REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON CO-OPERATION WITH THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL
ASSOCIATION.
Early last winter I secured from librarians, library assistants and
teachers about 25 brief articles on co-operation between libraries and
schools. These articles were written with special reference to teachers.
I made a descriptive list of them and sent this list to leading
educational journals in this country, with the request that the editors
thereof select from it one or more of the articles and publish them
prior to July 1, 1901. Largely through the kindness of Mr. Winship,
editor of the _Journal of Education_ of Boston, I got the promise of
publication of these articles from educational editors to the number of
25. The articles were duly sent out. I regret to have to report that I
have received notice of the publication of less than half a dozen of the
whole number. A few others may have been published, but the editors have
never notified me of the fact. The articles were brief and chiefly
written by persons prominent in library work in this country, they were
of general interest, and seemed to deserve publication. The fact that
they did not get it is to my mind somewhat indicative of the comparative
unimportance of libraries in the opinion of educational people of this
country.
Since coming here I have learned of another little incident which throws
some light on our relation to the educational profession of this
country. From the office of _Public Libraries_ the program of the
meeting of the library department of the N. E. A. at Detroit was sent to
32 leading educational journals in this country with the request that
they print it. Of these 32 papers two only printed the program as
requested, or at least two only printed it and gave due notice of the
fact.
From all this we may learn, as I have stated more than once before, that
libraries and librarians are as yet held in small esteem by the
educational people of this country. Our influence among them is not
great. It is not considered that we are connected in any important way
with educational work. This is the opinion held by the rank and file. I
believe this to be true in spite of the fact that the leaders of the N.
E. A. have themselves been more than generous to the library department.
Those leaders, largely through the influence of Mr. Hutchins of
Wisconsin, gave a special appropriation of over $500 to a committee of
this department for the publication of a report on the relation of
libraries and schools. This report has been quite widely circulated and
has been well received by both teachers and librarians. We owe that to
the N. E. A. We owe it to the appreciation of library work by the
leaders of the N. E. A. Nevertheless, taking the teaching profession at
large, I think it safe to assume that our experience with the
educational journals during the past winter is indicative of the
teacher's attitude toward libraries and their possible helpfulness in
the school room. This fact should not discourage us. On the contrary it
should stimulate us to make our collections and our work with them of
still more consequence until it becomes quite impossible for anyone in
the educational world to be ignorant of, or to fail to take advantage
of, the assistance to every day teaching work which we believe our
libraries can give.
It is quite difficult, of course, if not impossible, for us to produce
any great effect on the teachers of the present day save through
individual work in our respective communities. No one can ask for a
better opportunity to see the result of such work than I have had
myself. I have seen two or three hundred teachers in the course of four
or five years changed from an attitude of indifference toward the
library as an aid in every day school room work, to one of readiness not
to say eagerness, to take advantage of every opportunity the library
could possibly offer. Many other librarians have had similar
experiences. But this work does not go on rapidly enough to influence
the profession as a whole. The teaching profession as it now stands is,
as I have said, indifferent toward us. One thing we can do, and that is,
arouse an interest among those who are to become teachers. After
individual work in our own towns the best thing we can do, and
especially the best thing we can do as an association, is to stimulate
an interest in library training in the normal schools of this country.
Interest in this phase of practical work has increased very much in
normal schools the last few years. This is especially true in the west;
and perhaps more true in Wisconsin than in any other state.
Mr. Dewey has recently given this matter consideration and I shall be
much pleased if he will say something further by way of supplementing
this informal report of mine, on what has been done and what can be done
in normal schools toward interesting teachers in the use of libraries in
teaching.
