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"Bricks without straw" is an expression that means to make do with insufficient resources. It is also an apt description of the challenges facing the Chicago Public Library during the early years of the Depression. The library was forced to limp along with a fraction of its normal funding. This article explores how the library coped with such difficult financial circumstances and how, in some ways, it ultimately emerged as an innovative, community-oriented institution.
In the early 1930s, Chicago was on the brink of collapse. As unemployment soared above an estimated 30 percent, cash-strapped city agencies and private charitable organizations were unable to meet die overwhelming demand for services. Desperate crowds took to the streets demanding jobs, better wages, and relief but were instead met by tear gas and police.1 The financial fortunes of the Chicago Public Library (CPL) rapidly declined along with the city. As early as January 1930, the library administration predicted a 20 percent budget shortfall. The initial response was to release personnel and reduce branch library hours, so the CPL eliminated over 20 percent of the staff (229 jobs) from the payroll, and die library branches that served Chicago's many neighborhoods closed their doors four hours earlier tiian before. Responding to community demands, die decision to reduce branch hours was soon reversed, and many staff members were rehired, albeit at reduced salaries.2
Unwilling or unable to curtail services, the library administration was forced to look to the collections budget for savings. In May 1931 all book ordering ceased. An institution that normally expended over $200,000 annually on collections simply stopped acquiring new materials. However, this drastic measure proved insufficient. Invoices for rent, coal, bookbinding, and other expenses went unpaid, and die library slipped further into debt with each passing day.3 In a 1932 letter, chief librarian Carl B. Roden summarized the dire situation: "We are afflicted by the worst financial hardship we have ever suffered. We have bought no books for eight months, the magazine subscriptions for 1932 were cancelled. . . . No budget for the current year has been attempted and the prospects of funds for even our curtailed activities are, at this writing, far from encouraging."4 Responding to one of many inquiries about an unpaid bill, Roden...