She must remember that she is an integral part of that
playground, not a weekly visitor, and she must throw herself into
the interests and activities of the children with all the
enthusiasm at her command.
THE SELECTION OF BOOKS FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL LIBRARIES AND THEIR
INTRODUCTION TO CHILDREN
In the following article taken from the Library Journal of
October, 1882, Mr. S. S. Green says that his "principal object is
to show how books are selected and how children are interested in
books in the Sunday-school in which I am a teacher." It is
interesting to know that in a recent letter written to the editor
in regard to the use of this article Mr. Green says: "As I read
it over, it seems to me that the advice given in it is still much
needed." Samuel Swett Green was born in Worcester in 1837, and
was graduated from Harvard in 1858. In 1890 he was appointed by
the Governor of Massachusetts an original member of the Free
Public Library Commission. He was one of the founders of the A.
L. A., and also a life member, and was chosen its president in
1891. From 1867 to 1871 he was a trustee of the Worcester Public
Library, and he was librarian from 1871 to 1909, when he was made
librarian emeritus. Mr. Green has published several books on
library subjects.
It is gratifying to notice that the movement started several
years ago by certain ladies connected with the religious body
known as Unitarian Congregationalists, who organized themselves
under the name of the Ladies' Commission for the purpose of
reading children's books and preparing lists of them suitable for
Sunday-school libraries, has led within two or three years to the
formation of a similar organization in the Protestent Episcopal
Church, and more recently to that of one among Orthodox
Congregationalists.
Individual clergymen and others have also lately shown a great
interest in the work of selecting and disseminating good lists of
books suitable for Sunday-school libraries.
It is unnecessary to say that it was high time that this work was
entered upon earnestly. The officers of the more intelligently
administered public libraries had come to reject, almost without
examination, books prepared especially for the use of
Sunday-schools, and without consideration to refuse works
admission to their shelves issued by certain publishers whose
business it was to provide for the wants of Sunday-school
libraries.
It had become obvious, among other facts, that the same
objections that were made to providing sensational stories for
boys and girls in public libraries, lay equally against the
provision of books usually placed in Sunday-school libraries.
The one class of books was generally moral in tone, but trashy in
its representations of real life; the other, religious in tone,
but equally trashy in its presentations of pictures of what
purported to be the life of boys and girls.
Both classes of books were good in their intention, both
similarly unwholesome.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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