HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/01/1968 - Report - Bryan College Station Library System Advisory Board Carnegie Public Library
Bryan, Texas
Report of the Librarian for 1967-1968
Since workmen and equipment moved in on 'the Old City Park at 26th
and Regent Streets on June 26th, a new library building for Bryan has been
under construction. For future library historians: the Architect for the
building is E. Earl Merrell, Jr. , Bryan, the Landscape Architect, Robert
Caldwell, City Planner for Bryan; the Contractors, Vance and Thurmond,
Bryan; Consultant on site and floor planning, Hoyt Galvin, Charlotte, North
Carolina; Library Interior Furnishings, Martin Van Buren, Charlotte, North
Carolina.
The historic ground-breaking ceremony for the first public library to
be built in Bryan at the instigation of the tax payers was held on June 1st.
There was a most enthusiastic response and attendance of the citizens of
the community, the civic organizations who sent representatives, participants
in the ceremonies, all of the news media of Bryan-College Station, the
Friends of the Carnegie Library, the Library Board, and the Staff. Some
thirty odd gold shovels touched ground and at least one of them will be
saved for the historical room, in the new building. Optimistic forecasts
are that we will move in in the summer of 1969.
Carnegie Library and Its Services,
The Book Collection
The book collection, its quality and quantity, is the first concern of
the Library. Without an_- excellent and adequate collection of books we can-
not give excellent service. We serve a population of 50,000 people. At
year 's end we report 45,096 volumes in our collection. We are short of
A.Z.A. and T.L.A. standards, but the fact that we added nearly 6,000 volumes
this year is promising for the future picture.
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With the increased hours of cataloging and clerical assistance in
the coming year to process the many boxes of books on hand waiting to be
added, and with the interest of the community and its civic organizations
in the library, evidenced by gifts of money to buy books and gifts of de-
sirable collections of books, we may hope to move into the new building
with 50,000 volumes fully processed and in good condition. We will not be
meeting national standards, only interim state standards, but by doing this
there is the indication that we are on the way to our goal.
During this year Mrs. Lucy Bryan Hervey, descendant of Joel Bryan,
left her Texana and rare books to Carnegie Library. Gifts such as this
will eventually make our book collection a distinguished one.
The quality of the collection is of greater importance than its quan-
tity. Somewhat at variance with a prevalent policy in public libraries,
lir i. e. that we should cater to current demand by keeping a super-market or
dress shop fare on hand, throwing out a book because it has not circulated
in a set length of time or gone out of style for the moment , we believe
that the public library should be a literary store house; that it should
have on its shelves books which reflect the literary history of the world.
Circulation and Registration
Our circulation statistics show that we are circulating 7 books per
capita. The total figure shows a substantial increase over last year. As
our Rountree and Bookmobile circulation have always been out of proportion
to the total figure, we happily note that circulation in the Library to
adult readers increased 6,795 over last year.
At last count we have 27,000 live, active borrowers. This meets any-
body's standards, and it means that over half of our population are registered
AIIP borrowers.
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Adult Services
11/1 We have run out of floor space in which to serve our adult readers.
Mysteries ,and Westerns have been moved to the foyer. Boxes of books wait-
ing to be processed are stacked.half way to the ceiling. Books are shelved
in the windows. Everyone is inching sideways from one area to another.
Seating space in which to study or read is now strictly back to back and
side by side. In spite of these conditions and their hazards, there is
throughout the day a constant flow of adults coming and going.
We note an increasing use. of the Library from faculty and students
from A & M University.
Surprise and pleasure are evinced by researchers who find we have ad-
ded recently such Reference Books as the complete Oxford English Dictionary
and the Dictionary of National Biography. Or that we can give information
by phone from Poor 's Register, the Encyclopedia of Associations, the various
11, directories of publishers, American and foreign.
We are achieving a reputation we like to have: that if a book can be
gotten or_ a question answered we can do it.
The statewide network of interloan and reference referral has brought
to the patron in a matter of days after the request, books from North
Carolina University Library and the Museum of Natural History in New York.
The ultimate in terms of expectation by our patrons was recently reached
when one asked by phone if we had delivery service.
Books are put on reserve by phone and at the desk; some popular titles
having waiting lists of 15 or 20 persons.
Our very popular Art Lending Collection reached number 100 this year
with the acquisition of Renoir 's "On The Terrace." The prints circulate,
4 free of charge, for a four week period. Borrowers tell us that not only
are they filling that blank space on the wall with a print buttthat,they and
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their children are learning artists and schools of painting. Hand in hand
with the pictures go the books. We are acquiring a fine collection of
books in the Fine Arts field. Memorial gifts boost this collection as do
such monetary gifts as that of Mrs. W. C. Mitchell, all of which was spent
for Fine Arts books.
Rountree Room for Children
The wish has been made several times this year by both regular patrons
and by out of town visitors to the Rountree Room that when we move to the
new library the Rountree Room should go unchanged. This speaks well for the
atmosphere and services created there during the 15 years since its opening.
The Rountree Room's new program, a Pre-School Story Hour, begun in
January 1967, and held each Tuesday morning continued in great popularity
through the school year. To avoid too large an audience, special classes
and kindergarten groups were accepted on Wednesday mornings, with a repeat
of the previous day's program.
