The history of library work with children is yet to be written.
From the bequest made to West Cambridge by Dr. Ebenezer Learned,
of money to purchase "such books as will best promote useful
knowledge and the Christian virtues" to the present day of
organized work with children --of the training of children's
librarians, of cooperative evaluated lists of books, of methods
of extension-- the development has been gradual, yet with a
constantly broadening point of view.
A number of libraries have claimed the honor of being the first
to establish children's work--a fact which in itself seems to
show that the movement was general rather than sporadic. The
library periodicals contain many interesting accounts of these
beginnings, a number of which have been mentioned in the articles
included in this volume.
Certain personalities stand out very clearly in the history of
the early days, and many of the same ones are still closely
associated with children's work in its later developments. The
Library Journal says editorially in 1914: "Probably the credit of
the initiative work for children within a public library should
remain with Mrs. Sanders of the Pawtucket Library, who made the
small folk welcome a generation ago, when, in most public
libraries, they were barred out by the rules and regulations and
frowned away by the librarian."
Three articles from Miss Caroline Hewins's pen have been chosen
for this collection, the last written thirty-two years later than
the first. They not only give details of the history of
children's work, but reflect Miss Hewins's personality and
opinions.
A paper given by Miss Lutie E. Stearns at the Lake Placid
Conference of the American Library Association in 1894 has been
referred to as one of the most important contributions to the
development of work with children. This paper was printed in the
first volume of this series, "Library and school" (New York,
1914).
The leading editorial in The Library Journal for April, 1898,
says: "Within the past year or two the phrase 'the library and
the child'--which was itself new not so long ago--has been
changed about. It is now 'the child and the library,' and the
transposition is suggestive of the increasing emphasis given to
that phase of library work that deals with children, either by
themselves or in connection with their schools."
Mr. Henry E. Legler, in the last paper in this group, traces the
growth of the "conception of what the duty of society is to the
child"; claims that the children's library should be one in a
union of social forces, and asserts that it contributes to the
building of character, the enlargement of narrow lives, the
opening of opportunity to all alike.
Thus the modern viewpoint includes the ideals of democracy in
addition to Dr. Learned's emphasis on "knowledge" and "virtue"
and probably points the way to the future development of library
work with children.