Below is a portion of the March 1947 article in the Lethbridge Herald:
In the gray-shaded below, scan my more-detailed listing of these woodworking books from the article above. When you look at it, I doubt that you will conclude that the books on the list has the look of books selected randomly by a worker in the Lethbridge Public Library simply to alert citizens of Lethbridge and the rural areas surrounding this foothills city, south of Calgary, Alberta. Mary Hazel Bletcher was librarian at LPL from 1920-1953, strongly suggesting that she is responsible for the events of 1938 and 1947, reported on below.
Lethbridge in 1947:
The jpg below with the description of the Alberta foothill city of Lethbridge below comes from the 1962 edition of the single-volume Columbia Encyclopedia. I picked it as a source on Lethbridge in the 1940s, primarily because of its proximity in the den here at home where I work. And although 1962 is not 1947, the 1962 account -- in truth, probably late 1950s -- gives a close enough description of this smallish Canadian city to allow you to form a mental image about it.
[Personal note: I was 11 years old in 1947, and lived in the next province to the east, Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan's geographical terrain is flatter, perhaps, but the demographics of Western Canada are basically the same. A mosaic of peoples from a wide range of nations, mostly northern and eastern Europe, and at the time (1947) mostly engaged in agriculture, or other similar jobs, none of which yet required special education. In general, the level of education of most of the population did not yet reflect the rapid increase in higher education, starting in the 1950s -- but especially the 1960s and later -- that took place on both sides of the 49th parallel. Thus, from my perspective, in that era, woodworking as a hobby was a luxury, not engaged in by anybody except a privileged few.]
An extended list of the 29 Carpentry and woodworking books available at the Lethbridge Public Library follow in gray-shaded box -- (As time allows I will link most of these titles to their respective entries in the woodworker's manuals section)
The article, "Library Works On Woodwork", lists 29 books on a range of woodworking activities, but includes only each book's title and the author's last name, which, taken together, is not very much information to go on, especially if you are only just starting out in woodworking. Instead, what is intended by Lethbridge Public Library is to merely "wet the appetite" of interested Lethbridge-ites.As explained above, most of these titles are recommended in the Standard Catalog for Public Libraries, and for those readers curious enough about why I am concerned about this, using material gleaned from the Internet, I have prepared a "quick-and-dirty" account:
What is meant by the Standard Catalog for Public Libraries?
A. M E Ahern Libraries 1931 Page 136["... Social Science Supplement the second supplement to the Social sciences of the Standard Catalog for Public Libraries has just been published by HW Wilson ..."]B. Harold Garfield Russell, Raymond Howard Shove, Blanche E. Moen The Use of Books and Libraries - Page 77 - 1933 - 128 pages["... selection of the best guidebooks to the various countries and principal cities of the world, see the Standard Catalog for Public Libraries, 1949. ...]C. Lester Asheim, Humanities & the Library: Problems in the Interpretation, Evaluation and Use of Library Materials - Page 90 1957["Such tools as the Standard Catalog for Public Libraries, the Shaw List of Books for College Libraries, and similar publications will serve to identify the ..."]D. Ralph Robert Shaw Libraries of Metropolitan Toronto: A Study of Library Service Prepared for the Library Trustees ... - Page 36 - 1960 - 98 pages["... books for checking was taken from the Standard Catalog for Public Libraries for recent starred and double starred items in these subject categories. ...]E. Jerrold Orne Report of a Survey of the Kirkwood Public Library for the Library Board of the Kirkwood Missouri ... - Page 20 by - 1951["The fundamental took used by all public libraries is the Standard Catalog for Public Libraries published by the H,W. Wilson Company, now in a new edition ...']F. Lydia Margaret Barrette, There is No End - Page 95 - 1961 - 167 pages[HW Wilson Co., ...also publishers of Standard Catalog for Public Libraries, has published "Basic Books," chosen for various groups as a guide to core collections,... "]
G. Cecil John McHale The Lansing Public Library: A Survey of Its Public and School Services - Page 52 by - 1943 - 74 pages["In doing this I used as basis for comparison the Standard Catalog for Public Libraries, 1940 edition. In addition, I selected at random the library's ..."]
H. Edward Allen Wight, Leroy Charles Merritt Public Library Service in Pacific Grove: A Report of a Study of the Organization, Services and ... - Page 22 1957["Standard Catalog for Public Libraries ... lists only those titles which a large panel of public libraries agree are not only ..."]
I. William Arthur Munford Three Thousand Books for a Public Library - Page 17, 1939 - 188 pages["A carefully chosen selection of about 15000 items is the Standard Catalog for public libraries, NY, HW Wilson, 1940. ..."]