The Illinois State Library:
Extension, Reorganization and Experimentation, 1921-1955

PART 1 The Centennial (now Howlett) Building

Approved June 20, 1921, House Bill 694 amended eight sections of the 1874 State Library Act, created three divisions within the library and reconfirmed the secretary of state as the state librarian. Effective July 1, 1921, the state library collection became the General Library Division, the Library Extension Commission was abolished and recreated as the Library Extension Division, and the Archives Division was created to care for those records of permanent value over which the secretary of state had custody. The superintendents of the three divisions were respectively - Harriet M. Skogh, Anna May Price and Margaret Cross Norton. The initial task facing this triumvirate was to coordinate moving the entire State Library collection from the Capitol into the soon to be finished Centennial Building.

The State Library had moved into its home on the west end of the third floor of the Capitol in the fall of 1887. Only nine years later Secretary of State William H. Hinrichsen complained to the General Assembly that shelf space was "becoming scarce and crowded." ¹ By 1918, Acting Librarian Eva Fowler had reported that her six employees, 70,000 volumes of bound books and 11,800 lineal feet of shelving were about all that could fit in the west wing. None of the staff except for Ms. Fowler had an office, and cataloging and routine library work were done in an 800-square-foot space at the south end of the reading room. The Library Extension Commission, which had moved its offices from Decatur to Springfield in 1914, was located across the Capitol rotunda on the fourth floor of the east wing. Its three employees and collection of 10,000 volumes and packing cases had already spilled out of two rooms and into the corridor. ²

Fortunately, at the time of Fowler's complaint, the 50th General Assembly had recently passed Senate Bill 611, which authorized the construction of a building to house the State Library, State Historical Library, State Museum, Archives, Lincoln collection, war museum, battle flags and Department of Public Instruction. The bill was signed on June 25, 1917, by Governor Frank O. Lowden and ground for the new building was broken on Oct. 5, 1918. Because the year 1918 marked the 100th anniversary of Illinois' admission to the Union, the new building was aptly named the "Centennial Building."

On part of the building site stood the former home of Ninian Wirt Edwards, son of former Governor Ninian Edwards, and brother-in-law of Abraham Lincoln. In fact, the marriage ceremony of Lincoln and Mary Ann Todd, sister of Edward's wife Elizabeth, took place in front of the mantel in the Edwards parlor on Nov. 4, 1842, and Mary spent her last months in the Edwards home, dying there July 16, 1882.

During his lifetime, Ninian Wirt Edwards had successfully fought against the state taking his property for expansion of the Capitol grounds. However, after his death Sept. 2, 1889, his house and land passed on to others who were less influential. When the first meeting of the Centennial Building Commission was held in the governor's office on Nov. 21, 1917, several people requested that the Edwards house be saved and "be maintained as a repository for State Archives, or for a Lincoln Memorial Building." Despite pleading from the director of the Illinois State Historical Society, the commission decided that the Edwards house had been changed so often that it was not wanted by the state, and construction proceeded.³

* Mark Sorensen, Assistant Director, Illinois State Archives/Office of the Secretary of State, Springfield. This is the third article in a 3-part series on the history of the Illinois State Library.

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The Centennial Building was completed in early 1923. Between June 20 and June 30, 1923, library employees moved 86,000 bound volumes and the 100-year-accumulation of laws and documents through the new underground tunnel from the Capitol south to the Centennial Building. The old three-story ornamental book stack was taken apart and also moved to the new library. It was reconstructed and placed along the south wall of the east end of the new stack space adjacent to the new steel stacks. ⁴

The Illinois State Library Reading Room was located in the Centennial Building from 1923 until the present library was opened in 1990. This February 1950 photo shows the bookcase which separated the State Library from the Illinois State Historical Library and Lincoln Room.

