USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I > Part 74
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 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104
It is pleasant to be able to record that if the library has suffered from want of a central library building, it has been unusually fortunate in the provision that has been made for branch library buildings through the munificence of Mr. Car- negie. The library was struggling along with the inadequate central facilities which have been described and with meager accommodations for branches lo- cated as opportunity presented for renting rooms, when in 1903, Mr. W. H. Brett, the librarian, to whom the city owes so much, obtained an interview with
580
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
Mr. Carnegie and presented to him the branch library needs of the city so per- suasively, that though he had before declined to aid the Cleveland library, for the reason that he thought so rich a city should provide for its own needs, he repented and donated two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the erection of seven branch libraries upon the sole condition that the city should provide the sites for the buildings and should pledge itself to maintain them at a total cost of not less than twenty-five thousand dollars a year. This generous proposal was promptly accepted and the required pledge given by the library trustees and the City Council, and thereupon the fund was made subject to the call of the Library Board. The procuring of sites and erecting of buildings was pushed so energetically forward that on July 18, 1904, the Woodland branch building was opened to the public.
This building is located on the south side of Woodland avenue, a short dis- tance east of its intersection with East Fifty-fifth street, Northeast, is of brick with stone trimmings, colonial in style with a frontage of eighty-two feet and a depth of one hundred and sixty-three feet, and is built upon a lot-as all library buildings should be-of sufficient size to provide a setting of lawn and trees. A wide corridor leads from the entrance to the office and the large room of the circulating department. On the one side of the corridor is the children's room and on the other is the reference room both separated from the corridor and the circulating department by plate glass partitions making supervision from a central point possible and practical. The building has a capacity for 25,000 volumes, there are three club rooms and ample provision is made for the comfort of attendants. Immediately in the rear of the circulating department is an auditorium with a seating capacity of more than six hundred. The building is in every respect admirably adapted to the purpose intended and of capacity sufficient to serve the section of the city to which it is devoted for many years to come.
On April 14 and 15, 1905, the St. Clair branch library building was opened to the public. It is a two story Colonial structure of red brick with terra cotta trim- mings, and is triangular in shape, with a frontage of one hundred and forty-six feet on East Fifty-fifth street, Northeast, and one hundred and twenty-four feet on Marquette street, and has capacity for 16,000 volumes. The lower floor is occupied by the circulating department, the reference and children's rooms and the upper story is an auditorium with seating capacity for over four hundred.
The Broadway Branch building was opened to the public on January 15, 1906. It is located at the intersection of Broadway and East Fifty-fifth street, North- east, is decagonal shape, of red brick and stone and is modern French renais- sance in style, with a capacity to shelve conveniently 25,000 volumes. In addition to providing for the circulating department there is a children's room, a reference room, a club room, a work room and an auditorium with seating capacity for 450 persons.
The Miles Park branch building was opened for use on March 23, 1906. This building stands in a small park furnishing abundant light and pure air with an appropriate setting of grass and trees. It is sixty-nine by one hundred and three feet in size, is of buff pressed brick and is provided with the same rooms for the
581
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
library work as the other branch libraries, will shelve 22,000 volumes and has an auditorium having a seating capacity of a little more than four hundred.
On January 23, 1907, the Hough Avenue branch library building was opened to the public with appropriate public exercises. The building is located on the easterly side of Crawford road a short distance southerly from its junction with Hough avenue, is of red brick and stone trimmings, is one story in height and is a fine example of renaissance architecture. It is provided with large and attrac- tive rooms for circulating, reference and children's departments, will easily con- tain 25,000 volumes, but is without an auditorium, although the lot is large enough to add a commodious one when the funds are available.
On February 22, 1897, the South Side branch was opened in a building built for library purposes according to plans approved by the board and leased to them on liberal terms by Mr. Frank Seither. This building is located on the corner of Clark avenue and Joseph street, is seventy-five feet in length by thirty-six in width and is of yellow brick with stone trimmings. It is not entirely suited to present day methods of library administration and is soon to give place to a larger one to be erected from the Carnegie donations.
