CLASSICS OF JMERICAN LIBRARIANSHIP 
 
 LIBRARY AND SCHOOL 
 
Classics of American Librarianship 
 
 Edited by ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, Ph.D. 
 
 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN 
 
 THE LIBRARY AND THE 
 
 PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
 
 REPRINTS OF PAPERS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 WITH NOTES BY 
 ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, Ph.D. 
 
 THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY 
 
 WHITE PLAINS. N. Y.. and NEW YORK CITY 
 
 1914 
 
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 SCHOOL 
 
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PREFACE 
 
 This volume is the first of a projected series on the 
 Classics of American Librarianship. The title is intended 
 to show clearly the scope and purpose of the work. A 
 classic is not necessarily up to date. It is not necessarily 
 interesting reading at the present day. It is something 
 that has marked a stage of progress; that has affected 
 and altered modes of thought and methods of work, or 
 has reflected in some way such alterations, thereby be- 
 coming of permanent -value. The papers gathered in 
 these volumes will be in many cases out of date, but each, 
 it is believed, has played its part, eitlier in making the 
 modern library what it is or in chronicluig the changes 
 that have brought it about, at the very time when those 
 changes were made. 
 
 It is part of the plan of the w')rk 'o give the exact 
 words of the various writers quoted. Extraneous mat- 
 ter has been omitted here and there, but such omissions 
 are always indicated and nothing is given in paraphrase 
 or abstract. Brief explanatory m\tter has been inserted 
 where it appeared to be necessary. 
 
 Everything here reprinted is accessible somewhere to 
 somebody, but there is a good reason for making it all 
 accessible in one collected fomi to everybody. The class- 
 ics of our profession are little read, for the reason that 
 they are scattered. It may not be presumptuous to hope 
 that an attempt, however inadequate, to collect and classi- 
 fy them, will meet the approval of librarians. 
 
6 ' ';' • "- PREFACE 
 
 In response to what seems to be a general demand, this 
 first volume of the series has been devoted to the relations 
 'between the library and the school. Upon the reception 
 accorded to it will depend the further continuance of the 
 enterprise. 
 
 I desire to acknowledge the kind advice and assist- 
 ance of library-school authorities, and in particular the 
 aid of Miss Effie L. Power, Supervisor of Children's 
 work in the St. Louis Public Library, which has been of 
 great value in the selection and grouping of the material. 
 
 Arthur E. Bostwick. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Preface 5 
 
 Co-operation between Libraries and Schools : an Historical 
 
 Sketch. (Library Journal, 1901, p. 187.) 11 
 
 Josephine A. Rathbone. 
 
 The Public Library and the Public School. (Library Jour- 
 nal, 1876, p. 437.) 23 
 
 Chas, Francis Adams, Jr. 
 
 The School and the Library: their Mutual Relation. (Li- 
 brary Journal, 1879, p. 319.) 33 
 
 William E. Foster. 
 
 The Relation of the Public Library to the Public Schools. 
 
 (Library Journal, 1880, p. 225.) . .• 45 
 
 Samuel S. Green. 
 
 Libraries as Related to the Educational Work of the State. 
 
 (Library Notes, p. 333.) 63 
 
 Melvil Dewey. 
 
 Use of the Public Library in the Cleveland Public Schools. 
 
 (JJbrary Journal, 1892, Conference no., p. 3.) 85 
 
 William H. Brett. 
 
 The Public Library and the Public Schools. (Educational 
 
 Rez'ieiv, Nov., 1894.) 89 
 
 George W. Peckham. 
 
8 CONTENTS 
 
 The Public Library and the Public School. (N. Y. State 
 Teachers' Assn. Proceedings, 1895, p. 23.) 95 
 
 William R. Eastman. 
 
 Report on Reading for the Young. (Library Journal, 1894, 
 
 Conference no., p. 81.) 109 
 
 LuTiE E. Stearns. 
 
 The Child, the School and the Library. (Library Journal, 
 
 1896, p. I34-) 125 
 
 Linda A. Eastman. 
 
 Function of the School in Introducing Children to the 
 Proper Use of Books. (N. E. A. Proceedings, 1899, P- 
 472:) 139 
 
 Charles A. McMurry. 
 
 The Librarian's Spirit and Method in Working with the 
 
 Schools. (N. E. A. Proceedings, 1899, p. 515.) 153 
 
 John Cotton Dana. 
 
 The School and the Library; the Value of Literature in 
 Early Education. (N. E. A. Proceedings, 1901, p. 108.).. 167 
 Frederick M. Crunden. 
 
 Public Library Books in Public Schools. (Library Journal, 
 
 1900, p. 163.) 183 
 
 Henry L. Elmendorf. 
 
 The School Library Question in New York City. (Library 
 
 Journal, 1905, p. 211.) 191 
 
 Mathilde C. Ford. 
 
 Library Visits to Public Schools. (Library Journal, TCp2, 
 
 p. 181.) 2or 
 
 Annie Carroll Moore. 
 
CONTENTS 9 
 
 TIow to Make the Library More Serviceable to Students of 
 School Age: from the Library Worker's Viewpoint. (N. 
 
 E. A. Proceedings, 1908, p. 1 104.) j^q 
 
 Effje L. Power. 
 
 Instruction in the Use of Books in a Normal School. 
 
 (Public Libraries, 1898, p. 151.) 269 
 
 Irene Warren. 
 
 Vitalizing the Relation between the Library and the School. 
 
 (Library Journal, 1901, p. /8.) 275 
 
 May H. Prentice. 
 
 A Library Course Given to City Normal School Students. 
 
 (Library Journal, 1906, p. 160.) 281 
 
 Linda M. Clatworthy. 
 
 How Far Should Courses in Normal Schools and Teachers' 
 Colleges Seek to Acquaint all Teachers with the Ways of 
 Organizing and Using School Libraries? (Library Jour- 
 nal, 1908, p. 305.) 289 
 
 David Felmley. 
 
 Methods to be Used by Libraries Working with Schools to 
 Encourage the Use of Real Literature. (A. L. A. Pro- 
 ceedings, 1907, p. 289,) 299 
 
 Mary D. McCurdy. 
 
 The Library as a Reinforcement of the School. (Public 
 
 Libraries, 1911, p. 131.) 307 
 
 Wm. Dawson Johnston. 
 
 Some Old Forgotten School Libraries. (Library Journal, 
 
 1904, p. 175.) 315 
 
 Elizabeth G. Baldwin. 
 
 Index 325 
 
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE 
 LIBRARY AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
 
 CO-OPERATION BETAVEEN LII'.UARIES AND 
 SCHOOLS: AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 The necessity for an introduction to this subject by 
 the Editor is in large part obviated by the existence of a 
 historical sketch by Josephine Adams Rathbone, now vice- 
 director of the Pratt Institute Library school, read be- 
 fore the Long Island Library Club on Eeb. 7, 1901. This 
 brings the history of the subject down to that date, mak- 
 ing it necessary only to summarize, at the close of the 
 sketch, the events of the thirteen subsequent years. Miss 
 Rathbone's sketch follows: 
 
 The year 1876 is usually taken as the starting-point of 
 what we call the "modern library movement." In it the 
 Library Journal was born, the American Library Asso- 
 sociation was founded, the great Government report on li- 
 braries issued, and in that year we find recorded the first 
 suggestion of the good to be derived from a possible co- 
 operation between libraries and schools. The discovery of 
 this possibility was made not by a librarian or a teacher, but 
 by a man to whose wisdom and insight the country owes 
 much besides, Charles Francis Adams, Jr. In an address 
 before the teachers of Quincy, Mass., printed in the Li- 
 brary Journal, vol. i, p. 437, Mr. Adams says — calling 
 attention to the danger of teaching children how to read 
 without giving them at the same time a love for good read- 
 
12 JOSEPHINE ADAMS RATHBONE 
 
 ing: "I do not know that what I am about to suggest has 
 been attempted anywhere, but I feel great confidence that 
 it would succeed. Having started the child by means of 
 what we call a common school course, the process of further 
 self-education is to begin. The great means is through 
 much reading of books. But we teach children to read; we 
 do not teach them how to read. That, the one all-important 
 thing, the great connecting link between education and self 
 education, between means and end — that one link we make 
 no effort to supply. As long as we do not make an effort 
 to supply it, our school system in its result is, and will re- 
 main miserably deficient. For now, be it remembered, the 
 child of the poorest man in Quincy has an access as free as 
 the son of a millionaire or the student of Harvard College 
 to what is, for. practical general use, a perfect library. Yet 
 though the school and library stand on our main street side 
 by side, there is, so to speak, no bridge leading from the one 
 to the other." 
 
 To the building of this bridge Mr. Adams contributed in 
 very large measure. Until 1879 the indexes of the Library 
 Journal throw no light on the subject, though doubtless 
 work was done and thought expended upon it. At the con- 
 ference of the American Library Association in Boston, 
 1879, the reading of children was discussed and Mr. Foster, 
 of Providence, read a paper on "The school and library, their 
 mutual relations" — the purpose of the article being "to cite 
 some of the reasons why co-operation between the school 
 and library is desirable and necessary." Effective co-opera- 
 tion, he says, presupposes three things: mutual understand- 
 ing, mutual acquaintance, and mutual action. 
 
 The need felt by the teacher was voiced at this same 
 meeting by R. C. Metcalf, Master of Wells School, Boston, 
 in an article on "Reading in public schools." Having indi- 
 cated how I would cultivate the taste and direct the choice 
 of the pupil, Mr. Metcalf says, "It only remains to suggest 
 how, in my opinion, the public library can be made a great 
 public benefit, rather than what it too frequently is, a great 
 public nuisance. So long as our pupils are allowed free ac- 
 cess to a public library without direction as to choice, either 
 
CO-OPERATION 13 
 
 by parent, teacher, or librarian, we can look for no good 
 results." Again, complaining of the distance between schools 
 and the library, and the lack of branch libraries, he says: 
 "Some plan must be devised whereby the principal or teacher 
 can draw from the library such books as his pupils may need, 
 and deliver them at his desk whenever the school work sug- 
 gests their use." This meeting, at which for the first time- 
 librarians and teachers were brought together to compare 
 needs and opportunities, had doubtless very great influence. 
 The first record which gives the result of actual experi-l 
 ence in carrying on this work is found in a paper read by 
 Mr. S. S. Green, librarian of the Worcester Public Library, at' 
 a meeting of the American Social Science Association in 
 1880. Mr. Green tells of a conference between the superin- 
 tendent of the public schools, a member of the school com- 
 mittee, who was also a member of the board of directors of 
 the public library, the principal of the normal school, and 
 the librarian of the public library, in the fall of 1879. These 
 gentlemen decided that the school studies could be made 
 more interesting and profitable by the aid of the library 
 and proceeded to consider practical means by which this re- 
 sult could be accomplished. Geography was selected as the 
 first subject of the experiment; the teachers of the /th, 8th, 
 and 9th grades were addressed by the librarian who set forth 
 the plan and asked them to select a country they would like 
 to have illustrated in this way. A meeting was then held in 
 the library when the librarian explained to the teachers of 
 these grades the use that could be made of a group of books 
 of travel in connection with the geography of the country 
 selected. The librarian then asked them to keep him in- 
 formed from time to time of the countries to be studied, 
 that he might keep books on hand suitable for school use. 
 The work was started at once; the library issued two kinds 
 of cards, one for the benefit of the teachers themselves, the 
 other to be used by the teachers for the benefit of the schol- 
 ars, six books (a number that seems to have been adopted 
 by libraries as a standard) to be taken out on the former and 
 twelve on the latter. The teachers were also invited to bring 
 their classes to the library from time to time, for the pur- 
 
14 JOSEPHINE ADAMS RATHBONE 
 
 pose of seeing large collections of books, pictures and other 
 objects bearing on some subject they were studying. This 
 article setting forth the methods actually used and found 
 successful, stimulated other libraries to attempt the same 
 kind of work. By 1882 the movement was under headway; / 
 reports appear in the Library Journal from Indianapolis,/ 
 Middletown, Ct., Chicago, Buffalo, Cincinnati; in 1883, Mil- 
 waukee, and Gloversville, N. Y., report of their work. 
 The preparation of catalogs of children's books, visits of 
 teachers and classes to the library for talks about books, and 
 the issue of books for use in the schoolroom are the means 
 of co-operation reported on at this time. Mr. Green gives 
 detailed reports in the Journal both for 1882 and 1883 of the 
 growth of the work in Worcester. Among the meth- 
 ods used, beside those spoken of in this article of 1880, is 
 the connection formed with the high school. Squads of ten 
 boys and girls who were studying Greek and Roman history 
 were sent to the library during school hours to look at the 
 books, pictures, etc., illustrative of Greek and Roman an- 
 tiquities, the scholars being required to write descriptions 
 of the objects seen. The librarian met the scholars person- 
 ally and took the occasion to see that they were using the 
 books properly, showing them the uses of indexes, tables 
 of contents, page headings, etc. Bulletins of new books were 
 sent to the schools and a copy of the library catalog placed 
 in each room. 
 
 In 1885 a report was made to the American Library As- 
 sociation on the work with schools done by libraries through- 
 out the country. Reports were received from 75 libraries, 
 37 of which reported that official connection had been made 
 with the schools, special privileges being granted teachers 
 and pupils and direct efforts made to add interest to the 
 school work. Miss Hannah P. James, the compiler, sums 
 up the possibilities suggested by the report: 
 
 1. That the librarian should confer with the teachers to 
 convince them of his desire and ability to help them, 
 
 2. That teachers should be allowed to take any suitable 
 books for use in school work. 
 
CO-OPERATION 15 
 
 3. That teachers be supplied with ai)i)lications to dis- 
 tribute to pupils. 
 
 4. Teachers should be induced to inform the librarian 
 as to the courses of study to he pursued, that lists of use- 
 ful and interesting books be made for use of school. 
 
 5. Such lists to be printed and distributed or posted in 
 school. 
 
 6. Lists of juvenile books arranged in attractive general 
 courses to be posted in the library and printed in the papers. 
 
 7. Collections of wholesome books to be sent to class 
 rooms. 
 
 In 1887 Mr. Green reports that he had placed in four of 
 the higher grades of the school libraries of about 100 vol- 
 umes. This experiment was tried in Milwaukee in 1888 with 
 marked success. A report from Cleveland in 1891 records 
 the success of the experiment of placing small libraries of 
 about 50 volumes in 61 school-rooms. The books were 
 simply charged to the teacher, one of the library assistants 
 visiting each room once a month to check up the books. The 
 books were issued to the pupils for home reading. The 
 teachers were enthusiastic over the value of the experiment 
 and unanimous in their desire for its continuance. 
 
 The subject was given a prominent place at the meeting 
 of the Library Association at Chicago in 1893. It is gratify- 
 ing to note the growing sentiment in favor of doing aw^ay 
 with restrictions and allowing the teachers as many books 
 as they may need. 
 
 In 1894 Miss Stearns, then of the Milwaukee Public Li 
 brary, made a report before the A. L. A. on children's reading 
 that has had far reaching results. Questions touching all 
 points connected with children's reading were sent to 195 
 libraries, and replies received from 145. The points especially 
 emphasized were the advisability of abolishing the age limit 
 for children, the limitations on the number of books loaned 
 to teachers, and desirability of circulating pictures as well 
 as books to the schools, and — of greatest moment to librari- 
 ans — the subject of a special room for children and an at- 
 tendant who should have the supervision over their reading. 
 It would be hard to overestimate the effect of this suggestive, 
 
 ing ' 
 
i6 JOSEPHINE ADAMS RATHBONE 
 
 stimulating paper. From it may be dated the general estab- 
 lishment of children's rooms, of a course for the training 
 of children's librarians, in two of the leading library schools, 
 and a growing interest in and study of children's books, all 
 of which has done much towards preparing librarians for 
 the more intelligent performance of their share of the co- 
 operative work with the schools. 
 
 Turning for a moment to the other side, what has been 
 done by the schools in the direction of promoting closer re- 
 lations with libraries? Looking through the volumes of Ed- 
 ucation, I find up to 1889 only one mention of the subject, 
 and that a casual reference, in an article on the Quincy 
 methods, to the assistance rendered by the library in mak- 
 ing out a list of books for the schools. 
 
 In 1889, a school superintendent suggested, in an article 
 on the teaching of literature, that the teachers take their 
 classes to the library periodically and that they borrow books 
 from the library for use in the class-rooms. In the same 
 volume, however, is an extract from an article by Mr. Melvil 
 Dewey in Library Notes for June, 1888, on "Libraries as re- 
 lated to the educational work of the state," which was ac- 
 companied by the editorial suggestion that the article would 
 repay reading by any thoughtful reader. 
 
 In 1880 Mr. Charles Francis Adams read a paper before 
 the National Education Association on "School superinten- 
 dency," in which — speaking of the Quincy schools — he says: 
 "We try now to treat the child throughout as a moral, rea- 
 soning being, and not as an automaton, and so we begin 
 with Froebel's method and end with the public library. They 
 are both factors in our Quincy common schools now, only 
 the library is far the more important factor of the two." 
 
 The first paper distinctly on the subject of the library 
 and the school was presented before the association in 1887 
 by Mr. Thomas J. Morgan, principal of the state normal 
 school of Providence, R. I. It dealt chiefly with the neces- 
 sity of teaching the pupil how to use books, indexes, refer- 
 ences, etc., noting in passing that in Providence, Worcester, 
 and other cities, sets of books can be taken from the public 
 library, for school use. 
 
CO-OPERATION 17 
 
 In 1888 it is noted in an article on directing pupil's read- 
 ing, that "the school or city library, be it large or small, if 
 rightly used will prove an incalculable benefit." Talks about 
 books by competent guides and carefully prepared lists are 
 mentioned as among the possible means by which benefit may 
 be derived. 
 
 The first complete presentation of the subject before 
 the association was in 1892 when Mr. Brett, librarian of the 
 Cleveland Public Library, read a paper on "The relations 
 of the public library to the public schools." After a brief 
 historic summary and description of work done in Worcester, 
 Milwaukee, and other libraries, he gives in detail the work 
 of his own library, which work had its beginning in a re- 
 mark made by one of the supervising principals on the 
 marked superiority in general information, shown by the 
 pupils of a school situated near the library over those of 
 another far away, which she felt could be accounted for only 
 by the fact of their use of the library. This led to the send- 
 ing of a few books to some of the more distant schools, in 
 order to place books in the hands of children who could not 
 reach the library, but the plan was so successful, and de- 
 veloped so many unexpected advantages that Mr. Brett de- 
 clared himself in favor of using this method of placing books 
 in the hands of pupils even if the school-house stood next 
 door to the library. 
 
 In the Educational Journal for November 1894, appeared 
 an article by Dr. Peckham on the work with schools done 
 by the Milwaukee Library. This attracted great attention 
 in the school world and did as much perhaps as any one 
 thing to awaken an interest in the subject on the part of 
 teachers throughout the country. The library received scores 
 of letters asking for particulars about the work. 
 
 In 1896 an important step was taken by the National 
 Educational Association. A petition requesting the estab- 
 lishment of a Library Department was presented by Melvil 
 Dewey and was unanimously adopted. It was stated that 
 its field "should cover fully school and pedagogic libraries 
 but that its great work should be the practical recognition 
 that education is no longer for youth, and for a limited 
 
i8 JOSEPHINE ADAMS RATHBONE 
 
 course in a school, but that it is really a matter for adults a; 
 well as youth, for life not for the course, to be carried on a 
 home as well as in the school. . . . This means that edu 
 cation must be carried on by means of reading and that, i 
 the libraries are to furnish the books and give all necessary 
 help in their proper field, the schools must furnish the read 
 ers." 
 
 The American Library Association in the same year ap 
 pointed a committee to co-operate with the Library Depart 
 ment of the Educational Association. 
 
 In 1897 a committee of teachers and librarians wa; 
 formed to report on the relations of public libraries to th( 
 public schools, to indicate methods of co-operation by whicl 
 the usefulness of both may be increased. In 1898 the com 
 mittee made a preliminary report. The practical nature o 
 its work may be shown by the lists of subjects reported fo 
 investigation: 
 
 To make a careful examination of the relations now ex 
 isting. 
 
 To pursue this examination in such a way, through cir 
 culars and through the columns of the educational and librar: 
 papers, as to inform the greatest number of people of wha 
 is now being done. 
 
 To examine with care such questions as: 
 
 How to induce librarians to acquaint themselves witl 
 the needs of the school-room and teachers to make them 
 selves familiar with the possibilities of public libraries. 
 
 How to encourage normal schools to give more instruc 
 tion in the use of books and libraries. 
 
 How to induce high schools, colleges, and universities t( 
 establish "schools of the book." 
 
 How to promote the introduction of school-room li 
 braries. 
 
 How to induce more public libraries to open special de 
 partments for children and teachers. 
 
 How to increase the interest of parents in the readiuj 
 of their children. 
 
CO-OPERATION 19 
 
 How to make more accessible for parents and teachers 
 select and annotated lists of books for the young and how 
 to promote their use. 
 
 How to promote close relations throuj^^h mcetinj^s and 
 otherwise between teachers, parents, and librarians. 
 
 How to arrive at conclusions of value in regard to the 
 treatment of young people, as far as reading is concerned, 
 during the adolescent period. 
 
 How to convey to school boards and teachers in remote 
 districts a sense of their needs in the way of good books well 
 used, and information as to how such books can best be 
 secured. 
 
 The Committee made a thorough investigation of the sit- 
 uation along these lines and a full report was presented at 
 the annual meeting of the National Educational Association 
 in 1899. This report which is published by the association 
 in pamphlet form touches upon every aspect of co-operative 
 work, includes graded lists for supplemental reading and 
 school use, analyzes the work now being done in various 
 centers, and contains much practical advice both for librarian 
 and teacher. 
 
 Thus these two great factors of our educational system 
 have been brought together and the bridge suggested by 
 Mr. Adams 25 years ago has been made fast to its moorings 
 on either side. To the librarian's knowledge of the book is 
 joined the teacher's knowledge of the child and from this 
 combination there must result a power working for good, 
 the force of which cannot be estimated. 
 
 We will consider briefly one or two concrete examples 
 of work as carried on to-day. One of the most important 
 evidences of co-operation is the recent publication by the 
 Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh of a "Graded and annotated 
 catalog of books in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh for 
 the use of the city schools." In 1899 the librarian, Mr. Ander- 
 son, addressed the school principals to urge a more system- 
 atic organization of the work of the library with the schools. 
 A committee was appointed to co-operate with the librarian 
 and his assistants in the selection of a list of books suited 
 to the different grades supplemental to the ordinary text- 
 
20 , JOSEPHINE ADAMS RATHBONE 
 
 books. The following subjects were selected: Nature, Ge- 
 ography, History, Language, General literature, Art, Kinder- 
 garten, Pedagogy, and High school reading. A sub-commit- 
 tee was formed to cover each subject. The list is divided 
 into grades and by subject under each grade. Each entry 
 is annotated and repeated in full under each grade to which 
 it is assigned, and the work concludes with an author and 
 title index, the grade or grades being indicated by figures. 
 This catalog will be of use not only to the teachers of Pitts- 
 burgh, but to the librarians and teachers the country over. 
 Prefacing the list is a letter from the Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction, Samuel Andrews, -saying, in part: "The 
 accompanying catalog is, in my opinion a most important 
 school document. So far as I know, it is something unique. 
 It is gratifying to me, first, as indicating the harmony exist- 
 ing between the library authorities and the school principals 
 in their mutual efforts for the education of the people; sec- 
 ond, by reason of the evidence, manifest on every page, of 
 the conscientious censorship exercised in its preparation. I 
 feel confident that it will be a means of vitalizing the entire 
 work of the schools, of awakening among the pupils that 
 enthusiasm for good reading which is the highest guarantee 
 of true culture, good habits, and genuine character." 
 
 In Buffalo the work of sending libraries and pictures 
 to the schools has been carried on for about three years. 
 The librarian gives as his experience that the most difficult 
 problem is fitting the books to the proper grades in the 
 schools. Each school, each class, must be studied with the 
 teacher's help before intelligent assignment of books can be 
 made. For example, children in the poorer districts and 
 children of foreign-born parents need much simpler books 
 than children in corresponding grades with different home 
 surroundings. 
 
 A quotation from the annual report of the assistant in 
 charge of the work at the Buffalo library, will give a better 
 idea than any description could of some results of this 
 effort: 
 
 "From the principals who arc all interested and, I believe, 
 all in hearty sympathy with the movement, from the teach- 
 
CO-OPERATION 21 
 
 ers and, better still, from the children themselves, we have 
 received many assurances that they arc not only satisfied 
 with the service, but that the results are going to be all that 
 we expect, and more. The principal of an east-side school, 
 where fully 75 per cent of the parents are foreign born, has 
 stated tliat beyond any doubt the moral tone of his districts 
 has been marvclously changed for the better in the last 
 three years." 
 
 The school circulation alone, in Buffalo last year was 
 IQ4.045 volumes, and of this, the librarian, Mr. Elmendorf, 
 writes: "It is the best work the library is doing, and the 
 federation, not the union, of the public school and the public 
 library seems the most important step in modern demo- 
 cratic education." 
 
 A still further step has been taken b}' the Webster Free 
 Library, connected with the East Side House, of New York, 
 in the direction of supplying the schools with illustrative ma- 
 terial to intensify the interest in school work; collections of 
 specimens, geological, zoological, to illustrate nature work, 
 anatomical models, historical relics, and collections of ob- 
 jects intended to make real to the children the life, man- 
 ners and customs of the countries about which they are 
 studying. Of this work, one teacher wrote recently: "The 
 girls told me last term, that until they had seen your Mex- 
 ican exhibit they had an idea that Mexico was a wilderness; 
 and South America! — well, it was a land of savages and wild 
 beasts." 
 
 This work suggests that the next advance in educational 
 expansion must be in the direction of co-operation with the 
 museum. If to the library, and the school, which, working 
 together, shall awaken and feed a love of reading, is added 
 the museum with its power to vivify and make real that 
 which is read, the result shall be an education that shall en- 
 rich, widen, and uplift the life of succeeding generations. 
 
 Just after the period with which the ahove sketch ends 
 came the establishment of a special department of work 
 with schools in the New York Public Library. In 
 more recent years, cooperation between library and school 
 
22 JOSEPHINE ADAMS RATHBONE 
 
 in their common educational work has become more or 
 less standardized. Discussion has proceeded on the lines 
 of libraries in and for the schools themselves, the serv- 
 ice of schoolhouses as public deposit or delivery stations 
 for libraries, and the giving of instruction in schools 
 regarding the intelligent use of library facihties by 
 teachers and scholars. 
 
 Beginning now with Mr. Adams' address, in 1876, 
 papers illustrating the progress outlined above will be 
 given, mostly in chronological order. 
 
THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND THE PUBLIC 
 SCHOOLS 
 
 Charles Erancis Adams, author of this article, well 
 known as a pnhlicist. is the son oi the Charles 
 F'rancis Adams who so well rej^resented his coun- 
 try at the Court of St. James during- the Civil 
 War. He is a grandson of President John Ouincy 
 Adams and great-grandson of President John Adams. 
 He was horn in Boston in 1835, graduated at 
 Harvard in 1856 (LL. D., 1895) and after serving in 
 the Civil War, became identified with railroad interests. 
 At the time this address was delivered, he was Chaimian 
 of the Massachusetts Board of Railway Commissioners. 
 The address, as ]:)rinted, is an abstract prepared for The 
 Library Journal (Aug. 31, 1877). 
 
 We had intended long- before this to give our readers 
 a summary of the valuable address delivered some months 
 since before the teachers of Quincy, Mass., by Charles 
 Francis Adams, Jr., trustee of the Quincy Public Library, 
 and author of the admirable notes in its catalogue, "On the 
 use v^^hich could be made of the Public Library of the town 
 in connection with the school system in general, and more 
 particularly with the high and upper grade grammar schools." 
 The paper is permanently so useful that we need only plead 
 "better late than never" in giving it to our readers now. It 
 is presented as condensed by Mr. C. A. Cutter, who writes: 
 "This is the fullest discussion yet published of a question of 
 great importance to our town libraries, one that is only just 
 
24 ^ CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Jr. 
 
 beginning to attract the attention it deserves. Moreover, it 
 will be found that much of v^hat Mr. Adams says of the 
 value of the teacher's influence upon individual scholars, 
 and of the satisfaction and encouragement which comes from 
 it, is true, with very slight changes, of the librarian. The 
 latter must continue what the teacher has begun; he must 
 make a beginning, if he can, where the teacher has failed, 
 and for those with whom the teacher has not come in con- 
 tact; like the teacher, he must add this to duties already 
 engrossing; like him, he must make a constant series of ex- 
 periments; and again, like him, he must be — and no doubt 
 he will be — content, if in one case in a hundred he produces 
 any visible result. He needs some interest and eflfort like 
 this, or else his work, however well done, is only the work 
 of a clerk or of a bookworm." 
 
 The one best possible result of a common-school edu- 
 cation, says Mr. Adams, its great end and aim, should be to 
 prepare the children of the community for the far greater 
 work of educating themselves. Now in education, as in 
 almost everything else, there is an almost irresistible ten- 
 dency to mistake the means for the end. In the schools of 
 this town, four years ago, arithmetic, grammar, spelling, 
 geography, were taught as if to be able to answer the ques- 
 tions in the textbooks was the great end of all education. It 
 was instruction through a perpetual system of conundrums. 
 The child was made to learn some queer definition in words, 
 or some disagreeable puzzle in figures, as if it were in itself 
 an acquisition of value — something to be kept and hoarded 
 like silver dollars, as being a handy thing to have in the 
 house. The result was that the scholars acquired with im- 
 mense difificulty something which they forgot with equal ease; 
 and when they left our grammar schools they had what peo- 
 ple are pleased to call the rudiments of education, and yet 
 not one in twenty of them could sit down and write an ordi- 
 nary letter, in a legible hand, with ideas clearly expressed, 
 in words correctly spelled; and the proportion of those who 
 left school with either the ability or desire to further educate 
 themselves was scarcely greater. Scarcely one out of twenty 
 of those who leave our schools ever further educate them- 
 
LIBRARY AND SCHOOLS 25 
 
 selves in any great degree, outside, of course, of any special 
 trade or calling through which they earn a living. The rea- 
 son of this is obvious enough; and it is not the fault of the 
 scholar. It is the fault of a system which brings a community 
 up in the idea that a poor knowledge of the rudiments of 
 reading, writing, and arithmetic constitutes in itself an edu- 
 cation. Now on the contrary, the true object of all your 
 labors is something more than to teach children to read; it 
 should, if it is to accomplish its full mission, also impart t"> 
 them a love of reading. 
 
 A man or woman whom a whole childhood spent in the 
 common schools has made able to stumble through a news- 
 paper, or labor through a few trashy books, is scarcely bet- 
 ter off than one who cannot read at all. Indeed I doubt if he 
 or she is as well off, for it has long been observed that a very 
 small degree of book knowledge almost universally takes a 
 depraved shape. The animal will come out. The man who 
 can barely spell out his newspaper confines his labor in nine 
 cases out of ten to those highly seasoned portions of it 
 which relate to acts of violence, and especially to murders. A 
 little learning is proverbially a dangerous thing; and the less 
 the learning the greater the danger. 
 
 I do not know that what I am about to suggest has ever 
 been attempted anywhere, but I feel great confidence that it 
 would succeed. Having started the child by means of what 
 we call a common-school course, the process of further self- 
 education is to begin. The great means is through books, 
 through much reading of books. But we teach children to 
 read; we do not teach them how to read. That, the one 
 all-important thing — the great connecting link between school 
 education and self-education, between means and end — that 
 one link we make no effort to supply. As long as we do not 
 make an effort to supply it, our school system in its result 
 is and will remain miserably deficient. For now. be it re- 
 membered, the child of the poorest man in Quincy, the oft'- 
 spring of our paupers even, has an access as free as the son 
 of a millionaire, or the student of Harvard College, to what 
 is, for practical general use, a perfect library. The old days 
 of intellectual famine for the masses are over, and plenty 
 
26 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Jr. 
 
 reigns. Yet, though the school and the library stand on our 
 main street side by side, there is, so to speak, no bridge lead- 
 ing from the one to the other. So far as I can judge, we 
 teach our children the mechanical part of reading, and then 
 we turn them loose to take their chances. If the child has 
 naturally an inquiring or imaginative mind, it perchance may 
 work its way unaided through the traps and pitfalls of litera- 
 ture; but the chances seem to me to be terribly against it. 
 It is so easy, and so very pleasant too, to read only books 
 which lead to nothing, light and interesting and exciting 
 books, and the more exciting the better, that it is almost as 
 difficult to wean oneself from it as from the habit of chewing 
 tobacco to excess, or of smoking the whole time, or of de- 
 pending for stimulus on tea or coffee or spirits. Yet here, 
 to the threshold of this vast field — you might even call it this 
 wilderness — of general literature, full as it is of holes and 
 bogs, and pitfalls, all covered over with poisonous plants — 
 here it is that our common-school system brings our children, 
 and, having brought them there, it leaves them to go on or 
 not, just as it may happen. 
 
 This is all wrong. Our educational system stops just 
 where its assistance might be made invaluable. The one 
 thing which makes the true teacher and which distinguishes 
 him from the mechanical pedagogue (which any man may 
 become) is the faculty of interesting himself in the single 
 pupil — seeing, watching, aiding the development of the in- 
 dividual mind. I never tried it, but I know just what it must 
 be from my own experience in other matters. I have a place 
 here in town, for instance, upon which I live; and there I not 
 only grow fields of corn and carrots, but also a great many 
 trees. Now, my fields of corn or carrots are to me what a 
 mechanical pedagogue's school is to him. I like to see them 
 well ordered and planted in even rows, all growing exactly 
 alike, and producing for each crop so many bushels of corn 
 or carrots to the acre, one carrot being pretty near the same 
 as another; and then, when the autumn comes and the farm- 
 ing term closes, I prepare my land, as the pedagogue does 
 his school-room, for the next crop; and the last is over and 
 gone. It is not so, however, with my trees. They are to me 
 
LIBRARY AND SCHOOLS 27 
 
 just what his pupils are to the born school-master; in each 
 one I take an individual interest. I watch them year after 
 3car, and see them p:row and slioot out and dcvckip. So 
 your schools ought to be to you, not mere fields in which you 
 turn out regular crops of human cabbages and potatoes, but 
 plantations also in which you raise a few trees, at least, in 
 the individual growth of which you take a master's interest. 
 This feeling and this only it is which can make a teacher's 
 life ennobling — the finding out among his pupils those who 
 have in them the material of superior men and women, and 
 then nurturing them and aiding in their development, and 
 making of them something which, but for their teacher, they 
 never would have been. These pupils are to their teacher 
 what my oak-trees are to me; but for me those trees would 
 have died in the acorn, probably — at most they would have 
 been mere scrub bushes; but now, through me, wholly owing 
 to my intervention and care, they are growing and develop- 
 ing, and there are among them those, which some day, a 
 hundred years perhaps, after my children are all dead of old 
 age, will be noble oaks. Then no one will know that I ever 
 lived, much less trouble themselves to think that to me those 
 trees owed their lives; yet it is so, none the less, and those 
 are my trees, no matter how much I am dead and forgotten. 
 So of your scholars. If you, during your lives as teachers, 
 can, among all your mass of pupils, find out and develop 
 through your own personal contact only a few, say half a 
 dozen, remarkable men and women, who but for you and your 
 observation and watchfulness and guidance would have lived 
 and died not knowing what they could do, then, if you do 
 nothing more than this, you have done an immense work in 
 life. 
 
 This dealing with the individual and not with the class 
 is, therefore, the one great pleasure of the true school-teach- 
 er's life. It can only be done in one way — 3^ou have to afTord 
 the individual mind the nutriment it wants, and at the same 
 time, gently direct it in the way it should go. In other 
 words, if the teacher is going to give himself the intense 
 enjoyment and pleasure of doing his work, he cannot stop 
 at the border of that wilderness of literature of which I was 
 
28 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Jr. 
 
 just now speaking, but he has got to take the pupil by the 
 hand and enter into it with him; he must be more than his 
 pedagogue, he must be his guide, philosopher, and friend. 
 And so the teacher, with the scholar's hand in his, comes at 
 last to the doors of the Public Library, 
 
 When he gets there, however, he will probably find him- 
 self almost as much in need of an instructor as his own 
 pupils; and here at last I come to the immediate subject on 
 which I want to talk to you. I wish to say something of 
 the books and reading of children, of the general introduc- 
 tion into literature which, if you choose, you are able to give 
 your scholars, and which if you give it them, is worth more 
 than all the knowledge contained in all the text-books that 
 ever were printed. To your whole schools, if you only want 
 to, you can give an elementary training as readers, and if, 
 in this matter, you once set them going in the way they 
 should go, you need not fear that they will ever depart 
 from it. 
 
 Now, in the first place, let me suppose that you want 
 to start your schools in general on certain courses of read- 
 ing, — courses which would interest and improve you, prob- 
 ably, hardly less than your scholars, — how would you go 
 about it? Through individual scholars, of course. You 
 would run your eye down your rows of desks and pick out 
 the occupants of two or three, and with them you would 
 start the flock. Human beings are always and everywhere 
 like sheep, in that they will go where the bell-wether leads. 
 Picking out the two or three, then, you turn to the shelves 
 of the library. And now you yourselves are to be put to the 
 test. You have dared to leave the safe, narrow rut in which 
 the pedagogue travels, and you have ventured into the fields 
 with your pupils behind you — do you know the way here? — 
 can you distinguish the firm ground from the boggy mire? — 
 the good, sound wood from the worthless parasite? 
 
 In trying to inoculate children with a healthy love of 
 good reading, the first thing to be borne in mind is that they 
 are not grown people. There are few things more melan- 
 choly than to reflect on the amount of useless labor which 
 good honest conscientious men and women have incurred, 
 
LIBRARY AND SCHOOLS 2q 
 
 and the amount of real suffering tliey have inflicted on poor 
 little children, through the disregard of this one obvious fact. 
 When I was young, my father, from a conscientious feeling, 
 I suppose, that he ought to do something positive for my 
 mental and moral good and general aesthetic cultivation, 
 made me learn Pope's Messiah by heart, and a number of 
 other master-pieces of the same character. He might just 
 as well have tried to feed a sucking baby on roast beef and 
 Scotch ale! Without understanding a word of it, I learned 
 the Messiah by rote, and I have hated it. and its author too, 
 from that day to this, and I hate them now. So. also, I 
 remember well, when I was a boy from ten to fourteen — for 
 I was a considerable devourer of books — being incited to 
 read Hume's History of England, and Robertson's Charles 
 v., and Gibbon's Rome even, and I am not sure I might not 
 add Mitford's Greece. I cannot now say it was time thrown 
 away; but it was almost that. The first thing, in trying to 
 stimulate a love of reading, is to be careful not to create 
 disgust by trying to do too much. The great masterpieces of 
 human research and eloquence and fancy are to boj's pure 
 nuisances. They can't understand them; they can't appre- 
 ciate them, if tjiey do. When they have grown up to them 
 and are ready for them, they will come to them of their 
 own accord. Meanwhile, you can't well begin too low down. 
 Not that I for a moment pretend that I could now sug- 
 gest a successful course of grammar-school literature myself. 
 The intellectual nutriment which children like those you 
 have in charge are fitted to digest and assimilate must be 
 found out through a long course of observation and experi- 
 ment. I think I could tell you what a boy in the upper classes 
 of the Academy would probably like; but if I were to under- 
 take to lay out courses of reading for the scholars of our 
 grammar schools, it would certainly soon become very clear 
 that I did not know what I was talking about. I am very 
 sure I would not give them the books they now read, but 
 I am scarcely less sure they would not read the books I 
 would give them. Nothing but actual trial, and a prolonged 
 trial at that, will bring us any results worth having in this 
 respect; and that trial is only possible through you. 
 
30 -^ CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Jr. 
 
 But, in a very general way, let us suppose that we are 
 beginning on the new system, and that your school is study- 
 ing history and geography — we will take these two branches 
 and see what we could do in connection with them to intro- 
 duce your scholars into general literature. History opens 
 up the whole broad field of historical works and also of bi- 
 ography; it is closely connected with fiction, too, and poetry; 
 geography at once suggests the library of travels. Now, we 
 find that of all forms of literature there is not one which in 
 popularity can compare with fiction. From the cradle to 
 the grave, men and women love story-telling. What is more, 
 it is well they do; a good novel is a good thing, and a love for 
 good novels is a healthy taste. And there is no striking 
 episode in history which has not been made the basis of 
 some good work of fiction. Only it is necessary for you to 
 find them out, and to put them in the hands of your scholars; 
 they cannot find them out unaided. 
 
 Next in popularity to works of fiction are travels. A 
 good, graphic book of travel and adventure captivates almost 
 every one, no matter what the age. After travels comes 
 biography: any girl will read the story of Mary Queen of 
 Scots; any boy the life of Paul Jones. Now, here is our 
 starting-point, and these fundamental facts we cannot ignore 
 and yet succeed; human beings have to be interested and 
 amused, and they do not love to be bored, and children, 
 least of all, are an exception to this rule. If, then, we can 
 instruct an.d improve them while we are interesting and 
 amusing them, we are securing a result we want in the nat- 
 ural and easy way. There is no forcing. Now this is ex- 
 actly what well-informed persons can do for any child. They 
 can, in the line of education, put them in the way of instruc- 
 tion through amusement. 
 
 Take, for instance, geography, and suppose your class 
 is studying the map of Africa — the whole great field of Afri- 
 can exploration and adventure is at once opened up to you 
 and your scholars. Turn to the catalogue of our Public Li- 
 brary and see at once what a field of interesting investiga- 
 tions is spread out, first for yourself, and then for them. 
 Here are a hundred volumes, and you want to look them all 
 
LIBRARY AND SCHOOLS 31 
 
 over to see which to put in the hands of your selected pupils: 
 which are long and dull, and which are compact and stirring; 
 which are adapted to boys, and which to girls, and how you 
 will get your scholars started in them. Once get them going, 
 and the map will cease to be a map and will become a picture 
 full of life and adventure — not only to them, but to you. You 
 will follow with them Livingstone and Stanley and Baker; 
 and the Pyramids will become realities to them as they reacl 
 of Moses and the Pharaohs, and of Cleopatra and Hannibal. 
 The recitation then becomes a lecture in which the pupils 
 tell all they have found out in the books they have read, and 
 in which the teacher can suggest the reading of yet other 
 books; while the mass of the scholars, from merely listening 
 to the few, are stimulated to themselves learn something of 
 all these interesting things. 
 
 So of our own country and its geography. The field of 
 reading which would charm and interest any ordinary boy 
 or girl in this connection is almost unlimited, but they can- 
 not find it out. They need guidance. What active-minded 
 boy, for instance, but would thoroughly enjoy portions at 
 least of Parkman's "Discovery of the Great West," or his 
 "Pioneers of France in the New World," or his "California 
 Trail"? And yet, how many of you ever glanced into one of 
 those absorbing books yourselves? Nor are they long either 
 — in each case one moderate-sized volume tells the whole 
 story. 
 
 Mark Twain, even, would here come in through his 
 "Roughing It," and Ross Brown through his "Apache Coun- 
 try." Once entered upon, however, it would not be easy to 
 exhaust the list. The story of Mexico and Peru — Cortez and 
 Pizarro — the voyages of Columbus and the adventures of 
 De Soto — they have been told in fiction and in history, and 
 it is to-day a terrible shame to us and to our whole school 
 system that we teach American history, and yet don't know 
 how to make the study of American history interesting to 
 our children as a novel. 
 
 I want very much indeed to see our really admirable 
 Town Library become a more living element than it now is 
 in our school system — its complement, in fact. Neither trus- 
 
32 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Jr. 
 
 tee, nor librarian, no matter how faithful or zealous they may 
 be, can make it so; for we cannot know enough of the in- 
 dividual scholars to give them that which they personally 
 need, and which only they will take; you cannot feed them 
 until you know what they cannot get at. You teachers, how- 
 ever, can get at it, if you only choose to. To enable you to 
 do this the trustees of the library have adopted a new rule, 
 under which each of your schools may be made practically 
 a branch library. The master can himself select and take 
 from the library a number of volumes, and keep them on his 
 desk for circulation among the scholars under his charge. He 
 can study their tastes and ransack the library to gratify them. 
 Nay, more, if you will but find out what your scholars want 
 — what healthy books are in demand among them — the trus- 
 tees of the library will see to it that you do not want ma- 
 terial. You shall have all the books you will care for. When, 
 indeed, you begin to call, we shall know exactly what to 
 buy; and then, at last, we could arrange in printed bulletins 
 the courses of reading which your experience would point 
 out as best, and every book would be accessible. From that 
 time, both schools and library would begin to do their full 
 work together, and the last would become what it ought to be, 
 the natural complement of the first — the People's College. 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE Lir.RARY: THEIR 
 MUTUAL RELATION 
 
 The next paper, the first by an American Hbrarian to 
 state distinctly the problem of co-operation and to indi- 
 cate the direction of its solution, is by Dr. William E. 
 Foster, Li]3rarian of the Providence, R. L, Public Library. 
 William Eaton Foster was born in Brattleboro, Vt., in 
 1851, graduated at Brown in 1873 (Litt. D., 1901) and 
 has been a librarian since his graduation, taking charge 
 at Providence in 1877. Lie is perhaps best known for 
 the "Library of Best Books" selected by him and installed 
 in his main library — one of the earliest buildings of medi- 
 um size to reflect in its design and arrangement the prin- 
 ciples of modern librarianship. 
 
 It is the purpose of this paper to cite some of the rea- 
 sons why cooperation between the school and the library is 
 desirable and necessary, and also to point out some of the 
 specific methods by which its benefits may be attained. 
 
 Such cooperation is eminently fitting. The purposes of 
 the two are to some extent identical; both aim to supply 
 needed information and instruction; both have in view the 
 training and developing of the intellect; from both may be 
 derived definite opportunities of culture. But while their 
 aims are similar, their methods and relative adaptedness differ 
 widely. For instance, the school has the advantage in point 
 of the frequency and regularity with which its influence is 
 communicated; the library surpasses it in the length of time 
 for which the influence is exerted. The school excels in the 
 systematic manner in which the pupils are reached; while 
 
34 WILLIAM E. FOSTER 
 
 the library, with its more elastic organization, gives more 
 scope to individuality on the part of the reader or pupil. 
 The school, in confining its operations to the young, takes 
 pupils at the time when impressions are most readily and 
 durably formed, and excels in the directness of its methods; 
 the library, however, being for the use of all, both old and 
 young, succeeds in effecting impressions at every period of 
 life. The school and the library are, in an emphatic sense, 
 complements of each other, two halves of one complete pur- 
 pose, neither in itself possessing every requisite advantage, 
 but, taken in connection, lacking nothing, whether universal- 
 ity, systematic methods, directness, adaptation to individ- 
 uality, or durability of impressions. 
 
 Let us, however, look at the matter from the point of 
 view of the .school (and certainly, as public-spirited citizens, 
 we librarians are deeply interested in the highest success of 
 the schools). It is easy to see how the pupil, in the use of 
 his text-books, may, at repeated points where his interest is 
 awakened, refer to the fuller and more adequate discussions 
 of the subject, in the library; how, on leaving school and go- 
 ing out from the reach of its influence, he finds in the library 
 a means of continuing and perfecting the lines of study which 
 originated in the school; how, in fact, the course of instruc- 
 tion, intended as it is as a groundwork on which the pupil 
 may build his subsequent mental development, finds its best 
 fulfillment in the library. Or, on the other hand, from the 
 point of view of the library, we see that an intelligent use 
 of the books is more certainly assured by the existence of a 
 distinct class of persons who are regularly and systematically 
 pursuing a given course of study; that the course of instruc- 
 tion, with its allusions to knowledge in so many different 
 departments, is, when supplemented by the suggestive treat- 
 ment of an intelligent teacher, the means of bringing many 
 volumes into use which would otherwise stand on the shelves 
 unread; that the work of a library (and particularly a pub- 
 lic library) deals largely with the lower work of implanting 
 an interest and giving an impulse to reading; and that the 
 school not merely serves the purpose of furthering and de- 
 veloping this interest, but frequently affords the opportunity 
 
SCITODT. AXD TJRRARV 35 
 
 of so molding the minds of pupils that they arc led to con- 
 tinue their systematic reading after leaving school; that it 
 is plainly impossible for the librarian, in matters relating 
 to counsel and influence, personally to reach all, and that for 
 this reason he must leave the matter mostly to the teachers, 
 who are personally brought in contact with the pupils; finally, 
 that a view to the intelligent use of the library by future 
 generations suggests the necessity of molding the reading 
 habits of the children who are to constitute these future read- 
 ers, while they are still forming their habits of life. 
 
 Effective cooperation, in this matter, presupposes three 
 things: mutual understanding, mutual acquaintance, and 
 mutual action. The first requisite is a mutual understanding 
 of methods and aims. Without it there may, perhaps, be 
 some successful work, but that it incalculably increases the 
 value of all work, scarcely needs demonstration. Certainly a 
 teacher w^ho knows the methods of obtaining books, who is 
 familiar with the books themselves, and can give judicious 
 counsel as to their use, who knows, in general, the purposes 
 which libraries propose to themselves, is in a position to 
 render more efficient aid than one who has no such famili- 
 arity. The librarian should encourage every inclination on 
 the part of teachers to familiarize themselves with library 
 w^ork. On the other hand, the librarian must know some- 
 thing of the work of the teacher. It is not claimed that 
 he should enter exhaustively into the technical details of 
 educational science. By no means. That is the teacher's 
 special work, as the detail of library science is his own special 
 work. But there are certain principles underlying the na- 
 ture and growth of the child's mind, and the order in which 
 ideas are received and mental processes originated. The 
 school and the library are both means of communicating in- 
 formation and effecting instruction, and are channels of men- 
 tal and moral influence. So far, therefore, it is important 
 that the librarian should know that perception precedes logi- 
 cal processes in the pupil's mental development; that the 
 presentation of a work, intrinsically valuable, to t(ie notice 
 of the child, should be timed to correspond not only with 
 his capacity to comprehend it, but also with his capacity to 
 
36 ^ WILLIAM E. FOSTER 
 
 feel an interest in it; that an objectionable matter of inter- 
 est is more effectively dispossessed from the mind, not by 
 simply withdrawing it, but by awakening interest in some- 
 thing higher and better; that a pupil's course can be most 
 wisely shaped, not by preaching at him, nor yet by craftily 
 enticing him into good reading, but by gaining his confidence, 
 and then judiciously (and as earnestly as you please) bring- 
 ing good books to his attention; that all work of this kind 
 which is to succeed is based, not upon temporary expedients 
 and superficial methods, but upon methods which, while re- 
 quiring time in their fulfillment, will weave themselves into 
 the very life of the pupil. 
 
 This topic leads naturally to the next. There is no better 
 way of ensuring mutual understanding than through mutual 
 acquaintance. Or, to put it in another form, there is no 
 surer way to inspire interest in the corps of teachers than 
 through acquaintance with them. For if there is any point 
 upon which we are not in danger of laying too much empha- 
 sis, it is this one point, interest. In order to use l)ooks to 
 the best advantage, the pupil must be thoroughly interested. 
 In order to inspire the pupil with interest, those who are 
 directing his development must themselves be interested, and 
 as the librarian cannot personally reach all, he must com- 
 municate his interest to the teachers through personal 
 acquaintance with them; in fact, he must multiply himself 
 by 100, or 200, or 500. He must communicate his interest to 
 them, be it observed, if they be not already interested, and 
 it is a pleasure here to acknowledge the frequency with which 
 intelligent teachers are found who are already fully alive to 
 the importance of this matter, and who are untiring and effi- 
 cient cooperators with the librarian. But even here we know 
 the intensified impulse which results when two minds, both 
 fully interested in a common purpose, come into communica- 
 tion. There is no loss, but rather a gain, as we have had 
 occasion to see in the course of our own cooperation as li- 
 brarians. Something of this same feeling, almost allied to an 
 esprit de corps, we need in our relations with the teachers. 
 
 On the mutual knowledge and mutual acquaintance thus 
 outlined may be safely based such details of mutual action 
 
SCHOOL AND TJRRARY 37 
 
 as are found desirable. For no process can achieve the high- 
 est success which does not build upon an adequate apprecia- 
 tion of its various elements, nor can there be any true de- 
 velopment of the pupil in this direction which is not at every 
 point animated and inspired by the personal interest of 
 teacher and librarian working in close relations. 
 
 First among specific measures may be mentioned the 
 basing of the system of reading to which the pupil is to be 
 introduced, on the course of study which has been marked 
 out for the school; for, whether primary school, high school, 
 or college, this course of study may be supposed to repre- 
 sent a mature and deliberate judgment of what best tends to 
 the symmetrical development of the pupil. To illustrate: the 
 study is that of the geography of South America, in a gram- 
 mar-school class. Let one pupil be referred to Agassiz's 
 work on Brazil, another to a work on Ecuador, another to 
 one on Peru, another to one on Patagonia, Or, again, a 
 class in the high school is reading Cicero. Let Forsyth's 
 "Life of Cicero" be assigned to one pupil, Froude's "Caesar" 
 to another, Merivale's "History of the Romans under the 
 Empire" to another, Brougham's "Roman Orators" to a 
 fourth, and to another, Plutarch's "Lives." Time should be 
 allowed for a careful and thorough reading of these works, 
 and afterwards the impressions thus gained be followed up by 
 the teacher, either by personal conversation or by a general 
 exercise with the class, as indicated farther on in this paper. 
 
 Of a different nature is the course which should be taken 
 in familiarizing pupils with the use of reference-books. This 
 should begin very early in the pupil's career, and be made an 
 essential part of his mental constitution, for in this consists 
 one of the chief points of difference between a man of ac- 
 curate scholarship and one who half knows a thing, a man 
 with definite and specific habits of thought and one in whose 
 vague apprehension knowledge is almost lost. Not only 
 should pupils be familiarized at the school-room with the 
 use of such reference-books as may be there, but referred to 
 the library for others. See that the pupil forms the habit 
 of follov/ing up his reading of a work of history or travel 
 with an atlas on which he may trace the routes, and gain a 
 
38 WILLIAM E. FOSTER 
 
 definite picture in his own mind. In reading a scientific work, 
 let him turn to the cyclopaedias for an explanation of some 
 process or term with which he is unacquainted, and, in read- 
 ing any work, let him consult the English dictionary for 
 the meaning and derivation of unfamiliar words. At the li- 
 brary the works of reference should be entirely accessible, 
 being placed outside the counter, with every convenience 
 for consulting them; and the librarian should take pains, as 
 far as possible, to assist in familiarizing readers with their 
 use. We take pleasure in quoting from a teacher the follow- 
 ing suggestion, which expresses precisely the proper attitude 
 of the librarian: "If information is sought which you cannot 
 supply at the moment, do not put off the inquirer until you 
 have had time to look it up privately. Set to work zuith 
 him; show him your method of 'chasing down' a subject; 
 teach him how to use dictionaries, indexes, and tables of con- 
 tents. 'Work aloud' before the pupil. In short, show him 
 how to carry on investigations for himself." The teacher 
 should systematically encourage this tendency by questions 
 given out at regular intervals, which do not, like the topics 
 already alluded to, require reading a book through, but which 
 require the consulting of a reference-book. The pupil will 
 thank his instructor for such discipline as this, in after life, 
 for the habit of intelligent observation and investigation, 
 which has become almost "second nature," is of itself well 
 worth acquiring. 
 
 But that which is essentially information is not the only 
 species of reading to which the pupil should be introduced. 
 DeQuincey's distinction between the "literature of knowl- 
 edge" and the "literature of power" accurately designates 
 the two elements, one of which is as essential to the com- 
 plete development of the pupil as is the other. In all that 
 relates to the pupil's use of books in the department of fic- 
 tion, of poetry, of general literature, the teacher has an inti- 
 mate interest. He knows, on the one hand, what worthless, 
 nay, what injurious books may possibly engage the pupil's 
 attention. He knows, on the other hand, what masterpieces 
 of thought and expression, what exquisite passages and de- 
 lightful volumes, may possibly never be brought to his notice. 
 
SCIIOOT. AND TJBRARY 30 
 
 If he have the patience to make a study of the pupil's de- 
 velopment, and, more than this, if he have a genuine sym- 
 pathy with the pupil's individual temperament and peculiar 
 taste, he may, he will, be able to direct his reading into the 
 right channels, and to help him to a culture higher than any 
 routine discipline. 
 
 There is an exercise in most of our schools known as 
 English composition. Rightly improved, it is an invaluable 
 opportunity to the pupil, not merely of learning to express 
 himself correctly, but, by drawing him into a hundred vari- 
 ous lines of thought, of setting in operation mental processes 
 otherwise in danger of lying dormant. The librarian, while 
 supplying help in connection with composition-writing, 
 should remember not to lose sight of this fundamental prin- 
 ciple; for the exercise can easily be conducted in such a way 
 as to deaden, instead of developing thought. If the librarian 
 is furnished by the teacher with a list of the subjects assigned 
 (and it would be well if this practice were observed), he 
 should take pains to make topical references to whatever 
 the library contains on the subjects, whether in separate vol- 
 umes, in collections of essays, in collective biographies, in 
 periodicals, or in government publications. This is labor 
 which will yield a rich return. But at the same time he 
 should, by judicious counsel and suggestion, direct the use 
 of the authorities, if possible, in the proper way. He should 
 see that the pupil is not forming the habit of mechanically 
 incorporating the material of the author into his own compo- 
 sition, without any mental effort, without really making the 
 thought his, but that with his mental powers in full operation, 
 and stimulated by the suggestiveness of the author, the 
 thought passes, by a process of assimilation, into the consti- 
 tution of his own mind. It is by no means certain that the 
 method of a New England high-school teacher, in this de- 
 partment, is not the correct one. Books are systematically 
 assigned to members of the class for careful reading, and 
 also subjects for composition on allied topics, but the latter 
 are separated from the former by an interval of several 
 months, and the request Is made that there shall be no recur- 
 ring to the books after they have once been read. The 
 
40 WILLIAM E. FOSTER 
 
 tendency is to a careful, symmetrical reading of the book at 
 the outset, there being no pressure felt to read with an eye 
 solely to one feature, since the particular use which is to be 
 made of it is not then known. The substance of the book 
 is acquired, and, by the deliberate reflection of several 
 months, digested. When at last the time comes to write, 
 the pupil draws, not upon the material of another writer, 
 transferring it bodily, but upon the contents and resources of 
 his own mind. It may be that this method does not adm.it 
 of universal application, but, where it is adopted, it must 
 result in a culture of a superior order, since reading, viewed 
 in this light, is not an operation to take the place of thought. 
 It is one which is accompanied by the highest exercise of 
 thought. 
 
 There is another exercise which is not yet an established 
 feature of our school system but which has been adopted by 
 several teachers with unvarying success. 
 
 This was advocated by the principal of the Worcester 
 high school, in a recent address, under the name of the "free 
 hour," and is a specified time, generally once a week, when 
 the whole school comes together under the principal's direc- 
 tion, and the opportunity is afforded of giving the instruc- 
 tion a more general turn. We can readily see the possibil- 
 ities of such a method in the hands of a skillful teacher, par- 
 ticularly as it relates to the reading of the scholars. It may 
 even include instruction as to the external use of books: that 
 a book is to be treated with decency and respect, the leaves 
 not turned down, nor soiled nor written on; the leaves of a 
 large book turned over with care and not picked up at the 
 bottom nor leaned on with the elbows; the fingers never 
 moved over the engraved surface of a plate or a map; books 
 never left lying face downward, nor standing on the fore- 
 edge, nor held with their two covers pressed back to back. 
 It may certainly include suggestions as to the proper way 
 to "take a book's measure," or "make its acquaintance," not 
 by opening at random somewhere in the middle, and aim- 
 lessly turning over a few pages here and there, but opening 
 at the title-page, noting what that has to say, then consult- 
 ing the table of contents for an analytical ground-work of 
 
SCHOOL AND LIBRARY 41 
 
 the book, then, by the aid of the index, turning to and ob- 
 serving what the book appears to contain which one docs 
 not find in other books. It certainly may inchide sugges- 
 tions as to the use of reference-books and in connection with 
 preparing essays or compositions. It certainly ought to 
 include exercises in direct connection with the subjects 
 studied about in the text-books, and counsel as to the matter 
 of reading in general, as has already been suggested. We 
 all know how a book, at one time passed by with indifference 
 or conscientiously plodded through, without apprehending 
 or appreciating it, has afterwards been taken up, and read 
 with keen interest, simply because the mind had now become 
 charged with ideas and tendencies in direct relation with 
 that subject. This is one reason why the system of daily 
 bulletins or notes which some libraries have adopted is so 
 successful. These notes ensure the reading of the book di- 
 rectly in the strongest light which can be brought to bear 
 upon it, that of interest; bringing out with distinctness, and 
 in relief, hundreds of points otherwise unnoticed. It is in 
 the power of the teachers to familiarize their pupils with the 
 regular, daily use of these bulletins, and thus put them in 
 the way of a more intelligent connection with the movement 
 of events in the world around them; and this also may prop- 
 erly enter into the work of the "free hour." 
 
 Not as a substitute for the several methods already 
 enumerated, but rather in order to gather them up and en- 
 force them, it has been found desirable in some places to 
 publish a manual which shall be placed in the hands of 
 pupils. Let us examine, for a moment, the requirements of 
 such a plan. There should be lists of books suitable for the 
 reading of the pupils in order that the tendency of the young 
 to lose themselves in a wilderness of literature may be 
 diminished as much as possible. Not only should these 
 books be chosen with the utmost care, revised and amended 
 from the point of view respectively of teacher, pupil and li- 
 brarian, but it should be expressly stated that this list is not 
 to be regarded as containing everything that the pupil should 
 read, but as illustrating certain important lines of reading. 
 
42 WILLIAM E. FOSTER 
 
 More than this, instead of being final, such a list ought to be 
 made the basis upon which the librarian, by frequent and 
 easy communication with the schools, may from time to time 
 make such additions as shall be appropriate, and, in the light 
 of topics of interest, seasonable. But this manual should 
 also comprise a series of suggestions to the pupils, on the 
 proper use of the library. In order to accomplish their pur- 
 pose these must be brief, and directly to the point. More 
 than this: they should be carefully explained by the teacher, 
 at the outset, and afterwards enforced practically, repeatedly, 
 continually, whenever the opportunity offers. This constant 
 enforcement, and instilling of principles is of the highest 
 importance; rather, it embraces everything else here named. 
 And no genuine teacher needs to be told how effective, in 
 this connection, is individual work. Much can be done in 
 a general way; the "free hour" offers opportunities of a 
 high order; but the hold which a teacher may gain, the in- 
 fluence he may effect, is intensified a hundred-fold by inter- 
 esting himself in individual pupils whom he sees he can bene- 
 fit; helping and instructing them, giving counsel and sug- 
 gestions as to the use " of books, gaining their confidence 
 and learning the direction of their development; going per- 
 sonally with them to the library, and taking pains to give 
 them an insight into literature; in short, placing himself 
 where his efforts will have a directness not otherwise to be 
 attained. 
 
 And if, to the teacher, such usefulness is possible, cer- 
 tainly no librarian will neglect to avail himself of all such 
 opportunities which present themselves, even though he 
 should be able to give to this work only a few minutes in 
 each day. "There are few pleasures," to quote the language 
 of a librarian justly eminent in this very department of li- 
 brary work, "there are few pleasures comparable to that of 
 associating continually with curious and vigorous young 
 minds and of aiding them in realizing their ideals." Every 
 librarian should have it perfectly well understood that he is 
 not merely willing but only too happy to render service of 
 this kind. 
 
^ 
 
 SCHOOL AND LII'.kARY 43 
 
 It will be seen that these suggestions are in the line of 
 a more systematic effort to make the benefits of our libraries 
 effective by more effectually preparing the readers to use 
 them. It will be seen also that the aim has been rather to 
 turn existing agencies in this direction than to introduce 
 wholly new growths. The lapse of a generation through 
 which such a course of training had been carried steadily 
 forward, would furnish a reading public such as would open 
 to our library system an entirely new era of usefulness, and 
 make its results palpably manifest, in the development of 
 civilization. To recapitulate: On the part of the pupil there 
 are requisite a continuous mental development and sufficient 
 scope for individuality. On the part of the teacher and li- 
 brarian are requisite a genuine interest in the work and mutu- 
 al cooperation. The choice of methods must aim to bring 
 the strong light of interest to bear on the presentation of 
 each subject, and must be essential!}^ direct and personal, 
 and must follow up the first steps by continuous efforts. 
 Instead of a policy which contemplates brilliant but super- 
 ficial operations, should be chosen one which, with patience 
 and persistency, enters upon measures which require time 
 for their development, but whose results are substantial and 
 permanent. These are practical suggestions, and it lies in 
 our power to make a practical application of them. 
 
THE RELATION OE THE PUBLIC Lli;k.\RV TO 
 THE rUBLIC SCHOOLS 
 
 This paper was followed in 1880 by a co-ordinate 
 treatment of the subject by a neighboring librarian, Mr. 
 Samuel S. Green, Librarian of the Worcester, Mass., 
 Public Library. Samuel Swett Green was born in 
 Worcester in 1837 and graduated at Harvard in 1858. 
 He was an original member of his state library commis- 
 sion (from 1890), a founder and life member of the 
 A. L. A. and its president in 1891. He was a member 
 of the Board of the Worcester Public Library from 1867 
 to 1871 and its librarian from 1871 to 1909, in which year 
 he was made librarian emeritus. 
 
 It is obviously important to maintain close relations 
 between libraries and educational institutions which are de- 
 signed for students whose minds are somewhat mature. 
 
 A wise college professor encourages and stimulates 
 learners to look at subjects from many points of view, to 
 examine processes by which scholars reach conclusions, 
 and to make investigations themselves. Such methods only 
 are requisite when a period of history is to be studied, opin- 
 ions regarding questions in political economy or natural his- 
 tory to be considered, an English or classical author to be 
 interpreted, or controverted questions in philosophy or the- 
 ology to be discussed. 
 
 Students in advanced educational institutions should 
 therefore have free access to the best books in all depart- 
 ments of knowledge. They need instructors who, however 
 positive their own opinions may be in regard to contro- 
 
46 ^SAMUEL S. GREEN 
 
 verted questions, and however earnest they may be in utter- 
 ing these convictions, nevertheless are animated by a broad, 
 unsectarian spirit in teaching. They need, also, books to 
 enable them to pursue their studies in accordance with the 
 views and spirit of such instructors. 
 
 At Brown University it is considered practicable to al- 
 low students to go into the alcoves without permission, and 
 take from the shelves such books as they wish to use. 
 
 While inspecting, three years ago, the library in the 
 building especially devoted to the study of Natural History 
 at Oxford University, I noticed that much space was given 
 to collections of books needed by students in their daily 
 work. These books were kept by themselves, and old books 
 were withdrawn from the shelves and new ones added as 
 occasion required. Students had free access to these collec- 
 tions, and were thus kept from the discouragement which 
 young inquirers (may I not say nearly all inquirers?) felt 
 in selecting, with no aid but that afforded by the catalogue 
 of a large library, such books as are needed in somewhat 
 limited researches. 
 
 In Harvard College library, a large number of the pro- 
 fessors designate works to be set .aside, on shelves prepared 
 for the purpose, for the use of students in pursuing courses 
 of instruction given by them, and I learn from its distin- 
 guished librarian that it is his purpose to select from the 
 great collection of books under his charge 30,000 or 40,000 
 volumes, to be used by students as a working library. 
 
 They are to have the privilege of roaming at pleasure 
 through the shelving devoted to this collection, and of rum- 
 maging at will among the books. As works become an- 
 tiquated they will be removed from these shelves, and new 
 ones will be constantly placed upon them. 
 
 Additional advantages are within reach, where, as in 
 Rochester University it is the practice of several of the pro- 
 fessors to meet students at the library during specified hours, 
 to talk over with them subjects that they are interested in 
 and assist in the selection of books needed in their investiga- 
 tion and treatment. Where, as in the largest colleges of the 
 country, it is not customary for the professors to meet many 
 
RELATION OF I.IBkAin' To SCHOOL 47 
 
 of the students excepting in the class or lecturc-rootn, ihrrc 
 should be a librarian or competent assistant, whose duty it 
 is to i-ive whatever time is needed in rendeiing assistance 
 to persons engaged in investigation. Such an officer should 
 be careful not to render the inquirer dependent, and only 
 to remove obstacles enough to make investigation attractive. 
 
 The librarian of a college can easily supplement his 
 general knowledge of books with the special bibliographical 
 information had by the professors of the institution. 
 
 The student often needs to be referred to sources of 
 information. If, for example, he has to consider one of the 
 applications of science to the arts, arrangements at the li- 
 brary should be such that he will have standard works and 
 monographs pointed out to him, and his attention called to 
 the sets of proceedings and transactions of learned societies 
 and periodicals which should be consulted by him, with the 
 aid of indices, in seeking for the information he desires. 
 
 It is- not enough to set aside in a college library collec- 
 tions of books illustrative of the various branches of knowl- 
 edge. Students need, also, the assistance of accomplished 
 professors or a well-informed librarian in making researches. 
 This assistance leads to a more thorough performance of 
 work in hand. 
 
 It does more than this, however. Its best results are 
 found in the knowledge which it gives the inquirer of finding 
 out how to get at information by the use of books, and in 
 the formation in him of the habit of making investigations 
 and in the acquisition of facility in their conduct. 
 
 It may be mentioned incidentally that wdiere higher edu- 
 cational institutions depend upon public libraries for books, 
 and these are situated at a distance from their buildings, it 
 has proved useful, in one instance, at least, to enlist stu- 
 dents in the work of making an index of some of the princi- 
 pal sets of transactions which they and the professors have 
 oftenest to consult, to be kept where its use will be con- 
 venient to them. 
 