The library's public space consisted of the large reading and reference room located on the third floor above the Memorial Hall (Hall of Flags). The east end of this third-floor space was shared until 1970 with the State Historical Library. The room contained American walnut bookcases and trim, a vaulted ceiling with wrought iron light fixtures, and a series of lead-paned windows along the north wall. At the east and west ends were mezzanines separated from the larger sunken room by marble stairs and pillars capped by a carved stone frieze. Although the library space was designed to accommodate 10 years of library growth, a mere six years later the head of the General Library Division reported that the collection was "rapidly outgrowing its present bookstack space."⁵ This lament was repeated in various ways for the next 60 years.

In 1930, the head of the library reported that the State Library was pressed for stack space. She interpreted the earlier Centennial Building plan as allowing the library to expand into the fifth and sixth floors of the building. However, in 1923 that space had been given to the State Museum as "a temporary measure," and by 1930 it was neither expedient nor economical to displace the Mammal Hall exhibits on those floors as they were visited by "hundreds of thousands of people" each year. Her proposed solution to the space problem was to build an addition to the Centennial Building to house the museum and archives, thus freeing space for the library. ⁶

Four years later the head of the General Library Division again laid part of the blame for lack of shelving space on the State Museum. She reported that the museum had originally been given all of the basement level for storage space and that this prevented support columns or walls from being built, which in turn prevented the expansion of library shelving at upper levels. Also, it had proven to be a mistake to use the old library stacks because they were not sturdy enough to rise over the three existing levels.⁷ In her 1936 report, the assistant librarian said the lack of space was so acute that government leaders had to decide "whether the Illinois State Library is to be an insignificant collection of the minimum essentials for any small library, or whether it is to have its place among the best state libraries of this country, a real credit to the state supporting it." ⁸

In 1938 the new Illinois State Archives Building, planned as the first portion of a large library complex west of the Centennial Building, was completed and occupied by the library's Archives Division, its small staff, historic records and the Illinois document collection. Even with the State Library taking over the former Archives areas in the Centennial Building, by 1947 the library was completely out of space. If all of the materials that were circulating had been returned at the same time, there would have been absolutely no place to store them. ⁹

On Jan. 5, 1961, Governor William G. Stratton broke ground for a new museum building on the lot south of the Archives. This development crushed the hopes of the library and the state Archives to expand on that site themselves. However, soon after the museum vacated the Centennial Building, the unused space in the stack area was renovated to provide new bookstacks for the state and historical libraries, which were still sharing the building. The remodeling gave the State Library seven miles of new shelving, thereby doubling its former storage capacity. ¹⁰

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In the late 1960s the final two portions of the Centennial Building were completed, and in 1970 the State Historical Library moved to its new quarters under the Old State Capitol. These events gave the library room to expand for a few years, but it was clearly evident that a first-rate State Library needed a building that was planned specifically to house a library.

PART II Extension in the Midst of Depression

On Nov. 5, 1918, the voters of Illinois approved the first bond issue for the construction of a statewide system of hard roads. This action eventually provided rural residents with easier access to urban communities and their institutions, including libraries. The Hard Road Act literally paved the way for future library extension service.

The following June, the General Assembly enacted the County Library System Law, which outlined a method by which each county could create and maintain a tax-supported public library. The Illinois State Library, as well as the Illinois Congress of Parents and Teachers and the Home Bureau Federation, had lobbied for the passage of such an act as a way to get adequate library service to rural areas. None of Illinois' counties took advantage of this law, however, and the State Library theorized the cause to be a lack of financial aid from the state. ¹¹

In the 1920s, Anna May Price, superintendent of the State Library's Extension Division, championed the cause of state funding of local library service with the zeal of a crusader, using the editorial page of Illinois Libraries. She reminded readers that, since 1787, state and federal governments had at times subsidized public schools, colleges, home economics, industrial arts, public hygiene, highways, agriculture and farm advisors, but rarely libraries. She hoped that she might "live to see the day when libraries may provoke the same enthusiastic demand for adequate appropriation, proper equipment and trained service, as does the playground." ¹² She later opined, "The only way to equalize the opportunities for rural and urban Illinois is through well organized county libraries. The state can stimulate such libraries by sharing the expenditures with each county for at least a year or two." ¹³

