{ _ OUR PUBLIC LIBRARIES Does North Carolina read? ? - Does North Carolina believe in own- ing automobiles? Does North Carolina believe in hav-_ ‘ ing good roads? _ All three of these questions, put to '/ the average North Carolinian a dozen ts ei ago, would have begn answered "instantaneously in the affirmative. But ~ in all three instances the answer would | Jhave been accompanied by a mental | reservation implying that books, auto-, ‘mobiles, and roads were, after all, the - luxuries or the hobbies of rich people or visionaries. Like book-farming, they were held in but slight regard and cer- | tainly were not.considered as tools to | be used by the average man for real ' assistance in the work of the world. ~ Qn March 31, 1922, three months be-| _ fore the registration year closed, North | Carolinians owned 148,527 automobiles, approximately one automobile for every ‘single book in the public libraries of| North Carolina. Or, one automobile housed in a garage for every book shelvy- *ed ina public library! And there is: ‘not,a farmer in the State who does not) eonsider -his. Ford an indispensable ' means to promote the welfare of his). household and farm. To him his ma-| | ehine is not a luxury. It is an absolute _ necessity! And so with good reads. They ‘cost. money, piles of it, millions of it. But 2 they are worth every penny they cost - and more, and everybody knows it. They are the solid realities over which | an awakened State moves to a higher, plane of civilization. : But so far, books remain in the lux- ury class. North Carolina, by and large, has not recognized them as tools | to be utilized like automobiles and, - good roads in building a finer. civiliza-| tion. ; rm: | } } { Books are Tools | ‘Lawyers require books to try cases. Highway engineers plot curves and | - grades with instruments and engineer- - ing handbooks. Doctors read journals to keep informed concerning the pre, ii gress of surgery and medicine. Teach- | _ ers study books in order to be better t < S. : ‘the list ‘with 1978, or 35 times as many! 4" SEPTEMBER 13, 1922 | primary, fundamental economic | ‘ £ states by Arkansas) the sisterhood of sta j/its package libra: - : aa ; Se on ate HILL, N, GC. DOES NORTH CAROLINA READ And as aresult they are standing in} the way of their own advancement not only in the broader fields of educational and cultural development, but in the con- cern of winning bread and butter. For books are tools for getting a- head, a fact which the directors of the “highly organized automobile and cotton ‘industries of Detroit and Worchester have recognized, and which North Ca- rolinians and Southerfiérs must also re- alize if they make all they should out of the wonderful resources they pos- sess. - The laboratory and the hbrary com- bined must be brought to bear upon the soil, the orchards, the forests, the streams, the cotton in boll and lint, if they yield the State, rather than New England or some other section, the toll which failure to utilize them will in- evitably entail, as has already been | true in the case of cotton seed oil, fer- tilizers, and finishing mill industries. Books in this sense are tools, and the State that fails to use them will inevi- tably pay tribute to those that do. What Statistics Show But does North Carolina read? North Carelina bought more books per capita in 1855 than in 1920. This statement, made in the summer of 1921 hy the head of a New York pub- lishing firm which has been in business for nearly a century, does not tell. the whole story about North Carolina’s reading habits. No statement can; for the necessary statistics covering the subject are not available and they can- not be assembled. But it tells something. It tells the same story which Nerth Carolina auth- ors hear when they seek a publisher for manuscripts which have only. a lo- cal, state appeal; namely, that North Carolina is one of the poorest book markets in the forty-eight states. It harmonizes with the fact recently given wide publicity in Schools and Society, the Library Journal, and the Universi- eae Ar eee ee ty News Letter, that North Carolina) had in her public libraries two years a> go only 144,204 volumes, or 56 to every! 