HELENA LIBRARY MOVES: 1933

LIBRARY STAFF TO RELAX AFTER TASK OF HAULING MANY BOOKS ACROSS CITY

“And that is that” members of the Helena Public Library staff can say today, because they have finished the task of moving more than 164,000 books magazines and pamphlets

The amount of material in the public library here has never been seen all at one glance by any patron of the library and it has been hard to conceive of the tremendous collection of volumes that were contained in the previous location. A visitor to the new home now may get an idea of the size of the library collection when he sees neat and orderly rows of books in the foreplanned arrangement on straight new shelves.

Only “Hulk” remains.

The old library building stands now as only a “hulk” of its former self and an inspection tour through the old home makes one wonder how a library ever was conducted there and yet be as well managed as it was.

Before the moving began Mrs. Mabel T. Miller, librarian, had studied plans that were used in the moving of other libraries, only to find that these moving jobs we done by people who had a lot of money for that purpose at their disposal. These plans yielded a few good ideas but the generalship of Mrs. Miller was called upon for most of the inspirations in the move of the Helena library.

First the books were measured to determine how much space they would take up in the new location. Then came the job of vacuuming and dusting, for many of the volumes quite a novelty. The first to go across town were the bound magazines from the reading room which were transported in V-shaped troughs in numerical order and lined up on the shelves allotted for that purpose.

No Time Is Lost

Then came the loan department books handled in much the same way, which were filed in their new home by divisions and sub-divisions. A pre-arranged plan was determined for every move and not a minute was lost in spotting the thousands of volumes on the shelves in the new library. Each trough of books was designated for a certain space by a special marking system.

The unbound newspapers came next, tied in alphabetical bundles of a years’s collection. The mammoth government document was moved by departments and established in its new place. A glance at the government sections leads to the belief that the United States printing office is the most prolific publisher in this country today.

The children’s section of about 6,000 books, the bound newspapers of which there are 366 volumes, and the Montana collection brought up the rear of the big parade across the business section of Helena.

Library furniture was hauled across the city in the trucks, but was only a minor item in the move.

Mrs. Miller, city librarian said she could not compliment her regular staff and the special crew of helpers too highly. Long hours were put in at both locations under sometimes not so agreeable conditions but not a complaint was heard, Mrs. Miller said.

The members of the librarian’s staff are Charlotte Schneider, Erin Janzig, May Shepherd, Mary Louise Bennett, Evelyn Mills, Hannah wendel and James W. Berry, janitor.

THE LIBRARY MOVING DAY

The loan desk at the new library was designed by Mabel T. Miller, the librarian, from her own experience and observations behind the counter.

The Helena public library is the only government depository in Montana. You’ll need a stepladder to read the Congressional Record, but who wants to read the Congressional Record?

Mary Louise Bennett will be in charge of the children’s library, an institution all by itself.

The library staff conducted a perpetuation ceremony, sealed messages in a bottle and put the bottle in back of the fireplace in the children’s room.

The new library has an inter-office telephone communication system, which is an improvement over the former whistle, blow and shout system.

The girls on the library staff donned overalls during the moving job.

The bird collection that used to be near the entrance to the librarian’s office in the old location has been cleaned and put in the new children’s room.

They aren’t new tables. They are just the old ones with the tops scraped and finished.

The first loan from the library in its new home was made to a representative of the Montana Record-Herald who borrowed something on the history of the institution. That was unofficial.