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Bulletin of the American Library Association

    Publishing Information

    Library Projects Under FERA

  1. A LARGE number and a wide variety of "socially useful and economically desirable" library projects appear to be possible under the new Federal Emergency Relief Administration regulations. Every librarian who wishes to help provide relief work for those in need and who knows of library work which needs to be done and cannot be performed by those employed from local funds will wish to study the regulations which are mentioned in the following pages.

  2. Because libraries are an "infant industry" and could profitably enlarge their staffs, because they can use a considerable variety of special skills and abilities (specialists in many subject fields, for example), because nearly all libraries are operated by professional librarians and are free from politics, and because they have successfully conducted useful relief work projects during the past year, they seem to be in a particularly good position to work with the relief authorities toward both the immediate and the long-time goals of FERA.

  3. There are, of course, many difficulties. Interpretations of the regulations vary from state to state. The Emergency Education Program regulations make no provision for library books or library service. Indeed they fail to recognize the library as having any part in adult education. It is difficult for over-worked staff members to give adequate supervision to new library projects. Projects for the improvement of service or for the extension of service to new areas cannot be made fully effective without a more adequate supply of new books than is available in most places.

  4. In spite of these difficulties libraries have carried through successfully an astounding number of projects, many of which show ingenuity and imagination and even downright boldness. Nearly all the projects appear to have merit. Those which demonstrate the need for new services or for great expansion of existing services may prove in the long run to be of the greatest permanent value to individual libraries and to the library movement as a whole.

  5. Hundreds of libraries have sent to A.L.A. Headquarters reports of the relief work projects. These documents are interesting reading. It is unfortunate that they cannot all be published in full. In the following pages are a few very brief summaries selected almost at random. The selections give some evidence of the variety but no indication whatever of the number of libraries participating or of the total quantity of work done. There has been no opportunity to evaluate specific projects reported. It is readily admitted that libraries not mentioned at all may have done even more important work than those which are mentioned.

  6. It will be remembered that the Council of the American Library Association in June expressed its belief "that many work relief projects of a highly desirable and useful type can be set up in libraries to utilize effectively the services of educated and trained persons from many professions including librarians now unemployed and without adequate means of subsistence. Libraries generally have demonstrated that they can conduct and supervise work relief projects with effectiveness."

  7. The Council specifically suggested that workers be used in libraries as:
    1. Surveyors of library facilities and needs: (a) state-wide, under the direction of state library planning committees and in cooperation with state planning boards; (b) in metropolitan areas, counties and other regions under similar direction.
    2. District or neighborhood representatives of the library, who will establish contacts with individuals and groups, with and through schools and other community institutions, and who will introduce and extend library service into sections not adequately served under present conditions.
    3. Assistants within the library to prepare book lists and indexes, collect and arrange pamphlets, government documents and other materials, particularly in technical and special fields, and in many similar ways add to existing facilities.
    4. Advisers and leaders of study and discussion groups with the general objective of increasing the educational value of the library's services.
    5. Statistical workers to study financial, loan and other records in order to assemble information needed in planning more economical and efficient service.
  8. Members of the A.L.A. are reminded that earlier projects and federal rulings were reported in a special number of the Bulletin for December 1, 1933. The rulings have been greatly changed since that time but the remainder of that issue may still be used as a complement to this one.

    RECENT FERA RULINGS

  9. As we read the official rulings of the relief administration which have come to our attention, they seem to us to provide excellent opportunity for library projects. State variations in interpretation or application of the federal rulings will undoubtedly occur, as they have in the past. Each librarian, after consultation with local relief authorities, must decide what is the best method of proceeding in his own community. A summary of rulings now in force, as we understand them, is given here for convenience, though it has not been submitted to any FERA official for approval. Complete texts should, of course, be consulted. Get them from your own relief administrations, if possible, in order to obtain state adaptations; if not available locally, write to the A.L.A.

    Professional Projects

  10. As promised last spring, the FERA has recognized the need for promoting projects for professional people by making special rulings for them. Librarians are specifically mentioned in the list of those to receive aid on this basis. Quotas of relief funds are being designated in each state for professional projects. Rulings provide that "professional and non-manual workers shall be employed by the Work Divisions (of the various states) on the basis of need. These persons shall be eligible for relief but need not be on relief rolls. Budgets determined for these persons shall provide for health, decency, and comfort commensurate with the previous standard of living of the family, and shall be such that no supplementary relief shall be necessary. . . . It is intended that this program shall give continuous employment, so far as possible with a minimum of follow up." Professional people now working on work relief projects may be transferred to professional projects. ( See FERA rulings WD-9, 2721; WD-16, 3001.)