1000 inhabitants, she was saved from the disgrace 0 standing at the foot of the column 0 ‘with 36, while New Hampshire toppe in which particular Saye - The statement is also in keeping with the fact published in the June number | of the North Carolina Library Bulletin, | { having populations of from 2,000 to 48, - 000 have public libraries, and that the State contained only 64 public and semi- public libraries for all of itsmore than two million and a half inhabitants, or an average of one library to every 40,- 000 inhabitants. . Furthermore, thirty of these 64 libraries reported incomes for all purposes ranging from $16.95 to $950.17, and the 64, plus three color- ed branches, reported a total income of only $88,031—the price of 170 Fords, or 59 Buicks, or approximately 3.25 cents per man, waman, and child for all North Carolina. Winston, with a popu- lation of 48,395 led with $8861—a per | capita expenditure of eighteen cents, whereas the standard recommended by | the American Library Association is' $1 or five times as much. Charlotte, | Raleigh, and Greensboro had library | incomes above $8000; Asheville and) | Durham received $7445 and $6757 res- pectively. The grand total. spent for | books by the entire 64 public libraries | of North Carolina was $22,162 for the, 2,550,123 inhabitants of the state. Small Circulation The statement tells something more. A State which does not buy beoks does | not read books. Only 85,882 North Car-. olinians were registered as borrowers, of these 67 libraries, an average of one | person inevery 30 in the State, and} the total circulation of the 213,408 vol-. umes in the libraries amounted to only | 727,905, or slightly more than three: readers per volume. Asheville, with aj book collection. of 10,949 and a popula- tion of 28,504, circulated 99,218 vol-) umes, the largest total for any North’ Carolina city, which, when bape the standard turnover of five per ; that only 35 of the 62 towns in the State “eapl- | ta should have been 142,520. - Concord, | with 48378 volumes and a population of 9903, circulated 51,729, thereby win- ning from Burlington by the narrowest | fablishing the sort of margin and esta loaned a total of 15 jort of straw. 4. Local Authors Fare Badly _ Miss Nell Battle Lewis, writing re- cently in the News and Observer about ‘North Carolina’s failure to produce out- _standing names in the fields of litera-| ‘ture and art, might have said. that no| local authors work save those of O.| ‘Henry and Tom Dixon (local by cour- | tesy, as their work was done elsewhere) ‘had broken into the class of what the ‘Bookman styles best sellers. Informa- tion concerning sales of publications by local authors is extremely difficult to ‘secure. But except in the case of books placed on the school lists no book published in the last ten years, has, so ‘far as I can discover, reached the 10,- 000 mark attained by Wheeler’s History ‘of North Carolina in the fifties, which, iby the way, was the period mentioned ‘py the New York publisher. Hamil- ‘ton’s Reconstruction in North Carolina, ‘a serious piece of historical writing covering possibly the most interesting period of history in the life of the State, “stopped selling at the 250 mark. Dr. 'E. C; Brooks in three years sold an edition of 1200 copies of his compila- ‘tion of North Carolina Poems. Educa- tion and Citizenship, the memorial vol- ume of addresses by the late President Edward Kidder Graham, in spite of the fact that there were from 10,600 to 12,000 living alumni of the University ‘and thousands of North Carolinians” who held him in highest esteem, reach- ed a total sale of only 1500 copies. /Songs Merry and Sad, and Lyrics from Cotton Land, by MeNeill, and Idle Comments, by Avery, ran through two | editions of 1000 each. Where Half the | World js Waking Up, an interesting book of travel by Dr. Clarence Poe, | and backed by the advertising depart- | ment of the widely circulated Progres- ‘sive Farmer, reached 3000 sales and \then stopped still; while Connor and | Poe’s Life and Addresses of C. B. Ay- lcock, the friend and idol of untold | thousands of his fellow citizens, reach- ‘ed a total of 5000, or one half the num- | ber of the copies of Wheeler’s History | sold back in the fifties. _ ae Current Boolis atisties for current books by out- riters are difficult to secure, The oro Daily News recently noted V of new pooks. . sales of four of th || books of recent year: | representative book deal in seven North Carolin damaging testimony. — ne Main Street, by Lewis & History, by Wells; The Heonomic | sequences of Peace, bys Keynes; Winter Comes, by Hutchinson. Main Street - Asheville 800; Char-. lotte 250; Winston 100; Greensboro 250; '| Durham 50; Raleigh 200; Wilmington | 30; total 1180. ney aS Nae a Outline of History - Asheville 25; Charlotte 45; Winston 1, Greensboro 50; Durham 15; Raleigh 100; Wilming- ton 3; total 289. Ga ene ees Economic Consequences of Peace - '| Winston 1; Wilmington 2; none sold_by ‘the dealers reporting im Asheville, \ =] Charlotte, Greensboro, Durham, of leigh. ‘botalo.. 0% gta Rae Winter Comes - Asheville 125; Charlotte 250; Winston 50; Greensboro. 