The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for its University Ex
tension Division.
SEPTEMBER 20, 1922'
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. vni, NO 44
f-'ditorial Board t S- S. H. Hobbs, B, WiL-son, £. W. KniKUt, D. D. Carroll, J. B. BnUltt, H. W. Odnm. Entered as aftcond-olass matter November 14,1914. at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 84, 1913
SCHOOL LIBKAaiES
Sir Francis Bacon, in his essay on
Stadie3,.said that reading makes the
full man. If he had been called on to
offer an illustration applicable to pres
ent day life, he probably would have
said that reading on part of the aver
age voter would enable him, when he
talked politics, to discuss the princi
ples of public issues rather than the
personalities of candidates who hap
pened to ba running for office.
Inasmuch as reading, in the Bacon
ian sense, makes the full man, it is in
order to ask what North Carolina is
doing in this particular for the 850,000
children who are of the proper age to
attend her common'schools, the 40,000
or more pupils enrolled in her high
schools, and the 10,000 students enroll
ed in her 32 colleges.
Rural ScLool Libraries
Prior to March 1901, the common
schools had, practically speaking, no
books. By legislative enactment in
1901 provision was made for the estab
lishment of $30 original libraries con
taining an average of 85 volumes, and
later $15 supplementary libraries con
taining 36 volumes. On November 30,
1920, the last date for which statistics
are available, there were 4960 of the
Wayne County
Forty-eight schools outside of Golds
boro in Wayne county reported 3331
pupils enrolled. Forty-five possessed
libraries totaling 4041 volumes, and 24
were ope(n in the summer. Fourteen
schools reported a total monthly circu
lation of 254 volumes or an average of
18 per school per month. Nineteen
schools reported efforts to improve
their libraries, a total of $195.10 having
been raised for this purpose. Nine
schools owned an encyclopedia, 26 an
unabridged dictionary, and 13 subscrib
ed for periodicals. Forty of the teach
ers reported the presence of papers
and magazines in the homes of the pup
ils, and 37 the presence of books.
HIGH SCHOOL LIBRABIES
Figures for high school libraries in
North Carolina are practically non-ex
istent. No special fund other than
that for the $30 and $15 libraries has
been appropriated by the state and
counties for the purchase of books for
high school libraries, and as a result no
record has been kept by the state de
partment of Education. The latest
statistics by the United States Bureau
of Education were issued in 1915 and
consequently are entirely out of date.
origina7irb“‘ari^rcontainmg”rtotal "of I Schools here and there have secured
approximately 421,600 volumes and
costing $148,800, and 2331 of the sup
plementary libraries, containing 81,565
volumes and costing $34,965. One half
of the common schools of the state had
i\o libraries at all. That is, in the
twenty years from 1901 to 1920, $183,-
768 was spent to acquire 503,165 books
for one half of the school children of
the state to read. To date, the other
half have gone unprovided for this
specific purpose except as they have
drawn upon funds other than those ap
propriated by the state and counties.
In addition to the fact that no pro
vision has been made for one half of
the schools, it is also true that failure
to provide the most careful sort of
oversight has resulted in many instan
ces in only their partial use. Question
naires covering the white schools of
Orange, Guilford, and Wayne counties
for 1921-22 show the following situa
tion:
Orange County
Of 48 white schools in Orange, in
cluding the graded schools of Chapel
Hill and Hillsboro, seven have no libra
ries whatever, and the 1586 pupils en
rolled have access to a total of 3692
volumes, or slightly more than two mission,
books per pupil. Eighteen of the 41
libraries are open only during the ses
sion. In answer to the direct question
How much are the books used during
term time, ten out of the 25 teachers
answering responded, Not very much!
One high school spent $160 for new
books. Three other schools spent $10,
$20, and $5 respectively for new books.
The other 44 spent nothing. Four
schools subscribed for a total of 23
newspapers and magazines, the other
44 for none. Practically every teacher
reported the presence of some books
in the homes of the pupils, but one con
cluded the questionnaire with the com
ment that the patrons seemed to take
scarcely any interest in schools, books,
or newspapers.
