Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Nine volumes were lost and paid for; none were withdrawn from circulation; 1,565 were sent to the bindery and between 1,000 and 1,500 were repaired at the branch.

[blocks in formation]

During the past year the library lost the services of Joseph E. Brannigan, who after twelve years of efficient work resigned to enter business. Walter H. Mann and Robert R. Finster also left for commercial fields, while Misses Pattibelle Kirkland and Marie Carraher gave up their places to be married.

The library extends a cordial welcome to Mrs. N. M. DeLaughter, who has returned to the Catalogue Department after an absence of some years,

and to Miss Frances Bowman, who came to the Barr Branch in December as Children's Librarian.

This report should not close without an acknowledgment of the steady, effective work of the staff. To their earnestness and skill must be largely attributed the progress which is here recorded.

PAUL BLACKWELDER.

Assistant Librarian.

[graphic][merged small]

DEDICATION OF THE BARR BRANCH.

Address of F. W. Lehmann, President of the Library Board, at the opening, Sept. 17, 1906.

[blocks in formation]

We have met here to-night to make formal dedication of this building to the beneficent uses for which it was designed. To the felicity of the occasion there is wanting the presence of one, who, above all others, should be here, the man under whose care and guidance the Public Library has been for nearly thirty years, and to whose zeal, loyalty, self-sacrifice, intelligence and industry, more than to any other individual agency, are due its growth and development, and the constant increase of its efficiency. On the 17th of January, 1877, Mr. Frederick M. Crunden was appointed librarian of what was then known as the Public School Library, and in that position he has continued to the present day, active always in the discharge of its duties until stricken with disease in the early months of this year. His appointment to the library was a consecration to its service. He devoted his life, and it may be that he has sacrificed his life, to the cause, but the devotion and the sacrifice have not been in vain. His efforts have been crowned with abundant success. The public library, which signified to him the complement and completion of our public educational system, upon the plan and scale of which he dreamed and for which he struggled, is now assured of realization. Could he but be spared until the airy fabric of his visions shall be translated into stone, with grateful heart he would say,

"Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart

In peace, according to thy word;

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel."

It cannot be amiss to recall at this time, as we stand at the threshold of a great change, the various steps and stages in the progress of the Library, and to show what the people have done for it, and what it has done for the people.

Its beginning was in January, 1860, when Ira Divoll, then Superintendent of our public schools, recommended the institution of a library as an integral part of our Public School system. But at that time funds were wanting to the school board, and the Civil War coming on, increased the embarrassment. But Divoll did not relinquish his purpose, and in 1864 proposed a plan which, while it related the library to the school system, did not make it dependent upon public funds for support. This time he was successful. On February 3rd, 1865, the General Assembly of Missouri constituted S. D. Barlow, Ira Divoll, C. F. Childs and their associates a body corporate under the name of the "Public School Library Society of St. Louis," for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a "Public School Library and Lyceum." All persons who then were or might there after become "directors, officers, teachers or pupils of the St. Louis Public Schools," were eligible to become life members of the society, with a

« ZurückWeiter »