    Research Projects

  11. A subdivision of professional projects provides for research. This work may be carried on, either on or off the campus, under the direction of college or university professors, and may relate to any field of investigation. Workers with bibliographic skill are mentioned specifically among those who may be employed. Non-publicly controlled institutions must secure the sponsorship of some public agency for their projects. (See United States Office of Education communication of August 9, 1934, No. 3038.)

    Statistical and Survey Projects

  12. While professional workers are, of course, used for statistical and survey projects, the latter are still kept in a distinct and preferential class. (See FERA rulings WD-9, 2721; WD-16, 3001; WD-4.) State library extension agencies and state library planning committees, as well as local libraries, can take advantage of this opportunity to collect basic or additional library data.

    Work Relief

  13. For clerical, manual, building repair or cleaning projects, at least, the work relief rulings of last March still appear to apply. Eligibility for relief is strictly interpreted. No one is permitted to work more than 24 hours a week, the exact amount being determined on the basis of a weekly wage covering a minimum living budget. (See FERA Manual Advance Bulletin No. 4, 1718.)

    Student Aid Program

  14. The broadening of the student aid program to include 100,000 instead of 75,000 students, was announced during the summer. The rulings specifically mention work in the library. Suggestions that are new this year are that "students may be assigned to extension, adult education, recreation and other activities that increase. the usefulness of the college to the community."

  15. Public as well as college libraries can now take advantage of this work. A later ruling says specifically, "The requirement in paragraph 6 (of E-29) that all jobs must be under the direct charge of the institution shall not be construed to prevent the institution from delegating direct supervision of student work in cases where students are assigned to local governmental units, such as library boards, park departments, health departments, etc., or to other competent public or non-profit social agencies which are equipped and qualified to supervise their own activities." (See FERA rulings E-29, 2633; E-29-L, 2659; Sup. E-29, 2903.)

    Emergency Education Programs

  16. The EEP provisions (sometimes called CWES), under which a number of libraries last year set up adult education projects or joined in community adult education programs, are continued. The original rulings, as announced in September, 1933, provided for teaching illiterates, for vocational education and rehabilitation, for nursery schools and for general adult education. Such library projects as have been approved have presumably been set up under the latter provision. EEP projects must be approved by local and state educational as well as relief authorities, and persons employed must be certified as competent educationally as well as on the basis of need.

  17. In the course of the spring and summer, this program was considerably enlarged The FERA authorized each state department of education to employ supervisors for the several fields, as general adult education, workers' education, nursery schools. They were to be paid from EEP funds but need not be on relief. Institutes lasting eight days were set up in thirteen centers, to provide intensive training for state and local supervisors. Programs in workers' education developed under the leadership of a specialist, Hilda W. Smith, of the FERA; in parent education, under the guidance of Ralph P. Bridgman, director of the National Council of Parent Education, lent for part time to the FERA. (See FERA ruling E-31, 2894.)

    SPONSORING LIBRARY PROJECTS

  18. Library work relief programs have been set up and approved sometimes on a statewide and sometimes on a local basis. In many cases individual library projects have been set up locally in accordance with state programs, but in a few states, notably New Hampshire, Washington (omitting Seattle), and Wisconsin, assignments for local workers have been made through the state library extension agencies. In New Hampshire, the library commission has had 54 workers employed in libraries throughout the state and has given them direct supervision. The needs of unemployed librarians in its own area have been studied and projects initiated by District No. 1 of the California Library Association. The Library Club of Nashville has planned work relief projects for all the libraries in the city. Local libraries have cooperated with either social and educational agencies in setting up community work relief programs.

    LIBRARY SERVICE TO NEW AREAS

  19. The opportunity to provide library service to new areas, through the aid of relief workers, has been welcomed in many sections of the country. In some cases new library systems have been set up; in others, the services of existing libraries have been extended. These "new areas" are mainly rural districts, where the development of library service, like that of other educational and social services, has been slow. State-wide projects have been carried on by state library extension agencies in several states and in one instance, at least, by another state organization interested in library service.

