USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1873 > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29
EXAMINATION OF THE LIBRARY.
The annual examination of the circulating department lias been made during the past as in preceding years. It was made · last July, immediately after the introduction of the new system of delivery, and its conduct was greatly facilitated by this system. Of the books found missing at the time of the examination, 170 remain still unrecovered. This number of books would seem to indicate that the abuse of the privileges allowed here was increas- ing over that of former years, and there is reason for congratula- tion that we now have a system which ensures the safe return of books.
As stated elsewhere, only two volumes have disappeared during the last five months, and these are books of trifling value.
On the other hand, contrary to the belief of many, a consider- able portion of the losses hitherto have been of solid and rare books.
We have been somewhat troubled during the year by the leak- ing of the roof of the Green library room. Only a few books were injured, however, before the source of the trouble was dis- covered. A remedy was at once applied, which it is believed will prove effectual in preventing a recurrence of the annoyance.
LOWER READING ROOM.
It probably has not escaped your notice that an increasing air
297
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
of refinement is coming to pervade the lower reading room. The proprieties of life are well observed there. Rude manners and vulgar practices are almost banished from the rooms. Hats are generally kept removed. The absence of provision for ex- pectoration is cheerfully acquiesced in. Conversation, when engaged in at all, is conducted in very low tones. The change has been effected by the presence in the room during the hours of the week when most used, of an attendant who feels a real interest in effecting the desired object, and who has tact in realizing her purposes without giving offence. No dissatisfaction has been expressed at the efforts made to bring about a change. None has been felt, I imagine. Nobody seems to feel more under restraint now than before.
Under the supervision of the committee on the building, I have had considerable tidying done in this room, and its present neat appearance, and the air of refinement which pervades it make it a suitable place for ladies to use as well as gentlemen.
I wish to call your attention to the crowded condition of the racks for the papers, and to say that others will have to be soon provided.
SUNDAY READING.
In the last annual report of the Committee on the Reading Room occurs the following paragraph :
" The Committee have been called upon to establish rules for the use of the Reading Rooms on Sundays, and they are now open to the public every day in the year. The experiment will be closely watched by our own citizens, and will attract much attention elsewhere. While this Committee is unanimous in favor of the movement, and is sanguine of its success, it is too early now to record results. At the close of another year a full report of the new undertaking can be given."
A year has now passed, and it is my duty, as the person in whose charge the rooms were placed by the board of directors, to report the results of the undertaking.
The rooms were opened to the public for the first time December 8, 1872, and have been open every Sunday since, between the hours of 2 and 9 P. M. The librarian has been in attendance for two hours in the afternoon, namely, from 3 to 5
298
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 28.
o'clock. An assistant has been present for the whole time the rooms have been open.
The number of persons who have used the rooms on the fifty- two Sundays beginning with December 8, 1872, and ending with November 30, 1873, is 5706. Of this number 2979 have visited and used the upper reading room, and 2727 the lower room. Thus, upon an average, say, 110 persons have read in one or the other of the rooms every Sunday ; the average attendance for the upper room for the whole year being about 574, and for the lower room about 522. The attendance in the lower room it will be seen has been somewhat smaller than in the upper. This difference is easily accounted for when it is remembered that the lower room is devoted almost exclusively to news sheets, of which no Sunday issues are taken here. These being somewhat stale, a larger number of persons is naturally attracted to the upper room, where the pictorial papers and magazines are kept, and where some one is constantly in attendance to provide enter- taining or instructive reading from the books in the different departments of the library. There has been a sprinkling of ladies among the visitors to the rooms on a large proportion of the Sundays of the year.
Fewer persons used the rooms in warm weather than during the colder months. For a few days in the hottest of the weather the number of visitors was very small, and those that came did not stay so long as at other seasons. This, of course, was to be looked for, being but a repetition of the experience of secular days.