 Academies and high schools need access to well-fur- 
 nished libraries. Worcester, Massachusetts, is a small city 
 of about 60,000 inhabitants. It has many educational insti- 
 
48 SAMUEL S. GREEN 
 
 tutions besides its public schools. In addition to the Free 
 Institute of Industrial Science and the College of the Holy 
 Cross, institutions which make a constant use of the Public 
 Library, but which for our present purpose should be classed 
 with colleges, it has a State Normal School, an endowed 
 academy, a military school, and several smaller schools for 
 young ladies and boys. It has also, a large high school. 
 Teachers and pupils from all of these schools make a large 
 use of the Public Library every day. Thus the students at 
 the Normal School, use it for a variety of purposes. They 
 are required for example, to choose subjects which they will 
 talk about before the school for a few minutes. They come 
 to the library with subjects selected on which they wish for 
 information. This they get when they can from reference 
 books which they are allowed to consult without asking per- 
 mission. They call, too, for such books as they desire. 
 When however, as is frequently the case, they do not know 
 what the sources of information are, or which of several 
 books it is well to read or study, they go to the librarian 
 for assistance, and he points out to them books, pamphlets, 
 and articles which contain the material desired by them in 
 the form they wish. The librarian, in searching for informa- 
 tion, conducts the search, in so far as is possible, in the pres- 
 ence of the inquirer, so as to teach him how to get at in- 
 formation desired. 
 
 These pupils are also required to write essays on vari- 
 ous topics illustrative of the principles and art of instruction. 
 The librarian refers them to the writings of such authors as 
 Richter and Rousseau, Locke and Bain, Mann and Spencer, 
 and to sets of such periodicals as Barnard's Journal of Edu- 
 cation and to series of volumes containing addresses and ac- 
 counts of discussions in the annual meetings of the Ameri- 
 can Institution of Instruction, the National Educational As- 
 sociation and other bodies, and to reports of the best super- 
 visors and superintendents of schools. Professor Russell, 
 the principal of the Normal School, in writing about the 
 connection between the Public Library and this school last 
 April, made the following statements: "I find, upon inquiry, 
 that during the current school year, beginning last Septem- 
 
REf.ATION ol- IJI'.kAin' lO SCHOOL 49 
 
 bcr, not less tlian 64 per cent of the students of tlie State 
 Normal School have had occasion to visit the Public Li!)rary 
 to pursue investigations connected with their studies, several 
 reporting upward of twenty such visits, and this notwith- 
 standing- the fact that the school is situated at a distance 
 from the library, and that we have an excellent though small 
 working library of our own. The works thus consulted 
 cover a wide range, but are chiefly in the departments of 
 science, history, art, politics, statistics, biography, and gen- 
 eral literature. So far as our own school is concerned, 
 therefore, we could not without serious loss dispense with 
 so valuable an auxiliary in the training of teachers for the 
 public schools. Moreover, I find that our graduates who 
 go away from Worcester to teach, very generally complain 
 of the inconvenience and privation they feel in being cut ofif 
 from the privileges of the Public Library. 
 
 In the high school some of the teachers, for the purpose 
 of cultivating readiness in expression and ease in composi- 
 tion, as well as with the object of rendering the knowledge of 
 subjects taught thorough, require scholars to talk and write 
 frequently about subjects suggested by the lessons and lec- 
 tures, and thus to pursue limited investigations in such 
 branches of knowledge as history, chemistry, English litera- 
 ture, and classical biography and antiquities. It is custom- 
 ary in this school, when questions occur to the teacher that 
 cannot be answered bj^ the use of books at hand, or are 
 asked by scholars, for a teacher or pupil to go to the library 
 before the next session of the school, and by consultation 
 with the librarian or an assistant select works containing the 
 answers sought. 
 
 An advanced class, which is listening to lectures on some 
 of the more important practical topics in political economy 
 and the science of republican government, will be told to 
 give in writing the history of the movement for civil service 
 reform and an account of the arguments brought forward 
 in favor of plans proposed to further it and in opposition to 
 them, or a description of the proceedings of Congress which 
 led to the formation of the Electoral Commission after the 
 
50 SAMUEL S. GREEN 
 
 last presidential election, or of the arguments used for and 
 against woman suffrage. 
 
 Another advanced class will be required to write essays 
 on such subjects as fermentation and disinfectants. 
 
 Some of the teachers come to the library, and in consul- 
 tation with the librarian, select large numbers of bookS; more 
 or less closely connected with the studies which scholars are 
 at the time pursuing, and recommend them to pupils to read 
 in connection with their lessons or for entertainment. 
 
 Many of the teachers consult the librarian in regard to 
 books to be used by them in their own preparation for class 
 work. 
 
 Some teachers bring classes to the library to see illustra- 
 tions of the architecture of Greece, and Rome, or specimens 
 of early printing and illuminations, or examples of the work 
 of great artists. They are received there in a large room, 
 furnished with a table and settees, and well heated and 
 lighted. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Thurber, the principal of the high school, 
 wrote in a paper which is dated June 15, 1897, as follows. 
 
 "Pupils of the high school, in common with other citi- 
 zens of Worcester, are exceptionally favored in their op- 
 portunities for reading and investigation in the Free Public 
 Library. That they take advantage of these admirable facil- 
 ities is evident to any one who sits for an hour in the after- 
 noon with the librarian, and observes the boys and girls, of 
 all classes, who come with their questions concerning almost 
 all matters in history, science, and literature. The librarian 
 and his assistants must know pretty well what is going on 
 in the school. 
 
 There is a post-meridian session of the school every day 
 over in Elm street. While the regular teachers are hurrying 
 and worrying with college classes, these afternoon teachers 
 in the other building are patiently having their session, which 
 does not end at any particular time, but only when each ques- 
 tioner is answered, or at least shown how to find his answer. 
 We do not see why these Elm street folks are not just as 
 much high-school teachers as those who congregate each 
 morning in the great building with the tower," 
 
RELATIOX OF LIP.RARV TO SCHOr)!. 51 
 
 Again, under date of April 5, 1880, Mr. Thurbcr writes: 
 "As an ally of the high school, the Public Library is not 
 merely useful; it is absolutely indespensable. By this I mean 
 that without the Library our work would have to be radically 
 changed for the worse, and would become little better than 
 mere memorizing of text-books. Our teachers and pupils 
 throng the Library, and there accjuire the habit of investiga- 
 tion, and of independent, well-grounded opinion on a multi- 
 tude of subjects of the utmost importance to citizens in a 
 republican State. Without the school, occasion for exploring 
 the Library would arise much less frequently; and without 
 the Library, the desire for knowledge constantly awakened 
 in the school, would have to go unsatisfied." 
 
 The teachers and scholars of the grammar and some 
 lower grades of schools may derive great advantage from 
 the use of facilities which it is in the power of public li- 
 braries to afford them. Few friends of education seem to 
 have found out, however, that a close connection between 
 public libraries and schools of these grades is practicable, 
 even when they have come to realize that it is desirable. 
 Wishing, therefore, to give a practical turn to this paper, I 
 think I cannot do better than to write out an account of 
 some efforts in this direction made in Worcester during 
 the last winter and spring. Four gentlemen interested in 
 the movement — namely, the Superintendent of Public Schools, 
 a member of the Sc-hool Committee, w^ho was also a member 
 of the Board of Directors of the Public Library, the principal 
 of the Normal School, and the Librarian of the Public Li- 
 brary — came together late in the fall of 1879, for the pur- 
 pose of considering whether it was desirable and feasible 
 to bring about a considerable use for school purposes of the 
 books in the Public Library, by the teachers and pupils of 
 the schools of the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. 
 
 These gentlemen agreed that the studies of scholars 
 would be made pleasanter and more profitable were such 
 use to be made of the Public Library. 
 
 They thought also, that in the event of the establish- 
 ment of a close connection between the Library and these 
 grades of schools, much good might be done in guiding the 
 
52 ^ SAMUEL S. GREEN 
 
 home reading of children at an age when the habits of read- 
 ing and study are forming. 
 
 But an obstacle suggested itself at the start, namely, the 
 crowded state of the course of study. This was overcome 
 by deciding to confine the attention in the beginning to ef- 
 forts to secure the benefits first mentioned, and even in this 
 direction to aim only at the gradual introduction of improved 
 methods. The conclusions reached were that it was advis- 
 able to proceed to the immediate use of attractive library 
 books in the study of geography, and in order to get the 
 additional time needed in carrying the new plan into execu- 
 tion, as well as for the purpose of making the exercise in 
 reading more interesting and useful the reading of classes 
 should be largely done from carefully selected books of travel 
 instead of from reading-books. The Superintendent of 
 Schools invited the librarian to lay the plan proposed before 
 the teachers in the grades of schools mentioned above, and 
 when they had been called together he pointed out to them 
 that there were many things that could be done in schools 
 to better advantage than at present were there a close con- 
 nection between the Library and the schools; offering at 
 the same time to aid them in doing any good work they 
 might wish to undertake, but advising them to try the limited 
 plan which had been agreed upon at the meeting by the 
 gentlemen just mentioned, whether they attempted anything 
 else or not. 
 
 The teachers listened in an interested manner, and many 
 of them showed not only readiness but anxiety to undertake 
 the work it was suggested they should do. The librarian 
 then invited them to select some country that they would 
 like to have illustrated by means of books belonging to the 
 library. They selected one, and came to the Library build- 
 ing tlie next half-holiday to listen to the promised exposi- 
 tion. The librarian had before him, say, one hundred vol- 
 umes relating to the country in the description of which aid 
 was to be offered, and pointed out wherein the value of each 
 one consisted to assist teachers and scholars in studying 
 geography. They saw at once that valuable aid could be had 
 from the Library in their work of teaching, and the next 
 
RKT.ATION OF TJP.RAkV TD SCIIOOI. 
 
 step taken by the librarian was to invite theni tu tell liiin 
 what countries the children were studying about at that time, 
 and to keep him informed in rej^ard to those they were at 
 work upon at other times, in order that he miglit help them 
 to pick out works suitable for school use. 
 
 Books were at once selected for the immediate use of 
 teachers and scholars. The teachers needed books of travel 
 and other works to read themselves, and from which to se- 
 lect interesting passages for children to read in the class or 
 to be read to them, and incidents to be related to the schol- 
 ars orally. Volumes had to be picked out, too, for the chil- 
 dren to use in the place of reading-books of the right size, 
 well printed, freely illustrated with really good wood-cuts 
 or engravings from metal, written in good English and 
 adapted to the ages of the children to whom they were to be 
 given, and calculated to interest them. Books were also 
 selected that treated of subjects closely connected with the 
 lessons, for children to read by themselves in unoccupied 
 hours in school, or for entertainment and improvement at 
 home. The Library arranged to issue two new kinds of 
 cards, one for the benefit of teachers, the other to be used 
 by teachers for the benefit of scholars. On cards of the first 
 kind six books might be drawn out by instructors, to be used 
 in preparing themselves for school work or for serious study 
 in any direction. On the other kind of cards it was permis- 
 sible to take out twelve volumes, for the use of scholars 
 whose reading teachers had undertaken to supervise. These 
 cards it was supposed would be used chiefly for the benefit 
 of such children as were not entitled by age to have one of 
 the cards usually issued by the Library, or whose parents 
 had neglected or been unwilling to take out cards for their 
 use. Teachers were invited to bring classes to the Library 
 to look over costly collections of photographs and engrav- 
 ings illustrative of the scenery, animals, and vegetation of 
 ditTerent countries, and of street views in cities. 
 
 A few obstacles were met with. For instance, teachers 
 wished, before adopting the new methods in studying geog- 
 raphy, to know whether examinations at the end of the term 
 were to be on the text-book alone. They were assured by 
 
54 ^ SAMUEL S. GREEN 
 
 the proper officers that, if they adopted the system of teach- 
 ing, examinations should be made to conform to it. It soon 
 became apparent that some of the more enterprising teachers,, 
 by a skillful use of the facilities afforded at the Library, got 
 more than their proper proportion of the books on a given 
 subject in which there was an interest felt in several schools 
 at once, and kept books out of the Library so long as to 
 prevent other teachers from working to advantage. The 
 heads of buildings were called together, and removed these 
 difficulties by making certain agreements satisfactory to 
 themselves and the librarian, in regard to the time the teach- 
 ers in any one building should keep out books and respect- 
 ing other pertinent matters. 
 
 Soon a good start in our work was secured and most of 
 the obstacles disappeared. More duplicates were needed than 
 could be supplied at once, but by consultation and careful 
 consideration of means at our disposal, this difficulty was 
 lessened. It will disappear altogether in time, because, when 
 a close connection is established between schools and li- 
 braries, the latter will consider carefully the needs of the 
 former, and add every year large numbers of books on all 
 subjects taught in the schools, and of works which it is 
 wholesome for children to use in home reading. As the 
 course of studies in the schools remains the same, or nearly 
 so, year by year, the Library will soon have on its shelves 
 books enough to supply adequately the needs of teachers and 
 scholars. 
 
 One or two general features of the plan I have de- 
 scril)cd should l)e mentioned. An earnest effort was made 
 to bring al)out intimate relations between the librarian and 
 teachers, so that the latter would feel free to state all their 
 wants and difficulties, and the librarian have an opportunity 
 of finding out whatever is faulty in his arrangements and 
 procedure. Much has been left to the judgment of individ- 
 ual teachers. It is alM^ays important that this should be done. 
 It seems doubly so in a case such as the present, where but 
 few results of experience are obtainable. Good results have 
 followed the movement in Worcester. One hundred and 
 nineteen teachers took out either a teacher's or a pupil's 
 
RELATION OF LIIikARV TO SCTIOr)!, 55 
 
 card during the four months that elapsed after putting the 
 plans in execution before the close of the schools for the 
 summer vacation. Seventy-seven of these teachers took 
 out both kinds of cards. All the cards taken out have been 
 used constantly, and the number of books given out on tlu-ni 
 had been large. Besides these, a very large number of 
 books had been circulated by means of cards commonly used 
 in the Library, which scholars have given up to their teach- 
 ers witli a request for assistance in the selection of books 
 for general reading. 
 
 The testimony of teachers and scholars has been uni- 
 formly to the effect that the use of books from the library 
 has added much to the profitableness and interest of the 
 exercises in reading and geography. It has been noticed 
 that scholars enjoy reading from a well-illustrated book of 
 travels (e. g. "Zigzag Journeys," or Knox's "Boy travels 
 in the East"), and that in its use they read understandingly 
 and with increased expression. The members of the class 
 while not reading feel inclined to listen, and, when asked, 
 show ability to tell the teachers what others have been 
 reading about. Scholars break oflf from the reading lesson, 
 too, with a desire for its continuance. Two ladies having 
 charge of a room in one of the grammar-school buildings 
 tell me that they have fitted up a dressing-room, in which 
 they arrange on a table illustrated books taken from the Li- 
 brary, and that as a reward for good recitations one day they 
 allow scholars to go into that room the next day, a dozen or 
 so at a time, to gather around the table to look at the illustra- 
 tions and listen to the teacher's description of countries il- 
 lustrated. These teachers say that lessons have been much 
 better learned since the adoption of this plan than before, 
 and announce that they intend to teach geography largely 
 in this way in the future. 
 
 In doing the work I have been describing, it was hoped 
 that, besides rendering study more profitable and agreeable 
 to children, they would learn, incidently, that there are many 
 books which are interesting and yet not story books. Teach- 
 ers tell me this has been the case. Two in particular have 
 stated that boys who were in the habit of reading New York 
 
56 '^ SAMUEL S. GREEN 
 
 story papers and dime novels have gratefully received whole- 
 some books recommended by them. The books and papers 
 they had been reading had been thrust on their attention. 
 They knew of no others that are interesting. 
 
 One of these teachers says that some of the scholars re- 
 mind her of hungry men, unable to get nourishing food, in 
 seizing upon anything they could lay hands on to satisfy 
 a longing for reading-matter. One of the grammar-school 
 principals with the aid of some of his assistants, has done 
 a very considerable work in influencing the reading of his 
 scholars. He has used teachers' and pupils' cards held in 
 the building under his charge, and in talking with the schol- 
 ars has incited them to ask him to take possession of their 
 cards and help them pick out books. Two of his assistants 
 have made it a part of their work to consult the catalogues 
 of the Library and printed and manuscript lists of books 
 which the librarian placed in their hands, and in the use of 
 these facilities and by the aid of the librarian to select large 
 numbers of books for the use of scholars. This principal 
 sends to the Library cards for fifty books at a time. The 
 books are taken to the school and put in the charge of one 
 of the scholars who has been made librarian. They are 
 looked over by the teachers, and some volumes are retained 
 by them to be used in the reading exercise or for silent read- 
 ing in connection with the lessons. Most of the books, how- 
 ever, the scholars are allowed to examine freely, with the 
 object of selecting from them such as they find interesting 
 to take away from the building to read at home. It has 
 seemed to me that this grammar-school instructor and his 
 assistants are doing a very important work for the benefit 
 of the community. 
 
 Tn doing this kind of work a special catalogue of, say, 
 2,000 volumes is very much needed. Such lists of books which 
 have been issued in Boston and elsewhere for use in schools 
 as have come under my notice are inadequate. They are 
 made up in altogether too large a proportion of books which, 
 however excellent in themselves, are only adapted to the 
 capacity of mature pupils. Sufficient care is not taken in them 
 to designate the age of children for which particular books 
 
REr.ATlON OF LIBRARY TO SCIICJOI, 57 
 
 are designed. What is wanted especially is a selection of 
 books for children between the ages of eleven and fifteen, 
 every one of which is known from actual perusal by compe- 
 tent persons to be really a good book, and one adapted to the 
 capacity of young folks. I have recently made some efforts 
 to have such a catalogue prepared, and I am happy to be able 
 to state that several ladies in Boston who are very familiar 
 with this kind of work, and the value of whose labors has 
 already l)ccn thoroughly tested, are now engaged preparing 
 such a list. I hope this can be published in the course of a 
 few months. It is intended to use notes to show what the 
 contents of a book are wdien its title does not indicate them. 
 Meanwhile, I can only refer teachers to such sources of 
 information as I mentioned in an essay on "Sensational Fic- 
 tion," read before the American Library Association at its 
 meeting in the summer of 1879 (and published subsequently 
 in the Library Journal and privately printed in pamphlet 
 form), and to librarians and other persons who may be sup- 
 posed to have special information regarding books. 
 
 Among ways not before mentioned in which the teachers 
 of grammar and lower grades of schools have used the li- 
 brary are the following: Some have requested every mem- 
 ber of a class to go to the library to get information about 
 some of the mountains, water-falls, or mineral springs of the 
 United States, or about other specified objects to be em- 
 l)odied afterward in short compositions. One teacher has 
 adopted a plan which as I have stated, is in use in the high 
 school, and had brought a class of children to the Library 
 building to look at costly representations of the scenery, 
 occupations, buildings, costumes, etc., found in China and 
 japan. It is customary with some teachers, when the schol- 
 ars are studying American history, to procure from the Li- 
 brary the current lessons, to lend to pupils to use in the 
 evenings in acquiring a more extended knowledge of inci- 
 dents treated of only briefly in the portion of the text book 
 studied during any particular day. One teacher, whose 
 school is situated at a distance from the library building, 
 asked a wealthy citizen to buy for the school a hundred or 
 more of tlie books which she most needed in her work. He 
 
58 ^ SAMUEL S. GREEN 
 
 complied with her request at once, and after several con- 
 sultations with the librarian she made an admirable selection 
 of books, which were bought for her at low rates at which 
 librarians make purchases. 
 
 Even in lower grades of schools than the seventh, con- 
 siderable assistance may be afforded teachers when towns 
 are enlightened enough to spend money in providing in their 
 libraries books adapted to little children, as well as those 
 suited to older boys and girls and persons who have grown 
 up. Several of them have found such books as "Tiny's Nat- 
 ural History in words of four letters," by A. L. Bond, and 
 bound volumes of the Nursery, as well as stories such as 
 those in Aliss Edgeworth's "Parent's Assistant" and "Grimm's 
 Fairy Tales," very useful in doing school work. 
 
 ValuabJe suggestions in regard to work that may be done 
 by the co-operation of schools and libraries are to be found 
 in a paper read by Mr. William E. Foster, librarian of the 
 Providence Public Library, before Rhode Island Institute 
 of Instruction last January, and recently published by the 
 institute in a pamphlet with two other papers. 
 
 Of teachers in Boston who have used the Public Library 
 in that city in connection with the school work, the one 
 whose use is oftenest mentioned is Mr. Robert C. Metcalf, 
 master of the Wells Grammar School for girls. Unless I 
 misunderstand a recent utterance of Mr. Metcalf, there is 
 only one kind of work that he has found it feasible to do in 
 connection with the Public Library — namely, that of teach- 
 ing children to read attentively and with comprehension of 
 what they are reading. He sends to the library for, say, 
 twenty copies of some publication as Towle's "Pizarro," or 
 one of the longest poems of Longfellow, has every member 
 of the class read the book selected very carefully, a portion 
 at a time, and sets times when he will examine them on the 
 parts of a book assigned for reading, to see whether they 
 know just what the author has written, and have studied its 
 characteristics in expression. 
 
 This is an excellent exercise. Valuable aid in conduct- 
 ing it may be found in School Documents Nos. 17 and 29, 
 
r 
 
 RELATION OF LIBRARY TO SCHOOL 5q 
 
 1877, and 21, 1878, issued by the supervisors of scliools in 
 Boston. If an additional evidence of the need of it is de- 
 sired, it may be found in the record of the results of an ex- 
 amination of the schools in Norfolk county, Massachusetts, 
 printed in the last report of the Massachusetts Board of Ed- 
 ucation. It is a matter of consideration, however, whether 
 it is the province of a public library to supply books needed 
 for this exercise. Judge Chamberlain, the librarian of the 
 Boston Public Library, gives reasons in his last annual re- 
 port why they should be furnished by the library. On the 
 other hand, it may be said that schools with intelligence 
 supply collateral reading to teachers, and that it is quite m 
 the line of this undertaking to furnish books needed for the 
 kind of w^ork done by Mr. Metcalf. There should be no 
 quarrel over this matter. Teachers should have the books 
 needed in doing work of this kind, whatever may be the 
 method it is thought wise to adopt in supplying them in any 
 given town; whether it seems best to have them provided by 
 the public library or by the school committee, or to have 
 them bought with money secured by subscription. Numer- 
 ous duplicates of but a few books are needed, since a work, 
 after being studied in one school, can be passed along to the 
 other schools of the same grade to be studied in them, and 
 good books, suitable for the purpose mentioned, are pub- 
 lished at the Clarendon press and by American publishers 
 at a ver}' low price. There is a way too, in which some of 
 the advantages of this kind of work can be secured by aid 
 usually afiforded by libraries — namely, by dividing a class in- 
 to groups of four or five members, and giving to the scholars 
 in each group a separate book to examine. Books and mag- 
 azine articles could be chosen that children have ready access 
 to at home as well as in the libraries. Some pupils would be 
 willing to buy copies of inexpensive books. That such a plan 
 as this has been followed with success, in one case, at least, 
 is shown in an article entitled "The weekly 'reading-hour' 
 in a Providence (R. I.) school," published in the New Eng- 
 land Journal for February 19, 1880. 
 
 Is it practicable to do in large cities the work which it 
 has been shown has been well begun in a city of 58,000 in- 
 
6o SAMUEL S. GREEN 
 
 habitants? It seems to me easy to do it there. But how could 
 we deal with the masses of men, women and children, who 
 under the plan proposed, would use libraries for purposes 
 of reference in large cities? Would not the numbers of ap- 
 plicants for information be so great as to forbid much con- 
 sultation between officers of libraries, and students and 
 readers? No. In doing this kind of work, deal with in- 
 quirers in the branch libraries as well as the central building. 
 
 The large cities of England and America have found 
 themselves best able to fulfill their functions in the commun- 
 ity by establishing numerous branch libraries, in a circle 
 around the central library, in different sections of the terri- 
 tory which they cover. A considerable portion of the books 
 in the branch libraries should be selected with especial ref- 
 erjnce to the needs of teachers and scholars. Persons should 
 be placed at their head who have been chosen because, among 
 other qualifications, they have the ability to render assistance 
 in the commoner fields of investigation to ordinary inquirers. 
 Large collections of books are not needed in doing work in 
 connection with schools. Small branch librarie's selected 
 with regard to their wants, when supplemented by the re- 
 sources of the collection in the main building, are adequate. 
 In furtherance of the work of rendering assistance to in- 
 quirers among scholars and teachers, there should be at the 
 central library some man of large general acquaintance with 
 books and of zeal for the dissemination of knowledge, to 
 whom teachers and others in search of information may give 
 ready access when in search of knowledge, regarding any 
 subject they are interested in. He should have as many as- 
 sistants as are necessary to meet the demands of the in- 
 quirers. 
 
 With such a head and a sufficient number of assistants 
 in the central library, and with competent heads of branches, 
 it is perfectly feasible to do this kind of work in connection 
 with schools. Ordinary applications for information would 
 be met at the branches, and difficult questions would have to 
 be answered at the central library by the presentation of the 
 inquirer there in person, or by conversation through tele- 
 phones connecting branches with the principal building. Nor 
 
RELATION OF LIBRARY TO SriK)r)L 6i 
 
 need such service be very expensive. The officer havinp 
 charge of this kind of work should be a cultivated man of 
 somewhat exceptional qualifications, whose abilities and at- 
 tainments command compensation ec|ual, say, to the principal 
 of the high school. It is easy, I know from experience, to 
 train intelligent women who have had only a high school 
 education, but who have some interest in books, and pleas- 
 ant manners, to do the ordinary work required in pointing out 
 sources of information. Questions of teachers and scholars 
 recur and having once been answered by the chief, can be 
 answered afterwards by the assistant. 
 
 It seems to me practicable to do even more of this kind 
 of work in large cities, and to be perfectly feasible to invite 
 the public generally to come to public libraries, every person 
 with any question he may wish to ask, that books will an- 
 swer, for the purpose of having the best source of informa- 
 tion adapted to his needs and capacity pointed out to him 
 and placed in his hands. The number of inquirers will not 
 be so great as to become unmanageable and swamp the 
 facilities of the libraries, but it will be large, and, increasing 
 gradually, will have to be met by a gradually increasing force 
 of assistants. I make these statements of my convictions 
 after careful consideration of the subject, and after ten years 
 of experience in conducting a library, with no mean success, 
 on the plan recommended. The aim, bear in mind, is not 
 to provide information to specialists, but to help people 
 generally to get answers to questions which they feel in- 
 terested in having answered, 
 
 I see no reason why, in doing this kind of work, a li- 
 brary in a large place could not, with very little difficulty, 
 get great assistance from gentlemen outside of the corps of 
 officers. Take Boston as an example. How easy it would be 
 to interest a large number of the professors in the colleges 
 and other educational institutions in and near the city, and 
 specialists in different departments of knowledge in profes- 
 sional life or leading a life of study in comparative leisure, 
 to allow questions to be put to them occasionally in regard 
 to what book or books should be given to an inquirer, when 
 the general knowledge of the officers of the library, with bib- 
 
62 SAMUEL S. GREEN 
 
 liographies at their command, fails. Treat these gentlemen 
 as men to whom you are indebted, and afford them gracious- 
 ly every privilege that can possibly be granted to students, 
 and let them feel that they are an important factor in the 
 management of the library, and I am sure that, leaving out 
 the very selfish men who are found among scholars as well 
 as men in other occupations than study, a large corps of 
 voluntary assistants could be found ready to render the small 
 amount of gratuitous service needed of them, in considera- 
 tion of the consciousness that they were conferring a public 
 benefit. Of course tact would have to be used at the library, 
 and no unnecessary labor should be without expense to them. 
 The large libraries need and can have more co-operation in 
 the selection of books and in the dissemination of knowledge. 
 Are there not numbers of young specialists in large cities. 
 and men of maturer years, who would delight to co-operate 
 with the officers of a great library in making the institution 
 an exchange for information, a great educational institution, a 
 university for the people? Would not scholars at a distance 
 allow themselves to be consulted occasionally for the bene- 
 fit of inquirers, in consideration of the privilege of occasion- 
 ally asking themselves to have little investigations made, and 
 in return for infrequent loans of books. 
 
 One word in regard to libraries in small towns, and I 
 close. In such places, persons interested in the schools are 
 likely to feel an interest in the town library, and to be offi- 
 cially connected with it. School-committee men and teach- 
 ers in small towns should see to it that a portion of the money 
 appropriated in town meeting for the use of the library, is 
 spent for books that teachers and scholars need to consult 
 and use. 
 
LIBRARIES AS RELATED TO THE EDUCA- 
 TIONAL WORK OF THE STATE* 
 
 Next we have the presentation of this new educational 
 evangel before a body of eminent educators, in an ad- 
 dress by INIelvil Dewey, then director of the Columbia 
 College School of Library Economy, before the Convo- 
 cation of the University of the State of New York, at 
 Albany in July, 1888. 
 
 Melvil Dewey was born in Adams Center, N. Y., in 
 1851 and graduated from Amherst in 1874. He entered 
 the library profession at once as acting librarian of his 
 college, founded the Library Bureau in 1876, and in 1883 
 became librarian of Columbia L^niversity, N. Y., where 
 he founded the earliest library school in the world, re- 
 moving it with him to Albany, N. Y., on his acceptance 
 of the directorship of the State Library there in 1888. 
 He resigned in 1906 and has since devoted himself to 
 the development and extension of the Lake Placid Gub 
 in the Adirondacks, which he founded in 1895. Dr. Dewey 
 is known throughout the world as the author of the sys- 
 tem of decimal classification that bears his name. He 
 has a fertile mind and a cogent manner of presenting his 
 views. The modern progressive movement in library 
 work probably owes more to his influence, as an impulsive 
 force, than to that of any other one person. He served 
 as President of the A. L. A. in 1890- '91 and again in 
 1892-'93. 
 
 *The spelling of words in the address is that used bj- the 
 author. 
 
64 MELVIL DEWEY 
 
 There runs a tradition of our craft "the librarian who 
 reads is lost." Who writes is indeed without hope. How 
 grave his case who tries to make a speech! The modern libra- 
 rian is too crowded with daily work to bring you carefully 
 rounded periods or polisht sentences. He is content if able to 
 make his meaning clear and lodge the tho't of his mind in 
 yours. 
 
 You listen from year to year to special pleaders. Each 
 man, as a rule, tries to magnify his office, and demonstrate 
 that the topic in which he feels special interest is clearly first 
 in importance. He pleads for vocal music, elementary sci- 
 ence, hygiene, gymnastics, ethics, manual training, civil gov- 
 ernment, drawing. We ar convinced of the value of every 
 one, but alas, the list of necessary studies is like art, long, 
 and school life is for most of us pathetically short. We ar 
 forced mentally to "brace against" the carefully prepared 
 points of the advocate. For three reasons I ask you to-day 
 to follow me without this customary "bracing" against ex- 
 treme views. 
 
 1. I do not magnify my office because it is mine, but 
 rather hav chosen it as a life work because unable to escape 
 the conviction of its superlativ importance to education. 
 
 2. I cum to you without carefully prepared arguments, 
 and ask you simply to answer to your own minds my plain 
 but vital questions. 
 
 3. Most important, the action to which I seek to lead 
 you, insted of taking more time, means relief to your over- 
 crowded curriculums. 
 
 What I propose, you wil see is no entangling alliance, 
 but rather is annexing a continent. Wer there time, I should 
 speak of the admirabl work that has been going on in both 
 east and west for the last five years between the schools and 
 libraries. This has met with harty recognition, has been 
 often described in print, and is making its way rapidly thru 
 the cuntry. But this is only the introduction to that deeper 
 relation and recognition which is in the immediate future. 
 
 THE MODKRN LIRRARY 
 
 And let me remind you before we begin that the library 
 for which 1 speak is one which few of us hav seen, except in 
 
LIBRARIES AND EDUCATION 65 
 
 promis. It is a library at present in its infancy. Remember 
 your own history. "Schools" wer old when Paul sat at 
 the feet of Gamaliel and the quick-witted Greeks hung on 
 the words of their teachers in the Academy, Lyceum, and 
 the Porch. But "schools" like those of which this Convo- 
 cation is the crown ar yung. When in this discussion we 
 speak of libraries, picture that ideal which I wil briefly 
 sketch. Go back neither to the storied bricks and slabs of 
 Nineveh and Babylon, nor to the myriad mss. of mighty 
 Alexandria, nor, cuming to our own time, to those institu- 
 tions which in our library evolution correspond to Squeers 
 and Dotheboys Hall. We hav many libraries stil which 
 hav naught in common with our ideal, except books and the 
 name; many that seem stil carefully administerd for the 
 least good to the smallest possibl number. Our evolution 
 cums after yours. We ar not so far advanced. Barely a 
 generation ago the harmless incompetent, fit for nothing 
 else, was set to teach school. But in their dignity and 
 strength most schools hav now crowded out the incompe- 
 tents. The libraries ar following, and already the idea is 
 giving way that men and women, who fail in everything else 
 and can get neither church nor school, patients nor clients, 
 ar just the ones for librarians. Glance with me a moment at 
 a sampl of the old library and the new. 
 
 The old was located in an out-of-the-way street, specially 
 inconvenient to the majority who might want it; the bilding 
 was unattractiv, dark, damp, cold, unventilated and ingeni- 
 ously inconvenient; many of the books wer on shelves so 
 high as to require a ladder, wer covered with dust, in shabby 
 bindings, protected often with shabbier paper cuvers, soild, 
 torn and in general discouraged in appearance; unused pub- 
 lic documents, old school-books, etc., nearest the door; the 
 more attractiv works in the attic or cellar; the shelves un- 
 labeld; the books without numbers on the back and possibly 
 with none inside, and put on the shelvs haphazard as they 
 had cum in, or in a classification so coarse that a reader seek- 
 ing matter on a minute topic might require a week to look 
 over the disorganized mass of literature in which he may, 
 or may not find sumthing that he wishes; its catalogs and 
 
66 ^ MELVIL DEWEY 
 
 indexes wcr chiefly conspicuous by their absence, or wcr 
 so meager, unreliabl, and so destitute of clear grouping that 
 the only way to find what was wanted was to read the whole 
 catalog. The library was open an hour or two now and then, 
 and closed evenings, holidays and vacations, for annual 
 cleaning or for almost any excuse — on busy days, because 
 no one had time to cum; on holidays, because the librarians 
 also wanted those days for rest. Finally and most important 
 the old type of librarian was a crabbed and unsympathetic 
 fossil who did what he was forced to do with an air that 
 said plainly he wisht you had not cum, and a reader among 
 his books was as unwelcum as the proverbial poor relation 
 on a long visit. It is a sorry picture but by no means 
 wholly fanciful. In many places those who knew would 
 pronounce it a study from life. 
 
 Contrast all this with the library as it should be and in 
 many cases wil be. Placed centrally where it is most ac- 
 cessibl to its readers; the bilding and rooms attractiv, bright 
 and thoroly ventilated, lighted and warmd, and finisht and 
 fitted to meet as fully as possibl all reasonabl demands of 
 its readers; the books all within reach, clean and in repair; 
 those oftenest needed nearest the delivery desk, labled and 
 numberd; arranged on the shelvs so that each reader may 
 see together the resources of the librar}-^ on the topic which 
 he wishes to examin, kept constantly redy for inspection; 
 with simpl and complete indexes and catalogs to tel almost 
 instantly if any book or pamflet wisht is in the bilding; open 
 day and evening thruout the year and in charge of librarians 
 as pleasd to see a reader cum to ask for books or assistance 
 as a merchant to welcum a new customer; anxious to giv 
 as far as possibl to each applicant at each visit that book 
 which wil then, and to him, be most helpful. 
 
 These ar the facts. The old library was passiv, asleep, a 
 reservoir or cistern, getting in but not giving out, an arsenal 
 in time of peace; the librarian a sentinel before the doors, 
 a jailer to gard against the escape of unfortunates under 
 his care. The new library is activ, an aggressiv, educating 
 jForce in the community, a living fountain of good influences, 
 
 I 
 
LIBRARIES AND EDUCATION 67 
 
 an army in the field with all guns limbered; and the librarian 
 occupies a field of activ usefulness second to none. 
 
 We wil speak then of the relation of schools and li- 
 braries as they ought to be, not of the failures of the past. 
 
 THE school's necessary COMPLEMENT 
 
 It takes the world a great while to lern what seem after- 
 ward very simpl lessons.' A happy tho't sumtimes revolu- 
 tionizes the common practices of centuries. It cums out as 
 clear as lightning in the darkness and the world recognizes 
 and accepts it, as witness the telegraf and telefone and other 
 modern miracles. But sumtimes the new idea crystalizes so 
 slowly that it seems like a geological formation. But 
 whether with swiftness of light or slowness of granit the 
 world moves stedily forward. 
 
 I suppose the man who first proposed attaching a wagon 
 to the horse and making him draw that as wel as his load, 
 was voted as great a visionary as the modern flying machin- 
 ist. But when on a smooth road he proved that the same 
 horse could draw ten times as much as he had carried, why 
 the wise old world said, "the man is right. Go to now, let 
 us bild ourselves wagons." But the obstructionist (the dear, 
 dredful, omnipresent old fossil was surely there) said, "In 
 spite of his proof, the wagons ar useless for they cannot 
 run on our bridle paths." And there was truth, as there 
 often is, in the obstructor's position. But the world that 
 bilt the wagons has bilt the roads. And when we remember 
 that the bilders hav gone on to cross the continent with 
 roads of iron and wer not dismayd at the great span of the 
 Hudson at our feet, or at the huge Hoosac bulk we can al- 
 most see beyond the other shore, you wil hardly think the 
 task too great to bild the road of which I am to give you a 
 bird's eye view to-day. 
 
 If you wil follow me you wil recognize that our schools 
 can do but a fraction of their woi'k without the libraries. 
 The}' ar horses without wagons, engins without cars, canals 
 without boats except such skifs and scows and rafts as 
 chance may throw upon their waters. We must hav proper 
 carriages as wel as motiv power, and then must make suit- 
 abl provision for broad and straight and level roads. 
 
68 - MELVIL DEWEY 
 
 THE REAL GATE TO THE SOUL 
 
 We ar spending our time and money with a freedom 
 of which all the world is proud, to giv our youth in our pub- 
 lic schools not much information or culture, but only the 
 simplest tools which if rightly used wil enabl them to edu- 
 cate themselvs by reading. 
 
 Of old it was only the lerned few who could read; most 
 of the world wer limited to" conversation: Now, we ar told 
 this is an art more rare than music, and only the educated 
 few ar able to converse; but, except illiterates, everybody 
 reads. Less and less from living voice, from pulpit or 
 rostrum, and more and more from printed page, ar peopl 
 getting their ideas and ideals, their motivs and inspiration. 
 The mass of knowledge credited to nature and observation 
 cums most of it, not directly, but thru print. The eye, not 
 the ear, is the great gate to the soul. The town crier no 
 longer rings his bel and shouts his message thru the streets. 
 Even if told orally, most readers wish to see "how it looks 
 in print" as an average English reader of French wishes to 
 see rather than hear the words. All that is worth knowing 
 soon gets into type. What a boon if such only wer printed! 
 
 As we study the question, it becums clear that the diffi- 
 culty and expense of reaching the peopl by the voice, and 
 the cheapness and permanence of print make it necessary, 
 if we ar to educate and elevate the masses and make their 
 lives better worth living, that we should in sum way put in 
 their hands the best reading. I say best, for reading is not 
 necessarily good or elevating, tho it certainly averages much 
 higher than conversation, because much greater care is taken 
 in its preparation. Labor and cost bring into activity the 
 law of survival of the fittest. But if good books average 
 higher than good conversation bad books ar more powerful 
 for evil; for when ideas good or bad get into book form they 
 ar apt to becum vastly more potent. We hav thus a dubl 
 reason for our missionary work; to give good reading for 
 its own sake and also as the best means to drive out and 
 keep out bad. To teach the masses to read and then turn 
 iheni out in orly youth with this power and no guiding in- 
 fluence, is only to invite the catastrofe. Human fashion 
 
LTP.RARTKS AND KDUCATIDN 60 
 
 they ar quite as likely to get bad as good. The down hil 
 road is ever easiest to travel. The world agrees that it is 
 unwise to give sharp tools or powerful weapons to tiie 
 masses without sum assurance of how they are to be used. 
 Even George Washington got into mischief with his first 
 hatchet. 
 
 THE BOOK MIRACLE 
 
 The children of another generation wil see nothing 
 specially wonderful about the telefone or electric light. So 
 we, born to constant sight and use of books, seldom stop to 
 think what a miracl they ar. As distinguisht from the brute 
 the savage has the divine gift of speech. And when we 
 think that the vibrations of the air started by the vocal 
 chords convey to another the workings of the human soul, 
 we no longer wonder that speech has been lookt on as the 
 direct gift of the Almighty, a power too wonderful to hav 
 been invented by man. And when, a step higher, the image 
 of his Maker discovered the art of writing, and lernd to 
 make spoken words permanent on wood or stone or clay, 
 we do not wonder that the savage worshipt the chip that 
 could talk or the bit of paper that unaided made a complete 
 communication. Has there been anything in the world's 
 history so wonderful as a modern book? 
 
 And remember that of late years the printing press has 
 calld to its aid grafic methods, color, form, the curvs and 
 coordinates of geometry, and the many fotographic proc- 
 esses, so that in many cases the book makes the author's 
 meaning clearer and more easil}' understood than would be 
 possible for a score of authors with the living voice. In 
 proof of this consult sum recent statistical atlas or the pro- 
 fusely illustrated volumes in science. Or take this very 
 point of illiteracy: — here is a map on which is indicated by 
 darkness of shading the amount of illiteracy in each section. 
 Or to be more exact, here is a page with the list of all the 
 states at the left, followd by colums representing each 
 decade of this century, with the dates at the top of the page. 
 Running across this page, opposite each state, is a curved 
 line indicating by its hight above the ruling, the percentage 
 in that state that cannot write; for each year the rise and 
 
70 MELVTT. DEWEY 
 
 fall of the lines show the fluctuations grafically. A similar 
 line in red opposit the same state in the same way shows 
 the percentage that cannot read. Thus on this single page, 
 at a glance, is told with geometrical accuracy, conveying to 
 the mind a clearer idea than would figures (in sum such 
 charts, indeed, the figures ar also inserted), the amount of 
 illiteracy for the whole country; or for any givn year, by 
 reading down the proper colum; or by reading across, the 
 condition of any givn state during the whole century; or, 
 by consulting the intersections of these colums as on a 
 railroad time table, the condition of any place, at any time. 
 No amount of oral statement could begin to give so clear 
 an idea as a few minutes' study of these two pages. Similar 
 methods ar being applied to almost every subject of human 
 interest. Recent fotografic processes hav made exact pic- 
 tures and all kinds of illustrations so cheap that a modern book, 
 as compared with those of last century, is like a modern lecture 
 on science in which every point is illustrated by experiments 
 performed before the listener or by mere oral statement 
 which, however skillful the word painting itself and however 
 clearly defined in the mind of the speaker wer all the ideas 
 of objects referd to, simply could not reproduce them as 
 clearly in the mind of the listener. 
 
 Emerson says: "Consider what you hav in the smallest 
 chosen library. A company of the wisest and wittiest men 
 that could be pickt out of all civil countries, in a thousand 
 years, have set in best order the results of their learning and 
 wisdom. The men themselves wer hid and inaccessibl, soli- 
 tary, impatient of interruption, fenced by etiquet; but the 
 tho't which they did not uncover to their bosom. frend is here 
 writn out to us, the strangers of another age." 
 
 And his friend Carlyle adds: 
 
 "Of the things which man can do or make here below, 
 by far the most momentous, wonderful, and worthy, ar the 
 things we call books." 
 
 OUR TWO-SIDED TRIANGLE 
 
 Reading is a mighty engine, beside which steam and 
 electricity sink into insignificance. Four words of five ar 
 writn: "It wil do infinit" — : It remains for us to add "good" 
 
TJl'.RARTI'.S AND EDUCATION 71 
 
 or "il." What can we do? (lood advice and exaiiipk-. cn- 
 curagement of the best, addresses, all these iielp, but no one 
 (juestions that the main work is possibl only thru the or- 
 ganization and economy of free public libraries. Many hav 
 practically accepted this fact without clearly seeing the steps 
 that hav led to it. It is our high privilege to liv when the 
 public is beginning to see more than the desirability, the 
 absolute necessity, of this modern, missionary, library work. 
 With the founding of New England it was recognized, tho 
 opposed to the traditions of great powers in church and 
 state, that the church alone, however great its preeminence, 
 could not do all that was necessary for the safety and up- 
 lifting of the peopl. So side by side they built meeting-house 
 and school-house. The plan has had a long and thoro trial. 
 None of us ar likely to question the wisdom of bringing the 
 school into this prominence, but thotful men ar to-day, 
 more than ever before, pointing out that a great sumthing 
 is wanting and that church and school together have not 
 succeeded in doing all that was hoped or all that is neces- 
 sary for the common safety and the common good. The 
 school STARTS the education in childhood; we have cum to 
 a point where in sum way we MUST carry it on. The 
 simplest figure cannot be bounded by less than three lines; 
 the lightest table cannot be firmly supported by less than a 
 tripod. No more can the triangle of great educational work 
 now wel begun be complete without the church as a basis, 
 the school as one side, the library the other. The pulpit, 
 the press, and wideawake educators everywhere ar accepting 
 this doctrin. There is a general awakning all along the line. 
 The nation is just providing in the congressional library a 
 magnificent home for our greatest collection of books; the 
 states ar passing new and more liberal laws to encurage 
 the founding and proper support of free libraries; individ- 
 uals ar giving means for establishing these great educational 
 forces, as never before. Witness Walter Newberry's three 
 millions to Chicago, Mrs. Fiske's million and a half to Cor- 
 nell University, Enoch Pratt's million and a half to Balti- 
 more, Judge Packer's half million for the library of Lehigh. 
 Andrew Carnegie's prof^erd quarter million to Pittsburg, 
 
^2. - MELVIL DEWEY 
 
 and proudly at the hed, greatest of all library gifts, Governor 
 Tilden's five to ten million left to New York, not to men- 
 tion the hundreds of smaller gifts which mark the last few 
 years. New large and beutiful bildings ar being rapidly 
 provided; new libraries ar being started at the rate of one 
 to three each week; old ones are taking on new life and 
 zeal; Sunday school and church libraries ar organizing to 
 enlarge and make their work more efifectiv, and a great field 
 of usefulness at present hardly realized is opening in this 
 special direction; schools ar being bro't into direct and 
 activ relations with local public libraries. To one studying 
 this great problem, the air is full of the signs of the time. 
 As with the free school, so again, New England leads in free 
 libraries, but her exampl is being followd with constantly 
 increasing rapidity. 
 
 THE LIMITATIONS OF THE SCHOOLS 
 
 Our fathers had to revise their ideas and introduce the 
 free schools as an essential factor. The time has come when 
 we must revise our conceptions of education or refuse to 
 recognize very significant facts. 
 
 Education is a matter of a life time. We provide in the 
 schools for the first lo or 15 years and ar only cum to the 
 threshold of seeing our duty to the rest of life. We begin 
 to see that the utmost that we can hope for the masses is 
 schooling til they can take the author's meaning from the 
 printed page. I do not mean merely to pronounce the words 
 or pass the tests for illiteracy, but to understand. Observa- 
 tion has convinst me that the reason why so many peopl ar 
 not habitual readers is, in most cases, that they never really 
 lernd to read; and, startling as this may seem, tests wil show 
 that many a man who would resent the charge of illiteracy 
 is wholly unabl to reproduce the author's tho'ts by looking 
 at the printed page. And even with this tremendous modifier 
 of the real number of readers we lose ground. I am no pessi- 
 mist. I hav no sympathy with croakers. I am proud to the 
 last degree of the great work that is being done. But we 
 cannot shut our eyes to the census. In 1870 15 per cent 
 of illiterates seemed an ugly item, 1)Ut it had grown to 17 
 per cent in 1880, in spite of all our millions and all our 
 
LTP.RAKTKS AND EDUCATION 73 
 
 boasts. Of the children of school age in this great state, how 
 pitifully few get beyond the grammar school? And of those 
 who becum academic pupils how many enter college? And 
 to the saving remnant that graduates from college, h«nv 
 much of the knowledge of after life came from schools, and 
 how much from reading? We must face the facts. We 
 must struggl to teach our masses to read in our schools. 
 Then they must becum bred winners; and if we carry on 
 their education we must do it by providing free libraries 
 which shal serv as high schools and colleges for the peopl. 
 Our schools at best, wil only furnish the tools (how rudi- 
 mentary those tools for most people now); but in the ideal 
 libraries, towards which we ar looking to-day, wil be found 
 the materials which, with these tools, may be workt up into 
 good citizenship and higher living. The schools giv the 
 chisel; the libraries the marbl; there can be no statues with- 
 out both. As this fact becomes more generally recognized 
 the time draws nearer when the traveler wil no longer ask, 
 hav 3'ou a library, but where is the library, assuming its ex- 
 istence as much as he now assumes that there must be a 
 church and school and post-office. 
 
 STORAGE AND RECREATION LIBRARIES 
 
 But if the library is to do the ideal work that we hav 
 in mind it must hav sum of the ideal qualities on which such 
 work depends. This means a library differing materially 
 from both the types most familiar in the past, which we may 
 call storage and recreation libraries. The first is a store- 
 house, a cistern, an arsenal, medieval in its spirit, a literary 
 miser, always getting in, seldom giving out. It was for 
 holding and preserving, and not for use, and is best illus- 
 trated by the miser, who gets gold not to spend, but merely 
 for the satisfaction of possession. The European libraries 
 ar largely of this character, as ar most state and govern- 
 ment collections. 
 
 The recreation type is a mental candy shop, and at the 
 other extreme in every feature. It is wholly for use, but 
 the use is wholly for amusement. It could be illustrated by 
 a school that taught only games, or a hotel that in its din- 
 ing-room served only sweetmeats. It has, to be sure, sum 
 
74 MELVIL DEWEY 
 
 excellent books, but supplied to meet the taste of its pleas- 
 ure-seekers, as the confectioner givs those who wish it a bit 
 of good bred to eat with their ice cream. 
 
 Surely every library ought to hav an ambition to get 
 and preserv books, and surely some place should be found 
 in every general collection for fiction and humor. These 
 ought however, to be the embroidery, and not the web. A 
 circulating library run as a business wil, of course, take on 
 this latter character, and supply whatever wil be most redily 
 taken by its customers. But the library in which we ar in- 
 terested to-day combines the good features of both these 
 with others of its own, and is the institution that deservs 
 the name of peopl's university. It might wel copy that broad 
 legend from the seal of Cornell, "An institution where any 
 person may. find instruction in any study." Perhaps we 
 should more clearly recognize its proper functions and be in 
 less danger of confusing it with old ideas, if we calld it not 
 a '"library" but a "Peopl's university." 
 
 WHAT AIAKES A MODEL LIBRARY? 
 
 To the making of such a library many elements con- 
 tribute. A bilding wil not do it tho it be as beutiful as the 
 Taj and as great as the Coliseum. Money and books, tho 
 essential, wil not of themselvs make such a library. I recall 
 visiting a magnificent bilding on which about a million dol- 
 lars had been spent. In it wer many valuabl books. It 
 was in a great city, and a thousand readers daily ought to 
 hav found their way thru its open doors. When I lookt 
 with surprise at the four or five readers who seemd lost in 
 its superb rooms, my witty frend the chief librarian said, 
 "why, there is hardly a day passes that sum one does not 
 cum into this library." 
 
 And I recall a similar illustration which came under my 
 personal knowledge. The detectiv force of a great city wer 
 •in hot pursuit of a man who tho't it impossibl to hide from 
 them. A literary man to whom he had done a favor under- 
 took successfully to secrete him thru the entire day, and 
 after dark he escaped. The place chosen, where he would 
 be least exposed to recognition from chance observers was 
 in the public reading-room of a great library, which, like the 
 
LIIM^\R[|«:S AND EDUCATION 75 
 
 one before inentioned, was famous for tlic nunihcr of pcopl 
 who did not go there. 
 
 We have no time to-day to go into the questions that 
 determine a library's measure of success. Merc mention 
 of beds must suffice. Its location should be central and ac- 
 cessibl to all. Its bilding should be comfortabl and con- 
 venient. Grandier plays no part in usefulness. Its hours 
 of opening should be long, for the peopl's university like the 
 town pump, should seldom be closed to those needing it. 
 The regulations should be liberal, with as litl red tape as 
 is consistent with the safety of the books. It goes without 
 saying that books, pamflets and serials should be well se- 
 lected and as liberally provided as means allow. It would be 
 hard to find a library in which from 10 to 50 per cent of 
 its books could not be replaced with others more valubl for 
 its use. In fact it is common to find collections where if 
 the very best could be chosen from the open market, one 
 quarter the number of books would have more value than the 
 whole miscellaneous assemblage. After the books cum the 
 litl-understood catalogs, classification and analysis which vastly 
 increase their practical value. 
 
 Only those with special experience can understand how 
 essential to an}' high success ar such appliances. Working 
 in a library without them is like trying to find a score of 
 men in a great city without a directory. You may chance 
 on sum one who knows the man j^ou seek and can direct you 
 to him, but the chances ar that you wil hav a long disharten- 
 ing serch and perhaps fail entirely to find him. 
 
 Finally and perhaps more important than all the rest is 
 the librarian. If he can furnish inspiration and guidance 
 to the readers who seek his help then may we indeed look 
 for a true university whether large or small, for the small 
 library should hav all the high ideals of the large with the 
 best of their books. 
 
 THE scholar's LIBRARY 
 
 And such a library is the real university for the scholar 
 as well as for the peopl. Of old the pupil was continually 
 with the teacher, and from his lips lernd the sought for 
 Wisdomi; but the printing press has revolutionized all this, 
 
76 ^ MELVIL DEWEY 
 
 and to-day many an ernest discipl has never seen the face 
 nor herd the voice of his master, but has received all his 
 teachings thru the printed page. The "new education" is 
 chiefly distinguisht by substituting the library for the text 
 book and dogmatic lecture. Seminars ar springing up in the 
 best colleges in all departments. Students ar taught to work 
 in the library as the main object of their course and when 
 one is abl to use skilfully a large bibliografical apparatus 
 and to get quickly and accurately from a great library what 
 he needs, he may indeed claim to hav a good education. 
 
 Of late years the college library has been taking an 
 entirely new position. Of old it was attacht to the chair 
 of some overworkt professor or put in charge of the janitor 
 and opend four or five hours per week in term time only. 
 Now it is being raised to the rank of a distinct university 
 department;" there ar professors of bibliografy, of books 
 and reading, and at Columbia we hav for the first time a 
 chair of Library Economy. The libraries ar being made as 
 accessibl as the traditional college wel, sum of them open- 
 ing from 8 a. m. to lo p. m., including all holidays and vaca- 
 tions; they are receiving endowments, e. g. the million and 
 more to Cornell University, Prof. Horsford's great gift to 
 Wellesley, Judge Packer's half million to Lehigh, and the 
 list of funds givn to Harvard, the Phoenix gift to Columbia, 
 and so I might go on with hundreds of illustrations. New 
 and beutiful bildings, sum fire-proof, all vast improvements 
 over what was tho't sufficient in the last generation, multiply; 
 Harvard, Brown, Amherst, Dartmouth, Oberlin, Yale, the 
 Universities of Michigan, Vermont and Pennsylvania; in 
 this state Cornell, Syracuse, and Madison Universities, and 
 so on. In New York city alone three splendid collegiat 
 library bildings hav just been finisht; for the General Theo- 
 logical Seminary, Union Seminary and our own at Columbia 
 which has cost over $400,000 and alredy we plan an enlarge- 
 ment. The colleges ar waking to the fact that the work of 
 every professor and every department is necessarily based 
 on the li])rary; text books constantly yield their exalted 
 places to wiser and broader methods; professor after pro- 
 fessor sends his classes, or goes with them, to the library 
 
LTRRARTES AND EDUCATION -jy 
 
 and teaches them to investigate for themselves and to use 
 books, getting beyond the method of primary school with its 
 parrot-like recitations from a singl text. With the refer- 
 ence librarians to counsel and guide readers; with the 
 greatly improved catalogs and indexes, cross-references, 
 notes and printed guides, it is quite possibl to make a great 
 university of a great library without professors. Valuabl as 
 they ar in giving personal inspiration, they can do litl in 
 making a university without the library. Just as truly as 
 we found in popular education that the real school for the 
 mass of peopl and for all their lives except erly childhood, 
 was the library, so in the higher education the real uni- 
 versity is a great library thoroly organized and liberally ad- 
 ministerd. 
 
 THE PRESENT NEED 
 
 What we need now in higher education is not more 
 colleges but more libraries. Railroads hav largely annihi- 
 lated space and for the preliminary training it is easy to send 
 our boys and girls a few hundred miles to college; but for 
 the training that must be carried on all thru life they need 
 the peopl's university, close at hand where it may be reacht 
 without serious interruptions of regular pursuits. It is like 
 the post-office and market compared to the registry of deeds. 
 One does not object when he buys an estate to go a long 
 distance to record his title but when he wishes to mail a 
 letter he insists on having a post-office at hand. Higher 
 education therefore demands new libraries at accessibl points 
 thruout the state and their wise and economical establish- 
 ment requires guidance and supervision such as the Regents 
 of the University can best supply. State after state has 
 partially recognized the claim of the library by passing laws 
 allowing communities to tax themselves for its maintenance 
 and the time has cum when the recognition of its true place 
 must be made complete. If New York will not now lead as is 
 her wont, at no distant day the greatest of the states wil 
 hav to follow. 
 
 THE AGENCIES AT WORK 
 
 If time allowd I should like to sketch to you the recent 
 development of the modern library idea. I merely mention 
 
78 MELVIL DEWEY 
 
 the great steps, referring you for fuller information to the 
 Library Journal, Library Notes and the circulars to be had 
 on application at the Columbia Library School. We date 
 activ progress from 1876 when, after a few days' successful 
 conference in Philadelphia, the American Library Associa-! 
 tion was organized. It holds annual meetings, markt among 
 conventions by their practical work and enthusiasm. The 
 same year we started an official monthly organ, the Library 
 Journal, now in its 13th volume. Shortly after followed that 
 most important practical factor in the library work, the Li- 
 brary Bureau of Boston, which undertakes to do for li- 
 braries such work as is not practicabl for the Association 
 or magazine. It equips large or small libraries with every- 
 thing needed (except books and periodicals) of the best 
 patterns devised by or known to the officers and committees 
 of the Association of which it is the tangibl representativ 
 for manufacturing and distributing improved appliances and 
 supplies. It secures traind catalogers and assistants or finds 
 positions for those out of employment, gives technical ad- 
 vice in its consultation department, and in all practicabl 
 ways fosters library interests. Ten years after the Journal 
 which, because of its limited 'circulation, barely pays ex- 
 penses at $5 a year, came its co-laborer, Library Notes, a 
 quarterly magazine of librarianship, specially devoted to the 
 modern methods and spirit, and circulated widely because 
 of its low price. Last of the great steps came the school 
 for training librarians and catalogers which two years ago 
 was opend at Columbia College thru the same influence 
 which had before started the Association, Journal, Bureau 
 and Notes. You who appreciate what normal schools ar 
 doing to improve our teaching wil remember that the li- 
 brarians need a training school more than the teachers who 
 hav had the experience of their own school-life as a pattern; 
 for librarians til two years ago never had opportunity for 
 training, and came to their work like teachers who had been 
 self taught and not only had no normal school advantages 
 but had never been in a school or class room even as pupils. 
 As evidence of the growth of the idea we may note that 
 this Library School which began two years ago with a 12 
 
LTIIkARIES AND EDUCATION 79 
 
 weeks' course and provision for five to ten pupils has in two 
 full years four times as many students at work, and in 
 spite of the rapidly increast requirements for admission is 
 to-day embarrast by five times as many candidates as it can 
 receiv. This means a recognition of the high calling of the 
 modern librarian who works in the modern spirit with the 
 high ideals which the School holds before its pupils. 
 
 PREACHER^ TEACHER AND LIBRARIAN 
 
 Compare this work with that of the clergyman or teacher 
 whose fields of usefulness ar universally put in the first rank; 
 The clergyman has before him for one or two hours per 
 week perhaps one-tenth or one-twentieth of the peopl in his 
 parish. Not so many indeed when we remember how often 
 there ar little struggling churches of a half dozen denomina- 
 tions where one strong church could do all the work much 
 better. Be3'ond this very limited number for this very lim- 
 ited time the clergyman is dependent on the slow process 
 of personal, parochial calls. I yield to none in my apprecia- 
 tion of the great work which he does and do not forget the 
 constant stream of good influences cuming from his daily 
 life and the many direct efforts he puts forth; but I am 
 speaking now of his work as a preacher and of the limits 
 which circumstances seem to set to it. 
 
 The teacher has a larger proportion of her constituency 
 in the earlier years, but only for a few hours a day and only 
 in the months when schools ar in session. It constantly 
 happens that just as she becums deeply interested in a 
 bright, promising boy or girl and feels that here is an op- 
 portunity to develop a strong character by patient work, the 
 child cums and says: "I am not cuming to school any more. 
 I am going to work in the factory," or 'T am going to help 
 mother at home." For the great majority the work of edu- 
 cation has hardly begun before the necessities of life take 
 them away from the teacher's influence. 
 
 But the earnest librarian may hav for a congregation al- 
 most the entire community, regardless of denomination or 
 political party. His services are continuous and in the wide 
 reaching influences of the library there is no vacation. When 
 a bright boy or girl has been once found and interested and 
 
8o . MELVIL DEWEY 
 
 started, he is almost sure to continue under these influences 
 all his life. It has been found entirely practicabl for a skill- 
 ful librarian thus to reach and interest peopl who hav never 
 been in the habit of reading; to lead readers into new and 
 more profitabl fields, and to create a thirst for better books. 
 In fact the number of ways in which peopl can be helpt is 
 only equald by the power and lasting character of this in- 
 fluence which cums from good books. Recognizing these 
 facts there ar those lookng to the adoption of the library pro- 
 fession as a way to spred the Master's word even more ef- 
 fectivly than the pulpit; and there ar teachers, whose whole 
 harts have been givn to the cause of popular education, who 
 ar eager to enter this newer field, because they recognize in 
 it a stil wider opportunity. 
 
 Is it not true that the ideal librarian fils a pulpit where 
 there is service every day during all the waking hours, with 
 a large proportion of the community frequently in the con- 
 gregation? Has he not a school in which the classes grad- 
 uate only at death? 
 
 THE PRESENT DUTY OF THE STATE 
 
 Much is already done and while the work is in its in- 
 fancy, it is an infant so vigorous as to leav no fears of its 
 manhood. A last great step remains to be taken, and to-day 
 and here it ought to be begun. The state long ago recog- 
 nized its school system as one of its bulwarks and fosters 
 it with yearly increasing expenditure. Now it must recog- 
 nize educational libraries as necessary companions of the 
 most successful schools. This eminent body represents the 
 higher education of the Empire State, which the Regents 
 of the University ar charged with fostering. Tell me if you 
 think they can, without taking action, face our facts that the 
 best reading more than the scholars givs education to our 
 peopl; that the colleges provide for only the trifling minority 
 who can afford time and money to share in their great ad- 
 vantages; that the influence conceded to be most potent is 
 left without guidance, supervision, stimulus or support. 
 When inspection shows that a school, has attained a certain 
 standard, it is honored by being made a "Regents' Academy." 
 Can we do less than giv similar inspections to libraries, and 
 
LIUKARIES AND EDrCATIOX 8i 
 
 when one is found doing the high work at which we hav 
 glanced to-day, honor it by making it a "Regents' Library" 
 and by virtue of success in its high calling, a member of 
 this convocation which represents the institutions that giv 
 New York its higher education? What greater stimulus can 
 we place before our growing libraries than such certain anrl 
 official recognition of superior work? 
 
 Many advantages ar sure to spring from entering wisely 
 on this course. I do not advocate undue haste. The essen- 
 tial thing is to recognize the principl and then meet year by 
 3-ear the growing demand for advice and inspiration. There 
 need be no obligatory supervision. A library secretary would 
 soon hav more requests for advice and help than he could 
 wel answer. New communities ar constantly waking to the 
 need of libraries and would be deeply grateful for wise ad- 
 vice as to the best means of developing interest, raising 
 money, selecting cataloging and circulating books and the 
 thousand details which make or mar success. It is wel 
 known to the experienst that the same money can be made 
 to do dubl good under wise administration and yet for lack of 
 just such help as could be afforded at a cost to the state too 
 trifling to be worth mentioning, many a community either 
 fails to secure its library or fails to get from it all the good 
 that the time and money could be made to yield. 
 
 There ar few topics where technical knowledge and ex- 
 perience ar so important as in establishing and administering 
 successfully a library of the highest grade in its ideals even 
 tho its incum be small and its books comparativly few. It 
 requires no vivid imagination to picture the practical value 
 to the state if any town about to found a new library or 
 improve an old one could cum to the Regents, and hav, with- 
 out charge, the best guidance for its case that the combined 
 experience of the library world had yet workt out. Time 
 allows me only to lodge the tho't in your minds. No ex- 
 pensiv machinery is required. A singl salary with harty 
 recognition of the work would start it creditably. 
 
 EXTENSION OF UNIVERSITY PRIVILEGES 
 
 Such an officer would soon find money and books placed 
 in his hands by those wishing to giv them where they would 
 
82 MELVIL DEWEY 
 
 do most good, and recognizing his superior facilities for 
 wisest distribution. The excellent results that hav becum 
 notabl from the Regents' school, examinations would be 
 duplicated in good effects on library interests by competent 
 inspections, reports and suggestions to such libraries as 
 wisht them. New York's splendid collection, the best ownd 
 by any state library, is about being moved into these adjoin- 
 ing rooms which ar admirably adapted for the focus of state 
 library interests and the central Peopl's University. The 
 Regents' office is ideally fitted to be the center of a system 
 of universities, and carrying to all parts of the kingdom 
 the lerning of Oxford and Cambridge and the other great 
 schools, and for the first time giving them a practical con- 
 nection with the lives of the masses, and making them a new 
 and mighty force in working out higher standards of good 
 citizenship. "This work naturally centers at local libraries. 
 Fellows and teachers from the colleges go out for a trifling 
 fee to distant towns to giv courses of lo to 20 lectures on 
 political economy, history, literature, science, or art; indeed 
 the whole range of the university curriculum is open. With 
 the lectures ar given references to the best books to be 
 found iu the local libraries. And the common people hear 
 them gladly. Interest is arousd. Many ar led to read and 
 lern more than has been told them in the lecture. Those 
 most interested meet for discussion and further instruction 
 and the practical results hav been so much beyond expecta- 
 tion that the universities ar allowing work of this kind to be 
 credited as a part of a university course leading to a degree. 
 This means that many a man who would otherwise spend his 
 time idling about saloons, secures insted a higher education 
 worthy the name. Cambridge alone, I am told, has carried 
 on over 600 of these admirabl university extension courses 
 in the past ten years. 
 
 NEW York's high privilege 
 Do I hear sum one say that New York has tried the 
 scheme of libraries for the state and that it has failed? 
 With that story I am familiar. We hav lernd by experience 
 what not to do. Every great movement is apt to succeed 
 only thru repetitions and failures. The district school sys- 
 
LIBRARIES AXD EDUCATION 83 
 
 tern faild becaus too widely dissipated and becaiis it had no 
 supervision such as I hav merely hinted at to-day. \V!io 
 could expect 12,000 libraries to be administered successfully 
 in a state where there were not 12 men that could be fairly 
 said to be thuroly fitted for the work? 
 
 The great state of New York led all the rest in recogniz- 
 ing, many years ago, the importance of good reading and in 
 trying to meet the want. Seventeen other states followed its 
 exampl and we wcr proud of our leadership. Today state 
 after state has left New York behind. More than once in 
 our national librarj- conventions hav we of New York been 
 forced to hear her slightingly spoken of becaus she was 
 doing so litl modern library work. But no state has yet 
 given recognition to all that this new work implies. If 
 New York wil again rise to the occasion and officially recog- 
 nize the library as part of its system of higher education and 
 giv, as fast as the}' reach the standards, the libraries of 
 the highest type a seat in this convention as in fact as in 
 resolution co-workers with colleges and the universities, 
 then again shal she wear her crown of leadership. If she 
 fails, before many more meetings sum other state will hav 
 seized the opportunity that is now hers. 
 
 Gentlemen of the convocation, it is to-day your high 
 privilege to lead. To-morrow it may be your bounden duty 
 to follow. 
 
USE OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY IX THE CLEVE- 
 LAND SCHOOLS 
 
 The use of the piibHc library in the Cleveland schools 
 was thus briefly set forth by the librarian — a pioneer in 
 this kind of co-operative work — at the San Francisco 
 conference of the x\merican Library Association in 1891. 
 
 William Howard Brett was born in Braceville, Ohio, 
 in 1846. After doing service in the Civil War and study- 
 ing medicine, he entered business as a bookseller and in 
 1884 became librarian of the Cleveland Public Library. 
 He was President of the A. L. A. in 1897 and has been 
 Dean of the \\'estern Reserve Library School since 1903. 
 As a librarian Mr. Brett has been noted for progressive 
 ideas, especially for the early use of the open shelf in his 
 library; for his efficient administrative methods and for 
 the planning of original and beautiful library buildings. 
 The Cleveland Public Library is a school-district library 
 and its relations with the schools have always been close. 
 It has many stations in school buildings. 
 
 For several years past the teachers in the Cleveland 
 schools, both public and private, and also some teachers of 
 private classes have been allow^ed to draw from three to six 
 additional books, and in some cases to retain them longer 
 than the usual time. 
 
 This, though an advantage prized by the more efficient 
 teachers of the city, was not sufficient for the needs of the 
 schools. 
 
