1/ t ^ r •- f J<5 - ‘ t u ^ t* COOPERATION OF LIBRARY AND SCHOOL Mabel M. Reynolds, Librarian. The motto of the American Library Association, “The best reading for the largest number at the least cost and the other motto, “For life, not for school, we earn, underlie the attempts that are today made to educate all our citizens. K dergartens, common schools, colleges, libraries, clubs, readl S circles, and extension classes exist that people of all ranks and of all ages may come into their inheritance The purpose of this paper is to show what the library and school, working to- g-ether may do to realize these aims. In 1876, occurred the first national library meeting, and ever since then there have been yearly meetings of the Ameri- can Library Association, the A. L. A. There were many, many problems before these people at their first meetings as there are today. One problem that engaged their attention from the first, was how to get the children to love books; how to get them to use the best books on any subject intelligently and well ; how to teach them what the best books were. Peop e not like things some times because they do not know them, but if you can not get hold of these people long enough to teach them about the things you want known, how ^ can you make the things liked? The librarians realized that there was already existing an institution, to which the children, as a whole, went regularly for a certain number of years— the school. There was a body of organized workers,— the teachers. To the children these teachers were guides, lnspirers friends, yea fortune tellers, as the bootblack in Elizabeth Harrison s story calls the Sunday School teacher, who through her wide knowledge, made the box of shoe polish so interesting, f he library forces resolved that the school forces and they ought to be Allies; accordingly in 1896, Melvil Dewey of the New York State Library, appeared before the National Educationa Association in Buffalo and addressed the assembled school men. The result was the creating of a new department of the N. E. A., the library department. . _ , There have been seven meetings of the National Educa- tional Association since then, and each time, there have been most valuable papers and discussions on topics of mutual in- terest to libraries and schools. Some of these subjects are: “Training of teachers so that they may cooperate with the li- brary ” “What the school may properly demand of the library “School libraries in the rural districts,” “Purposes of the 23 I p \ ^ Id Vd O < school library,” “Relation of the library to art education in the schools,” “What the normal schools can do for teachers on the library side,” “The A B C of reference work.” There are also many pages directly bearing on children’s readings : — the sub- jects they like; the books on those subjects best written for them; how to make them like reading, with details as to what is done in particular localities. School superintendents, public school teachers, librarians of normal schools and public libra- ries, and members of library commissions all have contributed ; the papers are not theoretical, but give results of carefully tested experiments, thorough investigation, and accurate details of the advance made in guiding, directing, and stimulating children’s reading. The volumes of the N. E. A. proceedings are there- fore mentioned as the first source of material. The Reports of the Commissioner of Education sometimes contain very valuable papers on this topic. The report for 1897-98, Vol. I, pp. 673-92, contains a “Symposium on the public school and the public library.” The articles which are taken from the Library Journal, are from the pens of expe- rienced, well-known librarians and are very suggestive to the parent, teacher and librarian. The document, “Report of Committee on the Relation of Public Libraries to Public Schools,” should be well known to every one engaged in teaching or in that field of library effort which works with the schools. There are fifteen papers in this report and they show how a library may be organized, how pub- lic sentiment in favor of a library may be created, how poor conditions may be improved, how rural schools may secure libraries, how certain typical libraries have accomplished their work. These headings only suggest the contents. Not the least valuable parts of the report are the excellent lists of books for grades prepared by Chas. A. McMurry, and a list for high schools. The committee whose names are signed to the report, was appointed in 1897, and for two years, through every ave- nue open to them, the work was investigated and the public generally interested. The report may be found in the N. E. A. Proceedings, Los Angeles meeting, 1899; in the report of the Commissioner of Education 1899-1900, Vol. I., pp. 663-718; in a separate pamphlet of 80 pages, costing 15 cents, which may be had by addressing Irwin Shepard, Secretary of the N. E. A., Winona, Minn. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. print a little circular compiled by the Springfield (Mass.) City Library Association called “References to articles upon children, schools and libraries.” 24 i li There are about two hundred references, with abstracts, to the most valuable articles to be found in the Library Journal, Pub- lic Libraries and in some cases in educational and general liter- ary magazines. Even to name all the sources of material available for the friends of the Library to use in learning of her work with the schools, would make a very long bibliography. The State Library Commissions are publishing much valuable material; their bulletins for special days, their lists, reports, handbooks, bookmarks, are great aids to the librarian, and through her, to the school ; there are two good library periodicals : Public Li- braries, published at 156 Wabash Ave., Chicago, subscription price $1.00, and Library Journal, 298 Broadway, New York City, subscription price $5.00; the State Teachers’ Associations and the County Institutes have a place on their programs for library interests; public libraries send out carefully