Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Library Association: Held at Ottawa, Canada, June 26-July 2, 1912
Science
Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Library Association: Held at Ottawa, Canada, June 26-July 2, 1912
American Library Association; Library science -- Congresses
A second group which includes a large part of our population is made up
of those who have had the advantage of the full course of the grammar
school, with the smaller number who have had that of the high school.
From this group come not only the clerks in our stores and offices, but
men in the more skilled occupations, and also many business men and
employers of labor. Some of these are existing through gray, narrow,
uneventful, toilsome lives, while others take a large and leading part
in all that concerns the life of the community and in the moulding
of public opinion. It includes men of many creeds and civilizations,
prejudices, desires and ambitions; of many degrees of culture and
taste, high and low; influenced by very different inheritance,
associations and opportunities.
Some gain through application most of the advantages of the best
training, while others not only fail to make use of, but often
practically lose the education the city has given them. For the larger
number of this group there are great possibilities for good in the
means of education and cultivation which are now being provided by the
municipality.
How may the public library best meet the needs of these people, so many
and so diverse? How may it give to those who lack it that which will
enliven, improve, stimulate and cultivate, creating not only the desire
for what is best in life, but supplying the essence so far as it may
be gained from the stimulus and inspiration of books? How may we give
others the practical knowledge that is needed by them in their varied
occupations and activities?
Probably the most potential group in our cities is that large one
made up of the children of the immigrants. If they can be lifted by
education, if their taste can be guided and directed toward better
desires, the help which the library is able to give will act as a
tremendous force for good. If these children are left alone to indulge
in what is vicious and demoralizing in the life of the crowded sections
of the cities, they will become a menace to the municipal life. Their
parents have little to give them. The schools have on an average a
brief five years in which to influence these children, but they do send
them out with the power to read English. The public library may exert
its influence not only during their school life, but if it acquires a
hold upon them at that time, it will continue to be an influence for
good upon these future rulers of the city.
Is it not possible, in a small way at least, to cultivate their taste
and give them some desire to read what is worth while?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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