86 ^ WILLIAM H. BRETT 
 
 During the year 1889 the issue of books to the teachers 
 in the names of their pupils and for their use was begun. 
 In addition to several smaller selections of books, earlier in 
 the year, fifty volumes w^ere placed in each of eleven schools, 
 which remained through the last semester of that year. Dur- 
 ing 1890 collections numbering, except in a few instances, 
 50 volumes each, were placed in 61 schools and remained 
 until the close of the year. 
 
 As I write, at the beginning of the school year, the ap- 
 plications already indicate a very large increase. 
 
 At first the books were issued in the name of the pupils, 
 the teacher being responsible for them. This was merely 
 to comply with the rules, as the teacher actually divided 
 the books among her pupils as she saw fit. 
 
 Lately the rule was modified to permit the issue of books 
 directly to the teacher for the use of her pupils without the 
 formality of charging them to the pupils. 
 
 One of the library assistants who has had charge of this 
 work from the beginning has been accustomed to visit each 
 school once each month, to check up the books and see 
 that they were properly cared for. This frequent oversight 
 is important to protect the interest of the library, to call 
 the attention of the teachers promptly to any deficiency, 
 and also to give the assistant opportunity to make helpful 
 suggestions to the teacher. 
 
 Teachers were permitted to return any books they chose 
 at any time and draw others, but very few exchanges were 
 made. The selections of books first made were usually re- 
 tained with very little change to the end of the year. They 
 were used by the teachers at their own discretion. In al- 
 most every instance they were issued to the pupils for use 
 at home, v/hcre they were read by other members of the 
 family; and as most of the books were placed in schools 
 remote from the library, these were in effect small delivery 
 stations, operated without expense to the library for the 
 benefit of the group of families represented in the schools. 
 It places books in many families which have not been using 
 the library, and to many children, it is their first introduc- 
 tion to good reading. 
 
THE CLEVKLANl) SCI1(J(M.S 8; 
 
 One teacher told me an incident, shovvint? tin- liun<^fr 
 for books. A copy of a favorite story disappeared. It had 
 just before been reluctantly returned by a brij^dit ^irl of her 
 class, and the teacher's suspicions were aroused that the 
 desire to possess the book had proved too strong a tempta- 
 tion for her. When questioned, she finally admitted that 
 she had taken the book, but bursting into tears she ex- 
 claimed: "1 did want it so bad. I never had a book in my 
 whole life." 
 
 At the close of the last year a little circular was sent 
 to the teachers having books, asking each what the result 
 had been in her school, whether it was desirable to continue 
 the issue, and inviting suggestions as to the best books and 
 methods. The answers received were almost uniformly 
 enthusiastic as to the value of the books in the school, and 
 were unanimous in their wish to have the issue continued. 
 Some reported that the influence of the books was very 
 marked upon the school work, and that it inspired the in- 
 terest in the school which had a favorable effect upon the 
 deportment. 
 
 I happened to hear of two schools in each of which the 
 collection included a bound copy of Harper's Young People. 
 The pupil making the best record for the week was permitted 
 to draw and use this for the next week. It proved a capital 
 stimulus to exertion and good behavior. To conclude, I 
 think I may regard the work thus far as altogether favorable 
 and encouraging. It has not been done in accordance with 
 a plan, but has been an attempt to occupy what appeared to 
 be a new field of usefulness in which we have only gone for- 
 ward step by step, as the way opened. I believe, however, 
 that the time is coming, if indeed it is not already here, when 
 the use of a collection of good books in the school-room will 
 be regarded as not merely desirable, but as an absolute ne- 
 cessity; when the introduction of our children to good liter- 
 ature and the formation of the reading habit will be regarded 
 as the most important work of the school course. What the 
 best method for placing books in the school room may be, 
 the future must develop. I am convinced now that it should 
 be the central library under one management rather tlian 
 
88 WILLIAM H. BRETT 
 
 by independent libraries for the separate buildings or rooms, 
 whether this central library will be a public library, or a 
 special one for the schools. Practically, however, the public 
 library already organized and equipped for work offers a 
 means of beginning the work at once. 
 
 The essentials for successful work from the library, I 
 think, are simply the duplication to a sufficient extent of 
 the best books and the frequent oversight of its collections 
 when placed in the school rooms. The advantages I have 
 already sufficiently mentioned. In what I have written I 
 have merely, in accordance with the request of our president, 
 given an account of the work of our own library. Work 
 in the same line is being done in the Milwaukee library, I 
 believe, also in the Detroit library and elsewhere, from which 
 I hope we may hear. 
 
 Permit me to add a few supplementary words in regard 
 to another direction in which the library may work outside 
 of its own walls. We have in the last few years been issuing 
 books to a few manufacturing firms for their employes. 
 They give us the names and addresses of their employes 
 who wish to draw books, they become responsible for the 
 books, send for and return them, usually once a week. We 
 place catalogs in the works, make out a card which accom- 
 panies the book, which taken out and filed at the office of the 
 works charges the books to the person, so that the work in- 
 volved to the manufacturer is very little. 
 
 Of the 300 names now registered and using the library 
 from the different manufactories, not more than 20 had ever 
 used the library before. 
 
 I mention this not as a record of achievement, but as sug- 
 gesting a hopeful field for library extension. 
 
THE PL'BLTC LIBRARY AND TITK PUBLTC 
 SCHOOLS 
 
 How this difficult work may actually be done in school 
 is shown by a report of methods in the Milwaukee schools 
 contributed by George W. Peckham, then Superintendent 
 of Schools in that city, to The Educational Rez'iezi', in 
 1894. The fact that Dr. Peckham afterward served as 
 librarian of the Milwaukee Public Library adds interest 
 to his presentation. 
 
 George Williams Peckham was born in Albany, N. Y., 
 in 1845, and died in Milwaukee in 1914. After study- 
 ing in the Academy of Milwaukee, Wis., he served in 
 the army during the Civil \\^ar and then studied both 
 law and medicine, taking his doctor's degree in the 
 latter at ^Michigan University in 1881. After teach- 
 ing in the public schools he was Superintendent of 
 Schools in Milwaukee for four years, including that in 
 which the present article was written, and in 1896 be- 
 came librarian of the Public Library of the same city, 
 serving till his voluntary retirement in 1910. Dr. Peck- 
 ham had a world-wide reputation as an entomologist. 
 
 In the recent educational upheaval in the school systems 
 of this country, nothing is more interesting than the general 
 effort that is being made to place good books in the hands 
 of children. If we are to cultivate a taste for good reading 
 among the masses of the people, the work must be begun 
 
90 ^ GEORGE W. PECKHAM 
 
 before the children have formed a habit of reading poor and 
 vicious books. 
 
 The work of the Milwaukee Public Library is based upon 
 the assumption that children will have books — and that it is 
 the duty of those in authority to furnish what is suitable. 
 
 The chief danger to the working of the scheme is that the 
 teacher is apt to select such books for the children as she 
 thinks they ought to like, without considering what they 
 actually do like. The well-meant determination to impart 
 useful information, when the children are craving fairy stories 
 or tales of adventure, endangers the success of the whole 
 plan. The child does plenty of mental work in school hours. 
 The book that he takes home to read should not be an added 
 task, but should furnish him with recreation. We must re- 
 member that there are first-rate books in every department, 
 so that we may always give the best; and the child himself is 
 often a good judge of what is suitable to his age and state of 
 development. The delusion that children are not good judges 
 of literature is disposed of by the enormous popularity of 
 work that is done by the al)lest writers; for example, the 
 reading matter of .S"^. Nicholas; such works as Eggleston's 
 First Book of American History, which can never be found on 
 the shelves of our library although we have bought fifty 
 copies in our attempt to bring the supply up to the demand; 
 Miss Mulock's Adventures of a Broivnic; Hawthorne's Wonder- 
 Book; and, in the upper grades, Longfellow's Hiawatha. 
 
 Some teachers have another habit in connection with this 
 matter that must be looked upon with suspicion. When a 
 child brings back a book that he has read he is asked to sit 
 down and write a synopsis of it. Such exercises may be very 
 useful as school-work, but children should not be held to too 
 strict an account of what they read. We should furnish them 
 with plenty of good books and should then trust that Nature 
 will see to it that they assimilate what they need and forget 
 the rest. In the Milwaukee system the Library works on the 
 following plan: 
 
 Miss Stearns, the superintendent of the circulating de- 
 partment, visits a school and interests the teachers of the 
 third grade and upward in the idea of placing good books in 
 
LUIRARY AND SCllUUL 91 
 
 the hands of their pupils. The teachers then give a library 
 card to each child. The Library urges the teachers not to 
 sign the guarantee card themselves, but to have this done by 
 the parents. This gains the consent of the parents to the 
 extra reading of the child and relieves the teachers of re- 
 sponsibility; and at the same time it tends to develop an in- 
 terest in the child and his doings at his home. The cards be- 
 ing issued, the teacher goes to the Library, and being admit- 
 ted to the shelves, selects books enough to go around her 
 class. Of course the excellence of the selection as to the 
 grade of books and their suitability to the children varies with 
 the character of the teacher. The Library attempts some as- 
 sistance by publishing numerous lists of good books for 
 young folks. One of these lists gives good books for boys, 
 another for girls, another of 150 good books for young folks. 
 We have also a catalogue of books for young people which 
 was prepared by ^Miss West,* the librarian, at the request of 
 the former superintendent, Mr. Anderson. This catalogue 
 is published alone, and also in the Teacher's manual of the 
 graded course of instruction. 
 
 The books selected by the teacher are placed in well- 
 made boxes, 14 X 20 X 12 inches; these boxes are strength- 
 ened on the outside with strips all around the top and 
 bottom, and are furnished with strong hinges and hasps, and 
 with padlocks for fastening. They cost $3.50 each. They are 
 then sent by the Library to the teacher at her school, our 
 contract price for cartage being twenty-five cents for a full 
 box, to or from a school, the empty boxes being returned 
 without charge to the Library. Of course a record of the 
 books is made at the Library before they are sent out, and 
 the following blank for the use of the teacher accompanies 
 the box. On the first page appears the following: 
 
 * Now Mrs. Elmendorf.— Ed. 
 
02 
 
 GEORGE W. PECKHAM 
 
 Date 
 
 MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 
 
 Record of Public Library Books to be kept by 
 
 Teacher, 
 
 School, 
 
 Grade. 
 
 This record must be kept and sent back to the Library 
 with the books, when called for. The Library would be glad 
 to know which are the best and most popular books, that 
 more copies may be bought. Any suggestions or questions 
 may be sent to 
 
 Lutie' E. Stearns, 
 Supt. Circulating Department. 
 On the second and third pages is the following ruling, 
 the fourth page making the back cover: 
 
 No. on Book. 
 
 Borrower's 
 Card No. 
 
 
 Borrower' 
 Card No. 
 
 
 
 Borrower's 
 Card No. 
 
 There are twenty-five lines for book numbers. 
 
 For eight weeks the books are left in the hands of the 
 teacher, so that she really has a little branch library of her 
 own. Some teachers issue the books once a week; others 
 issue them every day at recess time. 
 
 Miss West writes me: "A good many interesting inci- 
 dents come back through the teachers of the use of the books 
 in the child's home. For instance, one father, the driver of 
 a beer wagon, read the Story of Liberty aloud to the as- 
 sembled family; one small boy reported that he could not 
 bring his book until the next day as his mother wanted to 
 finish it and she had to wash that day." 
 
 From September i, 1893, to February i, 1894, 84 teachers 
 in 30 different schools drew from the library 7423 volumes, 
 which were read by 14,092 children. Of these 5 per cent, 
 were unclassified; 0.6 per cent, sociology; 15 per cent, natural 
 science; i.i per cent, practical science; 0.6 per cent, fine arts; 
 
LIBRARY AND SCHOOL 93 
 
 5.3 per cent, literature: 3.4 per cent, prose fiction; 35.1 per 
 cent, children's stories; 15 per cent, history; 14.3 per cent, 
 geography; 3.5 per cent, biography. 
 
 It must be understood that besides this reading matter 
 the children are supplied with a large amount of supplemen- 
 tary reading for use in the schoolroom, each grade being ex- 
 pected to read from two to three books in addition to the 
 regular reader prescribed by the school board. This supple- 
 mentary work is of a little heavier and more instructive char- 
 acter than is suitable for home reading. 
 
 The great success of this work is due to the earnest and 
 enthusiastic labor of Miss West and her assistant. Miss 
 Stearns. 
 
 Miss West says that there is no work done by the Library 
 that costs so little and is of so much real good as this, and 
 that the only limit to the amount of good to be done in this 
 direction is practically the amount of money that we can 
 spend for the books and service. 
 
 The Library has taken another new departure in its at- 
 tempt to aid the public schools. All large public libraries take 
 a number of illustrated journals, and as they preserve only 
 one complete set of such publications, there is always an im- 
 mense accumulation of picture papers. In our library the 
 best pictures are cut from these journals and pasted on to 
 sheets of manilla paper of uniform size and arranged in sets 
 of from twenty-five to fifty pictures. These sets are then 
 put into portfolios and loaned to the teachers of the city 
 schools. One set may be made up of animals, another of 
 English cathedrals, another of the World's Fair buildings, and 
 so on indefinitely. The teacher having one of these port- 
 folios sets apart fifteen or twenty minutes in a week for al- 
 lowing the children to handle and enjoy the pictures. A child 
 looks at a picture for a few minutes and then exchanges with 
 some other child. Thus one portfolio may serve three or 
 four grades for a month. Although the pictures might be 
 used as a basis for language work or as an aid in geography 
 lessons, with us their first and most important use is the 
 cultivation of the aesthetic sense and of the power of deriving 
 pleasure from good pictures and, indirectly, from beautiful 
 
94 ^ GEORGE W. PECKHAM 
 
 objects wherever they may be met. Thus is made good that 
 absolutely neglected side of education, the development of 
 the love of the beautiful in art. We aim to do for the children 
 of the public schools what the high-grade magazines have 
 done for so many people, in cultivating their appreciation of 
 good work in wood engraving. The great majority of our 
 school-children never see such papers and magazines as 
 Harper's and the Century, and it seems well worth while to 
 give them beautiful pictures as well as good books. We care- 
 fully avoid making the study of pictures a task. We let them 
 tell their own story and do not ask any description nor ex- 
 planation of their meaning, although the children's spon- 
 taneous questions are intelligently answered. 
 
 This work may be done by any school. Scholars or 
 teachers may join in raising money to pay for a subscription 
 to some good illustrated paper, or the more well-to-do among 
 the pupils may be asked to bring from their homes pictures 
 which would otherwise be destroyed. 
 
 Let those who question whether this is a wise way to 
 spend time and energy try the experiment. Put the pictures 
 into the hands of the children and note the delight with which 
 they receive them, and then remember the saying of Spinoza: 
 
 ''Joy is for man a transition to a higher state of perfec- 
 tion." 
 
THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND THE PUBLIC 
 SCHOOL 
 
 The author of the next address, WiUiani Reed East- 
 man, was born in New York in 1835, graduated at Yale 
 in 1854 and at Union Theological seminary in 1862. After 
 serving in the Civil War as a chaplain in 1863-'64, he was 
 actively engaged in the ministry as pastor of Congrega- 
 tional churches in New England until 1888 when he was 
 for two years agent of Howard University in Washing- 
 ton. He then studied library economy at Albany, grad- 
 uating from the school there in 1892 and receiving his 
 master's degree in 1907. From 1891 until 1906 he was 
 Inspector of Public Libraries in New York state and as- 
 sistant in the State Library, and afterward until his resig- 
 nation in 1912 he served as Chief of the Educational Ex- 
 tension Division of the State Department of Education. 
 
 It is now sixty years since the public library system of New 
 York was born. It was cradled in the school house. But the 
 public library and the public school are two institutions. They 
 are children of one family and may be sheltered under the 
 same roof; but they are not the same, neither is one a part 
 of the other. 
 
 The distinctions are obvious and essential. The school is 
 for the instruction of the young ; the library is for all. The 
 school imparts knowledge through teachers who set tasks for 
 pupils and see that the tasks are done. The library conveys 
 knowledge through books which the reader takes of his own 
 choice and uses as much or as little as he pleases. Both use 
 
96 WILLIAM R. EASTMAN 
 
 books, but the books are different. The school book is a mass of 
 solid facts in small compass, and the student is obliged to hold 
 himself up to it with a certain effort, a forcing of sluggish 
 nature, which is, no doubt, salutary in its way, but still a 
 hard self-compulsion, in comparison with which the relaxation 
 of the library is pure enjoyment. A pupil in the school at 
 Wellesville, in writing out for his teacher an account of the 
 book he had been reading, which was, "Boys of '76," — said that 
 the secret of its popularity was that "it was not so condensed 
 as other histories." 
 
 The library is a school without a master, bringing into action 
 that subtle and vital mastery of the spirit which appeals to the 
 spirit with enduring power because there is no visible and ma- 
 terial compulsion about it. Or you may call it a school with 
 a thousand masters, who are the real masters of men, wise in 
 all the learning of the world. Through their most royal so- 
 ciety the minds of readers are cultivated, their characters take 
 on a higher type, and the community has distinctly gained in 
 every way. 
 
 True education requires both these factors, and each needs 
 the other. The library must have the school to stir the crav- 
 ing for knowledge, awaken and train the reading habit. The 
 school needs the library to illustrate, enlarge and complete its 
 work, not only through the period of school days, but for the 
 lifetime that follows. The alternating current produces results 
 of the highest order. The community has thoroughly learned 
 that it cannot spare the school ; neither can the community spare 
 the library. 
 
 In view of the fact that for many years it was the policy 
 of the State to leave the public library in the hands of the 
 school authorities, it becomes important in considering the re- 
 lations of these two to note the value of a separate management. 
 
 I. To Hold Public Attention. The first impulse is to say 
 "combine them for the sake of harmony and economy." The 
 danger in combination is that one will become subordinate to the 
 other, and in that case it must inevitably suffer. There is no 
 danger that the schools will take the second place; it is the 
 library for whach we have to plead. The school board is for 
 the schools. Instruction by teachers is the ruling feature in 
 
LIBRARY AND SCHOOL 97 
 
 their plans. Of course they wish the school house convenient 
 and the whole equipment complete, and, in that view, they are 
 entirely friendly to the library, but not aggressively so. When 
 funds are scarce and exigencies arise that test their resources, 
 the library is compelled to wait. It is usually waiting. More 
 than this, while the school boards are busy with the needs of 
 pupils, they forget the working men and women, the mill-hands, 
 shop-girls, farmers' boys, mechanics, the fathers and mothers 
 for whose benefit a library is intended. The grown up class, 
 the thinking, w^orking, voting class are left out. It can hardly 
 be otherwise. The annual school budget presented to the dis- 
 trict meeting usually includes a modest sum for new books, 
 with a little, now and then, for services in the library. The 
 people vote the tax in one item with a comfortable feeling of 
 having done their w^hole duty to the cause of education. Yet 
 taxes seem heavy and many economies are possible. Some one 
 is sure to ask, "What is the need of a librarian?" The princi- 
 pal can manage about the books in his odd hours; teachers 
 and older scholars will help; a few minutes at noon or after 
 school, or, at the utmost, an extra hour on Saturday will be 
 long enough to suit everybody and that will cost little or 
 nothing. These economical makeshifts are likely to prevail, 
 and too often the library work under these conditions will be 
 reduced to its lowest terms. But if another board appears in 
 the district meeting wath another claim for another and, in 
 some ways, a larger purpose, a purpose in which every voter 
 has a personal interest, being no less than a plan to pro- 
 vide the whole community with books, a great opportunity 
 for self-instruction, they will not be put off with makeshifts. 
 The scope and value of this other work assumes at once 
 a new importance and the ideas of the voters are enlarged 
 as well as the tax rate. The increase of the latter is really 
 not of any serious consequence, w^hile the growing library 
 under the influence of its special friends and promoters is be- 
 coming a power in the community.. 
 
 2. To Secure the Best Management. It is of vital conse- 
 quence to have the right persons in charge. The best board for 
 any public service is one chosen for that service. But, without 
 a separate organization, we shall have a library board chosen 
 
98 - WILLIAM R. EASTMAN 
 
 for some other duty, to whom the care of the library is a 
 secondary object. Now, if we can secure a selection of trustees 
 on the ground of fitness, there is a distinct advance. If the 
 choice is made by the school board, as one section of the present 
 law provides, there is at once harmony and the possibility for 
 an ideal choice. Free from all political scheming, they can be 
 taken from the best men and women in the community. Some 
 who could not be elected to the school board, or, if elected, 
 could not be persuaded to accept the burdens of that office, may 
 from love of books take peculiar pleasure in library administra- 
 tion. Such a board, with means to carry out their plans, can 
 create a public institution in which all will take just pride. The 
 people will be interested in it, profit by it and rally to its support. 
 3. To Secure Outside Help. Public spirited men and women 
 will be attracted by this enterprise, and will be far more likely 
 to remember- it by gifts and bequests if it stand out alone in 
 its individual character. 
 
 4. For the Sake of School. At this point some may 
 hesitate, but they will not hesitate long. A school needs, 
 of course, a full equipment of books for reference and needs 
 them in the school room; the dictionary, cyclopedia, gazet- 
 teer, dictionary of biography and books to illustrate standard 
 literature. These are tools of the trade and ought to be 
 always in reach. But pupils need more. They want history 
 told in another form, but not so much "condensed." They 
 want it fresh from the glowing pages of Macaulay, Prescott, 
 Motley, Parkman, and the Stories of the nations. They will 
 find the war of the revolution in the Boys of '76, King Rich- 
 ard and his times in Ivanhoe, Mediaeval France in Quentin 
 Durward, and the Cloister and Hearth, Cromwell in Woo- 
 stock and Friend Olivia, the French Revolution in the Tale 
 of Two Cities, the Battle of Waterloo in Vanity Fair and 
 Les Miserables, the War of the Rebellion in the Drumbeat 
 of the Nation, the Recollections of a Private and the Lives 
 of Lincoln. They need to learn geography from Bayard 
 Taylor, Stanley, Kennan, Lummis and Knox's Boy Trav- 
 ellers. They need to study science from Arabella Buckley, 
 Olive Thorne Miller, Mrs. Dana, Richard Proctor, Dr. Wright 
 and from the current magazines. They have much to learn 
 
LIBRARY AND SCTTOOL 99 
 
 that is outside the text book from Hcnty, Stoddard, Mrs. 
 Custer, Cable, Kipling and Captain King and a host besides. 
 These writers open up the wide world to them; broaden their 
 conceptions of life and acquaintance with men; give them 
 impulses that help in their studies, stir their ambition, give 
 them clearer views of honor, justice, and truth; help make 
 men and women of them. And all these should be in easy 
 reach. But the pupil will have access to them just as readily 
 and often to better advantage in the public library than if 
 he had them all in the school room, and the public library 
 will have more of them. If he knows what they are and 
 where they are, and once begins to want them, the average 
 boy will prize them more highly if it costs an effort to obtain 
 them. Let him learn to take the initiative step in this branch 
 of his education. It will be worth much to him to go out- 
 side the school into the new atmosphere, to the fresh and 
 stimulating associations of the public library, where he is 
 no more a mere school bo3% but a citizen to choose for him- 
 self. It really helps the school to have another institution 
 in the community, not a school, and where school methods 
 do not prevail, carrying on at the same time the same educa- 
 tional informing work in another way on independent lines. 
 Be sure the school will take no damage from the separation. 
 But, if other arguments were wanting, the costly experi- 
 ment of our own state would be decisive. At this anniversary 
 time, a glance at the past is peculiarly in order. Sixty years 
 ago New York began the free library movement of the cen- 
 tury by enacting the first known law permitting communities 
 to tax themselves for free libraries. The act of 1835 is some- 
 times belittled by calling it a provision for district school 
 libraries. But this view of it was expressly disavowed by the 
 leaders of the movement as well as by the terms of the law. 
 The tax was limited indeed to $20 for books in each district 
 the first year, and $10 a year thereafter, but the principle 
 of the public library "of the people, by the people, for the 
 people," was in the act. General John A. Dix, afterwards 
 governor and otherwise distinguished in the national history, 
 then Secretary of State, and ex-officio Superintendent of 
 schools, said in 1839, "It would be natural to suppose from 
 
100 ^ WILLIAM R. EASTMAN 
 
 the name that the libraries were intended solely for the use 
 of schools, but they were not established with so narrow a 
 design. They were recommended in 1834 for the benefit of 
 those who have finished their common school education as 
 well as for those who have not. They were designed as an 
 instrument for elevating the condition of the whole people." 
 In connection with the common assertion that New York 
 began the school library movement, there appears usually 
 the further statement that the plan was copied by Massachu- 
 setts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Iowa, Maine and many 
 other states, twenty in all. The truth is that, of those just 
 named, the territory of Iowa alone copied fully the New 
 York idea. The library laws of Massachusetts in 1837, of 
 Connecticut in 1839 and of Rhode Island in 1840 contain each 
 of them the words "for the use of the children", and the law 
 of Maine in 1844 says "for the use of the school" which was 
 a part of the New York idea. The states of New England 
 followed New York more nearly when, after fourteen years, 
 New Hampshire in 1849, followed in 1851, by Massachusetts 
 authorized toivns to tax themselves for public libraries, mak- 
 ing indeed a marked advance in establishing the larger unit 
 of political action. 
 
 In 1836, the year after the enactment of the first library 
 law, the National Congress voted to deposit a large amount 
 of surplus United States revenue with the several states. The 
 state of New York was given over $5,000,000, offering an 
 annual income of over $300,000. In considering the use to 
 which this income should be put, Governor Marcy in his mes- 
 sage of 1838 said: "All that public sentiment demands and the 
 public good requires will not be achieved until needful facili- 
 ties are furnished to a career of self instruction. District li- 
 braries are well calculated to exert a beneficial influence in this 
 respect." This appeal of the governor was earnestly seconded 
 by General Dix in his report as Superintendent of schools, 
 and the legislature of 1838 voted the distribution of $55,000 
 annually among the school districts, then 10,538 in number, 
 an average of $5.00 to a district, on the same conditions, 
 however, as the school money was distributed, except that 
 
LIBRARY AND SCHOOL loi 
 
 the trustees should use the money for books for a library. 
 This distributed the money according to the number of chil- 
 dren of school age and reciuired the raising of an equal 
 amount in each case by taxation. Although both the gov- 
 ernor and the superintendent had taken pains to advise 
 in express terms against a compulsory tax, the temptation 
 to do good by act of legislature was too strong to be re- 
 sisted and the people w^ere allowed no choice in the mat- 
 ter. This was a fundamental mistake. It forced the system 
 on thousands of small communities where it found little 
 sympathy and no willingness to make any sacrifice to main- 
 tain it. Three hundred districts had already of their own 
 accord voted a tax under the first law. To them the offer 
 of aid from the state would have been doubly welcome, and 
 no doubt this income could have been used to immense ad- 
 vantage to encourage by spontaneous and healthy increase 
 the voluntary formation of public libraries. But, in the ab- 
 sence of local appreciation and effort, the library and its 
 tax became, in the majority of cases, a burden to be thrown 
 aside at the first opportunity. 
 
 Yet the law of 1838, distributing so large a sum of money, 
 was greeted with the utmost enthusiasm as containing the 
 promise of more intellectual and moral good to humanity 
 and to free institutions than anything ever attempted by 
 the stale. It was meant as a provision for the public library; 
 the public library idea was distinct and strong in the minds 
 of its founders; but the control of the libraries and the 
 handling of the money being wholly in the hands of the 
 school authorities, and by subsequent laws after a few years, 
 the alternative use of the money being in school channels, 
 first for apparatus and then for "teachers' wages", the li- 
 braries-soon lost the distinctive character it was intended 
 to give them. The people thought of them only as part of 
 the schools. In large villages and cities it was different. 
 In such places there were more books; the annual income 
 was much larger and better worth careful husbanding. A 
 more capable class of school officers secured advantages 
 for the libraries in many places, and many important sur- 
 vivals of the general wreck testify to the possibility of great 
 
102 ^ WILLIAM R. EASTMAN 
 
 good in the system under favorable conditions. That sys- 
 tem could not have been altogether a failure that produced 
 the Syracuse Central Library with its 25,000 volumes to- 
 day, Rochester Central and Brooklyn East District each 
 with 20,000, Newburg Free Library with 19,000 and Pough- 
 keepsie Library with 18,000. These five are the largest of the 
 class, but there are many more like them and the active 
 village libraries still handled by the school board must be 
 counted by hundreds. But for the State at large the gen- 
 eral failure of the plan must be confessed. As we look 
 back there appear at least four plain reasons. 
 
 1. The country district was too small. 
 
 2. There was no adequate supervision. 
 
 3. The law for thirteen years was compulsory, was 
 soon evaded and its gifts diverted to another purpose. 
 
 4. The -library was managed as part of the school and 
 failed of the independent growth to which it was entitled. 
 
 For the last forty years the total number of volumes 
 reported as in the district libraries has shown a steady 
 line of diminution from 1,604,210 in 1853 down to 825,915 in 
 1892, while the appropriation was constant and every year 
 a sum not less than $24,000 and sometimes rising to $60,000 
 was spent for their renewal. In the forty years of decrease 
 the State spent $1,493,611 in the process. The sharpest ar- 
 raignment of the situation occurs in the school report of 
 1862, by Superintendent E. W. Keyes. He says: "When I 
 look for the return from this princely investment and find 
 it mainly represented by a motley collection of books, rang- 
 ing in character from Headley's Sacred Mountains to the 
 Pirates Own Book, numbering in the aggregate a million 
 and a half volumes scattered among the various families, 
 constituting a part of the family library or serving as toys 
 for children in the nurscy; torn, worn, soiled and dilapidated, 
 saturated with grease, offering a temptation to ravenous 
 rats; crowded into cupboards, thrown into cellars, stowed 
 away in lofts, exposed to the action of water, of the sun and 
 fire, or more frequently, locked away into darkness unre- 
 lieved and silence unbroken, I am constrained to believe that 
 no plunder-burdened contractor or bribe-stained official ever 
 
LTP.RARY AND SCTTOOL 103 
 
 yielded to the state so poor a return for his spoil as have the 
 people of the state derived from this liberal and l)eneliccnt 
 appropriation through their own reckless and improvident 
 use of it." He finds the cause in the "unnatural and un- 
 philosophical principles" involved "in any system of co))i- 
 pulsory free libraries." He adds that "the darkness of the 
 picture is partially relieved by the fact that the cities and 
 larger villages have been less negligent and w^asteful." 
 
 It was a costly experiment; yet the experience gained 
 may be of priceless value if we know how to use it. The 
 legislation of 1892 sounded the note of recovery. Superin- 
 tendent Andrew S. Draper whose hand is seen in the law, 
 in his valuable report of 1889, after careful study, had al- 
 ready pointed out the way. The key note of the plan was 
 to separate the school library which belongs to the school 
 equipment from the public library which belongs to the 
 people; and, placing the latter in the care of an independent 
 board, to make special provisions for supervision and state 
 aid under the fostering care of the regents of the university 
 of the State of New York. Then, for the first time, the 
 state provided a library for the public schools, defining in 
 the statute its character and the use to which it was lim- 
 ited; continuing the annual appropriation of $55,000 to be 
 claimed wholly by the school library after one year's divi- 
 sion of it between the school and the new public library in- 
 terest. The way of separation and transfer of books and 
 property was indicated in the act. There were then about 
 three hundred active libraries reported in the charge of school 
 authorities. In three years forty-five districts have estab- 
 lished public libraries under the new law, transferring for 
 the purpose about 100,000 volumes. Some of these libraries 
 were small; one beginning anew with forty-two books and 
 $75.00. Most were in excess of three hundred volumes. Some 
 were city libraries, as Utica with 10,000, Yonkers with 9.000, 
 Niagara Falls with 4,500 and Lockport with 4,000. Syracuse, 
 with 20,000 volumes, then, the largest library of this class 
 in the state, reached the same result by an amendment of 
 the city charter. Out of ninety-seven libraries chartered 
 by the regents in the last three j'^ears forty-five had been 
 
104 ^ WILLIAM R. EASTMAN 
 
 district libraries, and every one of them has taken a new 
 lease of life. In every case, there has been quickened in- 
 terest, important additions of books and a greatly increased 
 circulation. Whether this interest shall continue and bear 
 still better fruit must depend upon the intelligent efforts 
 of all those in each community who know the worth of 
 books. 
 
 The fundamental matter of a separate organization is 
 specially important just now when the schools that Have 
 been holding the libraries for years, wish to understand the 
 reason for a change.. But this is very far from being all 
 that should be said about the school and the library. If 
 they are separate, if they are friendly, if each is fully fur- 
 nished, what then? 
 
 Library and school must help each other. The alliance 
 between them should be direct, personal, intimate. And if 
 you ask whether librarian or teacher should first make -ad- 
 vances to the other, there is no adequate answer except 
 to say, both. Neither should wait. It is the business of 
 the librarian to know what is going on in the school. No 
 one has more need to be fully abreast of the times to make 
 his selection and display of books fit in with the movements 
 that are in the air. The work of the class-room is the cur- 
 rent question with the pupil, and the library should be in 
 close touch with it and with the persons who direct that 
 work. Where graded reading lists are used, the library 
 must be furnished for the demand. And, more than that, 
 every classroon, from kindergarten to high school should, 
 now and then, have a personal word from the librarian. In 
 other words, the public library idea should be impersonated 
 in every schoolroom. Library boards should not merely 
 consent to this visitation, but should expect and pay for 
 it as an official service to be rendered by their librarian in 
 office hours. In the city of Gloversville the relation of school 
 to library is reduced to a system. In primary classes the 
 teacher now and then reads a book from the public library. 
 In the intermediate grade there is a weekly lesson on some 
 topic independent of school work, selected by the teacher 
 to be worked up at the library by the pupils. In grammar 
 
LIBRARY AND SCHOOL 
 
 lO: 
 
 iiul high school, pupils are required to give, once a week, 
 iiiforniatiou on subjects gained at the library, and, once 
 in the term, to present a composition which shall be the 
 synopsis of a book. The librarian visits the schools in turn 
 by special appointment and talks on some subject previously 
 selected by the school, explaining the methods of obtaining 
 information thereon. 
 
 This is the librarian's side of it and let me say that 
 now librarianship has become a profession. 
 
 On the other hand the teacher who has heart in his 
 work will visit the library to know its resources, and to 
 make known his own wishes as to its development. And 
 having learned what can be done with that particular col- 
 lection of books, he carries the news to the class room and 
 sends a hungry contingent of readers to the library. Per- 
 haps, if some scholars are slow to take advantage of the 
 offer, or if the distance is considerable as in country dis- 
 tricts, the teacher may undertake to carry on a branch for 
 the school, selecting a package of 20, 30 or more books; 
 holding them, possibly, for a term and distributing to the 
 class. All this can be readily arranged. Then the teacher 
 can call for reports of reading by oral account or by re- 
 quiring the filling of printed blanks. 
 
 It is true that city libraries and country libraries are 
 not the same; but in regard to all it may be said that 
 teachers and librarians should hold frank and frequent con- 
 sultations to devise the best thing possible in the circum- 
 stances; school board and library board should have a com- 
 plete understanding. Special occasions may be contrived 
 and hospitality exercised, now by one side now by the other 
 to promote personal acquaintance, cordial sympathy, and 
 thorough knowledge of each other's work. These two fac- 
 tors can be then brought together, the school and the library. 
 Each has its own point of view, each contributes its share; 
 and these distinct agencies, working on parallel lines for 
 one end, will join hands and prove that two are better than 
 one. In fact we all need enlarged ideas as to the scope of this 
 whole library business and to understand that it means far 
 more than to pass books over the counter. It is a business 
 
io6 WILLIAM R. EASTMAN 
 
 as well as a profession and one that can be pushed and that 
 ought to be pushed in every school room in the state. The 
 children will be sure to respond. 
 
 And there are other considerations. If the public library 
 seeks for means to extend its influence and enlarge its re- 
 sources there is no advertisement more effective than the 
 free use of it by pupils. They go everywhere and spread 
 the news. The children make institutions popular. The 
 voter will cheerfully tax himself for the children, if he has 
 them. And if he has none the needs of the children will 
 touch him at a tender spot. It is not only tenderness but 
 good sense. All men know that good schools are a bless- 
 ing and they will soon learn that a good library is also 
 a center of power and attraction; that it helps make good 
 citizens, and that it will often serve to bring into the town 
 good taxpayers that contribute far more than the library 
 costs. People that are able to choose would rather live 
 in a village where there is a good library. It will pay! Make 
 it worth while then for the schools to push the library; and 
 let the library help the schools. Supply the books they want; 
 keep in touch with their work; ask their advice; make up 
 lists for every special occasion and subject; lend freely, 
 counting the teacher the most favored applicant. Invite 
 teachers to explore the shelves; invite pupils to do the same, 
 under such restriction as may be found necessary in each 
 case, and build a building in which all this can be done. 
 
 Now it is evident that all this implies the development 
 of the public library in all our communities on a scale which 
 few school boards will feel justified in adopting so long 
 as the library is only a part of the school. This development 
 means more books and new books, plenty of them ever}' 
 year. It means more room to handle and store the books, 
 and opportunities to read them at places easily accessible 
 and open many hours a day. It means skilled management 
 both by trustees and li1)rarian with capable attendants and 
 suitable equipment. And because all this must be paid for 
 there is the more need of its being set before the public as 
 a distinct and most worthy object of expense. The library 
 is no longer a matter that can be hidden under the broad 
 
LIBRARY AND SCHOOL 107 
 
 mantle of the schools. As well oonfinc the young bird to 
 his nest. It's a growing; thing with an independent life. 
 Let us treat it so. It can be paid for if it is wanted. A 
 village builds sewers because both health and the value of 
 property demand the expense. If they want electric lights 
 they say so and pay the bill. They furnish music in the 
 park, and there is a greater necessity as well as a luxury 
 here, if you can make them see it. The most generous sup- 
 port of the public library will make only a trivial item by 
 the side of these other things against the tax roll of a 
 thriving village, and if the thing is worth doing at all, it 
 is worth doing well. Let it be a s(iuare appeal for the public 
 library on its merits, with somebody expressly in charge to 
 see that its merits are not overlooked. Generous treatment 
 will pay best. The state has made special library appropria- 
 tions for four years. It is ready to help any who help them- 
 selves whether in district, town, village or city. The schools 
 have it in their power to press the movement and reap the 
 advantage. 
 
REPORT OX READING FOR THE YOUNG 
 
 ^liss Stearns's report on "Reading for the Young," 
 commended by ]Miss Rathbone so highly in her con- 
 spectus, is given here in full, although it is somewhat 
 statistical and although it bears as much upon what we 
 now call library work with children, as upon work with 
 schools. This very fact may serve to show; that these 
 two branches of library activity had not begun to be 
 differentiated in 1894. The report is one of an annual 
 series made for several years at the conferences of the 
 A. L. A. 
 
 Lutie Eugenia Stearns was born in Stoughton, ]\Iass. 
 and graduated from the State Normal School of Milwau- 
 kee, Wis., in 1887. After two years of teaching in the 
 public schools she entered library w^ork in the ^Milwaukee 
 Public Library, where she was one of the first in the 
 United States to organize work wdth children and to in- 
 sist on its importance. Wdien this report was written she 
 was in charge of the library's Circulating Department. 
 Since 1897 she has been connected with the Wisconsin 
 Library Commission, of whose Travelling Library De- 
 partment she is now the head. 
 
 For the purposes of this report fifteen questions, indi- 
 cated by the headings below, were sent to one hundred and 
 ninety-five libraries in the United States and Canada. Full 
 and complete replies were received from one hundred and 
 forty-five librarians to whom grateful acknowledgment is 
 now made. 
 
no - LUTIE E. STEARNS 
 
 I. At what age may children draw books? Why do you 
 have an age limit? 
 
 Thirty per cent, of the libraries reporting, have no age 
 limit, the seventy per cent, varying from eight to sixteen 
 years of age — the average age requirement being thirteen 
 years. 
 
 Various reasons are given for an age restriction. "We 
 must preserve our books" is oft repeated. 
 
 Milwaukee has never had an age limit, and the first case 
 of malicious destruction or injury is yet to be reported. No 
 better recommendation can possibly be given for a good 
 book than to have it literally wear out. 
 
 "We must draw the line somewhere," say other li- 
 brarians. 
 
 At the London Conference of 1877, Sir Redmond Barry. 
 Librarian at Melbourne, said that if it were necessary to de- 
 prive people of seven years' reading, it would be better to 
 strike off the seven years at the other end, and disqualify 
 people at sixty-three; adding, that that view of his was a 
 very unprejudiced one, as such a one would exclude himself. 
 
 "Our books are not suited to young people." 
 
 Nothing is of more importance in education than furnish- 
 ing young people with the best literature. Mr. Horace E. 
 Scudder has said: 
 
 "There can be no manner of question that between the 
 ages of six and sixteen, a large part of the best literature of 
 the world may be read, and that the man or woman who has 
 failed to become acquainted with great literature in some 
 form during that time, is little likely to have a taste formed 
 later." 
 
 There has never been a time when a little money, judi- 
 ciously expended, would go so far in the purchase of the 
 best literature for children. Stories, fables, myths, and 
 simple poems, which have been read with delight by count- 
 less generations, may be purchased in most durable cloth 
 bindings, at an average cost of thirty-two cents. 
 
 Children will read; if wholesome reading-matter is not 
 furnished them, they will read what they can get of their 
 own accord. 
 
 
READING FOR Till-: YOUNG in 
 
 Many libraries report that there is practically no limit, 
 as children under fourteen use the parent's card; but throu^di 
 this method the parent suffers from the restriction, as it is 
 obvious that the parent and his son cannot use the card at 
 the same time. The greatest complaint among the librarians 
 is the lack of supervision of the children's reading, on the 
 part of the parents; and yet these same neglectful parents 
 are entrusted with the task of taking out cards so that their 
 children may receive books at the library! 
 
 The tendency among progressive libraries is toward the 
 abolishment of the age restriction. J. C. Dana, of Denver, 
 Col., writes: 
 
 "We give a child a card as soon as he can read. Chil- 
 dren too young to read, get cards for books to be read to 
 them." 
 
 Aliss Perkins, Ilion (N. Y.) Free Public Library, writes: 
 
 "We have no age limit, because we wish children trained 
 to love books from their earliest recollection. Our library 
 contains linen and pasteboard nursery books which are 
 drawn on card in name of child, with parent for guarantor." 
 (And this is a library of 6,000 volumes, in a city of 4,000 in- 
 habitants.) 
 
 Miss Hasse, Asst. Librarian of Los Angeles, writes: 
 
 "We have an age limit of twelve years, for no other rea- 
 son than because we are the victims of an absurd library 
 custom, adopted before we knew better." 
 
 Mr. Crunden, St. Louis, Mo., says: 
 
 "No age limit. Don't believe in it. Let children take 
 books as soon as they can read." 
 
 Mrs. Wrigley, Richmond, Ind., says: 
 
 "A child may take a book when he can carr}^ it home 
 safely." 
 
 Mrs. Sanders, Pawtucket, R. L: 
 
 "We have no age limit. Every pupil of the schools, 
 either public or private, is expected to have a card." 
 
 The librarian at Greeley, Col., writes: 
 
 "Children take books when they are old enough to know 
 pictures — usually at five years." 
 
112 - LUTIE E. STEARNS 
 
 The librarian of a Vermont library, who shall be name- 
 less, for obvious reasons, writes: 
 
 "Our trustees are not progressive, and not willing to 
 change." 
 
 Miss Hewins, Hartford, Conn., says: 
 
 "We have no age limit. A child may draw a book as 
 soon as he can write his name. I wish that the age limit 
 might be abolished in all libraries." 
 
 The librarian who studies school statistics cannot help 
 being impressed with the grave necessity for the extension 
 of library privileges unto the smallest child. In Milwaukee, 
 out of 5,766 children who entered the schools in 1885, we 
 find but 687 graduating eight years later. If we had an age 
 limit in Milwaukee, we would reach but twelve per cent, of 
 the number in school, to say nothing of the thousands out 
 of school. 
 
 In Jersey City (school census of 1891), we find more 
 than half of those attending school in the first four grades, 
 from six to ten years of age. San Francisco (census of 1892) 
 has 87,000 children between five and seventeen years of age. 
 Of this number, 40,000 attend school (less than half), and 
 sixty-four per cent, of the number attending are found in 
 the first five grades. Of Boston's school population, ninety- 
 three per cent, are found in the primary and grammar de- 
 partments. Minneapolis has 25,000 school children — 22,000 
 under fifteen years of age. St. Louis has 56,000 children 
 under fourteen, each one of whom may have a card as soon 
 as he can write his name. 
 
 One library with an age limit of fourteen years, reports 
 that not more than half a dozen children under twelve, use 
 the library — and this in the face of the fact that there are 
 41,000 children under fourteen in that city. 
 
 Protect the library's interests by a proper form of guar- 
 antee, remove the age restriction, and bid every child wel- 
 come. In this age of trash and printed wickedness, when a 
 professor in one of our western universities feels tempted to 
 say that the youth of this country would grow up to better 
 citizenship and stauncher virtue, were they not taught to 
 read, and when Frederic Harrison sees on every side the 
 poisonous inhalations of literary garbage, and bad men's 
 
READING FOR TFIE YOUNG 113 
 
 worse thoughts, which drive him to exclaim that he could 
 almost reckon the printing press as amongst the scourges 
 of mankind — when we hear all this, and see for ourselves, 
 bad literature on every hand, is it not a pitiful spectacle to 
 see this sign conspicuously displayed in one of the circulat- 
 ing libraries in this country — "Children not allowed in this 
 
 LIBRARY." 
 
 In opposition to such cruelty as this, let us quote the 
 w^ords of the late Dr. Poole of Chicago: 
 
 "I could never see the propriety of excluding young per- 
 sons from a library, any more than from a church. From 
 ten to fourteen is the formative period of their lives. If 
 they ever become readers, and acquire a love of books, it 
 is before the age of fourteen years. No persons return their 
 books so promptly, give so little trouble, or seem to appre- 
 ciate more highly the benefits of a library, as these youth of 
 both sexes. 
 
 ''The young people are our best friends, and they serve 
 the interests of the library by enlisting for it the sympathies 
 of their parents, who are often too busy to read." 
 
 No assistant should be employed in the circulating, ref- 
 erence, or reading-room departments of a library, who will 
 not give a child as courteous and considerate attention as 
 she would a member of the Board of Trustees. 
 
 II. Do the children use the library to an appreciable 
 extent? 
 
 This is answered in the affirmative in nearly every case; 
 variously stated as one-fifth, one-fourth, one-third, and one- 
 half of membership under sixteen years of age. 
 
 III. Is the number of books a child may take per week, 
 restricted? 
 
 One hundred and fifteen libraries report no restriction. 
 Oswego, N. Y., Portsmouth, N. H., Terre Haute, Ind., allow 
 but one book per week. Hartford, Conn., and Cleveland, 
 Ohio, issue but one story-book to children under fourteen, 
 while schools are in session. Newburgh, N. Y., allows those 
 under ten years, but one book per week. 
 
 Two books per week — Germantown, Penn., Memphis, 
 Tenn., Grand Rapids, Mich., La Crosse, Wis., Richmond, 
 
114 LUTIE E. STEARNS 
 
 Ind., Kalamazoo, Mich., Nashua, N. H., Hamilton, Ont., 
 Evansville, Ind., Watertown, Mass. 
 
 Three books — Fond du Lac, Wis., Evanston, 111., Fitch- 
 burg, Mass., Springfield, Mass., San Francisco, Cal., Barry, 
 111. 
 
 Twelve per week — Elgin, 111. 
 
 IV. What per cent, of your circulation, is children's 
 fiction? 
 
 The average is about twenty per cent, of the entire cir- 
 culation. 
 
 V. Do you circulate Alger, Optic, Castlemon, Trow- 
 bridge, and kindred authors? 
 
 Nine libraries report that they do not circulate any of 
 the above-named. Eighteen libraries are allowing the first 
 three to wear out without replacing. Twenty-five libraries 
 circulate Trowbridge only. There seems to be a great diff- 
 erence of opinion in regard to the relative value and worth 
 of these authors. One librarian writes: 
 
 "Our set of Alger and Trowbridge are worn out and not 
 replaced. Poor, thin, much-abused Optic helps boys to read, 
 and leads up to stronger books;" while another librarian 
 says: "I consider that Alger and Castlemon have done ir- 
 reparable injury to our boys, in their taste for more solid 
 reading. Since their purchase, solid reading for children has 
 fallen ofif ten per cent." 
 
 Bufifalo, N. Y., (partly subscription) reports: 
 
 "One set of Alger, some of Optic and Castlemon's is- 
 sued on demand to holders of membership tickets, but their 
 use is discouraged, and none given to holders of school 
 tickets." 
 
 Pawtucket, R. I., removed Castlemon from the shelves, 
 two years ago, but circulates Trowbridge. Milwaukee, Wis., 
 has Trowbridge, only, for which there is but little demand. 
 Trowbridge is not sent to schools, and we find, at the main 
 library, that our boys prefer something better. 
 
 VI. Do you have special lists or catalogues for children? 
 State price, if not free. 
 
 The majority of libraries merely designate children's 
 books by some sign in the main catalogue. Twenty-five li- 
 braries report special printed catalogues, varying in price 
 
 I 
 
i 
 
 RKADTNG FOR TTTE YOUXG 115 
 
 from one cent to fifteen cents. Many are issued free. Many 
 libraries use Sargent's and Hardy's lists, with numbers in- 
 serted. Four have special card-catalogues for children's use. 
 Some designate a child's book by a colored card, while one 
 librarian enters books for children under twelve, on yellow 
 cards, and from twelve to eighteen years of age, on blue. 
 Poughkeepsie, N. Y., has a set of nine small lists adapted to 
 various ages. Miss Hewins' (Hartford, Conn.) catalogue is 
 worthy of special commendation. The "List of books for 
 Township Libraries," prepared by Mr. Frank A. Hutchins, 
 State Superintendent's Office, Madison, Wis., is a model list, 
 in ever}^ particular, and may be obtained for the asking. 
 
 Milwaukee, Wis., has a children's catalogue, and also 
 prints lists of "150 good books for girls," and "150 good books 
 for bo3's," which are issued free, and used as call-slips by 
 the children. The list is kept in the pocket of the book with 
 the card. These lists are used by ninety-nine per cent, of 
 the children. We thus direct the reading of the young by 
 calling attention to the best books. (We shall be glad to 
 send these lists to all who desire them.) 
 
 VII. Do you have Teachers' cards? How many books may 
 be drawn at a time? Are these books issued by teachers to 
 pupils, or used solely for reference? 
 
 One-third of those reporting make no distinction between 
 teachers and other borrowers. Others issue a card upon 
 which teachers may take from two to twenty books — the 
 average being six. Some libraries restrict the use of these 
 books to reference in the school-room, while others leave it 
 optional with the teacher. 
 
 If the object of this privilege is for purposes of refer- 
 ence, it is a wise one to follow; but if its aim is to supply 
 additional reading-matter to pupils, it is meagre in the ex- 
 treme — the tendency being to get books dealing with studies 
 taught, rather than good literature for children. To "Let 
 teachers have as many as they can use" is the rule in an in- 
 creasing number of libraries. 
 
 VIII. Do you send books to schools in proportion to size 
 of classes, i. e., fifty pupils — fifty books, to be issued by teach- 
 ers to pupils for home use? 
 
ii6 ^ LUTIE E. STEARNS 
 
 Some one has truly said, "In the work of popular edu- 
 cation through libraries, it is, after all, not the few great li- 
 braries, but the thousand smaller ones that may do most for 
 the people." Greatness of cities hampers individual work. 
 The librarian knows, from the school census, that there are 
 34,000 children, between six and fourteen years of age, in 
 his city. By abolishing the age requirement, he ma}^ reach 
 those in the vicinity of the library; but what of the thousands 
 in the home districts — many of whom have never heard of 
 the existence of the library? 
 
 It seems to us that the teacher, the one who guides and 
 educates, the one who knows best the individual preferences 
 and capacities of her pupils — it is the teacher who should 
 direct the reading. The process is most simple. The teacher 
 comes to the library and selects from the shelves a number 
 of books, in -proportion to the size of her class, i. e., fifty 
 pupils— fifty books. These are sent to the schools, and is- 
 sued by the teachers for home use. The selection is made 
 from all branches of literature — mythology, science, useful 
 arts, fine arts, poetry, history, travel, biography, fairy stories, 
 stories of adventure, &c., &c. The books are not intended, 
 primarily, to supplement the school work. They should be 
 "books of inspiration" rather than those of information; for 
 "knowledge alone cannot make character." Another great 
 object should be to create a love for books; for "What we 
 make children love and desire is more important than what 
 we make them learn." 
 
 Each pupil should be provided with a library card — 
 with parent as guarantor — thus relieving the teacher's re- 
 sponsibility. 
 
 Cleveland, Ohio, Los Angeles, Cal., Hartford, Conn., 
 Grand Rapids, Mich., Bridgeport, Conn., Lancaster, Mass., 
 Chicago, 111., Burlington, Vt, Dover, N. H., and Milwaukee, 
 Wis., carry on this work to a greater or less extent. Los 
 Angeles, Cal., sent 14,075 books to the schools from Septem- 
 ber, 1893 to May 30, 1894, a remarkable showing. Grand 
 Rapids, Mich., issued 3,415 books, which were circulated 
 15,905 times. Cleveland, Ohio, sent 4,708 volumes, the num- 
 ber of issues being 38,031, the books being kept at the school 
 during the school year. (See "The Open Shelf" for June, 
 
READING FOR THE YOUNG 117 
 
 1894, published by Cleveland Pub. Lib. — for description of 
 school circulation.) 
 
 A few statistics may demonstrate the growth of this 
 plan in Milwaukee. In 1888 — the year of its inauguration, 
 1,650 books were issued by teachers, 4,702 times. During 
 the school year 1893-94, i4»990 books were issued 42,863 
 times — the number of books sent being limited only by the 
 supply at our command. The books were returned to the 
 library at the expiration of eight weeks, when a new selec- 
 tion was made by the teacher. It must be understood that 
 this represents the number of books read at home by the 
 children. Much of the eighty per cent, increase in the cir- 
 culation at the library, during the past winter, was due, not 
 alone to the hard times, but to the advertising which the 
 library received in the homes, through the schools. 
 
 Many teachers select books for the parents and older 
 brothers and sisters of their pupils. The system of school 
 circulation is being gradually extended, until it will eventually 
 embrace every grade of every school — public, private, paro- 
 chial and Sunday-school, which can be induced to avail them- 
 selves 01 the privilege. 
 
 There are many methods of awakening the teachers' in- 
 terest in the matter of school distribution. We visit the 
 class-rooms of the public schools and tell the children stories, 
 thereby arousing a desire for books; we urge upon the 
 teachers the necessity of furnishing the young with the best 
 literature. Our superintendent of schools gives our system 
 the heartiest encouragement and support. That he deems 
 the plan of the greatest importance, will be shown in an 
 article by him on "The Public Library and Public Schools," 
 in the Educational Review (Nov. 1894). (See page 89.) 
 
 IX. Do you send a number of copies of the same work 
 to schools for supplemental reading? 
 
 Detroit, Jersey City, and St. Louis carry on this work 
 extensively. St. Louis, Mo., has six sets of fifty copies each 
 of Scudder's Folk Tales, Franklin's autobiography, &c., which 
 are sent from one school to another. Jersey City, N. J., is- 
 sued 11,844 volumes (twenty sets), in this manner, during 
 the past year. The books are carefully graded, and meet with 
 much favor. Detroit sent 17,290 books to the schools, for 
 
tt8 LUTIE E. STEARNS 
 
 supplemental reading-matter. The superintendent of schools 
 of Detroit, in his annual report (1891) says: 
 
 "The benefits to the higher grades, from the circulating 
 library, furnished by the Public Library, are very decided, 
 and there is a perceptible change for the better in the choice 
 of selections made by the pupils; and it is the universal tes- 
 timony, that there is a growing taste for good reading, 
 among our school children." 
 
 This plan of school distribution has much to commend 
 it. Educators are coming to realize that the modern school 
 readers — the "five inanities" — are directly responsible for the 
 habit of desultory reading. But we maintain that the furnish- 
 ing of supplemental reading-matter — to be read in school — 
 lies v^^holly within the province of the school authorities of 
 our cities. As Mr. Cowell, of Liverpool, says: "We leave 
 the school-board to provide their own books, as they have 
 more funds at their disposal than we have." But few libra- 
 ries can afiford to furnish such books, the demands of the 
 individual tastes of the child being more than can be ordi- 
 narily supplied. 
 
 X. Do you circulate pictures in schools and homes? In 
 what form issued? 
 
 Newton, Mass., Ilion, N. Y., Wilkes-Barre, Penn., and 
 Milwaukee, Wis., circulate linen and pasteboard picture- 
 books among the smallest children. Gloversville, N. Y., 
 sends portfolios of photographs to teachers who wish to il 
 lustrate certain lessons. 
 
 Los Angeles, Cal., Denver, Col., and Milwaukee, Wis., 
 select suitable pictures from Hart>cr''s JJ^cekly and Bazar, 
 Leslie's, Scientific American, &c., &c., which are mounted on 
 manila, gray bristol, or tag-board, and sent to the schools. 
 In selecting pictures, it should be the aim to choose those 
 of cTsthctic value — training the child's sense of beauty and 
 imagination. Many, of course, may be used for language, 
 geography, and history work. Teachers of Milwaukee organ- 
 ize "pasting and cutting bees," thus relieving the library of 
 much of the work. 
 
 As an evidence of the popularity of the pictures, in Mil- 
 waukee, we have but to cite the fact that thirteen hundred 
 pictures were circulated in the schools, during May and 
 
READING FOR THE YOUNG 119 
 
 June. Los Angeles has fifteen luindred pictures at the dis- 
 posal of teachers. (For "Pictures in I'^lementary Schools" see 
 Health Exhibition Literature, vol. 13, pp. 54-77, and Prang 
 Educational Papers, Nos. i and 4.) 
 
 XI. Do classes visit the library? 
 
 Forty-four libraries report visits of classes for the pur- 
 pose of viewing art works, illustrated books of travel, &c., 
 &c. Lack of room prevents many lil)raries from extending 
 this privilege. 
 
 Gloversville, N. Y., organizes children's reading circles, 
 and prepares a list of books to be used in connection with 
 the courses of reading. The topics selected are generally 
 supplementary to the school work. At the weekly meetings 
 of the circles in the class-room at the library, the current 
 events of the week are also discussed — in this way guiding 
 the children in proper newspaper reading, 
 
 XII. (a) Have you a children's reading-room? (b) Is 
 there a special window in circulating department, for children? 
 
 (a) Minneapolis devotes the lower corridor to children. 
 They are admitted to cases and tables containing their books 
 — books being charged by an attendant at the gate. 
 
 Watertown, Mass., gives up one reading-room to chil- 
 dren, placing therein periodicals, bound and current, and 
 other books suited to the young. Cambridge, Mass., are 
 adding a children's room, in which they intend to charge 
 books. Cleveland, Ohio, has a special alcove for children. 
 Omaha, Neb., has a special department, in its new building, 
 for book and picture displays, special study rooms, and one 
 "sample" room, in which will be placed the best books for 
 children, and where children, parents and teachers may make 
 selections. 
 
 Some libraries set aside a certain part of their reference 
 and reading-rooms for children's use. 
 
 (b) Special window for children: 
 
 Los Angeles, Cal., "Disapproves decidedly of all such 
 segregation." 
 
 Dayton, Ohio, has special window for display of chil- 
 dren's literature. 
 
 Aguilar Library (New York City) does not permit chil- 
 
120 LUTIE E. STEARNS 
 
 dren to change books after six p. m. (How about boys and 
 girls who work from seven a. m. to six p. m.?) 
 
 Dover, N. H., "Have no such pernicious things as win- 
 dows in our circulating department. We have an open 
 counter across which human intercourse is easy." 
 
 XIII. Have you a special supervisor of children's reading? 
 Alany librarians report that they overlook the matter in 
 
 a general way, some making it their specialty. St. Louis, 
 Mo., has just engaged an experienced teacher for that pur- 
 pose. 
 
 Any one taking this work could find an exhaustless mine 
 of opportunities-^some of which have been hinted at under 
 the question of school circulation. 
 
 XIV. What other important work are you doing for chil- 
 dren, not included in these questions? 
 
 Indianapolis, Ind., Cambridge, Mass., and San Diego, 
 Cal., publish, each week, in one of the daily papers, a list of 
 books for younger readers, on electricity, travel, stories, &c., 
 or on some special topic of the times. These lists are very 
 popular. 
 
 Many libraries place books pertaining to school studies, 
 on special shelves, to which children have free access. 
 
 Bridgeport, Conn., and Fitchburg, Mass., have art de- 
 partments with well-qualified assistants to show pictures 
 to children, and adults. 
 
 Medford, Mass., has talks given to the children, upon 
 various subjects, by friends of the librarian. 
 
 Omaha, Neb., is planning delivery stations for the chil- 
 dren. 
 
 San Diego, Cal., "Turns children loose among the 
 shelves on Sundays." 
 
 Dover, N. H., issues student's cards, on which any stu- 
 dent, old or young, may take out a number of books on any 
 special topic. 
 
 Peoria, 111., gives two cards to each child or adult — one 
 for fiction and another for purposes of study. 
 
 Portland, Ore., Beaver Dam, Wis., Greeley, Col., and 
 others allow children free access to the shelves. 
 
 Free Circulating Libraries, of New York City, have 
 
READING FOR THE YOUNG 121 
 
 "Children's Shelves" containing the best books, from which 
 parents and the young may make selections. 
 
 Many libraries report special assistance rendered to 
 Youths' Debating societies, essay writing, &c. 
 
 Gloversville, N. Y., organizes reading circles (to which 
 reference has already been made). 
 
 The library classes at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, and 
 Armour Institute, Chicago, are starting home libraries in 
 slum neighborhoods. 
 
 Miss James, of Wilkes-Barre, has organized a boys' and 
 young men's reading-room in a similar locality. 
 
 Brookline, Mass., places college and school catalogues 
 in reference-room at the end of each school year. 
 
 XV. What ideas would you like to see developed in con- 
 nection with the broad subject of Reading for the Young? 
 
 Miss James, of Wilkes-Barre, voices the sentiments of 
 many, when she says: "I would like to educate the grand- 
 parents for three generations back — ditto, the teachers." 
 Twenty-five per cent, of the librarians deplore lack of inter- 
 est and supervision of the child's reading, on the part of the 
 parents. "Over-reading" on the part of many children is 
 another cause for complaint. The idea may have its objec- 
 tions, but we think that a kindly, tactful letter to the parent, 
 might have its influence. 
 
 Great care should be exercised in the selection of books 
 for the young. Purity of English is a primary consideration. 
 Books '"written down" to children should be avoided, also 
 those books which do not, at once, fix the attention of the 
 child. What the boy world needs, are books of incident, of 
 lively action, of absorbing interest, wholesome, interesting, 
 attractive, in good English, and yet free from the ghastliness 
 and vulgarity of the alluring dime novel. 
 
 Many librarians advocate courses of reading in connec- 
 tion with the school work; certain books to be read at home, 
 by the children, and then discussed in the school room. 
 Much latitude should be given children in the choice of books 
 to read — thus not making it a task but encouraging a love of 
 reading. 
 
 By addressing Teachers' Institutes and meetings, the 
 librarian or supervisor of children's reading can do much in 
 
122 ^ LUTIE E. STEARNS 
 
 the way of enlisting the aid and support of teachers. We 
 think the work done by the State Normal School, and Pub- 
 lic Library, of Milwaukee, is unique in this particular. A 
 course of library reading of the best authors is required of 
 the Normal students, thus cultivating the tastes of the future 
 teachers and bringing them in contact with the resources of 
 the library. Hundreds of copies of the best books for chil- 
 dren are sent to the Normal school, and there read and criti- 
 cised by the students. Lists of the best books are printed 
 for future reference. Children in neighboring schools send 
 in lists of books they prefer, thus giving the students knowl- 
 edge of what children really like to read. By talks to the 
 students at the Normal school, we emphasize the importance 
 of the work from the librarian's, teacher's and child's point 
 of view. 
 
 We believe there are many fields still unexplored in the 
 provinces of children's reading. Some means, for example, 
 should be devised, in the large cities, to send books to fac- 
 tories where children are employed. 
 
 Reading rooms should be opened, evenings, in school 
 buildings. They should be supplied with the best periodicals 
 for old and young, and if possible, interesting books adapted 
 to all ages. 
 
 Besides study and class rooms, the modern library should 
 contain a hall, to which children may come for instructive 
 and entertaining lectures. That this plan is feasible is shown 
 by the course of free lectures given in the reading room of 
 the library at Alameda, Cal., during the past winter, to 
 which extended reference is made in the August (1894) 
 Library Journal. 
 
 The circulation of lanterns and lantern slides, tennis and 
 croquet sets and the best indoor games — a plan advocated by 
 Miss Kelso (Los Angeles, Cal.) — meets with the warmest 
 approbation from all lovers of children; for if "Books of Re- 
 freshment," why not "Games of Refreshment"? 
 
 That the child is a volume to be studied, applies as well 
 to library as pedagogical science. We deprecate the spirit 
 which prompts a librarian to say, "We prefer to transact 
 business with older persons, as we lose time in making in- 
 fants understand." As opposed to this are the words of an- 
 
READING FOR THE YOUNG 123 
 
 other who writes, "Each assistant has instruction by no 
 means to neglect the children for the adults." The modern 
 library spirit may be expressed in the words of Miss Perkins 
 of Ilion, N. Y., who says: 
 
 "We always treat children with the same consideration 
 and courtesy as grown people. We make them love to come 
 and stay here, and keep in touch with them in every way 
 possible." 
 
 In closing our report, we desire to submit five questions 
 for consideration: 
 
 How may we induce parents to oversee their children's 
 reading? 
 
 How may we make the guiding of her pupils' reading a 
 part of the teacher's work? 
 
 What can be done to help a boy to like good books 
 after he has fallen into the dime novel habit? 
 
 What methods have been used with success in develop- 
 ing the taste of children? 
 
 What form of catalogue, if any, is of interest and value to 
 children? 
 
 A full discussion of these questions will be helpful to 
 many librarians who have the best interests of their child 
 patrons close at heart. 
 
THE CHILD, THE SCHOOL AND THE LIBRARY 
 
 The methods used in Cleveland and the principles that 
 inspired their adoption are set forth in somewhat greater 
 detail than in Mr. Brett's paper, given above, in an ad- 
 dress before the first annual meeting of the Ohio Library 
 Association in 1896 by Miss Linda Eastman. The teach- 
 ers of the Cleveland Public Schools were especially in- 
 vited to this session. 
 
 Linda Anne Eastman was born at Oberlin, O., in 1867 
 and educated in the Cleveland public schools. After 
 teaching in them for seven years she entered library work 
 in 1892 and in the year when this article was written 
 (1896) became vice-librarian of the Cleveland Public 
 Library. ^liss Eastman has been a pioneer in work with 
 children and her influence in guiding American libraries 
 toward sanity, efficiency and beauty has been as contin- 
 uous as it has been quiet. 
 
 The school trains the child in the use of his powers and 
 faculties, teaches him how to learn; the Hbrary is the store- 
 house of wisdom. So brief a statement of facts shows at 
 once the close relation between these two institutions, and 
 that the former in great measure defeats its own ends if it 
 fail to lead to the latter. Discussions of this question have 
 heretofore dealt mainly with methods of interesting the child 
 in reading and of furnishing him with books — of attracting 
 him to the library through the medium of the schools. It 
 remains to pay more attention to the means by which he 
 can be properly trained for reading and research. 
 
126 LINDA A. EASTMAN 
 
 The school looks to the library as a most helpful adjunct, 
 and encourages the child to use it, but does the school 
 prepare him, in a practical way, to use the library? Might 
 not more be done for the average child whose school life 
 ends before he reaches the high school? He has such a piti- 
 fully small store of knowledge to face the world with, and 
 how little chance for increasing it! To this child, whose 
 name is legion, the public library should be a veritable gold- 
 mine; it fails of being so simply because he knows not the 
 rudiments of the art of mining. 
 
 All individual research in the world of books requires 
 some foundation of knowledge of how to get at them — of 
 the short-cuts that indexes and tables of contents afford, 
 of the best readers' guides and how to use them, of the in- 
 dispensable books of reference and the fields covered by 
 them. Something of all this is taught in the schools to-day 
 — much more than of old — but this teaching comes rather as 
 the result of the interest and effort of individual teachers 
 than as a necessary part of the school-work which no teacher 
 dare overlook. It yet needs to be ingrafted as an integral 
 part of the whole course of study. True, that course of study 
 is overcrowded, and we would not add another branch — this 
 teaching should become part of the work in every branch. 
 It will start from very small beginnings, but there will be, 
 almost from the first, a constant broadening of the child's 
 mental vision and an added zest in his work. 
 
 To illustrate the commencement of it, take a primary 
 class in geography; they have been over the descriptive part, 
 say of North America, in their text-books, have had it pre- 
 sented in an attractive manner, and made plain with the 
 help of surface and production maps, etc.; they have perhaps 
 bec6me interested in reading King's "This continent of 
 ours," Smith's "Our own country," or others of the books 
 which are helping to add interest to primary geography; but 
 there yet remains to be given more of that drill, that repeti- 
 tion and reiteration of the facts which the teacher knows to 
 be so very necessary if some of those little minds are to re- 
 tain the knowledge gained. Suppose that at this point she 
 produces some half-dozen of the best elementary geographies 
 which she can find— all different; she then teaches them 
 
CHILD. SCHOOL AND LIP,RAR^• i_7 
 
 how to find for themselves the subject they want in the 
 strantre books, the first lesson which many of them have ever 
 had in the use of indexes or tables of contents — each child 
 will be eager to find his place first, and the remainder of the 
 class go through the same operation with their own text- 
 books, for heretofore they have always been told just what 
 page to turn to, and have had no practice in doing it in this 
 way. They then proceed to see what these different authors 
 say about the principal features of North America, compar- 
 ing the various ways of saying the same thing, and noticing 
 any new points. When the lesson is over, what will have 
 been gained? First, the main object, the fixing of the facts 
 in the minds of the children, for they will not only have 
 gone over each point repeatedly, but each time thoughtfully 
 and critically. Besides this, in studying the numerous forms 
 of expression for the same facts, they will have had a val- 
 uable lesson in English; some of them will have had practice 
 in sight-reading from new books: they will have learned to 
 apply the term author to the writer of any book, and not 
 only as you will find most of them have done in their child- 
 ish way heretofore, to those of a purely literary character. 
 Most important of all, perhaps, they will have had their first 
 practical training in the use of an index, as a little begin- 
 ning in that knowledge which is to make them more pro- 
 ficient in the use of books. 
 