annotated lists and call the attention of their local constituency to specially good books, special exhibits, excellent illustrations; other li- braries, far distant, get hold of the material and the teachers and children share with the rest of the community in the gen- eral interest; articles appear in the leading magazines telling of what is being done in the best libraries for teachers and parents and pupils; the Outlook, the Review of Reviews, the Atlantic Monthly, are only named as types of the magazines that contain such articles ; the newspaper is the library’s friend as well as the school’s; Farmers’ Institutes and Women’s Clubs are interested, and, in some states, are great promoters of li- brary work ; the United States Government has issued valuable reports. All these sources of library material are aids only as they are used. The library schools are sending out trained li- brarians, alive to their opportunities, skilled in the technique of library organization and management, anxious to make the library known and loved by all the people. The good things that come to their table are often such as will help the school ; they want to share them with the teachers. There are many large public libraries now which have special assistants to work with the schools. Such libraries have not only a children’s room and a general reference room, but also a school reference room and a room where a teacher may bring a class and have the books and magazines she wants. The library assistant who works with the schools knows the course of study ; she consults with the teachers and finds collat- eral reading and all sorts of supplementary material ; she visits the school and gives talks to the pupils, that awaken their in- 25 terest in literature and cause them to take out library cards and read at home; she makes known to them the books that will enrich their lives, and make their school work full of meaning ; she brings to the notice of the teacher the helpful material that comes to her; she sees that the library sends to the school at stated periods boxes of books that constitute in themselves small room libraries. The community supporting such a li- brary is investing well for future intelligence and character. Rural schools count themselves fortunate if they have their own room libraries ; some schools still find it difficult to obtain these and teachers, who have managed to get together a collection of books under the most adverse conditions, deserve great praise. With the interest that library commissions, state de- partments of education, county superintendents, legislators, and the people generally are taking in such things, there will soon be a law in every state making a school library fund compulsory. In the states where this law is now in force, a school, attended by not more than thirty pupils, may have, in a few years, as many as one hundred books; if these have been well selected they constitute a good working library. Books beget ever more and more interest. Teachers who are able to arouse an interest in a small collection may cause the children to feel the need of more books and arouse the community to help ; a good school library may make the people want a traveling library from their state commission and when this library has been read and appreciated the next step in communities of any size is the public library, free to all. The school people have done wonderful things through the improvement of the text-books, the story telling of the kin- dergarten and primary school, the work in literature in the grades and in the high school, to instill a love for reading in the child. The noble band of helpers which has edited the classics for children, and brought to them, in convenient size and print, real literature, has done much to form the taste of the American people. To Sarah L. Arnold, and Horace E. Scud- der, to the kindergartner who told the story of Little Cedrie, and How the Ugly Caterpillar became the Beautiful Butterfly, to Rand & McNally, who are getting out beautifully illustrated children’s books, to these, and many others, librarians and teachers must be thankful. Last year Miss Marie L. Shedlock of London told to a delighted audience of over a thousand chil- dren in Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg, some fairy tales, — Hans Anderson, Japanese fairy tales and others. The November number of the Carnegie Library Bulletin states that she is to 26 give, this December, 1903, a course of ten lectures to the stu- dents in the Training School for children’s librarians there. The December number of the Kindergarten Magazine gives Miss Shedlock’s picture in costume as the English fairy god mother. What that training class will learn of how to unite school and library and how many books the children will want to draw to read at home! The papers of this January tell us that Miss Shedlock is to be in Chicago. We envy Chicago. The teacher, who as a child has listened with delight to the kindergarten story, who has had, as a school girl, inspiring text-books and a graded course in literature, who has read, or had read to her in the home circle, Uncle Remus, Marmion, Heidi, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and a host of other good things, has a valuable resource. The memory of this reading will help her to introduce to her school the literature of imagination and ro- mance, of delight and song. If her teachers of history, sociol- ogy and geography have made her acquainted with reference books, if she has been led through her course to read much sup- plementary and collateral material, she realizes also the great- ness of the literature of knowledge, of the worth of the labora- tory habit, and the use of books as tools. The girl so prepared is trained for a teacher; she has a course in psychology and methods and learns how to teach others. She studies child nature from living with children and from the child as she finds him in literature; she reads Eugene Field, James Whitcomb Riley, Emmy Lou, Hutton’s “A Boy I Knew and Four Dogs,” Kenneth Graham’s “Golden Age and Dream Days,” “Sentimental