BY IRENE WARREN, _Librarian University of Chicago School of Education_.
The establishment of the Library Section of the National Educational
Association was proof that the thoughtful librarians and school men of
this country believed that an effective co-operation between public
schools and public libraries was possible. In many states library
sections of the state teachers' associations have been formed. Many
public libraries have for some time past systematically sent both books
and lists of books to the public schools.
No sooner had this been done than librarians and teachers both saw that
they had made but a beginning, and the next steps, and, indeed, the
present needs, are to bring about a more intelligent use of both books
and libraries and to place larger and better arranged collections within
easy access of the pupils. Rarely do the teachers find the libraries
adequate to the reference work or the collateral reading they wish the
pupils to do. The funds are seldom sufficient to keep the libraries up
to date. There is no one person in the school who knows how to organize
and administer the library, and therefore whatever work the teachers do
in this line is at a greater expense of both time, energy and material
than it would be were it done by one having had a library training. The
school buildings are frequently closed to the students shortly after the
school session, usually by five o'clock, and always on holidays and
during vacations. Most of the pupils' reading and research must
therefore be done in the one or two books which he carries home with
him. The Buffalo Public Library made another step in organization when
it offered to take the collections of books from any of the public
schools in the city and in return mend, rebind, catalog, classify them,
furnish such schools as agreed to this arrangement with the books they
needed, either from their own collections or from that of the public
library, and appoint two attendants to look after the school work.
The public school began with the one central school in the community,
but it soon found that it must establish branches if it reached all of
the children of the city. To-day there is no town of any considerable
size but has its central school with a high school usually, and its
branches on the north, east, south and west sides. The public library,
following the public schools, has found that it cannot reach the people
of the community unless it delivers books to the various parts of the
town, and moreover establishes branch reading rooms where at least
reference books may be consulted and magazines read.
As in the history of the schools, so in the history of the libraries,
provision was first made for the mature student. Educators have been
slow to see that they should begin with the child before he has
established habits of thought and action. Not until the public library
is considered a vital factor in the educational scheme of a city can it
hope to secure its best results, nor is this possible when the central
library and its few branches are removed, as at present, from the public
schools. The libraries and the schools should be housed in close
proximity to do the most effective work.
It is with keen interest that the experiment in New York City is being
watched. It certainly seems as if the most economical arrangement would
be to have the branch of the public library so placed in a school
building that the students would have free access to it, and the public
also, not only during school hours but public library hours. It seems
the logical duty of the board of education to furnish the few necessary
reference books that are in continual demand in every school room and
also the sets of books which are used for supplementary reading. It
does, on the other hand, seem that the public library can furnish a
larger general collection, in better editions and keep them in better
condition for less money and with better results than can the public
schools.
The already crowded curriculum in most of our public schools made many
an educator hesitate when a course in library economy was suggested. One
can indeed see a time not far distant, it is hoped, when such a course
will not be thought necessary. Such a time will be when instructors have
awakened to a much greater appreciation of the value and use of
bibliography and the need of training students in this line. Along with
this will develop a desire in the student to keep his own references and
material so arranged that he will be able to use them easily. There will
still be considerable of a general bibliographical character, handbooks,
etc., which would be of value in all subjects and yet perhaps be
overlooked by the specialists, that could be called to the students'
attention through such a pamphlet as was recently compiled by Mr. Andrew
Keogh, of Yale University Library, under the title, "Some general
bibliographical works of value to the students of English."
There is a phase of library economy that every teacher should know, and
which it seems must always have its proper place in the curriculum of
the normal school. That is the knowledge of how to obtain books. Every
teacher should know what the laws of his state are regarding the
establishment and maintenance of the public library and the public
school library, and how these laws compare with those of other states.
He should know what aid he can gain through the travelling library
system, should he be in a village or country district, and the possible
co-operation between the public library and the public schools should he
be assigned to a city. Just as the public schools are finding that they
must adapt their curriculum to the needs of the children of a certain
district or class, so the public library has the same lesson to learn.
The Carnegie Public Library of Pittsburgh has been one of the first to
recognize this in the establishment of home libraries. It has thus
reached a class of children that could be reached in no other way, and
why should not the public library as well as the public school aim to
reach these less fortunate children?
The subject of children's literature should be a serious one with every
teacher of children. The best writers for children, best illustrators,
and best editions should be part of the normal school student's
knowledge when he completes his course and goes out to teach. It is a
great problem with him now how he shall keep this information up to
date, when there are hundreds of books coming out every year and his
school-room duties absorb so much of his time. Here is the librarian's
opportunity to be of great aid to the public school teacher by issuing
lists of the best children's books on various subjects, exhibiting them
in the library from time to time, and to the schools for trial, as so
many libraries are now doing. In the country districts the library
commissions must supply this information through annotated lists.
It has been shown in a number of schools that children love to make
books, and that the making of books quite successfully lends itself to
the constructive work as carried on in the schools of to-day. The
materials for this work are not so costly as to make it impossible for
the average school. Every child at the completion of the graded schools
should know the value of a title-page, the use of the preface and
introductory notes, the difference between the table of contents and the
index, the best books in the several subjects which he has studied, and
where and how he can obtain more books on these subjects later, should
he wish them. It would doubtless be a great surprise to one who has not
tried the experiment to ask the pupils in our graded and high schools
even, for such simple information as the author, title and date of the
text-books they are using daily.
If the suggestions in this paper be accepted, and most of them have
already been successfully tried, it will be seen at once how great is
the importance of having trained librarians in our normal schools and
institutions of higher learning. The time has now come in a number of
cities which we hope is prophetic of the future, when the public library
stands equally important as an educational institution with the public
school, each supplementing the other in work and still distinct in
function and administration. It is therefore necessary that our teachers
should be trained to use libraries, and that our librarians should be
acquainted with the great educational movements of the day.