 This work, carried on up through the grades, should 
 be broadened out until it makes them acquainted with the 
 names of the great travellers and explorers, and with the 
 most interesting and best books of travel and description 
 of the countries as they take them up — until they have be- 
 come familiar with the standard gazetteers and atlases, 
 know what class of geographical and statistical facts to 
 look to them for, and how to consult them deftly and ac- 
 curately: and this can all be done, both incidentally and 
 beneficially to the regular work, while greatly increasing the 
 children's knowledge of books. When, for instance, the sixth 
 grade is studying Switzerland, the teacher asks the pupils 
 to bring in a list of as many books as they can find de- 
 scribing that country — the children, each anxious to have the 
 best list, will go to the library catalog (there should always 
 
128 LINDA A. EASTMAN 
 
 be one in every school-building), will make inquiries at 
 home, and will, whenever possible, visit the library and there 
 consult catalogs, assistants, and the books themselves; the 
 children will then be asked to write these lists upon the 
 blackboard, in alphabetical order as they would be in a cata- 
 log — in doing this a great many more little points will be 
 learned than are apparent at first thought, and it should be 
 given much attention, for the expert use of the catalog is 
 an art invaluable to the student as a saving of both time 
 and patience. A few such lessons are needed to teach the 
 young learner that in title entries the library catalog omits 
 the initial article, that he will find the book entitled "The 
 mountains of Switzerland" under '"Mountains" and not 
 under "The"; knowing an author or title, and wishing to 
 look up that one book, he will learn to look for these as 
 simple dictionary entries, so, in the case of his wanting to 
 know who wrote "Scrambles in the Alps," or its shelf- 
 number, he turns instantly to S for the title; lacking any 
 data but the subject, or wishing to find several or all of the 
 books on the subject, he will look under Switzerland, sub- 
 division Travels. 
 
 Through this means the teacher and the librarian will 
 constantly be given opportunities for recommending those 
 of the books mentioned which are best suited for the pupil's 
 reading, and of familiarizing him with the names of those 
 which may be beyond him now, but which he will be sure 
 to enjoy when he is older. It will lead him on, also, into 
 history and to a keener, broader interest in current events. 
 Geography has been mentioned simply as showing some 
 typical possibilities — if needless details seem to have been 
 given, it has been for the purpose of showing that what is 
 suggested will not add a burden of new work, but will add 
 interest to the old, and that it can begin very early. The 
 constant tuition in books and their use, and the cultivation 
 of a thoughtful and discriminating taste for the best, can 
 and should be brought, incidentally, into almost every branch 
 of study, and that, too, with better results in the studies 
 themselves; the reading, the language, and the science work 
 all invite to it, while the history offers such incentives to 
 this kind of work that the wonder is that it is ever 
 
CHILD. SCHOOL AND LIBRARY 129 
 
 taught in any other way. After reaching the high school 
 the pupil should take a long stride forward in the acquisi- 
 tion of this book knowledge, the nature of the studies and 
 the greater maturity of the pupil being all in his favor. 
 Every branch in the curriculum will admit of, and on second 
 thought seem almost to require, at least a comparative study 
 of text-books, of learning who are the great authorities, 
 and of becoming more or less familiar with the principal 
 works of reference on the subject; the literature and com- 
 position classes in particular will give an opportunity for 
 much systematic drill and instruction in method in looking 
 up subjects, in the intelligent use of catalogs and subject 
 lists, of Poole's Index, and of reviews and periodicals; a 
 correct idea should be gained of the general character of the 
 principal encyclopedias and the distinctive feature of each, 
 that they may know which are best to refer to for brief, con- 
 cise statements of facts, for long and scholarly treatises, 
 for bibliographical references, for recent developments, for 
 matters pertaining to our own country, etc., while it is quite 
 worth while knowing such little points as to which dictionary 
 to go for help in settling the question of beginning a certain 
 word wMth a capital or a small letter. 
 
 It is a big subject with which we are dealing, this in- 
 struction in the use of books, but because it must start from 
 such small beginnings, because it must lead the child's mind 
 up and out from utter ignorance to a never-ending increase 
 of knowledge, it is not, therefore, overwhelming — its very 
 bigness and fulness are an inspiration which cannot be felt 
 without an expansion of mind to meet it. It is, perhaps, 
 well that there is no room for it in the already overcrowded 
 curriculum as a separate branch of study, because, if the 
 best results are to be obtained, it must be interwoven with 
 everything else and wherever the opportunity ofifers. Nor 
 should it be, on this account, a vague and intangible subject 
 to plan for in the course — the objects to be attained are so 
 definite, the means so abundant. For the teacher herself it 
 will often mean nearly as much growth as for the children, 
 and for the whole school course it will be a constant check 
 on the tendency to slip into ruts of mechanical and routine 
 work. The normal school should give special preparation 
 
130 ^ LINDA A. EASTMAN 
 
 for it, in addition to that excellent feature which has already 
 found place in some of these schools, a study of juvenile liter- 
 ature from an educational point of view. 
 
 We come now to the side of the question which per- 
 tains especially to the library. These latter years have 
 brought wonderful progress in library science and economy, 
 but there is perhaps nothing which shows the advance of 
 the library of to-day over that of 20 years ago more than the 
 greater importance which is attached to the work with the 
 children. The work of the librarian has come to be regarded 
 as not merely incidentally but as actively and pre-eminently 
 educational; he is called upon to be himself a teacher in the 
 highest and truest sense of the word, a helper to knowledge 
 — all sorts and conditions of men come to his "people's uni- 
 versity" and seek his guidance in research on any and every 
 subject; he must help to meet the needs of the professor 
 and of the artisan, and has often to teach alike the teacher 
 and her smallest pupil. 
 
 The hope of the future lies in the children of to-day, and 
 if the next generation make the most of the resources of 
 the library it will be because <\s children they are trained 
 to use it — hence the greater relative importance of the work 
 with and for them. In reviewing briefly the work which is 
 being done along this line, but little need be said concern- 
 ing the loaning of books to the schools for redistribution 
 among the pupils, as wherever it is in operation, as it is here 
 in Cleveland, it seems to be so successful as to be limited 
 only by the supply of books that can be devoted to this pur- 
 pose, and we have known of schools where these books have 
 furnished the life-giving germ of interest which contributed 
 more than all else to a successful year's work. 
 
 The careful preparation and free distribution of lists 
 of the best books contained in the library, suitable to the 
 children, is a work which pays well. This is sometimes done 
 by the school authorities, as in the case of the excellent lists 
 distributed in the grammar grades in this city last June, 
 which brought such an increase of children to the library 
 during the entire summer; in some places it is done by the 
 librarian; it would doubtless be best done by the two work- 
 ing together, as the one can furnish an understanding of the 
 
CHILD. SCHOOL AXI) LIl'.kARV 131 
 
 needs of the pupils, while the other has the books from 
 which to select material, can attend to the proper insertion 
 of the library call numbers, etc. These lists may be in the 
 form of a general catalog of juvenile books, or o-f special 
 lists of the best books for boys, the best books for girls, 
 those suited to different grades and ages, books on particular 
 subjects, as United States history, and lists helpful for special 
 day exercises, as for Washington's birthday or Christmas. 
 One who has done much of this work in a large library 
 writes me: "We try to guide the reading of those children 
 who come to the library 1)y the little lists which I sent you. 
 The importance of these lists cannot be overestimated." 
 She goes on to say: "I have lately been attracting the at- 
 tention of the children to good books through a juvenile 
 weekly paper issued as a supplement to one of our evening 
 dailies. One night I had inserted a list of about 25 of our 
 best books for children zi'itJwut giving our library numbers, 
 and offered a prize of a book to the first boy or girl who 
 would copy the list, correctly adding these numbers. This 
 taught them the way to use the catalog, and also got them to 
 come to the library, and, too, attracted their attention to 
 the best books. Two weeks ago I offered a prize of two dol- 
 lars for the best description of the best books any boy or 
 girl in the state ever read. This will give me an index to 
 what boys and girls really think is best. I shall keep this up, 
 on different lines, during the winter, and will let you know 
 results later. 
 
 "So many librarians wait for teachers to make the ad- 
 vances in the way of co-operation. It is the librarian who 
 has something to offer (books), and he should proffer them 
 repeatedly, if necessary. We are 'pushing' pictures this 3'ear; 
 mounted a great mau}^ this summer which are being eagerly 
 carried off by the teachers." The pictures here referred to 
 are cut from illustrated papers such as Harper's Weekly and 
 Leslie's Ilhistrated, from worn-out books and magazines about 
 to be discarded, mounted upon cardboard and loaned to the 
 teachers for use in illustrating the lessons, for busy work 
 for the little ones, etc. Several libraries are thus utilizing 
 what would otherwise be wasted material. 
 
132 , LINDA A. EASTMAN 
 
 The plan of appointing a special assistant (usually one 
 who has had practical experience both in teaching and in the 
 library) to take charge of the work in connection with the 
 schools, is one which is leading to such excellent results 
 in some libraries that it should be more generally adopted. 
 This assistant should keep thoroughly informed upon the 
 work which is being done in the different grades from month 
 to month, and be ready always to recommend to teachers 
 and pupils the best on any subject taken up by them, those 
 which will prove most helpful to the work in hand and best 
 suited to the children. The teachers should consult her, 
 should send the pupils to her, and it should be understood 
 by all that during certain hours of each day she is unre- 
 servedly at their service. This assistant should be well 
 adapted to and thoroughly prepared for her work, and, above 
 all, should have her interest and energy centered in it. In 
 libraries where one person's whole time cannot be given up 
 to it there should be at least a portion of the day devoted 
 to it; much of the work which she has in charge may per- 
 haps be detailed to others, and she should be capable of 
 giving the younger assistants the instruction necessary for 
 its proper performance, and of inspiring them with the 
 earnestness and the spirit of helpfulness which are necessary 
 to success. 
 
 Every assistant in the library, who meets the public, 
 should be, or should be capable of becoming, a teacher of 
 bibliography, and the best work should often be done, the 
 most valuable suggestions given, with utter unconsciousness 
 on the part of the public which receives them. It requires 
 infinite tact, but with the children it is comparatively easy, 
 for the reason that they are ready to take suggestions and 
 so quick, often, to profit by them. Here the librarian has a 
 decided advantage over the teacher, for she has to meet none 
 of that antagonism of pupil for pedagogue which is an in- 
 heritance from the semi-barbarous days of school-keeping; 
 the teacher has to win and then keep the child's confidence 
 — the librarian, on the contrary, may have it for the taking. 
 The reason for this last fact is plain — people are sincere with 
 their books, they throw aside shams and are themselves with 
 
CHIT.D. SCHOOL A XI) Lll^.KARV 13.^ 
 
 tlu-ni, and why should they not be so with those whn help 
 tluMii. in an understanding way, to the books they enjoy? 
 
 What opportunities does this not open up to the librarian 
 or the assistant who is on the alert for them — opportunities 
 to jjuide the children in their reading, to awaken a real in- 
 terest in a c|uest upon whicli they started in a perfunctory 
 and aimless way, and to give them many a hint as to how 
 to get at what is in books. She can often do much, also, in 
 developing those decided individual tastes which sometimes 
 show themselves in very young children, as when the little 
 eight-year-old comes and wants "that book with the hands 
 and arms in it,'' and sits by the hour copying simple studies 
 in curve and outline, which he shows to her with the naive 
 confidence that he "is going to be a artist;" she need not 
 flatter herself that she is fostering young genius — that is 
 more rare than children with a taste for drawing — but she 
 may be sure that she is doing something toward shaping his 
 ideals of the beautiful and the true. 
 
 The general reading of children needs wiser and more 
 tactful oversight, by the parent, by the teacher or the li- 
 brarian, to counteract that tendency to narrow down the 
 range of reading to one class of books, and that too often 
 the poorer story-book. There is perhaps no department 
 of the public library where greater care should be exercised 
 in the selection of books than in the juvenile fiction — keep 
 the standard high there. The healthy boy craves stirring tales, 
 but when, as they will, even Kirk Munroe, Stoddard, and 
 Henty begin to seem tame to him, do not let him drop to 
 Castlemon, Alger, and Optic, lead him rather, to the more 
 lasting delights of Scott and Dumas and Stanley Weyman. 
 It is for the girls, however, that we would make a special 
 plea; so much pains is often taken to interest the boys in 
 biography, history, travel, and science, but the girl w^ho 
 w^ants a book (and she is more prone than her brother to 
 leave the selection of her books to another's judgment) is 
 given a "pretty story," and she goes on eternally reading 
 "pretty stories," which become more and more highly 
 wrought, until the first thing you know she is in the ranks 
 of those who read nothing but the silly, the sentimental, and 
 the sensational novels — if she has arrived at this point b}^ a 
 
134 . LINDA A. EASTMAN 
 
 round-about course of "goody-goody" story-books, she is 
 only the more helplessly sensible of her fall. 
 
 All the while, if she but knew it, the girl would so much 
 more enjoy the better things which she is missing. Help 
 her to these — when she has read Alcott and Mrs. Burnett 
 and Laura E. Richards's stories, she will devour with avidity 
 "When I was your age," "The one I knew the best of all," 
 and Miss Alcott's life and letters, and want more books of 
 the kind, until before long she will be absorbed in biography. 
 An interest aroused in the personality of the writer of "A 
 New England girlhood" will in turn carry her into poetry, 
 a never-ending delight to the child who has found it out. 
 History, too! I am reminded of the little maid who read it 
 along with her fairy-tales, with the result that she named 
 her cats after historical characters, and executed a favorite 
 doll as Mary Queen of Scots; she is to-da}^ a broader-minded 
 young- woman than some of her little playmates whose 
 imaginations admitted of nothing more tragic befalling theii 
 dollies than a fit of the measles. 
 
 Above all things, see that the child has access to the 
 good books, the great books, the books that stir men of 
 all times and all ages. We would object most strenuously 
 to shutting the children into that part of the library which 
 contains only the purely juvenile books. Do you think it was 
 any food for babes such as the "Little Prudy stories" which 
 called from Mrs. Browning this memory of childhood? 
 
 "Books, books, books! 
 T had found the secret of a garret-room 
 Piled hig-h with cases in my father's name; 
 Piled high, packed large^where, creeping in and out 
 Among the giant fossils of my past. 
 I,ike some small niml)le mouse between the ribs 
 Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there 
 At this or thut ))ox, pulling through the gap, 
 In heats of teiror, haste, victorious jov, 
 H'he first Itook first. And how I felt it" beat 
 ('ndor m>- ))illo\v in the morning's dark, 
 An hour before the sun would let me read! 
 My booi<s!" 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes struck a keynote when, speak- 
 ing of the reading habit, he said. "Above all things, as a 
 child he should have tumbled about in a librar}' — all men 
 are afraid of books who have not handled them from in- 
 
CHILD. SCHOOL AXD LHiRARV 135 
 
 fancy." Tliat word ''tumhlcd'' he uses advisedly, if not 
 literally — it expresses one thing which it is all-important 
 that the child should have, a sense of freedom. Freedom 
 under law it will of course be — he must learn that liberty 
 which is not license, he must learn to respect the right of 
 books to careful usage as he learns to respect the rights of 
 his fellow-men. Regard for students requires that quiet be 
 maintained in the library, and this should be insisted upon, 
 though by making the conditions such that the very at- 
 mosphere of the place suggests it this task will be an easy 
 one. Cleanliness is no mere virtue, but an imperative duty, 
 when handling books which can carry deadly germs of dis- 
 ease, and the children should be taught always to come to 
 the library with clean hands. This task is a very hard one 
 sometimes, but it is so important as to demand more attention 
 than it sometimes receives; if the children are refused the 
 books, alwaj^s kindly but always firmly, so long as they come 
 with dirty hands, the}^ will learn this lesson. In one reading- 
 room the assistant is instructed to take the names of all 
 children who are sent to wash themselves, that the ones 
 who come to the library dirty habitually may be singled out 
 and dealt with as their cases require. 
 
 In cities of an}'^ size it is the children more than any 
 other class who are shut ofT by distance from the use of the 
 library. It is here that the greatest value of the branch 
 library shows itself. Andrew Carnegie said that a large li- 
 brary without branches is like a fishing-sloop without small 
 boats; if the small boats could be furnished, if a well-se- 
 lected general collection of even a few hundred good books 
 could be put within easy reach of every child in every city 
 and town in the state of Ohio, it would not be long before 
 the truth of his comparison would be apparent to all. 
 
 One reform which is being accomplished in many places 
 is the abolishing of the age limit — as soon as the child is able 
 to read and can write his own name (some enthusiasts in the 
 children's work even say as soon as he can come to the li- 
 brary and carry home a picture-book), he should be allowed 
 to draw books in his own name. It is said that children 
 under the age limit can draw upon their parents' cards, but 
 
136 LINDA A. EASTMAN 
 
 this plan is a mistake; first, because it is injustice to the 
 parent to deprive him of his card that his child may use it, 
 and second, because it is a fact that some parents are too 
 selfish to give up their cards to their children. 
 
 One thing leads always to another — in this country the 
 public library was the forerunner of the public museum and 
 the public art gallery, which are in many instances being so 
 wisely housed under the same roof with the library, and 
 forming with it (and with the class and lecture rooms which 
 should be included) a vast educational institution upon which 
 the schools can draw constantly for help. The museum 
 especially seems too important to be overlooked in this con- 
 nection — it can be started so modestly, and, if public inter- 
 est be awakened in it, is so sure to grow rapidly and to re- 
 ceive valuable donations and additions. The united efforts 
 of the teachers, during one school year, to secure objects of 
 interest in illustrating the school-work, could result in the 
 nucleus of a collection which would soon be priceless in its 
 educational value to the town. One bright woman has sug- 
 gested a plan which should be put into operation, viz., a sys- 
 tem of cross-references from library to museum and vice- 
 versa; for instance, a case of birds or animals could have 
 neatly posted on it a list of the books relating to them which 
 the library contains, giving first the juvenile, and then the 
 popular and general, and last the more deeply scientific 
 works, while in the natural history department of the li- 
 brary attention would be attracted to a list of specimens 
 in the museum. Wherever desirable this could be carried 
 into great detail, referring from separate specimens to cer- 
 tain books, or to certain chapters in a book, by means of 
 printed forms. The museum contains, say, relics from the 
 mounds of Butler county, described so fully in Maclean's 
 "Mound-builders;" beside these relics is placed a card re- 
 ferring to this book, giving its shelf-number and page of 
 the subject, while in the book at this place a fly-leaf insertion 
 states that in alcove B, case 2 in the museum, specimens 
 no. 15-48 will be found of great interest in illustrating this 
 section. The same thing could of course be done in con- 
 nection with the art gallery. If well done, what powerful 
 incentives would this not ofifer to all classes of people alike 
 
CHTT.D, SCHOOL AND LIBRARY 137 
 
 to reading with a purpose, and that purpose the acquisition 
 of knowledge! And to the child these incentives would he 
 strongest, because his interest is most easily awakened. 
 Besides this, it would be an incalculable saving of labor, for 
 in the looking up of references it would be doing once for 
 for all the work which would otherwise have to be done by 
 each individual student. 
 
 All of these plans are along the line of development, and, 
 primarily, for the development of the child. They are claim- 
 ing the attention of all educators, whether teachers or li- 
 brarians, and they are calling for a closer union of forces, 
 a more thoroughly systematized co-operation in a work 
 where "the field is white unto the harvest, and the laborers" 
 may be many. 
 
FUNCTION OF THE SCHOOL IN INTRODUCING 
 CHILDREN TO THE PROPER USE OF 1300KS 
 
 The awakening of the schools themselves to the im- 
 portance of this subject is evidenced by the creation of 
 the library section of the N. E. A., and the work of the 
 committee described on page 18 of this l)ook. Two ex- 
 tracts from the final report of this committee, made in 
 1899, are presented here, one by a member of the com- 
 mittee who is a teacher. Dr. Charles A. AIcAInrry, and 
 one liy a library member, Mr. John Cotton Dana. 
 
 Charles Alexander MclMnrry was born in Crawfords- 
 ville, Ind., in 1857, graduated from Michigan University 
 in 1880 and took his doctor's degree at Halle, Germany, 
 in 1884. His services to education as teacher, lecturer 
 and author are well known. In 1899, when this report 
 was written, he was principal of the practise school of Il- 
 linois Normal University and lecturer in the Teachers' 
 College of the University of Chicago. 
 
 The center around which cluster all the problems which 
 relate to the reading habits of children is the public school. 
 The family, in many cases, is doing more than the school, 
 to be sure, but it is the school, after all, in the great average 
 of cases, which must give the children a taste for books and 
 an introduction to their proper use. It is only in exceptional 
 cases that parents have knowledge and the means to supply 
 children with suitable books, and, what is more important, 
 with the right guidance and sympathy in making a close 
 acquaintance with them. 
 
140 CHARLES A. McMURRY 
 
 We may well inquire, therefore, what the proper func- 
 tion of the school is in teaching the great body of children 
 how to appreciate and use the best books. Within the last 
 few years teachers have begun to realize that this is one of 
 the few great privileges and duties of the school. To teach 
 children how to read so that they could make use of books, 
 newspapers, etc., was once looked upon as a chief object of 
 school work. We now go far beyond this and ask that 
 teachers lead the children into the fields of choice reading 
 matter, and cultivate in them such a taste and appreciation 
 for a considerable number of the best books ever written 
 that all their lives will be enriched by what they read. This 
 is one of the grand but simple ideals of the schoolroom, 
 and lends great dignity to every teacher's work in the com- 
 mon schools. The most solid and satisfactory reasons can 
 be given why this should be done in every schoolroom. 
 These substantial materials of culture belong to every child 
 without exception. They are an indispensable part of that 
 general cultivation which is the birthright of every boy and 
 girl. The child that by the age of fourteen has not read 
 Robinson Crusoe, Hiazvatha, Pilgrim's Progress, The Stories of 
 Greek Heroes by Kingsley and Hawthorne, The Lays of Ancient 
 Rome, Paul Revere's Ride, Gulliver's Travels, The Arabian 
 Nights, Sleepy Hollozv, Rip Van Winkle, The Tales of the 
 White Hills, The Courtship of Miles Standish, Scott's Tales of 
 a Grandfather, Marmion, and Lady of the Lake, the story of 
 Ulysses and the Trojan war, of Siegfried, William Tell, Al- 
 fred, and John Smith, of Columbus, Washington, and Lincoln 
 — the boy or girl who has grown up to the age of fourteen 
 without a chance to read and thoroly enjoy these books has 
 been robbed of a great fundamental right; a right which 
 can never be made good by any subsequent privileges or 
 grants. It is not a question of learning how to read — all 
 children who go to school learn that; it is the vastly greater 
 question of appreciating and enjoying the best things which 
 are worth reading. Judged on this standard of worth, the 
 reading exercises of our schools have acquired a tenfold 
 deeper significance, and all teachers who have looked into 
 the matter have felt a new enthusiasm for the grand oppor- 
 tunities of common-school education. There is no doubt 
 
A FUNCTION OF THE SCHOOL 141 
 
 whatever, among intelligent people, that good literature is a 
 powerful instrument of education. It is by no means the 
 whole of education, but when the reading habits of children 
 are properly directed, their interest in suitable books culti- 
 vated and strengthened, their characters are strongly tinc- 
 tured and influenced by what they read. If their minds arc 
 thus filled up with such stimulating thought-material, and 
 their sympathies and interests awakened and cultivated by 
 such ennobling thoughts, the better side of character has a 
 deep, rich soil into which it may strike its roots. So profound 
 has been the conviction of leading educators upon the value 
 of the reading matter of the schools for the best purposes 
 of true education that the whole plan of study and the whole 
 method of treatment and discussion, as touching these ma- 
 terials, have been reorganized with a view to putting all chil- 
 dren into possession of this great birthright. 
 
 To prove this we will state briefly a few of the changes 
 which have already taken place in many of our best schools: 
 
 1. Good literature of high quality, from the fertile brains 
 of the greatest writers, has been put into every grade of the 
 common school, from the first year on. This means, of 
 course, that all sorts of information books in geography, 
 science, history, etc., have given place to better, classic ma- 
 terial. We shall see later that these information books 
 have their proper place in school work, but they should never 
 be allowed to crowd out the people's bible of good literature. 
 
 2. In the first three grades, since children have not yet 
 learned to read, but are in the process of acquiring this art, 
 they must get their introduction to the best stories suited to 
 their age by the oral presentation of the teacher. Teachers 
 of primar}^ and intermediate grades are everywhere rapidly 
 acquiring the art of presenting stories, and the stories which 
 they ofifer are the best which the literature of Europe and 
 America has thus far produced. The result is that the teach- 
 ers themselves are becoming deeply interested in this ma- 
 terial, and they are discovering how powerful and stimulat- 
 ing its influence is upon children. The children are aroused 
 to a new interest in school work, in striking contrast to the 
 dullness and tedium of the old a-b-c method in learning to 
 read. 
 
142 ^ CHARLES A. McMURRY 
 
 3. The works of our best American writers — Bryant, 
 Longfellow, Emerson, Whittier, Holmes, Lowell, Hawthorne^ 
 Irving, Burroughs, and others — have acquired a new and 
 untold significance for American children. These men them- 
 selves, without exception, were exemplars of a simple, ele- 
 vated mode of life, thoroly patriotic and American, and beau- 
 tiful illustrations of those words of Longfellow familiar to 
 every school child: 
 
 Lives of great men all remind us 
 
 We can make our lives sublime, 
 And departing leave behind us 
 
 Footprints on the sands of time. 
 
 4. One of the strong marks of this genuine literary re- 
 vival in our common schools is the rapidly growing dis- 
 position to read literary wholes, not selections or fragments 
 — the whole of Snozv Bound and Among the Hills, of The Build- 
 ing of the Ship, of Ruskin's King of the Golden River, of Web- 
 ster's Speech at Bunker Hill, of the Vision of Sir Launfal, of 
 Emerson's American Scholar, of Gullivers J^oyage to Lilliput, 
 of Horatius at the Bridge, of The Hunting of the Deer, of 
 Bryant's Sella, of Burroughs' Birds and Bees, etc. This reading 
 of the masterpieces as wholes with children in the regular 
 reading exercises of the school has opened the eyes of teach- 
 ers and pupils in an astonishing way, and is destined, more- 
 over, under still better teaching in the future, to give a depth 
 and spiritual value to the work of our schools which are 
 beyond all price. 
 
 We have discovered, also, that the best English writers 
 are as much ours as our cousins' across the water; that 
 Shakespeare, Ruskin, Tennyson, Arnold, Burke, Scott, and 
 Addison are fully as valuable to us as our own writers, and 
 that their works also must be read as literary wholes. 
 
 5. A new principle for the grading and arrangement of 
 literary materials thruout the school classes has been ap- 
 plied. The suitableness of the thought, the appropriateness 
 of the story to arouse the interest and sympathy of the chil- 
 dren, are made the chief test to determine the place in the 
 grades where a literary whole shall be used. In this way the 
 child has become the center of study, and a very common- 
 
A FUNCTIOX nl' Till-: SCHOOL 143 
 
 sense, practical result has ensued. Children are asked to 
 read what best fits their age, temper, and understanding. It 
 is no longer a question of learning to read, hut of learning to 
 appreciate and enjoy what is most worthy the attention of a 
 child. It is the development of the best feeling and intelligence 
 in a mechanical process of learning to read. That children 
 learn to read fluently and with expression is certain just to 
 the extent of their true appreciation and insight. 
 
 It has been discovered that the literatures of America, 
 England, Europe, and Asia are already drawn upon to find 
 iust the best-suited materials for children of the successive 
 grades. We may yet find that stories as diverse in origin and 
 location as Hiaivatha, Robin Hood, Don Quixote, Siegfried, 
 Ulysses, Si)ibad the Sailor, the Lilliputians, and Joseph in Egypt 
 are needed at different points in the school course to give 
 children what best suits their mental growth. At any rate, 
 we are rapidly finding out that the best of all the ages, from 
 Abraham to Kipling's Jungle Stories, is needed to educate 
 children. It is an inspiring thought that the proper bring- 
 ing up of a commonplace American child requires us to sift 
 out the gold nuggets from a whole series of civilizations. 
 This sifting and arranging of materials has been going on 
 for many years, and the series of standard books now recom- 
 mended for children in some of our best schools insures to 
 them the stimulating and liberalizing influence of a large 
 number of the best books of great authors. 
 
 This body of educative thought-material, properly 
 handled, discussed, and read in the schools, becomes the 
 nucleus around which to collect and organize the reading of 
 a lifetime. Moreover, the interests and tastes cultivated 
 upon these books will determine what kind of books and to 
 what extent they will be read in the following years. 
 
 Having insured a proper place and respect for this in- 
 dispensable nucleus in which reading habits and tastes are 
 to find root and grow strong, we may next inquire into the 
 function of the school, in giving children a proper opinion 
 of the value and use of the great body of information hooks, 
 history stories, geographical readers, travels, biographies, 
 science narratives and descriptions, histories, current mag- 
 
 10 
 
144 ~ CHARLES A. McMURRY 
 
 azines, reference-books, etc., which contribute so largely to 
 a full equipment for life. 
 
 Within the last few years great progress has been made 
 toward supplying the schools with a large quantity and va- 
 riety of supplementary and informational reading. The les- 
 sons in history, geography, and natural science are con- 
 stantly enlarged and enriched by this sort of reading, to 
 which children are freely referred in studying their lessons. 
 
 This use of varied material requires greater skill upon 
 the part of teachers, a wider range of information, and the 
 ability to organize and unify these diverse sources of in- 
 formation with the regular lessons. But this kind of study, 
 if carefully planned and skillfully executed, gives the boys 
 and girls better materials of thought, more independence in 
 using books, and a wider range of knowledge. It points di- 
 rectly to the library as a necessary and very efficient agency 
 of popular education. 
 
 A small library is becoming indispensable to the teach- 
 ers and pupils of the grammar school in carrying out the 
 legitimate work of the school. In order to give definiteness 
 to this idea of a small library, suppose it to consist of five 
 hundred to one thousand books, containing the best classic 
 stories, poems, biographies, histories, travels, novels, and 
 books of science suitable for the use of children below the 
 high school. The necessity for such a choice selection of 
 library books is made evident by an examination of the 
 children's present studies in history, geography, and science. 
 History stories are now read in nearly every grade of the 
 common school, to some extent even in the primary. Only 
 a few years ago it was customary to limit the historical 
 studies to the final year of the grammar school, to what is 
 now generally known as the eighth grade. But now history 
 stories are regularly used in all the grades, from the third 
 to the eighth, inclusive. In the third, fourth, and fifth grades, 
 or years, of the common school, stories are skillfully narrated 
 by the teacher, discussed, and reproduced by the children. 
 It is possible in this way to give them a very keen and hearty 
 impulse toward biography and history. With this interest 
 thoroly awakened upon the biographies of such American 
 heroes as William Penn, John Smith, Columbus, Magellan, 
 
A FUNCTION OF THE SCHOOL 145 
 
 Williams, La Salle, Champlain, George Rogers Clark, Lin- 
 coln, and Fremont, it is very easy to introduce children to 
 that considerable l)ody of American biography which is the 
 very best introduction to American history. 
 
 The elements of heroism and adventure, the strong traits 
 of personal character and manliness, which these American 
 stories exhibit, give these historical stories a great moral 
 value. At the same time the dreary memory drill upon the 
 skeleton outlines of political events has given way to a native 
 interest and enthusiasm for the striking personalities in our 
 past life as a nation. 
 
 Closely allied to this early biographical story of our own 
 country are the famous epic stories of European countries, 
 the stories of Alfred, King Richard, William Tell, Romulus, 
 Horatius, Ulysses, and Achilles, and such historical narra- 
 tives as the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, The Struggles of 
 Thermopylcv and Marathor,, Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, and 
 other famous stories, which in most cases have a strong his- 
 torical setting and significance. Our schools are now being 
 abundantly supplied with interesting and instructive books 
 of this character. Only a few of them can be thoroly worked 
 over and assimilated during school hours. Enough, how- 
 ever, can be done and is being done, in many cases, to give 
 a vigorous training in this kind of study, and to awaken 
 interests which soon grow into habits of stud3^ In order 
 to give the great body of teachers unmistakable proofs of the 
 variety and excellence of these historical stories and poems, 
 a short list of choice books will be appended to this article. 
 
 Now, it is evident that a carefully selected library of the 
 best books of this character should be found in every gram- 
 mar school. There will be a considerable number of boj's 
 and girls in every school who will be well prepared by such 
 school studies as we have just described for a profitable use 
 of these books in private reading. Children in general can- 
 not supply these books. The parents, in most cases, have 
 neither the means nor the judgment for their proper selec- 
 tion. There should be no ambition on the part of teachers 
 to make bookworms of children, and it is certainly advisable 
 to avoid an indiscriminate and loose reading of many books. 
 The teachers should not only give children a careful and 
 
146 ^ CHARLES A. McMURRY 
 
 appreciative introduction to a few of the best books, but 
 they should also try to advise and assist children in forming 
 profitable habits of reading. In occasional general exercises 
 before the whole school, and in private talks with the chil- 
 dren, many a valuable hint may be given in regard to what 
 books to read and re-read, how to study out and appreciate 
 the characters, in short, how to assimilate what they get 
 from books. 
 
 In geographical studies a change, somewhat similar to 
 that which has taken place in history studies, has been 
 brought about in the last ten years. Instead of the meager 
 outlines of geographical topics, and in place of the endless 
 map questions and names for memorizing from the third 
 grade on, we have begun to select instructive and interesting 
 topics, which are treated with a richness of detail, illustra- 
 tion, and "description that awakens the best thought and 
 interest of children. 
 
 Much of this work also has to be done in the early grades 
 by the oral presentation of the teacher, and after a year or 
 two of such home geography, by excursion and descriptive 
 geography, by important topics, the children are prepared 
 for making a good use of the geographical readers and books 
 of travel, which have now attained great excellence and 
 value. Here again it is necessary that the school library 
 shall be well equipped with a careful selection of the best 
 recent books. 
 
 It need not be feared that this method of study and use 
 of books will lead to a superficial, fragmentary, or unsys- 
 tematic knowledge, but it will require better class-room in- 
 struction on the part of the teachers, and more ability to 
 organize knowledge derived from reference and other library 
 books. Here again, as in history, quite a goodly number of 
 the children may be led on to excellent habits of voluntary 
 and private study. Perhaps the best proof of the right in- 
 struction in the class-room is the tendency of children to 
 extend their knowledge by later voluntary readings in the 
 use of the library. 
 
 A short list of books will also indicate how enterprising 
 our best book firms are in supplying what our libraries need 
 
A FUNCTION Ol-' THK SCirOOT. 147 
 
 in the wa}' of geographical rcarlcrs, travels, guide-hooks, 
 pictiircs(|ue narratives, etc. 
 
 In the field of natural science there is a third great realm 
 of study which has been lately brought under the direct 
 jurisdiction of the schoolmaster. It is only within the last 
 few years that any considerable number of school-masters 
 and school-mistresses have begun to appreciate what a glori- 
 ous field of study has been opened to the common school. 
 But books and libraries seem to stand in a different relation 
 to nature study from that already ascribed to history and 
 geography. In this case nature herself is tlie book to be 
 studied, and no artificial book should come in between the 
 observer and the leaves of nature's own book. Nature study, 
 when properly managed in elementary schools, is a direct 
 protest against the wrong use of books. By means of ex- 
 cursions upon the campus, in the fields, gardens, and woods; 
 by experiments in phj-sics and chemistry, in the laboratory; 
 by watching birds among the trees, insects upon the pond, 
 butterflies in the clover, trees in their blossoms and fruitage, 
 the weeds by the roadside, vegetables in the garden, the 
 children are acquiring the first indispensable impressions 
 and that happy enjoyment of the wonders and beauties sur- 
 rounding them in nature without which all later study from 
 books and scientific treatises is unreal and unmeaning. 
 
 After all. the difference between science and the other 
 studies (history and geography) is not so great. We do not 
 begin history and geography with books in the first two or 
 three years, but with oral discussion and presentation. In 
 fact, no study can be properly begun with children from 
 books. It is only after the children have acquired some taste 
 for a study and have accumulated considerable knowledge 
 in its concrete forms that books can be used to advantage. 
 And so it is with books of science. 
 
 In the first four grades of the common schools, and to 
 a large extent in the higher grades, science studies should 
 be carried on almost wholly without books. Their apprecia- 
 tion and insight into nature in many directions should be 
 steadily cultivated, not thru the reading of books, but by 
 direct contact of the senses and by exercise of the thinking 
 powers upon present objects. Most of the efforts thus far 
 
148 . CHARLES A. McMURRY 
 
 made to introduce children to nature by means of books are 
 farcical and fruitless. But as the children grow older, hav- 
 ing accumulated a considerable variety of knowledge arid 
 sympathy for nature study, the best books on these subjects 
 will be found very helpful. The teachers, indeed, will find 
 books necessary at all times in guiding their efforts in nature 
 study; but with this we are not now chiefly concerned. It 
 will be found that for children in the intermediate and gram- 
 mar grades there is quite a collection of science books that 
 should be made easily accessible to them in the library. In- 
 deed, some of them can be used to advantage in the supple- 
 mentary reading in the grades in reading classes. Such, for 
 example, are Short Stories of Our Shy Neighbors, by Mrs. 
 Kelly; Glimpses of the Plant World, by Fanny Bugen, and 
 Town Geology, by Charles Kingsley. Another class of books 
 that children should learn to enjoy is that of Burroughs and 
 Thoreau — the sympathetic and literary side of nature study. 
 Some of these, like Birds and Bees and JVild Af^plcs, like the 
 poems of Bryant and Whittier, have gone into our school 
 readings as classics. Then there are the works of the mas- 
 ters of science, Huxley, Tyndall, Darwin, etc., which com- 
 bine scientific knowledge and genius with literary power, 
 and are great books for students and adults to read. It is 
 now possible to make up a list of science books, one or two 
 hundred in number, which would add greatly to the value of 
 a school library. There is also a great need for teachers to 
 be more abundantly supplied with these fuller and more in- 
 spiring sources of study as a help and guide in observation. 
 We have seen, thus, that, besides the usual reference- 
 books such as dictionaries, cyclopaedias, atlases, etc., there 
 are four great groups or classes of books which need to be 
 carefully selected and well represented in a typical school 
 library. 
 
 1. The best permanent literary books suitable for chil- 
 dren's study and reading. This, for general educative pur- 
 poses, must remain the nucleus of any school library. 
 
 2. Historical stories, biographies, narratives, and his- 
 tories. 
 
 3. Geographical readers and books of travel. 
 
y\ FUXCTIOX Ol- Till- SCIIODT, 149 
 
 4. Books on the leading phases of natural science. 
 
 The extent to which such a lil)rary is well used is a sig- 
 nificant test of the cfficicnc}' of our whole educational activity 
 in the schools. 
 
 It will be seen from the preceding discussion that the 
 purpose of the school, in addition to teaching children to 
 read, is to give them a spirited introduction to the chief 
 kinds of reading matter, to develop such tastes and habits of 
 reading and consulting l)ooks that they will be disposed in 
 their later years to make the best use of their power to read. 
 The mere ability to read is of very little value; in some cases 
 it is a positive misfortune, when the reading matter is vicious 
 and the taste for such demoralizing books is cultivated. 
 When the children are ready to leave school, their self-edu- 
 cation will begin in earnest. One of the best things that the 
 school can do is to launch people upon their independent 
 life with a taste for good reading matter and a judgment 
 sufficiently developed for selecting the right classes of books. 
 The school library and the public library must furnish the 
 chief opportunities for children in their later school years, 
 and during the years which follow school life, for carrying 
 out any plans of reading. The teachers and parents and the 
 librarian, as far as possible, should come to an understand- 
 ing and agreement as to what books they would recommend, 
 and encourage children to read. 
 
 One of the results of the attention recently paid to good 
 literature in our schools is seen in the growing disposition 
 of parents and children to read and discuss the standard 
 books together. Many of the more intelligent and thought- 
 ful parents are willing to spend their evenings with their 
 children, reading and interpreting such books as Giilliz'ef's 
 Travels, Hawthorne's Grandfather's Chair, the lives of Lincoln, 
 Webster, and other Americans, the story of Ulysses, the 
 stories of King Arthur, the Greek heroes, the Bible stories, 
 and also the plays of Shakespeare, Plutarch's Lives, historical 
 biographies, and other books of history and travel, as well 
 as of geography and science. 
 
 It is not uncommon for teachers and principals of schools 
 to call together the parents and explain the character of our 
 reading matter, the selection of proper books for children. 
 
ISO - CHARLES A. McATURRY 
 
 and the advantages of parents reading with their children. 
 There is, probably, no one thing that can accomplish more 
 in making the home what it ought to be than such home 
 readings of books which are recognized by all as among- the 
 best. Fortunately, the parents will be benefited as much as 
 the children; for the books that we have had in mind are 
 just as interesting- and valuable to grown people as to chil- 
 dren. They are books that do not lose their charm. Much 
 has already been done in this direction; but vastly more 
 must be done in the future. The home and the school prop- 
 erly working together can do a great deal in this way in 
 creating a happy and healthful moral atmosphere, which is 
 most favorable to the development of strong and symmetri- 
 cal characters. What has been done, therefore, is only a 
 beginning of what should be done all over this land and for 
 the children of all classes in myriads of homes. But to ac- 
 complish this, libraries must be numerous and well equipped, 
 far beyond anything which is common among us now. The 
 public library, with its well-stored shelves of choice books, 
 becomes as necessary as the schoolhouse itself. The li- 
 brarian, trained and cultivated, should know as well as the 
 teachers themselves what books are suitable for school 
 children and young people. Librarians, therefore, should 
 not only be experts in classifying and cataloging books, 
 but they should be trained experts in estimating and select- 
 ing reading matter for educative purposes. Many of the 
 professional libraries have already responded to this require- 
 ment, and a great deal has been done in some of our towns 
 and cities, like Boston, Minneapolis, New York city, and 
 smaller cities, to bring the public librarians into vital touch 
 with school children during these years of educative growth 
 and character-building. 
 
 A library should furnish a good collection of books in all 
 the principal departments of study. In this way a child in 
 the course of his education may widen out his knowledge and 
 interests in many directions. For the sake of general, all- 
 sided culture it is desirable that a child should be many- 
 sided in his development, and yet a library may produce an 
 excellent effect upon a child by giving him an opportunity 
 for cultivating a strong liking for one limited class of books. 
 
A FUNCTIOX OV Till.: SCIfODl. 151 
 
 It is a great and successful stroke of education tlioroly to 
 awaken and interest a child in one branch of study, and to 
 make him acquainted with a few of the masterpieces in this 
 narrow field. This one enthusiasm may be enousli to make a 
 reader and student, while a child who has never acquired a 
 taste for any one class of books will remain dull, and shallow, 
 and commonplace. l*"rom this standpoint, a good library, 
 even tho it be not very large, may contribute efficiently to 
 the educational growth oi a variety of students. 
 
 In fact, the library can do for the student what no school 
 can (\(i. It can furnish the opportunity for that fuller and 
 richer study in any branch of science in which the stu- 
 dent has become, deeply interested. The school of neces- 
 sity covers all branches of study with about equal or im- 
 partial care. It cannot go deeply into any subject. The 
 best it can do is to open up the subject and develop a healthy 
 and hearty appetite for that kind of knowledge. But the 
 library can furnish just that broader and select material which 
 can develop a strong and permanent enthusiasm. The 
 school can do little more than awaken an appreciation for 
 a few masterpieces of forensic literature; but the library 
 should contain all the great speeches of Burke, Fox, Chatham. 
 Cicero. Webster, vSumner. etc.. where the boys who have a 
 special taste for this kind of literature can find the best in 
 abundance. The same is true for those who have a taste for his- 
 tor}', or art, or the drama, or fiction, or biology. 
 
THE LIBRARIAN'S SPIRIT AXD .METHODS IX 
 WORKING WITH THE SCHOOLS 
 
 John Cotton Dana was born in Woodstock, \T., in 
 1856 and graduated from Dartmouth in 1878. After 
 some experience as an engineer and in the law he entered 
 Hbrary work in 1889 as Librarian of the Public Library 
 in Denver, Col., where he was instrumental in securing 
 the organization of the N. E. A.'s Library Section and 
 of the Committee of whose report the following article 
 is a part. He has since served as librarian in Springfield, 
 Mass., and Newark, N. J. His services to librarianship 
 in insisting upon essentials, in his frank expression of 
 impatience with all that is outworn and in his constant 
 presentation of new points of view, have been great. He 
 was President of the A. L. A. in 1895-96. 
 
 In recent years a good many elaborate investigations 
 have been made, by teachers, psychologists, and others, of 
 the reading of children; what books and papers they read; 
 what kind they most enjoy; what books furnish them with 
 good ideals; what ones seem most to influence their lives. 
 
 The replies to these questions have led to little in the 
 way of definite conclusions. Few people can so frame a set 
 of inquiries as to make the answers to them of value, even 
 if those answers are clear and honest. Few teachers — and 
 most of the inquiries have been made by teachers — can put a 
 set of questions to their pupils in such a way as to get from 
 them straightforward, unprejudiced replies. 
 
 Furthermore, the atmosphere of school, the wishes of 
 principal and teachers, as expressed, for example, in courses 
 
154 JOHN COTTON DANA 
 
 of study and in books for reading placed in the pupils' hands, 
 or within their reach, all tend to influence the children in mak- 
 ing their replies much more than one would at first suppose. 
 If, for example, a large number of answers received from a 
 numlier of different towns in any given state show that 
 Black Beauty has been much read and greatly enjoyed by 
 children in Grades 4 to 7, one may first conclude that Black 
 Beauty is a book which appeals to the youthful mind thru its 
 own unaided attractiveness; and that, if it stood on the 
 shelves of an open library with many other good books for 
 children, it would be one of the first books to be selected 
 and read by a very large majority of those who used the 
 library. Further consideration, however, probably calls at- 
 tention to the fact that Black Beauty has, for certain definite 
 reasons, been introduced into the schools of that state and 
 vigorously pressed upon the attention of the children by 
 school boards, superintendents, principals, and teachers, and 
 that the children have by no means chosen it spontaneously. 
 And so a careful examination of the influences surrounding 
 the young people who have made answer to these many 
 inquiries into children's reading shows that in every case 
 little reliance can be placed on most of the conclusions 
 drawn from them. As in other departments of child study, 
 we have here as yet done little but illuminate our ignorance. 
 This is helpful, of course; very helpful, indeed, if we recog- 
 nize the light we get for what it is, and do not take it for 
 something else. 
 
 From these inquiries into children's reading, however, 
 and from kindred investigations made by those interested 
 in child study in general, in experimental psychology, and 
 the like, we seem to be able to draw a few very general con- 
 clusions, such as these: 
 
 That the time when the habit of reading is most likely 
 to be formed is in the years from eleven to sixteen. That 
 in the years from six to sixteen, and especially during the 
 first part of the period, the influence of the teacher in de- 
 termining the choice of books read may be very great. The 
 teacher of average ability, it would seem, can, if she will, 
 guide the choice and interest of most of her pupils. 
 
K^ 
 
 LIDRAklAX'S SPIRIT AXD MKTHODS 155 
 
 From these facts, and from the like, generally admitted, 
 fact that this period from six to sixteen is one in which tastes 
 and habits in general are most easily and most commonly 
 formed, and the general trend of life most seriously affected, 
 we can conclude, further, that books can have, and do have, a 
 greater influence for good or ill on the lives of most people, by 
 affecting them when they are young, than we had supposed; 
 and this influence, thru the teacher's guidance, can be made 
 to work for good even more strongly than we have dared 
 to hope. 
 
 This conclusion, vague and general as it seems at first 
 to be. is of the greatest moment to the librarian. She com- 
 monly has on her shelves hundreds and thousands of vol- 
 umes — rather hastily selected, not carefully examined — which 
 she is handing out almost at random on every day to scores 
 of young people who have little power of selection and will 
 take — one must fear — the book that is full of the evil com- 
 munications which corrupt good manners, as eagerly as the 
 one which is wholesome in all its influences. She is busy. 
 She has little time to put the right book into the right hands. 
 She likes her library to be popular. She, perhaps, is im- 
 pressed more by the quantity of books read than by their 
 qualit}'. If she is wise, she sees that for the educational 
 work her library is trying to do, especiall}^ with young 
 people, she needs the help of those who can give care and 
 thought to the individual. She sees that the free public 
 library should hasten, after equipping itself with the best 
 obtainable material for children's reading, to interest parents 
 and teachers in that material and persuade them to assist 
 in guiding the reading of the children w^ho borrow books. 
 This means, in the present state of society, when parents 
 take a very moderate degree of interest in the books their 
 children read, that, as far as its work with young people 
 is concerned, the public library must, if it would do good and 
 not harm with its books, rely, to a very great extent, on 
 the assistance of the schools. 
 
 The library can, no doubt, be of great help to the teach- 
 ers; and much space in other parts of this report is taken up 
 with suggestions to teachers of how they can get much of 
 value out of the public library. But our report will fail in 
 
156 - JOHN COTTON DANA 
 
 one of its most important missions, if it does not bring home 
 to many librarians, very strongly, the fact that, as far as its 
 work with young people is concerned, it can do little with- 
 out the sympathetic co-operation of teachers. 
 
 How, then, shall the librarian conduct herself, and how 
 shall she manage her library in order to get from the teachers 
 of her community the maximum of sympathetic co-opera- 
 tion, and be of the greatest possible assistance in the educa- 
 tion of the young? These questions I have tried to answer, 
 not fully, but in a suggestive way, by giving a brief state- 
 ment of the equipment the librarian of an ideal library must 
 have for this work and of the things that an ideal library 
 may do in its co-operation with the schools. 
 
 THE LIBRARIAN AND HER EQUIPMENT 
 
 In establishing helpful relations between libraries and 
 schools in any given community the things that are most 
 necessary on the librarian's part are sympathy with the end 
 in view and a broad appreciation of the particular situation. 
 This sympathy and appreciation will lead to good work, 
 whatever the conditions. The special knowledge and skill 
 needed can be acquired in the doing. 
 
 Another very important qualification of the librarian, 
 and perhaps the most rare, is a wide and sympathetic knowl- 
 edge of books of all kinds, especially books for young people. 
 This wide knowledge of books is not the product of a night, 
 or of a week, or of a month, or even of a year of toil and 
 study. It is a knowledge which is in large part not knowl- 
 edge, but native talent; and the knowledge which goes with 
 this native talent is acquired only by reading scores and 
 hundreds of books with care and with interest. 
 
 The librarian, then, is and has been an enthusiastic 
 reader. During the early years of her life, and especially 
 from ten to fourteen, she familiarized herself, not as a duty, 
 but as a pleasure, with the best of children's books; with the 
 children's books we call classics. We call them such, not 
 because they are necessarily the very best books that can be 
 written or have been written for children, but because they 
 contain expressions, characters, incidents, that are con- 
 stantly reappearing in literature, and are interwoven with 
 the life of the race. They are the books that have become 
 
IJiJRAklAX'S SPIRIT AXIJ MllTlirHJS 157 
 
 a part of the birth-right of every American child. They are 
 alluded to and they are listed in lar^e part in Mr. McMurry'.s 
 section of this report. The librarian who did not know and 
 enjoy these when young is poorly furnished for work with 
 children. 
 
 The librarian understand.^ lil)rary management. If she 
 has had no technical training in a library school, or has not 
 had experience in a well-managed library, she gets some of 
 the books and periodicals mentioned elsewhere in this re- 
 port, and reads and studies the subject and learns by doing. 
 
 She realizes that books are tools, are not sacred things, 
 and find their best end in being worn out by reasonable 
 service. 
 
 She is fond of children, is patient with them, and under- 
 stands them. Experience in teaching for a few years would 
 be of the greatest assistance to librarians who are trying to 
 work with schools. 
 
 There are now in print — and a number of them are noted 
 elsewhere in this report — many lists of books for children 
 and teachers, several of them well annotated. Copies of 
 these lists our librarians has at hand and is ready to lend, 
 and makes use of them constantly in adding to her collec- 
 tion. 
 
 In the last twenty years a great many articles on the 
 reading of children, literature for the young, and kindred 
 subjects, have appeared in leading periodicals of this coun- 
 tr}'. and a number of books, some of which are mentioned 
 elsewhere in this report, have appeared on the same subject. 
 These books, or as many of them as possible, the librarian 
 studies herself and places with the teachers' books in the 
 teachers' corner. 
 
 As the librarian's field of work widens, she discovers, 
 first of all, if she is honest with herself, her own limitations 
 in respect to the wide and intimate book-knowledge, already 
 mentioned, and then she discovers it also in her associates, 
 the teachers. It is inevitable, in view of the character of 
 the preparatory training the average teacher gets, that in 
 wide knowledge and keen appreciation of literature, and 
 especially of literature for children, she should often be lack- 
 ing. We have decided that books proper for children to 
 
158 - JOHN COTTON DANA 
 
 read are excellent things, and sliould be easily accessible to 
 them. We have asked for them, and authors and publishers 
 have supplied them. We attempt now to do with them the 
 things we see should be done, if we are to get out of them 
 that which we wish to get, and we discover that those to 
 whom we must appeal to make proper use of them are them- 
 selves very lacking in knowledge of them. We are improv- 
 ing in this respect, but little has yet been done toward mak- 
 ing the average teacher thoroly conversant with children's 
 books, with making her such a reader of books as she must 
 be before she can do with children the things we wish to 
 have done. But the fact of the presence of the books them- 
 selves in libraries and schools, and the daily use of them, 
 and the general realization of the possibilities in them, will 
 bring about in a few years a vastly better equipment in this 
 direction, in the teaching force as well as in the library force, 
 than we have as yet had. 
 
 The librarian realizes that, after all, a collection of books, 
 however good, however well-housed, however attractively 
 arranged, is of little value, has little vital force, and does 
 not count for much in the community, unless there is added 
 to it the right kind of a librarian. A good librarian is more 
 than half of a good library. Realizing this fact, she tries to 
 live up to her opportunity. 
 
 While she feels that the most efficient allies in her work 
 are the teachers, and while she feels that unaided by them 
 she can do little for the vast majority of her young students 
 and readers, still she does not at all relax her own vigilance. 
 She keeps a watchful eye on as many of the children as 
 possible; she lends only what she thinks to be the best of 
 books; she is unceasing in her efforts to learn which are the 
 best; she notes the character of the readers who ask for 
 what she fears are books of doubtful value; she checks the 
 story mania, where she can; she looks for opportunities to 
 turn attention from better books to the best books; she does 
 not think any habit is good so it be a reading habit; she 
 keeps it in mind that books are for pleasure — but for the 
 pleasure of a lifetime, and not of the day only; are for profit 
 — but not profit in money only; are for knowledge — perhaps 
 not for knowledge she can ever care for, yet good and use- 
 
LIIIRAUTAN'S SPIRIT ANM^ MIvFlIODS 159 
 
 fill still; arc for wisdom — but possibly not for wisdom as 
 she sees it. She is always mindful that she is a public serv- 
 ant, not a ruler; that she is a counselor, not a faultless guide; 
 that she is a student of books with the children as fellow- 
 students, not a teacher who has already learned all that 
 l)Ooks can teach. 
 
 THE LIBRARIAN AND THE TEACHERS 
 
 The librarian has no special card for teachers, for she 
 finds that by adopting a modern charging system she does 
 not need tc make distinctions between her borrowers. She 
 can lend to any person six or sixty books as easily as one, 
 and a special card makes a distinction which by those other 
 than teachers may be thought invidious. 
 
 She has a teachers' corner in the library, and keeps there, 
 with special books for teachers, copies of the best and latest 
 pedagogical books and journals, and lends them. 
 
 She prints occasionally, and distributes thru the schools, 
 brief statements in the form of circulars of what the library 
 does with children, what it would like to do, how it help.s 
 teachers, and how it would like to help teachers. 
 
 She prints also from time to time brief selected lists of 
 books, magazine articles, poems, speeches, etc., on special 
 topics, like geography, American history, flowers, birds, 
 Longfellow, Lincoln, Arbor Day. If possible, she prints 
 these lists all in the same form on sheets of the same size, 
 so that the teacher preserving them may keep and handle 
 them with ease. These are posted on the bulletin board 
 and freely distributed. 
 
 She forms a reading committee of teachers to help in 
 selecting from the new, and old, publications the best books 
 for young people, and in deciding what books it is best to 
 supply in large quantities and to urge the children to read. 
 
 She takes note of teachers' institutes and the topics up 
 for discussion in them, and she keeps watch of educational 
 journals to see what problems are being discussed, and 
 makes up lists and buys books accordingly. 
 
 She does what she can to induce teachers to add library 
 departments to their county, district, or state associations, 
 or at least to give up a portion of the time at the meetings 
 
 11 
 
i6o JOHN COTTON DANA 
 
 of such associations to the consideration of problems which 
 touch her work. 
 
 She endeavors to have teachers, principals, and super- 
 intendents on the committees of her library, especially on 
 those having to do with its general economy, arrangement, 
 and selection of books. She makes the fact felt that her 
 institution is part of the educational system of the commu- 
 nity, is not something separate from the schools, but a part 
 of them. 
 
 She visits the superintendent of schools, and the princi- 
 pals and teachers. She does not make of her work the op- 
 portunity to impress them with the fact that she has a "mis- 
 sion," and that she proposes to elevate the community by 
 her books; and she does not insist that teachers generally 
 are dull, if they do not at once make use of her library; but 
 she tactfully makes it plain that her library is there to be used. 
 
 She meets with the teachers whenever occasion offers, 
 and is ready to talk with them about matters in her field at 
 all times. 
 
 She visits schoolrooms, where she can do it without 
 seeming to intrude, and makes herself familiar with the 
 teacher's work, its opportunities, its needs, and its limita- 
 tions. She gets the courses of study used in school. She 
 learns what books are already in the schoolrooms; what ones 
 are used as supplementary reading; what, and how many, 
 have been bought in sets; and in every way makes herself 
 thoroly familiar with the present resources of teachers and 
 children in the way of books. 
 
 She always works in sympathy with, and with the full 
 knowledge of, the superintendent, and in accordance with 
 his suggestions and wishes. 
 
 She ventures, if teachers do not borrow voluntarily, to 
 suggest to them that they can take books to their school- 
 rooms and see if they can make use of them there. This 
 is not an easy thing to do, for unless the teacher is in sym- 
 pathy with this work, to put books in her hands may be to 
 waste good material. For the teacher who is beginning to 
 use books in her daily work the simpler they are the better. 
 Picture- and story-l)ooks, such as she can lend to restless 
 
IJI'.KAKIAX'S SIMKI'I^ A XI) M l-l'l'l lODS 161 
 
 pupils, cither for use in tlie schoolroom or to lake home, 
 arc tiie best. 
 
 She looks up such a subject as geography, and by ex- 
 amination of the text-books used, and by talks with teach- 
 ers, discovers what she can do to assist in making the sub- 
 ject more interesting. She finds, perhaps, that pupils call 
 at the library for certain specific books, or for books on 
 some special topic which the library lacks, and she equips 
 the library well for such a call next time. She encourages 
 teachers to borrow from the library for a few weeks, or a 
 term, books on the topics in geography, or history, or sci- 
 ence, which may be uppermost for the time. 
 
 She asks teachers and principals to give her in advance 
 names of topics and subjects of study on which the children 
 may ask for books later. She announces on her bulletin 
 board that books on such and such a topic will be found in 
 such a place, or are such and such books. 
 
 If one or two teachers begin to take an interest in the 
 library and borrow books from it for schoolroom use. and 
 their experiments are successful, the librarian lets this fact 
 be widely known. 
 
 She does not forget that the teacher's occupation is very 
 wearing; that the best teachers are often the busiest: and 
 that it is the best teachers w^hom she most wishes to inter- 
 est. The teacher must keep her children to the course of 
 study as it is laid out; and no matter how flexible that course 
 may be, still it is true that to do the things that must be 
 done each day takes nearly every moment of her time. Op- 
 portunit}^ to do the work wMth children suggested in this 
 report is not easy to find. The wise librarian is not dis- 
 couraged, therefore, even tho most of the teachers she at- 
 tempts to interest are slow to take up with her suggestions. 
 
 As soon as the time is ripe and her supply of books per- 
 mits, she lends them to interested teachers, in groups of 
 ten to fifty, to put into their rooms as schoolroom libraries. 
 The school authorities may, of course, supply these school- 
 room libraries themselves. It is perhaps better, however, 
 that they be supplied by the library. In the library will 
 usually be found the best collection of books to draw from, 
 and the most skill in their handling. The schoolroom library 
 
i62 " JOHN COTTON DANA 
 
 is to be used just as are the books the teacher may have of 
 her own or may have secured from the library for her desk. 
 She uses them either for reference work, or lends them to 
 pupils to take home. If she does the latter, then the school- 
 room library is in effect a branch library; and the schoolroom 
 library, under the supervision of the teacher, is the ideal 
 branch library for lending books to young people. The 
 teacher with forty pupils and fifty books, the latter changed 
 from month to month as she may choose, and as the wishes 
 of her pupils may indicate, can with little difficulty put the 
 right book into the right hands time and again, when the 
 librarian, with the best intentions in the world, finds it im- 
 possible to do more than supply each child's request, with- 
 out regard to the fitness of that request. 
 
 The librarian hears it said not infrequently, by librarians, 
 that teachers ask more and are more exacting in their re- 
 quests generally than any other class of library patrons; 
 but she says that it seems proper that this should be so. 
 She is glad that they make use of her library. She is glad 
 that they make complaints, and is not disturbed by them. 
 She discovers that their demands are generally not so much 
 in the spirit of fault-finding as in the desire to get out of the 
 library all that can possibly be got. And she encourages, 
 rather than discourages, the asking spirit in all the teachers 
 with whom she comes in contact. 
 
 THE LIBRARY BUILDING, OR ROOM_, AND THE CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT 
 
 The building for an ideal library, or the room in which 
 it is placed, is simple in the extreme. The best arrangement 
 for a small library is one large, well-lighted room without 
 partitions. The cases are low, and are set sufficiently far 
 apart to allow several people to pass between them at once 
 without crowding. The tables and chairs are near the books. 
 If a corner for work is needed, it is separated from the rest 
 of the room, not by a partition, but by a light rail. The 
 desk is near the entrance, and the visitor having passed 
 this desk is literally "in" the library and among its books. 
 
 A corner in the library is given up to children. The 
 children's books are here arranged in classes, just as arc 
 other books in the library, and with the same marks. Stories 
 
LIURARIAX'S SPIRIT AXD MI-:TII()1)S 163 
 
 and books on other subjects are not ordinarily shelved to- 
 gether in one series, tho for some special purposes or occa- 
 sions they may be so arranged. 
 
 The cases for children's books are low, not over five feet 
 high, and lower still would be better, and the books are not 
 put lower than two feet from the floor. This gives two or 
 three rows of books one al)Ove the other, at the utmost, 
 and prevents crowding among those who are loc^king them 
 over. The lower the cases are. the easier it is to keep watch 
 of the unruly and noisy. Furthermore, if the cases are low, 
 the tops of them serve excellently for globes and vases, 
 and any articles of interest one may wish to put there. 
 
 There is a globe in the children's corner, and a place to 
 hang up a large wall-map, which is changed from time to 
 time. 
 
 On the walls are pictures attractive to young people, 
 preferably in colors. These pictures are such as one would 
 wish to have in the school-room. They are large and broad 
 in treatment. 
 
 A bulletin board in or near the children's corner has on 
 it lists of entertaining books — general lists, lists on special 
 topics; pictures, sometimes of a general nature, sometimes 
 having to do with one subject; a set of pictures of animals, 
 or birds, or great buildings, or eminent men. The same bul- 
 letin board holds, in large type, an occasional sentence or 
 verse of poetry, such as experience shows children are at- 
 tracted by and are fond of learning. 
 
 THE LIBRARIAN AND THE CHILDREN, AND THE CHILDREN'S DEPART- 
 MENT 
 
 The librarian makes the process of getting a borrower's 
 card at her library very simple for the young people. She, 
 perhaps, thinks it wise to insist that the card be signed by 
 a parent, not so much to protect the library as to engage the 
 interest of the parents in what the young people read. She 
 does not feel, however, that this is essential. She surrounds 
 the process of the signing of the name, the giving of the 
 card, and the presentation of a slip containing library rules 
 and information, with sufficient dignity to make it seem of 
 importance to the children. 
 
i64 - JOHN COTTON DANA 
 
 She keeps her library immaculately neat and clean, and 
 trains the children to help her in this work, establishing a 
 library league for this purpose, if possible. It takes time 
 and patience to lead children to keep in order the books they 
 themselves use, but it is not nTipossil)le and is worth the 
 doing. 
 
 She notes that the weak points of American children are 
 not timidity and nervousness. Still, she realizes that many 
 of tlie children, perhaps those whrmi it would be best worth 
 her while to assist, are shy about visiting a new place, and 
 are slow to ask questions. She meets such individuals more 
 than half way. 
 
 The children's department is made especially strong in 
 entertaining stories, tlie children's classics already alluded to 
 being first chosen. It is far better to purchase a large- 
 number of .duplicates of each of fifteen or twenty standard 
 books that children read than it is to scatter the money the}- 
 would cost over the whole field of children's literature and 
 buy a large amount of inferior stuff. 
 
 The librarian has investigated the subject of children's 
 reading for herself, and has come to the conclusion, as have 
 all others who have given the matter serious attention, that 
 in the children's corner in the public library, or in the school- 
 room library, or in the library in the school building, or in 
 any collection of books anywhere to which children are to 
 have access, low-grade books, no matter how popular they 
 may have proved themselves to be, are not needed in order 
 to attract children; and that poorly written, unreal, fourth- 
 class, silly stuff is not needed as sweetmeats and temptations 
 to draw children to a collection of good books in an at- 
 tractive library. 
 
 She learns from talks with teachers wdiom she has inter- 
 ested in the subject that the reading of wholesome children's 
 books docs not, save in very unusual cases, distract the 
 minds of the children from their studies. She learns, on the 
 contrary, that the bright children, the well informed children 
 in the schoolroom, are the ones who are most likely to be 
 eager and wide readers at the library. 
 
 With the children's books she puts the books suitable 
 for reading aloud to children by parents and teachers. It is 
 
i.l I'.lv: Alv!! WS SI'lKI'r AXl) MI'/rilODS 165 
 
 (litViciiIt to draw the line (Icrmitcly bc'twt'cn tlu'sc {wo rlnsscs. 
 In sc'lcctin.n tlu- books suitable for yoiuijj; ])coi)lc' it sh<'ul«l 
 be borne in mind tbat tlicrc is much j^ood literature wliieb 
 cliiblren theniselx'es will not read, but like In have read t'» 
 tbcni. Sonic of this literature can very well be put with the 
 books the children like to read themselves. 
 
 The reference-books for children in their own department 
 are not many in number and are simi)le. One or two en- 
 cyclop.Tdias, an atlas, a dictionary, and a few sets r)f peri- 
 odicals, like Ilart'cr's MnntJily with its index, and Si. Xirholu.x, 
 serve better than more elaborate books. 
 
 The librarian, while supplying a special corner for chil- 
 dren and giving- them there easy access to the books adapted 
 to their wants, does not forget that an important thing in 
 education is ability to use a large library to advantage. She 
 encourages, so far as the arrangement of her room permits, 
 the use of the main library by young people. She tries so 
 to train them, or help them to train themselves, that they 
 are not lost or dazed in a large collection. She helps the 
 very young people to make use of the laborator}- method in 
 the library, as science teachers lead them to use it in physics 
 and chemistry. She finds that children quite quickly catch 
 the spirit of investigation, the spirit of the seeker after 
 truth, and thus become students in the best sense of the word. 
 
 To help the children to make use of reference-books she 
 calls attention to such helps as tables of contents, page-headings, 
 indexes, and bibliographies. She gives them an opportunity 
 to consult encyclopaedias and dictionaries of varying char- 
 acter. She encourages them to stud}^ by topics. 
 
 So far we have spoken of books on their artistic, literary, 
 general-culture side; the side which, for the younger children 
 at least, must always remain the most important. But 
 there is another side, distinct still from both the "culture" 
 side and from the scientific side, with which the zealous 
 librarian must acquaint herself, would she do her best work, 
 especially with children who have reached the ages of six- 
 teen to eighteen. This is the purely utilit}' side. There is 
 no calling in life, from brick-laying to architecture, from 
 shoe-making to railroad-building, that does not have the 
 results of latest experience and observation in regard to it 
 
i66 JOHN COTTON DANA 
 
 set forth in periodicals and books. These periodicals and 
 books are more or less accessible in every public library. 
 The majority of boys, about ninety-hve out of one hundred 
 who attend our schools, are on their way to some manual, 
 semi-manual, or clerical calling. They will be able to equip 
 themselves better for their calling, whatever it may be, if 
 they make themselves familiar with its literature. The 
 humblest workman in the humblest occupation can adapt 
 himself better to his work, and will have a better chance of 
 advancing in it, if he reads up to it. This is an aspect of 
 printed things which is rarely touched upon in the schools. 
 The sympathetic librarian, as she sees boys grow to young 
 manhood under her e^'es, will watch their tastes and inclina- 
 tions where she can; will note the occupations they are 
 likely to enter, and direct them to the utility-literature of 
 those occupations. 
 