Guilford County
In Guilford county 70 schools report
ing 7333 pupils enrolled. The city
schools of Greensboro were not includ
ed. Forty-six of the schools taught
only the first seven grades; 24 taught
from three to four grades of high
school subjects. Sixty-two of the 70
had libraries with a total of 8,975 vol
umes. Only 25 of the libraries were
open in the summer, 29 reported a
monthly total circulation of 1165 or ,40
volumes per school, and only $743.16 or
ten cents per pupil was spent for new
books during the year. Twenty schools
possessed an enclyclopedia, 27 an una
bridged dictionary, and 15 subscribed
for newspapers and magazines. The
others lacked these indespensable aids
to first class school work. Teachers in
dicated the presence of books and pa
pers in the majority of homes, and a
number of schools reported the use of
library material from the public liprary
at Greensboro which maintains a county
service.
funds for books in various ways, but
no permanent policy has been provided
for their steady adequate upbuilding.
Only in 1921 was the standard of 300
volumes for junior high schools and 500
volumes for senior high schools set by
the State Educational Department as a
pre-requisite to being placed in the class
of accredited schools, and an adequate
list prepared by the State High School
Inspector from which the books could
be selected.
BooK Collections Small
How deplorable the situation has been
was indicated by the answers to a
questionnaire concerning high school
facilities submitted to 100 Freshmen in
the University in 1921-22. Of the 100
Freshmen, 96 replied that they had the
use of some form of library in high
school. Four had not. Seventy-six re
ported the presence of refer.ence books
in the school library. Eighty-five had
access to an encyclopedia or unabridged
dictionary, fifty-eight to an atlas, and
thirty-nine, through their connection
with the High School Debating Union
had .used package library material from
the University Library and twenty-six
from the North Carolina Library Corn-
Only 88 had had access to a
public library, had learned how to use
a dictionary card catalogue, and were
able on the first day of their college
career, to use the tools which a great
college library places at the disposal of
its students. To the other 67 the card
catalogue; the periodical indexes, the
bibliographical works, the whole libra
ry, in fact, around which their college
work should revolve, was afk unknown
quantity. These 67 presented the nec
essary 15 units in English, history, sci
ence, and language. But the funda
mental unit, the unit of knowing how
to use a well-equipped modern library,.
they, and their less fortunate high
school classmates who stayed at home
and whose future self-education is al
most entirely dependent upon the use
of what Carlyle called the peoples’ uni
versity—the public library—they failed
to acquire.
A Beginning Made
With Winston and Durham and Wil
son high schools, to mention three lead
ing high schools out of the 474 high
schools of the State, putting trained
librarians in their high schools in Sep
tember for the first time, with the high
school lists and standards adopted only
within the last twelve months, and
with no fixed fund from which a mini
mum of fifty cents per high school pu
pil per year can be drawn for high
school books—the standard expenditure
adopted by the National Education Asso^
elation. North Carolina has far to go
to put her high school libraries on a
proper foundation. Fortunately she is
beginning to see the goal, but the race
is yet to be run and won.
COLLEGE LIBRARIES
The plight of North Carolina colleges
in general was set forth in these col-
Released week beginning Sep. 18.
KNOW NORTH CAROLINA
Dairying in Carolina
The great variety of feed crops
which grow to perfection in North
Carolina, her long growing season
making possible two crops a year,
good markets for dairy products and
a mild climate, are conditions that
make dairy farming in this state
equal to and in many respects super
ior to those offered by the best dairy
states in the Union.
Ope might assume that there would
be no shortage of dairy products in
a state where such favorable condi
tions exist. However, such is the
case. Especially is there a shortage
in the coastal and tidewater sections
of the state, where there is only one
cow to every ,14.4 persons. If all
the milk produced in this part of the
state was consumed in the raw form
the amount available per person
would be less than one-half pint per
day, or about one-fourth the quanti
ty that each child should have in
order to develop a strong,' healthy
body^and mipd.
