Annual report of the Cleveland Public Library for 1955-1968 (a thirteen year report)

              A Thirteen Year
Report
Cleveland Public Library
1955~1968
A THIRTEEN YEAR REPORT
by
Raymond C. Lindquist
Director, Cleveland Public Library
March, 1955 - August, 1968
CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY
CONTENTS
Introduction
Why a Report on 13 years?
Problems and Progress in Mid-Century
I. The Pension Problem
II. Controversy wi th Municipalities
over Tax Allocations
III. Retirement Age
IV. Fire Insurance
V. Main Library Space Almost Doubled
VI. Rejuvenation and Expansion
of Branch Libraries
VII. Main Library Plant
VIII. The Public Library No Longer
Provides School Libraries
IX. Internal Organizational Changes
Within the Library
X. Staff Welfare
XI. Friends of the Library Organized
XII. Service to the Public
XIII. Reading and the Book Collection
XIV. The Changing City and the
Changing Library
Summary
A Personal Word of Thanks
Appendix:
Reading Trends, 1955-1968, by
Bernice Bollenbacher, Library Editor
Page
1
1-2
2-3
3
4
4-5
5-7
7-12
12-13
13-14
15-16
16-19
20
20-28
28-30
31-41
41
42
43-45
INTRODUCTION
This is a report covering a baker's dozen of years in the life of
one of Cleveland's notable institutions. Specifically, it includes
the thirteen and one-half years from 1955 to the middle of June, 1968,
a span of service as Director of the Cleveland Public Library with
the third-longest term in that responsibility -- a term exceeded only
by the terms of predecessors William H. Brett (1885-1918) and Linda
A. Eastman (1918-1939).
The report begins with the year 1955, when the Cleveland Public
Library was 86 years old, and the beautiful Main Library building had
long been greatly overcrowded. It takes us to the very threshold of
the Library's Centennial. Here are reviewed something of the years
when this Cleveland institution was living its late eightieth and
ninethieth years.
Problems come to well-established institutions, however, just as
they do to others. Changing times bring new challenges. This report
records something of these matters as they were faced in the Library
as the second half of the 20th century unfolded. Seen as a unit of
time, these were the years when the Cleveland of yesterday became the
Cleveland of today, a period in which changes of great significance
came not only to Cleveland but to all America and especially to her
large cities. How have the events of these years affected the Public
Library? What have its major problems been and how have they been met?
What has the Library done for the people who read and for those who
do not read? How is the Cleveland Public Library changing as it
adjusts to a changing city and a growing metropolitan area and to new
concepts and new methods in public libraries? These are matters
reviewed in this report.
WHY A REPORT ON 13 YEARS?
In 1955 the Library published an annual report -- a pictorial report
of interviews with readers in a variety of occupations who testified
on how the Library had helped them. The supply of the report was soon
exhausted. In succeeding years it was felt that a very brief single­sheet
report which could be given out in quantity reached more people
than a book-type report. Called A Few Facts About the Cleveland
Public Library it featured basic information with statistics updated
each year. Explaining that the Library is both a research library and
a public library in the popular sense, and that it is the second­largest
public library in the United States (only the New York Public
Library having more books than Cleveland's) it included statistics
'on size of collection, on number of branches and other agencies on
budget, etc. The "Few Facts" reports have been most useful in '
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distribution to foreign and other visitors, to classes from library
schools, and in providing answers to inquiries about the Library.
In addition, during those years, detailed statistical reports on book
stock, circulation, finances, and on building improvements were issued
regularly each year in mimeographed form for Board and official use
only.
There is need, however, for a long-term view from time to time. At
the conclusion of this Administration, it would seem an especially
appropriate time for an interpretive report, recording progress in the
past, and a view of the future. This report is not intended as a
popular presentation, but as a summary of important years in the
history of the Library.
PROBLEMS AND PROGRESS IN MID-CENTURY
Growing out of the relatively recent past, several critical problems
were pending for the Library in 1955. Their settlement was a principal
concern of the Board, the Administration, and the Staff through the
ensuing years, yet never once was concern for top-quality library service
sacrificed. There are roadblocks, however, of all kinds that can
interfere with the continuing program of an institution if they are not
settled with reasonable satisfaction. It is important to record such
problems and what was done about them.
1. THE PENSION PROBIEM
Difficulty arose because the Library had instituted its own system
of retirement annuities (in 1928) before the organization of the Ohio
Public Employees Retirement System (abbreviated hereafter as P.E.R.S.)
in 1938. The Library had understood that it was exempt from the State
P.E.R.S. plan. However, an Attorney General's Opinion in 1951 brought
a most controversial situation among Staff members, Board members, the
Prudential Insurance Company, and the Public Employees Retirement
System. By 1955 the questions raised by this problem brought the
introduction of a bill in the State Legislature. The Staff was divided
between those who favored one system over another. If the Prudential
contract were not upheld as valid, chaos would have come to the Library
Staff. Had the P.E.R.S. position prevailed that Library employees
should have been members of their system since 1938, financial difficulties
would have been seemingly unsurmountable. The matter was solved basically
by the passage of a State law enabling all who had signed for the
Prudential annuities to continue with them. Beginning on January 1,
1956, the law required that all new staff members join the State plan
(P.E.R.S.). Lump-sum payments were made to a few who had not as yet
been placed on either retirement system before the law was passed.
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In general, the legislation solved the problem; however, individual
cases raised legal questions. In 1957 the Library petitioned for a
declaratory judgment. The following year brought a landmark decision
in which Judge William Thomas reversed an earlier decision that would
have made the Library liable for failure to place on P.E.R.S. all employees
who joined the Staff after September 16, 19430 The latter date was the
one on which the enabling legislation which made the Prudential retirement
plan possible, had inadvertently been repealed by the State Legislature.
The 1958 decision upheld the Library's position on every point, and it
was affirmed in 1959 by the Court of Appeals for Cuyahoga County.
Since that time individual cases have arisen from persons now on
P.E.R.S. who want retroactive coverage in that system for years they
were covered by the Library under Prudential. Currently (in 1968)
an Opinion is awaited, for example, from the Attorney General of Ohio
on the facts of four specific cases now pending.
Whereas in 1955 the preponderance of staff belonged to the Prudential
retirement annuity plan (646 Prudential; 253 on P.E.R.S.), the reverse
is the case today. Now 712 staff members belong to P.E.R.S. and 153
to the Prudential Retirement plano As the older employees resign or
retire, the group on the Prudential retirement plan decreases. Endless
hours of meeting, study and effort were necessary to settle the pension
problem.
II. CONTROVERSY WITH MUNICIPALITIES OVER TAX ALLOCATIONS
Money, it has been said, is the root of all evil. Ohio law provides
that public libraries shall get the tax funds they "need" (as the
statute phrases it) from the Intangibles Tax on income from stocks and
bonds. However, any such tax receipts not allocated to libraries are
to go to the municipalities in proportion as citizens of their commun­ities
have paid this particular tax. In the 1950's a very determined
effort was made by municipalities (as represented by their County and
State associations) to hold library allocations down, so municipalities
would receive more. In 1955 a prime battle was waged over Senate Bill
263 in the Ohio Legislature which would have placed a ceiling on the
amount of intangibles tax that could be granted for library service.
The ceiling would have been a sum equal to whatever 1/2 mill on real
property in the County would produce. In Cuyahoga County this would
have meant a decrease of 65% for the public libraries.
Needless to say, the libraries united to defeat this proposal. All
over the State, public libraries made an outstanding campaign and
aroused the public. The bill died in Committee.
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III. RETIREMENT AGE
This is a policy matter that was controversial within the Cleveland
Public Library in the early 1950's. The Prudential retirement plan
had long fixed the date for compulsory retirement at age 65; however,
the State's P.E.R.S. plan set it at age 70. Pressures within the
Library resulted in a compromise (in 1955) at age 67 1/2 (except in
the Buildings Department, where there we~e special circumstances).
In 1962, the compulsory retirement age was finally brought to age 70
for all. This was especially important for staff members on the
Prudential Retirement Plan whose annuities become payable at age 65.
Such persons could then work an additional five years during which
they would be insured under the Public Employees Retirement System.
A small P.E.R.S. pension could then be added to their other retirement
resources. Again, it can be pointed out that no such changes of
policy were achieved without widespread Staff and Board discussion
and study.
IV. FIRE INSURANCE
Adequate fire insurance protection was an achievement developed in
the late 1950's. In 1955 the Library was, and had been for decades
self-insured. This means that a sum of money was carried over from
year to year as a Fire Insurance Reserve. If there were fire damage,
replacements would be met from this fund. However, the fund amounted
at its highest point to $421,694.94. Whether $421,000 was a sufficient
amount of fire insurance to cover a multi-million dollar public invest­ment
was a question of deep concern. If a fire disaster had struck
and destroyed the Main Library (as it did the Michigan State Library
in 1951, for instance) all that would have been available for rebuilding
was $421,694.94 in the Fire Insurance Fund. A public that paid
$4,500,000 for the Main building alone, plus millions more for books
and furnishings, might well have believed that self-insurance at that
level was a poor economy.
Another danger of self-insurance was that it would dwindle away. For
years the Library had borrowed from this fund during the early months
of the year when current tax funds had not yet been collected. This
saved the interest that results from borrowing from banks (as must
be done now during the early months of each year), but the corpus of
the fund could have been reduced whenever it was felt necessary to
use the money.
The need for greater fire insurance protection became alarmingly
clear in 1957. Whereas Library fires are fortunately rare, a disastrous
fire completely destroyed Woodland Branch Library on November 22, 1957.
It required $250,000 of the Fire Insurance reserve to replace that
Branch. This reduced the self-insurance resources to $171,694.94 and
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brought to a head the urgent need for commercial fire insurance protection.
A committee of well-known insurance men in Cleveland, the Library
Insurance Advisory Committee, was organized in 1958. This group of
pUblic-spirited experts helped the Library Board and Administration to
prepare specifications for fire insurance coverage of the r1ain Library
building and what was then called the Hamilton Garage building. Bids
were solicited by legal advertising. Early in January, 1959 the contract
for fire insurance was let, providing protection on these two important
buildings and their books to an amount of $15,760,000. The cost for
this policy amounted to approximately $10,000 per year.
Gradually the coverage was extended. In 1960 the twenty-two branch
buildings owned by the Library were brought into the policy. The
insurable replacement cost on the branch buildings owned was $4,810,750.
A few months later the insurance coverage was extended to cover the
books and card catalogs in the branch libraries, with an additional
valuation of over $4,000,000 to be added.
In June, 1968 a new fire insurance policy was approved by the Library
Board covering all real property and furnishings, equipment, books,
records, catalog cards, periodicals, films, and reference materials
in the one policy. The valuation of Library property now totals
$21,149,500 for buildings alone, or $51,233,649 for buildings, books,
catalog cards, etc. For this protection the annual premium is $20,854.
The people of the city now have proper fire insurance on the Public
Library system. Only one extension is still needed, and that is one
on art objects (of which the Library owns few), and extra valuations
above the average to cover individual rare books.
