Library Work with Children Part 24

The girls and little children are often times noisy but with a glance or gentle reminder of some kind, they seem to be all right.

The discipline of the Boys' Club Room is, however, a different matter, it really is hard to discipline, but the reason is that we never yet have gotten just the right kind of an attendant to care for the room, we need one who is interested in boys, who can mingle with them and teach them games, etc. We now have a young man, well educated and a good man but he is lax in discipline and careless about the room. Nevertheless I think the Boys' Club room a success, for during the months of February and March we have sometimes between fifty and seventy boys in attendance at one time and they seem to enjoy it.

Miss Ella T. Hamilton, Whitewater, Wis.

I suppose I have found much the same difficulties as others in regard to discipline. Our High School pupils, especially when working on their school debates, for which they get much of their material from the library, do sometimes find it easy to work together to the annoyance of their neighbors, but as they are, on the whole, well intentioned young people they usually take kindly the reproof. I do not mean to say that they do always after remember and act accordingly. Who of us do? And my experience as a teacher has taught me that some lessons have to be often repeated. There is, however, a kindly feeling between the young people who use the library and those who have charge of it, for we try to help them to whatever they need and they appreciate the fact; and this fact I think helps in the matter of discipline.

The main reading room seems sometimes rather full with them, but there are places for but sixteen at the tables and that partly explains it. I have had occasionally the difficulty of young people making the library a meeting place. Only two weeks ago, I told a young Miss and her attendant, that we could dispense with their presence in the library; they have both been back since, but not in any way to our annoyance.

We were at one time much troubled by some boys from ten to fourteen. Sending home didn't help for very long, and I finally went to the parents of the ring-leaders with very good results.

Perhaps the fact that complaints came to them from several other sources helped. But I am sure parents can aid the librarian as well as the teacher. The only notices I have ever had up in my library in regard to order are two neatly printed signs, "Silence is golden." I think they have been more suggestive and effective than the ordinary sign.

Miss Grace E. Salisbury, Whitewater, (Normal School.)

In answer to your circular just received, I hardly know what to say. We have practically no disciplining to do. Of course conditions are not the same as in a public library. At the beginning of the school year every evidence of disorder is nipped in the bud, and after a few weeks we are entirely freed from any annoyance from visiting or other disorder. The children from the model school some times show a little inclination to talk too much in getting their books. If a word does not quiet them, the ring leader as it were is sent down to his department room which is the worst possible punishment as they love to come to the library. This never happens more than once or twice a year.

The greatest help I have at the opening of the school year in creating the spirit I wish in the library, is the small work room opening out of it. If students visit, or get to talking over their work, I ask them if they will please take their work into the work room where they can talk things over without disturbing any one. They never resent that, when many times they would resent almost anything else in the way of reproof. If they talk too loud in there or seem to be still disturbing, I call attention to the fact that others are trying to work, and find it difficult to do so under the conditions.

After the first few weeks of the year, I think I have to speak to a student not oftener than once in several weeks if that.

I think the student body recognize the library as a place where they can find absolute quiet, and welcome it in that light, and most of them are glad to help to keep it so.

Mrs. Alice A. Lamb, Litchfield, Minn.

Our library opened four years ago. An acquaintance, through teaching, with most of the children of the town has been of great a.s.sistance. Possibly, mature years with a reputation for strict order in school have been of value.

At any rate disorder is almost unknown. We started with the idea of perfect quiet in the building. The text "Be gentle and keep the voice low" was given a prominent place on the walls of the children's room for the first year and I'm sure was helpful.

If the little children get to visiting, usually a glance or a shake of the head is sufficient. To the older children it has been necessary a few times to say quietly, "We must have perfect quiet here." This of course is said privately so that no one but the offender hears.

Sending home seems a legitimate punishment and if judiciously used ought to produce good results.

The good will of the children, with good nature and firmness on the part of the librarian would seem the chief essentials to good order.

If disorder has once become a habit the problem is a serious one.

In small libraries with but one person in charge it would seem wise to hire an a.s.sistant or have an apprentice to do the desk work during the evening hours or whenever disorder is likely to occur, and let the librarian be free to go about the rooms and use her best efforts to establish order, by every tactful means possible.

Our building is so arranged that every part of it can be seen by the librarian at her desk. This doubtless is a very great aid in discipline, and perhaps explains why we have never been troubled by the boys and girls making a "meeting place" of the library.

Miss Agnes J. Petersen, Manitowoc, Wis.

Reading over your questions on the subject of discipline in the library, brought back very vividly to my mind, the first years of our library work.

From the first day of opening, absolute quiet was made one of the rules of the library, and many boys and girls went home early in the evenings before they would recognize the rule. The fact that no disturbance of any kind would be tolerated was so impressed upon everybody, but, especially upon the children, that now, though the supervision is not so strictly kept, the same good order is easily maintained. A word or look of warning is at most times sufficient now to keep a roomful of 75 children in order except on rare occasions. We did practically I believe what every librarian does. The offender was warned concerning his conduct, and if, after several warnings, he still "dared us" he was sent home, not permitted to return to the library, nor draw books for a week or two as the case might be, only returning after promising good behavior in the future. When, as it happened a few times, the offender did not respond to this treatment, the president of our Library Board sent a note by the chief of police to the offender's parents, and that inevitably ended the matter.

