Michigan City Public Library Michigan City, Indiana About the Library Then & Now: 100 Years of Trivia and Truth

The Michigan City Public Library, Michigan City, Indiana, June 1977

Introduction:

In 1889, the will of Michigan City druggist George Ames offered a tantalizing challenge to his fellow townspeople. It contained a bequest of $5,000 to establish a library fund - $1,000 the first year to purchase books; an additional $2,000 within the next five years, also for books, and $2,000 to establish an endowment, from which the interest would replenish the collection. But Ames imposed one large condition: a library must materialize within ten years or Michigan City would lose the money.

The Fortnightly Club, a Michigan City literary society, took up the challenge and in 1893 formed a committee to carry out the provisions of the Ames will. Industrialist John H. Barker offered to contribute one- third of the estimated $25,000 cost of constructing a building in Michigan City. Citizens would raise the remainder. In George Ames less than six months, local people had pledged $29,558-33, including $800 from Michigan City teachers. Architects had completed their plans and on October 9, 1897, Ames' dream of a Michigan City Public Library became a reality. In 1895, the Library Association was formed to begin the work. The Library Association espoused "the establishment and maintenance of a Michigan City Public Library, including a public reading room and gallery of art, for the benefit and advantage of all inhabitants." Built of Indiana limestone, the library was located at the northeast comer of Eighth and Spring Streets.

The Library Association served as a self- perpetuating governing board for 72 years. W.W. Vail, who died in 1967, served as a member of the board for 55 years, treasurer for 43, president for 2.

Conversion to a library district under the Public Library Law of 1947, dissolved the Library Association in 1967. The Association's final minutes read: "Here endeth an era."
In 1970, the Board of Trustees hired consultants to review the holdings and facilities of the library and make recommendations for future planning. In recognizing the need for additional facilities, the board set in motion community-wide examination of the library's future. What should be done? Renovate the existing library.? Build a new one? If so, where, when, and how?

The board voted to build a new library. After much community discussion and a year of study, members chose the Beachway site on the north end of the city and selected world-renowned architect, Helmut Jahn, to design the new building.

On Sunday, October 30, 1977, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Patricia Harris and Congressman John Brademas attended ceremonies celebrating the library's opening. Public controversy about the building's startling design died away in the 20 years that followed, and the library established itself as a major informational, educational, recreational, and cultural center for Michigan City and the entire region.

Collections and Services

By the time the new library opened for daily use on January 3, 1898, its adult collection contained 3,613 volumes - average cost $.88 - including such favorite novels of the day as James Barrie's when A Man's Single, Jules Verne's 20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Patrons of the new library could also find 250 travel books, 250 works of history and fine arts, 200 books in German, as well as many books about science and nature. By 1914, the library had acquired 34 books in Polish, which circulated 424 times; by 1931, the foreign offerings included books in Syrian as well. The entire foreign collection circulated 1,075 times that year.

Two hundred fifty children's books were added in 1898 and in June, 1899, the library established a children's department through a memorial gift and endowment begun in memory of Ford Colburn, son of a Michigan City lumberman. In 1903 the library began a "children's library league" to encourage use and teach proper care of books. School visits and story hours on Saturday mornings also started that year.

From the beginning, the collection also included periodicals. As early as 1907, browsers in the Reading Room could enjoy Chicago newspapers.

The collection grew steadily, eventually including a great deal more than books and periodicals. In 1905, through the local postmaster, the library received U.S. weather maps and weather reports on a daily basis. Two stereoscopes with 108 views for children's use arrived in 1910; 1,800 copies of sheet music, including trios, duets, quartets, solos, cantatas, oratorios, and piano were added in 1938.

In 1939, Monday Musicale placed all its sheet music with the library for their own and public use. A donation of 100 phonograph records kicked off the library's record collection in 1954, necessitating the purchase of two new "record adjusters." In addition to music recordings, this collection included the following records: Book of Proverbs, Psalms, judges, Ecclesiastes, Songs of Solomon, Genesis, and the Book of Ruth.

A shelf of genealogical materials was established, also in 1954. 1969 marked the beginning of the library's film collection; 1970 saw the start of a circulating art print collection and first consideration of materials for the blind and poorly sighted; in 1975, circulation of toys and games began.

