine editions with excellent print and illustrations do much to revive interest in good books. One boy asking if he could take home one of the books in the exhibit and being told that there was a copy on the shelf which he might have said, "But I don't want that copy. I want this one." It happened to be a copy of "Drums" with the Wyeth illustrations.
A library must be liberal in its policy of book selection or how else can it meet the needs of present-day society. We have heard
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of instances where libraries have been hampered by a too strict censorship. Many books of current fiction and non-fiction arouse differences of opinion and acerbated discussion, especially those which would advocate any change of things as they are. In the preface to one of her books Vera Brittain makes a very wise and penetrating observation. "Truth, I suppose, is at last achieved through the intermingling of contemporary impressions and judgments with the long distance view of those who look upon the panorama of the past from the citadel of time." The library must be the clearing house of diametrically opposed points of view, of the great ideas of the past, of the ideas of the present not perfectly formed, if it is to be a vital force in the community. Where else but in a library could one expect to find in such peace- able juxtaposition the books of men and women of violently op- posing opinion and yet all with some contribution to make to the search for truth?
We have been fortunate in the exhibits which have been loaned to the library during the year. Among them were: a printing ex- hibit loaned by Betty Bliss, a collection of early American coins, a collection of blue-opalescent hob-nail glass, both loaned by Everett Granville, two series of first day cover airmail stamps loaned by Fred Morrison Jr., and the almost complete issue of Tuberculosis seals loaned by Fonnie E. Davis.
The library purchased during the year the Smithsonian flower prints, the work of Mary Vaux Wolcott, wife of a former director of the Institute. These portfolios will not circulate but may be consulted at the library.
Through a service arrangement with Hale, Cushman and Flint, the library had a series of twelve Medici prints for exhibit during the year representing the old masters and the moderns.
The library is grateful to the many people who have given books and magazines and suggests that more people think of the library when they are disposing of books and magazines for which they no longer have a need. Gifts of several opera scores and librettos made a welcome addition to our music collection. We have already mentioned the Andover Evening Study Groups' generous gift. We thank the Adventurers for the gift of a two years' subscription to the Theatre Arts Monthly and for the book, "Masters of the Drama," and the Andover Historical Society for some useful additions of Andoveriana. Gifts such as
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these from individuals and organizations prove their interest in the library's well-being.
The Librarian has spoken before the following groups: the Bal- lardvale Parent-Teachers Association, the Ladies' Aid of the Bal- lardvale Congregational Church, the Woman's Alliance of the Free Church, the Town Affairs Study Group of the League of Women Voters, the Thimble Club, the Sunday School Teachers of the Baptist Church and the Tuesday Club. She has also served as a judge at the Barnard Prize Essay Contest, the Prize Essay Con- test of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and together with the Children's Librarian as a judge at the Central Schools' Prize Speaking Contest.
The library was represented at the following professional meetings: the mid-winter meeting of the Massachusetts Library Association, the American Library Association Meeting at Cin- cinnati, the Northfield Meeting of the Massachusetts Library Association and the New England School Librarians' Meetings at Simmons and Durham. One member of the staff, Miss Robin- son, attended the summer session of the Columbia University School of Library Service. Professional meetings, continued train- ing and education are all of the utmost importance in building up and maintaining a professional staff spirit.
For the first time the library was closed three evenings a week during the months of July and August. The Boys' and Girls' Room was open weekdays during the same months from 9-12 and 2-5; Saturday, 9-12; an increase of approximately twelve hours a week more than in any previous summer. The library was also closed Christmas Eve.
Chief among the physical improvements carried out during the year were the additional changes in the lighting which included the installation of a four-tube miralume fluorescent unit over the charging desk, fluorescent units in the work room and office, five table lamps in the reading room and six hollophane stack lights in the fiction alcoves. Through the cooperation of the man- ual training department, the library now has a bulletin board in the vestibule where notices of educational opportunities and community activities are posted. Other improvements include the whitening of the ceiling in the Boys' and Girls' Room and the regluing and repairing of several tables and chairs.
