Riverside
County
Biographies
RIVERSIDE PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Riverside Public Library had its
inception as a society in 1879 and was founded as a public library in
1888. It is unique as the only
institution in the world that combines a municipal library, a county free library
and a library school, occupying three fine buildings in the very heart of the
city. The library board, which consists
of five directors appointed by the mayor, is as follows: Judge O. K. Morton, president; Frank D.
Troth, secretary; Mrs. T. L. Lorbeer; and W. G. Farndale. The
librarian is Charles F. Woods, a biography of whom appears elsewhere in this
work.
We quote in part an interesting
article by Joseph F. Daniels, the former librarian, which appeared in the
special annual edition of the “The Riverside Enterprise,” dated April 14, 1917: “The American public library has become a
great supplementary institution to the whole system of education. It does more than a correspondence school and
does it at less cost. It has become
conspicuous as the only informal institution of education that satisfies the
public. Socially and intellectually the
public library in the United States has become a great educational force and it
is just beginning its active community work. . . . .
“The service of schools is an
extremely complicated and technical service.
The city service is, of course, the most intimate and personal
service. The county service is designed
to reach the remotest reader with the book and the California system is the
pattern for the whole country, but the city service offers a staff of experts
handling a rich store of all sorts of human knowledge and with the direct,
personal contact. Its circulation of
books for home use is large—very large and important, but the really important
community service is the use of an excellent reference
equipment supplemented by home use. To
say that the public library circulated one hundred and thirty-five thousand
books (1917) within the city is to leave the tale of actual service
untold. Hundreds of reference and
research topics are handled for the people every month and the telephone rings
all day long. Riverside owns ten
thousand public documents in addition to other reference material. There are but three such collections in
southern California (Los Angeles, San Diego and Riverside) and our neighbors
from leagues around come here for official data of all sorts. The great magazine and newspaper indexes,
some covering more than one hundred years, are at Riverside and our experts
make them useful to the whole country.
Debaters, club workers, legislators and all sorts and conditions of men
depend almost wholly on a reference collection such as that used here.
“A large and generous service is
also rendered from our state library, which is a remarkable institution and is
the parent of all the county libraries in the state. The collection of rare and expensive books on
many subjects is used at all times by city and county residents and many of
these items draw visitors from a distance who prefer to work in the Riverside
Public Library where the conditions for research work and reference are
inviting.”
The presence of an exceptional
number of fine books in the Riverside Public Library is due to the existence of
several endowment funds which make possible the purchase of books, the price of
which would seem prohibitory if the expense had to be defrayed from public
moneys. Ethan Allen Chase, a prominent
citizen and early settler of Riverside, gave five thousand dollars, of which
the income was to be used for the purchase of books of biography, history,
science, travel and literature. In
addition to the gift of her husband’s special library, Mrs. John Correja gave
three thousand dollars, the interest of which was to be used for the purchase
of books in the field of architecture and design, the whole to be a memorial to
her husband, a distinguished Brooklyn architect. A smaller endowment, a memorial to Dorothy
Daniels, daughter of the former librarian, has supplied books of historical and
artistic interest in the field of juvenile literature. Such gifts prove graceful, useful and durable
memorials to those identified with the perpetuation of our culture.
In the ten year period between the
census of 1920 and that of 1930 the increase in population of the City of
Riverside was 54%, while the increase of circulation at the main library for
the same period was 113%. Immediately
succeeding this period of remarkable growth, the following appeared in the
“Summary Report of the Riverside Public Library” for 1930-1931: “It is notorious among librarians that the
use of libraries is increased in times of financial depression, so it is not
surprising that the increase in circulation of the library during the past year
is slightly larger than the average for the previous ten years, the increase
for the year being eleven per cent. Last
year we attained two record monthly circulations but these were exceeded
several times during the year covered by this report. In time of unemployment the library becomes
in a special degree a resource for diversion and instruction and every effort
should be made to avoid any curtailment of the library’s activities. The registered borrowers number 11,153, thirty-six
per cent of the population of the city.
