Newspapers / The University of North … / June 10, 1925, edition 1 / Page 1
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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 the University Ex tension Division. JUNE 10, 1925 CHAPEL HILL, N C. THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS VOL. XI, NO. 30 liJiloriol E. C. Branson, S. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. R. Wilson. E. W. Knight, D. D. Ciirroll, J. B. Bullitt. H. W. Odum. Entered as second-class matter November 14. 1914. at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill. N. C.. under the act of August 24, 1912 PUBLIC LIBRARY FACILITIES In preceding issues of the News Let ter there have appeared studies that indicated the reading habits of North Carolinians, and tables that gave North Carolina's rank among the states reading magazines and newspapers. The reader has noticed that the states ‘that rank high in wealth, in efficiency of school systems, in birth-place of prominent men, and other so-called measurements of progress, rank high in reading, and vice versa. After thinking over these facts one might wonder what the - relationship is be tween reading habits and public library facilities. The accompanying study endeavors to throw light upon this question, The table which appears elsewhere ranks the states according to the num ber of inhabitants in each state per volume in public libraries containing 6,000 volumes or more. Owing to the fact that statistics of smaller libraries in many states are not available, it was necessary in ranking the states to exclude libraries with fewer than 6,000 volumes. This does not seriously affect the rank of states. In North Carolina 71 percent of all volumes are in libraries with 6,000 or more volumes. North Ca rolina would still rank last were every book in every public library, small and large, considered. The figures as to the number of vol umes are taken from the Educational Directory, Bureau of Education, Bulle tin No.l for 1926, and supplemented by figures from Patterson’s American Educational Directory. Massachusetts First The table, which is self-explanatory, shows that Massachusetts leads the states of the Union in public library facilities. She has .460 inhabitant per volume in libraries with 6,000 or more volumes, or more than two volumes for every man, woman, and child, in the state. New Hampshire with .464 in habitant per volume, or 2.14 volumes per person, gives Massachusetts a very close race. Connecticut and Vermont follow, and then comes California, which has .6 inhabitant per volume, or 1.6 books for each inhabitant in the state. North Carolina ranks last of all the states, having 11.17 inhabitants per volume, or .077 volume per per son. South Carolina ranks next above North Carolina, and appareiftly can re turn the frequently proffered grati tude on the part of North Carolina for her existence and feel thankful for North Carolina! North Carolina has in public libraries slightly more than one-half as many volumes per inhabi tant as all the Southern states com bined and less than one-sixth a.s many as the average for all the states of the Union. An examination of the table showing the rank of the states in reading maga zines and their position in number of vol umes in public libraries reveals a very definite relationship. Relatively, the states that rank high in one rank high in the other and those thkt rank low in one rank low in the other. Califor nia stands first in reading magazines and fifth in number of volumes in pub lic libraries; Massachusetts ranks eighth in one and first in the other; North Carolina ranks forty-third in one and last in the other; and Mississippi comes last in one and forty-fourth the other. Of the sixteen states that foot the list in reading magazines, thirteen are Southern, and of the six teen states that stand at the bottom in public libraries, fourteen are Southern. Evidently there is a very definite rela tionship between the public library and the reading habits of the people. library, or in a county in which there are branch libraries or county-wide li brary systems. The column showing the percent of population having access to public li braries was compiled from the Ameri can Library Directory for 192^ and re fers to the number of people living in all places where public libraries serve a population of 1,000 people or more. In many places, such as California, li brary service goes beyond the limits of the town in which the library is locat ed. In such cases all people who live in the area served are included. Almost all public libraries that contain as many as 300 volumes serve at least 1,000 people. So in reality, the column in the table which shows the percent of people having access to public libraries gives the percent that have access to all public