Someone has said that the public library in the days ahead will
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assume an importance it has never held before and that it will in some measure determine the kind of thinking which is being done in the community. This is a grave responsibility and requires much of the library, its trustees, its librarian and its staff. It was far easier to be a librarian in the days long past when a librarian felt that her best work was being done when every book was in its appointed place on the shelf. Far easier perhaps but far less inter- esting and challenging. I think Archibald MacLeish has caught the vision of true librarianship when he says, "Keepers of books, keepers of print and paper on the shelves, librarians are keepers also of the record of the human spirit-the record of men's watch upon the world and on themselves. In such a time as ours when wars are made again the spirit and its works, the keepers, whether they wish it or not cannot be neutral." This is a high goal which we will not entirely reach but if we are aware of our role as keep- ers not merely of the book that is "cloth and paper" but its "intellectual image" also, we shall have gone a little way toward measuring up to it.
If a record of the year just past has been marked by progress, it is due in large part to the clear-sighted judgment of the Board of Trustees, to an interested and loyal staff, to all who have had the library's best interests in their keeping.
Respectfully submitted,
MIRIAM PUTNAM, Librarian
STATISTICS OF LIBRARY USE BOOK STOCK
Adult
Juvenile
Total
*Vols. at beginning of the year
28,341
5,698
34,039
Vols. added by purchase
1,365
774
2,139
Vols. added by gift
91
14
105
Vols. added by binding
42
2
44
Total volumes added
1,498
790
2,288
Volumes lost or withdrawn
274
214
488
Total volumes at end of year
29,565
6,274
35,839
Periodicals currently received (Titles, Copies)
63,77
*Verified July 1940
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USE
Volumes % of tot. circ.
Vols. of adult fiction loaned
52,274
44.6
Vols. of adult non-fiction loaned
23,368
19.9
No. of books for children loaned
41,425
35.3
Total number of volumes loaned
117,067
REGISTRATION
Adult
Juvenile
Total
Borrowers registered during year
510
204
714
Total number of registered borrowers
5,012
1,367
6,379
*Percent of population registered as borrowers
57%
Circulation per capita
10.5
Circulation per registered borrower *Based on 1940 census
18.3
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TOWN OF ANDOVER
Thirty- ninth Annual Report
of the
Board of Public Works
EMBRACING THE FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT of WATER COMMISSIONERS and FORTY- FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT of SEWER COMMISSIONERS
For the Year Ending DECEMBER 31, 1940
1941
WATER COMMISSIONERS
1889-1899 *James P. Butterfield *Felix G. Haynes
*John H. Flint
*Wm. S. Jenkins
*Wm. S. Jenkins
1899-1902
*John H. Flint *Wm. S. Jenkins *John L. Smith
*James P. Butterfield
*Felix G. Haynes
1903-1906
*John L. Smith *Felix G. Haynes *John W. Bell
*Lewis T. Hardy
James C. Sawyer
1906-1907
*Felix G. Haynes
*John W. Bell, Treas.
James C. Sawyer, Sec'y.
*Lewis T. Hardy *Harry M. Eames
1907-1908
*Felix G. Haynes *John W. Bell, Treas.
James C. Sawyer, Sec'y.
*Lewis T. Hardy *Andrew McTernen
1908-1912
*Lewis T. Hardy *John W. Bell, Treas.
James C. Sawyer, Sec'y.
*Andrew McTernen
*Willis B. Hodgkins
1913-1914
*Lewis T. Hardy ('16)
*Barnett Rogers ('16)
*Andrew McTernen ('15)
*Thos. E. Rhodes, Sec'y. ('14)
*Willis B. Hodgkins, Treas. ('15)
1914-1916
*Thos. E. Rhodes ('19)
*Barnett Rogers ('16)
*Lewis T. Hardy ('16)
*Andrew McTernen, Sec'y. ('18)
*Willis B. Hodgkins, Treas. ('18)
1916-1917
*Barnett Rogers ('19)
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