MELVIL DEWEY: What Mr. Dana has said, though perhaps a little
discouraging in its tone, is pretty nearly the truth; but we ought to
remember this--the public school teachers and the other teachers of this
country are a badly overworked class. Many a man and woman has broken
down of nervous prostration in school, who has entered a library and
worked hard and kept well. Our friends on the school side of educational
work have a strain that comes from the disciplinary side. Worry kills
more than work, and teachers have to meet this question of discipline;
they have to take responsibility in the place of parents; they have an
interminable number of reports to fill out; they have a mass of
examination papers to read and deal with; and they have examinations to
make until they are driven almost wild. Now, we go to them and present
our case, our arguments for co-operation with the library. They admit
it; they are convinced of it; but they have not vital energy and force
enough to take up the matter and do much work in our cause. It is not
that they doubt. They won't question the high plane on which we want to
put the library, and they want to fulfil all their duties. I believe if
we were to change places and were put into their routine, the majority
of us would do just what they do--put it off until a more convenient
season. I think that is the real trouble with our teachers. They are
overworked, many of them; they are in certain ruts; and my suggestion is
to try to reach them when they begin their work, through the normal
schools. If we can get the normal school authorities to give the right
kind of instruction and the right kind of a start to the teachers, we
will accomplish a great deal more. We can do twice as much in working
with the student teacher; it is like working in plaster of paris--easy
while in a soft and plastic stage, but you leave it awhile and it
hardens. So I should say, in considering this report, that we ought not
to be discouraged. It is what we should expect, and we should turn our
attention to, doing all we can to reach the young teachers who are now
in a plastic state, ready to be moulded, but who in ten years will be
dominant forces in education.
Miss M. E. AHERN: I wish to call attention to the fact that the program
of the Library Department of the National Educational Association calls
for a greeting from some representative of the A. L. A., and I therefore
request, as secretary of that section and as an earnest member of the A.
L. A., that you appoint some member to carry such greetings to the
Library Department of the N. E. A.
It was voted that Mr. Crunden be appointed to represent the Library
Association at the N. E. A. meeting.
F. M. CRUNDEN: Touching the subject before this meeting, I want to
corroborate the statement made by Mr. Dana regarding the progress that
comes quickly if you once induce the teachers of a city to accept, even
in a small measure, the co-operation of the library. Only a few years
ago we almost had to beg the teachers to use our books. We had to offer
every inducement to them, and they did it, most of them, rather
reluctantly. Now the great majority of our schools use the library
books. Not long ago I asked three questions of the teachers using the
library in their work: What value do you place upon the library in
supplementary reading? What effect has it had thus far on the progress
of your pupils in their studies? Is it an aid to the pupils? All these
question were answered most satisfactorily to us. Several say the
library books are worth as much as any study in the curriculum, while
two of them say that the library books are worth all the rest. And
regarding discipline, the universal testimony is that the library is an
aid to the discipline. In the school where most reading is done, the
principal tells me that the problem of discipline has been practically
eliminated; they give no more thought to it, because the children are
interested and pleasantly occupied, so they do not get into mischief.
The library has aided in all studies, is the basis of language work, has
improved the language of the children, and has given an interest to the
school work that it did not have before. Now if the teachers can only
understand that this is going to lighten their work instead of
increasing it, they will accept the co-operation of the library.
Dr. CANFIELD: Just one word to express my appreciation of the fairness
with which Mr. Dewey put before you the position of the teachers and to
add this statement: You are all likely to forget that you determine the
lines of your own work and that a teacher's work is laid out for her by
other people, and it takes about all the time and strength of the pupil
to meet the immediate demands of the curriculum, which is often very
unwisely laid out. I want to add to that, as a proof of the interest
taken by teachers, I know of my personal knowledge that the teachers of
the high schools of New York have frequently placed their personal
endorsement upon library cards for the pupils they have sent to the
libraries and for whose books they are personally responsible. They
cannot prove their interest in any better way than that.
Mr. DANA: I just want a moment to correct a possible impression that I
was finding fault with the educational profession of this country. I was
not finding fault with them, but finding fault with ourselves. If we are
not yet a power to the teachers of this country, then it is our own
fault. We do not as yet understand our own fitness, especially in
relation to schools and reading in the schools, and we do not even know
what we want to do, or what books to recommend. We do not know what the
field of work in the schools is. How, then, can we expect to teach it;
to urge a thing in regard to which we are not yet free of all doubts?
The fault is our own possibly, and yet it is not all our own fault. It
is largely a question of necessary time.