The Call Number, Volume 1, Number 3, November 1939 Page: 3
5 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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BOOK SELECT ION
Dan:on. Mrs. Emily -(Miller)7ed* The library of tomorrow k.LA., 1939.
191p. $2.50
The first tax-supported public library in the United States was establish-
ed in 1833 in Peterboro, New Hampshire. Today we hi*e 17,000 libraries -
pub.ic, semi-public, and institutional. They shelter sQme 160,000,000 books,
arai th.t is a noble number until one reflects that there' are, aftqr all, some
120,0 r,0J0 of us. Each of us has -a book -- yea, a book and a quarter, and
there >re many pathetic little collections that could supply any of us with
his essential fraction. The librarians who administer these books must go Janus
one better - they need to look not two ways but three at once, to the past,
the present, and the future. Their lively concern for the shape of thimgs to
come is admirably exemplified in a new book, The library of tomorrow, which
has recently been assembled with the imprint of the American Library Associatif
to which twenty men and women, most of them specialists in one phase or
another of library technique, have contributed.1
This book brings together the hopes and some of the certainties of the
future library, and attempts to show the potentialities of libraries of to-
morrow with some indication of library activities of today.2 Some of the
chapter heads are: Looking forward, a fantasy; Responsibility of the library
to continue the literary tradition; National leadership from Washington; Ideal
library support; Housing tomorrow's library; School library service; The
library's responsibility to the child; and, The future of the Library of Congress
The dream of this last chapter is about to come true. An annex providing space
for 15,000,000 volumes has been built, giving the Library of Congress a
capacity double that of any other existing library except the new repository
in Moscow.
Perhaps one Jeremiah should have been added to the twenty contributors,
who would have pointed out that there is nothing inevitable about library
progress, that the road along which librarians are traveling will have many
unexpected detours, and the country which lies before has been as yet unex-
plored. These writers of The libra of tomorrow should inspire us to go
boldly forward, but they Wu ie n rned usthat the march toward Utopia
is not an easy one.
1Saturday R. of Lit. 20:8 My 13 '39
2Booklist 35:243 Ap 1 '39
3Lib. J 64:550 Ji '39
MOTION PICTURES FROM BOOKS
Here I am a stranger. From the magazine story by Gordon Hillman. (20th Century-
The lady Dick. From the story, Invitation to murdeF by Kay Krausse. (Warner
Bros.)
The light that failed. From the book by Rudyard Kipling. (Paramount)
Mr. Smith goes to ashington. From the story Gentleman from Montana, by Lewis
Ransom Foster. Tdolubia)
Philo Vance comes back. Based on The KIennel murder case, by S. S. Van Dine.
..arner Bros.) --
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Teachers College. Library Service Department. The Call Number, Volume 1, Number 3, November 1939, periodical, 1939; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc13357/m1/3/: accessed June 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT College of Information.