HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1965-04-15, Page 9Year - No. 14
G' `DERICH, ONTARIO,; TI' URSI AY, <APRIL 15th, 1965
Boom Rocks Local librarians
Books a:•e becoming :big ,bus-
iness
buminess in fluro'a County in ben-
era1. and, Goderich iri particular
a survc'y, .sho v -d this week.
A dramatic,upsurge in de-
mands for best sellers has' left
_ . both. ,the County Co-operative
library and the Gaderich town
library swamped out with ad-
va.�ice orders. just , -- juyt cannot gc,. cnaugh ,copies
,_...I1' —1501Th -;r;-"itra'trr r- in—i. -__
'i s In— at"-'on,'ThATieh a book is
wake .a cultural embryo never being held up for , pu'l. lie dis-
b'foae, witnessed in the area. _ cussions," said :‘,4s.- Clements:
Housewives now discuss Arthur
Haile'y's "Hotel" with the same`
avid interest that theiir teen-
age. children devour the latest
record by the Beatles.
Botts COur„ty Librarian, Mrs.
.Mary Lou Clements, and Miss
Be ty ,MeRenzie, town libr'arjan,
praise television for creating
the reader intere:,'t.
"People 'are Oeing made more
aware. of What is happening in
the literary world by magazine
reviews and what they sec 'on
t l _ vi:,ion,' sal.: Mr.s. Clements.
She •, lded: ''This is obviously
i'u .ing the reader interest as
fir as denanus for the li'brar-
ic.s go."
Qs for ,Miss : i:cKenzie she
finds t1:at the mere sight of an
author on television brings de-
mands fbr nis works the follow-
ing day.
"Before television; books
would not have got to the atten-
tion of tlti pl.e . so quickly,
Now my telephonehardly stops
ringing the day after one au-
+hor or another has been on
television," she said:
The supdly cannot meet the
dema.ntf of the public ,for books
" cif a controversial nature. "We.
Comfortable Pew
Both libraries report that
Pierre Berton':' "The Comfort-
able Pew" has almost, taken
on the irnportance of precious
metal , on library shelves.
The librarians are findirrg
that the boom is not only con=
fined to the best sellers list.
There appears to be.a general
increase in reading in all dep-
artments. ,
At the County Library, Mrs.
Clements and her staff service
an area covering more than 100
miles stretching from Lakelet
to Kirkton and Centralia.
The library bookmobile,
which holds up to 2,500 books,
covers more than 9,000 miles a
year to service more than 323
outlets in the county.
During the year the travel-
ling library. makes ,four trips
' to the libraries,and three trips
to the .schools to make sure
Duron is receiving the "m-ost
u -p -to -date; reading material. •
iod for some reason seems to
be. round 1lae 180 century."
She added: "As for tfine' child-
ren they will -read anything
Lasa year,. Mrs. -Clements they can get their hands .00 it
spent more than $7,000 bring- appears. Animal stories, mys-
int; ne.w• books in the library in teries and nature stirfes are
what must, .be a constant battle a°]ways at a premium."
to keep up to date with the ' "one th'ng 1 have' noticed
book business. __ Ls that the youigsters seem
-- ` Th rr-'rfu m'h e r- ef--otellet-s is the--mo.a sly, rr
ways on. 'tire increase," reported seem to" have a strange fascin-
ation for dino:'aurs,"
During the year more than
1,000 books are normally. dis=
carctcci. Many o1 these are sent
tri charitah.lu institutions and
some even go to the County
Jail. "We weed these out to
ni ke ,ure they don't get siorie.5
ab jut jail breaking," said Sirs,
lem.:nts,'
Public Library
The pur,lic library although
operating,front only one build-
ing cannot l -described a ; sta-
tic. Th_, 1.6,390 books on the.
shelves ebb and flow ,to the
g,'neral public.
Miss :Alchei:rie and her full
a -s i -Cant, Myr'J1e John-
sitori"e, control the circulation
of books v•hich last year am -
1.1 fed
m-arned to 65.1'37.
At 'the present time the lib-
rary is in the eiiddle of a co.m-
pa. _;n to iriercose membership.
As they say in their bulletin:
,Mrs, Clemc>nts, -"and we took
on an addltioc:al 18 .classrooms
during 1964 which means an
additional.. 900 books per ex-
change."
The dc.nvand is also 'always
on the increase. As Mrs. Clem-
ents w'as interviewed this week
a representative o.f a neighbor-
ing United Church canto arriv-
ed to make :arrangements for
books .to be distributed there
during the summer.
Circulation
A total of 58,140 books are
'i
circuated ihrkmghout the -coun-
ty by thae co-operative library
daring the year. Of these lhc'
majority appear to be the all-
time favourite, of romances for
the ladies and ,cowboy stories
fdr_ the men, .
'"We are alio finding an in-
creased demand for light his-
torical works," said 1Vhrs. Clem-
ents. "The most 'popular ,per-
-I •
"What else can you buy for a
nicker?" -
"'1'he th•iJ'dri n derive a lot of
p1e2_.ure out of our library ,arid_
riot only from the books;" said
Miss McKenzie "Every Satur--
d' y aftcrnc•on we .have a pack-
ed house for . the Cil:ns we.
Sa;`.urcfay �afiehr:,aoii movicts,
at the lih.1ary .m,eali tlravcc.
bows and fai:•y stories to en-
trance the j.u.nt':ir members who
come unclear the : uper,•ision of
the libi ary staff:
-Pee
tail -
"Pee ,)'e.._ are becoming. more- -"
fu_:y about what they read,.'"
said Miss :McKenzie. "It is al-
most getting to the stake if it
is not 00 the best seile.r list
.they don't want to read it."
!Jut us at the county library
t`i.' backbone of ' l
thc7 reading
tic' western -and
my: lery stori.•• ' "We have also -
,l -,ad an increase in demand for
science fiction ftcm the hays,"
said Miss' lichenzie,' "but the
girls normally stay faithful to
their nursing.; stories lust 0s
They have' clone for yeas."
She added: "No natter how
times change and tastes change
people still fill back on tra•
d:t.tonal reading despite. what's
on the, best sealer list," So the
pages of history may turn .but
tradition still appears to play
its part even in our libraries,
Scouring' Shelves
Readers Return
Huron Headquarters