This exceeds by one-fifth the standard set by the American Library
Association. Compared with the
registration, the circulation at the main library, therefore, shows the reading
of over twenty-four books per registered borrower. For the second year a large increase has been
recorded without entailing the employment of additional help at our circulation
desk. . . . . During the year 7,119
books were accessioned, bringing the net total of books and pamphlets in the
library for the first time over the one hundred and fifty thousand mark. . . .
.
“Under special contract with the board
of education, the Riverside Public Library provided one hundred eight classroom
collections in ten elementary schools of the city, in addition to operating
libraries in two schools. . . . .
“During the year three new branches
have been opened, two branches were re-opened, and three schools joined the
County Library. Innovations in the work
with county schools were marked extension of magazine service and the
installation of a collection of phonograph records. Miss Eleanor Wilson, in charge of the department,
made one hundred twenty-two visits to seventy-three distributing agencies. The number of books sent out to branches
increased eleven per cent for the year while the circulation increased
seventeen per cent. . . . .
“Among the notable exhibits from
outside sources during the year have been those of the American Institute of
Graphic Arts of New York City (including Fifty Books of the Year and Printing
for Commerce), the Roosevelt Traveling Exhibit, the Library Loan Exhibit of the
Traphagen School of Fashion of New York City, and the
Exhibit of the American Library Association illustrative of Library Work with
Children. The library is indebted to
many local persons and non-residents for gifts of books and reference material
during the year. As an enduring result
of the munificence of Ethan Allen Chase and Mrs. John Correja, notable books
continue to be added to the Chase and Correja collections.”
The financial report for the year
ending June 30, 1931, shows receipts and disbursements amounting to $71,707.20. The total number of agencies is ninety-four,
including the main library, one branch, nineteen city schools, thirty-five
county stations and thirty-eight county schools. The total circulation for the year in the
City of Riverside was 349,837 and at all agencies 471,746. The Summary Reports says further:
“This year has seen slight change in
the curricula of the Riverside Library Service School. We now offer a year course of thirty-three
weeks and a summer session of eight weeks, with special and elective courses,
so that one may do sixteen weeks of work in two summer sessions. There is also an intersession of two weeks
immediately preceding the summer session, when four
special and elective courses are offered to year course and special students. By entering this intersession, students may
increase their periods of summer session study to eighteen weeks.. . . .”
The following is quoted from a
leaflet printed in November, 1930: The
Riverside Library Service School, accredited by the California State Department
of Education, is located at Riverside, California, about fifty miles east of
Los Angeles, and is reached by the Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, Union Pacific
and Pacific Electric Railways. Set in
the midst of orange groves, with tree-lined streets and with excellent paved
roads stretching away to the high mountains, Riverside is one of the most
beautiful cities in all California. It
is a city of high civic standards and of excellent cultural opportunities and
is the seat of a number of important institutions, including a Junior College,
the Graduate School of Tropical Horticulture and Citrus Experiment Station of
the University of California, and Sherman Institute, a government school for
Indians. The world-famous Glenwood
Mission Inn is next door to the library.
The population is thirty-one thousand in an area of thirty-nine square
miles.
“The Riverside Public Library is an
excellent basis for study and for the development of one planning to enter
library work. It has more than one
hundred and thirty-five thousand books and pamphlets, is well organized,
employs advanced methods and actively serves an interested public. The library also performs the functions of a
county free library, serving more than eighty branches and stations in a county
having about the area of the state of Massachusetts. The unique California County Free Library
System may thus be studied here in active operations.”
The courses given in the Riverside
Library Service School are as follows:
history of the classification of knowledge; library administration;
library law; modern languages for catalogers—German, French, Italian and
Spanish.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. III, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
15-20, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S RIVERSIDE BIOGRAPIES