But when the doors of the public library are thrown open to the
young, and they are recognized as an important class of its
patrons, the question comes up, What shall the library furnish to
this class in order to meet its wants? If the object of the
library is understood to be simply the supplying of the wants of
the reading public, and the young are considered as a portion of
that public, the question is very easily answered by saying, Give
them what they call for that is not positively injurious in its
tendency. But if we regard the public library as an educational
means rather than a mere clubbing arrangement for the economical
supply of reading, just as the gas company is for the supply of
artificial light, it becomes of importance, especially with
reference to the young, who are the most susceptible to educating
influences, that they should receive from the library that which
will do them good; and the managers of the library appear not as
caterers to a master whose will is the rule as to what shall be
furnished, but rather as the trainers of gymnasts who seek to
provide that which will be of the greatest service to their men.
No doubt both these elements enter into a true conception of the
duty of library managers; but when we are regarding especially
the young, the latter view comes nearer the truth than the other.
In the first place, among the special requirements of the young
is this, that the library shall interest and be attractive to
them. The attitude of some public libraries toward the young and
the uncultivated seems to say to them, "We cannot encourage you
in your low state of culture; you must come up to the level of
appreciating what is really high toned in literature, or we
cannot help you." The public library being, however, largely if
not mainly for the benefit of the uncultivated, must, to a large
extent, come down to the level of this class and meet them on
common ground. Every library ought to have a large list of good
juvenile books, a statement which at once raises the question,
What are good juvenile books? This is one of the vexed questions
of the literary world, closely allied to the one which has so
often been mooted in the press and the pulpit, as to the utility
and propriety of novel reading. But while this question is one on
which there are great differences of opinion, there are a few
things which may be said on it without diffidence or the fear of
successful contradiction. Of this kind is the remark that good
juvenile books must have something positively good about them.
They should be not merely amusing or entertaining and harmless,
but instructive and stimulating to the better nature. Fortunately
such books are not so rare as they have been. Some of the best
minds are now being turned to the work of providing them. Within
a few months such honored names in the world of letters as those
of Hamerton and Higginson have been added to the list which
contains those of "Peter Parley," Jacob Abbott, "Walter Aimwell,"
Elijah Kellogg, Thomas Hughes, and others who have devoted their
talents, not to the amusement, but to the instruction and culture
of youth. The names of some of the most popular writers for young
people in our day are not ranked with those mentioned above, not
because their productions are positively injurious, but because
they lack the positively good qualities demanded by our
definition.
There is a danger to youth in reading some books which are not
open to the charge of directly injurious tendencies. Many of the
most popular juveniles, while running over with excellent
"morals," are unwholesome mental food for the young, for the
reason that they are essentially untrue. That is, they give false
views of life, making it consist, if it be worth living, of a
series of adventures, hair-breadth escapes; encounters with
tyrannical schoolmasters and unnatural parents; sea voyages in
which the green hand commands a ship and defeats a mutiny out of
sheer smartness; rides on runaway locomotives, strokes of good
luck, and a persistent turning up of things just when they are
wanted --all of which is calculated in the long run to lead away
the young imagination and impart discontent with the common lot
of an uneventful life.
Books of adventure seem to meet a real want in the minds of the
young, and should not be entirely ruled out; but they cannot be
included among the books the reading of which should be
encouraged or greatly extended. In the public library it will be
found perhaps necessary not to exclude this class of juvenile
books entirely. Such an exclusion is not here advocated, but it
is rather urged that they should not form the staple of juvenile
reading furnished by the library. The better books should be
duplicated so as to be on hand when called for; these should be
provided in such numbers merely that they can occasionally be had
as the "seasoning" to a course of good reading.
But the young patrons of the library ought not to be encouraged
in confining their reading to juveniles, of no matter how good
quality. It is the one great evil of this era of juvenile books,
good and bad, that by supplying mental food in the form fit for
mere children, they postpone the attainment of a taste for the
strong meat of real literature; and the public library ought to
be influential in exalting this real literature and keeping it
before the people, stemming with it the current of trash which is
so eagerly welcomed because it is new or because it is
interesting. When children were driven to read the same books as
their elders or not to read at all, there were doubtless
thousands, probably the majority of all, who chose the latter
alternative, and read but very little in their younger years.
This class is better off now than then by the greater
inducements offered them to mental culture in the increased
facilities provided for it. But there seems to be danger that the
ease and smoothness of the royal road to knowledge now provided
in the great array of easy books in all departments will not
conduce to the formation of such mental growths as resulted from
the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties. There is doubtless
more knowledge; but is there as much power and muscle of mind?
However this may be, none can fail to recognize the importance of
setting young people in the way of reading the best books early
in life. And as the public library is likely to be the one place
where the masters of literature can be found, it is essential
that here they should be put by every available means in
communication with and under the influence of these masters.
It only remains now to say that, as we have before intimated the
public library should be viewed as an adjunct of the public
school system, and to suggest that in one or two ways the school
may work together with the library in directing the reading of
the young. There is the matter of themes for the writing of
compositions; by selecting subjects on which information can be
had at the library, the teacher can send the pupil to the library
as a student, and readily put him in communication with, and
excite his interest in, classes of books to which he has been a
stranger and indifferent. Again, in the study of the history of
English literature, a study which, to the credit of our teachers
be it said, is being rapidly extended, the pupils may be induced
to take new interest, and gain greatly in point of real culture
by being referred for illustrative matter to the public library.