REPORT OF TRUSTEES
One purchase during the year, in which the trustees take considerable pride, is the “Dictionary of American Biography” in twenty volumes. This monumental work is seldom found in libraries as small as ours. In these twenty volumes are to be found the life history of every prominent American, deceased, from the days of the settlers down to the present. Colonial governors, statesmen, explorers, ministers, authors, inventors, judges, physicians, pirates, Indian chiefs, stalk through the pages, and each biographical sketch, whenever possible, is accompanied with a bibliography. Supplementary volumes will be published from time to time. This work never will be outgrown, and will be even more valuable one hundred years from now than it is to-day.
The lot adjoining the Library on Academy Avenue has been bought by the town. This will give the town the control of the lot, and will insure that no building that will detract from the beauty of the Library will ever be erected on it. It will also make possible the expansion of the Library building to the rear in time to come. Our problem now is to find room for our books. The shelves are filled from floor to top. There are also about two thousand volumes that are not in popular demand stored in the basement.
The trustees feel that the town has been very generous in the past in granting an annual appropriation of $1,800, and desire to reciprocate that generosity. So far as we now can see, there will be no extraordinary expenditures in the coming year, and we feel that we can get along if our appropriation is cut to $1,600. We make this as a gesture of good will. The tercentenary celebration will cost the town of Hampton a considerable sum. Perhaps if each department should economize a little, the burden upon the tax payers might be lightened.
| O. RAYMOND GARLAND, EDGAR WARREN, SARAH M. LANE. . |
LIBRARY TREASURER’S REPORT
RECEIPTS
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DISBURSEMENTS
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| EDGAR WARREN, Treasurer. |
NOTE: This Treasurer's report has been examined, checked and approved by Sanford G. York, public accountant.
REPORT OF LIBRARIAN
I hereby submit the following report of Hampton Public Library from February 1, 1937 to January 31, 1938:
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CIRCULATION ACCORDING TO CLASSES
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An increase is again noted both in the book and magazine circulation.
The Library is now open three afternoons and evenings a week, except during the months of July and August, when it is open two days a week.
On October 29, a Library District meeting was held at the Dover Public Library, when the Portsmouth, Exeter and Rochester districts were combined. Seventeen towns were represented. Miss Lillian E. Parshley of Rochester gave an interesting paper on books and Professor Harlan Bisbee of New Hampshire University talked on “Planned Activities for Young People.”
Book Week was observed by the display of the Poster “Reading —- The Magic Highway to Adventure,” and new juvenile books were added.
The following periodicals are in the Library:
American Magazine, American Boy, American Builder, American Girl, Atlantic Monthly, Baseball, Bird Lore, Child Life, Christian Century, Christian Science Sentinel, Commentator, Consumers’ Union, Current History, Exeter News- Letter, Flower Grower, Fortune, Forum, Good Housekeeping, Hampton Union, Harper’s, House and Garden, Hygeia, Ladies’ Home Journal, Leisure, Life, Literary Digest, Mercury, Nation, National Geographic, National Parent-Teacher’s, News Week, Pictorial Review, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Readers’ Digest, Rural New Yorker, Saint Nicholas, Saturday Evening Post, Scientific American, Scribner’s, Union Signal and Wall Street.
The following are gift subscriptions for which we thank the donors:
Christian Science Sentinel.
Sunday Visitor.
American Builder, donated by Mr. John A. Janvrin.
National Parent-Teacher’s Magazine, donated by the local P. T. A.
The American Legion Auxiliary Bulletin, donated by the local Auxiliary {Legion Post 35}.
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| Respectfully submitted, MARGARET S. NOYES, Librarian. |