Within the past few years the literature of this subject has become
so copious that any original discussion of basic principle has become
nearly out of the question. The excuse for papers like this one, which
is mostly mere reiteration, lies in the fact that outside of library
circles the matter has not been very seriously considered in spite
of the constant repetition, and relatively few teachers have as yet
attempted to give definite instruction in the use of books.
It is one of the characteristics of the present that we are learning
the necessity of saving time and effort by doing better the things
we can already do passably well. To this end vocational schools and
vocational courses are being established everywhere. If the use of
the tools of the trades must be taught in the interests of greater
individual development and greater efficiency, there certainly is need
of teaching the efficient use of books which are the already recognized
tools of the professions and which are more and more coming to be
recognized as necessary supplements to the tools of the handicrafts.
So far, it must be admitted, the response on the part of teachers has
not been very general or very enthusiastic when courses of instruction
in the use of books are advocated. At first sight this may seem
strange. The primary purpose of both school and library is educational
and many of the principles on which each line of work is based are
equally familiar to teachers and to librarians. Let me instance but a
few.
1. Education is a continuous process, started but not concluded in
school. This is generally accepted and correspondence schools, study
clubs, and similar activities are recognitions of its truth.
2. The complexity of modern life is lengthening the period of formal
school instruction and the rapid rise of new industrial processes and
the social problems arising in consequence, make after-school reliance
on either past instruction or individual personal experience unsafe.
3. Education is not confined to books but books of the right kind are
the best single aid to education.
4. Modern methods of teaching demand the comparative use of books,
not reliance on a single text-book. Modern courses of study emphasize
this by their lists of references to material for the use of teacher
and pupil. In a pamphlet of 40 pages on "The high school course in
agriculture," issued by the University of Wisconsin, 17-1/2 pages
are devoted to references to suggested reading. Children now study a
subject, not a single text-book or series of text-books.
5. The library is the only continuation school really practicable for
all the people at all times and for all subjects, and like any other
institution, its value increases in proportion to the intelligence
shown in its use.
Contrary to a rather hazy though somewhat general impression, there
are only a few choice spirits to whom it is given to love books
instinctively and to know them intimately without instruction. The
multitude, whatever their rank or fortune, handle them more or less
all the time without knowing much about them or caring much about
them. It is true that a knowledge of books comes more readily to
some than to others, but training will do much for even unpromising
people who, without training, would be practically helpless. The need
of this training was shown very clearly a decade or two ago when the
method of teaching changed rather generally from text-book mastery to
the so-called laboratory method. There were few more pathetic sights
than many of the older teachers, almost totally untrained in the
comparative use of books which the new method involved, and yet forced
to give up their reliance on the catechetical method and memorized
text-book which could be kept open by the teacher while the pupil
recited.
If the library and the school have so much common doctrine and if both
recognize in their precept and their practice the importance of books,
it seems obvious that some instruction along this line should be given
in the high school and, indeed, much earlier. Again, if pupils are to
be taught to use books, it seems equally obvious that the intelligent
use of books must first be learned by the teacher. That is, there
should be a "library course" in the normal school.
If library and school agree so far as to recognize the need of such a
course there still remain several general methods of attempting to get
the desired results.
(1) By experiment. This is the customary way; the empirical method or,
under certain conditions, the inductive method. "We learn to do by
doing" was a pedagogical maxim to conjure with some years ago and it
has not yet lost its siren's charm. Teachers are still assuming that
pupils will learn to use books well by using them without direction,
even though an excess of the experimental method has confessedly failed
in other directions. We do not often learn to do things in the best
way without some direction nor does mere handling of an object teach
us much about it. Infinitely more biology can be learned from two or
three angle worms studied in a laboratory than from quarts of them
used for fish bait. The _laissez-faire_ method and the experimental
method without a competent teacher to make it really inductive are both
uncertain in result and costly of time and effort.
