Miss Saxe said they had in Westmount the only properly equipped
children's room in any library in the province of Quebec, and that
the only library work for children in Montreal was done by the McGill
university settlement workers in the slums of that city. The best
children's work in the province of Ontario is now done by the public
libraries of Toronto, Ottawa, London, Collingwood, Berlin, Sarnia and
Fort William. Among the smaller libraries the work done at Galt is
particularly worthy of mention, the quality being due, as is generally
the case, to the unselfish and enthusiastic work of the librarian. At
Winnipeg, although they have a handsome library building and a room set
apart for the children, activities seemed at a low ebb when the speaker
visited the library two years ago.
"The Church of England in Canada has done a good work up there within
the Arctic circle with its Sunday school libraries. The Indian children
and the half-breed children, of whom there are many, get all their
reading from this source.
"Away out on the Pacific coast, a missionary of this same church became
interested in the logging camps that he found among the islands of the
gulf of Georgia. He returned to the Bishops of Columbia, and of New
Westminster, stating that he must have a boat built, which would be a
church, and also an ambulatory library. It was a beautiful scheme--it
was also an expensive one. But those of you who care to read of its
development in a little book entitled "Western Canada" can do so, and
you will learn with delight how well the idea has worked out.
"In the past two years the library movement in Canada, especially in
the Northwest, has expanded rapidly. Regina has opened a new public
library within the past six weeks, and the work for children is to be
well looked after. Calgary, New Westminster, Vancouver, Victoria, all
tell the same tale of a long struggle in crowded quarters--and now new
buildings and splendid promise of good work. It is most unfortunate
for us in Canada, that our distances are so great, our ties have to be
mostly railway ties.
"In Westmount we opened the Children's room in January, 1911. We began
agitating the dire need of such a department fully seven years before
the reality came."
The paper on County work with children prepared by Miss ALICE GODDARD,
head of children's department, Washington County free library,
Hagerstown, Maryland, was read by Miss Gertrude Andrus in Miss
Goddard's absence.