One other step forward in the protection of Library official records
was the microfilming of the Shelf List. In case of fire, this is the
record that would be used to prove loss. In 1964 this was filmed at
a cost of $4,750 for 1,000,000 cards. The films are not kept at the
Library but are stored in the vaults of the company that did the work.
Records are kept up-to-date by weekly film supplements of new entries
made.
V. MAIN LIBRARY SPACE ALMOS T DOlJJ3LED
Fourteen years after the Main Library building first opened in 1925
a survey called an Appraisal StUdy of the Cleveland Public Library System,
was made by Dr. Leon Carnovsky, of the University of Chicago Library
School, with the help of a local staff committee.
In commenting on the Main Library building the report on this stUdy
said, in 1939:
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"But the building itself, with all its virtues, leaves
something to be desired. Far too little space has been
allotted for book storage, and as a result serious over­crowding
is almost everywhere evident. It is particularly
serious in the Technology Division, the Business Information
Bureau, the County Department, and the Library for the
Blind. In the fourteen years since the new building was
opened the book-stock within it has more than doubled, and
current acquisitions render the shelving problem ever
more acute."
It was pointed out that even then space for readers was not sufficient
at peak periods. Storage space at the Library Garage building a few
blocks away was also nearly filled, for the report said: "The space
allotted to books from the Main building will probably be exhausted
within two or three years, and other expedients will then be necessary••• "
The crowded situation became increasingly pressing and frustrating
through the 1940's and 1950's as the Library continued to grow. Every
avenue of expansion was explored but no proposed solution was possible.
Streets cut the Main Library off on three sides, the fourth was a small
City park that was located between the Library and the Cleveland Plain
Dealer building. Structurally, it was not feasible to fill the center
court of the building or to add additional stories (which could not be
done inasmuch as the building is part of the Mall plan and must conform
in height to other public buildings of the area).
In 1957 a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity came to solve this problem.
The "Cleveland Plain Dealer" decided to sell its building and move.
Study revealed that it would cost $3,000,000 to purchase the property
and to remodel and equip it for library purposes. Accordingly, the
voters of Cleveland were asked to approve a bond issue of that amount.
A good campaign in all parts of the city helped bring a 66% vote of
approval, which, in such matters, indicates decided voter support
since 55% approval is sufficient for passage.
As a result, this six-story building was purchased and named the
Business and Science Building. The Main Library building contains
180,000 square feel of floor space, not counting mezzanines. The
Plain Dealer building added 179,000 square feet, almost doubling the
space for the Main Library, providing housing for 864,974 books.
Commodious new quarters became possible in the new building for the
Business Information Department (Which was assigned the entire first
floor and part of the basement), and for the Science and Technology
Department (which was allotted the entire second floor and almost half
of the third). Provision for these departments met, at long last,
two of the urgent needs identified in the 1939 Appraisal StUdy.
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Enlarged quarters for the Adult Education Department and Film Bureau
were also possible in the new building, with a number of classrooms or
small meeting rooms. What had been hopelessly overcrowded quarters
for the Library for the Blind and the Hospital and Institutions Depart­ment
were alleviated when the entire fourth floor of the new building
was assigned to them. What is now the Publicity and Exhibits Department
received light and roomy working space in the new building, too, as did
the Photoduplication Division. Fronl the Hamilton Garage building it was
then possible to return to the Main Library area the Book Repair and
Printing Departments and Classroonls Service.
One other feature of the Business and Science Building was that it
provided an auditorium for the Library. Air conditioned, and with 375
seats, it has served the people of the metropolitan area for a rich
variety of programs and meetings during the nine years since it opened.
Fortunately, it was possible to arrange with the City for the
Library to build a passageway or tunnel to connect the Main Library and
the Business and Science Building. In actual operation the two buildings
seem as one because the basement corridor makes it possible to walk
easily from one part to another.
A much-appreciated dividend of this expansion was the creation of
Eastman Reading Garden in the park between the two buildings. This
space is leased from the City for $1.00 per year. Furnished with com­fortable
garden chairs and bright umbrellas, this is a restful haven in
the heart of the city on sunny summer days with noon-time concerts of
recorded music. Office workers bring their lunches and enjoy the
music as they relax in the sun. The Reading Garden is now widely regarded
as one of downtown Cleveland's assets.
VI. REJUVENATION AND EXPANSION OF BRANCH LIBRARIES
Cleveland has 36 branch libraries, but a survey in 1955 showed many
to be old and in need of repair, no new branch libraries having been
built in Cleveland since 1939. Those that were opened after that time
were housed in rented quarters because of a lack of funds for capital
construction. It was felt there would be an advantage of flexibility in
rented quarters, so locations could be changed as deemed necessary.
However, practice showed that actually each branch so housed tended to
continue indefinitely in rented space because of neighborhood pressures
and because usually no other appropriate space could be found at an
equitable rent.
The branch library buildings were old. In 1955, for instance, the
average age of the twenty-two branch library buildings owned by the
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Library was thirty-six, and fourteen of them were older having been
built between 1904 and 1920. During the World War II and the post-war
years, maintenance was deferred so frequently that by 1955 it was necess­ary
to start a five-year plan of rehabilitation of branch libraries.
Since then there has been steady rehabilitation and maintenance.
Conversion of coal boilers to gas-fired ones, new fluorescent lighting,
new floor coverings, new roofs and plumbing, use of paint in bright
colors, new furniture in whole or part in many branches -- these have
modernized the branch libraries to a very considerable extent. In
addition, the following branches have been relocated or are a replace­ment
or expansion.
GOODRICH BRANCH
Goodrich Branch replaced the former Perkins station. This had been
located in a social agency building that was demolished for a freeway in
1955. Goodrich was established in a small house provided by the Goodrich
Social Settlement under what was originally an exchange of space agreement.
Under that, Goodrich was granted use of a part of the former St. Clair
Branch Library, which had been converted to a storage building for the
Library some years earlier. In 1957, the Cleveland Foundation made grants
to both organizations to encourage such an exchange of space by community
institutions when their changed needs made that desirable. The Library
was granted $6,470 to make the renovation that was necessary to convert
the residence at Goodrich Social Settlement into a neighborhood branch
library.
WOODLAND BRANCH
A calamitous fire in 1957 made a new Woodland Branch Library necessary,
becoming the first new and modern building added to the Cleveland Public
Library system since 1939. Because its earlier building was entirely
destroyed by fire,funds from the Library's Fire Insurance Reserve were
used to construct a new library, opened in 1961. With 8,000 square
feet of space, it houses 25,000 books, and cost $206,140. This new
Branch replaced not only the old Woodland, but also Outhwaite Homes
Branch, which was then discontinued.
ROCKPORT BRANCH
This is an expansion into the southwest part of the city where there
was no previous branch library. Opened in 1964, Rockport Branch contains
9,200 square feet, and has a book capacity of 48,900 volumes. The site
for the building was given to the Library by the Cleveland Board of
Education for a nominal sum of $1.00. In addition, a large space is
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rented from the Board of Education for a parking lot at a cost of $1.00
per year. The construction cost of the building was $197,000 with
furniture and equipment costing an additional $53,000, an amount which
was granted by the County Budget Corrrrnission from the 1962 residue
intangibles tax funds. Unusual peaked ceilings and large glass areas
give a feeling of spaciousness to this building. A unique feature is a
small interior court that supplies a garden "picture" to be seen through
the windows in the Children's Room and the Story Hour Room. From the
first, Rockport Branch has had great public use, consistently ranking
second or third among the thirty-six branches of the Library in the
number of books lent for home use. Funds for the Rockport building came
from the sale of the Library's old Hamilton Avenue Garage Building which
was purchased by the City of Cleveland for the Erieview Urban Renewal
Project.
J\lEVJ LIBRARY GARAGE
After the sale of the Hamilton Garage building, it was essential that
it be replaced at once to house the Library's two large bookmobiles,
its delivery trucks and other vehicles. Since land was available at the
rear of the new Woodland Branch, a modern garage was erected there,
using funds from the sale of the old garage building. A greasing pit and
sunken gasoline tanks were added as service features.
WALZ BRANCH
A source of great pride to the Library, the Walz Branch was opened
in 1967, replacing the former Edgewater Branch, which had been located
nearby for many years in a rented store building. Dr. F. W. Walz left
property to his wife with provision that it should come to the Cleveland
Public Library after her death. It consisted of apartments and a house,
part on Lake Avenue and part on Detroit Avenue. The Lake Avenue property
was sold, and the buildings on Detroit Avenue were razed to make room
for an unusually attractive branch library. A sloping site, with its
magnificent magnolia tree, determined somewhat the character of the new
building. Of a total area of 9,326 square feet, two thirds are on the
main floor at the Detroit Avenue level. The foundation floor features a
large story hour and meeting room. It is decorated in a garden theme
and called the Magnolia Room because of its picture window overlooking
the great magnolia tree. Book capacity of Walz Branch is 41,250 volumes,
erected at a cost of $278,257.
TREASURE HOUSE BRANCH
Treasure House is a striking example of the rejuvenation of an old
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building, inspired by changed neighborhood needs. Formerly the Hough
Branch Library, it was for decades geared to a substantial middle-class
population. By the 1950's, the neighborhood had changed greatly, and
by the 1960's had become a slum area, a neighborhood most urgently
calling for help for its deteriorated buildings and for its residents
with the inevitable problems of poverty. In 1966 the emphasis of the
Library program was reversed from one aimed primarily to serve adults
to one with emphasis on reaching the children of the area more effect­ively.
It was a metamorphosis, complete with the new name of Treasure
House. The huge central hall was changed from the Adult to the
Children's Room, and the samller room at one side was allotted to adults.
In keeping with the new name, pirate themes were used to help create a
dramatic setting. What had once been the Reference Room became "the
Magic Carpet Story House Room." Instead of following the traditional
plan of selecting as Branch Librarian a supervisor skilled in adult
work, a top Children's Librarian was appointed. This year in the
most deprived area of Cleveland, Treasure House developed many fine
programs for the children and young people. For instance, Mayor Stokes
appeared during a Negro History Week program when television camera men
and even a brass quartette played "Hail to the Chief". Almost as
exciting was the Saturday morning program when severaJ. players from
professional football teams came to talk to young adults, urging them
to continue their educations. In the summer, children had fun making
puppets here and creating a play in which they acted. In many of its
agencies the Library found that activity and reading can go hand in
hand in developing readers.
HARVARD-LEE BRANCH
This is an area that grew rapidly at the end of World War II. Its
first library service was by bookmobile, but patronage was so great that
a store was leased to start a branch library. Here business boomed and
the little branch became badly overcrowded. The problem was solved in
1962 when a much larger store building in the heart of a shopping center
was found and leased. The Ohio Board of Tax Appeals awarded $6,000 to the
Library for the purpose of making the change. A store is a store, with
its many plate glass windows, but here a surprisingly homelike atmosphere
was achieved by the use of ornamental iron railings painted white and
by draperies and furnishings. A Story Hour House at the rear of the
store, with the facade of a white clapboard house, has a curtained,
cottage-type window and a window box.