 The librarian makes a collection of pictures, saving 
 therefor old periodicals that are well illustrated, and mak- 
 ing requests for old numbers and back volumes that are 
 past other usefulness, to be used for their illustrations. She 
 gets together and mounts on cardboard collections of designs, 
 of pictures illustrating the work of different artists, of 
 pictures to be used in geography and history and science 
 study. These she arranges in groups, hangs on her bulletin 
 board, and lends to teachers one at a time or many at a 
 time. 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE LIBRARY— THE VALUE 
 OF LITERATURE IN EARLY EDUCATION 
 
 In the address quoted below are a number of reports 
 made by teachers in answier to specific questions with 
 regard to both general and supplementary reading, its 
 effect on the pupil's studies, and the aid given by reading 
 to school discipline. The writer, Mr. Crunden, was one 
 of the first to introduce active co-operation with city 
 schools into a large library and was always one of its 
 most earnest advocates. 
 
 Frederick Morgan Crunden was born in Gravesend, 
 Eng., in 1847 and died in St. Louis, Mo., in 1911. He 
 was brought to this country in infancy, graduated at 
 Washington University, St. Louis, in 1868, and after 
 teaching in the public schools of that city and holding 
 a professorship in his Alma Mater, became in 1877 li- 
 brarian of the St. Louis Public School Library, then a 
 subscription institution of a dozen years' standing. His 
 efforts made it free to the public and transformed it in 
 1893 into the St. Louis Public Library, supported and 
 operated under liberal state legislation. He was one of 
 the earliest members of the American Library Associa- 
 tion and served as its president in 1890. 
 
 I have some hesitancy in presenting to a gathering made 
 up of progressive educators a thesis on the value of litera- 
 ture in education and the benefits to be derived from the 
 co-operation of school and library. I feel that I may be re- 
 garded by some with the amused compassion that an East 
 
i68 FREDERICK M. CRUNDEN 
 
 Indian or Chinese audience would bestow on a speaker who 
 should come forward with an elaborate argument to prove 
 the value of rice as an article of diet. It was not so, how- 
 ever, twenty-five years ago, when I began to talk on the sub- 
 ject. Most teachers then regarded story-books — anj^ books 
 but text-books — as a distraction — a hindrance to class prog- 
 ress and an interference with school discipline. I fear there 
 are some who still hold the same view; but the number, I 
 am glad to believe, is not large, and is rapidly diminishing. 
 I know how hard pressed teachers are to keep their classes 
 up with the schedule; and if they decline the co-operation 
 ot the library, it is because they look upon this as another 
 weight added to their overburdened shoulders. But this is 
 like the mechanic who works away with blunt tools because 
 he hasn't time to sharpen them. 
 
 At the present day, to say that the library can be made 
 helpful tothe school is to state what seems to us an axiom. 
 But "axiomatic" is, after all, a relative term. What is axio- 
 matic to one person may not be to another of different ex- 
 perience. I remember that it once took me several weeks 
 to impart to a student in geometry a comprehension of and 
 a realizing belief in the axiom. "Two things that are ecjual 
 to the same thing are equal to each other." Now, my ex- 
 perience as pupil and teacher long ago made the value — 
 the necessit}^ — of literature in early education a self-evident 
 proposition. Long before I read the statement in Sully's 
 Psychology, I knew "that the habitual narration of stories, 
 description of places, and so on, is an essential ingredient in 
 the rudimentary stages of education. The child that has 
 been well drilled at home in following stories will, other 
 things being equal, be the better learner at school. The 
 early nurture of tlie imagination by means of good, whole- 
 some food has much to do with determining the degree of 
 imaginative power, and, through this, of the range of intellect- 
 ual activity ultimately reached." 
 
 In his last novel. That forlunr, Charles Dudley Warner 
 criticises an exclusively tcxt-l)0()k training in a dialogue be- 
 tween two young men in college. ( )nc had come up thru 
 all the regular grades and had entered college from a first- 
 class fitting school; the other, thruout an unsystematic course 
 
VALUE OF LITKRATL'RI-: 169 
 
 of instruction, had enjoyed tin- run of a Rood library. The 
 variety and extent of the latter's information is a subject of 
 constant admiration to his better-schooled classmate, who 
 closes the particular conversation referred to by exclaiming 
 in a tone of vexati<in: "Well, I mi.t(ht have known something 
 too. if I hail not been kept at school all my life." 
 
 Yes, we have changed, not all that, but much of it. For 
 a new agency has, within a very few years, extended its in- 
 fluence all over the land. The agency I refer to is the co- 
 operation of the public school and the public library. I 
 believe that a majority of teachers now realize what forty 
 years ago was understood only by the most advanced — that 
 the free and joyous activity of the child which is called forth 
 by literature lightens the task of the teacher and is of in- 
 calculable benefit to the pupil. To such a teacher of forty 
 years ago I owe the honor of standing before this distin- 
 guished audience. To such a teacher of more than three 
 hundred 3'ears ago Queen Elizabeth owed her scholarship 
 and her love of learning. Roger Ascham agreed with his 
 friend W'otton that "school should be a place of play and 
 pleasure, and not of fear and bondage." I know such schools 
 today. Their pupils do not make any less creditable showing 
 in schedule work because they enjoy their hours in school — 
 because they at times go, by the teacher's invitation, to visit 
 fairy land, and are allowed to wander at will in the flowery 
 fields of literature. 
 
 It is early in the evening, and I don't see anybody sleep- 
 ing; but I am going to adopt the plan of the preacher who, 
 along about "ninthly," perceived a number of his congrega- 
 tion quietly slumbering in their pews. Choosing a passage 
 from Scripture containing a repetition of the word "fire," he 
 shouted out that word so loudly that all the sleepers awoke, 
 and one or two started for the door. I am going to shock 
 some of 3'ou 1)}' a strong statement relating to the power of 
 literature to expand the mind and to develop mental muscle. 
 I took it from the lips of a prominent educator — a teacher 
 wdiom many of you know pcrsonall3^ and probabl}- nearly all 
 know by reputation. Speaking of the relative value of litera- 
 ture and arithmetic, that bctc noir of the American school (in 
 wrestling with which, you remember, President Eliot says 
 
I70 FREDERICK M. CRUNDEN 
 
 we waste so much time), my friend gave his views in about 
 the following- words: He said he would take a boy of fourteen, 
 of average intellect, whose mind had been developed from 
 earliest childhood by reading the best books, but who had 
 never opened an arithmetic or had an hour's set instruction 
 — who, in short, knew nothing of numbers except what he 
 would inevitably pick up — he "would take such a boy and 
 would guarantee to teach him in six weeks all the arithmetic 
 he need ever know, and as much as he would learn in six 
 years of school instruction." 
 
 If 3^ou think this too strong, remember that the words 
 are not those of a librarian, but of a teacher. If 3^ou all admit 
 that it is largely true, it would seem unnecessary to say more. 
 But there is no blinking the tact that there still are teachers 
 who stick to the "three R's" and the schedule with the same 
 unswerving loyalty that the Honorable Bardwell Slote 
 showed for "the old flag and an appropriation." To these, 
 and to others who are half persuaded, I direct my argument, 
 hoping that, thru publication, my remarks may reach a larger 
 audience and one more in need of enlightment than are 
 teachers who show by their attendance at this convention 
 that they are among the progressive forces of education. 
 
 As "an ounce of Vinland is better than a pound of 
 cosmography," let me tell, briefly, what has been done in St. 
 Louis in this line of work, premising, first, that we have had 
 a free library only the last seven years, and that we have been 
 greatly hampered by lack of funds, so that our plans were 
 hardly in fair operation till this last season. 
 
 We have now two hundred and sixty-nine sets of books 
 for circulation in the schools. Each set consists of thirty 
 copies of a book carefully chosen for a certain grade. It is 
 better to send thirty copies of the same book than thirty 
 different books, for two reasons: first, because it enables 
 the teacher to have class exercises; second, because the in- 
 terest of each pupil is greatly intensified when all his class- 
 mates are reading the same book. It gives them all a com- 
 mon subject of conversation, an edifying topic to supplant 
 the vulgarities of boys and the inanities of girls. And this 
 is one of the incidental benefits of literature in the school, 
 which is of no small importance. 
 
VALUE OF LlTKRATUkE 
 
 i/i 
 
 These sets of thirty are sent to schools on request of 
 their respective principals, to be kept two weeks, with privi- 
 lege of renewal for two weeks more. At first we sent the 
 boxes on a regular round thru the schools, but changed the 
 plan when we found that in some schools the books were 
 never unpacked. The books may be used in any way the 
 teacher prefers — either in school or at home. We began with 
 the youngest children, supplying to the first grade Caldccott 
 Picture Books, illustrated Mother Goose rhymes, Little Red 
 Riding Hood, Jack and the Bean Stalk, etc. These were fol- 
 lowed by Scudder's Fables and Folk Stories, Hiawatha Primer, 
 McMurry's Classic Stories, and similar books, going gradu- 
 ally upward thru these stages: first, nursery rhyme and pic- 
 ture-book (which could be, and by at least one principal 
 were, used in the kindergarten); second, the fairy tale; third, 
 the myth; fourth, the mediaeval legend; and so on to biog- 
 raphy, history, and drama, culminating in Shakespeare's 
 plays for the eighth grade, with striking biographical and his- 
 torical episodes and nature studies and stories inserted all 
 along the line where they were likely to be understood and 
 enjoyed. I wish to emphasize "enjoyed." That should be 
 kept in view as the immediate object of this reading. Let it 
 be ignored, and the ultimate end is made more difificult, if 
 not impossible, of attainment. There was a very natural 
 preference on the part oi many of our teachers for "col- 
 lateral" reading, ihat is, reading that has a direct bearing 
 on school studies. There was a disproportionate call for 
 such books as Coe's Modern Europe and Carpenter's Asia. 
 To meet this call fully would. I fear, cut out many books of 
 sheer delight — such books as will inculcate a love of the best 
 reading and lead to the gathering of vastly greater informa- 
 tion than can possibly be obtained during the few years of 
 a grammar-school course. Don't try too often to palm off 
 semi-disguised text-books on the children. Don't frighten 
 your fish with a bare hook. Library books should, as far 
 as possible, be dissociated from lessons and task work Let 
 them be as informing as may be, but they should stand pri- 
 marily for pleasure and inspiration. The sets that have 
 found least favor are those on science and that excellent 
 
172 - FREDERICK M. CRUNDEN 
 
 series, the Heart of Oak books — the latter presumably be- 
 cause they lack illustrations. The favorites during the past 
 years were The Prince and the Pauper; Hans Brinker; Stories 
 from Homer and Virgil ; Old Greek Stories; Old Stories of the 
 East; Adventures of a Brozvnie; Little Lame Prince; The Lang 
 Fairy Books; In Afythland; Stories of the Red Children; Scud- 
 der's Book of Legends; Lobo. Rag and Vixen; and Swiss Family 
 Robinson.. Ninety per cent, of the work thus far has been done 
 in the lowest grades. 
 
 Of our grammar schools thirty-three made constant use 
 of these sets, twenty used them occasionally, and thirty-three 
 made no use of them. Most of these last are outlying 
 schools, to which the library was unable to send the travel- 
 ing sets, while some reported that they had a sufficient 
 supply in the books furnished by the board of education. 
 Fourteen scJiools — among those mentioned above as too 
 far distant to be supplied with the traveling boxes — were 
 made depositories, or branch libraries, with as many as fifty 
 volumes to each room. Six night schools, also, were supplied 
 with sets of books. Thru these agencies a total of 119,708 
 volumes was issued during the school year — nearly double 
 the number of the previous year. If the library can provide 
 the books, I believe the issue will show an equal ratio of in- 
 crease next year. 
 
 "Well," the skeptic may say, "what of it? Suppose the 
 children did read so many story-books? What does it sig- 
 nify?" 
 
 I have already quoted Sully as to the value of this read- 
 ing. Let me give a few extracts from reports made by our 
 teachers. These reports contain answers to three specific 
 questions: 
 
 1. What value do you attach to literature and supple- 
 mentary reading in connection with the school curriculum? 
 
 2. What effect has the general reading done by the pupils 
 of your school had on their progress in their studies? 
 
 3. Do you find the books supplied by the library an aid 
 to discipline? 
 
 A few replies must serve to illustrate the general tenor 
 of all. 
 
 I. 
 I. The cultivation of a taste for good literature should be, 
 
VALUE OF LITERATURE 17.3 
 
 it seems to me, one of the chief aims of the school curricu- 
 hini. The deveh)pment of a hiKher morality and a truer cul- 
 ture and refmement — which, after all, is the final aim of ed- 
 ucaticui — can best, and perhaps only, be accomplished by the 
 encouratjement of a closer and closer acquaintance with our 
 best literature. I attach to well-directed general reading as 
 high a value as to any subject taught in the schools. 
 
 2. Its effect upon the progress of the children has been 
 daily more apparent. It has given information which has 
 been helpful in all of the studies, especially geography and 
 history; and the language of the children has been greatly 
 improved. 
 
 3. I consider supplementary reading as good in itself, 
 and, therefore, cannot regard with favor the conscious use 
 of it as a means for maintaining discipline. Nevertheless. 
 like any subject which thoroly interests the children, it leads 
 them into voluntary application, and so assists in cultivating 
 that spirit which, in the end, eliminates the problem of disci- 
 pline. 
 
 II. 
 
 1. The literature furnished by the public library has been 
 of incalculable value. It has supplied us with the larger part 
 of our material for oral reading. It has been the basis of 
 most of our oral language work. It has been both the in- 
 spiration and the basis for most of our composition work. 
 The books taken into the homes from the school have been 
 helpful to the entire community. 
 
 2. Much of our reading has been very helpful to the lan- 
 guage work, geography, and history. 
 
 3. It is a very great aid in discipline, both directly and 
 indirectly. Indirectly, thru effect upon character. Directly, 
 by giving pupils something they love to do. 
 
 III. 
 
 1. Of immense value to all our pupils, but especially to 
 the poor child that can attend school but a very few years. 
 
 2. Assists their progress in their studies, awakens and 
 deepens their interest in the subject, adds to thought and in- 
 formation, and changes dry studies into the exchange of ideas, 
 the answering of aroused curiosity, and fixes facts more per- 
 manently in the memory. 
 
 3. The books supplied by the library arc an aid to disci- 
 pline. They change the current of pupils' thoughts, and put 
 them in a better and happier state of mind — more conducive 
 to study and improvement. 
 
 IV. 
 I. The literature furnished by the library has put a life 
 into the reading exercise that it didn't have before. It has 
 made reading the principal study in the course. 
 
1/4 , FREDERICK M. CRUNDEN 
 
 2. It has been of great advantage to pupils, has made 
 them enjoy the exercises, has increased their fluency, has 
 brought them to know books and to want to find out about 
 others. 
 
 3. Yes, an aid to discipline, decidedly. Pupils are inter- 
 ested in the exercise; consequently they are attentive and 
 orderly. 
 
 V. 
 
 1. Great value. 
 
 2. Broadens the pupil and gives him greater interest in 
 his regular work. 
 
 3. Anything that awakens a child's interest aids in disci- 
 plir.ing him. When the child becomes sufficiently awakened 
 to realize his own interest, the necessity for discipline is 
 largely removed. This supplementary readings has had that 
 effect. I consider it a great aid. 
 
 VI. 
 
 I consider the literature in the supplementary readers of 
 great value in obtaining fluency, a working command of good 
 language, and cultivation of the imagination, not supplied by 
 any subject in the course of study. 
 
 It is very helpful in discipline — lessening, indeed, the need 
 for discipline. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Here is a brief extract from another letter: 
 
 There can be no doubt of the helpfulness of the public 
 library reading sets in the school. It is the universal experi- 
 ence with us that pupils who do most and best supplemen- 
 tary reading succeed best in all of their work. Most of the 
 difficulty experienced by the children in the study of arith- 
 metic and geograph3\ for instance, is due to their inability 
 to read the subject-matter correctly. This defect is largely 
 removed by the aid of supplementary reading. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 I prize very highly the supplementary reading in con- 
 nection with the school curriculum. 
 
 The general reading has caused their minds to grow and 
 broaden and deepen, enabling them to comprehend more 
 readily the ideas conveyed by the printed page. 
 
 IX. 
 
 A principal of many years' experience writes: 
 
 One of the greatest blessings conferred on children is 
 providing them with abundance of judiciously selected sup- 
 plementary reading. The enlargement of the horizon around 
 the child, the increasing of his vocabulary, the encourage- 
 ment to go to the fountain-head and there drink more deeply 
 at the great source of supply — the public library — all follow 
 in natural order. 
 
VALUE OF LITERATURE 175 
 
 I believe cliscipline ^r^ws easier from year to year. The 
 abundant supply of readinj^ matter to he taken up as soon as 
 lessons are learned has contributed largely to this result. 
 
 I asked some of my most comj^etent assistants their 
 opinion of the value of books from the library. Tlie rejilv 
 was: "Look at the faces of tlie pupils as they are usinf.^ the 
 books. See how absorbed they are in followinj.^ the story. 
 The book is new to them. All the charms of novelty gather 
 around the subject." 
 
 X. 
 
 The head assistant in the Columbia School sums up by 
 saying: 
 
 Supplementary reading, especially in the lower grades, 
 is worth all the rest of the school work. 
 
 The St. Louis school in which most reading is done is 
 the Columbia. It goes without saying that it is one of the 
 best schools in the city. At my request, the principal, Mr. 
 Charles L. Howard, furnished me with a general statement 
 of his views on the educational value of literature, and the 
 methods by which it is made the chief feature in his school. 
 1 sliould like to quote the whole of his report, but, not to 
 overrun my time limit, I must content m3^self with a few 
 extracts: 
 
 We make no parade of "literature work" or of supple- 
 mentary reading. The latter term is a misnomer; it is mis- 
 leading; what others term supplementary reading in my 
 school is the li'holc thing. We have two forms of reading at 
 the Columbia School. First, a form of class work, in which 
 the material for use has come to be selected on a basis of 
 interest, and what appears to be a natural appreciation of 
 the Herbartian theory of the culture epochs. After the sec- 
 ond grade or year there is no teaching of reading lessons, in 
 the ordinary use of that term. There is no preparation of 
 reading lessons for recitation. Generally each class in a 
 given grade reads the list of books given as available for 
 its grade — sometimes less, oftener more. Sometimes a third- 
 or fourth-grade class reads Evangeline, Miles Standish, The 
 Merchant of J^enice, or Julius Cccsar, with exquisite satisfaction. 
 I have seen a second-j^ear class enthusiastic over the Pied 
 Piper and Horatius at the Bridge. [Let me interject here that 
 I have seen children not yet in the first grade enjoying these 
 sam ' poems.] Things are read as zvholes. For no one ever 
 reads Cassius' plea with Brutus, then runs off to find the 
 whole play; but generally one who reads The Merchant of 
 ]\niicc first turns again and again to the court scene. These 
 books have generally the characteristics of the classics; and 
 
1/6 FREDERICK M. CRUNDEN 
 
 so we know that from pure interest our pupils do a vast 
 amount of valuable reading, from which they get facility in 
 reading, a vast store of useful information, broad views, in- 
 dependent notions, and an acquaintance with the material 
 which, molded in the master-mind, gives beauty, grace, vigor, 
 and endurance to the best literature. 
 
 The second form of reading in the school relates to the 
 use of miscellaneous books independent of the school work. 
 In this connection reading is encouraged, but no supervision 
 of it is assumed. 
 
 About six hundred pupils in the school have tickets in the 
 public library. They appear to be in constant use. 
 
 In 1898-99 we collected reports of "outside readings." In 
 eight months seven hundred pupils reported something over 
 ten thousand books read. They were mostly what I should 
 call for myself "good books." . . . The most pernicious 
 books come into the hands of children thru the suggestion 
 of well-meaning people who are ignorant or thoughtless of 
 their influence — such books as set up false ideals, inflame 
 feeling, diacolor fancy, and distort judgment; the kind of 
 books that used to abound in Sunday-school libraries. The 
 real value of this work cannot be told. The influence is main- 
 ly realized in conduct and character. 
 
 Our friends are sometimes disturbed over the freedom 
 in our work; but it is observed that the freedom allowed 
 naturally secures a basis of interest which tends to make the 
 reading thoughtful ; that those who read most widely accom- 
 plish most in other forms of school work; that the effect upon 
 conduct is most salutary, showing in no case a bad result 
 from the reading habit; that the ordinary nature-study books 
 do not appeal to children strongly enough to secure voluntary 
 reading as wholes; that the "classics" tend to supplant every- 
 thing sensational or weak; that natural children make as few 
 errors in selecting for themselves as their elders make in 
 selecting for them; that the "bad" books generally appear 
 but once; that a book is on the whole good or bad as de- 
 termined by the attitude of the mind toward it. 
 
 An interesting experiment in the teaching of literature 
 was tried in the St. Louis High School the past season. A 
 full account of methods and results will be given before the 
 Library Department by Mr. P. M. Buck, who had charge of 
 the work. I will merely say that the public library supplied 
 to the high school about five hundred volumes, in multiple 
 copies, of the best American and English authors of the 
 century, seven hundred cards were issued to the pupils, and 
 more than twelve thousand volumes were drawn by them. 
 
VALUE Ol' MTRR.\'11;KK 177 
 
 We see, then, that a consensus of the St. Louis teachers 
 who have welcomed the aid of the library is that general 
 reading is "helpful in all the studies;" that it possesses "as 
 high a value as anything taught in the schools," while two 
 teachers consider it "worth all the rest of the school work;" 
 that it is "of immeasurable value to all pupils, but especial- 
 ly to tlic poor child;" that "pupils who do most and best 
 supplementary reading succeed best in all their work;" 
 that it is "a great aid to discipline directly and thru effect 
 on character;" that "it puts children in a better and hap- 
 pier frame of mind — more conducive to study;" that "its 
 influence is mainly realized in conduct and character;" and 
 finally that "the books taken into the homes have been help- 
 ful to the entire community." Could we ask for anything 
 more? Promotes progress in all studies! Aids discipline! 
 Improves conduct and forms character! And, lastly, reaches 
 out into the homes and educates parents and older brothers 
 and sisters. 
 
 And, now, as a climax and summary to this testimony 
 from teachers, I must quote, tho it be for the nth time, these 
 words of President Eliot: 
 
 From the total training during childhood there should 
 result in the child a taste for interesting and improving read- 
 ing, which should direct and inspire its subsequent intellec- 
 tual life. The schooling which results in this taste for good 
 reading, however unsystematic and eccentric the schooling 
 may have been, has achieved a main end of elementary edu- 
 cation; and that schooling which does not result in implant- 
 ing this permanent taste has failed. 
 
 In that thoughtful and stimulating essay, Culture zvithouf 
 College, Dr. Gannett gives as the three great agencies of edu- 
 cation, "the three chief teachers — work, society, and books." 
 This cannot be disputed; but as to the order of the instru- 
 mentalities named — while they are to such great extent reci- 
 procal and interactive — I am inclined to think that, for the 
 great mass of children, books, if brought into their lives 
 early enough and constantly enough, may easily be made the 
 controlling influence; for the standards and ideals obtained 
 from good books will largely determine both companionship 
 and kind and quality of work. Ignoring the other two factors 
 
178 ^ FREDERICK M. CRUNDEN 
 
 creates, as Dr. Gannett says, a dwarf; and if the bookish 
 education is "mere text-book education," the result is a 
 "dwarf of a dwarf." The influences of our active life tend to 
 reduce to a very small number the first tribe of pygmies; and 
 the recent development of co-operation between school and 
 library promises, in a short time, the extinction of the latte^^ 
 minified manikin. 
 
 To determine the value of the library, or of any other 
 educational agency or adjunct, we must agree upon zvhat is 
 education — we must decide what it is we seek to do for the 
 child in giving him "an education." Do we — can we — send 
 out educated boys and girls from the grammar school at four- 
 teen, or from the high school at eighteen? Can we do more 
 for them than teach them how to read and make reading 
 interesting to them? It is for these, the 99^ per cent., I 
 speak. As to the 3/5 per cent, of college graduates, if they 
 have been started right, they need give us no concern. 
 
 What, then, is the purpose of education? One purpose 
 is to enable the boy to make a living. Yes, but very little 
 suffices for that. I have known men scarcely able to read 
 who had much larger incomes than any of us. To make good 
 citizens. Unquestionably that is what most concerns society. 
 It includes, of course, ability to make a living and much more. 
 But how is the ordinary school curriculum to fit the child 
 for the duties of citizenship? How is he to grow morally 
 strong on an exclusive diet of text-books? How can a knowl- 
 edge of the capes and rivers of Asia, of the tables of Troy 
 and apothecaries' weight, and of other useless and unenter- 
 taining facts give the child any idea of his rights and duties 
 as a social being? What nurture for the imagination — which 
 is so necessary a first step in mental awakening — what nur- 
 ture for the imagination does the child get from hours spent 
 in finding the greatest common divisor and least common 
 multiple? I speak feelingly of this particular grind, for I 
 recall many tedious hours wasted on it. My little boy of 
 five and a half got more mental development from having 
 Stanley Waterloo's Story of Ab read to him three or four 
 times than I did at twice his age out of many weeks of tire- 
 some work over the greatest common divisor and the least 
 common multiple. And to this must be added the intense 
 
VALUE ()!• LITICKATL'RR 
 
 170 
 
 enjoyment the story afforded — and, above all, the desire for 
 more knowledge which it awakened. 
 
 It is not necessary to discuss the question whether pleas- 
 ure is the chief end of life, but we must agree that a life 
 which has known no pleasure is a blighted nubbin, a stunted 
 tree, a sorry spectacle. In every human soul there is an 
 insistent demand for pleasure in some form. This cry is 
 most clamorous in childhood. With the child, indeed, pleas- 
 ure is the mainspring of action, the central object of desire. 
 Shall we check or ignore this longing for the joy of life when 
 it takes the form of a thirst for knowledge, of a craving for 
 high companionship, of the fresh soul's aspiration toward 
 the ideal? And is there any greater pleasure to the child 
 who has been early led to a liking for literature than to lose 
 himself in the pages of a fascinating book? I have known 
 more than one healthy, active-bodied boy who had not yet 
 learned to read, who would gladly leave a game to listen to 
 a reading from such a book as Hiazvatha, Tanglewood Tales, or 
 Stories from the Fairy Queen. Pleasure is essential to the 
 young life. Without enjoyment it cannot blossom, but is 
 blighted and withered like a plant without water. If. then, 
 we take no account of the culture and inspiration of litera- 
 ture, if we regard it merely as a means of pleasure, we can- 
 not deny it to the child. We owe it to the nation, which 
 intrusts us, as educational experts, with the development of 
 its children; we owe it to our high ofifice to see that this 
 elevating pleasure early enters into the lives of the young 
 people committed to our care. If for no other reason than 
 the substitution of higher for lower, of intellectual for physi- 
 cal enjoyment, it is our duty to inculcate in our young 
 charges "this habit of reading," which, as Anthony Trollope 
 says, "is a pass to the greatest, the purest, the most perfect 
 pleasure that God has prepared for his creatures." 
 
 We can recall incidents of our childhood which illustrates 
 the various sources from which pleasure came to us ; and we 
 find the emotional life of a child charmingly pictured in 
 Pierre Loti's Romance of a Child. This little book shows how 
 objects and events, striking from their brightness, their 
 somberness, their horror, or even their mere suggestiveness, 
 make instant and indelible impressions on the super-sensitized 
 
i8o . FREDERICK M. CRUNDEN 
 
 plates of the young mind. Now, every boy and girl cannot 
 be brought up in a country house with a pretty garden con- 
 taining old fruit trees and a fountain, with views of mag- 
 nificent sunsets across field and marsh and sands to a stretch 
 of the illimitable ocean. Not every boy has a forest to roam 
 thru in summer, or an island with its novel life to enjoy. 
 Not every embryo man, like the hero of Edith Lanigan's 
 charming sketch in the January Atlantic, finds in his father's 
 library the means of aerial trips to all countries and ages, 
 personally conducted by the most affable and entertaining 
 guides. But every boy and girl can, and should, be supplied 
 by school and library with voyages to all lands, with cine- 
 matographic views of man's upward progress, with mental 
 pictures of forests, seas, and islands — famous islands such as 
 Treasure Island and Crusoe's island; vast forests inhabited 
 by pygmies and gorillas; seas of Sinbad and the Maelstrom 
 and the Ancient Mariner. Above all, every child should be 
 furnished with winged cap and shoes that will bear him to the 
 realm of fancy and fair}^ land. Every child should be intro- 
 duced, not only to Alexander and Hannibal and Caesar, to 
 Franklin and Washington and Lincoln, but also — and — ear- 
 lier — to those even more interesting, those fascinating per- 
 sonages, Little Jack Horner, the Three Bears, and Cinder- 
 ella; Quicksilver, Perseus, and Ulysses; King Arthur, Sir 
 Lancelot, and the Red Cross Knight; Christian and Robin 
 Hood and Mowgli. All this the school and the library, work- 
 ing together, can do for the children of the nation. Especially 
 to children of narrow home horizon, of sordid, and perhaps 
 vicious, surroundings, are we called upon to give glimpses of 
 the great world into which they have been born, some con- 
 ception of the heritage which they may claim, and of its cost 
 to countless generations in blood and tears, in sorrow and 
 suffering. We can fill the white tablets of their minds with 
 beautiful pictures which will cheer them thru life; we can 
 impart to them an ambition and a determination to make 
 the most of their powers; we can implant in their souls 
 ideals which will lead them away from sordid desires and 
 base pursuits, and make them better citizens of the republic. 
 Is not this the purpose of education? 
 
VALUE OF LITERATURE iRi 
 
 When I say "wc," I mean teacher and lihrarian. The 
 librarian alone cannot do it. And. let me add, the teacher 
 can never reach this goal with the text-book for his only staff. 
 A farmer might as well hope to raise fine horses and oxen on 
 an exclusive diet of dry oat straw or corn shucks. 
 
 Achievement and character are based on the ideal. 
 Whence is the child to gain high ideals? For the average 
 child there is but one source — the lives and utterances of the 
 idealists of the world — the dreamers, the prophets of all ages. 
 They will teach him what education is, what character is. and 
 how precious it is above all things. They will teach him 
 that the total of i^hilosophy is not summed up in lago's '"Put 
 money in thy purse;" that he may gain wealth and be im- 
 l)overished in soul; they will show him that he may master 
 science, but that "the measuring rod of science can never 
 measure the ends of living;" they will make clear to him that 
 "though he speak with the tongues of men and of angels, 
 and have not love, he is as sounding brass or a tinkling 
 cymbal." As a citizen, too, he will realize that it is not 
 prosperity, "it is not piety but righteousness that exalteth a 
 nation." While possessed of the spirit of righteousness, he 
 will not be devoid of piety. He will have the all-pervading 
 piety that Dr. Harris speaks of — "the piety not merely of 
 the heart, but the piety of the intellect that beholds the 
 truth, the piety of the will that does good deeds wisely, the 
 piety of the senses that sees the beautiful and realizes it in 
 works of art." 
 
 My friends, as I said in the beginning that it seemed a 
 work of supererogation to urge co-operation of school and 
 library before this body of alert and advanced educators, so. 
 in conclusion, I must offer the overpowering importance 
 of the subject as my excuse for giving final emphasis to a 
 thought which I hope is never wholly absent from our minds 
 and is the guiding influence of our lives — the supreme im- 
 portance of the work intrusted to us. As Wendell Phillips 
 said: ''Education is the only interest K-or/Z/y the deep, controlling 
 anxiety of the thoughtful man." 
 
 In Louise Jordan Miln's Little Folk of Many Lands I find 
 this striking presentation of the thought I wish to leave with 
 you in closing. As she and her father were seated on the 
 
i82 FREDERICK M. CRUNDEN 
 
 Italian seashore one clay, ''he pointed to the half-clad chil- 
 dren playing near. 'There is nothing in all the world so 
 important as children,' he said, 'nothing so interesting. If 
 you ever wish to go in for some philanthropy, if you ever 
 wish to be of any real use in the world, do something for 
 children. If you ever yearn to be truly wise, study children. 
 We can dress the sore, bandage the wounded, imprison the 
 criminal, heal the sick, and bury the dead; but there is al- 
 ways a chance that we can save a child. If the great army of 
 philanthropists ever exterminate sin and pestilence, ever 
 work our race's salvation, it will be because a little child has 
 led them.' " 
 
PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOKS IN PUliLIC 
 SCHOOLS 
 
 The }ear after the issue of tlie N. E. A. report men- 
 tioned on i^ai^e 18. the Hhrarian of tlie Bufifalo riil)lic 
 Library puhhshed a description of the methods then used 
 in his institution to co-operate effectively with the local 
 schools. These methods had even at this time attracted 
 wide attention and they have since served as models for 
 other liliraries and other school boards. 
 
 Henry Livingston Elmendorf was born in Brooklyn, 
 N. Y., in 1852 and educated at the Polytechnic Institute 
 of that city. He entered library work as an assistant in 
 the Gardner Sage Library at New Brunswick, N. J., was 
 librarian of the St. Joseph, Mo., Public Library from 
 1891 to 1896 and took- charge of the Bufifalo Public Li- 
 brary on its formation by the reorganization of the old 
 Bufifalo Library in 1897. This post he held at the time 
 of his death in 1906. 
 
 As has been stated, the only defense of compulsory tax 
 support of the free public library is that it makes, or aids in 
 making, good citizens. If this be the purpose of the library, 
 there will be no difference of opinion on the proposition that 
 its influence should begin with the child as young as possible. 
 It will not be disputed that as the children are brought to- 
 gether in the public schools in larger numbers than in any 
 other place or manner, and under the most favorable condi- 
 tions to receive instruction, in fact, for that very purpose. 
 the library should not fail to take advantage of this oppor- 
 
i84 ^ HENRY L. ELMENDORF 
 
 tunity to bring its influence to bear. It follows then that 
 the relations between the school and the library should be as 
 intimate, and their co-operation as perfect, as possible. 
 
 The free public library is comparatively a new factor in 
 education. In some cases it is an outgrowth of the public 
 school library, and under the control of the board of educa- 
 tion. This system of control has not always proved a happy 
 one for the library, because the education of children is not 
 the only function of the public library, and when the entire 
 aim of two institutions is not identical, co-operation is better 
 than unification. In many more cases the superintendent of 
 public instruction is a member of the board of control of the 
 library, either ex officio, or by election. This is as it should 
 be, but the connection should be made still closer by appoint- 
 ing the librarian a member of the school board. Each in- 
 stitution would then have representation in the board of con- 
 trol of the other, and each would be represented by its ex- 
 ecutive officer. Executive representation would be the very 
 best, because the questions which arise upon which practical 
 advice from the point of view of the fellow institution would 
 be valuable, would naturally be those of method and detail, 
 rather than of general policy. 
 
 The advance toward co-operation must naturally come 
 from the library as the younger, but more particularly as the 
 less understood institution. It is perfectly obvious that unless 
 the librarian has the co-operation of the superintendent of 
 education, principals, and teachers, his efforts will be useless, 
 and worse than useless — wasted. To secure this necessary co- 
 operation, the librarian must have something definite to offer. 
 He cannot induce teachers to adopt his plans because it 
 would be a good thing for the library, and a method of in- 
 creasing its circulation. He will, indeed, need to be able to 
 meet the objection on the part of some teachers that his 
 plans for co-operation are but a plausible scheme for making 
 them do his work. Again, it is not wise, and certainly not 
 necessary, to offer a new set of school readers or text-books, 
 even under the attractive name of supplementary reading. 
 Such books should be a part of the regular school curriculum, 
 and should be provided in the same way as other text-books, 
 by the school authorities or private purchase. All required 
 
LI r>R.\m' r.ooKs.ix scikjcjls 185 
 
 reading is esscntiall}- a part of the school curriculum, and 
 should be definitely considered in making up grade work. 
 Very certain it is that the teacher should not be promised 
 through the library a new system of rewards and punish- 
 ments. While the wise teacher will seek to regulate the pu- 
 pil's reading, and while she may even think it necessary to 
 cut down the amount in certain cases, she will no more think 
 of depriving the child of his library book on account of a 
 breach of discipline than of taking away his text-books for 
 the same reason. 
 
 What, then, has the library to ofTer to the school to en- 
 list the interest of the teachers, to make them zvaut the li- 
 brary, to induce them to undertake the work necessary to care 
 for and keep track of the books and provide the very few, but 
 verj^ necessary, statistics which the library must have? It 
 seems necessary to digress here long enough to explain the 
 reason why the library cannot forego the few statistics which 
 it requires. It is the very simple one that appropriations of 
 money are dependent upon demonstrable results, and definite 
 figures obtained from trustworthy records of use are the only 
 results which can be shown. 
 
 You can safely say, First, that the library will add to the 
 attractiveness of the class-room. Every teacher wants her 
 pupils to love to come to school, and knows that it is far 
 easier to teach happ.v, interested children, than impatient or 
 listless ones. The library will add interest. It will help to 
 make the school-room a place of jo}' and happiness. 
 
 Scco)id: The librar}- will incite to interest in and make 
 more easy the course of study. It will illustrate and ex- 
 plain the subjects taken up. 
 
 Third: It will increase the mind capacity of the pupils, 
 increasing their al)ilitv to acquire knowledge. 
 
 Fourth: It will establish a new relation between pupil aUvl 
 teacher, a more personal relation; one in which the one in 
 command gives place to the counsellor and friend. 
 
 Fifth: Good teachers regret that they have to deal with 
 their classes cu masse; that they have to hew all to a line — to 
 form all in the same mould. Here is something that will 
 foster individuality without interfering with routine. Here is 
 the opportunity for the child of exceptional abilities to rise 
 
i86 - H,ENRY L. ELMENDORF 
 
 above the level insisted upon in school, and to receive help, 
 stimulus, and instruction in the line of his individual taste. 
 Here is a means by which the teacher may discover a taste or 
 capacity in the child, which, wisely fed, may illuminate not 
 only his school life, but his whole existence. 
 
 There are many other advantages which can be urged 
 in definite cases where generalities are not enough; when 
 you are not attempting to establish a proposition or theory, 
 but seeking to awaken individual interest, and each such case 
 will call for specific consideration and application. 
 
 This work can be best done by the public library, because 
 the library is a single-headed institution, and because the li- 
 brarian should know most about the general subject of chil- 
 dren's books and children's reading. He will also have at 
 hand the means for the economical purchase of books and 
 the trained -force to prepare them for use. H it is a question 
 of money, and the library cannot afford to send books to 
 the schools, there should be a readjustment of appropriations 
 This is not usually difficult to secure, provided you have the 
 hearty co-operation of both school and library authorities. 
 Moreover, this poverty objection is seldom valid, because it 
 is neither necessary nor wise to begin on a large scale. A 
 single school or a single class-room supplied with a well- 
 chosen library will serve as a start. If it is successful the 
 system cannot fail to grow, and if it is demanded, the funds 
 for maintenance will be forthcoming. 
 
 When the preliminaries are arranged, the wise librarian 
 will make all his plans and arrangements as simple as pos- 
 sible. The work of the teacher must be made light by the 
 very simplest of records — c. g., an alphabetic list of the books 
 with space for the name of the pupil, date taken and date re- 
 turned, or simpler still, a slip with place for number, author, 
 title, pupil's name, date of drawing, and date of return, made 
 up into pads. The pupil can fill out such a slip himself, and 
 hang it on a hook on the teacher's desk. These can be taken 
 off as the books are returned, and saved for the library rec- 
 ords. All statistics should be gathered and talnilated by the 
 library, and not be required of the teacher. Not only should 
 the work be made light for the teacher, but the responsibility 
 
LIBRARY BOOKS IN SCHOOLS 187 
 
 also. Rules lor the use of the books should l)e <>f tiie teacher's 
 making. Let it be understood that the books are for use. and 
 use in every way the teacher thinks best, to be read in the 
 school, in the class, by the teacher or taken home; that rea- 
 sonable care should be taken of them, but no more than of 
 any school property; and that if loss or damage occurs, there 
 is no money liability for the teacher. 
 
 The selection of books can best be made in consulta- 
 tion with the teacher. It is possible, however, that the li- 
 brary may have to make up the lirst collection. When these 
 are sent to the class-room, it should be made plain that if 
 any of the books are found unsuitable, that they will be 
 changed; that the library has many more books on the same 
 subjects, and that any special books the teacher wants will 
 be added. In short, the teachers should be made to know 
 that the library means to work with them according to their 
 needs, and has no ironclad system to impose. The books 
 should be chosen with a full knowledge of the course of 
 study and with some reference thereto — with reference to 
 the age of the pupils and their intelligence as to books and 
 reading. A class of children from a poor community or a 
 foreign parentage will require simpler books than a class of 
 equal age and school grade from a neighborhood where 
 books abound in the homes. 
 
 Fortunately, as the number of books it is possible to 
 send to a class-room, and that can be used to advantage, 
 is necessarily very limited, the disputed question of general 
 book selection need not trouble us. It is not a question of 
 the exclusion of immoral books, nor, in fact, the exclusion 
 of anything. It is rather the selection of the best for the 
 purpose desired. What constitutes a good book for chil- 
 dren is a subject in regard to which the library brethren are 
 apt to prefer to generalize. Courting criticism for enlight- 
 enment, some of the definite characteristics which it seems 
 proper to consider in school selection are here given: 
 
 First: The book should be attractive in appearance, in- 
 cluding letter-press, illustrations, condition and binding. 
 
 Second: It should be in good English. This includes not 
 only correct grammar, well-chosen words and perfect sen- 
 tences, but words and stvle suited to the matter. This would 
 
]88 . HENRY L. ELMENDORF 
 
 eliminate entirely history in words of one syllable and most 
 of the written-down rehash of great authors. 
 
 Third: The matter should be of interest to children. It 
 should touch their previous knowledge or experience some- 
 where. 
 
 Fourth: The books must be true. Not necessarily fact, 
 for fancy and fable may be as true as the figures which can- 
 not lie, but what they pretend to be. Animals may talk, as 
 in the "Jungle book," but in a book on nature study, the 
 caterpillar should not meditate on its next metamorphosis, 
 or the peach tree plan for the distribution of its pits. 
 
 Fifth: Closely connected with the above is the require- 
 ment that the books shall be true to life and morals. Not 
 necessarily teaching patriotism, respect for parents, teachers 
 and superiors, truth and the like, but rather taking the ex- 
 cellence of. these things for granted. Seeking for the best in 
 this way will exclude the class of books which make it seem 
 •"smart" to lie, to cheat, and to get ahead of those in au- 
 thority, as well as those which tell of the good little prigs 
 who convert whole neighborhoods, beginning with their 
 fathers. 
 
 Sixth: In fairy tales, horrors for the sake of horror should 
 be avoided, more particulary fleshly horrors, like the story 
 of the little girl's nose that grew to the proportion of an 
 elephant's trunk, and the giant who provided soup meat by 
 knocking his head against a stationary meat hook, ghoul 
 stories and the like. Stories of cruel step-mothers and wicked 
 uncles are surely not the best to give children who may have 
 step-mothers or uncles for guardians. 
 
 Seventh: In poetry for children the search for the best 
 will exclude the subjective poetry which portrays only 
 the sentiments and emotions of parents. The class-room 
 library should contain a liberal supply of poetry, presenting 
 vivid pictures and sentences which can l)e acted out. A 
 simple trial will convince you how strong is the child's in- 
 stinctive love of rhythm, and how much children appreciate 
 the very best. There arc many excellent collections, such as 
 "Verse and prose for l)eginncrs," Lucas's "Poetry for chil- 
 dren," and Repplier's "Book of famous verse," which may be 
 
jji',k\m' r.ooKS IN SCHOOLS 189 
 
 considered better than the (.•'IKcted works of iiidivifhial 
 poets. Care should he taken tliat tlie compiler's name and 
 the publisher's imprint give {guarantee for the purity oi the 
 text. 
 
 These are only a few of the tests that may be applied in 
 this search for the best. Tlie wise librarian will think of many 
 others which apply to his own circumstances and environ- 
 ment. The aim should be to secure the best books, not so 
 much to add to the number of facts the pupil has, as to the 
 cultivation of his capacity to learn, his love of books and 
 his taste for good books. Lists and catalogs of books are 
 useful, as reminders to teachers, but of little value to pupils, 
 who should see and handle the books themselves, choose 
 them themselves. They should have the benefit of the edu- 
 cation and pleasure which choice for themselves gives, the 
 "paternalism" being exercised to give them only the best to 
 choose from. 
 
 The statement has often been made by careful com- 
 pilers of school statistics that more than half our school 
 children drop out of school before the age of 12. This is 
 certainly true in Buffalo. Those entering the first grade in 
 1892 numbered 9601. Five years after only 3750 entered 
 the sixth grade. The class that entered the first grade 
 in 1889 numbering 8465, entered the ninth grade with 
 only 1668 children. This clearly shows that if we are to do 
 anything for the great majority, we must do it in the lower 
 grades. If we can only teach the children who leave school 
 so early to love good books before they go, let them know 
 that these books may be had from the public library after 
 the school days are over, the matter of how much informa- 
 tion of other sorts we have helped to give is of insignificant 
 importance. 
 
 In conclusion. I wish to add that for myself I believe 
 that this work is better worth the doing than any other the 
 library does. 
 
THE SCHOOL LIBRARY QUESTION IX NEW 
 YORK CITY 
 
 One of the cities in which the success of the Buffalo 
 plan of co-opera,tion had attracted attention was New 
 York. x\s a result of the study of that plan, a modifica- 
 tion of it was adopted in which the School Board pro- 
 posed to do by itself what the Library and the Schools 
 together were doing in Buffalo. The New York Board 
 established a Library Department of its own and the 
 scheme looked forward to the absolute independence of 
 this department from the Public Library. This plan 
 seemed to some critics like wasteful duplication. The city 
 Comptroller instituted an investigation which was car- 
 ried out by Mrs. Mathilde C. Ford. Her report, which 
 created some stir, is interesting not only as elucidating 
 the local situation, but as laying down some principles 
 of co-operation that have been accepted by most authori- 
 ties. 
 
 Mathilde C. Ford was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 
 1862 and is a graduate of Beaver College, Pa., the State 
 Normal School at Edinboro, Pa. and Cook County Nor- 
 mal School, Chicago, 111., where she taught in 1889- '90. 
 She was assistant superintendent of schools in Detroit, 
 ]\Iich., in 1890-'97, lectured to teachers in 25 states in 
 1888-1900, and since 1904 has been expert in educational 
 matters in the Department of Finance, New York City. 
 As the result of wide experience in elementary educa- 
 tion, I have come to believe that teaching children to read 
 
 13 
 
192 - MATHILDE C. FORD 
 
 is the primary purpose of the common school, and to know 
 that skill in the art of reading can only be developed through 
 a great amount of practice. During the years in which a 
 child is learning to read he needs a more abundant supply 
 of good reading matter than can possibly be provided for the 
 ordinary school-room, and as the average home is sadly 
 deficient in this respect he must form the habit of going to 
 the library if his need is to be supplied. The public school 
 and the public library are co-ordinate parts of our great sys- 
 tem of popular education and they should co-operate directly 
 in the work of educating the masses. Under the Carnegie 
 endowment, New York city is rapidly establishing the most 
 magnificent system of public libraries which the world has 
 ever seen, and, to my mind, it is a deplorable fact that in 
 the very face of this vast library development the Depart- 
 ment of Education has adopted a policy which practically 
 ignores the existence of the whole library system. Instead 
 of teaching the children to use the public libraries, which 
 are everywhere at hand, the educational authorities have set 
 up a miniature plant of their own which has ten thousand 
 different branches with an average annual maintenance fund 
 of about four dollars and a half each. This ill-advised 
 scheme was adopted by the Board of Education just when 
 the time was ripe for a great educational advance through 
 systematic co-operation between the school system and the 
 libraries. The organization of the school system which fol- 
 lowed upon the consolidation of the greater city coincided 
 in point of time with the extension of the library system, 
 due to the generosity of Mr. Carnegie, and so presented the 
 opportunity for an alignment of these two educational forces. 
 There can be no question that the main function of the 
 common school is to teach people to read and all its efforts 
 should center in this primary purpose. The average child 
 in New York City attends school about six years, and during 
 this time the main essential is to help him to master the 
 process of getting thought through the printed page, and to 
 give him a taste for good reading. This is about all the 
 public school can do for the masses, and it is more than has 
 ever been accomplished up to the present time. With all 
 our boasts, the great majority of the people who attend the 
 
SCHOOL LIIIKAKIES IX XEW YORK 193 
 
 public schools never learn to read even the simplest matter 
 with anything like a fair degree of ease and rapidity. To 
 verify this statement, which may seem amazing to you, ob- 
 serve the tedious and laborious process which most people 
 go through in reading a simple story or the morning paper. 
 For the majority of them, reading is drudgery because the 
 mere mechanics of the process have never been mastered, 
 not to speak of the power to co-ordinate and assimilate the 
 thought. The mastery of this mechanical process, or what 
 is technically called "learning to read," is the most difficult 
 part of elementary school work and it is, therefore, the part 
 in which results have been least satisfactory. And why? 
 Mainly for the want of books. We have had schools and 
 teachers but not books. The child who is learning to read 
 needs books, not one book or even half a dozen, but many 
 books. His progress will depend almost entirely on the 
 amount of interesting reading at his command. He must 
 read, and read and continue to read, much as he learned to 
 talk through constant exercise, li the average child could 
 have books enough of the right sort, he would almost teach 
 himself to read with the small assistance that he would 
 naturally seek from those about him. It is a startling fact, 
 and a wonderfully suggestive one for those engaged in the 
 business of education, that about the only childen who ever 
 acquire skill in reading are those who never attend school. 
 They learn at home in the midst of a great abundance of at- 
 tractive and wisely chosen books and papers. 
 
 Some twent3^-five years ago, educators discovered that 
 the main reasons why children did not learn to read was 
 because of the meagre supply of reading matter provided for 
 the schools, it being customary at that time for a child to 
 have but one reading book. As a result of this discovery a 
 great agitation for supplementary readers spread over the 
 country, and most schools are now supplied with such read- 
 ing matter in the form of selections from standard litera- 
 ture, stories from history and mythology, and books on ele- 
 mentary science. These books are provided in sets and arc 
 used for class work, all children in a given section reading 
 the same story at the same time. But it has now become 
 clear that even this is not enough. In addition to such 
 
194 MATHILDE C. FORD 
 
 books, every child should have a generous supply of easy 
 attractive reading matter of a more general nature, and it 
 was to meet this need that the class library system was 
 adopted by the Board of Education some two years ago. 
 
 The city of New York receives annually from the state 
 about $22,000 for school library purposes, on the condition 
 that it shall appropriate a like amount for the same purpose, 
 so that about $44,000 is available for school libraries each 
 year. During the time required to centralize the educational 
 interests of the greater city, following upon consolidation, 
 the library appropriations of the several boroughs accumu- 
 lated, the entire balance available for library purposes in 
 April, 1903, being nearly $139,000. In shaping educational 
 policies for the greater city, a plan was adopted which pro- 
 vided that this money was to be applied, as far as practicable, 
 to the establishment of a small circulating library in each 
 of the class-rooms of the elementary schools. The money 
 was therefore apportioned among the various schools of the 
 city on the basis of the number of classes in each, schools 
 already having some library books receiving nine dollars 
 and eighty cents per class and those without such books 
 sixteen dollars and sixty cents per class. In addition to 
 the appropriation for class libraries, each school received a 
 small allotment for reference books to be placed in its 
 Teachers' and Reference Library. Mr. Claude G. Leland, 
 of Buffalo, who was appointed Superintendent of Libraries, 
 in charge of this work, prepared a graded list of books suit- 
 able for use in the different school years from which princi- 
 pals made their selections. It required time to make out 
 requisitions, receive bids, award contracts, and deliver books, 
 and it is only now that the class libraries are getting into 
 operation in the schools in accordance with this plan. It 
 would therefore be too soon to pass judgment upon the 
 plan were it not that it is wrong in principle. It stands in 
 the way of true progress. 
 
 A class library has some thirty books to start with and 
 an average annual allowance of something over four dollars 
 for the purchase of new books and the replacing of old ones. 
 These facts alone condemn the system, LTnder the present 
 plan, the class libraries are and must continue to be too small 
 
SCIIOOT. Ur.RAKIKS 1\ NKW YORK 195 
 
 to be of any practical value for the purpose intended. It 
 is a misnomer to call them libraries. As Superintendent 
 Maxwell said when the plan was under consideration, 'W 
 little observation and reflection will convince any intelligent 
 person that in our large schools the class library is im- 
 possible. There are about 10.000 classes in the elementary 
 schools. We have not the means to provide 10,000 libraries." 
 Nevertheless, in the face of this, the plan was adopted anrl 
 an expensive machine was created in the schools, which 
 can never be effective unless it is transformed by turning it 
 over to the Public Library and making it a part of that 
 system. Thirty books as a permanent collection in a school- 
 room is of small value. There may be more than one or two 
 out of this number that a given boy or girl will want to 
 read. But thirty books drawn from the Public Library to 
 meet the needs of a particular class at any given time, and 
 changed from time to time as occasion requires, w^ould be a 
 valuable addition to any schoolroom. 
 
 It is not the business of the Department of Education 
 to supply the children of this city with reading matter for 
 the homes. This work belongs to the circulating department 
 of the Public Library which is maintained by the city for the 
 purpose of providing books for children as well as for adults. 
 The school system is maintained for a different purpose, 
 namely, to prepare the people to use the libraries. There 
 has come to be a clear division of labor between the schools 
 and the libraries, and it is important that those who are 
 shaping the educational policies of this great metropolis 
 should recognize the fact, because this division of labor is 
 already creating the demand for systematic co-operation 
 between the two institutions. Never before in the history 
 of the world were conditions so auspicious for popular edu- 
 cation as in these opening years of the twentieth century, 
 and just because of this the need for intelligent direction in 
 school affairs has never been so great as now. It is of su- 
 preme importance that the foundations for the educational 
 structure which this imperial city is building should be laid 
 upon right lines. 
 
 The school and the library are products of the same 
 forces, they are co-ordinate factors in the mighty work of 
 
196 ^ MATHILDE C. FORD 
 
 educating the masses, and they are so mutually dependent that 
 neither one can function fully save through the other. The 
 chief instrument of both is the printed book. The printing 
 press first brought books within reach of the common people 
 during those pregnant centuries when the exploration of a 
 new world, the revival of learning and the Reformation were 
 creating a popular demand for knowledge. The popular 
 impetus given to human life by the rise of physical science, 
 and its application through invention during the eighteenth 
 and nineteenth centuries, has transformed human activity 
 and is now promising to culminate in the scientific organiza- 
 tion of intelligence and its universal diffusion among men. 
 In America, the movement for popular education first 
 gathered force about the middle of the nineteenth century 
 and has since been expending its ever increasing energies 
 in establishing public schools and founding public libraries. 
 From Massachusetts throughout the land free libraries have 
 followed fast upon free schools, and these two triumphant 
 institutions of the modern world are now being drawn to- 
 gether by the same forces which are compelling co-operation 
 in other fields of labor. 
 
 A striking feature of the great library movement which 
 has spread over this country since 1876, and which must 
 eventually make the public library as universal as the public 
 school, has been the rising consciousness concerning the 
 need of direct co-operation between these two institutions. 
 As early as 1879 the Boston school authorities began to con- 
 fer with the library officials of that city concerning this im- 
 portant matter, and together they have since worked out a 
 plan of co-operation which is now producing gratifying re- 
 sults. Chicago started such work in 1883. Time will not 
 permit me to speak in detail of what has been accomplished 
 in the way of developing a working relation between the 
 schools and the libraries in Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, 
 Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Milwaukee and other cities, nor is it 
 necessary for me to do so before this audience, as you are 
 already familiar with these developments. Suffice it to say 
 that the metropolis lags behind in this great work, and that 
 the responsibility lies with the Department of Education. 
 
SCHOOL LIP.KARIKS IX X1<:\V YOkK 197 
 
 For a number of years I have watched with profound 
 interest the development of library facilities for children in 
 the branches of the New York Public Library, and I am 
 familiar with the splendid efforts which the branch libraries 
 and the travelling- library division have made to reach the 
 children of this city, but I am convinced that substantial 
 results cannot be achieved without the hearty co-operation 
 of the teachers in the public schools — such co-operation as 
 can only be secured by means of an official relation which 
 will make the use of the libraries a part of the regular work 
 of the schools. Until the teachers themselves use the li- 
 braries, and until they send their pupils to the libraries for 
 information pertaining to school work, and for books which 
 have been recommended, no great work can be accomplished 
 with the children of the city. At present, the teachers are 
 so occupied with less important tasks that they have not 
 even time to use the small teachers' and reference libraries 
 which are found in the school buildings. LTncut leaves in 
 standard books which have been on the shelves for several 
 years tell a tale. The new education seems to have resolved 
 itself into an apotheosis of the non-essential. If the teachers 
 could be freed from the mass of worthless detail which now 
 enslaves them and given time to spend each day in a library 
 preparing for the next day's work and renewing their 
 spiritual forces, they might then be able to give the children 
 that mental stimulus which is the very essence of real teach- 
 ing. True teaching arouses the child's interest and thereby 
 creates a demand for knowledge which can only be sup- 
 plied through the wider use of books. So long as the mere 
 textbook suffices for most of the teaching in the schools, 
 our methods of instruction have not gotten far beyond the 
 traditional textbook grind, and our much flaunted educa- 
 tional progress remains a beautiful theory which has yet 
 to be reduced to practice. The saddest criticism which 
 can be made on the city schools is the fact that they have 
 no conscious need of the public libraries. 
 
 But the greatest objection to the present class library 
 scheme is not that the libraries are so small, but that the}- 
 do not connect through with the larger libraries beyond. If 
 a class library were a collection of books drawn from the 
 
198 MATHILDE C. FORD 
 
 public library for use in the schoolroom, sent upon applica- 
 tion from the teacher, selected by the pupils with the help 
 of the teacher, read under her supervision, changed from 
 time to time to meet the changing needs of the class, and 
 used primarily for the purpose of helping the children to 
 an independent use of the public libraries it would be an ad- 
 mirable educational instrument. This is what it should be 
 and what it now is in many other cities. 
 
 The class library scheme now in operation in the New 
 York schools was copied from Buffalo, but it was shorn of 
 its vitality by being grafted upon the school system instead 
 of remaining a part of the public library system as it is in 
 that city. It should be turned over to the Public Library 
 where it naturally belongs. In order to accomplish this re- 
 form, it is obvious that the Department of Education must 
 take the initiative. Concerning the financial aspect of such 
 a transfer, either of two plans is feasible. The Department 
 of Education might use its library fund for the purchase 
 of supplementary reading matter as was originally intended 
 by the law, in which case it would doubtless be necessary 
 for the Public Library to have an extra appropriation from 
 the city to carry on this work in the schools, or the De- 
 partment of Education might make an arrangement with the 
 library authorities by which the latter would use the school 
 library fund for the purchase of books to use in the schools, 
 as is now done in Buffalo. As to the details of a co-operative 
 plan which would meet the needs of New York City, I do 
 not presume to speak, further than to express my belief 
 that such a plan could be worked out by the experts con- 
 nected with the Public Library with the assistance of the 
 school superintendents inclusive of Mr. Leland. 
 
 I am aware that this is a problem of vast magnitude, 
 and that its solution is beset with difficulties, but it must be 
 faced in the near future. The demand for higher educational 
 results will compel its solution. Through all the centuries 
 science or intelligence has been slowly organizing the work 
 of the world through the greater division of labor, and it 
 is now about to compel wider co-operation in the field of 
 education in order to accomplish more effective results. 
 Having recognized that every individual is entitled to an 
 
SCHOOL LIIiRAklRS IN NEW YORK 199 
 
 education, the modern world is bent upon the realization of 
 this sublime idea, but it can only be effected through the co- 
 operative principle. The idea of organizing ten thousand 
 libraries in the schools is the product of the erroneous no- 
 tion that the school is an institution complete within itself 
 and sufficient unto itself, rather than one of the organs in 
 our great social system whose vitality consists in its re- 
 lation to the whole. The school has been held apart from 
 lite, but now its isolation is seen to be its greatest defect. 
 The school is organically related to the home, the library, and 
 the shop and the future of education lies in co-operation 
 between these several institutions. 
 
LIHRARV \ISITS TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
 
 Co-operation between school and library as it had thus 
 far developed and as it has been set forth in the pre- 
 ceding articles, had been more marked by efifort on the 
 librarian's side than on that of the teacher, whose reluc- 
 tance to recognize the librarian as a fellow educator, 
 and whose unwillingness to let even supplementary book- 
 work get out of his own hands, had been noticeable. It 
 had now become evident to librarians that co-operation, 
 to be effective, must be accompanied by more aggressive 
 work on their own side. An outcome of this feeling 
 was the system of visits paid to schools by members of 
 the library staff, now practised in some form by almost 
 every library. One of the first to recognize the value of 
 this plan was J\Iiss x\nnie Carroll IMoore, at this time 
 in charge of the Children's Room in the Pratt Institute 
 Free Library, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 Annie Carroll IMoore was born in Limerick, Maine 
 and was graduated from Limerick Academy in 1889 and 
 Bradford Academy in 1891. She took her diploma at 
 Pratt Institute Library School in 1896 and served as 
 children's librarian in Pratt Free Library, Brooklyn, N. 
 Y., from that year until 1906. In that year she organ- 
 ized the children's work in the New York Public Library 
 as a system, and has since been its Supervisor. She has 
 lectured widely on library work with children. 
 
 The subject of co-operation between libraries and 
 schools from the standpoint of the supplj^ of books and 
 
202 - ANNIE CARROLL MOORE 
 
 methods of circulating them has been admirably presented 
 from time to time by librarians who have been doing organ- 
 ized work with schools for many years. The object of this 
 paper is to present the social side of a most desirable re- 
 lationship by a partial record of personal experience in un- 
 organized work with the elementary public schools of a large 
 city. 
 
 During the very first month of work in the children's 
 library of Pratt Institute the need for active human relations 
 between the children's librarian and the teacher, the children 
 of the library and the children of the school room was felt, 
 and efforts, often spasmodic rather than systematic by rea- 
 sons of the conditions to be taken into account, have been 
 made to bring this about. While gathering statistics of the 
 number of schools represented by our clientele by means of 
 a check list, kept upon cards and arranged by school and 
 grade, both of which facts are recorded on the application 
 blank and in the children's register, we were endeavoring 
 to make personal acquaintance with every teacher who 
 visited the room, studying the public school reports, the 
 location of the various school buildings, etc., and reading 
 with interest the various records of public school and public 
 library conditions in other cities. 
 
 There are about 130 public school buildings for the 
 primary and grammar grades in the borough of Brooklyn, 
 covering a very large area. Up to the time of the establish- 
 ment of the Brooklyn Public Library, our own library, with 
 its two branches (one since discontinued and the other trans- 
 ferred to the Brooklyn Public Library) and the LTnion for 
 Christian Work (also transferred to the Brooklyn Public 
 Library) were the only free libraries in the city. There was 
 no seeking after library privileges except in the case of a 
 very few individual teachers. The majority of the teachers 
 in the elementary schools were not aware of the privileges 
 afforded by the libraries mentioned. With facilities for 
 organized work it was and is a field of splendid prospects. 
 We, however, were not prepared to supply school duplicates 
 nor to send books to the schools. We were prepared to re- 
 ceive the teachers and the children at the library and to give 
 them every possible means of assistance in connection with 
 
LIBRARY VISITS TO SCHOOLS 203 
 
 their school work as well as in their general reading. Our 
 problem then was how to make this fact known in such a 
 way as to make children and teachers really want tf) come. 
 
 We wrote letters of invitation to school principals and 
 teachers, telling them that the library would be glad to lend 
 assistance in various branches of the school work, particu- 
 larly in the study of English, in nature study, history, geog- 
 raphy, etc. The letters sent to school principals received a 
 little more notice than a general circular. They were usu- 
 ally read at the opening exercises of the school, and were 
 sometimes passed about among the teachers. The letters 
 sent to individual teachers brought more satisfactory results. 
 Many of them visited the library and procured application 
 blanks for their classes and teachers' cards for themselves. 
 The teacher's card entitles the holder to six books for school 
 room use. The books may be kept one month. 
 
 We sent, and continue to send, notices of the exhibitions 
 which are to be held in the art gallery of the library during 
 the year. A great many teachers have responded to this 
 invitation. 
 
 In order to get a better idea of actual conditions in the 
 schools, and a better knowledge of the reading ability of 
 the average child in a given grade, it was decided that the 
 children's librarian should visit five representative schools 
 noted upon our list. Out of the 130 schools 50 at least have 
 been represented in our records. 
 
 The school visits began in the principal's office, where 
 half a precious morning was sometimes spent before an op- 
 portunity of speaking to the chief functionary could be 
 granted. The visitor was invariably treated with great po- 
 liteness, the library was spoken of as "an important part of 
 an admirable institution doing noble educational work,'' 
 but there was no apparent desire on the school side for a 
 union of forces. The request to visit certain classes was 
 readily granted, and the principal frequently offered to con- 
 duct the visitor through the building. One such visit, at 
 the very beginning of the work, filled her with great awe of 
 the "system." The tour of the building was made in breath- 
 less haste, and there was no time for visits to the class room. 
 We simply rushed through the rooms. How might one hope 
 
204 - ANNIE CARROLL MOORE 
 
 to penetrate walls of apparent impenetrability and really 
 come to know the inmates? That even such a visit might 
 have results was a great surprise, but was evidenced by the 
 return of one of our old boys with several new ones, who 
 were introduced after this fashion: 
 
 "These fellers here want to join, I told 'em about the 
 lib'ry. I left my card here and forgot all about it. When 
 I saw our principal chase you through our school yesterday 
 I thought I'd like to belong again. I told the teacher you 
 was from Pratt's, and she said she guessed she would come 
 to the lib'ry some day. She's never seen it." 
 
 The visitor was usually introduced by the school princi- 
 pal to the head of the department, and by her to the grade 
 teacher to whose class the visit was to be paid. The same 
 grades were visited in each school and a very striking dem- 
 onstration of the value of books, other than text-books and 
 supplementary readers, in the primary grades was furnished 
 by a comparison of the efforts of individual children and by 
 the testimony of their teachers. 
 
 It had been requested that the regular school work 
 should not be set aside on the occasion of these visits, and 
 that an exercise in reading should be introduced at the close 
 of the regular lesson when it did not form the subject of the 
 lesson itself. We, therefore, listened to a great many inter- 
 esting and uninteresting exercises; some remarkable feats 
 were performed in the field of phonetics, by one of which a 
 little boy, who read delightfully, was cured of saying 
 "twistles" for "twirls," and promised, to my great regret, 
 never to say "twistles" again. Among illuminating sentences 
 for blackboard sight-reading the following seemed worthy 
 of note: "There are many wild scenes in Africa," read a boy 
 with lusty lungs. At the mention of Africa several dull 
 faces brightened. "Boys, what is a scene?" "Another kind 
 of animal" seemed a very natural reply. "Boys, a scene 
 is anything you can see. There are many of these wild in 
 Africa." The class sank back into lethargy. 
 
 Lessons in drawing, sewing, singing and in physical ex- 
 ercises were observed, and after filling out a list of the re- 
 quirements made upon the grade teacher we ceased to 
 wonder that a letter or a proposition upon any subject, hov/- 
 
LIBRARY VISITS TO SCHOOLS 205 
 
 ever closely allied to her own work, fails to produce more 
 than a faint shade of interest on the teacher's part. What 
 with the pressure of the closely crowded school curriculum, 
 demanding semi-annual promotions, the lectures on psychol- 
 ogy, pedagogy, art, nature study and other subjects recom- 
 mended by the school board, and frequently with most ex- 
 acting demands in her home life, the public school teacher 
 of the conscientious type feels herself too heavily burdened 
 to undertake what is bound to seem like another task if pre- 
 sented from the outside, even when presented in the light 
 of a help. She must feci that it will help before she can com- 
 mit herself to it. 
 
 From this introductory round of visits we gathered a 
 good deal of practical information concerning the conditions 
 under which public school work is done, and the various 
 ways of doing it. as expressed by the personalities of the 
 teachers as well as by the attitude of the children. We 
 enlarged our circle of acquaintance very appreciably and 
 found here and there a teacher with the book sense and the 
 child sense so united that her work was an inspiration. We 
 noted a decided gain in the readiness with which we were 
 able to recommend books to the children of the grades vis- 
 ited. The reading ability of individual children in a 
 grade varies greatly of course. I have frequently noted that 
 a child will read and enjoy a book from the library which 
 would be considered out of the range of his comprehension 
 by his teacher. On the other hand, the library assistants 
 may be so eager to swell the circulation of non-fiction that 
 the children may be encouraged to take books from which 
 they would get no enjoyment whatever. 
 
 A year later we used the various picture exhibitions — the 
 animal exhibition, the hero exhibition, the spring exhibition, 
 as occasions for school visits. Supplied outwardly with li.sts. 
 pictures, and two or three books, and inwardly with a neat lit- 
 tle speech about the animal pictures the visitor presented her- 
 self at one of these same schools, feeling sure that this time 
 she would be asked to say something to the children. 
 
 \'ain hope. The principal received her with the most 
 polite expressions of interest, and said he himself would take 
 great pleasure in speaking of the exhibition at the opening 
 
200 - ANNIE CARROLL MOORE 
 
 exercises of the school, to which no invitation was extended. 
 On her way down stairs the visitor, feeling very dubious 
 about ever making what she considered successful school 
 visits, was attracted by the strains of a violin. Looking 
 through the stairway window she saw an old man, with the 
 sunniest smile, standing in the midst of a room full of happy- 
 faced children and drawing his bow across his fiddle as if 
 he loved it and could not help it. Presently they all began 
 to sing, quite naturally and spontaneously. One felt at once, 
 even through dingy glass, that the relations were absolutely 
 harmonious between the children, the teacher, and the old 
 violin player. 
 
