CHAPTER 19

The Library Action Committee Meets Again

AFTER CALLING THE MEETING TO ORDER AT 11:04 A.M., Chairperson Gloria LeClerc asked for committee reports.

Terpsichore read her report on library operations. “The Library Action Committee placed announcements for the new story times on the community bulletin board. By the second Saturday, Miss Terpsichore Johnson had fourteen in attendance for her picture book story time, which included Angus and the Ducks, Raggedy Ann Stories, and Millions of Cats. Miss Gloria LeClerc also reported eleven listeners for the second chapter of Smoky the Cowhorse, loaned to the committee by Cally and Polly Johnson.”

Mendel stood to read his treasurer’s report. “After just two weeks Mr. Mendel Theodore Peterson has collected one hundred thirty-seven soda bottles with his Bottles for Books drive, mostly from the CCC workers. The bottles were turned in to the commissary for two cents apiece, for a total of $2.74. Miss Gloria LeClerc’s beauty service has earned $2.90, and Miss Terpsichore Johnson has earned $2.40 with her diaper laundry business. She said there probably would be a big demand for diaper washing and asked if Mr. Peterson or Miss LeClerc wanted to earn money for the library by washing diapers too. Mr. Peterson and Miss LeClerc both declined.”

Mendel sat back down. “With our $8.04 we could get a subscription to Scientific American and still have money left over for something fun, like Amazing Stories.”

Gloria LeClerc opened the floor to general discussion, and called first on herself. “But how many people want to read Scientific American? If we want a magazine more people would read, I still think we should have Modern Screen or Photoplay.”

Terpsichore said, “If somebody wants a ten-cent movie magazine she could get it herself. I think we should save up for something nobody could get on their own, like a set of World Book encyclopedias. And we need basic supplies, like date-due cards and a date stamp and ink pad. I wrote to Miss Thompson, the librarian in Little Bear Lake, and she sent me her old Demco library supply catalog and a World Book brochure.”

Terpsichore took out a folded brochure from between pages of the Demco catalog and opened it up on the table. “See? The nineteen thirty-three edition of the World Book Encyclopedia has nineteen volumes. It has science stuff and it has articles about movie stars.”

“But not as many pictures as Photoplay,” Gloria said.

“True, but there’s something for everybody in it,” Terpsichore said.

Mendel leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “How much is it?”

Terpsichore cleared her throat. “Well, we have a choice of three bindings. The cheapest is the green cloth, which is sixtynine dollars, but I think we should get the set with the blue buckram stamped with a leather grain. That’s seventy-nine dollars.” Terpsichore caressed the picture of the set bound in red. “The red binding is the prettiest, but that’s eighty-nine dollars. I know that one’s too much.”

“They’re all too much!” Mendel said. “This is an action committee, and I think we should have some action before we’re all snowbound for the winter. There’s too much competition for bottle collecting, and once it gets colder, who’s going to want to walk around all day with wet hair in bobby pins?” He paused a moment to emphasize his last point. “And how long are you going to put up with poopy diapers?” Mendel asked.

Terpsichore wasn’t sure either.

“Maybe we should think of the best ways to use the money we have,” Gloria said.

“What’s a library without a set of encyclopedias?” Terpsichore said.

“Forget the encyclopedias,” Mendel said. “It’s impossible.”

“It’s not impossible, just difficult,” Terpsichore said. “President Roosevelt said we have to have faith that we can control our destinies.” She leaned over the table toward Mendel. “And I think we should have faith that we can somehow earn enough money for the encyclopedias.”

Mendel leaned forward too. Their noses were almost touching.

“How about buying a World Almanac instead?” Gloria asked. “An almanac has lots of facts.”

Terpsichore tucked her encyclopedia brochure back into the Demco supply catalog. Opening the catalog to one of the pages she had dog-eared, she said, “Could we at least order some supplies, like this date-due stamp and ink pad, library paste and india ink, cellophane mending tape, and these book pockets and date-due cards?”

Mendel slid the catalog around to where he could read it. “Paying fifty-nine cents for date-due cards is ridiculous. Three-by-five index cards would work just as well and they’re a lot cheaper. And a pocket might cover up part of a magazine somebody wanted to read. Can’t you just paper clip an index card to the front?”

Terpsichore thought about last year, when she’d helped her school librarian. She loved the feel of the wooden pen with the metal nib as she dipped it into the darkest of dark india ink. She loved the smell of library paste, the satisfying thump of a date-due stamp onto the ink pad, and the look of the date on an official date-due card.

Mendel slid the catalog back. “All this fancy-schmancy library stuff? I don’t give a tinker’s dam—”

“Don’t swear!”

“D-a-m, not d-a-m-n. Tinker’s dam isn’t swearing. A tinker used to use a temporary ridge of clay to help patch a hole in a pan or teakettle or whatever he was soldering back together to keep the solder where it was needed. When he was through, he scraped off the dam and it was useless. When I say something isn’t worth a tinker’s dam, I’m saying it isn’t worth diddly.”

“You—you insufferable pedant! I don’t care about the origin of tinker’s dam. It still sounds like swearing, and supplies aren’t diddly!” Terpsichore scooped up her catalog and held it protectively against her chest.

“I joined this committee to get stuff to read, not to buy stampers and india ink so you can play library lady.”

The meeting of the Library Action Committee was adjourned at 11:57, but before doing so they voted, two to one, that subscriptions would be ordered for Scientific American and Modern Screen, and approved the expenditure of one dollar for stamps, stationery, and envelopes for the operations manager’s plan to solicit donations.