On March 12, 1892, the first branch of the public library was opened and from its location on the west side of the river it has been known as the West Side branch. The description of this branch in the librarian's report for the year 1892, published with evident pride, shows better than pages I might write could do, the progress of our library and of library work in the eighteen years that have intervened. He says "The library occupies the entire second floor of the building No. 562 Pearl street; is ninety-eight by thirty-eight feet in size; is well lighted and has convenient study, toilet and janitor's rooms. The cases are placed against the wall on each side of the room. The reference books are placed in the cases at the east end and separated by a light railing." Thus one, not very large room, upstairs, without provision for the children, or clubs or for quiet for the reference reader, constituted the sole library provision for what was even then the great city on the west side of the river. But the local library develop- ment was moving fast and only six years later, in 1898, a really commodious and handsome building on Franklin avenue near Pearl street was provided for this same west side branch. This was built by the Peoples Savings Bank Company and leased to the library. This in turn is soon to give way to a building adequate to the needs of the great city beyond the river for many years to come. This build- ing now in process of construction is located at the junction of Fulton road, Bridge avenue and Kentucky street on grounds so ample as to constitute a small park which the city under special contract is to beautify and permanently care for. A second donation of $123,000 by Mr. Carnegie, made in 1907, has made it possible to build this west side library, and this west side library which in size and equipment exceeds many independent and important libraries and which will be the center of library work on the west side and also a handsome stone building of collegiate gothic architecture now nearing completion in- tended to replace the south branch before mentioned. How in the years we have been describing the rising wave of enthusiasm for library work has taken hold upon Cleveland is best shown by this single sentence from the letter of Mr. Carnegie transmitting his latest gift for branch libraries: "Mr. Carnegie
582
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
congratulates Cleveland upon exceeding even Pittsburg in proportion to the amount of population in library apropriation, placing Cleveland first of all."
In 1909 Mr. Carnegie added to his former gifts the sum of $83,000 and had built for South Brooklyn a library at a cost of about $10,000, afterward annexed, making a total of $466,000 given to the Cleveland public and including $100,000 given to the Library School of Western Reserve University, makes a total of $566,000 given to Cleveland for library purposes.
Each of these branch libraries is equipped with circulating, periodical, read- ing and study rooms; each has its own collection of books; each is open full li- brary hours and is in charge of a branch librarian and assistants.
With the extension of the work through branches thus satisfactorily progress- ing through the fostering munificence of Mr. Carnegie there still remains the most pressing need of an adequate central library. The most satisfactory development of the branch system will not obviate this need. A dignified and spacious build- ing to house the valuable and growing reference library and the central circulat- ing library many times larger than that in any of the branches, and the reservoir from which all draw, and also as a center for administration for book-buying and cataloguing becomes each year a more imperative necessity.
Three sub-branches were opened in the year 1900 and others have been estab- lished from time to time as the demands of population required until there are now open twelve of these centers for book distribution in various locations throughout the city. Five of these sub-branches are maintained in rented rooms; five oc- cupy rooms in various religious and charitable institutions and six in high schools ; one, the South Brooklyn, in a building provided by Mr. Carnegie before that vil- lage was taken into the city, and one at the Perkins children's library on St. Clair avenue. These are equipped with much smaller collections of books; with smaller staff, and are open from six to eight hours a day for the most part in the afternoon and evening, yet from these sub-branches there were issued in the year 1908, 541,099 volumes, being about one-fifth of the entire circulation of the library system-and of these nearly one half were for children. The library board also maintains six high school libraries consisting of refer- ence books, school duplicate volumes and periodicals furnished by the school authorities and a deposit of books from the main library adapted to the use of teachers and scholars-in the East and West high schools the libraries are open to neighborhood use as well as to school use. These school libraries are open only during school hours. There are also twelve libraries maintained in schools of the grammar grade. Next below these school libraries in extent of equipment and service are the deposit stations, eleven in number, at each of which a limited number of books from the main library is kept for circulation. They are kept open from two to nine hours on from two to six days in the week, depending on the demand for books. Twenty-eight delivery stations are also main- tained in various parts of the city. At these no collection of books is maintained but books are sent to them upon request made to the librarian in charge or to the central library. Three small collections are maintained at stations in fac- tories ; these collections range from fifty to two hundred and fifty volumes. The number of volumes circulated from the stations in 1909 was 32,575. Two
583
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
hundred and fourteen class-room libraries are maintained in the public schools and eleven in special parochial and Sunday schools.
In addition to all these sources of book distribution there are maintained fifty-five home libraries. These are small collections of books, which are sent to homes remote from other sources of book supply and are there distributed un- der the direction of a library representative. There were circulated in this man- ner last year 16,915 volumes, but this is no full measure of their useful- ness as may be seen from the fact that in the registering and grouping of the persons using these libraries last year it was found that of the groups nine were German, eight Hungarian, seven Italian, four Bohemian, and three Russian, thus showing that through this agency more than through any other we are reaching and educating to the use of good books the newly arriving immigrants from foreign shores-a work than which it is diffi- cult to imagine one more useful to the state and nation. With the central library and the collection of books for the blind added to these various agencies which we have described, it results that the public library of Cleveland is today main- taining three hundred and fifty-five agencies for the distribution of books for home reading, and twenty-seven of these have comfortable reading rooms and are provided with facilities for reference work such as the exigencies of each locality seem to require. All these taken together constitute what may best be called the physical equipment of the Public Library of the city.
