The last group of articles brings together several unrelated
phases of work. Two special kinds of children's libraries are
mentioned, one a type--the Sunday School library--and one a
library organized for specific work in connection with the
Children's Museum in Brooklyn. Work with colored children in a
colored branch library is described. The last paper gives a vivid
picture of work with children in a foreign district of a large
city.
THE STORY HOUR
The paper by Edna Lyman Scott, printed in the Wisconsin Bulletin
for January, 1905, was said to be introductory to a talk which
she was to give at Beloit at the Wisconsin State meeting,
February 22, 1905. The author looks upon the inauguration of the
story hour as but the grasping of an opportunity in working with
children in the library, as a means of cultivating the love of
literature and of introducing the child to books.
Edna Lyman, now Mrs. Scott, was born in Illinois, educated in the
schools of Oak Park, Ill., and at Bradford Academy, Haverhill,
Massachusetts. At the time this paper was written she was the
children's librarian in the Oak Park Public Library, then known
as Scoville Institute. Her work in story telling became known
outside the immediate field of its activity, and in 1907 Miss
Lyman severed her connection with this library to give time to
special preparation, and later to become a lecturer on literature
for children and story-telling, and a professional story-teller.
She spent portions of three years as Advisory Children's
Librarian for the Iowa Library Commission, and during that period
published her book "Story-telling: what to tell and how to tell
it." She holds the position of non-resident faculty lecturer on
Work for Children in the Library School of the University of
Illinois, and the Carnegie Library School of Atlanta, Georgia,
and lectures regularly in other library schools, before teachers'
institutes and normal schools, women's clubs and study classes
throughout the country.
When we touch the question of guiding the reading of children in
our libraries we have opened the consideration of a subject which
is one of the great arguments for the existence of public
libraries.
All about we see and feel the utter indifference of parents to
what their children are reading, or whether they are reading at
all, and the results of this indifference appear on every hand,
in the character of the books which content the child, or in his
determination to bury himself in a book to the exclusion of every
other interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account