This first of a series of yearly reports on "Reading for the young" was made by Miss Caroline M. Hewins at the Cincinnati Conference of the A. L. A. in 1882. It embodies answers from twenty-five librarians to the question, "What are you doing to encourage a love of good reading in boys and girls?"
Caroline Maria Hewins was born in Roxbury, Mass., October 10, 1846. She attended high school in Boston; received her library training in the Boston Athenaeum; taught in private schools for several years, and took a year's special course in Boston University. In 1911 she received an honorary degree of M.A. from Trinity College, Hartford. She has been librarian in Hartford, Conn., for many years, from 1875 to 1892 in the Hartford Library Association, since that time in the Hartford Public Library. She has done editorial work for various magazines and has contributed many articles to the library periodicals. Her list of "Books for boys and girls," of which the third edition was published in 1915, represents the result of many years' thoughtful and appreciative study of children's literature. Library work with children owes to Miss Hewins a debt of gratitude for her unusual contribution to the establishment of high standards, the development of a broad vision, and the maintenance of a wholesome, sympathetic, but not sentimental point of view.
About the first of March I sent cards to the librarians of twenty-five of the leading libraries of the country, asking, "What are you doing to encourage a love of good reading in boys and girls?" and soon after published a notice in the New York Evening Post and Nation, saying that statements from librarians and teachers concerning their work in the same direction would be gladly received The cards brought, in almost every case, full answers; the newspaper notice has produced few results.
The printed report of the Thomas Crane Public Library, Quincy, Mass., says: "The trustees have recently made a special effort to encourage the use of the library in connection with the course of teaching in the public schools. Under a rule adopted two years ago the teachers of certain grades of schools are in the practice of borrowing a number of those volumes they consider best adapted to the use of their scholars, and keeping them in constant circulation among them. During the year two lists of books for the use of the children in the public schools were printed under the direction of the trustees. One of these lists contained works in juvenile fiction; the other, biographies, histories, and books of a more instructive character. All the works included were selected by the trustees as being such as they would put in the hands of their own children. The lists thus prepared were then given to the teachers of the schools for gratuitous circulation among their scholars."
Mr. Green, of the Worcester, Mass., Free Public Library, writes: "The close connection which exists between the library and the schools is doing much to elevate the character of the reading of the boys and girls. Many books are used for collateral reading, others to supplement the instruction of text-books in geography and history, others still in the employment of leisure hours in school. Boys and girls are led to read good books and come to the library for similar ones. Lists of good books are kept in the librarian's room, and are much used by teachers and pupils."
Mr. Upton, of the Peabody Library, Peabody, Mass., gives as his opinion: "If teachers did their duty, librarians would not be troubled as to good reading. My experience of about thirty- five or forty years as a public grammar-school teacher is, that teachers can control, to a great extent, the reading of their pupils, and also that, as a class, teachers are not GREAT readers. We should have little trouble in changing to some degree our circulation, but our thirteen-foot shelves and long ladders prevent the employment of the best help. We print bulletins and assist all who ask aid."
Miss Bean, of the Public Library, Brookline, Mass., says: "I have no statistics of results relative to my school finding-list. Its influence is quietly but steadily making itself felt. The teachers tell me that many of the pupils use no other catalogue in selecting books from the library, and I know there are many families where the children are restricted to its use. We keep two or three interleaved and posted with the newest books when I think them desirable. Several of the teachers have told me personally that they had found the list useful to themselves; but teachers are mortal and human. Many of them think duty done when the day's session is over, and the matter of outside reading with their pupils is of little moment to them. I want to get out a revised list, with useful notes."
Mr. Rice, of the City Library, Springfield, Mass., writes: "We have a manuscript catalogue of the best and most popular books for boys and girls. We call attention to the best books as we have opportunity when the young people visit the library. We endeavor to influence the teachers in our public schools to aid us in directing the attention of boys and girls to the best juveniles, and such other books as they can appreciate."
Mr. Arnold, of the Public Library, Taunton, Mass., says: "What I am doing is to indicate in the margin of my catalogues the works which are adapted to the taste and comprehension of young people, so that not only their own attention may be diverted from the fiction department, but that their parents and teachers may easily furnish them with proper lists. We aim at excluding from the library books of a sensational character, as well as those positively objectionable on the score of morality."
Miss James, librarian of the Free Library, Newton, Mass., in speaking of the catalogue, without notes, of children's books, published by that library in 1878, and given to the pupils of the public schools, says: "I do not think that catalogue ever influenced a dozen children. We have just completed a very full card-catalogue which the children use a great deal in connection with their studies. Eleven hundred zinc headings are a great help. I frequently speak to the children to get acquainted with them, so they are quite free to ask for help. Our local paper has offered me half a column a week for titles and notices. I shall, of course, notice children's books as well as others." Mr. Peirce, the superintendent, says in his last report: "It is only from homes where the intellectual and moral character of childhood is neglected, as a rule, that the library with us is in any wise abused by the over-crowding of the mind with novels. In many of even these cases kind and wise restraint can be, and is, exercised by the librarian."
Mr. Cummings, curator of the Lower Hall card-catalogue of the Boston Public Library, and Miss Jenkins, assistant librarian in the same place, have kindly sent me the manuscripts of their forthcoming reports to the trustees. These reports are wholly on the methods and results of their personal intercourse with readers, and the increase in special reading during the last few years. Concerning boys and girls Mr. Cummings writes: "I must not forget the juvenile readers, school-boys and school- girls, and the children from the stores and offices about town. These latter are smart, bright, active little bodies, often more in earnest than their more fortunate fellows of the same age. They are an object of special solicitude and care. The school children come for points in reading for their compositions and for parallel reading with their lessons in school; and such books are suggested as may be found useful. The two most available faculties in children to work upon are the heart and the imagination. Get a hold on their affections by encouraging words and manifesting a readiness to help them, and you command their devotion and confidence. Give them interesting books (Optic and Alger, if needs be), and you fix their attention. Above all, let the book be interesting; for the attention is never fixed by, nor does the memory ever retain, what is laborious to read. But, once assured of their devotion, with their confidence secured and their attention fixed, there is nothing to prevent the work of direction succeeding admirably with them."
Miss Jenkins says: "The use of the library by the young people is increasing every year. The change in the character of children's books has been a great help to us, fairly crowding out many of the trashy stories so long the favorite reading. One of the first things that attracted my attention was their perseverance in seeking certain authors, and their continual exchange of books. I soon found their difficulties with the catalogue. They read only stories, and wanted those full of incident and excitement; when their favorite author failed, they sought for something else that sounded right in the catalogue, or sometimes wrote only the numbers without much reference to the titles, trusting, I suppose, to luck. Not liking the looks of the books they would return them. A steady recurrence of this made it a nuisance.
One of my first steps was to join one of the many groups around the room, and look over with them, suggest this author, or this, that, and the other book, until they were furnished with a list of books fairly suited to their age, and then, suggesting that the list should be kept for future reference, pass on to another group. This is now a general practice, and seems to suit the little folks; if, after several applications, they are unsuccessful, it is my custom to get them a book. My young people began to ask me to help their friends, also to help others themselves; so gradually the bright faces of my boy and girl friends have grown familiar, and as they gain confidence in me we strike out into other paths, and many bright, readable books, historical or containing bits of geography or elementary science, have been read. It so happened that many of my young friends grew quite confidential, and told me about their school and lessons. It was not very difficult to induce them to read some things bearing upon their studies; these books were shown to their teachers, and many were ready to cooperate at once; this led to an acquaintance with several, and the teachers' plan of study became a basis of selection for reading in history, biography, travel, and natural science. From books suited to their capacity much effective work has been done. Several classes have studied English history, and their reading has been made supplementary from the topics. Later, when a list of notable persons was given to them, they showed the effect of their reading by giving very good short sketches of these persons. American history—colonial, revolutionary, administrations, civil war, reconstruction—has been treated similarly, and the teachers are much gratified at the result. We find that these boys do not fall back to trashy reading, but ask for better reading in place of their old favorites.
Several girls of the high school have sought assistance in their various studies, especially in Greek and Roman history, and have read, in connection with the histories recommended, novels and some interesting travels, and have spent much time over engravings and photographs illustrative of their reading. Two of these girls, having asked me for a novel, meaning something like their former reading, I made tests by giving them exactly what they asked for. Very soon both books were returned, with the remark, 'I couldn't read it.' In a little talk that ensued, and in which I drew from them a criticism of their reading, it dawned upon them that they had developed, or grown, as they said. I could go on giving instances of this gradual development in individual cases, and of its influence upon others to whom these readers recommended what they had read, the increased call for the better books of fiction, biography, history, travel, miscellany, and science. In four years' work books of sensational incident, so long popular, have lost much of their charm. They have been crowded out by better books and personal interests in the young people themselves."
Mr. Foster of the Public Library, Providence, R. I., has sent an account in detail of his work among pupils and teachers, which may be thus condensed: Soon after the opening of the library, in 1878, he held a conference with the grammar-school masters of the city, and through them met the other teachers. He printed for the use of pupils a list of suggestions, some of the most important of which were summed up in the following words: "Begin by basing your reading on your school text-books;" "Learn the proper use of reference-books;" "Use imaginative literature, but not immoderately;" "Do not try to cover too much ground;" "Do not hesitate to ask for assistance and suggestions at the library;" "See that you make your reading a definite gain to you in some direction."
Mr. Foster soon gained influence among the teachers by personally addressing them, and began to publish annotated lists of books for young readers. A reading hour was established in the public schools, and pupils learned to give in their own language the substance of books which they had read. Mr. Foster says: "Our plans were by no means limited to the public schools, but included Brown University, the Rhode Island State Normal School, the Commercial College, the private schools for girls, and the two private boys' schools preparatory for college, one of which has ten teachers and some two hundred and fifty pupils. One morning I met the boys of this school in their chapel, and gave them a twenty minutes' talk on reading, particularly on the question how to direct one's current reading, as of newspapers, into some channel of permanent interest and value. Since my address before the teachers of the State (published in the papers and proceedings of the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction for 1880) we have had many calls for assistance from outside the city, from teachers in the high schools and grammar schools of other places. In 1878 I began the preparation of a bulletin of new books, issued quarterly by the State Board of Education, and there have been several instances of a series of references in connection with school-work. In July, 1880, I sent to the different teachers a series of suggestions about the reading of their pupils, covering such points as preserving a record of the books read, books not being read and returned at too frequent intervals, and the inspection of these matters by the teacher, or rather establishing communication between the teacher and pupil so that these things shall be talked over." Finding-lists have been checked for the schools, appeals have been made by Mr. Foster in public addresses for supervision of children's reading by teachers and parents, and duplicate copies of books have been placed in the library for school use. In conclusion, Mr. Foster adds: "There has been a gradual and steady advance in methods of cooperation and mutual understanding, so that now it is a perfectly understood thing, throughout the schools, among teachers and pupils, that the library stands ready to help them at almost every point."
Mrs. Sanders, of the Free Public Library, Pawtucket, R. I., writes: "I am circulating by the thousand Rev. Washington Gladden's 'How and What to Read,' published as a circular by the State Board of Education of Rhode Island. I am constantly encouraging the children to come to me for assistance, which they are very ready to do; and I find that after boys have had either a small or a full dose of Alger (we do not admit 'Optic'), they are very ready to be promoted to something more substantial— Knox, Butterworth, Coffin, Sparks, or Abbott. I find more satisfaction in directing the minds of boys than girls, for though I may and generally do succeed in interesting them in the very best of fiction, it is much more difficult to draw them into other channels, unless it is poetry. I should like very much to know if this is the experience of other librarians. My aim is first to interest girls or boys according to their ability to enjoy or appreciate, and gradually to develop whatever taste is the most prominent. For instance, I put on the shelves all mechanical books for boys; works upon adornments for homes—painting, drawing, music, aids to little housekeepers, etc., for the girls."
Mr. Fletcher, of the Watkinson Library, Hartford, Conn., says, in a recent address on the public library question in its moral and religious aspect: "Many of our public libraries beg the whole question, so far as it refers to the youngest readers, by excluding them from the use of books. A limit of fourteen or sixteen years is fixed, below which they are not admitted to the library as its patrons. But, in some of those more recently established, the wiser course has been adopted of fixing no such limitation. For, in these times, there is little probability that exclusion from the library will prevent their reading. Poor, indeed, in resources must be the child who cannot now buy, beg, or borrow a fair supply of reading of some kind; so that exclusion from the library is simply a shutting up of the boy or girl to the resources of the home and the book-shop or newspaper. A slight examination of the literature found in a majority of homes and most prominent in the shops is enough to show what this means, and to explain the fact, that the young persons first admitted to the public library at fourteen years of age come to it with a well-developed taste for trash and a good acquaintance with the names of authors in that department of literature, but with apparently little capacity left for culture in higher directions."
Mr. Winchester, of the Russell Free Library, Middletown, Conn., said in his report, last January: "A departure from the ordinary rules governing the use of the library has been made in favor of the teachers in the city schools, allowing a teacher to take to the school, a number of books upon any topic which may be the subject of study for the class for the time, and to retain them beyond the time regularly allowed." In a letter three months later he writes, "I cannot trace directly to this arrangement any change in the reading of young folks. We have taken a good deal of pains to get good books for the younger readers, and I make it a point to assist them whenever I can. I feel quite sure that, if trash is shut out of the library and withheld from young readers, and, if good and interesting books are offered to them, they will soon learn not to care for the trash."
Mr. Bassett, of the Bronson Library, Waterbury, Conn., says in his printed report: "The librarian can do a little towards leading young book-borrowers towards the selection of proper books, but it does not amount to much unless his efforts are seconded by parents and teachers. It is of little use, I fear, to appeal to parents to look after their children's reading. It is possible that they do not know that, in not a few cases, boys and girls from eight to sixteen years of age, even while attending school, draw from three to six volumes a week to read, and often come for two volumes a day. That they fail to realize the effects of so much reading on their children's minds is evident when we hear them say, and with no little pride, too, 'Our children are great readers; they read all the time.' Such parents ought to know that instead of turning out to be prodigies of learning, these library gluttons are far more likely to become prodigious idiots, and that teachers find them, as a rule, the poorest scholars and the worst thinkers." He adds an appeal to teachers: "Give out questions that demand research, and send out pupils to the library for information if necessary, and be assured that a true librarian enjoys nothing so much as a search, with an earnest seeker, after truths that are hidden away in his books. Do not hesitate even to ask questions that you cannot answer, and rely upon your pupils to answer them, and to give authorities, and do not be ashamed to learn of your pupils. Work with them as well as for them. But, whatever else you do, do not waste your time in urging your pupils to stop story-reading and to devote their time to good books. A parent can command this, you cannot; but you can make the use of good books, and the acquisition of knowledge not found in books, attractive and even necessary, and your ability to do this determines your real value as a teacher. Your work is to change your earth-loving moles into eagle-eyed and intelligent observers of all that is on, in, above, and under the earth." Mr. Bassett writes that as a result of this appeal there was in November, December, January, and February, an increase of nineteen (19) per cent in the circulation of general literature, science, history, travel, and biography, and a decrease in juveniles of ten (10) per cent for January and February, 1882, as compared with the same months of 1881, For the first nineteen days of March the increase of the classes first-named was thirty-seven (37) per cent over last year, and the decrease in juvenile fiction twenty-seven (27) per cent. He ends his letter: "As a school officer and acting school visitor, I find that those teachers whose education is not limited to textbooks, and who are able to guide their pupils to full and accurate knowledge of subjects of study, are not only the best, but the only ones worth having."
Mr. Rogers, of the Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, Vermont, says: "I have withdrawn permanently all of Alger, Fosdick, Thomes, and Oliver Optic. I have for some time past been making the teachers in the primary schools my assistants without pay. I give them packages of books to circulate among their respective schools. Very good results have been obtained. The Police Gazette and other vile weeklies have been discarded for books from the Fletcher Library. Most of the young folks are not old enough to draw at the library themselves, and this method has to be used, as in many instances the parents will not or cannot draw books for their children. Each teacher has a copy of Mr. Smart's excellent book, 'Reading for Young People.' Such books as are in our collection are designated in their copies."
The New York Free Circulating Library is quietly doing good by the establishment of carefully selected branch libraries in the poorest and most thickly settled parts of the city In the words of the last report: "The librarian has been constantly instructed to aid all readers in search of information, however trivial may be the subject, and, while the readers are to have free scope in their choice of books, librarians have attempted, when they properly could do so, free from seeming officiousness, to suggest books of the best character, and induce the cultivation of a good literary taste." Miss Coe, the librarian, adds, "Boys will read the best books, if they can get them."
Mr. Schwartz, of the Apprentices' Library, New York, says: "We are always ready and willing to direct and advise in special cases, but have not as yet been able to come across any general plan that seemed to us to promise success. The term 'good reading' is relative, and must vary according to the taste of each reader, and it is just this variety of standards that seems to present an unsurmountable obstacle to any general and comprehensive system of suggestions."
Miss Bullard, of the Seymour Library, Auburn, N. Y., reports a decrease in fiction from sixty-five (65) to fifty-eight (58) per cent in the last five years. She says: "I have endeavored, year by year, to gain the confidence of the younger portion of our subscribers in my ability to always furnish them with interesting reading, and have thus been able to turn them from the domain of fiction into the more useful fields of literature. Another noticeable and encouraging feature of the library is the increasing use made of it by pupils in the high school in connection with school-work."
Mr. Larned, of the Young Men's Library of Buffalo, N. Y., writes: "I think the little catalogue is doing a great deal of good among our young readers and among parents and teachers. We exert what personal influence we can in the library, but there are no other special measures that we employ." The catalogue, a carefully chosen list of books for young readers, with stars placed against those specially recommended, includes, besides books mentioned in other letters, the Boy's Froissart and King Arthur, Miss Tuckey's Joan of Arc, Le Liefde's Great Dutch Admirals, Eggleston's Famous American Indians, Bryan's History of the United States, Verne's Exploration of the World, Du Chaillu's books, What Mr. Darwin Saw, Science Primers, Faraday's Chemical History of a Candle, Smiles's Biographies, Clodd's Childhood of the World, Viollet Le Duc's Learning to Draw, Dana's Household Book of Poetry, Uncle Remus, Sir Roger de Coverley, several pages on out and in door games, hunting and fishing, with plenty of myths and fairy tales, an annotated selection of historical novels, and a short list of good stories.
The Friends' Free Library, Germantown, Pa., still excludes all fiction except a few carefully chosen stories for children. The report of the committee says: "Our example has been serviceable in stimulating some other library committees and communities to use more discrimination in their selection of books than may have been the case with them in the past. From our own precious children we would fain keep away the threatening contamination, if in our power to do so, the divine law of love to our neighbor thence instructs us to use the opportunity to put far away the evil from him also." The representatives of the religious Society of Friends for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, have published during the year a protest against demoralizing literature and art, taking the ground that the national standard of moral purity is lowered, and the sanctity of marriage weakened, by most of the books, pictures, and theatrical exhibitions of to-day.
The current report of the Cincinnati public schools gives a full account of the celebrations of authors' birthdays in the last two years, and the superintendent, the Hon. John B. Peaslee, LL.D., in an address on moral and literary training in school, urges that the custom, so successfully begun, shall be kept up, and that children in all grades of schools shall be required to learn every week a few lines of good poetry, instead of choosing for themselves either verse or prose for declamation. Mr. Merrill asks in his last report for coooperation between the school and the library, and says in a letter: "I read a paper some time ago which was published in a teachers' magazine, and have addressed our Cincinnati teachers. We purchased a number of the catalogues of the Young Men's Library of Buffalo, and have written in our corresponding shelf numbers. A few of our teachers have also obtained these catalogues. I judge that the children are beginning to take out better books than formerly. The celebration of authors' days in the schools has been very beneficial in making the children acquainted with some of the best literature in the libraries as well as with the use of books of reference."
Miss Stevens, of the Public Library, Toledo, Ohio, says: "We are fond of children, and suggest to them books that they will like. Give a popular boy a good book, and there is not much rest for that book. Librarians should like children."
Mr. Poole, of the Chicago Public Library, writes: "I have met the principals of the schools, and have addressed them on their duties in regulating the reading of their pupils, and advising their pupils as to what to read and how to read. My talk has awakened some interest in the teachers, and a committee has been appointed to consider what can be done about it."
Mr. Carnes, of the Odd Fellows' Library Association, San Francisco, fires this shot in his report: "Even the child knows that forbidden fruit is the sweetest on the branch. If you wish to compel a boy to read a given book, strictly forbid him even to take it from the shelves. The tabooed books will somehow be secured in spite of their withdrawal."
Mr. Metcalf, of the Wells School, Boston, who told at the conference of 1879 of his work in encouraging a love for good, careful, and critical reading, writes: "My girls have bought Scott's Talisman, and we have read it together. I have now sent in a request for forty copies of Ivanhoe. My second class have read, on the same plan, this year, Mrs. Whitney's We Girls, and the third class have finished Towle's Pizarro, and are now reading Leslie Goldthwaite. The City Council refused, last year, to appropriate the $1,000 asked for. When we have the means, all our grammar and high school masters will be able to order from the library such books as are suited to their classes. This plan introduces the children to a kind of reading somewhat better than would otherwise reach them, and, best of all, it gives them great facility in expression."
Hartford, which has now no free circulating library, but hopes for one within two years, still keeps the old district system of schools, and several of these schools have a library fund. Mr. Barrows, principal of the Brown School, writes: "Our library contains the usual school reference-books. Recently we have added quite a number of books especially adapted to interest and instruct children, such as The Boy Travellers, Miss Yonge's Histories, Butterworth's Zigzag Journeys, Forbes's Fairy Geography, etc. The children are not permitted to take these books away from the building. Pupils are invited to bring such additional facts in geography, or history, as they may obtain by reading. Topics are assigned. Should spices be the topic, one pupil would read up concerning cloves; another nutmeg, etc. Again, pupils are allowed to make their own selections, and invited to give, at a specified time, any facts in geography, history, natural science, manufactures, inventions, etc. For this extra work extra credits are given. Our object is to cause pupils to realize the conscious and abiding pleasure that comes by instructive reading; to encourage such as have not been readers to read, and to influence such as have been readers of trash to become readers of profitable books. The result, so far, is very encouraging. Many have become enthusiastic readers, and can give more facts and information thus obtained than we have time to hear. As the Christmas holidays approached, many signified a desire that their presents might be books, such as we have in our library; for they do not have time at school to exhaust the reading of these books, and consequently do not lose their interest."
Within the last few months Mr. Northrop, Secretary of the Board of Education of Connecticut, has distributed in the high schools and upper classes of the grammar schools of the State, blanks to be filled by the pupils with the kind of reading that they like best, and the names of their favorite authors. Several hundred of these circulars were destroyed when the Hartford High School was burned last winter. The publication of a list of books suitable for boys and girls has been delayed, but Mr. Holbrook, of the Morgan School, Clinton, Conn., who prepared the list, writes concerning his work in school: "I have the practical disbursement of three or four hundred dollars a year for books. In the high school, in my walks at recess among the pupils, I inquire into their reading, try to arouse some enthusiasm, and then, when the iron is hot, I make the proposition that if they will promise to read nothing but what I give them I will make out a schedule for them. A pupil spending one hour, even less, a day, religiously observing the time, will, in five years, have read every book that should be read in the library. Those who agree to the above proposition I immediately start on the Epochs of History, turning aside at proper times to read some historical novel. When that is done I give them Motley, then Dickens, or Prescott, or Macaulay, Hawthorne, Thackeray, Don Quixote. Cooper I depend on as a lure for younger readers. When they have read about enough (in my opinion), I invite them to go a little higher. Whenever they come to the office and look helplessly about, I immediately jump up from my work, and, solving the personal equation, pick out two or three books which I think adapted first to interest, and then instruct. I try to welcome their appearance, assuring them that the books are to be read, urging the older ones to read carefully and with thought. Some I benefit; others are too firmly wedded to their idols, Mrs. Holmes and Southworth. Finally, it is my aim to send them away from school with their eyes opened to the fact that they have, the majority, been reading to no purpose; that there are better, higher, and nobler books than they ever dreamed of. Of course I don't always accomplish this; but he who aims at the sun will go higher than one aiming at the top of the barn."
A commission of sixteen ladies was appointed last year, by the Connecticut Congregational Club, to select and print a catalogue of books for Sunday Schools. During the year it has examined one hundred and eighty-four, almost all reprints of well-known books, and has selected one hundred. At least one annotated Sunday-School catalogue was prepared before the appointment of the commission, directing the attention of children to such books as Tom Brown's School Days and Higginson's Young Folks' Book of American Explorers, and of older readers to Stanley's Jewish Church, Martineau's Household Education, Robertson's Sermons, Sister Dora, Hypatia, Charles Kingsley's Life, and Atkinson's Right Use of Books.
The conclusions to which these opinions, from libraries and schools in ten different States, lead us, are these: 1. The number of fathers and mothers who directly supervise their children's reading, limiting their number of library books to those which they themselves have read, and requiring a verbal or written account of each before another is taken, is small.
2. The number of teachers who read and appreciate the best books, or take pains to search in libraries for those which illustrate lessons, or are good outside reading for the pupils, is also small.
3. The high schools, normal schools, and colleges are every year sending out young men and women with little knowledge of books except text-books and poor novels.
4. In towns and cities with free libraries, much may be and has been done by establishing direct communication between libraries and schools, making schools branch libraries.
5. This can be done only by insisting that teachers in such towns and cities shall know something of literature, and by refusing to grant certificates to teachers who, in the course of an hour's talk, do not show themselves well enough informed to guide children to a love of good books. The classes now reading under Mr. Metcalf's direction in Boston, or celebrating authors' days and the founding of their own state in Cincinnati, will be, in a few years, the teachers, the fathers, or the mothers of a new generation, and the result of their reading may be expected to appear in the awakened intelligence of their pupils and children.
6. Daily newspapers may be used with advantage in schools to encourage children to read on current events and to verify references.
7. Direct personal intercourse of librarians and assistants with children is the surest way of gaining influence over them. Miss Stevens, of Toledo, has put the secret of the whole matter, so far as we are concerned, into four words: "Librarians should like children." It may be added that a librarian or assistant in charge of circulation should never be too busy to talk with children and find out what they need. Bibliography and learning of all kinds have their places in a library; but the counter where children go needs no abstracted scholar, absorbed in first editions or black-letter, but a winsome friend, to meet them more than halfway, patiently answer their questions, "and by slow degrees subdue them to the useful and the good."
READING OF THE YOUNG
Miss Hewins made a later report on the same subject [see the previous article] in a paper presented before the World's Library Congress in 1893. In this paper, given below, she has summarized several of the early yearly reports made at the meetings of the A. L. A., all of which are of great interest as a record of the work of various libraries.
In the Government report on libraries, 1876, the relation of public libraries and the young was treated by Mr. W. I. Fletcher, who discussed age-restrictions, direction of reading, choice of books, and incidentally the relation of libraries to schools, referring to librarians and trustees as "the trainers of gymnasts who seek to provide that which will be of greatest service to their men." The report was suggestive, and called for several radical changes in the usual management of libraries. No statistics were given, for none had been called for, and the number of libraries which were working in the modern spirit was not large. Mr. Green, in his paper at the Philadelphia conference of 1876 (L. j. 1: 74), gave some suggestions as to how to teach school boys and girls the use of books, and in one or two of the discussions the influence of a librarian on young readers was noticed, but the American Library Association did not give much time to the subject till the Boston conference of 1879, when a whole session was devoted to schools, libraries, and fiction (L. j. 4:319), the general expression of opinion being similar to the formula expressed in the paper by Miss Mary A. Bean, "Lessen the quantity and improve the quality." In 1881, Mr. J. N. Larned, of the Buffalo Young Men's Library, issued his pamphlet, "Books for young readers." The report on "Boys' and girls' reading" which I had the honor of making at the Cincinnati conference of 1882 has answers from some 25 librarians to the question "What are you doing to encourage a love of good reading in boys and girls?" (L. j. 7:182.) Several speak of special catalogs or bulletins, most of personal interest in and friendship with young readers. One writes, "Give a popular boy a good book, and there is not much rest for that book. Librarians should like children." It was in 1883 that, by the suggestion and advice of our lamented friend, Frederick Leypoldt, I published a little classified pamphlet, "Books for the young." In January of the same year the Library Journal began a department of "Literature for the young," which was transferred at the end of the year to the Publishers' Weekly, where it still remains. The report on the subject, made for the Buffalo conference by Miss Bean, is on the same lines as the former one, with the addition of the experience of some smaller libraries. She says, "I believe the Lynn library has hit a fundamental truth, and applied the sovereign remedy, so far as the question concerns public libraries, in its 'one-book-a-week' rule for pupils of the schools."
Miss Hannah P. James's report at the Lake George conference in 1885 (L. j. 10:278) sums up the information received from 75 sources in some suggestions for work in connection with school and home, suggesting the publication of book lists in local papers, supervision of children's reading if authority is given by parents, and the limitation of school children's book to one or two a week. At the St. Louis conference of 1889 Miss Mary Sargent reported on "Reading for the young" (L. j. 14:226), One librarian fears that lists of books prepared for boys and girls will soon become lists to be avoided by them, on account of young people's jealous suspicion of undue influence. Sargent's "Reading for the young" was published just after the White Mountain conference of 1890, and the subject was not discussed in San Francisco in 1891 or at Lakewood in 1892 except in relation to schools.
The Ladies' Commission on Sunday school books is at least five years older than the American Library Association. It has done good service in printing lists of books specially adapted to Unitarian Sunday schools, others unfitted for them only by a few doctrinal pages or sentences, and a third class recommended as household friends on account of their interests, literary value, and good tone. The Church Library Association stands in the same relation to Episcopal Sunday schools, recommending in yearly pamphlets:
1. Books bearing directly on church life, history, and doctrine.
2. Books recommended, but not distinctly church books.
The Connecticut Ladies' Commission has, at the request of the Connecticut Congregational Club, published since 1881 several carefully chosen and annotated lists.
The National Young Folks' Reading Circle, the Chautauqua Young Folks' Reading Union, and the Columbian Reading Union, the latter a Catholic society, the others undenominational, have published good lists for young readers. The Catholic Church also recommends many recent stories for children which have no reference to doctrines or differences in belief.
One hundred and fifty-two out of 160 libraries have answered the following questions:
1. Are your children's books kept by themselves?
2. Are they classified, and how?
3. Have they a separate card catalog or printed finding list?
4. Are they covered?
5. Do you enforce rules with regard to clean hands?
6. Have you an age limit, and if so, what is it?
7. Do you allow more than one book a week on a child's card?
8. Are children's cards different in color from others?
9. What authors are most read by children who take books from your library?
10. What methods have you of directing their reading? Have you a special assistant for them, or are they encouraged to consult the librarian and all the assistants?
11. Have you a children's reading room?
Seventy-seven reply to the first question that their children's books are kept by themselves, 22 that stories or other books are separate from the rest of the library, and 53 that there is no juvenile division.
Three answer simply "Yes" to the second question, 24 have adopted the Dewey system, in two or three cases with the Cutter author marks, 4 the Cutter, and 1 the Linderfelt system; 10 arrange by authors, 18 by subjects, 4 by authors and subjects, 42 report methods of their own or classification like the rest of the library, and 46 do not classify children's books at all.
In answer to the third question, 6 libraries report both a separate card catalog and finding list, 43 a finding list for sale or distribution, 15 a card catalog for children, and 88 no separate list. Of the printed finding lists 4 are Sargent's, 1 Larned's, 2 Hardy's, and 2 Miss James's.
The fourth question relates to covering books for children. Eighty-five libraries do not cover them, 30 cover some, either those with light bindings or others that have become soiled and worn, 35 cover all, and 2 do not report.
In reply to the fifth question, 45 libraries require that children's hands shall be clean before they can take books from the library, or at least when they use books or periodicals in the building, and 50 have no such rules. Others try various methods of moral suasion, including in one instance a janitor who directs the unwashed to a lavatory, and in another a fine of a few cents for a second offense.
The sixth question, whether there is an age limit or not, brings various replies. Thirty-six libraries have none, five base it on ability to read or write, one fixes it at 6, one at 7, and one at 8. Ten libraries allow a child a card in his own name at 10, two at 11, forty-seven at 12, six at 13, thirty-three at 14, four at 15, and six at 16. They qualify their statements in many cases by adding that children may use the cards of older persons, or may have them if they bring a written guarantee from their parents or are in certain classes in the public schools.
Question 7 deals with the number of books a week allowed to children. Ninety-five libraries allow them to change a book every day; one (subscription) gives them a dozen a day if they wish. Fifteen limit them to two, and 3 to three a week, and 16 to only one. Several librarians in libraries where children are allowed a book a day express their disapproval of the custom, and one has entered into an engagement with her young readers to take 1 book in every 4 from some other class than fiction. Others do not answer definitely. A few libraries issuing two cards, or two-book cards, allow children the use of two books a week, if one is not a novel or story.
Question 8 is a less important one, whether children's cards are of a different color from others. There is no difference between the cards of adults and children in 124 libraries, except in case of school cards in 2. In 4 the color of cards for home use varies, and 4 report other distinctions, like punches or different charging slips. Eight do not charge on cards and 12 do not answer.
With regard to question 9, "What authors are most read by children who take books from your library?" the lists vary so much in length that it is impossible to give a fair idea of them in in few sentences. Some libraries mention only two or three authors, others ten times as many. Miss Alcott's name is in more lists than any other. Where only two or three authors are given, they are usually of the Alger, Castlemon, Finley, Optic grade. These four do not appear in the reports from 35 libraries, where Alden, Ballantyne, Mrs. Burnett, Susan Coolidge, Ellis, Henty, Kellogg, Lucy Lillie, Munroe, Otis, Stoddard, and various fairy tales fill their places. Seven are allowing Alger, Castlemon, Finley, and Optic to wear out without being replaced, and soon find that books of a higher type are just as interesting to young readers.
Question 10 asks what methods are used in directing children's reading, and if a special assistant is at their service, or if they are encouraged to consult the librarian and all the assistants. Many librarians overconscientiously say, "No methods," but at the same time acknowledge the personal supervision and friendly interest that were meant in the query. Only nine do not report something of this kind. Six have, or are about to have, a special assistant, or have already opened a bureau of information. Five say that they pay special attention to selecting the best books, 4 of the larger libraries have open shelves, and 2 are careful in the choice and supervision of assistants.
In answer to question 11, 5 report special reading rooms, present or prospective, for children; 3 more wish that they had them, while others believe that the use of a room in common with older readers teaches them to be courteous and considerate to others. Most reading rooms are open to children, who sometimes have a table of their own, but in a few cases those under are excluded.
My own opinion on the subjects treated in the questions are:
1. It is easier for a librarian or assistant to find a book for a child if whatever is adapted to his intelligence on a certain subject is kept by itself, and not with other books which may be dry, out of date, or written for a trained student of mature mind.
2. It is easier to help a child work up a subject if the books which he can use are divided into classes, not all alphabeted under authors.
3. A separate card catalog for children often relieves a crowd at the other cases. A printed dictionary catalog without notes does not help a child.
A public library can make no better investment than in printing a classified list for children, with short notes on stories illustrating history or life in different countries, and references to interesting books written for older readers. Such a list should be sold for 5 cents, much less than cost.
4. The money spent in paying for the paper and time used in covering books is just as well employed in binding, and the attractive covers are pleasant to look at.
5. The books can be kept reasonably clean if children are made to understand that they must not be taken away, returned, or if possible, read with unwashed hands. City children soon begin to understand this if they are spoken to pleasantly and sent away without a book till they come back in a fit state to handle it.
6. As soon as a child can read and write he should be allowed to use books. A proper guarantee from parent or teacher should, of course, be required.
7. A child in school cannot read more than one story book a week without neglecting his work. If he needs another book in connection with his studies he should take it on a school teacher's, or nonfiction card.
8. It is best, if a child has only one book a week, for his card to be of a different color from others, that it may be more easily distinguished at the charging desk.
9. It has been proved by actual experiment that children will read books which are good in a literary sense if they are interesting. New libraries have the advantage over old ones, that they are not obliged to struggle against a demand for the boys' series that were supplied in large quantities fifteen or twenty years ago.
10. As soon as children learn that in a library there are books and people to help them on any subject, from the care of a sick rabbit to a costume for the Landing of the Pilgrims, they begin to ask advice about their reading. It is a good thing if some of the library assistants are elder sisters in large families who have tumbled about among books, and if some of the questions asked of applicants for library positions relate to what they would give boys or girls to read. If an assistant in a large library shows a special fitness for work with children, it is best to give it into her charge. If all the assistants like it, let them have their share of it.
11. The question of a children's reading room depends on the size of the room for older readers, and how much it is used by them in the afternoons. Conditions vary so much in libraries that it is impossible for one to make a rule for another in this case.
HOW LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN HAS GROWN IN HARTFORD AND CONNECTICUT
The Library Journal for February, 1914, says: "One of the pleasantest features of 'Library week' at Lake George in 1913 was the welcome given to Miss Hewins, that typical New England woman, whose sympathy with children and child life has made this relation of her public library work a type and model for all who have to do with children…. Miss Hewins's paper was really a delightful bit of literary autobiography, and she has now happily acceded to a request from the Journal to fill out the outlines into a more complete record."
Not long ago I went into the public library of a university town in England and established confidence by saying, "I see that Chivers does your binding," whereupon the librarian invited me inside the railing. A boy ten or twelve years old was standing in a Napoleonic attitude, with his feet very far apart, before the fiction shelves, where the books were alphabetized under authors, but with apparently nothing to show him whether a story was a problem-novel or a tale for children. My thoughts went back many years to the days when I first became the librarian of a subscription library in Hartford, where novels and children's stories were roughly arranged under the first letter of the title, and not by authors. There was a printed catalog, but without anything to indicate in what series or where in order of the series a story-book belonged, and it was impossible when a child had read one to find out what the next was except from the last page of the book itself or the advertisements in the back and they had often been torn out for convenient reference.
My technical equipment was some volunteer work in a town library, a little experience in buying for a Sunday-school library, and about a year in the Boston Athenaeum. The preparation that I had had for meeting children and young people in the library was, besides some years of teaching, a working knowledge of the books that had been read and re-read in a large family for twenty-five years, from Miss Edgeworth and Jacob Abbott, an old copy of "Aesop's fables," Andersen, Grimm, Hawthorne, "The Arabian nights," Mayne Reid's earlier innocent even if unscientific stories, down through "Tom Brown," "Alice in Wonderland," Our Young Folks, the Riverside Magazine, "Little women," to Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte and Mrs. Gaskell. These books were in the Hartford Young Men's Institute, but they were little read in comparison with the works of the "immortal four," who were then writing series at the rate of two or more volumes a year—Optic, Alger, Castlemon and Martha Finley—and still refuse to be forgotten. The older girls demanded Ouida, a new name to me, but I read some of her novels before I had been in the library many weeks, and remember writing a letter to a daily paper giving an outline of the plot of one of them as a hint to fathers and mothers of what their schoolgirl daughters were reading. I think that there was something about boys, too, in the letter, and a plea for "Ivanhoe" and other books of knightly adventure.
The Young Men's Institute Library in Hartford was a survival from the days of subscription libraries and lecture courses. The city had then a population of about fifty thousand, of whom some five or six hundred were subscribers to the library, paying three dollars for the use of one book at a time or five dollars for two, including admission to the periodical room. Hartford had a large number of Irish inhabitants, some Germans, a few of whom were intelligent and prosperous Jews, a few French Canadians, possibly still fewer Scandinavians. It was several years before the first persecution of the Russian and Polish Jews sent them to this country. In the year when I came, 1875, there were forty-six boys and girls in the high school graduating class, all, from their names and what I know of some of them, apparently of English descent, except one whose name is Scotch.
The class which was graduated last June had about 650 members on entering, and 250 at the end of its course. Among the names are Italian, Hebrew, Swedish, Irish, German, Danish, Spanish, Bohemian, Armenian—the largest percentage from families not of English descent being Hebrew.
It is fair to say that at least half of the boys and girls of the earlier graduating class, or their families, had library subscriptions, but little use of the library was recommended even by the high school teachers, and none by the teachers of the graded schools. How could there be? Five dollars is a large sum in most families, and children at that time had to read what they could get at home or from the Sunday-school libraries, which were no better nor worse than others of the period.
The first effort that I remember making for a better choice of books was showing the library president some volumes by Thomes, a writer for the older boys, whose stories were full of profanity and brutal vulgarity. There was no question about discarding them and some of Mayne Reid's books like "The scalp hunters" and "Lost Lenore," which are much of the same type, very different from his earlier stories, and in a short time we did not renew books by some other authors, but let them die out, replacing them if possible by stories a little better, giving preference to those complete in themselves.
Within a short time, in 1878, we began to publish a quarterly bulletin. In the first number "Library notes" begins: "Much time and thought have been given to suggesting in this bulletin good books for boys and girls. As a rule, they read too much. Our accounts show that one boy has taken 102 story-books in six months, and one girl 112 novels in the same time. One book a week is certainly enough, with school studies. Within the last month one boy has asked us for Jack Harkaway's stories, another for bound volumes of the Police News, and a third for 'The murderer and the fortune teller,' 'The two sisters and the avenger' and 'The model town and the detective.' These are not in the library and will not be. The demand for girls for the New York Weekly novels is not small. We shall gladly cooperate with fathers and mothers in the choice of children's books."
Of what we now call nature-books there were very few written or well illustrated for children, though the library had John Burroughs, Harris's "Insects injurious to vegetation" and Samuels's "Birds of New England and the adjacent states." There was little interest in out-of-door study, and I have never forgotten the contempt on the face of one boy when instead of Mayne Reid's "Boy hunters," which was out, he was offered "The butter- fly hunters," or the scorn with which he repeated the title. All that is changed, thanks to the influence of schools and teachers, and children are no longer ignorant of common birds and insects. St. Nicholas helped in opening their eyes, when a librarian, Harlan H. Ballard, of Pittsfield, organized the Agassiz Association with a monthly report in the magazine. We had a chapter, Hartford B., that met for years out of doors on Saturday mornings through the spring, early summer and autumn, and even through one winter when some specimens of the redheaded woodpecker were on the edge of the city. Usually our winter meetings were in the library, and we often had readings from Burroughs, Thoreau, Frank Buckland and others of the earlier nature-lovers. The children came from families of more than usual intelligence, and some of them who now have well-grown children of their own often refer with pleasure to our walks and talks.
I had taught for three years in a school where the children and I were taken out of doors every week in spring and autumn by an ornithologist and an entomologist. At this time we were beginning to buy more books on out-of-door subjects, and I had learned enough in my teaching to be able to evaluate them in a bulletin.
The years went on, with once in a while an encouraging report about a boy who had made experiments from works on chemistry or beguiled a fortnight's illness with Wordsworth's "Greece," or Guhl and Koner's "Life of the Greeks and Romans," or had gone on from Alger and Optic to Cooper, Lossing, Help's "Life of Columbus" and Barber's "History of New England." Both boys and girls were beginning to apologize for taking poor stories.
In one of our bulletins, January, 1881, is an acknowledgment of Christmas material received from the advance sheets of Poole's Index, then in preparation in the Watkinson Library, on the other side of the building. Imagine life in a library without it, you who have the Readers' Guide and all the debates and Granger's Index to Poetry and the Portrait Index! Nevertheless, we were not entirely without printed aids, for we had the Brooklyn catalog, the Providence bulletins, and the lists of children's books prepared by the Buffalo and Quincy libraries.
In 1882, at the request of Frederick Leypoldt, editor of the Publishers' Weekly, I compiled a list of "Books for the young," some of which are of permanent value. In a second edition, in 1884, I reprinted from our bulletin a list of English and American history for children, between twelve and fifteen, based on my own experience with boys and girls. I can laugh at it now, after years of meeting child-readers, seventy-five per cent of whom have no books at home, and can also find food for mirth in my belief that a list of books recommended for vacation reading in another bulletin would attract most boys and girls under sixteen.
One school, under a wise and far-seeing principal, who is now an authority on United States history and the author of several school books on the subject, had in 1884 an arrangement with us for a supply of historical stories for reading, and we printed a list of these and of other books on American history which would be interesting if read by or to the older pupils in the grammar grades.
Sets of fifty copies each of books for supplementary reading in school were bought by the library in 1894, and apportioned by the school principals at their monthly meetings. Several new sets were bought every year till 1905, when the collection numbered about three thousand, and was outgrowing the space that we could spare for it. The schools then provided a place for the school duplicates, and relieved the library of the care of them. Since 1899 the graded schools have received on request libraries of fifty books to a room, from the third grade to the ninth, to be kept until the summer vacation, when they are returned for repairs and renewal. The number circulated during the school year has grown from 6,384 in 1899-1900 to 17,270 in 1912-13. The children's applications are sent to the main library, and no child may have a card there and in a school branch at the same time.
There were rumors for several years that the library would be made free, and when it was at last announced in 1888 that $250,000 had been given by the late J. Pierpont Morgan, his father and two families related to them, on condition that $150,000 more should be raised by private subscription to remodel the Wadsworth Athenaeum, which then housed three libraries and a picture- gallery, and to provide for its maintenance, the rumor bade fair to come true. That the money came in, is largely due to the personal efforts of Charles Hopkins Clark, editor-in-chief of the Hartford Courant, for many years treasurer of the Athenaeum, the Watkinson Library and the Hartford Public Library, and the sum required was promised in 1890. Later the library offered the free use of its books, and also the income of about $50,000 to the city, on condition of keeping its form of government by a self-perpetuating corporation.
The first step towards the enlarged use of the library was to separate the children's books and classify them. We had had a fixed location up to that time, and I had not yet broken loose from it, but I numbered them according to the best light I had, though in a very short time I saw that with the increased number of duplicates we had to buy, only a movable location was of the least practical use. It was several years before the Dewey classification was finally adopted for the children, although we classified our grown-up books by it before we opened to the public.
When the library became free, in 1892, the annual circulation of children's books rose at once to 50,000, 25 per cent of the whole, and as large as the largest total in the subscription days. We immediately had to buy a large supply of new books, carefully chosen, and printed a too fully annotated list, which we found useful for some years and discarded when we were able to open the shelves. We had only a corner for children's books, almost none for children under ten, and no admission to the shelves. We struggled on as well as we could for the next few years.
A dialogue between a reader and the librarian in 1897 shows what we were trying to do at this time. It is really true, and illustrates the lack of knowledge in one of the most intelligent women in the city of the many points of contact between the library and the boys and girls of the city.
Reader: "There ought to be somebody in the library to tell people, especially children, what to read."
Librarian: "Have you ever seen the children's printed list, with notes on books connected with school work, and others written for older readers but interesting to children, hints on how and what to read, and a letter R against the best books?"
Reader: "No, I never heard of it."
Librarian: "It was ready the day after the library opened, was sold for five cents, and the first edition of a thousand copies was exhausted so soon that a second had to be printed. Have you ever heard of the lists of interesting books in connection with Greek, Roman and English history given to high school pupils' or the records kept for years by the North School children of books which they have read, and sent to the librarian to be commented on and criticised in an hour's friendly talk in the school room, or the letters written on the use of the library by pupils in the other schools?"
Reader: "No."
Librarian: "Have you ever seen the lists of good novels for boys and girls growing away from books written for children and also a list of interesting love-stories for readers who have heard of only a few authors?"
Reader: "No."
Librarian: "Have you ever noticed the printed lists of new books, with notes, hung on the bulletin board every Monday?"
Reader: "No."
Librarian: "Do you know that the library has twelve hundred volumes of the best books by the best authors, fifty of each, for use in the public schools?"
Reader: "No."
The library opened in 1895 a branch for children in the Social Settlement, and in 1897 reading rooms in connection with vacation schools, established by the Civic Club and afterwards taken in charge by the city.
The Educational Club, an organization of parents, teachers and others interested in education, began in 1897 with very informal meetings, suggested by the school section of the Civic Club, which were held in my office for three years, until they outgrew it and needed a more formal organization. The directors of the Civic Club and managers of the Social Settlement have met there for years, and the Connecticut Public Library Committee found it a convenient meeting place until it seemed better to hold sessions in the Capitol, where its office is.
The history classes of the North School, of whose principal I have spoken, used to make a pilgrimage every year to points of interest in the city, ending with an hour in the rooms of the Historical Society in the building, where they impersonated historical characters or looked at colonial furniture and implements. After the hour was over they used to come to the office for gingerbread and lemonade, which strengthened their friendly feeling for the library. This lasted until the principal went to another city.
In 1898, in a talk to some children in one of the schools just before the summer vacation, I asked those who were not going out of town to come to the library one afternoon every week for a book-talk, with a tableful of books such as they would not be likely to find for themselves. The subjects the first year were:
Out-of-door books and stories about animals, Books about Indians, Travellers' tales and stories of adventure, Books that tell how to do things, Books about pictures and music, A great author and his friends (Sir Walter Scott), Another great author and his short stories (Washington Irving), Old-fashioned books for boys and girls. The talks have been kept up ever since.
The series in 1900 was on Books about knights and tournaments, what happened to a man who read too much about knights (Don Quixote), Books about horses, Two dream-stories, (The divine comedy and The pilgrim's progress), Some funny adventures (A traveller's true tale and others), Some new books, How a book is made, Stories about India, Pictures and scrap-books.
The next year, 1901, the talks were about stories connected with English history, the Old-English, the Normans, the Plantagenet times, King Henry V., the Wars of the Roses, King Henry VII, and King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots, the Stuarts, and the English Revolution and eighteenth- century England.
The year after, 1902, the talks were on "Books that you have not read," under the titles Sea stories, Indian stories, Horse stories, Wonder stories, Hero stories, African stories, South Sea stories, School and college stories, Old stories. A table of books was in the room, and I took them up one by one and told a little about the story, sometimes reading aloud and stopping at a very interesting point.
In 1903, the subjects were Stories about dragons, Stories about soldiers, Stories about shipwrecks, Stories about out-of- doors, Stories of real people told by themselves, Stories about adventures, Stories about pictures, Stories about the West, the object being to give the children of the upper grammar grades a glimpse into interesting books of which they might otherwise never hear. In that year we printed a list of novels for young readers that is now ten years old and needs revision, but still has its uses.
The use of the reference-room by children steadily increased, until the need of a room for them became evident, both on weekdays and Sundays. The Bulletin for March 1, 1900, says: "On Sunday, Feb. 25, there were eighty-one children in the small room, filling not only chairs too high for their short legs, but benches extending into the circulation room. They were all quiet and orderly, and some of them read seriously and absorbedly for several hours on 'The twentieth century,' 'The boundaries of the United States,' and 'The comparative greatness of Napoleon and Alexander.' The younger children read storybooks in the same quiet manner. A children's room would relieve the pressure on all three departments of the library." The "last straw" that led to the grant of rooms was a newspaper article illustrated by a photograph of the reference-room on a Sunday afternoon with one man, one woman and fifty-one children in it.
In 1904, the library came into possession of two large, bright sunny rooms and a smaller one adjoining in an old-fashioned house next door, which belonged to the Athenaeum and had been released by the removal of the Hartford Club to a large new house across the street. We opened rooms in November, just before Thanksgiving, and from then till New Year's Day we received gifts from many friends: a pair of andirons for the open fireplace, several pictures, a check "for unnecessary things" from one of the women's clubs, another for wall-decoration from teachers, students and graduates of the Albany Library School, fifty Japanese color-prints of chrysanthemums from the Pratt Institute children's room, a cuckoo clock that is still going, though it demands a vacation about once a year, and a Boston fern that is now in flourishing condition. A large Braun photograph of the Madonna del Granduca came later from the Pittsburgh School for Children's Librarians.
The furniture is of the simplest kind. We used some tables that we had, and bought one new one, some bentwood chairs for the older children and others such as are used in kindergartens for the younger. Pratt Institute lent us that first winter the very attractive illustrations by the Misses Whitney for Louisa Alcott's "Candy country." Some friends who were breaking up housekeeping gave the room a case of native and foreign stuffed birds with the hope that they might be as great a source of pleasure to the children as they had been to them in their childhood. Another friend sent us two trunks of curiosities from Europe, Asia, Africa and North America, which are shown a few at a time.
The next summer, 1905, the book-talks were about pictures in the room, most of which had been bought with our friends' gifts. Windsor Castle, Kenilworth, Heidelberg Castle, The Alhambra, St. George, King Arthur, Sir Walter Scott, the Canterbury Pilgrims, some Shakespeare stories. On the Alhambra afternoon, a girl who had spent her first year out of college in Spain described the palace and showed curiosities from Granada. One day a Civil War nurse who happened in was persuaded to tell the boys and girls in the room about the three weeks she spent in the White House, taking care of Tad Lincoln through a fever. Some years later we were fortunate enough to hear her again in the room above, on Abraham Lincoln's hundredth birthday, when she held the attention of a large number of boys and girls for more than an hour.
The next summer "What you can get out of a Henty book" was used as an excuse for showing books and pictures about the Crusades, Venice, the knights of Malta, the Rebellion of the Forty-five, the East India Company, the siege of Gibraltar, the Peninsula war, and modern Italy.
That summer we had a puzzle-club to show younger children how to work the puzzles in St. Nicholas and other magazines and newspapers. We held our first Christmas exhibition that year, 1906, in the room itself, for one day only, before the hour of opening.
After an exhibition of lace in the Athenaeum the next spring, the specialist who arranged it held the attention of her audience of girls between ten and fourteen, giving a practical illustration of the making of pillow-lace, showing specimens of different kinds, pointing out the use of lace in old-fashioned costumes for children, and exhibiting a piece of Valenciennes which had been stolen by a catbird and recovered before it was woven into a nest. This talk was given at my request, because we could find almost nothing on lace in books for children, and the exhibit was then attracting much notice.
That year our first children's librarian, who had given only a part of her working hours to the room, the rest to the loan- desk, left us to be married. The school work had grown so fast that it had become necessary for us to find a successor who was equal to it, and whose sole time could be given to that and the care of the room, which is open only from 3.30 to 6 on school- days, except on Wednesdays, Saturdays and in vacations, when we have all-day hours. The children in vacation-time may change story-books every day if they like—practically none of them do it—but in school time they are allowed only one a week. This is not a hardship, for they may use their non-fiction cards, which give them anything else, including bound magazines.
Our children's librarian makes up for lack of library technique by her acquaintance with teachers, and experience in day, evening and vacation schools, that have brought her into contact with children of all sorts and conditions.
The summer before her coming I had charge of the room for a part of every day, and observing that children under fourteen were beginning to think that they had read everything in the room and were asking to be transferred, I made a collection of books, principally novels, from the main library, marked them and the bookcards with a red star, and placed them on side shelves, where the younger children soon learned that they would find nothing to interest them. This keeps the older boys and girls in the room until they are ready for the main library, and when they are transferred they are sent to me in my office, where they are told that some one is always ready to give them help if they ask for it. The list of books for the first year after coming into the library is handed to them, and they are also referred to the high school shelves, to be mentioned later.
We insist on a father or mother coming with a child and leaving a signature or mark on the back of the application-card. This is placing responsibility where it belongs, and as we always have at least one of the staff who can speak Yiddish, and others who speak Italian, the parents are usually willing to come.
We are very strict in exacting fines as a means of teaching children to be responsible and careful of public property.
One summer the children acted simple impromptu plays, Cinderella, Blue Beard, Beauty and the beast, on the lawn outside the long windows. The lawn has been in bad condition for nearly two years, on account of the building of the Morgan memorial, but has now been planted again. One May-day we had an old English festival around a Maypole on the green, with Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlett, the hobby- horse, the dragon and all the rest, including Jack in the Green and an elephant. This was such a success that we were asked to repeat it across the river on the East Hartford Library green, where it was highly complimented on account of being so full of the spirit of play.
Our Christmas exhibits have been held every year, at first, as I have said, for one day only, then for two or three in the rooms above, and for the last two years in a large room used by the Hartford Art Society as a studio until it moved to a whole house across the street. This room has space for our school libraries, and the room which they had outgrown was fitted up at no expense except for chairs and a change in the lighting, as a study-room for the older boys and girls, who also have the privilege of reading any stories they find on the shelves, which are on one side only. The other shelves, placed across the room, were moved to the studio, which is so large that it has space for story-telling, or oftener story-reading. The winter of the Dickens centennial, through the month of February, the beginnings of "David Copperfield," "Nicholas Nickleby," "Dombey and son" and "Great expectations" were read.
In 1911, a gift of twenty-five dollars from a friend was spent for the boys' and girls' room, and has bought specimens of illustration, Grimm's "Fairy tales," illustrated by Arthur Rackham; Kate Greenaway's "Under the window," "Marigold garden," "Little Ann" and "Pied piper", Laura Starr's "Doll book," and a fine copy of Knight's "Old England," full of engravings, including a morris dance such as has been performed here, and Hare's "Portrait book of our kings and queens." The rest of the money bought a globe for the older boys' and girls' reading-table, and sent from Venice a reproduction of a complete "armatura," or suit of Italian armor, eighteen inches high.
In 1912 the boys and girls of grades 7 to 9 in the district and parochial schools were invited to listen to stories from English history in the Librarian's office of the Hartford Public Library on Tuesday afternoons in July and August. Some of the subjects were The Roman wall, The Danish invasion, King Alfred and the white horses said to have been cut to commemorate his victories, The Crusades, and The captivity of James I. of Scotland. The Longman series of colored wall-prints was used as a starting point for the stories. Children in grades 4 to 6 listened at a later hour to stories from Hawthorne's "Wonderbook" and "Tanglewood tales."
The Hartford Public Library had an exhibit at the state fair, September 2-7, 1912, in the Child-welfare building. In a space 11 by 6 were chairs, tables covered with picture-books, a bookcase with libraries for school grades, probation office, and a settlement, and another with inexpensive books worth buying for children. Pictures of countries and national costumes were hung on the green burlap screens which enclosed the sides of the miniature room. At about the same time we printed a list of pleasant books for boys and girls to read after they have been transferred to the main library. They are not all classics, but are interesting. The head of the high school department of English and some of the other teachers asked the library's help in making a list of books for suggested reading during the four years' course. This list has been printed and distributed. Copies are hung near two cases with the school pennant above them, and one of the staff sees that these cases are always filled with books mentioned in it. The high school has a trained librarian, who borrows books from the Public Library and tries in every way to encourage its use.
From Dec. 3 to 24, 1912 and 1913, the exhibit of Christmas books for children and young people was kept open by the library in the large room in the annex. The exhibit included three or four hundred volumes, picture books by the best American, English, French, German, Italian, Danish, and Russian illustrators, inexpensive copies and also new and beautiful editions of old favorites, finely illustrated books attractive to growing-up young people, and the best of the season's output. It had many visitors, some of them coming several times. We sent a special invitation to the students in the Hartford Art Society, some of whom are hoping to be illustrators, and appreciate the picture- books highly.
The boys' and girls' room received last winter a fine photo- graphic copy of Leighton's "Return of Persephone," in time for Hawthorne's version of the story, which is usually read when pomegranates are in the market and again six months later, when Persephone comes up to earth and the grass and flowers begin to spring.
One day John Burroughs made an unexpected visit to the room, and it happened that when the children reading at the tables were told who he was, and asked who of them had read "Squirrels and furbearers," the boy nearest him held up his hand with the book in it. That boy will probably never forget his first sight of a real live author!
Last winter we received a gift of a handsome bookcase with glass doors, which we keep in the main library, filled with finely illustrated books for children to be taken out on grown-up cards only. This is to insure good care.
For several years we have been collecting a family of foreign dolls, who are now forty-five in number, of all sorts and sizes, counting seventeen marionettes such as the poor children in Venice play with, half a dozen Chinese actors, and nine brightly colored Russian peasants in wood. The others are Tairo, a very old Japanese doll in the costume of the feudal warriors, Thora from Iceland, Marit the Norwegian bride, Erik and Brita from Sweden, Giuseppe and Marietta from Rome, Heidi and Peter from the Alps, Gisela from Thuringia, Cecilia from Hungary, Annetje from Holland, Lewie Gordon from Edinburgh, Christie Johnstone the Newhaven fishwife, Sambo and Dinah the cotton- pickers. Mammy Chloe from Florida, an Indian brave and squaw from British America, Laila from Jerusalem, Lady Geraldine of 1830 and Victoria of 1840. Every New Year's Day, in answer to a picture bulletin which announces a doll-story and says "Bring your doll," the little girls come with fresh, clean, Christmas dolls, and every one who has a name is formally presented to the foreign guests, who sit in chairs on a table. Lack of imagination is shown in being willing to own a doll without a name, and this year the subject of names was mentioned in time for the little girls to have them ready. Mrs. Mary Hazelton Wade, author of many of the "Little cousins," lives in Hartford, and lately gave us a copy of her "Dolls of many countries." I told her about the party and invited her, and she told the fifty children who were listening about the Feasts of Dolls in Japan. The doll-story was E. V. Lucas's "Doll doctor," and it was followed by William Brightly Rands's "Doll poems."
In 1893, the year after the library became free, the Connecticut Public Library Committee was organized. For about ten years it had no paid visitor and inspector, and I, as secretary of the committee, had to go about the state in the little time I could spare from regular duties, trying to arouse library interest in country towns. Now most of the field work is done by the visitor, but I have spoken many times at teachers' meetings and library meetings. We began by sending out pamphlets—"What a free library can do for a country town"—emphasizing what its possibilities are of interesting children, and "What a library and school can do for each other." Every year the libraries receive a grant of books from the state, and send in lists subject to approval. We often found the novels and children's books asked for unworthy of being bought with state money by a committee appointed by the Board of Education, and began to print yearly lists of recommended titles of new books, from which all requested must be chosen. The standard is gradually growing higher. The Colonial Dames have for years paid for traveling libraries, largely on subjects connected with colonial history, to be sent to country schools from the office of the committee, and have also given traveling portfolios of pictures illustrating history, chosen and mounted by one of their number. The Audubon Society sends books, largely on out-of-door subjects, and bird-charts, to schools and libraries all over the state. Traveling libraries, miscellaneous or on special subjects, are sent out on request.
A Library Institute has been held every summer for five years under the direction of the visitor and inspector. It lasts for two weeks, and several lectures are always given by specialists in work with children.
The choice of books, sources of stories for children, and what to recommend to them are frequently discussed in meetings for teachers and librarians.
A book-wagon has for the last two or three years gone through a few towns where there is no public library, circulating several thousand books a year for adults and children, and exciting an interest which may later develop into the establishment of public libraries. The committee has now 105 which receive the state grant. Wherever a new library is opened, a special effort is made through the schools to make it attractive to children.
At this time of year the mothers' clubs in the city and adjoining towns often ask for talks on what to buy, and boxes of books are taken to them, not only expensive and finely illustrated copies, but the best editions that can be bought for a very little money. These exhibitions have been also given at country meetings held by the Connecticut Public Library Committee.
A library column in a Hartford Sunday paper is useful in showing the public what libraries in other states and cities are doing, and in attracting attention to work with children. Letters to the children themselves at the beginning of vacation, printed in a daily paper and sent to the schools, invite them to book-talks. Other printed letters about visits to places connected with books and authors, sent home from England and Scotland with postcards, have excited an interest in books not always read by children. This year the Hartford children's librarian has read the letters and shown the books referred to, post-cards and pictures, to a club of girls from the older grammar grades, who were invited through the letters just spoken of to leave their names with her.
A club of children's librarians from towns within fifteen miles around Hartford meets weekly from October to May. Meetings all over the state under the Public Library Committee have stimulated interest in work with children, and Library Day is celebrated every year in the schools.
The visitor and inspector reports visits to eight towns in December, and says: "Somewhat more than a year ago, at the request of the supervisor, I made out a list of books for the X—— school libraries. These were purchased, and this year the chairman of the school board requested my assistance in arranging the collection in groups to be sent in traveling library cases until each school shall have had each library. I spent two days at the town hall working with the chairman of the school board, the supervisor, a typist and two school teachers.
"A new children's room has been opened in the Y—— library since my visit there. It is double the size of the room formerly in use, and much lighter and more cheerful. The first grant from the state was expended entirely for children's books, the selection being made in this office.
"In Z—— I gave an Audubon stereopticon lecture, prefacing it with an account of the work on the Audubon Society, and an enumeration of the loans to schools. The audience in a country schoolhouse, half a mile from Z—— village, numbered 102."
A CHAPTER IN CHILDREN'S LIBRARIES
The following account of the beginning of children's work in Arlington, Mass., in 1835, marks the earliest date yet claimed for the establishment of library work with children, and was written for the January, 1913, number of The Library Journal. Alice M. Jordan was born in Thomaston, Maine, and was educated in the schools of Newton, Massachusetts. After teaching for a few years she entered the service of the Boston Public Library in 1900, Since 1902 she has been Chief of the Children's Department in that library, and since 1911 a member of the staff of Simmons College Library School.
"In consequence of a grateful remembrance of hospitality and friendship, as well as an uncommon share or patronage, afforded me by the inhabitants of West Cambridge, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the early part of my life when patronage was most needful to me, I give to the said town of West Cambridge one hundred dollars for the purpose of establishing a juvenile library in said town. The Selectmen, Ministers of the Gospel, and Physicians of the town of West Cambridge, for the time being shall receive this sum, select and purchase the books for the library which shall be such books as, in their opinion, will best promote useful knowledge and the Christian virtues among the inhabitants of the town who are scholars, or by usage have a right to attend as scholars in their primary schools. Other persons may be admitted to the privilege of said library under the direction of said town, by paying a sum for membership and an annual tax for the increase of the same. And my said executors are directed to pay the same within one year after my decease."
This "extract from the last will and testament of Dr. Ebenezer Learned, late of Hopkinton, N. H.," forms the first book plate of the Arlington (Mass.) Public Library, founded in 1835. It appears to be the earliest record we have of a specific bequest for a children's library, free to all the children of the town receiving it.
In the late eighteenth century it was the custom at Harvard College to grant a six-weeks' vacation in winter and summer, when students could earn money for college expenses. The popular way of doing this was to teach school. Ebenezer Learned, a young man in the class of 1787, availed himself of this opportunity and taught in West Cambridge, or Menotomy. His associations there were pleasant ones, and the memory of the friends then made persisted through his later successful career. Dr. Learned became a practicing physician, first in Leominster (Mass.) and later in Hopkinton, N. H. He is said to have been warmly interested in education and science throughout his life, and was the originator of the New Hampshire Agricultural Society and vice-president of the New Hampshire Medical Society. And yet with all these later interests, his thought, toward the end of his life, was of the little town where he taught his first school.