In 1937, endowment interest paid for the purchase of three Robert W. Grafton paintings: "Portrait of Charles Osborn, " ex-governor of Michigan, "Portrait of Mrs. Fisher, " and "Portrait of a Boy. " But it wasn't until 1945, under the direction of W.W. Vail, that the library took its first step toward fulfilling an original Library Association goal: an art gallery in the library.

Endowment interest was used to purchase nine paintings that year and four more paintings the following year. The Library Board made plans for a catalog of paintings which came to pass in 1953 with bids to print 2,000 copies. The Art Gallery opened, also in 1953, with a public exhibit. These paintings hang throughout the library today.

After the opening of the current building in 1977, the library's collection expanded still further to offer special collections of new and up-to-date materials of all descriptions: a pamphlet file in the Reference Department; over 600 general interest and specialized periodicals; microfilm of local papers dating back to 1840 and of the New York Times; a business and career collection, and, housed in its own room, the Indiana Collection. By the 1990's, a world-class assemblage of 4,500 videocassettes - both feature film and educational materials superseded the 16 millimeter film collection, and 3,000 compact discs replaced the old 78s, 45s,and LP records.

As far back as 1923, the library recognized the need to satisfy the heavy demand for best sellers by establishing a rental collection of new fiction. Hot items cost two cents a day. This rental policy lasted until 1961 when the library abandoned it as "violating one of the basic principles of a public library." In1968, the library began to lease best sellers from its book supplier, thus making a workable match between supply and demand. The leasing program solved the problem so well that it is still in use today.

Early on, the library made a strong effort to reach people outside its walls. in the very first year of full-time operation, placement of library card applications in factories and workplaces paid off by bringing in new patrons and producing public demand for books on technical topics. In 1901, librarian Marilla Freeman proposed "a traveling library to serve people without ready access." By 1904, librarian Grace Edwards declared that inter-library loan was "now almost universal." Participating with Michigan City were the Chicago Public Library, the LaPorte Public Library, the Sidney, Ohio Public Library, and the Indiana State Library. Between 1917 and 1923, the library operated a "distribution station" on Willard Avenue with space for 250 books to reach people in outlying districts. it closed when the store that housed it went out of business. In 1927, librarian Marie Wilcox complained that the number of seasonal cardholders "on the beach" made more work in the summer. In 1936, the library reached out to WPA workers with boxes of books.

Library outreach came to its zenith in the decade of the 1970s. Librarians placed books in neighborhood centers, barber shops, beauty parlors, and bars. Each summer, the Mall Branch staged a "Medicine Man Show" which consisted of a traveling van containing books, a storyteller, and a magician. The van stopped at 24 different locations twice a week, making eight stops a day. Seventy to eighty children awaited the Library Medicine Show at each stop. By 1985, the Friends of the Library further expanded the outreach program, placing paperbacks at Weidner's Tavern, Memorial and Saint Anthony's Children's Wards, Mid-Town Barbershop, The Beauty College, Fiesta Fabric Care Center, J.C. Penney's Beauty Shop, Long Beach Beauty Shop, and the juvenile Probation Office.

Because school libraries did not exist until the mid 1900s, providing services to area schools was an early priority for the library. Teachers received special library cards allowing them to check out books, pictures, and magazines for six weeks or longer. The library supplied "all available materials on regular course subjects." By 1917, the library had placed traveling libraries of 125 books for grades four, five, and six in Park and Eastport Schools. After all books were read, the entire collection moved on to another school. The next year saw book boxes in six schools and one branch, with the recommendation to include Tryon and Bergman Schools to meet the needs of Michigan Township, with the cost not to exceed $100. By 1927, three townships and eight city schools received books; by 1939, all city and three township schools got them for a total circulation of 23,555. In 1957, the traveling libraries serviced 22 schools.

With the advent of school libraries, however, more than 50 years of traveling stopped. Nevertheless, the public library continues to play a major role in the education of Michigan City youth. It provides year-round reading activities, both specialized and general reference information, and stimulating educational and recreational programs for students of all ages. Cooperation with area schools is still alive and well after a hundred years.

