REPORT OF Board of Trustees OF THE San Francisco Public Library FOR THE Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1909 To the Honorable Edward Robeson Taylor, Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco. In accordance with the requirement of the Charter, the Board of Trustees of the Public Library and Reading Rooms presents its report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1909. With 24,865 volumes added during the year, a record has been made which has no parellel in the history of the library, either before or since the fire. The number of volumes composing the library is now 75,667. The net increase in the circulation is 143,529, which is a gratifying showing. While the circulation per volume is high, San Francisco, holding the record for the year, still the per capita circulation for a city of the size of San Francisco is low, as Librarian William R. Watson points out in his very full and comprehensive report. The press should be asked to occasionally report library news and indicate the location of the main and branch libraries. Another means of encouraging the use of books is through the public and private schools, which should be in receipt of circulars explaining matters of detail, such as location of branches and deposit stations, and new accessions. The proposal of the Librarian to establish a down town book station, to further the same end by making the use of the library books more convenient. for the public, is fully approved. BRANCH LIBRARIES For the fiscal year 1908-1909 the Board of Supervisors allowed an appropriation of $90,000. $17,000 of this amount was for the purchase of a lot and the erection of a Branch Library Building for the Park district. With the balance brought over from last year a lot was purchased on Page Street, near Cole Street, for $7,000, and a building is now in the course of erection which will cost, when equipped, about $30,000, which we can afford out of our savings. The Branch Library rooms are all in good condition and well equipped excepting the Richmond district branch. This district should have better quarters. From time to time the several branches should have their stock of books. increased, especially in the matter of reference books. Students and others should be encouraged to use the library reading rooms near their homes. During the year a Branch Library was opened at 1457 Powell Street, near Vallejo Street, to take the place of the North Beach Branch destroyed by fire of 1906. The Mission Branch was removed from 3322 Twenty-third Street to 1207 Valencia Street into new and commodious quarters built expressly for the Library. Two stations were opened-one in Visitacion Valley and one in Glen Park. The Main Library has now five Branch Libraries, and one in the course of erection, and eight stations. A number of districts in the City have applied for stations, but the Library having received the minimum appropriation allowed by the Charter, it will not be possible to extend the Library service during the year. The Library is indebted to the Park Commission for parking the grounds surrounding the Main Library, Hayes and Franklin Streets, and to the Board of Supervisors for allowing the money, and to the Board of Public Works for employing it wisely in laying a much-needed sidewalk around the entire Library block. CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATIONS The Trustees had, long before the adoption of the Charter, voluntarily established and enforced a Civil Service system for the selection of employes. Twenty-one persons took the examination in February, of which eight qualified, and these have been employed either permanently, filling vacancies, or as substitutes. LIBRARY BONDS The Trustees again urge the desirability of erecting the main library building to be paid for out of the proceeds of existing authorized bonds or by a new issue. Private contributions will aid principally in the erection of branch buildings when once a policy is determined. During the year a proposal to create a civic center at the junction of Van Ness Avenue and Market Street, involving the purchase of four blocks of land, which, with the library block, would make five, did not receive the necessary two-thirds vote, but did in a poll of 23,308 votes receive 2,300 majority, which justifies its resubmission. In the event of a favorable vote, a City Hall and Library, suitably located within the civic center space, could be constructed at once. STATUS OF LIBRARY BONDS At a special election held on September 29, 1903, Library Bonds to the amount of $1,647,000 were authorized for issuance by the electors by a vote of 18,775 in favor to 7,411 against, the total vote cast on all propositions at the election being 27,308, two-thirds of which were necessary to carry any propositions submitted at that time. The bonds run for 40 years and bear 31⁄2 per cent interest and are serials, that is, one-fortieth is redeemable annually. The $1,647,000 was intended to cover a building of the value of $1,000,000, and the cost of the acquisition of the lands amounting to $647,000. The authorized issue, to-wit, $1,647,000, not being, however, an exact multiple of the number of series, that is, 40, only $1,644,000 were ordered printed. Of this amount the first 18 series or $739,800 were sold on November 28, 1904, among other bonds to a syndicate of local banks, pursuant to the bid of syndicate filed with the Board of Supervisors on November 21, 1904. There has been expended out of this sum of $739,800 the sum of $616,302.12 as hereinafter detailed, leaving at credit July 1, 1909, the sum of $123,497.88. The following table shows this detailed in more concise form: The following is a statement of expenditures out of the fund: COST OF WESTERN ADDITION BLOCK NO. 73 June 21, 1905-Eleanor Martin 123,497.88 ..$146,500.00 July 29, 1905-Title Ins. & Guarantee Co. abstracts.. 1906-Salaries City Attorney Assist. .Costs in case Goff. 27,500.00 82,500.00 24,500.00 1.000.00 110,000.00 9,500.00 EXPENSES 990.00 1,591.00 July 375.00 May 128.00 Oct. 21, 1907-J. A. Weston, appt. 20.00 11.60 The Board of Supervisors recently ordered the cancellation of unsold bonds for streets, sewers and hospital, for which new bonds at 5 per cent had been voted, but excepted the Library bonds as above, and they are allowed to stand. The sale of the new 5 per cent bonds was made on a basis of about 4 per cent to the buyer. In order to sell the 3 per cent bonds, which, under the charter, cannot be sold for less than par, it would be necessary to raise a fund to compensate the buyers for the difference between 32 per cent and 4 per cent. This has been done in the matter of street paving bonds. DEATH OF TRUSTEE LILIENTHAL The sad and tragic death of our colleague, Philip Lilienthal, occurred September 9, 1908, and the Board passed resolutions expressive of the public loss sustained by the community, and the personal bereavement felt by its members. On September 15, 1908, Justice M. C. Sloss was elected by the Trustees to fill the vacancy. Respectfully submitted, JAMES D. PHELAN, President. |