  20. Informal local book service is being developed on a county basis and interest in reading and adequate library service aroused throughout Mississippi by 550 relief workers (September, 1934) as a project of the Mississippi Library Commission. Stations have been set up using books and magazines borrowed from the state or collected locally. A phenomenal interest in reading and library service has been developed in this state where recently 43 counties out of 82 were without library service of any kind. The Illinois Library Extension Division is securing book car drivers for counties which will provide the cars and upkeep for service to the county. The division is furnishing the books. The appointment of six drivers had already been approved in August. Macon County (Decatur) was the first to take advantage of the offer.

  21. Continuation of state advisory and book service formerly given by the Arkansas Free Library Service Bureau is a relief project of the American Legion Auxiliary, Arkansas Department of Service. The bureau was left without appropriation for the biennium 1933-35, and its services were greatly missed. In addition, the auxiliary is sponsoring local library projects in towns of over 5,000 population which are without public libraries. Several libraries have already been organized under this plan, with librarians secured through the relief administration and the local units of the legion auxiliary defraying other expenses.

  22. Local sponsorship of service to a new area is illustrated by a relief project of Monroe County, Michigan. County library service was legally established by the county supervisors in the spring of 1934 but no appropriation was made. A trained librarian, secured through the relief administration, has established book stations throughout the county using books lent by the state library. It is hoped that this demonstration of the value of the service will lead to local public support. Informal county-wide service was developed during the winter of 1933-34 in Athens County, Ohio, the university library being used as headquarters. Two relief workers have been taking books out into the county in private cars, the upkeep being met by the Child Protection Committee. Books have been borrowed from the state library. Sixty schools were served monthly during the winter and twenty centers in the summer. Several county library projects are in progress in Texas and others are reported in Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Word continues to come of similar projects which are being planned.

    COOPERATION WTTH COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

  23. The library as initiator and active leader in organizing a many-sided community adult education program utilizing FERA funds, is illustrated in Evanston, Illinois. The librarian called together representatives of the board of education, council of social agencies, Northwestern University, recreational bureaus and organizations, and other local groups to formulate a cooperative plan utilizing the various cultural, recreational, social, and educational resources of the community. This plan involved 38 professional and 4 clerical workers, with a 5-point program consisting of:
    1. Counseling and adjustment service
    2. General education (elementary school subjects, citizenship, English, literature, history, economics, vocational and business subjects, discussions of current problems, etc.)
    3. Homemaking and health education (child care, nutrition, home economics, sewing, parent education, community and health projects)
    4. Leisure time activities (physical education, music, art, dramatics, hobbies; tours of museums, galleries, industries, etc.; nature study; handicraft)
    5. Library service (coordinated book service with each of the preceding projects through (a) specialized reading guidance and, (b) carrying library service to the homes, school and neighborhood centers, and work places of the people.)

  24. The details of some of these services are given in the section on adult education advisory service below.

  25. A pooling of resources of two neighboring suburban communities, Oak Park and River Forest, Illinois, in the formation of a somewhat similar program is illustrative of another type of community cooperation. The joint EEP was sponsored by the high school (one high school serves the two communities), Y.M.C.A., junior college, local welfare department, and the libraries. A trained library relief worker assigned to the library is the liaison agent between the adult classes and the library. She works with book reviewing clubs, furnishes bibliographies for teachers, and mimeographed reading lists for students in the classes. She visits classes to give information about the library and checks library registration lists with lists of those who early in the season signified interest in the EEP adult education classes. Those not registered as library borrowers will be invited to make use of the educational resources of the library. The library has handled the purchase and sale of texts needed for certain classes.

  26. A large city library reports the use of a relief worker, with normal school training but no teaching experience, as a library visitor to EEP classes, presenting the facilities offered by the library for teachers and students. In some cases the class as a whole has been addressed. In others, contact has been made only with the teachers. Lists of books, and circulars regarding the library's services, have been distributed.

  27. This is one of the more frequent types of cooperation with the local emergency education programs on the part of the library, and it apparently has been used in small towns and counties as well as in large cities. Many discussion groups, forums, classes, etc., under the EEP have used library quarters for their meetings.

  28. One county library in Texas has acted as the sponsor for the local emergency education program which involved 11 adult classes in charge of unemployed teachers.