(2) By sending pupils to the nearest library for all aid outside
the text-book and by handing over to the nearest librarian all
responsibility for teaching the use of books. Librarians often advocate
this method. It is only an application of the specialization which
is so common in high schools and by which each subject has its own
teacher who may or may not try to correlate his own work with that
of his colleagues. The librarian, who at least ought to know about
books, is the logical person to plan courses and to give formal
instruction and in any school which can possibly have a librarian
who devotes her entire time to the library this is the proper course
to follow. It happens, however, that many schools which greatly need
such a course have no one but the regular teachers to administer the
library and to teach its use. In such an emergency no school faculty
is complete without at least one teacher who can show the pupils--and
her fellow-teachers, if need be--something of the best methods of using
books. Moreover, teachers need to know how to use the books connected
with their own courses even if they need do little or nothing in the
way of general library work.
(3) A third general method remains: systematic training in regularly
scheduled classes in the high school and a systematic course in the
normal school for the future teachers of elementary and of high
schools. This is the plan generally adopted for other subjects and
the failure of the schools to provide in their curricula a place
for library training can reasonably be attributed only to the fact
that librarians have failed to impress on teachers the necessity
for such instruction. There are several reasons for the failure.
One of the fundamental principles of successful advertising is that
the prospective customer must be convinced that the value of the
advertised article exceeds its cost. Perhaps we librarians have not
always recognized the value of this principle in our own campaigns.
We use our library jargon and speak learnedly of "library methods,"
and "the library world" as though our work were based on some occult
secret (which it is not) and as though we who carry it on were a
peculiar people (which we sometimes are), and we plan elaborate courses
in "library economy" which would strike terror to the heart of any
teacher, were any teacher interested enough to look at them.
It is well to remember that, as far as its place in the school is
concerned, the library must always be an auxiliary, not an independent
affair--an auxiliary of the greatest importance which aids all courses
but interferes with none. This is what it is in the increasing number
of schools in which the use of the library is being successfully taught
and whenever teachers are shown that librarians are urging something
that is a time-saver, not a time-consumer, and that the course they
suggest is not an independent affair but something which, even in its
own lessons and problems can be made to bear directly on the daily
work of the school, there will not be much trouble in getting periods
in which to teach the use of the library. As we too often present
the matter, in the form of courses planned with little reference to
actual conditions in the school and with problems compiled from our
library-school note-books, or our training-class notes and not from
material selected for its direct relation to the subject matter of any
course in the school, we are seemingly asking the teacher to become
interested in _our_ work, not in a subject that is of importance to
teacher as well as to librarian.
No general can plan a successful campaign of invasion without a
knowledge of the topography and people of the country to be invaded and
no course of study can be successful unless based on sound pedagogy and
visibly related to the cultural or vocational need of the persons for
whom it is intended. It is also well to remember that in strategy an
officer counts for more than a private and that if official recognition
is to be secured for any subject, the interest of principals and
superintendents, who plan the curricula, is absolutely necessary. Work
with subordinate teachers alone will make slow progress.
Another point which we are just beginning to emphasize is the necessity
of getting articles in which we desire teachers to be interested,
into periodicals intended for teachers instead of confining them to
the columns of library periodicals. The advertiser who wants to reach
engineers will not send his advertisements exclusively to the "American
journal of theology."
Although the high school and the normal school are usually mentioned
together in discussions on the general subject of library instruction
in schools, there should be decided differences both in content and
in general purpose between the courses in the two kinds of schools.
In the high school, the purpose should be to teach the pupils to use
books efficiently in solving problems arising in their individual
experiences. The care and management of libraries can legitimately
be taught only in so far as such knowledge helps the pupil to use
libraries of all kinds more intelligently. There is no need of
detailed instruction in technique, though some elements of method are
necessary. The use of the catalog must be taught in order to overcome
the prejudices of most readers against card catalogs by teaching
the youth before he arrives at obstinate and benighted manhood,
that red headings, indentions and other conventions of the catalog
are as sensible and necessary as black ruling, red ruling and other
conventions of day-book and ledger. A little attention also to the
theory of the charging system will help later in preventing honest but
inaccurate thrusts at "red tape in libraries."