 A teacher who passed on the stairs nas asked if the old 
 man came often to the school. 
 
 "Oh, yes," she said, "he teaches the children music, and 
 they look forward to his coming with the greatest delight." 
 The incident, trivial though it may seem, was full of sug- 
 gestion for the matter in hand. It was quite evident, if he 
 had any other business, the old violin player had left it all 
 behind when he came into the school room. He came to 
 make music, and he played till the children wanted to sing. 
 While we cannot hope to strike the same chord with library 
 books and library privileges that is reached by a violin note, 
 for the charm of music is more subtle than the charm of 
 books, may we not hope to so master the technique of our 
 subject as to be able to present its essence as the violin 
 player presents his melody, rather than the exercises which 
 have made more perfect melody possible? Books must seem 
 to us like real life, and human experiences must seem like 
 chapters from unwritten books. 
 
 There is a certain technique of library visits to schools 
 which seems to me to consist in taking things exactly as 
 one finds them, and adapting one's self so completely and 
 cheerfully to the situation, whether it means sitting in an 
 office, standing in a passage way, rushing through class 
 rooms, receiving polite but immediate dismissal, or having 
 pleasant talks with children and teachers, as to make it seem 
 the most natural experience in the world while it lasts, and 
 to make it the basis for future experiences. Theories, meth- 
 ods, the habit of looking too early for results, and, above 
 
LIBRARY \'ISITS TC) SCHOOLS 207 
 
 all. an aggressive or a too retiring personality, must be got 
 rid of at any cost if we are to heget a love for hooks and 
 win confidence and respect for our ways of giving them into 
 the hands of those who want them, or who may he induced 
 to want them. After having made a great many experimental 
 visits and having at last received several invitations to speak 
 to the children, a more definite plan of action for the school 
 3-ear 1900-1901 was carried out in two of the public schools 
 in our neighborhood. 
 
 In accordance with this plan short lists of books, twelve 
 in number, were prepared for eight different school grades, 
 beginning with the third year in school and extending 
 through the sixth school year. 
 
 These lists were presented in two forms, on catalog cards 
 (i size) with the subject headings in red ink, and on a type- 
 written sheet divided by subject headings corresponding to 
 those upon the cards, the two forms illustrating the card 
 catalog and the printed finding-list. 
 
 The typewritten sheet was headed "Good Books for 
 
 Boys and Girls in Primary Grade," and was pasted in 
 
 the center of a bulletin sheet 22>^ x 28 in. of dark green paper, 
 with one picture of the children's room above and another 
 below the typewritten sheet. The list upon cards was ar- 
 ranged at the sides of the central sheet with a small picture 
 of the children's room below each row of cards. The heading 
 "Pratt Institute Children's Library." with red initial letters, 
 was placed at the top of the bulletin. 
 
 The bulletins were designed to illustrate talks to the 
 children on the use of the library, not as model reading lists 
 for the different grades. 
 
 It was suggested by the head of a department that it 
 might facilitate matters to speak to four classes at once, 
 about 200 children. She was quite willing, however, to yield 
 to ni}' preference to visit each class in its own class room, a 
 plan which has very decided advantages over that of ad- 
 dressing children 01 )uasse at morning exercises, aflFording 
 as it does the opportunity to become a little acquainted with 
 the class teacher, to observe in some measure the effect of 
 her personality on her class, and, above all, that of meeting 
 the children on their own ground, in a room they are used to. 
 
 14 
 
2o8 - ANNIE CARROLL MOORE 
 
 How important a part atmospheric effort plays in the 
 process of "getting at" children, it needs only a few visits 
 to different school class rooms even under the same roof 
 to determine. 
 
 The general outline for the talk, which was always in- 
 formal, in the form of question and answer, and adapted to 
 the ages or understanding of the children and the condition 
 under which it was given, was as follows: 
 
 How many boys or girls have ever taken books from 
 Pratt Institute Free Library? How many are now taking out 
 books? Why did those of you who are not taking out books 
 stop? After a show of hands, they were called upon one by 
 one to state reasons. Some of the reasons called for ex- 
 planation on the part of the visitor. Many children had lost 
 their cards and did not know how to get new ones, others 
 had moved- away for a time and had come back into the 
 neighborhood again, but supposed their library connection 
 was severed forever. Several children had given up taking 
 out books because they said they had to study, and to these 
 we must explain how the library may be made a means of 
 help in school work. *'Got tired of reading," "No time for 
 reading," were very common reasons; "Owe fines," less often 
 stated, but very often the real reason. "Too cold" or "too 
 warm," "moved too far," "eyes hurt," "German schoo'," 
 "music lessons," and many children who had forgotten all 
 about taking books. The latter swarmed back to the library 
 to take up their cards again. 
 
 In presenting the bulletin to the children they were told 
 that the pictures represented different parts of the children's 
 library. Very often a child who was familiar with the li- 
 brary enjoyed telling about it. The cards for the reading 
 list were explained part by part, l)eginning with the subject 
 heading as indicating the kind of book; the author's name 
 as telling who wrote the book; the title as giving the name 
 of the book itself, and the class and book number as show- 
 ing the arrangement of the books on the shelves. An il- 
 lustration which seemed to make quite clear the distinction 
 between subject and title was afforded by the particular 
 school grade and an individual boy or girl usually known to 
 me by name. Every book has a name just as every boy has 
 
Mr.KARV \'ISTTS TO SCHOOLS 209 
 
 a name, and if a lioy wanted to pet "Red mustang" at the 
 library he would not he likely to get it if he simply asked 
 for a book about Indians — he might be given the "lliauatha 
 primer." This proved an interesting point in several classes, 
 and there have been many evidences of greater familiarity 
 with l)Ook titles on the part of the children of those classes. 
 
 Another question which was productive of interesting 
 replies when asked at the proper psychological moment was, 
 How do you know what book to take home with you from 
 the library? "Look at the pictures," "Read the headings of 
 chapters," "Ask the lady at the desk," "Look at the tins" 
 (shelf labels), "Know what kind of a book I want and ask 
 the lady who knows all the books for that kind," "Somebody 
 says it's nice" (very common experience with girls), "Read 
 in the beginning, middle and end." 
 
 How many of you have ever taken books to help you 
 in writing compositions or in history or nature study les- 
 sons? In every class in the grammar grades a fair number 
 had taken books with this object in mind, sometimes finding 
 help, very often failing to find it. A small tray of cards taken 
 from the subject catalog was used to illustrate the variety 
 of subjects to be found in books. The boys were immensely 
 interested in a discussion of subjects, and many of them gave 
 up their recess time to ask questions. It was much more 
 difficult to get response from the girls, especially in the 
 higher grades, the range of subjects with which they seem 
 to be familiar is so very limited. In the primary grades the 
 girls were decidedly freer and more spontaneous, and when 
 called upon to describe the children's room showed excel- 
 lent powers of observation. The attention of the younger 
 children was especially called to the careful handling of books 
 at the library, putting them back in the right places on the 
 shelves with the backs out. 
 
 Five or six books were usually taken along to show the 
 arrangement on the shelves, the position of the number on 
 the back, where to look for the author's name, the title and 
 the index if there was one. These books were usualh' select- 
 ed with an eye to the teacher's interest, as being particularly 
 suitable for reading aloud or for use in connection with 
 special work for the grade. 
 
210 ^ ANNIE CARROLL MOORE 
 
 At the conclusion of the talk, which was very much 
 modified for each class, occupying in time from lo to 20 
 minutes, opportunity was given to all children who had never 
 taken books to sign applications then and there. The ap-' 
 plication form was read and explained by the visitor. 
 
 The bulletin was left in the class room for which it 
 was intended, and was allowed to remain for one month. 
 At the end of a month a second visit was paid in order to 
 find out whether the bulletin had been of practical use. The 
 twelve book titles were read ofif one by one, and the children 
 were asked how many had read each one or had tried to 
 get the book at the library. The results do not go to show 
 that as reading lists the bulletins were successful. They 
 were more so in the case of the boys than in the case of the 
 girls, but in order to test them as reading lists it would be 
 necessary to send the books with the bulletins to the schools. 
 
 Many of the teachers delivered up the bulletins with real 
 regret, "because they looked so ornamental" rather than 
 because they had found them distinctly useful and helpful. 
 
 During the second visit the children in each class were 
 given an opportunity to mention a favorite book. All who 
 wished to do this, and in all classes, except the higher classes 
 of girls, both boys and girls were eager to mention books, 
 raised their hands and were called upon in turn. The re- 
 sults, to such an extent as seemed practicable, were noted 
 for future reference, and some very unique graded lists might 
 be made from them, preferences for "Ben Hur," "Fighting 
 dogs," "Tale of two cities," "Little lame prince," and "Bessie 
 on her travels," all existing in one class of girls. It is, of 
 course, quite often the case that a child mentions a book he 
 has just read, or a book mentioned by a friend whose opinion 
 is well regarded rather than the book he actually prefers, or 
 he may have no decided preference. In order to get at de- 
 cided preferences or to lead children to form preferences, 
 it is quite necessary to talk with them familiarly about the 
 books. They were frec|uently asked who wrote the l)Ooks 
 they mentioned and to tell a little of the story. I also asked 
 them about different characters in the books. Who was 
 Robin Hood? One boy confused his identity with that of 
 Robinson Crusoe, another promptly responded, "He was 
 
LIBRARY VISITS TO SCHOOLS 211 
 
 a first-class bow and arrow shot." I sometimes read aloud 
 from one of the books I had brought, and at others toUl 
 anecdotes of authors. 
 
 In the first school visited, many of the children came 
 from homes where books were talked about, and seemed in 
 consequence much less dominated by the teacher's attitude 
 toward books and reading. 
 
 In the second school very few of the children had books 
 at home, and the personal influence and interest of the teach- 
 er was very marked. One of the teachers who conducts a 
 class in connection with the New York City History Club, 
 iiad a travelling library of 100 volumes in her class room. 
 This teacher told me she never recommended a book to a 
 boy which she had not first read herself. She reads aloud 
 five or ten minutes at every session, and has read several of 
 Henty's books, skipping the parts the boys usually read and 
 reading the parts they are in the habit of skipping. 
 
 The results of these school visits have been manifest 
 in an increase in the circulation of books and in membership, 
 in the return of large numbers of former users of the library, 
 and notably in a very much more intelligent use of the 
 children's library on the part of children and of teachers. 
 Interest in the room itself, in the pictures and bulletins, the 
 catalogs and lists, the care of the books, etc., has been 
 great'y stimulated and in some cases has been created. 
 
 Social relations have been vitalized, the desirability of 
 self-expression along new lines, as exemplified in talking 
 about the books one likes with somebody else who likes them, 
 has been suggested to many children and to some teachers. 
 Teachers who would never have visited the library except 
 by personal invitation have come and have brought friends 
 from time to time, and teachers who had never thought of 
 studying in the library itself have become devoted patrons 
 of the reference department. Best of all, the strange and 
 rather strained feeling of establishing a relationship has quite 
 worn itself away, and we are conscious of a warm welcome 
 whenever it is possible to claim it from the schools already 
 visited, and from other schools whose principals or teachers 
 have expressed a desire to receive visits. 
 
212 ANNIE CARROLL MOORE 
 
 Though full of interest and not altogether lacking in a 
 certain spice of adventure, no kind of library work I have 
 yet undertaken has proved so exhausting mentally and 
 physically as public school visiting. If half a day is given 
 to this w^ork the remaining half should be spent in doing 
 the easiest kind of work possible. 
 
 One should never start out on a round of visits unless 
 she is able to command any situation which may be pre- 
 sented. 
 
 It is far better to break a statistical record of visits paid 
 than to be conscious of a moral record of visits which never 
 should have been paid. It is true that teachers often have 
 to teach when they are manifestly unequal physically or 
 mentally to the task; but that is all the stronger reason why 
 the occasional visitor should never bring less than a healthy 
 effect to the school room. 
 
 She mus't be able to command her resources; therefore, 
 she needs time to read the books the children are reading, 
 and those they ought to read; she needs time to study the 
 curriculum which the teacher must follow out; and she needs 
 time to enable her to give such expression to her interpreta- 
 tion of the place of the children's library and its librarian 
 in the larger educational scheme as shall make her work 
 practical, vital and inspiring. 
 
\\ EXPERTMKXT IX SCHOOL Lir.RARV WORK 
 
 Co-operation Ijctwecn lil)rary and school was success- 
 fnlly nndertaken locally in many instances before it was 
 carried ont on the larger scale. In one case at least, de- 
 scrilied in the following article, it was brought to a high 
 degree of efficiency in a limited district of a large city, 
 in connection with a settlement library, before it was fully 
 recognized throughout the larger region covered by the 
 whole community. The librarian who initiated this suc- 
 cessful experiment, Edwin White Gaillard, was born in 
 Louisville, Ky., in 1872. After an academic education, 
 he engaged in literary and scientific pursuits, travelled 
 widely, and in 1897 became librarian of the Webster Free 
 Library attached to the East Side House Settlement, 
 Xew York, where his methods of co-operation with 
 schools attracted attention. They were later adopted by 
 the X'ew York Public Library, with w-hich the Webster 
 Library consolidated in 1904 and whose department of 
 work with schools Mr. Gaillard has organized and super- 
 vised. He is President of the Library Board in his home 
 town. Port \\^ashington, L. L, and was for many years 
 treasurer of the X^ew York State Library Association 
 and chairman of the X^ational Education Association's 
 Library Section. 
 
 All New York City is divided into five parts. The New 
 York Public Library has jurisdiction in three parts, or 
 boroughs, Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond. The district 
 which the library embraces is about a mile and a half wide. 
 
214 EDWTN W. GATLLARD 
 
 To the north branch from the one of the south end the 
 distance as a crow would fly is just thirty-eight miles. The 
 influence of the library, however, is much more extended, 
 as many borrowers live without the three boroughs. Charts 
 show a territory of about six miles wide and forty-five miles 
 long wherein live persons who hold and use regular bor- 
 rowers' cards. In this territory there prevails nearly every 
 phase of public library activity, from the deposit station in 
 quarry and lumber camp, in penal colonies and country 
 schools where the staff consists of one teacher and a cleaner, 
 to the great central library now in course of construction. 
 
 Confronted with such diverse and varying conditions the 
 youngest of the great libraries of the country has not yet 
 devised any one plan to ofifer in settlement of the much de- 
 bated question of school and library co-operation. Each of 
 the thirty-four branch libraries has to face a somewhat differ- 
 ent situation and in some localities circumstances widely 
 vary. To be thorough a report of the school activities of 
 the library would have to be made branch by branch. It 
 would include endeavors of the usual kinds, deposit stations; 
 loans other than books (pictures and various illustrative ma- 
 terial) ; story hours; picture bulletins prepared to accord with 
 the "Course of study" for different grades of the public 
 schools; instruction to classes and groups of pupils in the use 
 of catalogs, indexes, etc.; talks to teachers at their meetings; 
 regular monthly visits to schools; distribution monthly of 
 the "List of Additions;" preparation of reading lists; the aid- 
 ing of individual teachers to personal advancement; a model 
 school library; and consideration of the specal problems of 
 the high and evening schools. More or less of this is com- 
 mon to many of the branches. The details of each effort 
 are so well understood in the modern library and among 
 modern librarians that the subject may be dismissed with a 
 word, except to call attention to one or two conditions which 
 are perhaps exceptional. 
 
 The Board of Education of the City of New York has 
 established an excellent department of school libraries which 
 provides books both for circulation and reference use. That 
 department has organized in the three boroughs 5836 class 
 libraries in 260 schools, with 321,921 volumes. The records 
 
AN EXPI':klMl-:\T 215 
 
 show a home circulation in these boroughs for one-half ot 
 the school year of 1,849,345 volumes, and a reference use of 
 107.457 volumes. This is a total annual use of about four 
 million volumes. The graded, annotated catalog of class 
 room libraries, which has been issued by the Board of Edu- 
 cation, is said to have had a marked efifect in improving the 
 character and number of books used in this way. 
 
 In addition to the class room libraries which are sup- 
 plied by the school authorities the Travelling Library office 
 of the Public Lil)rary maintains in the day schools fifty-five 
 deposit stations, with 4069 volumes, the annual home circu- 
 lation of which is about 44,000 volumes. This department 
 has. in the three boroughs, an additional recorded annual 
 circulation through the evening schools, recreation centers 
 and playgrounds of about 155,000 volumes. These figures 
 do not include many stations in no way connected with the 
 schools, the total annual circulation of which was last year 
 450,000 volumes. 
 
 It has been necessary to explain local affairs at length 
 to show that the experiment which is now being tested is 
 in addition to a not inconsiderable united effort to bring the 
 right books into the hands of school pupils, teachers and 
 principals. 
 
 Last year, through the courtesy of the Board of Edu- 
 cation, in fifty of the public schools regular bulletin boards 
 for the exclusive use of the Public Library were erected. 
 The bulletins, in dimensions about 2 ft. 6 in. by 3 ft. were 
 placed on the main stairways. On the bulletin boards arc 
 affixed announcements of whatever matters the librarian in 
 charge of the nearest branch may consider to be of interest 
 to teachers or pupils. The first announcement is: 
 
 "The nearest branch of the Public Library is located 
 at . Teachers in this school will find it to their ad- 
 vantage to secure their books from that branch." A list of 
 all the branches for the free circulation of books throughout 
 the three boroughs, with the hours of opening, is posted. 
 On every bulletin the terms under which teachers and pupils 
 may use the library are set forth in the following words: 
 
 "For those teachers who are undertaking special studies, 
 or who are doing other definite literary work, arrangements 
 
2i6 EDWIN W. GAILLARD 
 
 ma}' be made to secure books necessary for such study. 
 These special books must be renewed monthly, and no books 
 may be retained for a greater period than six months. Books 
 are so loaned with the understanding that they must be re- 
 turned upon special request after two weeks from the date 
 of borrowing. 
 
 "Popular current fiction may be borrowed in the usual 
 manner. 
 
 "Endorsements are not required for meml)ership cards 
 of teachers in the public elementary and high schools, day 
 or evening. 
 
 "Books for immediate and temporary use in class rooms 
 will be loaned upon receipt of request signed by any teacher 
 who has registered at the designated branch. 
 
 "Teachers are often asked to endorse their pupils' ap- 
 plications for the privilege of using the library. This library 
 regards such endorsements from teachers in the day schools 
 merely as notes of introduction, and guarantors are not held 
 financially responsible for losses that result from applications 
 which have been signed for their pupils. 
 
 "Teachers who take an interest in their pupils' reading- 
 will be pleased to remember that this library is always glad 
 to send application blanks to them for distribution in the 
 class room. In every way within its power this library 
 will be glad to further practical co-operation between the 
 schools and its branches throughout the city." 
 
 In this way the teachers are informed of the location of 
 the nearest branch; that they may have as many books as 
 they desire for study and that the books may be retained, 
 if necessary, for a period of six months. They are also 
 informed that, "In other branches there are about 60,000 
 books (separate titles) not contained in that branch. Any 
 one of these will be sent for when desired, subject only to 
 the demand at the other branch." The library maintains a 
 daily inter-branch express service. If desired books are in 
 a branch nearly forty miles distant they may be ordered by 
 telephone and delivered during the same day. 
 
 It has been deemed advisable, for obvious reasons, to 
 give all work with teachers to one assistant in each branch. 
 This assistant is ranked in Class C, one grade below First 
 Assistant. She is expected to familiarize herself with the 
 course of study, to keep in touch with the public schools 
 and to know personally as many teachers and principals 
 as possible. 
 
AN EXPEklMEXT 217 
 
 The result of the experiment of last year with tift^- bul- 
 letins has warranted doublinj^- the nuniher of schools in which 
 is done work of this character. The rules with regard to 
 loans of books to teachers have been extended to all branches 
 of the New York Public Library, Circulation Department. 
 About the time that these lines are to be published there 
 will be bulletin boards in 103 school buildings. Schools 
 have been selected which are so located that fifteen branch 
 libraries form centers from which operations are conducted. 
 In these schools there are 189.018 pupils and nearly 5000 
 teachers, exclusive of the elementary and high evening 
 schools, wdiich are conducted in the same buildings. 
 
 When a teacher becomes a member of the library at one 
 of the branches where the system is in use, record is made 
 of her school grade or department, and the li^^t of books 
 which she may especially desire is entered on a card index. 
 The cards of this index are divided by the usual guides so 
 that each school is separately represented. On the cards 
 are entered the lists of books desired, the dates obtained and 
 delivered to the teachers and the dates of return. It is the 
 duty of the assistant in charge of the work to see that the 
 l)0()ks, if in any l)ranch, are obtained, or if not, are pur- 
 chased, subject to usual conditions of purchase. When new 
 books which relate to grade work are published it is the 
 duty of the assistant in charge to post such information on 
 all bulletins in schools which have been assigned to her 
 branch. 
 
 So much for the aim of the library wMth regard to teach- 
 ers and of the methods for accomplishing the results desired. 
 
 Work with the pupils is divided into two kinds, circu- 
 lating and reference. Of the actual circulation of books to 
 children there is perhaps little to relate which is especially 
 new. Possibly the chief point is the official announcement 
 that teachers are no longer "held financially responsible for 
 losses which result from applications which have been en- 
 dorsed for their pupils." 
 
 In New York the great difficulty with reference work 
 in the children's department has been the vast number of 
 young persons, each with a different need, who sw^arm into 
 the libraries during about two hours each day. Within 
 
2i8 , EDWTN W. GATLLARD 
 
 ten minutes' walk of one brancli, for example, there are 2>?>^2>7^ 
 registered pupils in the public, in addition to several other 
 large schools. In that district there are three branch li- 
 braries. They are liable to be consulted at any time by about 
 16,000 pupils. Information on any subject mentioned in the 
 course of study may have to be sought for impatient chil- 
 dren. Under such conditions it has been impossible to de- 
 vote to every child that care and personal interest which are 
 so important in dealing with such demands. 
 
 By organized co-operation with principals and with 
 teachers of various grades the probable reference work has 
 been so grouped that the very difficulty of great numbers has 
 become an advantage. The anticipated use of reference ma- 
 terial is confined to the pupils of the fifth, sixth, seventh 
 and eighth school years. The studies for these years are 
 so arranged that, by aid of teachers it has been possible to 
 prepare term plans for each of the mentioned grades. These 
 term plans were prepared by one of the editors of School 
 Work, and were based upon the work set out in the "Course 
 of study," and divided into numbered and dated weeks. 
 That is to. say, by following the term plans any teacher can 
 tell at a glance in which week she is supposed to teach a 
 given subject. The preparation of such plans involved a 
 great deal of consultation and experience. The plans, how- 
 ever, can hardly be ideal. At the best they are but planned 
 for the average class. The work has been ably done for the 
 school year. One subject has been selected by the library 
 from the term plans for each week of every represented 
 grade. A list of the subjects selected, with the schedule of 
 dates, has been printed on cards for each grade, together 
 with a brief explanation. The cards are in size 6x12 in. 
 One for each grade is posted on the bulletin boards in the 
 schools, and one is displayed in each class room of the grade 
 for which it was printed. The wording of the brief explana- 
 tion is as follows: 
 
 "Grade 5 B. 
 
 "The branch of the New York Public Library, located 
 
 at — ■_ , will be prepared to give special attention to pupils 
 
 in this grade who desire to consult books of reference in 
 connection with their scheduled grade work. The term plans 
 
AN EXPERIMENT 219 
 
 in History as published in the October and January issues of 
 School Work will l)e used as a basis for the preparation of 
 material, which will be set aside in the library for the use 
 of pupils between the dates indicated in the following 
 schedule. Pupils of this grade will be welcomed at the li- 
 brary, where they will find many delightful books.'' 
 
 It seems to be an advantage to know in advance and to 
 some extent to be prepared when a number of persons desire 
 to consult the library on one subject. Time can be saved 
 and the individual student may be given a much greater share 
 of attention. Instead of numerous subjects as heretofore, 
 the pupil is now apt to ask for only one of eight, for which 
 the childrens' reference librarian has had an opportunity to 
 prepare in advance. Pupils in this way are taught the use 
 of indexes, and that the magazine files and circulating de- 
 partment books may be used for reference purposes. 
 
 The danger of the method is of its developing a ma- 
 chine way of laying out the work and of neglecting to give 
 to it the right care and thought. This danger is, however, 
 common to all other parts of library methods, and is one 
 which some such system will aid to discover, and it is hoped, 
 eliminate. 
 
 The cost of this method of reaching the pupils and teach- 
 ers has been very little. For each branch library a card index 
 on which to keep records of books needed by teachers and 
 a few minor supplies are all that has been required. One 
 of the supplies is a special borrower's card, designed to meet 
 the demands which the regulations for teachers have very 
 naturally developed. These cards provide spaces in which 
 to register original dates of loans, dates of renewal and also 
 a space in which is recorded the call numbers of each volume. 
 This has been found desirable, for when several volumes 
 are loaned at one time, and returned separately, there has 
 not been in case of loss any support of the library's conten- 
 tion of the non-return of a volume in dispute, beyond the 
 bare record of charging on the book card. With this special 
 card there should be no reason for claims of borrowers that 
 books have been returned. Such claims were quite frequent, 
 and usually proven unfounded, before the adoption of the 
 special card. The cost in the schools has been confined to 
 that of constructing and erecting the bulletin boards and 
 
220 ^ EDWIN W. GAILLARD 
 
 the printing of notices. The maintenance in the schools 
 averages in cost just two cents for each class room for the 
 term. This estimate includes printed notices, but does not 
 include typewritten and mimeograph anouncements which 
 have no direct bearing on the schedule for the grade. The 
 value of the plan? Who can sa}^? 
 
 The task has been to learn the needs of the pupils and 
 teachers and to so order the work and to plan such rules 
 as to make possible and encourage the real use of the li- 
 brary; and to provide means whereby both teachers and 
 pupils may be told, retold and told again and reminded from 
 time to time of the library and of its ability and readiness 
 to respond promptly and cordially to any reasonable de- 
 mands. 
 
 The scheme as in use at present is by no means perfect, 
 nor yet without several defects. There seems, however, to 
 be more than a germ of value in the plan of library bulletin 
 boards in schools. The idea was first suggested by Dr. 
 Canfield, of Columbia University, about five years ago, to 
 whom credit is due. 
 
WHAT TIIR SCHOOL NEEDS FROM TTTE 
 LIBRARY 
 
 As an evidence of thorough appreciation by a teacher 
 of the fact that the public libraries have something- to 
 offer that is needed by the schools, the following article 
 is noteworthy. The writer read it before the Pacific 
 Northwest Librarv Conference at Seattle, Wash., on June 
 9, 1909. 
 
 Isabella Austin graduated from the University of 
 Minnesota in 1895 and from the Normal School at Wi- 
 nona, Minn., in 1897. After teaching in that state for 
 several years, she served as critic teacher in Teacher's 
 College, New York and in the Michigan State Normal 
 College and in 1908 was chosen supervisor of primary 
 grades in the public school system of Tacoma, Wash. 
 Since 1909 she has been Dean of W^omen in the L^niver- 
 sity of Washington, Seattle, 
 
 A shop girl was eating her lunch at a restaurant. Said 
 a friend, "Do you ever carry your lunch?" "No,"' was the 
 reply. "If I did some one would be sure to take me for one 
 of them teachers!'' Someone once asked an old lady how 
 many children she had. The answer was: "Five; two living, 
 two dead and one teaching school." 
 
 1 dare not address you as "Fellow teachers" for fear 
 you might resent it. I cannot say "Fellow lihrarians." as 
 I have no right to the title. I am forced therefore to hegin 
 with the time-honored salutation "Ladies and gentlemen." 
 
 What the school needs from the library! I. Help for 
 the teachers. 
 
222 ^ ISABELLA AUSTIN 
 
 I gather from reading library journals that you complain 
 of us in one of two ways. 
 
 {a) Perhaps you feel that we assume as teachers that 
 you exist to do our bidding, to fly at our beck and call. I 
 believe this grows out of the fact that we do not understand 
 our mutual needs and dependence. It will be less a com- 
 plaint as we grow to know each other better. I can speak 
 for the teaching corps of Tacoma and assure you that we 
 arc mindful of your very substantial aid to us. 
 
 {h') On the other hand, we hear the complaint from the 
 library that the teachers do not use the library enough. 
 I believe I can see a reason for this, too. It is not that we 
 feel self-sufficient, that we lack interest in any means that 
 will aid us to best perform our duties. It is because you are 
 a new institution and that zvc are passing through a change 
 in our idea of the meaning of education. 
 
 In days gone by we carried on the school without li- 
 braries — we could do this as well as not because education 
 meant learning by rote; text book learning alone. 
 
 This is, to my mind, the most important thing I have 
 to say to you — we do not yet know you and our need for you. 
 
 In our school lives as children, in our normal training 
 and later in our actual teaching we have not had you, and 
 we do not yet realize your resources. To get this matter 
 before you definitely pardon my using my own case as il- 
 lustration. 
 
 From beginning to end of my common school education — 
 from first grade through eighth, I never saw a school or a 
 public library. We had none, though I lived in a good- 
 sized city in the Middle West. I learned what the text book 
 told me; no supplementary reading (or rarely), no pictures, 
 no objects. My training in reading and literature consisted 
 in learning to keep my toes on a crack and my voice from 
 falling on a question mark! 
 
 In high school I had very little but the regular text. 
 Again memory work was the test. I remember well a boy 
 who was my ideal. He learned his geography word for 
 word and so recited it. If he sneezed or a door slammed and 
 his flow of words (I use words advisedly) was interrupted he 
 had to begin again. He was the show pupil in our class. 
 
WllAr SCliUUL NEEDS EROM LIDRAkV 22^ 
 
 In college our instructors in science performed all the 
 experiments for us while we looked on. When we went to 
 the library we spoke to the librarian through a wire netting, 
 and in our company manners asked for a book. 
 
 In the normal school which I attended there was a so- 
 called children's library, but the books were all text books, 
 and we were not taught how to help the children to use them. 
 We had literature, but it was all about Hamlet's being or 
 not being mad; none of it was taught in a way to make it a 
 tool for the elementary teacher. 
 
 After all this I began teaching, with no knowledge of 
 the resources of a library as an aid to either teacher or child, 
 and I felt no need for such aid. What is true of me is true 
 of thousands of other teachers. 
 
 You must make us feel our need for you. You must, 
 if you please, intrude yourselves upon our notice. Genera- 
 tions of teachers who have worshipped at the shrine of the 
 text book can in no other way be reached. 
 
 The ideals of education to-day are broader, our needs are 
 greater, and you have the material to help us realize our 
 needs. 
 
 The first thing to do is to go to the rescue of the normal 
 schools. This subject has been covered in another paper, 
 but allow me to suggest one thing. 
 
 In 3'our zeal to help students learn how to use books 
 do not neglect courses in children's reading. I have had 
 many normal students prepare lists for me showing wdiat 
 they read, as children. Such lists often show that these pros- 
 pective teachers did not have access to the books which 
 wc wish the children to know. They did not know the dear 
 old things which were on the honor lists before we talked 
 of children's literature. So teach literature, not children's 
 literature, but literature for children. Then the teacher of 
 the future will be partly of your making. 
 
 But those of us who have left normal school and are 
 now actively engaged in teaching need you. Not all of the 
 ideas which I will suggest are practical for any one library. 
 Some are stolen from library journals and some are the 
 result of consultations with teachers in Tacoma. Perhaps 
 some of them will prove suggestive to you: 
 
 15 
 
224 ^ ISABELLA AUSTIN 
 
 1. Bulletins. (I will take it for granted that the school 
 supplies you with a course of study up to date, and with 
 any outlines they may publish; that you are familiar with 
 these and with the practical workings of the school. This 
 latter from first-hand observation!) Ask for a definite place 
 in each school building for your bulletin. On this keep a 
 catalog of the library, up to date, new lists as they appear; 
 matters of interest to teachers and children. (These need 
 not be printed, they may be mimeographed.) In Tacoma 
 the library furnishes us with lists of books arranged by sub- 
 jects and grades. Lists of articles on education, especially 
 those not in educational journals; lists of books on special 
 reserve; lists suitable for special days. This last item is of 
 special importance. Due to tradition and the influence of 
 cheap educational journals we use much inferior material. 
 
 Keep the- bulletin changing and alive! 
 
 2. At the library, if you can, have a special corner for 
 the teacher and her reference books and periodicals. We 
 ought not to ask for the reference books in our buildings. 
 We should be willing to go to the library to read them. If 
 you do allow some reference books to go out, I would sug- 
 gest that one complete set be kept always at the library. 
 Where the library can afford it a case of sample text books 
 is a great help to teachers. So many teachers in small 
 places are entirely dependent on catalogs when choosing 
 new books. As a normal teacher I was asked continually 
 to suggest lists. 
 
 3. Teach us the use of the library so we may wait upon 
 ourselves. In small places this can be done informally; 
 in larger places in some stated way. Many people hate to 
 ask for books that they would be willing to seek for them- 
 selves. 
 
 4. Give us teacher's cards and make them as liberal as 
 possible. We arc selfish, however, and you will need to 
 look out for us. Perhaps we make you think of the Dervish 
 and the camel. From the library point of view I have 
 learned that she commits the cardinal sin who takes all the 
 references on a given subject and then sends a class to the 
 library to look that subject up! We are thoughtless, I know, 
 
WUA'l" SCHOOL NEEDS FROM lJi;RAkV jjs 
 
 but we never see children in smaller groups than forty, and 
 such a situation would cause us not a qualm! 
 
 5. Guide us to the best in any given subject or line of 
 work. If it is History, give us reliable History. Help us 
 to I'liul tile best in nature study, and to find the literature 
 which is akin lo those other subjects. Give us the best in 
 literature. Teach us that while we may send children to 
 brief editions, we as teachers, must get our material from 
 larger editions, first-hand editions where possible. Help and 
 encourage us to adapt stories ourselves — to be dissatisfied 
 with a fine story as "written down" in a third reader. By 
 getting the stories this way we lose all the beauty of diction 
 and often the meaning as well. 
 
 6. Lend us pictures where you can. They vitalize the 
 work in geography, history, etc., in a way which is well 
 worth while. We do not ask for expensive pictures like the 
 Underwood — just magazine clippings will help. Some day we 
 shall ask for lantern slides and moving pictures, but not yet. 
 All these requests remind me of the sign which hung in the 
 green grocer's window in my youth. "H 3'ou don't see what 
 you want, ask for it." But remember we do not ask for all 
 these goods in one consignment nor from any one library. 
 
 To return to the literature just a moment, give us that 
 which wnll feed the imagination, a generous share of poetry. 
 Do not "let us have" just the historical, geographical and 
 soberly ethical. In this material age lead us out of the 
 baldly practical into the ideal. 
 
 II. Help for the children is of two sorts. Indirect, 
 through the teacher as agent. Direct, as you meet the chil- 
 dren in the library building itself. A teacher to do her work 
 best must study the environment in which her children live; 
 must know their group peculiarities and their individual 
 needs. I believe the same is true of the librarian. If you 
 cannot make calls have mothers' meetings. Even tea I think 
 is a legitimate part of library equipment. In Tacoma there 
 is a certain earnest mother who had little chance for ed- 
 ucation when young. She has read her children's lessons 
 with them, through all the grades. One day not long since 
 a book agent left a small encyclopaedia for her to inspect. 
 Next day she met "teacher" and said: "You know I've read 
 
226 . ISABELLA AUSTIN 
 
 that book through and there ain't anything in it not in the 
 children's books. I ain't going to buy it." Teachers and 
 librarians, too, need the mother's co-operation. 
 
 1. Class room libraries. Lists made by teacher and li- 
 brarian. The teacher knows the needs, the librarian knows 
 how to supply the needs. Have these class libraries from 
 first grade up, that all the children "may be exposed to 
 books," One of our principals who has watched the matter 
 of children's reading very carefull}^ says that if he may have 
 all the reading material he wishes for first, second and third 
 grades the reading habit will ever after take care of itself. 
 A caution here, be sure in any grade that the books are easy 
 enough. We err in asking children, at times, to study what 
 they cannot grasp. Don't you follow our custom. Make 
 the books progressive from grade to grade. In upper grades, 
 when lists are put into the children's hands, make the lists 
 short, very good and annotate them (if at all) from the child's 
 point of view. 
 
 2. School libraries give the children a broader outlook 
 than the room collection alone. Here give us supplementary 
 books and duplicate collections where you can. Mimeo- 
 graphed poems and other material are helpful if you have 
 the time to prepare them. 
 
 3. Branch libraries near schools. In large places there 
 must be these. Children cannot cover distances nor pay 
 car fares. Considering the teacher's convenience alone, she 
 would prefer the school to the outside branch library. But 
 from the point of view of the child's future, his life after 
 leaving school, the branch should be independent of the 
 school. Keep the branch library up to your best standard, 
 because your suggestions are taken without question by 
 many teachers and practically all parents. 
 
 4. Of the story hour in school conducted by the librarian 
 I will not speak, as it will be covered elsewhere. Only let 
 me say that we count upon it very materially in Tacoma. 
 
 With regard to the child in the library you have a 
 distinct advantage over Us, I believe. You meet the child as 
 he really is, though you may sometimes wish you did not. 
 
 It is years of tradition and artificial usage that makes 
 the boy on hearing the school bell remove his cap, smooth 
 
WHAT SCHOOL NEEDS FROM LIBRARY 227 
 
 his hair, put his gum in the corner of his handkerchief, turn 
 his toes out, heave a long sigh, and with drooping eyes and 
 meek expression find his place in line. 
 
 But there is no library tradition; it is yours to make. 
 May you make it in accord with the child's nature! "The 
 school represents the compulsory side of education, the li- 
 brary should represent its voluntary and attractive side." 
 You meet the boy off duty and so should know him, as 
 many a teacher never does. Again, the average life of the 
 child in school is five years. Our time is short. Yours is 
 indefinite! For these reasons then I envy you. We will 
 during that five years make frequent occasions to send him 
 to you. You hang on hard after you get him! 
 
 5. Exhibits. Where possible invite the children to gen- 
 eral and special exhibits. They need not be elaborate or 
 extensive. Children often get more from seeing a few things 
 than from many. From these exhibits the children should 
 be led to further study of the same subject in books ; the 
 exhibit is in a measure a bait. 
 
 6. Lectures and talks on school subjects with lantern 
 slides or other pictures. These talks to be given by some 
 one in the library and followed by visits to museum and 
 book shelves. Such work is done in some cities on school 
 time, the teacher accompanying the children. It means a 
 greater zest in the study of books; "one book" study makes 
 us narrow. 
 
 y. Story hour and reading circles. This is too well known 
 a method to need more than mention. Ought it not to fol- 
 low a definite scheme according to the needs and capacity 
 of the given group? I read of one librarian who is following 
 local history with a group of boys. Take material that the 
 school hasn't time for and that the children cannot digest 
 alone. The story hours that so many of you give mean much 
 to us. You cannot appreciate its results unless you come 
 and see the children in school. They show an increased 
 interest in their work, have a better background, better 
 vocabularies and hence another means of self-expression. 
 At these little gatherings take special pains with the child 
 who never sees beyond the home except through books. A 
 little boy at the Speyer School, New York, was once taken 
 
228 ^ ISABELLA AUSTIN 
 
 to Bronx Park Zoo. On his return he looked at a picture 
 of a tiger hanging on the school room wall and said with 
 great interest and surprise, "Why it can walk!" 
 
 8. In the loan department control the reading matter 
 of the children wisely. Look after the boy who reads just 
 one kind of books; the boy or the girl who reads too much. 
 I like the idea of getting this latter class interested in con- 
 structive work. Teach such children to use books as a 
 motive for something active. Let them see that their books 
 have a vital relation to their occupations, such as gardening, 
 building, etc. 
 
 Where possible issue the ivhole story. Let the child do 
 his own skimming. Perhaps this doesn't meet your approval, 
 but can't you remember how you hated the story which be- 
 gan nowhere and ended the same? 
 
 And jus.t here I must stop, calling attention once more 
 to our attitude towards you. I quote from a library journal: 
 "The co-operation so much talked about is a theory on the 
 part of teachers." I stoutly maintain that if you will be 
 patient we will learn. It is not that we do not need you; it 
 is that we have not knozvn you. Give us just a little time. 
 i\Iay I illustrate? 
 
 Two little boys in Tacoma needed operations for aden- 
 oids. The first boy returned after his operation and the sec- 
 ond one said. "Well, what about it?'' Indignantly the dis- 
 appointed one replied: "Don't you try it! It's nothing but 
 a fake! I'm not a bit smarter to-day than I was yesterday!" 
 
 Teach the children, the normal student and the teacher, 
 and in time all will be well. 
 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES 
 
 It is not often that we are enabled, in case of an at- 
 teni])t at co-operation, to study reports made by each of 
 tlie ])arties to the attempt. This is the case in Pomona, 
 Cal., where both the librarian and the superintendent of 
 schools have contributed to their professional literature 
 accounts of their work, in library and school, for the 
 furtherance of education. The report of the superin- 
 tendent, the late P. W. Kauflfman, will be given first. 
 It was contributed to The Educational Revieiv, and ap- 
 pears in its ''Discussion" department in the form of 
 several letters, including a brief one from Aliss ]\Iabel 
 E. Prentiss, who was the librarian of the Pomona Public 
 Library when the plan of co-operation was begun. 
 
 Park W. Kauffman was born at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. 
 July 4, 1857. He received his education in the public 
 schools and in Wesleyan College in Massachusetts where 
 he graduated in 1880. For fifteen years he was Super- 
 intendent of Schools in Ventura City, California, resign- 
 ing there to accept the superintendency of the Pomona 
 City Schools in 1903, which position he held until the time 
 of his death, June 13. 1910. 
 
 The feasibility of efficient cooperation between the pub- 
 lic schools and the public libraries has not been as readily 
 accepted as the desirability of such interchange of service. 
 But. always granting to the schools the initiative in instruc- 
 tion, the place and value of the library as an integral part of 
 the system of public and free education is now very generally 
 
230 , PARK W. KAUFFMAN 
 
 recognized. The library must supplement the work of the 
 school, serving the adult population as the school serves 
 the children — tho its necessary methods do not permit such 
 direct authority and influence. If books of information and 
 books of power are to be of value in the life of the com- 
 munity, then the library habit must be formed; and this can 
 be formed more easily during schooldays than later. 
 
 The following correspondence is of interest as showing 
 wliat has been accomplished in this direction in the schools 
 of Pomona, California: a city evidently blessed with sensi- 
 ble and large-minded people in charge of both the schools 
 and the libraries. 
 
 Office of the Superintendent City Schools 
 
 Pomona, Cal., December 2, 1904 
 Mrs. Julia S. Harron 
 
 Dear Madam: Your letter of inquiry about our method 
 of instruction in reading is at hand. I will take your ques- 
 tions up in the order found in your letter. 
 
 1. ''Is each child allowed to select his own reading book, 
 within the large list made up by the teacher?" 
 
 Ans. Yes. And he is allowed to experiment until he 
 finds a book that will strike some fire from the flint of his 
 own intellect. As soon as he finds a book which he can 
 read with interest (it must first be approved by the teacher) 
 he reads it. He does not take reading as a medicine, he 
 takes it as a pleasure. Of course, this method of reading is 
 not used much until the children have fairly mastered the 
 formal difficulties of reading. It is used a small part of the 
 time in the second grade, more in the third, still more in the 
 fourth, and altogether in the fifth. It is based on the theory 
 that children should not only learn to read while in school, 
 but that they should actually read a large number of the best 
 works of literature. 
 
 2. "Do children have duplicates, or does each child have 
 a different book from his classmates?" 
 
 Ans. They may each have different books. Sometimes 
 a teacher groups a few children together for special drill in 
 reading, and gives them all the same book. While this small 
 group is reciting, the remainder of the class are reading each 
 his own book. 
 
SCHOOLS AXD LIliRARTI-S 231 
 
 3. "Is this the re,e:iilar rcarling of the class, or is it sup- 
 ])lenientary reading?" 
 
 Ans. This is the regular reading of the class. There 
 is no more reason for giving "supplementary reading," than 
 there is for giving "supplementary, morals." The school 
 reading is continued at home, and the home reading is con- 
 tinued at school. A pupil will read from fifteen to twenty 
 books a year under the direct supervision of the teacher. 
 He consequently becomes more intelligent, and he becomes 
 a better oral reader because he is more intelligent and be- 
 cause he becomes more familiar with words on account of 
 his large amount of reading. 
 
 4. "Does the plan work well practically?" 
 
 Ans. I have worked it for eight years and have never 
 known a teacher to drop the plan after she had learned to 
 work it successfully. 
 
 5. "I should think that the difficult}^ with having no dupli- 
 cate books might be that some of the children might not read 
 well enough to interest the rest of the class in a book which 
 they had not seen." 
 
 Ans. Exactly. Neither can they read well enough to in- 
 terest the rest of the class in a book which the}' hare seen. 
 What is more senseless than for nineteen pupils to try to be 
 interested in something which they have read and re-read, 
 while it is being read by the twentieth pupil in a more or 
 less imperfect way? We do not ask the pupils to listen while 
 one is reading. The nineteen are reading each his own book, 
 while the teacher is trj'ing to help the twentieth pupil work 
 out his salvation. The others are all quietly absorbed in their 
 own books, unless the one reading or relating what he has 
 read makes it so interesting that the others pay attention of 
 their own accord. The others are permitted to listen if they 
 choose to do so. Often they listen with great interest and 
 make up their minds to read that very book. So that a book 
 is often promised four or five pupils "ahead." There is very 
 little advantage in pupils' listening to the reading of other 
 pupils of the class, so far as its assisting them in the ability 
 to read is concerned. The difficulties of reading must be 
 mastered by each pupil for himself. They will be mastered 
 much more easily if the pupils are reading something which 
 
232 , PARK W. KAUFFMAN 
 
 interests them than if they are reading that which is simply 
 a dose prescribed by the teacher. 
 
 6. "The child who becomes interested in his story might 
 destroy the connection of one lesson with another, so far as 
 the class is concerned, by going on with the stor}- by him- 
 self." 
 
 Ans. That is just what we want him to do. He is read- 
 ing the book for his own benefit, and the Lord pity him if he 
 does not get interested in it sufficiently to go on with it after 
 the lesson is over. He is not his l)rother's keeper in this 
 matter. He is not reading the book for the benefit of others, 
 but for himself. He will be placed on the "lock step" enough 
 in other studies. Why not let him "gang his ain gait" in this 
 one? He is often asked by the teacher to give the connect- 
 ing matter between the two lessons as a reproduction story. 
 And the animation and interest with which he gives it is evi- 
 dence that the l)ook has gone to the spot. 
 
 7. "Is the average child's command of language suffi- 
 ciently good to render this exercise instructive and interesting 
 or even tolerable to the class?" 
 
 Ans. After a little practice a pupil will talk in a much 
 more interesting manner than he will read. Besides, he is 
 not obliged to make it interesting to the others of the class. 
 They are interested in their own books and do not need to 
 try to be interested in his exercise. The exercise is for his 
 benefit and for his only. The others will have their day. 
 This "pot-shooting" at a whole class is neither desirable nor 
 necessary. So far as his vocabulary is concerned, can any 
 better way be devised for its improvement than to have him 
 reproduce something which he has read with interest? He 
 naturally uses many of the exact words of the author in his 
 reproduction and thus makes these words a part of his own 
 mental furniture much better than if he had surrounded them 
 with a definition. For both oral and written language, this 
 reproduction work is invaluable. But if you had prescribed 
 a dose for the child to read, his reproduction would be life- 
 less and void of interest to him and to all who were com- 
 pelled to listen to him. Each pupil can not be heard every 
 day. But when he is heard, more time is taken with him. 
 The teacher does not need to probe him on everything he 
 
SCHOOLS AND LIBKAklKS 233 
 
 has read to see whether he undcrstanrls it or not. It lie 
 does not understand a book he will not read it, since he is 
 not compelled to read any certain book at any certain time. 
 
 As far as their general reading is concerned, the influence 
 on the children of Pomona may be judged from the fact that 
 a little over a year ago the reading of the children supplied by 
 the public librarj^ was 71 per cent, fiction. ( )ur last report 
 showed that while the amount of reading had almost doubled, 
 the per cent, of fiction had decreased to 39 per cent. 
 
 One of the great advantages of the system is its economy. 
 The money which is used to buy twenty books of a kind, 
 enabling each pupil to read one book, under this system will 
 buy twenty different books, for the same pupils. I do not 
 take much stock in the ordinary school-reading-hash-book. 
 Pupils ought to read something of some literary merit. Under 
 our plan they will do this to an extent that will surprise any 
 one who has not tried it. 
 
 Very truly, 
 
 P. W. Kauflman. 
 
 Superintendent 
 
HOW THE TEACHER CAN HELP THE 
 LIBRARIAN 
 
 An account of this same work by Miss Alira Jacobus, 
 who succeeded a little later to the librarianship at 
 Pomona, was read by her before the Library Section of 
 the X. E. A. at its meeting in Los Angeles in 1907. 
 
 ]\Iira Jacobus was born in Junction City, Kan. and 
 after graduation from Los Angeles High School, spent 
 three years at Wellesley College. She took the training 
 course in the Los Angeles Public Library, and after 
 three years there as an assistant was librarian of the 
 Kamehameha Manual School, Honolulu until 1905, since 
 which date she has had charge of the public librarv- at 
 Pomona, Cal. 
 
 There is much that might be said about the theoretical 
 relation of the library and the school. But as to this, in 
 the words Mr. Hale put into the mouth of his immortal 
 double. '"There has been so much said, and on the whole 
 so well said, that I will not occupy the time." So, not lay- 
 ing again the foundation, we will adopt the distinction al- 
 ready laid down by others, that "the library's mission is 
 to continue the work of the schoolroom along new lines," 
 ''that the school should furnish an impulse to individual 
 tastes, and the library the means to direct that impulse into 
 systematic lines of reading." 
 
 We may go at once to the heart of the matter: how best 
 can the teacher impart this impulse? 
 
 First, she must herself read books and love them. No- 
 thing will take the place of this "invincible love of reading." 
 
236 MIRA JACOBUS 
 
 The reading she does to get information must be supple- 
 mented by that she does because she would starve without. 
 And this again must be supplemented by what acquaintance 
 she can get with children's books. 
 
 So much for the preparation of the heart. What is she 
 to do in the classroom? She may first systematically train 
 her pupils in the use of books as tools. The primary requis- 
 ite is a knowledge of the alphabet. This is, I believe, no 
 longer fashionable, but it is handy to have. 
 
 The boys and girls should be taught the makeup of a 
 book, the special use of title-page, contents, and index. We 
 find many a person who does not know these things. You 
 will help them greatly if you do no more than this. 
 
 When they have learned how a book is built, tell them 
 that as books have indexes so have libraries. If you can, 
 explain the use of the main bibliographic aids, the shelf 
 lists, the catalog, the periodical indexes, etc. But at any 
 rate, let them know that a library is not a trackless wilder- 
 ness. It has guideposts and guides, in the persons of the 
 attendants. Encourage them to learn the main trails. 
 
 Teach them the proper care of books, and respect for 
 library property. Handle books carefully, and insist that 
 students do the same. If you have a loan collection of 
 library books in the schoolroom, have a formal record of 
 those who borrow them. If the class is free to pick up a 
 book and carry it ofif, as some advise, the books will indeed 
 be picked up, and not laid down again. A business-like 
 record will save the trouble of replacement. 
 
 So much for the use and care of books as tools. They 
 are ihat, but to you and me they are more than that, they 
 are friends. Shall we not introduce them to the children? 
 The schools of Elgin, Illinois, have (or had, for I am not 
 sure just what they are doing now) a very good plan for 
 this. Lists of books are copied on the blackboard of each 
 room. The children are urged to read five, and are en- 
 couraged to read more before they are changed at the 
 middle of the year. No compulsion is used, but each pupil 
 is credited with the number read. The books are freely dis- 
 cussed after reading. 
 
How Till-: TI-ACllLR CAN III'J.l' 2.^7 
 
 III Pomona we use a plan which we think excellent. A 
 list of recommended books is made out for each grade from 
 the third to the eighth. These books are all in the library. 
 The cliildren become members of the library, draw their 
 books like any other citizens, and use them in the reading 
 classes. Each child keeps a record of the books he reads. 
 He may read as many or as few as he chooses, and just 
 what he chooses, within the limits of the carefully selected 
 list. I need not point out what opportunities such a plan 
 gives the teacher to direct and inspire the child's reading, 
 to teach him the use of the library, to make him a lifelong 
 friend to books. 
 
 What about the teacher in her direct relation to the 
 library? How can she help the librarian and herself? 
 
 First, you may acquaint 3'ourself with the local library, 
 its rules and its tools, its limitations and its resources. It 
 will not take you very long to get an idea of its scope in 
 your own field. Ask to see the shelf lists and the catalogs. 
 Even if the shelves are not open to the public, you can prob- 
 ably get permission to examine them. Ask the librarian 
 what other material is to be had along your line of school- 
 \vork. If the library issues a bulletin of new books, keep 
 up with this. Then when you send your class to us, you 
 will not bewilder them and drive us into a frenzy by bidding 
 them to read what is not there and never has been. 
 
 Learn to ask for the specific subject you have in mind. 
 Let your culture demonstrate itself in your clearly defined 
 requests. A man once came to me and asked for books 
 about fruits. I gave him some general works of reference, 
 and asked what fruit he was especially interested in. He 
 replied, "What I want is the onion." I ran down the odor- 
 ous vegetable, and set before him a new lot of books, but 
 after examining them he still did not look satisfied. "You 
 see." he finally said, "what I really want is the eflect of 
 the onion on the human sj^stem." This is about the way 
 most people present their needs. The skilled and patient 
 librarian can ascertain your real object. We develop an 
 intuition about it. But it takes time, and not always do 
 we have time, and not all of us are patient, I am sorry to 
 say. 
 
-38 MIRA JACOBUS 
 
 The New York Public Library has arranged lists of 
 books for each week, to correspond with the schoolwork. 
 The books are set aside between the dates given. Other 
 libraries would do the same and gladly if you would tell 
 us what you are to need. So if your plan book calls for the 
 life of John Adams the last week in October, why not notify 
 the library and ask that it be reserved, or purchased if not 
 already on the shelves. This will be a help in several ways. 
 Library funds are usually limited, and we buy first to 
 meet real needs. Second, we usually have some necessary 
 red tape which prevents book-purchase at very short no- 
 tice. While for an occasional emergency the tape may be 
 cut, such a practice is unbusiness-like, and, if a little fore- 
 thought be used, not often necessary. Third, and here is 
 where your bread on the waters returns to you, you will 
 thus be reasonably sure of having the book when you wish 
 it. Knowing it is needed on a certain date, it will be picked 
 out from the other new books and hurried thru or it will be 
 reserved from general circulation. Or, if old and disabled, 
 it will not be sent to the bindery till after you have used it. 
 
 If you can not make out a list so far ahead, you can at 
 least let us know a few minutes beforehand if a class is to 
 be sent in for study. Send a boy ahead, or telephone in the 
 morning that they will be in for material on the tariff or 
 industrial arbitration, or Arbor Day. It takes little of your 
 time, and it helps us wonderfully. See how it works. At 
 4:30, when everybody is asking for the last novel, and all 
 the club women are getting up papers, in come twenty-five 
 youngsters, each with a hazy but urgent demand for some- 
 thing on arbitration. It takes some time to translate their 
 request into its original form, that in which you gave out 
 the subject. It takes a while longer to get together twenty- 
 five good articles. In the meantime, the children are wan- 
 dering aimlessly about. Our caustic old gentleman — every 
 library has one, and he is a fine mirror for librarians — asks 
 you if you are conducting a kindergarten, and why these 
 children are allowed to disturb real workers. Or, maybe 
 the class does not all come at once. One or two canny 
 ones do, quietly draw out the best material, and keep it. 
 
HOW THE TKAcIIKk f.W HELP 2.^9 
 
 Xo one el>c has an^- sIkmv. Now look at this pLin: word 
 comes in that the class is to use the references on industrial 
 arl)itration between the dates named. May tiie hortks l^e held 
 at the library? The books are collected, marked non-circu- 
 lating, and placed on a special table. A list is made. The 
 bo3's and girls settle down at once, and the fiction-reader, 
 the club woman, the caustic old gentleman, and the timid 
 stranger, all get their meed of attention. 
 
 Apropos of reference work, please look upon me as plead- 
 ing with you in the name of all the librarians of the coun- 
 try, when I say this. Don't draw out all the books of the 
 library on a subject, and then send your class to the li- 
 brary to look up that same subject in those same books. 
 This is the universal crime. When the class comes in we 
 may explain all day that the books are out. The answer 
 is ever the same, "But Miss Smith said we would find the 
 books in the library." I wish this was an unusual thing. 
 But it happens daily. Please, please don't. 
 
 Familiarize yourself with the possibilities of books, and 
 do not send children for information which cannot possibly 
 be had. An infant once came to me for statistics of per- 
 sons killed by fire and flood since the beginning of the 
 world. Not very long ago a youth was sent in for a state- 
 ment of the private capital of United States citizens that is 
 invested in foreign countries. The World's Almanac will 
 do wonders, but it cannot help there. 
 
 Remember that "sources" are not always to be used. There 
 is a curious prejudice among some people against the ency- 
 clopedia. I do not know why. Most questions asked by 
 most people are answered to their best satisfaction by either 
 the encyclopedia or the dictionary. But many a pupil who 
 hardly knows the order of the alphabet is sent in with in- 
 structions not to use the encyclopedia. You will say. '"This 
 research work is to teach the use of books." True, oh king! 
 So is a college exercise in the method of least squares to 
 teach mathematics, but you do not assign it to 3 sixth-grade 
 bo3^ 
 
 It is not so very long ago that a little girl in the eighth 
 grade came in for something about kitchen middens. The 
 
 16 
 
240 _ MIRA JACOBUS 
 
 child was from an unlettered family, and of no very great 
 intelligence. Knowing this, 1 gave her Champlin's Young 
 Folks Cyclopedia of Common Things. It contains a simple 
 account of kitchen middens, all that could possibly be re- 
 quired in gradework. The child refused to use it. *'Teacher 
 said not to use the cyclopedia." The only other material we 
 had was in archaeological works just as intelligible to her 
 as so much Greek. In the name of common sense, what was 
 gained here by using "sources"? It would have helped that 
 child, that teacher, and myself, if I had been allowed to 
 give her the book best suited to her. 
 
 Again, please remember that the library has its rules, 
 and the library board has scorned delights and lived labori- 
 ous days adjusting them to bring about the good of all. 
 You who inculcate obedience should not reckon our laws as 
 naught. If we do not renew books for you, it is because 
 someone else needs them. We try to look all around the 
 circle. Will you not look with us, and away from your own 
 tiny arc? 
 
 Remember, too, that the library likes order. We like to 
 preserve the atmosphere of quiet, of dignity, that befits the 
 place and its purpose. You can help us in this if you will re- 
 member not to break our rules yourself We like to have 
 teachers work with their students in the library. But when a 
 teacher treats the reference room as if it were her own school- 
 room, and disturbs its calm by long and loud lectures, that is a 
 violation of our rules and of the rights of others. If you 
 wish to show your class how to use Larned's History for 
 Ready Reference, or to discuss a passage in the Lady of the 
 Lake, ask if there is not a room you may use. There is 
 usually some place to be had, and many libraries have 
 special rooms for no other use. How can we silence two 
 young people who are noisily whispering if at the same time 
 the teacher is doing the same thing? Now I can understand 
 how the teacher may be drawn into talking about her work 
 in the library rooms; but — horrcsco rcfcrcns— what shall be 
 said of the teacher who chooses the library to discuss chif- 
 fons with her dear friends? Had you seen, as I have, angry 
 looks from men and women, and surprised looks from pupils, 
 
now TiiR ti<:ac-iiI':r tax iii-:li' 241 
 
 you would never permit yourself this discourtesy. You can 
 help us here very easily and very materially. 
 
 Hut the wise ladies answer me, yes, I return answer to 
 myself, "All these counsels have most teachers followed from 
 iheir youth up." It is true. Your Inirdens are heavy, but 
 you are always ready to help us with ours. 1 take pleasure 
 m acknowledging? our obligation, and in renaming this talk, 
 "How the teacher helps the librarian." 
 
HOW TO MAKE TTTE LIBRARY OF GREATER 
 SERMCE TO THE STUDENT OF SCFTOOL 
 AGE 
 
 The following paper, read before the Library Section 
 of the Michigan State Teachers' Association, at Saginaw, 
 Mich., in October, 1908, emphasizes some of the points 
 now considered by most persons essential in co-operation 
 between library and school. The author, Samuel Haver- 
 stick Ranck, librarian of the Public Library in Grand 
 Rapids, Mich., has developed his library to an unusual 
 degree, in the direction of practical pubhc utiHty. He 
 was l>orn near Lancaster, Pa., in 1866 and graduated at 
 Franklin and Marshall College in 1892. He became an 
 assistant in the Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore 
 in that same year, its Assistant Librarian in 1898 and in 
 1904 entered upon the Grand Rapids Librarianship. 
 
 The problem of connecting the library with school work 
 and with the students in school is one that has been receiving 
 more and more attention during the past tew years, both 
 on the part of teachers and on the part ol librarians. The 
 importance of the subject is worthy of all the thought that 
 is given to it. The pubHc school deals with the child of from 
 five to twenty years of age. though as a matter of fact the 
 large majority of children in this country are out of school 
 at the age of 13. For the rest of their lives public educational 
 influence comes in contact with these people largely or en- 
 tirely through the public library. It is of the greatest im- 
 portance, therefore, that the library should connect with the 
 children while they are yet in school. 
 
244 SAMUEL, H. P \NCK 
 
 In spite of all the things that have been added to our 
 school curriculums in the past generation, and the varied 
 emphasis placed on these different subjects, it still remains 
 a fact that reading is the most important thing the school can 
 teach the child. The ability to gain ideas from the printed 
 page, to translate the printed characters into ideas, thoughts, 
 motives, actions, which make for character and for efficiency, 
 is the greatest thing any one gets from school, for this opens 
 up and makes possible the gaining of knowledge on any 
 subject which one may desire to take up in after life and 
 enables him to feel through books the influence of the great- 
 est personalities in the world's history. If the school and 
 library fail in giving the child this ability, the loss to the 
 child is one that he can never fully overcome. To permit 
 such a failure is nothing less than to commit a crime against 
 the child. 
 
 I shall" not dwell upon this subject further, but shall 
 take it for granted that every one here believes that reading 
 and the use of books and the library is an important part of 
 the child's education. My purpose is to discuss more par- 
 ticularly some of the wa3's and means for bringing about 
 this desired result; that is to say, the closer co-operation 
 of the library and the school with reference to the pupils 
 while they are still in school. 
 
 First in importance in this whole matter is the work 
 and the influence of the teacher. The teacher knows the 
 characteristics of the child's mind in a way that the librarian 
 cannot, and is, therefore, in a position to influence the child's 
 reading in the best possible manner. The library may be 
 the means for supplying much of the reading matter, but 
 in many instances this problem is solved more or less suc- 
 cessfully without the aid of the public library. However, 
 where the library and the school are working together, side 
 by side, there is a great advantage to every one concerned. 
 
 For the teacher's influence in this direction to count with 
 the child, the first requisite is a knowledge of books that 
 appeal to children, accompanied as it must be with sympathy 
 for the child and child nature. Another essential is that the 
 teacher should be firmly convinced that the greatest service 
 the school can do for the child is to send it out into the world 
 
LTP.R\r<v AND STri)I-.XT 245 
 
 with both the ability and the desire to get ideas from the 
 printed page. It is right here that so many of our teachers 
 and schools fail — l)ut that is not a part of my story. Where 
 there is a librarian in the school building part of this work 
 which ordinarily falls to the teacher can be taken over by 
 the librarian, but even then the work and influence of the 
 teacher in this direction ought not to be overlooked or neg- 
 lected. It is much easier and more satisfactory for one 
 teacher to keep in touch with the reading tastes and the 
 intellectual and moral needs of some forty pupils than for a 
 librarian to keep in touch with five hundred or a thousand. 
 The advantage of the teacher, therefore, comes from dealing 
 with a smaller group of persons. 
 
 In this connection, by way of concrete illustration, it 
 may be of interest to refer briefly to how some of these 
 problems are being worked out in Grand Rapids in co- 
 operation with the Board of Education. In every one of the 
 public school buildings of the city, except a few which are 
 near the main library building, there is a collection of from 
 three to eight hundred books selected and maintained by the 
 library, except that the records of circulation are under the 
 control of the principals of the schools. Card catalogs of 
 these collections are also being made for the especial bene- 
 fit of the children. The helpfulness of such a school col- 
 lection to the children is universally recognized in our city. 
 A similar plan is in vogue in other cities, notably in Mil- 
 waukee and Buffalo. 
 
 In addition to these school libraries, the library sends to 
 the schools, as requested for class room work, a selection 
 of books on topics under discussion or study, in its system 
 of travelling library boxes. These boxes hold from thirty 
 to fifty volumes, according to the size of the books, which 
 may be selected by the teacher or by the library along the 
 lines suggested by the teacher, both methods being followed. 
 This box service adds immensely to the interest of the larger 
 pupils in the subjects they are studying by giving them a 
 wider range. The books are used in the school room, or are 
 taken home by the pupils for additional study or supple- 
 mentary reading. These boxes are sent out for a period of 
 four weeks, but they may be exchanged oftener if desired. 
 
246 - SAMUEL H. RANCK 
 
 The most interesting development of the relation be- 
 tween the library and the schools in Grand Rapids is the 
 establishment of branch libraries in school buildings for the 
 use both of the pupils in the school and for the people of 
 the whole neighborhood. The Board of Education for such 
 branches supplies the heat, light, and janitor service and 
 equips the room, and the library supplies the books, the 
 periodicals and the librarian. Two dozen current periodicals, 
 including a daily newspaper from Chicago, are kept on file, 
 and in each of these collections there are at least looo vol- 
 umes, new books being added from time to time at about 
 the rate of lo a month. The collections are more or less 
 of a general nature, about half of them being for children, 
 but this winter we are placing into four of these branch 
 libraries 200 volumes which have been chosen wholly with 
 reference to the work in the schools. These will be known 
 as school reference books. They have been selected with 
 the greatest care on the part of the principals and the li- 
 brary. They will not circulate except during the vacation 
 periods. At other times they will always be in the library 
 for the use and special benefit of the school children. In 
 this way there will be in each of these school buildings from 
 three to four hundred reference books, more than half of 
 which relate directly to the school work, besides 1000 or 
 more volumes for general circulation. Many books in the 
 school reference collection are duplicated and thus available 
 for circulation. Just how this plan will work out we are not 
 yet able to determine, but we believe that it will strengthen 
 the teaching work of the school immensely, and that it is a 
 legitimate function of the library to take charge of the work, 
 if for no other reason than to get the pupils while in school 
 in touch with the library, so that the library may hold on to 
 them, as it were, after they leave school. 
 
 In all of this work the personality of the librarian who 
 works with the school children is of the utmost importance, 
 not only in making the library and the books of the greatest 
 service to the child, but also in creating the desire to con- 
 tinue the use of books in the right way through life. Indeed, 
 in all work for children too much emphasis cannot be placed 
 on the personality of both the librarian and the teacher. 
 
T.ll'.kAin' AM) S'll'DI'.XT 247 
 
 Other ways of makin<r the library of service to the chil- 
 dren of school a;j:e, which we are iisinj^ in Grand Rapids, 
 are for the children's librarian to visit the schools through- 
 out the city, both public, pamchial and private, and address 
 the pupils on the use of the library and the use of books; 
 to have these children come to the library in classes with 
 their teachers to receive instruction in its use with particular 
 attention to the classification and use of the card catalosii: 
 the giving of weekly "story hours'' conducted by the library 
 at six different points in the city, and to which the children 
 come only because they enjoy the stories told — the stories 
 being designed to serve as an introduction to the master- 
 pieces of literature or to some particular book or books; the 
 giving of illustrated lectures under the auspices of the li- 
 brary in the school buildings where branch libraries are 
 maintained, the subjects of which are frequently of special 
 interest to the school work of the child; the reserving of 
 books from the circulation department of the main library 
 on the shelves in the reference department on subjects being 
 studied in school, for the special use of the children and the 
 teachers. All of these efforts help to bring the child directly 
 in contact with the library and serve to introduce him to it. 
 The instruction work we regard as of very great importance, 
 and we already find that children of eight to twelve years 
 understand the card catalogs, and can use reference books 
 and the whole library much more satisfactorily and under- 
 standingly than a large proportion of the adults. In short, 
 we are endeavoring to train the whole rising generation to 
 be intelligent readers, and students and workers on their 
 own account. This instruction in the use of the library is 
 also done for the High School students, the emphasis there 
 being placed on the use of Poole's Index and other reference 
 books in the reference department of the library. The 
 value of all this work to the child as a student in school is 
 a factor of no small importance, for the teachers universally 
 admit that the children who read good books are getting 
 much more out of their school work than those who read 
 bad books or nothing at all. 
 
 Another feature of the work of connecting the library 
 with the child and the school is the fact that the principals 
 
248 - SAMUEL H. RANCK 
 
 in the public schools return to the library the names and 
 addresses of all those who leave school permanently. These 
 are followed up by the library with a personal letter to each 
 in the effort to get them to continue their education through 
 that institution. Accompanying the letter from the librarian 
 is a leaflet entitled "The right start; or, don't be a quitter," 
 telling why it is worth while for a boy or girl to continue to 
 use the library after he leaves school. 
 
