OZ1-S3 UNIVERSITY OF ILLIN0I8- THE NUGGET Xilnan> ant> School. A public library can be made of great service to the public schools. Such is the case in many cities all over the land. While it must be admitted that the Helena Public Library is behind other places in this work, it has been striving hard to increase the efficiency of its work for teachers and pupils. We have been hampered by lack of funds, and rush of work has made it impos- sible for us to do as well by teachers and pupils as we wish. Teachers have shown themselves ready and desir- ous to make use of such library facilites as we have, and we want to have it always understood that the library staff desires to co-operate to the fullest extent possible with the teachers in their plans for the benefit of their pupils. Some of the things that are being done by the teach- ers of Helena may be mentioned: Teachers send pupils to the library to ascertain certain facts, and they thus learn the use of reference books. They come to find answers to questions that will introduce them to the books of history, economics and the trades and practical arts. They are sent to get certain books to read that will introduce them to the great literature of the world. Pupils are sent to get books of travel to read in connection with their geography lessons, and the same with reference to other school studies. Teachers get books in order to read them to their pupils, and in order to awaken their interest in the books by showing the il- lustrations, reading extracts, talking about them, etc. Teachers get books to help them in their own work of presenting their pupils with interesting facts in botany, zoology, mineralogy, etc. Teachers borrow mounted pictures from the library and find them serviceable in the school room in connection with geography, language work, etc. During the present school year we have been able to do somewhat better by the teachers than ever before. Each teacher is allowed seven books for school use which she may keep four weeks. These she can have used in 3 MAY, MDCCCXC N301 12108754026A the school room only, or can lend them to her pupils for use at home over night or for a longer time, just as she deems best. If books are loaned for home use, the pupils use their library cards in getting books from a teacher in just the same way as in getting books from the library. The teacher keeps a record of all the loans for home use and reports to the library at the end of the four weeks the number of times each book has been loaned. All books are to be returned to the library at the end of the four weeks. The library is obliged to hold the teacher responsible for injury or undue soiling. By lending books to her pupils by means of library cards the teacher may know what child has done the injury. The child is then sent with the book at once to the li- brary to pay for the injury. The repairing of injuries is attended to at the library where there are skilled per- sons to do the repairing. If others attempt repairs the injury is nearly always made worse and the fine is then necessarily larger. Number 13 of the Library Bulletin contains an article on the careful usage of books. When all the teachers of a certain grade wish books on a single subject we frequently run short of books and are obliged to divide up and limit each teacher to a smaller num- ber than seven. As soon as possible more books will be bought so that we may better supply the needs of the teachers. About 16 1-2 per cent of the books of the public library are books especially suitable for children and young people, and there should be a much larger percentage. We need many new books as well as many duplicates of the best we already have. There should be as many as 25 or 30 copies of some books. The library has issued two Bulletins (numbers 10 and 16) wholly devoted to selected lists of books for young readers. The excellent list of 500 books for the young, compiled by George E. Hardy of New York City, and these two bulletins have been bound up together and copies have been used on the counter for catalogs. The use of these annotated catalogs has greatly encouraged the reading of good books. We have copies of Hardy’s list in the loan department. There are interesting facts about the use that our young people’s books (16 1-2 per cent of the books of the whole library) have received. In 1894, 1895 and 1896 4 the use of young people’s books was respectively 30 per cent, 33 per cent, and 37 per cent of the whole use of the library, as shown by the statistics of loans for home use. Another noteworthy fact is that only 56 per cent of the young people’s loans for 1896 was fiction, an un- usually low percentage. During the same year 77 per cent of the loans to adults was fiction. Every year the young people of Helena are making better use of the pub- lic library and are becoming better acquainted with the wonderful world of books. I wish especially to invite the attention of teachers to tw T o inspiring little books. Copies may be borrowed from the loan department, but many teachers desire to own them. They are: 1. Burt, Mary E. Literary Landmarks; a guide to good reading for young people, and teachers’ assistant. 1889. Chart and diagrams, 152 pages. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 75 cents. The book is a most vigorous, interesting, suggestive and helpful presen- tation of the whole subject of how to guide wisely the reading of ihe young. . What, when, and how, young people should read are discussed with skill, good sense, and often with fervency. The author is decidedly original and forceful. “The signal distinction of this little volume is that it maintains the capability of children to be interested in the best imaginative works of the race, beginning with the Greek and Latin classics and continuing through Dante and Shakespeare” {The Nation.) It is worth the most careful read- ing and study by the parent, the teacher, the pastor. In regard to the books recommended, the author compasses a very wide range of subjects and much of the great literature of the world. Her list of books has been very care- fully selected. 2. Scudder, Horace E. Literature in school. 1888. 60 pages. Hough- ton, Mifflin & Co., paper, $.15. Mr. Scudder was formerly a teacher, has written good books for young people, and has given this matter lifelong attention. He says: “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, if taken up systemati- cally in school, and that the man or woman who fails to become acquainted with great literature in some form during that time is little likely to have a taste formed later.” In a proper co-operation between library and school, w r e in Helena have made a beginning, but it is only a be- ginning. Much more is being done elsewhere than we are doing here. Other libraries have a far larger number of books and are able to lend 50 or 60 volumes to a teacher to be kept two or three months. Sometimes such books as Pratt’s American history stories are duplicated to the number of several hundred volumes. Special printed lists of school duplicates are published and distributed. . Libraries are buying the best of the colored picture books UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 3112 08754026 so that they may be loaned to primary teachers, to kin- dergartners, and to the children themselves. Many li- braries have a special department for school work and rooms specially for the young people where the books and periodicals of special interest to the young are kept. Sometimes a teachers’ reading room is established; a branch in a high school building proves very successful; or a system of home libraries serves to open up a new and inspiring world to the groups of children at a distance from the library and amidst limited opportunities. Sm things we must still look forward to; we are yet in the rear of the procession. The teachers of Dayton, Ohio, have organized them- selves into reading committees for the purpose of exam- ining carefully into the merits of the many new books for the young. They thus help the library and help each other. At the State Normal School at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Miss Mae E. Schreiber, the professor of litera- ture, gives the normal students regular instruction de- signed to lead them to a broad acquaintance with the world of books. It is there recognized that it will be demanded of the teacher of the future, that she shall have a wide and discriminating acquaintance with the whole field of reading for the young, and that she shall be able wisely to guide the reading of the children placed in her care At the last meeting of the National Educational Association a library section was formed and its members are now actively at work empha- sizing the need of good guidance for the young in their reading. Undoubtedly it is going to be ex- pected of teachers to give systematic instruction to their pupils in the use of books. It is a noble, fruitful work. No less an authority than President Eliot has said: “It is always through the children that the best work is to be done for the uplifting of any community.” 6