第35章 THE WORK FOR CHILDREN IN FREE LIBRARIES(7)

Personal talks with the children about their reading,if judiciously conducted,are always in order.With a generation of children influenced in this way to use books as tools and a mental resource as well as for recreation,and to find recreation only in the best-written books,the library constituency of the future would be worthy of the best library that could be imagined.

The bulletin-board is attracting attention generally as a means of interesting children in topics of current interest,and such a periodical as Harper's Weekly is invaluable when it comes to securing illustrations for this purpose.Sandwiched in among the pictures,we have occasionally smuggled in a printed paragraph of useful information or a set of verses,and our latest move,to induce more general reading of the periodicals,has been to analyze their contents on the bulletin,under the head of "Animals,""Sports,""Engines,""Short stories,""Long stories,"etc.Boys who "know what they like"are beginning to turn to this analysis to see if there is anything new on their favorite topic and to explain the workings of the board to other boys,and the desired end is gradually being brought about.As the references are taken down to make way for new ones,they are filed away by subject,making the beginnings of a permanent reference list.

Birds,the new magazine with its colored plates,is a boon for the children's room,The Great Round World is good for the assistant-in-charge and the teachers who come to the room,as well as for the children.

In order to add to the number of books without overstepping our rules as to quality,we are beginning,though not yet very systematically,to look over the works of certain authors of grown-up books with a view to finding material that can be understood sufficiently by children to interest them.A number of Stevenson's books can be given to boys and girls,and we hope to find many others.Most children,I think,read books without knowing who has written them,and if we can induce them to learn to know authors and can interest them in a writer like Stevenson,we can feel fairly secure that they will not drop him when they are transferred from the children's room to the main library.

Perhaps it is best always to have a working hypothesis to begin with,in children's libraries as elsewhere;but we can assure those who have not tried it that facts are stubborn things,and the hypothesis has frequently to be made over in accordance with newly-observed facts,and theories may or may not be proven correct.The whole subject is as yet in the empirical stage,and the way must be felt from day to day.If the children's librarian lives in a continual rush,what "leisure to grow wise"on her chosen subject does she have?and if she is hurried constantly from one child to another,what chance have the children for learning by contact with the individual?which,as Mr.Horace E.

Scudder truly says,is the method most sure of results.This contact may be had most naturally,it seems to us,through the ordinary channels of waiting on the children,provided it is quiet,deliberate waiting upon them.We go out of our way to think out new philanthropies and are too likely to forget that,as we go about our every-day business,natural opportunities are constantly presenting for strengthening our knowledge of and our hold upon the people who come to us--who are sent to us,I might almost say.

The registry and the charging-desks offer chances for acquaintance to begin naturally and unconsciously and for much incidental imparting of seed-thoughts.And it is in these every-day chances,if appreciated and made the most of,that the work of the children's library is going to tell.The necessity of especial training in psychology,pedagogy,child study,and kindergarten ideas,has been treated of recently in a paper before the A.L.A.There is no doubt that the "called"worker in this field will be better for scientific training,but let him or her first be sure of the call.It is quite as serious as one to the ministry,if not more so,and no amount of intellectual training will make up for the lack of patience and fairness and of a genuine interest in children and realization of their importance in the general scheme.

To sum up,the requisites for the ideal children's library,as we begin to see it,are suitable books,plenty of room,plenty of assistance,and thoughtful administration.Better a number of children's libraries scattered over a town or city than a large central one,since only in this way can the children be divided up so as to make individual attention to them easy.But if it devolves upon one library to do the work for the entire town,and branches are out of the question,something of the same result may be obtained by providing at certain hours an extra number of assistants.I can imagine a large room with several desks,at each of which should preside an assistant having charge of only certain classes of books,so that in time she might come to be an authority on historical or biographical or scientific or literary books for children,and the children might learn to go to her as their specialist on the class of books they cared most for.

Perhaps this may sound Utopian.I believe there are libraries present and to come for which it is entirely practicable.