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.