100; Durham 25; Raleigh 200; Wilming- ton 34, total 784. re cae Obviously, these are not complete. records. Yet they are the partial rec- ords of seven of the cee representa- l tive communities of North Carolina | | whose book stores, public libraries, and | study clubs reach as high‘a state of or- ganization as can be found in the State and whose book buying habits are un- questionably far in advance of those of | village and rural sections whose book | stores and libraries are wanting and whose knowledge of the book marke slight. ua Size of Libraries — A year ago, while visiting th ries of Massachusetts, I made the dis- covery that a city like Salem, Massa- chusetts, with a population of 42,5% had a public library of 70,000 an association or subscription libre 30,000 volumes, a scientifie 2 120,000 books and 405,000 phamphlets, and a law law 30,000 volumes. I found th city of Salem, with its 100,( in its public and associati had 10,000 volumes more th -praries of Asheville, Wi ‘lotte, Durham, Greensboro, 1] and Wilmington (89,033); that i ‘library of 30,000 volumes was ' of the libraries of the Univers School and the Supreme Cour 'Cerolina combined; and thatit ic library (the library of the E stitute) contained approxin 000 more catalogued ti if paces than all t f i 3 B80 00. 9664.49 orate oriad Ha es ener, Of. _ Presbyterian Chureh a ‘Duke | Duke ji : i » ———séPubilie 8 6757.51 : ‘Edenton Shep.-Pruden Mem. 1025.36 | Bayetteville Civic Association =i (ast {Franklin 1 PPRUDLIC croc, « FR i Gastonia a “Publi. ae re oareo ea "| Goldsboro ‘Public 3390). oe i Bae easberos. Public 8 8341.41 Greenville | Public 1 anne Vidamleb ak. S.A. be le a Pondexsonville y. Publics: 1217.89 | Hickory @ rable s: Hpi te |Highlands . Hudson =. = 126.88 \Hillsbero1.-= Hillsboro .-- - >. ‘Hadson _ Dixie ; 45.51 ‘Kinston . «Publie=, 908.30 Ledger —s—iws« Goto - Will Free — 50.00 ‘MeAdenville R.Y. McAden Mem.1 so | Marion — _ Florence Tho.Mem. = 142.17 Moutteat Cora A, Stone Mem. 56.41. ‘Mooresville Free © : - 324.50 ‘New Bern | Library Assoc. 1161.23 Niagara Webster Public 1 16.93. Oriental - - Woman’s Club | Oxford! a5. *. Oxford Sub. 233.50 Pinehurst —S——Pinehurst- 271.30 | Raleigh Olivia Raney 8435.46 ‘Reidsville © —- Public 1 200.00 Hocmehent Public 1200.00 Rocky Mount = Public 2580.00 Rowland a2. Public 838.42 Rutherford Col. Carnegie 426.75 Rutherfordton Rutherfordton ‘Salisbury © -Publied os 300.00. Saluda ive ‘Julia F. Goelet Mem.1 ‘Sanford ne — Sanford BS: Sey ‘Scotland Neck | Public 866.04 ‘Shelby — gts Public — ; 569.25 ‘Smithfield Women’s : Club ‘Southern oe - Southern Pines” DAWA) ae peauvapent: Public 217.15 ‘Spencer ~ Bes. M.U. A a ‘ - Women’s ( x, ee Edgecomb Pub. : 367 pee 999 630 4675 Ree lia 16995. 318 4983" - Soa et aye 2198 1183 150( 129 416 278 oS ae TT i Fe + a anes ie = ” ee ng ~~ SCHOOL LIBRARIES Sir Francis Bacon, in his essay on Studies, said that reading makes the} full man. If he had been called on to offer an illustration applicable to pres- _ent day life, he probably would have ‘said that reading on part of the aver- age voter would enable him, when he talked politics, to discuss the princi- ples of public issues rather than the personalities of candidates who hap- pened to be running for office. ' Inasmuch as reading, in the Bacon- jan sense, makes the full man, _order to ask what North Carolina | doing in this particular for the 850,000 it is in is _ children who are of the proper age to _ attend her common schools, or more pupils enrolled in her high | ' schools, and the 10,009 students enroll- taining an average of 85 volumes, the 40,000 ed in her 32 colleges. Rural School Libraries Prior to March 1901, the common schools had, practically speaking, no in OF Newspapers. 1901 provision was made for the estab- books. By legislative enactment lishment of $30 original libraries con- and later $15 supplementary libraries con- taining 35 volumes. On November 30, 1920, the last date for which statistics are available, there were 4960 of the original libraries, containing a total of | approximately. 421,600 volumes and, _ costing $148,800, and 2331 of the sup- | _ plementary libraries, containing 81,565) volumes and costing $34,965. One half of the common schools of the state had! no libraries at all. That is, in the twenty years from 1901 to 1920, $183,-| 768 was spent to acquire 503,165 books _ for one half of the school children of | the state to read. half have gone unprovided for | specific purpose except as they have To date, the other this drawn upon funds other than those ap- _ propriated by the state and counties. In addition to the fact that no pro- vision has been made for one half of _ the schools, it is also true that- failure _to provide the most ‘Careful sort of oversight has resulted in many instan-' es in only their partial use. Question- rs naires covering the white schools of | Orange, Guilford, and Wayne counties: the following situa- Ok RR [s “DOES NORTH CAROLINA READ? Orange County Gs FE | Of 48 white schools. in Orange, in- cluding the graded schools of Chapel ries whatever, and the 1586 pupils en- rolled have access to a total of 3692 volumes, or slightly more than two books per pupil. Highteen of the 