There had been, in Illinois' early history, a feeble attempt for government support of libraries: In January 1847, the Illinois General Assembly passed a joint resolution proposing government support for public libraries through the transfer of federal lands to the states. The resolution requested and instructed Illinois' congressmen and senators "to use their best exertions to procure the passage of a law donating one quarter section of land to each township in this State, for the purpose of establishing a public library therein." Since five other resolutions concerning public land, were also passed that session, however, the public libraries resolution was possibly just another scheme to get Congress to release more federal property to the states. Apparently neither Lincoln, nor Douglas, nor any of the Illinois delegation did anything substantial to effect this idea, as there is no mention of the subject in the Congressional Journals. ¹⁴

Despite the efforts of the Illinois State Library in the 1920s to extend library service to all people in the state, the end of the decade of prosperity found 13.2 percent of the urban and 96.1 percent of the farm population without any library service. While the average taxpayer in the United States was paying $3.79 per year for the support of schools, he was contributing only two cents annually for libraries. "The time has come," wrote Price,

when the library is no longer merely a theoretical part of the state's educational system. It well deserves adequate financial help from the state. A strong and united effort must be made to obtain state aid in Illinois for the development of county libraries. Statewide library service through a system of well financed and efficiently managed county libraries is the answer to those who ask for books for all at the lowest cost. ¹⁵

In 1928, Herbert Hoover was elected president of the United States after telling Americans that they were "nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land." Echoing this belief, in January 1929, newly elected Illinois Library Association (ILA) President Earl Browning wrote, "Reports from different lines of business indicate that 1929 will see increasing prosperity throughout the land. Your incoming president hopes that this prophecy may come true for all of you and for the libraries in your charge." ¹⁶ However, in October 1929, the New York Stock Exchange fell to 1927 levels and then drifted downward for the next four years, until by 1932 the industrial average was 80 percent below its 1929 high.

The Great Depression that followed the stock market crash of 1929 was the most devastating economic blow ever to hit this country. It lasted more than 10 years and dominated every aspect of American life. By the winter

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of 1932-33, nearly 25 percent of all U.S. workers were unemployed, and the unemployment rate stayed above 14 percent until 1941. The depression also profoundly affected the State Library and the library community in Illinois.

In general, demands for library service increased during the depression. High rates of unemployment meant forced leisure time for thousands of people, so there was time for reading. Interest in reading and the need for library services also increased because lack of money prevented many people from attending high school and college. These people urgently turned to libraries in Illinois for additional training in order to keep or acquire employment. Unfortunately, most local libraries were unable to provide adequate services during this crucial time.

In the 1930s, public libraries derived most of their income from property taxes (as they still do). In the midst of the depression, the real and assessed value of all property fell, thereby reducing potential revenue. By 1931, the maximum allowable library tax rate of 1.2 mill, which had been secured with much effort in the General Assembly in 1929, scarcely produced the amount raised by the former .9 mill valuation. Many people could not afford to pay their taxes and thus lost their homes. This reduced collected revenues and added to the devaluation of property in general. City councils tried to give tax relief and responded by lowering local tax levies, especially tax rates applied toward library service. ¹⁷

Because the number of readers increased at the same time that book budgets were reduced or depleted, books wore out faster than they could be replaced. With reduced revenues and the consequent smaller budgets, public libraries were unable to service even the usual demands upon their collections, let alone the increased demands.