THE BOOKS.
The nucleus of the Cleveland Public Library was the collection of books form- ing the library of the public schools established by state law. 'A's a school library the books were little used, probably because they were, as has been said "too abstruse and finically didactic to interest the young people for whom they were intended." Twenty-two hundred volumes from this school library were trans- ferred to the public library when it was established in 1869 and to these were added at the time 3,800 volumes purchased with the proceeds of the tax of one- tenth of a mill authorized by the Act of the General Assembly of the State passed in 1867, thus making a total of 6,000 volumes with which the public library work of the city was commenced. The growth of the library while not rapid in its earlier years was steady and sustained, as may be sufficiently seen by the growth in ten year periods as follows: In 1879 there were 26,000 volumes in the library ; in 1889, 57,000 volumes ; in 1899, 150,446 volumes, and in 1910, 385,530 volumes.
This collection of books gives the library a place among the comparatively few large libraries of the country, and while it is not fully rounded out and com- plete in its various branches, yet it has been built up slowly and in a practical way year by year to meet the various social, industrial, educational and artistic needs of this community for the benefit of which it is maintained and this it is believed that it does in an efficient and satisfactory manner. The collection of German books alone is now greater by five thousand volumes than the total num- ber of volumes with which the library opened, forty years ago and there are smaller collections in the French, Spanish, Bohemian, Finnish, Hungarian, Italian, Krajner, Polish, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Slavic languages.
584
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
There are in English very ample, though of course not complete collections, in Fine Arts, Biography, Philosophy, Religion, Sociology, Education, History, Sci- ence, Poetry, Literature, Useful Arts, Travel and adult and juvenile Fiction. In recent years a small collection of books in raised letters for the blind has been added. Little attempt has been made both from lack of room and money to make the collection complete for special departments of study, but this will come as a later step of library growth and development. The only really notable collection of books which the library owns, are the books on folk lore, which are the gift of Mr. John G. White, whose long sustained interest in the library finds expression in these rare volumes, which have been gathered together literally from the four corners of the world and with a very great and judicious expenditure of valuable time and money. The collection numbers over 10,000 and Mr. White is con- tinuing the work of building it, having added during the past year more than 2,000 volumes.
THE LIBRARIANS.
In the forty years since the public library was established it has had but three librarians. Mr. Luther M. Oviatt served from the opening in 1869 until 1875 when failing health compelled him to resign his office. He was succeeded by Mr. I. L. Beardsley, who continued in charge until 1884 when he resigned to accept employment in New York, and Mr. W. H. Brett was chosen to fill his place.
Mr. Oviatt had long been connected with the public schools of the city as teacher and principal before he became librarian. He was a graduate of Western Reserve College and brought to the work a thoroughly trained and well stored mind and a great love for reading and books. He rendered great service to the library in its early years both in management and in the selection of books during the years that he was in charge.
Mr. Beardsley was a man of extensive knowledge of books and wide busi- ness experience when he came to the library and the service he rendered during the nine years he was librarian was of great value.
The name of Mr. Brett we shall see is written large in the history of the li- brary, to which he has given service of high intelligence and unsparing devotion for more than twenty-five years.
THE DEVELOPMENT.
The modern methods of library administration had not yet won their way to general acceptance when Mr. Brett was placed in charge of the library, and it was only far-seeing men, capable of understanding mankind in the mass and what would appeal to them, who then had sufficient of the pioneer spirit to in- troduce as they were proposed and developed, the novel methods which have since been so widely adopted and have accomplished so much.
