NEW BOOKS FOR LIBRARY

BOARD FINDS THAT IT HAS CASH ENOUGH TO DO SOME BUYING.

Members Hope to Succeed in Their Efforts to Have Larger Appropriation Made for Library, Purposes - Over 12,000 Books Were Circulated During Month of June.

What will be pleasing news to the 11,379 card patrons of the public library will be the announcement that its shelves are to be freshened with a new purchase of books. The librarian and the book committee of the board expect to begin shortly on the selection of the order.

On counting its cash last night the library board found a trifle over $13,000 in the maintenance fund, and the discovery was not without a degree of satisfaction to the committee on books, which for the past two years has been making strenuous efforts to realize as largely as it could from the pittance annually set aside by the city for this purpose.

All of this amount will not be available for books, as some of the money must be reserved for other library expenses, but a goodly portion of it will be expended in replenishing the book racks. Last month over $1,000 was spent for books, and they are now available for those who call for them. The bill was audited last night and ordered paid.

When the conference committee met last December a slight increase was made in the library appropriation, but the debt which the board has been endeavoring the past two years to wipe out made heavy inroads on it. An effort will be again made this year to secure another increase in the amount annually appropriated for library purposes. The board has no representation on the conference committee, and this fact has seriously handicapped it in the past.

The action of the board in extending to Hastings and nearby towns the privileges of the library has had the effect of slightly swelling the number of patrons of that institution. Last month over 12,000 books were handed out over the counter, and quite a number of these went to parties living outside the city limits.