Home Photo Gallery Classroom Documents Library Projects Under Public Works, Civil Works, and Relief Administrations It was at first stated, on excellent authority, that adult education work relief would be carried on under the Civil Works Administration. Now a formal ruling is that these projects are not to come under the CWA but are to be work projects carried on under special grants to the states. Some of the CWA policies will be followed, however, as, for example, paying real wages. An effort is made to set forth in this Bulletin some of the essential facts about the various administrations and some of the projects which have been proposed or inaugurated in libraries. PWASome public works money is still available. Library building projects are acceptable as indicated by the fact that grants have been made for libraries. The law provides for a 30 per cent outright grant from the federal public works fund and loans on acceptable security for the balance. Applications should be presented through city or state authorities to the Public Works Board of the state. It is said that more funds will be requested when present funds are exhausted. CWAThe Civil Works Administration was set up to put 4,000,000 men and women to work as soon as possible for approximately three months. Four hundred million dollars of public works funds have been allocated to the Civil Works Administration. Approximately half of the people employed are to come from the relief rolls and the other half from unemployed persons whether on relief or not. The latter register at employment offices designated by the United States Employment Service. In general, a CWA project must be one which directly or indirectly contributes to the construction of something; mere housekeeping is not included. Apparently such projects as the following are eligible under Civil Works Administration as operated in some states: Building repair, such as painting, electrical wiring, paper hanging, roof repairs. Funds for the purchase of materials may be obtained but requests which do not involve purchase of materials receive endorsement more promptly. Projects should be submitted by library boards to local civil works authorities. FERA--CWSUnder the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Civil Works Service many projects may be undertaken which do not qualify for CWA funds. Emergency educational projects may include: "(1) rural elementary schools; (2) classes for adult illiterates; (3) vocational education; (4) vocational rehabilitation; (5) general adult education; (6) nursery schools;--all to be under the control of the public school system."--U. S. Commissioner of Education, November 23. Work is to be at a living wage--"so that the daily or hourly wage is equal to that customarily paid in the community for similar work." Special grants earmarked for education will be made to the states. Library projects which have been or can be approved, especially under (3) and (5) above, include: Survey of educational opportunities of the community. All emergency education projects as such should apparently be submitted to local or state relief administrations through the superintendent of schools. But the same or similar projects, not called emergency education, may apparently be submitted by publicly supported libraries direct to the relief authorities as a Civil Works Service project. Other library projects which appear to belong in this classification are: Preparation of bibliographies, indexes or union lists, and other research activities. Some projects mentioned in preceding paragraphs which fail in certain states to win approval as CWA enterprises may be approved as CWS projects. All proposals should be made to local relief authorities and should be for activities which will not duplicate or replace the regular work of the library. Persons employed must be certified as in need by some agent of the relief organization. They need not be persons who have already received relief. WORK FOR WOMENA new division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration has been created, the purpose of which is to give special attention to CWS projects for unemployed women. Special women's divisions of state relief administrations are being set up. State meetings are being held. Projects are being sought. New and almost unlimited opportunities to get important work done through the employment of women are offered to libraries by this new division. DIFFICULTIESMany librarians are reporting discouragements. Projects similar to those approved elsewhere fail to get endorsement in their cities and states. Nevertheless, it may be said with confidence, that the national administration wants to find good projects so that people may be put to work--not only people on relief, but others who need help or at least employment. The classification used above is the best interpretation which can be made of the various regulations which have come to this office. It is perfectly certain that this classification will not fit the case in every state and may not fit precisely in any state. The important thing is that all of the projects and kinds of projects suggested in this Bulletin appear to be possible under some of the various relief and work administrations. Each librarian after consultation with local relief, CWA and CWS authorities must decide what is the best method of proceeding in his own community. There are now so many avenues of approach that any worth while undertaking would seem to have a good chance in any state--if presented at once. UNEMPLOYED LIBRARIANSLibrary executives should cooperate with local officials in finding capable persons who are qualified for relief, but not on relief rolls because of personal pride, and who may be made available for employment by registering at relief and employment offices. Every unemployed librarian desiring work should register with the local employment office designated by the United States Employment Service, and should make certain that local educational authorities (school superintendent and librarian) and the state library extension agency know of his qualifications and availability. All graduates of the Wisconsin Library School in the state of Wisconsin are said to have been employed within the past few days. QUICK ACTION ALREADY BRINGING RESULTS"I have just had word from the local relief agency," writes President Countryman, "that the projects for library assistants had been approved. "I have asked for twenty-five professionally trained women. Five of them at the central library will enable us to open longer hours. Ten at the branches will be used to assist in the heaviest winter programs for unemployed adults and