While the library was small and the users of the books were few, access to the shelves was permitted, but when the collection of books grew larger and more valuable, and the users so many that the librarians could not know them personally it was thought no longer advisable or safe to permit this freedom, it
585
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
being assumed, as we shall see mistakenly, that under such conditions many books would be lost and many others displaced upon the shelves, and for these reasons in 1877 access to the books was denied the public. His annual reports for several years following the imposing of this restriction show Mr. Brett to have been restless under it, until in 1890 he announced, with evident satisfaction, that during the preceeding year the books of the circulating department, except fiction, had been arranged in alcoves and access to them by the public permitted. The next year he reports this plan of the "open shelf" as successful beyond anticipation ; and he attributes an increase of more than forty-four per cent in the use of the books, very largely to the introduction of this privilege and enthusi- astically adds that while it has met with great public approval, the loss of books has been less proportionally to their use than in past years when general access to them was denied. For half a dozen years after the introduction of this privi- lege there is constant reference to its working in the reports of the President of the Board and always with enthusiastic praise. In 1893 the librarian says that it continues to give increased satisfaction to those using the library, and that while it was at first looked upon as a radical departure from accepted library methods as applicable to large libraries in large cities, its workings had resulted so satis- factorily here in Cleveland in the increased use of the books, and in economy of administration that other large libraries were adopting it. The last specific praise of the innovation is in 1897 when the President reports that it still continues to work satisfactorily and commands the cordial approval of users of the library. Here it drops out of special notice because it had become an established and ap- proved method of library administration. Surely it must be gratifying to the citizens of Cleveland, that in their home city this great advance in democracy, of justified confidence in our fellow men, should have been here first tried and should have succeeded so signally as to establish a permanent advance in the method of carrying good books into the lives and homes of the masses of the people.
Striking though this innovation was, it by no means monopolized the atten- tion of the library authorities during the years they were testing its merits, for in the year 1890 also, the first small collections of books were deposited in seven of the grammar grade schools, to be issued by teachers to their pupils. These books were carefully selected and were so much sought for that as early as 1893, the use of "these little branch libraries," proved to the progressive management the pressing need of a system of branch libraries and delivery stations, in this city so widely extended that a large portion of its residents are practically out of reach of the main library.
The slight hint thus given of the value in library development of carrying the book to the reader, instead of insisting as the old way was, that the reader must come for the book or not use it at all, was promptly seized upon at its full value, and the Library Board again under the lead of Mr. Brett promptly began the development of a system of branch libraries, which through the endowments of Mr. Carnegie, now covers, in manner already described, the entire city with convenient branch library facilities.
In the year 1891 the library administration became so deeply impressed with the possibility of book distribution through the public schools that in that year
586
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
3,000 volumes were placed with the teachers of 61 schools, chiefly of the grammar grades for distribution to their pupils. This manner of reaching both the pupils and the families from which they come has proved so valuable that the number of these "Class Room Libraries" has been steadily increased until now there are 214 of them, and from them there were distributed last year 66,600 volumes.
While in this way the children of the community were being brought in con- tact with the books the feeling was growing from year to year that for largest usefulness this association was too close to the school with its tasks and that more provision should be made for making the children welcome at the library building by giving them rooms to themselves in which they would feel at home and be free to read books and look at pictures without disturbing older persons or feeling the restraint which their presence inevitably imposes. This feeling led to more and more effort being made to attract the children to the library build- ings and with such success that in 1899, after describing how interest in the chil- dren is created and maintained by special exhibits of pictures and books the Librarian says: "The purpose is to give all children a cordial welcome, to make them feel at home, to give them all possible liberty consistent with the rights of others, and to lead them by gentle ways to the use of better books as they grow older," and then he significantly adds, "No part of the work is more inter- esting or hopeful."
This was the spirit in which was inaugurated in Cleveland the appeal of the library to the children, and it has been carried so enthusiastically and resolutely forward that now the central and every branch library building has its special "Children's Room" and the circulation of books among children is over forty per cent of the total circulation of the library. This great accomplishment has been effected by cultivating in various ways the interest of the children in the books. Low tables and chairs are provided for the little ones, supplies of photographs and picture books are placed at their disposal and the younger children are gathered about a trained and sympathetic librarian once or twice a week in what is called the "Story Hour," to hear told a story from some good book of history, biography, adventure, poetry or fiction. By these story hours the door of opportunity was opened last year to over 80,000 of the children of Cleveland and they were started encouragingly on the way to become reading men and women.
It is interesting to learn that we must have more chairs and tables for chil- dren in the branch library buildings located in the district of the city where the homes are poor than where they are of the better class ;- how pathetic it is thus to discover that in the children's rooms of our library these little ones find their only experience of the comfort of home enlightened by sympathy and intelli- gence which we are apt to think is the possession of every child in America. So successful has this work with the children proved to be that based upon the Board of Education census of all of the children of the city we have an average for last year of ten juvenile books circulated for every child in the city between the ages of six and sixteen years, and thirty librarians trained for this work with the children are necessary to conduct this branch of the service.
Made complete by this latest phase of library development, the public library by this appeal to the children parallels the work of our schools from the kinder- garten to the university, and then supplies a workshop fully equipped for the
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.