libraries that have more than 300 volumes on their shelves. California First A glance at the percentage column shows that California ranks first among the states in the percent of the total population having access to public li braries, followed closely by Massachu setts, New Hampshire, and Connecti cut. Mississippi ranks last with only 10.6 percent of the people having ac cess to public libraries. In the ratio of her population having access to pub lic libraries, 21.7 percent, North Caro lina stands fortieth among the states. But her libraries have few volumes for the most part, so that in inhabitants per volume she ranks last of all the states. The reader, by referring to a pre vious study, will find a very close cor relation between the rank of the states as readers of 47 magazines and their rank in the present study as to inhabitants per volume in public libra ries. Rank by Areas The following table shows how the geographic areas of the United States rank in inhabitants per volume in public libraries. It also shows the per cent of the total population having ac cess to public libraries. Rank Groups Inhabs. Percent per Having Volume Access 1 New England 626 92.6 2 Far West 77 33.3 3 Middle Atlantic .... 1.63 73.6 4 Mountain 1.67 ^41.4 6 Middle West 1.69 62.9 6 Southern 6.64 20.7 U. S. Average 1.47 64.2 Relative to population the New England states have more than 12 times as many volumes in public libra ries as the South. The Far West has more than eight times as many books per inhabitant. The New England states average about 21 times as many volumes per inhabitant as are found in North Carolina. In other words, if our public library facilities were multiplied 21 times we would then be on a parity with the six New England States! A GREAT UNIVERSITY A really great state university must both express and serve the deepest needs of the last man and woman and child in the state. Such universities come out of a vast co operative enterprise in which the whole state shares. The real political function of a university is “the training of a race of unofficial statesmen we can trust to manage the life of society when society has passed out of the age of politics. But this will involve a more intimate relating of state uni versities to the life of the state. The statesmanship of our university presidents, in the future, must be expressed not .4o much in wire-pull ing at state capitols as in the devel opment of a more realistic and statesmanlike education that shall enhance and enrich the common life of the state as well as educate the individual students.” Obviously a state must contrive to harness both the power of the government and the knowledge of the university if it is to achieve the ‘good life’ of its citizens.—Glenn Frank, the new President of the University of Wisconsin. for North Carolina, and libraries with fewer than 6,000 volumes were exclud ed for all other states, but for South Carolina, North Carolina would still re main last of all the states, and we know that South Carolina has many small libraries. We regret to realize that our state occupies the cellar posi tion in such an essential matter, but keeping the fact a secret will never do any good. Knowing her status in pub lic library facilities, North Carolina should make a definite move to improve conditions. —0. Stone. THE CALIFORNIA PLAN Extremely Poor Showing Percent Having Access The number of bound volumes is not the final measure of library develop ment. The use of books, as shown by the yearly circulation, the location of libraries, as determined by the number of people having access to them, and other faetbrs, are important. The ac companying column in the table gives the percent of the people in each state who had access to public libraries in 1923. The term access means reason able opportunity to obtain books from public libraries, such as residence in a city or town in which there is a public, The South as a group ranked last in reading magazines and newspapers but there was not so great a difference in favor of other sections in the reading of newspapers and magazines as we find in volumes in public libraries,, .or in the percent of the population having access to public libraries. The show ing made by North Carolina and the South in public library facilities in com parison with other areas is far below one’s reasonable expectations. In no other study of an educational nature that we have made has North Carolina, or the entire South for that matter, made such a poor showing as in this particular one. We cannot recall ever having made another economic or social study in which North Carolina was so clearly outdistanced as in this one. It cannot be said that North Caroli na's low rank is due to the fact that libraries with less than 6,000 volumes are omitted. In North Carolina