The whole number of readers for the six months included between the dates of December 8, 1872, and March 30, 1873, and between the dates October 5 and November 30, was 3556. That is, about 137 persons used the rooms on the average every Sunday during the colder months. They were divided between the two rooms as follows : 72 visited the upper, and 65 the lower room, on the average, every Sunday during these months.
During the remaining six months, namely, those including the Sundays from April 6 to September 28, the whole attendance was 2150. 1111 of the visitors read in the upper room, and 1039
299
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
in the lower. The average attendance during these warm months was 43 in the upper, and 40 in the lower room, or 83 in all.
In winter, the upper room is more than filled, generally, and visitors find seats in the directors' room. The lower reading room is comfortably filled at the same season.
The Sunday showing the smallest attendance is June 15, when only 46 persons used the rooms. 214 persons came to the rooms March 30. This is the largest number that came in one day.
Many of the persons who come to the rooms on Sunday come also week days. There is a large number, however, who do not come on week days, but find leisure only to be here on the day of rest. It is noticeable that a large number of mechanics and clerks use the rooms on Sunday. Some of these come to study, others for entertainment. If encouraged to come, a large room could at any time be filled with boys to look at picture books.
Of the persons who come, by far the larger portion, of course, either help themselves to literature of the lighter sorts, or are provided with it. Workmen come and use bound volumes of an illustrated paper, or read a light magazine article or a newspaper from the country of which they are natives, or from that portion of the United States in which they were born, and find in such employment the highest intellectual recreation which, as a general thing, this class of persons is likely to avail itself of. Such per- sons are much pleased, oftentimes, to have an interesting boys' book put into their hands.
But young men of brighter minds and of earnest purpose use the rooms, and such not infrequently take occasion of the leisure of Sunday to get information to assist them in their daily occupa- tions
I cannot convey a better notion of the character of the reading done than to give a summary of the books used during the last three Sundays.
November 30th. Butler's Lives of the Saints, a work on Gymnastics, Glaisher's Travels in the Air, the Ingoldsby Legends, a life of Shakespeare, and a work on Physiognomy were furnished readers. One or two of the persons studied into the subject of Temperance, to prepare themselves for a debate on the compara- tive advantages of License and Prohibition. Another student
39
300
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 28.
called for Drawing copies. A book of travels and a work on Sea- manship were provided. Also, Hood's Whims and Oddities, and two volumes of Punch. Fourteen persons were supplied with vol- umes of the Graphic, the Illustrated London News, Every Satur- day, or Harper's Weekly ; the last, and particularly the volumes containing representations of scenes in the late Civil War in Ameri- ca, being decidedly the favorite. Seven stories and four unclassified books end the list furnished November 30. That is to say, upwards of thirty-eight persons were supplied with reading matter, or books to use in study, by the officers of the library, in addition to the number who helped themselves to information or entertainment by the use of the encyclopædias and dictionaries in various branches of knowledge, and the papers, magazines, and reviews. Not the least profitable reading, of course, was done by many of those persons using the latter appliances of knowledge, including as they do much-used dictionaries of Mechanics, Natural History, Biography, &c., and one hundred and seventy-five of the best English and American, with a sprinkling of German and French, periodicals, treating of subjects in general literature and knowl- edge, and in a large number of cases of specialties, interesting to a very considerable portion of our citizens.
Religious literature is used in moderate amounts, but I should say that the work done here on Sundays is supplementary to that done by the church, rather than of the same kind.
December 7th. The play of Robert Emmet, the German Sketch Book, a life of George III., a bound volume of Our Young Folks, a volume on conjuring, entitled Hanky Panky, a book of travels and Renan's life of St. Paul were furnished to readers. Persons interested in the debate on the methods of securing temperance were supplied with books as on the previous Sunday. The Metal Worker's Assistant was given to one man, a treatise on the Steam Engine to another. A third applied for and received a work on Mechanical Drawing. A volume of the London En- gineer was used and a work on Australia. These books, with numerous volumes of illustrated papers, were supplied in answer to applications, and, as stated above, were additional to the periodicals and to the books used from among those which per- sons can take from the shelves without asking permission.
