Papers and Proceedings of the Twenty-Third General Meeting of the American Library Association: Held at Waukesha, Wisconsin, July 4-10, 1901
Science
Papers and Proceedings of the Twenty-Third General Meeting of the American Library Association: Held at Waukesha, Wisconsin, July 4-10, 1901
American Library Association; Library science -- Congresses
_Library facilities._
In selecting reference books for the purpose, certain familiar ones come
at once to our minds. Beyond those there have been suggested: Chase and
Clow's "Stories of industry," "Information readers," Brown's "Manual of
commerce," Boyd's "Triumphs and wonders of the 19th century," Patton's
"Resources of the United States," Geographical readers, _Youth's
Companion_ geographical series, Spofford's "Library of historic
characters," Larned's "History for ready reference," Ellis's "Youth's
dictionary of mythology," Macomber's "Our authors and great inventors,"
Baldwin's "Fifty famous stories," "Riverside natural history," Wright's
"Seaside and wayside," bound volumes of the _Great Round World_, and
text-books on various subjects.
A dictionary catalog will be useful in teaching the child to look up
subjects for himself. If a separate catalog is provided for children,
the question arises whether it is wiser to follow closely the A. L. A.
headings or to modify them where they differ from topics commonly asked
for by children or used as headings in text-books. This question
suggests also the advisability of a modified classification for a
children's library.
Last and not least, children should have room and service adapted to
their needs, so that they may not constantly have to be put aside in
deference to the rightful demands of adult readers.
So far as the writer knows, the Public Library of Boston was the first
library to open a reference room expressly for children, well equipped
and separate from the children's reading room or circulating department,
and from the general reference department for adults.
_Choice of topics._
Many libraries report that they find the topics habitually well chosen.
The gist of the criticisms is as follows:
(_a_) The teacher should make clear to the child just what he is to look
up and how to ask for it. An eastern library furnishes this incident:
"I want a book about flowers."
"Do you want a special flower?"
"Yes, I want the rose."
A book on the cultivation of roses is handed her. Her companion, looking
over, exclaims, "Why, she wants the _Wars of the roses_!" The same
librarian was invited to provide something on _American privileges_;
whether social, religious, political, or otherwise, the child did not
know.
(_b_) The teacher should be reasonably sure that there is on the topic
something in print, in usable shape, that can be gotten at with a
reasonable amount of labor.
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