In the 1980's, sparked by a standing-room-only program by educator Jonathan Kozol, the library established an adult literacy program, matching trained volunteer tutors with adult learners. The program received a $25,000 Department of Education grant in 1988 and $5,000 from a 1989 fund raiser featuring Susan Bayh, wife of Governor Evan Bayh. In the 1990s, Levy Transportation's Readers Are Leaders program brought four percent of local sales to the library's literacy program. Headed by a full-time reading specialist, "literacy" has expanded to include English as well as second language students and a growing number of children and teens.

Keeping Order

When the new library first opened to the public in 1897, it operated on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. only. Without "demonstrations or public ceremonies" the library granted eligibility to check books out to every resident of Michigan City and Michigan Township, age ten and up.

Every public institution needs a set of rules ensuring orderly operation and the new library had prepared well. To get a library card, potential patrons had to supply a guarantor and sign an agreement promising to obey the rules. They could check out two books - one fiction and one non-fiction - and keep them for two weeks. If the books did not come back on time, the library sent post cards as reminders and charged two cent-a-day fines. If borrowers did not return the overdue books within two weeks, the library sent a messenger to their homes (at their expense) to collect the missing volumes.

A hundred years ago, the library also required prompt notice of contagious disease in a home containing library books, together with instructions to the librarian of how best to dispose of them.

By 1904, applicants for library cards no longer needed a guarantor. instead, for adults, adequate references sufficed. Applicants under fifteen needed a parent or other responsible person to accompany them when filling out the form. By 1928, the library established fees for users outside the library district: all residents of LaPorte County outside of Michigan Township had to pay $1 for a card; all residents outside of Indiana paid $2. By 1931, property owners and people with one year's residence in Michigan City needed no endorsement for a card. "Transients" needed the endorsement of a property owner.

Fees for different categories have waxed and waned over the years, often based on state reciprocal borrowing mandates of one kind or another. Today all residents of the library district can get a free card as can non-residents who own property in the district, with verification of such ownership. Residents in surrounding counties may borrow our materials if we have a reciprocal agreement with their library. Youngsters under 16 must have a parent's signature, and out-of-staters can get a card for an annual fee.

Over the years, the library devised many rules to keep youngsters under control. The year 1905 produced new rules for children: no grade school children after 6:00 p.m.; no high school students in reference or the stacks after 6:00 p.m.; no talking and no using the library as a meeting place. in 1906, children below 8th grade were banned from the Reading Room after 6:00 p.m. In 1907, Miss Edwards declared, "More decorum is wanted in the Reading Room evenings and Sundays." A "proper person" was hired at $9.00 a month to maintain said decorum.

The annual report of 1931 enumerated the library's rules: patrons could borrow only three books at a time and keep them for seven or 14 days; vacationers could receive books via parcel post; overdue books and rental books each cost two cents a day. The library required absolute quiet in the reference department and in the reading rooms from nine until nine.
In 1960, the library hired a full time (48 hours a week) male assistant to "maintain discipline and order among patrons in the Reading Room and elsewhere."

Since the new library building opened, security and safeguarding the collection have emerged as ongoing concerns. Sadly, the library has had to institute increasingly strong measures to ensure that the collections and services will remain available to the public: "tattle tape" in the books, strategically placed mirrors, uniformed security guards, security locks, and requiring all public to enter and exit through the front doors are but a few.

Public Relations, Programs, and Publicity

The Michigan City press has kept the public informed about the library from its inception. Even before completion of the building, the public followed details of its construction progress in the newspapers of the day. Library events made big news then, as they do today. For many years, library annual reports appeared verbatim and as early as 1907, the paper printed a weekly library column, which has appeared on and off these hundred years. In the early 1990's, 7be News-Dispatch began to print a weekly library calendar highlighting special events and new holdings. WIMS radio broadcasts a weekly Library Beat program, and library staff appear regularly on radio talk shows in Michigan City and LaPorte. Beginning in 1995, the public could access the library on the Internet as part of the Beacber's Michigan City Home Page on the World Wide Web.