young people that we have ever known. Ten other trained people will be used for book mending and repairing, but will be on call to relieve the regular trained staff as needed in peak hours. "A joint request from Twin City libraries for a union list of source material is being discussed with the state relief administrator. [Twelve trained catalogers have now been secured for this project.] "Other adult education projects have been planned and approved by a Community Committee which worked out the municipal program. Nearly 100 afternoon and evening classes are now meeting. Discussion group leaders are engaged for a number of groups. A Forum Committee is now forming a winter program in settlement houses and other places where unemployed groups congregate. All of these latter cannot be called strictly library projects. But the librarian is chairman of the committee and the projects have been planned by the combined efforts of all the social and educational agencies." Since writing the above letter, Miss Countryman has secured 65 men for building repairs, a $5,000 bond for materials, and the 12 trained catalogers mentioned above. Five more trained people have been requested to keep settlement house libraries open. Within three or four days after the CWA regulations were issued the Boston Public Library had received approval of projects estimated at $80,000 and affording employment for between 200 and 300 individuals. COMMUNITY PROGRAMSLibrarians are participating in community programs for adult education or leisure time activities. In some instances they are taking the leadership in calling together the various agencies concerned. Gratia A. Countryman is not only chairman of the Minneapolis committee but also a member of the Governor's Commission on the Education of Unemployed Youth. Linda A. Eastman is a member of the Cuyahoga County Emergency Relief Committee. Ida F. Wright of Evanston is chairman of a committee which also includes the three local superintendents of schools. Carl B. Roden is a member of the special committee of the Chicago Adult Education Council which has drawn a "Tentative Program of Adjustment Service and Education" for Cook County agencies. SURVEY OF OPPORTUNITIES AND NEEDSAs a necessary preliminary to establishing new activities, Minneapolis took stock early in the fall of the educational opportunities it already had. Chicago has included such a survey in its program, and Evanston, in addition, is collecting data on the interests and needs of the unemployed themselves. RESTORE HOURS OF OPENING AND AGENCIESMany of the libraries which have had to curtail hours of opening, because of reduced budgets, are asking for additional assistants to restore full service. The New Jersey Library Commission proposed this action several weeks ago. Cleveland plans to use from one to two hundred unemployed librarians to reopen branches in the mornings and Saturday evenings, to reopen the fifteen important divisions of the main library on Sundays and holidays, to return to full hours for school libraries now on three-fifths time and to reopen some stations which had been discontinued. The restoration of branch and school service is contemplated in plans recently submitted by the Chattanooga Public Library. Library and janitorial assistants have been requested at San Diego to reopen the main library and branches Wednesday afternoons and evenings. READING GUIDANCEReaders' counselors, recruited from unemployed librarians, are already at work in Pennsylvania libraries. In rural sections they are expected to give service to the whole county. The St. Louis Public Library has asked for two assistant readers' advisers. Evanston plans to add three readers' assistants to its staff, and a bibliographer to prepare reading lists in connection with the Evanston community adult education program. STATE READING COURSESState reading courses are being offered and prepared in Pennsylvania with the aid of formerly unemployed librarians working under the direction of the state librarian. The Illinois Library Extension Division is planning similar service. In Oregon, Harriet C. Long, librarian of the state library, is endeavoring to obtain assistance in carrying on the reading course project launched last December for unemployed young people. Courses for 970 students have been prepared during the year, and the worn has grown beyond staff and budget capacity. LISTS OF READABLE BOOKSThe American Library Association and the American Association for Adult Education, with the endorsement of the United States commissioner of education, are sponsoring the preparation of lists of books and pamphlets for use in connection with the adult education enterprises to be undertaken In various states and cities in many forms with financial assistance from the FERA. Included are not only classes, but discussion groups, consultation centers, reading programs, and other leisure time activities. Since many of those participating in these activities as students will be adults with limited educational background, the problem of finding reading material suited to their adult interests and limited reading ability is a difficult one. The lists are being prepared in the New York Public Library under the supervision of Doris L. Hoit. Since only material in print in quantity should be included, it is important that the work be done in New York near most of the book publishers and also the numerous organizations like the Workers Education Bureau, the American Committee on Economic Policy, and the public library itself, which are making their resources available. Lists will be forwarded, as subjects are completed, to the headquarters of the American Library Association in Chicago and transmitted to the United States commissioner of education for distribution. Please do not write for these lists until place and date of publication arc announced. While every effort is being made to have them promptly available, the problems of publication and distribution must still be settled. DISCUSSION AND STUDY GROUPSPittsburgh, Minneapolis, and Chicago are putting great emphasis on informal discussion or study groups. In some cases, these are initiated by the library itself, in others by the Adult Education Council or other community clearing group. SERVICE TO CENTERS FOR UNEMPLOYEDThe New York (State) Library Extension Division has already lent 6,000 books to emergency college centers established at White Plains and Garden City. Book service to each of the new activity centers set up in community education programs is planned by many libraries. BOOKSWhere are the additional books to come from for adult education work, Citizens' Conservation Corps camps, centers