301
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
Last Sunday (December 14) forty books were furnished to applicants. More than half of these were volumes of illustrated papers or stories. In the other half are included Gillespie's Land Surveying, Northcote on the Lathe, and a late treatise on Cotton Spinning. An elementary work on Physiology was supplied. Also two books of travel, Lamartine's Mary Stuart, Lincoln's History of Worcester, and Luebke's History of Sculpture, with other works treating of the Fine Arts. Volumes of Punch and Nast's Almanac were likewise used. The record here given of the books used the last three Sundays affords a correct notion of the character and amount of reading done here Sundays, gene- rally, in cold weather, and would seem to indicate that it is of as high a character as that engaged in by all but the strictest and most serious portions of the community.
The whole number of persons supplied with books for reading or study, upon application to the officers of the library, during the year, is 1143, or an average of about 22 persons a Sunday. Between April and October, the number of persons supplied with books is 349, or an average of about 132. During the six months included between the dates Dec. 8, 1872, and March 30, 1873, and October 5 and November 30, the whole number of persons who received books upon application is 794, or, say, 30} persons on the average.
The wisdom of the board in providing for the presence here on Sundays of a competent person during a portion of the day to give assistance to students and readers has been shown, I think, in many cases.
A spirit of investigation, it seems to me, which would have died out under discouraging circumstances, has not infrequently been stimulated by timely references to unknown sources of informa- tion, and in other ways.
The assistant who has been constantly in attendance Sundays does not find the work irksome or injurious to her health. Although always in her place in church Sundays, and continually employed during the week, her vigor remains unimpaired. In accordance with what I presumed to be your wishes, I have given directions that no unnecessary work is to be done here on Sun- day, and the attendant is thus enabled to spend a large portion of
302
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 28.
her time in reading, without detriment to the work of supervision and attendance. Should she wish at any time to be relieved of Sunday work, it would be easy to find some person to take her place who is but partially employed during the week, and would, therefore, have strength enough for the light work required here Sundays in addition.
The service rendered by myself during the two hours that I am present on Sunday has been laborious, sometimes, but never such as to interfere with my usual occupations on this day, or so severe as seriously to tax my strength.
Many of the Sunday readers stay here during the afternoon and come again in the evening. Most of them remain a considerable time and come repeatedly. All are orderly and quiet, the pro- prieties of the parlor never being violated.
I should judge that a large proportion of the readers are per- sons on whom the church has no hold.
It seems to me that in our Sunday work we are doing a great deal for the intellectual improvement of citizens, and are making use of an instrument which is a no inconsiderable aid to the church in raising the moral tone of the community.
CATALOGUES.
All books which have been placed in the Green Library or in the intermediate department the past year have been catalogued on cards. Other books belonging to the intermediate depart- ment, placed there before the year just passed, have also been entered on cards. All these cards can now be used, although they await revision at my hands. We now have a complete cata- logue of the books belonging to the two departments mentioned in the use of the manuscript catalogue, in book form, as supple- mented by the cards made during the past year.
Before long I hope we shall have a complete card catalogue of the two departments. You will remember that a card catalogue of the reference library was made during the years that this institution was administered by my predecessor, and that this catalogue was kept written up until within two or three years of my assumption of office. All that is now needed to give us a
303
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
complete card catalogue is to fill up a gap by entering on cards such books as were placed in the reference library subsequently to the disuse of the card catalogue, and previously to the revival of its use. This gap, although it covers a period of a few years, will be easily filled, for during these years we bought very few books for the library of consultation.
I hope that this gap will be filled during the coming year, but do not promise that it shall be, for other work that is more press- ing demands immediate attention. This is a piece of work that can be set aside for a short time without serious detriment to our interests.
A supplement to the catalogue of the circulating department has been prepared during the past year, and has already been sent to the printers.
