THE GARY PUBLIC LIBRARY Ul,jv ' of Illinois, Library School, J Urbana, The Gary Public Library not only aids in the education of the children in school, but is also a means of education offered by the city to every resident. It i The Gary Public Library organized 1908 was located in a store room at 31 West Seventh avenue and was moved to larger rooms at 624 Washington street, August 1, 1911. For the erection of the present building Andrew Carnegie gave the city $65,000.00. The Gary Land Company donated the ten lots between Adams and Jefferson streets on Fifth avenue valued at $35,000.00. Henry D. Whitfield of New York was the architect. Construction was supervised by J. J. Verplank, architect, of Gary. James I. Barnes of Logansport was the builder. The dedication of the building took place November 17, 1912, Rev. John Cavanaugh, president of the Notre Dame University, delivering the dedicatory address. Carnegie Fund Financial Statement General Contract - - - $58,098.95 Architect’s fees - - - - 4,178.59 Stone cutting ----- 81.50 Book stack work - - - - 8,798.00 Furniture ------- 8,107.25 Hardware ------- 388.38 Electric fixtures - - - - 457.88 Total gift of Mr. Carnegie - - - - $65,000.00 In addition to this the Library Board has expended from the current funds $3,290.25 in the construction and furnish- ing of the building. People on the Library staff are there to help you — they expect questions. Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn. — Poor Richard’s Almanac. TOLLESTON BRANCH LIBRARY Tenth Place, near Roosevelt Street €| The Tolleston Branch was established in December, 1910. It circulated in 1912', 12,173 books; of this number 5,385 were adult books and 6,788 books for children. It is open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 2 to 9 p. m. There is a collection of 1,589 volumes, and 572 borrowers have registered since the branch was opened. Non-fiction books not in the branch will be procured from the main library on request. New books are being added to the shelves continually. It is expected that a branch library will be established in the new Froebel school building at Fifteenth avenue and Madison street in 1913. It will contain many good books for children and books in foreign languages. Every person has two educations; one which he receives from others and one, more important, which he gives himself — Gibbon. ' \ < ' • ' f ^ . PLAN OF MAIN FLOOR— NEW LIBRARY BUILDING <]] There are three floors. The ground floor contains an auditorium seating 300speople, a stack room with two tiers of steel book cases, capacity 35,000 volumes ; a large work- room, staff rest and lunch room, boiler room, storage, etc. The upper floor contains a large club room and an art room with book storage space. The building has a capacity of 60,000 volumes and 150 readers. €| Clubs, committees and other organizations are invited to use the Library Club room for meetings. Inquire of the librarian. The Public Library is the place to go for information concerning books. Summary of Statistics , City of Gary Population, about 35,000. - - (U. S. Census 1910, 10,802) Town government established June 9, 1906, populaton 334 Gary became a city, October 23, 1909. Area of city, 31 square miles. Assessed valuation of property, $20,075,185.00. Bonded indebtedness, $192,000.00. City disbursements, 1912, $507,435.12. Tax rate: Oity, 1.64; schools, 1.00; library, .10. Leading industrial plants : Illinois Steel Co., Gary Works; American Sheet and Tin Plate Co.; American Bridge Co.; Universal Portland Cement Co.; Kirk Yards, E. J. & E. R. R. ; Gary Bolt and Screw Works. ¥ Gary Public Library Library opened December 1, 1908. Volumes in Library December 31, 1912, 22,559. Volumes added 1912, 5,668. Volumes withdrawn, 1912, 506. Borrowers registered, 6,042. Adult borrowers, 3,748. Juvenile borrowers, 2,294. Total circulation of books 1912, 151,900 volumes. Increase over 1911, 46,799 volumes, or 30.8 per cent. Adult book circulation, 60,184, Juvenile book circulation, 53,584. Books sent to schools, 38,132. Fiction circulated, 37.39 per cent. Not including school collections, fiction circ. 49.9 per cent. Reading room attendance, 46,534. “D Jfrtmt tHije ^ool]ooh of lEtocoIrt bg ^Eleanor ^tkmsott k ENNY,” he’d say, “the things I want to know is books, My best friend’s the man who will get one.” Well, books wasn’t as plenty as wild cats, but I got h one by cuttin’ cordwood. It had a lot o’ yarns in it. “Abe?” says I, many a time, “them yarns is all lies.”' “Mighty darned good lies,” he’d say, and go on read an’ chucklin’ to hisself, till Tom’d kiver up the lire fur night an’ shoo him off' to bed. “1 reckon Abe read that book a doz;en times an’ know all the yarns by heart. He didn’t have nothin’ much e to read excep’ Aunt Sairy’s Bible. He cut four cords wood onct to get one stingy little slice of a book. It v a life o’ Washington; an’ he’d lay over the statoots Indiany half the night. We’d git hold o’ a newspaper o in a while, an’ Abe l’arned Henry Olay’s speeches by he He liked the stories in the Bible, too, an’ he got a litj book o’ fables some’ers. I reckon it was them stories read that give him so many yarns to tell. I asked him o after he’d gone to lawin’ an’ could make a jury laugh cry by firing a yarn at ’em. “Abe,” sez I, “whar did you git so blamed many lie An’ he’d always say, “Denny, when a story l’arns yo good lesson, it ain’t no lie. God tells truth in parab They’re easier fur common folks to understand an’ ri( lect.”