Consequently, the State Library Extension Division was increasingly called upon to help supply materials to individual library patrons. Books were loaned free of charge as long as the patron could pay the postage. Between October 1932 and September 1934, 87,306 volumes were loaned by the Extension Division, an increase of 16 percent over the previous biennium. ¹⁸

As the depression deepened, libraries reduced staff through layoffs or attrition and often cut the salaries of those who were working. There were no additions to the professional or clerical staff of the state's General Library Division from 1927 to 1936, for example, and salaries in 1936 were lower than those paid nine years earlier. Meanwhile, the State Library's reference work doubled and circulation tripled. The situation of the Illinois State Library was not unique; in response, library groups all over the country passed resolutions endorsing direct state and federal aid to libraries.¹⁹

In 1935, Michael F. Gallagher, a trustee at Highland Park Library and chairman of the ILA legislative committee, presented members of the General Assembly two bills drafted by the staff of the State Library's Extension Division. One bill requested an appropriation of $1 million to establish and maintain libraries in areas of the state not receiving library service. That bill was never called for a vote.

The second proposed law. House Bill 405, requested that the secretary of state receive a special appropriation of $610,000 for the Extension Division of the State Library. Evanston Public Library staff member Helene Rogers joined Gallagher in Springfield during May and June to lobby for its passage. The bill was approved July 2, 1935, and signed by Governor Henry Horner three days later. It allocated "$600,000 for the purpose of purchasing books and periodicals for the free tax supported public libraries of Illinois." ²⁰

Money could only be spent for books or periodicals that appeared on lists submitted to and approved by the State Library. These lists were scrutinized by the library staff to ensure selections had "real value, real merit, real quality." An advisory committee headed by Professor Phineas L. Windsor, director of libraries at the University of Illinois, was selected by Secretary of State Edward Hughes to devise an equitable plan for dispersing the funds. The committee decided that each of the existing 278 free, tax-supported public libraries would receive five cents for each person residing in its district. The fund provided great relief to local book budgets, but it was not renewed by the General Assembly in the next biennium. ²¹

During the first 10 years of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, the Illinois State Library became involved with and coordinated federally funded projects to improve the physical condition of local libraries, obtained needed staff for public libraries, provided work for unemployed library professional and large numbers of young adults who were on relief, developed library service delivery systems for rural residents and helped redistribute existing resources. Starting in 1933, several Illinois libraries received

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funds from the Public Works Administration to erect new buildings, while dozens of workers in Civil Works Administration (CWA) projects renovated existing buildings. Also, trained librarians were hired to perform cataloging and indexing duties. The State Library used CWA workers to complete a survey of all public libraries in Illinois. The survey staff found very poor record-keeping, an assortment of cataloging and check-out techniques and many untrained librarians. ²²

When the Works Progress Administration (later named "Work Projects Administration") declared that it would fund education programs, the State Library Extension Division submitted its "million-dollar plan" for county library service. In February 1936, President Roosevelt approved the plan and released funding for it. Using federal relief dollars, the State Library could start to accomplish its goal of making reading materials available and accessible to every citizen in Illinois.

The State Library established county demonstration libraries and local reading centers in small towns that had no tax-supported libraries and sent collections of books to each county, with new books also supplied by the WPA. A custodian for each book set was hired from local relief rolls, and the Illinois WPA administrator selected a trained librarian to supervise every nine custodians. The local communities were required to provide sites for the library collections. ²³

In the first two years of this project, 246 WPA library centers were opened in 59 counties. These centers serviced 38 percent of the potential patrons in their areas, while the existing public libraries, which in the midst of the depression received an average per capita income of only 65 cents, serviced only 27 percent of their potential borrowers. The library center program was terminated in 1943, but through its efforts 45 new tax-supported public libraries were created around the state. ²⁴

In 1955 Secretary of State Charles Carpentier presented a gavel to Phineas Lawrence Windsor who had served for 20 years as chairman of the Illinois State Library Advisory Board. Windsor became the director of the libraries at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1909.