Tommy,” Warner’s “Being a Boy,” Howell’s “A Boy’s Town,” “David Copperfield,” and perhaps several of the books on the list which the Springfield (Mass.) City Library Association issues under the name, “Books About Children and Child Life for Grown People.” All her college studies inculcate in her the habit of using many books. Her teachers are not dogmatic. In English History she has not only used her text-book but read, in part at least, Bright Greene, Freeman, Gardiner, Lecky, Cunningham, Traill; she has supplemented history with biography, read Shakespeare and Scott and Kingsley, to get the life and customs of the time. When it comes to teaching English History to her grade or even in the small high school it is the children’s literature on the subject that she wants. Gueber’s “Story of the English,” or Mowry’s “First Steps in the History of England” are useful * guides. These with Brook’s “Chivalric Days,” Mark Twain’s “Prince and Pauper,” Howard Pyle’s “Robin Hood,” and t 27 “Otto of the Silver Hand,” Stockton’s “Story of Viteau,” La- nier’s edition of Malory’s “Boys’ King Arthur;” Temple’s “England’s History” as pictured by famous painters may give a boy or girl a life long love for history. Should not a teacher know the literature that will make the subject live for the school as well as the more scholarly literature used by college classes ? This teacher takes a school. She may find no school li- brary, and her utmost endeavors for the year she stays may not produce a fund large enough to buy even ten books. What shall she do? There are ways of getting some material even then; the U. S. Government will help out some; the great hotels, established as summer resorts in different parts of the country will send much illustrative material that will help in geography ; railroad guides are of use; scrap books may be made; the chil- dren may have some books and the teacher may lend a few of hers. Many of the articles to which reference has been made in this paper give hints as to what to do until books may be bought as well as how to show the authorities that books are needed. Suppose a fund does come into existence and that the teacher is left to choose the books. From a list of books, all good, she is to choose those which are best for her school. She studies the children, the locality, calls to mind her child- hood reading. Children are to be led along the lines of their interests but teachers and libraries may create new interests. It is here that the teacher’s intimate knowledge of children’s books derived from her private reading and her normal course will be of use. All she may know of authors, illustrators, best editions and publishers will help her. There are many good lists that the parent, teacher or librarian may use in selecting books. Lists that do not analyze the books by means of a sub- ject index, or a good descriptive note are of little use to the would-be-buyer, unless she knows the book herself or knows, in general, the ability of the person compiling the list to choose books for others. Three libraries have lists in the market that are especially good ; they are all libraries which have done much work with children and schools and the lists have grown from their knowl- edge of books and their work with the young. Evanston Library, Evanston, Illinois, sells for five cents a sixty-one page pamphlet called, “List of five hundred books in the school li- braries of Evanston.” It was compiled in 1902 and has an an- notated list by grades, 1 — 6 inclusive. The subjects are : myth- ology, fairy tales, fables and legends; natural science; useful 28 arts ; games and sports ; literature ; geography ; description and travel; history; biography and historical stories, fiction. Pub- lishers and prices are given, an author and title index, and some special lists are added. The Buffalo Public Library issued last year its list of class-room libraries for public schools. It con- tains one hundred thirty-four pages and costs twenty-five cents. The list is graded, but books for all subjects in the same grade are in one alphabet. Grades i — 9 are included. Half of the book is taken up with a most valuable subject index. Lewis and Clarke have these references : Lewis and Clarke, Meri- wether Lewis, 1774-1809. William Clarke, 1770-1838. Brooks — First across the continent. Drake — Making of the great west, p. 184. Greely — Men of achievement; explorers, p. 105. Hale — Stories of adventure, chapter 1 1 . Kingsley — Stories of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Cap- tain William Clarke. Kingsley — Story of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Capt. William Clarke. Lighten — Lewis and Clarke. McMurry — Pioneer history stories of the Mississippi val- ley, p. 136. Parton — Capt. Meriwether Lewis. In Captains of Indus- try ; 2nd series, p. 51. Verne — Great explorers of the 19th century, p. 62. Wright — Stories of American progress, p. 86. The Author-Title index has each one of these ten books under author and title with the grade for which it is suitable. Looking up the book in the grade list, we find that publishers and price are given. Miss Prentice, training teacher in the Cleveland Normal, has compiled for the Cleveland Public Li- brary, “References for third grade teachers.” This is a 108 page pamphlet and costs thirty cents. The table of contents shows twelve main subjects. One of these is Birds, to which twenty-five pages are devoted; a page of quotations from the poets is given first, then a page of references about birds in general; such subjects as enemies, food, nests, structure, etc., are taken up and then individual birds; many quotations are given, general references, books, poems and stories are referred to and exact pages given. The references are to books and magazines. Under “Duck,” there are four reference books given, seven stories and one poem; two quotations are given and reference made to the mounted pictures which the library is ready to supply. There are many, many other lists used by librarians that might be very helpful to teachers. Many of them lack notes, publishers