    ADVISORY SERVICE TO ADULTS

  29. The visiting library adviser to students, teachers, study groups, and individual self students, is best illustrated by giving the details of the services rendered by three readers' advisers attached to the library in connection with the community adult education program in Evanston, Illinois. Two of these relief workers who have served as advisers have had previous library experience, and the third has been a social case worker. They have worked on schedule at seven different schools or activity centers where classes and other EEP group meetings were being held. They have:
    1. Maintained small collections of library books for circulation at each school or activity center
    2. Procured other books from the main library for readers when their needs were not met by the small collection at the schools
    3. Prepared reading courses and reading lists for individual readers
    4. Conducted book discussion groups and given book review talks
    5. Conducted group visits to the main library to acquaint people in the outlying districts with the resources and privileges of the library
    6. Introduced the library and its services to the foreign, Negro, and poor sections of the city, where its privileges were less known, by means of house-to-house visits, telephone calls, and letters
    7. Assisted teachers in the EEP by providing reading material for lesson preparation, and books for the students.

  30. The noteworthy features of the plan have been that it has carried the library's services to the sections of the community which were least familiar with them, to many people who felt timid about going to the library, and has dovetailed these services with every phase of the emergency adult education program in the various activity centers of the community.

  31. This Evanston service affords an example of the excellent use being made of professional workers other than trained librarians. As mentioned, one of these advisers has had social case work experience. Her special job has been neighborhood visiting, especially in the foreign, poor, and more remote sections. The selection of the individuals and families to be visited has been guided by the advice of neighborhood pastors, social workers, teachers, and librarians, and has been in simple house-to-house calling. In these visits she has told of the branch or station of the library recently established in the neighborhood school, of the various EEP opportunities at the school, of the library privileges and how to use them, an especially that library services are free. Her work has resulted in dissipating much of the fear and misinformation which it was discovered has been preventing many people in these sections from making full use of the library's services. Incidentally she learned on these visits enough of the reading interests and abilities of certain people so that she could help them much more intelligently when they called for her personally at the library or the local library station.

  32. Advisory service, broadly interpreted as community visiting to bring library services to non-users and to draw to their attention specific books in their specie fields of interest, has been given in severe places. Relief workers used in this type of service have for the most part been people with adequate library training and experience, and the groups served have mostly been teachers and students in EEP classes St. Louis, Denver, and Washington County, Illinois, have reported such service in addition to libraries already mentioned.

  33. A state-wide project in Pennsylvania has employed 41 librarians to serve as readers' counselors in the different counties of the state, working from selected public libraries. Six hundred and ninety students have enrolled in classes conducted by these workers.

    AIDS FOR ADULT EDUCATION PROGRAMS

  34. Several valuable compilations and publications in the field of adult education have been made possible by employment of capable people as relief workers.

  35. Two lists compiled in this way have become useful to the whole profession. Books of general interest for today's readers was compiled in the New York Public Library for the American Library Association, the American Association for Adult Education and it the United States Office of Education, with the assistance of relief workers under the direction of Doris L. Hoit (A.L.A, 1934, 25c). This is now widely distributed and well known as a guide to the more readable books on topics about which people's interest is largely centering in these emergency times. More recently the readers' adviser's office of the Cleveland Public Library has supervised relief workers in a similar compilation in the field of current pamphlet material. This has involved examining and selecting pamphlets on the basis of their readability and timeliness and compiling a list of about 350 items under the title, Readable pamphlets for today's readers. The list covers current issues of the day, vocational guidance, and self-education topics. The pamphlets are rated as to difficulty according to the same scheme used in Books of general interest for today's readers.

  36. In the field of preparing course materials on the subject of adult education in small libraries, there have been two noteworthy accomplishments by trained and highly experienced library workers with relief employment. The first of these has been under the direction of the University of Wisconsin Extension Division at Madison and has resulted in a text for an excellent extension course, The library as an adult education agency. This course is available to anyone and is given under the direction of Ida M. Gangstad. The other instance has been in the form of four institutes for librarians of small towns in New York State, sponsored by the New York State Library Association, which addressed themselves specifically to the problem of what the small library can do in the field of adult education. These were a notable success. Many other preparations of material of more or less local value in the special field of adult education have resulted.