 To sum up, the conclusion of the whole matter is that 
 the library and the school should co-operate in every possible 
 way in this work of making the library of greater service to 
 the child of school age. This cannot be done satisfactorily 
 by each working alone. Each must learn to know more of 
 the work of the other. The teacher must learn more of the 
 best ways to use books and libraries — a knowledge, by the 
 way, which too many teachers lack ; the librarian must un- 
 derstand the problem of the school — a problem about which 
 most of us librarians have much to learn. And finally the 
 librarian and the teacher must know each other. Eor this 
 better understanding we have been holding for a number 
 of years an annual conference on children's reading. In this 
 conference teachers, parents and librarians always take part. 
 We must work together, and to do this to the greatest satis- 
 faction a number of details must be adjusted so that the 
 routine of the two institutions do not conflict with each 
 other. This, however, is a matter of detail and not a mat- 
 ter of principle. But it can be done, it is being done, and 
 it will be done more and more as we are gripped with the 
 idea that the welfare of the child is the one thought that all 
 of us must always keep to the front. 
 
THE READIXG OF HIGH SCHOOL liOYS 
 AND GIRLS 
 
 One of the most important problems before the school 
 is the teaching of its pupils to love books. This is difficult 
 for two reasons, first, because its efforts must be pre- 
 ceded bv home influences that many children do not 
 have ; and secondly because teaching, unless watched, 
 tends toward formality and standardized methods, and 
 formality is too apt to breed dislike. Light is thrown 
 on this question by a paper read by Percival Chubb be- 
 fore the New York State Teachers' Association at Ro- 
 chester, N. Y. in 1910. 
 
 Lercival Chubb was born in De\'onport, England, in 
 1860 and educated at the Stationers' School in London. 
 After 10 years' service under the Local Government 
 Board, he came to this country, where he has become 
 widely known as a teacher and lecturer. He has been 
 head of the English Department in the Manual Training 
 High School of Brooklyn and Principal of the High 
 School of the N. Y. Ethical Culture Society. Since 1911 
 he has been leader of the Ethical Society of St. Louis, 
 Mo. 
 
 What T have to sa}^ specifically on this subject may 
 be said in a very few words. After having said it I shall 
 beg leave to add a few remarks on the functions of the 
 library in the education of the young, and trust that I 
 shall be excused if T cut a wider swath than my particular 
 topic seems to call for: I shall not attempt to deal with 
 
250 ^ PERCIVAL CHUBB 
 
 it in any general way, but will contribute facts drawn from 
 my own experience and the conclusions to which they have 
 led me. 
 
 Let me say frankly at starting that the library problem 
 does not bulk large in my high school experiences. I wish it 
 did; but I intend to be candid in reporting the actual facts 
 of the case. The chief reason why the library does not 
 come in for a great deal of consideration is that the use 
 of the library — aye, the use of the books — does not bulk 
 large in the lives of the young men and women with whom 
 I have had to do. They do not read much either during 
 their high school period or after it. Books play but a 
 small part in their lives — that is, outside the books which 
 they use as tools in their school work or in their vocation. 
 The part that books do play is chiefly decorative; they are 
 used to adorn a room much as a college flag is used. Later 
 on, when an apartment is to be furnished, a few bargain 
 sets are added to the furniture of the parlor as a piano 
 may be, or, perchance, a Bible. What time is devoted to 
 reading after leaving school or college goes to the news- 
 paper and the magazine. I have during the past few years 
 directed the studies and the reading of groups of young 
 men, college trained some of them, in Sunday evening clubs 
 and classes; and I have found it hard work to get them 
 to read even a single chapter of an assigned book in prepara- 
 tion for our Sunday discussion. The young men and young 
 women of New York city — and it is specifically of New 
 York city conditions that T speak — devote what leisure they 
 get to the theater and vaudeville, concert and opera, the 
 public meeting and social gathering. They are overwhelmed 
 by the distractions of a great city. 
 
 Under such circumstances it becomes mere fussiness to 
 devote much time to training high school students in the 
 use of libraries. A half hour of explanation will serve to 
 induct the average boy or girl of reasonable intelligence 
 into all that need be known about the mechanism of a 
 library in order to enable them to get from it what the}' 
 need for the purposes of high school work. 
 
 I\Ty own main purpose as a teacher of English is to get 
 my pupils to love books. I try to make a beginning by 
 
READING OF HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS 251 
 
 g-ctting them to respect their town textbooks, or some 
 of the more respectable ones at least. It is possible, I 
 believe, to get them in time to become curious ai)out books, 
 about each other's small collections and the additions made 
 to them from time to time. Thus, after the Christmas va- 
 cation the teacher may invite them to bring to school the 
 volumes which they have received as Christmas presents. 
 In time they may be induced to spend a little on books and 
 to build up a small choice library of their own. The teacher 
 may bring in his own books, gloat over a new acquisition, 
 and hint at the wonders that may be found between its 
 covers. 
 
 Before reporting a few significant facts as to the relation 
 of our own school library to high school work I may pre- 
 mise that we have an excellent working library at the 
 Ethical Culture school. It is an attractive place and is 
 much used for study, research and miscellaneous reading. 
 Students like to go to the large, bright room that has a 
 charm and a dignity of its own; they find it a pleasant 
 change from the classroom. It is primarily a laboratory, 
 a toolroom equipped with the purpose of allowing the 
 students to supplement the textbooks which the}- use and 
 enrich their stock of knowledge on matters about which 
 they are studying. 
 
 Now the main fact about the general reading of the 
 boys and girls in the school, which includes the elementary 
 grades as well as the high school, is that most of the un- 
 related reading, or reading for pure diversion, is done in 
 the elementary school. This reading decreases noticeably 
 in the seventh and eighth years of school life, and amounts 
 to very little in the high school. This fact is easily ac- 
 counted for. The lives of the high school boys and girls 
 are too full. In the first place, their studies exact from 
 two to three hours of home work daily, a great increase 
 upon the time demanded in the elementary grades. In the 
 next places, their lives are full of manifold interests, both 
 within the high school and outside of it. There are clubs 
 of one sort and another — musical, dramatic, literary, debat- 
 ing, French and German circles, and other high school or- 
 ganizations. Athletics claim some time, as they surely 
 
252 . PERCIVAL CHUBB 
 
 should within reason. There are besides school excursions, 
 parties, dances and entertainments. In my view, all this 
 is as it should be. so long as these competing interests are 
 kept within bounds. They are vital, formative influences not 
 to be dispensed with. 
 
 Tn the next place the regular school work calls for not 
 a little research, and this is true not only of the work in 
 literature and history, but in science and evoi in mathe- 
 matics; for it is a cardinal requirement of our course of 
 study that every subject shall be considered from the his- 
 torical point of view and that some knowledge of its de- 
 velopment and of the great men who have furthered it 
 shall be acquired by the students. This requirement is en- 
 forced by means of one of the annual festivals of the school 
 — namely, the All Souls Festival celebration, when the stu- 
 dents present in short, memorial notices the names of chosen 
 workers in each of the tields of human accomplishment. 
 
 Naturally, the work in English calls for more collateral 
 reading and more exploration in the library than any other 
 subject. Are we studying some Homer in the first year 
 of the high school? — our textbook version is compared with 
 other standard translations (and I may say that this method 
 of comparison yields more fruitful results in developing lit- 
 erary taste and judgment than does any other method). 
 Are we reading short stories — Irving or Hawthorne? — the 
 student ranges in an excellent collection of the works of the 
 best short story writers to find parallels and contrasts. Are 
 we studying Stevenson? we quarry in his letters, essays and 
 poems. Or is it Macaulay's essay on Johnson prescribed 
 for college entrance? — then, by way of making Johnson a 
 reality, each student (following a common requirement 
 throughout the course) is expected to report on one item 
 in a list of suggested readings — Rasselas, London, one of 
 the lives of the poets, or a section of Boswell's biography. 
 Then there is much use made of anthologies to supplement 
 Palgrave's Golden Treasury, and of biographies in various 
 connections and for various purposes. Probably there is 
 no work of reference better known among our students 
 than the monumental Dictionary of National Biography. 
 But the teacher of English soon discovers that he must be- 
 
READIXG OF HIGH SCHOOL I'UI'II.S 253 
 
 ware of asking too much of his students, or the outcry is 
 raised by other teachers that Knglish is monopolizing too 
 much time to the injury of other studies. 
 
 Knowing all this, the best the teacher can do to in- 
 crease the range and to deepen the interest of his students 
 in the f)rincipal literature is ([uietly and persistently to 
 (luicken their curiosity and slowly develop a feeling for good 
 books. He will post a newspaper notice or review of any 
 book that pertains to an author who is being studied. 
 If possible he will bring the book to class. Furthermore, 
 he will find frequent opportunity for slipping in the remark 
 apropos of any work that calls for mention. "By and by 
 T hope you will find time to read that glorious book;" or, 
 "that volume, now, which you should some time slip into 
 your grip when you go aw^ay for a vacation; it is a book 
 which should be in one's pocket at the seashore, the moun- 
 tains, or in the woods," w^hich leads me to say that as the 
 summer vacation ofTers the best opportunity' which our stu- 
 dents have for miscellaneous reading, a good list of vol- 
 umes appropriate to summer browsing is one of the best 
 and most helpful library lists which can be compiled. I have 
 seen one or two creditable lists of this sort; but one wath 
 a genuine vacation flavor has yet to be compiled. 
 
 The teacher of English must not claim too much for 
 his subject and expect too much from his pupils, and, above 
 all. he must not "gush" about books. It is the quiet, assured 
 enthusiasm that counts — the teacher's ow^n unostentatious 
 reverence for books and his fine scrupulousness in handling 
 them. He must hate to call forth any pretense and un- 
 reality from his students. Soggy sentimentality must have 
 no chance. He must discount the assumption of literary 
 virtue on the part of those who do not actually possess it. 
 
 Although something of a bibliophile myself, I do not 
 lament the rather small consideration given to books by 
 the younger boys and girls; nor do I believe that the ex- 
 tensive use of libraries is essential to the salvation of chil- 
 dren. I speak of the conditions that obtain in our great mod- 
 ern Babylon, the city of New York, wdien I say that the li- 
 brary may easily usurp the place of more important activi- 
 ties. It may usurp the place of the playground, the open air, 
 
^^ 
 
 254 PERCIVAL CHUBB 
 
 nature. These things come first. Books should have a 
 subordinate place in the life of the young child. The child 
 who is a bookworm is commonly the diseased child; or if 
 he is not the diseased child, he is the child whose life is 
 so unnaturally circumscribed that he cannot live the normal 
 life of a healthy child. Unfortunately, in our crowded city 
 of New York the library may only too easily become a 
 refuge from the street and a substitute for the playground. 
 When I read the exultant statement of a librarian that daily 
 from three to five her library is crammed with children, 
 I lind myself exclaiming, "ah, the pity of it, the scandal 
 of it." Those children should be out of doors at play and 
 if their play were the time-honored play of children through 
 the centuries, it would include the vital elements of literary 
 education. For the child, books are merely the cold-stor- 
 age plant of literature. Literature should live in song, story 
 and drama, as these are handed on in singing games, 
 rhymes, ballads, dance-dramas, etc. Through these, the 
 proper heritage of childhood, the child would be receiving 
 most vital training in rhythm and rhyme, be amassing much 
 literary treasure, forming taste and liking. I am, as I have 
 ventured to assert, a book-lover; but my love of books 
 must give way to my love of children and to the love of 
 what is most precious in books — that is, the soul of song, 
 the love of story and of dramatic representation. Books, 
 after all, are a comparatively modern invention, and the 
 lover of what is preserved in them (I think of the great Ger- 
 man, Herder, in this connection) cannot regard the inven- 
 tion of printing as an unmixed good. The Greeks knew their 
 Homer without books better than we know Milton or Tenny- 
 son with them. The England of Elizabeth and of our an- 
 cesters was fuller of song and story and drama, of min- 
 strelsy and l)alladry, of mumming and folk game and pag- 
 eantry than is the whole of our own huge country to-day. 
 For the widespread social or folk culture of those former 
 days we have substituted the restricted individual book cul- 
 ture of to-day. For the self-amusement of the folk by the 
 commonly practiced arts of song and story and drama we 
 have substituted amusement by the caterer and manager. 
 What we need then to-day, rather than the unlimited 
 
READING OF HIGH SCHOOL PUi4LS 255 
 
 increase of children's libraries and of child-readers, is the 
 development of those literary arts which are proper to 
 the child as they are to the childhood of the race. For 
 this reason it seems to me that perhaps the most hopeful 
 achievement of children's libraries in this country has been 
 the development of story-telling and the institution of the 
 story-hour as a part of library work. Why not develop 
 further along this line? Let us add the song and the ballad, 
 which, like the story, are things to be heard and to be 
 participated in rather than things to be read; and then, as is 
 the case with our best school practice, let the story be 
 not merely recited, but acted — the child's way of reproducing 
 a story. 
 
 The day will come let us hope, when, besides the library 
 as one form of literary culture, there will be the music room 
 or music hall, where the lyric accomplishments of the race 
 may be known through song, as they were intended to be 
 known; and next door to the hall of song the theater or 
 hall of drama, where the dramatic products of the race, 
 which were written to be presented, to be seen and heard, 
 may become familiar to the people; and surrounding these 
 buildings there may well be the park and pleasance for the 
 outdoor story circle, for the popular gathering at which 
 the great songs and choruses may be sung, and where the 
 pageants and festivals appropriate to great occasions may be 
 held. 
 
 It will not be concluded, I trust, because I have thus 
 given priority in the literary culture of the child as in the 
 literary diversions of the people, to literature in its funda- 
 mental, non-bookish form, that I fail to recognize the fact 
 that the library has its specific and proper function, and 
 that, as an institution, it has of course come to stay. The 
 popular library with its many branches is the product of 
 modern conditions of city life and has become a necessity 
 in such a city as New York for the reason that for the 
 poor of our great cities the private library and the private 
 reading corner in the home are gone, or are rapidly going. 
 And if the reading room of the library is to be a substitute 
 for reading accomodations in the home, it is as a place 
 of literary resort rather than as a laboratory that it is to 
 
 17 
 
256 . PERCIVAL CHUBB 
 
 be regarded. Let us make the most of it as such. Let it 
 offer a quiet and comfortable retreat to every would-be 
 reader at all times, and especially on Sundays. Let it be not 
 a mere stackroom for books, but let it reflect in every pos- 
 sible way the piety and enthusiasm of the real lover of 
 books by its small cases of choice volumes, by its prints 
 and illustrations, its portraits and autographs. A library 
 should communicate the spirit of the bibliophile as the 
 art gallery or the science museum should express the spirit 
 of the lover of art and the lover of nature. 
 
 And in the spring its doors should be opened toward a 
 pleasant and inviting prospect without, so that there may be 
 reading beneath the trees in our public parks, by means of 
 small movable libraries placed here and there in the parks, 
 and, in connection with these, the outdoor story-telling which 
 has already become a feature in our summer playground 
 activities. 
 
 And may I not close with a recital of my own most 
 vivid experience as a librarian, an experience which has 
 taught me in the course of many years not a few important 
 lessons and from which I have drawn some of the conclu- 
 sions set forth in this address. Soon after the first Peo- 
 ple's palace had been built in the East End of London 
 the plan was adopted of using the large hall there on week- 
 day nights for public dancing and on Sundays for read- 
 ing. I was invited to take charge there one Sunday evening 
 of the section devoted to poetry and belles lettres. I had 
 not distributed many books to the rather limited patronage 
 of my tables when a small boy approached and asked me 
 for "b. book o' pomes." I was delightfully surprised by 
 such a request and asked, "Well, my boy, what kind of 
 poetry do you like?" to which he answered, "Oh, give me 
 somethin' bloody." I remonstrated mildly, telling him that 
 the library was not intended to satisfy bloodthirsty cravings; 
 but all the time was puzzling as to what to ofifer him so as to 
 take advantage of my opportunity. My eye fell on the volume of 
 Church's Stories from Homer. Here surely was appropri- 
 ate material. "Here," I said to the youngster, "is the story 
 of many a glorious battle. I think you will like this very 
 much;" and the lad went off apparently pleased. I watched 
 
READING OF HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS 257 
 
 him as he turned the paj^es more and more rapidly until, 
 within ten minutes, he had closed the covers. Then he rose 
 and, with a disenchanted, not to say disgusted air, handed 
 me back the book. "Why," I said, "what is the matter? Why 
 have you not read it? Do you not like it?" "No," he an- 
 swered curtly, " it aint no good." "Why, what is the matter 
 with it?" I questioned. "'Well, I'll tell yer, gov'nor," said 
 he with a superior air, "it aint up to date." That book 
 meant nothing to the small boy because he had not as a 
 child heard the classic stories, the myths and the legends 
 which might have put him into sympathetic touch with the 
 Homeric narrative. This incident served to impress upon 
 me the importance of two elements in the literary educa- 
 tion of the child: the need of laying just the sort of basis 
 which the story hour of the modern library is laying by 
 means of the wide range of stories, fairy tales, fables, myths 
 and legends with which the trained story-teller is equip- 
 ping the children; and in the second place, the importance 
 of providing also material which relates to the life and 
 experiences of the child in his own time and environment. 
 It is because the home and the fathers and mothers and 
 nurses of to-day no longer supply this material and this 
 basic literary education that the teacher, the story-teller 
 and the library are called upon to make good the loss. May 
 the library for its part continue to develop the work it is 
 doing so effectively in this field and to this end! 
 
HOW TO MAKE THE LIBRARY MORE SERVICE- 
 ABLE TO STUDENTS OF SCHOOL AGE; 
 FROM THE LIBRARY WORKER'S VIEW- 
 POINT 
 
 Library service to children of school age, performed, 
 not in the school, but in the library itself, developed early 
 as an important element in school and library co-opera- 
 tion. Although, as has been said elsev^here, this branch 
 of the subject is now generally referred to work with 
 children, it can not be neglected here. It was treated, in 
 the following paper, read before the Library Section of 
 the N. E. A. in 1908, by one who has had experience 
 both as a children's librarian and as a teacher of the use 
 of libraries to teachers. 
 
 Effie Louise Power began her library work as an 
 apprentice in the Cleveland Public Library in 1895 and 
 was the first children's librarian in that library. She 
 entered the staff of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburg 
 in 1902 and in 1904 received the diploma of the Train- 
 ing School for Children's Librarians. After serving for 
 five years as Instructor in Library Use and Children's 
 Literature in the City Normal School of Cleveland, she 
 returned in 1909 to the Pittsburgh Library as First As- 
 sistant in the Children's Department, and in 1911 became 
 Supervisor of Children's Work in the St. Louis Public 
 Library. 
 
26o ^ EFFIE L. POWER 
 
 Habits of speech indicate habits of thought. Since we 
 speak of the teacher's viewpoint and the librarian's view- 
 point we must be conscious of a difference in perspective. 
 This does not mean a deviation in ideals or a misconcep- 
 tion of each other's work. The ultimate aim of school and 
 library is the same: the full, rounded development of indi- 
 vidual character. Toward this end a body of scientific meth- 
 od has been evolved for each body. The library is no longer 
 considered as a mere adjunct of the school, although it sup- 
 plements and complements the school at every turn, but 
 as operating in its own educational field. School and li- 
 brary hold one educational ideal but we have the teacher's 
 viewpoint and the librarian's viewpoint since we can catch 
 and fix the ever-changing rays of color, coming from the 
 light of individual experience in each field. The stained- 
 glass window appears in its true form to those without but 
 with what difference in radiancy of detail to the one within. 
 With this thought in mind, I will discuss the means of co- 
 operation which seem to me to be most helpful to children 
 in the elementary schools and students in normal schools 
 who are preparing to teach in the grades. What I shall 
 say is from my particular observation and experience and 
 is of value to the extent that it is impersonal. 
 
 Let us first sum up briefly the lines of work already in 
 operation. All libraries have made some provision for 
 student reference work within the library; a table, a corner, 
 or a room where he may have access to 1)ooks of information 
 which supplement classwork in school. The earliest co- 
 operation took this form and all other has been developed 
 from it. Now most libraries have a separate room for the 
 children and a clubroom where teachers and pupils may 
 meet together. These rooms are supplied with well-chosen 
 collections of reference books and books of literature, ar- 
 ranged and catalogued with a view to school needs. Thus 
 provision is made for class reference work, individual ref- 
 erence work, and also for quiet reflective reading, personal 
 talks about books and writers, readings and story-telling. 
 Small collections called "classroom libraries'' are sent into 
 the schoolrooms to be administered by the teachers. Gen- 
 eral school libraries in charge of a library worker are put 
 
MORE SERVICEABLE LIBRARIES 261 
 
 into school buildings. Lists, bulletins, and pictures are pre- 
 pared for teachers and students. Some instruction in school 
 method is given in the library training-schools. Instruction 
 in the use of a library and the use of reference books is 
 given in colleges, normal, secondary and elementary schools. 
 This is supplemented in a few normal schools by instruction 
 in children's literature and in the elementary grades by story- 
 telling. In a few states librarians are giving instruction 
 at teachers' institutes. All this work is planned and carried 
 on according to local needs by teachers and librarians but 
 the library has taken the initiative in most cases. 
 
 Studying these lines of operation we see that they extend 
 in three directions: toward class use of books of informa- 
 tion, toward individual use of books of literature, toward 
 self-help in all library use. 
 
 CLASS USE OF BOOKS OF TNFOR:NrATTQN 
 
 Methods of reference u?e have been fairly well developed 
 and we are generally agreed in regard to selection of ma- 
 terial, but we are not of one mind in regard to the relation 
 of such use to library use in general. The children's room 
 should not be planned for student use only, since it should 
 meet the needs of the child as a child, as well as of the child 
 as a student. Here the children should be taught to use a 
 few standard reference books selected with a view to giving 
 them a basis for a comparative study of the larger collection 
 in the main reference room. The children's room must take 
 the place of the private home library to many, and there- 
 fore should give ample opportunity to seek and find the lit- 
 erature of the emotions. Reference books may be prescribed; 
 literature is for individual selection and, because of this, the 
 child may be advanced to student work in the main reference 
 room before he is ready to be turned loose in the adult cir- 
 culating department. We choose books of information very 
 much as we choose the cabbage, for soundness, weight and 
 form. We choose fiction and books of pure literature as 
 we choose the strawberry — for flavor. How can we detect 
 this flavor if we may not taste, or choose, if we may not 
 compare? This freedom must be granted the children if they 
 
262 - EFFIE L. POWER 
 
 are to develop any real feeling and critical taste for litera- 
 ture, and there is no attending danger if the collection of 
 books is well balanced, the librarian a wise, gentle guide, 
 and the atmosphere of the room such as to promote indi- 
 vidual expression. 
 
 The clubrooms within the library provide a place for 
 formal instruction and practically put the whole resources 
 of the library at the service of the teachers in the nearby 
 schools. Rare and beautifully illustrated books, pictures, 
 and museum specimens may here be used to extend regular 
 classwork, and the use of these rooms by teachers and pu- 
 pils should not only be allowed but encouraged by super- 
 intendents. 
 
 Library lists for teacher's use with children should include 
 a good many titles closely classified as to subject but not 
 closely graded. The notes should be first descriptive and 
 then critical, clear, definite, and simple rather than literary. 
 Book specialists are apt to make notes which presuppose 
 a knowledge of the book and the class to which it belongs. 
 Most of our large libraries receive all publications for chil- 
 dren on approval and the books which are put into the library 
 collections are a very small per cent, of the books actually 
 read by the director of the children's work and her helpers. 
 This wide reading and constant discrimination gives them 
 an outlook which is not possible to busy teachers who are 
 specializing along many lines. It seems to me that the li- 
 brarians who have this opportunity for comparative study 
 of books should make the complete, annotated list, and that 
 the teacher who comes into close contact with the children 
 and has a full knowledge of their immediate needs should 
 make the selected list. Lists to be put into the children's hands 
 should be short, of the best, and annotated from the child's 
 point of view. Complete finding lists are for mothers, teach- 
 ers, and librarians and, since they necessarily include many 
 books, for use under supervision. 
 
 INDIVIDUAL USE OF BOOKS OF LITERATURE 
 
 The clubwork, reading circles, and story hours, carried on 
 by librarians, is the highest development of work with stu- 
 
MORE SERVICEABLE LIBRARIES 263 
 
 dents within the library and cannot fail to make itself felt in 
 the schools to the extent to which it develops feeling, judg- 
 ment, independent thinking, and fredom of expression. The 
 object of the Cleveland library clubs is to stimulate thought- 
 ful reading among children who are not directed by other 
 means. Since the membership is entirely voluntary, the read- 
 ing is recreative and follows the interests of the children. 
 The director of children's work says: "They are not study- 
 clubs in the sense of requiring concentrated effort for any 
 length of time. Such clubs would be an infringement upon 
 schoolwork." This work is not new and is being carried on 
 in many libraries but some recent Cleveland experiences 
 will serve to show the club's opportunity with children and 
 its relation to schoolwork. A library worker had met a 
 group of girls from the sixth and seventh grades. They 
 were considering what they should first read together when 
 one of the girls seized upon Eva March Tappan's In the 
 Days of Queen Elizahe^th, saying, "Oh ! may we read this ? 
 We are studying English history in school." This book, 
 read together, became the center of a many-sided interest, 
 and during the winter these girls known among clubs as 
 the Elizabethans, read: Kenihvorth, Prince and Pauper, Men 
 of Iron, Master Skylark, and Marshall's Island Story. An- 
 other club prepared a travel talk on Japan which they gave 
 with stereopticon pictures before two audiences of children, 
 and one club delivered orations by Webster, Clay, Lincoln, 
 Henry, and Sumner. 
 
 Thoughtful story-telling within the library has proved a' 
 most practical means of directing children's reading along 
 definite lines. Experience in the children's room also re- 
 veals the fact that when left to his own volition the little 
 child first reads the stories which have been told and read 
 to him by mother and teacher. It is also true that the child 
 whose ear is not trained to the rhythmic movement of 
 Mother Goose, stories in verse, and other simple dramatic 
 poetry, never chooses to read poetry for his own pleasure. 
 
 Stories may occasionally be told in the classroom by the chil- 
 dren's librarian. She knows books and through special training 
 and experience comes to know children. She represents a source 
 of good books to the children and any story she may tell 
 
264 . EFFIE L. POWER 
 
 may form a connecting link to a chain of good books. In 
 selecting suitable material the teacher should not always 
 require the historical, scientific and plainly ethical tale which 
 is a unit of immediate value, and depreciate the imaginative 
 story which leads to the reading of the world's great litera- 
 ture. 
 
 To direct the children's home reading and form their lit- 
 erary taste is a part of the teacher's duty: therefore the li- 
 brarian must never be asked to tell all the stories. As soon 
 as the pupils have the power to read for themselves with 
 any pleasure, it becomes the business of the school to use 
 this power for their richer nurture. The little child enters 
 school with mind alert and sympathies keen. Though im- 
 mature he is already an individual who must be helped to 
 intelligent self-direction in the larger life of the outside world. 
 He cannot be molded into manhood; he must grow into such 
 fulness of life as his own nature makes possible. This 
 growth depends upon the ever-changing capacity of his 
 heart and mind and the ever-varying conditions of his en- 
 vironment. It is the chief business of the teacher to supply 
 in attractive form the elements necessary for growth and 
 actual living, and life in literature best meets this need. The 
 child must have vital contact with the actual world, but 
 his actual experiences do not come fast enough to fit him for all 
 emergencies. He needs the experience of others and out of the 
 primitive life of the race have come tales that delight all children, 
 satisfy their present wants, enlarge their vision and stimulate to 
 noble action. The hero is brave and courageous, with fore- 
 thought, he is loyal to his friends and kind to every living 
 creature; he acts with vigor and decision, outwits his ene- 
 mies and triumphs over every difficulty because his cause 
 is righteous. All the nobility of purpose of many heroes 
 in real life are concentrated in the soul of this ideal hero 
 and through him the children get association with a noble 
 company. In this, pure literature equals if not surpasses his- 
 tory. The writer of history is limited in his choice of sub- 
 ject and freedom of action; the creator of pure literature 
 has the whole range of life itself. 
 
 The tcaclicr needs to use literature in creating environ- 
 ment because it embodies a wide range of experience and 
 
MORE SERVICKAIU.K TJP.KARIES 265 
 
 because it presents the (ordinary events in life in artistic guise. 
 It is the ideal self which feels and acts in the poet's crea- 
 tion and the growing boy or girl who shrinks from revealing 
 his deepest feeling may enter into this life without any em- 
 barrassment, because he is lifted above self-consciousness, 
 lie is removed for the time from the range of his imme- 
 diate experience, but he comes back to it with new sympathy 
 and freedom. Literature is indeed life, in solution. Shall 
 we consider it merely as a recreation, a diversion, a peg 
 upon which to hang morals? 
 
 Following the early conception of the relation of the 
 library to students, the first classroom libraries were sent 
 into the higher grades of the elementary schools. The grad- 
 ual acceptance of these libraries as a formative influence 
 has changed the point of contact to the lower grades and the 
 point of contact necessarily affects the selection. In these 
 early grades, books are largely used as a means for stimu- 
 lating language expression and the selection is naturally 
 determined by the children's interests. We find the inex- 
 perienced teacher who has developed very little theory in 
 regard to children's reading but who understands children, 
 intuitively selecting simple poetry, fairy tales, and stories 
 which are the best possible literature for little children be- 
 cause such literature presents subjects the children like to 
 talk about. Beginning with the fourth grade there is a 
 more conscious purpose on the teacher's part of creating 
 new interests which lead to a demand for books of informa- 
 tion along many lines. The small collection no longer 
 answers the whole need of the class. There is an immediate 
 need for technical books which must be met and the larger 
 need of books to feed the life giving spirit tends to become 
 secondary. This condition may be met by placing a gen- 
 eral library in or near the school building. Let this col- 
 lection contain technical books, books in sets, standard lit- 
 erature, and many books for the occasional child. The ques- 
 tion now arises as to whether this general library shall be 
 supplemented by classroom libraries in every grade. First 
 of all I would ask the library to provide, and liberally, for 
 the lower grades. As to later book needs, if the teachers 
 have ample opportunity for oral work in literature in the 
 
266 . EFFIE L. POWER 
 
 lower grades, and the librarian in charge of the general 
 library has time for personal work in her relation to all the 
 children, there is no great need for classroom libraries be- 
 yond the fourth grade. 
 
 These school and classroom libraries should be under 
 the supervision of a librarian with teaching experience who 
 is able and ready to assist at teachers' conferences, insti- 
 tutes, mothers' meetings, and wherever children's reading 
 is in question. She can best win recognition of her cause 
 through the practical presentation of the literature she stands 
 for. When she is invited to come before any company, let 
 her drop her theory in part, select a few points, illustrate 
 fully from available sources and she will be accepted. Her 
 assistants should be as carefully chosen as any worker within 
 the library and this is possible since the school libraries 
 need not be open more than two afternoons a week. 
 
 SELF-HELP 
 
 The work of teaching the children to use the library 
 should be shared between the librarian and the teacher. In 
 giving this instruction both should remember that there 
 must be a real feeling for books before any interest in the 
 library as a source of books or the catalogue as a means 
 to books can be aroused. That such teaching is desirable 
 is wholly accepted in theory but methods are still in the ex- 
 perimental stage. We began with courses in bibliography 
 in the college and have gone on to the source of student 
 life; to the child, and the teacher behind the child. We have 
 come trailing some glory and some dust of preconceived no- 
 tions. We ask the child to look up unfamiliar words in a 
 dictionary and unknown subjects in an encyclopedia and ex- 
 pect him to show all the keen delight of a bibliophile. If 
 the point of contact be the use of reference books, let a 
 familiar subject be assigned and let the book tell some things 
 already known. 
 
 Some defmite instruction in the use of a few standard 
 reference books should be given to children beginning with 
 the fourth grade. In order that it may begin at a point 
 of interest, it should be given to individuals or classes rather 
 than groups and may well be related to schoolwork. The 
 
MORE SERVICEABLE LIBRARIES 267 
 
 person giving this instruction should follow it with the 
 children until they see some finished product, whether it 
 be to the recitation room to hear "more than tlic history 
 book tells about the battle of Bull Run" or to the back yard 
 to see a pigeon house. One visit will fairly overwhelm her 
 with confidence as to the result of other researches, "I 
 found out one thing that wasn't in the poem at all. I found 
 what they did with Paul Revere's horse," said a boy with 
 shining eyes. Such is the spirit of live questioning. Books 
 are dead things to the child who is laboriously copying para- 
 graphs on the early life of Henry W. Longfellow, the middle 
 life of Henry W. Longfellow, and the later life of Henry W. 
 Longfellow. 
 
 The course in the Cleveland Normal School is planned to 
 help the students to help themselves and, to be consistent, 
 we have no librarian. The students charge and discharge 
 their own books and put them on the shelves. They do the 
 mechanical preparation of new books, write book cards and 
 shelf list cards, and take an inventory once a year. The 
 cards are not always in best form, but they are clear and the 
 record is accurate. The instruction in the library use is 
 given as early as possible and except for a little help now and 
 then each student is her own reference librarian. We do not 
 have all the problems that face the state normal school, as 
 our student body numbers about two hundred and is regular 
 in attendance, but I believe the working principle can be the 
 same under all conditions. Instruction lessens the need of 
 immediate service on the part of the librarian and leads 
 to more independent research on the part of the student. 
 The routine does not run so smoothly when your inspira- 
 tion is weeks back and rooms away, but in time there comes 
 a consciousness of strength into the student's manner among 
 the books which is worth more than exact detail. I bring 
 this into this discussion to persuade the school librarians to 
 allow the students to do some part of the work even though 
 it seems at first to be a sacrifice. 
 
INSTRUCTION IN THE USE OF BOOKS IN A 
 NORMAL SCHOOL 
 
 If the teacher is to include in his duties the instruc- 
 tion of his pupils in the use of books, especially library- 
 books, evidently he himself must be trained to impart 
 this information. Hence the necessity of including li- 
 brary economy in some form in the curricula of normal 
 schools. An additional reason, of course, is that the 
 teacher may be called upon to organize and direct a 
 school library in his own institution. The papers that 
 follow bear on this subject of library instruction in nor- 
 mal courses. 
 
 First we have one of the earliest experiments in teach- 
 ing the "use of books" in a normal school, made in 1896 
 in the school at Stevens Point, Wis., by Miss Warren, 
 who was then its librarian. She describes it in the fol- 
 lowing article, contributed to Public Libraries in May, 
 1898. 
 
 Irene Warren is a graduate of the Chicago public 
 schools in 1893 and of the Armour Institute Library 
 School in 1896. She was librarian, and instructor in 
 library economy, in the State Nonnal School at Stevens 
 Point, Wis., in 1896-'97, librarian of Chicago Normal 
 School in 1897-'99, librarian and instructor in Chicago 
 Institute in 1900 and librarian and instructor in the school 
 of library economics. University of Chicago, since 1901. 
 She received the degree of Ph. D. from the University 
 
270 IRENE WARREN 
 
 in 1905. She has also been connected with several of the 
 summer library schools. 
 
 Emerson appreciated the great lack of an intelligent use 
 of books when he wrote: The colleges, whilst they provide 
 us with libraries, furnish no professor of books; and I think 
 no chair so much needed. F. B. Perkins expressed the same 
 want in a paper for the 1876 Government report on libraries, 
 when he wrote: Not the history of literature, nor any one 
 literature, nor any one department of literature, nor the 
 grammar of any language, nor any one language, nor lan- 
 guage itself, nor any form of its use, nor even any particular 
 form of thought. It is something higher than any one of 
 these; it is not any one subject, nor any field of investiga- 
 tion, but it is a method for investigating any subject in the 
 primitive records of human thought. It might be compared 
 with the calculus in applied mathematics, it is a means of 
 following up swiftly and thoroughly the best researches 
 in any direction, and then pushing them further; it seeks to 
 give a last and highest training for enlarging any desired de- 
 partment of human knowledge. It is the science and art 
 of reading for a purpose; it is a calculus of applied literature. 
 
 It was these ideas that encouraged me to formulate 
 a remedy for the lack every thoughtful schoolchild feels so 
 strongly all through his school course. With the help of a 
 very interested president the work was started at the State 
 normal school, Stevens Point, Wis. The normal and pre- 
 paratory classes were divided into eight sections of about 
 35 pupils each. One section met one half hour each day, 
 four days a week. The time was so short and the amount 
 to bring before them so great, that the half hour was gen- 
 erally taken to talk to them, and then a list of questions bul- 
 letined that brought out the points taken up, which the 
 pupils answered and handed in for correction. We only 
 studied such books as were there in the Normal school li- 
 brary. The plan of the work was as follows: 
 
 i) Students were taken into the library and its working 
 principles explained — the arrangement of books on the shelves, 
 the use of the card catalog and bulletin boards, the rules 
 and regulations read, what the librarian expected of the 
 pupils and what they could expect of her. 
 
BOOK-INSTRUCTION IN NORMAL SCHOOLS 271 
 
 2) Dictionaries. 
 
 3) Cyclopedias. 
 
 4) Other reference books: Appleton's annual cyclopedia, 
 Poole's index, Annual literary index and Cumulative index. 
 Century cyclopedia of names, Lippincott's gazetteer, Har- 
 per's book of facts, etc. 
 
 5) Wisconsin laws regarding libraries. Relation of li- 
 braries and schools. (A copy of the list of books for district 
 schools prepared by state superintendent of schools given 
 to each pupil.) 
 
 6) Each pupil given a problem to work out, such as — 
 What books would you use in presenting the subject of birds 
 to an eighth grade, and how would you use them? a) Books 
 the teacher would use in preparing lesson, b) Books the 
 teacher would recommend to pupils preparing lesson, 
 c) Books for supplementary reading. List to include not 
 only science books, but also essays, poetry, pictures, and 
 songs. 
 
 7) Periodicals. Those especially helpful to teachers. 
 
 8) Clubs, home libraries, traveling libraries, public li- 
 braries, and how they may aid in school work. How to 
 encourage children to read good literature. 
 
 9) Value of notes, how to take and preserve them. 
 As an example of how a subject was worked up, I will 
 
 take the second talk, which was on Dictionaries. Those 
 taken were the Webster's International and Academic, the 
 Standard, and the Century. The points brought out were 
 the general construction, size, binding, price, illustrations, 
 supplements, diacritical marks used in each, etc., and a com- 
 parison of the value. The following questions to show the 
 value of the supplements were bulletined for students to 
 look up in these dictionaries, and tell in what one the an- 
 swers were found. 
 
 i) Where did we get the expression Almighty dollar? 
 Who was called the Attic muse? Which is the Bay state? 
 Who wrote the Battle of the frogs and the mice? Who is 
 Geofifrey Crayon, Esq.? 
 
 2) What is the meaning of the dafTodil? the opal? 
 
 3) Meaning of "lex terrea"? 
 
 4) Meaning of the following abbreviations: hhd., bal.? 
 
 18 
 
272' IRENE WARREN 
 
 5) Who was the Quaker poet? Which is the Quaker 
 city? 
 
 6) Where are the illustrations of various snowflakes to 
 be found? 
 
 7) Where are the seals of the states given? 
 
 8) In what books are the following characters: Agnes 
 Wickfield, Rosalind, Prospero, Rebecca the Jewess, Old man 
 of the seas, Ichabod Crane. 
 
 9) What is known as "the dark day"? 
 
 10) Give the seven wonders of the world. 
 
 In addition to this classroom work, a system of traveling 
 libraries wds started in the county and two home libraries 
 in the Polish district of the town. We would send word to 
 the teacher of a district school that we would visit him, if 
 convenient, on a certain Friday night or Saturday afternoon, 
 and we would like also to meet his pupils and the people of 
 the community. We would talk to them about books and 
 pictures and some students always went with us who sang 
 and played for them. 
 
 There were many disadvantages in the class work under- 
 taken. The meetings were not often enough to keep up the 
 students' enthusiasm. The students were overworked before 
 this course was started, and the library classes always found 
 them exhausted from their day's work. But perhaps the 
 most serious difficulty of all was the fact that the classes 
 were in no way graded according to their knowledge of 
 books. 
 
 The aim of the work was: 
 
 i) To show the value of the library in educational work. 
 
 2) To show how libraries may be started and maintained. 
 
 3) To show the way to use books to the best advantage. 
 
 4) To familiarize teachers with the best reference books, 
 periodicals, and authors. 
 
 5) To acquaint teachers with the labor and time saving 
 devices librarians have carefully worked out. 
 
 6) To start students on an equal basis in this line the 
 same as they are started equally in arithmetic, language, and 
 history. 
 
 7) To bring out the broad side of the subjects — the 
 poetry, art, essays, songs, and science. 
 
BOOK-INSTRUCTION IN NORMAL SCHOOLS 273 
 
 8) To bring out the relative value of books in the homes 
 and public institutions. 
 
 9) To make possible a mure intcUii^ent and pleasing 
 presentation of a subject. 
 
 10) To lead to a study and comparison of authorities. 
 
 11) To encourage a serious study of children's literature. 
 
 12) To open up the possible lines and avenues of study 
 to both teachers and pupils. Carlyle says, The true univer- 
 sity of these days is a collection of books. 
 
 A course in this line of work must be as carefully 
 planned to fit existing conditions and needs as a course in 
 history and literature. Details would doubtless work out in 
 a much different way in some communities than they did in 
 Stevens Point. But the questions for careful consideration 
 are: 
 
 i) Is there enough of value in such a course of study 
 as this to warrant its adoption? 
 
 2) Is the normal school the place for it? 
 
VITALIZING THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 
 LIBRARY AND THE SCHOOL 
 
 The next article gives an account of the beginnings 
 of the course in the Cleveland Normal School. This is 
 noteworthy as coming from the school side. 
 
 May H. Prentice is a graduate of the Western Illi- 
 nois Normal School and is now Director of Training in 
 the Kent State Nomial School, Kent, Ohio. Miss Pren- 
 tice began teaching in the country schools in Ohio in 
 the early eighties and later entered the Cleveland Public 
 Schools where she taught in all primary and grammar 
 grades and later in the City Normal School. She was 
 one of the first teachers to use the class room libraries 
 sent out by the Cleveland Library in 1885 and it was 
 largely through her influence that a course in Library- 
 Instruction was introduced into the Cleveland Normal 
 School in 1901. 
 
 Years ago a little girl ran down a country road to meet 
 the light wagon returning from town with the purpose of 
 climbing into the back and so getting a ride. Without turn- 
 ing, the wise elder brother spoke from the driver's seat: "I 
 wouldn't undertake that if I were you." And over his 
 shoulder a breathless but dignified voice answered, "But I 
 have already undertooken it!'' 
 
 A similar answer might reasonably be expected from 
 the library to any well-meant but tardy advice from the 
 school-side in regard to the vitalization of the relation be- 
 tween the school and the library. It has already been ac- 
 complished, and comparatively small thanks are due to the 
 school for its doing. 
 
276 - MAY H. PRENTICE 
 
 Graded lists of books, special lists of materials for oc- 
 casions, library leag^ue work, the establishment of school 
 branch libraries, all these have been the work of the library 
 in a much larger measure than of the school. 
 
 However, there are many teachers who share the li- 
 brary's buoyant faith in the blessing which books bring. 
 These have been first to appreciate all which the library has 
 ofifered them. They have accepted all that has been offered 
 them and asked for more. They have circulated library 
 books through their own schools, sometimes at considerable 
 cost and trouble to themselves, and for years have done all 
 in their power to make their pupils wise and discriminating- 
 patrons of the library. That the children of their care and 
 love might have life and have it more abundantly — that is 
 why they have done these things. 
 
 These teachers are comparatively few. 
 
 That it is any function of the school to give joy to its 
 children is an idea of slow growth. A child's school-time is 
 usually thought of as preparation for living and not as liv- 
 ing itself. Hence the rebuke of the teacher to the child who 
 interrupts the "nature-lesson" to blow the thistle-down 
 which waves over his head, or to watch the bee which booms 
 against the window-pane, or the hawk which floats lazily 
 against the blue sky. Life is such a wild, wilful, irregular 
 thing. Quietude, prudent inaction, is so much safer. 
 
 So with books. It is the old search for life, life, more 
 abundant life — for knowledge of it, for entrance into it — 
 which sends the child to the fairy-story, the boy to the tale 
 of adventure, the young girl to the story of romance, the 
 older man and woman to the realistic novel. And it is the 
 instinctive feeling of the teacher and parent that life is a 
 dangerous force and difficult of control which has made 
 school and home look askance upon reading which the child 
 finds too enjoyable. 
 
 There is another feeling or belief which lies back of our 
 doubt of work or study or reading which is too enjoyable. 
 It is in regard to the part which love of ease plays in human 
 enjoyment. Love of ease is strong in human nature, and 
 the man who tries to get his knowledge of human life mainly 
 through the novel has indeed sought a short-cut to his end 
 
VITALIZING LIBRARY AND SCHOOL 277 
 
 which will bring him but a short distance on his way. This 
 is not the time nor place for the discussion of the value of 
 fiction, but undoubtedly we are inclined to believe that man's 
 indolence is a strong factor in man's enjoyment of certain 
 lines of reading, and indolence is a bad thing. Therefore, 
 we distrust the value of such reading. Whether we like or 
 dislike it, however, we are obliged to admit that fiction is a 
 permanent form of literature, that our children will read it. 
 and that the question for us to settle is shall it be good or 
 poor. 
 
 What then, has the teacher to do? Two things: To 
 be the atmosphere from which the child breathes in love for 
 and delight in good books. This is first. All things in the 
 way of learning are possible after this. Second, To be the 
 pupil's guide and director in what may be called his "labora- 
 tory practice" with books. 
 
 The Autocrat, mellowest of men of ideas, once suggested 
 that every college and university should have a professor- 
 ship of books. The Autocrat was an ingrained aristocrat, 
 although one most mild and kind. The true democratic idea 
 is that a professorship of books should be established in 
 every school room. 
 
 But how shall the blind lead the blind? How shall the 
 teacher who herself never has learned to know, to enjoy, 
 and to choose good books guide others to do so? 
 
 The library is a storehouse of great thought, an unfail- 
 ing source of healthful recreation, but also the library is the 
 mine in which the practical man and woman, the lawyer, 
 the machinist, the scientist, the teacher, must dig deep for 
 information, if he is to keep near the head in his own line of 
 work. 
 
 So far, as I have said before, nearly all organized effort 
 to teach the teachers along these lines has come from the li- 
 brary. Certain normal school and college librarians have 
 done much, but to a large extent the work has been on suffer- 
 ance. Odds and ends of the students' time and attention 
 have been given to it. 
 
 The desirable thing is that the study of juvenile litera- 
 ture and the use of the library shall take equal rank with 
 other studies in the preparation of prospective teachers; 
 
278 ~ MAY H. PRENTICE 
 
 that the normal school, the pedagogical department of the 
 college and university, the teachers' summer-school and in- 
 stitute, shall recognize this subject in their curricula. 
 
 The practical side of library use — its use for informa- 
 tion — is easily seen by the public, and schools for teachers 
 can quite readily be induced to make room for the course 
 of study suggested. 
 
 In the Cleveland City Normal Training School an attempt 
 to carry out such a 'course of study has been made. A term's 
 work is given in juvenile literature and the use of the library. 
 Moreover, this subject is placed upon an equality with the 
 philosophy of teaching, history of education and psychology. 
 
 As yet the work is not thoroughly organized. We feel, 
 however, that some things of value have been already ac- 
 complished. 
 
 In a twelve-weeks' term a class of ii6 prospective teach- 
 ers (the junior class of the school) have taken notes on a 
 series of talks on reference books. They have learned some- 
 thing of the comparative value of various standard encyclo- 
 paedias, gazetteers, dictionaries and indexes, and they have 
 been sent to the public library a half-day at a time to do 
 work which required the use of these. 
 
 For instance, a study of the life of Robert Louis Steven- 
 son was made for the purpose of giving a talk on the sub- 
 ject to fifth-grade pupils. The students were required to 
 look up all the available material in the library, looking not 
 only in the printed and card catalogs for individual and col- 
 lective biography, but in the various indexes — Poole's, the 
 Annual, the Cumulative — for magazine articles. They were 
 required to select the four or five articles found most valu- 
 able and to estimate their comparative value for the purpose 
 in hand, making definite statements of the points of value. 
 They were required to make careful and well-worded notes 
 from the best material available, either books or periodicals, 
 always giving the source, and to read these notes in class 
 subject to the criticism of their instructor and school mates. 
 And, lastly, they were required to write the story of Steven- 
 son's life as they would tell it to the children. 
 
 Careful instruction in the use of the printed and card 
 catalogs and of indexes had preceded this assignment. We 
 
VITALIZING LIP.RARV AND SniDOL 27Q 
 
 were fortunate in possessing quite a large number of issues 
 of the Cumulative index unbound. It was thus possible t<» 
 place one of these in the hands of each student during in- 
 struction on the subject. This was a considerable aid. 
 
 There was too much work with the less-used ready-ref- 
 erence books. Next year the number will be largely reduced. 
 
 A study of fairy stories was made. An attempt was 
 made to find a philosophical basis for the love of children 
 for fairy stories. An attempt was made to discriminate 
 between the good and the bad fairy story. Felix .idler's 
 "Moral instruction of children" was helpful here, but the 
 study of the fairy stories at first hand is still more helpful. 
 
 The following books were read by the whole class: 
 
 (i) Alcott's "Little women." Lessons were given on 
 reading it with the children. 
 
 (2) Mara L. Pratt's "History stories," vol. 3. 
 
 (3) Eggleston's "First lessons in American history." 
 The Pratt and Eggleston books were read in succession for 
 the purpose of contrasting them. A yet better contrast 
 would have been Baldwin's "Fifty famous stories." 
 
 (4) Frau Spyri's "Heidi." Some of our girls read this 
 story in the original German but most in the translation 
 published by Ginn & Co. It is a charming story of a breezy 
 little maiden whose home was in the Swiss Alps, and one of 
 the rather scarce desirable books for the fourth grade. 
 
 (5) Mrs. Burnett's "Sara Crewe." This was read as a 
 type of the "child novel" and for the sake of a study of the 
 charms, dangers and benefits of this class of books. 
 
 (6) Howard Pyle's "Men of iron" was read as a study 
 of the worthy historical story. 
 
 The following outline was given the students as an aid 
 in judging the books read: 
 Outline to aid in estimating a iuz'enile book. 
 
 1. Written when? By whom? For children or adults? 
 
 [e. g., "Robinson Crusoe" and "Gulliver's travels" 
 were written for adults.] If for children, of what 
 age? (Consider both manner and matter.) 
 
 2. Essential purpose of the book: Recreative? Instruc- 
 
 tive? Moral? Is the recreation aflforded wholesome? 
 The instruction reliable? The moral lessons sound? 
 
28o - MAY H. PRENTICE 
 
 3. Style: Is it clear? Correct? Beautiful? Suitable? 
 
 4. If a story, What is the strongest character in it? The 
 
 most effective passage? Give reasons for thinking 
 so. Is it true to life? 
 
 5. Is the book a creator of ideals? Hov^ so? Along what 
 
 lines? 
 
 An effort v^as made that there should be no formal ad- 
 herence to this outline. Papers on the books read were re- 
 quired in which the outline could not be used. For example, 
 after reading "Men of iron" the students were required to 
 write, in class, a paper on "The education of a boy in chival- 
 ry" based on the story of Myles Falworth. 
 
 The oral discussions of these books were often very ani- 
 mated. 
 
 Each student was also required to hand in an annotated 
 list of at least 20 books actually read by the student and 
 judged by her suitable for the grade in which she is to train. 
 An oral discussion of these lists took place, and the student 
 in many cases was required to justify her judgment, and to 
 answer questions in regard to the books read. 
 
 Some of these lists were very cheering. One excellent 
 list for the sixth grade, with very original annotations, con- 
 tained 60 instead of 20 books actually read, and 30 more which 
 the student had listed to be read at her convenience. 
 
 Not all of the lists were of that character. A list for 
 the third grade recommended "Gulliver's travels, by Gulliver" 
 as a valuable aid in geography. 
 
 The instance is eloquent of the value of a course of study which 
 results in the illumination or the elimination of such a student. 
 
 Much remains to be worked out, but a beginning has 
 been made. 
 
 Ours is one instance of the awakening of the school to 
 the value of the privileges which the library gives it. And, 
 as the reward of doing work well is invariably to have more 
 work to. do, from the school fully awakened the library shall 
 receive its exceeding great reward in more work to be done. 
 
 Except for the hearty co-operation of the Cleveland 
 Public Library the little experiment here outlined could not 
 have been undertaken. 
 
A LIBRARY COURSE GIVEN TO CITY NORMAL 
 SCHOOL STUDENTS 
 
 Next we have a concrete example of a library course 
 given by the librarian of a mid-western library to normal- 
 school students in her own city. This librarian, Miss 
 Linda M. Clatworthy, was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 
 1876 and received her bachelor's degree in library sci- 
 ence from the University of Illinois in 1900. She was 
 assistant cataloger of the Dayton Public Library until 
 1901 when she became head cataloger; and after four 
 years' service, as librarian, she resigned in 1913. She 
 has served as president of the Ohio Library Association. 
 
 This account of the way the Dayton Public Library is 
 working out a library course in the local normal school of 
 the city does not proclaim finished or satisfactory work,, but 
 is merely a record of experiments, adjustments and results. 
 If it proves of some assistance to other librarians, public 
 or normal school, who are contemplating such courses, it 
 will serve its purpose. 
 
 Two years ago we were drawn very close to the stu- 
 dents then at the normal school by means of visits exchanged 
 and a round table meeting on children's books held at the 
 library once a week during the summer vacation. The 
 reading and discussion of children's books was much en- 
 joyed by the students, and we received many fresh criticisms 
 upon our books which were equally helpful to the library. 
 The impulse of that summer's interests shared together has 
 been felt ever since. Four of those young women are with 
 us now as librarians in the small branches in school build- 
 
282 . LINDA M. CLATWORTHY 
 
 ings, but that is another phase of the matter under discussion, 
 and comes properly under a history of our branch library de- 
 velopment. 
 
 In 1905 the first regular library courses were given, this 
 time at the library and as a part of the senior class work of 
 the normal school. 
 
 COURSES IN children's REFERENCE WORK 
 
 From January to the middle of March the class came to 
 the library in groups of two or three each afternoon, osten- 
 sibly for practice in doing reference work for school children 
 in the school library reference room. Actually, however, 
 there was soon discovered such absolute ignorance of how 
 to find books for themselves that this anticipated reference 
 practice developed into a simple course of instruction. Al- 
 though all of these 21 girls were recent graduates of the 
 high school, their experience in that school had led them to 
 look upon the library merely as a place in which to ask ques- 
 tions or find books reserved for them, with little sense of 
 the orderly arrangement of books and indexes, by which 
 they could find information for themselves. Such teachers, 
 without library training somewhere in their school course, 
 were not on their way to very effective knowledge of the 
 resources and use of the library, either for themselves or to 
 impart to their pupils. 
 
 'This course consequently included some simple first 
 directions about the arrangement of the library, with special 
 attention to the resources of the juvenile and school libraries 
 for answering children's reference questions, and some no- 
 tice of adult reference books adaptable to this use. Simple 
 problems were given after the explanation of each step. 
 At the end of the course a test was given covering the gen- 
 eral classes of the Decimal Classification, shelf numbers 
 for a few subjects of special school interest, the location 
 in the library and description of certain reference books, the 
 general arrangement of catalogs, and the selection of a few 
 references to books showing where material might be found 
 on a given school reference question. Each student gave 
 to this course two hours at a time, two days a week for five 
 weeks, 20 hours in all, and received individual attention. 
 
COURSE IN NURMAL SCHOOLS 283 
 
 COl'KSK IN TIIK rSK OK IIIK l.ll-.KAkY 
 
 In April there followed what was to have been the first 
 technical course in the general use of the library, such as 
 would appeal to any student who had previously used the 
 library for herself without making a study of it sufficiently 
 to be independent or to explain it to others. The class came 
 in a body for this course, which consisted of six lectures with 
 problems as follows: 
 
 Lecture i — Rooks as tools. 
 
 Lecture 2 — Arrangement of books in libraries. 
 
 Lecture 3 — The making of the card catalog. 
 
 Lecture 4 — Some reference books and how to answer ques- 
 tions with them. 
 
 Lecture 5 — How to prepare a bibliography. 
 
 Lecture 6 — Guidance of children's reading, illustrative ma- 
 terial, etc. 
 
 A syllabus outlining the lecture for note-taking was given 
 each student. 
 
 Lecture i, on "Books as tools," was designed to give 
 (i) a clear conception of the individuality of a book in quot- 
 ing it as authority and of its construction in consulting it for 
 reference, and (2) to suggest a basis for critical discrimina- 
 tion of the contents of books in selecting one among many 
 for reference use. Under (i) was explained the literary 
 makeup, as the title pages (author, editor, date, edition, etc.), 
 preface, contents, index, footnotes, bibliographies and ap- 
 pendices; and mechanical makeup, including type, paper, 
 illustrations, maps, etc. Under (2) were considered the 
 bases of critical judgment, as author, scope, treatment, point 
 of view, literary style and appeal. The problem following 
 this was to go to the shelves and look over several books 
 found on a certain subject, briefly describe the difference in 
 their contribution to the topic in hand and finally select the 
 best book for the purpose desired. 
 
 Lecture 2, on "The arrang^ement of books in the library."' 
 was planned as an explanation of the Dewey Classification, 
 as the system used in the local library and also in most 
 other public libraries with which the students would come 
 in contact. Its scheme of arrangement and notation were 
 briefly outlined, and the class was asked to memorize the 
 
284 LINDA M. CLATWORTHY 
 
 numbers of certain subjects which would be constantly used 
 by teachers. The call number on the books was explained 
 as a symbol directing to their location. The way then nat- 
 urally led to the catalog as being the index of the book col- 
 lection, as the classification was merely its table of contents. 
 
 Lecture 3 was designed to explain the mechanism of 
 the catalog for student use. The author card, as the unit of 
 the catalog, was described upon the blackboard and its con- 
 tents explained as expressing the facts about the literary 
 and mechanical makeup of the book noticed in Lecture i. 
 A book was cataloged before the class, showing the way in 
 which the subject material is sifted out once for all and put 
 in shape for future reference in the catalog. This lecture 
 was accompanied by an outline on "How to use the catalog," 
 showing what kind of entries may be expected for a book, 
 how to select the right subject entry, the value and use of 
 cross references, the extent of analytical material, alphabet- 
 ing, subject subdivisions, special cards, etc. 
 
 Lecture 4, upon "Reference books," described the scope 
 and arrangement of typical works in the adult collection, 
 with problems in answering given questions. 
 
 Lecture 5 was upon the preparation and form of a bibli- 
 ography, and the problem was to prepare brief reading lists 
 for children on certain school topics assigned, using refer- 
 ence books, catalogs and magazine indexes, and referring 
 to adult and children's books. Some of the subjects were 
 Bees, Trees, Russia, Battleships, King Arthur and his 
 knights, etc. The material was to be examined personally 
 and the list was briefly annotated. 
 
 The course closed with an exposition of the methods 
 used by libraries to call attention of the children to good 
 books, such as reading aloud and story telling; an exhibit 
 of picture bulletins and book lists, and a visit to the museum, 
 where the custodian showed curios and specimens which 
 could be used to illustrate class work. 
 
 Thus, from January to May of their senior year these 
 normal school students were brought to the public library 
 at intervals for instruction and practice in its use, both for 
 their own and their pupils' needs. They also learned of 
 their library privileges, both as special students and as teach- 
 
COURSE IN NORMAL SCHOOLS 285 
 
 ers, including the school room libraries. No time was given 
 for direct acquaintance with children's hooks, the emphasis 
 this year being upon the reference use of the library. During 
 the summer, however, and far into the next year, several 
 offered their services as substitutes at the library and for 
 giving talks to the children during the period of the vaca- 
 tion reading room. The school library books, forming the 
 vacation reading room, were open to their free use and they 
 were cordially invited to read and enjoy. This they did to 
 a considerable extent. 
 
 Looking back upon the experiments of the past two 
 years with our normal school, we feel that at one time or 
 another these teachers have touched all the points of library 
 contact needed under the local conditions here. Adminis- 
 trative problems, for those in charge of rural school libraries, 
 are beyond the responsibility of a city library. The best 
 distribution of the course in the school system, however, 
 is still to be effected, as well as the improvement of details 
 of the course. The general technical course on the use of the 
 library should eventually be pushed back into the first years 
 of the high school, where pupils begin to use outside authori- 
 ties in their lessons. Until this can be accomplished, we are 
 to put the technical course into the first instead of the second 
 normal school year, thus introducing the students to the 
 library at the beginning of their normal school study. This 
 course should be followed throughout the year by at least 
 weekly visits to the library in preparation of lessons. Thus 
 would be brought about some of the "living in the library 
 atmosphere," which is so desirable, making the public li- 
 brary a real laboratory for the normal school. No matter 
 how good a library the city normal school may have, the 
 public library, with its larger resources and children's books, 
 should be constantly used. A teacher's J-eference collection 
 could be gathered to attract the teacners, containing not 
 simply books on pedagogy and text books, but some of the 
 best illustrative material for story telling and lesson presenta- 
 tion, along with good editions of some of the best repre- 
 sentative children's books. 
 
 During the senior year when the class is largely out in 
 practice work in the schools, the practice at the library 
 
286 LINDA M. CLATWORTHY 
 
 should tend toward reference work with the children as they 
 come from the schools, together with a survey of the re- 
 sources of the library for children's references. This will 
 not only tend to lead them to send their own pupils to the 
 library later for information, but will enable them to direct 
 the children more intelligently to books and to plan their 
 reference work more in harmony with the library. 
 
 The culmination of the normal school library course 
 should be the acquaintance with children's books. The 
 school use of books for information and reference having 
 now been made clear, books as tools should be forgotten 
 and a course of pure delight and inspiration should be offered 
 in the literature of childhood. The course we are offering 
 this year includes talks upon the various classes of children's 
 books followed by reading at home and discussion in class 
 of type books as follows: i, Books for the very youngest 
 children, including picture books and Mother Goose; 2, Class- 
 ic myths and legends; 3, Fables and folk-lore fairy tales; 
 4, Modern fairy tales, wonder tales and nonsense; 5, Poetry 
 for children; 6, Adaptations of literary classics; 7 and 8, 
 Fiction; 9, History, hero tales, travel stories, biography; 
 10, Nature books, science, industries. The books are taken 
 home by the students for reading, if possible to children, and 
 evaluation. The discussion in class includes reports and com- 
 ments on this reading. In this way each teacher will be- 
 come acquainted with about 160 of the most fascinating chil- 
 dren's books. 
 
 The possible influence of the teacher in inculcating the 
 reading habit and starting the child along the right lines of 
 reading is very great. Yet without some knowledge and 
 taste in children's books the teacher has sometimes been 
 a hindrance rather than a help in the ideals the library strives 
 for. Such poverty of suggestion has led many teachers to 
 send children to the library for adult stories or poor chil- 
 dren's books, such as "Graustark" or the "Elsie" books; and 
 when "teacher says it's good to read" it is very difficult to 
 persuade a child to take something else from the library 
 shelves. 
 
 Our course, we hope and have reason to believe from 
 recent experience, will assist the teachers to become efficient 
 
COURSE IN NORMAL SCHOOLS 287 
 
 helpers of the library in recommencling the best books to 
 the children as well as in selecting books for their class room 
 libraries. A few of the teachers so instructed are already 
 coming into the city schools and some fill positions in the 
 country schools around us. Many have expressed their ap- 
 preciation of the library's efforts. 
 
 I hope to see the day when our schools will all include 
 something in their curricula on the use of books and li- 
 braries. We have begun by introducing a course into the 
 normal school, the vital point of contact with the grade 
 schools and the children, but eventually the course should 
 be distributed throughout the school system and most of 
 the instruction should be given by the schools rather than 
 by the library. A library thoroughly classified and cataloged 
 and with shelves all open to the public, offers the advantages 
 of a private library to every person who knows of its privi- 
 leges. Study will not be so apt to stop with graduation from 
 school if one is graduated into such a library with the abil- 
 ity to use it. And since, unfortunately, out of the children 
 who enter our first grades only one in ten keeps on through 
 high school, the lower down in the school system this con- 
 nection with the library is made the better. 
 
 19 
 
now FAR SHOULD COURSES IN NORMAL 
 SCHOOLS AND TEACH RRS* COLLEGES 
 SEEK TO ACQUAINT ALL TI<:ACHERS 
 WITH THE WAYS OF ORGANIZING AND 
 USING SCHOOL LIBRARIES? 
 
 The question of the scope of State Normal courses in 
 the organization and use of school libraries is presented 
 by President Felmley of Illinois State Normal University, 
 in a paper about to be quoted. 
 
 David Felmley was born near Somerville, N. J., in 
 1857. He was graduated at the University of Michigan 
 in 1881 and after serving for eight years as Superin- 
 tendent of Schools in Carrollton, 111., became in 1890 
 professor of mathematics in the State Normal School 
 at Normal, 111. Since 1900 he has been president of this 
 institution. 
 
 The purpose of the school library is to supplement 
 strengthen and broaden the instruction in every subject, so 
 far as this may be done through the aid of books. To ac- 
 complish this end: 
 
 1. The library must enable the student to use books as 
 tools. He must understand card catalogs, and indexes and 
 be able speedily to find topics in books of reference. 
 
 2. The library must help him to know good books, to 
 love them, and to acquire the habit of reading them. 
 
 The recent growth of libraries has profoundly modified 
 the modes of instruction in vogue a generation ago. At 
 that date the text book method prevailed in the elementary 
 
290 DAVID FELMLEY 
 
 and secondary schools. The pupil was assigned a set portion 
 of the text to be mastered. In some schools the practice of 
 rote learning existed, and the pupil was expected to repro- 
 duce the exact words of the text with the same fidelity as if 
 he were reciting a chapter of the Bible. The teacher was 
 little more than a drill master. In better schools the instruct- 
 or would question the meaning of the paragraphs studied so 
 as to relate them to the child's previous knowledge, and 
 would frequently supplement the text with pertinent illustra- 
 tions or additional facts drawn from his own store of knowl- 
 edge. In the colleges the instruction was chiefly by lectures, 
 a method that originated before the art of printing, and was 
 indeed a proper and necessary method when books were 
 scarce and the teacher encompassed within himself all the 
 learning of the world relating to his subject. With indus- 
 trious and faithful professors the lectures were supplemented 
 by oral quizzes and explanations, and an occasional formal 
 written examination. 
 
 The text-book method still prevails in the elementary 
 school but the library has come to supplement and enlarge. 
 With older pupils in the high school and college the lecture 
 or text-book now serves chiefly to open up the subject, to 
 show its organization, to disclose its vistas. Library readings 
 more and more are expected to furnish the bulk of the de- 
 tail that gives significance, reach, and application to the 
 facts or principles of the text-book or introductory lecture. 
 
 A teacher to-day cannot properly organize his courses 
 of instruction unless he knows the resources of the library 
 and the mode of using these as an auxiliary in his work. 
 Hence the study of the method for which the normal school 
 is supposed peculiarly to stand must include the use of the 
 library as an educational instrument. No teacher is qualified 
 for the modern school unless he knows where to look, for 
 what to look, and how to look in getting information. 
 
 The normal student, like every other student, to use 
 the reference library efficiently must know it not as a mere 
 collection of books, but as an organization. He should be 
 given access to the shelves, he needs to know the system of 
 cataloging, and the location of the various classes of books, 
 periodicals, maps, pictures, and other library material. 
 
SCOPE OF NORMAL COURSES 291 
 
 He needs acquaintance with the standard reference books 
 — encyclopedias, dictionaries, gazetteers, atlases, almanacs, 
 guidebooks, etc. The student should be familiar with the 
 special merits of each, the various appendices, and supple- 
 ments; he should know that it is sometimes better to consult 
 an old edition of a book of reference. He needs also ac- 
 quaintance with the special handbooks, like Harper's "Book 
 of facts" and Brewer's "Reader's handbook." 
 
 He needs knowledge of the various indexes of periodi- 
 cals, literature and of government publications. 
 
 He needs to know the general make-up of a book, and 
 how to use prefaces, tables of contents, and running head- 
 lines to locate his special topics. 
 
 He needs to know how to study the references when 
 found, how to take notes intelligently. 
 
 This body of knowledge cannot be acquired and retained 
 by the pupil from listening to formal lectures of the librarian. 
 It must come through the daily use of the reference library. 
 
 It can be acquired only through the co-operation of 
 teachers and librarian. Many of the students come to the 
 institution wholly unfamiliar with libraries. Some know 
 little of books beyond their text books. They have never 
 heard of classification numbers. How can they understand 
 them, or recognize bound magazines w^hen their widest ex- 
 perience with periodicals included only the unbound copies 
 of Wallace's "American farmer" and the Ladies' Home Jour- 
 naif A welcome from the librarian and a personally con- 
 ducted trip through the library as she explains the larger 
 features of the organization and arrangement will banish the 
 sense of strangeness. But not all this needed information 
 can be acquired through trips and talks. It must come 
 through the daily use of the reference library. Unless the 
 instructors in the normal school are familiar with the li- 
 brary, its contents and organization, unless they have learned 
 to use the library, and provide for its systematic use by their 
 pupils, the normal school student is not likely to become 
 skilled in the use of the library. Normal teachers are sup- 
 posed to be among the best of the profession, yet I suspect 
 every librarian can make a long list of the sins of such teach- 
 ers — sins both of omission and commission. It is not un- 
 
292 . DAVID FELMLEY 
 
 common for teachers to send students to the library with a 
 topic stated in such vague and uncertain terms that neither 
 students nor librarian can guess just what is wanted; to send 
 a class of 40 to consult a book of which the library contains 
 but a single copy, and that possibly drawn out by the teach- 
 er himself; to refer a class to a single monograph, when 
 there are possibly half a dozen other good ones on the same 
 topic — that the teacher will himself refer to later. 
 
 A teacher experienced in the use of the library will rarely 
 send a whole class of beginners to the library to investigate 
 a topic without himself furnishing a reference sheet for their 
 use, or giving the librarian ample notice. 
 