41 libraries are open only during the ses- sion. In answer to the direct question How much are the books used during term time, ten out of the 25 teachers]! answering responded, Not very much!) One high school spent $150 for new books. Three other schools spent $10, | $20, and $5 respectively for new books. The other 44 spent nothing. Four schools subscribed for a total of 23 newspapers and magazines, 44 for none. Practically every teacher reported the presence of some books | - | in the homes of the pupils, but one con- cluded the questionnaire with the com- |ment that the patronsseemed to take searcely any interest in schools, books, Guilford County - In Guilford county 70 schools report- | ing 73833 pupils enrolled. The city 'schools of Greensboro were not includ- ed. . Forty-six of the schools taught | only the first seven grades; 24 taught from three to four grades of high school subjects. Sixty-two of the 70 | had libraries with a total of 8,975 vol- umes. Only 25 of the libraries were ‘open in the summer, 29 reported a monthly total circulation of 1165 or 40 _volumes per school, and only $743.15 or | ' ten cents per pupil was spent for new ‘books during the year. Twenty schools possessed an enclyclopedia, 27 an una- | bridged dictionary, and 15 subscribed ‘for newspapers and magazines. The others lacked these indespensable aids to first class school work. Teachers in- Wayne County Forty-eight schools outside pf Golds- Hill and Hillsboro, seven have no libra- boro in Wayne county reported 3331) pupils enrolled. orty-five possessed libraries totaling 4041 volumes, and 24} were open in the summer. Fourteen schools reported a total monthly circu- lation of 254 volumes or an average of |) 18 per school per month. Nineteen , schools reported efforts to improve} their libraries, a total of $195.10 having Nine |) schools owned an encyclopedia, 26 an|' ‘unabridged dictionary, and 13 subscrib-| ‘ed for periodicals. Forty of the teach- | ‘béen raised for this. purpose. ers reported the presence of papers and magazines in the homesof the pup-/ the other ‘ils, and 37 the presence of books. | | for their steady adequate. upbuilding. HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARIES. Figures for high school libraries in North Carolina are practically non-ex- istent. No special fund other than that for the $30 and $15 libraries has been appropriated by the state and counties for the purchase of books for high school libraries, and as a result no i record has been kept by the state ‘de- partment of Education. The latest statistics by the United States Bureau of Education were issued in 1915 and} consequently are entirely out of date. Schools here and there have secured funds for books in various ways, but} no permanent policy has been provided Only in 1921 was the standard, of 800. volumes for junior high schools and 500} volumes for senior high schools set by ‘the State Educational Department as al pre-requisite to being placed in the clas: 5 of accredited schools, and an adequate list prepared by the State High School ‘{nspector from which the books could be selected. ae Sak aA ie aoe. ‘dicated the presence of books and pa- pers in the majority of homes, and a “number of schools reported the use of library material from the public liprary at Greensboro which maintains a county “service. facilities submitted to 100 Freshmen in the University in 1921-22. Of the 100 Freshmen, 96 replied that they had the use of some form of library in high school. Four had not, Seventy-six re- | ported the presence of reference books fin the school library. Eighty-five had laceess to an encyclopedia or unabridged dictionary, fifty-eight to an atlas, and ‘thirty-nine, through their connection ‘with the High School Debating Union, ‘had used package library material from | the University Library and twenty-six | from the North Carolina Library Com-| mission. Only 83 had had access to a public library, had learned how to use a dictionary card catalogue, and were able on the first day of their college career, to use the tools which a great ‘eollege library places at the disposal of ‘its students. To the other 67 the card ‘eatalogue, the pericdical indexes, the bibliographical works, the whole libra- ‘ty, in fact, around which their college work should revolve, was an unkpown quantity. These 67 presented the nec- essary 15 units in English, history, sci- ence, and language. But the funda- mental unit, the unit of knowing how ‘to use a well-equipped modern library, ‘they, and their less fortunate high ‘school classmates who stayed at home ‘and whose future self-education is al- most-entirely dependent upon the use of what Carlyle called the peoples’ uni- versity—the public library—they failed to acquire. eh ok Beginning Made With Winston and Durham and Wil- son high schools, to mention three lead- ing