News Letter: Los Angeles County Public Library October-November 1951

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At the first General Session Dr. Lawrence Powell, Librarian, U.C.L.A., was
the main speaker; his subject was "A Change of Pace" and. he described with
eloquence apd literary flavor his' year in England on a Guggenheim grarit, and his
. return trip to this country, giving his audience an appreciation of the wealth and
vastness of the cultural re~ources of the two countries. Dr. Powell teid us of
his cqntacts with British booksellers and librarians and he made comparisons of
British and American l.ife and customs mentioning his admiration for the people of
Englan~ and their great traditions in history and culture.
Those who attended the Conference from this Library were Mrs. Gertrude Hopkins
and Virginia Os~en, Bra.nches Division; Catherine Greening, OrderiDivision;Giovanna
Castelfranco and Edwin Hughes, Reference Division; Hrs. Bernice Gantt, Children's
Division; as well as .Mr. Geller and Mr. Henderson. Some combined the convention
with vacation and took time to enjoy Northern California.
Staff members had an opportunity to visit other libraries and library buildings
in the Bay aJ;"ea. Several .saw the Richmond Public Library, the new main building at
Oakland, as well as the new :~ranches in the San Francisco Public Library system.
The convention gave our delegates an oppo~unity to meet li~rarians from all
parts of the State, to learn of the problems ~f administration and service con­fronting
the county and city libraries. There were meetings of the Children 1 s
Librarians and the Special Librarians which were participated in by our staff; a
panel on library buildings was programmed by the Municipal Section and Mr. Henderson
had plans and pictures of Los Angeles County branch buildings to show and discuss;
there was a television q~z show .in which Mrs. Ma~ Horan of the Los Angeles ·
Public. Library, Hr •. Geller and Mr. Henderson representing the Southern Team tied
the Norj.herners to win steak dinners as .pr~zes.
One of the g~neJ;"al.sessions was given <;>ver to a panel on "Films for Public
Libraries" whiqhRaymond c. Swank, Stanford University Librarian, planned. Three
films were shown.typical of those now .available to public libraries: "Preface to?
Life", "What .is ~odern Art" and "Brotherhood of Man11 • This was followed by a panel
discussion"' ..
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At tqe Fourth General Session the usual C.L.A. business was coyered, with
reports from the President and committees, the most exciting being that of the
Committee on Intellectual Freedom chairmaned by Mrs. Evelyn Benagh Detchon,
Librarian, Coronado Public Library. G:eowing out of Burbank's .efforts to·label
so-called dangerous'hooks the Committ ~e presented a 6...:point resolution which was
... adopted declaring such a practice to be "contrary to the American tradition and to
the goals of American .librarians~ip.'' ., ·
Time was taken ·by Mr. Geller, Mr. Henderson and Howard Rowe, Librarian of the
Tacoma Publi.c Library, to inspect two new libraries .in San Francisco, the first
being at the University of San Francisco where particular attention was paid to
furniture, lighting, color scheme, work flow, new equipment and provisio1;1s made
for staff comfort and efficiency, as well as the emphasis given to the service and
convenience of the readers. The second was the new and impressive Parkside Branch
of the San Francisco Public Library. The architectural features of modern design
and layout were most striking and suggested more on the luxury side than most public
libraries are able to consider. · The use of glass and color, as well as the original
arrangement of the shelving which features groups of books on special subjects on
free standing stacks with adjacent tables were of particular interest.
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A highlight of the convention was the address by Virginia Kirkus titled
-11Unrequired .Reading" in which the speaker described with enthusiasm and vividness
the bQoks which .have most impressed her in her recent reading. Among the titles
discussed by ~liss Kirkus were:- 11Mr. Smith" by Bromfield, Marquandi s "Ivle::t-viile
Goodwin, U.S.A.", "Moses" by Asch, Hersey's 11The Wall", and 11Shakespear, of London"
by Chute. So much of the business to be covered at conventions must nece.ssarily
center around questions of policy, organization, budget and administration, t~at
a good talk on books and reading is always received with favor, particularly when
given by one with Miss Kirkus ',a broad , book knowled-ge and incisiveness in bringing
to her audience the heart and spirit of the books she discusses.
At the Library School dinner for graduates of the University of California at
Berkeley an impromptu tribute was paid to the memory of ·s-idney Mitchell by Larry
Powell that was most touching and inspiring.
At the final meeting a luncheon was. given in honor . of Mabel R. Gillis, State
Librarian, Retired, which wassponsored by the Northern Section of the School
Library Association of California. It was with some feeling of sentiment that the
County Librarians present listened to Miss Gillis 1 remarks and expressions of
appreciation for the cooperation she had received from the School Librarians
throughout her career as State Librarian. The other speaker was Ruth Harshaw
whose radio pr()gram "Carnival of Books" is well known to Children's Librarians.