At the time of receiving this legacy there were in West Cambridge two ministers—a Unitarian and a Baptist—and one physician. Together with the selectmen, they formed the first board of trustees, which met on Nov. 30, 1835, and voted that the books selected for the library should be such as were directed by Dr. Learned's will, "the same not being of a sectarian character." Selection of books was left largely to Mr. Brown, of the newly formed firm of Little & Brown, publishers. He was directed to spend at least half of the bequest for books suitable for the purpose, and these were sent to the home of Dr. Wellington, the physician on the board.
Then followed the task of selecting a librarian, and the obvious choice was Mr. Dexter, a hatter by trade and already in charge of the West Cambridge Social Library. This was a subscription library, founded in 1807, and consisting mainly of volumes of sermons and "serious reading." The question of the librarian's salary was the next care, for the state law authorizing towns to appropriate tax money for libraries was yet ten years in the future. At town meeting, in 1837, however, one of the trustees called attention to the clause in Dr. Learned's will which provided that others, beside children, might use the library by paying a sum for membership and an annual assessment. "Why should not the town pay the tax, and thus make it free to all the inhabitants?" he asked. And this was done. The town at once appropriated thirty dollars for the library, and the right to take books was extended to all the families in town. From this time the institution has been a free town library, the earliest of its class in Massachusetts.
The little collection of books for the West Cambridge Juvenile Library traveled to its first home on a wheelbarrow. "Uncle" Dexter would make hats during the week, and on Saturday afternoons open the library for the children. Three books were the limit for a family, and they could be retained for thirty days. That the books were actually read by the children is vouched for by those who remember the library from its beginning. Even free access to the shelves was permitted for a while. But we come to a period, later, when the by-laws declare, "No person except the librarian shall remove a book from the shelves."
One would like to know just what those books were for which one-half of that precious bequest was first spent. The earliest extant catalog of the juvenile library is dated 1855, though there exists an earlier list (1835) of the Social Library. Tradition has handed down the names of two books said to be in the first collection, but one of these is certainly of later date. The first is still in existence, a copy of the "History of Corsica," by James Boswell. One who as a boy read this book, years ago, in the West Cambridge Juvenile Library, recalled it with delight when he visited Corsica years afterward.
The other title, mentioned as belonging to the first library, is "The history of a London doll." But this delightful child's story, by Richard Hengist Home, was not published until 1846. Some of the Waverley novels are also remembered as being among the earliest purchases. Of course, we realize that books which "will best promote useful knowledge and the Christian virtues" in school children are not necessarily children's books. So we may be tolerably sure that Rollins' and Robertson's histories, as well as Goldsmith and Irving, would have appeared in the catalog had there been one.
The juvenile library remained a year in its first home, the frame house still standing near the railroad which runs through Arlington. There have been five library homes since then, including the meeting house, where the collection of books was nearly doubled by the addition of the district school libraries and a part of the Social Library.
In 1867 the town changed its name to Arlington, discarding the Indian name of Menotomy, by which it was known before its incorporation as West Cambridge. The library then became known as the Arlington Juvenile Library, and, in 1872, its name was formally changed to Arlington Public Library. With the gift of a memorial building, in 1892, the present name, the Robbins Library, was adopted by the town.
It is characteristic of our modern carelessness of what the past has given us, that we have lost sight of this first children's library. Not Brookline in 1890, not New York in 1888, but Arlington in 1835 marks the beginning of public library work with children. Here is one public library, with a history stretching back over seventy-five years, which need not apologize for any expenditure in its work with children. Its very being is rooted in one man's thought for the children of the primary schools. Dr. Learned could think of no better way of repaying the kindnesses done to a boy than by putting books into the hands of other boys and girls. A children's librarian may well be grateful for the memory of this far-seeing friend of children, who held the belief that books may be more than amusement, and that the civic virtues can be nourished by and in a "juvenile library."
THE CHILDREN'S LIBRARY IN NEW YORK
The leading editorial in The Library Journal for May, 1887, says: "The plan of providing good reading for very little children begins at the beginning, and the work of the Children's Library Association, outlined in a paper in this number, may prove to be the start of a movement of great social importance." This interesting personal account was written by Miss Emily S. Hanaway, principal of the primary department of Grammar School No. 28, in New York City, to whom came the thought, "Why not give the children reading-rooms?", and through whose efforts the Association was organized.
Emily S. Hanaway was married in 1891 to the Reverend Peter Stryker. She died in 1915 in her eightieth year. Her library was ultimately forced to close its doors, but its influence remains.
For several years it had caused me much pain to find that many of the children in our school were either without suitable reading or were reading books of a most injurious kind. The more I pondered the matter the more I became convinced that much of the poison infused into the mind of a child begins at a very early age. As soon as a child takes interest in pictures the taste begins to be formed. Give him only common comic or sensational ones, and he will seize them and look no higher. On the other hand, give him finely-wrought sketches and paintings, tell him to be very careful how he handles them, and he will despise the trash of the present day. Place in his hand clear print, and he will never want the vile copy of a sensational paper often thrown in at our doors. Place in his hand Babyland, tell him that he is an annual subscriber, and the importance of having his name printed on the copy will induce him to do as a little relative of mine has frequently done. He will run after the postman and ask him how long before the next number will arrive.
Upon one occasion we endeavored to find out what sort of books our school-children were reading, and asked them to bring a few for us to examine. Some of them, having been directed in their reading by discreet, faithful parents, brought such periodicals as St. Nicholas, Chatterbox, Harper's Young People, etc., while others brought the vilest kind of literature, and one little fellow brought a large copy of the "Annual Report of the Croton Aqueduct."
In the summer of 1885, while seated in a room where the National Association of Teachers had assembled, a thought, as if some one had leaned over my shoulder and suggested it, came suddenly into my mind: "Why not give the children reading- rooms?" There was no getting rid of the thought. All that afternoon and evening it followed me. After the meeting, in the evening, I asked Prof. E. E. White, of Ohio, if he thought such an undertaking could be carried out. He answered, "Yes; but it is gigantic." I came home fully persuaded that it must be tried; but where should I begin? As soon as school opened in September, it occurred to me that almost opposite our school- building there was a day-nursery, the lady in charge of which appeared to be a very earnest worker. She said she would be very glad to help, as she had a small library at that time, which her children used in the nursery.
On visiting the publishers, generous donations were promised from Treat, Scribner, Taintor & Merrill, Barnes, and others. These were sent to the nursery. A few years before, a former principal in our school, Miss Victoria Graham, had worked with great energy to have a library in P. D., G. S. 28, and the proceeds of an entertainment given in 1872 in the Academy of Music had furnished two or three hundred books. Miss Graham died the same year, and as we had no regular librarian, many of the books were lost. About sixty were left. These also were sent to the nursery, and our children went over every week to draw books. This was the first attempt. But we felt that it was but a small beginning, and that if we wished to bring in all creeds we must free the public mind from suspicion, and have a representation from every denomination, Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Hebrew. Accordingly, we planned that when a committee should be organized, every religious faith should be represented among those who were to choose the books. As we wished to have many of these rooms throughout the city, and as our friends at the day-nursery, under their arrangements, could not have a committee, we thought it would do no harm to start anew. So we conferred with the various clergymen of all denominations, in a neighborhood well known to us, and received great encouragement. Dr. Mendez became a member of our organization committee, and has been present at very many of our business meetings.
We then visited the persons named by these gentlemen, for our organization committee, and when we had found eleven willing to serve, a kind friend in West 22d St., Mrs. Hanford Smith, gave us the use of her parlors for our meeting. A more gloomy committee has been seldom seen. "Have you a room for a library?" was asked. "No." "Any money?" "No." "Any books?" "No." "Absurd! How do you expect to start such a work?" "On faith." Next a vote was taken whether to organize or not. It was decided to organize. Mr. Edward Chichester was elected president, Mr. Edward Vanderbiit secretary, and Mr. E. P. Pitcher to the very responsible position of treasurer, without a cent in the treasury.
Here it is only due to Rev. Dr. Terry to speak of the encouragement he gave. The Y. M. C. A. connected with the South Reformed Church, on 21st St. and 5th Ave., were talking of taking rooms at 243 9th Ave., for a young men's club, and through the doctor's efforts we were allowed to come into these rooms from 4 to 6 p. m., all through the season, from December to May, with the understanding that we might pay or not, according to our success in obtaining funds. One trouble was over. We then began our circuit once again through the city, after school hours, visiting every publishing-house named in the directory, beside making many personal visits to friends, who encouraged us by gifts of books.
We are largely indebted to Dodd, Mead & Co., Carter, Taintor, Merrill & Co., and many others, who have given most liberally; also to friends, who have given us many $5 bills, and enabled us not only to pay expenses, including librarian, tickets of admission, covers for books, circulars, etc., but also to hand over most joyfully to Dr. Terry $40 for the use of room at the close of the season.
Last fall we tried to begin our work once more, and after walking from 40th to 23d St., along 8th and 9th Avenues, I at last found rooms on W. 35th Street. Dr. Terry kindly loaned us furniture, and the Women's Christian Temperance Union shared with us the modest rent of $13 per month, $6.50 each.
Last year P. D. No. 45, in West 24th St., sent a large representation from their school. This year they asked for and received tickets. We had about 350 books, and issued about 700 admission tickets. At one time during the winter the librarian sent me this message: "Only eight books are left on the shelves. Do you think it best to close the room to-day?" I returned word: "Get in all the books you can; do not give out any for a short time, but let the children come in and look at the stereoscopic views, play games, look at or read pamphlets. When they have returned a sufficient number, begin to distribute again." That week we received several parcels of books, and started up again. We had applications for tickets from P. D., G. S. No. 11, 37th St. Prim. Deptt, 34th St. R. Ch. S. School, Ind. School, West 415t St., and others. Male Dep't, G. S. No. 67, asked for 91 tickets. Some of the children in P. D., G. S. No. 28, shed tears when their teacher informed them that we had no more tickets.
The children stood on the sidewalk on a Friday afternoon, not long ago, from 2:30 until 5:30, patiently waiting for their turn to enter the room, as the librarian could only allow a certain number to enter at one time.
Dr. Barnett visited the rooms with the intention of putting up chest-expanders for exercise, but he found them too small, and the woodwork too frail, for any such purposes.
We have a number of subscribers at $1 per year, although some have gone far beyond this in subscriptions. We closed on May 1, to reopen in the fall.
One great reason for keeping open through the year is that many parents are obliged to work all day, and the children run the risk of getting into all sorts of crime. As an instance, not long since I found a little girl in our department who had been frequently caught pilfering. At last we thought it necessary to send for the mother. She burst into tears and said: "What am I to do? My children are alone after school hours until I return, and I do not know what they are doing." I asked if the children had tickets for the reading-room, and here found another difficulty. "Not on the same day," she said. We had been obliged to send the girls on three days of the week, and the boys on two days, because of the lack of room, and of helpers. Several teachers have since come forward and offered their services. Two teachers in our department have gone every Monday, and two others every Friday, and appeared to take great pleasure in the work. All honor to such young, earnest workers, for they deserve it!
We have recently received a box of books, toys, etc., from the "Little Helpers" in Elyria, Ohio, and Columbia College is taking an active interest in our work. We are leaning upon our friends of the college library for support and help, in time to come. All our meetings are held at Columbia College.
We hope for liberal donations, and we feel quite sure—yes, as sure as we felt on that gloomy evening last winter, when we decided to go on—that from the kind words of encouragement, and the liberal gifts that we have received in the past, the gifts are coming in the future; and when we are resting from our labors, others yet unborn shall rise up and call those blessed who have strengthened our hands. And we believe that when this comes the prison doors will open less frequently.
THE WORK FOR CHILDREN IN FREE LIBRARIES
In the following paper, read in 1897 before the Friends' Library Association of Philadelphia, and the New York Library Club, Miss Mary W. Plummer discussed some of the "experiences and theories" of a number of libraries and the "requisites for the ideal children's library." Mary Wright Plummer was born in Richmond, Indiana, in 1856, was graduated from the Friends' Academy there, and was a special student at Wellesley College, 1881-1882. She entered the "first class of the first library school," and in 1888 became a certified graduate of the Library School of Columbia College. For the next two years she was the head of the Cataloguing department of the St. Louis Public Library. She was Librarian of the Pratt Institute Free Library from 1890 to 1904, and Director of the Pratt Institute of Library Science until 1911. She then became Principal of the Library School of the New York Public Library, the position she held until her death in 1916. Miss Plummer was President of the A. L. A. in 1915-1916. She contributed many articles to library periodicals, and has written numerous books, several of which are for children.
It is so early in the movement for children's libraries that by taking some thought now it would seem possible to avoid much retracing of steps hereafter, and it is for this reason that even at this early day a comparison of experiences and theories by those libraries which have undertaken the work is desirable and even necessary. It is as well, perhaps, to begin with a few historical statistics, gathered from questions sent out last December and from perusal of the Library Journal reports since then.
Many libraries, probably the majority, have had an age-limit for borrowers, and the admission of children under 12 to membership is of comparatively recent date. The separation of children from the adult users of the library by means of a room of their own was probably originated by the Public Library of Brookline, which in 1890 set aside an unused room in its basement for a children's reading-room. In 1893 the Minneapolis Public Library fitted up a library for children, from which books circulate also, where they had (as reported in December, 1896) 20,000 volumes, the largest children's library yet reported. In 1894 the Cambridge Public Library opened a reading-room and the Denver Public Library a circulating library for children. An article on the latter undertaking may be found in the Outlook for September 26, 1896. In 1895 Boston, Omaha, Seattle, New Haven and San Francisco, all opened either circulating libraries or reading-rooms for children, and in 1896 Detroit, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, Everett (Mass.) and Kalamazoo (Mich.) followed suit. The libraries of Circleville (O.), Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Helena (Mont.) are all projecting plans for the same, and probably this year will show a notable increase. The new Public Library of Chicago has made no especial provision for children, from the fact that its situation in the heart of the business district of the city will prevent many children from coming to it, but provision of some sort will be made for them at the various branch reading-rooms throughout the city. In the new building of the Providence Library considerations of cost made it necessary to give up the addition of a children's library, a matter of great disappointment to every one.
From all these libraries except the last two, reports were received by us in December, 1896, on comparing which we found considerable similarity of usage, though as there had been but little in print on the subject up to 1896 this probably arose not from communication between the libraries but from the fact that like circumstances and causes produced like effects in different places.
Of the 15 libraries reporting, 11 circulated books from the children's room, three making an age-limit for this, while the four remaining contented themselves with giving the children a reading-room, in which a number of books—about 300—were placed, for reading on the premises. The temptation for a child who becomes interested in a book, to carry it off when closing- hour comes, in order to finish it, is a strong one, and of these four libraries one reported 35 books missing in its first six months, or over one-tenth of its stock. Two others which circulate from open shelves to all borrowers lost 100 children's books in a little over 12 months. A number of others reported that as yet they had taken no inventory of the books in the room, and were evidently willing that ignorance should remain bliss a little longer. Several report that very few books are unaccounted for, and one or two that not a book has been taken. Free access to the children's books is allowed in all the 15, and in about half of them the room is open all day, and in two cases in the evening also.
The number of volumes shelved ranges all the way from 300 to 20,000, the average number being from 3,000 to 4,000. An age- limit for the use of the room is set by seven libraries, three of these making the limit for circulation only, while eight admit children of any age, and doubtless make provision for the very youngest The circulation of these rooms that lend books ranges from 65 to 350 as a daily average, frequently exceeding this. As a rule, one attendant is kept in the room, with assistance when necessary, two libraries only reporting two regular assistants and the Boston Public Library three. The Detroit Library has two attendants in order to give the children personal attention. The library at Kalamazoo has for one of its assistants a trained kindergarten. Eight libraries report no reference-books on the children's shelves and the majority of the others only a few such works. The largest number of periodicals taken appears to be our own list of 10, though by this time the libraries reporting in 1896 may have increased their number. Instead of taking a variety of periodicals, they seem to prefer duplicating a few favorites. One library reports a number of copies of Puck taken for children, the wisdom of which I should doubt, and two subscribe for Golden Days. The Minneapolis Library circulates 10 copies of St. Nicholas. The Boston Public Library, having a large foreign clientele among children as well as adults, takes one German and one French periodical for them. In the Detroit Library the Scientific American is on the list, and in our children's library we take a copy of Harper's Weekly.
A number of libraries report crowding and lack of time and space. In one no periodicals can be kept in the children's library, because there is no room for the children to sit down to read them. Another reports as many as 75 children frequently in the room at once, a third that the room is so full children have often to be sent out, and a fourth, which at the time was only a reading-room, that the attendance was so large very little could be done except to keep order. Most of the libraries report a fair proportion of foreigners among the children, and one speaks of having many colored children among the readers.
Turning from these reports to a general consideration of the subject, we must admit, first, that a definite decision as to the object of a children's library is the first thing needful.
This decision will doubtless vary in different libraries, and the results will differ accordingly, but almost any decision is better than none, since one cannot be arrived at without giving much thought to the subject, and the desirable thing is that the work should be entered upon thoughtfully.
We have passed the time when reading in itself was considered a vast good. The ability to read may easily be a curse to the child, for unless he be provided something fit to read, it is an ability as powerful for evil as for good. When we consider the dime-novels, the class of literature known as Sunday- school books, the sensational newspapers, the vicious literature insinuated into schools, and the tons of printed matter issued by reputable publishers, written by reputable people, good enough in its intention but utterly lacking in nourishment, and, therefore, doing a positive harm in occupying the place of better things— when we consider that all these are brought within a child's reach by the ability to read, we cannot help seeing that the librarian, in his capacity as selector of books for the library, has the initial responsibility. Certain classes of the printed stuff just spoken of do not, of course, find their way into children's libraries, since they are barred out from all respectable shelves; but we are still too lenient with print because it is print, and every single book should be carefully examined before it goes into a library where children should have access to the shelves.
But given an ideal selection of books, or as near it as we can get and still have enough books to go around, is just the reading of them—that is, the passing of the eye over the types, gaining a momentary impression—the most desirable thing to be got out of them? Are there not here and there children who are reading to the lasting detriment of their memories and powers of observation and reflection, stuffing themselves with type, as it were? Nearly every observant librarian knows of such cases. Are there not days when the shining of the sun, the briskness of the air, the greenness of the turf and of the trees, should have their invitation seconded by the librarian, and the child be persuaded AWAY from the library instead of TO it? We are supposed to contribute with our books toward the sound mind, but we should be none the less advocates of the sound body—and the child who reads all day indoors when he ought to be out in the fresh air among his kind, should have our especial watching.
But, granted the suitable book and the suitable time for reading, what do we know of the effect our books are having? We count our circulation just the same whether a book is kept two days—about long enough for the family to look at the pictures— or a week. Whether it has been really read we do not know. Sometimes I think those pencilled notes on the margin, recording the child's disgust or satisfaction, should have more meaning for us than they do. At least, they prove that the book has taken hold of the reader's imagination and sympathies. Don't let us be too severe with a criticism written in the honest feeling of the moment (if it be in pencil); we are really gathering psychological and sociological data for which the child-study clubs would thank us, perhaps.
I see only one way in which we can be enabled to estimate fairly the value of what we are doing, and that is by so gaining the good-will and confidence of the children as to get them to answer our questions as to their reading or to tell us of their own accord what they get from it. From this information we may make our inferences as to the value of our books in themselves, and may be enabled to regulate their use. A child whose exclusive diet is fairy-tales is evidently over-cultivating the imagination; a girl who has outgrown children's books and dipped into the premature love-stories that are written for her class needs our most careful guidance; a boy whose whole thought is of adventure, or who cannot read anything but jokes, is also in a critical condition.
In short, the judicious regulation of the children's reading should be made practicable for the librarian, if the children's library is to be the important agency in education which it may be made.
In regard to the desirability of amusements in the library, I own that I am somewhat sceptical. The library has its own division of labor in the work of education, and that division is the training of the people to the use and appreciation of books and literature. An argument in favor of games is that they draw in children who might not otherwise come, but I should fear they would be drawn in finally in such crowds as to be unmanageable. Books properly administered should have the same drawing power, and their influence, once felt, is toward quietness and thought, rather than toward activity and skill with the complications of dispute and cheating that may arise from the use of games. Children are natural propagandists. Let one child find that at the children's library he may select his own books from a good-sized collection, may find help in his composition-work, the news of what is going on in the world in the shape of an attractive illustrated bulletin-board, different every week—and tomorrow 10 children will know of it, and each of these will tell other 10, and so on. The library will have all the children it can attend to eventually, and they will have come gradually so that the assistants shall have been able to get a proper grasp of the situation, while the earlier children will have been somewhat trained to help, like the elder brothers and sisters in a family.
Certain freedoms may be granted in the children's library as an education for the adult constituency of the future; for instance, the guarantee may be done away with, thus putting the child on his honor to pay his own fines and damages—the only penalties for not doing so being those which society naturally inflicts on offenders—the debarring from privileges and from association. If there is nothing injurious or doubtful on the shelves, freedom in choice of books may be allowed to the smallest child, only he must know that help and guidance are at hand if he wishes them, and if a tendency to over-read in any one direction or in all is noticed, the librarian should feel at liberty to make suggestions. And as to freedom of action, the maxim should be that one man's liberty ends where another man's begins. No child should be allowed to disturb the room or to interfere with the quiet of those who are studying, for many children, more than one would think, really come to study. But the stiffness and enforced routine of the school-room should by all means be avoided. There should be no set rules as to silence, but consideration for others should be inculcated, and in time the room will come to have a subduing, quiet atmosphere that will insensibly affect those who enter. Whispering, or talking in a low tone, where several little heads are bent together over picture-books, is certainly admissible, and the older heads are very soon quiet of their own accord, each over its own book or magazine.
After the selection of the books themselves there is nothing so important as thoughtful administration, a practical question, since the employment of assistants comes in under this head. Educators have for some time seen the mistake of putting the cheapest teachers over the primary schools—kindergartners have seen it—and it remains for the library to profit by their experience without going through a similar one. If there is on the library staff an assistant well read and well educated, broad- minded, tactful, with common sense and judgment, attractive to children in manner and person, possessed, in short, of all desirable qualities, she should be taken from wherever she is, put into the children's library, and paid enough to keep her there. There is no more important work in the building, no more delicate, critical work than that with children, no work that pays so well in immediate as well as in far-off results. Who that has met the fault- finding, the rudeness and coldness too frequent in a grown-up constituency, would not expand in the sunshine of the gratitude, the confidence, the good-will, the natural helpfulness of children! And it rests partly with the assistant to cultivate these qualities in them, and so modify the adult constituency of the future.
I say THOUGHTFUL administration because the children's library is no sooner opened than it begins to present problems. Some of these are simply administrative and economic, others take hold of social and ethical foundations. There will be scarcely a day on which the librarian and the children's librarian will not have to put their heads, and sometimes their hearts, together over puzzling cases—cases of fraud, of mischief-making, of ignorant evil-doing, of inherited tendencies, physical, mental, and moral— and sometimes it will seem as if the whole human creation were incurably ailing, and the doctrine of total depravity will take on alarming probability. But at this point some sound, smiling, active boy or girl comes in with a cheerful greeting, and pessimism retires into the background. And all this reminds me of one more quality which the children's librarian must have—a sense of humor. It is literally saving in some circumstances.
Our own experience has led to the following suggestions, made by the children's librarian in our library to those who come in at given hours from the other departments to take her place or to assist her. It will be seen that most of them are the product of observation and thought arising from the daily evidence of the room itself:
"Always tell a child how to fill out his application-blank, even when you are busy. Tell him just where to write his name in the register and stay near him till it is completed. Whenever it is possible, go to the shelves with a child who has just received his card of membership. Show him where different kinds of books are to be found. Ask him what kind of book he likes. Show him one or two answering to his description and then leave him to make his own selection.
"Explain the routine carefully and fully to children just beginning to use the library.
"Let no child sign the register, look at a book, receive or present an application, with soiled hands. Soiled and crumpled applications are considered defective and cannot be accepted.
"Do not expect or demand perfect quiet. Frequent tapping upon the desk excites the children and betrays nervousness on the part of the person in charge. Let the discipline of the room seem to be incidental; let the child feel that it is first and foremost a library where books are to be had for the asking, and that you are there to make it easier to get them.
"Never call children's numbers, but use their names if necessary, though a glance of recognition pleases them better. Do not force acquaintance. Children like it even less than grown people. Be sympathetic and responsive, but beware of mannerism or effusiveness. Remember, too, that questioning is a fine art, and one should take care not to offend.
"Speed is not the first requisite at a children's desk. Children have more patience with necessary formalities than grown people.
"Let some of the children help in the work of the room, but do not urge them to do so.
"Avoid stereotyped forms of expression when reproving a child or conversing with him. Let him feel you are speaking to him personally; he will not feel this if he hears the same words used for 50 other boys."
For evening work, when there is no circulation of books: "read to them sometimes; talk to them at others; and sometimes leave them quite alone. They are more appreciative when they find you are leaving work to give them pleasure than they would be if they found you were making their pleasure your work."
These are a few of the instructions or suggestions consequent upon daily observation and experience. Doubtless every children's librarian could supplement them with many more, but they are enough to show what I mean by "thoughtful administration."
Occasionally the librarian who serves children will have to take account of stock, sum up the changes for better or for worse in the use and treatment of the room, in the manners and habits of the children and in their reading. She will have to retire a little from her work, take a bird's-eye view of it, and decide if on the whole progress is making toward her ideal. Without identifying itself with any of the movements such as the kindergarten, child-study, and social settlement, without losing control of itself and resigning itself to any outside guidance, the children's library should still absorb what is to its purpose in the work of all these agencies. "This one thing I do," the librarian may have to keep reminding herself, to keep from being drawn off into other issues, but by standing a little apart she may see what is to her advantage without being sucked in by the draft as some enthusiastic movement sweeps by. Must she have no enthusiasm? Yes, indeed; but is not that a better enthusiasm which enables one to work on steadily for years with undiminished courage than the kind that exhausts itself in the great vivacity of its first feeling and effort?
It will not be long after the opening of the children's library before an insight will be gained into domestic interiors and private lives that will make the librarian wish she could follow many a child to his home, in order to secure for him and his something better than the few hours' respite from practical life which they may get from the reading of books. When the boy who steals and the girl who is vicious before they are in their teens, have to be sent away lest other children suffer, it is borne in upon the librarian that a staff of home-missionaries connected with the library to follow up and minister in such cases would not be a bad thing—and she has to remind herself again and again that it is not incumbent on any one person to attempt everything, and that Providence has other instrumentalities at work besides herself. The humors of the situation, on the other hand, are many. The boys who, being sent home to wash their hands, return in an incredibly short time with purified palms and suppressed giggles, and on persistent inquiry confess, "We just licked 'em," present to one who is "particular" only a serio-comic aspect; and the little squirrel who wriggles to the top of the librarian's chair until he can reach her ear, and then whispers into it, "There couldn't be no library here 'thout you, could there?" is not altogether laughable; but incidents of pure comedy are occasionally to be set over against the serious side.
Last spring, with a view to gaining information directly in the answers to our questions and indirectly in the light the answers should throw on the character of the children, we chose 150 boys and girls who were regularly using the library and sent to them a series of questions to be answered in writing. They were apparently greatly pleased to be consulted in this way, and it seemed to us that very few of the replies were insincere in tone, or intended merely to win approbation. From the 100 replies worth any consideration I have drawn these specimen answers:
One of the first questions we asked was, "How long have you been using the library?" Of 100 who answered, 25 had used the library more than six months, 33 more than a year, 22 more than two years, 11 more than three years, nine more than four years, and one six years, since books were first given out to children. Many children first hear of the library when they are 13 and over, and after 14 they have the use of the main library, so that in their case the time of use is necessarily shorter. However, if a child has not done with the children's library by the time he is 14, we allow him to continue using it until he wishes to be transferred.
Of 100 children, 68 reported that other members of their families used the library, while 32 reported themselves the only borrowers. This is interesting in connection with their answers to the question, "Does any one at home or at school tell you good books to read?" 71 reported yes and 29 no, about the same proportion. In many families the parents are of a mental calibre or at a stage in education to enjoy books written for children, and we have found that children often drew books with their parents' tastes in view. One little girl whose own tastes led her to select a charming little book on natural history was sent back with it by an aunt who said it was not suitable and requested one of the semi-demi-novels that are provided for quite young girls, as being much more appropriate. The difficulty in keeping "hands off" in a case where grown people are thus influencing children injuriously can be fully appreciated only by one who knows and cares for the children.
Fifty-seven children reported that they were read to at home or that they read to their younger brothers and sisters, while 43 stated that their reading was a pleasure all to themselves. The large number who shared their reading was a pleasant surprise to us, evincing a companionship at home that we had hardly anticipated.
Twenty-eight children stated that they preferred to have help in selecting their books, 63 that they preferred to make their own choice, while nine said it depended. 49 said that they came to the library to get help in writing their compositions or in other school-work, while 51 said they did not, one proudly asserting, "I am capable of writing all my compositions myself," and another, seeming to think help a sort of disgrace, "I do not come to the library for help about anything at all."
Seventy out of the 100 children answering used no library but ours—the others made use of their Sunday-school libraries also.
An inquiry as to the books read since New Year's, the questions being sent out in May, brought out the fact that an average of six books in the four and a half months had been read—not a bad average, considering that it was during term-time in the schools, when studies take up much of the child's otherwise spare time. Boys proved to prefer history and books of adventure, travel and biography, to any other class of reading; girls, books about boys and girls, fairy stories and poetry. The tastes of the boys on the whole were more wholesome, and the girls need most help here. It is not at all unlikely that it is chiefly the wars and combats in history which make it interesting to the boys, as they seem to go through a sanguinary phase in their development that nothing else will satisfy; but many of them will get their history in no other way, and since wars have been prominent in the past it is of no use to disguise the fact. Fairness to both sides would seem to be the essential in the writing of these children's histories and historical tales, since the ability to stop and deliberate and to make allowances is rare even in grown people and needs cultivation.
The question as to the best book the child had ever read brought in a bewildering variety of answers, proving beyond a doubt that there had been no copying or using of other children's opinions. While no list can be given, the reasons they offered in response to a request for them were often interesting. Girls wrote of "Little women": "It is so real, the characters are so real and sweet." "I feel as if I could act the whole book." "This story has helped me a very great deal in leading a better and a happier life." "It shows us how to persevere," etc. Boys like "The Swiss family Robinson" "because it describes accurately the points of a shipwreck and graphically describes how a man with common sense can make the best of everything." Another, "because it shows how some people made the most of what they had." Another, "It shows how progressive the people were." One liked "Uncle Tom's cabin" "because it describes life among the colored people and shows how they were treated before the war"; another, "because it is a true story and some parts of it are pitiful and other parts are pleasant." A boy of 12 says of "Grimm's fairy tales," "They are interesting to read, and I learn there is no one to give you wings and sandals to fly—you have to make your own." Another likes "John Halifax" "because it tells how a boy who had pluck obtained what he wanted and made his mark in the world." "Pluck," I imagine, in a boy's mind stands for the old virtue of the poets, "magnanimity," that included all the rest. Harper's story-books are still read and appreciated "because they tell me about different kinds of people's ways, about animals, and a little about history." Another child "learned games out of them, and how to tell the truth and the use of the truth."
A child of eight puts in a pathetic plea worth considering for the Prudy books, "because I understand them better than any books I have read." An incipient author says that she uses the library because "I make a good deal of stories and find pretty ideas."
Perhaps the most enlightening replies came in answer to the question, "Can you suggest anything which would make the library more interesting that it is now?" One delightfully reassuring boy says, "I like the children's library to stay just the same, and a boy who never went there would like it. I'll bring more boys." "Pictures of art" are requested, and "a set of curiosities from all parts of the world." As we regard the children of all nationalities and types crowding about the desk on our busy days we sometimes think we already have this latter item. "A prize for the best story every month." "More histories." "Pictures of noted men on the walls." "More fairy-tales." "More magazines." "Books showing how to draw." "A pencil fastened to each table." "Stories in Scottish history." "More books of adventure." "More funny books." "A chart of real and genuine foreign stamps." "Lectures for children between 10 and 14, with experiments accompanying them." "A one-hour lecture once a week by noted men on different subjects." "A book giving the value of celebrated paintings." "More books. The shelves look bare," as indeed they do after a rush-day. "Rules to keep the children in order," from a nine-year-old who has doubtless suffered. "Not to be disturbed by other boys for unknown crimes," says one mysterious victim of something or other. "Historical fiction." "Catholic books." "Tanks with fishes, in the windows." "An aquarium; children would enjoy seeing pollywogs change to frogs every time they came to the library." This is the comment of a little girl, I am glad to say. "School-books." "More amusement for little children." This was before we bought our linen picture-books. And the "Elsie books," and Oliver Optic, and Castlemon are vainly desired by two or three. The general sentiment is pretty well voiced by one child who says, "The library is just perfect in about every respect."
We feel that with this enumeration of desiderata, the children's library has its work cut out for it for some time to come, and that these evidences of the children's likings and needs have removed a certain vagueness from our ambitions. With lectures and experiments, reading clubs, and possibly original stories, in contemplation, there is no danger of rust from inaction, especially as to obtain any one of these there are serious obstacles to overcome. But always and everywhere the library should put forward its proper claim of the value and use of the book—though in the word book I by no means include all that goes under the name. If there are lectures with experiments or lantern-slides, they should be attended by information as to the best literature on the subject and the children encouraged to investigate what has been printed, as well as to take in through the ear. There is no "digging" in lecture-going, and it is "digging" that leaves a permanent impression on the mind. The lecture should stimulate to personal research. From reading aloud together at the library in the evening, reading clubs may come to be formed, each with a specialty, decided by the tastes of the members. The writing of stories, particularly if the library selected the subject, might be made the occasion of the use of histories, biographies, travels, etc. Quiet games in the evening for the older children, of a nature to require the use of reference-books, would be strictly within the library's province. Personal talks with the children about their reading, if judiciously conducted, are always in order. With a generation of children influenced in this way to use books as tools and a mental resource as well as for recreation, and to find recreation only in the best-written books, the library constituency of the future would be worthy of the best library that could be imagined.
The bulletin-board is attracting attention generally as a means of interesting children in topics of current interest, and such a periodical as Harper's Weekly is invaluable when it comes to securing illustrations for this purpose. Sandwiched in among the pictures, we have occasionally smuggled in a printed paragraph of useful information or a set of verses, and our latest move, to induce more general reading of the periodicals, has been to analyze their contents on the bulletin, under the head of "Animals," "Sports," "Engines," "Short stories," "Long stories," etc. Boys who "know what they like" are beginning to turn to this analysis to see if there is anything new on their favorite topic and to explain the workings of the board to other boys, and the desired end is gradually being brought about. As the references are taken down to make way for new ones, they are filed away by subject, making the beginnings of a permanent reference list.
Birds, the new magazine with its colored plates, is a boon for the children's room, The Great Round World is good for the assistant-in-charge and the teachers who come to the room, as well as for the children.
In order to add to the number of books without overstepping our rules as to quality, we are beginning, though not yet very systematically, to look over the works of certain authors of grown-up books with a view to finding material that can be understood sufficiently by children to interest them. A number of Stevenson's books can be given to boys and girls, and we hope to find many others. Most children, I think, read books without knowing who has written them, and if we can induce them to learn to know authors and can interest them in a writer like Stevenson, we can feel fairly secure that they will not drop him when they are transferred from the children's room to the main library.
Perhaps it is best always to have a working hypothesis to begin with, in children's libraries as elsewhere; but we can assure those who have not tried it that facts are stubborn things, and the hypothesis has frequently to be made over in accordance with newly-observed facts, and theories may or may not be proven correct. The whole subject is as yet in the empirical stage, and the way must be felt from day to day. If the children's librarian lives in a continual rush, what "leisure to grow wise" on her chosen subject does she have? and if she is hurried constantly from one child to another, what chance have the children for learning by contact with the individual? which, as Mr. Horace E. Scudder truly says, is the method most sure of results. This contact may be had most naturally, it seems to us, through the ordinary channels of waiting on the children, provided it is quiet, deliberate waiting upon them. We go out of our way to think out new philanthropies and are too likely to forget that, as we go about our every-day business, natural opportunities are constantly presenting for strengthening our knowledge of and our hold upon the people who come to us—who are sent to us, I might almost say.
The registry and the charging-desks offer chances for acquaintance to begin naturally and unconsciously and for much incidental imparting of seed-thoughts. And it is in these every-day chances, if appreciated and made the most of, that the work of the children's library is going to tell. The necessity of especial training in psychology, pedagogy, child study, and kindergarten ideas, has been treated of recently in a paper before the A. L. A. There is no doubt that the "called" worker in this field will be better for scientific training, but let him or her first be sure of the call. It is quite as serious as one to the ministry, if not more so, and no amount of intellectual training will make up for the lack of patience and fairness and of a genuine interest in children and realization of their importance in the general scheme.
To sum up, the requisites for the ideal children's library, as we begin to see it, are suitable books, plenty of room, plenty of assistance, and thoughtful administration. Better a number of children's libraries scattered over a town or city than a large central one, since only in this way can the children be divided up so as to make individual attention to them easy. But if it devolves upon one library to do the work for the entire town, and branches are out of the question, something of the same result may be obtained by providing at certain hours an extra number of assistants. I can imagine a large room with several desks, at each of which should preside an assistant having charge of only certain classes of books, so that in time she might come to be an authority on historical or biographical or scientific or literary books for children, and the children might learn to go to her as their specialist on the class of books they cared most for. Perhaps this may sound Utopian. I believe there are libraries present and to come for which it is entirely practicable.
THE GROWING TENDENCY TO OVER-EMPHASIZE THE CHILDREN'S SIDE
An investigation of rural libraries in North Carolina and of library work with children in Boston and New England towns led Miss Caroline Matthews, a member of the Examining Committee of the Public Library of Boston to believe that "exaggerated leaning toward one phase of library work must throw out of the true the work as a whole." The following paper explaining her conclusions was read before the Massachusetts Library Club in October, 1907.
Caroline Matthews was born in Boston in 1855. She has contributed articles to the Educational Review and to the Atlantic Monthly. Miss Matthews is at present living in Switzerland.
I have been asked to speak on this subject, not because I have professional or technical knowledge of the subject to be discussed, but rather because I have not. This does not mean that I have no knowledge whatever of this or other phases of library work. It simply means that the little knowledge I do possess is non-professional, and that my impressions, points of view, conclusions, are wholly those of an outsider.
Up to three years ago I had had no connection with public libraries beyond being an occasional borrower of books. Then suddenly, through making a comparative study of the financing of public school systems here and in France, I found myself in touch with the public schools of an American city, and through them with the school deposits of the Public Library of the same city. Even so, I did not come in touch with the library side of the work. It was always the school or teachers' side, or the pupils' side, never any other.
The second year I became a member of the Examining Committee of the Public Library of the city of Boston. My position on this committee for my first year of service was a minor one. There was never anything very important to do, certainly not enough to keep up one's interest to the point of being a live interest. Moreover, I spent the winter away from town. But I had the great good fortune to pass it in the mountains of North Carolina. There I lived for weeks at a time in the homes and cabins of the mountain whites. I knew the men their wives, their children. I visited the logging camps, the mines, the missions, the mills, the schools. The life was rough, but it was worth while. It gave me an intimate knowledge of the social surroundings of the people, and I found the one vital problem, the problem touching the citizen the nearest, to be that of the rural school, and affiliated with the rural school, though affiliated in a crude way, was the library.
Thus, for the second time in my life, I came into contact with the library by means of the school. This coincidence led me to think, and I reasoned out that library workers North and South must be working along similar lines toward unity in practice. Both were doing educative work. And both, apparently, had the same goal—the reaching of the parent or adult through the child or through child growth.
How far such work was legitimate work, how far such work had intellectual or educational value, how far such work lacked or had balance, I now wished to determine. To do this it was necessary to assume some line of active investigation; also to study results from the standpoint of the library, as well as from that of the school and the citizen.
There was no need to search for a subject. I had it at hand. Living as I did with the people I found myself in the very center of the rural library movement—a movement so splendid in conception; so successful in results, if statistics are credited; so direct as to method, the entire appropriation being expended on but two things, books and bookcases; so naively simple as to administration, there being neither librarians, libraries, or pay-rolls—that a study of it could not fail to prove helpful.
What were the actual conditions? First, the name "rural libraries" I found a misnomer. It in no sense represents facts. The words imply community interests, interests alike of adult and child, whilst the reality is that these libraries are simply school deposits, composed wholly of "juvenile books," graded up to but not beyond the seventh grade. When one realizes that these books reach a total of 200,000 volumes, that they are sent to people living in scattered communities strung shoe-string fashion high along mountain ridges—back and apart from civilization— to a people of rugged character, demanding strength in books as in life, capable of appreciating strength, one sees what a stupendous opportunity for community uplift has been wasted, and one stands aghast at the folly, economic and intellectual, of the limitations imposed. Why should children alone be considered? And if they alone are to be considered why should they be fed nothing but "juvenile" literature? It is both over-emphasis and false emphasis of the most harmful kind.
Second, far and away the most interesting phase of this library work in North Carolina is that the whole movement lies outside of the hands of professionally trained librarians. To understand why this is so it is necessary to turn to the Department of Education. Education in North Carolina is a state affair and centralized, the state being for all practical purposes autocratic in every educational matter. Decentralization has set in to the extent of admitting local taxation; otherwise education in North Carolina to-day is as highly centralized as it is in France. There is no difference whatever between the power of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction at Raleigh, and that of the Minister of Public Instruction in France. Such being the case it is but natural that the rural library movement should be absorbed by the state, incorporated into the Department of Education, and administered by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Neither would it be wise to change this. It would be wise, however, to appoint as one of the county superintendents of public instruction a trained librarian, having as his charge the entire supervision and administration of library interests.
Third, all responsibility for the care of these libraries rests with teachers. The teachers should never have such responsibility. It is entirely beyond and outside of their proper work. I feel sure that this problem of how to care for school deposits of library books, a problem which is an issue North as it is South, is not so difficult of solution as library workers would have us believe. Disabuse yourselves of the notion that it is the teachers' work, and a way out of the difficulty will be found.
Fourth, not only is there a growing dissatisfaction with the library act as administered, but there is actually active opposition to it—on the part of some teachers, and on the part of certain public-spirited citizens. So much so is this a fact that a counter movement is already in progress. This consists in the establishment of rural libraries by private gift, by the citizens at large, and by certain societies. Tryon has such a library, a delightful building with two rooms and an ample supply of standard books; Lenoir has one; Boone has one. Yet these are small towns, two of them not exceeding 300 inhabitants each. An interesting feature of one of these libraries is that it serves largely as a social center for community life. Afternoon tea is served in it; musicals held; club papers read; even the Woman's Exchange meets and exhibits once a week. I had no means of discovering how general this movement was, nor yet of determining the ratio of emphasis laid on the social side of the work. But I want you to note one point—the movement starts with the adult and with standard works, and only by means of the adult, or through the parent, is the child reached. It is the exact antithesis of the state movement.
Fifth, the libraries are neglected. In no school did I find a well-appointed one, and where there were bookcases they were tucked aside in corner or entry, thick with dust, unused.
The state statistics as to the growth of this movement ignore absolutely the facts I have mentioned. Therefore, I claim that in no true sense are these statistics representative. The movement, however, has interest. It is alive. It is sweeping through the state. It spends thousands of dollars a year. It concerns itself wholly with children. These are its characteristics. There can be no two opinions as to its lack of balance, for the adult is not even considered. There can be no two opinions as to its intellectual and educational values. Buying only "juvenile literature" they are of the smallest. There can be no two opinions as to its morality: the people are taxed, yet only a fraction of the people, only those who have children below the seventh and above the first grades, receive a return.
How far North Carolina was seeking guidance of the North, how far the North was also over-emphasizing, if it was, the children's side in library work, I next wished to determine.
This brought me back to Boston, and to my second and final year of service on the Examining Committee. The chairmanship of the sub-committee on branches gave me opportunity for studying library work as it touched the child and the school in cities. This I supplemented by a less intensive study of library conditions in towns, in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, seeking to make my knowledge comprehensive.
The first impression I received was that of the many interpretations put upon library work. These were almost as numerous as were the librarians and custodians. Viewing the work as a whole such divergence in practice seemed an error. There is power in unity; results worth while follow. There is loss in the frittering away of time caused by casual experiment; moreover, it bears heavily on the child. To this you may be inclined to answer that social and moral conditions vary so in each city and town that the individual condition must be faced individually. Granted, but not to the extent you might wish. To illustrate: there is wisdom in allowing a certain station of the Boston system complete liberty of action. But the situation at this station is unique. It could not be duplicated even in Boston. The work is in the hands of a skilled leader, and it forms part of a large private work, financed by a philanthropist noted for leadership in wise experimentation. The library shows breadth in accepting the situation. But it is not wisdom to allow the introduction of the story hour, or, as is the case in a neighboring town, the throwing wide open of the children's room to tots so tiny that picture blocks have to be furnished them to play with—before the educational authorities have pronounced such work necessary and just.
I next noticed and with some alarm the feminization of the library corps. And I confess that I see no remedy. The schools are facing the same difficulty, but eventually it will be solved for them in the raising of certain salaries to a man's standard. This is not likely to happen in library work. Consequently we have this feminization to reckon with, and to me it is an active factor in the diversity of library practice to which I have referred, for women far more than men are prone to indulge individual fads.
A third impression was the lack of fitness of some library workers for their posts. This is particularly unfortunate when it occurs in a children's room. Unless the person in charge possess the requisite qualifications, better far close the room. The fault lies perhaps with the colleges offering library courses. It may well be that the training in these should be more specialized than it is. Take the case of a student intending to pursue a given line of work—say children's departments. Something definite should be offered her, something corresponding in worth to the graduate courses in practice and observation offered students of education in departments of education at universities. This is a practical suggestion; it only requires on the part of colleges and libraries similar agreements to those already existing between universities and schools. A second phase of this question is that of libraries whose employees are not drawn from library schools or colleges, but who reach the several posts by a system of promotion based on efficiency and faithful service. Is there any reason why employees of such a system, specializing in children's work should not serve an apprenticeship in the children's department at central and be required to return to it again and again for further instruction? As far as I know the heads of these children's departments have no duties of this kind. But would not the value of a library corps be increased tenfold if they had? They seize eagerly the opportunity to go out and instruct the teacher, to go out and instruct the parent. They have classes for the schools in the use of the library. But they neglect utterly the training of the library employee who is to serve as assistant first, as chief later, in the children's room at branch or station. Yet the knowledge acquired by only one day of observation under skillful guidance in the children's department at central would prove invaluable to these women. Broaden the training given employees, and centralize experimentation.
I found no TRUE affiliation with the schools. There was none in North Carolina; there is none here. In countless ways the library and the school are overlapping. Why there should not be a clearer vision as to what is library work and what is school work is incomprehensible to an outsider.
I grew to have a horror of children's rooms—as distinct from children's departments. Intellectually, physically, morally, I believe them harmful. Neither can I see their necessity.
As regards classification of books, I received the impression that the broad division into "adult" and "juvenile" is too dogmatic, too arbitrary. Whatever other forms or divisions are necessary, this particular one should be abolished. It lowers the intellectual standing of the library with the community.
The splendid character of library work in tenement districts stood out strongly. It is vigorous, alive, with an ever-broadening opportunity.
More vivid, however, than any other impression, stronger still, was that of the time and thought and care bestowed on the Child. Everywhere, in city, town and suburban library, the effort to reach the Child is apparent. Special attendants are in readiness to meet him the instant he comes into reading room and station after school hours. Thoughtful women are assigned to overlook and guide his reference work. Entertainment is offered him in the form of blocks to play with, scrap-books to look at, story hours to attend. Books specially selected with regard to his supposedly individual needs are placed on the shelves. Picture bulletins are made for his use in the schools. Where he is not segregated he is allowed to monopolize tables and chairs. I find no corresponding effort made to reach the adult, to reach the young mechanic, to draw to the library the parent. I at times wonder whether librarians and custodians are even aware that exaggerated leaning toward one phase of library work must throw out of the true the work as a whole.
Nothing has astonished me more than this new development in library practice—the placing of the child in importance before the adult. The old belief that the library is primarily for adults and only incidentally for children still holds good at the central buildings of large city public library systems. In these we find the children's department only one of many departments—the child always subordinate, the adult dominant—the result of a well balanced, admirable whole, each unit in its proper place, all forces pulling together. I fail to see why the same relative balance should not be maintained throughout the entire system, from branch to station, not always in kind and measure, but approximately.
A second thought to which I cannot adjust myself—is that of the parent as a factor in school and library work. The parent believes in the public school, and he pays heavily in taxes for the education of his children by means of it. The parent believes in the establishment of public libraries and he pays heavily in taxes for their equipment. Both sums raised are sufficiently generous to enable school and library to furnish trained, capable, efficient teachers and librarians. Such being the case does not the parent show intelligence in turning over to the public care the direction of his children's education and reading? Is he not justified in so doing? Why then should he be held ignorant or selfish? Eliminate the parent as a factor in library practice. Give the children quality in books. Strike off 50 per cent., if you only will, of the titles to be found on the shelves of children's rooms. Substitute "adult" books, and you will not need to appeal to the parent to guide the child's choice.
That there is similarity of practice in library work, in North Carolina and here, you can hardly deny. Point by point, in so far as the work relates to the child, the problems are mutual. Their solution lies in the getting together of school and library authorities, and the setting aside of the modern thought that library work is primarily educative and primarily for the child. Let the schools educate the children; and, if you can, let the adult once more dominate in library practice. You will then have a well-balanced whole, free from over-emphasis on the child's side.
LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN
A conception of the meaning and the possibilities of children's work interpreted by means of present day social and industrial conditions is given by Henry E. Legler, librarian of the Chicago Public Library, in a paper on "Library work with children," read at the Pasadena Conference of the A L. A. in 1911. Henry Eduard Legler was born in Palermo, Italy, June 22, 1861. He was educated in Switzerland and the United States. In 1889 he was a member of the Wisconsin Assembly; from 1890 to 1894 secretary of the Milwaukee School Board; from 1904 to 1909 secretary of the Wisconsin Library Commission, and since 1909 has been librarian of the Chicago Public Library. In 1912-1913 Mr. Legler was President of the A. L. A.
Not long since a man of genius took a lump of formless clay, and beneath the cunning of his hand there grew a great symbol of life. He called it Earthbound. An old man is bowed beneath the sorrow of the world. Under the weight of burdens that seemingly they cannot escape, a younger man and his faithful mate stagger with bent forms. Between them is a little child. Instead of a body supple and straight and instinct with freedom and vigor, the child's body yields to the weight of heredity and environment, whose crushing influence press the shoulders down.
In this striking group the artist pictures for us the world-old story of conditions which meet the young lives of one generation, and are transmitted to the next. It is a picture that was true a thousand years ago; it is a picture that is faithful of conditions today. Perhaps its modern guise might be more aptly and perhaps no less strikingly shown, as it recently appeared in the form of a cartoon illustrating Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's verse:
The Cry of the Children
Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, Ere the sorrow comes with years? They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, And THAT cannot stop their tears. The young lambs are bleating in the meadows, The young birds are chirping in the nest, The young fawns are playing with the shadows, The young flowers are blowing towards the west— But the young, young children, O my brothers, They are weeping bitterly! They are weeping in the playtime of the others, In the country of the free.
Do you question the young children in the sorrow, Why their tears are falling so? The old man may weep for his to-morrow Which is lost in long ago; The old tree is leafless in the forest, The old year is ending in the frost, The old wound, if stricken, is the sorest, The old hope is hardest to be lost; But the young, young children, O my brothers, Do you ask them why they stand Weeping sore before the bosoms of their mothers, In our happy Fatherland?
Go out, children, from the mine and from the city, Sing out, children, as the little thrushes do. Pluck your handfuls of the meadow cowslips pretty, Laugh aloud to feel your fingers let them through!
Only in recent years has there grown into fulness a conception of what the duty of society is towards the child. For near two thousand years it was a world of grown-ups for grown-ups. Children there have been—many millions of them—but they were merely incidental to the scheme of things. Society regarded them not as an asset, except perhaps for purposes of selfish exploitation. If literature reflects contemporary life with fidelity, we may well marvel that for so many hundreds of years the boys and girls of their generation were so little regarded that they are rarely mentioned in song or story. When they are, we are afforded glimpses of a curious attitude of aloofness or of harshness. Nowhere do we meet the artlessness of childhood. In a footnote here, in a marginal gloss there, such references as appear point to torture and cruelty, to distress and tears. In the early legends of the Christians, in the pagan ballads of the olden time, what there is of child life but illustrates the brutal selfishness of the elders.
Certainly, no people understood as well as did the Jews that the child is the prophecy of the future, and that a nation is kept alive not by memory but by hope. Childhood to them was "the sign of fulfillment of glorious promises; the burden of psalm and prophecy was of a golden age to come, not of one that was in the dim past." So in the greatest of all books we come frequently upon phrases displaying this attitude:
"There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof."
"They shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children."
And most significant of all: "Suffer the little children to come unto me."
In the centuries intervening, up to a hundred years ago, the men of pen and the men of brush give us a few touches now and then suggestive of childhood. However, they are observers rather than interpreters of childhood and its meaning. In the works of the great master painters, the dominant note is that of maternity, or the motive is devotional purely. Milton's great ode on the Nativity bears no message other than this. In the graphic tale that Chaucer tells about Hugh of Lincoln, race hatred is the underlying sentiment, and the innocence of the unfortunate widow's son appears merely to heighten the evil of his captors and not as typical of boyhood.
Of the goodly company known collectively as the Elizabethan writers, silence as to the element of childhood is profound. In all the comedies and the tragedies of the greatest dramatist of all, children play but minor parts. In none of them save in King John, where historic necessity precludes the absence of the princes in the Tower, they might be wholly omitted without impairment of the structure. In the Merry Wives of Windsor, Mistress Anne Page's son is briefly introduced, and is there made the vehicle for conversation which in this age might be regarded as gross suggestiveness.
True, that is a rarely tender passage in the Winter's Tale wherein Hermione speaks with her beloved boy, and the pathos of Arthur's plea as he asks Hubert to spare his eyes is of course a masterpiece of literature; these, however, the sum total of the great dramatist's significant references to childhood.
In the great works on canvas, save where the Christ-child is depicted, may be noted that same absence of the spirit of childhood. Wealthy and royal patrons, indeed, encouraged great artists to add favorite sons and daughters to the array of portraits in their family galleries. In time, the artists gave to the progeny of the nobility and the aristocracy generally, such creations as to them seemed appropriate to their years. These poses are but the caricature of childhood. Morland, Gainsborough, Sir Joshua Reynolds and other artists of their day represented the children of their wealthy patrons in attitudes which savor somewhat of burlesque, though it may have been intended quite seriously to hedge them about with spontaneity.
It has been said that "a child's life finds its chief expression in play, and that in play its social instincts are developed." If this be true, we find in some contemporary canvases of this English school a curious reproduction of the favorite pastimes of children. One is called "bird-nesting," the title descriptive of the favorite diversion thus depicted. Another bears the legend "Snow-balling," and with no apparent disapproval save on the part of the little victims, shows a group of larger children ruthlessly snow-balling some smaller ones who have sought shelter in the portico of a church. Some distance down the street the form of an aged woman suggests another victim of youthful playfulness.
A century and a half ago there was born, frail at first but with constant growth, a perception that the great moving forces of life contain elements hitherto disregarded. Rousseau sounded his thesis, Pestalozzi began to teach, and but a little later on, Froebel expounded his tenets. We need not be concerned as to the controversial disputation of rival schools of pedagogues whose claims for one ignore the merits of the other. A new thought came into being, and both Pestalozzi and Froebel contributed to its diffusion—whether in the form of Pestalozzi's ideal, "I must do good to the child," or Froebel's, "I must do good through the child," or perhaps a measurable merging of the two.
Responsive to the note of life and thought around them, the great authors of prose and verse began to inject the new expression of feeling into what they wrote. Perhaps best reflected, as indeed it proved most potent in molding public opinion, this thought entered into the novels of Charles Dickens. These, in the development of child life as a social force, not only recorded history; they made history, and the virile pencils of Leech and Phiz and Cruikshank aided what became a movement.
For the first time in literature, with sympathetic insight, there was laid bare the misery of childhood among the lowly and unfortunate, and the pathos of unhappy childhood was pictured with all its tragic consequences to society as a whole. In the story of Poor Joe, the street-crossing sweeper, who was always told to move on, we read the stories of thousands of the boys of to-day. His brief tenantry of Tom-all-Alones shows us the prototype of many thousands of living places in the slums of our own time. Conditions which environ growing boys and girls —not only thousands of men, but many millions—in the congested cities of the Anglo-Saxon world, are well suggested by the names which have been given in derision, or brutally descriptive as the case may be, to such centers of human hiving as the Houses of Blazes and Chicken-foot Alley, in Providence; Hell's Kitchen in New York; the Bad Lands in Milwaukee; Tin Can Alley, Bubbly Creek and Whiskey Row back of the stockyards in Chicago. In these regions and in others like them darkness and filth hold forth together where the macaroni are drying; broken pipes discharge sewage in the basement living quarters where the bananas are ripening; darkness and filth dwell together in the tenement cellars where the garment-worker sews the buttons on for the sweat-shop taskmaster; goats live amiably with human kids in the cob-webbed basements where little hands are twisting stems for flowers; in the unlovely stable lofts where dwell a dozen persons in a place never intended for one; in windowless attics of tall tenements where frail lives grow frailer day by day.
Lisabetta, Marianna, Fiametta, Teresina, They are winding stems of roses, one by one, one by one— Little children who have never learned to play; Teresina softly crying that her fingers ache today, Tiny Fiametta nodding when the twilight slips in, gray.
High above the clattering street, ambulance and fire-gong beat; They sit, curling crimson petals, one by one, one by one. Lisabetta, Marianna, Fiametta, Teresina, They have never seen a rosebush nor a dewdrop in the sun. They will dream of the vendetta, Teresina, Fiametta,
Of a Black Hand and a Face behind a grating; They will dream of cotton petals, endless, crimson, suffocating, Never of a wild rose thicket, nor the singing of a cricket; But the ambulance will bellow through the wanness of their dreams, And their tired lids will flutter with the street's hysteric screams
Lisabetta, Marianna, Fiametta, Teresina, They are winding stems of roses, one by one, one by one; Let them have a long, long playtime, Lord of Toil, when toil is done; Fill their baby hands with roses, joyous roses of the sun.
Reverting to Poor Tom, well may the words of Dickens in Bleak House serve as a text for to-day: "There is not an atom of Tom's shrine, not a cubic inch of any pestilential gas in which he lives, nor an obscurity or degradation about him, nor an ignorance, nor a wickedness, nor a brutality of his committing, but shall work its retribution, through every order of society up to the proudest of the proud and the highest of the high."
Whatever of permanence the ideal democracy which underlies our institutions may achieve, it will not be the survival of conditions such as these, but the fruition of their betterment. Recognition of the sinister elements involved determines the modern type of library work with children. That work rests upon a knowledge of the background which has been pictured, upon the use of methods that shall reach sanely and effectively the contributing causes, upon correlation of all the social forces that can be brought to bear unitedly.
Recognition of conditions and causation gives power to, and justifies the modern trend of, library work with children as the most important and far-reaching of all its great work. Of thirty million men and women, and their children, who have come from Over-seas in two generations, 83 per cent were dwellers along the rim of the Mediterranean. Largely from that source have our towns grown overnight into swarming cities. Their children of to-day will be the men and women who in a generation will make or unmake the Republic. Ignorance and greed, rather than necessity, breed the chief menace in our national life. Alone as a detached social force, the library cannot hope to combat these, but in correlation with other forces may serve as one of the most potent agencies. In the children's rooms and in kindred places, the missionaries of the book take the disregarded bits of life about them and weave them into a human element of power. The children's rooms in the library and what they imply in the life of the people, are of such recent origin and growth that the complete force of their present-day work will not be fully apparent for a quarter century. What they hope to do, the instruments they purpose to use, are given succinctly in the pronouncement of one of our most progressive libraries
OBJECTS OF LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN
To make good books available to all children of a community.
To train boys and girls to use with discrimination the adult library.
To reinforce and supplement the class work of the city schools (public, private, parochial and "Sunday" schools).
To cooperate with institutions for civic and social betterment, such as playgrounds, settlements, missions, boys' and girls' clubs; and with commercial institutions employing boys and girls, such as factories, postoffice special delivery division, telegraph and telephone agencies and department stores.
And first and last to build character and develop literary taste through the medium of books and the influence of the children's librarian.
Pursuing these purposes, endeavoring to meet these tests. library work with children will make for better citizenship. It will take account not only of the children of the poor, but of the children of the well-to-do, who may need that influence even more. In the cities, which now overshadow our national life, there are no longer homes; there are flats, where the boys and girls are tolerated—perhaps.
"Our problem is not the bad boy, but rather the modern city," says Prof. Allen Hoben. "The normal boy has come honestly by his love of adventure, his motor propensities and his gang instincts. It is when you take this healthy biological product and set him down in the midst of city restrictions that serious trouble ensues. For the city has been built for economic convenience, and with little thought for human welfare. Industrial aim is evidenced to every sense. You smell industrialism in the far- reaching odors of the stockyards. You hear it in the roar of the elevated hard by the windows of the poor. You see it in a water front that people cannot use, and you touch it in the fleck of soot that is usually on your nose. The proof of industrial aggression ceases to be humorous, however, when it shows itself in the small living quarters of many a city flat where boys are supposed to find the equivalent of the old-time house. Constituted as he is, the boy cannot but be a nuisance in the flat community. And because the flat dweller moves frequently, he will be without those real neighbors of long standing whose leniency formerly robbed the law of its victims. Furthermore, he has no particular quarters of his own where he may satisfy his sense of proprietorship and save up the numerous things he collects with a view to using them in construction. The flat dwellers will not permit the noise or litter incident to such building as a boy likes; and he has little if any part in the labor of conducting the house. He loses dignity as a helpful and necessary member of the family, he loses that loyalty which attaches to the old familiar places of boyhood experience and strengthens many a man to-day, making him more kind and consistent in his living by virtue of homestead memories."
So the boy is driven to the street as his domain. It is his playground. And here he encounters the policeman. Of 717 children arrested in one month in New York City, more than half were arrested for playing games. Parenthetically, the fact may be quoted that in this children's chief playground in a period of ten months 67 children were killed and 196 injured.
Unerringly, these facts point to a union of social forces—the children's library and the children's playground, a realization of that clear comprehension which the ancient Greeks had of the unity between the body and the mind. Quoting Plato: "If children are trained to submit to laws in their plays' the love of law enters their souls with the music accompanying their games, never leaves them, and helps them in their development."
Having in thought physical recreation as a stimulus to mental development, in combination bringing home the joyousness of life, an ideal union of forces is being effected in some of the larger cities. In some places, the movement has assumed but an initial stage—a bit of tent shelter for distribution of books to children gathered at the sand pile. In some instances co- operation has joined the work of park breathing centers and library organizations. This has reached completed form in the placement of branch libraries as part of the park equipment, either quarters within a general building, or a separate little building adjacent to or on the athletic field.
But whether in place of high or low degree; whether in rented store or memorial building of monumental type; whether in the rooms of a school building or a corner in a factory; whether by this method or by that, the children's librarian employs the printed page to serve as instrument to these ends:
The building of character, making for the best in citizenship.
The enlargement of narrow lives, bringing the joy and savour and beauty of life to the individual.
The opening of opportunity to all alike, which is the essence of democracy.
And in, the doing, an incidental and a great contribution is made to society as a whole. For, as the story hour unfolds a new world to the listener whose life has been bounded by a litter- covered alley and three bare walls, or whose look into the outside world has been perhaps a roof of tar and gravel and a yawning chasm beyond, so the development of the imagination through the right sort of books shall make possible the fullest development of the individual boy and girl. In many a life there has been a supreme moment when some circumstance, some stimulus has changed that life for good or ill. For want of that stimulus, the dormant power of many a man has gone to waste. Half the derelicts of humanity who are but outcasts of the night had in them the making of good men—perhaps some of them of great men, in science or in art. There is no waste that is greater than lost opportunity; there is no loss so great as undiscovered resource. Speaking of imagination in work, Mr. Hamilton Wright Mabie points out that:
"So long as the uses of the imagination in creative work are so little comprehended by the great majority of men, it can hardly be expected that its practical uses will be understood. There is a general if somewhat vague recognition of the force and beauty of its achievements as illustrated in the work of Dante, Raphael, Rembrandt and Wagner; but very few people perceive the play of this supreme architectural and structural faculty in the great works of engineering, or in the sublime guesses at truth which science sometimes makes when she comes to the end of the solid road of fact along which she has traveled. The scientist the engineer, the constructive man in every department of work uses the imagination quite as much as the artist; for the imagination is not a decorator and embellisher, as so many appear to think; it is a creator and constructor. Wherever work is done on great lines or life is lived in field of constant fertility, the imagination is always the central and shaping power."
I would have liked in this over-lengthy, but yet fragmentary survey of the field from the viewpoint of the library, to say something of the mistakes which have perhaps been made, and which may still be made unguardedly by reason of over-zeal whereby the relationship of the work to other things may be ignored or misunderstood; of the danger that over-strong consciousness as to possession of high ideals may dictate too urgent use of books that may have literary style, but do not reach the heart of the boy—driving him to the comic supplement and to the dregs of print for his reading hours. These, and other comments must be left for another occasion.
I would also have liked to say something of the history of work with children in libraries, but Miss Josephine Rathbone has told the story fully and well. In that history, when it shall be written a quarter century hence, it will be fitting to give full meed of honor to Samuel Sweet Greene, Edwin H. Anderson, Mrs. H. L. Elmendorf, Miss Frances J. Olcott, Miss Linda A. Eastman and some of the other splendid women of the profession whose presence here precludes the mention of their names.
