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.