The all year round Happy Hour , held on Saturdays in the school year
and on Wednesdays in the summer was more than well attended. Fewer Happy
Hours were held due to conflicts in other community programs. But the ex-
cellence of these programs, given by story tellers, artists, and musicians in
our community, and by visiting authors, foreign students and teachers in all
departments from Texas A & M University, continued to draw crowds of children
who had to sit on the floor and on the tops of the bookshelves.
With our good collection of children's books and growing Parents and
Teachers shelf , we were able to give better service to the many Bryan students
taking courses in Elementary Education and Children's Literature from Baylor ,
Sam Houston and A & M University.
110 The new libraries in the elementary schools and their greatly increased
book collections would account for a decrease in collections lent to teachers
from the Rountree Room.
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PThe final enrollment in this year's two summer reading clubs was
634.
The total circulation of books from the Rountree Room for the year
was 101,351, the attendance at weekly programs 8,403.
Extension
The Bookmobile day begins every morning with announcements over T V
and radio stations at 7:00 and 7:30, the news being the day's schedule for
the Red and White bus.
In the year the Bookmobile made a total of 249 visits to 20 stops.
There were new stops: 3 county, Steep Hollow, Harvey, Brushy Community;
4 community, Esther Boulevard, Bowie School, Stevens Drive, Newton Street,
and one school, Henderson.
The staff of the Bookmobile gives as much individual service as pos—
sible, remembering the reading tastes of their borrowers, filling requests
and taking reserves on popular books. Floods, broken down air conditioning,
illness of librarian or driver, do not keep the Bookmobile. Sometimes late,
it rarely fails its appreciative and waiting public. The shopping centers,
Redmond Terrace and Ridgecrest, have both been extremely popular. Some of
the Redmond Terrace patrons have switched to Ridgecrest.
Total circulation for the Bookmobile was 209,246.
Federal and State Aid
Carnegie Library received $9,000 under Title I, L.S.C.A. in March
1968. All of this was either encumbered or spent by June 30th for books
and microfilm.
Under Title II, the City of Bryan received $150,000 for its library
building program.
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Title III, L.S.C.A. , administered in Texas by the Texas State Library,
is for interlibrary loan and reference referral. In the Statewide Plan
for Library Development, our Library is designated as a Size II library,
with the Austin Public Library as our Major Resource Center or Size I Library.
The Libraries we serve , (Size III libraries) are Brenham, Cameron, Calvert,
Franklin, Giddings, Hearne and Rockdale. We receive telephone calls or
written requests from these libraries. If we cannot fill their requests
or any of our local requests,we call or write the Austin Public Library.
If Austin cannot fill a request it is referred to the Texas State Library
by telephone. They in turn -make every attempt to locate the material, either
in their collection or through contact with other libraries. Expense for
this service is borne by Title III, L.S.C.A.
The system has been in operation here for one month. In we received
P July
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35 such requests.
Acknowledgements
The Library received a check of $2,000 from Brazos County on March
15 to be used for whatever library expenditures the Librarian and the
Library Board should decide.
The Woman's Club gave us a check for $491 to be spent on reference
books.
Generous checks for books were given by Mrs. W. C. Mitchell and Mr.
and Mrs. Carter Litchfield; and from Mr. and Mrs. Litchfield a very valuable
collection of new books in the fields of science and nature.
The Beta Sigma Phi City Council gave us a check for $200 to be spent
for books, pictures, or equipment for the new library.
The annual interest from the Bryan Building and Loan Henderson Memorial
41 fund was spent for books on Texas history, interest on the Rountree
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Educational Fund for film rental, Children°s book Week, N.L. W. and
the summer reading clubs.
The Friends of the Library gave their annual reception in the
Library, paid for new brochures about the Library, for the printing
of enough Bookmobile schedules to give to every school child in Brazos
County, for N. L. W. publicity, for book lists, and for receptions for
a library workshop and a meeting of our Size III libraries.
Our news media gives us every cooperation in the publicizing of
the Library and its resources. KBTX-TV has given us special news
stories and interviews on the building program, the Bookmobile and
the Rountree Room. Members of the Library Board and the Librarian
have had several appearances on Town Talk with Mrs. Fern Hamman to
describe the new building and its furnishings. The Librarian appears
11/ regularly on this program to review new books. The list of reserves
on the books reviewed would indicate that this is a successful publicity.
KORA and WTAW run daily announcements of the Bookmobile schedule
and gave spot announcements several times daily during N. L. W.
The Bryan Daily Eagle has given us news coverage and pictures on
library activities; the reading club program, presentation of gifts
to the Library, and progress of the building program. The Librarian
has a weekly column of book reviews, now in its eighth year , in the
Sunday -Eagle. All news media came to the ground-breaking ceremonies
to record it in full.
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The Library Board, the City Commission and the City Manager have
in this year of planning worked together with sincere interest and
dedication to make possible a building which will best serve the people
of the community. I wish to express my appreciation to them for their
understanding of the Library's needs and for making the realization of
these needs possible.
Respectfully submitted,
Mrs. .zel Richardson
Librarian
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