Much care has been used in its preparation, to make it accurate and useful. It is difficult for persons unfamiliar with this kind of work to realize how laborious it is, when well done. The supple- ment has been made by Miss Sarah F. Earle, under my super- vision. The results will not be showy, but I am confident that users of the library will be able to find any desired book or books on a given subject with much greater ease in the use of this than in that of any previous catalogue issued by us.
I have not thought it wise to make a radical change in the character of the catalogue, but have rather aimed to enter into the spirit of the system already in use, and to perfect it. In the main, the system is a good one. It needed only to be improved in particulars and developed, and, above all, to be carried out with never-failing care.
The thanks of the directors are due to Miss Earle for her conscientious, intelligent, and efficient labors in doing this piece of work. I hope that she will soon be able to take almost the whole of the work of cataloguing upon herself, but recognize the fact that my 'services will always be called in requisition while there is but one person in the library corps who is expected to have a large knowledge of the contents of books.
A few more remarks about catalogues will have to be made when I come to speak of the work which, with your sanction, I hope to do in the coming year.
304
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 28.
I will only add, in this connection, that Miss Earle has, by a plan just adopted, been made responsible, under myself, for the whole work of cataloguing in the different departments of the library. In thus placing this work exclusive y in the hands of the person employed here to render this especial kind of service, it is believed there will be a gain in uniformity and in other respects of even greater importance.
ACCOUNT.
SAMUEL S. GREEN, Librarian, in account with the Directors of the FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY for the year beginning December 18, 1872, and ending at the close of the day, November 30, 1873 :
DR.
To balance in acc't December 18, 1872, $284 05
" Fines collected between Dec. 18, 1872, and Dec. 1, 1873,
422 55
" Catalogues sold between the same dates, 44 00
" Rent of School-room,
65 00
" Duplicate books sold,
12 00
" Sundries,
13 32
$840 92
CR.
By library service,
$434 44
" Postage stamps, post office bills, &c.,
82 23
" Expressage, truckage and charges for freight, 56 14
" Labor in cleaning library building,
23 55
66 66 for other purposes,
12 43
" Furniture, repairs, &c.,
10 34
" Stationery,
6 35
" Other running expenses,
39 53
" Balance to new acc't,
175 91
$840 92
Dec. 27, 1873. The above account of the Librarian has been examined by me and found correct.
H. A. MARSH,
Chairman of the Finance Committee.
305
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
The amount returned in the last report as received for fines during a year and eighteen days, is $480.73. Deducting from this sum, $26.37, the amount collected for fines from Dec. 1 to Dec. 18, inclusive, we find the receipts from this source for the financial year of 1871-2 to have been $454.36. The amount given in the present account as received in eighteen days less than the last financial year is, it will be noticed, $422.55. Add- ing to this sum, $26.37, the amount received during the eighteen days needed to complete the year, we have as the receipts from fines during the year 1872 and '73, the sum of $448.92. Thus it appears that the amount collected during the past year is $5.44 less than that received the year before. This result is owing, evidently, to the operation of our new system of delivery, and it will at once appear that our income from fines will be much less in the immediate future than it has been heretofore, if we com- pare the monthly amounts received during different portions of last year with those received during corresponding months of the previous year.
During the earlier portion of the year 1871-2 the following sums were received :
In December,
$35 08
" January,
41 44
" February, 34 01
" March,
32 71
" April,
34 58
" May, 37 93
" June,
37 13
In all, in the first seven months,
$252 88
During the earlier portion of the year 1872-3 the following sums were received :
In December,
$47 17
" January,
48 39
" February, 38 20
" March,
42 09
" April,
41 11
" May,
45 36
" June,
36 59
In all, in the first seven months,
$298 91
1
306
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 28.
Thus it appears that more, by the sum of $46.03, was received for fines in the first seven months of last year than in the first seven months of the year preceding, and that a larger sum was received from this source every month of the last than in the corresponding month of the year before, with the single exception of the month of June, when the receipts were 54 cents less last year than in June of 1871-2.
But beginning with July of last year, when the new system came into use, a change appears.