So, too, I would have liked to give the result, statistically, of an inquiry, which the helpful kindness of Miss Faith E. Smith, chairman of this section, has enabled me to make. It must suffice here to limit the statement to a brief summary that shows less what has been accomplished than what remains to be attempted:
There are in the United States to-day approximately 1,500 public libraries containing each more than 5,000 volumes. The number reporting children's work is 525, with a total of 676 rooms having an aggregate seating capacity of 21,821, and an available combined supply of 1,771,161 volumes on open shelves. The number of libraries in which story hours are held is 152, and 304 report work with schools. Of course, this work is pitifully meager as to many libraries. The number of children who come more or less under the direct influence of children's librarians is generously estimated as 1,035,195 (103 libraries, including all the large systems reporting). There are in the United States of children from 6 to 16 years of age, approximately thirty-three millions.
Behind the work of the children's librarians there is a fine spirit of optimism—not blind to difficulties, but courageous, ardent and hopeful.
Disregarding ridicule, which is but a cheap substitute for wit; regardful of criticism, which is often provocative or promotive of improvement, inspired with the dignity of their high calling, and with a fine vision that projects itself into the future, the librarians engaged in the work with children willingly give thereto the finest and the best of personality that they possess. Descriptive of their spirit, we may aptly paraphrase the words of a great humanitarian of our own generation:
"Some there are, the builders of humanity's temples, who are laboring to give a vast heritage to the children of all the world. They build patiently, for they have faith in their work.
"And this is their faith—that the power of the world springs from the common labor and strife and conquest of the countless age of human life and struggle; that not for a few was that labor and that struggle, but for all. And the common labor of the race for the common good and the common joy will bring that fulness of life which sordid greed and blighting ignorance would make impossible."
And you have the faith of the builders.
VALUES IN LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN
The function of library work with children as a factor in community life is further shown in the following articles. This function includes, in the minds of the writers, a recognition that the chief aim in education is character building; the necessity of the careful selection of books for all classes of children; the understanding of the personal relationship of the child to the library; the development of a sense of ownership on the part of the child; the possibility of being a factor in the assimilation of the foreign element of the population; and the realization that all are workers in a common cause, thus bringing encouragement and inspiration.
LIBRARY MEMBERSHIP AS A CIVIC FORCE
One of the sessions of the Children's librarians section of the A. L. A. meeting at Minnetonka in 1908 was given up to the discussion of the place of children's library work in the community. The library point of view was presented by Miss Moore.
Annie Carroll Moore was born in Limerick, Maine, and was graduated from Limerick Academy in 1889 and Bradford Academy in 1891. After completing her work in the Pratt Institute Library School in 1896 she became children's librarian in the Pratt Free Library where she remained until 1906. She then organized the children's department in the New York Public Library, of which she is still supervisor. Miss Moore has lectured on library work with children and has contributed many articles on the subject to library periodicals.
Fifteen years ago the Minneapolis public library opened a children's room from which books were circulated. Previous to 1893 a reading room for children was opened in the Brookline (Mass.) public library but the Minneapolis public library was the first to recognize the importance of work with children by setting aside a room for their use with open shelf privileges and with a special assistant in charge of it.
Since 1893 children's rooms and children's departments have sprung up like mushrooms, all over the country, and first in Pittsburg, then in Brooklyn, Cleveland, Philadelphia, New York City and Queens Borough, children's rooms in branch libraries have been organized into departments from which a third, at least, of the entire circulation of the libraries is carried on by assistants, either trained or in training to become children's librarians.
It has been the inevitable accompaniment of such rapid growth that the work should suffer growing pains in the form of criticism and even caricature at the hands of casual observers and clever writers. Those of us who have been identified with the movement since its inception have somehow managed to preserve our faith in a survival of the fittest by remembering that there was a time when everything was new, and have felt that if we could keep a firm grip on the active principles which inspire all successful work with children, whether it is the work of a small independent library or that of a large system of libraries, our labor was not likely to be lost. The children, the books and ourselves are the three elements to be combined and the success of the combination does not depend upon time, nor place, nor circumstance. It depends upon whether we have a clear vision of our surroundings and are able to adapt ourselves to them, a growing appreciation of the value of books to the persons who read them, and the power of holding the interest and inspiring the respect and confidence of children.
If we can do all these things for a period of years we have little need to worry about the future success of the work. The boys and girls will look after that. In many instances they have already begun to look after it and the best assurance for the future maintenance of free libraries in America rests with those who, having tried them and liked them during the most impressionable years of their lives, believe in the value of them for others as well as for themselves to the extent of being ready and willing to support them.
In passing from a long and intimate experience in the active work of a children's room in an independent library to the guidance of work in the children's rooms of a system of branch libraries, a great deal of thought has been given to deepening the sense of responsibility for library membership by regarding every form of daily work as a contributory means to this end.
The term "library membership" is a survival of the old subscription library but it defines a much closer relationship than the terms "borrower" or "user" and broadens rather than restricts the activities of a free library by making it seem more desirable to "belong to the library" than to "take out books."
It is the purpose of this paper to present in outline for discussion such aspects of the work as may help to substantiate the claim of its ambitious and perhaps ambigious title: Library Membership as a Civic Force.
1. Our first and chief concern is with the selection of books and right here we are confronted by so many problems that we might profitably spend the entire week discussing them.
In general, the selection of books for a children's room which is seeking to make and to sustain a place in the life of a community should offer sufficient variety to meet the needs and desires of boys and girls from the picture book age to that experience of life which is not always measured by years nor by school grade but is tipified by a Jewish girl under 14 years old, who, on being asked how she liked the book she had just read, "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," said to the librarian, "It's not the kind of book you would enjoy yourself, is it?", and on being answered in the affirmative, tactfully stated her own point of view: "Well, you see it is just this way, children have their little troubles and grown people have their great troubles. I guess it's the great troubles that interest me." We have been quick to recognize the claim of the foreign boy or girl who is learning our language and studying our history but we are only just beginning to recognize the claims of those, who, having acquired the language, are seeking in books that which they are experiencing in their own natures. Human nature may be the same the world over, but there is a vast difference in its manifestations between the ages of ten and sixteen in a New England village or town and in a foreign neighborhood of one of our large cities.
The selection of adult books in all classes, especially in biography, travel, history and literature is too limited in the children's rooms of many libraries and should be enlarged to the point of making the shelves of classed books look more like those of a library and less like those of a school room. Titles in adult fiction should include as much of Jane Austen as girls will read and an introduction to Barrie in "Peter Pan" and the "Little Minister." "Jane Eyre" will supply the demand for melodrama in its best form, while "Villette," and possibly "Shirley," may carry some girls far enough with Charlotte Bronte to incline them to read her life by Mrs. Gaskell. William Black's "Princess of Thule" and "Judith Shakespeare" will find occasional readers. "Lorna Doone" will be more popular, although there are girls who find it very tedious. There should be a full set of Dickens in an edition attractive to boys and girls. A complete set of the Waverly novels in a new large print edition, well paragraphed and well illustrated, with the introductions left out and with sufficient variation in the bindings to present an inviting appearance on the shelves would lead, I believe, to a very much more general reading of Scott.
Conan Doyle's "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," "The Refugees," "The White company," "Micah Clarke" and "At the Sign of the four" will need no urging, nor will Dumas' "Count of Monte Cristo," "The Three guardsmen" and "The Black tulip." "Les Miserables" and "The Mill on the Floss" will fully satisfy the demand for "great troubles," treated in a masterly fashion. We should include Thackeray's "Henry Esmond," "The Newcomes" and "The Virginians"; Bulwer's "Last Days of Pompeii," "Harold," "Rienzi" and "The Last of the barons"; Charles Kingsley's "Westward Ho," "Hereward the Wake" and "Hypatia"; Charles Reade's "Cloister and the hearth," "Peg Woffington," "Foul play" and "Put yourself in his place"; Besant's "All sorts and conditions of men" and "The Children of Gibeon"; Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone" and "The Woman in white" as many of Robert Louis Stevenson's stories as will be read "Cranford" and "The Vicar of Wakefield" with the Hugh Thomson illustrations; Miss Mulock's "John Halifax," "A Noble life," "A Brave lady" and "A Life for a life"; Lever's "Charles O'Malley" and "Harry Lorrequer", Lew Wallace's "Ben Hur" and "The Fair god"; Stockton's "Rudder Grange," "The Casting away of Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine" and "The Adventures of Captain Horn"; Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's cabin" and "Oldtown folks"; Howells' "Lady of the Aroostook," "A Chance acquaintance," "The Quality of mercy" and "The Rise of Silas Lapham"; Gilbert Parker's "Seats of the mighty" and "When Valmond came to Pontiac"; Paul Leicester Ford's "The Honorable Peter Stirling"; Richard Harding Davis' "Van gibber," "Gallagher," "Soldiers of fortune" and "The Bar sinister"; Rider Haggard's "King Solomon's mines" and "Allen Quartermain"; Weir Mitchell's "Hugh Wynne", Marion Crawford's "Marietta", "Marzio's crucifix", and "Arethusa"; Kipling's "The Day's work", "Kim" and "Many inventions" and, if they have been removed as juvenile titles, I think we should restore "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" under the head of adult fiction.
Other titles will be freely and frequently used in a children's room, which is taking into active account the interests of its users and is seeking to establish a genuine taste for good reading which will not be abandoned later on as artificial or forced. In general, the principle of selection should be to provide the best standard novels in order that the boys and girls who go out from the children's room may know what good novels are and so much of modern fiction as shall serve to give the collection the appearance of being interesting and up to date without lowering the standard of that taste for good reading which is the chief purpose in shelving such a collection in a children's room. The presence of the books is good for the children's librarian as well as for the children and it goes without saying that she must be familiar with them if she is to use them intelligently.
The point to stop in the purchase of books designed for supplementary reading is with the smallest number that will meet the active demands which are not met by REAL books. We may well stop with the third book in most cases of purchase of books in sets. Does anybody know whether informational readers on the shelves of a children's room leads to genuine interest in the subject so presented? To quote one boy's opinion of nature readers, "The nature you get in books is the most disinteresting subject there is." The cheapness of these publications has led to a larger duplication of them in libraries than seems desirable for the best interests of the work. We need in place of them such books, with certain modifications in treatment, as were indicated by Dr. Stanley Hall in his recent and very suggestive address on Reading as a factor in the education of children (Library Journal, April, 1908). Most of all do we need a series of books which will put foreign children and their parents in touch and in sympathy with the countries from which they came by spirited illustrations in color of street scenes, festivals and scenes from home life accompanied by simple direct statements and with translations of such stories and poems as may aid in making and keeping the impressions of their country vivid and lasting. There has been a rising wave of production of primers and first reading books during the past five years. Some libraries have experienced a primer craze and it becomes exceedingly difficult to decide which ones to buy and bow freely to duplicate them. Primers and "easy books" have a use for children who are learning to read but too free a use of them may be one of the influences responsible for that lack of power of sustained attention and limitation in vocabulary which is frequently shown by boys and girls from twelve to fourteen years old.
The edition in which a book for children appears is a matter of very much greater importance than is realized by those who view the work from a distance. It is not purely an aesthetic consideration. It has a very practical bearing on whether the book will be read or not and libraries which have the least money to spend should be most careful to spend it for books in editions which are attractive to children.
2. The only thoroughly successful means of securing respect and good care of library books is for libraries to maintain higher standards of excellence in respect to intelligent repairing and binding, to discard promptly a book which is to any extent mutilated or which is so soiled as to make it seem unwarrantable to ask a boy to wash his hands before touching it. The books on the circulating shelves should be the most attractive part of a children's room. That it is possible to make and to keep them so is not a theory but a demonstrable fact. Three years ago a branch library was opened in one of the poor districts of a large city. The usual problems in the discipline of individuals and of gangs were present. Many of the new books were soiled, others were mutilated and several were missing at inventory taking. The librarian believed the moral lesson conveyed to children by training them to take care of library books to be one of the first requirements of good citizenship. She determined that no boy or girl should be able to say: "I took it that way", in returning a soiled or mutilated book. In order to carry out her ideas to a successful issue it has been necessary for her to inspire her entire staff with a sense of the value of such training and to impress upon them that careful handling of books by library assistants is the first requisite to securing like care on the part of the children. Every book is examined at the time it is returned and before it is placed on the shelves it is given such repair as it may need. By careful washing, skillful varnishing and by the use of a preparation for removing grease spots many books are given an extended turn of service without lowering the standards established. Paper covers are provided as wrappers on rainy days and on sticky days. Such care of books requires time and sustained interest but I believe that it pays in the immediate as well as in the future results, when grown into men and women, the boys and girls who were taught this first lesson in citizenship will look back upon it with feelings of respect and satisfaction.
The cost to the library is less in expenditure for books and for service. The library mentioned affords direct evidence that loss of books by theft is very largely controlled by such simple means provided the means are consciously and consistently related to the larger end of regarding the property rights of others. It is interesting to note that three-fourths of its membership has been sustained during the three years.
3. In dealing with large numbers of children of foreign parentage it is evident that we need to define their relationship to the library more clearly than we have done as yet. Quite frequently they do not distinguish between the building and the books and refer to the latter as "taking libraries". Now "taking a library" home is a very different matter from playing a part in the life of a civic institution and the parents as well as the boys and girls are quick to feel a difference which they are not always able to express in words. Quite early in my experience this was brought home to me by a visit from the mother of a Jewish boy who had been coming to the children's room for about a year. She came on a busy Saturday afternoon and after looking about the room seated herself near the desk while the boy selected his books. As Leopold always tested the interest of several books before committing himself to a choice the visit lasted the entire afternoon. When they were ready to go she explained why she had come. She had been curious to discover for herself, she said, what it was Leopold got from the Library that made him so much easier to get on with at home. He had grown more thoughtful of his younger brothers and sisters, more careful of his books and other belongings and more considerate of his mother. "I wouldn't have him know the difference I see," she continued, "but he told me you were always asking him to bring me here and I made up my mind to come and see for myself and I have.
"These children are learning how to BEHAVE in PUBLIC as well as how to choose good books and I think it comes from the feeling they have of belonging to the Library, and being treated in the way they like, whether they are as young as my Simon, who is six years old, or as old as Leopold, who will be fourteen next month. If they were all boys of Leopold's age it would be the same as it is at school; but having the younger ones here makes it more as it is at home."
Should it not be the plan and purpose of a children's room to make every boy and girl feel at home there from the moment of signing an application blank? Forms of application blanks and the manner of registration differ in nearly every library. Whatever form is used, personal explanation is always essential and it does not seem worth while to advocate a simplified form for the use of children. I believe there are very decided advantages in a system of registration which requires the children to write their own names in a book. The impression made upon their memories is distinctly different and more binding than that made by writing the name on a slip of paper and has frequently been of great service in cases of discipline as the signature is headed by a reminder of obligations:
"When I write my name in this book I promise to take good care of all the books I read in the Library and of those I take home and to obey the rules of the Library." Such a method of registration is not impractical, even in a large library provided the work is carefully planned to admit of it.
Recent inquiries and investigation show very convincingly that a large proportion of parents, both foreign born and American, and a considerable number of educators, social workers and persons connected with libraries in England and in this country, have exceedingly hazy ideas respecting the work public libraries are doing for children. The issue of an admirable illustrated hand book on "The Work of the Cleveland public library with children" and the means used to reach them, should make clear to the latter whatever has seemed vague or indefinite in the work.
But there are many parents in large cities and in manufacturing towns, who cannot be induced to visit libraries and see for themselves as Leopold's mother did, and they are frequently averse to having their children go to a place they know nothing about, believing that they are being drawn away from their school tasks by the mere reading of story books. How is it possible to stimulate their curiosity and interest to the point of making a Library seem desirable and even necessary in the education of their children to become citizens and wage earners? Printed explanations and rules issued by libraries are either not read or not understood by the majority of persons to whom they are addressed. There is something very deadening to the person of average intelligence about most printed explanations of library work. Pictures which bring the work before people from the human side might be more successful and I wish to submit an outline for a pictorial folder designed to accompany an application blank to the home of an Italian child.
DESCRIPTION OF FOLDER
In size it is five inches long and three inches wide. On the outer cover appears a picture of the exterior of the library, underneath the picture the name of the library, its location and the hours it is open.
On the first page a picture of the children's room with this inscription underneath:
Boys and Girls come here to read and to study their lessons for school. Picture Books for little children.
On the second page a picture of the adult department, showing its use and giving the information all foreigners seem desirous to have:
Men and Women come here to read and to study.
Books on the Laws and Customs of America.
Books, Papers and Magazines in Italian and other foreign languages.
Books from which to learn to read English.
On the back of the cover these simple directions:
HOW TO JOIN THE LIBRARY
The use of the Library is Free to anyone who comes to Read or to Study in its rooms.
If you wish to take Books home you must sign an application blank and give the name and address of some one who knows you.
The information on the folder should be given in the language or languages of the neighborhood in which the library is situated.
This folder was designed for a branch library in an Italian neighborhood but a similar folder might be utilized in any community provided the information is given in simple, direct form and the pictures show the Library with people using it.
4. Joining the library is not all. However carefully and impressively the connection is made we are all conscious of those files of cards "left by borrower," which indicate that a connection must be sustained if library membership is to prove its claim as a civic force. There are those who regard a restriction of circulation to one or two story books a week as a desirable means to this end, believing that interest in reading is heightened by such limitation. That many boys and girls read too much we all know, but I am inclined to think that whatever restriction is made should be made for the individual rather than laid down as a library rule. Other libraries advocate a remission of fines, at the same time imposing a deprivation in time of such length that it would seem to defeat the chief end of the children's room which is to encourage the reading habit. Children who leave their cards for six months at a time are not likely to be very actively interested in their library. There seem to be three viewpoints regarding fines for children.
1. Children should be required to pay their fines as a lesson in civic righteousness. Persons holding this view would allow the working out of fines under some circumstances but regard the fine as a debt.
2. Any system of fines is a wrong one, therefore all fines should be remitted and some other punishment for negligence substituted. Persons holding this view would deprive children of the use of the library for a stated period.
3. A fine is regarded as slightly punitive and probably the most effective means of teaching children to respect the rights of others in their time use of books. Persons holding this view would reduce the fine to one cent, wherever a fine is exacted and would exercise a great deal of latitude in dealing with individual cases, remitting or cutting down fines whenever it seems wise to do so and imposing brief and variable time deprivations of the use of the library rather than a long fixed period.
Whatever viewpoint is taken it will be necessary to remind children constantly that by keeping their books overtime other boys and girls are being deprived of the reading of them.
One of the most effective means of sustaining and promoting such a sense of library membership as I have indicated is the extension of reading-room work by placing on open, or on closed shelves, if necessary, a collection of the best children's books in the best editions obtainable, to be used as reading-room books. Children may be so trained in the careful handling of these books as to become very much more careful of their treatment of the book they take home and the experiment is not a matter of large expense to the library. The reading-room books should never be allowed to become unsightly in appearance if they are to do their full work in the room as an added attraction to the children and as suggestive to parents, teachers and other visitors who may wish to purchase books as gifts.
The value of a well conducted Story hour or Reading club as a means of sustaining the library connection and of influencing the spontaneous choice of books by boys and girls has not been fully recognized because it has been only partially understood. There are various methods of conducting Story hours and Reading clubs. There are many differences of opinion as to whether the groups should be large or small, differentiated by age or by sex, whether the groups should be made up entirely of children or whether an occasional adult may be admitted without changing the relation between the story teller and the children. Those who desire suggestion of material and specific information as to method and practice will find much that is valuable and practical in the publication of the Carnegie library of Pittsburg and in the Handbook of the Cleveland public library. Those who are seeking to place a Story hour in work already established will do well to remember that it is a distinctly social institution and as such is bound to be colored by the personality of its originator whether she tells the stories herself or finds others to carry out her ideas. Make your Story hour the simple and natural expression of the best you have to give and do not attempt more than you can perform. I believe the Story hour is the simplest and most effective means of enlisting the interest of parents and of stirring that active recollection of their own childhood which leads to sharing its experiences with their children. Folk tales told in the language his father and mother speak should give to the child of foreign parentage a feeling of pride in the beautiful things of the country his parents have left in place of the sense of shame with which he too often regards it. The possibilities in this field are unlimited if wisely directed.
The value of exhibits depends upon the subject chosen and the exercise of imagination, good taste and practical knowledge of children's tastes in selecting and arranging the objects or pictures. The subject must be one which makes an immediate appeal to the passing visitor. There should not be too much of it and it should not be allowed to remain too long in the room. A single striking object is often more effective than a collection of objects. Some interpretation of an exhibit in the form of explanation or story is needed if the children are to become very much interested in reading about a subject.
To those who believe that Story hours, Clubs, Exhibits, and Picture bulletins are not "legitimate library work," I would say, suspend your judgment until you have watched or studied the visible effects of such work in a place where it is properly related to the other activities of the library and to the needs of the community in which it is situated. If by the presence of an Arctic exhibit in an Italian and Irish-American non-reading neighborhood an interest is stimulated which results in the circulation and the reading of several hundred books on the subject during the time of the exhibition and for months afterward, the exhibit certainly seems legitimate.
5. Since it is true that social conditions, racial characteristics and individuality in temperament enter very actively into the problems of the care of children in libraries and since it is also true that the books children read and the care which is given to them in libraries are frequently reflected in their conduct in relation to the School, the Church, the Social settlement, the Playground, the Juvenile court and to civic clubs as well as to the Home, a more enlightened conception of the work of all these institutions is essential if the Children's library is to play its full part in the absorption of children of different nations into a larger national life. This need is being recognized and partially met by lecture courses and by the practice work of students in library training schools but listening to lectures, reading, and regulated student practice does not take the place of that spontaneous eagerness to see for one's self, the social activities of a neighborhood or town which makes a library in its town a place of living interest. Librarians, en masse, in relation to other institutions, stand in a similar position to that of the representative of those institutions. On both sides a firsthand knowledge of the aims and objects and methods of work of all the forces at work in a given community and a perception of their interrelationship is essential if we wish to do away with the present tendency to duplicate work which is already being carried on by more effective agencies. How far a library should go in relating its work to that of other institutions it is impossible to prescribe. The aim should be to make its own work so clear to the community in which it is placed that it will command the respect and the support of every citizen.
THE CIVIC VALUE OF LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN
The second paper at the Minnetonka sectional meeting, mentioned in the introduction to the preceding article, was presented by Dr. Graham Taylor, Director of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, who believes that "equally with the schools and playgrounds, our library centers are essential to American democracy." Dr. Taylor was born in Schenectady, N. Y., in 1851; received the degree of A.B. from Rutgers College in 1870, and was graduated from the Reformed Theological Seminary, New Brunswick, N. J., in 1873. He has since been granted the honorary degrees of D.D. and LL.D. From 1873 to 1892 he remained in the pastorale; from 1888 to 1892 was Professor of Practical Theology in Hartford Theological Seminary, and in 1892 became Professor of Social Economics in the Chicago Theological Seminary. In 1894 he became the founder and resident warden of the Chicago Commons Social Settlement. Dr. Taylor is associate editor of the Survey.
The child is coming to be as much of a civic problem as it ever has been a family problem. Upon the normality of its children the strength and perpetuity of the state depend, as surely as the dependency and delinquency of its children undermine the prowess and menace the life of the state. The education and discipline, labor and recreation of the child figure larger all the while in our legislation and taxes, our thinking and literature.
Democracy, machine industry, immigration and child psychology combine to make the child a new problem to the modern state and city, especially in America. With the problems of the child's normality and defectiveness, discipline and delinquency, work and play, and its assimilation into the body politic, our towns and cities, states and nation have been forced to deal. Hitherto we have dealt far more with the negative and repressive aspects of these problems than with any constructive ideal, purpose and method respecting them. We have, for instance, paid more attention to defective children than to the prenatal antecedents and early conditions of child life. We have been too long punishing juvenile delinquency without trying to help the backward and wayward child. We have let young children work without regard to the industrial efficiency of their whole life. We are only beginning to share the attention we have paid to the education of our children with the equally serious problem of their recreation. We have been content merely with their physical exercise and have been stupidly obtuse to awaking and satisfying the pleasurable interest of the child in his play and the organization of it. Where there have been an un-American fear of immigration and feeling against the immigrant there has been all too little effort put forth to assimilate the foreign elements of our local population.
But we are coming to see that to prepossess is better than to dispossess. Prevention is found to be a surer and cheaper solvent of our child problems than punishment. The child's own resources for self development and self mastery prove to be greater than all the repressive measures to obtain and maintain our control over him. Thus our very disciplinary measures have become saner and more effective. No way-mark of our civilization registers greater progress than our abandonment of the criminal procedure against children and our adoption of the paternal spirit and method of our juvenile courts and reformatory measures. To our agencies for dealing with defectives and delinquents we have added the kindergarten and all the kindred principles, methods and instrumentalities of constructive work with children.
Chief among these is the use we are making of the child's instinct for play and mental diversion as a means of building up both the individual and the social life. Chicago has made the discovery of the civic value of recreation centers for the play of the people. Not since old Rome's circus maximus and the Olympic games of Greece has any city made such provision for the recreation of its people as is to be found in these great playfields, surrounding the beautifully designed and well equipped field houses, which at a cost of $12,000,000 of the tax payers' money have been built in the most crowded districts of Chicago. The recreation centers illustrate the civic opportunity and value of library work with children. For the Chicago public library was quick to see and seize the advantage thus offered to serve the city. The delivery stations and reading rooms established in these field houses are already recognized to be the most useful of its centers to the child life of the city. The organized volunteer cooperation of several groups of women has added the story hour as a regular feature of the library work at these playgrounds, and at two public school buildings where similar stations are to be established in cooperation with the Board of education. At the central library building the work in the Thomas Hughes Young people's reading room has also been successfully supplemented by the story hour appointments in a large hall, with the same efficient cooperation.
The quick and large response given by the people to these civic extensions of library service in every city and town where they have been offered, demonstrates what a large field of usefulness awaits public library enterprise and occupancy. But the experiment has gone far enough to prove the absolute necessity of having librarians especially trained for work with children; and to that end, the addition of the position of children's librarian to the classified civil service lists for which special examinations are set.
Equally with the schools and playgrounds, our library centers are essential to American democracy. All three are to be classed together as our most democratic and efficient agencies for training our people into their citizenship and assimilating them into the American body politic. Nowhere are we on a more common footing of an equality of opportunity than in the public schools, the public playground and the public library.
The public school stands upon that bit of mother earth which belongs equally to us all. The playground is open alike to all comers. And the public library is not only as free and open to all as to any of our whole people, but also confers citizenship in that time-long, world wide democracy of the Republic of Letters.
The civic service thus democratically to be rendered by library work with children is indispensably valuable. It may be made more and more invaluable to any community by intelligent insight into the needs of the people, and by the practical and prompt application of library resources which are limited only by our capacity, enterprise and energy to develop and apply them.
ESTABLISHING RELATIONS BETWEEN THE CHILDREN'S LIBRARY AND OTHER CIVIC AGENCIES
A broader idea of library work with children necessitates greater knowledge of other agencies which work with them and a spirit of willing cooperation on the part of the children's librarian. From her experience in the city of Washington Miss Herbert contributed the following article of The Library Journal. Clara Wells Herbert was born in Stockbridge, Mass.; was a student in Vassar from 1894 to 1896; received a special certificate from the Training School for Children's Librarians in 1904; was children's librarian in the Brooklyn Public Library from 1904 to 1907, and since that time has been the head of the Children's department in the Public Library of the District of Columbia.
The children's departments of many city libraries are carrying on a fine aggressive work and through branch children's rooms, close work with schools, including deposits of books in classrooms, deposits of books and story-telling in playgrounds, home libraries and home visiting, are coming close to the children and putting good books within their reach. Such work rests upon a large staff and a generous appropriation. On the other hand, the small town library has the advantage of informal relations with its people and is a part of the various activities of the town. Between these two types of libraries is a third. It is located in a city too large for the helpful informal relations of the town library. It cannot, on the other hand, carry on its own aggressive work, for it is hampered by the smallness of its staff and the meagerness of its appropriation.
To libraries of this sort the effecting of cordial relations with other civic institutions is of the utmost importance. Upon it depends largely the outside work of the library and a specialized knowledge of conditions very essential for intelligent work.
Nor is the library the only one to profit by cooperation.
"I never thought of asking for help there," said a probation officer recently when talking of her difficulties in keeping a record of the use of the withdrawn books given to the court by the library. Not more than we need the benefit of the intimate personal knowledge of conditions of such workers, do they often need the help the library stands ready and eager to give but which they do not think to ask.
The work of the children's department should be then twofold in purpose—to reach the children directly as far as possible, and to establish such relations with other organizations as will render it a vital interested force in the community, a place where people will naturally turn for help along the line of its work.
Certain practices which have been found useful in effecting this cooperation may be suggestive, but the basis of any satisfactory relationship is interest and the desire to help and has its beginnings in the children's room.
The children's librarian should keep always in mind that the city is full of workers who, strong in the belief that the hope of the future is in the children, are doing devoted work in their behalf. Sooner or later they will visit the children's room and the opportunity presents itself to know their particular line of work. It is interesting to note in how many of such cases the conversation contains something which may be applied with advantage to the library's activities. At least, the visitor receives the impression that the library assistant is interested in any work done for children and, if at some future time a need presents itself, turns to her for assistance.
This interest is also shown if the children's librarians attend meetings or conferences held in behalf of children or from which they may gather information on home conditions. Frequently there are courses of lectures given by charity organizations or club meetings of sociological workers where the problems of the city are discussed.
Libraries having staff or apprentice meetings frequently invite as speakers persons representing some particular phase of work, and these occasions engender mutual interest. In other cases librarians have added to their staffs former kindergartners and charity workers that they might profit by their special training and the knowledge of conditions gathered from their former experiences.
Much may be said of the undesirability of distributing withdrawn books among institutions. But in libraries where the maintenance of travelling collections is limited they afford perhaps the only opportunity of reaching the children in orphanages, reform schools and similar institutions. Such distributions should be followed by visits to the institutions to talk, if possible, to the children and to get an idea of their needs and tastes.
Collections of withdrawn books at the juvenile court are used by the children while on probation and often after release, and by the grown people of their families as well. In Cleveland the list of official parents and paroled boys is furnished the library and booklists and information about the nearest branch are sent them. In Washington the library supplies the probation officers with application blanks. When a child who has shown a taste for reading is to be discharged the officer on the last visit to his home takes the application blank and secures the parent's signature. The child brings the application to the library, obtains cards immediately and is helped in his selection of books.
The attendance or truant officers of the schools know home conditions better than teachers. They have a general knowledge of the city and the peculiarities of the different sections that is most helpful in the selection of places for home libraries or deposit stations. Their knowledge of the home life of troublesome children will often throw light on difficult cases of discipline.
In Washington the attendance officer issues permits under the child labor law. From this office may be secured a list of stores and other places of employment for children. The library should send notices to such buildings and place at the office invitations to use the library to be distributed at the time the permits for work are issued.
The Cleveland Public Library uses for a mailing list for publications pertaining to children's work a card directory of social workers. This directory gives the name, address and connection of each individual and includes board members of set- tlement houses, associated charities, visiting nurses' associations, pastors and their assistants, of churches conducting club work, and others similarly engaged. In some cities this same information may be gathered from the published directory of philanthropic agencies and their reports. Lists such as those published by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, "Stories to tell to children," "Books for reading circles," "Games," or lists made especially in connection with the activities of a settlement, playground, etc., mailed to its club workers attract them to the library.
Rainy days when the hours drag and the children cannot be out of doors are good times to visit summer camps and vacation homes. There may be an opportunity to tell stories or for a talk to the children which, when their vacation is over, they are glad to remember.
There are two special collections which it is well for the children's department to have—one for the children and one for grown people.
It should follow Newark's notable example in putting into form, adapted for children's use, all the information regarding the city, its institutions, historic spots, etc. The collection of such material informs the assistants, attracts the cooperation of those from whom the information is sought and by acquainting the child with the manifold features of the life of the city, helps to prepare him for intelligent citizenship.
It should collect, also, all material relative to the children of the city. It should have reports of settlements, institutions, summer camps and homes, day nurseries, work with foreigners, mounted maps of the location of schools and playgrounds, copies of the child labor law, compulsory education act, in fact, any information obtainable about the conditions of the child life of the city. Such material will draw interested people to the library and thus open up opportunities for further cooperation.
Such are a few of the many ways in which the children's room may be tied to other organizations working for children. Under the varied conditions of different cities they develop indefinitely. Only a few could be mentioned here. Even the work with schools and playgrounds, the importance of which is generally established, has not been included. As these relations grow closer and closer the library's work broadens and deepens and the realization that all are workers in a common cause brings encouragement and inspiration for the daily task.
VALUES IN LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN
The "possibility and duty," on the part of the children's library, of being a moral force in the community, was discussed by Clara W. Hunt in a paper presented at the Narragansett Pier Conference of the A. L. A. in 1906. Seven years later, at the Kaaterskill Conference in 1913, Miss Hunt again considered the influence of children's libraries as a civic force. This later paper, representing more fully her point of view, and embodying her later experience, is here reprinted.
Clara Whitehill Hunt was born in Utica, N. Y., in 1871. She was graduated from the Utica Free Academy in 1889, and from the New York State Library School in 1898. From 1893 to 1896 she was a public school principal in Utica. She organized work with children in the Apprentices' Library, Philadelphia, in 1898, and had charge of it in the Newark, N. J., Free Public Library from 1898 to 1902. Since 1903 she has been Superintendent of the Children's Department of the Brooklyn Public Library. Miss Hunt has been a lecturer and contributor to magazines on children's literature, library work with children and related topics, and has published a book on "What shall we read to the children?"
You are probably familiar with the story of the man who, being asked by his host which part of the chicken he liked best replied that "he'd never had a chance to find out; that when he was a boy it was the fashion to give the grown people first choice, and by the time he'd grown up the children had the pick, so he'd never tasted anything but the drumstick."
It will doubtless be looked upon as heresy for a children's librarian to own that she has a deal of sympathy for the down-trodden adult of the present; that there have been moments when she has even gone so far as to say an "amen"—under her breath—to the librarian who, after a day of vexations at the hands of the exasperating young person represented in our current social writings as a much-sinned-against innocent, wrathfully exploded, "Children ought to be put in a barrel and fed through the bung till they are twenty-one years old!"
During the scant quarter century which has seen the birth and marvelous growth of modern library work with children, the "new education" has been putting its stamp upon the youth of America and upon the ideas of their parents regarding the upbringing of children. And it has come to pass that one must be very bold to venture to brush off the dust of disuse from certain old saws and educational truisms, such as "All play and no work make Jack a mere toy," "No gains without pains," "We learn to do by doing," "Train up a child in the way he should go," and so on.
Our kindergartens, our playground agitators, our juvenile courts, our child welfare exhibits are so persistently—and rightly —showing the wrongdoing child as the helpless victim of heredity and environment that hasty thinkers are jumping to the conclusion that, since a child is not to blame for his thieving tendencies, it is our duty, rather than punish, to let him go on stealing; since it is a natural instinct for a boy to like the sound of crashing glass and the exercise of skill needed to hit a mark, we must not reprove him for throwing stones at windows; because a child does not like to work, we should let him play—play all the time.
The painless methods of the new education, which tend to make life too soft for children, and to lead parents to believe that everything a child craves he must have, these tendencies have had their effect upon the production and distribution of juvenile books, and have added to the librarian's task the necessity not only of fighting against the worst reading, but against the third rate lest it crowd out the best.
It is the importance of this latter warfare which I wish mainly to discuss.
We children's librarians, in the past fifteen or twenty years, have had to take a good many knocks, more or less facetious, from spectators of the sterner sex who are worried about the "feminization of the library," and who declare that no woman, certainly no spinster, can possibly understand the nature of the boy. Perhaps sometimes we are inclined to droop apologetic heads, because we know that some women are sentimental, that they don't all "look at things in the large," as men invariably do. In view, however, of the record of this youthful movement of ours, we have a right rather to swagger than to apologize.
The influence of the children's libraries upon the ideals, the tastes, the occupations, the amusements, the language, the manners, the home standards, the choice of careers, upon the whole life, in fact, of thousands upon thousands of boys and girls has been beyond all count as a civic force in America.
And yet, while teachers tell us that the opening of every new library witnesses a substitution of wholesome books for "yellow" novels in pupils' hands; while men in their prime remark their infrequent sight of the sensational periodicals left on every doorstep twenty years ago; while publishers of children's books are trying to give us a clean, safe, juvenile literature, and while some nickel novel publishers are even admitting a decline in the sale of their wares; in spite of these evidences of success, a warfare is still on, though its character is changing.
Every librarian who has examined children's books for a few years back knows exactly what to expect when she tackles the "juveniles" of 1913.
There will be a generous number of books so fine in point of matter and makeup that we shall lament having been born too late to read these in our childhood. The information and the taste acquired by children who have read the best juvenile publications of the past ten years is perfectly amazing, and those extremists who decry the buying of any books especially written for children are nearly as nonsensical as the ones who would buy everything the child wishes.
But when one has selected with satisfaction perhaps a hundred and fifty titles, one begins to get into the potboiler class—the written-to-order information book which may be guaranteed to kill all future interest in a subject treated in style so wooden and lifeless; the retold classic in which every semblance to the spirit of the original is lost, and the reading of which will give to the child that familiarity which will breed contempt for the work itself; the atrocious picture book modeled after the comic supplement and telling in hideous daubs of color and caricature of line the tale of the practical joker who torments animals, mocks at physical deformities, plays tricks on parents, teases the newlywed, ridicules good manners, whose whole aim, in short, is to provoke guffaws of laughter at the expense of someone's hurt body or spirit. There will be collections of folk and fairy tales, raked together without discrimination from the literature of people among whom trickery and cunning are the most admired qualities; there will be school stories in which the masters and studious boys grovel at the feet of the football hero; in greater number than the above will be the stories written in series on thoroughly up-to-date subjects.
I shall be much surprised if we do not learn this fall that the world has been deceived in supposing that to Amundsen and Scott belong the honor of finding the South Pole, or to Gen. Goethals the credit of engineering the Panama Canal. If we do not discover that some young Frank or Jack or Bill was the brains behind these achievements, I shall wonder what has become of the ingenuity of the plotter of the series stories—the "plotter" I say advisedly, for it is a known fact that many of these stories are first outlined by a writer whose name makes books sell, the outlines then being filled in by a company of underlings who literally write to order. When we learn, also, that an author who writes admirable stories, in which special emphasis is laid upon fair play and a sense of honor, is at the same time writing under another name books he is ashamed to acknowledge, we are not surprised at the low grade of the resulting stories.
With the above extremes of good and poor there will be quantities on the border line, books not distinctly harmful from one standpoint—in fact, they will busily preach honesty and pluck and refinement, etc., but they will be so lacking in imagination and power, in the positive qualities that go to make a fine book, that they cannot be called wholly harmless, since that which crowds out a better thing is harmful, at least to the extent that it usurps the room of the good.
These books we will be urged to buy in large duplicate, and when we, holding to the ideal of the library as an educational force, refuse to supply this intellectual pap, well-to-do parents may be counted upon to present the same in quantities sufficient to weaken the mental digestion of their offspring beyond cure by teachers the most gifted.
There are two principal arguments—so-called—hurled at every librarian who tries to maintain a high standard of book selection. One is the "I read them when I was a child and they did me no harm" claim; the other, based upon the doggedly clung- to notion that our ideal of manhood is a grown-up Fauntleroy, infers that every book rejected was offensive to the children's librarian because of qualities dangerously likely to encourage the boy in a taste for bloodshed and dirty hands.
Now, in this day when parents are frantically protecting their children from the deadly house fly, the mosquito, the common drinking cup and towel; when milk must be sterilized and water boiled and adenoids removed; when the young father solemnly bows to the dictum that he mustn't rock nor trot his own baby— isn't it really matter for the joke column to hear the "did me no harm" idea advanced as an argument? And yet it is so offered by the same individual who, though he has survived a boyhood of mosquito bites and school drinking cups, refuses to allow his child to risk what he now knows to be a possible carrier of disease.
The "what was good enough for me is good enough for my children" idea, if soberly treated as an argument in other matters of life, would mean death to all progress, and it is no more to be treated seriously as a reason for buying poor juvenile books than a contention for the fetich doctor versus the modern surgeon, or for the return to the foot messenger in place of electrical communication.
It would be tactless, if not positively dangerous, if we children's librarians openly expressed our views when certain people point boastfully to themselves as shining products of mediocre story book childhoods. So I would hastily suppress this thought, and instead remind these people that, as a vigorous child is immune from disease germs which attack a delicate one, so unquestionably have thousands of mental and moral weaklings been retarded from their best development by books that left no mark on healthy children. In spite of the probability that there are to-day alive many able-bodied men who cut their first teeth on pickles and pork chops, we do not question society's duty to disseminate proper ideas on the care and feeding of children.
Isn't it about time that we nailed down the lid of the coffin on the "did me no harm" argument and buried the same in the depths of the sea?
Another notion that dies hard is one assuming that, since the children's librarian is a woman, prone to turn white about the gills at the sight of blood—or a mouse—she can not possibly enter into the feelings of the ancestral barbarian surviving in the young human breast, but must try to hasten the child's development to twentieth century civilization by eliminating the elemental and savage from his story books.
If those who grow hoarse shouting the above would take the trouble to examine the lists of an up-to-date library they might blush for their shallowness, that they have been basing their opinions on their memory of library lists at least twenty-five years old.
We do not believe that womanly women and manly men are most successfully made by way of silly, shoddy, sorry-for-themselves girlhoods, or lying, swaggering, loafing boyhoods; and it is the empty, the vulgar, the cheap, smart, trust-to-luck story, rather than the gory one, that we dislike.
I am coming to the statement of what I believe to be the problem most demanding our study today. It is, briefly, the problem of the mediocre book, its enormous and ever-increasing volume. More fully stated it is the problem of the negatively as the enemy of the positively good; of the cultivation of brain laziness by "thoughts-made-easy" reading. It is a republic's, a public school problem, viz.: How is it possible to raise to a higher average the lowest, without reducing to a dead level of mediocrity the citizens of superior possibilities? Our relation to publisher and parent, to the library's adult open shelves of current fiction enter into the problem. The children's over-reading, and their reluctance to "graduate" from juvenile books, these and many other perplexing questions grow out of the main one.
I said awhile ago that the new education has had a tendency to make life too soft for children, and to give to their parents the belief that natural instincts alone are safe guides to follow in rearing a child. I hope I shall not seem to be a good old times croaker, sighing for the days when school gardens and folk dancing and glee clubs and dramatization of lessons and beautiful text-books and fascinating handicraft and a hundred other delightful things were undreamed-of ways of making pleasant the paths of learning. Heaven forbid that I should join the ranks of those who carp at a body of citizens who, at an average wage in America less than that of the coal miner and the factory worker, have produced in their schools results little short of the miraculous. To visit, as I have, classrooms of children born in slums across the sea, transplanted to tenements in New York, and to see what our public school teachers are making of these children—the backward, the underfed, the "incorrigible," the blind, the anaemic—well, all I can say is, I do not recommend these visits to Americans of the stripe of that boastful citizen who, being shown the crater of Vesuvius with a "There, you haven't anything like that in America!" disdainfully replied, "Naw, but we've got Niagara, and that'd put the whole blame thing out!" For myself I never feel quite so disposed to brag of my Americanism as when I visit some of our New York schools.
And yet, watching the bored shrug of the bright, well-born high school child when one suggests that "The prince and the pauper" is quite as interesting a story as the seventh volume of her latest series, a librarian has some feelings about the lines-of- least-resistance method of educating our youth, which she is glad to find voiced by some of our ablest thinkers.
Here is what J. P. Munroe says: "Many of the new methods . . . methods of gentle cooing toward the child's inclinations, of timidly placing a chair for him before a disordered banquet of heterogeneous studies, may produce ladylike persons, but they will not produce men. And when these modern methods go as far as to compel the teacher to divide this intellectual cake and pudding into convenient morsels and to spoon-feed them to the child, partly in obedience to his schoolboy cravings, partly in conformity to a pedagogical psychology, then the result is sure to be mental and moral dyspepsia in a race of milk-sops." How aptly "spoon-fed pudding" characterizes whole cartloads of our current "juveniles"!
Listen to President Wilson's opinion: "To be carried along by somebody's suggestions from the time you begin until the time when you are thrust groping and helpless into the world, is the very negation of education. By the nursing process, by the coddling process you are sapping a race; and only loss can possibly result except upon the part of individuals here and there who are so intrinsically strong that you cannot spoil them."
Hugo Munsterberg is a keen observer of the product of American schools, and contrasting their methods with those of his boyhood he says: "My school work was not adjusted to botany at nine years because I played with an herbarium, and at twelve to physics because I indulged in noises with home-made electric bells, and at fifteen to Arabic, an elective which I miss still in several high schools, even in Brookline and Roxbury. The more my friends and I wandered afield with our little superficial interests and talents and passions, the more was the straight-forward earnestness of the school our blessing; and all that beautified and enriched our youth, and gave to it freshness and liveliness, would have turned out to be our ruin, if our elders had taken it seriously, and had formed a life's program out of petty caprices and boyish inclinations."
And Prof. Munsterberg thrusts his finger into what I believe to be the weakest joint in our educational armor when he says, "As there is indeed a difference whether I ask what may best suit the taste and liking of Peter, the darling, or whether I ask what Peter, the man, will need for the battle of life in which nobody asks what he likes, but where the question is how he is liked, and how he suits the taste of his neighbors."
What would become of our civilization if we were to follow merely the instincts and natural desires? Yet is there not in America a tremendous tendency to the notion, that except in matters of physical welfare, the child's lead is to be followed to extreme limits? Don't we librarians feel it in the pressure brought to bear upon us by those who fail to find certain stories, wanted by the children, on our shelves? "Why, that's a good book," the parent will say, "The hero is honest and kind, the book won't hurt him any—in fact it will give the child some good ideas."
"Ideas." Yes, perhaps. There is another educator I should like to quote, J. H. Baker in his "Education and life." "Whatever you would wish the child to do and become, that let him practice. We learn to do, not by knowing, but by knowing and then doing. Ethical teaching, tales of heroic deeds, soul-stirring fiction that awakens sympathetic emotions may accomplish but little unless in the child's early life the ideas and feelings find expression in action and so become a part of the child's power and tendency. . ."
Now we believe with G. Stanley Hall that, "The chief enemy of active virtue in the world is not vice but laziness, languor and apathy of will;" that "mind work is infinitely harder than physical toil;" that (as another says) "all that does not rouse, does not set him to work, rusts and taints him the disease of laziness destroys the whole man."
And when children of good heritage, good homes, sound bodies, bright minds, spend hours every week curled up among cushions, allowing a stream of cambric-tea literature gently to trickle over their brain surfaces, we know that though the heroes and heroines of these stories be represented as prodigies of industry and vigor, our young swallowers of the same are being reduced to a pulp of brain and will laziness that will not only make them incapable of struggling with a page of Quentin Durward, for example, but will affect their moral stamina, since fighting fiber is the price of virtue.
Ours is, as I have said, a public education, a republic's problem. To quote President Wilson again: "Our present plans for teaching everybody involve certain unpleasant things quite inevitably. It is obvious that you cannot have universal education without restricting your teaching to such things as can be universally understood. It is plain that you cannot impart 'university methods' to thousands, or create 'investigators' by the score, unless you confine your university education to matters which dull men can investigate, your laboratory training to tasks which mere plodding diligence and submissive patience can compass. Yet, if you do so limit and constrain what you teach, you thrust taste and insight and delicacy of perception out of the schools, exalt the obvious and merely useful things above the things which are only imaginatively or spiritually conceived, make education an affair of tasting and handling and smelling, and so create Philistia, that country in which they speak of 'mere literature.' "
In our zeal to serve the little alien, descendant of generations of poverty and ignorance, let us not lose sight of the importance to our country of the child more fortunate in birth and brains. So strong is my feeling on the value of leaders that I hold we should give at least as much study to the training of the accelerate child as we give to that of the defective. Though I boast the land of Abraham Lincoln and Booker Washington I do not give up one iota of my belief that the child who is born into a happy environment, of parents strong in body and mind, holds the best possibilities of making a valuable citizen; and so I am concerned that this child be not spoiled in the making by a training or lack of training that fails to recognize his possibilities.
It is encouraging to kind growing attention in the "Proceedings" of the N. E. A. and other educational bodies to the problem of the bright child who has suffered by the lock-step system which has molded all into conformity with the capabilities of the average child.
The librarian's difficulty is perhaps greater than that of the teacher, because open shelves and freedom of choice are so essential a part of our program. We must provide easy reading for thousands of children. Milk and water stories may have an actual value to children whose unfavorable heritage and environment have retarded their mental development. But the deplorable thing is to see young people, mercifully saved from the above handicaps, making a bee line for the current diluted literature for grown-ups, (as accessible as Scott on our open shelves) and to realize that this taste, which is getting a life set, is the inevitable outcome of the habit of reading mediocre juveniles.
We must not rail at publishers for trying to meet the demands of purchasers. Our job is to influence that demand far more than we have done as yet. Large book jobbers tell us that millions and millions of poor juveniles are sold in America to thousands of the sort we librarians recommend. I have seen purchase lists of boys' club directors and Sunday School library committees calling for just the weak and empty stuff we would destroy. I have unwittingly been an eavesdropper at Christmas book counters and have heard the orders given by parents and the suggestions made by clerks. And I feel that the public library has but skirmished along the outposts while the great field of influencing the reading of American children remains unconquered. Until we affect production to the extent that the book stores circulate as good books as the best libraries we cannot be too complacent about our position as a force in citizen making.
An "impossible" ideal, of course, but far from intimidating, the largeness of the task makes us all the more determined.
This paper attempts no suggestion of new methods of attacking the problem. It is rather a restatement of an old perplexity. I harp once more on a worn theme because I think that unless we frequently lift our eyes from the day's absorbing duties for a look over the whole field, and unless we once and again make searching inventory of our convictions, our purposes, our methods, our attainments, we are in danger of letting ourselves slip along the groove of the taken-for-granted and our work loses in power as we allow ourselves to become leaners instead of leaders. May we not, as if it were a new idea, rouse to the seriousness of the mediocre habit indulged in by young people capable of better things? Should not our work with children reach out more to work with adults, to those who buy and sell and make books for the young? Is it not time for the successful teller of stories to children to use her gifts in audiences of grown people, persuading these molders of the children's future of the reasonableness of our objection to the third rate since it is the enemy of the best? May it not be politic, at least, for the librarian to descend from her disdainful height and make friends with "the trade," with bookseller and publisher who, after all, have as good a right to their bread and butter as the librarian paid out of the city's taxes?
And then—is it not possible that we might be better librarians if we refused to be librarians every hour in the day and half the night as well? What if we were to have the courage to refuse to indulge in nervous breakdowns, because we deliberately plan to play, and to eat, and to sleep, to keep serene and sane and human, believing that God in His Heaven gives His children a world of beauty to enjoy as well as a work to do with zeal. If we lived a little longer and not quite so wide, the gain to our chosen work in calm nerves and breadth of interest and sympathy would even up for dropping work on schedule time for a symphony concert or a country walk or a visit with a friend—might even justify saving the cost of several A. L. A. conferences toward a trip to Italy!
This hurling at librarians advice to play more and work less reminds me of a story told by a southern friend. Years ago, in a sleepy little Virginia village, there lived two characters familiar to the townspeople, whose greatest daily excitement was a stroll down to the railroad station to watch the noon express rush through to distant southern cities. One of these personages was the station keeper, of dry humor and sententious habit, whom we will call Hen Waters; the other was the station goat, named, of course, Billy. Year after year had Billy peacefully cropped the grass along the railroad tracks, turning an indifferent ear to the roar of the daily express, when suddenly one day the notion seemed to strike his goatish mind that this racket had been quietly endured long enough. With the warning whistle of the approaching engine, Billy, lowering his head, darted furiously up the track, intending to butt the offending thunderer into Kingdom Come. When, a few seconds later, the amazed spectators were gazing after the diminishing train, Hen Waters, addressing the spot where the redoubtable goat had last been seen, drawled out: "Billy, I admire your pluck—but darn your discretion!"
The parallel between the the ambitions and the futility of the goat, and the present speaker's late advice is so obvious that only the illogicalness of woman can account for my cherishing a hope that I may be spared the fate of the indiscreet Billy.
VALUES IN LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN
This second paper on Values in library work with children, was presented at the Kaaterskill Conference of the A. L. A. in 1913 by Caroline Burnite. In it are discussed "departmental organization as it benefits the reading child, and the principles and policies which have developed through departmental unity." For inclusion in this volume it has been somewhat condensed by the author.
Caroline Burnite was born in Caroline County, Maryland, in 1875; was graduated from the Easton, Maryland, High School in 1892 and from Pratt Institute Library School in 1894. From 1895 to 1901 she was librarian of the Tome Institute in Port Deposit, Maryland. She was an assistant in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh from 1902 to 1904, when she became Director of Children's Work in the Cleveland Public Library, the position she now holds. Miss Burnite is also an instructor in the Western Reserve Library School.
To elucidate principles of value, I shall use, by way of illustration, the experience and structure of a children's department where the problem of children's reading and the means of bringing books to them has been intensively studied for some nine years…. Probably about six out of ten of the children of that city read library books in their homes during the year, and each child reads about twenty books on the average. In all, fifty- four thousand children read a million books, which reach them through forty-three librarians assigned for special work with these children, through three hundred teachers and about one hundred volunteers.
Now, we know that six out of ten children is not an ideal proportion of the total number. We know also, inversely, that the volume of work entailed in serving fifty-four thousand children may endanger the quality of book service given to each child. Both of these conditions show that the experience of each reading child should make its own peculiar contribution to the general problem of children's reading and that the experience of large numbers of reading children should be brought to bear upon the problem of the individual. To accomplish this, work with the children was given departmental organization. My concern in this paper is with departmental organization as it benefits the reading child, and with the principles and policies which have been developed through departmental unity.
We think ordinarily that one who loves books has three general hallmarks: his reading is fairly continuous, there is a permanency of book interest, and this interest is maintained on a plane of merit. But in the child's contact with the library there are many evidences of modifications of normal book interests. Instead of continuity of reading, the children's rooms are overcrowded in winter and have far less use in summer; instead of permanency of book interest extending over the difficult intermediate period, large numbers of those children who leave school before they reach high school have little or no library contact during their first working years, and without doubt the interesting experiences with working children, which librarians are prone to emphasize, give us an impression that a larger number are readers than careful investigation would show. And as for the quality of reading of many children who are at work we cannot maintain that it is always on a high plane.
Such results are largely due to environmental influences. Deprived for the greater part of the year at least, of opportunity for normal youthful activities, the child's entire physical and mental schedule is thrown out of balance and he turns to reading, a recreation at his service at any time, only when there is little opportunity to follow other interests. Since the strain upon the ear and the eye, and back and brain is so great in the shop, the tendency in the first working years is too often toward recreations in which the book has no place. The power of the nickel library over the younger boy and girl can be broken by the presence of the public library, but the quality of the reading of the intermediate is often due to the popularity of the mediocre modern novel, with its present-day social interests. For these and other reasons, the whole judgment of the results of library work with children can not rest upon such general tests of normal book interests as we have stated. Rather such variations from the normal are themselves conditions which influence the structure of the work and especially the principles of book presentation. Children with pressing social needs must have books with social values to meet those needs; chiefest of these are right social contacts, true social perspective, traditions of family and race, loveliness of nature, companionship of living things, right group association and group interests.
Starting with the principle that books should construct a larger social ideal for the greater number of children instead of confirming their present one, it was first necessary to find out from actual work with children, what their reactions to books with various interests are. Such knowledge was supplemented by the recorded testimony of men and women of their indebtedness to children's books, especially such as "Tom Brown" and "Little Women," and especially of their youthful appreciation of the relationships and interdependence of the characters.
After we were able to evaluate books and to have some definite idea of which were good and which poor, the question arose: Should we have books with manifestly weak values in the library as a concession to some children who might not read the better books, or by having them do we harm most those very children to whom we have conceded them? The gradual solution of this problem seems to me to be one of the greatest services which a library can render its children. A safe answer seems to be: No books weak in social ideals should be furnished, provided we do not lose reading children by their elimination. If such books are the best a child will read, and we take them away, causing him to lose interest in reading, he is apt to come under even less favorable influences.
Another problem which arose was that the cumulative experience of librarians working with children showed that many books, weak in social viewpoint, lead only to others of their kind, and that such books are the ones read largely by those children which are most occasional and spasmodic in their reading. Here was a determining point in the establishment of standards of reading, for it brought us face to face with the question: Shall we consider this situation our fault since we supply such books to children who need something better vastly more than do children in happier circumstances, or shall we merely justify our selection by maintaining that those children will under no circumstances read a higher grade of books? However, observation showed that other books were read also by children with social limitations; books which, although apparently no better, lead to a better type of reading, and this prompted the policy of the removal of books which had little apparent influence in developing a good reading taste. This was done, however, with the definite intention that an increasingly better standard of reading must mean that no children cease using the library, an end only made possible by a knowledge of the value of the individual book to the individual child.
Now let us see what changes have been evolved in the book collections in the department under consideration:
At first the proportion of books of the doubtful class to those which were standard was considered, and it was seen that this preponderance of the doubtful class should be decreased in order that a child's chances for eventually reading the best might be improved. It is obvious that the reading for the younger children should be the more carefully safeguarded, and this was the first point of attack. As a result, two types of books were eliminated:
1. All series for young children, such as Dotty Dimples and Little Colonels.
2. Books for young children dealing with animal life which have neither humane nor scientific value, such as Pierson and Wesselhoeft.
Also stories of child life for young children were restricted to those which were more natural and possible, and on the other hand, stories read by older girls in which adults were made the beneficiaries of a surprisingly wise child hero, such as the Plympton books, were eliminated.
The successful elimination of these books, together with the study of the children's reading as a whole, suggested later, that other books could be eliminated or restricted without loss of readers. In the course of time, the following results were accomplished:
1. The restriction of the stories of the successful poor boy to those within the range of possibility, as are the Otis books, largely.
2. The elimination of stories in which the child character is not within a normal sphere; for instance, the child novel, such as Mrs. Jamison's stories.
3. Lessening the number of titles by authors who are undeservedly popular, such as restricting the use of Tomlinson to one series only.
4. The restriction of any old and recognized series to its original number of titles, such as the Pepper series. The disapproval of all new books obviously the first in a series.
5. The elimination of travel, trivial in treatment and in series form, such as the Little Cousins.
6. The elimination of the modern fairy tale, except as it has vitality and individual charm, as have those of George McDonald.
7. The elimination of interpreted folk lore, such as many of the modern kindergarten versions.
8. The elimination of word books for little children, and the basing of their reading upon their inherent love for folk lore and verse.
Without analyzing the weakness of all these types, I wish to say a word about the series. This must be judged not only by content, but by the fact that in the use of such a form of literature the tendency of the child toward independence of book judgment and book selection is lessened and the way paved for a weak form of adult literature.
The later policies developed regarding book selection have been these:
1. Recognizing "blind alleys" in children's fiction, such as the boarding school story and the covert love story, and buying no new titles of those types.
2. Lessening the number of titles of miscellaneous collections of folk-lore in which there are objectionable individual tales, for instance, buying only the Blue, Green and Yellow fairy books.
3. The elimination, or use in small numbers, of a type of history and biography which is not scholarly, or even serious in treatment, such as the Pratt histories.
4. The elimination of such periodical literature for young children, as the Children's Magazine and Little Folks, since their reading can be varied more wholesomely without it.
Reports of reading sequences from each children's room have furnished the basis for further study of children's reading. These are discussed and compared by the workers, a working outline of reading sequences made and reported back to each room, to be used, amplified and reported on again.
While those books which are no longer used may have been at one time necessary to hold a child from reading something poorer, we did not lose children through raising the standard, and the duplication of doubtful books in the children's room is less heavy now than it was a few years ago. This is shown by the fact that there are more than twice as many children who are reading, and almost three times as many books being read as there were nine years ago, while the number of children of the city has increased but 72 per cent. Furthermore, the proportion of children of environmental limitations has by no means diminished, and the foreign population is much the same—more than 74 per cent.
Of course, the elimination of some books was accomplished because there were better books on the subject, but the general result was largely brought about because in the establishment of these higher standards we did not exceed the ideals and standards of those who were working with the children. The standards which they brought to the work, and which they deduced themselves from their experience, were crystalized through Round Table discussion, where each worker measured her results by those of the others and thereby recognized the need of constant, but careful experimentation.
Experience has proved that a children's department can not reach standards of reading which in the judgment of librarians working with the children are beyond the possibility of attainment, for with them rests entirely the delicate task of the adjustment of the book to the child. A staff of children's librarians of good academic education, the best library training, a true vision of the social principles; a broad knowledge of children's literature is the greatest asset for any library doing children's work.
But it is true, inversely, that in raising the standards of the children the standards of the workers were raised. By this I mean that with definite methods of book presentation in use, the worker saw farther into the mental and material life of the child and understood his social instincts better. This has been evidenced in the larger duplication of the better books. Among the methods are those which recognize group interest and group association as a social need of childhood. Through unifying and intensifying the thoughts and sympathies of the children by giving them great and universal thought in the story hour, the mediocre is often bridged and both the child and the worker reaches a higher plane of experience. Also by giving children a group interest, not only children recognize that books may be cornerstones for social intercourse and that there is connection between social conduct as expressed in books and their own social obligations, but what is also important, the worker learns that when children are at the age of group activity and expression they can often be more permanently influenced as a group than as individuals. This prompted the organization of clubs for older children.
Through the recognition of the principle that there are methods of book appeal for use with individual children and other methods for groups of children, it was shown that the organization of the work as a whole must be such that the chief methods of presentation of literature could be fully developed. It was seen that, far less with a group of children than with the individual child, could we afford to give a false experience or an unfruitful interest, and that material for group presentation, methods of group presentation and the social elements which are evinced in groups of children should receive an amount of attention and study which would lead to the surest and soundest results. This could be fully accomplished only by recognizing such methods as distinct functions of the department. In other words, that there should not only be divisions of work with children according to problems of book distribution, such as by schools and home libraries, but there must be of necessity, divisions by problems of reading. Whereas, in a smaller department all divisions would center in the head, the volume of work in a large library renders necessary the appointment of an instructor in story-telling and a supervisor of reading clubs, which results in a higher specialization and a greater impetus for these phases of work than one person can accomplish. Here we have a concrete instance of the benefit that a large volume of work may confer upon the individual child.
With the attainment of better reading results and higher standards for the workers, it is obvious that the reading experiences of the children and the standards of the workers must be conserved, and that the organization should protect the children, as far as possible, from the disadvantage of change of workers. Considerable study has been given to this, and yearly written reports on the reading of children in each children's room are made, in which variations from accepted standards of the children's reading in that library, with individual instances, are usually discussed. However, the children's librarian is entirely free to report the subject from whatever angle it has impressed her most. Also a written report is made of the story hour, the program, general and special results, and intensity of group interest in certain types of stories. This report is supplementary to a weekly report in prescribed form, of the stories told, sources used and results. All programs used with clubs are reported and semi-annual report made of the club work as a whole. By discussion and reports back to individual centers, these become bases for a wider vision of work and a wiser direction of energy with less experimentation.
The connection between work with children and the problem of the reading of intermediates, referred to in the beginning, should not be dismissed in a paragraph. However, it is only possible to give a short statement of it. Recognizing that the reading of adult books should begin in the children's room, a serious study of adult books possible for children's reading was made by the children's librarians, the reports discussed and the books added to the department as the result. A second report of adult titles which children and intermediates might and do read was called for recently and from that a tentative list had been furnished to both adult and children's workers for further study. The increasing number of workers in the children's department who have had general training, and in the adult work who have had special training for work with children make such reports of much value. In order to follow the standards of children's work, there is one principle which is obvious, namely, a book disapproved as below grade for juveniles should not be accepted for general intermediate work. This is especially true of books of adventure which a boy of any age between 12 and 18 would read.
In conclusion, the chief means of determining values in library work with children are these: An intensive study of the reading of children in relation to its social and informational worth to them; the right basis of education and training for such study, on the part of the workers; the direction of such study in a way that brings about a higher and more practical standard on the part of the worker; the conservation of her experience. These are the great services which the library may render children and they can be most fully accomplished, I believe, through departmental organization.
ADMINISTRATION AND METHODS; REFERENCE WORK; DISCIPLINE
The section devoted to administration and methods records the "expansion of the library ideal" in multiplying the sources from which books may be borrowed; pictures the opportunities of the small library; emphasizes the importance of personal work, since the "child must be known as well as the book"; explains the library league as a means of encouraging the care of books and as an advertising medium; gives a thorough discussion of the use of the picture bulletin, and suggests systematic work with mothers as an important and resultful method.
Four articles on reference work and instruction in library use bring out the importance of careful cataloguing, of thorough knowledge of resources, and of practical plans to enable the children to help themselves.
Three articles on discipline present this sometimes difficult problem from varying viewpoints. It is said to resolve itself "into the exercise of great tact, firmness, and, again, gentleness." Again, "many of the problems of discipline in a children's room would cease to be problems if the material conditions of the room itself were ideal." The Wisconsin report is of special value because it represents the experiences of small as well as of large libraries. It lays stress on some of the points brought out by Miss Dousman, who says: "In our zeal to control the child, some have lost sight of the fact that it is quite as important to teach the child to control himself; that if he is to become a good citizen, he cannot learn too early to respect the rights of others."
THE CHILDREN'S ROOM AND THE CHILDREN'S LIBRARIAN
Some of the principles of library work with children, and the qualifications of a children's librarian were discussed by Miss Eastman in the following paper read at the fourth annual meeting of the Ohio Library Association held in Dayton in 1898. Linda Anne Eastman was born in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1867; was educated in the Cleveland Public Schools, and taught in the public schools of West Cleveland and Cleveland from 1885 to 1892, when she became an assistant in the Cleveland Public Library. In 1895-1896 she was assistant librarian and cataloguer in the Dayton, Ohio, Public Library, and in 1896 became vice-librarian of the Cleveland Public Library, where she has since remained. Since 1904 she has been an instructor in the Library School of Western Reserve University. She was a charter member of the Ohio Library Association, and its president in 1903-1904, Miss Eastman has made frequent contributions to library periodicals.