high schools out of the 474 high schools of the State, putting trained librarians in theif high schools in Sep- tember for the first time, with the high | | school lists and standards adopted only within the last twelve months, and with no fixed fund from which a mini- mum of fifty cents per high school pu- pil per year can be drawn for high school books—the standard expenditure adopted by the National Education Asso-} ciatio#, North Carolina has far to go to put her high school libraries on a proper foundation. Fortunately she is beginning to see the goal, but the race is yet to be run and won. . COLLEGE LIBRARIES "The plight of North Carolina colleges _ in general was set forth in these col- ‘ums and those of the State press in 19- 20-21, Asituation was therein presen- ted which aroused the citizenship of ‘the state as it had not been aroused ‘since the passage of the constitutional amendment in 1900, with the result eae __ How deplorable the situation has been | |) was indicated by the answers to a/ lquestionnaire concerning high school || ey. ‘}erously to the support of public and private institutions alike. Books Lacking But emphasis in the campaign had to be placed on dormitories and dining rooms and classroom buildings to house X profited, to be sure, as the result of education in North Carolina. Annual Additions From the table appearing elsewhere Carolina Library Bulletin for June, 19- 22, there were 416,353 volumes in the the State Library, and the Library of '| the Supreme Court, and 27,960 were. in the libraries of six colored institutions. |The grand total was 444,313 volumes. These same institutions added a total || of 25,479 new books during the year {and regularly received 2807newspapers | and periodicals of a permanent nature. | No statistics of income and expendi- ture were given. Six of the instituti- ons added less than 100 volumes during the year. The actual figures were: from 16 to 62. Five added between 101 and 200 volumes, nine between_ 201 and 600, four between 601 and 1000, six between 1001 and 2000, one between ' 2001 and 8000, and one over 8000.5 That is, the grand total of the whole lot, in- jeluding State Library and Supreme i Court, was only 25,479, a total less by '|505 than the 25,984 added to the library- of the University of California alone. | The Library of ‘the University of Mich- | ,igan came within 26 of the total, Yale doubled it, and Harvard with 73,100 | volumes practically trebbled it! Total Collections Small — Not only are the annual additions small but the collections to which they , are added are far too limited. 16 volumes to a collection which at the | '| end of the year totals only 2014 is quite | ‘| tion which at the end of the year totals! | 59,000, or 25,453, in the case of Michi- | gan, to an exclusive total of 457,847. As compared with the libraries of colleges and universities in the North and West, the libraries of these North Carolina institutions are fearfully out- distanced. Wesleyan University, the | Methodist college of Connecticut, had libraries of 26 North Carolina colleges,\ EE EI IE a nett 125,100 volumes in 1921. Haverford Col- lege, the Friends college of Pennsyl- vania, ‘had 80,000; the State Normal College of Michigan had 46,000; the. State Agricultural College of Iowa had 80,000; the Wellesly and Smith, two colleges for women in Massachusetts, had 100,000 and 78,600 respectively, and the young men and women who were/||the collections at Johns Hopkins and knocking at the doors of the colleges | Princeton, not to mention the really rather than upon the upbuilding of | big collections of Columbia and Yale book and periodical collections in* the | and Harvard, ran well up beyond the libraries of the colleges. The libraries | quarter of a million mark. Hy 4 In failing to have such. libraries. at the increased support; but as compared | their disposal North Carolina ‘students with those of institutions in other sec- | are missing one of the fundamental es- tions of the country they fall far short | Sentials to a well rounded education a of providing facilities adequate to the | fact which the state, the church, and. proper enrichment of the lives of the | Particularly wealthy private citizens” 10,000 students now seeking a higher | Should see changed, and changed in- stantly. THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY The year 1921-22 has been the most in this issue taken from .the; North | distinctive in the history of the Uni- versity of North Carolina Library for the following five reasons: (1) One hundred and twenty-seven years after | the founding of the University and 222 lyears after” the establishment of the first North Carolina ‘library at Bath, the Library reached the 100,000 volume mark, thereby sharing with Virginia and Texas the distinction of being one of the three university libraries