To help solve the problem of inadequate staffing in existing public libraries. Secretary of State Hughes worked with the state's National Youth Administration (NYA), a federal relief program designed to find suitable part-time employment for thousands of young adults between the ages of 16 and 25 who were then on relief rolls. Some NYA workers were employed in the State Library to reshelve the entire collection and to make and distribute library displays. In the State Library-sponsored "Share a Book" campaign, NYA workers collected unwanted books and magazines from the public and then sorted, cleaned and redistributed them to schools, hospitals, libraries, reading centers and orphanages. In the late 1930s, the State Library also cooperated with the federal government to extend library service to rural areas through the use of bookmobiles. The NYA provided the vehicle, hired a driver, and paid for the gas, the oil and the initial collection of 700 books. The books were selected by the Illinois State Library, which also supplemented and managed the program. ²⁵

PART III Post-Depression Organization

The State Library Act of 1939 provided for the permanent creation of a State Library advisory board and laid the legal foundation for a regional library system. When approved on July 13, 1939, it also repealed the ancient 1874 Library Act. According to the new law, Illinois was divided geographically into six library districts. The secretary of state, as state librarian, was to appoint a district librarian in each of these regional library districts, except in the Chicago area where two were appointed. These librarians constituted an advisory library committee whose duty was to make recommendations concerning the policies and management of the State Library. ²⁶

The 1939 act also listed the six purposes of the Illinois State Library, thereby clearly defining its mission

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as a state agency. These purposes were such an essential part of the library's daily existence that they were transcribed into old English script, framed and hung on the wall near the third-floor entrance to the public reading room. They were:

Maintain a library for State officials and employees of the State, especially of informational material pertaining to the phases of their work and to provide for them material for general reading and study.

Maintain a Division for acquiring and preserving of the archival material of the State, and, offer facilities for the proper use of the said material.

Be a supplementary source for reading materials unavailable in the local libraries.

Assist local libraries in their plans of cooperation for better work and services in their communities and to loan them books and other materials in furtherance of this object.

Be ready to help local groups in developing a program by which library service can be arranged for in rural communities and rural schools now without such service.

Be a clearing house, in an advisory capacity, for questions and problems pertaining to the administration and functioning of public and school libraries in Illinois. ²⁷

Oak Park Librarian Elsie McKay directs Boy and Girl Scouts during this March 1942 "Victory Book Campaign." The State Libarary coordinated the collection and redistribution of more than 2 million books during World War II.

As assistant state librarian, Helene H. Rogers directed the State Library to actively promote library cooperation as a first step in regional development. She wanted school, university, public and special libraries within each region to jointly solve many of the common problems that faced them. The State Library strove to end needless duplication of activities in order to give citizens the widest range of service possible. World War II both helped and hindered the State Library's ability to fulfill its six purposes and extend library services to Illinois' citizens. ²⁸

After World War II erupted in Europe in September 1939, the U.S. government promoted vocational education in anticipation of our entry into the conflict. Immediately, the Illinois State Library built up its collection of technical books about radio, aeronautics, gun construction, blueprint reading, tool making and metallurgy and obtained material about citizen morale, war laws, blackouts, evacuation of civilians, protection of vital records, housing construction and nutrition. As usual, these books could be loaned anywhere in Illinois. ²⁹

In addition, in June 1942, the War Information Center opened in the Centennial Building's third-floor reading room. The center, staffed by a full-time trained librarian, maintained a vertical file of maps, charts, pamphlets, serials and news releases about the war. The library also disseminated air raid information, including "pictures of bombers of all nations." ³⁰

The federal government provided a basic collection of books for each military facility in the United States, but the collection was not adequate to meet demand. To see how the Illinois State Library could help, in the fall of 1941 Rogers toured six Illinois army camps. When the national defense book campaign was started Jan. 12, 1942, the State Library was ready to do its share. The national program, known as the "Victory Book Campaign," was sponsored and coordinated by the State Library and the Illinois Library Association. Headquartered at the State Library for the next three years, the campaign collected more than 2 million books through the efforts of local public libraries.