  37. In a few larger cities, relief workers have been utilized in compiling directories of informal and formal educational opportunities for adults. Usually these have been for local classes, but in some cases they have analyzed catalogs of out-of-town correspondence and special schools. In Nashville there has been combined with this indexing of opportunities a consulting service for those who wished to inquire about adult education opportunities in Davidson County.

  38. One readers' adviser has utilized a relief worker in analyzing vocational material in the library which would assist her in preparing reading suggestions for those who are trying to solve their vocational problems.

    READING COURSES BY MAIL

  39. Individual reading courses have been prepared by the Oregon State Library for 1,470 students throughout the state, with the aid of a relief worker. During the first seventeen months, 1,706 courses were made up and the books listed were reserved for the students and mailed to them at regular intervals. These students, principally young people unable to attend college, have been located in every part of the state in small towns and in the open country, and have been reached through 240 post offices. Similar service has been inaugurated in Illinois and Pennsylvania.

    SURVEYS

  40. The metropolitan area of Chicago, that is the area within a fifty-mile radius from the business center of the city, has been studied by the University of Chicago with reference to various economic, social, and governmental factors, and the results published in the series "Social Science Studies." Now library facilities and needs in the same area have also been surveyed by relief workers under the direction of the graduate library school of the university, in cooperation with the Chicago Library Club, which initiated the project. The survey has taken into account not only the holdings in books of all libraries within the area but has made comparative estimates of the quality as well as quantity of the book collections, the services, and the resources of the many libraries.

  41. The St. Louis Board of Education has conducted an interesting survey for the St. Louis Public Library, using unemployed teachers in a house-to-house canvass. The library survey is one of several educational surveys, the data for which have been collected on the one canvass. It is to enable the library to learn more about its borrowers, how much they borrow, how they started to use the library, what purposes (self-educational, recreational, vocational, planned study) they use it for, what effect school or school libraries have had in making readers of these people, whether or not they get satisfaction from the various library services, and some of the factors that stimulate their interest in reading. Only certain sections of the city have been canvassed and these have been chosen with a view to obtaining a cross section of different types of the population.

  42. The Des Moines Public Library has similarly shared in a survey conducted by the board of education. In that city, unemployed teachers have been used in house-to-house canvass to ascertain facts about the use being made of the adult education program, particularly the public forums of the public school system by the adults of the community. Certain items on the questionnaire have been for the purpose of learning whether these people are making use of the public library in connection with these adult education opportunities.

  43. New Jersey reports surveys of reading interests of one kind or another in six municipalities. Glen Ridge has checked its registration files against the directory to ascertain how many in the community have been active borrowers in past years but have not re-registered since March, 1933, when a new registration was begun. Follow-up post cards have been sent to those who had not re-registered with a view to reviving interest in the use of the library. Similar types of check-up on lists of borrowers have been reported from other places.

  44. State-wide surveys of library conditions and needs have been made with relief workers in Colorado and Illinois under the joint sponsorship of the respective state library agencies and associations. In Wisconsin, a relief worker attached to the state library commission has gathered all available information on the various counties in the state from the library point of view.

    MAINTAINING OR EXTENDING EXISTING SERVICES

  45. To enable New Jersey libraries to contribute to a state-wide leisure time program, the use of relief workers has been authorized to restore hours of opening necessarily cut because of reduced budgets. Forty-one libraries in this state have maintained fairly normal schedules in this way. Libraries all over the country have used relief workers to restore hours of opening and, in some instances, in order to keep open at all.

  46. A new branch library, in charge of a trained librarian assigned by relief authorities, has been opened by the Sacramento (Calif.) Public Library. It is located in a cottage on school property and school authorities are furnishing equipment, heat and light. Library stations have been opened by the Wichita (Kans.) City Library in school buildings where recreational relief program for adults has been carried out. Several county libraries have established new stations or secured paid custodians for those operating with volunteer help.