and prices. A variety of lists is very helpful in se- lecting a collection of any size and where the librarian’s worth and the library’s ideals are known, the book lists are accepted as valuable, on the authority of their authors. Such lists as come from the Carnegie Library, Pittsburg, the New York State Library, Hartford (Conn.) Public Library, Springfield (Mass.) City Library Association, Milwaukee (Wis.) Public Library, State Superintendent’s Office, Madison, Wisconsin, or the Free Library Commission of Madison are all very good and inexpensive. The books so carefully selected come at last; the box is unpacked and the teacher and her pupils have the delight of handling the pretty volumes. The books are to be prepared for the shelves. The teacher who has had some training in library administration now finds it of great advantage to her. The books need to be analyzed, the fewer there are, the more surely must each part be made of use. Titles often fail to ex- press contents and books must be carefully classified if their subjects are to be known. It saves so much time if all material on a subject be kept together. If a card catalogue be made of the books, teacher and pupils will have valuable training. It will, moreover, be found very useful in work with the school library and later with other libraries. The commissions of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin have a most valuable little hand book of library organization. It may be bought of the Minnesota State Library Commission, Minneapolis, at $3.00 per 100. The one hundred divisions of the Dewey Decimal Classification given on page 40, and the classification for chil- dren’s books, page 41, will be very helpful to small libraries; with this pamphlet and Cutter’s Decimal Author Table to be bought of the Library Bureau, 156 Wabash Ave., Chicago, for $1.25, the teacher-librarian, with whatever assistance she may be able to get through library and educational organizations, may begin the work of getting the books ready for the chil- dren. She may find ways of making the simple make-up of the book interesting to the child; she may tell him of the books of the ancients, of the books of mediaeval times and then of modern books ; she may open eyes, perhaps closed before, to the delight of the artistic craftsman; she may find in book-making a suggestive lesson in manual training and in the industrial arts. There may be an opportunity here to tell of the Maxson 30 book mark and the library league. They may become factors in the school. Children may be taught to use the table of contents and the index, to notice the chapter headings and the main and sec- ondary titles. They should be able to so use books that they may find the information they want, and find it quickly. The use the teacher makes of the books depends on many things mentioned in this paper : her own love of reading ; her childhood use of books; her college course; her normal train- ing; her familiarity with children’s books; her knowledge of the book resources of the country; her acquaintance with the movement for cementing library and school work ; her nearness to some public library on which she can draw for additional material. By the use of the library books in morning exercises, on special holidays, on rainy days, — when there are enough on any subject to go around, by every possible use in the class recitation, and by encouraging home reading, she may make of the children, book users, book lovers. Reference books may be used in the lower grades; the text books may be enriched and made attractive and serve as a mere suggestive guide to broader reading. Not only in high school, frequented by such a small per cent, but the grades, should train pupils to compare authorities, weigh evidence and arrive at the truth. A teacher in this state wishes to teach her class Wash- ington History. She may use Taylor’s History and Govern- ment of Washington State as a guide; even fifth grade chil- dren will be able to read with great interest, Tales of the Pa- cific Slope and Eva Emery Dye’s Story of Old Oregon; when the part of the book that relates to Lewis and Clarke is reach- ed, the regular text book may be supplemented with Kingsley’s Stories of Lewis and Clark, and the teacher may read to them parts of Dye’s McLaughlin and Old Oregon; when Whitman is reached, parts of Nixon’s How Marcus Whitman Saved Ore- gon may be used. If the school can also get hold of the lately reprinted edition of Lewis and Clark’s History of their Expe- dition, edited by Hosmer, Brook’s First Across the Continent and Lighton’s Lewis and Clark in the Riverside Literature Series, or of others mentioned in the Brooklyn list, the his- tory will be all the more full and delightful ; as geography goes hand in hand with history-teaching, the child may begin to read some books of travel, where before he read only adventure. It may lead to Baldwin’s Discovery of the Old Northwest and Conquest of the Old Northwest; he may become interested in Indians and read such stories as Brook’s Master of the Strong 31 3 0112 061921133 Hearts or Cooper’s Leather Stocking Tales or some of W. O. Stoddard’s books. Is he not preparing for Parkman and Fiske? He may not reach them, perhaps, but he has read good books and derived from them training, pleasure, and knowledge. Teachers and librarians are both very busy people. They have many things to do besides encouraging children to read and to guide them in their reading, but the tremendous im- portance of the work appeals to them. If something else must be dropped, should not a place be found for this ? This age is interested in sociology. Educators, settlement workers, novel- ists, editors, clergymen and statesmen are interested in better- ing conditions, in making people happier and better. The school and the library, united, may contribute their part to the gen- eral movement. The public library has been called the people’s university. It is the opportunity of the teacher and librarian to fit the young to enter this university. Let them stand shoul- der to shoulder and accomplish their grand mission !