The small number of cows found
in Eastern Norjh Carolina can 'part
ly be accounted for by the high per
cent of tenant labor used in operat
ing the farms. In the past, many
of the landlords, adhering to a one-
crop system of farming, have felt
that it was impractical for their
tenants to own cows. How long
this condition will exist it is difficult
to say, but it will be safe to predict
that the number of cows in this sec
tion will not be materially increased
until both landlord and tenant realize
that milk is the best and cheapest
food obtainable, and that it is a nec
essary part'of the human diet.
In the piedmont and mountain sec
tions of the state where a much
more diversified system of farming
is practiced, the number of;’ milk
cows per farm is much larger. Here
an adequate supply of milk and but
ter is available for each family and
a considerable amount is produced
for the market. There are sixteen
creameries, twenty cheese factories,
seven milk plants, and eighteen ice
cream factories operating in this
section. About 5500 farmers are de
livering sour cream to these cream
eries for the manufacturing of but
ter. *
The production of cream with
these farmers is a side line. They
keep a sufficient number of cows to
consume all roughage grown on the
farm and fb pasture land which would
otherwise return no dividends. In
addition to furnishing a good mar
ket, on the farm, for this roughage,
the dairy cow returns a monthly
cash income. She furnishes profit
able and constant employment for
farm labor and makes possible the
reduction of fertilizer bills by con
serving soil fertility.
The production of cream for cream
eries is a form of dairy farming
which is well adapted to any section
of North Carolina, and if there was
an average of four milk cows per
'farmin this state instead of 1.07,
the present annual income of twenty-
four millions from this source would
be increased to ninety-six millions,
and this is possible without addition
al labor cost per farm.—J. A. Arey,
State Farm Extension Service, Dairy
Division.
that the state and many of the various
churches of North Carolina came gen
erously to the support of public and
private institutions alike.
BooKs Lacking
But emphasis in the campaign had to
be placed on dormitories and dining
rooms and classroom buildings to house
the young men and women who were
knocking at the doors of the colleges
rather than upon the upbuilding of
book and periodical collections in the
libraries of the colleges. The libraries
profited, to be sure, as the result of
the increased support; but as compared
with those of institutions in other sec
tions of the country they fall far short
of providing facilities adequate to the
proper enrichment of the lives of the
10,000 students now seeking a higher
education in North Carolina.
Annual Additions
From the table appearing elsewhere
in this issue taken from the North
Carolina Library Bulletin for Juno, 19-
22, there were 416,353 volumes in the
libraries of 26 North Carolina colleges,
the State Library, and the Library of
the Supreme Court, and 27,960 were in
the libraries of six colored institutions.
The grand total was 444,313 volumes.
These same institutions added a total
of 26,479 new books during the year
and regularly received 2807 newspapers
and periodicals of a permanent nature.
No statistics of income and, expendi
ture were given. Six of the instituti
ons added less than 100 volumes during
the year. The actual figures were
from 16 to 62. Five added between
101 and 200 volumes, nine between 201
and 500, four between 501 and 1000, six
between 1001 and 2000, one between
2001 and 8000, and one over 8000. That
is, the grand total of the whole lot,
eluding State Library and Supreme
Court, was only 25,479, a total less by
505 than the 25,984 added to‘the library
of the University of California alone.
The Library of the University of Mich
igan came within 26 of the total, Yale
doubled it, and Harvard with 73,100
volumes practically trebbled it!
Total Collections Small
Not only are the annual additions
small but the collections to which they
are added are far too limited. To add
16 volumes to a collection which at the
end of the year totals only 2014 is quite
different from adding 2047 to a collec
tion which at the end of the year totals
59,000, or 25,453, in the case of Michi
gan, to an exclusive total of 457,847.
As compared with the libraries of
colleges and universities in the North
and West, the libraries of these North
Carolina institutions are fearfully out
distanced. Wesleyan University, the
Methodist college of Connecticut, had
125,100 volumes in 1921. Haverford Col
lege, the Friends college of Pennsyl
vania, had 80,000; the State Normal
College of Michigan had 45,000; the
State Agricultural College of Iowa had
80';000; the Wellesly and Sijaith, 'two
colleges for women in Massachusetts,
had 100,000 and 78,600 respectively, and
the collections at Johns Hopkins and
Princeton, not to mention the really
big collections of Columbia and Yale
and Harvard, ran well up beyond the
quarter of a million mark.
