Home Photo Gallery Classroom Documents Emergency Work Spreading A grant for a new building for the University of Utah Library has been approved by the Public Works Administration and the building is already under way. The cost will be $550,000. Seating capacity for 1,200 and stack capacity for 200,000 are provided. The first work project for women in Georgia was the opening of a library in Greenville which had been closed for almost two years. The library, formerly operated as a women's club project, has now been turned over to the city to enable it to qualify for civil works funds. A survey of library service, present and potential, in the Metropolitan Area of Chicago will be made by unemployed librarians and research workers under the direction of an Advisory Committee from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago in cooperation with the Chicago Library Club which initiated the project. This is one of several research projects at the university under civil works authorization. Three educational projects of the public, special and university libraries in Chicago have been approved by the Civil Works Service. Twenty-eight librarians are working on compilations of union lists of literary material in certain fields of knowledge and are also to make a survey of special collections in the city; six are making a survey and listing of social, economic and political publications of public and private agencies in the Chicago area and six are compiling indexes to pictures, portraits, quotations and other needed material. GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF PATRONSA geographical index of borrowers which will enable the public library in Chicago to survey the distribution of its registered patrons is being prepared with the aid of ten typists and file clerks provided by the CWS. Ten men, supplied by the CWA, are taking inventory in the Chicago Public Library; thirty men are acting as guards in the main building and branches--all of which use the self-charging system--to protect the library against book losses; and six workers, obtained from the CWS, are acting as a "flying squadron" of book repairers for the branches. Six workers will be supplied the Ryerson Library and the Burnham Library of Architecture of the Art Institute of Chicago by the CWS for indexing of magazines and other projects. Thirty-seven professional workers, including three librarians, and eight clerical people have been assigned by the Civil Works Education Service to carry out a modification of the Evanston program of adult education reported in the December 1 Bulletin. Additional workers will carry on the studies of Negro education and of Evanston youth included in the Evanston program and approved by the CWS. Minneapolis is securing leaders for discussion groups through local school authorities and unemployed librarians to open the central library Saturday afternoons through the CWA. In addition to her projects mentioned in the December 1 Bulletin, Gratia A. Countryman of Minneapolis is proposing a radio listening room for lectures with discussions to follow but has not yet had the proposal approved. St. Paul Public Library is having more than 5,000 volumes mended with Civil Works Service assistance. Eighteen assistants have been supplied for various work projects and six more are expected. Most of the professional assistants have had library school training or considerable practical experience. Des Moines has 15 women at work mending books and many other libraries are obtaining similar assistance. San Diego has put ten women to work under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and will secure a small supply requisition from the same source. San Diego library projects announced in the December Bulletin have now been approved, according to Cornelia D. Plaister, librarian. A request for a hospital worker, a hospital truck and $500 for books from the Bismarck, North Dakota, library has had local approval. Providence (R.I.) is proposing a thorough revision of the Union List of Serials so far as it includes Providence holdings, including all Providence libraries and all periodicals. A handbook of special collections of Providence is also under consideration. The Baltimore library has made itself responsible for two large projects: (I) a check list and union list of Maryland newspapers and of all the newspaper holdings in the state, and (2) all Maryland state and Baltimore city official documents and the serial publications of social, civil, and economic organizations in the state. To carry on these undertakings the library is seeking, but has not yet obtained, assistance from civil works authorities. A revision of Larned's Literature of American history has been proposed by the New York Public Library as a civil work project but has so far not been approved. Clarence B. Lester writes that the Wisconsin Free Library Commission has put twenty women to work in commission departments. He adds "Practically all eligible library school graduates in the state are at work." The North Dakota Library Commission is being allowed a library organizer for nine weeks, a small travel allowance and a $500 fund for books. All the trained librarians in North Dakota who had registered for work "are actually or tentatively taken care of," according to word from Lillian E. Cook of the state library commission. The Georgia library program initiated by Beverly Wheatcroft, secretary of the state library commission in cooperation with local library leaders, has been approved by the Georgia civil works for women's projects and almost half the public libraries in the state are working on individual local library projects. Mildred Pope of the Washington Library is putting about fifty unemployed librarians to work on state-wide library projects and is proposing: To organize large collection of documents from other states which have been in storage since the change in state library organization four years ago. Some six thousand of these documents are non-usable because they are not available; work of state departments, the state legislature, and frequent calls from agencies and individuals in the state make this reorganization essential. Nine assistants have been requested by the Mississippi Library Commission to develop its work. In addition to a general assistant, a specialist in adult education, a trained cataloger, a publicity assistant, a supervisor of school libraries, and a stenographer, three trained library extension workers have been requested, to go into the state and direct organization of new libraries. Work proposed for individual libraries in various state programs not mentioned in the December 1 Bulletin includes: Provision of reading matter for people waiting for work assignments in employment offices. Supervision of such reading matter by an attendant is also recommended. Work in process and approved projects will be further reported in the February Bulletin. A. L. A. Headquarters will welcome information about projects which have not already been comprehended in Bulletin reports. Material for the February issue should be in the editor's hands not later than January 10.
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