in 1924 there were in tax-supported pub lic libraries including the State Libra ry, and-subscription libraries, 309,873 volumes, or 8.26 inhabitants per .vol ume. If every book in every public library, large and small, were included Excluding the Library of Congress and state libraries, there are 31 pub lie libraries in the United States that contain 200,009 volumes or more. .Only one of these, The Louisville Public Library, could be classed as a Southern library, and it is near the Northern border line. Large libraries are important, but they are not necessarily the basis of an efficient library system. A thorough service coextensive with the pop ulation is the final measure of effi ciency. California strives for this thoroughness through the means of her county-wide system. This system first began in California in Sacramento County on October 1, 1908, and on July 1, 1924, it embraced 42 counties, circulated 2,936,627 volumes, operated 4,068 branch libraries, affiliated itself with 2,411 school districts, and used an income of $1,296,446.63. California, to a large extent, is operating through central libraries and town centers. North Carolina is espe cially blessed with small but growing towns. She has 468 incorporated places, and only eleven states outrank her in this respect. If these small towns were supplied with libraries, a large percent of the population of the state would bs within easy reach of books. This is the situation generally found in the New England states. An alternative is the county-wide travelling library ser vice as established in California and in many counties In other states. Motor truck service could do marvels in giv ing wider circulation to the city and small-town libraries. In other words a state system functioning through a large number of small-town centers supplemented by motor truck service would give the state a most ideal pub lic library service system. ' The Carnegie library of Asheville j leads in circulation per volume, the : average volume being used 7.21 times j during the year. The Greensboro pub lic library had the largest income, $13,- 687.81, as well as the largest number of volumes, 21,362. The Asheville li brary ranks fourth in number of vol umes and sixth in income, but first in aggregate circulation as well as in cir culation per volume. It will be recol lected that Buncombe county, in which Asheville is located, stood first among the counties of the state in reading eight national magazines for which circulation data by counties were avail able. In all probability the people of Buncombe read more than the inhabi tants of any other county in the state. Library No. of Cir. per Volumes Volume Carnegie Library, . Asheville.' 15,789 Durham Public Library. 32,464 Carnegie Library, Charlotte 12,100 Carnegie Library, Winston-Salem 17,899 Greensboro Public Library 21,362 Olivia Raney, Raleigh.. 18,142 Wilmington Public Library 11,818 7.21 6.84 6.84 5.87 4.13 3.63 3.16 A BETTER TOWN BUILDER Agriculture, said Herbert Hoover the other day, is a better town builder than industry. The remark is one that deserves more than passing notice. The chambers of commerce in nine out of every ten towns in the United States should have this very fact drilled into their systems. The majority of the American towns which now are strain ing their suspenders in an effort to pull factories in their direction will make more healthful progress if they forget the factories and extend a cooperative hand to the farmer. Agriculture is the backbone of the average small town, but the town boosters are inclined to forget this fact. They labor under the mistaken notion that a good town means a big ger town and that a bunch of factories would solve their problem. The good will and the whole-hearted support of the farmers in that town’s trade terri tory are vastly more desirable than factories for the average town. This good-will and this support will not come unsought and uninvited. The boosting of a community’s agriculture will be bread cast upon the waters. The town will progress without belch ing smoke stacks.—N, C. Cotton Grower. BOOHS IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN THE UNITED STATES Inhabitants per Volume and Percent Population Having Access In the following table based on Educational Directory, Federal Bureau of Educa tion Bulletin No 1, covering the year 1924, supplemented by statistics from Patterson’s Educational Directory for 1924, and the 1920 census of population the states are ranked according to the number of inhabitants per volume in aU public libraries having 6,000 volumes or more for the year 1924. Seventy-one percent of all volumes in public libraries in North Carolina are in libraries with 6,000 or more volumes. The accompanying column shows the percent of the pop ulation in each state having