Early publicity schemes geared to increasing usage and visibility seemed to operate by hunch and inspiration. In the first decade, for example, the library sent 1,200 New Year's greetings cards to non-users and distributed pamphlets around the city telling of the library's successes. A history of the Michigan City Public Library, with photos, was written and sent to the Indiana State Library for the St. Louis Exposition of 1904 and a similar work went to South Bend for an exhibit called Libraries in Northern Indiana in 1910. The fire stations received boxes of library books, which were changed monthly. The library provided space for public meetings in assembly rooms and societies of an educational nature to draw in non-patrons with special interests and to advertise the library. It wasn't until 1922 that the Library Association authorized Mary B. Snyder, the new librarian, to engage in library publicity work. In 1954, Welcome Wagon began to provide library information in its packets to newcomers. Today we publicize the library through a variety of in-house publications and wide coverage of special events in local and regional media.

Similarly, programming began early in the library's life with widely varied events. In September 1898, Nature Day drew 700 people who enjoyed the daring of its decor cages with live red and yellow parrots, parakeets, a scarlet tanager and a rice bird. in 1899, Indian Day included a display of Indian artifacts, including a pipe once owned by Sitting Bull. According to the newspaper, 2,000 attended. That same year, the library held the first of many art exhibits and in 1900, a Photo and Electrical Day also drew a crowd of 2,000. People with private collections began to display them in the library. Many years later, in 1977 and 1978, the library embarked on "History: Live From LaPorte County," an ambitious two-year oral history project funded by a Comprehensive Employment and Training (CETA) grant. The CETA project employed nine full-time-ill-time workers who conducted 82 oral history interviews of ordinary people: farmers, merchants, morticians, and homemakers to name a few. The audiotapes and accompanying transcripts provided a valuable historical record for the community and are still available for checkout.

In the years that followed, the library established itself as a major regional cultural center. Programs featuring prominent artists, thinkers, and authors became and have remained frequent fare, supported by an administration for whom public programming is an important library service, a way of reaching out to the community and enhancing the collections.

Grants from the Indiana Humanities Council (IHC) helped initiate Writing Out Loud in 1984. By the centennial year, more than 65 nationally known writers and poets had appeared at the library. After its fifth year, Writing Out Loud's IHC grants ceased. Today the program is paid for entirely through local funds.

In 1983, Public Access Channel 99 opened as a library run television studio and library programming reached more people than ever before.

The Michigan City Public Library's adult offerings, such as the fall and spring foreign film series, Writing Out Loud, Bookmarks At Noon, public affairs programs on censorship and health reform, as well as programs for parents and children such as Baby TALK, Toddler Time, and Preschool Story Hour won statewide recognition in 1992 with the Indiana Library Federation's Programming Award. In 1995, eight local and regional organizations collaborated with the Library in Decade Out Loud, a celebration of ten years of Writing Out Loud.

Staff and Facilities

Applications to staff the new library came from Lafayette, Indiana; Chicago, Illinois; Madison, Wisconsin and Dubuque, Iowa. The Association selected Miss Marilla W. Freeman as its first librarian at $75 a month and Mrs. Maggie Riley as assistant librarian at $25 a month. A year later, in 1898, the Association granted Miss Freeman a two week vacation with pay from which she had to pay her substitute.

In 1900, the library began a program to allow apprentices to work at the library in exchange for "the privilege of the training received." By 1904, the library had hired its third librarian, Lillian B. Arnold. She and her assistant each worked 45 hours a week and received one month of vacation. They participated in a club of five or six libraries in northwest Indiana that formed to exchange information.

By 1906, the first of many years of requests for improvements - more shelving in stacks, more light in stacks - were heard. New electric light fixtures were installed throughout the building in 1928. 1936 saw a new oil burner (replacing the 1911 furnace), hot water heater, storm windows, insulation, and eight elm trees. 1951 was the year for florescent lights and extensive redecorating.

By 1918, the first of many years of requests for raises in salary were heard and granted - $15 per month raise for the librarian; $10 per month raise for the assistant.

In 1924, the Library Association named Marie Wilcox as acting librarian. She was to remain the librarian for thirty-four years, the longest tenure of any in the library's history. By 1931, staff had grown to five librarians and two high school substitutes.

But by 1933, the library had begun to feel the effects of the Great Depression. It closed at 6:00 p.m. instead of 9:00. Salaries went down as did appropriations for books. The library staff decreased to three. just a year later, even though the library received six applications for just one assistant librarian vacancy, things had improved enough to go back to an 8:30 p.m. closing. In 1935, a Federal relief worker took over mending and repairing of books.

