REPORT OF TRUSTEES
The trustees have paid considerable attention in the past three years to strengthening the reference department of the library. They believe that the object of a public library is not alone to furnish reading for recreation, but to provide a considerable number of books that will add to the reader's fund of knowledge The reference library is well supplied with these books. During the year we have added The International Library of Music, in fourteen volumes, and the new Columbia Encyclopedia, pronounced the best single-volume encyclopedia in existence. We ar glad to report that a large and increase use is made of the reference library by the pupils in our school.
Owing to the fact that we have been confronted with no special expenditures this year, the trustees have been enabled to open the library one additional afternoon and evening each week during the winter months. The experiment has been a success. There seems to be no other place in town where the evenings can be passed so pleasantly and profitably as in our warm and well-lighted reading room, and we are glad that so many have availed themselves of the privilege. Besides books of reference, the reading room is well supplied with the most representative papers and magazines.
The library has been remembered by friends in the year that is past. The Hampton Garden Club has brightened the reading room with contributions of flowers. Mr. Wheaton J. Lane has contributed a fine steel engraving of the Venus of Milo. And our dear friend, Miss Ida M. Lane, whose modesty never permitted her many good deeds to be known while she was with us, remembered the library in her will with a legacy of $500. For all these acts of friendliness and thoughtfulness, the trustees are deeply grateful.
In the selection of books, the trustees are not unmindfull of their moral responsibility to the community. It is apparent to all that the high moral standards of the past have been lowered and that practices are permitted that would not have been tolerated a generation ago. Books are published and widely circulated with a frankness of details that shock even the sophisticated. While we realize the fact that we are not purchasing volumes for a Sunday school library, and must tolerate books that contain offensive passages, yet we are careful to add no book whose trend is distinctively evil, and we try to select books that are wholesome and to discard those which are corrupting and debasing. We return many books that, after careful reading, seem out of line with our ideals. Our purpose is to make he Hampton Public Library one of the most helpful influences in the community.
| REV. EDGAR WARREN, OTIS RAYMOND GARLAND, SARAH M. LANE |
LIBRARY TREASURER’S REPORT
RECEIPTS
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EXPENDITURES
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| EDGAR WARREN, Treasurer. |
NOTE: The treasurer's report has been examined, checked and certified by Sanford G. York, public accountant.
REPORT OF LIBRARIAN
I hereby submit the following report of Hampton Public Library from February 1, 1935 to January 31, 1936:
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Although some librarians report a decrease in circulation due to the knitting fad, I am happy to report an increase of 1,620 in book circulation and 558 in magazine circulation over last year.
During the months of December and January, the Library has been open three days a week. This has been of great advantage to many, especially to pupils in the schools, and has helped to relieve somewhat the congestion on Wednesday afternoons. It is my hope that it can be continued throughout the year.
Several books have been rebound, among them the 4-volume set of New Hampshire Genealogy, the 10-volume set of Civil War Books and the Revised Register of the Soldiers and Sailors of Nexv Hampshire in the War of the Rebellion.
Book Week in November was observed by the display of the poster "Reading for Fun", and an exhibition of new juvenile books. Reading lists, entitled, "Reading For Pleasure", were distributed.
To the members of the Garden Club, who added to the attractiveness of the Library by supplying flowers for the tables in the reading room, go sincere thanks and appreciation.
The following periodicals are to be found in the Library:
American Magazine, American Boy, American Builder, American Girl, Atlantic Monthly, Baseball, Bird Lore, Child Life, Christian Century, Christian Herald, Christian Science Sentinel, Current History, Delineator, Exeter News-Letter, Flower Grower, Fortune, Forum, Good Housekeeping, Hampton Union, Harper’s, House and Garden, Hygeia, Ladies Home Journal, Life, Literacy Digest, Manchester Guardian, Mercury, Nation, National Geographic, National Parent-Teachers, New England Poultryman, News Week, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Readers’ Digest, Review of Reviews, Rural New Yorker, Saint Nicholas, Saturday Evening Post, Scientific American, Scribners, Union Signal.
The following are gift subscriiptions, for which we thank the donors:--
Christian Science Sentinel.
American Builder, donated by Mr. John A. Janvrin.
National Parent—Teacher Magazine, donated by the local P. T. A.
The American Legion Auxilliary Bulletin, donated by the local Auxilliary [Post 35].
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In closing this report, may I add a few suggestions for the care of books by both young and old:
Handle with clean hands.
Use book-marks. Don’t turn down the corners of the pages.
Use some kind of protection in stormy weather.
| Respectfully submitted, MARGARET S. NOYES, Librarian. |