 Teachers may feel that they are losing valuable time 
 when they stop to give formal instruction in the use of the 
 library in their subject. Yet we may doubt whether any time 
 is better ernployed. If a student makes out a bibliography 
 by book, chapter and page of the library resources touching 
 a particular topic, or if a class prepares for its successors 
 a card catalog of all articles and chapters that they have 
 found especially helpful, along with the ordinary information 
 gained has come the appreciation of a new method of study. 
 
 Nearly all young students waste time in the library 
 through not knowing how to study the reference material 
 when found. It is not proposed to set up the claim that 
 there is only one right method of studying. We are told 
 that there are several excellent methods of making good 
 cofifee, and we wonder how it happens that our country hotels 
 find so many other ways of making execrably poor coffee. 
 So there are many good ways to studying; the personal ele- 
 ment enters it. Yet it is a fact that our students have found 
 other and very poor ways — it makes no difference from what 
 state, section or school they happen to come. 
 
 The book is scarcely open before they begin to write. 
 Copying before they have read the article through, they write 
 down a great many unnecessary words, if indeed there is 
 any necessity for writing down anything at all — what they 
 are really doing is taking all this time to copy the informa- 
 tion, and then studying it afterward from a somewhat il- 
 legible manuscript instead of studying directly from the 
 printed page. 
 
SCOPE OF NORMAL COURSES 293 
 
 A way of iisins- still more tinu- is to take this penciled 
 copy home and write it with ink in a permanent notebook. 
 I found a L;irl followinj^: this method, her reference book 
 to be£?in with being- almost more extensive than her text- 
 book. She said she had wondered why it took her so long 
 to get that lesson. 
 
 We find many students taking notes in this fashion in 
 the preparation of a class paper. They copy whole para- 
 graphs intending, they say, "to boil them down" in the soli- 
 tude of their own rooms. We have tasted the decoction. 
 Instead of mastering the article and noting down the bare 
 points, later to be amplified and discussed in the student's 
 own language, we find this other laborious procedure in 
 which the pupil rarely escapes from the phraseology of the 
 book. The idea of studying seems to be through the slow 
 medium of pencil and paper instead of the more rapid but 
 more intense way of thinking and comprehending. 
 
 I do not deny the value of the motor activity involved 
 in the use of the notebook — the importance of writing un- 
 familiar names and indicating their pronunciation, and occa- 
 sionally copying sentences or whole passages of such beauty, 
 strength, or significance that they are worth committing to 
 memory. A well-written notebook from a library study is 
 second in value only to the notebook of a laboratory course, 
 or of a series of "excursions." 
 
 I think you will agree with me that to enable students 
 properly to know and use the library merely as a library 
 of reference needs the joint effort of librarian and teacher. 
 The librarians in our normal schools, I suspect, are doing 
 their part better than the teachers. Too many of us date 
 from a period when libraries were few, scant, unorganized 
 and little used. The trained librarian had not appeared. 
 Library science was unheard of. Furthermore, the educa- 
 tion we received was largely formal. Our language teachers 
 cared more for our knowledge of inflections and syntax than 
 for our appreciation of Greek or Roman literature and life. 
 To a student of mathematics in those days the library could 
 contribute little. Hence the methods by which we were 
 taught and our own early practice did not reckon with the 
 library as a large factor in our instruction. The growth of 
 
294 DAVID FELMLEY 
 
 the library has been parallel to a change in the aim and 
 method of our schools. 
 
 The emphasis has gradually shifted from form to con- 
 tent. The change of emphasis required a change in the 
 mode of instruction, a change that from the mere inertia 
 of habit we are slow to make even when we recognize the 
 inadequacy of our old ideals. The day has come when in 
 selecting a teacher for a normal school faculty we must 
 ask these questions: Is the candidate a library student? Has 
 he received his own training under teachers who had made 
 the systematic use of the library a feature of their instruc- 
 tion? We must ask this question because we know that the 
 example and practice of our teachers is a larger factor in 
 developing the library habit than the most learned, skilful 
 and patient of librarians. 
 
 This daily recognition of the function of the library 
 by the normal teachers will possibly be the chief agency in 
 developing right practice in normal students when they be- 
 gin to teach; for the fact remains that in our early teaching 
 we proceed by imitation rather than by precept or reason. 
 We depend far more for guidance upon the example of our 
 own teachers, than upon the educational doctrine that they 
 have inculcated. 
 
 The other important agency is the practice teaching of 
 the training school. In a good normal school library about 
 every term's work in the practice school is organized by 
 means of the available material in the library. The student 
 teacher is assigned to his class early enough to gain some 
 preliminary acquaintance with this material. He thus in- 
 herits the wealth gained by his predecessors. Through his 
 own independent reading he may be able to make worthy 
 additions to the reference sheets or card catalog dealing 
 with his term's work. At all events no student teacher 
 should be passed unless he shows as fair a degree of skill 
 in the use of the library as he shows in his questioning, his 
 lesson-planning, his assignments, his use of apparatus, or 
 other details of instruction. 
 
 Besides this knowledge of how to use a library and the 
 habit of using it both as a student and a teacher, the normal 
 student needs a knowledge of titles, of the names of the 
 
SCOPR OF NDRAfAT. COURSRS 295 
 
 leading poets, novelists, essayists, orators, historians, and 
 scientific writers of the worhl; he needs to know something 
 of their spirit, their style, their purpose, their contribution 
 to civilization and the titles of their leading works. A 
 generation ago we studied Shaw's "History of English liter- 
 ature;" we learned the names of hundreds of books that we 
 never saw. It was a good deal like studying a book catalog 
 or undertaking to satisfy one's hunger by perusing the menu 
 card. The schools have rebelled against this empty study. 
 We are now studying literature itself instead of books about 
 literature. Yet there is a place for that older knowledge. 
 We learn names of countries and cities, their location, in- 
 dustries, products, institutions, objects of interest and other 
 characteristics, even if we do not expect to visit these coun- 
 tries and cities. Similarly I may know of the "Origin of spe- 
 cies" that it was written b}' Charles Darwin and published in 
 1859; that it was probably the most influential book of the 
 19th century because it led to the general acceptance of the 
 doctrine of descent and organic evolution which has so 
 profoundly modified our thinking in every field of knowledge; 
 that it deals especially with natural selection as the chief 
 factor of organic evolution, that its leading chapters deal 
 with the variation of plants and animals under domestication, 
 with variation under nature, with the struggle for existence 
 due to overproduction, with the survival of the fittest, with 
 the laws of variation, with geological and geographical dis- 
 tribution, and with the difficulties of the theory. This sort 
 of knowledge of the book is possessed by hundreds who have 
 never read the book through. It may be called the libra- 
 rian's knowledge of the book, for some people say that a 
 librarian never reads a book — barring novels. But it is a 
 form of knowledge of high value to one who may need 
 some day to turn to this information or direct others to it. 
 It is a sort of literary map that we all need acquaintance 
 with if we are to find our way in the world of thought. 
 
 A special field for the teacher is the knowledge of juven- 
 ile books. Some he may know and love at first hand. If 
 he is to read to his class the chapter that will make the chil- 
 dren hungry for it all — and read it in right fashion— he must 
 himself have assimilated the book. But aside from the few 
 
296 , DAVID FELMLEY 
 
 that the normal student can thus study is a much larger list 
 of trustworthy books that he can recommend to parents or 
 himself select for his pupils. In my own personal experience 
 as a bookbuyer I have found some difficulty in getting re- 
 liable lists. I have bought books for the school library that 
 the children would not read. Since, in my older days, I have 
 seen the methods used by authors and publishers to get their 
 books upon reading circle lists, I do not wonder that some 
 of the chaff gets into the cleanest measure of wheat. The 
 market abounds in picture books poor in line and color, in 
 fairy stories without the good 'old flavor, in books of fiction 
 that teach children to despise their elders, in collections of 
 verse that are merely cheap sentiment in rhyme, in nature 
 books weakened by personification until they are neither 
 good, true nor beautiful. The normal schools should co- 
 operate in a patient and thorough experimental investigation 
 of children's books to be conducted without fear or favor. 
 
 In addition to these lines of knowledge relating to the 
 use and choice of books, every normal student should go 
 forth equipped with some of the special knowledge of the 
 librarian. As a teacher he will find himself in one of the 
 three types of schools, either with a public library to be 
 worked with, or with a school library to be organized and 
 used, or yet with no library in existence — one to be bought. 
 
 In any case he needs more or less knowledge of books 
 from the librarian's point of view, in order to select, order, 
 accession, classify, catalog, label and repair them. A knowl- 
 edge of paper, type and bindings, of pictures and periodicals, 
 of charging systems and library laws. 
 
 If the teacher is to work with a public library he needs 
 to select books to be taken to his school, if this practice be 
 permitted; he should be able to find his way through the 
 public library, to use its catalog, to read its labels, to under- 
 stand and explain its laws and charging system. If a school 
 library is to be organized and managed the knowledge 
 needed will justify a formal course in the normal school. 
 Besides the points previously mentioned, which will require 
 more than a dozen lessons, are many others of high value 
 in developing a school library. Government and state pub- 
 lications, and other inexpensive sources of library material; 
 
SCOTE OF NORMAL COURSES 297 
 
 the mounting:, labeling and filing of pictures, the care of 
 pamphlets and newspaper clippings, and many minor points 
 of library economy familiar to all librarians. Without this 
 knowledge applied to its management the school library 
 remains a mere collection of books, falling far short of its 
 highest usefulness. 
 
 If the considerations set forth in this paper be true it 
 must follow that all teachers be thoroughly instructcfl in 
 the use of the scliool library, and that all except those 
 destined to work in our larger cities in co-operatir)n with 
 public libraries under trained librarians need a knowledge 
 of librar}^ organization and administration. 
 
 Probably the class excepted would use the library more 
 frequently and more intelligently because of this course in 
 library economy. 
 
METHODS TO BE USED BY LIBRARIES WORK- 
 ING WITH SCHOOLS TO ENCOURAGE 
 THE USE C^E REAL LITERATURE 
 
 The general educational principles that are the 
 basis of co-operation between libraries and schools, and 
 the proper aim and end of methods adopted for this pur- 
 pose, were discussed by Miss McCurdy, of the Carnegie 
 Library of Pittsburg, in a paper read before the Chil- 
 dren's Librarians' Section of the A. L. A. in 1907. 
 
 Mary de Burc McCurdy was born in Freeport, Pa. 
 She is a graduate of Washington Seminary, Washing- 
 ton, Pa., and has studied at the Universities of Chicago 
 and Pittsburgh. After teaching in Washington Semi- 
 nary and in Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pa., where 
 she finally rose to be head of the Department of Greek- 
 History, she became, in 1904, supervisor of the Schools 
 Division in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and 
 instructor in the Training School for Children's Librari- 
 ans. 
 
 The library and the school are cooperating. That this 
 fact is true is best proven by a glance at the library pub- 
 lications of recent date. 
 
 There are certain well recognized methods of procedure 
 which all agree to be conducive to the best results and suc- 
 cess of this movement. Classroom libraries and miscellane- 
 ous collections of books are sent to schools, pictures are 
 loaned, stories are told and books are read by library visitors, 
 lists of desirable books for boys and girls and lists for col- 
 
300 . MARY D. McCURDY 
 
 lateral reading- are printed, bulletins and posters give all 
 possible information concerning- new books, there are teach- 
 ers' reading lists, talks to principals and teachers, exhibits 
 of school work at libraries, special talks on library methods, 
 card catalogs, and reference books, at the school or library; 
 branch libraries have been established in the schools, special 
 help is given to the children in the reference room as an aid 
 to school work, systematic training in library methods and 
 courses in children's literature are ofifered in the normal 
 schools. Time would fail me to recount the devices that 
 have been and are employed to beguile teachers and pupils 
 to come with us that we may do them good. Yet, the subject 
 assigned me for this hour indicates that "there remaineth 
 yet much land to be possessed." 
 
 As a result of the widely dififering systems of instruction 
 and no systems followed by the schools in the United States, 
 there must be wide diflference in the methods of work em- 
 ployed by libraries in their efiforts to reach the schools of 
 their cities. To be effective this work must be adapted to 
 the peculiar needs and conditions, not only of each place, 
 but of each separate school, for the schools of a single 
 city may present every degree of advancement from the 
 school of poor equipment and worse teaching force, to that 
 which is all that can be desired in the excellency of its man- 
 agement and in its equipment. 
 
 Inasmuch as we all are more or less conversant with 
 these orthodox lines of work, it has seemed best not to dis- 
 cuss them in this paper, but to pass on to the general educa- 
 tional principles that are the basis of the work and toward 
 which our methods should tend. What are the boys and 
 girls, especially the girls, reading besides the popular new 
 fiction that finds its way into their homes very frequently 
 from the counter of "latest books" in the department store? 
 It is true, that some children do read widely and well, but I 
 refer now to the mass of children who are in the library's 
 sphere of influence m the school. Fiction will be read, girls 
 oftimes read nothing else, but shall we make no efifort to 
 develop taste for aught beyond this? Do we find that even 
 a small proportion of school children leave the grade schools 
 with any real decided love for books aside from a good 
 
USE OF Rl'AL LITERATURE 301 
 
 story? Not that this love of a good story is to he (lecrie(l, 
 hy no means wouhl we be so understood. Much of the licst 
 literature for children is fiction, hut are we doing all that 
 can be done during the formative period of school life when 
 conditions present the best opportunities for inlluciicing 
 young people? 
 
 It is a fact that since this library has i)ecn working 
 in the schools pupils of the fourth and fifth grades are read- 
 ing what nine years ago were treasures open to the seventh 
 and eighth grades. When boys and girls reach this limit, 
 what are we to give them? It is a problem, but it is an 
 inspiring one. Surely we are reaping the harvest of years 
 gone by. Scott, Cooper, Dickens, Hawthorne. Irving, and 
 the poets of America; these have been called for during the 
 past year as never before. Many of the best things of the 
 English poets have been read, though there yet remains the 
 teacher who devotes her time and energy to "only American 
 books, written by American authors born on American soil, 
 fired with American fire, and kindled by American oil (petro- 
 leum)." 
 
 Juvenile fiction is not sufficient. The range of adult 
 fiction is limited and the feeling grows that this, probably, 
 is the time and place to develop and secure a taste for biog- 
 raphy, history, travel, and poetry, for which, alas, so few 
 have taste and inclination. The question is, is the library 
 work in the schools accomplishing for these upper grades 
 what we should expect in view of the definite work done from 
 the primary grade through the entire course? Courses of 
 study generally require several poems and a single book of 
 the representative American and English poets and authors. 
 The average pupil reads these because he must, often with 
 little interest and less enjoyment. It is a part of the woe 
 to be endured and undergone in order that he may be edu- 
 cated. 
 
 How can this taste for literature be cultivated except 
 through interest and where can such interest better be 
 awakened than in the classroom where history is studied, 
 where geography must be taught and where, alas, with all 
 our talk of methods, too often is committed the crime of 
 humdrum recital of detail, when there should be active in- 
 
302 MARY D. McCURDY 
 
 terest and wholesome pleasure which tend to profit? Pleasure 
 and profit can be secured through the intelligent use of 
 library books of travel, stories of men and places, biographies, 
 and histories that are the choicest examples of literary style, 
 books which are not in the province of the school to buy 
 but which it is the duty of the library to provide for its 
 reading public; biographies and essays, political speeches 
 and letters, that impress the personality of the nation's lead- 
 ers and give breadth of knowledge of historical and geo- 
 graphical facts, and most important of all, create in the 
 minds of the children, an earnest desire for a lively apprecia- 
 tion of literature. "Let it be clearly understood that this 
 use of literature is not to take the place of the actual teach- 
 ing of the truths of the subjects as taught by text books, 
 but that there may be introduced, wherever it is possible in 
 the studies of the course, books of distinct literary merit 
 which bear upon the subject, these to be used entirely for 
 their literary value. I would correlate literature with every 
 interest of the child, that is, wise correlation that allows 
 literature to be treated primarily as such and only secondarily 
 as aiding other studies." Some one says, ''When used for 
 literary purposes they (the works) must make their appeal 
 to the imagination and the sympathies. Nothing should be 
 done to weaken or destroy these effects." I do not mean to 
 use Tennyson's "Brook" to teach geography or to arouse 
 geographical interest, but I would teach the period of the 
 civil war and the events leading up thereto from the biog- 
 raphies of Lincoln, his letters and addresses and state papers, 
 because they give the subject vital interest and at the same 
 time acquaint the students with literary masterpieces. I 
 would have every boy and girl find the story of the French 
 and Indian war as thrilling and romantic as any novel and 
 enable him to share his delight in Cooper's red man with 
 Pontiac and "The Oregon trail." A teacher recently re- 
 marked, "Parkman is attractive to seventh and eighth grades. 
 I have tried it." 
 
 Pupils have both the ability and the interest for such 
 work. It is done in many schools, but sad to say, the teacher 
 of one text-book is yet in the land. The library in the school. 
 has the opportunity to lay the foundation of such character 
 
USE OF REAL LITERATURE .30.3 
 
 tliat it will bear the supcrstructurt.' that the- man may wish to 
 build. It requires pupils of ordinary intelligence, the library 
 books, a well ordered course of study and teachers who 
 know and love good literature. When credit is ^'iven at 
 school for books read in connection with lessons, an ad- 
 vance has been made against the old and all prevailing no- 
 tion that studying lessons and reading books, other than 
 text books, must be frowned upon by the zealous teacher. A 
 list of books asked for by a teacher of science, includes 
 Wordsworth's Poems, Burroughs' "Ways of nature," 
 Quayle's "God's out of doors," Torrey's "A rambler's lease," 
 Skinner's "With feet to earth," Mabie's "Under the trees," 
 "The Kentucky cardinal" and "Aftermath," "Little rivers," 
 "The song of the cardinal" and Thoreau's "Walden," "Sum- 
 mer" and "Winter." These books furnished by the library 
 are intended for the general reading of the class in connec- 
 tion with the technical work and the pupils read them. 
 Payne in his recent book on the "Education of teachers," 
 says, "The studies whose special value lies in the fact that 
 they are catholic, or breadth-giving, are geography, history 
 and literature, hence, the teacher who would endow himself 
 with a proper frame or attitude of mind should addict him- 
 self in an especial manner to these three subjects." 
 
 Here then, is the place for our strongest effort, to aw^aken 
 to life the teacher w^ho neither knows nor cares to know 
 books, least of all, children's books, for unfortunately such 
 teachers do cumber the ground. I believe that what library 
 work with schools needs most of all is the active interest 
 of the individual teacher in every school. It is not sufficient 
 for a teacher to know about books — she must know the 
 books. 
 
 About three weeks ago a teacher requested me to send 
 her story books for her pupils, "not histories of Ireland and 
 such." For two years past, books had been refused by this 
 teacher because of her difficulty in taking care of them. She 
 experienced a change of heart because in an examination 
 asking for titles of books that were desirable to read, great 
 was her dismay to find that names of books had been in- 
 vented by those boys and girls who read nothing and hence 
 knew nothing about real books. The nearest approach to 
 
 20 
 
304 MARY D. McCURDY 
 
 a genuine title was "Mrs Wigg and the cabbage." I am of 
 the opinion that this teacher has been won for all time to 
 the library cause. A writer on education says, "It is just as 
 important for the teacher to know the educational value of 
 literature as for a physician to know the therapeutic value 
 of quinine. Under the conception that education is a process 
 of growth taking place through nurture and exercise, studies 
 become food and discipline, and to prescribe them wisely, 
 one needs to know their several values." 
 
 It is announced as the aim of a certain high school in its 
 literary course to read for pleasure and wide acquaintance 
 with authors, the purpose not to fix a pupil's attention upon 
 details of style but to broaden his knowledge of authors and 
 to enlarge his enjoyment of books: to read widely and swiftly, 
 to interest him in literature. Why should not this be the aim 
 of the elementary schools in the study of English? No hard 
 and fast line can be drawn between works especially suited 
 for either the elementary schools or the high schools. We 
 know that pupils in the grades read early in their course the 
 classics required in college entrance examinations. It is 
 this wider knowledge of literature from the standpoint of 
 pleasure, before pupils begin the critical study in secondary 
 schools, that we should seek to bring about. There is a ten- 
 dency to fall away in the upper grades owing to pressure 
 of other studies. Inasmuch as the excessive demands of the 
 college entrance examinations in foreign languages oblige 
 a large proportion of students in secondary schools to take 
 a modified course in English, is it not possible to aid the 
 pupils in the higher grades of the elementary schools to 
 wider acquaintance with the best books and their authors? 
 It is the opinion of an authority on English, that the at- 
 tempt to reform English studies has begun at the top. 
 There is complaint on the part of the college against the 
 high school. The real source of the trouble is to be found 
 in the primary and elementary grades. The years spent in 
 these grades are vital in making or marring a child's literary 
 taste. There must be first, appreciative reading which, 
 through sympathy, will bring the reader into closer possible 
 contact with the mind of the writer. Later, the critical 
 study; but without the former, the appreciation of literature 
 
USE OF Ri:.\I. MTKKATURE 305 
 
 will be formal rather than genuine and vital. It is a mis- 
 take to substitute the remarks of critics for ac(|uaintancc 
 with the works themselves. It must be remembered that 
 the large proportion of students do not enter the secondary 
 schools, hence, it is imperative that the widest opportunity 
 be given them in their preparation for life while they are 
 in the elementary school. 
 
 Hear what prominent educators have to say to us. "The 
 uplifting of the democratic masses depends upon the im- 
 planting at schools of the taste for good reading." "The work 
 in each grade is to be done by the teacher in the light of the 
 course as a whole and according to the final ends aimed 
 at." "The supreme aim of literary and linguistic training is 
 the formation of character. This includes and transcends 
 all other aims, and it is because it is an aim which can be 
 more effectively realized by Literature and Language than 
 by any other study, that Literature by almost common con- 
 sent must hold the central and dominating place in our 
 school curriculum." "Make happiness one of the distinct 
 aims of education, and to this end the mind must be sup- 
 plied with knowledge which will yield mental satisfaction 
 or intellectual delight." "The teacher who would guide her 
 pupils in the fields of literature, must herself frequent the 
 paths in which she desires other feet to tread." "Books 
 well chosen are next in importance to the teacher in the 
 equipment of the school." Our books then are secondary — 
 the sine qua non is the teacher. "How can an inanimate me- 
 chanical gerund grinder foster the growth of anything; much 
 more mind which grows, not like a vegetable (by having its 
 roots littered with etymological compost) but like a spirit; 
 through kindling itself at the fire of living thought? How 
 shall he give kindling in whose inward man there is no live 
 coal but all is burnt out to a dead grammatical cinder?" 
 Personal work with teachers, then, is the essential for library 
 success in the schools. To keep burning the live coal, as 
 well as to kindle the fire that burns not. No one needs in- 
 centive and inspiration more than the teacher who is zealous 
 in this work. It is ours to bring to him all that we can to 
 the end that he may become "noble and gracious, the friend 
 of truth, justice, courage, temperance." To make ourselves 
 
3o6 ^ MARY D. McCURDY 
 
 familiar with the work of teachers and to be conversant with 
 all their interests, especially along professional lines. 
 Payne's "Education of teachers," Chubb's "The Teaching 
 of English" and a similar book by Carpenter, Baker and 
 Scott, are full of suggestions to one who is engaged in work 
 with teachers. To put ourselves on the teacher's side is to 
 achieve our purpose. To make each teacher through a lift- 
 ing of the intelligent horizon "the spectator of all time and 
 of all existence" that through his zeal in learning the youth 
 of the land be made "curious to learn and never satisfied." 
 "There is an old Grecian story to the effect that the 
 great ones of a certain place were once presenting them- 
 selves before Zeus that the greatest one should be crowned. 
 In the company that had assembled to witness the honor 
 bestowed, their teacher was also present following up with 
 interest the .fortunes of his pupils. To the surprise of all and 
 most to himself, who was not a candidate for the honor, 
 Zeus announced, 'Crown the faithful teacher, for he is the 
 greatest of all, for he made them all great.'" Were a similar 
 decision to be made to-day, in the light of modern methods 
 of education would not the all wise Zeus bestow the laurel 
 chaplet upon the librarian, for he is making possible the 
 teacher's greatness? 
 
THE LIBRARY AS A REINFORCEMENT OF THE 
 SCHOOL 
 
 One of the most recent discussions of this subject 
 treats it as a problem of reform in aids and methods of 
 reading and looks upon the library's part in the two- 
 fold effort to bring- about such a reform as essentially 
 a ''reinforcement" of the school. It appeared as the 
 leading article in Public Libraries, April, 1911, and is by 
 Dr. William Dawson Johnston, then librarian of Colum- 
 bia University, New York. 
 
 Dr. Johnston was born in Essex Center, Xt., in 1871 
 and graduated at Brown University in 1893. After teach- 
 ing first in the University of Michigan and then in his 
 alma mater, he became an assistant in the Library of 
 Congress, and was the Librarian of the U. S. Bureau of 
 Education until 1909 when he became Librarian of Co- 
 lumbia University, New York City. In 1914 he accepted 
 the librarianship of the Public Library of St. Paul, Minn. 
 
 One of our most eminent critics, Henry Sedp:\vick. said 
 in a recent essay that the public schools and our general 
 system of education supply the conditions that make a read- 
 ing mob possible. The remark is true enough to be worthy 
 of careful consideration. 
 
 In the evolution of society herds of men liave been suc- 
 ceeded by mobs of men, and in the evc^luticm of the mob 
 the shouting mob has been superseded by the rcailing mob. 
 No one will, I think, question that this change has been in 
 the direction of progress, and few will question seriously the 
 
3o8 WILLIAM DAWSON JOHNSTON 
 
 possibility of further progress. The reading mob may grad- 
 ually be organized into societies of thoughtful men, mindful, 
 on the one hand, of the best traditions of human culture, and 
 on the other hand open to the latest revelations of science. 
 From a certain point of view, then, our problems of edu- 
 cational reform seem to resolve themselves into problems 
 of reform in aims and methods of reading, and a new sig- 
 nificance attaches to the place of literature among instru- 
 ments of culture and to the library among institutions of 
 learning. 
 
 VALUE OF GENERAL READING 
 
 In the first place, it seems to me, we must disabuse our- 
 selves of the notion that the mastery of a few standard books 
 is all that is essential to culture. This was in a measure true 
 when science was still in its infancy and literature was 
 philosophical or didactic, but now that it is scientific or de- 
 scriptive the idea is most untrue. Another notion which is 
 productive of mischief is that books may be divided into two 
 kinds: the literature of knowledge and the literature of 
 power, the one class being exclusive of the other. Those who 
 would cultivate science for science's sake, and those who 
 would cultivate literature for literature's sake, may consent 
 to such a classification; but those who value books for their 
 use know that the literature of knowledge is more powerful 
 than anyone can estimate, and that the literature of power 
 contains knowledge of the utmost value. In place, then, of 
 the reading of a few books I would urge the reading of many, 
 and in place of the reading of one book for knowledge and 
 another for pleasure I would urge the reading of those books 
 of knowledge which give most pleasure. In other words, I 
 would urge the importance of general reading, and such 
 changes in methods of reading as will make general reading 
 possible. 
 
 The value of books has always, I believe, been over- 
 estimated, but the value of the right reading of books has 
 always been underestimated. It is only as we learn to read 
 that books gain real value, and it is only as we learn to read 
 them with discrimination and rapidity that their value to us 
 becomes considerable. The illiterates are, indeed, little 
 poorer than those who are debauched by indiscriminate 
 

 REINFORCEMENT OF THE SCHOOL 309 
 
 reading, or those who are content with a few fra^Mncnts of 
 the literature of the wfjrld. The failure of the lihrary has 
 been in allowing too much license in the use of its collec- 
 tions and in requiring little except the return of the books. 
 The failure of the school has been in attempting to exact 
 the impossible from readers and after a few years' efforts 
 abandoning them altogether; in undertaking detailed and, 
 to the majority, distasteful studies of a few standard works, 
 and in making of reading a vocal exercise instead of a mental 
 one. In short, the library lacks teachers and the teachers 
 lack libraries. How can the two be brought together? How 
 can the one be put in position to supply what is lacking in the 
 other? How can the library reinforce the school, and the 
 school reinforce the library? 
 
 In the discussion of this question wc must first of all 
 recognize that the library is an integral part of the educa- 
 tional system — not an adjunct of the school merely, but a 
 necessary complement of it. The school stands for the 
 acquisition of knowledge in special subjects; the library fi)r 
 the rounding out of this knowledge. The school library fur- 
 nishes the collateral reading of earlier years; the community 
 library furnishes the reading of later years. 
 
 COLLATERAL READING 
 
 The work of our earlier schools was based upon the 
 classics in literature and textbooks in science. The artificial 
 protection thus given to the classics has been withdrawn. 
 We now recognize that the classics are not all that is neces- 
 sary to life and that great books are not the only good ones. 
 With the rapid development of science, too, the textbook 
 is being superseded by the lecture and the laboratory. .At 
 the same time, both in the study of literature and in the 
 study of science, we are recognizing the need of supplemen- 
 tary reading. The doles which we hand out in the class- 
 room we find may pauperize the pupil, not enrich him. We 
 may give him learning, but we must, we have decided, cul- 
 tivate in him the ability to learn. The common school j 
 studies represent only a part, though perhaps an important j 
 part, of the commonwealth of literature and science. Pupils . 
 must be made aware of the vast realms of knowledge which 
 
310 WILLIAM DAWSON JOHNSTON 
 
 have not been made common property, they must be en- 
 couraged to explore these realms and make them their own. 
 They cannot do this alone, nor can their teachers travel very 
 far with them. Their guides must be books, and he is the 
 best explorer who knows best how to employ those guides. 
 For this reason the use of public libraries by school children 
 and the establishment of libraries in school buildings is en- 
 couraged and instruction in reading, in science and in liter- 
 ature takes more and more the form of instruction in the 
 use of books. 
 
 VACATION READING 
 
 But while we have pretty well defined the place of books 
 in our school work and have recognized the importance of 
 collateral reading in classroom study, we do not seem to have 
 appreciated fully the importance of the elective courses in 
 reading pursued at home during vacations, on holidays, and 
 at other times. These supplement in a notable manner the 
 required reading of the school. 
 
 In the choice of our textbooks and in our collateral 
 reading we have been influenced by the immediate demands 
 of society and by the spirit of specialization. The test of our 
 ability has been our success in becoming acquainted with 
 the traditions and customs of society and in satisfying its 
 wants, and schools have been esteemed in as far as they 
 have furthered success in these particulars. 
 
 But the need of the individual, especially during the 
 earlier years of life, must be considered also. We should 
 not be made to conform by process of inquisition or drill, 
 nor should we be converted into specialists before we have 
 reached years of discretion. The individual must be al- 
 lowed to find his place in society for himself, and there is 
 hardly any better way for him to find himself and his own 
 world than in those general excursions among books which 
 are possible during vacations and holidays. Then one is no 
 longer obliged to keep step with others of his own class. 
 He may follow heroes in their adventures, and in company 
 with the world's discoverers may pass beyond the frontiers 
 of the known world into the mysterious regions of the un- 
 known. It is in the hours thus spent that the reader, the 
 younger reader as well as the older one, becomes acquainted 
 
REINFORCEMENT OF THE SCHOOL 311 
 
 with the substantial, though intangible, benefits of general 
 reading, hears the things most worth hearing, and sees the 
 things most worth seeing. 
 
 This general reading of school children presents a nota- 
 ble opportunity for co-operation between school and library. 
 The school is interested in it not merely for its educational 
 value, but because of its relation to some of the problems of 
 school organization and administration. Of these problems 
 one of the most serious in the large schools is the crowded 
 curriculum. This involves child labor of a deplorable type, 
 leads to mechanical work on the part of the pupil rather than 
 intellectual work, and develops the power to acquire, but not 
 to do. Some of the subjects should be transferred from the 
 course of study and incorporated in courses of reading. \Vc 
 may in this way secure some of the advantages which come 
 from a combined system of required and elective studies in 
 the higher schools, some of the advantages which obtain in 
 the pass and honor examinations in England. 
 
 In the smaller schools, on the other hand, the problem 
 is of the opposite kind. There there are not teachers and 
 courses enough. A recent report of the United States Com- 
 missioner of Education shows that one-third of the high 
 school pupils in the United States are in schools having not 
 more than three teachers, and in the majority of elementary 
 schools there is not more than one teacher. In such schools 
 as these the library must certainly be made an important 
 adjunct to the other activities of the school. 
 
 But, however much we are embarrassed by the fullness 
 of our course of study in some places and by its poverty 
 in others, the fundamental problem in all our schools is that 
 of humanizing our studies. It is only as they subserve the 
 ends of social or moral education that schools justify their 
 maintenance as public institutions. And here again the 
 library proves a useful ally, for in it may be found recorded 
 not merely the thoughts and deeds of great men, fragmentary 
 and disjointed, but the whole story of their lives: there may 
 be discovered the halo of romance which shines over every 
 man; there may be read the words loyalty, honor, courtesy, 
 love. These are no textbook terms, but they have their 
 value, for words are powerful makers of what they stand for. 
 
312 WILLIAM DAWSON JOHNSTON 
 
 Whether, then, one considers the relation of the library 
 to the extent of the course of study or to its content, one is 
 disposed to believe that the work of the schools may be 
 enriched as much by a well-organized library service as by 
 the improvement of the teachers and teaching processes or 
 by additions to the course of study or the reorganization of it. 
 
 SCHOOL EXTENSION 
 
 A second notable opportunity for co-operation between 
 school and library is presented by the various forms of con- 
 tinuation schools and classes. It has been estimated that 
 in cities of 25,000 and over in this country about 40 per 
 cent only remain in school until they enter the eighth grade, 
 and about 8 per cent only finish the high school course. As 
 long as this is true auxiliary educational agencies are of the 
 greatest importance, and among these agencies none, in my 
 opinion, may be made of greater importance than the library. 
 By the library here I mean the institution and not merely 
 the collection of books. If our education were complete 
 when we leave school, a collection of books to which we 
 might refer and from which we might borrow would be suffi- 
 cient. But as it is the library service is far more important 
 than the books. There cannot be a library without a li- 
 brarian, and there cannot be a good library without many 
 library assistants. The older community and school libraries 
 were unsuccessful simply because of the failure to recognize 
 this fact, and we to-day will fail to make libraries true insti- 
 tutions of learning wherever and whenever we neglect to 
 provide adequate library service. The library cannot under 
 the most favorable circumstances take the place of the col- 
 lege, nor can it even take the place of the high school, but it 
 should be so organized as to help those who are unable to 
 attend college or high school, and, indeed, all those who 
 wish to continue their studies after school. 
 
 COORDINATION OF SCHOOL AND LIBRARY 
 
 The earlier public libraries devoted much of their energy 
 to work with children, but more recently they have attempted 
 to meet the demands of the young artisan also, the business 
 man, and the farmer. The public library is in this way be- 
 
REINFORCEMENT OI- TFIE S(Mir)OL 
 
 .V3 
 
 coming as significant a part of the educational system as 
 the school library is of the school system. There is no ques- 
 tion as to the tendency in this direction and its importance; 
 there is a question, however, whether this multiplication of 
 library duties docs not make co-ordination between school 
 and library more necessary and cooperation between teachers 
 and librarians more desirable. Without careful organization 
 of our educational activity our school duties may lead us to 
 neglect our library opportunities, and, on the other hand, 
 our liljrary privileges may be exercised at the expense of 
 fundamental training. An effort must be made, therefore, 
 to regulate each — the work of the school and the work of 
 the library. 
 
 The regulation of the work of the school has occupied 
 much thought. The regulation of the work of the library 
 is of no less importance; indeed, it is of perhaps greater 
 importance, because it is for the most part done by persons 
 without pedagogical training or experience. For this reason 
 it is desirable that the superintendent of schools should be 
 a member of the board of library trustees, and the librarian 
 a member of the school board. It is desirable that librarians 
 should be active in the service of the schools and teachers 
 active in the service of the libraries. It is desirable that the 
 library collection should be carried to schools and the school 
 children brought to the libraries. And, to mention one other 
 matter only, it is desirable that pupils should receive credit 
 for library work, whether done in the school, or in the read- 
 ing circle, or elsewhere. 
 
 But educational legislation which shall embrace the li- 
 brary as well as the school is not enough. There must also 
 be library training — library training not only for librarians, 
 but also for the teachers. The state of New York was the 
 first to provide in any way for the training of librarians, and 
 public libraries throughout the country have felt the influence 
 of its library school. But school libraries also require skilled 
 supervision and use, especially in communities where there 
 are no public libraries. Obviously, then, the next step is to 
 provide for library instruction in the normal schools. The 
 need of such instruction is great; the results of it would be 
 incalculable. 
 
SOME OLD FORGOTTRX SCHOOL LlIlkAKI l«:S 
 
 This collection of material may fittingly ciiil with a 
 paper tracing- hack some of the heginnings of the school 
 library to the early days of the last century. The author, 
 Elizabeth G. Baldwin, contributed it to The Library Jour- 
 nal in 1904. 
 
 Elizabeth G. Baldwin graduated from the New Jersey 
 State Normal School in 1883 and from the Columbia 
 University (afterward New York State) Library School 
 in 1889. She was librarian of the Huguenot Society 
 in 1889-'94, reviser in Columbia University cataloguing 
 department in 1889-'96 and has been at the head of the 
 Bryson Library of Teachers' College, New York, since 
 1896. She has lectured on library economy at several 
 institutions and has held office in the State Library As- 
 sociation and the New York Library Club at various 
 times, serving as president of the latter body in 1909-'10. 
 
 "Those authors therefore arc to be read at school that 
 supply most axioms of prudence, most principles of moral 
 truth and most materials for conversation, and these pur- 
 poses are best served by poets, orators and historians." — Dr. 
 Johnson. 
 
 Many suggestive and interesting statements have been 
 made at various times concerning various kinds of school 
 libraries, but there is one type which, in my opinion, has 
 not attracted the attention it deserves. 
 
 In tracing the origin and gradual development of the 
 library which is found in many of our public schools and 
 also in our best private schools of to-day, with its fine equip- 
 ment of from eight to ten thousand volumes representing the 
 
3i6 ELIZABETH G. BALDWIN 
 
 best and most modern literature in all departments of knowl- 
 edge, one cannot overlook the fact that this had its begin- 
 ning away back in the early part of the nineteenth century, 
 in the old-fashioned academy. "A literary and scientific in- 
 stitute for both sexes," a female seminary, or a plain Latin 
 school were the terms used to designate the same kind of 
 an educational institution, a finishing school, so to speak, 
 where the budding youth was carried along in the common 
 branches of learning a little further than could be attempted 
 in the rural schools of that time. 
 
 The statistics and other facts mentioned in this article 
 concerning these academic libraries were gleaned from the 
 school catalogs covering a period extending from 1825 to 
 1865. 
 
 These old catalogs furnish extremely interesting read- 
 ing and a few quotations from them may serve to throw light 
 on the general character of these institutions and call atten- 
 tion to a phraseology that seems odd when compared with 
 the twentieth century mode of expression. The academy was 
 a place where "the instructors endeavored to watch over the 
 morals of their pupils with parental solicitude and strove to 
 inculcate the principles of polite deportment." In the con- 
 stitution of one of these schools the principal is enjoined to 
 teach the English, Latin and Greek languages and liberal 
 arts, also "To delineate in their natural colors the deformity 
 and odiousness of vice and the beauty and amiableness of 
 virtue." The discipline was invariably stated to be mild but 
 firm, "It being considered the certainty rather than the 
 severity of punishment that deters from crime." It was 
 the day when the female seminary flourished. The young 
 women were instructed in English, mathematics, chronology, 
 exegesis, the art of making and mending pens and other 
 branches of polite learning; but all these were subordinated 
 to what was termed the ornamental branches, which included 
 vocal music, oil, bronze, Grecian and Oriental painting, black 
 and polychromatic crayoning, India ink and pencil drawing, 
 water colors, wax fruit and flowers, inlaying pearl and pellis 
 work, each $5 extra. In the words of one catalog "The fe- 
 male department of this institution is designed to at once 
 strengthen and expand the mind and prepare it for future 
 
SOME OLD SCI1(J(M. Ur.KAKII'.S 317 
 
 usefulness with the branches of refined and ornamental edu- 
 cation which are the chief embellishments of the sex and 
 to encourage those virtues which peculiarly adorn the female 
 character.'' ^^^ 
 
 Battle-door and cornclla, the 1 rn nr"'^|ifiTlT^i ii|ii and 
 the swing were the feminine recreations indulged in. "While 
 to those who dislike these modes of exercise, the occasional 
 ride and ramble present their inducements." In addition to 
 these amusements maj- be mentioned the excitement of the 
 weekly meetings of the literary and debating societies, of 
 which each school boasted one or two and which usually 
 published a periodical called the Lesbian 7vrcath, the Institute 
 omnibus, or some such fanciful title. In those days the school 
 year was long, the vacation short and holidays few and far 
 between. As in our modern schools, not only manners and 
 morals were looked after, but even the matter of costume 
 was sometimes prescribed. In one "Female institute" the 
 inmates were expected to wear in winter for Sunday a dress 
 of purple merino with white collar and white pantalets and 
 Leghorn bonnet trimmed with scarlet. In summer a robe 
 of white wMth white collar and pantalets and bonnet trimmed 
 with sky blue. Jewelry and embroideries were prohibited, 
 in order "To diminish expense and restrain the ambition of 
 extravagant display." Frequently a solemn warning is sent 
 to the fond parent who supplies his offspring with pocket 
 money and boxes of sweetmeats. "Boxes of indigestion," 
 as one principal puts it. and says further in vigorous de- 
 nunciation of this reprehensible indulgence on the part of 
 his pupils, "The trick of buying cake and candy is in the 
 first place vulgar, and in the second, vicious. It costs more 
 in headache (to speak of no other aches) than all things be- 
 sides. It subordinates the intellectual to the animal. It 
 keeps children babies." Another sorely tried master has 
 still stronger opinions on the subject. He says: "The mid- 
 night oil if employed to shed light on the classic or historic 
 page will do but a trifle toward wasting the muscle com- 
 pared with its effects when it shines upon mince pies, oyster 
 stews or candied confections." 
 
 Having taken this superficial survey of some of the 
 features of the old time academy, Revenons a nos moutons. 
 
3i8 ELIZABETH G. BALDWIN 
 
 In a recent work on some of our best known secondary 
 schools, the gymnasium, chapel, dining hall and dormitory 
 are fully described, while no attention whatever is paid to 
 the library. In the same manner, in the early catalogs of 
 these schools the library is either slighted or ignored al- 
 together. The school announcement of to-day devotes a 
 generous portion of its contents to a description of the li- 
 brary, accompanied by one or more illustrations. In the 
 old catalog, however, it is necessary to exercise considerable 
 patience and ingenuity to discover any mention whatsoever 
 of this department of the institution. Sometimes it occupies 
 a paragraph by itself in very fine print in the back of the 
 catalog, but more frequently it is listed among numerous 
 other advantages and special attractions, such as chemical 
 and philosophical apparatus, maps, charts, globes, minerals, 
 petrifactions, manikins, artificial skeletons, air pumps and 
 other facilities offered to the youthful mind in pursuit of 
 knowledge. In one catalog a "choice library" is thought- 
 lessly deposited among thirteen pianos, two melodeons, one 
 organ and a cabinet of geological specimens. When deemed 
 of sufficient worth to call for special mention, the library 
 is disposed of in such brief terms as "The academic library 
 is of much value. The books are in good condition," or we 
 are informed that "The library is fitted up in chaste and 
 elegant style in a room 51x34 ft." 
 
 None of the earlier catalogs are illustrated, and in one 
 only of the several hundred examined was found a picture 
 of the library, which in this case bore a regrettable re- 
 semblance to a museum, with the inevitable mummy and 
 other relics of a bygone age. The room must have exerted 
 a most depressing effect upon all who had the temerity to 
 enter it. 
 
 The rules and regulations governing the use of the books 
 were not as liberal as in these days. In one institution the 
 students could draw books on alternate Fridays, when the 
 library was open from 8:30 to 9 o'clock in the morning for 
 the return of books and from 3 to 3:30 o'clock in the after- 
 noon for taking them out. Students who had any demerit 
 marks or had not been punctual in attendance were deprived 
 of the privileges of the library. Teachers had access at 
 
SOME OLD SCHOOL Lir.RARILS 319 
 
 all times and could keep books out two weeks. Li another 
 school, books could l)e drawn from i to 2 o'clock every Sat- 
 urday afternoon. In another, the library was accessible to 
 students once each week and a charge of twenty-five cents 
 for the term was paid by those who wished the privilege 
 of taking books to their rooms, while "'no charge is made 
 for access to encyclopedias." 
 
 One institute rejoices in "A reading room receiving va- 
 rious papers of a literary, political and religious character 
 open to students by paying one shilling per quarter." 
 
 Another had a reading room which contained daily 
 and weekly papers and magazines for the use of which a 
 tax of fifty cents a year is exacted from each student. Sev- 
 eral years later this tax was increased to one dollar "as there 
 is no other library fund." In another school, students could 
 take out books every Friday afternoon and precedence in 
 choice is in accordance with their relative scholarship during 
 the week. Only in rare cases were the libraries open oftener 
 than once a week. 
 
 As no definite income was provided for the support of 
 these libraries, their growth was uncertain and irregular. 
 In one school a small fine was imposed for any infringement 
 of the rules or any breach of good order in the class room 
 and the fine was appropriated to increase the facilities of 
 the reading room. This would seem to be a case when it 
 was clearly justifiable ''to do evil that good may come." A 
 general statement w^as frequently made that "The library 
 and apparatus will be increased from time to time" without 
 specifying ways and means. One catalog gives the number 
 of volumes in the library and states that "Additions are 
 made yearly;" but for twenty-three years the same number 
 of books is recorded, which would lead to the inference that 
 the library statistics were not quite accurate or that a most 
 unusual and commendable weeding out process was insti- 
 tuted each year. One school has "a small library which 
 occasionally receives accessions from a few generous don- 
 ors." Another catalog states that "Donations to our library 
 are very acceptable." In another, "New and rare books se- 
 lected with great care are added each year" and "An encyclo- 
 pedia and scientific books were given by friends." One 
 
 21 
 
320 - ELIZABETH G. BALDWIN 
 
 enterprising principal devised the ingenious method of found- 
 ing a library for his pupils by asking them to lay aside for 
 a week their candy money and apply it to the purchase of 
 books. He considered this a far better way than spending 
 it for sweetmeats. Sometimes as a reward he read aloud 
 to his pupils the books thus purchased. In the constitution 
 dated 1778 of one of our most famous secondary schools, 
 after specific directions given to the trustees as to their 
 powers and duties, the branches to be taught are enumerated. 
 The master is then enjoined to give special attention to the 
 health of the scholars and to inculcate habits of industry 
 by encouraging manual labor, gardening, etc., "So far as 
 it is consistent with the cleanliness and the inclination of 
 their parents." The fruit of their labor "Shall be applied 
 at the discretion of the trustees for procuring a library or in 
 some other way increasing the usefulness of this seminary." 
 Thus early in our educational history were the practical re- 
 sults of manual training and the desirability of a school 
 library recognized. 
 
 The collections of the library were often supplemented 
 in various ways. In most of the schools one or more literary 
 societies flourished, and these possessed libraries and read- 
 ing rooms which were accessible to the members. An insti- 
 tution which is described as "a safe retreat for virtuous 
 young men and women" maintained two literary societies 
 which had well selected libraries. Another school where 
 "as many as forty pious students of the various religious 
 denominations have been at one time" offers the use of the 
 well selected libraries of two literary societies and "a neatly 
 furnished hall supplied with literary periodicals." The 
 president of one school states that his private library is 
 accessible to the pupils. Sometimes collateral reading was 
 ■encouraged by requesting students to bring with them from 
 home such histories as they possessed, also standard poetic 
 works, concordances, commentaries, atlases, both celestial 
 and terrestrial, scientific works, etc. The means for making 
 accessions to the library, then, were largely through gifts 
 and by fees of twenty-five or fifty cents a year charged on 
 the school bill among the extras, and reading facilities were 
 increased by the use of the society libraries and by the few 
 
SOME OLD SCHOOL LIP.RARIt:S 321 
 
 books which the pupils were able to bring from home. In 
 one institution in order to encourage a generous impulse 
 toward the library on the part of such pupils as owned books 
 they are told, as a bait, that if they choose to donate to the 
 library a book or books of standard character of the value 
 of one dollar their names shall be inserted in the books and 
 they will be preserved as a memorial in the years to come. 
 The size of these libraries varies from 250 to 6000 volumes, 
 and nothing can better express the benign attitude of the 
 teachers toward them or the estimate in which they were 
 held than further quotations from the school prospectus. It 
 is said of a librar}^ containing several hundred volumes, 
 "among all the means of culture and refinement afforded to 
 schools none should be more appreciated than this rare and 
 costly collection." One institute boasts of a small library 
 for Sunday reading, "not only good books, but such good 
 books as will be read." In regard to the character of the 
 libraries we find that nearly all contained cyclopedias, and 
 standard works in history, science, philology, mental and 
 moral philosophy, biography and general literature. In one 
 school the books were selected with reference to the needs 
 of the instructors, whose aim it was to teach their pupils 
 how to use a library. In another school the library had 
 been selected with great care and afforded every opportunit}' 
 for literary culture. In many cases the library is described 
 as "respectable," "useful," "miscellaneous," "appropriate for 
 purposes of reference and perusal." 
 
 Reading rooms were also maintained, either separately 
 or as part of the library, and these were supplied with daily, 
 weekly and monthly papers, both secular and religious. The 
 pupils of one school were not permitted to read any news- 
 papers except those on file in the library, nor allowed any 
 books in their possession except the Bible and Prayer-book. 
 That habits of good reading were encouraged among pupils 
 in those days we have indisputable evidence in a list of 
 prizes given at the end of the year. A papier mache watch 
 stand was presented for excellence in Latin recitation, a 
 basket of wax fruit for English studies, while a complete 
 set of Shakespeare was awarded for meritorious work in 
 composition. 
 
2,22 ^ ELIZABETH G. BALDWIN 
 
 The attitude of the scholastic mind toward reading and 
 books may be judged still further from the following state- 
 ment copied from a catalog dated 1853: "Though larger li- 
 braries in colleges are of no great value to the pupils who 
 have not or ought not to have much time for promiscuous 
 reading which, in proportion to its extent, detracts from the 
 success and value of the daily recitations, an assortment of 
 books, if judicious, is important." In another catalog, dated 
 1834, we read: "A library is another species of furniture 
 necessary to the success of a literary institution. This in 
 colleges is always admitted, but in academies, though such 
 extensive collections of books are not needed, yet to some 
 extent they are equally indispensable. Works of reference 
 . . . together with a selection in history and general lit- 
 erature at least, should be furnished for the benefit of teach- 
 ers and students. ... A good library not only gives a 
 character to an institution but furnishes the means and oper- 
 ates as a stimulus upon the student in the acquisition of 
 knowledge." Another catalog states that "it has a large 
 and well selected library free of charge to all students who 
 may thus employ spare moments otherwise wasted and thus 
 acquire a taste for reading as well as much valuable informa- 
 tion." Another teacher expresses the opinion that if care is 
 exercised in the selection a great variety of instructive and 
 entertaining books may be collected, such as are calculated 
 to facilitate the progress of more advanced students. 
 
 Because of the prevalence of the female seminary, wom- 
 an's interest in books and reading attracted the attention 
 of eminent educators of the day. The principal of one of 
 these schools says that "the library contains the works of 
 such authors as are most approved in female education." 
 An article in an educational journal dated 1827 deplores 
 the difficulties which beset the teachers in female schools 
 because of the want of suitable books to consult. In a 
 journal of later date we are informed that free government 
 has restored to woman her proper rank in the creation. *Tt 
 is most delightful to observe her moral and intellectual ele- 
 vation by means of our primary school and female seminary 
 and how without books . . . are the daughters of the 
 state to obtain that knowledge which is so desirable in the 
 
SOME OLD SCHOOI, IJ I'.kA kl l.S 323 
 
 character of a female?" Mentioning the fact that she is for- 
 bidden from appearing in business enterprises and debarred 
 from all that stimulates thought and action in young men, 
 the writer says: "Without access to books she is doomed 
 to ignorance and incapacity, which in time will lead to 
 mental feebleness and imbecility." Again we read that al- 
 though domestic duties may prevent escape from cares and 
 affliction, if the young woman has acquired a taste for read- 
 ing she can enter at least into the pleasures of literary pur- 
 suits. 
 
 It is interesting to learn what ideas w^ere held at that 
 period concerning the character of books suitable for a 
 school library, also the desirability of cultivating the reading 
 habit in young people, and the effects, beneficial and per- 
 nicious, of establishing school libraries. The cautious and 
 conservative element among the pedagogues of that day 
 doubted that any good could result from such a step. They 
 questioned the honesty of booksellers and accused them of 
 selling, from mercenary motives, material that was calculated 
 to poison, rather than edify, the youthful mind. They feared 
 that books of a partisan or sectarian nature might by chance 
 creep into these libraries, and if perused by the infantile 
 population might excite political or religious controversies. 
 The public of that day, it seems, prided itself on its thirst 
 for knowledge. In its own estimation it belonged to "a 
 reading age." Therefore how great the danger in propagating 
 school libraries of overstimulating this thirst by encouraging 
 the habit of too much reading and thereby inducing mental 
 at the expense of physical and moral development. Mr. 
 Alcott "dreaded to have school libraries the hobby of the 
 day; it would eventually do much evil. If we open the door 
 a flood of evil is ready to rush in.'' His meaning is rather 
 vague, but he makes some dark allusion to persons who 
 watch for opportunities to put money into their own pockets, 
 referring probably to the aforesaid booksellers. He recom- 
 mends as especially valuable for a school library the Bible, 
 a book of fables, and an edition of "Pilgrim's progress" 
 which has been rewritten for children minus the illustrations, 
 particularly those representing the devil, asserting that "This 
 pfersonage never yet sat for his portrait and a good book 
 
324 , ELIZABETH G. BALDWIN 
 
 like that of Bunyan should not be defaced by illustrations 
 that must necessarily be injurious in tendency." Another 
 book which he would like to add to the preceding and one 
 which he thought very few knew about was "A child's book 
 on the soul," by Gallaudet. He considered this very valu- 
 able and had found it a great favorite with his pupils. His 
 contemporaries call attention to "the immoral and unhappy 
 tendencies of badly selected libraries" and the doubtful 
 utility of school libraries under any circumstances. Opposed 
 to this conservative element were a few who advocated a 
 small library of the best books selected perhaps by the par- 
 ents. The important feature in their opinion was to read 
 fewer books and to read them more thoroughly. There 
 were others who were still more radical and who maintained 
 that school libraries necessarily must exert a good influence 
 upon the younger generation, that books could make up for 
 deficient schools, that children could get, in a measure, an 
 education by reading when the schools failed to give it. 
 
 Horace Mann recommended "the introduction of well 
 selected school libraries as a means of elevating the public 
 sentiment, alluring both the young and the old to the more 
 substantial pleasures of the mind and to efforts of self-im- 
 provement." 
 
 The following plea is both forcible and picturesque, and 
 although put forth over sixty years ago, its application 
 would serve just as righteous a cause to-day: "Bell, book 
 and candle used to be the appointed means for putting the 
 devil to an ignominious flight, and the last two will be found 
 sufficient for the purpose, even now, if they be used aright." 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adams, C. F., Jr., ii; biog. sketch, 23; address given in full, 
 23; article on "School Superintendency," excerpt from, 
 16. 
 
 Age-limit for children, no, 135. 
 
 Aguilar library, X. Y., 119. 
 
 A. L. A. cooperation com., 18; foundation of, 78; report on 
 work with schools, 14. 
 
 Alameda, Cal., lectures, 122. 
 
 Anderson. E. H., address, 19. 
 
 Andrews, Sam'l, on Pittsburgh school catalog, 20. 
 
 Austin, Isabella, biog. sketch, 221; paper given in full, 221. 
 
 Baldwin, Elizabeth. G., biog. sketch, 315; paper given in full, 
 
 315. . 
 Barry. Sir Redmond, quoted, no. 
 Blanks for school deposits, 92. 
 Book-Miracle, the, 69. 
 
 Books, library of best, S3', read in normal course, 279. 
 Books recommended: by C. F. Adams, Jr.. 31; by W. E. 
 
 Foster, 3/; by S. S. Green, 58; by G. W. Peckham, 90; 
 
 by W. R. Eastman, 98; by L. A. Eastman, 133; by Dr. 
 
 C. A. McMurry, 140; by F. M. Crunden, 171; by M. D. 
 
 Mc Curdy, 306. 
 Boston, statistics, 112. 
 Boxes for school deposits, 91, 245. 
 Branch libraries, commended. 60; in schools, 246; near 
 
 schools. 226; school work in, 215. 
 Brett, W. H., biog. sketch, 85; paper given in full, Ss: paper 
 
 summarized, 17. 
 Brooklyn public library, 202. 
 Brooklyn (E. D.) library, 102. 
 Brown University, library privileges, 46. 
 Buck. P. M., 176. 
 Bufifalo. N". Y., cooperation in. 183; report on children's 
 
 books. 114; school work in, 20. 
 Bulletins in schools, 215, 224. 
 
326 INDEX 
 
 Canfield, Dr. James H., 220. 
 
 Carlyle, T. W., quoted, 70. 
 
 Carnegie, Andrew, quoted, 135. 
 
 Cases for children's corners, 163. 
 
 Catalogs of old schools, 321; for children, 114; needed for 
 schools, 56. 
 
 Chamberlain, ]\Iellen, quoted, 59. 
 
 Child, the School and the Library: address by Linda A. East- 
 man, 125. 
 
 Children's rooms, 119, 162. 
 
 Chubb, Percival, biog. sketch, 249; paper given in full, 249. 
 
 City History Club, N. Y., 211. 
 
 Class-room libraries, 115, 215, 226, 265; in N. Y., 194, 
 
 Class use of books, 261. 
 
 Clatworthy, Linda M., biog. sketch, 281 ; paper given in full, 
 281. 
 
 Cleveland, O., normal school, ■2^'/, 278; public library, 85. 
 
 Club rooms in libraries, 262. 
 
 Columbia Library School, 78. 
 
 Columbia School, St. Louis, 175. 
 
 Complaints from teachers, 222. 
 
 Composition, English, 39. 
 
 Co-operation, why necessary, 33. 
 
 Cowell, Mr., of Liverpool, quoted, 118. 
 
 Crunden, F. M., biog, sketch, 167; address given in full, 167; 
 quoted, iii. 
 
 Cutter, C. A., quoted, 23. 
 
 Dana, J. C, biog. sketch, 153; report given in full, 153; 
 quoted, iii. 
 
 Dayton, O., normal school, library course, 281; public li- 
 brary, 281. 
 
 Decimal classification, 63. 
 
 Detroit, report of school superintendent, quoted, 118. 
 
 Dewey, Melvil, address given in full, 63; biog. sketch, (i2>- 
 
 District school libraries, N. Y., 99. 
 
 Dix, Gen. John A., quoted, 99. 
 
 Dover, N. H., open counter, 120. 
 
 Drama, value of, 254. 
 
 Draper, A. S., 103. 
 
 Eastman, Linda A., address given in full, 125; biog. sketch, 
 
 125. 
 Eastman, W. R., address given in full. 95; biog. sketch, 95. 
 Education, purpose of, 178. 
 Elgin, 111., 236. 
 
 Eliot, Chas. W., quoted, 177. 
 Elmendorf, H. L., biog. sketch, 183; paper given in full, 183. 
 
INDEX 327 
 
 Elmcndorf. Theresa (Mrs. H. L.), 91. 
 Emerson, R. W., quoted, 70, 270. 
 
 Experiment in School Library Work: paper hv E. \V. Gail- 
 lard, 213. 
 
 Fehnley, David, biog. sketch, 289; paper given in full, 289. 
 Ford, Mathilde C, biog. sketch, 191; report given in full, 191. 
 Foster, W. E., biog. sketch. S3; paper given in full, 33. 
 "Free Hour'' in Worcester high school, 40. 
 Function of the School in Introducing Children to the Proper 
 Use of Books: report by Dr. Chas. A. McMurry, 139. 
 
 Gaillard. E. W'., biog. sketch, 213; paper given in full, 213. 
 Games in library advocated, 122. 
 Games, value of, 254. 
 Gannett, Dr., quoted, 177. 
 Geography, teaching by reading, 126. 
 
 Gloversville, N. Y., reading-circles, 119; school work, 104. 
 Grand Rapids, Mich., cooperation in, 245. 
 Greeley, Colorado, librarian quoted, iii. 
 
 Green, S. S., biog. sketch, 45; paper given in full, 45; quoted, 
 13. 
 
 Harris, W. T., quoted, 181. 
 
 Harrison, Frederick, quoted, 112. 
 
 Harron, Julia S., letter to, 230. 
 
 Harvard University, access to books, 46. 
 
 Hasse, A. R., quoted, iii. 
 
 Hewins, Caroline, quoted, 112. 
 
 Historical sketch, 11. 
 
 Holmes, O. W., quoted, 134. 
 
 Home reading, 264. 
 
 How far Should Courses in Xormal Schools and Teachers* 
 
 Colleges Seek to Acquaint all Teachers with the Ways 
 
 of Organizing and Using School Libraries?: paper by 
 
 David Felmley, 289. 
 How the Teacher Can Help the Librarian: paper by Mira 
 
 Jacobus. 235. 
 How to Alake the Library of Greater Service to the Student 
 
 of School Age: paper by S. H. Ranck, 243. 
 How to Make the Library More Serviceable to Students of 
 
 School Age: from the Library Worker's Viewpoint: 
 
 paper by Efifie L. Power, 259. 
 Howard, Chas. L., 175. 
 Hutchins, Frank A., catalog by, 115. 
 
 Instruction in the L'se of Books in a Xormal School: article 
 by Irene Warren, 269. 
 
328 . INDEX 
 
 Jacobus, Mira, biog. sketch, 235; paper given in full, 235. 
 James, Hannah P., quoted, 121; report by, summarized, 14. 
 Jersey City, statistics, 112. 
 Johnston, W. D., biog. sketch, 307; paper given in full, 307. 
 
 Kauffman, P. W., biog. sketch, 229; report given in full, 229. 
 Kelso, Tessa L,, quoted, 122. 
 Keyes, E. W., quoted, 102. 
 
 Lanigan, Edith, 180. 
 
 Leland, C. G., 194. 
 
 Librarian, her equipment, 156; necessity of, in school, 97. 
 
 Librarian's Spirit and Methods in Working with the Schools: 
 report by J. C. Dana, 153. 
 
 Libraries as Related to the Educational Work of the State: 
 address by Dr. Melvil Dewey, 63. 
 
 Libraries for storage and recreation, y^. 
 
 Library and school compared, 33; as a Reinforcement of the 
 School: paper by W. D. Johnston, 307; buildings, 162; 
 Course Given to City Normal School Students: paper by 
 Linda M. Clatworthy, 281; gifts, 76; laws, 100; modem, 
 64; of best books, Foster's, 33; school at Columbia Univ., 
 78; the model, 74; the scholar's, 75; Visits to Public 
 Schools; paper by Annie Carroll Moore, 201. 
 
 Library Bureau, foundation, 78. 
 
 Library Journal, foundation, 78. 
 
 Library Notes, foundation, 78. 
 
 Lists for children, 131; for teachers, 262; of children's books, 
 
 Lockport public library, 103. 
 
 McCurdy, Mary D., biog. sketch, 299; paper given in full, 299. 
 McMurry, Chas. A., biog. sketch, 139; report given in full, 
 
 139- 
 Mann, Horace, quoted, 324. 
 Marcy, Gov., quoted, 100. 
 Metcalf, R. C., of Boston, 85; quoted, 12. 
 Methods to be Used by Libraries Working with Schools to 
 
 Encourage the Use of Real Literature: paper by Mary 
 
 D, McCurdy, 299. 
 Miln, Louise Jordan, quoted, 181. 
 Milwaukee public library, work with schools, 90; cooperation 
 
 with normal school, 122; report on children's books, 114; 
 
 statistics, 92, 112, 117. 
 Minneapolis, statistics, 112. 
 Moore, Annie Carroll, biog. sketch, 201; paper given in full, 
 
 201. 
 
INDEX 329 
 
 Morgan, Thos. J., paper by, 16. 
 Museum, relation to library, 136. 
 
 N. E. A. committee on cooperation, 18; library department, 
 17. 
 
 Newburg, X. Y., free library, 102. 
 
 New York, board of education, 194; 214; public library, 195, 
 213, 237; school department formed, 21; library leader- 
 ship, 83; school library question in, 191. 
 
 Niagara public library, 103. 
 
 Norfolk Co., Mass., schools of, 59. 
 
 Normal school librarj- courses, 275, 281; scope of, 289; in- 
 struction in use of books, 269. 
 
 Oxford University, free access to books, 46. 
 
 Papers, preparation of, 293. 
 
 Pawtuckct, R. I., report on children's books, 114. 
 
 Peckham, G. W., biog. sketch, 89; report given in full, 89. 
 
 People's Palace, London, anecdote, 256. 
 
 Perkins, F. B., quoted, 270. 
 
 Perkins, Miss (Ilion, N. Y.), quoted, 11 1, 123. 
 
 Phillips, Wendell, quoted, 181. 
 
 Pictures, use of, 118, 131, 225; in Milwaukee, 93. 
 
 Pittsburgh, Carnegie library, school catalog, 19. 
 
 Play, value of, 254. 
 
 Pomona, Cal., cooperation in, 229, 235. 
 
 Poole, W. F., quoted, 113. 
 
 Poughkeepsie, N. Y., library, 102. 
 
 Power, Effie L., biog. sketch, 259; paper given in full, 259. 
 
 Pratt Institute library, Brooklyn, N. Y., 202. 
 
 Prentice, May H., biog. sketch, 275; article given in full, 275. 
 
 Prentiss, Mabel E., 229. 
 
 Providence, R. I., weekly "reading hour" in a school, 59. 
 
 Public Library and Public Schools: address by C. F. Adams, 
 Jr., 23; report by Dr. G. W. Peckham, 89: and the Public 
 School: address by W. R. Eastman, 95; books in Public 
 Schools: paper by H. L. Elmendorf, 183. 
 
 Public Schools and Public Libraries: report by P. W. Kauf- 
 man, 229. 
 
 Quincy, :^Iass., cooperation in, 12, 16. 
 
 Ranck, S. H., biog. sketch. 243; paper given in full, 243- 
 Rathbone, Josephine A., sketch by, given in full, 11. 
 Reading, collateral, 309; for the Young: report by L. E. 
 
 Stearns, 109; habit of, I55; of High School Boys and 
 
 Girls: paper by Percival Chubb, 249. 
 
330 - INDEX 
 
 Reference work, 2)7, 165, 246, 261, 282; at branches, 60. 
 Relation of the Public Library to the Public Schools: ad- 
 dress by S. S. Green, 45, 
 Restriction of number of children's books, 113. 
 Rochester central library, 102. 
 Rochester University, access to books, 46. 
 Russell, Prof., of Worcester, quoted, 48. 
 
 St. Louis high school, 176; public library, 167; statistics, 112. 
 
 San Francisco, statistics, 112. 
 
 Sanders, Mrs. (Pawtucket, R. L), quoted, in. 
 
 School and library compared. 2>y, and the Library — the Value 
 of Literature in Early Education: address by F. M. Crun- 
 den. 167; and the Library: their Mutual Relation: paper 
 by W. E. Foster, 2>Z\ extension, 312; Library Question in 
 New York City: report by Mathilde C. Ford, 191; libraries 
 old, 315; limitations of, y2. 
 
 Scudder, Horace E., quoted, no. 
 
 Some Old Forgotten School Libraries: paper by Elizabeth 
 G. Baldwin, 315. 
 
 State, duties of, to libraries, 80. 
 
 Statistics: Boston, 112; Jersey City, 112; INIilwaukee, 92, 112, 
 117; Minneapolis, 112; St. Louis, 112; San Francisco, 112. 
 
 Stearns, Lutie E., 90; biog. sketch, 109; report by, sum- 
 marized, 15; given in full, 109. 
 
 Stevens Point normal school, Wis., 270. 
 
 Story hours, 22^, 247, 263. 
 
 Sully, James, quoted, 168. 
 
 Supervisors of children's reading, 120. 
 
 Supplementary reading, 117, 172. 
 
 Syracuse central library, 102; public library, 103. 
 
 Teachers' cards, 115, 224; disapproved, 159. 
 Teachers' corner in libraries, 224. 
 Thurber, Samuel, of Worcester, quoted, 50, 51. 
 Trollopc, Anthony, quoted, 179. 
 
 Union for Christian work, Brooklyn, 202. 
 
 University extension, 81. 
 
 Use of the Public Library in the Cleveland Schools: paper 
 
 by W. H. Brett, 85. 
 Utica public library, 103. 
 
 Vacation reading, 310. 
 Visits of classes to library, 119. 
 Visits of librarians to schools, 160, 201. 
 
 Vitalizing the Relation between the Library and the School: 
 article by May H. Prentice, 275. 
 
INDEX 
 
 33 > 
 
 Warren. Irene, biog. sketch, 269; article given in full. J69. 
 
 Waterloo. Stanley. 178. 
 
 Webster free librar}-, school work at, 21. 
 
 Wells grammar school, use of library, 58. 
 
 West, Theresa (now Mrs. Elmendorf ), 91, 
 
 What the School Needs from the Library: paper by Isabella 
 Austin. 221. 
 
 Windows for children, 119. 
 
 Wisconsin normal school, 270. 
 
 Worcester, Mass., cooperation in, 13. 51: educational institu- 
 tions, 47; high school, 40. 49; public library, 45; state 
 normal and public librar}-, 49. 
 
 Wrigley, Mrs. (Richmond, Ind.), quoted, in. 
 
 Yonkers, N. Y., public library, 103. 
 
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