Daviess county’s first library

In the 1940’s, Daviess county’s rural schools had a very limited source of educational material for both the students and the teachers. Thus, teachers found it difficult to teach when there was such a wide range of both age and student ability within one classroom.
One of the greatest needs seemed to be reading material. Fortunately, the government began to provide assistance in establishing new libraries. Many schools had taken advantage of the offer and had established both libraries and bookmobiles which had eliminated part of the problem.
However, in order for Gallatin to have a library along with a bookmobile, a vote had to be taken along with several other preliminary steps.
The program would require a very small tax, being a one mill on the dollar evaluation. Before the vote could be taken, the state library law required a petition signed by a hundred taxpayers.
Most patrons who had the “whole scoop” thought the bill should pass because the citizens were already paying into the state treasury with some of the money being used for library assistance. If the patrons approved the library proposal, Daviess county would get its proportionate share of the state funds for the oncoming fiscal year based on the population served. In addition, a grant could be obtained to get the library started.
The first state money was to be received Sept. 1 in the form of an established grant with quarterly payments once the library was established. The quota of signatures was soon reached and a vote on the proposition was made and passed. On April 2, 1947, the Gallatin voters voted in favor of establishing the library by a 135 vote margin.
Every town in the county had voted favorably with the exceptions of Jameson and Altamont. The vote for the new library wasn’t an isolated case as 25 other Missouri counties were voting for the library assistance on the same day.
With the establishment of the “books on wheels,” it was evident it would be helpful to all sectors of the county. The mobile ”books on wheels” was now a reality and people began to think about its benefits. A wide variety of educational material was available for both student and teacher use, books were available which ranged from children’s story books to books for adult readers, such as cookbooks and soil conservation manuals.
It was believed one of the greatest users of such a library would be the rural schools due to their limited source of reading and research materials. The boys and the girls who attended the rural schools needed the advantage of a good library worse than the town schools because the rural teachers had so many grades and so many classes to teach. Teachers couldn’t give each child the necessary time and find the needed resources as those in the cities. It also provided much needed teacher resource materials.
Upon vote passage, the county court would appoint a five member board which would include the county superintendent of the schools as an ex-official. It would be his/her duty to employ a trained librarian who had a four-year college degree in library work plus a year’s training as a librarian in an accredited school.
Other than the library tax, the library was to be free to the public. Daviess County would get its proportional share of state aid for the next fiscal year based on the population it served.
In reality, the citizens were already paying the tax, because they were paying money into the state treasury, some of which was still being used as state aid for libraries. Also included in the package was the price of a bookmobile which would range in cost from $2,500 to $3,000.
One year later, readers over the county had utilized approximately 55,000 books. Adult readers of the county checked out nearly 21,000 books. The ten book stations in the towns registered over 11,000 books, while in the Gallatin library they had utilized nearly 10,000 books.
As predicted, schools had been the big users. From September through February, rural schools used approximately 19,000 books as compared with 15,000 for the town schools.
More reading certificates were earned than ever before due partly to the bookmobile which visited every town and county school once a month.
Pupils could go directly to the unit and select their own books under the supervision of the teacher and the librarian. The town schools had student committees who made the book selections with the help of the librarian. Valuable reference material was available for teachers to utilize in their lesson plans, and almost 100% of the teachers had read at least two professional books.
Most school superintendents reported hundreds of dollars had been saved in textbook fees. In closing, the superintendent at Jameson said, “Our only trouble is that we can’t get the books back fast enough. When our students take them home, the whole family reads them. We could use more books than we have.” Similarly, the superintendent at Pattonsburg said, “The library has reduced our school budget by $500 this year, besides giving us three times the services. For the first time, my teachers are able to make assignments and know they’ll have enough material.”