In the planning of a new library building, or the remodeling of an old one, there is no department to which I should give more thought in the working out of the details than in the children's department, in order to best adapt the arrangement to its use.
Its location in the building is the first matter for consideration. It should be easy of access from the main entrance, or, better still, have an entrance of its own directly from the outside, in order that the noise of the children may not become a disturbing element in the corridors and in other parts of the library. It would seem desirable, also, for many reasons, to have the children's department not too far removed from the main circulating department.
The children's department in a large library should contain at least two large rooms, one for the reading and reference room, the other for the circulating books. The rooms should be light, bright and cheery, as daintily artistic and as immaculately clean as it is possible to make and keep them. Wall cases seem best for the shelving of the books, low enough for the children to reach the shelves easily. These low cases also allow wall space above for pictures, and plenty of this is desirable. A children's room cannot have too many pictures,[1] nor any which are too fine for it; choose for it pictures which are fine, and pictures which "tell a story." Provide, also, plenty of space for bulletins, for the picture bulletins have become an important factor in the direction of the children's reading. One enthusiastic children's librarian wrote me recently that her new "burlap walls, admitting any number of thumb-tacks" were the delight of her heart. There should be reading tables and rubber- tipped chairs, low ones for the little children; and wherever there is space for them, the long, low seats, in which children delight to snuggle down so comfortably.
[1] If this paper were now open to revision, the writer would omit "cannot have too many pictures." The reaction against bare, bleak walls may not make it necessary to warn against over-decoration, but its undesirability should he recognized.—L. A. E.
As to the arrangement of the books, I should divide them into three distinct classes for children of different ages:
(1) The picture books for the very little ones, arranged alphabetically.
(2) The books for children from seven to ten or twelve years of age. While these books should be classified for the cataloging, I should place them on the shelves in one simple alphabetical list by authors, mixing the fiction, history, travel, poetry, etc., just as they might happen to come in this arrangement. I believe this would lead the children to a more varied choice in their reading, and that they would thus read and enjoy biography, history, natural science, etc., before they learned to distinguish them from stories, whereas by the classified arrangement they would choose their reading much more often from the one class only.
(3) The books for boys and girls from ten or twelve years of age to fifteen or sixteen. These should be arranged on the shelves regularly according to class number, in order that the children may become acquainted with the classification and arrangement, learn to select their books intelligently, and be prepared to graduate from here into the adult library.
Where it is possible to duplicate the simple and more common reference books in the juvenile department, these should form a fourth class. Then there should be all of the good juvenile periodicals, with some of the best illustrated papers, such as Harper's weekly, for the reading room.
With many libraries a children's department on such a scale is an impossibility; but if you cannot give two rooms to the children give them one, and if you cannot do that, at least give them a corner and a table which they can feel belongs to them; and if you cannot give them a special assistant, set apart an hour or two each day when the children shall receive the first consideration—establish this as a custom, and both adults and children will be better served.
Whatever one's specialty in library work may be, however far removed from the work with the children, it is well to understand something of the principles which underlie this foundation work with the children.
It is only recently that these principles have begun to shape themselves with any definiteness; the children's department, as a fully equipped miniature library, and the children's librarian, as a specialist bringing natural fitness and special preparation to her work, are essentially the product of today; but they have come to stay, and they open to the child-lover, and the educator who works better outside than inside of the schoolroom limits, a field enticing indeed, and promising rich results. It is to the pioneers in this field, the earnest young women who are now doing careful experimental work and giving serious study to the problems that arise—it is to them that the children's departments of the future will be most indebted for perfected methods.
The library must supplement the influence of the schools, of the home, and of the church; with some children it must even take the place of these other influences, and on its own account it must be a source of pleasure and an intellectual stimulus. If it is to accomplish all or any great part of this, not only for one, but for thousands of children, what serious thought and labor must go to its accomplishment! The children's librarian stands very close to the mother and the teacher in the power she can wield over the lives of the little ones. No one who lacks either the ability or desire to put herself into sympathetic touch with child-life should ever be assigned to work in the juvenile department, and the assistant who avowedly dislikes children, or who "has no patience with them," will work disastrous results if allowed to serve these little ones with an unwilling spirit —she should be relegated to some department of the library to which the sunshine of childhood can never penetrate, and kept there.
I would name the following requisites for the successful accomplishment of the juvenile work:
(1) Love for children.
This being given, the way is open for intimate knowledge and understanding of them, which are likewise essential.
(2) Knowledge of children's books.
This is imperative if one is to give the right book to a child at the right time. Familiarity with the titles and with the outsides of the books is not enough, nor is it sufficient to know that a certain book is recommended in all of the best lists of children's books. A child will often refuse to take what has been recommended to him as a good book, when, if he be told some graphic incident in it, or have some interesting bit pointed out or read to him, he will bear it off as prize; with it, too, he will carry away an added respect for, and sense of comradeship with, the assistant, who "knows a good thing when she sees it," and he will come to her for advice and consultation about his books the next time and the next, and so long thereafter as she can hold his confidence.
Carefully prepared lists are most valuable in directing your attention to the best books, but after your notice has been called to them read them, form your own judgment on them, and if you recommend them, at least know why. What? some one asks, attempt to read all of the best children's books? Yes, read them, and do more than that with some; the children's classics, the books which no child can grow up without reading and not be the poorer, with these one should be so familiar as to be able to quote from them or turn instantly to the most fascinating passages—they should form a constant part of her stock in trade. Other books one could not spend so much time on, nor is it necessary—the critical ability to go through a book quickly and catch the salient points in style, treatment and subject matter, is as essential for the children's librarian as for anyone who has to do with many books, and it therefore behooves her to cultivate what I once heard called the sixth sense, the book sense.
(3) Knowledge of library methods.
In any work, interest and enthusiasm go a great way, but they can never wholly take the place of accurate technical knowledge of the best ways of doing things. The more general knowledge of library work and methods one can bring to the children's department, the better it will be both for the work and for the worker; and given these methods, one must have ability to fit them to the conditions and to the peculiar needs to be accomplished, or, where they will not fit, to modify them or originate new ones which are better for the work in hand.
(4) A thorough knowledge of the course of study of the public schools.
This is very necessary in order to intelligently supplement the work of the schools. A child comes wanting information on some subject upon which his ideas are exceedingly vague; for instance, he wants something about the mayor—what, he cannot tell you, but he was sent by his teacher to look up something about the mayor. You ask him what grade he is in, and he tells you the fourth. Your familiarity with the course of study should give you the clue at once, for the fourth grade topics in conduct and government include lessons on the city government, with its principal departments and officers, so you will look up, if you have not already done so, an outline of municipal government describing the position and duties of the mayor, which will be within the comprehension of the child. It should not happen that a dozen children ask for Little white lily, and be turned away without it, before it is discovered to be a poem by George MacDonald which the third grade children are given to read.
This course of study the children's librarian should—not eat and sleep with exactly, but verily live and work with; it is one of her most valuable tools, and she should keep it not only within reach, at her finger's end, but as much as possible at her tongue's end, keeping pace with the assignment of work in the different grades and studies from month to month, and from week to week. She should know beforehand when a certain subject will be taken up by a certain grade, and have all available material looked up and ready, and new books bought if they will be needed and can be had—not wait until several hundred children come upon her for some subject on which a frantic search discloses the fact that the library contains not a thing suitable for their use, and then ask that books be bought, which, of course, come in after the demand is over, and stand idle upon the shelves for a whole year, taking the place of just so many more new books on subjects which will be needed later.
The course of study, too, will furnish more useful hints for bulletins, exhibitions, reading-lists, and other forms of advertising, than can come from any other source; and not only in supplementing the school work, but also in directing the children in their general reading, is an intimate knowledge of the course of study an invaluable aid, as it gives you the unit of measurement for any child which enables you to correlate his reading along certain lines to that which has gone before, and to that which is to follow.
(5) A knowledge of the principles of psychology and of education.
I have placed last the requisite which I feel sure some theorists, at least, would place first, because I believe that, as a rule, it will come last in point of time, and will be worked up to through the preceding stages of the development of the children's librarian; but her work will not be grounded upon a firm foundation until she has consciously mastered these principles, and clearly outlined her own work, this new work of the book, in perfect harmony with them.
There are many features of the children's work which I should like to dwell upon in detail, but I can do no more than mention a few of them. One of these is the Library league, with its threefold object of training the children in the proper care of books, of serving as an advertising medium for the library among the children themselves, and of furnishing a means of directing the reading of hundreds of children who cannot be reached individually. The possibilities of the league are beyond anything we have been able to realize.
Another thing is the necessity of guarding against letting children read too much, or too entirely along one line. There is a habit of reading along lines which deaden, instead of stimulating, thought, and the habit, if carried to excess, becomes a mental dissipation which is utterly reprehensible; but the pathway to this habit is entered upon so innocently and unconsciously by the story-loving child that he (perhaps more often she) must be guided very tenderly and wisely past its dangers; the library which ignores this necessity may have much harm laid at its doors.
The importance of providing, either in the school or the library, for systematic instruction in the use of books was emphasized in the report of the library section of the National Educational Association at Washington this summer; it is a necessity which must be met somewhere and somehow.
Of one more thing I should speak because of its provision for the children—the expansion of the library ideal; not so many years ago branch libraries and traveling libraries were unknown; now we feel that one library is not enough for a large city; it must have branch libraries and delivery stations to take the books to the people, while traveling libraries carry them into the scattered districts in the country. For the future, we have visions of a system of libraries so complete that in no town or country district of the state will a little child be deprived of the pleasure of good books; and wherever it is possible to put a live, warm-hearted, sympathetic and child-loving woman as the medium between the library and the child, it will be done.
Library work in its entirety offers much play for the missionary spirit, but nowhere else in its whole range is there such a labor of love as is hers who tries to bring the children early to their heritage in the beautiful world of books.
WORK WITH CHILDREN IN THE SMALL LIBRARY
The blessings rather than the limitations of the small library are portrayed and the "possibility of personal, individual, first-hand contact with the children" is emphasized in this paper presented by Miss Clara W. Hunt at the Niagara Conference of the A. L. A. in 1903. A sketch of Miss Hunt appears on page 135.
As the young theological student is prone to look upon his first country parish as a place to test his powers and to serve as a stepping-stone to a large city church, so the librarian of the country town who, visiting a great city library and seeing books received in lavish quantities which she must buy as sparingly as she buys tickets for expensive journeys out of her slender income, a beautifully furnished, conveniently equipped apartment especially for the children, for the student, for the magazine reader, evidences everywhere of money to spend not only for the necessities but also for the luxuries of library life—so it is quite natural for such a visitor to heave a deep sigh as she returns to her library home and contrasts her opportunities, or limitations as she would call them, with those of the worker in a numerically larger field; and quite natural is it for her to long for a change which she feels would mean a broadening and enlarging of outlook and opportunity.
It is encouraging sometimes to look at our possessions through other people's spectacles, and perhaps I may help some worker in a small field to see in what she calls her limitations, not a hedging in but an opening, by drawing the contrast from another point of view—from that of one who is regretfully forced to give up almost all personal, individual work with the children and delegate to others that most delightful of tasks, because her library is so large and she has so much money to spend that her services are more needed in other directions. With a keen appreciation of the privilege it is to have charge of a small library, I am going to enumerate some of my reasons for having this feeling.
I should explain, in this connection, that my thoughts have centered about the small town library, the library whose citizen supporters do not yet aggregate a population large enough to admit to dignifying their place of residence with the name of a city, a place, therefore, where the librarian may really be able to know every citizen of prominence, every school principal and teacher, the officers of the women's clubs, many of the mothers of the children she hopes to reach, and a very large number of the children themselves.
What are the attractions in a spot like this, the compensations which make up even for the lack of a large amount of money to spend? Let me begin first with the less apparent advantages, the "blessings in disguise," I should call them.
The first is the necessity for economy in spending one's appropriation. I imagine your astonishment and disapproval of the judgment of a person who can count the need of economy as any cause for congratulation. But let us look for a moment at some of the things you are saved by being forced to be "saving." The greatest good to your public and to yourself is that you must think of the ESSENTIALS, the "worth while" things first, last and always. You cannot afford to buy carelessly. Every dollar you spend must bring the best return possible and to the greatest number of people. Every foolish purchase means disappointment to your borrowers and wear on your own nerves. So, instead of being able to order in an off-hand way many things which may be desirable but which are really not essential, one gets a most valuable training in judgment by this constant weighing of good, indifferent and indispensable. To apply this to the principle of the selection of children's books—and nothing in work with children, except the personality of the worker with them is so important as this, we cannot buy everything, we must buy the best, and we therefore have an argument that must have a show of reasonableness to those borrowers who advocate large purchases of books you tell them your income will not cover.
What are the essentials in children's books if your selection must be small? Our children can grow up without Henty. They must not grow up without the classics in myth and fable and legend, the books which have delighted grown people and adults for generations, and upon the child's early acquaintance with which depends his keen enjoyment of much of his later reading, because of the wealth of allusion which will be lost to him if he has not read aesop and King Arthur and the Wonder Book, Gulliver, Crusoe, Siegfried and many others of like company, in childhood. Then the librarian cannot afford to leave out collections of poetry. Her children must have poetry in no niggardly quantity, from Mother Goose and the Nonsense Book to our latest, most beautiful acquisitions, "Golden numbers" and the "Posy ring." And American history and biography must be looked after among the first things and constantly replenished. So must fairy tales, the best fairy tales—Andersen, Grimm, the Jungle books, MacDonald, Pyle, "The rose and the ring." Much more discrimination must be exercised in selecting the nature and science books than is usually the case.
But, of course, most of the problems come when we are adding the story books. Here, most of all, the necessity for economy ought to be a help. It is a question of deciding on essentials, and having nerve enough to leave out those books whose only merits are harmlessness, and putting in nothing that is not positively good for something. The threadbare argument that we must buy of the mediocre and worse for the children who like such literature (principally because they know little about any other kind) will look very thin when we squarely face the fact that by such purchases we shut out books we admit to be really better, and when we honestly reflect upon the purpose of the public library. The sanest piece of advice that I ever heard given to those librarians who argue in favor of buying all the bootblack stories the boys want, was that of Miss Haines at a recent institute for town libraries. She asked that those men and women who enjoyed Alger and "Elsie" in childhood and who are arguing in their favor on the strength of the memory of a childish pleasure, take some of their old favorites and re-read them now, read them aloud to their young people at home, and then see if they care to risk the possibility of their own children being influenced by such ideals, forming such literary tastes as these books illustrate. Most of us desire better things for our children than we had ourselves. If a man was allowed to nibble on pickles and doughnuts and mince pie and similar kinds of nourishment before he cut all his teeth, miraculously escaping chronic dyspepsia as he grew older, he does not for that reason care to risk his boy's health and safety by allowing him to repeat the process. A child's taste, left to itself, is no more a safe guide in his choice of reading than is his choice of food. What human boy would refuse ice cream and peanuts and green pears and piously ask for whole-wheat bread and beefsteak instead? Or choose to go to bed at eight o'clock for his health's sake, rather than enjoy the fun with the family till a later hour? It seems such a senseless thing for us to feel it our duty to decide for the children on matters relating to their temporary welfare, but to consider them fit to decide for themselves on what may affect their moral and spiritual nature.
Not only in the selection of books as to their contents, but in the study of the editions the most serviceable for her purposes, will the town librarian gain valuable training from the necessity of being economical. The point is worth enlarging upon, but the time is not here.
It will perhaps be harder to look upon the impossibility of having a separate room for the children as a blessing which enforced economy confers. It will doubtless seem heresy for a children's librarian to suggest the thought. Yet while we recognize the great desirability, the absolute necessity in fact, for the separate room in order to get the best results in a busy city library, we can see the many advantages to the children of their mingling with the grown people in the town library. It is good for them, in the public as in the home library, to browse among books that are above their understanding. It is better for the small boy curiously picking up the Review of Reviews to stretch up to its undiluted world news than to shut into his Little Chronicle or Great Round World. It is good for the American child to learn just a little of the old fashioned "children should be seen and not heard" advice, to learn at least a trifle of consideration for his elders by restraining his voice and his heels and his motions within the library, saving his muscles for the wildest exercise he pleases out of doors. The separate children's room is too apt to become a place for so persistently "tending" the child that he loses the idea of a library atmosphere which is one of the lessons of the place he should NOT miss. I am of the opinion that, while we want to do everything in the world to attract the children to the library and the love of good reading, they should have impressed upon them so constantly the feeling that the children's room is a reading and study room that when a child is wandering around aimlessly, not behaving badly but simply killing time, he should be, not crossly nor resentfully, but pleasantly advised to go out into the park to play, as he doesn't feel like reading and this is a LIBRARY. I know that this has an excellent effect in developing the right idea of the purpose of the place.
Sometimes the town library has a building large enough to admit of a separate room for the children, and books and readers in such numbers as would make the use of this room desirable, but there is not money enough to pay the salary of an attendant to watch the room. Here indeed is a blessing in disguise. This idea that the children must be watched all the time, that they cannot be left alone a minute, is fatal to all teaching of honor and self-restraint and self-help. It will take time and determination and tact, but I know that it is possible to train the children—not the untrained city slum children perhaps, but the average town children—to behave like ladies and gentlemen left almost entirely to themselves through a whole evening.
I must hardly allude to further blessings which to my mind the need of economy insures. It all comes under the head, of course, of forming the habit of asking "What is most worth while?" before rushing headlong into thoughtless imitation of the larger library's methods, regardless of their wisdom for the small one. The town librarian will thus be apt to use some far simpler but equally effective style of bulletin than the one that means hours of time spent in cutting around the petals of an intricate flower picture, or printing painstakingly on a difficult cardboard surface what her local newspaper would be glad to print for her, thus making a slip to thumb tack on her board without a minute's waste of time.
The question of having insufficient help gives an excuse for getting a personal hold on some of the bright older boys and girls who can be made to think it a privilege to have a club night at the library once in a while, when they will cut the leaves of new books and magazines, paste and label and be useful in many ways. Of course they have to be managed, but you can get a lot of fine work out of assistants of this sort, and do them a great amount of good at the same time.
Another of the blessings for which the town librarian may be thankful is that her rules need not be cast iron, but may be made elastic to fit certain cases. Because the place is so small that she can get to know pretty well the character of its inhabitants, she need not be obliged to face the crestfallen countenance of a sorely disappointed little girl who, on applying for a library card, is told that she must bring her father or mother to sign an application, and who knows that that will be a task impossible of performance. The town librarian may dare to take the very slight risk of loss, and issue the card at once, enjoying the pleasure of making one small person radiantly happy.
Then there is the satisfaction of doing a little of everything about your library with your own hands and knowing instantly just where things are when you are asked. To illustrate from a recent experience of my own. At one of the small branches or stations rather, of the Brooklyn Public Library, a certain small boy used to appear at least two or three times a week and ask the librarian, "Have you got the 'Moral pirates' yet?" And over and over again the librarian was forced wearily to answer, "No, not yet, Sam." Now, although the library's purchases of children's books are very generous, running from 1,500 to 2,000 volumes a month for the 20 branches, of course with such large purchases it is necessary to systematize the buying by getting largely the same 50 titles for all branches, varying the number of copies per branch according to each one's need. The branch librarian of whom I am speaking did not feel like asking often for specials, realizing that she was only one of many having special wants, and knowing that we would in time reach the "Moral pirates" in the course of our large, regular monthly purchases. But one afternoon I went up to this station and helping at the charging desk, this small boy appeared asking me for the "Moral pirates." The librarian told me of the hopeful persistence of his request, and it did not take long after that to get the "Moral pirates" into the small boy's hands. I only hope the realization of a long anticipated wish did not prove to him like that of many another, and that his disappointment was not too unbearable in finding a pirate story minus cutlasses and black flags and decks slippery with gore.
The point of this tale is, that in a great system it is impossible often to get as close to an individual as in this case, while the town librarian, who does everything from unpacking her books to handing them out to her borrowers, can many a time have the personal pleasure of seeing a book into the right hands.
I have only indirectly alluded to the greatest joy of all, the possibility of personal, individual, first-hand contact with the children whom you can get to know so well and to influence so strongly, and another joy that grows out of it—seeing results yourself.
We are so ready to be deceived and discouraged by numbers! The town librarian reads of a tremendous circulation of children's books in a city library, and straightway gets the blues over her own small showing. But I beg such an one to think rather of what the QUALITY of her children's use of the library may be as compared with that of the busy city library. A great department must be so arranged for dispatching a large amount of work in a few minutes of time, that in spite of every effort, something of the mechanical must creep into its administration.
The town librarian may know by name each child who borrows her books. Not only that, but she may know much of his ancestry and environment and so be able to judge the needs of each one. She will not be so rushed with charging books by the hundred that she cannot USE that knowledge to help him in the wisest, most tactful manner. But the joy of watching her children develop, of seeing a boy or girl whom she helped bring up, grow into a manhood and womanhood of noble promise, of feeling that she had a large influence in forming the taste of this girl, in sending to college that lad who wouldn't have dreamed of such a thing had he not been stirred to the ambition through the reading taste she awakened in him—these are pleasures the city children's librarian is for the most part denied.
The latter can see that her selection of books is of the best, she can make her room as attractive as money will admit, she can choose her staff with great care. She knows that good must result in the lives of many and many a child from contact even in brief moments with people of strong magnetic personality, and from constantly taking into their minds the sort of reading she provides. But very rarely will she be permitted to see the results in individual cases that make work seem greatly worth while, and that compensate in a few brief minutes, for weeks and months and years of quiet, uninspiring, plodding effort.
And so I congratulate the worker with children in the small library. It would be a delight to me if I could feel that my appreciation of the blessings that are yours might help you to look upon your opportunity as a very great and worthy one. The parents of the small town need your help, the teachers cannot carry on their work well without you, the boys and girls would miss untold good if you were not their friend and counselor, the library profession needs the benefit of the practical judgment your all-round training gives. And so you may believe of your position that though in figures your annual report does not read large, in quality of work, in power of influence it reads in characters big with significance, radiant with encouragement.
PERSONAL WORK WITH CHILDREN
"The whole secret of success is really to be in sympathy with children, quick to see their needs and to look at things from their point of view; but above all to have a genuine, common-sense love for them." This point of view is expressed in the following paper on Personal work with children, read by Miss Rosina Gymer before the Ohio Library Association annual meeting in 1905. Rosina Charter Gymer was born in Cleveland, Ohio; received a special certificate from the Training School for Children's Librarians in 1904; was children's librarian in the Cleveland Public Library from 1904 to 1907; supervisor of children's work in small branches from 1907 to 1910, and since that time has been a branch librarian.
Work with children is so large in its scope and so rich in its possibilities that we shall only consider work in the library proper, passing over home visiting, school visiting and cooperation with social settlements and like institutions, all of which, however, are of the greatest importance to the work as a whole.
Work with children may be grouped under three heads— that with girls, that with boys and that with little children. While in each group the work differs in nearly every point, one point they have in common—the choosing of fiction according to the individual child, boy or girl; the choosing of classed books for the book itself. In giving fiction, the child must be known as well as the book, his character and needs, for it is on the character that fiction has most influence. In classed books, on the other hand, the book is the thing to know, for if a child wants to know something about electricity or carpentry, he is not being influenced so much in character as in education. If the book is not as good as some other, it will not injure him especially as to morals and character, but of course he should have the very best you can give him that he can mentally understand. Girls almost always become interested in books through the personality of the children's worker. While it is very desirable to use this regard as a means of influencing their reading, care must be taken to guard against a merely sentimental attitude on the part of the girls toward the worker. As a rule, girls want stories about people, other girls, school stories and so forth, and will take a book that you say is a good one without looking into it. If she likes it she will come to you to select another, and in this way you can lead her from pure fiction to historical fiction and biography and so on up to good literature, all through, at the first, knowing a book that would please and attract her. This is done, in great measure, through the girl's liking for the worker and also through her interest in people rather than things.
Boys, on the other hand, are not so much interested in people as in things, and when they ask for a book it is usually on some specific subject—electricity, carpentry, how to raise pigeons, how to take care of dogs. When the book is given them they usually examine it pretty thoroughly to see whether or not it is what they want or can use. To know what book will give the boy what he wants to know and in the most interesting way is to gain that boy's confidence. To sum up: Boys like you through the books you give them, while girls learn to like good books through their liking for you. The result is the same in either case—the personal influence of the worker with the children.
The problem of managing children is much the same everywhere. Wherever they are there are sure to be some restless and disobedient boys and girls whose confidence and good will must be gained. A willing obedience must be sought for untiringly. The children's worker must be for and not against the child. To win is far better than to compel. Conquering may do for those who are expected to remain as enemies, but friends are won. While a display of authority should be avoided, a firm attitude must at times be taken, but it should be an attitude of friendship and fairness. If a loss to the child of some coveted pleasure can be made to follow his fault it is an effectual punishment. For instance, if a boy never misses the story and yet his general behavior in the library leaves a good deal to be desired, do not allow him to attend the story hour for one or two weeks. In extreme cases the plan of not allowing the boys to come to the library for a number of days or weeks has been tried with good results.
An endeavor should be made so far as possible to follow the inclinations of children. Every boy likes the idea of belonging to a club and if advantage is taken of this fact it will prove a great help in discipline. When a gang of boys comes to the library night after night, apparently for no reason except to make trouble, the best solution of the problem is to form them into a reading circle or club. They usually prefer to call themselves a club. A good plan in starting is to ask three or four of the troublesome boys if they would like to come on a certain evening and hear a story read. An interesting story is selected, carefully read and cut if too long, and at the end of the evening the boys are invited to bring some of their friends with them next time. It is well to begin in this small way and thus avoid the mistake of having too many boys at the start or of getting boys of different gangs in the same club, for this will always cause trouble. Seven o'clock is a good time for them to meet. If the hour is later the boys who come early get restless and it is difficult for them to fix their attention. It is better to take the boys to a separate room as their attention is easily distracted from the reading by people passing back end forth. It is a great effort for boys with, one might say, wholly untrained minds to concentrate for any length of time, and it is well not to ask them for more than half an hour at first. Unless the selection holds their interest they will disappear one after another, for they simply refuse to be bored. For this reason, begin with popular subjects, such as animal stories, Indian stories, fire stories, railroad stories, gradually leading them on to more solid reading. That this can be done was proved by the boys' attention to Sven Hedin's account of his search for water in his Through Asia. The incident is most graphically told of the repeated disappointments, of the sufferings of the caravan and the dropping out of one after another until only the author is left staggering across the sand hills in his search for the precious water. The boys listened breathlessly until one boy finally burst out, Ain't they never going to find no water?
Very often the subject of the next evening's reading is determined by the boys themselves who, if they have been particularly interested, will ask for another story "just like that only different." If possible, have good illustrated books to show them on the subject of the evening's reading. This serves two purposes —it fixes the awakened interest of the boys and it also prevents the rush for the door they are apt to make to work off the accumulated energy of the hour of physical inactivity. In libraries where there are few assistants it ought not to be difficult to find some young man or woman interested in work of this sort to come and read to the boys once or twice a week, but the same person should have the club regularly.
Work with little children is important because in a year or two they are going to be readers, and yet they are a problem to the busy librarian from the fact that they require a good deal of attention. Perhaps the best plan is to set a time for them to come to the library, say Saturday morning at ten, when they can feel that the children's worker is all their own. They like to be read to, but they love to hear stories told. Telling stories to them is a great pleasure to the story-teller, because of their responsiveness, their readiness to enjoy. But besides the enjoyment of the children there is something far higher to work for—the development of the moral sense. The virtues of obedience, kindness, courage and unselfishness are set forth over and over again in the fairy tale. The story East o' the sun and west o' the moon, is nothing but a beautiful lesson in obedience, The king of the golden river in unselfishness, Diamonds and toads, kindness— and many others could be named, all with a lesson to be learned. Little children love repetition and when a story pleases them ask for it again and again. They do not see the lesson all at once, but little by little it sinks into their hearts and becomes a part of their very life. This is where the fairy tale, properly and judiciously used, does its great work. Be most careful to give children stories that are wholly worthy of their admiration. Know your story thoroughly and in telling it present strong, clear pictures. Tell the story in such a way that the child's heart swells within him and he says, I can do that, I could be as brave as that.
But let not the children's worker labor under the delusion that when she closes the door of the library her work is finished. On the contrary, another phase of it is only beginning, for she is constantly meeting the children on the street, in the stores, in fact almost everywhere she goes, and it behooves her to be on the watch for friendly smiles, to listen with interest when Johnny tells her that Mary is coming out of the hospital tomorrow, or when Mike calls across the street, Did you know Willie was pinched again? to make a note of it and take pains to find out whether Willie is paroled under good behavior or whether he has been sent to a boys' reformatory school; or, when she is waiting for a street car and a newsboy rushes up and says he can't get his books back in time and will she renew them for him, the children's worker takes his library number and renews the books when she returns to the library.
If the worker is at all earnest in her work she can not help but have her heart wrung time and again by the sufferings of the children of the poor. Not that they complain—they take it all as a matter of course, but by some unconscious remark they quite often throw an almost blinding light on their home conditions showing that family life for a good many of them is anything but easy and pleasant. Children of the poor often have responsibilities far beyond their years, and the library with its books, pictures, flowers and story-telling means much more to them than to a child who has all these at home. One little girl about 10 years old came one afternoon and was so disappointed to find there was to be no story. On being told to come at ten o'clock next morning, she said: What, do you think I can get here at ten o'clock with four kids to dress! As first heard, funny; but after all showing a pathetic side, a childhood without childhood's freedom from care.
The whole secret of success is really to be in sympathy with children, quick to see their needs and to look at things from their point of view; but above all to have a genuine, common sense love for them so that we may feel as did the little girl who missed one of the assistants, and asking for her was told that she was taking a vacation. I love her, said the child, and then, fearing she had hurt the feelings of the one to whom she was speaking added, I love all the library teachers, 'cos we're all childs of God.
THE LIBRARY AND THE CHILDREN: AN ACCOUNT OF THE CHILDREN'S WORK IN THE CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY
The interesting experiment of conducting a Library League is described by Miss Linda A. Eastman in the following account of the children's work in the Cleveland Public Library. A sketch of Miss Eastman appears on page 159.
Work with the children assumed its first real importance in the Cleveland Public Library when the library began, about 10 years ago, to issue books to the teachers for reissue to their pupils. This brought the books to the hands of thousands of children who had never drawn them before, although at no time has the library been able to furnish all of the books asked for by the teachers. The next step came with the establishment of our branches, where it was soon noticed that a most important part of the work done was that with the children, and that very few of these children had ever used the main library.
Early in 1897 a notable change was made at the main library in bringing all of the juvenile books together in what was known as the juvenile alcove, but which heretofore had contained the juvenile fiction only, the classed books having been shelved with the other books on the same subject. This change meant much planning and shifting in our cramped quarters, and writing of dummies and changing of records for every book; but it proved to be well worth all the work, for the children seldom went beyond this alcove, and those who had been reading fiction only, began to vary it with history, travel, science, until about half of the books issued from the department are now from the other classes.
During the Christmas holidays, 1896, we advertised "Children's week," and the numbers and evident enjoyment of the children who then accepted the invitation to visit the library or its branches, led to similar plans for the spring vacation. At this time we were able to put into circulation about a thousand bright new books, and the desire to impress upon the children the necessity for their proper care resulted in starting the Library League, the general plan of which is so familiar that I need not go fully into the details concerning it.[2]
[2] For accounts of the Library League, see Library Journal October and November, 1897.
Without question, the labor spent upon the Library League has been more than repaid in the greater care which the children take of their library books. Dirt is at a discount; it is noticed that many more children than formerly now stop to choose the cleanest copy of a book, and many are the books reported daily by the little people as being soiled or torn. A boy, not long ago, brought a book up to the information-desk, reported a loose leaf, then very seriously, by way of explanation, opened his overcoat and displayed his league badge; another replied in all good faith to a query about a damaged book, "Why, I belong to the Library League"—proof quite sufficient, he thought, to clear him of any doubt. Most of the children stop at the wrapping- counter before leaving the library, to tie up their books in the wrapping paper which is provided, and which saves many a book from a mud-bath on its way to or from the library.
But aside from the better care of the books, the Library League has done much as an advertising medium among the children; the league now numbers 14,354, and many of its members had never used the library until they joined the league. Something has been accomplished through it, too, in directing the reading of the children, as it gives opportunities, in many ways, for making suggestions which they are glad to accept. At the South Side branch a club-room has been finished off in the basement, and two clubs formed among the members of the league: one, a Travel Club, is making a tour of England this winter; the other is a Biography Club, which is studying great Americans; the children who compose these two clubs are largely of foreign parentage, almost without exception from uncultured homes, and the work our earnest branch librarian is beginning with them cannot fail in its effect on these young lives. A boy's club-room is to be fitted up at the new West Side branch, in addition to the children's room, which is already proving inadequate.
The Maxson book marks have been very useful in connection with the league, and have suggested a series of book marks which will also serve as bulletins for league notes, little lists of good books, suggestions about reading, etc. The color will be changed each time, as variety is pleasing to children. The
================================================== Cleveland Public Library. LIBRARY LEAGUE BOOK MARK NO. 1.
Boys and Girls: How would you like to have a new book mark every month or two with Library League news, and suggestions about good books? That is what the Library is going to try to give you. Read this one through, use it until you get the next one, which will be Library League Book Mark No. 2; then put No. 1 away with your League certificate and keep it carefully as a part of your League records, that some day you will be proud to own and to show.
League Report: The Library League was started March 29th, 1897. On December 31st, 1897 it numbered 14,074. How large is it going to be on its first birthday anniversary? What the League has done: It has brought many children to the Library who never used it before. It has taught many boys and girls to love books and to handle them carefully with clean hands. Many books have been reported which were in bad condition, and the juvenile books are now in better shape than before the League began its work.
Library League Reading Clubs: Some of the League members have been starting reading clubs. One of these clubs is a Travel Club, and another is a Biography Club. The Library assistants will be glad to tell League members about these clubs if they would like to form others.
The other side of this book mark contains a list of the juvenile periodicals in the library. No. 2 gives the beginning of a little serial, in which a thread of story will weave in hints on reading and on the care and use of books.
At our main library the children have come in such numbers after school and on Saturdays, that it has been impossible to push the work much this past winter, for fear the adults should suffer. It was finally decided that we must achieve the impossible, and by shifting about and putting up glass partitions, have a separate children's room instead of the open juvenile alcove. This room, while not half so large as it should be to meet the needs of the work, is indeed a great improvement in giving the children a place which they feel to be really their own; the change has involved the re-registration of the children having cards here, but it is affording much needed relief at the general receiving desks, and will greatly facilitate the service to adults, at the same time making it possible to do much more for the little people.
The library is endeavoring to co-operate more and more closely with the schools. More books have been issued to the teachers this winter than ever before. A new course of study having been published, all of the books referred to in it were looked up, and if not in the library or its branches, were purchased as largely as seemed desirable or possible. A list of "References for third-grade teachers," compiled by Miss May H. Prentice, training teacher in the Cleveland Normal School, has recently been published by the library. It was given to all of the third-grade teachers of the city, and sold to others. This is, we believe, the most comprehensive list ever prepared for a single grade of the common schools. We are hoping that it will prove so helpful to third-grade teachers that all of the other grades will demand similar ones for themselves, and that somehow the way will be found to meet the demand. The list of books noted by Miss Prentice for the children's own reading has been reprinted, without the annotations, in a little folder and 5,000 copies of it have just been distributed among the children of this grade.
Recently our school children were treated to the largest exhibition ever made in the United States to photographic reproductions of the masterpieces in art; to the work of the library in circulating pictures to teachers and children for school-room decoration and for illustration, is due no small share of this new interest in art.
While the children come to the library daily to look up subjects in connection with their school work, very little attention can be given to training them to use reference books as tools. Somewhere, either in the school or the library, this systematic teaching should be given. It is one of the things which is not being done.
And another thing is not being done—we are not reaching all of the children; in spite of our branches, our stations, our books in the schools, our Library League, there are many children who sadly need the influence of good books, who are not getting them—whole districts shut off from the use of the library by distance and inability to pay carfare. And we cannot give them branches or send books—for lack of funds.
It is a growing conviction in my own mind that the library, aside from its general mission, and aside from its co-operation with the schools in the work of education, has a special duty to perform for the city child. No one can observe city life closely without seeing something of the evil which comes to the children who are shut up within its walls; the larger the city the greater is the evil, the more effectually are the little ones deprived of the pure air, the sweet freedom of the fields and woods, to be given but too often in their stead the freedom of the streets and the city slums. The evil is greater during the long vacations, when the five-hour check of the school room is entirely removed, and many a teacher will testify to the demoralization which takes place among the children who are then let loose upon the streets. For these the library must to some extent take the place of Mother Nature, for under present condition it is through books alone that some of them can ever come to know her; books must furnish them with wholesome thoughts, with ideals of beauty and of truth, with a sense of the largeness of life that comes from communion with great souls as from communion with nature. If this be true, the school vacation ceases to be the resting time of the children's librarian; she must sow her winter wheat and tend it as in the past, but she must also gather in her crops and lay her ground fallow during the long summer days when school does not keep; she must find ways of attracting these children to spend a healthy portion of their time among the books, always guarding against too much as against too little reading. For this work the individual contact is needed, and there must be more children's librarians, more branch libraries. This necessity and the problem of meeting it require grave consideration by the librarian of to-day.
PICTURE BULLETINS IN THE CHILDREN'S LIBRARY
The practical usefulness as well as the artistic merit of picture bulletins is discussed in this report prepared for the Club of Children's Librarians for presentation at the Waukesha Conference of the A. L. A. in 1901. It is based upon answers received in response to a circular letter sent to various libraries.
Mrs. Mary E. S. Root was born and educated in Rhode Island, studied art before her marriage, became interested in children's literature through her own children, and organized the children's work in the Providence Public Library, where she still has charge of this work. She has held many offices in educational and civic organizations, and has lectured on children's literature. For two summers she conducted a course in children's work in the Simmons College Library School.
Mrs. Adelaide Bowles Maltby was born in New York City, and was graduated from a private school in Elmira, New York, in 1893, with an equivalent of one year's college work. After completing the regular course in Pratt Institute Library School in 1900, she spent six months in the Pratt Library, at the same time taking lectures in the second-year children's course. For four and one-half years she was head of the Children's Department in the Buffalo Public Library. She then became a member of the New York Public Library staff, first as special children's worker in Chatham Square Branch, then as branch librarian there, and later as librarian of the Tompkins Square Branch.
There has been a rather marked difference in activity between the eastern and western libraries on this subject of picture work, we of the east seeming more conservative, somewhat prone on the whole, because there is not time for elaborate work, to doubt its practical usefulness. The questions upon which this report is based were sent out in a circular letter to different libraries. These questions with their answers may be considered in order:
Question 1. If you make picture bulletins in your library, what is your object in so doing?
To supplement school work, advertise the books, stimulate non-fiction reading and celebrate anniversaries are the four answers which the majority give.
There is no question but bulletins made for school helps are useful, help teacher, pupil and library; but we are all studying to do away with suggestions of a school atmosphere in our rooms as far as possible, so, primarily, these bulletins should give pleasure. They offer a strong point of contact between the children and the librarian, and if too strongly labelled with "school work," do we not rob the child of the one place where he could have the indescribable charm of learning what his natural tastes prompt him to acquire? It is easy enough in our libraries to teach without calling it teaching. Again, a bulletin to "advertise our books," especially new ones, seems misdirected energy, as the new books are always eagerly sought and there is often need of checking in some way the desire for the new just because it is new. If the books to which the attention is directed by the bulletins enlarge the child's experience, well and good, but we do not need to post a bulletin merely to circulate the books or with the feeling of advertisement in any sense of the word.
Question 2. Are these bulletins used only to illustrate books owned by the library or are they general, commemorating anniversaries, etc?
The majority of bulletins seem of the most general character —book bulletins, illustrations of school work, holidays and anniversaries especially dear to childhood. Miss Putnam, of the library at Los Angeles, offers a most serviceable suggestion in her guide to the books in the children's room: "This is composed of pictures, each representing a book clipped from the publisher's catalogs, each author kept separate mounted on large sheets of tagboard, and when the author's picture, call number, criticism of books are added, the sheets are kept on the tables for the children's use." At Detroit there is constantly on the walls a bulletin board about 28x32 in. covered with dark green burlap on which are placed lists of books, pictures of their authors, illustrations, current events, public affairs, etc., not of sufficient interest to demand a separate bulletin. Some change is made in this every week, keeping two lists of books, taking down one and moving the other as a fresh list is added.
Question 3. Of what material and by whom are your bulletins made?
The best material is classified clippings and pictures from duplicate magazines and illustrated papers. Braun & Cie photographs, Perry prints, bird portraits from Chapman's "Bird manual," and from Birds and All Nature, Fitzroy prints and Perkins' Mother Goose pictures can also be used to advantage. Card board can be obtained at slight cost, in some cities at $4.20 per hundred. Pulp board, book cover paper and charcoal paper, all can be utilized for this purpose. Where the book cases are low enough to admit of it, red denim stretched above the top of the cases makes an effective background for the bulletins. Where the cases are five feet in height this is not practicable, as the pictures must be opposite the eyes of our small readers. In the Providence Public Library an excellent substitute for this is in the shape of a six-panelled mahogany bulletin surrounding the large circular pillar in the center of the room. The mahogany serves as an excellent frame to the panel and the many sides offer opportunities for a series of bulletins on a given subject, each simple in itself and conveying one idea to the child, which seems far preferable to us than trying to crowd all on one bulletin.
Other libraries use a stationary framework across the tables, with glass each side, so that pictures may be slipped in between.
At Minneapolis Public Library an interesting experiment was tried with success by Mrs. Ellison. Arrangements were made with the Director of Drawing to have the pupils furnish the picture bulletins, Mrs. Ellison furnishing the subjects and doing the reference work.
The making of bulletins in most cases devolves on the children's librarian, but we hear from several libraries where different members of the staff take their turn, all showing a keen interest in gathering material.
Questions 4 and 5. Do you have more than one bulletin at a time? Have you noticed any poor results from exhibiting more than one at a time?
The returns as to this point were not all that had been hoped. Two bulletins seem to be an accepted number, but more than that a question. We do not desire to confuse our children, or to detract in value from a bulletin when once posted, and most certainly not to cheapen our rooms; but if the standard is held high in each case, the number would not matter. Take for instance a hero bulletin. Here is a wealth of material which overwhelms us, and even when we have selected with the utmost thought our heroes and placed them side by side, we realize we have more or less of a jumble and have not told our story simply enough. Some division is absolutely necessary. We saw a bulletin on this subject grouped under three excellent heads: When all the world was young; In the glorious days of chivalry; Heroes of modern times. We should like to adopt this suggestion, but instead of one, offer three bulletins, as a safeguard against confusion.
Question 6. Can you show by citing cases that this picture work is of sufficient practical use to the children to pay for time and money spent?
One library—and this is an eastern one—gives us an encouraging, inspiring reply: "Case after case, actually hundreds of letters from teachers thanking us for the work." A general summary of reports from all the libraries shows an increased demand for the books on the subject posted. The perfectly evident pleasure of the little ones in the mere looking, to say nothing of their joy in telling at one time or another something they have seen before, shows with what keenness they observe. At the Buffalo Public Library there have been on exhibition some excellent silhouette pictures made by cutting figures, trees, etc., from black paper and pasting them on white backgrounds. "The pied piper" was one subject illustrated. To appreciate this it should be understood that the figure of the piper and of each little rat, some not more than a half inch high, were cut with scissors, without any drawing whatever. These were labelled "Scissors pictures. Can you make them?" When they had been up a week, one of the boys, 14 years old, brought in four, one of which was better in composition than any of those exhibited. This was posted as showing what one boy had done, and this boy is studying drawing and designing this summer, with good promise. Another library cites a case in relation to school work, where the superintendent of schools offered rewards in each school of five of Landseer's pictures for the best five compositions on Landseer and his work. A collection of his pictures was gathered, a bulletin made with lists, which at once attracted the boys and girls, set many earnestly to work, who would not otherwise have given it much thought, and finally received the hearty commendation of the superintendent. Miss Clarke, of Evanston, says: "We have no children's room, and have not done enough of bulletin work to be able to speak very surely of results." Yet she can give us this, which speaks for itself. "An Indian exhibit which we gave, where among the Indian curios and Navajo blankets I had all our books on Indian life and customs and our best Indian stories displayed, aroused a great demand for the books. I kept the list of Indian books and stories posted for some months, and it was worn out and had to be replaced by a new copy, owing to its constant use. Our boys at that time really read a great deal of good literature on the subject, including Mrs. Custer's books and those by Grinnell and Lummis." These are but a few of the many interesting illustrations, yet we all know there is a great part of our work of which we can see no results, but if these bulletins beautify the room, offer some new thought to the child and give pleasure, then the time and work spent on them is a small factor, and even in that we are the gainers, as we unconsciously acquire in the making of these bulletins much general information, and an ability to present subjects in their relative value to each other which is invaluable.
Question 7. Are these bulletins allowed to circulate?
In most cases, no. Several libraries allow them to go to schools and a few make duplicates for both library and school, and in Indianapolis the bulletins are sent to other libraries in the state. This should prove very helpful to small libraries which are open but a few hours in the week. The bulletins may wear out, but a bulletin once planned, three quarters of the work is accomplished, and it is little labor to make the duplicate one.
Question 8. Please describe the exhibit which has proved of the greatest interest in the past year.
We wish that time and space would allow a repetition of all the replies to this question. Miss Hewins says: "The exhibit which has proved of the greatest interest is on Queen Victoria. Within an hour after we heard the news of her death we had the bulletin for her last birthday and 40 portraits of her on our walls. I made one bulletin on her for the children out at Settlement Branch, and gave them a little talk about her. In this bulletin there were pictures of the dolls' house and toys that she gave the nation and I told the children how careful she must have been of them to be able to keep them so many years, and something about how careful she was taught to be also of her spending money, and that even although she was a princess and lived in a palace, she never could buy anything until she had the money to pay for it. I made a Stevenson bulletin for them on his birthday, and we had Stevenson songs and a talk about him and his childhood, his lovableness, courage and cheerfulness." At Buffalo the most popular exhibit was one illustrating the changes of the last century, taking the post-office methods, transportation of all kinds, i.e., carriages, boats, railroads, electricity in all its uses and those which could be appreciated by the children—guns, lifesaving methods, diving, etc. In each instance an old and a new type was shown. The children swarmed around the boards every day for the two months it was up, one of the pages who was interested in numbers having counted 60 an hour. Nature exhibits are always popular with children. "Our own birds" was the title of a bird- day bulletin at Evanston. A green poster board, on which were tied bunches of pussy-willows, among whose twigs were perched some of the common birds around Evanston, was used. The plates used were the nature study bird plates, brightly colored, which were cut out and pasted on the board in such a way that the effect was very lifelike. Much the same idea was carried out in Providence, only in this library the title is "Procession of the birds and flowers," each bird being added as it arrives. At the same time in the class room adjoining this library there was an exhibit of 150 photographs called "Joy in springtime," all being charming pictures of flowers, birds and happy children, with appropriate selections of poetry affixed. The long windows were hung with tranparencies, a framework being built in which to slide the tranparencies, that they may be changed from time to time. Invitations were sent to all the schools, and the exhibit was a great delight to the little ones. Miss Moore, of Pratt, tells of a picture bulletin illustrating life in Porto Rico and a companion bulletin illustrating the Porto Rican village at Glen island (a summer resort accessible to the children), with objects such as water jugs, cooking utensils made from gourds, etc., a hat in the process of making, musical instruments made from gourds, such as were used by the native band at Glen Island. The objects were carefully selected with the aid of the gentleman who instituted the village at Glen Island, and who had made a study of the country and people of Porto Rico. "The bulletin led not so much to the reading of books, because there are few on the subject, but it gave the children a very clear idea of the manner of living of the Porto Ricans and drew the attention of many visitors to Glen Island, as an educational point as well as a pleasure resort."
Question 9. Do you do anything with Perry pictures, scrap books, etc., for the little children?
At Medford scrap books are made by the children themselves, much to their delight. Several librarians make their own scrap books, Miss Hammond, of St. Paul, sending perhaps the best description of work of this nature. For the little children she always keeps on hand several scrap books made from worn out books, by Howard Pyle and Walter Crane. Other scrap books enjoyed alike by the older children and the little ones are "Colonial pictures" and "Arctic explorers," the last especially liked by the boys. Miss Hammond also cuts whole articles from discarded magazines, putting on heavy paper covers, labelling and arranging in a case according to subject for the use of teachers and pupils.
Question 10. Mention five examples of pictures suitable for a children's library.
The pictures suggested are given in order, according to the number of votes assigned to each one.
Raphael, Sistine Madonna, 6 Watts, Sir Galahad, 6 Guido Reni, Aurora, 4 Bonheur, Horse fair, 4 King Arthur, (Chapel of Innspruck), 3 Corot, Landscape, 3 Hardie, Meeting of Scott and Burns, 2 St. Gaudens, Shaw monument, 2 Murillo, Children of the shell, 2 Stuart, Washington, 2 Van Dyck, Baby Stuart, 2
The selection of these pictures must, of course, depend on the library, but there are a few other suggestions which are worthy of mention:
Regnault, Automedon and the horse of Achilles.
Raphael's Madonna of the chair.
Reynolds, Penelope Boothby.
Question 11. In preparing your lists of books to accompany bulletin, do you prepare an analytical list or refer to book only?
An analytical list seems preferable where any list is used, although some librarians seem to question the advantage of lists. Miss Brown, of Eau Claire, says: "I have, however, decided for myself that the bulletin that pays is the one which tells something of itself and has no long list of books. If the child is interested in the bulletin it is no sign that he will take a book listed, but if he gets a fact from looking at it he has gained something and you lose the bad effect of having him get into the habit of skipping the books on the bulletin, which he usually does." On the other hand, lists help the systematic reader and relieve the librarian.
In closing we will quote a criticism of an eastern librarian, as a thought on which we all need to dwell: "From the artistic point of view such bulletins as I have seen are commonly too scrappy, ill arranged and given too much to detail. One or two pictures on a large card, with a brief descriptive note, all conveying one idea or emphasizing one point only, is the best form. In bulletins, as in many other things, the rule to follow first of all is simplicity."
HOW TO INTEREST MOTHERS IN CHILDREN'S READING
One of the newer developments of organized work is with mothers who can be interested in the books their children read, although informal, individual work has always been a part of library work with children. This paper was read at the joint meeting of the Michigan and Wisconsin Library Associations in July, 1914, by Miss May G. Quigley, children's librarian of the Public Library, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
May Genevieve Quigley was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was graduated from the Grand Rapids High School. Soon after this, she began work in the Grand Rapids Public Library and has been Head of the Children's Department since it was organized in 1907.
You ask me how to interest mothers in children's reading. I began by being invited to the different mothers' meetings held in the schools; public, parochial and private, the churches and women's clubs. At each institution, the mothers, coming from widely different circles are always attentive listeners, and many frequently remain to have a word in private, as to whether I consider fairy tales good for their children and to get my personal opinion about detective stories, or some other subject important to them.
I always take with me our Monthly Bulletin, in which are printed the new books for children. This list is talked over with the mothers and books for children of different ages specified. If there is time, I frequently tell the story the book tells or an interesting incident which occurs in some one of the chapters. After such an introduction there is apt to be a "run" on the Children's department the next few days. Boys and girls come in numbers to ask for the book "You told mother about yesterday."
These talks at the different schools, clubs and churches are the means of bringing the mothers to the library. They are interested now in wishing to see the place where the "fine English books are kept," as one little foreign mother always says. I find that the foreign-born mothers are intensely alive to the fact that their children must get the English language if they are ever to succeed, and they too, these foreign mothers, ask intelligent questions as to the books on history and civics for their boys and girls.
Birthdays and holidays are also strong factors, by means of which the library can interest the mothers. We have not as yet printed a list of books suitable for birthdays, but we did print a Christmas list in our November Bulletin of last year, and like Mary's little lamb, this book was with me wherever I went during the Christmas season. It was an exceedingly valuable list, because prices were given. There were books suitable for every taste and every purse.
I talked the list over with 250 mothers, whom I met at the various schools. A large number came to the library to see the books before buying. Then too, ways and means are always suggested by which they can obtain additional information, namely the telephone, post card, and by appointment with me at the book store, if they desire it, to say nothing of the many times advice is given outside of library hours.
On three different occasions we have had exhibits of books at the schools. This perhaps is the ideal way to interest mothers. I remember at one school the disappointment manifested when it was announced that orders were not taken for the books, but that the same could be obtained at the book store.
Our annual Conference on children's reading, which is held on the first Saturday in May, brings together still another group. The mothers are represented on the program and they take part in the discussion. The subject at these conferences is always some phase of children's reading. The discussions are interesting and educational, not only for the mothers, but for the library as well.
If you are able to speak one or two languages besides English, the way is open for you to the foreign mothers' clubs. I have frequently been a guest at the Italian mothers' club, where in a small way I have been able to tell them about the library and the books—English and Italian.
Not often do these mothers come to the library, but they are sure to send their children, and through these useful little citizens I hope some day to see the mothers frequent visitors at the library.
I would not have you think that these mothers are not interested because they are not able to come to the library. It is strange and they are often too busy. When I go to the store or they meet me on the street they will ask about the books and express their appreciation of what we are doing for their children.
Three-fourths of the mothers, regardless of nationality, social position or education, have no definite idea as to the kind of books their children ought to read.
If you would succeed in this movement, be interested, know your books, and be ready to have a human interest in every child's mother, be she rich or poor, American or foreign born. Success will then attend your efforts.
REFERENCE WORK AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN
The importance of reference work with children is indicated in the next article by the fact that "the subjects on which children seek information are as varied as those brought by older people, and the material is equally elusive." Miss Abby L. Sargent contributed this article to the Library Journal for April, 1895.
Abby Ladd Sargent received her training under her sister, Miss Mary E. Sargent. She reorganized the Wilmington Library Association Library in 1890-1891. From 1891 to 1895 she was librarian of the Middlesex Mechanics Association. In 1895 she became reference librarian and classifier of the Medford Public Library, where her sister was librarian. In 1910, after her sister's death, she became librarian of the Medford Public Library. In 1900 she organized and purchased books for the Owatonna, Minnesota, Public Library. She has been instructor in the Expansive Classification in Simmons College Library School since its opening. Miss Sargent was joint editor and compiler of Sargent's "Reading for the young," and its supplement.
Let us suppose that the momentous problem is solved of persuading children to use the library for more serious purpose than to find a book "as good as 'Mark the match boy,' " and that we are trying to convince children that the library is infallible, and can furnish information on whatever they wish to know about—whether it is some boy who comes on the busiest morning of the week, to find out how to make a puppet show in time to give an afternoon exhibition, or some high-school girl who rushes over in the 20 minutes' recess to write an exhaustive treatise on women's colleges.
It is unnecessary to say that the fewer books the library can supply the more must those few be forced to yield. A large library, with unlimited volumes, meets few of the difficulties which beset smaller and poorer institutions.
If the librarian can name at once "a poem about Henry of Navarre," or tell who wrote "by the rude bridge that arched the flood," and on what monument it is engraved, can furnish material for debate on "the Chinese question," "which city should have the new normal school," "who was Mother Goose," or on any possible or impossible subject, she gains at once the confidence of the severest of critics, and is sure of their future patronage.
The subjects on which children seek information are as varied as those brought by older people and the material is equally elusive. Perhaps the hardest questions to answer are about the allusions which are found in literature studies, and which frequently the teacher who has given the question cannot answer. I find it helpful whenever I come across material of this nature to make a reference to it in the catalog, and, in fact, to analyze carefully all juvenile books, not fiction, whose titles give no hint of the contents. A great many books otherwise valueless become thus most useful, especially if one is pressed for time.
Mr. Jones, in his "Special reading lists," gives many such references to juvenile literature. Books like Ingersoll's "Country cousins," which contains an article on shell money, also an account of Professor Agassiz's laboratory at Newport; Mary Bamford's "Talks by queer folks," giving many of the superstitions prevalent about animals; the set of books by Uncle Lawrence, "Young folks' ideas," "Queries," and "Whys and wherefores," recently republished under the title "Science in story," and others of this sort, if carefully indexed, answer many of the questions brought every day by children, and amply repay for the trouble. For even if juvenile books are classified on the shelves, much time is wasted in going through many indexes.
A wide-awake teacher often gives his pupils the events of the day to study, and if they cannot grasp the situation from the daily papers, juvenile periodicals furnish the best material. For this a classified index is indispensable; it makes available accounts of the workings of government, the weather bureau, mint, and other intangible topics. Until the recent publication of Capt. King's "Cadet days," I knew of no other place to find any description of West Point routine outside of Boynton's or Cullum's histories. One glimpse of either would convince any boy he would rather try some other subject.
A short article often suffices to give the main facts. My experience, both as teacher and librarian, persuades me that the average child is eminently statistical. "A horse is an animal with four legs—one at each corner," is fairly representative of the kind of information he seeks. When he becomes diffuse, we may feel sure he has had help. Sissy Jupes are of course to be found, who cannot grapple with facts.
Working on this principle, I have made liberal use of a book issued by the U. S. Government—"The growth of industrial art." It gives, in pictures, with only a line or two of description, the progress of different industries—such as the locomotive, from the clumsy engine of 1802 to the elaborate machinery of the present day; the evolution of lighting, from the pine-knot and tallow-dip to the electric light; methods of signalling, from the Indian fire-signal to the telegraph; time-keeping, etc. A child will get more ideas from one page of pictures than from a dozen or more pages of description and hard words.
If lack of space compels one to deny the privilege of going to the shelves, it seems to me more essential for children to have ready access to reference-books, and especially to be taught how to use them, than for grown-up people. The youngest soon learn to use "Historical notebooks," Champlin's Cyclopaedias, Hopkins' "Experimental science," "Boys' and Girls' handy books," and others of miscellaneous contents. If they have a mechanical bent they will help themselves from Amateur Work or "Electrical toy-making"; if musical, from Mrs. Lillie's "Story of music" or Dole's "Famous composers"; if they have ethical subjects to write about, they find what they need in Edith Wiggin's "Lessons in manners," Everett's "Ethics for young people," or Miss Ryder's books, which give excellent advice in spite of their objectionable titles. They can find help in their nature studies in Gibson's "Sharp-eyes," Lovell's "Nature's wonder workers," Mrs. Dana's "How to know the wild flowers," or turn to Mrs. Bolton's or Lydia Farmer's books to learn about famous people, if they are encouraged to do so. These, of course, are only a few of the books which can be used in this way. As the different holidays come round there are frequent applications for the customs of those days, or for appropriate selections for school or festival. Miss Matthews and Miss Ruhl have helped us out in their "Memorial day selections," and McCaskey's "Christmas in song, sketch, and story," and the "Yule-tide collection" give great variety. If the juvenile periodicals do not furnish the customs, they can, of course, be found in Brand's "Popular antiquities," or Chambers's "Book of days." It is necessary sometimes to use the books for older people, since there is a point where childhood and grown-up-hood meet. I was recently obliged to give quite a small child Knight's "Mechanical dictionary," to find out when and where weather-vanes were first used, and to give a grammar-school girl Mrs. Farmer's "What America owes to women," for material for a graduating essay.
A few excellent suggestions for general reference work are given in Miss Plummer's "Hints to small libraries"; but in spite of all the aids at command there come times when our only resource is to follow the adage, "look till you find it and your labor won't be lost," and to accept the advice of Cap'n Cuttle, "When found, make a note on't."
REFERENCE WORK WITH CHILDREN
Another report based on answers received from various libraries in reply to a list of questions suggests that we are "concerned not so much to supply information as to educate in the use of the library." This report was presented by Miss Harriet H. Stanley at the Waukesha Conference of the A. L. A. in 1901.
Harriet Howard Stanley is a native of Massachusetts. After completing a normal school course and teaching for a few years in secondary schools, she entered the New York State Library School, where she was graduated in 1895. She served for four years as librarian of the Public Library at Southbridge, Mass., and thereafter was for eleven years school reference librarian in the Public Library of Brookline, Mass. Since 1910 she has had positions in the Library of the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the Providence (R. I.) Athenaeum, and was for a year librarian of New Hampshire College. At various times she has taught in summer library schools—Albany, India and McGill University. She is now on the staff of the Public Library of Utica, N. Y.
Preliminary to preparing this report, a list of 15 questions was sent to a number of libraries in different parts of the United States, from 24 of which replies were received. So far as space would permit, the facts and opinions obtained have been embodied in this paper.
Reference work with grown people consists in supplying material on various topics; we consider it sufficiently well done when the best available matter is furnished with as little cost of time and trouble to the inquirer as is consistent with the service we owe to other patrons of the library. To a certain extent this statement is true also of reference work with children, but I think we are agreed that for them our aim reaches further— reaches to a familiarity with reference tools, to knowing how to hunt down a subject, to being able to use to best advantage the material found. In a word, we are concerned not so much to supply information as to educate in the use of the library. Seventeen of the 24 libraries reporting judge children to be sent to them primarily, if not wholly, for information. One of the first steps towards improving and developing reference work with children will have been taken when the teacher appreciates the larger purpose, since the point of view must materially affect the character and scope of the work. Another forward step is for the library to have definitely in mind some plan for accomplishing these ends. Whatever the plan, it will in likelihood have to be modified to accord with the teacher's judgment and deeds, but a definite proposal ought at least to give impetus to the undertaking.
Six libraries state that a considerable part of the inquiries they receive from children are apparently prompted by their individual interests, and not suggested by the teacher. These inquiries relate chiefly to sports, mechanical occupations and pets. This paper is confined to the discussion of reference work connected with the schools.
LIBRARY FACILITIES
In selecting reference books for the purpose, certain familiar ones come at once to our minds. Beyond those there have been suggested: Chase and Clow's "Stories of Industry," "Information readers," Brown's "Manual of commerce," Boyd's "Triumphs and wonders of the 19th century," Patton's "Resources of the United States," Geographical readers, Youth's Companion geographical series, Spofford's "Library of historic characters," Larned's "History for ready reference," Ellis's "Youth's dictionary of mythology," Macomber's "Our authors and great inventors," Baldwin's "Fifty famous stories," "Riverside natural history," Wright's "Seaside and wayside," bound volumes of the Great Round World, and text-books on various subjects.
A dictionary catalog will be useful in teaching the child to look up subjects for himself. If a separate catalog is provided for children, the question arises whether it is wiser to follow closely the A. L. A. headings or to modify them where they differ from topics commonly asked for by children or used as headings in text-books. This question suggests also the advisability of a modified classification for a children's library.
Last and not least, children should have room and service adapted to their needs, so that they may not constantly have to be put aside in deference to the rightful demands of adult readers.
So far as the writer knows, the Public Library of Boston was the first library to open a reference room expressly for children, well equipped and separate from the children's reading room or circulating department, and from the general reference department for adults.
CHOICE OF TOPICS
Many libraries report that they find the topics habitually well chosen. The gist of the criticisms is as follows:
(a) The teacher should make clear to the child just what he is to look up and how to ask for it. An eastern library furnishes this incident:
"I want a book about flowers."
"Do you want a special flower?"
"Yes, I want the rose."
A book on the cultivation of roses is handed her. Her companion, looking over, exclaims, "Why she wants the Wars of the roses!" The same librarian was invited to provide something on American privileges; whether social, religious, political, or otherwise, the child did not know.
(b) The teacher should be reasonably sure that there is on the topic something in print, in usable shape, that can be gotten at with a reasonable amount of labor.
(c) The subject when found should be within the child's comprehension. The topic Grasses is manifestly unfit for children, since grasses are difficult to study, and the description of them in encyclopedias and botanies is too technical. An eight- year-old had to investigate the Abyssinian war. Pupils under 16 were assigned the topic Syncretism in the later pagan movement. A western librarian was asked by some girls for Kipling's "Many inventions" and "Day's work." Both were out. "Well, what other books of Kipling's on agriculture have you?" "Why, Kipling hasn't written any books on agriculture; he writes stories and poems." "But we have to debate on whether agriculture or manufacturing has done more for the welfare of the country, and we want a book on both sides."
(d) The topic should be definite and not too broad, and should be subdivided when necessary. The briefest comprehensive description of Rome is probably that in Champlin's "Persons and places," where the six columns, already much condensed, would take more than an hour to copy. A young girl came to find out about Italian painters. None of the several encyclopedias treated them collectively under either Italy or Art. Mrs. Bolton's book of 10 artists includes four Italians, but it takes some time and skill to discover them, as the fact of their nationality does not introduce the narrative. How should a sixth grade pupil make a selection from the 60 painters in Mrs. Jameson's book? Three names were furnished by the librarian, and the child made notes from their biographies. The next day she returned and said she hadn't enough artists.
(e) The question should preferably be of such nature that the child can be helped to find it rather than be obliged to wait while the librarian does the work. One inquiry was, "What eastern plant is sometimes sold for its weight in gold?" This is not in the book of "Curious questions."
(f) The topic should be worth spending time upon. The genealogy of Ellen Douglas will hardly linger long in the average memory.
USE MADE OF THE MATERIAL BY THE CHILD
Suppose the topic to be good and suitable material to have been found; for older children there are two good ways of using it—one to read through and make notes on the substance, the other to copy in selection. Children need practice in doing both. The first method suits broad description and narration, the second detailed description. There seems to be a prevailing tendency to copy simply, without sufficient neglect of minor points, a process which should be left to the youngest children, since it furnishes little mental training, uses a great deal of time, keeps the writer needlessly indoors, and fosters habits of inattention, because it is easy to copy with one's mind elsewhere. The necessity for using judgment after the article has been found is illustrated by the case of some children who came for the life of Homer. Champlin, in about a column, mentions the limits within which the conjectures as to the time of Homer's birth lie, the places which claim to be his birthplace, and tells of the tradition of the blind harper. The children, provided with the book, plunged at once into copying until persuaded just to read the column through. "When you finish reading," I said, "come to me and tell me what it says." They came and recounted the items, and only after questioning did they at all grasp the gist of the matter, that nothing is known about Homer. Even then their sense of responsibility to produce something tangible was so great that they would copy the details, and from the children who came next day I judged that the teacher had required some facts as to time and place and tradition. While it is true that we learn by doing and it is well that children should rely upon themselves, it is evident that young pupils need some direction. Even when provided with sub-topics, they often need help in selecting and fitting together the appropriate facts, since no article exactly suits their needs. About half of the reporting librarians are of the opinion that it is the teacher's business to instruct pupils in the use of books; they consider the library to have done its share when the child has been helped to find the material. The other half believe such direction as is suggested above to be rightly within the librarian's province; several, however, who express a willingness to give such help, add that under their present library conditions it is impracticable. We can easily see that time would not permit nor would it be otherwise feasible for the teacher to examine every collection of notes made at the library, but there ought to be some systematic work where the topics are thoughtfully chosen, the librarian informed of them in advance, and the notes criticised. A moderate amount of reference work so conducted would be of greater benefit than a large quantity of the random sort which we now commonly have. Five librarians state that they are usually given the topics beforehand. Several others are provided with courses of study or attend grade meetings in which the course is discussed.
