Page 66 - Training for Librarianship Library Work As a Career

TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANSHIP

libraries most accessible to those for whose use
the material is intended. Where the foreign-
born are to be found in smaller towns the
work has been no less definite. Of the 414
free pubhc libraries in Massachusetts, 186,
or 45 per cent., reported in 1917 that they
were actively serving their foreign-born
population. In addition to supplying them
with literature in their own language, the
pubhc libraries also aid in providing simple
books in Enghsh for those desiring to learn
our language. In some cases, as in the
branches of the New York Pubhc Library,
classes in English are held regularly in the
public library. The library building is also
used in many cases for lectures to foreigners
and for Americanization and other meetings.
The Free Public Library Commission of
Massachusetts reports that in the year 1918
" Library buildings have been used for
Americanization meetings, for food conser-
vation meetings for the foreign-speaking, as
well as for the distribution of material in for-
eign languages on the Liberty Loans, food
conservation, legal advice for soldiers and on
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