You know when you’re looking for a particular object or cleaning house and you find something that you did not even know you were looking for? Well, that is how I came upon this article from the Beatrice Daily Sun. It was written at the end of 1950 and I thought it would be fun to contrast this finding with the library’s operations today.
Miss Madge Evans was the city librarian at the time and told how she took considerable pains to choose the 800 books she added so she could please the public. I took a look at the library’s annual report, statistics I am required to give to the state every year, to see how many books we added last year. That count was 2,413! But in 1950 the patrons would not have had the choices of paper format, electronic format, CD format, or downloadable audio format. In 2023 the Beatrice Public Library does, and so in addition to the 2,413 paper format books, 418 eBooks, 8 books on CD, and 720 downloadable audiobooks were added as well. CDs are not checking out like they used to. What I found interesting is the move to downloadable audiobooks, which most people download to their phones. Print format is still the big choice for most people, though people still download eBooks to their tablets or phones. The library also offers area newspapers and many magazines and journals; however, many are going to an electronic format which we offer online on our website: Newsbank, Libby, and Hoopla to mention a few. While we are on the subject of electronic formats, movie and television streaming is also a choice moving away from DVDs.
The article also talked about the volumes added being generally fiction and that mysteries were the most popular type of fiction. Today it is much the same as general fiction is the most popular. Some patrons enjoy non-fiction, in particular memoirs, autobiographies, and biographies. Like all libraries, we withdraw old and outdated books but we try to replace them with newer versions. However, the publishers do not always stay up with the changes, but much of the information is just a click away.
Moving on to another change from 1950 is the cost of fines. If you did not get your books back by the due date you were charged 2 cents a day per book! The article broke down the fine money brought in approximately $36 per month in fines. Today that cost is 25 cents per book per day. That is approximately $154 per month. As it did in 1950, the fine money does still help in the purchase of more books. But we still would like to have the borrowed material back on time so that someone else can have a chance to borrow it.
Joanne Neemann
Library Director