Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1942)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

19 If Films serve book centers in variety of situations GERALD D. McDONALD OVER thirty years ago, before his community had a motion picture theatre, an enterprising librarian bought a projector and began to show films at schools and at club meetings. Since then, in isolated instances, the motion picture and the library have carried on a modest, hesitant flirtation. The most familiar evidence of the attachment has been in library exhibitions and in lists of outstanding films. But a more significant development can be found in the increased interest shown by all types of libraries in non theatrical films. When educational films first began to appear in 16mm., and when the portable 16mm. projector became standard for classroom use, school libraries were occasionally — but not often — asked to take charge of films and equipment that were owned by the schools. Today, not only a considerable number of school libraries, but also two public libraries, one county library, one regional library and one State library, own films which they circulate much as they do books. Other libraries, in their adult education activities, have borrowed films or have assisted in planning film programs. For the duration of the present war, public libraries in Great Britain have been lent 100 projectors by the Ministry of Information. Acting as community intelligence centers, they show the short films which have been made to inform and to strengthen the morale of the British people. In this country, a somewhat similar activity is under way. Several libraries are planning to show a series of educational and "documentary" films. These film forums, devoted to the subject, What We Are Defending, will serve as a basis for discussion and study of timely problems. A library's ability to serve its community depends on how well people know what the library has to offer. Because of this necessity to tell its story, some libraries have produced films. Many of them have given a general picture of library service or have illustrated how to use the library. Others have attempted to win public support for better appropriations. It is not surprising that the first library films were made in California, but it is remarkable that this event happened as early as 1915. Since that time, and especially in the past two years, the library has lost its camera shyness. So many libraries have made films that a skit was recently written, satirizing the library of tomorrow, when the applicant for a library position is no longer asked if she is trained in book service. She need not know how to read, for that matter, if she turns out to be "photogenic"! An interesting library film, Portrait of a Library, was made in 1940 by the Montclair (N. J.) Public Library, on a grant from the Agnes Osborne Fund. This fund, to spread international understanding, was employed in the film to show people in other countries what an American public library is like and what sort of feeling a community has for its library. [Continued on page 31]