COUNTY LIBRARIAN Two weeks following the return of Mr. Henderson from New York for
:FLIES AGAIN the American Heritage Project Institute- expenses paid by the
Project - with Mrs. Wright and Miss Christeson mentioned in last
month's Letter, he took off on November 2 by air for Raymondville, Texas, to inspect
the new library building there which was ~rovided by Mr. J. 0. Reber and his two
sisters. The full day November 3 was spent with the Librarian, the special
trustees appointed to oversee the construction of the building, and the Library
Advisory Board discussing procedures and policies, as well as a budget, that should
provide an adequate public library service for the 10,000 residents of Raymondville
and the additional 10,000 r esidents of Willacy County, Raymondville being the
County seat. It will be r ecalled that the Raymondville building duplicates our
Lancaster Branch, the plans and specifications having 'been loaned to Mr. Reber's
contractor. It was a great privilege to be sent on this inspection trip, the
Librarian being particularly impressed by Texas hospitality, the splendid building
which the Reber family has provided for their cormnunity, and the many fine people
in Raymondville who are intere.sted in their new library._ The flight was a memorablE
one. At one stage of the journey your Couqty Librarian was the only passenger on
the plane and was thrilled to be allowed to sit in the cockpit wearing the Captain'~
earphones and enjoying a good cigar in the company o~ a most friendly and informed
co-pilot who was at the controls. !his stage of the flight was from Corpus
Christie to San Antonio. During the 4-hour wait in San Antonio there was ample
time f~r a visit to the Alamo and the Huseum which was indeed a rewarding and
impressive experience.
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FRON THE BRANCHES DIVISION
' THE ANNUAL AUTHORS'
CHRISTMAS PARTY
Please b& wre to let us know by December · 1 how many of you
are coming to · the Annual Authors' Party.; Plans are now
shaping up. quite rapidly and we hope you will enjoy meeting
the authors who are coming.· Those who have already accepted are:
Harold Lamb- Suliema.n, ,etc.
Mildred Masterson McNeilly- Each Bright River (this .is being filmed)
~1rs. Henry L. Wilson (Stinetorf) - vVhite Witch Doctor
Margaret Leighton.- The Sword and the Compass
Clinton (Buddy) Twiss - The Long, Long Trailer
Donald vlilson - Hy Six Convicts
Richard Tregaskis - Guadaca.nal Diary
Seven Leagues to Paradise
One or two others have not yet replied t~ invitatiohs.
REMINDER Please send all ·damag.ed books to Branches Division, Central Library,
together with the name and address on the book card of the patron
responsible for the damage. ·Many damaged books are being found on shelves by
supervisors on branch trips that .should. have been sent to Central aqd .the patrons
charged for the damage. See Section AA in the Manual for procedure.
FROM THE CHILDREN'S DIVISION
ACTIVITIES Here is a.ri earn~st admonition: Please send your Monthly Activity
REPORTS Reports to the Children's Division promptly at.the end of each month.
They have been very slow in coming in these p'ast two months. When­ever
an additional supply of the pink report sheets is needed, request them from
Frances Alexander, Ch:lldren' s Division.. ·
CtL~ISTMAS It was suggested after . the • Christm_a.s holidays last January .that
· M.ATERIAL Christmas books be· set · aside in your storerooms for the time being.
Immediately after Thanksgiving would be an appropriate time· to get this
material back ontothe shelves; Better still, why not~ake a special display of
it along with the Christmas reading list in its gay red cover which should be found
in the box of reading lists for boys and girls. ,
BOY SCOUT
PAMPHLETS
L. Moody.
The Division has on hand quite a ·number of copies of the Boy Scout
Merit Badge pamphlets listed below. If you can use a copy of one or
more of them send yo~r request to the Children's Division, c/o Sarah
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Animal Industry
Astronomy
Automobiling
Bee Keeping
Blacksmithing
Botany·
Canoeing
Coin Collecting
Cotton Farming
Dal.rYing
Fruit Culture
Grasses, Legumes and
Forage Crops
Horsemanship
Journalism
Hachinery
Hetal \tJ'ork
Nut Culture
Pigeon Raising
Pottery
Printing
Salesmanship
Skiing
Stalking
Stamp Collecting
\'leather
Wood Turning
VJood Work
Zoology
CARNIVAL The time for the children's radio program, Carnival of Books, heard on
OF BOOKS K F I every Sunday morning, has been changed-from 8:45 to 9:00A.M.