SYSTEMATIC INSTRUCTION IN THE USE OF THE LIBRARY
While a general effort is being made to instruct children individually, only a few libraries report any systematic lessons. In Providence each visiting class is given a short description of books of reference. In Hartford an attempt at instruction was made following the vacation book talks. In Springfield, Mass., last year the senior class of the literature department was given a lesson on the use of the library, followed by two practice questions on the card catalog. In one of the Cleveland branches talks are given to both teachers and pupils. At the Central High School of Detroit the school librarian has for the past three years met the new pupils for 40 minutes' instruction, and test questions are given. A detailed account of similar work done in other high school libraries is to be found in the proceedings of the Chautauqua conference. Cambridge has given a lecture to a class or classes of the Latin school. In the current library report of Cedar Rapids, Ia., is outlined in detail a course of 12 lessons on bookmaking, the card catalog, and reference books. The librarian of Michigan City, Ind., writes: "Each grade of the schools, from the fifth to the eighth, has the use of our class room for an afternoon session each month. Each child is assigned a topic on which to write a short composition or give a brief oral report. When a pupil has found all he can from one source, books are exchanged, and thus each child comes into contact with several books. At these monthly library afternoons I give short talks to the pupils on the use of the library, the reference books, and the card catalog, accompanied by practical object lessons and tests." At Brookline our plan is to have each class of the eighth and ninth grades come once a year to our school reference room at the library. The teacher accompanies them, and they come in school hours. The school reference librarian gives the lesson. For the eighth grade we consider the make-up of the book—the title-page in detail, the importance of noting the author, the significance of place and date and copyright, the origin of the dedication, the use of contents and index. This is followed by a description of bookmaking, folding, sewing and binding, illustrated by books pulled to pieces for the purpose. The lesson closes with remarks on the care of books. The ninth grade lesson is on reference books, and is conducted largely by means of questioning. A set of test questions at the end emphasizes the description of the books. In these lessons the pupils have shown an unexpected degree of interest and responsiveness. The course brought about 400 children to the library, a few of whom had never been there before. These were escorted about a little, and shown the catalog, charging desk, bulletins, new book shelves, etc. Every one not already holding a card was given an opportunity to sign a registration slip. The following year the eighth grade, having become the ninth, has the second lesson. With these lessons the attitude of the children towards the library has visibly improved, and we are confident that their idea of its use has been enlarged.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL WORK
The inquiry was made of the reporting libraries whether any bibliographical work was being done by the high school. The question was not well put, and was sometimes misunderstood. Almost no such work was reported. At Evanston, III., one high school teacher has taught her class to prepare bibliographies, the librarian assisting. At Brookline we have ambitions, not yet realized, of getting each high school class to prepare one bibliography a year (we begin modestly) on some subject along their lines of study. Last May the principals of two grammar schools offered to try their ninth grades on a simple bibliography. The school reference librarian selected some 60 topics of English history—Bretwalda, Sir Isaac Newton, East India Company, the Great Commoner, etc. Each bibliography was to include every reference by author, title and page to be found in the books of the school reference collection of the public library. The pupils displayed no little zest and enjoyment in the undertaking, and some creditable lists were made. Observation of the work confirmed my belief in its great practical value. Pupils became more keen and more thorough than in the usual getting of material from one or two references on a subject. Such training will smooth the way and save the time of those students who are to make use of a college library, and is even more to be desired for those others whose formal education ends with the high or grammar schools.
The practice of sending collections of books from the public library to the schools is becoming general. When these collections are along the lines of subjects studied, it would seem as if the reference use of the library by pupils might be somewhat diminished thereby. No doubt it is a convenience to both teacher and pupils to have books at hand to which to refer. The possession of an independent school library also tends to keep the reference work in the school. But in neither case ought the reference use of the public library or its branches to be wholly or materially overlooked, since it is on that that pupils must depend in after years, and therefore to that they must now be directed. We recognize that the people of modest means need the library. As for the very-well-to-do, the library needs them. Other things being equal, the pupil who has learned to know and to know how to use his public library ought later so to appreciate its needs and so to recognize the benefits it bestows that he will be concerned to have it generously supported and wisely administered.
Even we librarians claim for our public collection no such fine service as is rendered by those private treasures that stand on a person's own shelves, round which "our pastime and our happiness will grow." Books for casual entertainment are more and more easily come by. But so far as our imagination reaches, what private library will for most readers supplant a public collection of books for purposes of study and reference? Is it not then fitting that we spend time and effort to educate young people to the use of the public library? Do not the methods for realizing this end seem to be as deserving of systematic study as the details of classification and of cataloging? We have learned that to bring school authorities to our assistance our faith must be sufficient to convince and our patience must be tempered by a kindly appreciation of the large demands already made upon the schools. Have we not yet to learn by just what lessons and what practice work the reference use of the public library can best be taught to children?
INSTRUCTION OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE USE OF LIBRARY CATALOGS AND REFERENCE BOOKS
The necessity of close cooperation between school and library in the practical use of books as tools in order that we may have "our grown people more appreciative of the value of their public library and better able to use it" is clearly brought out in this article written by Miss Elizabeth Ellis, Peoria Public Library, for Public Libraries, July, 1899. Miss Ellis says: "It was written at a time when we had no children's department and was an account of my pioneer efforts made entirely as a side issue from my own work as general reference librarian."
Elizabeth Ellis spent one year in the New York State Library School, later taking three months of special work. With the exception of organizing a library at Wenona, Illinois, her work was with the Peoria Public Library. She is not now in library work.
Since the public school of today is the source from which must come our support tomorrow, it behooves us to give some attention to the proper training of our school children if we would have our grown people more appreciative of the value of their public library and better able to use it.
We cannot begin too early, and if the children fall into line there will be no trouble with the coming generation.
But they must learn to really use the library; to feel that they are standing on their own feet and using their own tools, not merely that there is a pleasant room where a good story may be had for the asking. They must grow up in such familiar use of the library in all its departments that it will come to be an actual necessity to them in the pursuit of knowledge.
There are music, drawing, and physical culture teachers for our schools; may we not have a few lessons in how to use a library to the best advantage as part of the course? This field for instruction may be worked to advantage by the librarian, with comparatively little expenditure of time after the first round has been made.
Teachers often feel that they have themselves already more outside work than they can accomplish, but they are really glad to have this instruction given in their schools, and in our experience they have invariably taken great interest in it and have done all in their power to further our efforts.
There is certainly no library work which sends in its returns more promptly, for children feel an instinctive sense of ownership in their library, and take a personal interest in anything pertaining to it. They give the most flattering attention and put their instructions into immediate practice. I believe they really take more interest in the subject when presented by "a lady from the library" than if it were only an additional school lesson taught them by their teacher.
Most of the practical instruction must come in the grammar grades and high school, but it is well to begin as early as the third year, and possibly with the second, if there are found to be many children in a room who have already begun to take books and if there is no age limit. If it should so chance that only a small number in a room are library members, it is better to give only the general interesting library talk, leaving the specific instruction till a second visit, when the fruits of the first will probably appear. There is one point for the lowest room which it may be well to mention. See to it that they are learning to say their A B C's in the good old-fashioned way, for upon this depends all familiar use of catalogs and indexes.
Any child who can write can fill out a call slip, and this we teach them to do from the very first, either from a catalog when help in selection must be given, or from a special list of books for little children.
It must be impressed upon them that if they do not understand the general instruction you are always ready and glad to explain further. If they feel that you are really interested, even the smallest ones will work with enthusiasm to prepare their own call slips instead of asking each time for just any good book.
The intermediate grades, the fifth and sixth, and sometimes the fourth, are quite able to understand the general catalog. I should not advise much explanation at the school, at least in these grades, of the card catalog, if the library has a printed list. The use of a classed catalog, with its index, is easily comprehended, and there are many whole classes of books which these children will enjoy knowing about; boys, I should say, perhaps, for it is the pages containing electricity, photography, boat-building, and hunting, which are worn and crumpled. It is the classed catalog which they will use most, but they should understand the difference between it and the author list.
In all schools it is a good plan to give quizzes, even on a first visit, to draw the children out. Those who are already patrons of the library are delighted to show their knowledge. Afterwards it would be well before the day of the visit, with the teacher's consent, to send a short set of questions which would be answered and returned for correction, thus giving you an idea of what points need dwelling upon. These questions would vary from the simplest points in filling out library numbers, giving authors to titles and vice versa, to questions on arrangement, use of dictionary catalog and of various reference books.
In upper grades and high school add a simple explanation of the card catalog as being the most complete record, trusting to their interest in coming to the library to use it practically. If there is no printed catalog this explanation will have to be given to fifth and sixth years also.
They should be advised to use both kinds, and particularly the dictionary catalog for biography, as the short analytical references are most often what they want.
Children, boys again particularly, take to the card catalog with a confidence often lacking in their elders. I have seen them even make out their fiction lists from the cards in preference to the printed catalog, though for what reason I cannot explain, unless it is their innate desire to explore the unknown.
It is a good plan to have sample cards plainly written in large form on a sheet of paper, in addition to using a section of the catalog itself if it seems advisable to take it. In lower rooms a blackboard talk holds the attention better.
The use of the guide card, which misleads so many grown people, the heading in red, and the see and see also cards in the dictionary catalog, and the arrangement of biography in a classed list are a few points, which may need dwelling upon, and which I mention as having been found in our experience to be pitfalls for the unwary.
In the upper grade rooms, and particularly in the high school, comes the use of the encyclopedias and reference books.
I have found it hard to hold the attention of sixth-year pupils in this part, but they ought to be familiar with a good encyclopedia and biographical dictionary, and the gazeteer.
Tell them about Harper's Book of facts, Hayden's Dictionary of dates, the Century and Lippincott reference books and so on; also Chambers' Book of days, and the mythological dictionaries, in addition to the best encyclopedias, leaving at each school a descriptive list of these books for their further use. Call especial attention to the biographical dictionaries—few persons know how to use a set whose index is in the last volume; also note difference between table of contents and index in general books, and accustom them to use the latter. If there is a very large reference room it might be well to have some of the best books for school use collected on one shelf, and of course every children's room should be thus supplied.
Poole's index may be explained for the principle, but practically people are so sure to select the very volume you have not that it is well to use a little discretion with regard to it, unless you have made an index of all your own periodicals which are included in Poole, and can induce children to be patient enough to use it as a key to the other. The Cumulative index is rather better to teach them the use of periodicals, since it does not contain so many, and also as it gives such a very good idea of the dictionary catalog. The back numbers can be used in your explanations in the schoolroom for both purposes. Find out whether there is a debating society, and if so bring out Briefs for debate, Pros and cons, and tell them specially about the periodical indexes for late subjects.
Care must be taken not to crowd too much into one lesson, or to make it too technical; this latter point we must specially guard against, and experience in teaching comes into good use here. Their individual work with these books will have to be overlooked for some time, even though they are not conscious of it; and one must be ready to fly to the rescue and lend a helping hand without a special request, which I have found some children too timid to make.
In the first year of this kind of work the grammar grades and high school would need some of the instruction given in the lower grades, and after the system is really in working order there would be no actual need to go beyond the grammar grade, as the aim should be to have all really necessary instruction given then as so large a majority of pupils never go farther; but in the high school, if advisable, a course in bibliography could be introduced, based on their school work.
The use of the reference room, or reference desk, is a thing to be taught as much as the books themselves, and in this matter those libraries in which there is not an entirely separate children's room may have an advantage.
I am told that there is a certain feeling of timidity in entering a reference room which is sometimes hard to overcome in children accustomed to a special room and attendant.
Whatever the arrangement, they must be made to feel that the reference room, its appliances and its attendants, are part of their school outfit, an annex to the school as it were, however much we, carrying out the idea of Dr. Harris, may think the school an annex to the library. Accustom them as far as possible to use reference books at the library, and perhaps the coming generation will not invariably demand a book to take home, no matter how small the subject or how large the number of applicants for the same.
In this, as in all other school work, we must look to the teacher for aid after the technical use of our tools is taught.
The average child does not so much need the encouragement to read which may come from the library as constant guidance, which, to a large degree, must and does rest with the teacher, and in this matter of instruction much must depend on her even though the teaching itself is not imposed upon her as part of her duties. Explain to her your ideas, get her individual interest, and I can testify that she will assist in many ways. Children take their tone from their teacher, and the battle is half won if we have her hearty cooperation. A catalog should be placed in every school, and this she will help her pupils to use in nature work, history, and geography, and at the different holidays; also for their selections in speaking.
Particularly can she help in regard to their use of the reference room. She will remind them from time to time to go there instead of to the general delivery counter for special school topics. She will furnish a weekly memorandum of her essay work, this especially in the high school. She will send a warning note when her whole class is to descend upon us in a body at the busiest part of the afternoon, thereby probably saving our reputation in the minds of these young people whom we are laboring to convince that the library is an inexhaustible storehouse of information, equal to any demand which may be made upon it.
Now is the time for them to put their theoretical knowledge into practice, and we must often turn them loose with the reference books to find their own way, if we would be able in the future to deny the accusation that we are fostering laziness by having the very page and line pointed out.
I really believe that when the present library and school movement, has had time to exert its influence over even one generation, unlimited possibilities will unfold. Think what it will be to have our legislatures and city councils, our school and library boards and corps of teachers, drawn from the ranks of those who have grown up in the atmosphere of the public library to a true appreciation of its value.
ELEMENTARY LIBRARY INSTRUCTION
Principles and methods and the part of the public library in giving library instruction are presented by Gilbert O. Ward, Supervisor of High School Libraries, Cleveland, Ohio, in Public Libraries, July, 1912. This and its allied subjects are more comprehensively treated in several of the articles included in the first volume of the present series, entitled "Library and School."
Gilbert O. Ward was born in 1880 in New York City, and was educated in the New York City public schools. He was graduated from Columbia University in 1902 and from the Pratt Institute Library School in 1908. In 1908- 1909 he was an assistant in the Pratt Institute Free Library. Since 1909 he has been a member of the staff of the Cleveland Public Library, as librarian of the Technical High School in 1909-1910, and as technical librarian since 1910. From 1911 to 1913 he served as Supervisor of High School Branches. Mr. Ward has published "Practical use of books and libraries: an elementary textbook for use with high school classes."
The term "elementary library instruction" is limited here to any instruction given in the technical use of books and libraries to students under college or normal school grade.
The object of this paper is to review briefly, (1) the reasons for giving such instruction, (2) subjects and some methods suitable for grade and high schools, (3) the part of the public library in giving such instruction.
The subject of bibliographical instruction for school children has become more important in recent years because of changes which have taken place in school methods. Schools now place much less reliance than formerly upon text-books, while on the other hand they require of the student more collateral reading and reference work. This is especially true in courses in English and history; for instance where the high school student formerly studied about Chaucer in a textbook, he is now more likely required to read a selection.
This method while more fruitful in results than the old text-book method presents new difficulties both to teacher and to student. On the teacher's part, it is no longer sufficient to assign 10 pages for study and have done with it. References must be consulted and assigned to the students for written or oral report. With the troubles of the teacher however, we shall have nothing to do in the present paper. On the student's part, instead of being able to sit down to a compact account in a single book, he is required to use perhaps a dozen books in the course of a month, to say nothing of possible magazine articles. In fine, instead of a single book, he must use a library. The practical effect of this condition is that without some understanding of the scientific use of books and of the possibilities of either high school or public library, the student wastes his time and finds these studies an increased burden. The ordinary student is ignorant of how to handle books.
The primary purpose of formal library instruction is clearly then to do away with the friction which hinders the student in his or her work. There is no charm in bibliographical information as such and no excuse for attempting to teach a child merely curious or interesting facts for which he has no natural appetite or use. An example of this mistake is the attempt to acquaint the student with very many reference books, or go deeply into the subject of classification.
The subject of library instruction in public schools conveniently divides itself into two parts, (1) instruction in grade schools, (2) instruction in high schools. I have elsewhere rather full tentative outlines by way of suggestion, and limit myself at this point to more general discussion.
In elementary classes, the subject matter must be simple, first because the needs of the student are simple, and secondly because it is more easily and willingly taught if simple. The subjects which suggest themselves are: (1) The physical care of a book, (2) printed parts of a book, (3) the dictionary, (4) the public library.
The physical care of a book comes naturally first because children have to handle books before they can read them for pleasure, or need to use them as reference helps. The subject is important both to librarian and to school boards because it affects the question of book replacement, and hence the expenditure of public money. Speaking broadly, it is a question of conservation.
The ordinary book, not the reference book, is the one with which the student will always have most to deal; therefore as soon as he is old enough, or as soon as his text books can serve for practical illustration, the important printed parts of the ordinary books can be called to his attention. It should be sufficient to include the title page (title, author's name, and date), table of contents and index.
The study of the dictionary (the first reference book) should be taken up first with the pocket dictionaries when these are used in class and the children should be practiced in discovering and understanding the kinds of information given with each word. Then, when the unabridged is attacked later, the essentials will be familiar, and the mind freer to attack the somewhat complex problems of arrangement and added information, e.g., synonyms, quotations, etc.
After proper care of books, and the use of an ordinary book, and the use of a simple reference book, the next natural step is to the use of the public library. The talk on the public library obviously includes some description of the library's purpose and resources both for use and amusement, a very general description of the arrangement of the books, possibly some description of the card catalog—personally I am somewhat skeptical as to the utility of the card catalog for grade pupils—and finally, possibly an explanation of the encyclopedia.
The instructor for all the subjects mentioned excepting the public library is logically the teacher, because the subjects must be introduced as occasion arises in class. For instance the time for teaching the physical care of a book is when a book is first put into the child's hands. For the talk on the public library, the library itself is obviously the place, and the children's librarian the instructor Some special methods which suggest themselves are as follows: for the physical care of a book, a class drill in opening, holding, shutting, laying down, etc., rewards for the cleanest books, etc.; for the card catalogue, sample sets of catalogue cards (author, title and subject). The latter method is successfully used by the Binghamton (N. Y.) public library.
In high school, students vary in age from the grammar school boy on the one side, to the college freshman on the other, and the subjects and methods of instruction vary accordingly. In the matter of bibliographical instruction this greater range is reflected in a closer study of reference tools, including those parts of an ordinary book not taken up in the grades, (e.g., copyright date, preface, peculiar indexes, etc.), the unabridged dictionary, selected reference books, card catalog, magazine indexes, etc. The intelligent care of books can be re-emphasized by an explanation of book structure from dissected examples.
The specific subjects to be taught will vary with the time available, the class of the student, the subjects taught in school and the method of teaching them, and the material on hand in the public or school library.
As to general methods of instruction, these also must vary to suit the subject, the age of the student and the time available. Straight lecturing economizes time but makes the class restless and inattentive. An oral quiz drawing on the student's own experience is useful in getting the recitation started and revives interest when interspersed through a lecture. Each point should be illustrated by concrete examples from books themselves when possible, or from the blackboard. The lesson should be concluded by a written exercise, not too difficult, which should be marked. For example, the dictionary might be illustrated from the sample sheets issued by the publishers; and the class should then be given a list of questions to be answered from the dictionary. The questions can frequently be framed so as to be answered by a page number instead of a long answer, and each student should as far as practicable have a set of questions to answer different from every other student's.
If the high school possesses a library, much of the instruction is most logically given there. This save the time of the class in travelling back and forth from the school to the public library, particularly if the course is an extended one.
But why does the instruction of school children in the use of books and libraries concern the public library?
Because if children learn to use ordinary books intelligently it means a saving of the librarian's time by her not having to find the precise page of every reference for a child. It means a diminished amount of handling of books. It means less disturbance from children who do not know how to find what they want. Other results will doubtless suggest themselves.
It is not proposed to train the student to be a perfectly independent investigator. That would be impracticable and undesirable. It is simply proposed to give him such bibliographical knowledge as will be distinctly useful to him as a student now, and later as a citizen and patron of the library.
But what part may the public library play in this instruction? It obviously may play a very large part in high schools, the librarian of which it supplies, as in the city of Cleveland. In high schools when the librarian is appointed by the school authorities, it can cooperate with the school librarian by lending speakers to describe the public library, by furnishing sets of specimen catalogue cards for comparison—for public library cataloging may differ from high school cataloging—by lending old numbers of the Readers' Guide for practice in bibliography making, etc., etc.
Where there is no high school library and instruction must be given by the teacher or the public librarian, again the opportunities of the public library are clear. First there are teachers to be interested. English and history teachers most obviously, and department heads of these subjects are strategic points for attack. The subject of course should never be forced and a beginning should be made only with those teachers who seem likely to take interest. In the Binghamton public library before referred to, the librarian contrived to get the teachers together socially at the library, and the plan was then discussed before being put into operation. In laying the foundation for such a campaign, the librarian should have a simple, but definite plan in mind, based on her experience with school children so that when asked for suggestion, she can advance a practicable proposition.
Finally, under any circumstances, the public library can always be open for visits from classes, and ready to give class instruction in either library or school room as necessity or opportunity suggests. These methods are of course well known. Much informal instruction can also be given to students on using the index of an ordinary book, or the encyclopedia as occasion arises.
Summing up the chief points of this superficial review, we have seen (1) that the change in teaching methods has made the subject of library instruction important. (2) That the subjects of such instruction should be simple, and that both subjects and methods must be adapted to the occasion, (3) and finally that the public library is interested in the subject from a practical point of view and is able to take an influential part in shaping and administering courses.
THE QUESTION OF DISCIPLINE
The first article quoted on the subject of discipline was contributed to The Library Journal, October, 1901, by Miss Lutie E. Stearns, who gives the experience of a number of librarians and interprets them from her own standpoint. Lutie Eugenia Stearns was born in Stoughton, Mass.; was graduated from the Milwaukee State Normal School in 1887, and taught in the public schools for two years. From 1890 to 1897 she was in charge of the circulating department of the Milwaukee Public Library; from 1897 to 1914 she was connected with the Wisconsin Library Commission, part of the time as chief of the Travelling Library Department. Miss Stearns now devotes her time to public lecturing.
In these days of children's shelves, corners, or departments, or when, in lieu of such separation, the juvenile population fairly overruns the library itself, the question of discipline ofttimes becomes a serious one. The pages of library journals, annual reports, bulletins, primers, and compendiums may be searched in vain for guidance. How to inculcate a spirit of quiet and orderliness among the young folks in general; how to suppress giggling girls; what to do with the unruly boy or "gang" of boys —how best to win or conquer them, or whether to expel them altogether; how to deal with specific cases of malicious mischief or flagrant misbehavior and rowdiness—all these questions sometimes come to be of serious importance to the trained and untrained librarian.
It was with a view of gaining the experience of librarians in this matter that letters were recently sent to a large number of librarians, asking for devices used in preserving order and quiet in the library. The replies are of great interest, the most surprising and painful result of the symposium being the almost universal testimony that the leading device used in preserving order is the policeman! One librarian even speaks of his library as being "well policed" in ALL of its departments. Personally, we think the presence of such an officer is to be greatly deplored, believing him to be as much out of place in a library as he would be in enforcing order in a church or school room. The term of a school teacher would be short lived, indeed, who would be compelled to resort to such measures. In several instances, janitors do police duty, being invested with the star of authority; and in one case the librarian, who openly confesses to a lack of sentiment in the matter, calls upon the janitor to thrash the offender! "The unlucky youth who gets caught has enough of a story to tell to impress transgressors for a long time to come," writes the librarian. "The average boy believes in a thrashing, and it is much better in the end for him and for others to administer it and secure reverence for the order of the library."
In one state at least, Massachusetts, there is a special law imposing a penalty for disturbance; and one librarian reports that he has twice had boys arrested and tried for disturbing readers. Another librarian does not go as far as this but adopts the device of showing unruly boys a photograph of the State Reform School and the cadets on parade. "The mischief is quite subdued before I am half through," she writes, "and they frequently return bringing other boys to see the photograph. This fact undoubtedly acts as a check upon the boys many times." A pleasing contrast is offered to such drastic and unwholesome methods as these by the gentle and cheery methods pursued by a librarian who says, "The children in this library talk less than the grown-ups. When they do raise their voices, I go up to them and tell them in a very low tone that if everybody else in the room were making as much noise as they, it would be a very noisy place. That stops them. If children walk too heavily or make a noise on the stairs, I affect surprise and remark in a casual way that I did not know that it was circus day until I heard the elephants. This produces mouse-like stillness at once. Really, I know no other devices except being very impressive and putting quietness on the ground of other peoples' rights."
But it is not always such smooth sailing. One librarian writes: "We have had no end of trouble in a small branch which we have opened in a settlement in a part of our city almost entirely occupied by foreign born residents. A great many boys have come there for the sole purpose of making a row. We have had every sort of mischief, organized and unorganized. We have had to put boys out and we have had many free fights, much to the amusement and pleasure of the boys. We have never resorted to arrests, but instructed the young man who acted as body guard to the young lady assistants to hold his own as best he could in these melees. I finally resorted to the plan of taking the young man away and letting the young ladies be without their guard. This has resulted most satisfactorily. The order has been much better, and while I cannot say that we are free from disorder, nothing like the state of things that before existed now obtains. The manager of the Settlement House overheard a gang of these very bad boys consulting on the street a few nights ago, something in this wise: 'Come, boys, let's go to the library for some fun!' Another boy said, 'Who's there?' The reply was, 'Oh! only Miss Y——; don't let's bother her,' and the raid was not made. Of course we have done everything ordinary and extraordinary that we know about in the way of trying to interest the boys and having a large number of assistants to be among them and watch them, but nothing has succeeded so well as to put the girls alone in the place and let things take their course."
The experience of another librarian also furnishes much food for thought. She writes: "I could almost say I am glad that others have trouble with that imp of darkness, the small boy. Much as I love him, there are times when extermination seems the only solution of the difficulty. However, our children's room is a paradise to what it was a year ago, and so I hope. The only thing is to know each boy as well as possible, something of his home and school, if he will tell you about them. The assistants make a point of getting acquainted when only a few children are in. This winter I wrote to the parents of several of the leaders, telling them I could not allow the children in the library unless the parents would agree to assist me with the discipline. This meant that about six boys have not come back to us. I was sorry, but after giving the lads a year's trial I decided there was no use in making others suffer for their misdeeds. A severe punishment is to forbid the boys a 'story hour.' They love this and will not miss an evening unless compelled to remain away. To give some of the worst boys a share in the responsibility of caring for the room often creates a feeling of ownership which is wholesome. Our devices are as numerous and unique as the boys themselves. Some of them would seem absurd to an outsider. The unexpected always happens; firmness, sympathy and ingenuity are the virtues required and occasionally the added dignity of a policeman, who makes himself quite conspicuous, once in a while."
Another reply is a follows: "Miss C—— has turned over your inquiry concerning unruly boys to me to answer. I protested that every boy that made a disturbance was to me a special problem—and very difficult; and I can't tell what we do with unruly boys as a class. I remember I had a theory that children were very susceptible to courtesy and gentleness, and I meant to control the department by teaching the youngsters SELF control and a proper respect for the rights of the others who wanted to study in peace and quiet. I never went back on my theory; but occasionally, of a Saturday afternoon, when there were a hundred children or more and several teachers in the room and I was trying to answer six questions a minute, I did have to call in our impressive janitor. He sat near the gate and looked over the crowd and when he scowled the obstreperous twelve-year- olds made themselves less conspicuous. A policeman sometimes wandered in, but I disliked to have to resort to the use of muscular energy. I learned the names of the most troublesome boys and gradually collected quite a bit of information about them, their addresses, where they went to school, their favorite authors, who they seemed 'chummy' with, etc., and when they found I didn't intend to be needlessly disagreeable and wasn't always watching for mischief, but credited them with honor and friendly feelings, I think some of them underwent a change of heart. I made a point of bowing to them on the street, talking to them and especially getting them to talk about their books; had them help me hang the bulletins and pictures, straighten up the books etc. Twice an evil spirit entered into about a dozen of the boys and my patience being kin to the prehistoric kind that 'cometh quickly to an end,' after a certain point, I gave their names to the librarian, who wrote to their parents. That settled things for a while and they got out of the habit of talking so much. A serious conversation with one boy ended with the request that he stay from the library altogether for a month and when he came back he would begin a new slate. Once, within a week, he came in, or started to, when I caught his eye. Then he beckoned to another boy and I think a transaction of some kind took place so that he got his book exchanged. But he saw I meant what I said. The day after the month was up he appeared, we exchanged a friendly smile and I had no more trouble with him."
We deem the question of banishment a serious one. Unruly boys are often just the ones that need the influence of the library most in counteracting the ofttimes baneful influence of a sordid home life. It is a good thing, morally, to get hold of such boys at an early age and to win their interest in and attendance at the library rather than at places of low resort. To withhold a boy's card may also be considered a doubtful punishment— driving the young omnivorous reader to the patronage of the "underground travelling library" with its secret stations and patrons. Before suspension or expulsion is resorted to, the librarian should clearly distinguish between thoughtless exuberance of spirits and downright maliciousness. "If we only had a boys' room," plaintively writes one sympathetic librarian, "where we could get them together without disturbing their elders and could thus let them bubble over with their 'animal spirits' without infringing on other people, I believe we could win them for good."
A number of librarians, however, report no difficulty in dealing with the young folks. Some state that the children easily fall into the general spirit of the place and are quiet and studious. "We just expect them to be gentlemen," says one, "and they rarely fail to rise to the demand." In such places will generally be found floors that conduce to stillness, rubber-tipped chairs, and low-voiced assistants. "Our tiled floors are noisy—not our children," confesses one librarian. The use of noiseless matting along aisles most travelled will be found helpful. But one library mentions the use of warning signs as being of assistance, this being a placard from the Roycroft Shop reading, "Be gentle and keep the voice low." In a library once visited were found no less than eighteen signs of admonition against dogs, hats, smoking, whispering, handling of books, etc., etc.—the natural result being that, in their multiplicity, no one paid any attention to any of them. If a sign is deemed absolutely necessary, it should be removed after general attention his been called to it. The best managed libraries nowadays are those wherein warnings are conspicuous for their absence. Next to the officious human "dragon" that guards its portals, there is probably no one feature in all the great libraries of a western metropolis that causes so much caustic comment and rebellious criticism as that of an immense placard in its main reading room bearing in gigantic letters the command, SILENCE—this perpetual affront being found in a great reference library frequented only by scholarly patrons. Such a placard is as much out of place there as it would be in a school for deafmutes.
The solution of the whole problem of discipline generally resolves itself into the exercise of great tact, firmness, and, again, gentleness. There should be an indefinable something in the management of the library which will draw people in and an atmosphere most persuasive in keeping them there and making them long to return. A hard, imperious, domineering, or condescending spirit on the part of librarian and assistants often incites to rebellion or mutiny on the part of patrons. As opposed to this, there should ever be the spirit of quietude, as exemplified in the words previously quoted—"Be gentle and keep the voice low."
MAINTAINING ORDER IN THE CHILDREN'S ROOM
The following paper embodies practical suggestions for helping to give the children's room a "natural, friendly atmosphere." It was read by Miss Clara W. Hunt before the Long Island Library Club, February 19, 1903. A sketch of Miss Hunt appears on page 135.
So many of the problems of discipline in a children's room would cease to be problems if the material conditions of the room itself were ideal, that I shall touch first upon this, the less important branch of my subject. For although the height of a table and width of an aisle are of small moment compared with the personal qualifications of the children's librarian, yet since it is possible for us to determine the height of a table, when mere determining what were desirable will not insure its production where a human personality is concerned, it is practical to begin with what there is some chance of our attaining. And the question of fitting up the room properly is by no means unimportant, but decidedly the contrary. For, given a children's librarian who is possessed of the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of Job, the generalship of Napoleon, and put her into a room in which every arrangement is conducive to physical discomfort, and even such a paragon will fail of attaining that ideal of happy order which she aims to realize in her children's reading room. The temper even of an Olympian is not proof against uncomfortable surroundings.
Children are very susceptible, though unconsciously to themselves, to physical discomfort. You may say you do not think so, for you know they would sit through a whole morning and afternoon at school without taking off their rubbers, if the teacher did not remind them to do it, and so, you argue, this shows that they do not mind the unpleasant cramped feeling in the feet which makes a grown person frantic. But while the child himself cannot tell what is wrong with him, the wise teacher knows that his restlessness and irritability are directly traceable to a discomfort he is not able to analyze, and so the cause is not removed without her oversight. While the children's librarian will not have the close relations with the boys and girls that their school-teachers have, she may well learn of the latter so to study what will make for the child's comfort, that, in the perfect adaptation of her room to its work, half the problems of discipline are solved in advance.
Let us suppose that the librarian is to have the satisfaction of planning a new children's room. In order to learn what conveniences to adopt and what mistakes to avoid, she visits other libraries and notes their good and weak points. She will soon decide that the size of a room is an important factor in the question of discipline. Let a child who lives in a cramped little flat where one can hardly set foot down without stepping on a baby come into a wide, lofty, spacious room set apart for children's reading, and, other conditions in the library being as they should the mere effect of the unwonted spaciousness will impress him and have a tendency to check the behavior that goes with tenement- house conditions. We of the profession are so impressed with the atmosphere that should pervade a library, that a very small and unpretentious collection of books brings our voices involuntarily to the proper library pitch. But this is not true to the small arab, who, coming from the cluttered little kitchen at home to a small, crowded children's room where the aisles are so narrow that the quickest way of egress is to crawl under the tables, sees only the familiar sights—disorder, confusion, discomfort —in a different place, and carries into the undignified little library room the uncouth manners that are the rule at home. In planning a new children's room then, give it as much space as you can induce the librarian, trustees, and architects to allow. Unless you are building in the North Woods, or the Klondike or the Great American Desert you will never have any difficulty in getting small patrons enough to fill up your space and keep the chairs and tables from looking lonesome.
The question of light has a direct bearing on the children's behavior. Ask any school teacher, if you have never had occasion to notice it yourself, which days are the noisiest in her school-room, the bright, sunny ones, or the dingy days when it is difficult to see clearly across the room. Ask her if the pencils don't drop on the floor oftener, if small feet do not tramp and scrape more, if chairs don't tip over with louder reports, if tempers are not more keenly on edge, on a dark day than a bright one. I need not say "yes," for one hundred out of a hundred will say it emphatically. So, if you cannot have a room bright with sunshine, do at least be lavish with artificial light, for your own peace of mind.
Floors rendered noiseless by some good covering help wonderfully to keep voices pitched low. I have seen this illustrated almost amusingly in Newark, where frequent visits of large classes were made from the schools to the public library. The tramp of forty or fifty pairs of feet in the marble corridors made such a noise that the legitimate questions and answers of children and librarian had to be given in tones to be heard over the noise of the feet. The change that came over the voices and faces as the class stepped on the noiseless "Nightingale" flooring of the great reading room was almost funny. The feet made no noise, therefore it was not necessary to raise the voice to be heard, and no strictures of attendants were needed to maintain quiet in that room.
Under the head of furniture I will give only one or two hints of things worth remembering. One is that whatever you decide upon for a chair, in point of size, shape, or style, make sure, before you pay your bill, that it cannot be easily overturned. If you have a chair that will tip over every time a child's cloak swings against it, your wrinkles will multiply faster than your years warrant. And reason firmly with your electrician if he has any plan in mind of putting lamps on your tables of such a sort that they positively invite the boy of a scientific (or Satanic) turn of mind to astonish the other children by the way the lights brighten and go out, all because he has discovered that a gentle pressure to his foot on the movable plug under the table can be managed so as to seem purely innocent and accidental while he sits absorbed in the contents of his book. I would also ask why it is that librarians think we need so MUCH furniture, when our rooms are as small as they sometimes are? We seem to think it inevitable that the floor space should be filled up with tables, but, as Mr. Anderson remarked in his paper at Magnolia, if we saw a family at home gathered around the table, leaning their elbows upon it and facing the light, we should think it a very unnatural and unhygienic position to adopt. Why should we, in the library, encourage children to do just what physiologists tell us they should not do? Why provide tables at all for any but those actually needing them as desks for writing up their reference work? For the many who come merely to read, why is not a chair and a book, with light on the page of the book, and not glaring into the child's eyes, enough for his comfort? This is worth thinking about, I am sure, and worked out in some satisfactory, artistic little back-to-back benches perhaps, would change the stereotyped appearance of the children's room, and give the extra floor space which is always sadly needed. It is an axiom in library architecture that perfect supervision should be made easily possible. In a children's room this should be taken very literally. There should be no floor cases, no alcoves in the room, no arrangements by which a knot of small mischief makers can conceal themselves from the librarian for she will find such an error in planning, a thorn in the flesh as long as the room stands.
So much time devoted to the planning of the children's room, may give the impression that the room is of more importance than the librarian. It is a platitude, however, to say that the ideal children's librarian, with every material condition against her, will do a thousand times more than the ideal room with the wrong person in it. The qualifications necessary to make the right sort of a disciplinarian are, many of them, too intangible for words, but a few things strike me as not always distinctly recognized by librarians.
In the first place, no librarian should compel that member of his staff who dislikes children to do the work of the children's department. While on general principles to let an attendant choose the work she likes to do would be disastrous, since the person best fitted for dusting might choose to be reference librarian, in this one particular at any rate, the wishes of the staff should be consulted. For while all may be conscientious, faithful workers wherever placed, mere conscientiousness will not make a person who frankly says children bore and annoy her, a success in the children's room. Love for children should be the first requisite, and the librarian who puts a person in charge of that work against her will, will hurt the department in a way that will be surely felt sooner or later. While love for children, sympathy with, and understanding of them are all of the first importance in the composition of a children's librarian, some experience in handling them in large numbers (as in public school teaching, mission schools, boys' clubs, etc.) is extremely desirable. To deal with a mob of very mixed youngsters is a different matter from telling stories to a few well-brought up little ones in your own comfortable nurseries. The best qualification for the work of children's librarian is successful experience as a teacher, in these happy days when it is coming to be the rule that law and liberty may walk side by side in the school-room, and where firmness on the teacher's part in no wise interferes with friendliness on the child's.
The children's librarian should have the sort of nerves that are not set on edge by children. This does not mean that she may not be a nervous person in other ways, indeed she must be, for the nerveless, jelly-fish character can never be a success in dealing with children. But I have seen people of highly nervous organization who were really unconscious of the ceaseless tramp, tramp, of the children's feet, the hum and clatter and moving about inevitable in a children's library. Visitors come into the room and say to such a person, "How can you stand this for many minutes at a time?" and the librarian looks round in surprise at the idea of there being anything hard to bear when she hears only the little buzz that means to her hundreds of little ones at the most susceptible age, eagerly, happily absorbing the ennobling ideals, the poetic fancies, the craving for knowledge that are going to make them better men and women than they would have been without this glimpse into the realms beyond their daily surroundings.
To attempt to enumerate, one by one, the qualities that combine to make a wise and successful disciplinarian would be fruitless. We can talk endlessly about what OUGHT to be. The most practical thing to do to obtain such a person, is not to take a raw subject and pour advice upon her in hopes she will develop some day, but to hunt till you find the right one and then offer her salary enough to get her for your library. And this suggests a subject worthy of future discussion, that head librarians should reckon this to be a profession within our profession, just as the kindergartner is a specialist within the teaching body, demanding a higher type of training than is the rule, and PAYING THE PRICE TO GET IT.
Just a word about what degree of order and quiet to expect, and to work for, in a children's room. Are we to try to maintain that awful hush that sends cold chills down the spine of the visitor on his first entering a modern reading room, and tempts him to back out in fright lest the ticking of his watch may draw all eyes upon him?
I should be very sorry to have a children's room as perfectly noiseless as a reading room for adults. It is so unnatural for a roomful of healthy boys and girls to be absolutely quiet for long periods that if I found such a state of affairs I should be sure something was wrong—that all spontaneity was being repressed, that that freedom of the shelves which is a great educator was being denied because moving about makes too much noise, that the question and answer and comment which mark the friendly understanding between librarian and child, and which make a good book circulate because one boy tells another that it is good, were done away with in order that no slight noise might be heard. If there were such a thing as a meter to register sound to be hung in a children's room beside the thermometer, I should not be alarmed if it indicated a pretty high degree, provided I could look around the room and observe the following conditions: a large room, full of contented children, no one of whom was wilfully noisy or annoying, most of them being quietly reading, the ones who were moving about asking in low tones the children's librarian or each other, perfectly legitimate questions that were to help them choose the right thing. It is inevitable that heavy boots, young muscles that have not learned self-control, the joyous frankness of childhood that does not think to keep its eager happiness over a good "find" under decorous restraint, will result in more actual noise than obtains in the adults' reading room. And yet, while the "sound meter" of the children's room would register farther up, it might really be more orderly than the other room, for every child might be using his room as it was intended to be used, while the adult department might contain a couple of women who came in for the express purpose of visiting, and yet who knew how to whisper so softly as not to be invited to retire. We must remember that, if children make more noise, they do not mind each other's noise as adults do. The dropping of a book or overturning of a chair, the walking about do not disturb the young student's train of thought; and while I do not wish to be quoted as advocating a noisy room, but on the contrary would work for a quiet one, day in and day out, I do feel that allowances must be made for noises that are not intended to be annoying, and that we should not sacrifice to the ideal of deathly stillness the good we hope to do through the child's love for the room in which he feels free to express himself in a natural, friendly atmosphere.
PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE
The Wisconsin Library Bulletin for July-August, 1908, is given up to the presentation of widely varying experiences in regard to discipline, in a report by Mary Emogene Hazeltine and Harriet Price Sawyer, who sent a list of ten questions to 125 librarians, and incorporated the replies.
Mary Emogene Hazeltine was born in Jamestown, N. Y., in 1868, and was graduated from Wellesley College in 1891. She was librarian of the James Prendergast Free Library in Jamestown from 1893 to 1906, when she became Preceptor of the Library School of the University of Wisconsin, the position she now holds. She has given much help to small libraries.
Mrs. Harriet Price Sawyer was born in Kent, Ohio, received the degree of B. L. from Oberlin College: was an assistant in the Oberlin College Library 1902-1903; was graduated from the Pratt Institute Library School in 1904; was librarian of the State Normal School at New Paltz, N. Y., 1904-1905; a student in the University of Berlin, Germany, 1905-1906; Library Visitor and Instructor, Wisconsin Library Commission, 1906-1910. Since that time she has been chief of the Instructional Department in the St. Louis Public Library, including charge of the training class. In 1917 this class was expanded into a library school, with Mrs. Sawyer as principal.
In March, a list of questions concerning the problem of discipline in the library was sent out to 125 librarians. The answers show a most interesting variety of experiences and conditions. A few report that it is no longer a "vexed" problem, and one librarian thinks that it is "only a well-maintained tradition," but most of the writers agree with Miss Eastman of Cleveland, who says: "You will note that while conditions vary somewhat in the different branches, discipline is a question which we have always with us whenever we work with children. I do believe, however, that each year places the library on a little higher and more dignified plane in the minds of the children as well as the public generally; and that the question of discipline becomes more and more a question of dealing with individuals."
As to disturbance without the library, there is but one opinion, viz., to turn the matter over to the policemen, and this is reported in every instance to have put an end to the trouble.
Any serious misbehavior within the library has been treated by the suspension of library privileges, ranging in severity of sentence from one day to a month or, in a few cases, even longer. The variation, however, in the manner of carrying out the sentence forms an interesting study, from the lightest form reported, at Chippewa Falls, where the child may draw a book, but remains in the library only long enough to secure it, to the drastic measures taken at Sheboygan where the students were ordered out of the library en masse even in the midst of preparation for a test in history.
Miss Wood's plan is an interesting one, but the tactful helpers are difficult to find.
The card system at Kenosha will no doubt solve the difficulty for many librarians who find the initiative in the disciplining of the older visitors at the library most difficult to undertake.
In some communities, the personal letter or visit to the parents has proved most helpful, and, doubtless, the plan reported by Miss Lord of asking the boy to sign his name will find favor in the larger libraries.
The aim of discipline, according to educators, is the moral foundation of character. The library as well as the school has to make up for the lack of moral training in many homes, and good conduct must be taught by the librarian as well as by the teacher. The whole matter is very well summed up by Miss Dousman of Milwaukee.
"It seems to me that order and good behavior are absolutely imperative in the library. Good manners, that outward and visible sign of the respect for the rights of others, should be expected of children. How? By never failing yourself to treat them with respect, courtesy and justice. To distinguish between unavoidable disturbances and those made with mischievous intent. To see and hear only the things you can prevent, else your nerves will get the better of your judgment.
"Allow children as much freedom as possible, consistent with the rights of others—and don't nag.
"In case of bad behavior, make a tactful and pleasant appeal to the child first, thereby giving him a chance to reinstate himself. This appeal failing, reprimand in no uncertain terms. Dismissal from the room is the natural punishment for refusal to obey regulations. Obedience as a virtue has not entirely gone out of fashion. Suspension for a definite or indefinite period, according to the offense is necessary for the maintenance of good discipline. Limitation as to the number of times a week a mischievous child may visit the library has a good effect. A suspended sentence of permanent dismissal on failure to behave has a most salutary effect. Reinstate as soon as there is an evident desire to improve.
"In our zeal to control the child, some have lost sight of the fact that it is quite as important to teach the child to control himself; that if he is to become a good citizen, he cannot learn too early to respect the rights of others."
At a meeting of the Massachusetts Library Club, reported in Public Libraries, v. 12, p. 362 (Nov. 1907), Miss Harriet H. Stanley of Brookline said of "Discipline in a Children's Room," that unnatural restraint was to be avoided, but the restraint required for the common good was wholesome, and that children were more, rather than less, comfortable under it, when it was exercised with judgment and in a kindly spirit.
"Judgment comes with experience. … As far as you are able, be just. If your watchfulness fails sometimes to detect the single offender in a group of children and you must send out the group to put an end to some mischief, say so simply, and they will see that they suffer not from your hard heartedness, but from the culprit's lack of generosity or from the insufficiency of their devices for concealing him. Be philosophical. Most disturbance is only mischief and properly treated will be outgrown. Stop it promptly, but don't lose your temper, and don't get worked up. To the juvenile mind, 'getting a rise' out of you is no less exhilarating than the performance which occasions it. Habitually deny them this gratification and mischief loses its savor.
"Talk little about wrongdoing. Don't set forth to a child the error of his ways when the 'ways' are in process of being exhibited, and the exhibitor is fully conscious of their nature. Choose another time—a lucid interval—for moral suasion.
"When children are intentionally troublesome, the simplest means of discipline is exclusion from the room; when necessary, formal exclusion for a definite period with a written notice to parents. The authority of the library should be exercised in the occasional cases where it is needed, both for the wrongdoer's own good and for the sake of the example to others.
"Provided you are just and sensible and good-tempered, your patrons will respect the library more and like you none the less for exacting from them suitable behavior. We talk a good deal about the library as a place of refuge for boys and girls from careless homes, and they do deserve consideration from us, but to learn a proper regard for public law and order is as valuable as any casual benefit from books. The children of conscientious parents whether poor or well-to-do also deserve something at our hands, and we owe it to them to maintain a respectable standard of conduct for them to share. Let us be hospitable and reasonable, but let us be courageous enough to insist that the young citizen treat the library with the respect due to a municipal institution."
It has been impossible to publish in full all of the replies to the circular letter sent out, but as much as possible has been incorporated in this report, believing that each situation delineated may give helpful hints toward the solution of this general difficulty. The list of questions is given in the synopsis appended to the admirable and helpful report contributed by the chief of the children's department in Pittsburgh.
Miss Frances Jenkins Olcott, Pittsburgh
After ten years of experience we find our most difficult question of discipline arises when the older boys and girls come into the library. They usually come in the evening and we have the greatest trouble with the boys. Sometimes we suspect that our trouble with the boys is due to the influence of the girls, who know how to keep quiet and yet make confusion!
The question of discipline depends largely on the district in which a branch is placed and also on the planning and equipment of the children's room—in fact of the whole branch building, and on the personal attention of the branch librarian toward the children.
In answer to question ten I might say that everything depends on the children's librarian's judgment and also on the children. Some children come into the library to be sent home. They wish to see how many times they can make mischief, and it is really a pleasure to them to have you send them out. In other cases children are much mortified by being sent from the room. It is necessary that the children's librarian and her assistants should know the children individually, especially their names and something of their home conditions wherever possible. The handling of "gangs" takes a great deal of tact and sympathy with boys.
On the whole, given a well-planned and equipped children's room, plenty of books, a sufficient number of the right kind of children's librarians who are firm, tactful and sympathetic (having a sense of humor and a wide knowledge of children's books) and by all means a sympathetic branch librarian, the question of discipline will usually smooth itself out. We have one room in a crowded tenement district where the right young woman has produced unusual order. The children come in and go out happy and interested in their books, and there is little need for reproof. This is due largely to the fact that we started in with a determination to have reasonable order and the children learned that to use the room it was necessary to be orderly, and they are much happier and get more from the library.
SYNOPSIS
1. At what hour is the discipline most difficult?
Discipline is most difficult during the busiest time, the evening, our branch libraries being open until 9 o'clock.
2. With what ages do you have the most trouble?
The greatest trouble is with children from 10-16.
3. With boys or girls, or both?
Both boys and girls, but the greatest trouble with boys.
4. Are the scholars from the High School a special trouble?
It depends on the district in which the branch is situated and the social conditions of the people visiting the branch.
5. Do any use the library as a meeting place, or kind of club?
This also depends largely on the district.
6. Do they come in such numbers that they over-run the library and keep the older people away because of the consequent confusion, noise, and lack of room?
No, excepting under conditions produced by bad planning of buildings.
7. Do you ever ask for help in the discipline—from the trustees, police, or others?
The branches which have guards have less difficulty in discipline, otherwise in some of the crowded districts the janitors and police are occasionally called in.
8. Do the teachers help by talking to the scholars on the necessity of behavior in public places?
As far as our knowledge goes, only occasionally.
9. Have you ever addressed the schools on this topic?
No, with one exception, where it proved satisfactory.
10. Do you ever send unruly children (either older or younger ones) home? If so, with what result in the case of the individual? With what effect on the whole problem? For how long do you suspend a child? What are the terms on which he can return?
(a) We always send unruly children home, procuring their name and address first whenever possible. If we have to send the same child from the room frequently, a letter is sent to the parent stating the reason. (b) This has worked well with but three exceptions in four years. The crucial point is to find the name of the child. (c) We have never suspended a child for more than two months unless he were arrested for misbehavior. (d) An apology to the librarian and good behavior following. (Hazelwood)
We send children from the library.
In this district we have two classes of disorderly children. Those who came from homes where they have had no restraint of any sort, and have too recently come to the library to have acquired reading-room manners; and those who know very well how to conduct themselves, but enjoy making a disturbance. We do our best to help the former to learn how to conduct themselves quietly—the essential means of course is to interest them in books and to make them feel the friendliness of the room. But when a child of the second class is disorderly, he is first made to sit quite by himself; if he is persistently noisy, he is sent from the room. The length of time he is suspended depends on his previous conduct and on the offense in question; from a day to a month or more. A child usually behaves like an angel when he first comes back after being out of the library for any length of time.
We have a good many restless children, especially in winter, whom it is difficult to interest in reading, but who enjoy pictures. And we have found it useful to have plenty of copies of especially interesting numbers of illustrated magazines like Outing and World's Work to give them. And we have a desk list of especially interesting illustrated books that we find useful for these children. (East Liberty)
Mr. Walter L. Brown, Buffalo, N. Y.
Our work, even in the branches, does not offer much suggestion so far as library discipline is concerned. I have talked the matter over with all those having charge of the branches, the work with the children in the main library, and the depositories at the settlement houses, and they all agree, without hesitation, that they are having no trouble whatever with the children of any size.
The William Ives Branch, which is in the district occupied by the Polish and German people, had some trouble when it occupied a store opening on the street. For a few weeks after this branch was opened, the rough boys in the neighborhood bothered by shouting, throwing things in the doors, and forming in large crowds around the front of the building. The police helped out by giving us a guard for a brief period. As soon as the novelty of the library had worn off, and the children began actually to use the books and get acquainted with the attendants, all trouble seemed to stop.
We also had some trouble at one of the depositories when it was first opened, this being in a rather unruly district in the lower part of the city. All is now quiet here, and has been for a number of years.
The consensus of opinion of our staff seems to be that when any slight disturbance, which is all that we ever have now, occurs that it is caused by one, two, or three boys. The problem of preventing its repetition is solved by recognizing these boys, and when matters are quiet, having a talk with them, gaining their confidence and friendship. This, of course, is after any punishment is administered. This has been done in a number of instances, and has always been successful. Some of the library's best friends among the older boys have been gained in this way.
The only discipline that is exerted is by sending the children away from the library, and if they are told that they must stay away for two or three days or a week, this is final and they are not allowed to return until the time has expired. If a child is using the Library, this seems to be all the punishment that is necessary.
We should say that in a library where there is any continued trouble with the young people, it is not their fault, but the fault of the library, and we should solve it by changing the library methods.
Miss Clara F. Baldwin, Minnesota.
Of course we all know that almost everything depends on the personality of the librarian, and it has been my observation that the librarians of strong, winning personality, who make friends with the children and young people from the start, have little trouble with discipline. Your question relating to the co-operation with the teachers seems to me very pertinent. In some cases where discipline in the schools is not properly maintained, there has been corresponding difficulty in the library. Does it not all come back to personality, tact, and strength of character, just as every problem of success or failure does?
My theory is that order must be maintained even if the police have to be called in, but do not drive the offenders away from the library if you can possibly help it. They are probably just the ones who need it most. Sometimes it may mean personal visits to the parents, but I wouldn't lose a boy or girl if I could possibly hang on to them.
Mr. George F. Bowerman, Washington, D. C.
We have your circular letter inquiring about the discipline in our library as related to school children. In general I would say that we have very little trouble in this direction. Most of the trouble we have comes from the colored element which forms about one-third of the population.
We are striving to get Congress, from which all our appropriations come, to give us a regular police officer. I am a great believer in the moral influence of brass buttons. At the present time, our engineer and fireman are both sworn as special police officers. They both have police badges, which they can display on occasions. I would, however, like to have a regular officer in uniform.
Miss Isabel Ely Lord, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn.
The difficulties of discipline in this library arise almost entirely from the nature of the building, as the chief disturbance with us is the noise of laughing and talking in the halls. This is done quite innocently because people do not realize that the big hall, with its beautiful stairway is really a part of the building and that noise made there echoes through into the various departments. The children have to cross a wide stretch of intarsia floor, and any natural, normal child is seized with a desire to run. For this reason we have the janitor stationed in the lower hall from twelve to one and three to six each day. When he is there, there is very little difficulty.
In the library rooms we do not have the trouble that occurs in a community where the constituents of the Library know each other well. In a big, shifting population like ours, people meet usually strangers and there is no temptation to disturbing conversation or to flirtation
In the children's room, as indeed in the adult department, the matter is almost entirely controlled by personal knowledge of people who offend. A child is spoken to by name and is made to realize that it is a distinct individual matter if he or she has offended. There have been occasions in the children's room when a crowd of the older boys has come in, with evident intention of making a little disturbance. Miss Moore established the custom, in such cases, of asking each of these boys to sign his name and address to a slip—or a separate sheet of paper— and this had usually a sufficiently quieting effect to obviate the need of anything further. Occasionally the children's librarian has gone to visit a child's parents, and so has the librarian. We also have asked some times fathers and mothers to come to the library to "hold court," but this has been in cases of theft and suspected theft, and I suppose you do not include that in your questions of discipline.
We lay great stress, especially in the Children's Room, on the importance of a perfectly quiet and controlled manner in the assistants. The training that our children have received in the Story Hour, we feel, to be very valuable to them. This is a special privilege to which they are admitted and they recognize it as such. They have learned to come in and to go out on Story Hour evenings with as much quietness as one can expect from a body of children, and they are very courteous in the Story Hours, saying a quiet "Thank you" to the story-teller instead of indulging in clapping of hands, stamping of feet, etc. These things help, I think, in the general control of the room, and I think that Miss Cowing (who is not here now to speak for herself) has occasionaly disciplined some child by refusing a Story Hour ticket because of misbehavior in the room.
Mr. A. L. Peck, Gloversville, N. Y.
This institution has been in existence over twenty-eight years and during all this time, there has been no trouble with discipline. I am not willing to say that our young people or even our older ones, are better than those of other places, but from the very beginning everybody was given to understand that they had to live up to a certain decorum, that is, men and boys have to take off their hats and disturbing conversation is not permitted.
While we do not hesitate to speak to any who need reminding that reading rooms are for serious purposes, in all these years we have sent out of the rooms, three adults and five boys. Our janitor is sworn in as a special policeman and everybody knows that not only prompt ejection from the room, but also discipline before the recorder in the city courts would be forthcoming in consequence of any serious breach of order.
I have never hesitated to make it known that the readers' rights must be respected and that reading and studying is serious work and our people have always supported me in this, fully as much as the board of directors. I do believe that as soon as people understand this, there will be no trouble, but there must be no vacillating policy.
The trouble we have occasionally with boys, mainly, is that they try to be smart and will deliberately put books on the shelves bottom side up, but one of the youngsters was caught in the act and promptly sent home. His father was notified and fully agreed with us that the library was no place for such mischief and promised that his youngster would behave henceforth. This had a wholesome effect on all the others and there has been no trouble since.
I also have to say that our children's room is 45 feet away from the adult department and we do not permit young people under 14 to roam about the building, we keep them strictly in their own room. As soon as young people are admitted to the high school, we at once admit them to the entire library even if they should be under 14 years of age. They consider this a great privilege and we thus far have had no trouble. The high school students come here for study as well as for reference work and make proper use of the library. They know from experience that we do not allow any nonsense and under no consideration would we permit the library to be a place of rendezvous for promiscuous visiting.
Our institution seems to discipline itself without any difficulty. The principle upon which we work is very simple. "Readers demand quiet, therefore, conversation even in low tones, is strictly prohibited." This is literally carried out and not the least exception is made. Posters, with the rule quoted above printed on small cards are distributed through the rooms, placed on the tables and renewed from time to time.
As soon as the public realizes that it is the intention of the Board of Managers and their representative officers to live up strictly to this rule and to carry it out at all hazards, they soon learn to behave and not much difficulty is experienced.
Mr. A. L. Bailey, Wilmington, Del.
The discipline in this library while occasionally bothersome, does not on the whole cause us much annoyance. The offenders are chiefly students from the high school who use the library in the afternoon and forget at times that the reading room is a place of quiet. No special measures have been taken to preserve quiet. Generally once speaking to the offender will prove sufficient to stop whispering or loud conversation, but if he is persistent in talking or whispering, we request that he leave the room. This always has a good effect, for its seldom happens that we have to expel the same person more than once. In asking readers to leave the reading room, we realize that we run the risk of making them so angry that they will never again make use of the library but we believe that the great majority who are quiet and well-behaved shall not be annoyed if we can prevent it.
While the older children from the schools are the chief offenders, perhaps the most exasperating are the influential women of the city who come to the library on market days (Wednesday and Saturday mornings) and visit more or less with each other. This is a custom established long before the library became free, and owing to the prominence of the offenders and their real interest in and intelligent use of the library, one with which it is hard to deal. A sign placed in the reading room requesting readers to refrain from all unnecessary conversation has had a most noticeable effect on this class of readers and the annoyance is much less than it was three years ago.
The juvenile department occasionally has to call upon a policeman to help keep order. This, however, is due to the fact that there is a large hallway and broad stairways just outside the rooms which the library occupies. Discipline in this part of the building is a cause of great annoyance. We cannot afford to pay a guard to stay in the hall and as the police force is not sufficient for the city's needs, a policeman can only spend a few moments as he passes by on his beat. In the juvenile room itself we have trouble only with gangs of young negroes and this only occasionally. When they come to the library it is hard to interest them and the demoralizing influence that they introduce compels us at times to expel them and even to forbid them to return. We have only once sent special word to the schools asking teachers to request children to preserve order. We believe that the teachers, so far as they are able, try to inculcate principles of right behavior in public places, but we believe that the discipline of this library is entirely in our own hands, and until the situation becomes one with which we can not cope, we prefer not to call upon the schools for assistance.
Miss Caroline M. Underhill, Utica, N. Y.
One of the problems in guiding these intermediate readers does not pertain to their reading, but to controlling the lawlessness which is frequently manifested. General restlessness, a desire for fun always and everywhere, characterizes many of the young people who frequent our libraries. A difference in locality brings different problems, but this one is universal. In Utica our new building brought increased opportunity to those inclined to fun. The strangeness of it, access to the stack, curiosity concerning the glass floors, the book-lift, the elevator, and even the electric lights, with the constant moving about of people who came simply to see the building, increased this tendency to restlessness among the young readers. In addition to this came the everpresent problem of the flirtatious boy and girl. Our wish to let them enjoy all possible liberty was soon interpreted to mean license.
Finding that they did not yield to ordinary methods, it was decided, as an emergency measure, to issue "stack cards" through the second year in High School. These were small cards having Utica Public Library printed at the top: then space for name and address, followed by "is hereby granted the privilege of using the stack for reading and study." These gave permission to use the stacks for selecting books and for reading at the stack tables.
Before issuing these cards, each boy and girl was instructed as to the right use of a library and the consideration due from one reader to another, and then asked to sign a register in which they promised to use the library properly whenever they came. These cards were to be shown each time they wished to go into the stacks, but in no way did they interfere with drawing books at the desk, if they had neglected to bring them. Any mis-behavior took away this stack card until they were again ready to fulfill their promise.
This plan was entirely foreign to our theories, our wishes, or our beliefs, but in an emergency proved helpful in making the boys and girls realize we were in EARNEST when we said we wished to have it more quiet. Best of all, it gave an opportunity for a little personal talk with each one, and though of necessity this took much time, we considered it well worth while. Decided improvement made it unnecessary to continue the use of the card.
To the older boys and girls we take pains to explain why we ask them to respect the place and the rights of others. Occasionally we have written a letter to those who offend continually, signed by the librarian and a member of the library committee. In the majority of cases this brought about the needed reform— if not, the privileges of the library were taken away.
Miss Mary A. Smith, Eau Claire, Wis.
I am quite interested in your questions about discipline, as we feel we have reached a very comfortable stage in the problem after considerable agitation and I have wondered some times what plan others followed.
Our whole argument with young people—(that means high school here as they seemed the only disturbing element) was consideration for other people. When talking to grade pupils that were soon to come into high school, we explained that we could have only two grades in a public library, children and grown people. When they entered high school and used the main library almost entirely, we classed them as grown people and must expect from them the same carefulness, as older people were much more easily disturbed.
The discipline we found, as usually is the case, one of individuals. We first spoke to the transgressor. If he did not pay sufficient regard as shown in action, we suspended him usually for a week, with a very definite explanation, that before he returned, he must give a pledge in place of the one on the registration card which he had broken. He knew these pledges were filed away as part of the library record. If that pledge was broken it meant that the case would be referred to the Library Board. This had to be done but once and that had an excellent effect. The Board suspended for several months with the understanding that return then depended on pledges made to the librarian.
There must be one person who is making the standard for conduct and that person must be on hand during hours when trouble is likely to arise; that means the librarian. Assistants must be in sympathy, watch, help and report cases, but not take active part in discipline.
The penalty must be a very certain thing, as sure a law in the public library as violation of law on the streets. There must not be nagging of young people nor wasting of words. When a transgressor is told to do anything, it must be done in such a manner, and without anger or annoyance in voice, if possible, so that a librarian can turn away and know the order will be obeyed.
I believe it is possible to establish a standard of conduct in a public library, which a young person will feel and know if he is not within that standard. It can not be done in a week nor a month. I hope we have one here now. I mean by that also that a librarian can leave the library and not feel that any advantage is going to be taken of an assistant because she is not there. I do not believe in a librarian popping in any time during her off hours making the young people feel she is ready to spring upon them at unexpected moments.
The above states what we have been doing, and we seldom now have to think of discipline. If we see signs of carelessness, we nip them in the bud. One must discriminate between a moment's thoughtlessness in a young person and the beginning of a wrong library habit. That may not seem clearly put. A firm, steady glance in his direction and the way he takes it will usually diagnose the case.
I think the object of discipline in a Public Library is much more than to keep young people quiet. It seems now-a-days one of the few public places where they may mingle with older people and show them consideration. A quiet library ought to be an antidote for unseasonable boisterousness suffered by young people. No librarian need fear she is driving people away, if she tightens up all along this line. That at least has not been our experience, as we grew rapidly while we were the most strenuous. People have more respect for an institution, where each person will be held to his privileges, and not be allowed to interfere with another's.
I was amused the other night when a high school boy, who had needed suggestion himself two years ago, came to me and said he thought two younger boys were disturbing an older gentleman in the reference room. These younger boys who were only talking more than was necessary, had not used the reference room and did not clearly understand that the same amount of conversation was not allowed there as in the other room. I spoke to them and when I returned suggested to the older boy that he might keep an eye on them, as I much preferred they stay there and think of the older man than come into the other room. He reported that they gave no more trouble.
Our reference room discipline has been very much assisted by a signing of the simple agreement: "I promise to refrain from all unnecessary conversation in the reference room." All high school students sign before using the room. The paper lies on the loan desk so at a glance we expect to be able to tell who is there. The room is away from the desk and can not be watched from it. "Unnecessary" was not in when we began. It was absolute, but we found we could give more liberty. Whenever this pledge was violated, which was not often even at first, no explanation was accepted, a word had been broken: "A bad thing," we said, "for a young person in a public library. Don't sign what you cannot keep."