55th-EAST BRANCH
This is a new name for a relocated branch located near the corner
of Superior Avenue and East 55th street. Formerly the Norwood Branch,
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it was opened in 1967 in a three-store unit. On the fringe of the
Hough area, one of the stores in the new branch is used for a
Children's room called "The Cowboys and Indians Children's Room."
A second unit is for adult service and programs, and a third is for
Staff use.
MEMORIAL BRANCH, AND PARKING LOTS
During these years, one of the rented buildings in which Memorial
Branch was located was purchased by the Library from Mr. Anton Grdina.
A lease was eventually worked out whereby the Library agreed to make
certain rent payments that would total $33,000 at which time title
to the building would be transferred.
Most of the Library's buildings were constructed or acquired at a
time when parking lots were not necessary. Today, it is a very real
handicap not to have parking facilities. A beginning has recently
been made in providing parking lots at some of the buildings without
them. Treasure House and Collinwood are the first of the older
buildings to be improved in this way. Money for the purpose is the
only thing holding back an extensive program of purchasing property
and creating parking lots at many more branch libraries. All new
buildings have such a facility, however.
UNIVERSITY CIRCLE REGIONAL BRANCH LIBRARY
A dream came true as funds were secured to build what is to be the
first regional branch library in the city. By good fortune, a prized
location on University Circle was secured for the University Circle
Begional Branch Library where it will have such distinguished neighbors
as Case Western Reserve University, the Museum of Art, the Cleveland
Symphony Orchestra, a large research center, and many other outstanding
Cleveland institutions. By June of 1968 $864,370 was available to
build and equip it - of this, $350,000 was a local grant from the
1966 intangibles tax residue plus an additional $109,000 from the
1967 residue, both allocations having been made by the County Budget
Commission. In addition to $17,070 from other Library funds, a
grant of $388,300 was made by the Ohio State Library from Federal
Library Services and Construction Act funds. Architect's drawings
are now being completed, calling for a very large mezzanine floor
that will make it virtually a two-story building. Because of the
proximity of the School of Library Science at Case Western Reserve
University, a classroom will be included in order that the Branch
can be an experimental and training center for library school students.
The Regional Branch will house some 100,000 - 125,000 books, a capacity
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about four or five times as large as the average branch library.
A very special service will be the provision of daily delivery service
from the Main Library so that reference books can be made available
to scholars and researchers in the University Circle area and to
anyone from the entire eastern side of the County.
BLUEPRINT FOR FUTURE BRANCH BUILDING NEEDS
Plans for the future development of branch libraries were provided
by Changing Patterns, a research report published in 1966 by the
Cuyahoga County Regional Planning Commission. It was prepared for
the Cleveland Public Library and the Cuyahoga County District Library
to recommend a branch library development plan for the Cleveland
Metropolitan Area. For Cleveland, it identifies those branches
which should be retained, and indicates four that should be expanded
or remodeled, citing ten needing replacement by 1970 and four that
should be expanded to become regional branches. Except for the
group recommended for replacement by 1970, these recommendations are
listed as guides through 1980. 55th-East Branch has already replaced
one of the ten suggested for replacement by 1970. Recommendations
for the other six: Arlington, Clark, Goodrich, Jefferson, South
Brooklyn and Sterling will need to be studied carefully in light of
still-changing neighborhoods. The report is a very useful blueprint
to aid the Library Board and Administration in future planning. It
seems inevitable that at some point in the future a branch library
building program will have to be submitted to the voters to obtain
needed funds if the branch libraries are to continue to be adapted
to a changing city.
VII. MAIN LIBRARY PLANT
The Main Library building as of 1968 is in excellent condition,
the result of major work undertaken during recent years. New automatic
passenger elevators were installed in 1957 at a cost of over $100,000;
extensive roof repairs were made, and rotted window frames replaced;
water lines embedded inside marble walls were replaced at considerable
expense when they started to burst; and the electric power was converted
from D.C. to A.C. Repairing the cornice on the Business and Science
building cost $57,000 in 1961.
Extensive repairs were also made in the heating plant, and air
conditioning was added in a few offices and rooms where it was practical.
After the move into the Business and Science building, extensive work
was completed in the Main Library building, then 33 years old. Among
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the departments recelVlng new floor coverings and lights were History,
Biography, Travel; Government, Education and Social Science; Fine Arts;
Stevenson Room for Young Adults; and the Lewis Carroll Room for Children.
The walls of the entire building were repainted, replacing the very
conservative tan colors of yesterday with brighter colors of today.
Another major renovation was the painting of the high, decorated ceiling
over Brett Hall, and the washing of the marble walls there. The
magnitude of this job is reflected in the cost - $15,850. In addition,
new table tops and table lights, as well as entirely new magazine
storage cases were installed.
Another marked improvement was the floodlighting of the exterior
of the Main Library and the Business and Science buildings. In winter,
particularly, this lighting gives protection to the public and beautifies
the downtown area at night.
A drive-up window was built at the rear of the Business and Science
Building in 1964 as a partial solution to the inadequate parking space
near the Library. Here patrons can return books and pick-up books
previously requested by telephone.
In 1965 the Check Room in the front lobby of
building was replaced by free parcel lockers.
was then remodeled to include the former Check
the return of books by the public.
the Main Library
The Lending Department
Room, thereby facilitating
These are necessarily only a few examples of the varieties of renovations
and repairs that were made to clear long-deferred maintenance. Often these
projects required extensive planning and the exercise of careful judgment
on the part of the administrative team, key supervisors in the Buildings
Department and the members of the Library Board who made the final decisions.
VIII. THE PUBLIC LIBRARY NO LONGER PROVIDES SCHOOL LIBRARIES
For decades the libraries in junior and senior high schools of the
Cleveland Public Schools were the joint responsibility of the Public
Library and the Board of Education. In general, the quarters were
provided by the Board of Education, and the personnel, books and super­vision
by the Public Library. Lines were not clear cut, however,
because sometimes (as in the years of the Great Depression) it was
necessary for the Board of Education to supplement the Public Library's
available funds for school libraries.
In 1955 the cost of school library service was $573,081. Of this,
the Public Library contributed $430,941 and the Board of Education
$142,140. The sharing of costs in this manner for school library
13
service was contrary to the pattern that had developed in most cities
of the United States. Because the majority of public libraries did
not have the funds to provide school libraries, it became necessary
for the boards of education to establish and fully support them. In
Cleveland, however, the very long history of joint operation of the
school libraries, together with the fact that this service was on a
very solid foundation, suggested that it was justifiable to continue
that pattern.
However, in 1958, the turning point in the support of school
libraries in Cleveland came with the handing down of the Ross County
Decision by the Supreme Court of Ohio, declaring that a public library
could supply school library service on a contractual basis, but that
a board of education must pay the costs if they could afford to do so.
A new contract was then worked out in which the personnel costs in
the school libraries were assumed by the Board of Education. The
Library continued to supervise the libraries in the high schools and
supplied the books and periodicals.
A number of elementary school libraries were provided by the Library
in earlier years, established in neighborhoods where the nearest
public library branch was too distant to be easily accessible to the
children. When a new library branch opened near such a school, the
elementary school library was discontinued. Between 1896 and 1944,
thirty-two elementary school libraries were opened at one time or
another; but only five were operating in 1944 and thereafter. All of
the elementary school libraries were financed in full by the Cleveland
Public Library except one at Hazeldell School. Hazeldell had been
furnished and equipped by the Board of Education that paid part of the
operating costs because it served as a Library Curriculum Center.
After the Ross County Decision, the Library could not legally continue
to pay for personnel in these schools. The Board of Education decided­that
it could not do so because it would then be supplying elementary
school libraries in only five schools, whereas there were 128 elementary
schools in the system. Accordingly, in 1959 it became necessary to
close these last five elementary school libraries. The new contract
then made between the Board of Education and the Public Library Board
provided only for joint operation of school libraries at the junior and
senior high school levels.
A few years ago, a new Board of Education and a new Superintendent
of Schools decided to establish libraries in all of the elementary
schools, employing a supervisor of school libraries to implement the
program. On January 1, 1968, the Board of Education also took over the
full operation of the junior and senior high school libraries.
14
IX. INTERNAL ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES WITHIN THE LIBRARY
When L. Quincy Mumford resigned in 1954 as Director of the Library
to become Librarian of the Library of Congress, there was no Assistant
Director to assume his duties. An Administrative Committee of seven
principal department heads was then placed in active charge by the
Board for the period of six months until the arrival of a new Director.
With the coming of the new Director, many organizational changes
were made, not all of which can be recorded here. However, an account
of the major changes of public interest is to be found in the following
paragraphs.
One of the first things accomplished in 1955 was the creation of
the positions of Assistant Director (to which Rose L. Vormelker was
appointed) and of Business Manager (to which Edward A. D'Alessandro
was named).
The Stations Department was discontinued in 1955, the community
stations were transferred to the Branch Department and thereafter
operated as small branch libraries. An Extension Division was set up
in the Branch Department to supervise the Bookmobil~ Service, as well
as library stations that remained in business houses, fire stations,
etc.
That same year the Hospital and Institutions Department was created
to bring together under one head all services to the sick and handicapped.
Merged into this Department were the Judd Fund Service to Shut-ins,
and the Hospital and the Institutions Division of the former Stations
Department, as well as the Library for the Blind.
A reorganization of Main Library occurred in 1956 when the former
subject divisions under Main Library were made subject departments
and Main Library Department as such was discontinued. Emelia E. Wefel,
the former head of Main Library, became Assistant Director of the
Library upon the retirement of Rose L. Vormelker.
The Photoduplication Service was established in 1956 to handle a
growing volume of photostat and microfilm work.
Another important organizational change was made in 1965 when
the Children's Department was discontinued and the children's librarians
placed under the supervision of the Assistant to the Director in
Charge of Branch Libraries, a newly created post to which Adeline
Corrigan was appointed. Simultaneously, the position of Coordinator
of Work with Children was established to supervise all work in the
field of children's book selection, and to promote and coordinate
services and programs for children in the branch libraries, as well
as to supervise the Lewis Carroll Room for Children in the Main Library.
15
New in 1968 was an In-Service Training position in the Personnel
Department. Earlier the Library had provided one day of orientation
at Main Library for new staff members, and another day in the field.
Training of new staff members is intensified under the new plan, and
gradually the work will be broadened to programs geared to other than
incoming staff.
In summarizing the events of thirteen years, it should be noted
that Edward A. D'Alessandro succeeded Miss Wefel as Assistant Director
(a title that has since been changed to Deputy Director) when she
retired in June, 1959. At that time, the position of Business Manager
was abolished, and Mr. DIAlessandro carried supervision of that area
into his new position, whereas supervision of Main Library subject de­partments
was then transferred to a new position, Assistant to the
Director in Charge of Main Library, to which Mrs. Varelia H. Farmer
was appointed.
A fundamental change in Library operations during the period
resulted from the introduction of data processing. After an in-depth
study conducted from 1964-1965, the final steps were taken in the
investigation of data processing equipment and the preparation of
flow charts to demonstrate to the members of the Library Board the
Administration's projected handling of payroll and book ordering.