access to public libraries. School and college libra ries are not considered, but only public libraries. * Massachusetts ranks first with more than two volumes per inhabitant while North Carolina comes last with more than eleven inhabitants per volume Only one-fifth of the people of the state have access to public libraries (see interpre tation) . United States average 1.47 inhabitants per volume. District of Columbia .062 inhabitant per volume, or about 16 volumes per inhabitant. ^ Orlando Stone, Research Assistant Institute for Research in Social Science, University of North Carolina Rank States Percent Inhabs, of Pop. per Having Volume Access Rank States Percent Inhabs. of Pop. per Having Volume Access 1 Massachusetts .. ... 97.4 .460 26 Utah .. . 65 3 1.S9 2 New Hampshire. .. 96.1 .464 26 Idaho .. . 30.6 2.32 3 Connecticut ... 90.2 .602 27 Arizona ... 18.6 2.36 4 Vermont ... 82.6 .607 28 Missouri . .. 44.1 2.37 6 California ... 97.6 .609 29 Nebraska .... 36.6 2.63 6 Nevada . . 20.8 .66 30 Pennsylvania ... ... 68.8 2.73 7 Rhode Island .... ... 78.7 .68 31 South Dakota .. ... 24.9 2.93 8 Maine .. 71.3 .74 32 Kansas .... 41.2 2.87 9 Delaware .. 59.6 .76 33 Tennessee .... ... 22.0 3.30 10 Wyoming ... 82.0 .78 34 Kentucky .. 26.6 3.78 11 New Jersey .. 80.6 .95 36 Oklahoma ... 26.6 6.09 12 Oregon ... 64.4 1.02 36 North Dakota .. ... 17.4 6.61 13 New York .. 84.0 1.26 37 Louisiana .... 28.2 6,66 34 Indiana .. 66.4 1.35 38 Alabama . .. 21.8 6.73 16 Montana ... 48.9 1.421 39 West Virginia . ... 16.4 6.82 16 Illinois .. 68.6 1.423 40 Florida . . 35.7 5.99 17 Iowa ... 40.6 1.48 41 Virginia. ... 24.7 6.85 18 Colorado ... 46.8 1.50 42 Arkansas ... 11.2 6.89 19 Michigan . 66.2 1.51 43 Georgia ... 23.9 6.90 20 Wisconsin .. 62.8 1.63 44 Mississippi ... 10.6 7.33 21 Minnesota .. 46.7 1.68 45 Texas ... 28.3 7.43 ' 22 Ohio .. 69.9 1.63 46 New Mexico .... .... 16.3 7.66 23 Washington .... .. 68.0 1.67 47 South Carolina . ... 13.7 8.65 24 Maryland 66.0 1.68 48 North Carolina .. .... 21.7 11.17 SEVEN LARGEST LIBRARIES The table below gives some facts concerning the seven largest public li braries in North Carolina, the state li brary excepted. The circulation per vol ume in four of these libraries exceeds the Admirable Standard of yearly cir culation which shows again that given chance North Carolinians will read. RANK OF REPRESENTATIVE STATES The following table gives the main facts about public libraries in twelve widely scattered states. The table covers all tax-supported public libraries in each state, with the exception of the state library ana a few small libraries con cerning which data were incomplete. The information was compiled from the annual and biennial reports of the separate state library commissions. The table portrays some interesting facts. Books in libraries in the Far West are used more than in the states considered in other parts of the country. The people in the South read fairly extensively the books in their libraries; the annual circulation per volume in Southern libraries, represented by those in Georgia and North Carolina, is more than four times the number of volumes. Evidently the low rank of the South in reading is due more to the lack of facilities than to any natural aversion to reading. Our people read when they have access to collec tions of books, as the circulation in most of the city libraries of the state will testify. The South, as represented by North Carolina and Georgia, spends very little per inhabitant on public libraries, the amount being less than 6 cents in each of these two states, Indiana spends 68 cents per inhabitant, Oregon 51 cents, Washington 44 cents. Few states, if any, spend less per inhabitant on public libraries than North Carolina, which explains why we rank last of all the states in volumes per inhabitant in public libraries. Statistics of Public Libraries in Twelve States No. of Li- States No. of Aggregate Circulation Total Cost per braries Considered Oregon Volumes Circulation per Volume Income of Libraries Inhab. 41 614,809 3,314,425 6.40 $398,778 61 60 Washington.. 863,486 4,461,610 5.17 691,261 44 11 Idaho 96,336 1,437,758 4.92 41,298 10 61 Oklahoma.... 373,900 1,839,677 4.91 307,863 13 219 Illinois 3,674,451 17,578,379 4.78 2,094,609 32 23 Georgia 221,306 960,644 4.62 146,526 4.9 60 N. Carolina.. 210,733 919,769 4.36 124,646 4.9 207 Indiana 2,395,430 9,642,793 3.98 1,691,332 58 24 N. Dakota... 118,113 467,132 3.95 98,661 15 36 Missouri 1,416,882 6,199,118 3.68 1,259,846 37 122 Nebraska.... 723,832 2,669,279 3.55 307,022 24 14 Maryland.... 531,299 1,226,732 2.31 304.103 21
The University of North Carolina News Letter (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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June 10, 1925, edition 1
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