Thus, in 1872, the following sums were received :
In July,
$36 33
" August,
38 18
" September,
41 08
" October,
41 64
" November,
44 25
In all, in five months, $201 48
In 1873 have been received the following amounts :
In July,
$42 49
" August,
23 13
" September,
27 35
" October, 33 02
" November, 24 02
In all, in five months, $150 01
From these figures it will be seen that less, by the sum of $51.47, was received for fines during the five months of the operation of the new system than in the five corresponding months of the year before. They also show that during every month of the five, the receipts were less in 1873 than in the corresponding months of 1872, with the single exception of the month of July. July is exceptional, evidently, for the reason that fines, which had accumulated for delinquencies under the old system, were paid in during this the first month of the use of the new.
These disclosures are the more noticeable when it is borne in mind that during every one of the seven earlier months, while the amounts received for fines were larger, the circulation of books was smaller than in the corresponding months of the previous year, and in the aggregate much smaller.
307
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
On the other hand, during every month we have used the new system, while the amount received from fines has been smaller in 1873 than in 1872, the circulation has been larger in 1873 than in corresponding months of 1872, and in the aggregate larger by 3431 books.
The amount paid out for services of additional attendants during the last year has been, according to the account, $434.44. This sum should be enlarged $100, as this amount has been paid out of the city treasury. Thus $534.44 has really been spent during the year for the service of other than the regular attend- ants. The sum expended during the previous year for the same purpose was $308.74.
The increase thus observable was anticipated, and has been rendered necessary by the amount of work done on catalogues during the year. An extra assistant is now employed here the whole of every day. As it is certain that there will be constant. employment here during the coming year (and always hereafter, I presume) for an additional assistant, I ask you to consider whether it is not wise to elect one, regularly.
BULLETINS.
It has been the custom of the library to issue once in, say, six years, a new catalogue of the books in the circulating department. Supplements to this have been printed once in, perhaps, two years. During the time that has elapsed between the issue of a cata- logue and supplement, or between the issue of two supplements, or of a supplement and a new catalogue, the only notice given to users of the library, of additions, has been by manuscript lists, posted in the reception room. The number of books now added, and the great use made of them seem to me to render this old method inadequate. I ask you to consider, therefore, the advisa- bility of issuing a quarterly bulletin of the books placed in the library. The desire for such an additional facility in the use of the library is wide-felt, and it will be found, I think, that citizens will buy a considerable edition of the bulletin if copies are placed
40
308
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 28.
at the low price at which they can be afforded. I think there is no doubt that the usefulness of the library is increased by all means that are taken to let citizens know what books are here, and it is certain that the comfort of borrowers would be greatly enhanced by the use of such an instrument as the issue of an occasional printed list of additions. A bulletin would also afford means of communicating with our patrons, additional to those already generously afforded by the newspapers of the city.
In order that you may act intelligently in this matter, I have obtained estimates of the cost of such a publication, and, with the sanction of the committee on finance, have put into the esti- mate of sums of money needed for the coming year, the sum of $200, to defray the expense of such an undertaking.
Such an expenditure contemplates the issue of the bulletin in an economical form, with a single entry of every book added to the library, and provides for an edition of 1000 copies. As stated above, a large portion of the expenditure would undoubtedly come back to us in consequence of the disposal of copies at a low price to users of the library.
WORK DONE IN THE PAST YEAR.
The routine work done here has increased immensely during the last three years. The number of books now added to the library annually partially explains the increase, for these must all be selected carefully, bought economically, catalogued, la- belled, and assigned to their proper places on the shelves. The catalogues now in use are fuller and require a greater expendi- ture of time in preparation than formerly. More time has to be taken, also, in operating the new system of accounts with borrowers, and in exercising a more careful supervision of the different rooms. The use of some departments has grown won- derfully, and in directions which require much attention on the part of librarian and assistants. Generally it may be said, that while labors have been extended in various directions, and new labors undertaken, the work here is being done more and more intelligently and thoroughly, every year.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.