Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Sunday magazine section ran a feature headlined “Remarkable Growth of Public Library in Spokane” extolling the virtues of the local library system.

“The Spokane public library is the greatest and most aggressive single educative agent in the city today,” said the paper.

It called the library a “27-brain-power machine” (referring to its 27-person staff), under the direction of “a little, calm, quiet man in gray,” city librarian George W. Fuller.

The story claimed that Fuller had “put Spokane on the map as one of the great library cities of America.”

It was not always in such an exemplary state. The story said that the library was formerly an “old-maid institution … a mere book station.”

Fuller put less reliance on “light fiction” and vastly increased the number of “useful, practical books.” The library, said the story, had become “the business man’s friend.”

And it was also serving the needs of its tiniest patrons. The children’s librarian was “a wonderfully efficient story teller, to whom the children throng in scores for their weekly story hours.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1962: Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors in a game against the New York Knicks, an NBA record that still stands. Philadelphia won 169-147.