In failing to have such libraries at
their disposal North Carolina students
are missing one of the fundamental es
sentials to a well rounded education a
fact which the state, the church, and
particularly wealthy private citizens
should see changed, and changed in
stantly.
THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
The year 1921-22 has been the most
distinctive in the history of the Uni
versity of North Carolina Library for
the following five reasons: (1) One
hundred and twenty-seven years after
the founding of the University and 222
years after the establishment of the
first North Carolina library at Bath,
the Library reached the 100,000 volume
mark, thereby sharing with 'Virginia
and Texas the distinction of being one
of the three university libraries in the
South having more than 100,000 vol
umes; (2) It added 8634 new volumes
during the year, or more than one third
as many as all the public libraries in
the State combined; (3) It subscribed
to 1005 magazines and learned journals;
(4) It increased the titles in the North
Carolina collection by 775 volumes and
2109 pamphlets; and (5) It definitely
set about studying plans for the erec
tion of a new library building which,
when erected, will provide seminars
for graduate study, special rooms for
cataloguing and administration, equip
ment for mending and binding, space
for collection of maps, bound newspa
pers, and prints, cases for the exhibi
tion of manuscripts and early forms of
printing, apparatus for photographing
rare documents, rooms for the use of
investigators in the fields of North Ca
rolina and Southern history, space for
the training of teachers and librarians
in library work, and will meet in every
way the needs of a modern university.
In three other respects the year was
distinctive: (1) Its funds for books,
periodicals, and binding amounted to
$22,500; (2) In the number of books
received it equaled Johns Hopkins for
the year 1920-21; and (3) IJuring the
Summer School it circulated 16,892 vol
umes, of which only 4 per cent were fic
tion, the per capita circulation for the
1345 students being 12.1 for the six
weeks.
SCHOOL AND COLLEGE LIBRARIES
in North Carolina, in 1921-22.
ums and those of the State press in 19-
20-21. A situation was therein presen
ted which aroused the citizenship of
the state as it had not been aroused
since the passage of the constitutional
amendment in 1900, with the result
School or College
Vols. Added
Total Vols.
Periodicals
Appalachian Training School
90
8398
25
Atlantic Christian College (1)
16
2014
25
Concordia College
180
6279
Cullowhee Normal
676
1046
23
Davidson College (2)
1340
19208
91
E. C. Teachers College
192
2460
65
Elon College (1) ^
251
9508
103
Flora McDonald College (1)
240
48*76
Greensboro College
307
8468
65
Guilford College
298
8444
71
Lenoir College
890
3810
42
Mars Hill College
158
1907
30
Meredith College
1440
10291
106
Mt. Pleasant Collegiate Inst.
18
4816
11
Normal & Collegiate Inst. (1)
Normal & Indus. Inst.
92
2883
10
N. C. College for Women
1742
16817
199
Peace Institute
3000
St. Genevieve-of-the-Pines
' 240
12240
20
St. Marys’ School (1)
200
4138
73
Salem Academy and College
500
8164
60
State College of A. and E.
425
10790
188
State Library (3)
1796
49107
62
State School for the Blind
100
1500
15
Supreme Court (3)
497
23856
Trinity College
2047
59000
202
University of North Carolina
8634
108406
1005
Wake Forest College
1423
26928
101
Total
23,793
416,353
2,579
Albion Academy (colored) 1
300
2146
10
Biddle University (colored) 1
700
9354
18
Agricultural and Tech, (colored) 1
115
2912
60
St. Augustine (colored)
7000
Shaw University (colored)
536
5866
26
State Normal School (colored)
35
682
115
Total (colored)
1,686
27,960
228
Grand total
25,479
444,313
2,807
Footnotes;—!. No report received this year. 2. 10266 books were destroyed
by fire, November, 1921. 3. Listed here for convenience.