Eagle Archives, Nov. Her arrival is eagerly anticipated by the sick youngsters. Last Tuesday morning at the Pittsfield General Hospital, a group of bed-ridden children were slowly wheeled into a darkened second floor wardroom.
On entering, their faces brightened. They were about to see another movie brought to them by the Berkshire Athenaeum's hospital library service. Only a part of a rapidly growing program which reaches into the wards and rooms of the city's hospitals and the Berkshire School for Crippled Children, the films provide an added amusement for ill youngsters. Twice weekly, the hospital librarian, Mrs. Sol Toscher, appears at each of Pittsfield's three hospitals with her projector and the latest motion pictures.
Her arrival is always eagerly anticipated by the sick kids. The Athenaeum's special lending services started in when a few discarded books were distributed to the different hospitals.
Often, the patients never knew the service was available. Today, modern library equipment and expanded facilities combine to bring many hours of relaxation and reading pleasure to the ill. Activities of the library's hospital department are not necessarily confined to children. While the motion picture part of the program is primarily for the youngsters, there are several other services offered to adults. The latest of these is a ceiling book projector, recently donated to the cause by the Pittsfield Lions Club.
Through this machine, microfilmed book pages are projected on the ceiling so that non-ambulatory patients may also catch up on their reading. To operate, the ailing person need only push a button. For those hospitalized any length of time there are separate libraries at Pittsfield General, St. Luke's and Hillcrest. Old titles are replaced and the supply is augmented from the Athenaeum's collection. Each hospital has a mobile library truck on which books are carted from floor to floor.
