A Book for All Readers: An Aid to the Collection, Use, and Preservation of Books and the Formation of Public and Private LibrariesSpofford, Ainsworth Rand
Science
A Book for All Readers: An Aid to the Collection, Use, and Preservation of Books and the Formation of Public and Private Libraries
Spofford, Ainsworth Rand
Books; Library science
That the very young, left to themselves, will choose many bad or
worthless books is shown in the account of a principal of a school in San
Francisco, who found that sixty per cent. of the books drawn from the
public library by pupils had been dime novels, or other worthless
literature. The wide prevalence of the dime novel evil appeared in the
report of the reading of 1,000 boys in a western New York city. Out of
this number, 472 (or nearly one-half) were in the habit of devouring this
pernicious trash, procured in most cases by purchase at the news stands.
The matter was taken up by teachers, and, by wise direction and by aid of
the public library, the reading of these youthful candidates for
citizenship was led into more improving fields. To lead a mind in the
formative stage from the low to the high, from tales of wild adventure to
the best stories for the young, is by no means difficult. Take a book
that you know is wholesome and entertaining, and it will be eagerly read
by almost every one. There is an endless variety of good books adapted to
the most rudimentary capacity. Even young minds can become interested in
the works of standard writers, if the proper selection is made. Wonderful
is the stimulus which the reading of a purely written, fascinating book
gives to the young mind. It opens the way for more books and for infinite
growth. All that is needed is to set the youth in the right direction,
and he will go forward with rapid strides of his own accord. This
teaching how to read is really the most profitable part of any education.
To recite endless lessons is not education: and one book eagerly read
through, has often proved more valuable than all the text-books that ever
were printed.
THE USES OF THE LIBRARY TO THE UNIVERSITY.
Closely allied to the benefits derived from the library by the teachers
and scholars in public schools are its uses to all those engaged in the
pursuit of higher education. For our colleges and universities and their
researches, the library must have all that we have suggested as important
for the schools, and a great deal more. The term university implies an
education as broad as the whole world of books can supply: yet we must
here meet with limitations that are inevitable. In this country we have
to regret the application of the word "university" to institutions where
the training is only academical, or at the highest, collegiate. The
university, properly speaking, is an institution for the most advanced
scholars or graduates of our colleges. Just as the college takes up and
carries forward the training of those who have been through the academy,
the seminary, or the high school, so it is the function of the university
to carry forward (we will not say complete) the education of the graduate
of the college. No education is ever completed: the doctor who has
received the highest honors at the university has only begun his
education--for that is to go on through life--and who knows how far
beyond?
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