Gradually squeezed for space over the years, the library purchased the Hall and Haller properties to its east and established a separate children's library in 1952. Nevertheless, by 1971 the library downtown was once again overflowing its bounds. With the help of a federal grant, the library opened a branch at the two-year-old Marquette Mall. Open until 1979, the mall branch provided easily accessible service during a period of flux in the downtown area and bridged the library's transition to its new building, which opened in 1977.

To the amazement of the entire community, the proposal to build a new library sparked as noisy a debate as any in Michigan City's long history, a controversy that produced headlines, petition drives, legal action, and many heated words on all sides of the question.

Over an eight year period, the Library Board studied all options for improving library services. A hired consultant helped evaluate the choices, which initially included everything from keeping the current library building to starting anew on one of 15 possible sites. The Board freely debated alternatives and welcomed public input. Keeping in mind that the population was projected to rise to close to 70,000, in 1974 they selected a site at the southern end of the Beachway urban renewal project, (91,650 square feet at a cost of $2.25 per sq. ft.) and within the next few months had hired an architect who produced a scale model of the ultra-modem facility.

All that remained before soliciting bids was approval of a $1.8 million bond issue. Opponents of the new library, barely visible during the long years of discussion, now strove to defeat the bond issue. Their strategy was to exploit a peculiar Indiana law that gave supporters of the measure 30 days to collect names on their petition and opponents 30 days to try and top the number. On both sides" people worked at fever pitch, circulating petitions and counter petitions, checking property transfer records, buying full page newspaper ads, and hiring a handwriting expert to challenge signatures. in the final hours of the petition drive, the Chamber of Commerce and other pro-library supporters went door to door, eventually collecting 3,280 names in favor of the new library, to the opponents' 3,207. This success however, did not end the matter. Opponents went to court, ultimately losing in hearings before two judges. After learning that they would have to post a $140,000 bond to litigate further, the antis rested their case.

Located at 100 E. Fourth Street, the library consisted of 35,250 square feet and was built at a cost of $1.8 million. Over the years, opposition to the site and to architect Helmut Jahn's award-winning design abated. The dramatic building has become a showpiece for Michigan City and a cheerful, welcoming cultural and educational center for the entire community.

Getting Money; Getting Gifts

From George Ames to the present day, private and public money have intertwined to fund the Michigan City Public Library. With Ames' will, private funding began back in the 1890s and sometimes came from unexpected sources. For example, in addition to his original bequest to the library, Ames included $4,000 to establish a 12-piece band. Since no band emerged within the stipulated time, the band money reverted to the library endowment fund.

In February 1900, the library received its first gifts of art works. By October however, the library had run out of money to purchase books. Since taxes collected under the 1881 statute paid for administrative expenses only, library officials created a book fund to pay for books. In December, school children presented a three act original farce which raised $100 for the book fund. In 1901, Mrs. F.C. Austin of Chicago donated$2,500 to wipe out the library's indebtedness and in April, Mrs. Katherine Barker donated $500 to the book fund.

Other gifts to the library that year included casts of famous sculptures placed in the children's room, two terra cotta jardinieres with ferns for the stairway, 20 valuable geological specimens, and a stuffed owl.

In 1903, John H. Barker offered yet another challenge to the community: $5,000 toward the endowment fund, if matched by local citizens. Once again the people came through, this time with $7,000. The interest from the $12,000 was earmarked entirely for book purchases (the township tax monies - six mills or $2,400 a year - went for operating expenses, not books). By 1913, the endowment fund had reached $16,000; by 1930, the securities in the endowment fund had a face value of $25,500. Meanwhile, in 1923, the president and secretary of the Library Association were authorized to borrow funds to meet Association needs, not to exceed $1,500. In 1925, the Library Association requested an increase in the tax levy from two to four cents. That same year, ever short of funds, the Association borrowed $1,000 from the First National Bank at 6% interest.

But by 1934, the Great Depression had brought the face value of endowment securities down to $20,500. The library purchased few books; tax revenues were down as well. Still, many donations of books continued to come in.

Over the years, the library accepted an odd assortment of gifts: German rifles used in World War I from the Dunes Relief Post #2536 VFW; gifts from the Yale University Press from an anonymous donor; an Italian marble statuette called "Marguerite"; a 100 volume record collection from the Rockefeller Foundation.

