1948-12-30City of Beverly, Massachusetts
Public Meeting Minutes
Board: Library Trustees
Subcommittee:
Date: 12/30/1948
Place: Beverly Public Library
Board members present: Thomas F. Delaney, John C. Birmingham, Louisa V. Conrad,
Lawrence E. Foster, William A. Rowe, and Robert O. Small
Board members absent: W. Lincoln Boyden, Jr., Thomas J. Casey, and B. Frederick Yoffa
Others present:
Recorder: Marjorie H. Stanton
December 30, 1948
The regular meeting of the Board of Trustees was held at 7:30 P.M., on Thursday,
December 30 with Mr. Delaney, Mrs. Conrad, and Messrs. Birmingham, Rowe and Small in
attendance.
The records of the meeting of November 18 were read and approved.
After a brief summary of expenses and balances in the appropriation, the dog tax and the
Trust Funds, Mr. Small, as Chairman of the Finance Committee, presented comparative tables
which he had prepared showing salaries paid in other cites and towns, as well as maintenance
appropriations for 1925 and 1948 and the extent to which cuts in maintenance had limited the
activities of the library service to the public.
It was voted to accept these tables as presented and to send copies, along with the budget,
to the Mayor, the members of the City Finance Committee - and if desirable, to the other
Aldermen of the City.
Mr. Delaney, as Chairman of the Board, was asked to call on the Mayor, taking copies of
these sheets with him, to arrange for a meeting of the Finance Committee of the Trustees with the
Mayor and Finance Committee of the City Government.
It was left for him to arrange with the Mayor whether this meeting would be held at City
Hall of whether the City Government would be asked to come, for this discussion, to a special
meeting of the Board of Trustees.
Voted: to employ the services of a competent engineer to make a survey of the Farms
Branch building and make recommendations for the necessary repairs. - this survey not to exceed
$100.00, and to be arranged for by Mrs. Conrad.
Since Mr. Moses, the regular janitor, has been in the Hospital for several weeks, Mr..
Delaney was authorized to apply to the Civil Service for permission to use Oscar Grimes, on an
emergency basis for a period of thirty days. - this application to be renewed, if necessary for an
additional period of thirty days. Mr. Delaney spoke of the need for repairs to the heating system at
the Main Library, of the desirability of installing fluorescent lights in the reading rooms, and to the
need for painting on the main floor of the library. Also of the possibility of using hand vacuum
cleaners to remove dust from books in the stack.
The Committee on Circulation recommended the purchase of forty new titles. This was
approved.
The report of the Librarian, giving a summary of statistics for the year, and telling of visits
to the Branch and Deposit Stations, by Mr. Delaney, Mrs. Brown & herself was presented and
placed on file.
Voted: to allow the Garden Club to use the hall at the Main Library for a series of nine or
more evenings, free of charge.
The annual report of the Trustees, as prepared by the Chairman, was then read, and it was
voted to accept this and forward it, as soon as possible, to the City Clerk for inclusion in the City
Documents of the year.
Voted: to adjourn
Adjourned
Marjorie H. Stanton, Clerk