Board authorization for I.B.M. installation and for the creation of
a Data Processing Department was granted in 1965. The present (1968)
Head of that Department is a systems designer with a staff consisting
of a programmer, a machine operator, and key punch operators. Currently,
data processing is used for payroll and time allowance work, children's
book selection lists and book ordering. Projected for the future
is the data processing of all invoices and account payments, personnel
records and library statistics and the eventual handling of book
cataloging, book circulation records, and the processing of book pockets
and cards.
x. STAFF WELFARE
It was imperative that salaries be increased to meet the rise
in the cost of living. That it has been possible to secure budget
allocations which supported salaries commensurate with rising costs
is noteworthy. Inasmuch as this report ends with June, 1968, the
last two weeks in June are appropriate for the comparison.
16
No. of General From
Checks Fund Special
Period Covered Issued Pay Roll Funds Total Pay Roll
June 16-30, 1955 1,143 $136,223 $ 994 $137,217
June 16-30, 1968 1,089 201,332 _5,538 206,871
Increase for two-week period•• $ 65,109 $4,544 $ 69,654
The above are statistics of a semi-monthly payroll, with 24 such
payrolls to be met annually. With each one now running some $69,654
higher, it follows that well over $1,500,000 more per year is now
needed than in 1955. It should also be noted that the salary costs
for 1955 included salaries for school librarians who were not on the
Library's payroll in 1968.
The salaries of professional librarians had to be kept competitive
with those of other libraries throughout the nation if staff needs
were to be met. The acute nationwide shortage of librarians had
resulted from the inability of library schools to meet the increasing
demands for librarians coming from schools, colleges and business
organizations. At the same time, Federal legislation made possible
in every state demonstrations and expansions of library services.
These led to intense competition for professional personnel, reflected
in salary scales for professional librarians. In this Library the
starting salary for beginning librarians rose from $3,660 in 1955 to
$7,184 in 1968, an increase of 97%.
Nonprofessional library jobs, on the other hand, are part of a
local job market and must be competitive with rates offered in the
community for the similar work. The increases of these salaries were
not the same for all positions, rising as community rates did, varying
with the type of job. A few examples follow.
Starting Salary Increase Per cent of
Position 1955 1968 Increase
Clerk $2,700 $3,776 $1,076 4010
Principal Clerk 3,600 4,995 1,395 3%
Secretary 2,880 4,466 1,586 55%
Janitor 3,120 4,466 1,346 4J1o
Over the years changes came neither suddenly or easily. Each year
brought its struggles to improve salaries and to keep abreast of
salary trends elsewhere. Several times staff committees were appointed,
17
always with representation from each of the two employee organizations,
to study the salary schedule. A salary scale was approved by the
Library Board in 1945. In succeeding years, cost-of-living adjustments
(rather than increases in scales) were granted a few times, but more
often scales were raised as needs and resources permitted.
In 1958, after two years of work by a staff committee, job
descriptions to cover every position were completed for the first
time and approved by the Library Board. In 1959 Dr. Erwin Taylor's
Personnel Research and Development Company was retained to classify
the positions, as reported in job descriptions, and to create a new
salary scale. In 1961 the same organization was engaged to review
the salary scale. A new edition of the job descriptions incorporating
the revisions was approved by the Library Board in 1962. Two years
later a new staff committee was appointed and Dr. Taylor was again
retained. Each year was marked by some progress.
A significant step forward was taken when the Cleveland Public
Library proposed to the County Budget Commission that there be a
Uniform Salary Scale for all public library workers in Cuyahoga County
since all of the nine public libraries receive support from the same
source. With the cooperation of the other libraries, a foundation
grant of $10,000 was received from the Cleveland Foundation to formulate
such a Uniform Salary Scale.
The Personnel Research and Development Company was engaged to
head the Uniform Salary Scale project. After a job analysis and
classification study in which all the public libraries of the County
joined, a proposed Uniform Salary Scale was developed. The grades,
pay ranges and steps used in the Federal salary scales were adopted
for this proposed schedule. One compelling reason for adoption was
the fact that when the Federal Government revises its figures in
response to an increase in living costs, libraries could consider
similar changes without conducting salary research studies each year.
Whether changes in the salary schedule involved across-the-board,
cost-of-living adjustments or the implementation of new pay scales,
the Library Board through these years also provided the annual increments
or step-increases for those who had not yet reached the top of their
grade, providing, of course, their work was satisfactory.
Many other actions were taken during this period that would
classify as staff welfare. Most important was the approval by the
Board and the issuance to all agencies of a Personnel Manual listing
all time-allowance rules, thereby giving all staff members direct
18
access to the text of all such personnel procedures.
In 1956 the practice of requiring the passing of promotional
examinations by clerical employees before receiving the second incre­ment
in the salary scale was abolished.
As prosperity and growth burgeoned in America, shortages of personnel
developed. Especially severe was the shortage of professional librarians
through most of the period of this report which resulted in a growing
practice of using college graduates to fill many jobs that formerly
had been filled by professional librarians, leading to the creation
in 1964 of positions for Trainees. A Trainee was defined as a college
graduate employed part time while attending library school. Such a
person received more pay than a college graduate not registered in a
Library school. These graduates of the Trainee program have been the
salvation of the professional vacancy situation in recent years.
As beginning salaries for new staff increased, the feeling grew
that something special should be done for the large number of loyal
staff members with seniority who must provide the backbone of the
daily service. Accordingly, in 1967, the Library Board approved a
special week of vacation for all staff members with a record of twenty­five
or more years of service. Called the Honored Service Week of
Vacation, it is given to each qualified person only once but is a
special recognition. Another recognition given to this group consisting
of 137 staff members in June, 1968 was a reception held in the Eastman
Reading Garden.
Many new personnel policies were developed during the period.
Voting time was authorized when needed; policies were approved on
attendance at professional meetings, on the posting and filling
vacancies for supervisory positions, and on staff attendance at
Board meetings. Closing hours were fixed permanently for closing the
Library on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. The one-month vacation
allowance was extended to cover all employees with 25 years of service
who were not already receiving it because they were in non-professional
or clerical positions (more recently this was extended to all such
persons with 20 years of service). Vacation rules were changed to
provide that vacation leave could be taken at any time of the year
and sick-leave allowance was extended to cover emergency situations
in the home. As a result of a few occurrences when patrons were
abusive to staff members, the Board made new rules to protect personnel.
These are examples of how provisions for staff welfare develop over
the years as situations change and needs arise.
19
XI. FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY ORGANIZED
The Director recommended to the Library Board in 1955 that a
Friends of the Library be organized to aid in promoting a better
understanding of the Library in the community, and to provide financial
aid for special projects and items which could not be financed through
tax funds. The Library Board welcomed the formation of such an organ­ization,
and a group of twelve citizens was appointed to serve as a
Steering Committee with Ralph Besse, then Vice-President of the Cleveland
Illuminating Company, as temporary chairman. The following year brought
the incorporation of the Friends and the organization of a membership
campaign. A charter luncheon held in 1958 was attended by 350 Cleve­landers,
including Mayor Anthony J. Celebrezze, the Editors of the
Cleveland Press and the Plain Dealer, and officials of the local colleges.
All of the many ways in which the Friends have generously assisted
this Library since its organization cannot be recorded here. Special
mention should be made, however, of the lectures it has made possible,
the National Library Week Luncheons it has sponsored, and the $32,319
it has contributed to date for the purchase of books, many in the
rare book category.
XII. SERVICE TO THE PUBLIC
"Books, Information, Service" has been the motto of this Library
for many years. Three guiding stars are expressed in these words, and
the most important of them is "Service".
STUDENT USE
Library book collections and services adapt quickly to changing
times. A major event - Russia's successful launching of the Sputnik
I in 1957 - sharply heightened educational efforts in America. A new
seriousness of purpose was quickly reflected in the increased student
use of library materials at all educational levels, especially in
the sciences and technological fields.
The great expansion in the colleges and universities of the area
had its impact upon the Library, bringing increased library use by
college students and faculty. In more recent years, the Library has
served students and faculty of the newly organized Cuyahoga Community
College and Clevelana State University when their own college libraries
were being developed.
Student requests at the high school level are changing with secondary
20
students now calling for materials formerly used chiefly by college
students. Changes in the high school curriculum have brought corres­ponding
changes in new book purchasing.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LIBRARIES:
A NEW FACTOR
Factors responsible for the adjustments in the Library's work
with children are the growth of elementary school libraries in the
Cleveland School districts, and the decrease in the birth rate, noted
at the primary-school level. ,Now freed somewhat from responsibility
for the curriculum-tied materials, children's librarians are changing
their emphasis and programs accordingly. Future emphasis will be
increasingly upon enrichment programs for children, reading guidance,
the stimulation of reading interest through story hours, and activities
which focus on poetry and art appreciation, music, and on the theatre
through puppetry.
These changes have afforded children's librarians an opportunity to
devote more time to pre-school age children. Story hours for pre­school
children were scheduled, and assistance was given to many of
the Head Start teachers who introduced story telling and the use of
picture books in their programs. Librarians searched for scarce
interracial materials and books written about city living for very
young children in response to the urgent requests from Head Start
and primary school teachers.
YOUNG ADULT SERVICE
Service to young adults is directed chiefly to the high-school age
group, whether students or drop-outs. This service originally grew out
of the discovery that young people, even those who had been avid
childhood readers and library users, too often lost interest in reading.
To keep alive that earlier interest in books, young adult librarians,
sympathetic with youth, were appointed to select special reading
materials likely to spark an interest in reading, and to arrange
programs for them.
Since Sputnik I, however, and the intensification of the high school
curriculum -- particularly in science and mathematics -- young adults
have, of necessity, used more adult books. This has had an impact
upon book buying in the Young Adult Department, and has brought them
a closer working relationship with the departments of Main Library.
21
THE THEATRE COLLECTION
AND ART GALLERY
FOUNDED
Two valuable community resources in the arts were made available
when the Theatre Collection and the Art Gallery were established in
the Library. Both resulted from the generosity of interested
citizens.
The impetus for the founding of the Theatre Collection in the
Literature Department came from the gift of his theatrical library by
the widow of the late William McDermott~ former drama critic of The
Plain Dealer. With his library as a nucleus~ the books on play
production and stagecraft in the Fine Arts Department were integrated
with the Literature Department's materials on drama and criticism to
form a Theatre Collection. The Collection has since been greatly
strengthened by the donation of theatrical books and memorabilia from
Father William McCune~ Columbus, Ohio; Mrs. Walter Flory, Shaker
Heights; and Mrs. Don Young of Norwalk, Ohio. Thousands of items were
also donated by the late Leo Weidenthal~ well-known collector of
theatrical memorabilia. Many additional items from his library were
given by his nephew, David Sperling~ following the death of
Mr. Weidenthal.
The Library Art Gallery was established after the acquisition of the
Business and Science building released space on the foundation floor
of the Main Library for a museum. The Education Department of the
Cleveland Museum of Art agreed to install quarterly art exhibits. The
late Harold T. Clark and Mrs. Clark donated $1,000 to the Library in
1959 to renovate the room and provide equipment. The Gallery is a
mini-museum in the downtown area for the display of well-selected art
treasures and has been appreciated by hundreds of Clevelanders and
visitors to the city. It is under the supervision of the Fine Arts
Department.