Secretary of State Hughes promoted the campaign and told the public, "The men in our armed forces are a cross-section of American life. For relaxation and inspiration, they need good books. Give the men books that you, yourself, value." Besides supplying reading material for army and navy camps in Illinois, the campaign sent books to small libraries near industrial centers, ordnance plants, hospitals, prisoner of war camps

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here and abroad and even to a Japanese-American internment camp in Arizona. ³¹

Before the first state aid grants to libraries were disbursed in 1935, Secretary of State Hughes had appointed an ad hoc advisory board to assist in the equitable distribution of the state funds. In 1939, this advisory board was established by statute. Members represented various geographic sections of the state and kept their sections aware of the conditions and progress of library service in Illinois while tunneling concerns received from local libraries back to the State Library. After World War II the advisory committee developed a plan of State Library service, which included construction of an addition directly south of the Archives Building, establishment of more library districts and development of more cooperative library programs.³²

As part of the State Library's mission to bring library service to rural areas, this bookmobile stopped in Hagerstown, Fayette County, in May 1946.

In 1945, with the support of the advisory committee, the 64th General Assembly passed a library service demonstration bill which appropriated $300,000 to the State Library to provide demonstration projects in rural areas of Illinois. Through contracts with local county boards, the State Library provided district library service demonstrations in centers in six regions, with the stipulation that action be taken during the time of the project to establish local support for permanent library services in the community. If no action was taken, the project was moved to other counties within that district. ³³

The original demonstration plan called for using state-supplied bookmobiles, station wagons and staff to supply materials to rural schools and small communities without local libraries. However, restrictions placed on the automotive and other industries immediately after the war delayed deliveries and severely impeded the program; for example, bookmobiles promised for October 1945 were not delivered until June 1947. Writing in 1956, Deputy State Librarian de Lafayette Reid stated that the dearth of personnel, equipment and material at the end of World War II was one of the primary obstacles preventing the anticipated success of the library service demonstration projects. ³⁴

For more than 15 years Helene H. Rogers (second from left) served as assistant state librarian to several secretaries of state. This June 13, 1943, photo shows her accepting the annual gift of African-American literature from members of the Illinois Association of Colored Women.

Another possible obstacle to the success of this program was the size of each project area. Often, parts of several counties were included in each demonstration, and intergovernmental cooperation and citizen action in an area that large proved impractical and unrealistic. In 1949, the number of demonstrations was reduced to three, and still no new local districts were formed. Eventually the program was phased out; the bookmobiles were loaned to local libraries and school districts, which often purchased their own after experimenting with the state vehicles.

From 1952 to 1955 the State Library created regional service centers in DeKalb, Savanna, Bloomington, Mattoon and Kankakee. These "libraries for librarians" were housed within existing public libraries or government buildings. Consultants from the State Library were available at each location for about two days each month to exchange materials and solve problems. At the same time, staff of the State Library came to the realization that local library service in Illinois would

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probably never improve unless there was a massive infusion of state and federal funds to provide the impetus. ³⁵

How the 1956 federal Library Services Act addressed the needs of Illinois' library community and expanded the role of the Illinois State Library will be explained in a future installment of this history.

Endnotes

1. Secretary of State Biennial Reports, 1894-96, p. x and 1902, p. 9.

2. Centennial Building Commission, "Minutes of Commission Meetings," (May 24,1918), RS 516.001, Illinois State Archives.

3. Ibid., (Nov. 21, 1917).

4. Secretary of State Biennial Report, 1922-24, pp. 12-13; Illinois Blue Book 1923-1924, p. 460.

5. Illinois Blue Book 1929-1930, p. 421.

6. Secretary of State Biennial Report, 1928-1930, p. 14.

7. Ibid., 1932-1934. pp. 18-19.

8. Ibid., 1934-1936, pp. 18-19.

9. Illinois Blue Book 1947-1948, p. 341.

10. Ibid., 1963-1964, p. 519.

11. Illinois Libraries, Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan. 1930, p. 9. See also Laws of Illinois, 1919, pp. 736-39.