im the South haying more than 100,000 vol-— umes; (2) It added 8634 new volumes during the year, or more than one third as many.as all the public libraries in the State combined; (38) It subscribed to 1005 magazines and learned journals; (4) It increased the titles in the North Carolina collection by 775 volumes and 2109 pamphlets; and (5) It definitely set about studying plans for the erec- tion of anew library building which, when erected, will provide seminars’ for graduate study, special rooms for cataloguing and administration, equip- -'ment for mending and binding, space. for collection of maps, bound newspa- ‘pers, and prints, cases for the exhibiz6 tion of manuscripts and early forms of | To. Bat Pee library work, and will meet in every ‘| different from adding 2047 fo a collec- | | printing, apparatus for photographing rare documents, rooms for the use of. investigators in the fields of North Ca-_ rolina and Southern history, space for _the training of teachers and librarians way the needs of a modern university. In three other respects the year was distinctive: (1) Its funds for books, © periodicals, and binding amounted to $22,500; (2) In the number of books received it equaled Johns Hopkins for the year 1920-21; and (3) During the. ‘Summer School it circulated 16,892 vol- — umes, of which only 4 per cent were fic- tion, the per capita circulation for the (1845 students being 12.1 for the six weeks. cya FO oreo + ee ae SCHOOL AND COLLEGE LIBRARIES __ | in North Carolina, in 1921-22. ey {| School or College Vols. Added ‘Total Vols. Periodicals Appalachian Training School 90 e7 RROR Dee Atlantic Christian College (1) 16 2014 25. | Concordia College 180 5279 | Cullowhee Normal 676. 1046 23 | Davidson College (2) 1340 - 19208 opie | E. C. Teachers College 192 2460 65° Elon College (1) . 251 9508 = No.8 108" | Flora McDonald College (1) 240 A876 Greensboro College 307 8468 65. | Guilford College 298 8444 Hh Bal Lenoir College — : 890 8810 aur U: | Mars Hill College 158 bi ckOUT 30 | Meredith College 1440 LO2SL se 106 | Mbt. Pleasant Collegiate Inst. eae 4816 Pap Normal & Collegiate Inst. (1) ; | Normal & Indus. Inst. \ 92 Poe Sy a ROR AE | N. C. College for Women 1742 16817 —-* 199 Peace Institute ; 3000 | St, Genevieve-@f-the-Pines } 240 ASEQIANS cs 20 |St. Marys’ School (1) . 200 4138 age: | Salem Academy and College 500 8164 60 | State College of A. and E. 425 10790 188 | State Library (8) Bre 49107 bi ee | State School for the Blind 100 1500 15 Supreme Court (3) 497 23856 see | Trinity College t : 2047 59000 : 902 | University of North Carolina _ 8634 108405 4 VOOR ar | Wake Forest College eee care Total 23,798 416,353 2,579 | Albion Academy (colored) 1 300 2146 10°32 | Biddle University (colored) 1 700 9354. 1355 Agricultural and Tech. (colored) 1 115 2912 2.7: ieee | St. Augustine (colored) — 7000 i ge Shaw University (colored) 536 5866 25 State Normal School (colored) _ 385 682 Gis a Ue Total (colored) 1,686 27,960 ps Grand total 25,479 444,813 | 2,807 Footnotes;— 1. No.report received this year. 2. 10266 books were destroyed 4 by fire, November, 1921. 3. Listed here for convenience. # SEPTEMBER 27, 1922 CHAPEL HILL, N. C. — DOES NORTH CARGLINA READ? NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION | When the New York publisher made | the statement that his firm sold more books per capita in North Carolina in the fifties than in 1920, he was om of books, not newspapers and maga zines. But what if he had included them? Could the same statement concerning \ them be substantiated? | Comparative statistics on this subject | are not available. The circulation fig- ures of several of the national week-., lies and monthlies and the state dailies) are available, however, and, whether the record back in the fifties was good or bad, the showing for North Carolina today is far from pleasing. Certainly North Carolina reads newspapers and But she fails utterly to magazines. read her quota. In the reading of daily newspapers, forty-four states make a) better showing.’ See the table else- | where in this issue. Unpleasant Facts Statistics published in 1921 by the ' copy to every 41 and 22 inhabitants re- tants, North Carolina ranks 40th, with one copy to every 117, and Mississippi stands at the bottom with one copy to every 181 of her citizens. In the case of The Literary Digest and The Satur- day Evening Post, North Carolina ranks 42nd and 46th respectively, while Cali- fornia leads in both instances with one spectively. Among Gurselves Coming closer home than California, North Carolina makes a poor showing among her’ immediate neighbors. In the case of The Ladies Home Journal | (the State makes its best showing in | its reading of this publication, thanks| to the women, rather thanin The Lit-| rary Digest and The Saturday Evening Baan North Carolina ranks 