BUSINESS AND SCIENCE
It is a fortunate circumstance that many of Cleveland's new office
buildings are being built in Erieview and in nearby areas within easy
walking distance of the Business and Science building housing the
Business Information and Science and Technology Departments. Both
Departments are heavily used by business and industry~ both were
sadly overcrowded in their former locations in the Main building.
The Business Information Department now has space for 100,000 books,
plus its evergrowing files of corporate and business reports. The
22
Science and Technology Department acquired shelf space for 200,000
volumes, technical journals and for its patent specification room,
an almost unique feature in a public library, only the Los Angeles
Public Library offering comparable service. This Department has been
in the process of extensively developing the standards and specifications
collection and index, another valuable resource of this major scientific
and technical library in Northern Ohio.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
INTEREST INCREASES
The purchase of the Plain Dealer building having provided new
quarters for the Science and Technology Department, space was released
for more adequate housing of the growing Foreign Literature Department.
The space was greatly needed as nationality collections were gradually
being located in the central library where they would be readily
available to readers in all parts of the metropolitan community.
This relocation of foreign language books had resulted from the flight
in the 1950's of the second and third generations of foreign families
to the suburbs from the nationality neighborhoods in which their
families had lived. Inasmuch as the Library had originally assigned
various circulating foreign collections to the branch libraries accord­ing
to the concentration of nationality groups, the neighborhood
libraries were left with new types of borrowers, not interested in
the former predominate language interests of the older community. Of
thirty-one foreign languages, the circulating collections of only
three (Ukrainian, Hungarian, and Italian) remain in branch areas.
The three will eventually be moved to the Foreign Literature Department.
New Americans continue to use these collections as well as native
Americans who are studying foreign languages and traveling abroad in
ever greater numbers.
The Foreign Literature Department's Folk Arts Collection was made
possible by the Cleveland Folk Arts Association which donated funds
from its Folk Arts Festival for the purchase of a number of custom­built
exhibit cases. Cleveland's nationality groups were encouraged
to give artifacts representing their folk culture, resulting in the
development of a mini-museum of the folk arts.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE
RECORD COLLECTION
In 1955 the Library's large collection of recordings (principally
of the old, breakable 78 rpm records) was replaced by a fine collection
23
of long-playing, non-breakable records. The major collection is in
musical recordings, located in the Music Section of the Fine Arts
Department. However, the collection of non-musical recordings is
growing rapidly: records for the study of foreign languages are
assigned to the Foreign Literature Department, a special collection
of both musical and non-musical records is in the Stevenson Room.
All other non-musical recordings were placed in the Literature
Department.
TRAVEL ROOM
AND "LITTLE LIBRARY"
ORGANIZED
Again, the removal of certain departments to the Business and
Science building made space for two other extensions of service: the
establishment of the Travel Room and the "Little Library for People
Who Do Not Like Big Libraries."
The opening of the new Travel Room came at an ausplclOUS time -
at the beginning of the great travel boom. A division of the History,
Biography and Travel Department, the Travel Room now has space for
its burgeoning collection of travel materials.
Taking a cue from large department stores which develop small
shops within their stores to aid bewildered shoppers, the "Little
Library" was established in the Popular Library for general readers
who found the large departments of the Library formidable. Here
were collected fiction and nonfiction books for the general reader
and browser. The books are arranged in reader interest groups rather
than by formal library classification.
TELEPHONE REFERENCE
AND PHOTOCOPYING SERVICE
One of the most useful services to citizens of Metropolitan
Cleveland is telephone reference service which is constantly increasing
in volume. In 1967 Main Library's Literature Department received
11,500 telephone requests for service. The Science and Technology
Department handled 5,200 such requests in five months of 1967. Other
departments of Main Library have correspondingly heavy telephone work.
Photocopying service, through coin-operated machines, was
facilitated by the installation of nine copying machines in the public
departments of Main Library and the Business and Science building.
They have proved to be highly successful in serving the public. Prior
to the 1960's the only copying service available had been the
relatively more expensive photostat service which is still available.
24
Another new service came with the location of a new public typing
room on the 2nd floor of the Business and Science building. Typewriters
may be rented here by the hour and in 1967 four typewriters were rented
for a total of 3,270 hours.
A NEW FACILITY:
THE LIBRARY
AUDITORIUM
A new auditorium with a seating capacity for 375 persons was opened
on the foundation floor of the Business and Science Building in 1959,
replacing a small, inadequate auditorium in the Main Library building,
thereby making possible another expansion of service. It affords a
fine and spacious setting for programs ranging from talks by children's
authors and editors during the annual Children's Book Fair to the
weekly meetings of the Live Long and Like It Library Club for senior
citizens.
SERVICE TO ADULTS
By 1955 the Adult Education Department had been in existence for
fourteen years and its program was well established. During those years
the program had become three-pronged: it offered special services to
organizations already existing in the community; presented a variety
of intramural programs; worked closely and established cooperative
relations with other community agencies doing adult education.
In the first category, services supplied were program counselling,
reading suggestions for clubs and discussion groups, occasional book
exhibits, counselling on film programs, supplying information about
local and national speakers for those organizations desiring such
help. In 1960 a brochure Programs for Clubs in Greater Cleveland was
produced by this Department with the East Ohio Gas Company and the then
Chamber of Commerce. Thousands of this brochure have been distributed
over the years, and it went into a second edition.
Programs in the Main Library were varied. The Live Long and Like It
Library Club, established in 1946, continued to grow. Great Books
Discussion groups were discontinued during this period, but World
Politics Discussion groups reached their peak. Successful travel
programs, Away We Go, drew such large audiences that they had to be
repeated; Cosmopolitan Cleveland programs presented the cultures of
Cleveland's nationality groups. In addition there were shorter series
on art appreciation, the art of reading, and others. Book-based
discussion meetings on special subjects (the Cultures of Spain, Latin
America, the United States) were organized and were heavily attended.
25
The Film Bureau had regular Thursday afternoon programs which
presented their newer films. The Bureau also planned series each year
of timely programs tying together films and appropriate books,
usually with Library staff members speaking about the books. Since
1963 an annual Film Festival has been held during the late summer
months. This takes the form of twice-daily showings, Monday through
Friday, of educational and documentary films which have won Blue
Ribbon awards at the National Film Festival in New York.
The Speakers Bureau, although it had been in existence since 1946,
grew substantially in the years between 1955 and 1968. It is heavily
used by community program planners.
In the area of cooperation with and by other community agencies
involved in adult education, the outstanding example of this would be
the close relationship between the Adult Education Division of the
Cleveland Public Schools and the Adult Education Department of the
Cleveland Public Library. Especially in recent years when classes in
Basic Education have proliferated, this relationship has been intensified.
In 1965 the Adult Class Lending Service was added to the Adult
Education Department. Whereas this service haa been decreasing, the
above mentioned increase in basic education created a larger demand
than ever before for this special service.
New trends of the times by the mid-1960's were discouraging
Cleveland's citizens from coming down town to attend evening programs.
These trends, coupled with the availability of color television,
probably combined to reduce night program attendance. The Library's
recent plan has been to present evening programs of public interest
which are co-sponsored with outside organizations that help to
publicize the events, and attract audiences from among their member­ship
or clientele. For example, in the spring of 1968, a series of
meetings on Investment Planning, co-sponsored by a group of local
brokerage firms that advertised the series, evoked widespread interest
and attracted capacity audiences to the auditorium. Meanwhile, program
activity in the branch libraries was escalated to bring lectures, films
and travel talks to Clevelanders in their own neighborhoods.
A change of emphasis in adult education came in 1965 from the
continued organization of programs and discussion groups within the
Library to a more intensified effort to reach adults who represent
the changing population pattern of Cleveland. This development was
made possible by the following Federal grants, underwriting four
projects.
In 1965 a grant was requested, and received, from the Library
Services and Construction Act, Title I, through the Ohio State Library
Board, to establish Reading Centers for functionally illiterate aduits,
26
in Main Library, Quincy and Carnegie West Branches. This Project was
funded for three years. Among other things, it made possible the
addition of great quantities of simple reading material for adults,
and immeasurably enriched the collections available in the Adult Class
Lending Service. One of its tangible products was a film, Step a
Little Higher, completed in 1966, which tells the story of the Project
and has had a wide use throughout the country. It established the
Cleveland Public Library as one of the pioneers in the area of public
libraries working with the "disadvantaged."
Early in 1968, three other grants were requested and received from
the Library Services and Construction Act, Title I: Books/Jobs;
Afro-American Culture and History (cooperatively with the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People); and Project Libros,
the most experimental of the three, designed to acquaint Cleveland's
Spanish-speaking population with the services of the Library.
SERVICE TO THE HANDICAPPED EXPANDED
In 1955, the Library's Extension Department (Stations) was
reorganized by separating community deposit stations and sub-branches
from the more specialized activities of work with hospitals, welfare
and social agencies and with individual handicapped readers. These
were combined with the Library for the Blind Division to form the
Hospital and Institutions Department, headed by Clara E. Lucioli.
From 1955 to date this Department doubled the number of hospitals
served bringing the current total to thirty; it extended the services
of the Judd Fund Division (Service to Shut-ins) to aged residents of
apartments in the Metropolitan Housing Authority, to nursing homes and
philanthropic homes in the Greater Cleveland area; it doubled the number
of blind persons served in the 57 counties of the Northern Ohio region
of the Library for the Blind Division.
A change in Federal laws and the provisions of Title IV B of the
Library Services and Construction Act made possible new services in
1967 and 1968. These provide free talking book recorders and recordings
to partially-sighted and physically handicapped persons who cannot
use conventional printed materials. Several Federal grants made through
the State Library of Ohio have enabled the Department to get extensive
resources in large type books, a library of tape recordings, equipment
to duplicate tape materials. Generous grants were also made during
this period by the Beaumont Foundation and the Cleveland Foundation.
The latter also augmented the income from the Judd Fund to provide
full support of the homebound program; individual gifts and bequests
from Fannie Luehrs, Elizabeth Magee, Grisell McLaren, the Grace E.
Meyette Memorial, Carol Nader, Bertha Z. Narten the Marjorie Winbigler
Fund, Frances S. Zverina and many other individuals and organizations
have added some $60,000 to tax resources to enrich the varied programs.
27
THE OBJECTIVE
OF SERVICE
In a statement on "Objectives of the Library," appearing in Policy
Statements of the Cleveland Public Library published in 1963, service
was defined as "the ultimate objective of the Library. The chief
reason for the Library's existence and public support is to ensure
that all citizens of the metropolitan community have an equal oppor­tunity
to secure books, information, and professional reading guidance.
The Library accepts the responsibility, not only to reach out to
potential readers, but also to develop new services, new ways in which
the Library's resources may be utilized in this community."
This section of the report focused upon many ways in which the
Library attempted to achieve this objective during the thirteen-year
period under review.