12. Illinois Libraries, Vol. 8, No. 1, Jan. 1926, p. 6.

13. Ibid., Vol. 13, No. 1, Jan. 1931, p. 3.

14. Public Laws of Illinois, 1847, p. 182; Illinois Libraries, Vol. 29, No. 3, March 1947 pp. 118-19; see also Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan. 1930, pp. 6-8.

15. Illinois Libraries, Vol. 11, No. 2, April 1929, p. 49; Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan. 1930, pp. 7 & 15; Vol. 12, No. 4, Oct. 1930.

16. Ibid., Vol. 11, No. 1, Jan. 1929, p. 3.

17. Ibid., Vol. 13, No. 2, April 1931, p. 31.

18. Secretary of State Biennial Reports, 1932-34, p. 20.

19. Ibid., 1934-36, pp. 20-21; Illinois Libraries, Vol. 13, No. 1, Jan. 1931, pp. 4-5. The complete "Report of the Survey of the Public Libraries of Illinois" was published in a supplement to the April 1935 issue in Vol. 17, No. 2 of Illinois Libraries.

20. Laws of Illinois, 1935, pp. 183-84; Illinois Libraries, Vol. 17, No. 3, July 1935, p. 94.

21. Illinois Blue Book 1935-1936, pp. 695-97 and 1937-1938, p. 288. A complete explanation of how the fund was administered is found in Illinois Libraries, Jan. 1936, pp. 69-72. Related articles appear in the same publication October, 1936, pp. 234-37 and pp. 252-258.

22. Illinois Blue Book 1935-1936, p. 693 and 1939-1940, p. 420.

23. Ibid., 1935-1936, pp. 693-94; Secretary of State Biennial Report, 1934-1936, pp. 22-24.

24. Illinois Blue Book 1937-1938, pp. 287-89 and 1943-1944, p. 649.

25. Secretary of State Biennial Reports, 1936, p. 15 and 1938, p. 21; Illinois Blue Book 1935-1936, p. 698 and 1937-1928, p. 288. For reports concerning the WPA and NYA programs see:

Illinois Libraries, Oct. 1936, pp. 194-96 & 247-49. For a detailed report on NYA and state library bookmobile service to rural schools see: Illinois Libraries, Jan. 1940, pp. 10-13.

26. Laws of Illinois, 1939, pp. 697-700; Illinois Revised Statutes, 1939, p. 3078; Illinois Libraries, Vol. 19, No. 4, Dec. 1937, pp. 8-15. Prior to the 1936-38 reorganization, each of the three state library divisions had cataloging, reference, bookkeeping, mending, and publication units. Often work done in one division was a duplication of that done in another.

27. Illinois Blue Book 1949-1950, p. 343 and 1955-1956, p. 487.

28. Ibid., 1941-1942, pp. 394-95.

29. Ibid., 1941-1942, p. 537.

30. Ibid., 1943-1944, pp. 640-41; Illinois Libraries, Vol. 24, No. 10, Dec.1942, p. 291.

31. Illinois Libraries, Vol. 24, Feb. 1942, p. 3 and Dec. 1942, pp. 291-92; Illinois Blue Book 1941-1942, p. 537 and 1943-1944, pp. 642-43.

32. Illinois Libraries, Vol. 27, June 1945, p. 326; Illinois Blue Book 1939-1940,pp.410-411.

33. A complete report about the demonstration projects and bookmobiles is found in Illinois Libraries, June 1947, pp. 261-73.

34. Ibid., Oct. 1956, p. 204.

35. Ibid., March 1955, pp. 66-67; Illinois Blue Book 1953-1954, p. 399.

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