One must be even and not allow one day what one lets pass the next and that is not an easy thing to do. Do not start to evolve an orderly library out of a disorderly one and expect to escape all criticism. Be ready to explain fully to the parent whose child has been disciplined.
I have wondered sometimes if the disorderly library did not have more than one cause. If you wish orderly conduct you must also have an orderly library, a place for everything and everything in its place. We have not a perfect library yet in Eau Claire and we hope we may obtain some suggestions from other libraries to help on that glad time.
Miss Harriet A. Wood, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The difficulty can be largely overcome by giving the active boys something to do. We let them put up books and even slip the books, if they are careful, put in labels, etc. We have a Boy's Club recently organized. Now the girls are clamoring for one. A trustee has charge of it. I believe that the librarian should make more of an effort to know the boys and girls personally. During the past two months, we have been working along this line with good results. The boys are simply full of spirit; they are not bad. We never ought to expect to eliminate noise entirely, unless we drive out the children. Our library is open without partitions between the children's room and the other rooms. Boys that have been troublesome in the past, come in now that they are older, and read like gentlemen. Many of the boys, we find upon inquiry, are orphans. some without fathers, some without mothers. The probation officer of the Juvenile court works with us. One of her boys is an ardent helper in the children's room. We have found it much better to speak to a boy quietly when he is not with his companions. He is more likely to respond. We try to make the boys and girls feel that we are interested in them. If they come to us to use the library as a meeting and perhaps a loafing place, we should be glad. If we have not the time and strength to seize this opportunity for social betterment, we should enlist tactful men and women in the city who can help with the problem.
Miss Mary A. Smith, La Crosse, Wis.
At the branch, the discipline is the great difficulty. The branch took the place of a badly managed boy's club so we really did not have a fair start. The discipline in the room is still a problem not entirely solved. A large number of the most restless boys had no respect for authority and had the impression that the library, being a free and public institution, was a place where they could act as they pleased. Through the kindness of Mr. Austin and Mr. Hiller, who have given their time to read aloud to the boys two evenings a week and have personally interested the boys in the books at the library, this impression has changed and in its place has come an attempt on the part of some of the boys at a system of self government. Next fall we hope to establish clubs among the boys, giving them the use of the room back of the reading room and any assistance they may need, but leaving the organization in their hands.
The reading aloud has been most successful and has had a constant attendance of about 50 boys. With the children lies our chief hope of developing the reading habit and love of good books. Through the children also we look for the increase in adult readers. This grows slowly at the branch for the reason that older people do not yet come to read the magazines kept on file in the room.
Mr. Henry J. Carr, Scranton, Pa.
To send unruly children out of the building and forbid them to come again until prepared to behave properly is our strongest "card," and it proves effective, too. No definite period is assigned.
Administration of all discipline promptly, pleasantly, but no less firmly and without relaxation, on the least sign of its need, we find to do much towards obviating the necessity.
Miss Maude Van Buren, Mankato, Minn.
I make occasional visits to all the schools, and the first talk of the year usually includes a word on conduct, but I am careful to have the young people feel that I know their shortcomings in this matter are only those of thoughtlessness, never of mischief nor meanness; that the only reason for requiring perfect quiet in a public library is a consideration of other's rights. It is all a matter of the librarian's attitude.
Miss Grace D. Rose, Davenport, Iowa.
When the children's room was in the basement in a room much too small for the numbers which came, there was a great deal of noise and confusion. Since the removal to the large, beautiful room on the second floor, the order has been much improved. The children seem impressed by the dignity and quiet of the room, and even upon days when they come in large numbers, there is no confusion and very little of the former playing.
At present, we have several children who are allowed to draw books but must transact their business as quickly as possible, and cannot exchange them under two weeks.
Miss Ethel F. McCullough, Superior, Wis.
The question of library discipline is not so much a question of troublesome and disorderly patrons, as it is a question of library administration. Given a quiet, attentive staff, a building arranged for complete supervision, noiseless floors and furniture intelligently placed—given these five essentials, a well ordered library must be the inevitable result. With any one of these lacking, the problem of discipline becomes a complicated one.
Mrs. Grace K. Hairland, Marshalltown, Iowa.
The matter of discipline, in a small public library, where the loan desk with its unavoidable attendant confusion, is so near the Reading Room as to furnish a cover for the whispering and fun—is not the easiest problem in the world to solve. There is nothing we desire more than to have every man, woman, and child love the library. To wet blanket the enthusiasm with which they seek our sanctuary the instant school is over, surely would not be good administration. The majority come to do serious work; it is only a few who use it as a trysting place and who disturb the "Absolute silence" which we profess to maintain, (and of which we have tangible reminders conspicuously posted) and yet we realize that those few irrepressibles may prove most annoying to serious readers. Tact is necessary and methods must be devised to correct this without using so much severity or nagging, as to drive away the thoughtless. Often we have arranged to do some reference work, looking up material for club programs perhaps, at the hour just after school when the older children flock into the reading room. This can be done at the tables and "sitting in their midst" has a salutary effect. Of course it could not be done with a staff of one or two.
During this last winter the high school arranged for seven debates. The unbounded enthusiasm of those taking part resulted in a total ignoring of the rules; groups of debaters stood about hotly contesting points, causing consternation to the staff until the plan of giving over to them the newspaper room, (not used by the public) was carried into effect. Every effort is made to keep the good will of the older boys and girls, and it is only with these that there is any suggestion of trouble. The children's room, especially since we have had a children's librarian, is under perfect discipline. There are dissected maps, quiet games, and stereopticon views on their tables beside Caldecott's and other picture books and they are so well entertained that there is no occasion for mischief.
Extreme measures are not resorted to among the older boys and girls except on rare occasions. If, after being spoken to once or twice and perhaps sent out, they still prove obstreperous, they are suspended for a month and this has always resulted in reform.
In no case have we found it necessary to resort to aid from the police. I should like very much to have a club room, or "conversation room" perhaps it might be called. The shelves of the newspaper room are filled with magazines for binding and these are often misplaced and even torn and lost when that room is used; besides it is in the basement and out of sight. The ideal room would have glass doors and the occupants in sight of the staff all the time. Then the high school students could come from the strict discipline and restraint of the school room and have a quiet discussion of their work or even a social chat and be in a much better place than the cigar stores or post office.
Miss Grace Blanchard, Concord, N. H.
When a librarian is much "dressed up" and can take time to play that she is an agreeable hostess, all children, whether little aristocrats or arabs, enter into the civilized spirit of the occasion and become more mannerly.
Miss Lucy Lee Pleasants, Menasha, Wis.
To achieve the best results, the librarian should never make an enemy and should lose no opportunity of making a friend. If children talk at the tables, separate them by asking them politely to change their seats. If they have really something to talk over, such as a lesson or a sleighride, permit them to go into another room to discuss it. They will appreciate the privilege and will behave better in consequence.
I have known a gang of little boys, who had the habit of coming to the reading room to make a disturbance, completely won over and converted into agreeable patrons by being captured red handed and told an amusing story. Children who come to the library are like everybody else—very apt to treat you as you treat them.
Mrs. C. P. Barnes, Kenosha, Wis.
About a year ago, I submitted a rule to the Board for their approval, and asked permission to have it printed on cards, for use on the tables in the reading room. It was worded as follows:— "A rule has been made that no whispering nor talking shall be allowed in the reading room, even for purposes of study. For the good of the public, this rule will be strictly enforced, and anyone failing to observe it will be requested to leave the building. By order of the Board of Directors." It has been more effective in promoting order than any other experiment. Of course it occasionally happens that the card is overlooked or unheeded, but it is a very simple matter to hand one of these cards to the offender, and with a pleasant smile say, "We have no choice but to enforce this rule" and the deed is done.
Miss Helen L. Price, Merrill, Wis.
When we know our young scamp and always speak to him in a spirit of good fellowship when we meet him, and take an opportunity in the library some time when there is no one to be disturbed, to discuss postage stamps, chickens, rabbits, or, best of all, dogs with him, he will soon lose all desire to torment, and when it is only exuberance to contend with, then that is easy.
For malicious disturbance, we send the offender out, quickly and surely and discuss the matter with him later, if at all. "Go— quickly and quietly—and no noise outside if you want to come back."
Miss Agnes Dwight, Appleton, Wis.
We do not have absolute quiet all the time and I do not aim to have, but it is a favorite place for all ages to come. I, myself, never tell a boy that if I have to speak to him again I shall send him out. He goes the first time if it is necessary to speak to him at all. That sounds savage, but it is a long time since I have had to be so cruel. We have the goodwill of the small boy, that is for the time being, they may begin to act up at any time.
Mrs. W. G. Clough, Portage, Wis.
Judging from the impression made upon people from other libraries I should infer that our library is in a pretty well ordered condition in the matter of discipline.
From the opening of our library we have impressed upon the public the necessity for quiet and order. We do not permit any talking aloud, a rule to which there are very few exceptions. The use, even, of subdued tones in the routine of selecting and exchanging books is not allowed among children and is discouraged among adults. The public understand and appreciate the fact that the library is no place for visitation or conversation. It has been necessary to pursue this course as we have but one large room for stacks, reference books, reading tables, children's department and charging desk.
We have in a measure to contend against the noise attendant upon hard wood floors, and we are disturbed at times during the last hour of the evening from the room above which is the armory of the city company of the national guard. This, however, in no way affects the discipline of the library, excepting as it makes discipline there more essential.
Miss Deborah B. Martin, Green Bay, Wis.
Occasionally we have had difficulty from a crowd of boys entering the room in a body with a great deal of noise, annoying the librarian and readers by making a disturbance at the tables and altogether proving themselves a nuisance. We found that the most effective means for putting a decisive stop to the trouble was to write a polite note to the parents of each offender, saying that as the boy was proving an annoyance to library patrons, it might be well if he was kept away from the library until he was old enough to understand its uses. The parents have never resented this notice and after a reasonable time, the youth has returned to the library chastened and pleasant and there has been no further trouble with him.
High school boys and girls do make the library a meeting place, and two years ago it became so noticeable that the Principal of one of the high schools, in a communication to the parents of scholars, spoke of the public library as a rendezvous. It is certainly not the province of the librarian unless these young people prove an annoyance to the reader, to discipline them or tell them what company they should keep. At a meeting of the Woman's club, the librarian was asked to speak to the club on the Public Library and its Work. This gave an opportunity to bring in the question of library discipline in its relation to the young people who flocked there less for study than for pleasure. The talk in this instance fortunately reached the right people, who perhaps had never thought the matter over before, and the library is not now, to any extent, used as a meeting place for high school students, although they still use it largely in their reference work.
Miss Nannie W. Jayne, Alexandria, Ind.
A few boys and girls from the high school and eighth grade have made two or three attempts to use the library as a meeting place. These meetings have been promptly broken up and a private talk with each offender has been the means used to prevent a repetition of the offense. A special effort has been made to impress the girls with correct ideas on this point, and in almost every case, these talks have resulted in an apology from the girl for her behavior.
If all general conversation be prohibited, the library offers but little attraction to those who would come merely for a good time.
Miss Martha E. Dunn, Stanley, Wis.
We have had some experience with the older scholars making the library a meeting place. I mentioned the fact to the library board, and the president, who was the editor of our local paper at that time, made mention of it in the next issue. Since then, there has been no trouble. Our local paper has done much toward helping to put down any annoyance in and around the library building. It is a good thing to have the editor of the paper on the library board.
Miss Anna S. Pinkum, Marinette, Wis.
Our problems of discipline are, in some respects, peculiar to local conditions and in other respects, are the results of a larger movement which seems to be sweeping the entire country. Broadly speaking, two causes which make discipline such a difficult task stand out prominently:
1. Local causes. A 9 o'clock curfew law and that not enforced; parents allowing their children to roam the streets at night; misdemeanors winked at by those in authority, particularly the police; a general laxity on the part of parents and city officials in correcting offences.
2. Universal movement. Loss of parental authority. This is not peculiar to Marinette, but it is a deplorable state of affairs which is being brought to light all over the country.
We find that moral suasion does not work effectively. Theoretically probably none of us believes in being caught wearing a frown, but most of our boys and girls respect sternness and assertive authority when they will not respond to any sort of kindly advice or appeal to their better natures.
After the study of this problem for some time, the conclusion reached is this:—With one assistant, we can control any situation that may present itself within the library and by so doing, in time, may create the habit of quiet and orderly conduct; but until parents realize that their children need guidance, correction, and above all need to be kept from roaming the streets at night, the problem of discipline will be an ever present one both in the schools and in the library at Marinette.
Mrs. Anna C. Bronsky, Chippewa Falls, Wis.
We have had only a few occasions when it was necessary to deny pupils the privileges of the library. In such cases, the suspended one may come to the library for any books needed in school work, but is not allowed to remain longer than is necessary and may not go in to the reading room. This has been found helpful in most cases. I dislike very much to send a child out of the library, and only do so when it is imperative; for while they may be trying at times, they are the very ones who need the help that the library can give. Often the mischievous mood is of short duration, the attention is arrested by something in one of the books before him, and suddenly, your noisy boy is transformed into a studious youth. It is a great satisfaction to know that while the small child is in the library, he is not only safe from the evil influences of the street but is deriving a double benefit—the enjoyment of the book that absorbs him for the time being, and the habit of reading that is unconsciously being formed.
Mr. R. Oberholzer, Sioux City, Iowa.
If a real disturbance is made which seems clearly intentional, a quick dismissal follows. Reproof is never repeated—once speaking in that way is enough. Reproof is always made in an undertone, and the command to go home, while imperative, is in a few words and followed by absolute silence until obeyed. This is much more impressive than any amount of talk. Dismissal is only for the day. I have never suspended anyone, and only once did I write to the lad's mother that it would be better if her son did not come to the library for a time. If a child really wants to come to the library he learns to conduct himself so as not to offend the people who are in other ways such good friends of his. If he only comes for mischief, he soon concludes that the game is not worth the candle. The desire to "show off," always a strong element in a mischievous child, is not gratified, and the whole atmosphere is against him.
To keep things going in this way is not easy except by eternal vigilance, both for the public who have to be taught some things over every day, and for library workers who have to learn to be good natured but unyielding, obliging but arbitrary, eternally patient but abnormally quick.
In short, discipline in a library is, as everywhere, a matter of atmosphere rather than method, and atmosphere always means a group of forces expressed through personality.
Miss Nelle A. Olson, Moorhead, Minn.
Before our library opened, I visited all the rooms of all the schools of the city to talk library. I tried to awaken interest and enthusiasm, and to make perfectly clear to the students beforehand the purpose of a library and what was expected of them there and why.
During the first few weeks I managed to spend a good deal of time in their room, moving about among them, helping them, and ready with a word of reminder the very moment a boy forgot himself. I tried in every possible way to help them to form correct library habits from the first. They all seemed anxious to conform to the library spirit when they understood it.
Now, when a boy does something a little out of the way, I try to pass over it as much as possible at the time, then when he comes in again some time, perhaps having forgotten his feeling of irritation, I try to talk kindly with him about it and I find he usually takes it kindly then, and does not trouble again.
I have tried always to take it for granted that the boy did not mean to annoy but forgot himself or was a little careless. I have no set procedure, but try to settle each little difficulty as that particular case seems to warrant and never to let it go on until it becomes a great one.
Miss Kate M. Potter, Baraboo, Wis.
The burning of our high school, two years ago, made the library the only place of general meeting for the scholars. While it was an added trouble at the time, I am not sorry for the experience either for the scholars or myself. Classes were held downstairs and study periods in the reading rooms. The children were made to realize they were under the same discipline as in the assembly room and while it took our time, it taught them the proper use of the library and we gained in the experience.
First:—In regard to the children coming in such numbers as to keep the older readers away. The older people make such little use of the books in comparison, I believe in giving the time and room to the children.
Second:—As to their making it a meeting place. In smaller places the children have no other place to go. Is it not better to attract them to the library?
Third:—As to discipline. We find one thing essential—not to let them get started in the wrong way. A boy or girl spoken to at first, generally does not repeat the offense.
While this all takes the librarian's time I feel that it is spent, in the greatest good to the greatest number, after all.
Miss Gertrude J. Skavlem, Janesville, Wis.
The Janesville Public Library is so arranged that the desk attendant has almost no supervision over the Reading and Reference Rooms. The matter of discipline in those rooms was a source of considerable trouble until an attendant took charge there in the evenings. We find it necessary to have this attendant only during the winter months, when more High School students use the library than at other times.
It is not the policy of the Library Board to enforce any strict rules as to quiet in the rooms. Rules are very lenient and the enforcement more by inference than in any other way. An attendant if she has the requisite personality, may, simply by her manner ensure quiet and orderly conduct, at least that has been our experience during the past year.
Various other means were tried before the one which we now find so successful. Talks were given in the High School by the superintendent, and at one time a police officer had the Library on his regular beat. None of these methods were permanently successful.
Miss Jeannette M. Drake, Jacksonville, Ill.
I have never hesitated to take what measures seemed necessary to have a quiet library, otherwise how near can we come to fulfilling the purpose of a library?
Since the first few weeks that I was here as librarian I have had no trouble in regard to the discipline. I feel sometimes that I am too strict, but I cannot have patrons say "I cannot study at the library because of the confusion, etc." The only solution of the problem that I know of is to ask every one not to talk, unless he can do so without disturbing others in the least. When it is necessary for people to talk about their work, except to us, we give them a vacant room in the building and often have people in every vacant space and the office at the same time. We encourage such use of the rooms; try to be courteous in our demands; interested in all; do everything in our power to get material for patrons and the result is that they feel that the library is a place of business.
The boys who used to come "for fun" come now and read for several hours at a time and are always gentlemanly and are our friends. I know of none who ceased to come because of the order we must have. At first, if we had spoken to anyone and they still were not quiet, we asked them to leave the building and to come back when they wanted to read or study. We always saw that they left when we told them to do so, and no one has been sent from the building for unruly conduct for two years. If I needed help I would call on the police as I would not want either teachers or students to feel that we could not manage our patrons when they were in the library. Of course we are always on the alert as we realize that the matter would get beyond us if we were careless for a time. It is not easy for librarians to carry out these rules, but it pays in the reputation of the library.
Mrs. Alice G. Evans, Decatur, Ill.
We have had very little trouble with discipline since moving into our own building, the rooms being so arranged that excellent supervision over them is possible from the loan desk. Then too, the children's and reference rooms have their own attendants and any disturbance may be quickly settled.
Perhaps the most disturbing element comes from the boys preparing debates, who often forget and talk somewhat above a whisper, and it is sometimes necessary to request them every fifteen minutes, to lower their voices.
As to making the library a meeting place, this is done, I suppose, to some extent but we rarely have any particular trouble from it.
I think the main reason for the order in our library is the separation of the different departments, as we used to have a great deal of trouble when we had but one room for readers, students and children.
Miss Elizabeth Comer, Redwood Falls, Minn.
When I first came here, I sent both boys and girls home; it was seldom necessary to send the same child twice for the same offense. Some of the boys tried a new tack after being sent home once and were then told to stay away until they could conduct themselves properly on the library premises, with the result that I have not been obliged to send a child away from the library for months.
Miss Marie E. Brick, St. Cloud, Minn.
The question of discipline has always been such an easy matter with me and never a problem that it seems rather difficult to state just how the good results are accomplished. We have none of the disfiguring printed signs of warning about; we do not need them. A glance, a word, a motion, at the least sign of uneasiness or noise, and all is quiet.
Any good disciplinarian will say that her methods are the same. It is not what she says or does, but her entire attitude, her manner, her commanding personality, that secure the desired results.
Our High School pupils never give us any trouble. They enjoy too many privileges as students to abuse them. The school is in the next block, so near that the teachers almost daily excuse a number of them to do supplementary reading in the library during school hours. They hand me a printed slip or pass on entering, which I sign with the time of coming and leaving. These are returned to their respective instructors on returning to the school room. This pass acts as a check on anyone disposed to loiter by the way.
Miss Ella F. Corwin, Elkhart, Ind.
We never have had a great deal of trouble with the discipline. We try to make the children and young people feel that we depend upon them to assist in keeping up the standard of good behavior.
We reach the younger children partly through the children's hour, not by talking to them on these subjects, but by winning them to us through the stories we tell and in our treatment of them.
With the High School boys and girls, it is more difficult. The suspension of two boys had a beneficial effect, but the principal of the High School is our greatest help with them.
Miss Bertha Marx, Sheboypan, Wis.
The matter of discipline has not been of sufficient importance in our library to be classed as a problem. This may be due to two facts: First, the atmosphere discourages rowdyism, loud talking and visiting; secondly, an unwritten rule is that there must be quiet in the library but not necessarily absolute silence. It seems to me where the order in a library is not what it would be, the staff is lacking in its sense of discipline.
If by chance, a group of people happens to make too much noise, we never hesitate to step up to them and in a courteous manner request them to be quiet. Such disturbance is usually caused through thoughtlessness, not from any desire to break a library rule, and after people have been cautioned they rarely commit the offense again. I will admit this must be done in a tactful way, for a grown person does not wish to be dictated to in the library as though he were a child in school. There are a few old men and women who persist in talking in a loud tone of voice; we know it would hurt their feelings if they were told to be quiet and therefore we wait upon them quickly, even ahead of their turn and so get rid of them as soon as possible.
The boys and girls of the High School have to be spoken to quite frequently as they are so imbued with a sense of their own importance that they have very little regard for the order of the library. The most effective appeal which can be made to them is to suggest that every one has equal rights in the library and that when other people come who wish quiet in the reading rooms, the High School pupils have no right to deprive them of it.
One evening the pupils were unusually noisy, we had cautioned them in vain to be quiet, and finally I ordered them all to leave the library. They were simply aghast for they were to have a test in history the following day and the material could only be procured from our reference shelves. I was aware of this at the time but felt drastic measures must be taken to show them that the three readers who shared the room with them had a right to undisturbed order. They plead with me in vain, and finally admitted that they deserved their punishment. It is needless to say that their history teacher approved my actions and that for weeks afterwards we had no more trouble with High School students.
The library is never used as a club or meeting-place by people for we discourage all attempts at visiting among our patrons.
It is not often found necessary to discipline the children in their reading-room as their behavior is on the whole, very good. When they become mischievous or noisy, it is generally because they have remained in the library too long and have grown restless, so they are advised to go out-doors and play for a time. We have practically none of the rowdy elements to deal with and when such children do come, we find that the attractive surroundings seem to have a quieting effect upon them.
Miss Mary J. Calkins, Racine, Wis.
The problem of discipline in the Library, is one which is "ever with us," and I do not feel sure that I have solved it to my satisfaction. We have tried "signs" and no signs; gentle persuasion and stern and rigid rules; and still we cannot always be sure of order, and a proper library deportment on the part of either children or grown people. I have come to the conclusion, that the character of the individual has everything to do with it. Children who defy rules both at home and at school, will also give trouble in the library, and nothing but a complete withdrawal of privileges will do any good. We have had very little trouble during the past year, but the children themselves seem to be different, the rougher class not coming to the library to make trouble, as they did formerly. The High School students are much more of a problem than the younger children; and cause much more disturbance, as far as my experience goes. When they are engaged in preparing their debates, it is necessary to have one of the staff sit in the room with them, and keep constant supervision, or the whole library will be disturbed.
Miss Margaret Biggert, Berlin, Wis.
During the past winter, for the first time since we have been in our new library it has been a question how to manage the situation without antagonizing the offenders, for it seems to me a librarian must avoid appearing in the guise of ogre even at the expense of perfect order. Scholars from the schools use the library constantly in their school work—including reference work for their three debating societies and it is with these pupils that the problem has been, the reference room becoming quite noisy— though more from thoughtlessness and high spirits than otherwise. I feel certain a cork carpet would help to solve this problem in our library—with the unavoidable noise of heels on hard wood floors, it is hard to make people realize they are disturbing others.
My own system of dealing with the problem has been to warn them as pleasantly as possible that they are forgetting themselves and then to impress on them individually as the chance offered, the necessity of remembering that the library is a place for reading and study—not a "conversation room" as an irate gentleman one day said a group of ladies seemed to think. Though it is very seldom that people who meet friends, either by chance or appointment cause any annoyance by remaining to carry on conversation. No signs enjoining silence are in evidence. The younger children have their own reading room and have given very little trouble. This I believe to be in a measure due to the influence of their teachers, who keep in close touch with the work of the library. One lad of about ten, the ringleader of a group, was sent from the library for misbehavior. I was pleased but surprised to have him appear at my home one morning and say: "I am sorry I cut up at the library and I'll never do it again." He never has and he comes regularly.
We were at one time troubled with boys gathering outside the library evenings, making considerable disturbance with malicious intent. I was forced at length to call a police officer, who took the names of the offenders and walked through the reading rooms effectually quelling any budding aspirations toward hoodlumism in the children seated at the tables and we have had no trouble of that kind since.
Miss Molly Catlin, Stevens Point, Wis.
The matter of discipline has not been a difficult one with us, of course we have a good deal of noise, the adults are very apt to forget and talk noisily but as far as real trouble is concerned we have not had it.
The Boys' Club room is a great help, in that the boy who just comes down town for fun and not to read goes into that room from preference.
The girls and little children are often times noisy but with a glance or gentle reminder of some kind, they seem to be all right.
The discipline of the Boys' Club Room is, however, a different matter, it really is hard to discipline, but the reason is that we never yet have gotten just the right kind of an attendant to care for the room, we need one who is interested in boys, who can mingle with them and teach them games, etc. We now have a young man, well educated and a good man but he is lax in discipline and careless about the room. Nevertheless I think the Boys' Club room a success, for during the months of February and March we have sometimes between fifty and seventy boys in attendance at one time and they seem to enjoy it.
Miss Ella T. Hamilton, Whitewater, Wis.
I suppose I have found much the same difficulties as others in regard to discipline. Our High School pupils, especially when working on their school debates, for which they get much of their material from the library, do sometimes find it easy to work together to the annoyance of their neighbors, but as they are, on the whole, well intentioned young people they usually take kindly the reproof. I do not mean to say that they do always after remember and act accordingly. Who of us do? And my experience as a teacher has taught me that some lessons have to be often repeated. There is, however, a kindly feeling between the young people who use the library and those who have charge of it, for we try to help them to whatever they need and they appreciate the fact; and this fact I think helps in the matter of discipline. The main reading room seems sometimes rather full with them, but there are places for but sixteen at the tables and that partly explains it. I have had occasionally the difficulty of young people making the library a meeting place. Only two weeks ago, I told a young Miss and her attendant, that we could dispense with their presence in the library; they have both been back since, but not in any way to our annoyance.
We were at one time much troubled by some boys from ten to fourteen. Sending home didn't help for very long, and I finally went to the parents of the ring-leaders with very good results. Perhaps the fact that complaints came to them from several other sources helped. But I am sure parents can aid the librarian as well as the teacher. The only notices I have ever had up in my library in regard to order are two neatly printed signs, "Silence is golden." I think they have been more suggestive and effective than the ordinary sign.
Miss Grace E. Salisbury, Whitewater, (Normal School.)
In answer to your circular just received, I hardly know what to say. We have practically no disciplining to do. Of course conditions are not the same as in a public library. At the beginning of the school year every evidence of disorder is nipped in the bud, and after a few weeks we are entirely freed from any annoyance from visiting or other disorder. The children from the model school some times show a little inclination to talk too much in getting their books. If a word does not quiet them, the ring leader as it were is sent down to his department room which is the worst possible punishment as they love to come to the library. This never happens more than once or twice a year.
The greatest help I have at the opening of the school year in creating the spirit I wish in the library, is the small work room opening out of it. If students visit, or get to talking over their work, I ask them if they will please take their work into the work room where they can talk things over without disturbing any one. They never resent that, when many times they would resent almost anything else in the way of reproof. If they talk too loud in there or seem to be still disturbing, I call attention to the fact that others are trying to work, and find it difficult to do so under the conditions.
After the first few weeks of the year, I think I have to speak to a student not oftener than once in several weeks if that.
I think the student body recognize the library as a place where they can find absolute quiet, and welcome it in that light, and most of them are glad to help to keep it so.
Mrs. Alice A. Lamb, Litchfield, Minn.
Our library opened four years ago. An acquaintance, through teaching, with most of the children of the town has been of great assistance. Possibly, mature years with a reputation for strict order in school have been of value.
At any rate disorder is almost unknown. We started with the idea of perfect quiet in the building. The text "Be gentle and keep the voice low" was given a prominent place on the walls of the children's room for the first year and I'm sure was helpful.
If the little children get to visiting, usually a glance or a shake of the head is sufficient. To the older children it has been necessary a few times to say quietly, "We must have perfect quiet here." This of course is said privately so that no one but the offender hears.
Sending home seems a legitimate punishment and if judiciously used ought to produce good results.
The good will of the children, with good nature and firmness on the part of the librarian would seem the chief essentials to good order.
If disorder has once become a habit the problem is a serious one. In small libraries with but one person in charge it would seem wise to hire an assistant or have an apprentice to do the desk work during the evening hours or whenever disorder is likely to occur, and let the librarian be free to go about the rooms and use her best efforts to establish order, by every tactful means possible.
Our building is so arranged that every part of it can be seen by the librarian at her desk. This doubtless is a very great aid in discipline, and perhaps explains why we have never been troubled by the boys and girls making a "meeting place" of the library.
Miss Agnes J. Petersen, Manitowoc, Wis.
Reading over your questions on the subject of discipline in the library, brought back very vividly to my mind, the first years of our library work.
From the first day of opening, absolute quiet was made one of the rules of the library, and many boys and girls went home early in the evenings before they would recognize the rule. The fact that no disturbance of any kind would be tolerated was so impressed upon everybody, but, especially upon the children, that now, though the supervision is not so strictly kept, the same good order is easily maintained. A word or look of warning is at most times sufficient now to keep a roomful of 75 children in order except on rare occasions. We did practically I believe what every librarian does. The offender was warned concerning his conduct, and if, after several warnings, he still "dared us" he was sent home, not permitted to return to the library, nor draw books for a week or two as the case might be, only returning after promising good behavior in the future. When, as it happened a few times, the offender did not respond to this treatment, the president of our Library Board sent a note by the chief of police to the offender's parents, and that inevitably ended the matter. Only one boy was suspended for two weeks during this past year, and he gives a great deal of trouble at school, also.
SPECIAL METHODS AND TYPES OF WORK: STORY-TELLING; READING CLUBS; HOME LIBRARIES, PLAYGROUNDS, ETC.
The function of the story hour as a recognized feature of library work with children has been variously discussed. The five papers given below represent these different points of view, and the experience of several libraries is included in the report of the Committee on Story- telling given at the Congress of the Playground Association of America in 1910.
Another group method, which has been adopted as a means of introducing children to books and of securing continuity of interest, is that of the reading club. The three articles given show the influence of the direct, personal effort of Miss Hewins, and the carefully organized work of somewhat different types in two large library systems.
The early history of home library work with children as conducted by the Boston Children's Aid Society and a consideration of the place of this method in extension work of libraries in general are included.
Library work in summer playgrounds is one development of cooperation with other institutions. The first article included may be supplemented by a statement made by Miss Frances J. Olcott in an article on "The public library, a social force in Pittsburgh," printed in the Survey magazine, March 5, 1910. She states that "Perhaps the most important phase of the library's work with children which is being developed at present is that of playground libraries. … Now that the Playground Association is establishing recreation centers for winter as well as summer, arrangements have been made with the library to supply books, the Association providing the necessary reading rooms in its new buildings." Practical difficulties in administration are discussed in the second article.
The last group of articles brings together several unrelated phases of work. Two special kinds of children's libraries are mentioned, one a type—the Sunday School library—and one a library organized for specific work in connection with the Children's Museum in Brooklyn. Work with colored children in a colored branch library is described. The last paper gives a vivid picture of work with children in a foreign district of a large city.
THE STORY HOUR
The paper by Edna Lyman Scott, printed in the Wisconsin Bulletin for January, 1905, was said to be introductory to a talk which she was to give at Beloit at the Wisconsin State meeting, February 22, 1905. The author looks upon the inauguration of the story hour as but the grasping of an opportunity in working with children in the library, as a means of cultivating the love of literature and of introducing the child to books.
Edna Lyman, now Mrs. Scott, was born in Illinois, educated in the schools of Oak Park, Ill., and at Bradford Academy, Haverhill, Massachusetts. At the time this paper was written she was the children's librarian in the Oak Park Public Library, then known as Scoville Institute. Her work in story telling became known outside the immediate field of its activity, and in 1907 Miss Lyman severed her connection with this library to give time to special preparation, and later to become a lecturer on literature for children and story-telling, and a professional story-teller. She spent portions of three years as Advisory Children's Librarian for the Iowa Library Commission, and during that period published her book "Story-telling: what to tell and how to tell it." She holds the position of non-resident faculty lecturer on Work for Children in the Library School of the University of Illinois, and the Carnegie Library School of Atlanta, Georgia, and lectures regularly in other library schools, before teachers' institutes and normal schools, women's clubs and study classes throughout the country.
When we touch the question of guiding the reading of children in our libraries we have opened the consideration of a subject which is one of the great arguments for the existence of public libraries.
All about we see and feel the utter indifference of parents to what their children are reading, or whether they are reading at all, and the results of this indifference appear on every hand, in the character of the books which content the child, or in his determination to bury himself in a book to the exclusion of every other interest.
The librarian sees this indifference and its fruit and realizes that it adds another responsibility to her already long list, and another opportunity to serve. She may doubt whether her province is to educate the taste of the public at large, but there can be no question that in the case of the children the choice is not left for her to make; the only reason for the child's reading at all is that he may grow mentally and spiritually. There is no way to protect the child against worthless books except by giving him a decided taste for what is good. Hamilton Mabie says that "tastes depend very largely on the standards with which we are familiar," and if these standards are acquired hit and miss, without training, they are likely to be of a most doubtful character.
The love of literature, like the love of any of the fine arts, is susceptible of cultivation and is strengthened by constant contact with the beauty and greatness which can compel it. "They are exceptional children who read everything regardless of its character and come out all right. We do not know that any child is of such a make-up. We must deal with him as though he were not the exceptional but the normal child." The influence of all that he reads upon the mind of the child is sufficiently appalling, but it is not to be compared with the influence on his character. Henry Churchill King says: "It is his susceptibility to the faintest suggestion that makes the child so marvelous an imitator." The significance of this truth lies not only in the fact that he responds to the example in manners and morals of those about him, but equally, and perhaps even more exactly, to the heroes who live within the covers of his books. If the dangers are great, our response must be as forceful and our search untiring for the influence which will most surely lead the child to the best.
And what means shall be found? The answer seems ready to hand in the use of one of the oldest, yet one of the newest arts, the art of story-telling. You may talk to a child about books, he will give a certain kind of response, particularly if he respects your judgment because of previous experience, but tell him a story and you have fastened him with chains he does not care to resist.
The inauguration of the story hour then is but the grasping of an opportunity, first of all to give keenest joy to the child, and at the same time to set his standard for judging the value of other stories by those he hears, to give him a love for beautiful form, to introduce him to books he might never choose for himself and to bind him to the friend who tells him stories, so that he will feel a confidence in her suggestions.
Before choosing our stories for telling it will be well to remind ourselves of our purpose in telling stories, namely, to give familiarity with good English, to cultivate the imagination, to develop the sympathy, and to give a clear impression of moral truth. With this purpose in mind we shall gather our children into groups whose ages are near, and will be reached by the same tales. We must be methodical in this as in all our library work, and have our campaign well planned before we begin.
Not everyone has the gift of telling stories, but if one is not gifted with the art himself, there will doubtless be someone who is, who can be secured for the purpose, if we only feel that the need is great enough.
The way is open to the minds and hearts of the children. Shall we neglect it because it is old, or because it is new, or because we seem somewhat hampered by existing conditions? Why not follow the successes of others, and then find our own?
The above paper by Miss Lyman is offered as introductory to a talk which she will give at Beloit at the Wisconsin state meeting, February 22, 1905. The story hour has been most successfully conducted in a few of our libraries. To be sure every librarian is not qualified to conduct a successful story hour, but it is usually possible to find someone in the community who will tell the stories. The story hour requires a good deal of preparation. In Pittsburgh the librarians who were to tell stories had special training under Miss Shedlock, a well-known English story teller, and gave thorough study to the subject before attempting to interest the children. This library has published a pamphlet on Story telling to children from Norse mythology and the Nibehulgenlied. This pamphlet contains references to material on selected stories, an annotated reading list for the story teller and for young people, a full outline of a course, and many valuable suggestions. The same library published in its bulletin, October, 1902, the following outlines:
LEGENDS OF KING ARTHUR AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE Story 1. Merlin the Enchanter Story 2. How Arthur won his kingdom and how he got his sword Excalibur. Story 3. The marriage of Arthur and Guinevere and the founding of the Round Table. Story 4. The adventure of Gareth Story 5. The adventure of Geraint. Story 6. The adventure of Geraint and the Fair Enid. Story 7. The story of the dolorous stroke. Story 8. How Launcelot saved Guinevere; or, The adventure of the cart. Story 9. Launcelot and the lily-maid of Astrolat. Story 10. The coming of Galahad Story 11. The quest of the Sangreal Story 12. The achieving of the Sangreal. Story 13. The passing of Arthur.
LEGENDS OF CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS PALADINS
Story 14. The adventures of Ogier the Dane. Story 15. More adventures of Ogier the Dane. Story 16. The sons of Aymon. Story 17. Malagis the wizard Story 18. A Roland for an Oliver Story 19. The Princes of Cathay. Story 20. How Reinold fared to Cathay. Story 21. The quest of Roland Story 22. In the gardens of Falerina. Story 23. Bradamant, the warrior maiden. Story 24. The contest of Durandal. Story 25. The battle of Roncesvalles.
This regular story course will be broken into at the holidays when stories appropriate to the season will be told.
Their bulletin for November, 1904, gives the program for 1904-5 on Legends of Robin Hood and Stories from Ivanhoe. The outline follows:
LEGENDS OF ROBIN HOOD
Story 1. How Robin Hood became an outlaw. Story 2. How Robin Hood outwitted the Sheriff of Nottingham Town. Story 3. A merry adventure of Robin Hood. Story 4. How Robin Hood gained three merry men in one day. Story 5. The story of Allin a Dale. Story 6. The story of the Sorrowful Knight. Story 7. The Queen's champion. Story 8. Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne. Story 9. How King Richard visited Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest. Story 10. Robin Hood's death and burial. Story 11. The tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouche. Story 12. The second day of the tournament. Story 13. The siege of Torquilstone.
The following extract on the children's story hour is taken from the Pittsburgh bulletin of December, 1901.
THE CHILDREN'S STORY HOUR
The Library story hour for the children began in a very modest way at our West End branch. It has passed through the experimental stage and is now a part of the regular routine of our six children's rooms. At first disconnected stories were told but when we found how much the stories influenced the children's reading, we began to follow a regular program, which has proved more effective than haphazard story telling. Last year we told stories from Greek mythology and Homer and had an attendance of over 5,000 children. The books placed on special story hour shelves were taken out 2,000 times.
This year the stories are drawn from the Norse myths and the Niebelungen Lied. They are told by the children's librarians and the students of our Training school for children's librarians, every Friday afternoon from November first to April first. As the hour draws near, the children's rooms begin to fill with eagerly expectant children. There is an atmosphere of repressed excitement, and when the appointed minute comes, the children quickly form into line and march into the lecture room where the story is told. Once there, the children group themselves on the floor about the story teller, and all is attention. It may be that the story is a hard one to tell, the process of adapting and preparing it may have been difficult, but in the interested faces of the children and in the bright eyes fixed upon her face, the story teller finds her inspiration.
Extra copies of books containing Norse myths have been provided for each children's room. Since few of these books are for very young children, we tell these poetic stories of our Northern ancestors to the older boys and girls only. For the younger ones there are such stories as The Three Bears, Hop-o'-my-thumb, and other old nursery favorites. At Thanksgiving, Christmas and a few other holidays, the program is dropped and one full of the spirit of the season is told instead. That the children enjoy and appreciate the stories is seen by the steadily increasing attendance, and by the fact that the same children return week after week. Teachers say the very worst punishment they can inflict is to detain a child so late on Friday that he misses his story hour. During the summer months, and early fall, when no stories were being told, there were many anxious inquiries as to when the story hour would begin. At our West End branch the children clamored so for their stories that the work was commenced a month before the time for beginning the regular program.
And what is the use of story telling? Is it merely to amuse and entertain the children? Were it simply for this, the time would not seem wasted, when one recalls the bright and happy faces and realizes what an hour of delight it is to many children oftentimes their only escape from mean and sordid surroundings Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson once said that to lie on the hearth rug and listen to one's mother reading aloud is a liberal education, but such sweet and precious privileges are only for the few. The story hour is intended to meet this want in some slight degree, to give the child a glimpse beyond the horizon which hitherto has limited his life, and open up to him those vast realms of literature which are a part of his inheritance, for unless he enters this great domain through the gateway of childish fancy and imagination, the probability is that he will never find any other opening. To arouse and stimulate a love for the best reading is then the real object of the story hour. Through the story the child's interest is awakened, the librarian places in his hands just the right book to develop that interest, and gradually there is formed a taste for good literature.
STORY-TELLING IN LIBRARIES
In the following article, contributed to Public Libraries for November, 1908, Mr. John Cotton Dana protests against the popular idea of library story-telling and advocates instruction given to teachers both in story- telling and in the use of books as a better method "as to cost and results." John Cotton Dana was born in Woodstock, Vermont, in 1856, received the degree of A.B. from Dartmouth in 1878, and studied law in Woodstock from 1878 to 1880. He was a land surveyor in Colorado in 1880-1881, was admitted to the New York bar in 1883, and spent 1886-1887 in Colorado as a civil engineer. He was Librarian of the Denver Public Library from 1889 to 1897; of the City Library, Springfield, Mass., from 1898- 1902, and since 1902 has been Librarian of the Free Public Library of Newark, N. J.
Story-telling to groups of young children is now popular among librarians. The art is practiced chiefly by women. No doubt one reason for its popularity is that it gives those who practice it the pleasures of the teacher, the orator and the exhorter. It must be a delight to have the opportunity to hold the attention of a group of children; to see their eyes sparkle as the story unwinds itself; to feel that you are giving the little people high pleasure, and at the same time are improving their language, their morals, their dramatic sense, their power of attention and their knowledge of the world's literary masterpieces. Also, it is pleasant to realize that you are keeping them off the streets; are encouraging them to read good books; are storing their minds with charming pictures of life and are making friends for your library.
In explaining its popularity I have stated briefly the arguments usually given in favor of library story-telling. There is another side.
A library's funds are never sufficient for all the work that lies before it. Consequently, the work a library elects to do is done at the cost of certain other work it might have done. The library always puts its funds, skill and energy upon those things which it thinks are most important, that is, are most effective in the long run, in educating the community. Now, the schools tell stories to children, and it is obviously one of their proper functions so to do at such times, to such an extent and to such children as the persons in charge of the schools think wise. It is probable that the schoolmen know better when and how to include story-telling in their work with a given group of children than do the librarians. If a library thinks it knows about this subject more than do the schools, should it spend time and money much needed for other things in trying to take up and carry on the schools' work? It would seem not. Indeed, the occasional story-telling which the one library of a town or city can furnish is so slight a factor in the educational work of that town or city as to make the library's pride over its work seem very ludicrous.
If, now, the library by chance has on its staff a few altruistic, emotional, dramatic and irrepressible child-lovers who do not find ordinary library work gives sufficient opportunities for altruistic indulgence, and if the library can spare them from other work, let it set them at teaching the teachers the art of story-telling.
Contrast, as to cost and results, the usual story-telling to children with instruction in the same and allied arts to teachers. The assistant entertains once or twice each week a group of forty or fifty children. The children—accustomed to schoolroom routine, hypnotized somewhat by the mob-spirit, and a little by the place and occasion, ready to imitate on every opportunity —listen with fair attention. They are perhaps pleased with the subject matter of the tale, possibly by its wording, and very probably by the voice and presence of the narrator. They hear an old story, one of the many that help to form the social cement of the nation in which they live. This is of some slight value, though the story is only one of scores which they hear or read in their early years at school. The story has no special dramatic power in its sequence. As a story it is of value almost solely because it is old. It has no special value in its phrasing. It may have been put into artistic form by some man of letters; but the children get it, not in that form, but as retold by an inspired library assistant who has made no mark in the world of letters by her manner of expression. The story has no moral save as it is dragged in by main strength; usually, in fact, and especially in the case of myths, the moral tone needs apologies much more than it needs praise.
To prepare for this half hour of the relatively trivial instruction of a few children in the higher life, the library must secure a room and pay for its care, a room which if it be obtained and used at all could be used for more profitable purposes; and the performer must study her art and must, if she is not a conceited duffer, prepare herself for her part for the day at a very considerable cost of time and energy.
Now, if the teachers do not know the value of story-telling at proper times and to children of proper years; if they do not realize the strength of the influence for good that lies in the speaking voice—though that this influence is relatively over-rated in these days I am at a proper time prepared to show—if they do not know about the interest children take in legends, myths and fairy tales, and their value in strengthening the social bond, then let the library assistants who do know about such things hasten to tell them. I am assuming for purposes of argument that the teachers do not know, and that library assistants can tell them. I shall not attempt to say how the library people will approach the teacher with their information without offending them, except to remark that tactful lines of approach can be found; and to remark, further, that by setting up a story-hour in her library a librarian does not very tactfully convey to the teachers the intimation that they either do not know their work or willfully neglect it.
With this same labor of preparation, in the room used to talk 30 minutes to a handful of children, the librarian could far better address a group of teachers on the use of books in libraries and schoolrooms. Librarians have long contended that teachers are deficient in bookishness; and it is quite possible that they are. Their preparation in normal schools compels them to give more attention to method than to subject matter. They have lacked incentive and opportunity to become familiar with books, outside of the prescribed text-books and supplementary readers. They do not know the literature of and for childhood, and not having learned to use books in general for delight and utility themselves they cannot impart the art to their pupils. As I have said, librarians contend that this is true, yet many of them with opportunities to instruct teachers in these matters lying unused before them, neglect them and coolly step in to usurp one of the school's functions and rebuke the teacher's shortcomings.
This is not all. A library gives of its time, money and energy to instruct 40 children—and there it ends. If, on the other hand, it instructs 40 teachers, those 40 carry the instruction to 40 class rooms and impart knowledge of the library, of the use of books, of the literature for children and—if need be—of the art of story-telling, to 1,600 or 2,000 children. There seems no question here as to which of these two forms of educational activity is for librarians better worth while.
STORY TELLING—A PUBLIC LIBRARY METHOD
The National Child Conference for Research and Welfare was organized at a meeting held at Clark University, Worcester, Mass., in July, 1909. Several papers on library topics were presented at this meeting, one of the most interesting of which was given by Miss Olcott. In this paper she presents the story hour as a method of introducing "large groups of children simultaneously to great literature," and asserts that "the library story hour becomes, if properly utilized, an educational force as well as a literary guide."
Frances Jenkins Olcott was born in Paris, France; was educated under private tutors, and was graduated from the New York State Library School in 1896. From 1898 to 1911 she was Chief of the Children's Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. In 1900 she organized and became the Director of the Training School for Children's Librarians. Since 1911 Miss Olcott has contributed to library work with children by writing and editing books for parents and for children.
The library is a latter day popular educational development. It supplements the work of the church, the home, the school and the kindergarten. Its function is to place within the reach of all the best thought of the world as conserved in the printed page. This being its natural function, all methods selected by the library should tend directly to arouse interest in the best reading. Methods which do not do this are, for the library, ineffective and a waste of valuable energy and public funds.
The library movement has grown with such startling rapidity that it has not been possible to codify the best methods of library work, but there has been an earnest endeavor to establish a body of library pedagogy by careful experimentation. Unfortunately during this experimental stage methods have been introduced which do not produce direct library results. Many of these methods, which in this paper it is not expedient to enumerate, are interesting and appeal to the imagination; they may impart knowledge, but they are not, strictly speaking, library methods.
As childhood and youth are the times in which to lay the foundation for the habit of reading and of discrimination in reading, it falls to the library worker with children to build up a system of sound library pedagogy leading to the increased intelligent use of the library. The library worker has to deal with large crowds of children of all ages, all classes and nationalities. In a busy children's room she is rarely able to provide enough assistants to do the necessary routine work and help each individual child select his reading, therefore it becomes necessary for her to direct the children's reading through large groups and to adapt for this purpose methods used by other educational institutions. But these methods have to be adapted in a practical, forceful way, otherwise they become sentimental and ineffectual. For instance, a method useful in the kindergarten for teaching ethics, in the public schools for teaching geography, science or history, if rightly applied by the public library, may be useful in arousing interest in good books and reading. Such is the story telling method, one of the most effective, if rightly applied, which the public library uses to introduce large groups of children simultaneously to great literature. On the other hand, if the library worker uses story telling merely as a means of inculcating knowledge or teaching ethics, the story fails to produce public library results and the method becomes the weakest of methods, as it absorbs time, physical energy, and library funds which should be expended to increase good reading.
The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh began systematic story telling to large groups of children in 1899. After a few months a decided change was noted in the children's reading. The stories were selected from Shakespeare's plays and there came an increasing demand for books containing the plays, or stories from them. It became evident that if a story was carefully prepared with the intention of arousing interest in reading, it could prove a positive factor in directing the reading of large groups of children. The method was adopted throughout the library system and extended to the various children's reading rooms, home libraries, playgrounds and city schools. In order to make the story telling effective and systematic, a subject was chosen for each year, stories being told every Friday afternoon in the lecture rooms of the Central and Branch libraries and at varying intervals in the other agencies. Large numbers of duplicates of children's books containing the stories were purchased and placed on story hour shelves in the children's rooms. Announcements of the story hours were made in the public schools and notices posted on the bulletins in the children's reading rooms. The children responded so eagerly that it became almost impossible to handle the large crowds attending weekly and it was quite impossible to supply the demand for the books which, previous to the story hour, had not been popular.
The story hour courses are planned to extend over eight years and are selected from romantic and imaginative literature. For the first two years nursery tales, legends, fables and standard stories are told. For the following years—Stories from Greek Mythology; Stories from Norse Mythology and the Nibelungenlied; Stories of King Arthur and the Round Table, and legends of Charlemagne; Stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey; Stories from Chaucer and Spenser; Stories from Shakespeare. At the end of the eight years the cycle is repeated.
The story hours are conducted most informally. The stories are told, not in the children's rooms, as this would interfere with the order and discipline of the rooms, but in the study and lecture rooms of the library buildings. As far as possible a group is limited to thirty-six children. When stories are told to children over ten or twelve years of age, the boys and girls are placed in separate groups. This enables the story teller to develop her story to suit the varied tastes of her audience.
The children sit on benches constructed especially for the story hour. The benches are made according to the following measurements: 14 in. from floor to top of seat; seat 12 in. wide; 3 benches 9 ft. long, one bench 7 ft. long. Benches made without backs. Four benches are placed in the form of a hollow square, the story teller sitting with the children. In this way the children are not crowded and the story teller can see all their faces. It is more hygienic and satisfactory than allowing the children to crowd closely about the story teller. The story hour benches are so satisfactory that we are introducing them as fast as possible into all of our library buildings.
Each story is carefully prepared beforehand by the story teller. In the Training School for Children's Librarians conducted by this Library, all the students are obliged to take the regular course in story telling which includes lectures and weekly practice. Informality in story telling is encouraged. Dramatic or elocutionary expression is avoided, the self-conscious, the elaborate and the artificial are eliminated; we try to follow as closely as possible the spontaneous folk spirit. The children sit breathless, lost in visions created by a sympathetic and un- self-conscious story teller.
In closing I should like to dwell for a moment on what have been called the "by-products" of the Library story hour. Besides guiding his reading, a carefully prepared, well told story enriches a child's imagination, stocks his mind with poetic imagery and literary allusions, develops his powers of concentration, helps in the unfolding of his ideas of right and wrong, and develops his sympathetic feelings; all of which "by-products" have a powerful influence on character. Thus the library story hour becomes, if properly utilized, an educational force as well as a literary guide.
STORY TELLING AS A LIBRARY TOOL
The possibility of library story telling in schools as a means of interesting a larger number of children than is possible at a story hour held in a library is suggested by Miss Alice A. Blanchard in the following paper, also given at the Conference at Clark University in 1909. Alice Arabella Blanchard was born in Montpelier, Vermont; was graduated from Smith College in 1903; from the New York State Library School in 1905, and was a special student in the Training School for Children's Librarians in 1905-1906. From 1906 to 1908 she was the head of the children's department of the Seattle Public Library; in 1909 the head of the school department of the Free Public Library, of Newark, N. J.; from 1910 to 1912 the head of the Schools division of the Seattle Public Library; from 1913 to 1915 the First Assistant in the Children's Department and the Training School for Children's Librarians in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and since that time has been supervisor of work with schools and children in the Free Public Library of Newark, N. J.
The subject which the printed programme for this morning's session assigns to me is How to guide children's reading by story telling. I must begin my talk by an apology; for I shall speak upon only a limited phase of that subject. The subject of guiding children's reading by story telling is a pretty broad one. Tell a good story to a child and he wants to read the book from which it comes. This simple statement means that wherever the child is, at home, at school, in the playground, in the library, in Sunday School, in the settlement, we can exercise a very direct influence upon his reading taste by the stories we tell him. Story telling is a most excellent method of advertising the good books of the world. I shall consider it as a means of advertising books from the librarian's point of view, and treat it simply as a library method, calling it, if you will let me, a library tool.
Story telling is becoming widely popular in schools, in libraries and as a profession by itself. We know that it is an effective method of reaching and influencing children, and that as a method it has advantages over the printed word. Libraries are considering it a part of their work and are using it on a more or less elaborate scale.
It may be too soon, for we have not been using it very long, to know just what place story telling should take in the work of the library; but some of us feel that we are not considering the subject with sufficient care, that we are letting our enthusiasm run away with our common sense in the matter, a little too much in the manner of our friend who has the automobile fever and forgets that life can hold anything else.
It is evident that since no public library ever has enough time and money at its disposal for the work it has to do, it cannot afford to undertake story telling or any other activity which does not further this work. We say that the function of public library work with children is to give them an intelligent love for the best books, and in trying to do this we must reach the greatest number of children at the least expense. If story telling can be an effective tool, enabling us to reach with books more children at less expense than any other method at our command, then it has a legitimate place in library work. If it cannot do this we should let it alone.
Most of us feel that school and libraries have experimented with story telling long enough now to prove that it has its place as a legitimate and valued tool of the library. At the same time we see these facts, however; many libraries do not understand what this place is; many libraries are using story telling as a tool for another's work at the expense of their own; and some libraries are using story telling when, because of their peculiar situation, another tool would better answer their purpose.
If the library is to use story telling it must be to bring children and books together. This it can do successfully. Library reports show that it has interested thousands of children in the library, increased greatly the general circulation of books from the children's shelves, and created popularity for the books from which the stories were selected.
Incidentally, the Story Hour makes a delightful form of entertainment, for the average child loves to hear stories told. It also establishes a very pleasant personal relation between the children who hear the story and the person who tells it. Herein lies a danger for the library of which we take too little account. Because she can by her stories so delightfully entertain her audience and thereby win their affection the story-teller is tempted to lose sight of the purpose of her stories, namely, to guide the children's reading. If she does forget this purpose, her stories, although they may bring the children week after week in throngs, will leave them where they were before, so far as their reading taste is concerned. The fact that the Story Hour makes a delightful form of entertainment, the fact that it establishes a pleasant personal relation between story teller and children, must not be the reason for its adoption by the library. The story teller must tell stories from books which are to be found upon the library shelves and she must tell the children that they are there. Unless the Story Hour advertises the best books, and results in an increased use of them, the library is wasting time and money in its story telling—to put the matter in its most favorable light.
In the second place, many libraries are making the mistake of trying to do too many things with the story telling tool. They forget that the school tells stories, that it can give the child thereby plenty of facts in science, history, geography, and what not; that it teaches him by means of stories, morals and politeness. They forget that the city does not pay them for doing this school work or for doing the work of the playgrounds and parks in keeping children off the streets. Much can be done by the library in all these ways; but it happens that the work which belongs peculiarly to the library and which no other institution can at present do for it, is to give good books to all the children in the city—a task which of itself is enough for any library to hope to do. Therefore we should discard from our story telling all the lessons we are trying to teach, our Christmas tree, our May poles, our fancy costumes and whatever pretty games we play, and simply tell the children stories from books. Fortunately a good story from a book is enough to delight a child without any accompanying frills, so that the time we save by discarding them does not in the least detract from its efficiency.
And we must tell the stories to children. It has been said of one library and, moreover, with some pride, that the story hour was so popular that many grown people came to it; indeed sometimes there was little room left for the children!
Thirdly, the average library does not sufficiently consider whether in its particular case, story telling is the best tool at its command. What is a good tool in one case may not be in another and a given library may be sacrificing much better work when it takes time, as it must always do, from something else for the story hour.
Often a small library has no story teller upon its staff, but it may be doing effective work with children through its work with teachers, its visits to schools and its children's room. It has a small staff and no room adapted for telling stories at the library. Obviously such a library has no need for the story telling tool, yet many libraries like this are struggling hard to use it. Once a week or oftener they are allowing all the usual routine of the library to be upset to accommodate the Story Hour, the story teller has spent many hours of preparation and is under a strain that is little short of misery, and the children, because of the general difficulty of the whole situation, are deriving no greater love for books nor respect for the library. Such a library would do better to give up story telling and put its energy into what it could do more effectively.
But here let me say that often the small library thinks it has no use for story telling as a tool when as a matter of fact it has.
Children's librarians in large or small libraries count school visiting as part of their work. The school visit offers the best of opportunities for the work of the Story Hour. A story told at the end of an informal little talk about the library will bring the children flocking to the library the minute school is over. The small library which has no Story Hour room but which has a story teller can take advantage of this opportunity and do much with it. The story teller can visit three schoolrooms on different days, tell stories to forty children each time, and because the story telling is distributed over the three days, manage with comparative ease the influx of 120 children who may come for books as a result. More than this, the story teller can have told three stories instead of one, so that only one-third of the children will clamor for the same book. This last point is important as all who have had story-hour experience know.
And it is not always the small library which might better tell its stories in school. Consider the city library which has a story teller who tells stories at a Branch. She gets crowds of children, it is true, but many more do not come. She has too many for her story room. Even if she repeats her story until all the eager children get in eventually to hear it the results are of doubtful benefit. It has meant a fearfully strenuous day for the story teller and for the whole Branch; the chances are that the last children to hear the tale gained little from it because the story teller was too tired to tell it well; many of the children have spent most of the afternoon in the scuffle of trying to get in and having to wait when they might have been out of doors playing; and practically all the children were the same ones who always come. And, as in a small library, all the children want the same books, if the stories were good.
School people, as a rule, are very cordial to the library story teller. Since they are, this method seems preferable to the Story Hour at the library. The story teller, besides being spared the difficulty of managing the story hour at the library, has a better opportunity to keep in touch with school work; can reach all the children instead of the same group week after week; interests teacher as well as the children in the books from which the stories are told; and saves the library considerable money in janitor work and heat and light bills. Probably the story teller has neither time nor strength to tell stories both in school and library. Would she not be wise in such a case to tell her stories in the schoolroom?
There is another thing that should be said of story telling as a library tool. If we aim by stories to advertise the best books, how shall we tell the stories to make the books seem most attractive and to get the best results?
We say that the impression the child gets from a story told is greater than that gained from a story read. Then we proceed to tell him in our own words stories which we adapt from the books we think he should know, trusting that he will want the books themselves as a result. Well and good for those books which depend for their value upon subject matter, regardless of style; for folk-lore, for many of the fairy tales and other stories, but not equally well and good for books that are valuable for their literary forces. If a story is dramatic enough for the telling and is written by a master, is it not a shame to give it to a child in an inferior form when he might have it as it was written? If a master did it, it is every bit as dramatic and as easy for the child to understand in the form in which the master wrote it as in the story teller's version, and many times more beautiful.
Why do children's librarians spend so much time in the preparation of their own versions of the good stories of the world when they have so much material which they can use at first hand? The theory is, that a story has more life if told in the story teller's words, that it is likely to be stiff and formal if she must confine herself to the author's words. This need not be so. If the story teller enjoys the story, as a story teller always must, if she appreciates the charm of its expression as the author wrote it, and sees the value of this charm, the author's words will come easily from her lips with all the life of the original. She may have had to cut the original more or less, but that can usually be done without perceptibly marring the story. If the tale does not lend itself to this kind of treatment and she feels that she must adapt the whole thing for her audience, she can at least quote paragraphs. If the story teller gives the child her own version, the child wants the story because or in spite of what she put into it. He gets the book, fails to find the story teller part of it and, as that is all he is after puts the book down or finds the real thing and thinks the teller didn't know it very well, for "She left out some of the best parts."
I am not saying that the story teller's version is worthless. It is good as far as it goes. I am only saying that by it we often miss an opportunity to give the children something better. None of us can tell the Andersen or the Kipling stories as well as the men who wrote them. Why not give them to the children "straight out of the book," as the children say, and why not, for instance, when we are telling stories of the Trojan War, give them passages verbatim from Bryant's Iliad? This kind of story telling may take more time for preparation than the other for some people, it is true, but the resulting benefit is greater. The librarian who has once told an Andersen story in the words of a close translation will never want to do it in her own again.
In spite of all we say about giving him the best books, are we not giving the child too little credit for literary appreciation? Are not some of our simplified versions of the good stories of the world a little too simple? We refuse to leave upon our shelves such foolish things as the Hiawatha primer, or the Stevenson reader (this gives upon one page a poem from the child's garden and on the opposite page a neat translation!), and yet do we not offend sometimes in the same way in our story telling? Let us not run the risk of spoiling the atmosphere and beauty of a good tale by over-adapting it. If it is beyond the child's comprehension in the beginning, let us leave it for him to find when he is older. If our library story telling has been what it should be, the road will be an easy one for him to follow.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON STORY-TELLING
Story-telling in playgrounds, settlements and libraries as it is carried on in various communities, is described in the following comprehensive report which was made by the Committee on story-telling, Miss Annie Carroll Moore, Chairman, at the Fourth Annual Congress of the Playground Association of America. It was printed in the Playground, August, 1910, and an abridgement appeared in the Library Journal (September, 1910). A sketch of Miss Moore appears on page 113.
"Is she a Fairy, or just a Lady?"
A little Scotch girl asked the question after a story hour in a children's library. "She made me see fairies awful plain."
"She made me see fairies, too," answered the children's librarian with whom the child had shared her doubt. "Let's go and find her and make sure."
On the way they spoke of the story they had both liked best. It was about an old woman who lived long ago in Devonshire, who loved tulips and planted her garden full of them, and tended them with great care because they seemed to her so beautiful. After the old woman died some extremely practical persons came to live in her house and they considered it very foolish to grow tulips for their beauty when the garden might be turned to practical account. So they dug up the garden and analyzed the soil, and planted carrots and turnips and parsnips and just such vegetables as promised to yield speedy and profitable returns.
By and by a wonderful thing happened. Tulips no longer grew in the garden; there was no room for them and nobody had time to look after such useless things. But on the spot where the old woman was buried the most beautiful tulips sprang up of themselves, and every night in the Springtime the faries may be seen bringing their babies to rock them to sleep in the tulip bells.
The little Scotch girl wondered whether there was "a book in the library with the tulip story in." She wanted to read it to her grandmother, she said, because her grandmother was "always speaking about her garden in Scotland," and she wondered if the tulips in Scotland had fairies asleep in them.
The storyteller, who was Miss Marie L. Shedlock, looked wonderfully happy when asked whether she was a "Fairy" or "just a Lady." She said she supposed she was really "just a Lady," but she had become so intimate with fairies through listening to stories about them, and thinking about them, and telling fairy tales to children and grown people in England and America, that she felt almost like a fairy at times, and she had come to believe with Hans Christian Andersen, whose stories she loved best of all, that life itself is a beautiful fairy tale.
Then she told the little girl that the tulip story was not in a book, and that she must tell it to her grandmother just as she remembered hearing it, and that having seen the fairies while she listened would help her to remember the story better. She could see pictures all the time she was telling stories, she said. The little girl had never thought of making pictures for herself before. She had only seen them in books and hanging on walls.
This unconscious tribute to the art of the storyteller made a lasting impression on the children's librarian. If a child of less than eight years, and of no exceptional parts, could so clearly discriminate between the fairy tale she had heard at school and the tale that made her "see the fairies," there was little truth in the statement that children do not appreciate artistic storytelling. She went back to her children's room feeling that something worth while had happened. The children who had listened to the stories now crowded about the book shelves, eager for "any book about fairies," "a funny book," or "a book about animals."
The little girl who had seen the fairies was not the only one who had fallen under the spell of the storyteller. "I always knew Pandora was a nice story, but she never seemed like a live girl before," said one of the older girls. "I liked the Brahmin, the Jackal and the Tiger best," exclaimed a boy. "Gee! but couldn't you just see that tiger pace when she was saying the words?" "I just love The Little Tin Soldier," said a small boy who hated to read, but was always begging the children's librarian to tell him stories about the pictures he found in books. "Didn't she make him march fine!"
Before the end of the day the children's librarian had decided that even if there could be but one such story hour in the lifetime of an individual or an institution it would pay in immediate and far-off results. But why stop with one; why not have more story hours in children's libraries? Other children's librarians were asking themselves the same question, and then they asked their librarians, and those who recognized in the story hour a powerful ally in stimulating a love of good literature and a civilizing influence wherever the gang spirit prevailed, gave ready assent.
Ten years have passed and the story hour is now an established feature in the work of children's libraries. Miss Shedlock came to America to tell stories to children and to their fathers and mothers. She returned year after year to remind the schools and colleges, the training schools and the kindergartens, as well as the public libraries, of the great possibilities in what she so aptly called "the oldest and the newest of the arts."
