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
was given an opportunity to sign a registration slip. The following year
the eighth grade, having become the ninth, has the second lesson. With
these lessons the attitude of the children towards the library has
visibly improved, and we are confident that their idea of its use has
been enlarged.
_Bibliographical work._
The inquiry was made of the reporting libraries whether any
bibliographical work was being done by the high school. The question was
not well put, and was sometimes misunderstood. Almost no such work was
reported. At Evanston, Ill., one high school teacher has taught her
class to prepare bibliographies, the librarian assisting. At Brookline
we have ambitions, not yet realized, of getting each high school class
to prepare one bibliography a year (we begin modestly) on some subject
along their lines of study. Last May the principals of two grammar
schools offered to try their ninth grades on a simple bibliography. The
school reference librarian selected some 60 topics of English
history--Bretwalda, Sir Isaac Newton, East India Company, the Great
Commoner, etc. Each bibliography was to include every reference by
author, title and page to be found in the books of the school reference
collection of the public library. The pupils displayed no little zest
and enjoyment in the undertaking, and some creditable lists were made.
Observation of the work confirmed my belief in its great practical
value. Pupils became more keen and more thorough than in the usual
getting of material from one or two references on a subject. Such
training will smooth the way and save the time of those students who are
to make use of a college library, and is even more to be desired for
those others whose formal education ends with the high or grammar
schools.
The practice of sending collections of books from the public library to
the schools is becoming general. When these collections are along the
lines of subjects studied, it would seem as if the reference use of the
library by pupils might be somewhat diminished thereby. No doubt it is a
convenience to both teacher and pupils to have books at hand to which to
refer. The possession of an independent school library also tends to
keep the reference work in the school. But in neither case ought the
reference use of the public library or its branches to be wholly or
materially overlooked, since it is on that that pupils must depend in
after years, and therefore to that they must now be directed. We
recognize that the people of modest means need the library. As for the
very well-to-do, the library needs them. Other things being equal, the
pupil who has learned to know and to know how to use his public library
ought later so to appreciate its needs and so to recognize the benefits
it bestows that he will be concerned to have it generously supported and
wisely administered.
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