XIII. READING AND THE BOOK COLLECTION
In a speech before the American Library Trustees Association in 1966,
Norman H. Strouse (a trustee of the New York Public Library, and Chairman
of the J. Walter Thompson Company) gave the following as criteria for
"a great library": Material resources; Professional staff; Physical
plant; and Public support. In all of these the Cleveland Public Library
would rate very well.
In speaking of a library's resources Mr. Strouse then said: "The
best statement of the material requirements of a metropolitan public
library comes from an admirable pamphlet produced by the Cleveland Public
Library, in which a section is devoted to a statement of its objectives: 1
"Because the population is large and cosmopolitan,
the Library's service role can be met only by resources
that encompass the whole field of human knowledge, with
the provision of materials in many languages and from
all parts of the world.
"The Library accepts as its responsibility the
preservation and use of the rich heritage of ideas from
the past, adding to them the best selection of contemporary
thought, so that citizens of today and of tomorrow may
have a strong base on which to build.
"The Library has a continuing responsibility to collect,
preserve, and administer in organized departments, books,
periodicals, pamphlets, newspapers, educational films,
phonographic and tape recordings, microform materials,
1 Policy Statements of the Cleveland Public Library, 1963. page 2
28
photographic copies, and other media in which information,
ideas or compositions are recorded."
What makes a library great? Mr. Strouse commented that, after a
library has provided adequately for books and community services, the
additional "margin of greatness" consists in its provision for and
development of major collections of materials not available elsewhere
or not commonly available. The research role of a library depends
greatly upon such collections.
CIEVELAND 's
SPECIAL
COLIECTIONS -
"Our Margin of Greatness"
This Library's outstanding research collection is the John G. White
Collection of Folklore, Orientalia, and Chess, consisting of over
100,000 volumes in these fields. Widely used by scholars, the collection
has grown steadily as the result of the donor's generous endowment fund.
Three special collections given to the Library during the period of
this report should be mentioned here. The Charles Abel Photography
Collection was bequeathed to the Library in 1961 by the noted Cleveland
photographer who also provided a $10,000 endowment fund for the
development of the collection.
In 1968 a memorial collection was established in the field of America
folklore when the wido·w of the late Newbell Niles Puckett, Chairman
of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Case Western Reserve
University, gave the John G. White Department the extensive files of
Dr. Puckett's manuscript notes, together with an endowment fund of
$10,000 and a continuing pledge of $1,000 per year for the next twenty
years to provide funds for microfilming the research notes and financing
the writing and publishing of the manuscripts.
The Theatre Collection, which was organized during the period of
this report, has greatly extended the research facilities of this
Library. Its development was traced on page 22.
SUBJECT
SPECIALIZATION,
MAIN LIBRARY
Outstanding sUbject collections in many fields have been developed
by the various departments of Main Library, headed by subject specialists.
29
There has been also some cooperative planning among the libraries
of Cuyahoga County in the acquisition of books and major microfilm
resources. One example of this cooperation may be noted in the
acquisition of historical materials. Inasmuch as the Western Reserve
Historical Society Library specializes in American history and the
Library of Case Western Reserve has its greatest strength (in the
historical field) in American history, this Library has given particular
attention to English history in the American centuries and to European
history. In so doing, a much wider range of historical material has
been made available in this area to scholars and general readers.
BOOK FUNDS STRAINED
BY THE "PUBLICATION
EXPLOSION" AND BY INFLATION
Book acquisition from 1955 to 1967 was sharply affected by two
factors: -r.he so-called "publication explosion" and inflation. The
statistics below on book purchasing in our Library suggest that the
number of books currently being purchased has not increased proportion­ately
with the growth in book publication, although more than 500,000
volumes were purchased during the period. Notwithstanding that over
a ~uarter of a million more dollars were spent for library materials
in 1967· than in 1955, this expenditure did not result in a corresponding
increase in the number of books added to the collection. Inflation
has so seriously reduced purchasing power that larger book funds are
increasingly needed to continue the development of the subject collections
and to duplicate books in sufficient quantity to meet the needs of an
expanding population.
BOOK ACQUISITIONS
1955-1967
"Books only" added during year
1955
151,340
19§.I
153,166
Expenditures for library materials
(books, tapes, periodicals, films, etc.) $372,030 $643,395
Total volumes in Library
READING TRENDS OF
THE PERIOD
APPENDED
2,819,142 3,362,261
A special report by the Library's Editor, Bernice Bollenbacher,
on reading trends and interests of Library readers observed during this
period, appears in the Appendix of this Report.
30
XIV. THE CHANGING CITY AND THE CHANGING LIBRARY
The tempo of change in Cleveland, as in other major cities, was
sharply accelerated during the period of this administration. Two
important social changes were to have great impact upon the Library -
the flight of many middle class families from the city to the suburbs,
and the influx into the city of peoples from foreign lands and from the
South. These population changes occurred at the very time when urban
decay and the growth of freeways claimed large areas of the City and when
shopping centers were drawing suburban dwellers to stores and places
of amusement. These factors not only altered the use of downtown
facilities, they made great changes in the neighborhoods in which
branch libraries were located.
As far as library use was concerned, "It was the best of times •••
it was the worst of times II (to borrow from Dickens). It was a time when
the Library was more pressed by its serious readers than ever before,
and a time of great affluence when it was losing other patrons because
of a high level of lemployment" the popularity of television and outdoor
living, and the availability of inexpensive paperback books.
SUMMER
SATURDAY
CLOSINGS
Change came in another form when a new contract moved junior and
senior high school librarians in the City schools to the payroll of
the Cleveland Board of Education. Prior to 1959 these librarians were
on the Library payroll, working ten months a year in school libraries
and one for the Library, thus providing a pool of summer personnel for
the vacation season. With this personnel no longer available, the
Library was forced in 1960 to close on Saturdays from the end of June
to Labor Day. This closing pattern continued through 1968 when it was
believed that, in spite of staff shortages, some form of limited service
in Main Library must be supplied on summer Saturdays. Thus it was that
the air-conditioned Business Information Department was kept open from
10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. where ~atrons could use ?ooks from this and
other departments. Pages and professional resource people on duty
located materials in the Main building, bringing them to readers in
the Business Department. The Drive-Up Window was also open, as was the
Reading Garden.
SATURDAY HOURS
IN BRANCH LIBRARIES
The problem of the Saturday opening of branch libraries also arose.
Experimental Saturday openings (with Wednesday closings) of three branch
31
libraries on the City's east side and three on the west side was
attempted in 1965 during the school year with poor results. From
1966 to date, however, it was felt necessary to make Saturday a sixth
day of service because the Wednesday closings in these branches had not
worked out well during the first year. This was difficult to accomplish
because of personnel shortages and the heavY costs of adding an extra
day of service in each of many branch libraries.
In unbroken record, the Main Library has been open all day from
9:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M., Monday through Friday. During the ten months
of the school year it was open on Saturdays from 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.
The thirty-six branch libraries vary in their hours according to size
of both library and staff and their volume of business, and have been
open all year long. Changes in hours at various times and places were
necessary in the effort to make the wisest use of both staff and funds.
It should be realized, however, that the Library is an institution with
doors of all agencies open to the public twelve months a year.
COMMUNITY
CHANGES AFFECT
BORROWING
The borrowing of books for home use increased greatly during most
of the years covered by this report. Peak borrowing was reached in 1965
when readers borrowed 7,430,466 books, an increase of approximately 25%
from 1955. In 1966, a down trend in borrowing began, attributed in
part to the population decrease in the central city, and to the
organization in 1965 of libraries in the City's elementary schools which
circulated children's books that had formerly been supplied by the
children's rooms of the Library. Another factor in the decline stemmed
from the fact that library use traditionally decreases in periods of
prosperity, and the period under review was affluent.
The decline in the circulation of children's books since 1965 has
been counterbalanced by a great increase in adult reference and telephone
service. Suburbanites, as well as City residents, businessmen,
industrialists, professional men and women have been heavy users of the
research and reference facilities of the Library.
SUPPORT AND USE
IS COUNTYWIDE
The Cleveland Public Library, the largest and strongest pUblic library
in the State of Ohio, receives its chief support from the Cuyahoga
County Intangibles Tax, collected from citizens of the entire county.
32
In return, it is required to make its resources available to all
citizens of the County. Because of this, the impact of the movement of
City residents to the suburbs was lessened. In fact, statistics show
that more than one-half of those who registered as borrowers at Main
Library were suburbanites.
By 1964, branch library use declined in some areas in which demolition
of homes to make room for new highways had occurred. Although the
Library had branches in thirty-six neighborhoods, serious vandalism took
place in only one - the Quincy branch in 1959.
THE CHANGING
HOUGH AREA
The Hough area was changing rapidly and with it the Hough Branch
Library. In 1956 many of the children of the area were placed on half­day
school sessions because of classroom crowding. To provide some
meaningfUl experiences for them on weekday mornings, inasmuch as the
majority were children of working mothers, this Library held special
story hours and reading periods for them. A young adult librarians was
placed in charge and concerned citizens made valuable and appreciated
contributions (Harry Atkins - then City Clerk- gave $200 for a phono­graph
and records; Councilwoman Suzy Gallagher donated a fine TV set;
and another donor gave $200 for lounge chairs for a new Young Adult Room).
In spite of these worthy efforts, the response was not significant. As
the Hough area continued to deteriorate, a whole new approach had to
be made. Children by now were the chief users of this branch so it
was converted into a branch in which the chief emphasis was upon
children's work and renamed "Treasure House Branch." The formerly
remodeled young adult room was converted into the "Magic Carpet Story
Hour Room," the former adult area became a children's library and the
former small children's area an adult area - a plan which has worked
successfully.
COOPERATION WITH OTHER
ORGANIZATIONS IN HELPING
THE DISADVANTAGED
Beginning in the 1960's the Library cooperated with several organ­izations
in a variety of projects to help the disadvantaged. Carnegie
West Branch in 1962 undertook the promotion of reading among Puerto
Ricans in its neighborhood, a project which became a forerunner of the
Reading Centers Project described elsewhere in this report. Two years
later the PACE Organization held summer tutoring programs in nine branch
libraries and in 1965 the Library's Adult Education Department co­sponsored
with them a Words-in-Color method of teaching reading to
33
adults, holding summer tutoring programs again in several branch
libraries.
Since 1964 the Library has been cooperating with various Federally
supported programs to train drop-outs and students in the 16-21 age
group. Some of this work was begun under the Economic Opportunity Act
of 1964. The majority of workers assigned to the Library were members
of the Neighborhood Youth Corps, although there have been workers under
other government agencies. The quality of the Library's supervision ane
training of these young people was reflected in this letter from the
local Assistant Project Director who wrote:
"During the past three years, the Cleveland Public
Library has probably provided more meaningful worksite
situations and supervision than any other participating
agency. Those enrollees who had the opportunity of being
assigned there have either been hired by your facility,
or else the input generated by your staff has made it
possible for NYC to place them in meaningful occupations."
Another facet in the Library's cooperation with governmental agencies
concerned with the education of the disadvantaged was its provision of
books for the Head Start and other programs by the School Services and
Children's Department.
The vast Federal Aid program to schools in 1966 brought challenge,
opportunity and hard work to the Library which still supervised the
junior and senior high school libraries of the Cleveland school system.