40th. Flor- ida (assisted by her: tourists, possibly) ranks.25th; Maryland, Missouri, Okla- homa, Virginia, and Texas also stand ahead of her, Tennessee equals her, and Kentucky, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Mississippi stand below her. circulation and advertising departments of The Ladies Home Journal, The Lit- ‘erary Digest, and The Saturday Even- ing Post—three ‘of the most popular and widely disseminated journals of) the country—show that North Carolina stands near the foot of. the ladder in| her reading of these publications. — One North Carolinian out of every | 188 receives a copy of the Literary Di- gest, or did in 1921, while the average for the United States was one in every 85. Only one person in 149 in North Carolina received a copy of The Satur- day Evening Post, against an average | of one in every 50 throughout the rest of the country. North Carolina postmas-. ters and news agencies delivered one. | counties. eopy of The Ladies Home Journal] toone _ person in 116, whereas their colleagues throughout the country did practi- | cally twice as big business. They hand- ed out a copy to an average of one out) of every 65 men, women, and children, which means, of course, that North _ Carolina, when measured by averages, receives less than one half her quota of these publications. Stated differently in the terms of rank among the forty- eight states, Oregon ranks first in the cireulation of The pated: pect. a9 our- nal with one copy to every 33 inhabi- . Inthe case of The Literary Digest Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky,» and Mississippi fall below her, whereas in the case of The Saturday Evening Post all outrank her except Mississippi and South Caro- lina. County Quotas Coming still closer home, the analy- ses of circulations furnished by these three journals together with The Pro- gressive Farmer make clear the fur- ther fact that not all North Carolina counties read equally. The national advertiser who runs a page advertise- ment in The Literary Digest, for ex- | ample, does not have the same number per capita of readers in all of the 100 Only 3 copies of this pulica- tion were received by or sold to resi- dents of Graham county during the week in April, 1921, when the audit | |one copy to every 13 inhabitants. Meck- was made. But even with that the | average of one copy to every 1624 in-|, habitants was higher than that of Alle- ghany with 4 copies distributed over a total population of 7403, or one copy to every 1850 inhabitants! Buncombe, on the other hand, with its 64,148 inhabi- tants, received 1454 copies, or one copy to every 44 inhabitants, and thereby led the State, while Mecklenburg, New Hanover, Pasquotank, and Wake fol- lowed in close order Rie 67, 70, and espectively. res. ce . ee ey Se Among the Farmers — An analysis of the circulation of The Progressive Farmer shows the same| thing, with the difference that the lead- ership passes from Buncombe to Ran- dolph. Randolph, with a total mailing list of 978 (at the time the audit was | made) led with one copy to every 31 in- habitants. Buncombe dropped to 88th position with one copy to every 117 in- habitants, and Alleghany, which was so inhospitable to The Literary Digest, moved up six places from the bottom to 94th, with one copy to every 160 of her citizens, yielding the cellar position to Dare with a total of twelve copies to a population of 5115, or one paper to every 426. Combined Circulation | Analyses of the circulations of single} papers, however, donot give an ade-— quate picture of what North Carolina counties read. Consequently, the com- bined circulation of The Literary Di- gest, The Ladies Home Journal, The Saturday Evening Post and the Pro- gressive Farmer is given in a table appearing in another issue. Togeth- er, they give a cross-section pic- ture of North Carolina reading never given before, and one which should re- ceive the careful study of everyone in- terested in the economic as well as the | social and cultural development of ane | state. S From even a most ipertbial study : of this picture, two facts are distinctly clear. North Carolina is not reading her quota of the standard journals of the country; and the counties which do not contain large cities, with highly or- ganized public libraries, book stores, and news stands, read far less than those|} that have these facilities. _ Buncombe, with a total of 5000 copies of the four papers combined, leads with the highest per capita circulation of lenburg has the greatest total, 5310, but ranks 8rd, being outdistanced by New Hanover with.a total of 2967, or ‘one paper to every 15 people. Forsyth, in spite of the fact that it contains the largest city in the state, is outranited by 16-counties, gS aie. “a lib “ a? “SAG st al. 99th, ee 1006 Pouene ihe 4872 in- habitants of Graham achieving the dis- tinction