In her lectures upon "The Art of Storytelling;" "The Fun and the Philosophy; The Poetry and the Pathos of Hans Christian Andersen," and in the stories she told to illustrate them, Miss Shedlock exemplified that teaching of Socrates, which represents him as saying: "All my good is magnetic, and I educate not by lessons but by going about my daily business." The story as a mere beast of burden for conveying information or so-called moral or ethical instruction was relieved of its load. The play spirit in literature which is the birthright of every child of every nation was set free. Her interpretation of the delicate satire and the wealth of imagery revealed in the tales of that great child in literature, Hans Christian Andersen, has been at once an inspiration and a restraining influence to many who are now telling stories to children, and to others who have aided in the establishing of storytelling. It is now three years since Miss Shedlock was recalled to England by the London County Council to bring back to the teachers of London the inspirational value of literature she had taken over to America.
Interest in storytelling has become widespread, reaching a civic development beyond the dreams of its most ardent advocates when a professional storyteller and teacher of literature was engaged to tell stories to children in the field houses of the public recreation centers of Chicago. Mrs. Gudrun Thorne- Thomsen has been known for some years in this country as a storyteller of great power in the field of her inheritance, Scandinavian literature. It is very largely due to her work that the city of Chicago has been roused to claim the public library privileges so long denied to her children, and to make the claim from a point that plants the love of literature in the midst of the recreational life of a great city.
No one who was present at those meetings of the New York Playground Congress, conducted by Miss Maud Summers, will ever forget her eloquent appeal for a full recognition of the value of storytelling as a definite activity of the playground. She saw its kinship to the folk dance and the folk song in the effort to preserve the traditions of his country to the foreign-born child. And she saw the relation of the story to the games, the athletics, and the dramatics. More clearly than anything else, perhaps, she saw the value of the story in its direct appeal to the spiritual nature of the child. Miss Summers' interest and enthusiasm made the work of the present committee possible. As one of her associates, its chairman pays grateful tribute to her memory and links her name with a work to which she gave herself so freely in life, that her death seems but the opening of another door through which we look with full hope and confidence upon childhood as "a real and indestructible part of human life."
There is a line of Juvenal that bids the old remember the respect due to the young. It is in that attitude, and with some appreciation of what it means to be a growing boy or girl of the present time, that the subject of this report has been approached and is now presented for the consideration of the Playground Association of America. We know only too well that we cannot give to childhood in great cities the simple and lovely ways we associate with childhood. We CAN give to it a wonderful fortification against the materialism and the sensationalism of daily life on the streets, against the deadly monotony of the struggle for existence, by a revival of the folk spirit in story, as well as in song and in dance, that will not spend its strength in mere pageantry, but will sink deep into our national consciousness.
It should be clearly stated that the field of storytelling, investigated, relates to children above the kindergarten age and to boys and girls in their teens. The investigation lays no claim to completeness and has not included storytelling in public nor in private schools.
An outline covering the main points of this report was sent to representative workers in thirteen different cities, to several persons professionally engaged in storytelling, and to other persons whose critical judgment was valued in such connection. The outline called—First, for a statement of the extent to which storytelling is being carried on in playgrounds, public libraries, settlements, and such other institutions, exclusive of schools, as might come to the notice of the members of the committee. Second, for information concerning the persons who are telling stories, whether their entire time is given to storytelling and preparation for it; whether it forms a part of the regular duties of a director or an assistant; and, finally, whether volunteer workers are engaged in storytelling.
Replies to these inquiries with a brief statement of results have been grouped by cities,[3] as follows:
[3] Owing to space limitations, in general the formal reports from cities represented in the discussion are omitted in the body of the report.
BOSTON
Storytelling in the playgrounds is under the direction of a special teacher appointed in 1909. The teacher of storytelling works in co-operation with the teachers of dramatics and of folk dancing. The visits of the special teacher added interest and novelty, but it is felt that every playground teacher should be able to tell stories effectively. Storytelling, therefore, is considered a part of the daily work of the playground assistant.
In the Boston Public Library, storytelling is not organized as a definite feature of work with children, but has been employed occasionally in some branch libraries, regularly in others, by varying methods. It is regarded as markedly successful in districts where library assistants are closely identified with the work of the neighborhood. Co-operation with settlements in which storytelling has been carried on for some years has been very successful. Rooms have been furnished by the library; the settlements, and sometimes the normal schools, have provided storytellers. The work of a settlement leader with a large group of boys was especially interesting one winter, as he told continued stories from such books as "Treasure Island" and "The Last of the Mohicans."
In the sixty home libraries conducted by The Children's Aid Society, storytelling and games are carried on by regular and volunteer visitors on the days when books are exchanged. (For full information concerning home libraries refer to Mr. Charles W. Birtwell of The Children's Aid Society, Boston, with whom this work originated.)
Settlements and libraries report great improvement in the quality of reading done by the children as well as keen appreciation and enjoyment of the stories to which they have listened. They remember and refer to stories told them several years ago.
BROOKLYN
In the children's room of the Pratt Institute Free Library, storytelling and reading aloud have had a natural place since the opening of the new library building in 1896. Years before this library was built the lot on which it stands was appropriated as a playground by the children of the neighborhood—a neighborhood that has been gradually transformed by the life of the institution which is the center of interest. The recognition of the necessity for play and the value of providing a place for it— children now play freely in the park on the library grounds— exercised a marked influence on the conception of work to be done by this children's library and upon its subsequent development.
The children's librarian was never allowed to forget that the trustees had been boys in that very neighborhood and remembered how boys felt. It was evident from the outset, that the children's room was to be made of living interest to boys and girls who were very much alive to other things than books. Probably more suggestions were gained from looking out of windows, and from walks in the neighborhood and beyond it, than from any other sources.
Fourteen years ago there were no other public libraries with rooms for children, in Brooklyn; and boys frequently walked from two to five miles to visit this one. During the past six years a weekly story hour with a well-defined program based upon the varied interests of boys and girls of different ages has been conducted from October to May of each year.
The children's librarian plans for the story hour, and does much of the storytelling herself; but from time to time some one from the outside world is invited to come and tell stories in order to give the children a change, and to give breadth and balance to the library's outlook upon the story interests of boys and girls. Listening as one of the group has greatly strengthened the feeling of comradeship between children's librarian and children, and the stories have been enjoyed more keenly than as if one person had told them all.
The evening on which Mr. Dan Beard told "Bear Stories" is still remembered, and another evening is associated with the old hero tales of Japan told by a Japanese, who was claimed by the boys as one of themselves, and known thereafter as "The Japanese Boy." Pure enjoyment of such a story hour by children whose homes offered nothing in place of it already gives assurance of results rich in memories and associations, since men and women who were coming fourteen years ago as children are now bringing THEIR children to look at picture books.
CHICAGO
The institutions in connection with which storytelling is carried on are: The Chicago Public Library, the municipal parks and playgrounds, social settlements, vacation schools, institutional churches, hospitals, and the United Charities. The private organizations supporting the storytelling movement financially, by the employment of special storytellers, are: The Library Extension Story Hour Committee, the Permanent School Extension Committee, the Library Committee, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and various women's clubs of Chicago.
A league has been formed of those who are telling stories under the auspices of the public library. The league holds meetings once a month for the purpose of upholding the standard of story work and to strengthen the co-operation with the library. Stories from Scandinavian literature, and stories of patriotism related to the different nationalities represented in the story hour groups, have been notably successful in Chicago.
The following statements are made by (1) Mr. E. B. De Groot, director of the playgrounds and field houses. "I think that the story hour is the only passive occupation that should be given an equal place with the active occupations. I see in the story hour, not only splendid possibilities but a logical factor in the comprehensive playground scheme. The place of the story hour, I believe, is definite and comparable with any first choice activity. It is unfortunate that we are unable to secure as playground teachers, at the present time, good story hour men and women."
(2) Mr. Henry E. Legler, Librarian of the Chicago Public Library: "We are now engaged in developing the branch library system of the city, and no doubt storytelling will be made incidentally a feature of the work planned for the children's rooms. This work must be done by the children's librarians, the storytelling growing out of library work and merging into it in order that its most effective side be legitimately developed." (Mr. Legler states his views with regard to storytelling and other features of work for children in an article entitled "The Chicago Public Library and Co-operation with the Schools." Educational Bi-Monthly, April, 1910).
(3) Mrs. Gudrun Thorne-Thomsen: "As to the future of the movement I believe the purposes are best served by the storyteller being an integral member of the organization she serves. I believe that if the organizations which express themselves so sympathetic toward the work would co-operate and give definite instruction in storytelling to their workers, and also give them a fair amount of supervision and direction, the whole movement might be placed on a dignified and wholesome basis."
CLEVELAND
Storytelling has been carried on in the playgrounds and summer schools for several years. Since 1907 the work of playground leaders has been supplemented by storytelling done by public library assistants who visit the playgrounds by invitation, and who are scheduled for this work as a part of their regular library duties.
In the Cleveland Public Library storytelling and reading clubs have been widely developed under the guidance of the director of work with children. In each of the branch libraries two story hours a week are usually held. Storytelling is regarded as a part of the equipment of the children's librarian, and time is allowed from the weekly schedule for the preparation of stories.
Definite neighborhood co-operation is the aim of each branch library. Storytelling visits are therefore made to the public schools, social settlements, day nurseries, mission schools, and other institutions of a neighborhood. Requests for such visits are more numerous than can be supplied.
Storytelling in the settlements is done by club leaders and volunteer workers mainly in connection with club work. Stories were told last season in the children's gardens connected with the social settlement by an assistant from The Home Gardening Association.
Positive results of the effect of storytelling in the Cleveland Public Library are shown in the favorable direction of the reading of large numbers of children by a strong appeal to their spontaneous interests, and by the many requests for library storytellers. The total number of children who listened to stories told by library assistants in 1909 was 80,996. The Cleveland Public Library publishes an illustrated "Handbook" containing a full account of its storytelling and club work.
JAMAICA, LONG ISLAND
One playground has been opened in the Borough of Queens. Storytelling was introduced into the branches of the public library in 1908 and was at first carried on entirely by the supervisor of work with children as a means of putting herself in touch with the children and library assistants. An experience of some years at the head of the children's department in the public library of Portland, Oregon, had given her a full sense of the social opportunities presented in telling stories.
The branch libraries of Queens Borough are situated chiefly in separate towns and at seaside resorts. The children in some of these communities are inclined to be lethargic and lacking in initiative; or, the commercial instinct is abnormally developed in them. Habits of visiting a library for pleasure had not been established except in the case of older girls and boys who regarded it as a meeting place.
Girls whose reading was as flippant and as vulgar as their conduct on the streets have become interested members of "A Girl's Romance Club." Stories appealing to their love of romance have been told and books have been familiarly discussed with them. Library assistants as well as the supervisor of children's work now hold weekly story hours. There has been a great improvement in the quality and extent of the reading done by the children. Storytelling visits have been made to public schools and to the Jewish Home for Crippled Children. A library storyteller is sent to the playground opened in Flushing in 1910.
NEW YORK CITY
Storytelling in the playgrounds of New York City is considered an important feature of the work of playground assistants wherever the conditions are favorable to carrying it on.
In the Parks and Playgrounds Association the leader of the Guild of Play tells stories herself and is supplemented by regular assistants and volunteer workers with whom she holds conferences on storytelling. The work of the Guild of Play is extended to hospitals for Crippled Children, to homes for Destitute Children and to settlements. (See Handbook and Report of Parks and Playgrounds Association.)
In the playgrounds and vacation schools maintained by the Board of Education, storytelling is carried on by the supervisors and assistants. The Nurses' Settlement, Greenwich House, Union Settlement, Hartley House, and Corning-Clark House, report weekly story hours, frequently held on Sunday afternoons. Storytelling is carried on in other settlements and by several church houses, St. Bartholomew's Parish House reporting a well attended story hour following a mid-week church service.
In the New York Public Library, storytelling, under the general direction of the supervisor of work with children, is in special charge of a library assistant who has been a student of dramatic art as well as of library science. Storytelling is not required of library assistants. Any assistant who wants to tell stories is given an opportunity to do so and to profit by criticism. Her trial experience is made with a group of children. If she proves her ability to hold their interest, she is then allowed to make up her own program for a series of story hours, basing it upon her spontaneous interests, her previous reading, and the special needs of the library where the story hour is to be held. The fact that storytelling has been regarded as a potent factor in the unification of work with children in the rural districts, as well as in the congested centers, where branch libraries are situated, has greatly influenced the present organization of the work.
Racial interests have been considered, and on such festival days as are observed by the Hungarians, the Bohemians, and the Irish, special story hours have been held. In each case a volunteer storyteller of the nationality concerned lent interest to the occasion.
Weekly story hours are now held in most of the branch libraries. In some of them, two or more story hours are held. Story hours in roof reading-rooms are held irregularly during the summer.
Marked results of storytelling after three years are shown by a very great improvement in the character of the recreational reading done by the children, and in their sense of pleasure in the children's room.
The keen enjoyment of the library assistants who have been telling stories, and the interest of other workers in the library, indicates a valuable contribution to the work, by bringing its people together in their conception of what the library is trying to do for children.
Repeated requests for library storytellers have been received from institutions for the Blind, the Deaf Mutes, the Insane, from Reformatory institutions, as well as from settlements, church houses, public and private schools, parents' meetings, and industrial schools.
Three branches of The National Storytellers' League hold meetings in New York City. (A full account of the National Storytellers' League is given by its founder Richard T. Wyche, in the Pedagogical Seminary, volume 16.) Courses in storytelling are given at several schools and colleges, at The Summer School of Philanthropy, and at The National Training School for Young Women's Christian Associations.
PITTSBURGH
Storytelling in the Pittsburgh playgrounds has a unique organization in that it is entirely under the direction of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. All storytelling in the playgrounds is done by Children's librarians or by students of The Training School for Children's Librarians on the days books are exchanged.
The organized story hour, developed as a direct method of guiding the reading of children, originated with this library and has been carried on in connection with home library groups as well as in the branch libraries, the public schools, the playgrounds, and the social settlements of Pittsburgh, for a period of eleven years.
The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh issues printed lists of the stories used and a pamphlet entitled "Storytelling—a Public Library Method" by Miss Frances Jenkins Olcott, Chief of the Children's Department and Director of the Training School for Children's Librarians.
ST. LOUIS
In the playgrounds one regularly employed storyteller, who also assists in directing the games, tells stories throughout the season. Storytelling is also carried on by playground assistants and by volunteer storytellers. The interest shown by parents who frequently join the story hour groups in the parks, is considered a significant gain in sustaining neighborhood interest in the playground.
In one settlement house, the head worker meets the storytellers at the beginning of the season and plans and directs the work for the entire year.
Storytelling in the St. Louis Public Library has been carried on for several years by children's librarians of branch libraries who have visited playgrounds, settlements, and public schools, as visiting storytellers, and have told stories at mothers' clubs and teachers' meetings. Since February, 1910, it has been under the direction of the supervisor of work with children, who was formerly one of the visiting storytellers and assistants to the supervisor of work with children in the New York Public Library. Storytelling is regarded by her as a valuable aid in the unification of the work with children in a system of libraries.
STORYTELLING IN OTHER COMMUNITIES
The reports received represent only a small part of the storytelling that is being done in different parts of the country.
In New Jersey, the organizer of the State Library Commission has found her ability to tell stories and to choose books containing a direct appeal to the people who are to read them, or to listen to the reading of them, an open sesame in the pine woods districts, the farming communities, and the fishing villages, where grown people listen as eagerly as children. In a paper entitled, "The Place, the Man, and the Book," Miss Sarah B. Askew gives a vivid picture of the establishment of a library in a fishing village. (Proceedings of the American Library Association. 1908.)[4]
[4] Reprinted as a pamphlet by The H. W. Wilson Company.
Recognizing a similar need for the interpretation of books to the communities where libraries had already been established, the Iowa Library Commission appointed in 1909 an advisory children's librarian, who is also a professional storyteller and lecturer upon children's literature.
In the Public Lecture courses of New York City, it has been found that storytelling programs composed of folk tales draw large audiences of grown people who enjoy the stories quite as much as do the children.
In various institutions for adults as well as for children, where the library has been a mere collection of books that counted for little or nothing in the daily life of the institution, storytelling is making the books of living interest, and is giving to children, and to grown men and women, new sources of pleasure by taking them out of themselves and beyond the limitations of a prescribed and monotonous existence. Just as the games and folk dances are making their contribution to institutional life, so storytelling is bringing the play spirit in literature to those whose imaginations have been starved by long years of neglect, and is showing that what is needed is not an occasional entertainment, but the joy of possessing literature itself.
Professional storytellers who have recently visited towns and cities of the Pacific Coast, the Middle-Western, the Southern, and the Eastern States, not covered by this report, bear testimony to an interest in storytelling that seems to be as genuine as it is widespread. It is apparent that more thought is being given to the subject than ever before. Wherever storytelling has been introduced by a "born storyteller" who has succeeded in kindling sparks of local talent capable of sustaining interest and accomplishing results, storytelling is bound to be a success. All reports testify to the need of a well defined plan for storytelling related to the purpose and the aims of the institution which undertakes it, and to the varying capacities and temperaments of the persons who are to carry it on.
THE SPECIAL STORYTELLER AND THE REGULAR ASSISTANT
The professional storyteller has played a large part in the successful establishment of storytelling, and is destined to play a still larger part in the future development of the work in playgrounds and other institutions, by raising the standards of the playground library, or settlement worker, who is expected to tell stories. This she will do not by elaborating methods and artifices to be imitated, but by frank criticism of native ability, by inspiring courses in story literature, and by proper training of the much neglected speaking voice.
The sooner we cease to believe that "anybody can tell a story" the better for storytelling in every institution undertaking it. A candidate for a given position may be required to have storytelling ability, but no assistant should be required to tell stories as a part of her duties unless she can interest a group of children who have voluntarily come to listen to her stories. Repeating simplified versions of stories is not storytelling. Exercises in memorizing may be as helpful to the storyteller as the practice of scales to the piano player, but neither is to be regarded as a source of pleasure to the listener. Listening as one of a group is a valuable experience in the training of an assistant who is telling stories in the playground, the library, or the settlement. Herein lies the advantage of a visiting storyteller who does not take the place of the playground or library assistant, but who enlivens the program for the children and makes it possible for the regular assistant to listen occasionally and to profit by the experience. (The professional listener is delightfully characterized in "Miss Muffet's Christmas Party," by Dr. Samuel McChord Crothers.)
LIST OF FIFTY STORIES AND A LIST OF BOOKS FOR READING ON THE PLAYGROUND
The outline sent to the members of the Committee on Storytelling called for the mention of specific stories and for personal experience in group formation, taking into account age and sex, time and place, and for a statement of results, in so far as such results could be stated. From five hundred different stories mentioned a composite list of "Fifty Stories for the Playground" has been made. This list is chiefly composed of fairy and folk tales, Indian legends, and animal stories, as making the strongest appeal to playground groups and to library groups unaccustomed to listening to stories.
It also represents the story literature most easily commanded by the storyteller who has not read widely. Stories from the Norse and Greek Mythology, from the Niebelungen Lied, the Arthurian legends, and from Robin Hood; stories of Roland and of Charlemagne; stories from the Faerie Queene, and from the Canterbury Tales; historical and biographical stories are generously represented in the five hundred titles, but such stories should not be attempted without sufficient reading and feeling for the subject to enable the storyteller to bring it vividly and naturally before such a group as she is likely to meet in her daily experience.
Satisfactory festival stories are reported as exceedingly difficult to find. Several stories growing out of personal experiences, such as a "Christmas in Germany," a "May Day in England," "Fourth of July in the Garden of Warwick Castle," (The Warwick Pageant of 1900) are mentioned. Atmosphere and festival spirit are often lacking in stories listed under Festivals and Holidays.
Poetry and verses are repeated or read at many of the library story hours. Lear's nonsense rhymes and certain rhythmical story poems are especially enjoyed by the children. Outlines of stories or selections from books designed to lead to the reading of an entire book are mentioned in connection with Dickens, Kipling, Stevenson, Scott, Victor Hugo, and other authors.
In addition to the list of "Fifty Stories for the Playground" a list of "Books to Read on the Playground" has been prepared. Nearly all of the public libraries mentioned in the report send books to playgrounds when the playgrounds desire it. The use of books in the roof reading-rooms of libraries is very similar to their use in the playgrounds. Here and in children's reading-rooms boys and girls are free to choose the books they really want to read. In his book entitled "The American Public Library," Dr. Arthur E. Bostwick makes this statement: "There are no intellectual joys equal to those of discovery. The boy or girl who stumbles on one of the world's masterpieces without knowing what anyone else thinks or has thought about it, and reading it, admires and loves it, will have that book throughout life as a peculiar intellectual possession in a way that would have been impossible if someone had advised reading it and had described it as a masterpiece. The very fact that one is advised to read a book because one ought to do so is apt to arouse the same feeling of repulsion that caused the Athenian citizen to vote for the banishment of Aristides just because he had grown so weary of hearing him always called 'The Just.' "
EXPERIENCES IN STORYTELLING
Groups for storytelling are usually assembled in separate rooms in the libraries and are made up by an approximate but variable age limit, dividing the children under ten or eleven years old from the boys and girls above that age. In the settlements the group is usually determined by the club organization. On the playgrounds, the experience of a storyteller in Providence is probably typical of many other workers and is quoted as suggestive for group formation in playgrounds.
"During the summer of 1909 the stories I told on the Davis Park Playground were costly fairy tales and folk stories. 'Grimm's Fairy Tales' was the favorite of both boys and girls and through the summer I told every story in the book. The boys also liked 'The Merrie Adventures of Robin Hood,' 'The Three Golden Apples,' 'The Golden Touch,' 'The Golden Fleece,' and all the old Indian legends. While the girls, if offered a choice, always called for a fairy tale with a Prince Charming in it. Neither boys nor girls would listen to historical stories saying they were too much like school.
"The first day to gain an audience I went up to a group of children who were playing together and asked them if they would like to hear a story. Four or five replied that they would, while some fifteen or twenty disappeared as though by magic, and I decided that they were not interested. I then took the children who wished to listen, over to a large tree in one corner of the grounds, and told them that for the rest of the summer that tree would be known as 'the storytelling tree.' They would, I told them, find me there every day promptly at half-past one, and that I would tell stories for a half hour to the whole playground. Then from half-past two until three I would tell stories to the older girls. The first day I had a very small audience, the next day it doubled, and then increased daily until I had from eighty to a hundred children in a group. As to forming a group, I think it is impossible in playground work, for a group worth having must form itself, the reputation of the storyteller being the foundation of its formation, and this reputation can only be gained through constant systematic labor, and a thorough knowledge of your daily audience. That is why I think a professional visiting storyteller would be a failure in playground work, as in visiting each playground once or twice a week it would be impossible for her to gain that intimate personal knowledge of her audience, which is so necessary to the playground storyteller, as she must appeal to a different class of children on each playground.
"The experience of a professional storyteller with a group of boys, already assembled as a club, is also quoted for its valuable suggestion and independence of method in gaining the interest of boys who had been much experimented upon.
"The most interesting experience I have had in a developed series of stories was with the Boys' Club of Greenwich, Connecticut, last year. The club is supported by the wealthy women of the place, and is an outgrowth of a rather serious and perplexing boy problem. A number of picture shows, pool rooms, cheap vaudevilles, etc., have crept into the town, and life on the street is most attractive.
"The head worker of the club wrote that they had failed to hold the boys in everything but manual training and baseball; that the boys were insubordinate and unresponsive, and that their school reports were very poor. I found the conditions even worse than I had anticipated. It was necessary to train eighty boys to listen, as well as to interest them, and so, I told very short stories at first. I chose the ones that were full of dramatic action, that had little or no description, and a good deal of dialogue. The stories were strongly contrasted, and there was no attempt at literary or artistic finish. I used a great many gestures and moved about on the platform frequently; it is the quickest way of focusing laggard attention. To be absolutely honest, I had to come very close to the level of the moving picture show, and the ten-cent vaudeville, at first.
"The fourth night I eliminated all but a few gestures, and told the stories sitting down. I also used less colloquial English; and from then on, until the end, when I told the stories from Van Dyke in his own words, there was a steady growth in literary style. I append the programs in the order they were given:
STORY PROGRAM
1. Irish Folk-tales. 2. Stories from Scandinavian Myths. 3. The Rhinegold Stories. 4. German Folk-tales. 5. Arthurian Tales. 6. Stories of Charlemagne and Frederick Barbarossa. 7. Tales of American Indians. 8. Negro Tales. 9. Stories of the Carnegie Heroes. 10. Kipling—Captains Courageous, Jungle Stories. 11. Van Dyke—A Friend of Justice, The Keeper of the Light. 12. Irish Folk-tales (Requested).
"The practical results were very satisfactory. The books in the club library were used more, the boys' composition and recitation work at school improved, and they acquired the habit of polite, attentive listening."
SUGGESTIONS
The importance of a definite time and place for the story hour, for a prompt beginning and for an ending before it becomes tedious, cannot be too strongly urged. The storyteller should "size up" the conditions and suit the story hour to them. If she is simple, natural and unaffected, and sufficiently resourceful to vary her program to suit the interests of the children, the story hour will be successful.
Various practical forms of co-operation have been suggested, notably in the visits of library storytellers to playgrounds wherever the public library is actively interested in storytelling, and such visits are desired by the playground.
The story hour season in most libraries ends in April, making it possible in some libraries to release assistants once or twice a week to visit playgrounds. The benefit derived from such visits is mutually endorsed by playground and library assistants.
Conferences of groups of workers interested in storytelling, under the leadership of a professional storyteller, who also understands the practical conditions and limitations under which the playground and library assistants do their work have proved stimulating and suggestive in a number of places. Volunteer workers who have the ability to tell stories and who can so adapt themselves to their surroundings as to make their story hours effective, can do much for storytelling. This is especially true of men who have had actual experience of the life from which their stories are taken and can make these experiences of absorbing interest to their listeners.
In conclusion, the committee recommends that wherever practicable, storytelling in playgrounds be placed under a leadership corresponding to that now given to games and to folk dancing. That a clear distinction be preserved between storytelling and dramatics, as differentiated, though closely related, activities of the playground and the settlement. That the story hour be valued as a rest period; for its natural training in the power of concentration, and in that deeper power of contemplation of ideal forms in literature and in life. That storytelling in settlements be more widely developed as a feature of social work worthy of a careful plan and of sustained effort. That storytelling in libraries be made more largely contributory to storytelling in other institutions by a thoughtful and discriminating study of story literature, and by effective means of placing such literature in the hands of those who desire to use it.
The committee also suggests that the subject of storytelling is worthy of the consideration of the universities, the colleges, and the high schools, of the country, to the end that students may appreciate and value the opportunities for service in a field of such possibilities as are presented to those who possess, and who have the power to communicate, their own love of literature to the boys and girls of their time.
READING CLUBS FOR OLDER BOYS AND GIRLS
Another method used successfully by a number of libraries to interest older boys and girls as they grow away from the story hour is that of the reading circle or reading club. Miss Caroline Hewins' contribution to the Child Conference at Clark University in 1909 was an account of this work in the Hartford Public Library, of "book-talks at entirely informal meetings." A sketch of Miss Hewins appears on page 23.
The boys and girls who are growing up in libraries where story-telling is a part of the weekly routine, at thirteen or fourteen are beginning to feel a little too old to listen to fairy tales or King Arthur legends, and look towards the unexplored delights of the grown-up shelves. Many librarians are taking advantage of this desire for new and interesting books to form boys' and girls' clubs with definite objects. One whom I know after a training with large numbers of children in a city branch library, became librarian in a manufacturing town where there were no boys' clubs, and soon formed a Polar Club, for reading about Arctic exploration. She was fortunate in having an audience hall in the library building, and before the end of the winter the boys had engaged Fiala, the Antarctic explorer, to give a lecture, sold tickets and more than cleared expenses. This, be it remembered, is in a town with no regular theatre or amusement hall, and the librarian is young, enthusiastic, and of attractive personality. The branch libraries in Cleveland have been successful in their clubs, and in back numbers of the Library Journal and Public Libraries, you will find records of organizations of young folk who meet out of library hours, under parliamentary rules, for more or less definite courses of reading. For the reason that the experiments are in print and easily accessible, I shall merely give you a record of my own book-talks at entirely informal meetings.
Long ago, before there were library schools, Harlan H. Ballard, now librarian of the Pittsfield Athenaeum, used St. Nicholas as the organ of the Agassiz Association, which had been in existence for several years with about a hundred members in Berkshire County. The Association grew and soon had chapters all over the world. In the number of St. Nicholas for December, 1881, I find the record of ours, and the name of the first secretary, then a boy of ten or twelve years, now a prominent citizen, a member of the Board of Park Commissioners and School Visitors. We used to go out of doors looking for birds and insects through the spring and fall, and meet in the library in winter for reading from authors like John Burroughs, Dr. C. C. Abbott and Frank Buckland, or the lives of Thomas Edward, Robert Dick, Agassiz and other naturalists, or sometimes a story from a grown-up magazine like one of Annie Trumbull Slosson's or an account of real pets like Frank Bolles's owls. The children in "A. A. Chapter B" all had good homes, good vocabularies and reading fathers and mothers, and listened with interest to books that are far in advance of the children of their age who began to come to the library after it was made public. The chapter lived long enough to admit the children of at least one of its original members, and only died because Saturday morning, the only morning in the week when children are free, had important business engagements for the librarian, who feels that "Nature-study," too, plays an important part in schools now-a-days, and that in the language of "My Double", "there has been so much said, and on the whole so well said," that there is less need than there used to be of such a club, although it is a great deprivation not to have the long country walks and the Saturday readings and talks with the children. A librarian or a settlement worker who sees only children from non-English speaking homes is in danger of forgetting that there are others who can use books in unsimplified form.
This is the only club connected with the library which had a formal organization, but in giving a talk one day several years ago to the upper grades of a school, I asked how many boys and girls were going to stay in town through the summer, and invited all who were to come to the library one afternoon a week for a book-talk. The next year I sent the same invitation to several schools, and gave in both summers running comments and reading of attractive passages from books on Indians, animals, the North Pole, adventures, machines, books of poetry, stories about pictures and some out-of-the-way story books, with a tableful of others that there was not time to read from. The titles of the books are in Public Libraries, June, 1900, and are largely from the grown-up shelves. This was five or six years before our boys' and girls' room was opened and the children had free access to all their own books.
The third year the programme was a little varied. Some of the subjects were "Books that tell how to do things," "A great author and his friends (Sir Walter Scott)," "Another great author and his short stories (Washington Irving)." I have always made a great deal of the friendship between these two authors, and as most of our children are Jewish, I have often told the story and shown the portrait of Rebecca Gratz, the Philadelphia Jewess, who was too true to her religion to marry a Christian, and whose story as told by Irving, whose promised wife had been her friend, gave Scott his noble ideal of the character of Rebecca.
One year we had an afternoon about knights and tournaments, and by an easy transition, the subject for the next week was "What happened to a man who read too much about knights," giving an opportunity for an introduction to Don Quixote. After that two dream-stories opened the way to a fine illustrated edition of the Pilgrim's Progress, and stories from Dante.
The next year, I tried stories of English history, in nine or ten different periods, reading from one book every week and suggesting others. After the opening of the boys' and girls' room, the book-talks for one or two summers for seventh and eighth grade pupils, were upon some of the pictures in the room: Windsor Castle, Kenilworth, Heidelberg Castle, the Alhambra, the Canterbury Pilgrims and some Shakespeare stories. Afterwards, "What you can get out of a Henty book" gave a chance for interesting picture bulletins, and the use of other books referring to the times of "Beric the Briton," "The Boy Knight," "Knights of the White Cross," "Bonnie Prince Charlie,"
"In the Reign of Terror." Last year and this I have been reading Scott and Dickens aloud.
We have some of the Detroit colored photographs of places of historic interest, Windsor Castle for which I used Lydia Maria Child's story of "The Royal Rosebud," although most of the little princess's early life was passed in sanctuary at Westminster. On the afternoon when Kenilworth was the subject, I read all of Scott's novel that we had time for. Once on the Alhambra day, we have had Irving's story of the Arabian astrologer, and again a description of the palace and the Generalife who had just come from Spain. There was little in print about Heidelberg that I could use, and I had to write out the whole story of the Winter King and his Queen, James First's daughter Elizabeth, ancestress of the present king of England and mother of a large family.
Two years ago, in the interim between one children's librarian who was married in June and her successor who could not come till September, I spent most of the summer in the boys' and girls' room, and learned two things. Some of the children thought that they had read all the books on the shelves, and were asking for grown-up cards. They were kept in the room by transferring some duplicate copies of novels best worth reading from the main library and putting red stars on the back and the book-card. Then I was able to talk with girls who had read all of Laura Richards's Hildegarde books, but had never thought of looking up one of the poems or stories that she loved, or one of the pictures in her room. I have sometimes read the description of the room to a class in a schoolroom, and put on the blackboard all the names of places, persons, books and poems in it. One year I invited girls to form a Hildegarde Club for reading these very things, and in writing to Mrs. Richards on another subject, mentioned it. She wrote me an answer that I have had framed for the girls to see. The Club lived for a few months and used to meet on Saturday afternoons for reading "The Days of Bruce," but at the Christmas holidays the girls went into the department stores for a few weeks and forgot to come back. However, I am very happy to tell the story of another Hildegarde Club that is still flourishing. The teacher of a ninth grade class loves books, and was quick to seize the hint of such a club, which she organized from the girls in her room, and asked permission to bring to my office for its weekly meetings. She is keeping them up to their work because she sees them every day, and they are interested and learning how much they can find in a book besides the story. Besides this, they are observant and appreciative of whatever they see on the walls of my room. The girls to whom I gave a general invitation by means of a newspaper article were not from the same school and did not all know each other. It is better in organizing a club to have some common ground of interest and begin with a small number. It cannot always be done in a city in or through the library, except indirectly, by means of a Settlement or other club. One that I know does very good work in its meetings with the Settlement headworker and has a small collection of books and pictures from the main library for six months, and a more elementary bookshelf for a younger club with whom one of the members is reading the same subject.
A librarian or library assistant can do some of her best work in a Settlement club either in connection with the Settlement library or independently. Readings from Dickens can be illustrated by scenes acted in pantomime, with very simple properties. Indeed, we had not even a curtain when Miss La Creevy painted Kate's miniature, when the Savage and the Maiden danced their inimitable dance, when Mrs. Kenwigs and Morleena held a reception for Mrs. Crummles, the Phenomenon and the ladies of their company, when after they had recited from their star parts, Morleena had the soles of her shoes chalked and danced her fancy dance, and Henrietta Petowker took down her back hair and repeated "The Blooddrinker's Burial." The old man looked over the wall, too, and threw garden vegetables and languishing glances at Mrs. Nickleby who encouraged his advances. There was no time for the girls to learn the parts in the busy, crowded, late-open holiday evenings of department stores, but they all entered into the pantomime and interpreted the reading with spirit, as they did at another time in some of the Shakespeare scenes, Rosalind, Celia and Touchstone, Hamlet and Ophelia, Bottom and Titania, with attendant fairies, and Shylock and Portia. The Dickens scenes were repeated for a younger club, just trying its dramatic wings in charades, and when May-time came these younger girls of twelve to fifteen gave a very successful representation of an old English May-day with Robin Hood and his merry band, a Jester, a Dragon, a Hobby-horse and Jack in the Green, Maid Marian and the Lord and Lady of the May on the library green.
The opportunity of a library in a small town, where there is more leisure than in a city, is in the formation of young people's clubs. One day, a year or two ago, I visited three libraries on the Sound shore in Connecticut. In one, the librarian had made her basement useful out of library hours by organizing a class of chair-caning for boys who were beginning to hang around the streets, and were in danger of being compelled to learn the art in the Reform School if they did not acquire it as a means of keeping their hands from mischief at home. In the next town, the librarian mounted and identified all the moths and butterflies that the children brought to her and gave them insect books. In the library beyond, the children were formed into a branch of the Flower Mission in the nearest city. The club need not always be for reading, but must depend on the resources or interests of the boys and girls. There is no need of debating clubs in our library, for the city is full of them, but they may be the very best thing that the librarian in the next town can form.
A reading club must not necessarily be a club for the study or enjoyment of stories, history or poetry. Under the guidance of the kind of librarian who aims far above her audience, it may turn into something like Mr. Wopsle's quarterly examinations of his great aunt's school, "when what he did," says Pip, "was to turn up his cuffs, stick up his hair and give us Mark Antony's oration over the body of Caesar. This was always followed by Collins's Ode on the Passions, wherein I particularly venerated Mr. Wopsle as Revenge, throwing his bloodstained sword in thunder down, and taking the war-renouncing trumpet with a withering look." There may be a club for making things out of the Beard books, for the study of sleight-of- hand, for exchanging postcards with children in other countries and reading about the places on them. It may make historical pilgrimages to places of interest in the town or may collect stones and clay nodules, and read about them. The important thing is to find children of nearly the same age and neighborhood with interests in common, and let them decide whom they shall ask to join the club after it is formed. Better yet if they ask for the club in the first place. One not very long-lived Settlement club which I knew was of boys who wished to read and act Shakespeare, but a very few evenings convinced them that as they could not even read the lines without stumbling, they were not on the road to the actors' Temple of Fame. They were boys who had left school at fourteen in the lower grades, except one, who had taken his High School examinations and is now at the head of a department in a large department store and a prominent member of a political study club. The others, who had expected to play prominent Shakespearean parts with little or no work, were easily discouraged, dropped off and were seen no more. The reading of very simple plays at first is a good stepping-stone to a study of Shakespeare later, but the plays must be interesting enough to hold the attention of boys who do not read fluently.
LIBRARY CLUBS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
The usefulness of the reading club as an opportunity of broadening the interests of the child is emphasized in the following paper, printed in the Library Journal, May, 1911, which gives an account of the organization of clubs under the direction of a supervisor in the Cleveland Public Library. Marie Hammond Milliken was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., was graduated from Wellesley College in 1905 and from the Training School for Children's Librarians in 1907; was children's librarian in the Cleveland Public Library from 1907 to 1910; Supervisor of reading clubs from 1910 to 1912, and since that time has been a branch librarian.
The 13-year-old president of one of the Cleveland library clubs said recently, in explaining the purpose of the club to a new member, "The idea of this club is to give you what you couldn't get anywhere else." This is a rather ambitious program. I should be slow to say that any club I have known has succeeded in doing that for its members. Considering the character of the communities in which the public library is generally placed, particularly the branches of a large library system, I am inclined to think, however, that clubs organized and conducted by the library offer to the children some things they are, at least, not likely to get anywhere else—and to the library another means of strengthening its effectiveness as an educational and social center in the community.
In speaking of library clubs, I have in mind the organized, self-governing club, with a small and definite membership, as distinguished from the reading circle. Definite organization means a constitution, officers, elections, parliamentary procedure —all the form and ceremonial so attractive to children of the club age. From the first meeting, when the constitution of the club comes up for discussion, the organization begins to develop the child's sense of responsibility. A simple form of parliamentary procedure will not only prove conducive to orderly and business like meetings, but, especially with young or immature children, delight in its formalities will help to hold the club together while interest in other phases of the club work is being developed.
The chief advantage of the self-government of the club is as a first lesson (frequently) in the principles of popular government. In the club the too-assertive child learns wholesome respect for the will of the majority, while his more retiring brother discovers that one man's vote is as good as another's. When one has seen a club of ambitious lads who, when they first organized, cared only for success, reject a boy who is a good debater and athlete on the ground that in another club he had shown that "he was a sorehead and couldn't seem to understand that the majority's got to rule," one is tempted to feel that organization can do so much for the children that an organized library club justifies itself on that score alone.
Club work is a very effective means of extending the active educational work of the library. In the clubs conducted by the Cleveland Public Library, the plan has been to encourage the children themselves to make suggestions for the club work. Then a tentative program is made out, based on some general interest shown in the suggestions made by the club. As far as possible, the program is planned with the idea of stimulating broad, as well as careful and intelligent reading. The program is, of course, subject to changes which may suggest themselves to the club or to its leader. Travel in foreign lands, the study of the lives of great women, nature study, the reading and discussion of Shakespeare's plays, in the girls' clubs, and, in the clubs for boys, debating and reporting on current events, have been the subjects most successfully worked out for club consideration, probably on account of the variety of interest which they present. Travel means not only the manners and customs side of the country—it means the art, the literature, the history, the legend; biography, not simply the life of the individual studied, but the period and country that produced it. The subjects discussed in the debating clubs are almost always of the boys' choosing, and represent a broad field of interest, economic, social, moral and political. They range from "Resolved, That Washington did more than Lincoln for his country," "That civilization owes more to the railroad than the steamboat," "That the fireman is braver than the policeman," in the clubs of boys from the sixth and seventh grades, to the discussion of municipal ownership, tariff commission, establishment of a central bank, and commission government for cities, in clubs composed of high school boys. Aside from what practice in the form of debating means to the boys in developing ability to think clearly and to speak to the point, discussion of vital questions of national and municipal interest encourages the boy to turn to more trustworthy sources of information than the daily press. He learns to refer to books and the better sort of periodicals for his authority, and, gradually, through reading and discussion, begins to substitute convictions for inherited prejudice or indifference.
The club's greatest usefulness lies in the opportunity it presents of broadening the interests of the child, of opening to him, through books and discussion, new fields of thought and pleasure. Compared with this, information acquired and number of books read are comparatively unimportant. The smallness of the group with which he has to deal and the children's invariable response to his special interest in them create an unusual opportunity for the club leader. In the informal discussions in the club he may pass on to the children something of his own interests, and direct theirs into channels which would probably never be opened to them otherwise. From our experience in one of the branches of the Cleveland Public Library, where club work has presented great difficulties, I know that, given a leader who understands, girls whose standard of excellence has been met by boarding- school stories, can be interested in studying and reading in their club the plays of Shakespeare or in listening to extracts from Vasari's "Lives of the painters" or Ruskin's "Stories of Venice." Beyond his opportunity to interest the club in better reading, the leader may help the children in a general way, by unconsciously presenting to them his standards of thought and conduct. Through him they may become aware of finer ideals of courtesy, bravery and honesty.
Not the least important contribution of club work to the library is the direction of the reading of boys and girls of the intermediate age—always such a difficult problem. Most of the children of the age when clubs begin to appeal to them strongly —from 12 years on—have reached a stage of mental development at which they should be reading, under direction, books from the adult as well as the juvenile collection. In the Cleveland Public Library clubs books from the adult collection are used whenever possible in connection with the club programs, and the leaders are encouraged to recommend books from that collection for the personal reading of the children. The result is that the children are gradually made acquainted with the adult department, and come to feel as much at home there as in the children's room.
The club very seldom fails to establish a feeling of friendliness and personal interest in the library among its members. It has proved itself, in this way, a very decided aid in reducing the librarian's "police duty." Moreover, the club is a privilege, and as such not to be enjoyed by those who habitually break the law, so that what it fails to accomplish in one way may be brought about in another.
As this paper is based on experience gained in the Cleveland Public Library, it would not be complete without mention of one important phase of the club work there.
To a very great extent the club work in the Cleveland Public Library owes its growth in size and efficiency to the time and interest given to it by the volunteer club leaders, of whom, during the year 1910, there were 60. Looking over the work of the boys' clubs for the year, it is interesting to note the influence of the leader's interests upon the boys. All but one of the boys' clubs whose leaders are attorneys devoted their club meetings to debating, mock trials and parliamentary drill. Among the clubs under the leadership of students in Western Reserve University (and these represent more than half of the total number of boys' clubs) the predominant interest is in the discussion of current events, the subjects for occasional debates being suggested by these discussions. In two or three clubs too young for such discussion, the leaders, who were especially interested in civics, were able to interest the boys in the study of the work of the various departments of our city government. In another instance a leader, a business man, deeply interested in the history of Cleveland and its industries has succeeded in holding the interest of his club boys in this subject for three months, though these were boys whose indifference to anything but "Wild West" stories was proverbial in the branch library.
Clubs for boys and girls in the Cleveland Public Library are under the direction of a club supervisor, who organizes the clubs, secures the services of the volunteer leaders, and helps them in preparing programs for the clubs. The work has been conducted in this way for three years, and has become a vital part of the work of the library as a whole.
LIBRARY READING CLUBS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
The successful development of reading clubs by the New York Public Library is evidenced by the fact that at the time the following paper was written, in 1912, there were reported twenty-five boys' clubs and seventeen girls' clubs. The paper is by Anna C. Tyler, and was read before the New York meeting of school librarians in Brooklyn, N. Y., May 25, 1912.
Anna Cogswell Tyler was born in Detroit, Michigan, and was graduated from the Hartford, Conn., High School in 1880. She attended Mrs. Julie Goddard Piatt's boarding school in Utica, New York, from 1880 to 1882, and Mademoiselle Taveney's school for girls at Neuillysur- Seine near Paris from 1883 to 1885. She was graduated from the Pratt Institute Library School, taking the two-year course, 1904-1906. She was an assistant in the Pratt Institute Free Library from 1906 to 1908. In 1908 she was made assistant in charge of story-telling and library reading-clubs in the New York Public Library.
The library reading clubs have sprung into being as a natural result of the library story hour, and for two very potent reasons —the boys and girls of from twelve to fifteen years old, however much they enjoy listening to a good story, are extremely afraid of being classed as children. Therefore when such a boy or girl comes to the branch library which he uses and sees a very attractive little notice reading "Story hour this afternoon at four o'clock for the older children" he shakes his head and goes his way saying, "Oh, they don't mean me, that's for the kids!" But when he sees a notice reading "The Harlem Boys' Club" meets such a day and hour his attention is immediately arrested, and he asks, "What do you have to do to join this club?"
This is the first reason for the rapid growth of these library reading clubs, the magic contained in merely the sight or sound of the word "club"—the spur it gives to the imagination of even the apparently unimaginative child, and the stigma it removes from the mind of the adolescent boy or girl of being considered a child. By conferring upon him the dignity of membership in a club we can make it possible for him to enjoy to the extent of his capacity the pleasure the majority of children so delight in—the listening to a good story well told or well read. His mind is at peace, his dignity unquestioned, for, since no stripling likes to be taunted with his green years, his being a member of such a club or league has forever precluded such a possibility.
The matter of joining these clubs is made as simple as possible, and the great democracy of the public library spirit is kept uppermost in the minds of librarians who have charge of this work, and by them instilled into the minds of the children as rapidly as possible. Any boy or girl is welcome to the club who wishes to come, provided he or she is of the right age or grade to enjoy the stories, reading, or study that is interesting the others. Boys and girls who are doubtful are invited to come and see what the club is as often as they will, until they have quite made up their minds whether or not it is something they want. The only thing required of them is to follow the one general rule underlying all the clubs of the library—the Golden Rule, that their behavior shall in no way interfere with the pleasure or rights of the other members. Some of them stay only a short time, but on the other hand we have many children who were charter members when the clubs were formed four years ago, and they have attended the meetings regularly, though they have long since passed from the grammar schools and have reached the heights of the third year in high school.
The difficulty of finding stories which will interest in the same degree mixed groups of older children is the second reason for the growth and popularity of the library reading clubs. Some of the great stories of the world, like "The Niebelungenlied," "The Arthurian cycle," Beowulf, and a few others may be used, or the life of a great man or woman may be told, and listened to with interest, provided there is plenty of romance in the life, and the book which contains the story is attractive in appearance and tempts one to read it at first glance. One can also find good material for club programs in the romance of some period in the history of a country not our own. The difficulty of choosing story literature suitable and interesting for mixed groups of boys and girls and the difference in their reading tastes make the segregation of the library reading clubs a wise method. The boy during these years is eager to acquire information on all subjects—one can appeal to his love of adventure, of heroes, and mystery. The girl is full of romance—poetry and drama make their appeal.
The difficulty of maintaining and controlling successful library reading clubs is frequently lost sight of because of the ease with which they can be formed. Our experience has taught us that in planning the library activities of the New York Public Library the reading clubs must come last—they must only be established when they can take their place as one of the regular functions of the library. The librarian who is to be club leader must be able to interest, influence and control the club members as well as to tell a story.
The club season lasts from the first of October to the end of May, and at present we have twenty-five boys' clubs and seventeen girls' clubs reported. Some of these are formal in organization with regularly appointed officers chosen, of course, by the boys and girls themselves. These officers hold their office for periods of varying length, some clubs electing new officers each month, others at the beginning of each club season. Some of the clubs are clubs only in name—entirely informal, but meeting regularly once or twice or oftener each month throughout the season to listen to the stories. Many of the clubs are entirely selfgoverning and they also arrange their own programs. The librarian who is the club leader is present as a member, but takes no active part in the entertainment of the club unless invited to do so.
And now just for a moment let us consider the kind of literature we are trying to interest the youngsters in. Being a radical it pleased me very much recently to come across the following passage in an interesting new book by Miss Rosalie V. Halsey, entitled "Forgotten books of the American nursery." Miss Halsey says: "Reading aloud was both a pastime and an education to families in those early days of the Republic. Although Mrs. Quincy made every effort to procure Miss Edgeworth's stories for her family, because, in her opinion, they were better for reading aloud than were the works of Hannah More, Mrs. Trimmer and Mrs. Chapone, she chose extracts from Shakespeare, Milton, Addison, and Goldsmith. Indeed, if it were possible to ask our great-grandparents what books they remembered reading in their childhood, I think we should find that beyond somewhat hazy recollections of Miss Edgeworth's books and Berquin's 'The looking glass for the mind' they would either mention 'Robinson Crusoe,' Newberry's 'Tales of Giles Gingerbread,' 'Little King Pippin,' and 'Goody Two-shoes' (written fifty years before their own childhood), or remember only the classic tales and sketches read to them by their parents."
Now it seems to me that our great-grandparents were very lucky to have been so delightfully introduced to the great things in literature, and in these days when the art of reading aloud is almost a lost art how can we expect the modern child to turn with a natural appreciation to the best in literature when he is almost submerged by the mediocre and vulgar inside and outside the home, his appreciation undeveloped, not old enough in years or intelligence to comprehend the beauty we so delight in. We are disappointed when he does not respond, and wonder why. Is it not the result of forcing him to use these things before he is ready, and thus only fostering his distaste?
Believing this to be so, I have gone to work to try to induce the boys and girls to read more widely, and cultivate appreciation, by using this old-fashioned method of reading aloud or telling a part of the story and reading here and there bits of the text, thus letting the author tell his own story, and as far as we have been able we have tried to give the children the KIND of story they wanted—WHEN they wanted it—but in the best form in which it could be found. For instance Poe's "The purloined letter" when a detective story is asked for, followed by a story from Stevenson's "New Arabian nights" or "Island nights' entertainments."
In eleven of the boys' clubs we have been using this year special collections of duplicate books, on topics suggested by the boys themselves. These collections have been kept together for from four to six weeks, and the stories that have been told or read from these books are mentioned in the notice, with a list of all the books in the collection and posted near where the books are shelved. The topics suggested by the boys are as follows: railroad stories; ghost stories; humorous stories; adventure on land; heroes; adventure on sea; history stories, this last topic including Italy, France, England, Scotland, Germany, Canada, and "The winning of the West" in American history, and each group decided on which country they would read about.
On the lower West side, where the Irish-Americans live in large numbers, where street fights and fires contribute a constant source of excitement, there is a library club of girls who have been meeting twice a month for two years. Last year we studied Joan of Arc, completing our study by reading Percy Mackaye's play. This year, not feeling satisfied that I was on the right path, I called a meeting to make sure. After trying in vain to get an expression of opinion I finally asked the direct question, "What kind of books do you really LIKE to read?" and for a moment I waited in suspense, fearing someone would answer to please me by mentioning some classic. But to my great relief one girl replied at last timidly, but decidedly, that she liked "Huckleberry Finn." This gave another the courage to add that she had enjoyed the chapter on whitewashing the fence in "Tom Sawyer." My clue had been found—a reading club of adventure was formed, and though we began with the "Prisoner of Zenda" we have wandered with "Odysseus," and sighed over the sacrifice of "Alcestis," and thrilled over the winning of "Atalanta" this winter.
A girls' club on the lower East side have been reading the old English comedies—"She stoops to conquer," "The rivals," "Lady Teazle"; then there is a flourishing Shakespeare club, which to honor the Dickens centenary this year, voted to make the study of the great writer a part of this year's program. This club meets once a week, and at one meeting the outline of one of the great tales was told by the librarian. This was followed by the girls reading one or more of the most famous chapters or dialogues. At the alternate meetings the girls read plays, varying the program by choosing first a Shakespeare drama and then a modern play. Each act is cast separately, so that all the girls may have a chance to take part, and in this way we read "Twelfth night," "Romeo and Juliet," "The taming of the Shrew," "Macbeth," "The bluebird," "The scarcecrow," and "Cyrano de Bergerac."
Away up in the Bronx there is a "Cranford Club," so named by the girls because of their interest in the story to which they were introduced four years ago. This club is really a study club and contains a good proportion of its original members. They meet twice a month, and a leader is appointed for each meeting, who chooses her committee to report on the topic for the evening's study. The topic is sub-divided and each girl does her part in looking up the bit assigned to her. In this way they have studied the English poets Tennyson and Milton, although after spending an evening on Comus the club voted unanimously to change to Dickens. They have also studied Bryant, Longfellow, Lowell and Whittier, and the girls were sufficiently familiar with these poems to recite many from each poet. Then the lives of three English queens were studied—"Bloody Mary," "Queen Elizabeth," and "Mary, Queen of Scots"; this year the Norse myths and stories from the Wagner operas. The librarian's part is to suggest the best books in which to find what they want, to get any book they may need, sometimes suggest a line of subjects to choose from, etc, but the work of preparing the material is done entirely by the girls. When a book is being read and discussed, they sit around a table and read in turn the bits that have been selected for them by the librarian, who tells them the thread of the story between selected bits read by the girls. Thus they have read "Cranford," "Pride and prejudice," "Old curiosity shop," "David Copperfield," and "Twelfth night." The teacher of English where most of these girls attend school was recently an interested visitor at the club, and she says she has noticed for a long time a difference in the school work done by these girls, from a broader viewpoint and outside atmosphere they brought to the class by their intelligent comments and criticisms, showing that they were reading outside and beyond the other girls of the class. She noticed also a difference in their composition work. One of the girls from that class was sent by this teacher to visit the library for the first time and when asked what she liked to read replied, "Wooed and married" and "How he won her" were nice books. The book given her instead of her favorites was Mary Johnston's "To have and to hold." It was read and enjoyed. Then she took Howells' "The lady of the Aroostook," and after the outline of the story had been told her seemed to read it with real pleasure. Next Owen Wister's "Virginian" was given her, but this she did not seem to care for. As a result of this reading her taste in a better kind of reading seems to have been pretty well established, as her librarian assures me that she has continued her reading along the line indicated by the above titles. The Belmont Club, the best boys' club for debating in the school, have challenged the "Cranford Club" to meet them in a debate on "Woman suffrage," to be held in the library at an early date. The girls have accepted the challenge, and the fact that the boys question their ability to equal them is sufficient spur to make them work every moment they can spare from their school duties to prepare for this important event. Added to this is the fact that every one of them is an ardent "suffragette."
The need of social centers in the schools and libraries is becoming insistent. The increasing demand on the part of children for clubs of all kinds shows plainly their desire for some place other than the street, where they can be amused and occupied in the natural desire for self-development and expression. Early last fall in one of the libraries the librarian met by appointment a group of girls from eleven to fourteen years old. These girls were wayward and troublesome, had formed a "gang" which was more difficult to control than the usual gang of boys. There was a room in her library quite apart from the rest of the building where they could meet as a club if it should prove desirable. "What would you like to do?" she asked. "Dance!" was the reply. "Well, then, dance, and show me what dances you like," replied the librarian, and immediately the girls formed for a figure of a folk-dance, and each girl humming softly the tune they danced it through. "The Girl Scouts" Club was formed, and in a day or two the secretary of the club submitted the following program for the librarian's approval: Program. 1. Chapter from the life of Louisa M. Alcott; 2. Recitations; 3. Games, Flinch; 4 One folk dance. From this beginning six other clubs have been established: two for the older girls, two for the boys, one for the little girls from eight to eleven years old, and one for a group of troublesome young men from sixteen to twenty years old. So keen has been the interest of these young people in these clubs that the "gang" spirit has long since disappeared, and at the end of the club season an open meeting was held, a program arranged in which members from each club took part, and the ushers and guards of honor were some of those same troublesome young men. There was no place in this community where the young people could meet for any kind of simple amusement, the only "social centers" being the cheap vaudeville theater, the usual moving picture show and the streets, until the little branch of the public library opened its doors, and so popular has the library become that 960 children have taken cards at the library since the first of September and are borrowing books on these. Besides the large number of card holders there is a still larger number of children who do all their reading and studying at the library. Although they may not know the old English verse from which the lines are taken they feel them:
"Where I maie read all at my ease, Both of the newe and olde, For a jollie goode booke whereon to looke Is better to me than gold."
The outline I have given will give you some idea of how we are developing the story hour and reading clubs in the New York Public Library. This work is made possible by the splendid cooperation on the part of the branch librarians and their assistants, without whom it would be impossible to carry on a work of such proportions.
HOME LIBRARIES
The history of the home library movement in its beginnings is recorded in a paper read before the Congress of Charities held in Chicago, June 15, 1893, by Mr. Charles W. Birtwell, general secretary of the Boston Children's Aid Society, who claims for it a "natural and simple origin," a method of multiplying the personal work which he was doing among the poorer children of Boston. Another paper on the same subject was read by Mr. Birtwell at the Lake Placid Conference of the A. L. A. in 1894.
Appreciation of this work is expressed in the 1915 report of the Children's Aid Society: "The most important service we render as a society is to show that the constructive forces within the average family, if properly directed, are tremendous in their power and effect. The home libraries do a work for children in their homes that is quite distinct from all the other services we render as a society."
Charles Wesley Birtwell was born in Lawrence, Mass., November 23, 1860, and graduated at Harvard in 1885. He was general secretary of the Boston Children's Aid Society from 1885 to 1911. He has been prominent in social and charitable work, and in 1887 originated the "home library" system of the Children's Aid Society, the first general plan of this kind on record.
The first Home Library was established by the Boston Children's Aid Society in January, 1887. Now it has seventy libraries here and there throughout Boston, and regards them as an important department of its work. The origin of the plan that has found so much favor in our eyes was simple. I had been connected with the Children's Aid Society but a short time when many avenues of work opened up before me, and it was quite perplexing to see how to make my relations to the various children I became acquainted with real and vital. Among other things the children ought to have the benefit of good reading and to become lovers of good books. Indeed, a great many things needed to be done for and by the children. Out of this opportunity and need the Home Library was evolved.
A little bookcase was designed. It was made of white wood, stained cherry, with a glass door and Yale lock. It contained a shelf for fifteen books, and above that another for juvenile periodicals. The whole thing, carefully designed and neatly made, was simple and yet pleasing to the eye.
I asked my little friend Rosa at the North End, Barbara over in South Boston, and Giovanni at the South End, if they would like little libraries in their homes, of which they should be the librarians, and from which their playmates or workmates might draw books, the supply to be replenished from time to time. They welcomed the idea heartily, and with me set about choosing the boys and girls of their respective neighborhoods who were to form the library groups. Then a time was appointed for the first meeting of each library. The children who had been enrolled as members met with me in the little librarian's home, and while one child held the lamp, another the screwdriver, another the screws, and the rest did a heap of looking on, we sought a secure spot on the wall of the living-room of the librarian's family and there fastened the library.
I remember that to start the first library off with vigor, and secure the benefit from the beginning of a little esprit de corps, I went with the children the evening before the establishment of the library to see the Cyclorama of the battle of Gettysburg. We rode in a driving snowstorm in the street-cars from the North end, and had a gala evening. We got a bit acquainted, and on the next evening, the time appointed for the laying of the cornerstone of the whole Home Library structure, the first library, you may be sure the children without exception were on hand. I believe we had to wait a little while for Jennie, who lived across the hallway from Rosa, to "finish her dishes"; then up went the library. Very quickly the second library was established in South Boston, the third at the South End, and before long some neighborhoods were dotted with libraries.
The idea at the beginning was that the groups should be made up of fifteen children, but later we adopted ten as a better number. So the family in which a library was placed would have the books always within reach, and a handful of children from the same tenement-house or near neighborhood would have access to the books at the time set for their exchange, and when a group had extracted the juice from one set of books we would send them another. It was understood at the start that the children outside of the librarian's family should exchange their books only once a week. I dropped in on the children when I could, but soon saw that the effectiveness of the work would be increased by regular weekly meetings of each group. As it would be impossible for me to visit them all myself, volunteers were sought to take charge each of a single library. Quickly the visitors began to come to me with all manner of puzzles—how to get the children to keep their hands clean, how to induce them to read thoroughly, what to do for a child who was ill, or a lad who was playing truant. Out of these interviews with individual visitors grew naturally the thought of a monthly conference of the visitors; and from an early period in the history of the libraries we have met once a month, except during the summer, and spent an hour and a quarter in discussing a great variety of questions, some general and some particular, that arise in connection with the libraries.
I must dwell a moment on the selection of books. The aim was to put really good literature into the hands of the poor in such a way that they would grow to love that literature. People, after all, are not so unlike. A really good book, a book that is human, that touches our sense of rugged reality, or the fancy or imagination which is native to us and as real as anything in us, is sure of a welcome among all classes of people, if it is couched in intelligible terms. I chose some books that I happened to have read myself, but soon coming to the end of the list of which I was perfectly sure, and finding it impossible to review enough books myself, I secured the volunteer help of a number of ladies who understood the children of the poor and knew how to pass judgment on books proposed for their reading. It was definitely understood that every book should be read by the reviewers from cover to cover. We would not depend upon advertisements, hearsay, or vague recollections of books read by ourselves years ago, but every book should be read from beginning to end with the immediate question in view of the admission of the book to the little libraries to be read by the poor in the homes of the poor. Publishers and book-dealers sent us books for examination. Upon a careful consideration of the written reviews of the volunteer readers, prepared according to certain canons, was based the decision as to their acceptance or rejection. It seemed clearly not worth while to take to the poor books not really worth their reading. If good books would not be read, then the plan should be given up. Had we been careless in the selection of books we easily might have done no little harm, and should not have learned that clean, unsensational, vigorous books that are loved by children in the homes of the well-to-do are welcome to children in the homes of the poor. The way to good taste in reading is not, as some curiously declare, through the mire of the dime novel and the sensational story, but straight along the clean, bright path of decent literature.
Although, by reason of the natural preference of some visitors, or the effect of changes in groups at first made up of both sexes, some groups are wholly made up of boys and others of girls, the ideal group is a mixed one as regards both sex and age—ten boys and girls from seven or eight to fifteen or sixteen years of age. Thus we provide for a healthful, unconscious association of the sexes and the training of the younger and older in their behavior toward one another, and in general touch the maximum range of relations, difficulties and services.
It follows from this make-up of a group that our books must be varied in order that in each set there shall be food for each child. So every library is made up of fifteen volumes, running the whole gamut from the nursery tale to Tom Brown at Rugby or Uncle Tom's Cabin, and also selections from juvenile periodicals suited to children of different ages, there being five collections of periodicals in each library, each collection comprising a bound portion of the annual issue of some periodical. You will readily see, therefore, that in order to select a new library it is necessary to have forty or fifty approved and unassigned books to choose from, and never is a set made up with its fairy tales, pictures of sweet domestic life, stories of adventure, simple history and biography, short stories, long stories, fact and fancy, humor and pathos—never is a set made up, preliminary to starting out upon its first visit, without my mouth watering to read them all myself.
To put the books to an interesting test, but more especially to induce the children to read appreciatively and really use their minds as they read, a form was made out on which the librarian or visitor should record the opinion of each child in regard to each book he returns. The evolution of these opinions from the obnoxiously frequent "nice" and "very nice," or the occasionally refreshing "no good," of the early history of a group into really intelligent and discriminating opinions, is one of the sure marks of progress and value in the work.
A set of books usually remains with one group of children ten weeks or three months before it is exchanged for a fresh set and in turn goes to another group. So you see the Home Libraries stand for nothing less than a perennial and constantly fresh stream of good literature.
To make sure of the parents being back of us in our relations to the children, we have a little blank application for membership, which is signed by the parent or guardian as well as the child. It is noticeable that on many of these cards the children write not only their own names but the names of their parents, the latter, themselves unable to write, affixing their cross.
The volunteer visitors, as opportunity offers, on cards placed in their hands for the purpose, make a record of information concerning the family, their history, condition, habits, their reading at the inception of the library, and subsequently such items as may reveal their further history and the possible relation of the library to their life.
Close upon the heels of this effort to make books mean to poor children what they mean to the more fortunate, followed the idea of bringing to them a knowledge of those ways of having a good time within the walls of one's own castle that are so familiar in families where parents have leisure and ingenuity, and that make our childhood seem to our adult years, of a truth, a golden age. Without the elbow-room that some kinds of fun require, without money to buy games, without leisure to play them or to teach them to their children, forever held down by drudgery, forever pressed upon by the serious hand-to-hand fight to keep the wolf from the door, is it strange that the poor know next to nothing of the commonest home games and diversions? To the Home Libraries, a name sweet and dear to us who have had to do with them, came this further idea of Home Amusements. After the exchange of books, conversation about them, the recording of opinions, perhaps also reading aloud by the visitor or the children, they turn from books to play. It is the duty of the visitor to be informed in the art of merriment, and to teach the children all sorts of ways of having fun at home. Nor is it a slight advantage that thus inducement comes to the grown-up folks to look on and laugh too.
But as naturally as the rose-bush grows and more than a single bud appears and turns to blossom, so came another unfolding from the Home Libraries stock. "The destruction of the poor is their poverty." Might we not add to the home reading and home amusements inducements to Home Thrift? We began to get the children to save their pennies. Presently the Boston Stamp-Savings Society was established. So we purchase stamps from that society and supply them to visitors. The visitors in turn sell them to the children at the weekly meetings. The children are supplied with cards marked off into spaces in which they paste the pretty stamps as they buy them. When a card is filled, or when the total value of the stamps on a card is sufficient to make it worth while, perhaps fifty or seventy-five cents or a dollar, the stamps are redeemed, and the visitor goes with the child to open an account at some regular savings bank. The collection of pennies is resumed, to be followed by another redemption of the stamps and the swelling of the account at the savings bank.