Will you please make the correction on your poster. Since this is a
sustaining rather than a sponsored program the schedule is not likely to. r emain
unchanged for long periods of time. We shall keep you informed if ther e are
further changes.
The authors to be interviewed during December are as follows:
December 2
December 9
December 16
December 23
December 30
Carolyn Haywood
Paul Anni ster (local author)
Eleanor Estes (local author)
Jessica and Elizabeth Orton Jones
Howard Pease
Now that the program has been on the air for some time we should be interested in
hearing whether there has been any r eaction to it from your patrons.
BOOK REVIEW Just a r eminder that the · Children's Division still holds a monthly
MEETINGS book-r eview meeting at 9:30a.m. on the first Wednesday of each
month. Attending these meetings is an excellent way of learning
what is between the attractive covers of the new juvenile books that are sent to
you periodically. This year, when no r egular branch librarians' meetings are
being scheduled, would be a very good time to give these book r eview conferences
a t r i al. Mark the following dat es on your c al e~dar and join us at 9:30 A.M. on
those days. You will be most welcome.
December 5
January 2
February 6
March 5
Apr i l 2
May 7
June 4
July 2
August 6
September 3
October 1
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BUILDINGS
' COMPTON After several weeks of service fr~m our standby .boolonobile at the C9mpton
BRANCH City Park the library building has at last been moved· and made ready for
public use. Improvements have been made with the move; an increase in ·
shelving has enlarged the book capacity, and with several trees shading the
entrance the summer heat will not be felt as intensely as it was at the old
location. Miss Wicks and her staff are looking forward to increased activity at
the branch now that the building is ready.
GARD~A On November 15, for the first time in history Los Angeles County .will
BRANCH operate a branch within the boundaries of the City of Los Angeles . .. It
was announced some time ago that the Los Angeles City Library was ~b~~on-
. ing its branch at Garderia owing to the predominance of county residents who were
using the branch and .the City's need to strengthen facilities elsewher e . An .,
arrangement was worked out between the two lj,brary systems ·under which the Gardena
building will be leased to the County. Miss Bette Hood, formerly Library Assistant
at Altadena, will take charge of the brancp. We will continue the s~e hours of
service that the City Library offered the local residents.
TEMPLE CITY Architect Robert G. Smith, who designed our branches at La Cana:da,
BRANCH Lancaster, ·Bellflower, Downey and i'Jillowbrook., was engaged by the
Board of Supervisors to prepare plans and specifications for our
new building at Temple City. Architect Smith has been in conference with Mr.
Henderson and lvir. Geller and has prepared some preliminary drawings that promise
to r esult in another ·building that will be a great credit to our library system.
Further announcements will be made r egarding' the Temple City building as the plans
c:tevelop.
BALDWIN PARK Another community to receive improved library quarters is Baldwin
BRANCH Park. Opening ceremonies were held early in October celebrating
our occupying the newly constructed building which was designed to
meet library specifications and was made available to us on a l ease basis.
LIBRARY A lease has just been approved by the Board of Supervisors for new
WORKSHOP quarters for the Libra~· workshop. Since 1929 it was located at 6526
Holmes Avenue, and for ·several y ears i t has been too small to adequately
meet our needs. The new building comprises approximately 3000 square f eet plus the
same amount of space for parking. The address is 4118 l~ng Beach Avenue, East.
MISCELLANEOUS Community bookmobile service will be instituted in lower Mint and
Bouquet Canyons on December 4 and 5 by the mobilibrary which we
operate for t he Sheriff's Department. Arrangements have been made with Sheriff
Biscailuz to schedule two days for the communi ty program on an exper iment al b.asis
with the hope of setti ng up a full time ·program in the f uture . Space for a :col ­l
ection of community books has been provi ded at the Wayside Honor Rancho and the
service will be directed by Wayside Librarian Bernard Richardson wi th t he assist­ance
of his new staff member Irving Honer. Although the Wayside Mobilibrary bears
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the name, Mobilibrary, Los Angeles County, Sheriff's Department, Division of
Corrections, the readers it will serve willunderstand that the County Public
Library is borrowing the Sheriff 1 s equipment for this purpose and that we are
undertaking the venture with the co~peration of Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz until
the Library can obtain another mobile unit at which time the service will be
increased. ~
Replacing our Ford station wagon, which covered 117,320 miles and has been showing
it, is a new Chevrolet station wagon, delivered October 22, which Cal Phillips is
now driving with pride and pleasure.