Funds were quickly made available for the purchase of books and deadlines
were established which sharply challenged the Library in the work of
selection, purchase, and technical processing of large numbers of books,
representing a tremendous work load to be absorbed.
LIBRARY PARTICIPATION IN
COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
A wide range of new community activities offered fresh opportunities
for library cooperation. Of these, one was the New Citizens Receptions
(sponsored weekly with the Women's Forum and the Red Cross); the Book
and Author Luncheons (with the Cleveland Press and others); the Book Fair
for Boys and Girls (sponsored by the Cleveland Press and others); the
Fall Book Festival (sponsored with the Cleveland Plain Dealer).
The Library for several years also provided the Auditorium and other
facilities for the Jennings Scholar Lectures for the outstanding teachers
of the City, sponsored by the Educational Research Council, and for the
training sessions of the Cleveland International Program for Youth
Leaders. The Council on Human Relations held several meetings each
year in the Library while the Cleveland Board of Education, in cooperation
with the Library's Adult Education Department, scheduled adult classes
in library classrooms. The Library also co-sponsored programs for
special occasions as it did with the previewing of the film "Not with
Empty Hands," an Ohio film produced by the American Negro Emancipation
Centennial Committee when it was necessary toschedule two showings in
the Library and one in the Board of Education Auditorium for the more
than 1,000 persons who wanted to view the film.
MOVEMENT TO CONSOLIDATE
LIBRARIES OF THE COUNTY
At the time this report begins in 1955, the Metropolitan Services
Commission (METRO) was organized to study many areas of public service,
one of which was the public libraries of the county. The first of
these recommended the immediate consolidation of the Cleveland Public
Library and the Cuyahoga County Public Library. (This proposal was far
from new. The Citizens League had long advocated it as had other groups.)
The next recommendations called for later consolidation of the smaller
public libraries of the county with the proposed larger one. In 1959,
a Library Study Group composed of one trustee from each library was
formed to consider the recommendations of the METRO report. Several
committees of librarians were then appointed to study various potential
areas of consolidation and the recommendations of the METRO Report. In
the end, nothing seemed practical for action but the study may have done
the necessary spade work for future action.
The year 1955 seemed to the County Library Board to be an appropriate
time for action. The Librarian who had been head of the County Library
for nine years had been made Director of the Cleveland Public Library.
A functional consolidation of the two systems was suggested with a
contract arrangement for the appointment of one director for the two
systems. Other functions of administration were to be consolidated
gradually such as the development of one book order department, one
accounting department and one purchasing agency to serve the two systems.
A joint committee was thereupon appointed to consider the proposal;
however, an opinion from the City Law Department (then the Library's legal
counsel) declared that such a contract would be illegal since there was
no Ohio law providing for the appointment of one head for two public
bodies.
The passage in 1961 of an Ohio law providing that citizens could
petition to have the question of the organization of a metropolitan
library district placed on the ballot made possible a new approach
to library consolidation. Under this plan no library would consolidate
35
with another in the sense of one being subordinated to another. Instead,
the question would be raised as to whether or not existing library
districts should be made part of a proposed new metropolitan library
district. In the year after this law had been passed, the Citizens League
explored the desirability of such action in talks with existing library
boards, but no agreement was reached and no action taken.
VOLUNTARY ACTION
AMONG LIBRARIES
The Cleveland Commission on Higher Education was vitally interested
in inter-library cooperation and for a period in the early 1960's its
Library Committee considered many cooperative library projects, bring-ing
together academic and special librarians with representatives of the
Cleveland and the Cuyahoga County public libraries. Among the projects
considered was the establishment of a deposit library in which participating
libraries could deposit for joint use their older publications which
should be saved, but not necessarily in active storage. The project did
not find acceptance because of the lack of urgency since at that time
most of these libraries were new and did not theil lack space. Another
matter considered was the continued need for the Regional Union Catalog
at Western Reserve University and a discussion on the advisibility of
its transfer to Columbus. Under discussion also was the need for a
union list of periodicals and of microform holdings, and the possibility
of jointly planned acquisitions. Again, though no joint projects were
actually undertaken, a precedent of academic and public libraries working
together was established.
Under the name of the Library Administrators of Greater Cleveland,
the heads of nine public libraries in Cuyahoga County formalized their
meetings by providing a frame-work of regularly scheduled monthly
meetings. The group has discussed many common problems and one of its
achievements was the formulation of the Reciprocal Book Return Plan under
which each of the participating libraries of the area will accept the
return of books from other libraries for a fee of 5¢ per book. This has
been especially helpful to suburbanitesl who borrow books from the Main
Library but wish to return them to a library near home. Explained
earlier in this report was another accomplishment of this group - the
recommendation for the adoption of the Uniform Salary Scale for all
library workers in Cuyahoga County.
All libraries are increasingly beset by rlslng costs of specialized
materials and to avoid duplication of expensive materials and to insure
the acquisition of vitally needed publications by some library in the
area, cooperative planning for purchasing is critically needed. Especially
valuable now would be such a study with representatives of the new
36
libraries of Cleveland State University and the Community College. The
reference and research activities of the Cleveland Public Library call
increasingly for fresh study with the academic libraries, the libraries
of the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Western Reserve Historical Society.
Planning between institutions in the acquisition of microforms of
books or journals available on microfilm, microfiche, and microprint
(greatly needed in large reference collections) would also be beneficial.
Paper in many old books and documents is rapidly disintegrating and an
extensive program to preserve such materials through photographic
reproduction is greatly needed. This need becomes more acute with
increasing student assignment of source materials, many of which are
long out of print and in deplorable condition.
The growing adoption of new library technologies such as data process­ing
and information retrieval call for new and stronger emphasis on
inter-library cooperation in the sharing and exploring of methods.
GUIDES FOR PLANNING
LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT
Two old and two recent guides for the planning and future development
of the Cleveland Public Library have been published. The first is
An A raisal Study of the Cleveland Public Libra • Evaluations and
Recommendations, by Leon Carnovsky and others 1939. One of the most
critical needs expressed therein was for additional space for Main Library,
which was not solved until the purchase of the Plain Dealer Building.
Another was the suggestion for the development of regional branch libraries
(once tried without success). This recommendation will be realized with
the opening of the University Circle Regional Branch.
The second guide was the Report of the Committee on Reference Collections
prepared by Florence Mo Gifford and a committee of subject department
heads in 1949. This report included "Charts of Major Subject Fields with
Ratings and Future Acquisition Policy," and has since guided sUbject
department heads in the building of subject department collections, indicating
as it does the areas of strength "to be built extensively," and areas
in which only "selective current acquisition" or "very limited additions"
are to be made.
The third guide is The Book Selection Policy edited in 1963 and passed
by the Board of Library Trustees formalizing library book buying policy,
especially in the purchase of controversial materials.
The most recent of the guides is Changing Patterns, a Branch Library
Plan for the Cleveland Metropolitan Area, prepared by the Cuyahoga County
Regional Planning Commission in 1963 at a cost of $54,065 of which this
37
Library and the Cuyahoga County Library jointly paid $12,000 with the
remainder being financed by the Federal Government. After its approval
by the Board of Library Trustees, a committee of branch librarians
made a careful study of the report proposing a division of its recommend­ations
into three groups as to priority. A beginning has been made in
the implementation of recommendations as far as funds permit. Suggestions
for the replacement of several old buildings has had to be deferred
until funds are available; however, the Branch Committee recommended
the Arlington and South Brooklyn Branch for first priority, and the
relocation of the Clark and Quincy Branches for second priority. Also
recommended for second priority were the Regional Planning Commission's
suggestions that the following new branch library buildings be completed
by 1970: one located near Euclid Avenue and Green Road, one near Lee
Road and Tarkington on the East side; one in the far southwest section
of the city in the Puritas Park area near Rocky River Drive and Wood.
A further group given third priority can perhaps wait longer.
These needs, verified by the Regional Planning Commission, must
await funds for a capital improvement program. This will require the
submission of a bond issue or levy request to the voters.
EVERYONE GAINS FROM
KEEPING A GREAT
LIBRARY STRONG
The place of the Main Library as the heart of a metropolitan and
regional library service is destined to become increasingly important.
As higher education extends to an ever larger portion of the population,
as science and technology become increasingly important in business
and industry, the need for research will grow. (A department of
research in the Library was recommended in the Library Appraisal Study
and is yet to be implemented). Greater Cleveland is fortunate, indeed,
to have at its command an extensive reference and research library.
The problem will be to keep it abreast of the times, to keep it strong.
Supplementary funds from State and Federal aid will be essential in
addition to its funds from the Ohio Intangible Tax Fund.
38
FEDERAL AID
TO LIBRARIES
Federal legislation providing aid to libraries was passed during
the period of this report, the most important of which was the Library
Services and Construction Act. Four titles comprise the Act:
I. General Public Library Services II. Construction of Public
Libraries III. Interlibrary Cooperation IV. Specialized state
Library Services for Institutions and for the Physically Handicapped.
This Library has received grants through the Ohio State Library Board
under Titles I, II., and IV.
IMPROVED STATE
AID FOR LIBRARIES
The outlook for future statewide library development in Ohio was
greatly improved following a survey of the libraries of the state
under the auspices of the Ohio State Library Board, the Ohio Library
Association, and the Ohio Library Trustees Association. The report offered
a positive, modern and forward-looking plan for improved library service
in Ohio. Further developments of the plan were made by the Ohio Library
Development Committee, with Edward A. D'Alessandro of this Library as
Chairman.
This plan, designed for the development of Ohio's libraries, takes
the position that the State should be concerned with service to the
people of the whole State, not just to those in rural areas and small
towns, as in the past. It stresses the need for libraries to work
together in systems and proposes networks of libraries to cover Ohio.
As part of such a network-system the State Library would, if the plan
becomes a reality, make contracts with large libraries under which the
State would pay for book loans and services rendered for a small library
by a large library elsewhere in the State.
TREND TOWARD A
LARGER VIEW OF
LIBRARY RESOURCES
The giant city of today and the megalopolis of tomorrow clearly
suggest that the library profession must find new ways to expand services
over much greater areas. The direction of that development is toward
the organization of systems of libraries and interlibrary cooperation _
a development which will need the assistance of both state and nation.
39
REPORT OF THE
NATIONAL ADVISORY
COMMISSION ON LIBRARIES
Increasingly aware of these new trends in library service, and of
the need for a national library policy, President Lyndon B. Johnson
appointed the National Advisory Commission on Libraries by Executive
Order 11301 dated September 2, li66 with Dr. Douglas Knight, President
of Duke University, as Chairman. Simultaneously, he appointed the
President's Committee on Libraries with the Hon. Wilbur J. Cohen as
Chairman to whom the Commission was to file its Report.
The Commission's charge was to: "1) Make a comprehensive study and
appraisal of the role of libraries as resources for scholarly pursuits,
as centers for the dissemination of knowledge, and as components of
the evolving national information systems; 2) Appraise the policies,
programs, and practices of public agencies and private institutions •••
which have a bearing on the role and effective utilization of libraries;
3) Appraise library funding, including federal support of libraries to
determine how funds available for the construction and support of
libraries ••• can be more effectively and efficiently utilized; and
4) Develop recommendations for action by government or private institutions
and organizations designed to ensure an effective and efficient library
system for the nation."
