Report of the Librarian 



The war time activities of the hbrary continued up to the day of the 

 armistice, and thereafter as necessary. The character of this work 

 was described by request at the annual convention of American Library 

 Association, and as it was also chronicled with some detail in the last 

 annual report, it will suffice to state here that to the campaigns for food- 

 conservation, thrift, fuel-saving, gardening, knitting, the raising of 

 patriotic funds, and the sale of thrift stamps and liberty bonds, to the 

 furnishing of information for munitions-makers and for officers and men 

 in the service, and to every other feasible form of war work, the library 

 gave itself with energy and success, It is interesting to note that Spring- 

 field people contributed as reading matter for our soldiers and sailors 

 nearly 40,000 books and uncounted thousands of periodicals. This 

 was a generous response; the same rate maintained throughout the 

 country would have yielded more than thirty million volumes. About 

 three quarters of our books were shipped to the men overseas, while 

 others were sent to Devens and similar camps and stations in the United 

 States. The City Library was charged with seeing that suitable libra- 

 ries were provided for all men in service in this immediate vicinity ; and 

 it maintained collections at the United States Armory, the Watershops, 

 the State Armory, the Hostess House, the Eastern States Exposition 

 Grounds, the World War Veterans' Club, the Knights of Columbus 

 Hut, the Salvation Army Rooms, the Students' Army Training Corps, 

 and supplied books also to groups of soldiers guarding railroads and 

 bridges. To Mr. Ralph P. Boas we were greatly indebted for the ad- 

 mirable service which he gave daily last summer in administering the 

 important technical library that was deposited in the Technical High 

 School for the men in training there; and to Mr. Edward A. Appleton, 

 for his kindness in aiding in general supervision over the places to which 

 the hbrary supplied books. 



Statistics 



Owing to a variety of causes, chiefly the prevalence of influenza, 

 the absorption of the public in war work, and the employment in in- 

 dustry of many young people, the circulation of books during the first 

 six months of the year fell 36,000 volumes below that for the correspond- 

 ing period the year before; but with the return of normal conditions 

 during the second half of the year, the circulation grew at such a rate 

 that for the entire twelve months it amounted to 940,183 volumes, 

 or 16,061 volumes more than in any previous year. The class of books 

 at the main library showing the largest rate of increase in the adult 

 circulation, with a gain of 15%, was, as might be expected, history, 

 since in that category fall the multitude of books written about the war. 

 The reading of fiction increased only 3%. 