As late as 1967, the library still operated under a statute enacted in 1881. It was far behind most Indiana libraries, ranking 174th out of 246 in per capita library expenditures and similarly low in every other measurable category. To assure sufficient operating funds, Library Director John Holmes, strongly urged that the library convert to a library district under the Public Library Law of 1947. His passionate support of conversion incurred the wrath of some of the Association Board, who tried to fire him. But members eventually voted for conversion, which allowed the tax levy to rise from ten cents to 35 cents. In only four years the library's budget went from $100,000 to $368,000. Conversion also conferred bonding capability, allowing the library to accumulate money in interest bearing accounts for capital improvements. The Library Improvement Reserve Fund (LIRF) had amassed upwards of $750,000 to contribute to the cost of the new library by 1975.

To ensure an ongoing source of private funds, a Friends of the Library group was proposed in 1972. By 1975, the Friends had established by-laws and attracted 23 members. Today, the Friends have more than 500 members and have raised over $120,000 for library equipment and programs.

Between 1980 and 1990, revenues from property taxes decreased while monies from private sources increased. In 1980, taxes accounted for 80% of the budget, but by 1990, taxes accounted for only 75%.

In the 1980's, the Indiana legislature froze tax revenues for libraries - and libraries only - at $.55 per $100,000 of assessed valuation. As a result, the Michigan City Library had to reduce hours and staff positions, spend less on collections, and postpone needed repairs and maintenance. To fill the gap, it looked to private revenues, grants, contributions, and a reactivated endowment fund. By the time the legislature repealed the freeze in 1995, the fund had already reached $500,000 and the library embarked on a new campaign to raise an additional $150,000 by the end of its centennial year.

Statistics, Statistics

Defining the library by its numbers has gone on since its beginning. Statistics have always played an important role in explaining library procedures and purposes.
* In 1899, only two years after opening, the Michigan City Public Library boasted 1,631 card holders and 5,476 books.
*The first annual report declared that the library collected $14.80 that year in overdue fines. Of the 17,545 available books, 42% fiction, the average daily circulation was 146.
* 1903 saw 1,654 card holders - one card holder for every eight residents. Ten percent of the population used the library.
* 1905 showed growing library use by professional people. Both the medical association and area ministers held regular meetings there. An average of 20 children per Friday story hour enjoyed the featured tales of King Arthur and Greek heroes
* Between 1897 and 1906, librarians counted 6,742 borrowers.
* Circulation in 1908 went up to 43,959, showing the largest increase in the history of the library. Librarians attributed the increase to the weekly listing of new books in the papers. German books continued to show heavy usage: 2,131 or seven a day circulated.
* In 1911, the Michigan City Public Library ranked 13th in circulation and 18th in number of books of Indiana's 125 libraries, according to the Indiana Library Commission. 111 teacher's cards were in use.
* Circulation decreased for the first time in 1913.
* In 1918, the library was closed for 22 days by the Board of Health because of the influenza epidemic. The closing, together with the effects of World War I - men gone and women in war service - caused a large drop in circulation. The library distributed war pamphlets: Food Conservation; How to Burn Soft Coal; Kitchen War Creed and others.
* Librarian Mary B. Snyder blamed the beach and good weather for a decline in circulation in the summer months of 1923. It was "a decrease in quantity, not quality as we had an increase of 514 in non-fiction." She went on to say that the library was encouraging this test by buying more books on serious lines.
* All numbers up in 1924; 1926 - the largest circulation ever, 90,994.
* In her annual report of 1927, Miss Marie Wilcox crowed: "The Michigan City Public Library goes into more homes than any institution except the gas company." She hoped that library circulation would overtake the gas company in the ensuing year.
* Miss Wilcox said in her 1926 Annual Report, "...it stands second to the schools educationally and first recreationally."
* By 1932, the library felt the Great Depression. Patrons demanded more vocational information; references and reading rooms were crowded with people as "books are their only recreation." 1934 showed much patron interest in books on poultry raising, bee keeping, gardening. With the beginnings of reemployment in 1935, circulation went down ten percent - from 176,154 in 1933 and 1934 to 169,840 in 1934 and 1935.
* In 1937, 60 messenger calls were made for overdue books. The population of the library district: 28,098.
* The next year, Western Union messengers returned 30 books at a cost to the library of 18 cents a book.
* The ten year circulation summary from 1929 to 1939:

* No statistics exist from the years of World War II, 1941-1945.
* The 1951 circulation stood at 89,189 and went up only 47 the next year. Librarians had no explanation for the enormous drop from the two prior decades.
* But in 1953, the circulation went back up to 102,012. Marie Wilcox speculated that television was the culprit. "For a time adults ceased reading but are gradually returning to their first love. What is of most importance to the staff is the number of juvenile readers, which includes pre-school children through teenagers using the library. Never has television interfered with their reading and the circulation has increased steadily in spite of all outside activities."
* In 1954, Wilcox declared, "...choosing the right books is important. Attractive titles in non-fiction have caused their increase in circulation. We are proud to report a large interest and circulation in religious books."
* By 1970, circulation statistics included: 100 films a month; 1000 paperbacks a month; 10 art prints a month; 1971 figures included the circulation of 1,100 records, or 200 a month. By 1987, 29,197 people held library cards - a 14% increase over 1986. Over 65% of the total library population of 46,000 had cards, one of the highest ratios in the state.

Confronting the Computer Age

Concurrent with moving to its futuristic new building, the library entered the computer age in 1977 with the purchase of its first automated circulation mainframe computer. Installed in February, 1978 - the first such technology in any library in the state the computer filled up an area approximately 10 x 12 feet. The innovative system performed checkouts, checkins, renewals, reserves, fines, and title inquiries. The data was stored on disks which needed daily loading into the computer. This system was not free of bugs however, and tended to crash on a regular basis.

In 1983, the library upgraded to a LIBS100 system that required a temperature-controlled computer room to keep it at a constant 62-68 degrees F. Despite its propensity to overheat, the new system offered many advanced new features, including speed, dependability, internal storage capacity, improved circulation functions, and the ability to retrieve catalog entries from remote sites.

The next year, the library began a new cataloging process, putting all entries into MARC format, the standard format needed to advance to an online public access catalog (OPAC) at some future date.

In 1991, another upgrade: a new, more powerful central processor and a single tape backup drive, together with a greatly expanded version of LIBS100. New terminals compatible with the new software and increased speed replaced the old. The improved system provided more efficient checkout, checkin, renewal and place-a-hold features, greater search specificity, and enhanced maintenance of title and patron databases.

Just a year later, the library elected to replace LIBS100 and switch to a different system entirely, LIBS100PLUS. The transfer took place between January and July, with staff training begun in May. Shortly thereafter, to the joy of some patrons and the dismay of others, the library replaced its venerable card catalogs with OPAC, thus completing the process begun 18 years earlier.

In 1995, the library joined with other groups working to bring internet access to the community and to the library.

In the 1980's and 1990's computers played an increasingly significant role in many other areas of library activity.

Computerized data bases in the reference department provided information from hundreds of magazines and newspapers from around the nation. A CD-ROM phone directory, PhoneDisc Powerfinder '95 helped users find anyone or any business, anywhere, as fast as they could type.

The Youth Services Department offered an electronic encyclopedia and interactive electronic educational experiences for children and their parents; programming and graphics computerized library mailing lists and experimented with scanners and desktop publishing. Channel 99's programming came of age with state of the art computerized video-editing software.

Where We Are Now

The Michigan City Public Library stands today, as it did 100 years ago, as a cultural center for the community. The dream of a small town druggist who offered $5,000 for a library became a reality that undoubtedly surpassed even George Ames' imagination. From a staid and silent adults-only reading room open 8 hours a week, the library is today a lively combination of adult and children's activities as well as a wealth of reference information accessed at the touch of a button. Any day at the library, a patron might find a toddler's story hour going on, a visiting school class learning to use the computers, a craft program for a mentally handicapped group, a tutor teaching an adult to read, volunteers helping senior citizens with tax forms, and a genealogist looking up his/her family tree. On various weekends, the library offers foreign films, authors reading from their works, musical concerts, and programs celebrating everything from kites to Kwanzaa. Libraries have become much more than just quiet places to read, and the Michigan City Public Library is a shining example of one that has literally, something for everyone.