I hardly need tell you that the Christmas festivities of the children are largely held under the auspices of the little libraries, or that in the warmer season you will find the visitors and children taking excursions together to the lovelier spots in the woods and at the shore. Once a year, too, we have a sale of plants. Last spring we sold three hundred and eighty-three plants to the children for windows and gardens. We have promised that all who will appear this autumn with live plants shall have a treat.
Through the visitors, too, we hear of cases of destitution, truancy, waywardness and moral exposure, of unfit dwellings, and illegal liquor-selling. Such things we report to suitable agencies—the other departments of our Children's Aid Society, the Associated Charities, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the Board of Health, the Law and Order League.
From all of this you will easily see why we think that ten children are enough for a single group or visitor. We expect the visitor to know not only the children of the group, but the families to which they belong, and as the children grow older, and are graduated from the little libraries, to follow them still as their friends. It is a highly important function of the Home Library to bring with good books a good friend, whose advice the children will seek, whose example they will aim to follow, and whose esteem they will not wish to forfeit.
We are having to face more and more the question of the graduates of the libraries. One thing we propose for them is a printed list of selected books that are in the Public Library with the numbers that they bear. These lists in the hands of our graduates we think will continue to guide them to the choice of good reading. So, too, we hope to see our graduates go from the little libraries into the working girls' clubs, the associations for young men, and the workingmen's and workingwomen's clubs. And we want the love of good books, and all that good books stand for, to follow them.
We have now, about six years and a half since the first library was established, seventy libraries scattered throughout Boston, with sixty-three volunteer visitors and a membership of six hundred and thirty-four children. Since June, 1889, one paid assistant, a lady who was among the first volunteers in the work, has been employed, and has rendered most interested and efficient service. For the past two years we have employed also an extra summer-assistant, as so many of the visitors are away during that season, and as we try to give every library group at least one outing during the midsummer months. A committee of the Board of Directors of the Boston Children's Aid Society have acted as volunteer visitors, and promoted and strengthened in various ways this department of the Society.
From the beginning it has seemed best to let the experiment work itself out somewhat fully before attempting to say too much about it. A widespread demand, however, for fuller information has arisen, and home libraries are being established in various cities I hope that before long a full record of the establishment and growth of the Home Libraries in Boston may be placed at the service of any who seek to adopt this form of philanthropic effort among the children of the poor.
HOME LIBRARIES
One of the first librarians to give to library work with children a full appreciation of its possibilities in extension work was Salome Cutler Fairchild. An address given by her on January 10, 1898, before the New York Library Association and the New York Library Club on the development of the home library work in Albany describes some modifications of Mr. Birtwell's plan, and is especially interesting because it indicates the relation of this method of extension work to the "new philanthropy."
Mary Salome Cutler was born in Dalton, Mass., in 1855, was educated at Mt. Holyoke Seminary, and received the degree of B.L.S. from the University of the State of New York in 1891. In 1897 she was married to the Rev. Edwin Milton Fairchild. From 1884 to 1889 she was cataloguer in the Columbia College Library and Instructor in the Columbia College Library School. She became Vice-Director of the New York State Library School in 1889 and remained there until 1905. Since that time she has been a lecturer on selection of books and American libraries. Mrs. Fairchild was chairman of the committee in charge of the library exhibit of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and was identified with the publication of the A. L. A. Catalog.
It is probable that some of the readers of the Journal are unfamiliar with the idea of the home library. In a few words, this is its motive and its plan: To help the children of the poor in developing and ennobling their lives by giving them books and a friend.
The home library idea was evolved, not by a librarian, but by Mr. Charles W. Birtwell, secretary of the Children's Aid Society in Boston, a very old non-sectarian society. It grew up in a most natural way. He fell into the habit of lending books to poor children of his acquaintance and of talking with them about the books after they had been read. This took time, and the result was organization. The children were formed into little groups, books were bought systematically, and his friends were interested to form regular visitors.
And so a home library involves a group of 10 poor children, a library of 20 carefully selected books placed in the home of one of the children and circulating among them all, a visitor, who should be a person of rare wisdom and sympathy, who meets the children once a week, talks over the books with them, and during the hour gives them all possible help in any way she chooses. Each group contains both boys and girls from eight to fifteen years of age.
There are several groups of children and several little libraries. Once in three or four months the libraries pass from one group to another. The personal element supplied by the visitor is quite as valuable as the influence of the books. It is hard to tell just what the visitor does. It is perhaps simplest to say that she is a friend to the children and that she studies how to help them. That means a great deal. The plan is elastic and each visitor chooses her own methods.
Doubtless many librarians listened to Mr. Charles Birtwell's paper on home libraries at the Lake Placid conference, September, 1894, and are thoroughly familiar with the central thought and its application in the parent libraries in Boston. To such I would like to call attention to some modifications of the plan in the Albany libraries, to a few new points which we have worked out and old ones which we have emphasized.
It goes without saying that each book is read carefully by at least one member of the selection committee with special reference to the home libraries. It is not enough that a competent judge has read it without having that in mind. We are constantly tempted to give these readers books a little too old for them. They enjoy books which children who have always been familiar with books would be ready for three or four years earlier.
Visitors should be prepared for disappointment in the quality of the reading that is done. At the beginning of my work with the children I was delighted with their enthusiasm over the books. To be sure their choice was often determined by the attractiveness of the cover or big type, or the bigness or littleness of the book. I soon found that it was a rare thing for a child to read a book through. They would often say with pride "I read 30 or 60 pages" and were unwilling to take the book again, though claiming to like it. It is a slow process, but now after over two years they read with much more enjoyment and thoroughness. It was a long step ahead when the brightest child in the group began to read the continued stories in the St. Nicholas and to watch eagerly for the next number.
I wonder if these children are not in a way a type of the readers in our larger libraries. We fondly hope that there will be an immediate and hearty acceptance of the good things which we have spread out with such lavish expenditure of our own life, later we learn that even among the educated classes the genuine reading habit is the heritage of the few and among the many must be the result of a slow and steady growth.
I think we have improved on the Boston plan in dealing with the magazines. They take nine different periodicals and break the year up so that with one library of 15 books the children have parts of five periodicals. We put 18 books in each library and subscribe regularly for each group of children for St. Nicholas and Youth's Companion. In some of the groups the children have not cared for Youth's Companion. It has been given a fair trial since July, 1894, and we have just substituted Harper's Round Table as an experiment. Other groups, however, are devoted to the Youth's Companion. St. Nicholas is a prime favorite with all.
We do not buy cheap editions. Grimm's "Fairy tales" is selected in the tasteful Macmillan edition with illustrations by Walter Crane. Hawthorne's "Wonderbook" is given to them in the exquisite illustrated edition of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. We consider the illustrations and the dainty covers a part of the educative value of the book. We do not cover the books permanently, but give them covers which slip on and off easily that they may use them at their pleasure. A good deal of pride is developed in each group of children in having the little library clean when it passes on to the next group.
An effort is of course made to balance the libraries, putting in each a volume of history, one of light travel, and a book about animals like Mrs. Jackson's "Cat stories," "Buz," "Sparrow, the tramp." Stories of course predominate. Fairy-tales are by all odds the most popular and get the hardest wear. I have noticed that this is also true in the children's travelling libraries sent out by the New York state library. In one group of home library children Grimm's "Household tales" was such a favorite, and they called for it so persistently, that an extra copy was bought for their benefit and is almost constantly in use. They much prefer it to Andersen. The naming of the libraries and of the groups of children is a new feature. Of our nine libraries five are named for children. Any person, or number of persons, giving $25 (the cost of a new library with its bookcase) is entitled to name the library. The plan is a popular one and several gifts of that sort have been received. In one case a small framed picture of the child for whom the library is named goes with it and the children seem to have a positive affection for the picture.
The children choose for themselves some hero to give the name to their club, or group. We have the Washington, the Columbus, the Anthony Wayne, the Lincoln, and the Edison groups, and one more recently formed, not yet named. It is a significant fact that the children knew and admired Anthony Wayne because they read about him in Coffin's "Boys of '76."
One beauty of the home libraries is the simplicity of the central idea and the natural relations between the children and the visitor. It is quite possible to combine with this much direct educational work. Games are almost always used by the visitors.
The skilful visitor, who should have the spirit of the kindergarten and might well have also her training, may develop through the games attention, concentration, and courtesy, qualities in which these children are especially lacking. It is an interesting study to watch the development of the game of 20 questions; e.g. from a wandering, haphazard medley asked in a slow and painful way by self-conscious children, to quick, intelligent, carefully planned questions
To illustrate more specifically an attempt at educational work, the Columbus group may be taken as an example.
There is a badge consisting of a bronze medal with the head of Columbus, fastened with a knot of red, white, and blue ribbon. The rule of the group is the rule of the majority; e.g., when games are to be played a vote is taken and all are expected to enter heartily into the one chosen by the majority. By constant application of this plan and the discussion which it involves, those children have come to understand pretty well the nature of a vote. There is a child's life of Columbus and a scrap-book containing pictures of him. The Columbus group are appropriately discoverers, and as they have set out to find out everything possible about their own city, once a month the group goes out together for a long walk. They have visited the capitol, geological hall, city hall, the Schulyer mansion, etc. Every week 10 minutes are spent in studying the city, the name and location of the streets, the city buildings, the government of the city, its history and antiquities, the cleanliness of the city, etc. Many problems of city government which are taking the attention of the best minds to-day can be studied in simple form here. And this is real study. It is simple and elementary, but not haphazard, and what they get is definite and organized. It is not merely amusement, though they are interested and take hold heartily. A simple statement of each lesson is duplicated and put into the hands of the children. These will be combined into a handbook useful for all children in the city and suggestive for other cities. I hope that some line of study may be taken up by the other groups, each visitor choosing that which she can best develop. Light science would be attractive to some and of real service to the children.
Music, always a powerful agent in the development of life, is specially useful in this city because the music taught in the public schools is purely technical. All the children have met on Saturday afternoons in the kindergarten room of one of the public schools to sing under the direction of a competent director of music who loves children and takes genuine pleasure in the work. This gives them a little repertoire of choice children's songs to take the place of the street songs which was about all they knew before, helps to soften their voices in speaking, and also serves as an excuse for bringing together the children of the various groups about once a month and making a little esprit de corps, which is desirable. It is wonderful when they are inclined to be boisterous and unmanageable in their games what a humanizing influence a sudden call for one of these songs will produce.
It is proposed to circulate games suitable for playing at home, also small framed pictures after the plan of the Milwaukee Public Library. The books are often read by the parents and older brothers and sisters. The games and pictures would help in like manner to sweeten and ennoble the home life.
But why should you be interested in the home library and in allied movements? Is it simply because they are an extension of the book power to which you have pinned your faith? There is, I think, a deeper reason. The movement known as the new philanthropy is one of the strong factors in our civilization to- day. The life of the community is the study of the man who serves the public as librarian. Nothing which is an essential part of that life is foreign to him. As distinguished from the old- fashioned charity which relieved individual suffering without regard to its effects on society, the new movement is characterized by two tendencies:
1. A scientific study of the principles of philanthropy: information before reformation.
2. A spirit of friendliness: not alms, but a friend.
Men and women of singular ability, of the best training and devoted to noble ideals, have given their lives to studying the problems of the poor, and so we have colleges and social settlements, free kindergartens, home libraries and a score of other new activities, one in spirit and in aim. But there are not enough trained specialists.
The philanthropic work of our cities is largely done by young ladies of the leisure class, quite a proportion of them graduates of colleges, and with a splendid mental, moral, and social equipment for the work. But they are raw recruits for lack of discipline. Caught in the wave of enthusiasm they plunge zealously into work with very little understanding of underlying principles.
I have given a good deal of thought to this difficulty and am persuaded that there is a way out. I want to present it here because, if it appeals to you as wise, you will be able to help in putting the plan to the test of experience. As the difficulty is ignorance, the remedy is study.
A class in philanthropy should be organized, for serious study in the scientific spirit and by the scientific method, under the direction of as competent a teacher as can be secured. Only those who are determined to do serious work and who have ability to cope with these problems should be admitted. Every attempt to popularize the course should be discouraged. The class might be carried on under the auspices of a church, a charity organization society, or even of a library. The initiative should be taken by some one person with the requisite discrimination, tact, and organizing skill. According to my outline a two- years' course is needed, involving an hour of class work once a week, with, if possible, five hours a week of study, and for nine or ten months in the year. Laboratory work, that is, investigation of local conditions, should be carried on throughout the course. Lectures combined with seminar work seem to me the best methods of instruction. The literature of the subject is rich and helpful.
At the end of the first course there would be two or three new persons competent to instruct, and these might organize other classes.
If this class in philanthropy could be carried on in any city for 10 or 15 years, the charities of the city would feel the effect of the work. Instead of crudity there would be strength, enthusiasm would be supplemented by wisdom. The result would be the strengthening of the personal character of the poor and the enrichment of the whole city life. For we rise or sink together. The higher groups of society cannot develop without a corresponding development in the lower groups.
And so I call you to study the problems of philanthropy, to follow intelligently the history of home libraries, to approve this plan of training if it be wise, if not to work out a better one. Neither is this to go outside your natural course on the ground of sentiment. You are to study the community on broad lines that you may give back to the community through many channels that abundant life which is the highest service.
LIBRARY DAY AT THE PLAYGROUNDS
The Monthly Bulletin of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh for October, 1901, includes an account of summer playground work which was begun three years before. Playground libraries as an introduction to regular library agencies are described by Miss Meredyth Woodward.
Meredyth Woodward, now Mrs. J. Philip Anshutz, was born in Waterloo, N. Y., in 1869, and was educated in the schools of Tecumseh, Michigan. She took special work in the State Normal School at Oswego, N. Y., and later studied in the Law Froebel Kindergarten Training School at Toledo, Ohio, and in the Chicago Kindergarten College. After teaching in this institution she became Principal of the San Jose Normal School in California. After this she studied in the Leland Stanford University. She took charge of the Home Library Work in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in 1901, where she remained until 1904, part of the time acting as assistant in the Training School for Children's Librarians.
The work of supplying the summer playgrounds with books, begun as an experiment three years ago, was continued this summer as a part of the work done by the Children's department of the Library for the children of this city. During the initial summer, five playgrounds were supplied, the total circulation being about 1,600. Last year the needs of seven playgrounds were met, with a result of 1,833 in circulation, while the present year nine playgrounds have given a circulation of 3,637 volumes, and this during one day in each of six weeks. At a joint meeting of the Library workers with the Kindergartners who had charge of the playgrounds, it was decided to set apart this day as Library day, and as high as 117 volumes have been issued in a single playground on that day, while one week every available book was issued in spite of a drenching rain outside.
Through the courtesy of the school directors and principals, the library was enabled to place the books, take registrations, and fill out cards, several days before the day for circulation. Thus much valuable time was gained, and the work begun and carried out more systematically. Boxes of books carefully selected from the best juvenile literature, comprising attractive stories of history, biography, travel, nature, poetry and useful arts, as well as fiction, picture books and the ever popular fairy tales, were sent to each playground. Each kindergartner also received for her special use a list of stories bearing on the thought she wished to emphasize each week, with the books containing these stories. Charging stations were improvised out of desks, tables, or chairs, in some vacant room, or corner of a hallway. Walls dismantled for the summer cleaning were made more attractive by gay flags, or picture bulletins illustrating the books to be circulated.
One morning spent at a playground on Library day would be enough to convince the most sceptical that the children fully appreciated their opportunities. As one of the kindergartners remarked, "You'd think they had never seen a book before." They swarmed about the windows and doors of the circulating room, and at one school, when the impetuous but good-natured line became too eager, they were restrained by the commanding voice of the policeman to "Back up." Even the charms of an exciting game of base-ball had no power over a wonted devotee, when pitted against the attractions of an interesting book. Kindergartners from five playgrounds agreed that by far the largest attendance was on Library day, many of the older children coming on that day only. They felt "too old to play," but never too old to read.
The signature of one of the parents, with that of the child's, entitled him to draw books. One little tot begged hard to have a "ticket," and be allowed to take books home, insisting with many emphatic nods that she could write her name. On trial only a few meaningless scratches resulted, and the tears that filled her eyes at her failure were banished only when the librarian promised that she might come each week, and look at the picture books. Another child asked for a card for his little friend who had rheumatism, and couldn't come to the playground. A mother of the neighborhood took a card that she might draw out picture books, and books of rhymes and jingles for the little one at home. The "little mothers" invariably saved a place on their cards for a book to please the baby brother or sister tugging at their skirts, or, it might be, for some older member at home. Very often the whole family read the books. One boy waited till nearly noon on Library day for his father to finish the "Boys of '76." Another said he wished he might take three books, because there were four boys at home, and he would like to have enough "to pretty near go 'round." In another family three of the children were drawing books. Still the older sister had to come down to get a book for herself, saying the others never gave her a chance to read theirs.
In these miniature libraries not only do the children become familiar with library regulations, but more judicious and intelligent in the selection of books. At first they choose a book because it has an attractive cover, large print, "lots of talk" (conversation), or because it is small and soon read. "I tell you, them skinny books are the daisies," said one, while the opinion of another was, "These ain't so bad if they'd only put more pictures in to tell what they're about." Later they select a book because the title tells of interesting subject matter, or because a playmate has recommended it as "grand," "dandy," or "a peach." A popular book often has as high as ten or fifteen reserves on it, the Librarian being greeted in the morning with a chorus of, "Teacher please save me"—this or that book. So, from having no idea of choice, the children finally have such a definite idea of what they want, and why they want it, that, unless the particular book is forthcoming, they "guess they don't want any book to-day." One small girl took out "Little Women," and wanted "Little Men" on the same card. When she understood that only one book of fiction could be taken on one card, she inveigled her little sister into taking it on her card. Then she tucked the books under her arm, remarking, with a sigh of satisfaction, "Now, we'll have 'em both in our family." In striking contrast to the excitement attending the selection of books is the lull that follows. Here and there are interested groups looking at the pictures— delightful foretaste of what is to follow in the text—or comparing the merits of the different books. Some have already made an absorbed beginning in the story which will be finished at home, on the door step, or by the evening lamp, when the more active games of the day are over. Nor are these absorbing books always fiction. The statistics show that stories of travel, lives of great men, and books on natural history were fully as popular as the fiction. The fiction per cent of last year was reduced from 60 per cent to 52 per cent this year.
And so the work for the season has closed, leaving many a young reader not only trained but enthusiastic to enjoy regular library privileges. The general verdict of the children was that they were "Sorry it was over." Four lads from the South Side begged that they might get books from the Main Library, and one boy presented his card the very day after the playground closed. Nearly all the branches have gained new adherents from their respective districts.
On the whole we feel well pleased with the season's work, although, as is natural, the work done by the two new Branches was not so successful as that elsewhere owing to the fact that the work was new to the district. When compared with that done in the districts where it has been carried on for three years, it gives a striking example of the growth and development which has taken place since the beginning. As a result of the work, at the West End Branch alone, fifty-two children from the Riverside playground have taken out library cards. The children are better trained in library usages, and more intelligent as to what they want, often counting from one year to the next upon getting a certain book. Out of this enthusiasm there naturally result the Home Library groups and clubs which furnish books during the winter. One notable outgrowth of last summer's playground was the Duquesne School Club, whereby the children of the Point were enabled to get books through the winter. This has since been superseded by the introduction of the School-Duplicates, and now the children hold elections for their various officers, while the wide-awake principal has gotten out a neat little catalogue of the books in their collection.
Unemployed and uninterested children are fallow ground for the seeds of mischief and crime. The half-day playgrounds do wonders toward solving the problem of the vacation child. Do not the interesting, wholesome, juvenile books made so accessible to the children also play a large part in this good work?
LIBRARY WORK IN SUMMER PLAYGROUNDS
At the Pasadena Conference of the A. L. A. in 1911, Miss Gertrude Andrus led a discussion on library work in summer playgrounds, in which she considered some simple methods of administration. Gertrude Elisabeth Andrus was born in Buffalo, N. Y., acted as an assistant in the Buffalo Public Library in 1900-1901; was a student in the Training School for Children's Librarians in Pittsburgh from 1902 to 1904; children's librarian in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh from 1903 to 1908, and since that time has been head of the children's department in the Seattle Public Library.
The library in a summer playground serves a double purpose; it supplies books in a district not otherwise reached by the library and it acts as a lure to the use of the main library. If the books are attractive, the children will follow them to the main library and thus become permanent borrowers. So it is plain that the books we place in our summer playgrounds must be of the most popular type. Easy books, picture books, fairy tales, stories, histories, books of travel, and books on games and manual arts are the ones most in demand. A knowledge of the district in which the playground is located is also necessary. If the children have a school library and are accustomed to reading, the books sent to the playground will differ from the kind sent to one in a foreign district where little reading has been done.
As the library room is invariably used for other work on other days, the books must be locked up. A satisfactory solution of this is a built-in bookcase with adjustable doors which may easily be lifted from their sockets and set aside when access to the books is desired, and may be replaced and padlocked when the day's work is done. The arrangement of the room and the charging desk should always be made so that the exit can be very carefully supervised.
In order to conserve our time so that we may have leisure to give attention to individual children, we must arrange to have the mechanical part of the work as systematic as possible. Playground library work is a life of stress and strain. Everything comes in rushes. There is always a mad dash for the door as soon as the library is opened, for each child is sure that unless he is the first he will miss the good book that he is convinced is there. This rush of course makes it difficult to discharge the books, slip them, shelve them, and at the same time charge the ones the children have selected, to say nothing of helping the children in their choice. We have therefore found it best to collect the books beforehand, discharge them and distribute the cards among the children before opening the library doors. When the Newark system is used, however, and a child has drawn two books, this may result in considerable confusion, for the books may be separated and one may not be sure that both charges on the card should be cancelled. When our first playground library in Seattle opened, we used the Browne system of charging and this proved so satisfactory that we have continued to use it in the others. According to this method, each borrower receives two cards. When a book is borrowed, the book slip is drawn and put with one of the borrower's cards in a small envelope. It is readily seen how easy it is to avoid complications when the books are gathered before the opening of the library, for the slip of each one is with the borrower's card, and if the borrower returns no book, no card is given him. After the books are discharged and shelved and the cards distributed, the children are admitted. In this way much of the confusion incident to opening is eliminated and more time is secured to help the children make their choice.
In order that the care of the books may not interfere with the children's play, we have devised a checking system by means of which the children may leave their books in charge of the librarian until they are ready to go home. This not only allows the children freedom in play but obviates the possibility of loss of books through their being left on benches and swings. The playground is a place of freedom and fun and good fellowship, and the library's rules should be made as inconspicuous as possible.
The librarian should be not only willing, but anxious to enter into the life of the playground as far as her duties permit. One way in which she will be able to make herself popular not only with the children but with the instructors is by means of story telling. Joseph Lee says that story telling is the only passive occupation permissible on a playground and the librarian thus finds her work ready to her hand. She is able to advertise her books, make friends with the children is a most effective way, and at the same time relieve the playground instructor of a duty which is sometimes found irksome.
She must remember that she is an integral part of that playground, not a weekly visitor, and she must throw herself into the interests and activities of the children with all the enthusiasm at her command.
THE SELECTION OF BOOKS FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL LIBRARIES AND THEIR INTRODUCTION TO CHILDREN
In the following article taken from the Library Journal of October, 1882, Mr. S. S. Green says that his "principal object is to show how books are selected and how children are interested in books in the Sunday-school in which I am a teacher." It is interesting to know that in a recent letter written to the editor in regard to the use of this article Mr. Green says: "As I read it over, it seems to me that the advice given in it is still much needed." Samuel Swett Green was born in Worcester in 1837, and was graduated from Harvard in 1858. In 1890 he was appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts an original member of the Free Public Library Commission. He was one of the founders of the A. L. A., and also a life member, and was chosen its president in 1891. From 1867 to 1871 he was a trustee of the Worcester Public Library, and he was librarian from 1871 to 1909, when he was made librarian emeritus. Mr. Green has published several books on library subjects.
It is gratifying to notice that the movement started several years ago by certain ladies connected with the religious body known as Unitarian Congregationalists, who organized themselves under the name of the Ladies' Commission for the purpose of reading children's books and preparing lists of them suitable for Sunday-school libraries, has led within two or three years to the formation of a similar organization in the Protestent Episcopal Church, and more recently to that of one among Orthodox Congregationalists.
Individual clergymen and others have also lately shown a great interest in the work of selecting and disseminating good lists of books suitable for Sunday-school libraries.
It is unnecessary to say that it was high time that this work was entered upon earnestly. The officers of the more intelligently administered public libraries had come to reject, almost without examination, books prepared especially for the use of Sunday-schools, and without consideration to refuse works admission to their shelves issued by certain publishers whose business it was to provide for the wants of Sunday-school libraries.
It had become obvious, among other facts, that the same objections that were made to providing sensational stories for boys and girls in public libraries, lay equally against the provision of books usually placed in Sunday-school libraries.
The one class of books was generally moral in tone, but trashy in its representations of real life; the other, religious in tone, but equally trashy in its presentations of pictures of what purported to be the life of boys and girls.
Both classes of books were good in their intention, both similarly unwholesome.
Gratifying, however, as are the results of this movement, there is something more that needs to be done. Libraries must be purified from objectionable literature; new books must be properly selected; but after this kind of work has been done, a very important work remains to be attended to, namely, that of helping children to find out the books in the library that will interest them and pleasantly instruct them. Every child should be aided to get books suited to its age, its immediate interests, and its needs.
The Library Journal, in its number for June gave the title of a catalogue of the books in the Sunday-school library of the Unitarian church in Winchester, Massachusetts. In this catalogue short notes are added to the titles of some of the books to show, when the titles do not give information enough, what subjects are really treated of in the books annotated.
Something beside this is desirable, however. Children need much personal aid in selecting books.
I have been conservant of the work of a minister who, about a year since, after examining carefully all the books in the Sunday-school library of his church, and after taking out such volumes as he considered particularly objectionable and adding others which he knew to be good, set himself the task of talking with the children of his school about their reading. The school has a superintendent, but he, as minister, also takes an interest in it and has spent the time he has given to it, recently, in talking with the children, one at a time, about books, finding out from them their tastes and what they had been reading, and recommending to them wholesome books to read and interesting lines of investigation to pursue.
My principal object in writing this article is to show how books are selected and how children are interested in books in the Sunday-school in which I am a teacher. It seems to me that its methods are wise and worthy of being followed elsewhere. The Sunday-school referred to is that connected with the Second Congregational (1st Unitarian) Church in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Thirteen or fourteen years ago the library of this Sunday- school was carefully examined and weeded. Every book was read by competent persons, and the poorest books were put out of the library. This weeding process has gone on year by year; as new books have been added others not representing a high standard of merit have been removed from the shelves. Great care has been taken to examine conscientiously new books before putting them into the library. The result is that the Sunday- school now has an excellent library. It has found the catalogue of the Ladies' Commission of great aid in making selections, but has not found all the books recommended in it adapted to its purposes. A competent committee has always read the books recommended by the Commission, so as to make sure that such volumes only were selected as would meet the actual needs of the Sunday-school we have to provide for.
Books are now bought as published. A contribution of about a hundred dollars is taken up annually. This money is put into the hands of the Treasurer of the Library Committee, and the sub-committee on purchases get from a book-store such books as it seems probable will answer our purposes, read them carefully, and buy such as prove desirable. The sub-committee consists of two highly cultivated young ladies. When they have selected two or three books they make notes of their contents. The books are then placed on a table in the minister's room, and the superintendent of the school calls attention to them—reading to scholars a short description of each book prepared by the sub-committee, and inviting the scholars to examine the books after the close of the current session of the school or before the opening of the school the following Sunday. After these two opportunities have been given to the children to look at the books and handle them, they are put into the library and are ready to be taken out.
This sub-committee has taken another important step within a year or two. The members have read over again all the books in the library and made notes descriptive of their contents, and the school has elected one of the ladies as consulting librarian. She sits at a little table in the school-room during the sessions of the school, and with her notes before her receives every teacher or scholar who wishes to consult about the selection of a book, and gives whatever assistance is asked for in picking out interesting and suitable books.
She is kept very busy and is doing a work of great value.
It is gratifying to me to find that this work of bringing the librarian into personal contact with readers and of establishing pleasant personal relations between them, which has been so fruitful in good results in the public library under my charge in Worcester, has been extended to Sunday-school work with so much success.
THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM IN BROOKLYN
The interesting and unusual work of the library of the Children's Museum of the Brooklyn Institute is described by its librarian, Miriam S. Draper, in an article published in the Library Journal for April, 1910. Miss Draper says: "Contrary to the general impression [the library] is not composed entirely of children's books, but of a careful selection of the best recent books upon natural history in the broadest use of the term."
Miriam S. Draper was born in Roxbury, Mass., and taught for a brief period in the public schools there. She studied in Mr. Fletcher's school at Amherst in the summer of 1893, and was graduated from the Pratt Institute Library School in 1895. In the next five years she filled the following temporary positions: Cataloguer, Public Library, Ilion, N. Y.; Organizer, first branch of the Queens Borough Library at Long Island City; Librarian of a branch of the Pratt Institute Free Library until its discontinuance; Cataloguer, Antioch College Library, Yellow Springs, Ohio; one of the Classifiers in the University of Pennsylvania Library during its reorganization. When the Children's Museum was opened in 1900, she became its librarian, the position she now holds.
The Children's Museum may be considered unique, because so far as we know, there is no other museum in this country or elsewhere that is devoted primarily to children and young people; in which a whole building is set apart for the purpose of interesting them in the beautiful in Nature, in the history of their country, in the customs and costumes of other nations, and the elementary principles of astronomy and physics, by means of carefully mounted specimens, attractive models, naturally colored charts, excellent apparatus, and finely illustrated books. Many of the children come to the museum so often that they feel that it is their very own, and take great pride as well as pleasure in introducing their parents and relatives, so that they may enjoy the museum and library with them. It may be called a new departure in work with children, for although it was started ten years ago, it was for some time in the nature of an experiment, but has now fully exemplified its reasons for existence.
The Children's Museum is pleasantly located in a beautiful little park, which adds greatly to its attractiveness and educational value. While situated in a residential portion of the city, amid the homes of well-to-do people, it is quite accessible by car lines to other parts of the city. In fact, classes of children accompanied by their teachers frequently come from remote sections of Brooklyn, and from the East Side of New York. We are within walking distance of thickly populated sections, such as Brownsville, and large numbers of Jewish and Italian children avail themselves of the privileges offered. It is hoped that in time each section of the city may have its own little Children's Museum, as a center of interest and incentive to broader knowledge.
We are well aware that excellent work has been done for children during the past ten years in many other museums, and perhaps the first beginning in this direction was made by the Children's Room in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The American Museum of Natural History in New York City provides an instructor to explain some of its beautiful and interesting exhibits to children, and a similar work has been done in the Milwaukee Museum. Children have been made especially welcome in other museums, such as those at Charleston, S. C., St. Johnsbury, Vt., and the Stepney Borough Museum in London. All librarians are so familiar with the excellent work done in the Children's Departments of public libraries, which have developed so rapidly in almost every town and city throughout the country during the past decade, that it is not necessary to refer at length to them. Suffice it to say, that the work of the Children's Museum and its library are quite different in plan and scope from any of the museums and libraries to which reference has been made.
Before describing in detail the work of this unique little museum, it may be of interest to know something of the early history of an institution which had its origin in connection with the first free library in Brooklyn.
As long ago as August, 1823, a company of gentlemen met together to discuss the question of establishing a library for apprentices in the "Village of Brooklyn." Shortly after, the "Apprentices' Library Association" was organized "for the exclusive benefit of the apprentices of the village forever." The library was first opened in a small building on Fulton street, on Nov. 15, 1823, On the Fourth of July, 1825, the corner-stone of a new library building was laid, on which occasion General Lafayette took part in the formal exercises.
It is interesting to note that a year or two later, courses of lectures in "natural philosophy" and chemistry were given for the benefit of members; and the early records tell us that in illustrating a lecture on electricity the instructor, "Mr. Steele, showed a metallic conductor used by Dr. Franklin in making experiments." Later, lectures on astronomy were given for the benefit of readers, and drawing classes established for a similar purpose.
A few years later the Library Association sold its building and removed to Washington street, where it remained for a long period of years. In 1843, the Association was reorganized under the name of the Brooklyn Institute, and privileges were extended to "minors of both sexes," the library being called at that time the "Youth's Free Library." At the same time the custom was established of awarding premiums to readers on Washington's Birthday. Silver medals and prizes of books were given for the best essays upon geography, natural history, hydraulics, architecture, and history, as well as the best pieces of workmanship and most accurate mechanical drawings presented by readers.
It seems a notable fact that courses of lectures, which have had a prominent part in the work of the Children's Museum, were also an important factor in the earlier educational work connected with the library; and also that a "Library fund," established sixty or more years ago, still provides all books and periodicals for the Children's Museum Library, with the addition of a small annual gift from the state of New York, the cost of maintenance being assumed by the city of New York.
The establishment of the Children's Museum came about in this wise. After a serious fire in the Washington street building, and the subsequent sale of its site, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences secured an indefinite lease of a fine old mansion located in Bedford Park, which had been recently acquired by the city. The collections of birds, minerals, and other natural history objects were placed on exhibition for a few years in this old mansion, and the library, which now numbered several thousand volumes, was stored in the same building. On the completion of the first section of the new Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, in 1897, the major part of the natural history collections were installed in the new museum.
At length the idea occurred to one of the curators that the old building could be utilized to advantage by establishing a museum which should be especially devoted to the education and enjoyment of young people. The first beginnings were made by the purchase of natural history charts, botanical and zoological models, and several series of vivid German lithographs, representing historical events ranging from the Battle of Marathon to the Franco-German War. Some collections of shells, minerals, birds and insects were added, and the small inception. of the Children's Museum was opened to the public Dec. 16, 1899, in a few rooms which had been fitted up for the purpose. A large part of the Brooklyn Institute Library, which had been stored in the building, and which was no longer useful here, was sent to other libraries in the South, leaving such books as were suitable to form the nucleus of the Children's Museum Library as well as the Library of the Central Museum.
With such modest beginnings the Children's Museum has developed within ten years, until the present building has become entirely inadequate for present needs. The collections now fill eleven exhibition rooms and adjacent halls; the lecture room is frequently overcrowded, the lecture being sometimes repeated again and again; and the space set apart for the library has long been taxed to its utmost. There are no reserve shelves for books, and when new books are added the least-used books are necessarily taken out and placed in temporary storage in a dark office on another floor. In busy times after school hours and on holidays, the reading room is frequently filled to overflowing, many of the children being obliged to stand, or perhaps turn away for lack of even standing room.
The number of visitors is steadily increasing, and numbered 14,637 in the month of February, 1910; just about one-third of this number, or 4,925, made use of the library during the month. A new building is therefore urgently needed, and it is ardently hoped that a new fireproof building which is adequate for the purpose may soon be provided, to relieve the great stress now so apparent in many parts of the building, as well as to preserve its interesting collections and valuable library.
It seems evident that an institution which stands primarily for earnest endeavor to awaken an interest in Nature, is really necessary, especially in cities where many children live so closely crowded together that they hardly know what wild flowers are, and whose familiarity with birds is confined principally to the English sparrow.
Moreover, the nature study of the public school course, though good as far as it goes, is too often perfunctory, either from lack of interest or enthusiasm on the part of teachers, it being an added subject to an already crowded curriculum. Another seeming drawback is that the nature work is attempted during the first few years only, and then is dropped entirely for the remainder of the elementary course. A comparatively small number of children continue their studies in high schools; and even so, the study of botany and zoology is made so largely systematic and structural that any desire of becoming acquainted with the birds and flowers and trees is frequently eliminated.
Although entirely independent of the Board of Education it is along just such lines that the Children's Museum is able to make a place for itself in supplementing the work of the school. Its aims have been defined by the curator to be as follows:
1. To employ objects attractive and interesting to children, and at the same time helpful to teachers, in every branch of nature study. 2. To secure an arrangement at once pleasing to the eye and expressive of a fundamental truth. 3. To avoid confusion from the use of too many specimens and the consequent crowding in cases. 4. To label with brief descriptions expressed in simple language and printed in clear, readable type.
In addition to the common species of birds, insects, and animals, there are many groups that have special attraction for children. For instance, among the "Birds we read about" are the flamingo, cassowary, condor, and quetzal; the eagle owl is contrasted with the pygmy owl, and the peacock, lyre bird, albatross, swan, and pelican are displayed.
In the Insect room the child's attention is naturally drawn to the brilliantly-colored butterflies and moths, the curious beetles from tropical countries, and the "Strange insects, centipedes and scorpions." There is an extremely interesting silk-worm exhibit, and the children who visited the museum two or three summers ago had the pleasure of watching some of the identical silkworms while spinning their cocoons. Young collectors are shown exactly "How to collect and preserve insects" by examining the object lesson which was especially designed for their help.
Among the realistic "Animal homes" which appeal especially to the child's mind are the hen and chickens, the downy eider ducks, the family of red foxes, and the home of the muskrat. "Color in nature" is effectively illustrated by grouping together certain tropical fishes, minerals, shells, insects, and birds in such a manner as to bring out vivid red, yellow, blue, and green colors. Here and elsewhere in the museum are placed appropriate quotations from poets and prose writers.
In almost every room there are attractive little aquaria or vivaria containing living animals and plants. There is always a pleasure in watching the gold fish, or the salamanders, chameleons, mud-puppies, alligators, horned toads, tree toads, and snails. For three or four years an observation hive of bees has been fixed in a window overlooking the park, and children have watched the work of the "busy bees" with great delight.
The uses of minerals and rocks are shown by means of pictures of quarries, and of buildings and monuments, and lead pencils are seen in the various stages of manufacture. A small collection of "Gems" was recently donated, and the legends connected with the various birthstones are given in rhyme.
A black background has been used with pleasing effect to exhibit the various forms of shells. The process of making pearl buttons and numerous articles made of mother-of-pearl add largely to the charms of the Shell room.
Perhaps the most attractive room to the younger children is the History room, in which the beginnings of American history are typified not only by charts and historic implements, but by very real "doll houses." A member of the staff devised and cleverly executed the idea of representing the early settlers by six colonial types, viz., the Spanish, French, Cavalier, Dutch, New England and Quaker types. Some of the special scenes illustrated are labelled "Priest and soldier plan a new mission," "Indians selling furs to Dutch trader at Fort Orange" and "The minister calls on the family."
The study of geography is aided by means of small models of miniature homes of primitive peoples; as for instance, an Eskimo village with its snow igloos, the tents of the Labrador Eskimos, the permanent home of the Northwestern Eskimos, and the houses and "totem poles" of the Haida Indians. Some of the more civilized nations are typified by a "Lumber camp in a temperate zone," and by a series of "Dolls dressed in national costumes."
The library of the Children's Museum now numbers about six thousand volumes, and, contrary to the general impression, is not composed entirely of children's books, but of a careful selection of the best recent books upon natural history in the broadest use of the terms. The range is from the simplest readers to technical manuals.
The library is thus unique in its way, supplementing the work of the museum in various ways, such as the following:
1. Providing books of information for the museum staff in describing the collections, and preparing lectures for children.
2. Furnishing information to visitors about specimens models or pictures in the museum, and giving opportunity to study the collections with the direct aid of books.
3. Offering carefully chosen books on almost all the subjects of school work, thus forming a valuable "School reference library," at the same time showing parents and teachers the most helpful and attractive nature books to aid them in selecting such as best suit the needs and tastes of children or students.
Although it is not a circulating library (for many of the books need to be on call for immediate use), there are, of course, many interesting stories of heroes, scientists, explorers, statesmen, and other great leaders among men, of great events in history, of child life in different countries, of birds and animals, and the great "world of outdoors." A constant effort is made to foster a reading habit in the children, even though the time for reading is very limited. Last summer some simple bookmarks were printed, by the use of which many children have been encouraged to read books continuously. The reverse side of some of the bookmarks show that individual children have read eight or ten books through recently.
In place of the "Story hour" which is so popular in children's libraries, the Children's Museum provides daily half-hour talks, illustrated by lantern slides, which are given in the lecture room. The subjects are selected with relation to the school program, and include a variety of nature topics, the geography of different countries, history and astronomy. Twice a week a lecture is given on elementary science, and is illustrated by experiments.
On some of the holidays such as Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays the lecture is naturally devoted to the national hero, whose birthday is thus commemorated. This year there were so many children who wanted to learn about Washington that the lecture was given nine times during the day. On Lincoln's birthday there were several repetitions of the lecture, and the library was thronged with readers all day, at least one hundred children reading stories about him. The children looked with interest at the picture bulletins, comparing the pictures with those they had seen in the lecture. Hundreds of patriotic poems were copied during the month, the number being limited only by lack of space and writing materials.
During the March vacation there were so many visitors that special lectures were given each day upon some subject pertaining to nature. It is proposed this season to give additional special lectures appropriate for "Arbor day" and "Bird day," and probably one with relation to the "Protection of animals."
Lectures are occasionally given for the benefit of Mothers' Clubs, and members of the clubs accompanied by their children are shown the objects of interest in the museum. The library is also visited, and picture bulletins and books are enjoyed by mothers and children together. Last winter several Nature books were loaned for a special exhibit of Christmas books, which was arranged for a regular meeting of the Mothers' Club at a neighboring school.
A part of the museum equipment of especial benefit to boys in high schools is the wireless telegraph station, which was set up and is kept in working order by boys. It furnishes a good field for experimenting in sending and receiving wireless messages, and a good many boys have become so proficient that they have been able to accept positions as wireless operators on steamers during summer vacations.
The museum has considerable loan material, consisting of stuffed birds, boxes containing the life histories of common butterflies and moths, also minerals, charts, etc., which are loaned to public and private schools whenever desired.
The question is frequently asked "What influence does the museum exert on the minds of growing children?" "Does it really increase their powers of observation and broaden their horizon?" The relation between the members of the staff and many children becomes quite intimate, and although all attendance is entirely voluntary, it is often continued with brief interruptions for several years.
The experience of one young man may be cited to demonstrate how the advantages offered by the museum are put to definite use, while friendly relations continue for a period of years. When quite a small boy, a frequent visitor became interested in collecting butterflies and moths, learning how to mount them carefully, and using our books to help identify his finds. As he grew older, he commenced experimenting in a small way in wireless telegraphy, inviting the members of the staff, separately, to go to the basement and listen to the clicking of his little instrument, which was the beginning of successful work in that direction. Throughout his high school course he continued to experiment along wireless lines, doing very creditable work. Upon his graduation, he received an appointment as wireless operator on a steamer. In this capacity he has visited several of the Southern states, Porto Rico, Venezuela, and portions of Europe. He has improved his opportunities for collecting while on his various trips, as a creditable little exhibit, called the "Austen M. Curtis Collection of Butterflies and Moths" in the Children's Museum, will testify.
Some definite advantages gained in another field are worthy of mention. Last summer one of the high school boys commenced during the vacation to read all he could about astronomy; as the summer advanced, another boy became interested in the subject also, especially in the study of the constellations. Diagrams and star maps were carefully made and the names of all the important stars noted. In the fall a little club of eight or ten boys was formed. The members meet almost every pleasant evening at the home of the founder of the club and make use of two telescopes which have been secured to the roof. (Incidentally, may we add, that one of the boys with considerable pride recently showed the books on astronomy in the library to his aunt who was visiting from another city.) No astronomy is at present included in the public school course, with the exception of a little elementary study in the grammar school, so that an opportunity is here provided to supplement school work.
Children frequently make long visits, sometimes spending the greater part of a day, and bringing their luncheon with them to eat in the park. Sometimes whole families come together, father or mother, or both, accompanying the children. Frequently the little "mother" of the family who is having temporary care of four or five little ones, is not much larger than her little charges, and yet is anxious to read some of the books. Under such conditions, when the little folks become too restless to remain longer in the library or museum, the privilege of reading in the park is occasionally permitted, the book being returned to the library before leaving for their homes.
The publication of a monthly paper was started in 1902 as a means of communication with the general public and especially with schools. In April, 1905, the Children's Museum united with the larger Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, in publishing the Museum News. This journal is sent not only to every public and private school in Brooklyn, but to every museum in this country and abroad; to every library in Brooklyn, and to libraries generally throughout the country.
An excellent "Guide to the trees in Bedford Park" has been printed in a separate leaflet, being at first a contribution to the Museum News. It may be noted here that a series of lectures upon Trees will be given at the Children's museum commencing April 11th by Mr. J. J. Levison, arboriculturist, the author of the "Guide"; and that a fine collection of the best tree books may always be consulted in the library.
In connection with the "Hudson-Fulton Celebration" in the fall of 1909, a handsome "Catalogue of the historical collection and objects of related interest at the Children's Museum" was prepared by Miss Agnes E. Bowen. It furnishes a concise outline of American history, is printed in attractive form, and illustrated by photographs of the historical groups already mentioned. Special picture bulletins were also exhibited in both museum and library, and objects having relation to Hudson and Fulton and their times were indicated by a neat little flag. It is perhaps needless to add that many teachers and children found great assistance by consulting the "Hudson-Fulton Bookshelf," and that the museum exhibit was very attractive to the general public.
The library has prepared various short lists from time to time whenever needed, but has thus far printed only one. This was prepared at the request of the Supervisor of Nature Study in the Vacation Schools of Greater New York, and is a short annotated list entitled "Some books upon nature study in the Children's Museum Library." The list will be sent free to any librarian or teacher upon application.
The Children's Museum is open daily throughout the year, the hours on weekdays being from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and from 2 to 5:30 p.m. on Sundays. The library is open on the same hours as the museum with few exceptions, such as Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, and the Fourth of July, and Sunday afternoons during the summer, from June 15th to September 15th.
To sum up, the Children's Museum constantly suggests the added pleasure given to each child's life by cultivating his powers of observation, and stimulating his love of the beautiful in nature by means of attractive exhibits, half-hour talks, and familiar chats with groups of children. The library calls attention of individual children and classes to the flowers, birds and trees through its picture bulletins and numerous books; and children are urged to visit the Aquarium, the Zoological Gardens at Bronx Park, and see the natural beauties of Forest Park, whenever opportunity offers.
WORK WITH CHILDREN AT THE COLORED BRANCH OF THE LOUISVILLE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY
Many of the generally accepted methods of children's libraries have been adapted to work with colored children, whose particular interests are described in the following article by Mrs. Rachel D. Harris, contributed to the Library Journal for April, 1910.
Mrs. Rachel D. Harris was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1869, and was graduated from the Colored High School in 1885. She taught in the public schools for fifteen years, and was appointed assistant in the Colored Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library when it was opened in 1905. At the time this article was written she was in charge of the library work with colored children.
About five years ago, when it was proposed to establish a branch for colored people, it was regarded apprehensively by both sides. We knew our people not to be a reading people, and while we were hopeful that the plan would be a success, we wondered whether or not the money and energy expended in projecting such an enterprise might not be put to some other purpose, whereby a good result could be more positively assured.
The branch, however, was opened in the early part of the autumn of 1905, in temporary quarters—three rooms of the lower floor of the residence of one of our own people. We began with 1,400 books, to which have been added regularly, until now we have 7,533 volumes on the shelves of our new building, which we have occupied since October, 1908.
The problem at first which confronted us was: How to get our people to read and at the same time to read only the best. We used in a modest way the plans of work already followed by successful libraries—the story-hour, boys' and girls' clubs, bulletins, visits to the schools, and public addresses.
A group of boys from 9 to 14 years of age, who visited our rooms frequently, was organized into the Boys' Reading Club. Their number increased to 27 earnest, faithful little fellows, who were rather regular in attendance. They met Friday afternoon of each week, elected their own officers, appointed their own committee on preparation of a course of reading for the term, the children's librarian always being a member of each committee appointed. There were only a few boys in this number who had read any book "all the way through," except their school books.
The first rule made for the club was, that at roll-call each boy should respond by giving the title, author and a short synopsis of the book read the preceding week. This proved to be the most interesting part of the meeting, and was placed first on the program to insure prompt attendance. Often the entire period was taken up with the roll-call, the boys often calling for the entire story of a book, the synopsis of which appealed to them. This method was thought to be a good way to get the boys interested in the books on our shelves.
Our first course in reading was Lamb's "Tales from Shakespeare." Much profit was derived from the discussion brought about by assigning each character to a different boy and having him give his opinion of the same. We modified the program to include several debates during the term, using the "Debater's Treasury" for topics. The following year we read the plays "Merchant of Venice," "Macbeth," "Midsummer night's dream."
A large per cent of this first club are still patrons of the library. Six of the original number are now in college, and most of those remaining are connected with the Boys' Debating Club.
Shortly after the organization of the Boys' Club the girls of the sixth, seventh and eighth grades insisted upon having a club, and a Girls' History Club was organized with about 30 girls.
At the urgent request of some pupils of the freshman and sophomore classes of the High School a club was formed for them, and also one for the members of the junior and senior classes for the study of mythology. Very few of the members of any of these clubs had read much beyond their class books and the same general plan was followed in each, with the result that the library has been successful in creating a love for the reading of books that are worth while.
The story-hour has outgrown itself and our limited supply of assistants. We started with a very small group of little folks, and now we tell stories to between 150 and 180 children each week in our building. The story-hour begins at 3 p.m., and children who are dismissed at 1:30 p.m., come directly from school and wait patiently till the children's librarian returns from her station work at 3 p.m. The majority of our children have never had stories told to them, their parents being compelled to work out from home all day, and during the evening they have not the time, though they may have the stories to tell, and the little ones have been deprived of every child's birthright—a generous supply of good stories. Boys and girls from the High School have begged for permission to come to the story-hour, and have come from long distances to hear the stories and enjoy them as much as the younger ones do.
Last year when we decided to tell stories from English history to this mixed group of little folks we felt that probably the stories would not be received with the same interest as were the stories of the previous year. Strange to say, these stories appealed keenly to the children, and our number increased weekly and interest did not wane. Many copies of English histories were placed on our shelves, and these were eagerly read. Even now it is difficult to find an English history in our children's room.
A remarkable feature of the work at our branch is the small amount of fiction read, only 45 per cent. We had a decided advantage here, because our children had never learned to read fiction. Having read but very little, their power of concentration was small, and the book that contained a story that "went all the way through" did not appeal to them. Their great regard for "teacher's" opinion helped us at the library to please them by giving them non-fiction. For instance, when the boys came, as most boys do, with a request for a story about Indians, we gave them Grinnell's "Story of the Indian," or Wade's "Ten Big Indians," the binding and high sounding title of which would attract them, and they would find their way to the shelf where the Indian books were and would read nearly all we had there. They were then prepared to thoroughly enjoy our Indian stories in fiction.
Ours is an emotional race, and as religion appeals much to this element in our nature, our parents have always been church- goers, and the reverence for sacred things which our children manifest is inherent. Therefore it is no cause for wonder that the stories of the Old and New Testament find children anxious to read them.
Our children read more biography than would be supposed. That book that will tell them about a boy who, though poor and otherwise handicapped, struggled, overcame and became famous, appeals to them; therefore "Poor boys' chances" and Bolton's "Poor boys who became famous" are called for constantly. There are few of our boys and girls who will not gladly take a copy of the life of Abraham Lincoln, or Booker T. Washington and read them over and over, their parents often having them read the same to them also. The self-made element in the lives of these men strikes a responsive chord in the hearts of our young people. They are easily led from the lives of these to the life of Napoleon, Edison, Washington and others.
During the school months the tables of our reference room are usually crowded. The pupils of the High School, near by, often deluge us, after the closing of school, with anxious requests for information on every topic from "the best mode of pastry making to Halley's comet."
The Library Board has been generous in granting our request for more and more books. Our supply, however, is still far too small for the demand made upon it, our circulation having increased from 17,838 to 55,088 for the present year. We have two library stations and 35 class room collections, all demanding more books.
When we look back now at the time of our beginning we see that our fears were unfounded. Our people needed only an opportunity and encouragement. The success of the branch has exceeded the hope of the most sanguine of those interested in its organization, and we feel justly proud of the results attained.
THE FOREIGN CHILD AT A ST. LOUIS BRANCH
Present-day conditions in a branch library in a crowded district of a large city are pictured in the last paper to be included in this compilation, with special emphasis on the necessity of understanding the traditions and customs of foreign peoples in order to know how to appeal to them. It was read by Miss Josephine M. McPike before the meeting of the Missouri Library Association at Joplin, Missouri, in October, 1915.
Josephine Mary McPike was born in Alton, Illinois, and studied in Shurtleff College, Upper Alton, and in the University of Illinois. She became a member of the staff of the St. Louis Public Library in 1909. In February, 1917, she resigned from the position of First Assistant at the Crunden Branch to become the librarian of the Seven Corners Branch of the Minneapolis Public Library.
Crunden branch is the kind of place, the thought of which makes you glad to get up in the morning. It is an institution a state of mind. And as we workers there feel, so do the people in the neighborhood. We have heard over and over again the almost worn-out appellation "The people's university"; Crunden has a different place in the thoughts of its users. It is really the living-room of our neighborhood—the place where, the dishes having been washed and the apron hung up, we naturally retire to read and to muse.
True, it is a large family foregathered in this living-room of ours, much greater in number than the chairs for them to sit upon, but, as in all large families, there is much giving and taking. In the children's room, crowded to overflowing, the Jewish child sits next to the Irish, and the Italian and the Polish child read from the same book. Children of all ages; babes from two and a half years to boys of twenty who spend their days in the factory, and are still reading "Robinson Crusoe" and the "Merry adventures of Robin Hood." There too, sometimes comes the mother but lately arrived from the "Old Country," wearing her brightly colored native costume. Unable to read or to write, she feels more at home here with the children whom she understands, and beams proudly to see her little "Izzey" reading "Child life" or "Summers' reader."
Some social workers report that their greatest difficulty in dealing with the children of the tenement district is absolute lack of the play spirit. Our observations have been quite to the contrary; in all of the children there is a fresh and healthy play- fulness—indeed, we feel at times that it is much too healthy. Our constant attendance is needed to satisfy them all, insatiable little readers that they are.
But the question of discipline becomes a real problem only in dealing with the mass spirit of the gang. There is one more or less notorious gang in the neighborhood which is known as the "Forty Thieves." To gain admittance into this friendly crowd it is necessary for the applicant to prove to the full satisfaction of the leaders that he has stolen something. En masse they storm into the children's room, in a spirit of bravado. We gradually come to realize that at such a time as this the library smile—that much used and abused smile—touches some of the boys not at all, and the voice of authority and often the arm of strength are the only effective methods. We believe that we have found a most satisfactory way of meeting this situation. The children's librarian induces all of the older boys to come down stairs to a separate room and for a half hour tells them tales of adventure and chivalry, thus quieting the children's room and directing the energy of the boys into more peaceful channels. This story in the evening takes the place of the story hour for older children during the daytime, which on account of the scarcity of boys and girls of suitable age has been discontinued.
The younger children still have their fairy stories told them, and there, ever and anon, the frank spirit of the family manifests itself. That child who all through one story hour sat weaving back and forth muttering to herself, and when pressed for an explanation, remarked that she "was counting 'til you're done"—is a happy and independent contrast to the usually emotional type that embraces and bids its indescribably dirty and garlic tainted little brothers—"Kiss teacher for the nice story."
The young library assistant comes to Crunden branch graciously to teach—she stays humbly to learn. Full of new theories and with a desire to uplift—a really sincere desire—she finds in a short time much to uplift her own spirit. Since ours is a polygot neighborhood consisting mostly of Russians, Jews, Poles, and Italians, with a light sprinkling of Irish, it brings us into contact with such different temperaments that before we can attempt to satisfy them we must needs go to school to them. We know to some extent the life of our American child and with a little thought we can usually find the way best to appeal to him. But the peoples who have come from across the water have brought with them their traditions and their customs, and have each their own point of view; and it is with these traditions and customs that we must become familiar and sympathetic in order to understand the little strangers. There is the eager, often fearful Jewish child; the slower, stolid Pole; the impulsive Italian; each must be approached from a different angle and each with a different inducement. At first this task is rather appalling, but gradually it becomes so interesting that from trying to learn from the child in the library we listen to the mother in the home, and often to the father from the factory; and from these gleanings of their life in the home and their habits of thought we try to understand the nature of the strange child and grope about for what he most needs and how to make the greatest appeal to him.
In the last two or three years the children's librarian has herself gone after each book long overdue, and with each visit she has seized the opportunity not only to recover the book, but to become acquainted with the mother and to gain her often reluctant confidence. Most of the readers live in tenements, many of which open into one common yard. The appearance of the library assistant usually causes much commotion, and she is received often not only by the mother of the negligent child but also the mothers of several other children as well—and, the center of a friendly group, she holds conversation with them. By this time the library assistant is well known in the neighborhood, and unlike the collector and the curious social uplifter who are often treated with sullenness and defiance, she receives every consideration and assistance. Now at Yom Kipper, Rosh Hashana, Pasach and other holidays, we are invited to break matzos and eat rare native dishes with the families of the children. We find the home visit invaluable. The Jewish, the Italian, and even the Polish mother gains confidence in us, tells us all the family details—and feels finally that we are fit persons to whom she may entrust her children.
Probably our most attractive-looking child is the Italian, a swarthy-skinned little creature, with softly curved cheeks, liquid brown eyes and seraphic expression—that seraphic expression which is so convincing and withal so misleading. Child of the sun that he is, his greatest ambition in life is to lie undisturbed in the heat of the day and so be content. He has learned to take nothing seriously, the word "responsibility" has no meaning for him. Nor has the word "truth." With his vivid imagination he handles it with the lightest manner in the world, he adds, he expands, he takes away in the most sincere fashion, looking at you all the while with babyish innocence. He is bewildering! His large brown eyes are veritable symbols of truth; to doubt him fills you with shame. I say he is bewildering; never so much so as when, for no apparent reason, he changes his tactics, and with the same sweet confidence absolutely reverses his former statements. What can we do with him? There seems to be no appeal we can make. He swears by the Madonna! He raises his eyes to Heaven, and when he finally makes his near- true statement, he is filled with such confessional fervor that to reward him seems to be the only logical course left. He is certainly a child of nature, but of a nature so quixotic that we are non-plussed.
To many of our dark-skinned little friends "Home" originally was the little island across from the toe of Italy. These are, I fear, somewhat scorned by the ones whose homes nestled within the confines of the boot itself. We know how many refugees fled to that little spot in the water, and that dark indeed have been the careers of some of them. Whether the hunted feeling of their fathers of generations back still lurks in these young Sicilians, I do not know, but certainly their first impulse is one of defense. At the simplest question there appears suddenly, even in the smallest child, the defiant flash of the dark eyes and the sullen setting of the mouth. The question—what does your father do?—or, what is your mother's name?—arouses their ever-smoldering suspicion, and more than likely their quick rejoinder will be—"What's it to you?" When we explain impersonally that it is very much to us if they are to read our books, and that after all to reveal their mother's name will be no very damaging admission, the cloud blows over and there is no more trace of the little storm when they indifferently give us all the details we wish. So sudden are their changes and moods, so violent their little outbursts, that we must needs be on the qui vive in our dealings with them. But yet they are so lovable that we can never be vexed with them for long.
It cannot be far amiss to put into this paper a picturesque Sicilian woman who has grown old in years but is still a child in spirit. She loves a fairy story as much as she did sixty years ago, and listens with the same breathless credulity. One night about twilight as I sat on the front steps with her and several little Italian children, listening to her tales of the old home country, there came a silence in our little group. Suddenly Angel Licavoli asked, "Teacher, what is God like?" With a feeling that our friend of riper experience could give us more satisfaction, I repeated the question to her. Her sweet old face surrounded by the white curls was a study in simple faith as she assured us, "Maybe She is like the holy pictures."
When I approach the subject of the Russian Jew, I do it with a great humbleness and fear lest I do not do it justice. So much have they had to overcome, and such tenacity and perseverance have they shown in overcoming it! Straight from the Pales of Kief, Ketchinoff, and Odessa they come to settle in the nearest to a pale we have to offer. Great has been their poverty; a long-standing terror with them, and along with it in many cases, persecution, starvation, and social ostracism. Poverty in all but spirit and mind. The great leveler to them is education, and it is no uncommon thing for the Jewish father to sacrifice himself in order to better his son, to take upon himself that greatest of sacrifices, daily grind and deprivation. Not only this generation, but the one before and the one before that. They cannot keep up such a white-hot search for learning without sooner or later finding out what is wisdom—real wisdom. Stripped of all but bare necessities, they come to possess a sense of value that is remarkably true. We come into contact then with the offspring of such conditions, simple and direct in manner and having a passionate impersonal curiosity. Always asking, searching for the real things, eager for that which will render them impervious to their sordid surroundings, they have thrown aside all superfluous mannerisms and get easily to the heart of things. Accustomed to the greatest repression, and exclusion from all schools and institutions of the sort, the free access to so many books is an endless joy to them. They browse among the shelves lovingly, and instinctively read the best we have to offer. Tales from the ancient Hebrews, history, travel —these are the books they take. But what they read most gladly is biography. It is just as difficult to find a life of Lincoln on the shelves as it is to find an Altsheler—and of comparisons is that not the strongest? Heroes of all sorts attract the Jewish child, heroes in battles, statesmen and leaders in adventure, conquest, business. If a hero is also a martyr, their delight knows no bounds.
We know now that we need be surprised at nothing; extreme cases have come at Crunden to be the average, if I may be permitted to be paradoxical. We were interested but not surprised when Sophie Polopinsk, a little girl but a short time from Russia, wheeled up the truck, climbed with great difficulty upon it and promptly lost herself in a volume of Tolstoi's "Resurrection," a volume almost as large as the small person herself, and formidable with its Russian characters. In telling you of Sol Flotkin I may be giving you the history of a dozen or so small Russian Jews who have come to Crunden. At the age of ten, Sol had read all of Gorki, Tolstoi, Turgenev and Dostoievski in the original and then devoured Hugo and Dumas in the language of his adoption. The library with Sol became an obsession. He was there waiting for the doors to open in the morning, and at nine o'clock at night we would find him on the adult side, probably behind the radiator, lost to us, but almost feverishly alive in his world of imagination that some great man had made so real for him. It was to Crunden branch that the truant officer came when the school authorities reported him absent from his place. It was there, too, his father came, imploring, "Could we not refuse Sol entrance?" The Door man demanded, did we know that at twelve and one o'clock at night he was often compelled to go out and find the boy, only to discover him crouched under the street light with a copy of "War and peace" lovingly upon his young knees? And there are many others like Sol. Is it not inspiring to the librarian to work with children who must be coaxed, not to read good books, but to desist from reading them?
Among the Jewish people the word "radical" is in high favor —it is the open sesame to their sympathy. For the ordinary layman, radicalism, for some unexplained reason, is associated with the words Socialism, Anarchism, etc. The deep dyed conservative, to whom comes the picture of flaunting red at the mention of the word, would be surprised to learn in what simple cases it is often used. We have, for instance, an organization meeting once a week under the head of the "Radical Jewish School." When the secretary came to us for the first time we asked him what new theory they intended to work out. Their radical departure from custom consisted only in teaching to the children a working Yiddish in order that the Jewish mother might understand her amazingly American child, in order to lessen the tragedy of misunderstanding which looms large in a family of this sort. They are setting at defiance the old Jewish School which taught its children only a Hebrew taken from the Talmud, a more perfect but seldom used language. Not so terrifying that.
Children who are forced to forage for themselves from a very early age, as most of our youngsters are, develop while yet very young a sense of responsibility and a certain initiative seldom found in more tenderly nurtured children. It is the normal thing in the life of a girl in our neighborhood when she reaches the age of eight or nine years to have solely in her charge a younger brother or sister. When she jumps rope or plays jacks or tag she does it with as much joy as her sister of happier circumstances—but with a deftness foreign to the sheltered child she tucks away under her arm the baby, which after six weeks becomes almost a part of herself. Often we will fearfully exhort her to hold the baby's back, etc. Invariably the child will smile indulgently at us, as at a likeable but irresponsible person, and change the position of the infant not one whit. She is really the mother, she feels, with a mother's knowledge of what the baby needs; we are only nice library teachers. Their pride in the baby and their love for it sometimes even exceeds that of the mother who is forced to be so much away from the little ones. From five years of age the boys are expected to manage for themselves—to fight their own battles, literally—and to look out for themselves in general. Naturally they possess a self-reliance greater than other children of their age. We come into contact with this in the library in the child's more or less independent choice of books and his free criticism—often remarkably keen— of the contents. Another place where the children show initiative is in the formation of clubs, which is a great diversion of theirs. Seldom does a week pass without a crowd of children coming to us petitioning for the use of one of the club rooms. Often these clubs are of short duration, but some of them have been in existence for years. Sometimes they are literary, sometimes purely social—but more often dramatic. In the dramatic club the children, starved for the brighter things of life—can pretend to their hearts' content, and their keen imagination can make it all vividly realistic for them. They choose their own plays, draw the parts, make their costumes and carry out their own conception of the different roles. Astonishingly well they do it too. Is it any wonder that with their drab unhappy lives in mind, fairies and beautiful princesses figure largely? It seems to me that a singularly pathetic touch is the fact that yearly the "Merry Making Girls Club" spends weeks and weeks of preparation for an entertainment given for the benefit of the Pure Milk and Ice Fund for the poor babies of St. Louis, they themselves being the most liable to become beneficiaries of the fund.
A very small thing is sufficient to fire their imagination. The most trivial incident will suggest to them the formation of a club —a gilt crown, an attractive name, etc. An amusing instance has lately come up in this connection. Several boys of about thirteen or fourteen asked the use of one of the club rooms for the "Three C's." Very reticent they were about the nature of this organization. Finally amid rather embarrassed giggles the truth came out—a picture show in the neighborhood had distributed buttons bearing the picture and name of the popular favorite, which buttons were sufficient reason to form the "Charlie Chaplin Club."
When we think of many foreigners of different nationality together, there comes to most of us from habit the idea first suggested by Mr. Zangwill of amalgamation. I think most of us at Crunden do not like to feel that our branch and others like it are melting pots; at any rate of a heat so fierce that it will melt away the national characteristics of each little stranger—so fierce that it will level all picturesqueness into deadly sameness. Rather, just of a glow so warm that it melts almost imperceptibly the racial hate and antagonism.