The general characteristics of reference books should be discussed
with the meaning and significance of those universal but little known
elements of all modern books, the title page, table of contents and
index. The growing popularity of bibliographies of all kinds suggests
instruction in their make-up and use while the growing importance of
periodicals of all kinds shows the need of knowing how to use the
general periodical indexes. In all this work there can be and should
be the closest relation to the other work of the school course and
the various teachers can easily suggest material of direct use to
them which will be quite as interesting and valuable for illustrating
the use of the library as set problems compiled exclusively by the
librarians. Moreover, such procedure will demonstrate conclusively both
to teacher and to pupil the direct value of the library in helping
school work to be done better and quicker. Though any teacher can
be of help in this way, English, geography, civics and history are
particularly good subjects with which to begin this co-operation.
It is doubtful whether the librarian should attempt much formal
instruction in book selection in the high school unless it is done
with the full knowledge and with the assistance of the other teachers.
Otherwise, such instruction will almost inevitably lead to duplication
and to conflict with the work regularly given in other courses. Tactful
suggestions to teachers on the value of material which they overlook
or know nothing about and personal attention to the voluntary reading
done by pupils outside the school-room and not connected with the
regular work of the school will furnish any school librarian plenty of
opportunity for missionary work.
Some description of the anatomy of a book will probably help cultivate
a greater respect for books as books and may lessen the tendency to use
books badly which is now so prevalent among school children furnished
with books paid for by the school board and not directly bought by
their parents.
All of this teaching should be very simple. What is perhaps the most
successful manual of the present on the subject of teaching the use
of books in schools (Ward's Practical use of books and libraries),
owes its success largely to its attention to the small details which
everybody, large and small, is supposed to know but of which nearly
everybody is quite ignorant.
No high school course of this kind is complete unless it cultivates
friendly relations with the public library and promotes the use of the
library after the pupils have left school, by calling on it for aid
while they are still in school. The best school librarians make every
possible use of the public library while they are at the same time
using to the utmost the resources of their own school libraries.
The amount of time required for such a course as that outlined here and
which is substantially the same as dozens of other courses outlined
elsewhere, depends considerably on whether any preliminary work of
the kind has been given in the lower grades, and, to some extent, on
the size and general character of the school's collection of books.
Something worth while has been done in five or six lessons, though
not much can be done in less than ten or twelve, and the twenty to
thirty periods which interested principals have sometimes granted are
none too many. The general plan will also depend partly on whether the
instruction is all given in one year or throughout the entire high
school course.
In the normal school the purpose of the library course should be
not only to teach the use of books, but to teach, in addition, the
principles of their proper selection and enough of the essentials of
library technique to enable the teacher to administer successfully
a small school library and to understand the methods used in larger
libraries. It should be not only for individual improvement, as in the
high school, but designed also to give skill in teaching others how to
use the library. It is necessary, of course, to supply any deficiencies
in training of the kind that was suggested for the high school, before
the administrative side of the work can profitably be taken up.
The technical side of the work, therefore, will be more in evidence
in the normal school course. The preparation, adaptation and use of
the important records such as the accession book, the shelflist, the
catalog and the charging system are necessary parts of the equipment of
any teacher who is likely to be put in charge of a school or class-room
library. A study of the most common trade lists and a few typical
booksellers' catalogs with some comment on trade discounts and the
purchase of second-hand books will save much time and trouble later
when the teacher is expected to advise as to what and where to buy.
Instruction in simple methods of book repair will yield large dividends
in the shape of better cared for and longer lived books.
Simplicity and direct relation to school work are the two things to
be insisted upon throughout. Though the subjects and, to some extent,
the treatment should be the same as that of the library school, there
is neither opportunity nor need of the same variety and extent of
instruction and practice which should characterize schools for the
professional training of librarians, nor should any school which can
afford special teachers in other subjects thrust technical library work
upon its regular teachers. To the teacher, the library is auxiliary to
her main work and insistence on elaborate administrative methods will
defeat its purpose.