of receiving 1 copy of The. La- dies Home Journal, 2 copies | of’ The Saturday Evening Post, 3 copies of The Literary Digest; and 20 of The Pro- | gressive Farmer—26° copies all told, or one to every 187 inhabitants. _.Two other observations might be imade. ‘North Carolina country areas || are largely unaware of what the rest. ‘of the world is thinking about, so far as it is reflected in the magazines of the day; and the high average for | Buncombe and Moore counties (in which the principal tourists resorts of North Carolina are located) may be due to the visitors rather than home-stayers! i State Papers Few generalizations can be made con- cerning the reading of state papers by | North Carolinians, as no analysis of cir- | culations is available except by towns. |The Greensboro Daily News, Charlotte Observer, News and Observer, North Carolina Christian Advocate, Biblical Recorder, Charity and Children, Orph- an’s Friend, and The News Letter have mailing lists running from about 17,500 to 27, 500: With few exceptions copies of these are received by subscribers in all of the 63 towns in the State having a popu- lation of 2000 ormore. In that sense they are statewide, and counting five readers to each copy, the average read- ing public for these publications is from 87,500 to 187,500. The Progressive Farmer and.the North Carolina Health Bulletin with North Carolina mailing. lists of approximately 50,000 each, are |read by about 250,000 of the population, ‘or one person in ten. State Dailies But in one instance comparisons are possible. The Editor and Publisher of June 10, 1922, prints the total circula- tion of all the dailies, both morning and | Evening, throughout the United States. {On April 1, 1922, North Carolina’s 9 morning and 27 evening papers were circulating 188,781 copies, or One copy to every 13.5 inhabitants. Massachu- | setts led the country with a total circu- |lation of 1,971,110, or one copy to every 1.9inhabitants. The average for the United States was 3.6 inhabitants per subscriber. North Carolina ranked 145th. South Carolinaand New Mexico stood immediately below North Caro- lina with 15.2 and 16.9 respectively, while Mississippi plumbed the depths of | apparent adult illiteracy with only one SPP, to page Ay Sap haha wnat ——— oe ORL toe a ae eo 1918, forty-tw | counties of California had established H | county libraries under the state’ library jlaw. Of the 42, thirty- -eight rece red. 458, contained 945, 856 volumes, main: 11549 school districts. | enn mnENES aoe a ly 1, an annual maintenance fund of $58 ab tained 2890 jranch libraries, and served Every. library ‘was directed by a certificated librarian, ; and the whole system had the benefit of expert library supervision. ed In 1919-20, the state of Wis : ; required every high school to employ a library- -trained teacher to have charge of the high school library. ena | —— | DAILY NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION : On April 1, 1922, as perthe Editor and Publisher June 10, 1922 _ Covering (1) the combined circulation of dailies published in éach state, and (2) the number of inhabitants per subscriber. ” ] The total for the United States was 29,198,665, or 3.6 inhabitants per sub- oe f ci 1) InN. C. the combined circulation of our 36 dailies was 188,781, or 18.5 in- — Prabivants per subscriber. Forty-four states made a better showing, and 10 of : || these were southern states—namely, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas, in the order named. : L. R. Wilson, Librarian, University of North Carolina Total Inhabs. h Total «EA Rank ‘States Cireulation per paper Rank States Circulation per paper - Massachusetts LOT 1L0 1.9|25 Delaware 39,870 5.5 New York 4,978,329 2.0126 Florida 172,103 5.6 California _ 1,542,202 2.2127 Maine 132, 229 5.8 Oregon 318, 728 2.4}27 Oklahoma $46,655 «BB Missouri 1,348, 503 2.51/29. Texas 778, 760 p.9°* Illinois 2,471,603 2.6130 Tennessee 886,193 6.0 Ohio 2,182,532 2.71} 381 Montana 84,776 6.45 Washington 471,493 2.8|82 Vermont 52,895 ° 6.6” Pennsylvania 2,890, 857 3.0 | 33 New Hampshire 65, 987 6.7. Rhode Island 188,972 3.1134 Wyoming 26,534 7.3 Colorado 291,571 8.2135 Louisiana 242,362 ca Maryland : 487, 502 3.31386 Kentucky 307, 561 7.8 Indiana 853,161 38.4487 Virginia 282,105 8.1 Minnesota 691,197 8.41388 Idaho 52, 407 O2u Michigan 1,028,392 8.5 | 389 South Dakota 75,263 8.4 ~Connecticut 363,949 3.7} 40° West Virginia 171, 782 EBS _ Nebraska - 340,028 3.8]41 Georgia 311,638, 912 Iowa 614, 663 3.9} 42 Alabama 220,442 10.6 . Utah 97,786 4.5|43 North Dakota 58,911 10.9 Nevada 16,074 4.8|44 Arkansas +) EST, 8945 ae ang _ Kansas 360, 472 4.9|45 North Carolina 188,781 18.5 Wisconsin 524,104 5.0146 South Carolina 110,535 15.2. _ Arizona 62,281 5.3|47 New Mexico... ity 278 ea 3 NewJersey 585,729 5.3) 48 Mississippi... , 48,234 37.1 . 2) SBGd ay