    PUBLICITY

  47. Sixty-six newspaper articles about the Glen Ridge (N. J.) Public Library were published in three months, all prepared by experienced newspaper men. Other New Jersey libraries, as well as many in other sections of the country, have had similar relief projects. The range of publicity projects in one library covered: photostatting of poetry, prose, and scientific material suitable for poster display; foreign travel posters repaired, sorted and filed by country; sorting, alphabeting, and filing of book jackets for use in poster display work, for preparation of two large display panels showing some of the Scandinavian books and magazines in the library, this latter used at churches and clubs. Poster artists have been secured by several libraries. A series of beautifully designed poetry broadsides have been printed by the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, with the aid of emergency printers, and offered for sale at very low cost to public, private and school libraries (see the inside back cover of the A.L.A. Bulletin, August, 1934)

    BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND MATERIAL FOR RESEARCH

  48. A critical annotated bibliography of the history of the Western Hemisphere is under way as a relief project of the New York Public Library. Material available in learned journals of Europe, Latin America, Canada and the United States is being listed and abstracts of many articles prepared.

  49. More than 140,000 entries have been completed for a continuation of the A.L.A. Portrait Index, by relief workers in the Library of Congress. The widespread use of the original index will make this continuation most welcome.

  50. A union list of official publications of Chicago and Cook County available in the Chicago Public Library, the John Crerar Library, the Municipal Reference Library and the University of Chicago Libraries has been made as a relief project and published by the University of Chicago. Similar projects have been carried through in a number of metropolitan areas.

  51. Projects for collecting, listing and preserving materials of scholarship have been stimulated by the Joint Committee on Materials for Research of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council under Joseph Mayer of the Library of Congress, chairman of a subcommittee on inventory and collection projects. Suggestions have been: (1) listing of duplicates for exchange; (2) conversion of existing subject bibliographies into regional union lists; (3) listing of special collections in a given region; (4) inventorying of manuscripts in a given region. State libraries, state historical libraries, university and large public libraries have carried out these suggestions in varying degrees. Recently the FERA and the Office of National Parks, Buildings and Reservations are said to have indicated interest in developing these projects on a national scale and in furthering a national survey or inventory of archives.

    LISTS AND INDEXES

  52. A checklist of standard bibliographies has been made in Cleveland for the public library, the Flora Stone Mather Library and the Adelbert College and Case libraries of Western Reserve University. An index to poetry and essays to supplement Granger's Index to poetry and recitations and other available printed indexes, a bibliography of local arts and artists and a necrology file of local people have been other relief projects in Cleveland. Indexes to New Jersey illustrations, to current statistics in periodicals, documents, trade association bulletins, etc., and to old and rare books in the library have been completed by the Newark Public Library. A card index to pictures in the Washingtoniana Collection and an index to holiday material have been among projects of the Public Library of the District of Columbia.

    CATALOGING

  53. More than 200 relief workers have been used by the Boston Public Library on a very large cataloging project in which oversize cards, made prior to 1899, have been eliminated in favor of standard size under the supervision of trained librarians. A special drama collection of the Princeton University Library has been cataloged and put in shape so that it is now available for lending to other libraries, and the card catalog of a collection of foreign books of the New Jersey Public Library Commission has been translated into English so that it can be administered by persons unfamiliar with the languages. The New York Public Library has made much progress in the cataloging of valuable special collections.

  54. As thousands of relief workers have been employed on cataloging projects in public, university, school, and institution libraries, it has been possible only to suggest some types of work accomplished in this field.

    ART AND MUSIC PROJECTS

  55. A series of portable panels showing Ohio birds, mound builders at work, and historic local scenes have been painted for the Public Library of Cincinnati and will be circulated among the branch libraries. This project developed naturally from the librarian's serving on the local committee to provide work for unemployed artists. A puppet repertory theater was organized by the St. Paul Public Library with the aid of four relief workers experienced in this line. Akron, Toledo, Providence and Des Moines are other cities having successful art work done by artists employed with federal funds.

  56. Three thousand manuscript pages of orchestral music have been copied by amateur musicians as a relief project of the Cleveland Public Library. Some incomplete orchestrations have been completed and uncopyrighted music has been made available for orchestral use. Eight amateur orchestras in the city, involving 400 people, will especially benefit by this project. Much valuable work has been done on picture and music collections in many libraries by unemployed artists and musicians.

    PAMPHLETS AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

  57. The increasing quality as well as quantity of pamphlets on current economic and other timely topics and the inadequate book funds of many libraries combine to make important the frequent use of relief workers to collect and organize pamphlet collections.

  58. Plays for amateurs have been collected in Akron, the paper covers reinforced, and an index made. Special collections organized in other places include book plates and autographs.

    UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

  59. Typical of the range of projects in university libraries carried on with student aid is a list from the University of North Carolina which covers:
    1. Arranging and classifying large number of manuscripts for the southern historical collection of this library.
    2. Preparing an extensive card bibliography of southern Americana, listing every item with any southern connection which can be found in dealers' catalogs, library catalogs, printed bibliographies, etc.
    3. Treating several thousand leather bound volumes to prevent deterioration of the leather.
    4. Preparing a checklist of all foreign and American university dissertations in the library.
    5. Preparing a checklist of all newspapers in the library for inclusion in the National Union List of Newspapers.
    6. Listing duplicate periodicals, books, etc. for exchange with other libraries.
    7. Taking inventory of volumes in the law library.
    8. Repairing and rebinding books.
    9. Mounting maps.

  60. In connection with other departments, the library has carried on the following projects:
    1. With Spanish Department, prepared checklist of a collection of 12,000 Spanish plays.
    2. With English Department, prepared an index to articles in the principal journals of English language and literature.
    3. With School of Commerce, putting in order a large quantity of NRA material collected by the president and others.

  61. Organization of a large collection of Florida newspapers in the University of Florida Library has been undertaken with the aid of twelve students. This project, which will be completed with student aid during the coming school year, is enabling the university to make accessible this valuable collection, and to publish the library's holdings in the lists now under way, sponsored by the Bibliographical Society of America.

  62. Additional library radio programs over the Iowa State College radio station have been made possible by student aid. During the summer the students released regular staff members for this work, but it is possible that the students themselves may be used in the actual preparation of programs and broadcasting this fall. Projects planned by this library include the use of foreign language students to correspond with foreign universities to obtain copies of their theses and dissertations as exchanges, and the binding of doctoral theses.

  63. A valuable project of the Illinois University Library has been the preparation of an index to about 70,000 accessions of the British Museum Library, since the printing of its catalog. The index has been made by cutting and pasting on catalog cards title entries from the museum's monthly accessions list.

  64. These are only a few examples of student aid projects which actually cover a much broader field, and include, of course, the more routine types of library work and clerical assistance. Public libraries in college towns as well as college and university libraries are setting up projects for students under the new rulings liberalizing the use of student aid.

    SCHOOL LIBRARY PROJECTS

  65. Two hundred school libraries in Pennsylvania have been cataloged as a result of a state-wide relief project which has made use of 117 workers, 100 of whom were trained librarians. Supplies have been purchased from relief funds by the state library and forwarded to the different counties. Progress in organizing school libraries on a state-wide basis has also been made in Washington. Individual schools in many states have benefited greatly from the services of relief workers for organizing, cataloging, mending and like projects. In some cases trained librarians have been secured to administer school libraries.

    MENDING, MANUAL AND BUILDING PROJECTS

  66. Approximately 387,000 books have been repaired and returned to service in New Jersey alone, through use of relief workers. If figures were available for 48 states, they would make an impressive total. Regional training classes for menders have been set up in several instances. Reinforcing or mounting of magazines, pamphlets, maps and newspapers has been common. Draftsmen and artists have been used for numbering the backs of books.

  67. Taking of inventory and searching for missing books has been a frequent project. Relief multigraphers have been used for printing of book marks, forms and letterheads. Unskilled workers have been used to clean books.

  68. Literally hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of library buildings have been cleaned, painted, repaired or even enlarged through use of all types of workers from architects to masons and carpenters.

    UNEMPLOYED LIBRARIANS

  69. As has been noted, the regulations governing the appointment on projects have differed greatly in the various states. As a result, all unemployed librarians in several states have been appointed on library and allied projects, while in many other states only those eligible for relief have been assigned. The period of employment has also varied considerably, from one week to six months or longer. In certain instances, state projects were continued after the CWA projects terminated and librarians in these states were transferred to state projects.

  70. Because of the continuing variations in state rulings regarding employment, every unemployed librarian should familiarize himself with the regulations in his own state. He 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. As yet there is no arrangement for the transfer of unemployed persons from one state to another.

  71. It is imperative that the lists of unemployed librarians kept by the state library extension agencies and the A. L. A. Personnel Division be accurate and up to date in order to supply the names of available candidates for projects on short notice. Unemployed librarians are therefore urged to notify both the state library extension agency and the A. L. A. of any change in status as soon as it occurs.