After careful study and deliberation, the Commission made its
recommendations. The most fundamental one called for a declaration
by the President and passage into law of a national library policy,
stating that "the American people should be provided with library and
informational services adequate to their needs, and that the federal
government, in collaboration with state and local governments and
private agencies, should exercise leadership assuring the provision of
such services."
In its recommendation for the declaration of a national library
policy, the Commission stated that " It is now clear that library
services are needed ••• by the entire citizenry of the country••• that
these needs can no longer be met by spontaneous independent institutions
having merely local responsibilities and claiming merely local support,
no matter how willing they may be to assist ••• There are other reasons
why libraries can less and less attempt to serve as self-sufficient
1 Report of the National Advisory Commission on Libraries.
Congressional Record, 90th Congress, Second Session, 1968.
( 021. 83-Un35r).
Library Services for the Nation's Needs: Toward Fulfillment
of a National Policy. A.L.A. Bulletin 63:67-94 January, 1969.
40
entities but must more and more derive strength from membership in
regional or national systems of networks ••• One of these is the increasing
mobility both of people and of industry••• another is the enormous
increase in personnel costs t~at all service organizations ••• are forced
to sustain."
The following recommendations in brief were made for achieving
desired objectives:
"1. The establishIil.ent of a National Commission on Libraries
and Information Science as a continuing federal planning
agency.
2. Recognition and strengthening of the role of the Library
of Congress ••• and the establishment of a board of advisers.
3. Establishment of a federal Institute of Library and
Information Science as a principal center for basic and
applied research in all relevant areas.
4. Recognition and full acceptance of the critically important
role the United States Office of Education currently plays
in meeting needs for library services.
5. Strengthening state library agencies to overcome deficiencies
in fulfilling their current functions."
SUMMARY
In this report an attempt has been made to give a brief accounting
of the major problems and activities of the Cleveland Public Library
from 1955 to 1968, and to review the ways in which it has adapted to
the rapid social changes of this transitional period. In projecting
the Library's future, one may safely predict that its sphere of useful­ness
will be much broader as a greater metropolitan area emerges. Its
usefulness will be even greater should the proposals of the Ohio
Development Plan become law. More adequate financing, which only the
Federal Government can provide, will be required if this institution
is to reach a higher percentage of the population, extend special
services to the disadvantaged, expand research facilities and meet
the book requirements of this period and of the approaching 21st century.
41
A PERS aNAL WORD
OF THANKS
As the Director of the Library in the years covered by this report,
I wish to sincerely thank the members of the Board of Library Trustees,
and co-workers and friends on the staff who served so faithfully
during my administration.
A century of service to be completed in February, 1969 can be hailed
with pride for this great Cleveland institution - great because so
many dedicated persons have given so deeply of their intelligence,
talents and energy to make it what it has become. This century of
service is rung out with gratitude also to the citizens of Cleveland
and of the metropolitan at'ea for support of every kind. The new
century of library service will be rung in with a new library
administration in a renewing city. Success will surely be everyone's
wish.
Books - Information - Service, the Library's long-time slogan,
is still a good guide for the Library in its next century. The setting,
the tools and the methods will change and advance as society advances,
but there will be many who know that a sound foundation is the legacy
from the past on which future development can be built.
Raymond C. Lindquist
Director. March, 1955 - August, 1968.
42
APPENDIX
READING TRENDS
CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY
1955-1968
The reading interests of the Cleveland Public Library's patrons from
1955-1968 reflected the troublesome but stirring times in which they
were living, motivated as they were by strong contemporary interests
at the national and international levels. Moreover, a distinct trend
was observed in their increasingly greater interest in popular non­fiction
than in fiction.
At the national level, America was seething with problems of race,
student revolt, urban decay, and the pollution of its air and water.
The times were truly in ferment - moral and educational standards
were being questioned and change was coming to education and religion.
Some unusual and significant events coupled with these problems aroused
public interest, bringing many people to the Library for relevant
books. These events included the launching of Sputnik I, the cele­brations
of the Civil War and Emancipation Proclamation Centennials,
the observance of the 400th anniversary of the birth of William
Shakespeare, three presidential elections, and the assassinations
of three great American leaders: President John F. Kennedy; the
Rev. Martin Luther King; and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
At the international level, the greatest interest and concern was
noted in the requests for books on the controversial Vietnam war,
coming from former participants, relatives of servicemen, and readers
with a general interest in world affairs. This latter group read
widely on the ever-changing situations in the Middle East, China,
Suez, Hungary and Cypress. Especially high interest was noted in
both fiction and non-fiction relating to Africa. Among the most
popular of these books were: Robert Ruark's controversial Something
of Value, giving a realistic account of a Mau Mau uprising in Kenya;
Stuart Cloete's The African Giant; John Gunther's Inside Africa.
In 1955 the question of the American Negro's status in our society
had come full circle from pre-Civil War days. The urgency of the
Negro problem probably generated more requests for relevant reading
material than any other issue from 1954 when the Supreme Court ruled
that compulsory segregation in public schools denied equal protection
under the law. With this decision began a continuing call for books
on segregation, Negro History (especially during the celebration of
the Emancipation Proclamation Centennial), race problems, and Civil
Rights. Noteworthy, too, was the increase in the number of Negro
adults and students who became users of the Library's resources,
especially of its Civil Service manuals in preparation for taking
government tests to obtain Civil Service positions.
43
The Negro's struggle against prejudice and discrimination, and for
first class citizenship inspired novelists whose books have been read by
discriminating and concerned readers. One of the most sensitive of these
was To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, with its plea for interracial
understanding. Three novels of 1967 on the racial theme were of deep
import to our readers: Ann Fairbairn's Five Smooth Stones, a sympathetic
portrayal of a brilliant young Negro's commitment to the Civil Rights
cause; William Bradford Huie's The Klansman, depicting violence, bru­tality
and lynchings resulting from Ku Klux Klan activities; William,
Styron's Confessions of Nat Turner, a best-selling novel based on the
life of a Virginia slave who led a rebellion in 1831.
Negro novelists were also alerting the reading public to racial pre­judice
in novels of social protest. One of the most popular of these
was Margaret Walker's Jubilee (1966), a Civil War novel based upon the
life of her maternal grandmother, a slave cruelly treated by a
plantation owner. James Baldwin in his Another Country related the
story of Negro life in New York City from Harlem to Greenwich Village.
In his novel And Then We Heard the Thunder, J. O. Killens protested the
lot of Negro-American soldiers in World War II.
The launching of Sputnik I in 1957 created a wave of interest in
science fiction and in novels depicting the imagined results of space
and nuclear warfare such as Nevil Shute's On the Beach which described
a world dying from nuclear fallout, and Max Shulman's Rally 'Round the
Flag, Boys a humorous story of what happened in a community when a
guided missile station was set up.
The rapid scientific and technical developments of the Space Age with
its revolution in weaponry gave great impetus to the study of science
and mathematics, interplanetary missiles and nuclear physics, all of
which triggered a heavy demand for books in these fields. Very popular
were: Rockets, Missiles and Space Travel, by Willy Ley; The Making of a
Moon, by Arthur C. Clarke; Satellite, by Erik Bergaust. The Computer
Revolution also had its impact on the call for books on automation, new
management procedures, and systems engineering.
Post-Sputnik developments caused many to look inward and to search for
new religious concepts, new insights through the reading of books on
philosophy and religion at popular levels, as well as the literary
classics. Crime, unrest and violence in our society drew readers to the
Library in search of causes and solutions, and for escape through the
reading of some of the wonderfully humorous books of the period: Please
Don't Eat the Daisies, by Jean Kerr, It All Started with Eve, by Richard
Armour, Auntie Marne, by Patrick Dennis and Bel Kaufman's ever popular
Up the Down Staircase.
That readers were becoming deeply concerned with economic and social
welfare is apparent in their selection of books. Poverty in under-
44
developed countries and our own "hidden" poverty were topics which
generated a wide readership in Oscar Lewis' The Children of Sanchez,
portraying poverty in Mexico; Michael Harrington's The Other America
which awakened readers to the "hidden" poverty in affluent America; and
two books on poverty in Appalachia: Night Comes to the Cumberlands,
by Henry M. Caudill, and Yesterday's People, by Jack E. Weller. Urban
problems, decay and blight were subjects of concern noted in the
extensive reading of Edward C. Higbee's The Squeeze, God's Own
Junkyard, by Peter Blake, and Crisis in Our Cities, by Lewis Herber.
Great popular interest in the Civil War was evident in the extensive
reading of both fiction and nonfiction, from the late 1950's to the Civil
War Centennial and beyond. MacKinlay Kantor's Andersonville, hailed by
both literary critics and our own readers, was in great demand. Popular
were such nonfiction Civil War publications as The Twentieth Maine, by
John I. Pullen, and The Horse Soldiers, by Harold Sinclair. Historical
novels continued popular but reader interest was shifting from light to
superior historical fiction.
Of the making of Kennedy books there is no end - to paraphrase a
biblical quotation. In 1964, books about the late President Kennedy
comprised half of the national best seller list of nonfiction. This
unprecedented production of books about an American president was matched
by the interest they invoked among readers in this Library. Call it a
part of the Kennedy mystique, if one will, this interest does indicate a
reading trend of the period.
Currently, there is a trend away from the reading of historical and
biographical fiction, as well as from novels of international intrigue
and romance-suspense which were extremely popular in the early 1960's.
However, the more sophisticated novels of the latter type are in demand,
as was John Le Carre's The Spy Who Came In from the Cold which topped
the best seller list in 1964. Interest in science fiction continues as
today's science fiction novel becomes more sophisticatdd in content,
peopled by fewer monsters and little green men from outer space, with
less concentration upon the gadgetry of the earlier novels of this genre.
Fiction with a contemporary setting is presently popular - especially
fiction with political overtones and novels dealing with such current
problems as race and inter-racial relations.
Trends are difficult to identify in any study of the reading choices
of a large metropolitan library's patrons who use materials at diverse
levels, reflecting a wide spectrum of human interests. However, in
retrospect, it seems clear that the "Triple Revolution" of Automation,
Space and Human Rights deeply influenced reading trends from 1955-1968.
It is equally clear that readers also chose books for information
relating to their daily work and to current happenings, for escape from
dull routines, for fresh insights, inspiration and wisdom so deeply
needed in adjusting to and living in a changing and restless world.
CIEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY
July, 1968
BOARD OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES
Lockwood Thompson
President
Stanley J. Klonowski
Secretary
Mrs. Florence M. Graham
Arthur B. Heard
John M. Gardner
George Livingston
Robert L. Merritt
.AJ)MINISTRATION
Raymond C. Lindquist
Director
Edward A. D'Alessandro
Deputy Director
Mrs. Varelia Farmer
Assistant to the Director
In Charge of Main Library
Miss Adeline Corrigan
Assistant to the Director
In Charge of Branch Libraries