100 Years Ago This Week: Dec. 5-12

From The Indianapolis Times, Wednesday, December 9, 1914: The manner in which the city public library branches are meeting the thirst for knowledge and supplying good reading in the humblest homes, was related to the board of school commissioners by Eliza G. Browning, librarian. “There are hundreds of readers in our libraries who have no homes to which to take a book or no light to read by.” At a branch library a young woman returned a book to the desk at closing time saying, “It is wonderful to come to the library and read by electric lights.” Miss Browning reported there are over 36,000 cards now in use — one for each eight city inhabitant, and nearly 200,000 volumes available for public use. New central library plans, to be erected on ground given by James Whitcomb Riley, are developing slowly.