The exhibit walls at La Canada now have on view a Disney collection consisting of
nine original "eels'', or full-color original paintings on cellulroid 8"x 10" taken
from five motion pictures. Each eel is actually the work c,f several people - the
writer, the artist who created the scene, the anirratcr who dr8w the figures, and
the inkers and painters who outlined the figures and filled in with color. These
particular eels were taken from "SnC~w Whiten, 11 Cinderella11 , 11Hicky and the Seal",
11:Bambi 11 and 11Der Fuehrer's Face" and all are rendered in the perfection for which
Disney's pictures are known.
Mrs. Mary Starp, Librarian at La Canada Branch, reports that the Great Books Club
is meeting again this fall in that library and as in previous years Mrs. Leos, of
our Montrose Branch, is a member. Meetings will be held on alternate Thursdays.
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PERSONAL The item in the last News Letter about accepting personal checks was not
CHECKS intend.ed to prohibit accepting them but to warn Branch Librarians to know
their people before cashing checks. In any event, the check must be fer
the exact amount cwed the Library.
VESTA BRUNER -
DETECTIVE
The follovdng n:·Ms item, which was ret:ponsible for the return of
~~19. 2:.:• wor·th of Co1,1n}.y property, was sent in by Mrs , Br-uner:
11Hr. 0' Crmnnr has had 3 books out from the South Gate Branch since May, Notices,
registered letter-s, phone calls to his place of employment, did. no good. The last
time I called the Company they told me he had left. I saw thfs item in the
Huntington Park Signal night :.,eforo last so called the detective. He said he's see
what he could do. Yesterday he brought the three books in to us. Mr. O'Conner is
still in jail. The books were on accounting but I'm afraid the patron didn't read
far enough. At any rate he is accounting now."
(Newspaper clipping)
Worthless Check Victims To Get Money Returned
Between 15 and 25 Huntington Park merchants who have been victimized by "small"
worthless checks adndttedly passed by Frank V. O'Connor, 8175~ Beechwood, South
Gate, today were urged to contact Detective Captain Herrit H. Armstrong at the
Huntington Park Police Station.
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In order to accept a position with the U.S. Army Overseas Library Service
Martha Kostyu, Librarian II in charge of the Teachers' Lil:;>rary in the Reference
Division since June 1949, submitted her resignation in October. Miss Kostyu will
be sent to Nurnberg, ;Germany, for a two-year assignment.
PROMOTIONS Mrs. Bertha M. Davidson, who since 1934 has been Librarian II in the
Catalog Division, was appointed First Assistant in that Division on
October 1. Mrs. Davidson is filling the vacancy created by the promotion of Mrs.
Catherine MacQuarrie to the position of Chief Catalog Librarian. Filling Mrs.
Davidson's former position is ~liss Agnes M. Johnsen who was Librarian I in the
Branches Division.
With the transfer of Mrs. Eunice Goodchild to the Teachers• Library to fill the
vacancy created by the resignation of Miss Kostyu, Mrs. Dilla Ludlow, Librarian I
Reference Division since September 5, 1951, was appointed to this position.
TRANSFERS In addition to Mrs. Goodchild's transfer there are two others to report
Mrs. Harjorie Sheckard, Hospital Librarian I at the County General
Hospital since January 1945, is now in the Reference Division at Central; 1'-'lrs.
Mildred Blake, formerly of the Central Processing Division, has been transferred
to the Catalog Division.
APPOINTMENTS A graduate of the u.s.c. School of Librariansh~p 1951, and a teacher
for a year, Dean C. Dwyer was appointed to the Librarian I opening
in the Catalog Division.
LIBRARIAN- Members of the County Library family will be proud to know that
AUTHOR Theodore and Caroline Hewitson have published a booklet titled
11A Chronicle of Dickens Christmas Carol". The charming publication
is illustrated by Jan Hitchcock af t er the original drawings by John Leech. The
"Christmas ·Carol" has been a bibliographic inter est of the Hewitson f amily for a
number of years. As stated in th<.)ir Foreword the authO-.t's have summarized "what
is knowri about the origin of the story and the history of it, adding such si gnifi­cant
factual information as we were able to gather from new sources. • • IJ'Je have
endeavored simply to present a brief, but comprehensive record of. our fine Christ­mas
book. 11
In Joseph Henry J ackson's column, 11Bookman1s Notebook" in the Los Angel es Ti mes,
Sunday, November 11, a par agraph is devoted to the HGwitsons 1 publication. ~r.
Jackson says, speaking of t he authors, 11They 1ve enjoyed the 1 Christmas Car ol' for
many years, and have her e brought together the bibliographical and literary facts
concerning that classi c, its writing, early publication, and other mat erial on the
origin and history of the story. Because it is a privately printed item, this
chronicle sells for $3. OnlJ• 200 copies were printed at t he press of Will Cheney •11
Dawson's are handling the sal e of the volume.
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