Library History - Custead Era, 1914-1945 | Celia M. Hastings Local History Room

Early Custead Era: The World War I Years, Mid-1914 to 1921 (Centennial Research Digest: PML History in Summary Form, Part III), by Mark Rothenberg (Patchogue-Medford Library. [Celia M. Hastings] Local History Room; PML Centennial Collection, 2000.)
Brownie Dowd Valentine's 1914 Kindergarten Class, Taught that Year in the Library Basement, Due to School Overcrowding [Shown Here at the Front Door of the Carnegie Library] [photo]
Alma Custead and Staff, Carnegie Library, late 1920's or early 1930's -- Miss Custead, on left, headed and guided Patchogue's Carnegie Library, as [Head] Librarian [then equivalent of Director] from the eve of World War I (July 1914), to just after the end of World War II (Dec. 1945), through the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression (in between). She was the dynamo who helped coalesce the County's libraries into a cohesive library association (which still exists), becoming their first president, in 1939. She created the first countywide catalog (1942) and brought it to her library; made sure her own collections responded to changing community needs, built an exceptional reference collection, expanded services, and created the impetus that would eventually lead to a countywide library system and the library becoming a state-designated central library for the county. She also brought county and state-wide library training workshops, meetings, and conventions to the community.
The Meteoric Rise and Fall of the Medford Scout Library (1927-1930)
1937 Holiday Book Display, Children's Room (Carnegie Library) [photo] (Patchogue-Medford Library. Celia M. Hastings Local History Room. Centennial Collection)