If we are to believe the voices in the air the people want some big
things, for it is a notable fact that the things most loudly demanded
are wanted by a few people for all the people. The socialistic group
wants a coöperative industrial system for everybody, another familiar
group in no uncertain voice demands votes for all, whether we want them
or not, and there is a third group to which our president has referred,
the members of which think that they see in universal education a
panacea for the ills of state and society. Of this group all librarians
must be at least ex-officio members while librarians in public
libraries must work definitely toward the end which it avows.
[3] Abstract.
How are we doing this? It will not serve to take refuge back of the
statement that our only hope for universal education is with the child.
We have a duty toward the adult as well as toward the child, and our
aim must be not to get people to read books but to get all the people
to read the right books, the books best adapted for their individual
development.
Are we supplying the right books? For book selection, a well nigh
perfect technique has been established, but is technique enough?
Knowledge of books and of technique are imperative but the librarian
who supplies the right books to all the people must know and understand
his fellowmen.
Who are the people whom we are to serve? Do we perchance throw them
into one great group and call them the public as distinguished from
librarians? Who are we but "the public" to the actor, the artist, the
man in the railway office? No, a wise providence has endowed men with a
great variety of characters and temperaments, and when environment has
further complicated matters, we must try to understand them all. For
our present purpose let us group the people on the basis of a taste for
knowledge.
Some people are born with a thirst for knowledge, some acquire a taste
for it through early training and environment and some must have
knowledge thrust upon them if they are to have it at all. Of book
selection for the educated in any of these groups this paper does not
deal. The subject has been discussed often and well, and while we have
by no means reached the point where we no longer need to study how to
serve them, the question is not a gravely puzzling one.
The elimination of the educated brings us down to a study of book
selection for the under-educated and the indifferent in the interest of
universal education for the benefit of state and society.
Some of these uneducated ones may be found in each of the three groups.
Many from the first two groups come to our libraries and should be
served thoughtfully and wisely. In many cases the only indication of
a thirst for knowledge is an omnivorous appetite for exceedingly poor
novels. If they have already devoured many, their taste is probably
hopelessly perverted and about all we can hope to do is to hold
their interest and eliminate the yellow horror with its debilitating
influence by supplying free, easily accessible books of even the
lightest grade found upon our library shelves. This is a very slight
advance, but it is a step forward. Others of this class if "caught
young" can be interested in better literature, and are worthy of our
careful thought and the wisest service.
There come also to libraries many in whom the real desire to know is
awake but still rubbing its eyes. They must not be confused with that
class of people, difficult to deal with in every sphere, who seek
to appear wiser than they are, and some personal knowledge of the
individual is imperative in order to avoid this mistake. They usually
ask for assistance in book selection and great care should be taken
in giving it, as it serves well the future of our race to help one of
these "derive education," as one such borrower has expressed it.
And now we come to the most difficult group of all, those who must have
knowledge thrust upon them if they are to have it at all. These do not
come to our libraries, but we go out to them by means of various forms
of extension work. We are inclined to take this branch of work lightly,
but it is full of potential good for the commonwealth. Here we have the
citizen at our mercy, why not see what we can do with him to help the
cause of universal education?
Extension work can be carried on with a small staff, but every worker
should be of the best, strong in knowledge of books and of human
nature. The book selection for these smaller centers can be based upon
some personal knowledge of the individual, and the collection may be
made a powerful educational tool. The individual can best be reached
through his personal tastes, for the developing of which he does not
dream that books exist.
This personal work must be devoid of sentimentality. The worker's
motive must be a desire for fair play, and he must not approach the
people in a missionary spirit. They do not want to be uplifted by a
missionary nor surveyed by a social worker. The only spirit in which we
can study their needs is the spirit of good fellowship, with the honest
desire to share with others what we ourselves enjoy. We can reach only
a few of the people who need help most and books can give then only a
small part of the awakening and training and broadening that the state
desires for them, but our effort should not be gauged by what we can
accomplish. We have to thank previous generations for many benefits
which result from their aiming high above their power of achievement,
and if by personal study of the under-educated we can raise the
standard of their reading in the slightest degree, the general standard
of intelligence of the next generation will advance in the same ratio,
and this the state finds worth while.
After this paper the session adjourned.