This instruction in technique should be simple, but it does not follow
that a teacher who has learned merely these elements of technique is
fitted in turn to give satisfactory instruction to other teachers or
even to administer a school library in the best way. To do this a
librarian of wide training and experience is necessary,--one whose
knowledge of library theory and practice is wide enough to give
the perspective necessary to judge what is essential, and intimate
enough to determine what adaptations should be made to fit either
general library conditions or special contingencies of individual
libraries. Efficient simplicity is the result not of ignorance but
of trained judgment and the apparent simplicity obtained by reckless
or ignorant amputation of library manuals may be worse than none at
all. A well managed school must have a well-administered library
and a well-administered library implies a competent librarian, not
merely the regular presence of a teacher with rather fewer classes and
consequently more leisure than her colleagues.
Indeed, though considerable technique has been suggested as advisable,
I am very strongly of the opinion that technique, if by this term is
meant the processes of keeping library records, should be thrust upon
teachers only as a necessity, not as a desirability. In a school so
small that one teacher or a very few teachers at most must do all kinds
of work, it will be necessary and therefore it must be taught to these
teachers. In larger and better equipped schools there is no more reason
for teacher-librarians with a mere smattering of library training than
there is logic or justice in compelling the teacher of English or of
history to be the principal's secretary.
Of even more importance than technique is a careful study of important
reference books. Only a small proportion of the books which would be
useful can possibly be obtained and it is very important that the
teacher be able to use to the utmost such books as the school may
possess. The compilation of reading lists and lists of references,
whether for the use of the teacher or the guidance of the pupil,
implies the use of bibliographies, footnotes and appendixes and a
consideration of the bibliographic aids which are so common in modern
text-books and so little used by teachers.
Moreover, the teacher must know some of the principles of book
selection, must know a fair number of the best aids to book selection
and must know where to find and how to use good book reviews. No
approved list of library, library commission, or state department of
public instruction can take the place of independent knowledge, though
these approved lists are indispensable aids.
The proper relations of school and public library certainly must be
taught if any closer and more general co-operation of the two is to
be brought about. Both teacher and librarian must be parties to such
co-operation and each needs to know the point of view of the other.
There is no general agreement as to the amount of time which the
normal school ought to devote to library instruction. In a summary
compiled in 1909 by the Newark free public library (Public libraries
14:147), the number of hours devoted to such work in 28 normal schools
varied from one lesson to 60. Most of the schools which are recognized
as leaders in this work gave about 20 lessons. There is reason to
believe that the general situation has not materially changed except
that the shorter courses are being lengthened and more normal schools
are offering courses in library methods. The small number of lessons
in even the good courses makes directness and emphasis on essentials
imperative. If all normal school students had been taught to use books
before entering the normal school, considerable time which is now used
in teaching things which should already be known could be devoted to
the methodic and pedagogic side of the subject.
More and more normal schools are putting instruction in library methods
on a par with other subjects by giving credits for it. This is only
what all ought to do. No normal school is doing its work well if it
sends its students out unskilled in the use of the tools of their
own trade. A course in the use of books and libraries is no more of
a luxury in the general training of any teacher than a gas range and
a kitchen sink are luxuries in the equipment of a domestic science
department or planes and chisels in a manual training room.
It is not merely altruism that urges librarians to encourage this
work. It is highly commendable to increase the good feeling between
two members of the so-called "educational trinity," the church, the
school and the library, but the benefits to the library will be more
direct than mere pleasure in promoting the success of another line
of social welfare. To ensure its own permanence, the library must
have a reading public in the future as it has in the present and the
adult reader of the future is the child of the present. To ensure the
further development of the library, not only readers but more readers
are needed and the library will be sure of getting them only when
school room and children's room work together, and when not only those
who come to the library from choice, but all the children whom the
community entrusts to the school are taught in the school the latent
power in the books the library offers for their use and are taught by
trained teachers how best to make that latent power dynamic.
The discussion of this paper was led by Mr. W. J. Sykes, librarian of
the Ottawa public library, and formerly head of the English department
of the Collegiate institute of Ottawa, who read a paper prepared by Dr.
L. B. Sinclair, dean of the school for teachers, Macdonald college.
MISS MARY E. HALL, librarian of the Girl's high school, Brooklyn, N.
Y., read a paper on