for transients, and readers in general? It has been suggested that a book drive might qualify as a specialized work project and that unemployed librarians might be engaged to carry it on under the supervision of state and local libraries. Should it be organized on a national scale to increase its effectiveness and its publicity value? UNION LISTSA union list of the holdings of the various libraries of Cleveland, notably the Cleveland Public Library and the several university libraries, is proposed as "a sound investment in the public interest requiring an expenditure of which 100 per cent goes for wages." A union list for Chicago libraries is under consideration in that city. The joint request of Twin City libraries for a union list of source material has been mentioned. At a recent meeting in Washington several library projects were formulated by the Joint Committee on Materials for Research, of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council. They are: The listing of duplicates for exchange. For further information, address Joseph Mayer, Library of Congress. SPECIAL CATALOGINGCataloging of historical photographs and parts of the architectural collection is planned by the Boston Public Library. That library has already under way a large project for reproducing on standard size cards the catalog cards made before 1899. Office space has been rented, 200 typists and 20 supervisors put to work, and approval given to add linotype operators, job pressmen, photographers and unskilled laborers. In San Diego several typists are sought for recataloging of books to make them mote available to patrons. COUNTY LIBRARY DEMONSTRATIONSNew York State has included county library demonstrations among its library projects. A conference of state and local librarians with the Emergency Relief Board of Onondaga County (Syracuse) to discuss the situation in that county is already scheduled. MEETING ROOMSPublic libraries are welcoming to their auditoriums the many new leisure time activities which are being organized, such as lectures, discussion groups, community drama, and even amateur minstrel shows. WORK FOR MUSICIANSSupervised worn for a number of unemployed musicians for a period of several months is proposed by the Cleveland Public Library to complete orchestral music scores by copying parts which have been worn out or lost. BOOK REPAIR AND PRESERVATIONBook mending and repair, already carried on in some cities as "made work," is now to be undertaken in St. Louis, Minneapolis, San Diego, Evanston, and other cities, on a larger scale. Many women with bindery experience are available among the unemployed. St. Louis is undertaking the preservation of its collection of l,900 volumes of local newspapers, by covering the pages with Japanese tissue, is lubricating large numbers of leather bound books, mounting maps and pictures, and perforating with a property stamp some 400,000 volumes. San Diego is planning to mount pictures and back maps. CLEANING BOOKSThe Boston Public Library is using 45 men to "remove, clean, and replace 700,000 books in the central library and branches." INVENTORIESThe first inventory of the central library in ten years is now under way in St. Louis with the aid of forty clerical workers. Inventories will be undertaken by the District of Columbia and San Diego libraries if competent people can be obtained. Hammond, Indiana, is proposing to use four assistants in this way. Chicago used relief workers effectively last year for inventory. SPECIAL COLLECTIONSThe arrangement of a rare collection of German patents is being undertaken by the St. Louis Public Library with the help of four clerical workers. San Diego includes "indexing documents" in its list of projects. CLERICAL AND MISCELLANEOUSEvanston has secured ten high school graduates to be "hands and feet" to branch librarians and school librarians, to release the time of the professional people for work with the unemployed and their families; and has also secured a typist, a stenographer, and a file clerk. The Buffalo Public Library is using thirty-two men and women as clerks and pages. BUILDING IMPROVEMENTSThe Buffalo Public Library is already using ten artisans for carpentry, painting, and electrical work, supplied by the Emergency Employment Bureau. The library has made repairs to its buildings, altered departments, made book-shelving, tables, desks, and even catalog cases. St. Louis has been assigned eight skilled workers for painting and washing at branch libraries. Hammond plans to use two painters. San Diego is requesting unskilled, skilled, and supervisory workers to strengthen branch libraries against earthquake shock. Evanston is calling for one skilled painter. Boston plans painting and refinishing work at the central library and branches, with seven crews of four or five painters each, working under the supervision of the superintendent of buildings. MANY STATE PLANS AND PROJECTS DEVELOPMENTMany of the state library agencies have set up, and submitted to the relief authorities, programs for the state as a whole. A comprehensive "temporary relief program" of adult education was initiated in New York State nearly a year ago, with state funds. Librarians qualified for service in the field of adult education were employed under this plan usually as teachers of adults or leaders of conference groups rather than as librarians. Now the New York Library Extension Division has secured authorization for a "librarians work relief program." New Jersey's leisure time program was set up early in the fall, with library projects included from the very beginning through the initiative of the library commission. Pennsylvania had its program approved by the time of the A. L. A. conference. Since then, state programs have developed rapidly. WHAT THE A. L. A. IS DOINGRepresentatives of the American Library Association have participated in national conferences called to plan adult education, civil works, and special work for women. They have helped to bring libraries into the national programs and have reported promptly to libraries (largely through state library extension agencies) the new opportunities. The Council, several committees, and various other groups, during the October conference, considered the library possibilities. In line with Council action and a request from the League of Library Commissions, A. L. A. Headquarters has served and will continue to serve as a clearing house for information on all such activities as are possible under the various authorities. A. L. A. Headquarters would like to learn of any project undertaken which is not comprehended in the above outline.
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