INFORMATION WANTED

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 40, 16 August 1919, Page 16

INFORMATION WANTED

LIBRARIES AND THE TELEPHONE,

During the past decade the uses to which an American public library is put by the people of a large city have increased steadily, but probably few libraries havo yet developed into ilia general information bureau:'that nowadays . serves the public in St, Louis, Missouri. Here a staff of librarians in a room furnished with somo 6000 refer' ence volumes answers questions by tele, phono, and so accustomed have people become to this use of the library that the telephone is constantly busy. Every imaginable kind of question, says the Christian Science Monitor, comes in over the wire, for the system provides information on the thousand and one topics that individuals may. wish to know about in the course of a day. Often the librarians, who naturally become very informative persons,; oan answer the inquirer without reference to the books: otherwise the telephone number is taken, the question investigated; and the; answer given as sopn as possible. In the ' growing utility of American public libraries the telephone has become an important link between tho bookshelves and persons at a distance who want one of the books, and in some pioneer cases the library nowadays reaches much farther than the bookuser could conveniently travel. The development of the parcel post system provided a new means of distributing books which these libraries have adopted to increase their radius of influence. The library user visits the library in person and makes a deposit of money to covor postage, _ after which, so long as his deposit is not exhausted, he can make his visits by telephone. He calls up the library, specifies the book, and presently the postman delivers it, and when it has boon read it is returned in the same way through the post office. The system so far has been adopted by only a to-' libraries, but in a country whore tho telephone is so much of a matter-of-course as in the United States, it will doubtless spread to others.