V. EXHIBITS OF INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANIZA

TIONS.

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.

How libraries are reaching out to do effective work in all communities, however remote, and in many other ways than by simply hoarding books, was told in the exhibit of the American Library Association. The exhibits showed in a direct way what librarians are

Entrance of the American Library Association space; California County library map in the background.

doing to bring books and reading into every home, shop, school, and office.

"Education need not cease when school is finished," according to the exhibit. "The library habit learned in youth brings pleasure and inspiration all through life. Books and libraries are a real help in the problems which arise in every person's work."

Rural library work was featured, with illustrations from Washington County, Md.; Multnomah County, Oreg.; Hood River County, Oreg.; Van Wert County, Ohio; Monterey County, Cal.; Alameda County, Cal.; Yolo County, Cal.; and other localities.

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A map indicated what States had and had not State library commissions. "A library commission for every State" was the demandto lend encouragement to the establishment of libraries; to give expert advice on library problems; to organize public and school libraries; to lend traveling libraries; to publish lists of good books.

The following States have library commissions, according to the exhibit: Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin.

Growth in library service was indicated by charts portraying circulation and distribution in several progressive cities. The Cleveland (Ohio) Public Library, for example, has 270,000 borrowers in the main library, 24 branch libraries, 17 school branches, 360 classroom libraries, 57 home libraries, 41 deposit stations in shops, schools, etc., and 55 delivery stations, or a total of 555 separate agencies for distribution.

Special emphasis was laid upon children's libraries, one entire section being given to children's books. Various charts and tables showed how the Cleveland Public Library reaches the children through the following agencies:

1 teacher's and parent's room; 17 children's rooms in branches; 3 settlement libraries;

4 small libraries (conducted usually in rented quarters);

1 normal school library;

9 school libraries;

360 classroom libraries (in 65 public schools, 16 parochial schools, and 27 institutions);

57 home libraries.

Good books for all children, only books read and approved by experienced children's librarians, are in the Cleveland Public Library, according to the exhibit. More than 1,000,000 books are read by Cleveland children every year; 20 per cent of all persons of reading age in Cleveland are children under 15 years; 39 per cent of all borrowers are children; 43 per cent of all books read are children's books (more than 1,000,000).

Photographs and book lists showed the widely varying uses of the library in typical cities. Books for business men, for housekeepers, farmers, and artisans are brought to the attention of thousands of

1 Arkansas now has a State library commission.

"Getting books to all the people." A corner of the American Library Association exhibit, showing the widening scope of library activity-in art and music, in civics, in work for the blind, and as an aid to industry.

citizens in communities everywhere. The exhibit emphasized the fact that many libraries are circulating reproductions of paintings and other art works, music scores, and even player rolls and phonograph records, while other libraries maintain large collections of foreign books, and employ experts to make these books as widely used as possible.

The California library service was explained in detail by a huge map 25 feet high by 22 feet wide, by photographs, and by a special publication issued for the exposition. The "county free library," it is declared, "acts as a storehouse and center of distribution for the whole county and as the connecting link between the State library and the people of the county." The following figures give an idea of the work accomplished:

Branches and deposit stations connected with above listed libraries_____ 1, 263 Library buildings:

An interesting set of charts was devoted to library publicity. Book displays in department store windows; advertising the library's benefits through motion-picture theaters; direct newspaper publicity; posters-these were all suggested as effective means of making the work of the library known, for, it was asserted, "when a town. has a library, and the library has the books, the real work of the library has not commenced."