Library Work with Children [12]
you cannot answer, and rely upon your pupils to answer them, and to give authorities, and do not be ashamed to learn of your pupils. Work with them as well as for them. But, whatever else you do, do not waste your time in urging your pupils to stop story-reading and to devote their time to good books. A parent can command this, you cannot; but you can make the use of good books, and the acquisition of knowledge not found in books, attractive and even necessary, and your ability to do this determines your real value as a teacher. Your work is to change your earth-loving moles into eagle-eyed and intelligent observers of all that is on, in, above, and under the earth." Mr. Bassett writes that as a result of this appeal there was in November, December, January, and February, an increase of nineteen (19) per cent in the circulation of general literature, science, history, travel, and biography, and a decrease in juveniles of ten (10) per cent for January and February, 1882, as compared with the same months of 1881, For the first nineteen days of March the increase of the classes first-named was thirty-seven (37) per cent over last year, and the decrease in juvenile fiction twenty-seven (27) per cent. He ends his letter: "As a school officer and acting school visitor, I find that those teachers whose education is not limited to textbooks, and who are able to guide their pupils to full and accurate knowledge of subjects of study, are not only the best, but the only ones worth having."
Mr. Rogers, of the Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, Vermont, says: "I have withdrawn permanently all of Alger, Fosdick, Thomes, and Oliver Optic. I have for some time past been making the teachers in the primary schools my assistants without pay. I give them packages of books to circulate among their respective schools. Very good results have been obtained. The Police Gazette and other vile weeklies have been discarded for books from the Fletcher Library. Most of the young folks are not old enough to draw at the library themselves, and this method has to be used, as in many instances the parents will not or cannot draw books for their children. Each teacher has a copy of Mr. Smart's excellent book, 'Reading for Young People.' Such books as are in our collection are designated in their copies."
The New York Free Circulating Library is quietly doing good by the establishment of carefully selected branch libraries in the poorest and most thickly settled parts of the city In the words of the last report: "The librarian has been constantly instructed to aid all readers in search of information, however trivial may be the subject, and, while the readers are to have free scope in their choice of books, librarians have attempted, when they properly could do so, free from seeming officiousness, to suggest books of the best character, and induce the cultivation of a good literary taste." Miss Coe, the librarian, adds, "Boys will read the best books, if they can get them."
Mr. Schwartz, of the Apprentices' Library, New York, says: "We are always ready and willing to direct and advise in special cases, but have not as yet been able to come across any general plan that seemed to us to promise success. The term 'good reading' is relative, and must vary according to the taste of each reader, and it is just this variety of standards that seems to present an unsurmountable obstacle to any general and comprehensive system of suggestions."
Miss Bullard, of the Seymour Library, Auburn, N. Y., reports a decrease in fiction from sixty-five (65) to fifty-eight (58) per cent in the last five years. She says: "I have endeavored, year by year, to gain the confidence of the younger portion of our subscribers in my ability to always furnish them with interesting reading, and have thus been able to turn them from the domain of fiction into the more useful fields of literature. Another noticeable and encouraging feature of the library is the increasing use made of it by pupils in the high school in connection with school-work."
Mr. Larned, of the Young Men's
Mr. Rogers, of the Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, Vermont, says: "I have withdrawn permanently all of Alger, Fosdick, Thomes, and Oliver Optic. I have for some time past been making the teachers in the primary schools my assistants without pay. I give them packages of books to circulate among their respective schools. Very good results have been obtained. The Police Gazette and other vile weeklies have been discarded for books from the Fletcher Library. Most of the young folks are not old enough to draw at the library themselves, and this method has to be used, as in many instances the parents will not or cannot draw books for their children. Each teacher has a copy of Mr. Smart's excellent book, 'Reading for Young People.' Such books as are in our collection are designated in their copies."
The New York Free Circulating Library is quietly doing good by the establishment of carefully selected branch libraries in the poorest and most thickly settled parts of the city In the words of the last report: "The librarian has been constantly instructed to aid all readers in search of information, however trivial may be the subject, and, while the readers are to have free scope in their choice of books, librarians have attempted, when they properly could do so, free from seeming officiousness, to suggest books of the best character, and induce the cultivation of a good literary taste." Miss Coe, the librarian, adds, "Boys will read the best books, if they can get them."
Mr. Schwartz, of the Apprentices' Library, New York, says: "We are always ready and willing to direct and advise in special cases, but have not as yet been able to come across any general plan that seemed to us to promise success. The term 'good reading' is relative, and must vary according to the taste of each reader, and it is just this variety of standards that seems to present an unsurmountable obstacle to any general and comprehensive system of suggestions."
Miss Bullard, of the Seymour Library, Auburn, N. Y., reports a decrease in fiction from sixty-five (65) to fifty-eight (58) per cent in the last five years. She says: "I have endeavored, year by year, to gain the confidence of the younger portion of our subscribers in my ability to always furnish them with interesting reading, and have thus been able to turn them from the domain of fiction into the more useful fields of literature. Another noticeable and encouraging feature of the library is the increasing use made of it by pupils in the high school in connection with school-work."
Mr. Larned, of the Young Men's