Only one boy was suspended for two weeks during this past year, and he gives a great deal of trouble at school, also.

SPECIAL METHODS AND TYPES OF WORK: STORY-TELLING; READING CLUBS; HOME LIBRARIES, PLAYGROUNDS, ETC.

The function of the story hour as a recognized feature of library work with children has been variously discussed. The five papers given below represent these different points of view, and the experience of several libraries is included in the report of the Committee on Story- telling given at the Congress of the Playground a.s.sociation of America in 1910.

Another group method, which has been adopted as a means of introducing children to books and of securing continuity of interest, is that of the reading club. The three articles given show the influence of the direct, personal effort of Miss Hewins, and the carefully organized work of somewhat different types in two large library systems.

The early history of home library work with children as conducted by the Boston Children's Aid Society and a consideration of the place of this method in extension work of libraries in general are included.

Library work in summer playgrounds is one development of cooperation with other inst.i.tutions. The first article included may be supplemented by a statement made by Miss Frances J. Olcott in an article on "The public library, a social force in Pittsburgh," printed in the Survey magazine, March 5, 1910. She states that "Perhaps the most important phase of the library's work with children which is being developed at present is that of playground libraries. ... Now that the Playground a.s.sociation is establishing recreation centers for winter as well as summer, arrangements have been made with the library to supply books, the a.s.sociation providing the necessary reading rooms in its new buildings." Practical difficulties in administration are discussed in the second article.

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, Ma.s.sachusetts. At the time this paper was written she was the children's librarian in the Oak Park Public Library, then known as Scoville Inst.i.tute. 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'

inst.i.tutes and normal schools, women's clubs and study cla.s.ses 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.

The librarian sees this indifference and its fruit and realizes that it adds another responsibility to her already long list, and another opportunity to serve. She may doubt whether her province is to educate the taste of the public at large, but there can be no question that in the case of the children the choice is not left for her to make; the only reason for the child's reading at all is that he may grow mentally and spiritually. There is no way to protect the child against worthless books except by giving him a decided taste for what is good. Hamilton Mabie says that "tastes depend very largely on the standards with which we are familiar," and if these standards are acquired hit and miss, without training, they are likely to be of a most doubtful character.

The love of literature, like the love of any of the fine arts, is susceptible of cultivation and is strengthened by constant contact with the beauty and greatness which can compel it. "They are exceptional children who read everything regardless of its character and come out all right. We do not know that any child is of such a make-up. We must deal with him as though he were not the exceptional but the normal child." The influence of all that he reads upon the mind of the child is sufficiently appalling, but it is not to be compared with the influence on his character.

Henry Churchill King says: "It is his susceptibility to the faintest suggestion that makes the child so marvelous an imitator." The significance of this truth lies not only in the fact that he responds to the example in manners and morals of those about him, but equally, and perhaps even more exactly, to the heroes who live within the covers of his books. If the dangers are great, our response must be as forceful and our search untiring for the influence which will most surely lead the child to the best.

And what means shall be found? The answer seems ready to hand in the use of one of the oldest, yet one of the newest arts, the art of story-telling. You may talk to a child about books, he will give a certain kind of response, particularly if he respects your judgment because of previous experience, but tell him a story and you have fastened him with chains he does not care to resist.

The inauguration of the story hour then is but the grasping of an opportunity, first of all to give keenest joy to the child, and at the same time to set his standard for judging the value of other stories by those he hears, to give him a love for beautiful form, to introduce him to books he might never choose for himself and to bind him to the friend who tells him stories, so that he will feel a confidence in her suggestions.

Before choosing our stories for telling it will be well to remind ourselves of our purpose in telling stories, namely, to give familiarity with good English, to cultivate the imagination, to develop the sympathy, and to give a clear impression of moral truth. With this purpose in mind we shall gather our children into groups whose ages are near, and will be reached by the same tales. We must be methodical in this as in all our library work, and have our campaign well planned before we begin.

Not everyone has the gift of telling stories, but if one is not gifted with the art himself, there will doubtless be someone who is, who can be secured for the purpose, if we only feel that the need is great enough.

The way is open to the minds and hearts of the children. Shall we neglect it because it is old, or because it is new, or because we seem somewhat hampered by existing conditions? Why not follow the successes of others, and then find our own?

The above paper by Miss Lyman is offered as introductory to a talk which she will give at Beloit at the Wisconsin state meeting, February 22, 1905. The story hour has been most successfully conducted in a few of our libraries. To be sure every librarian is not qualified to conduct a successful story hour, but it is usually possible to find someone in the community who will tell the stories. The story hour requires a good deal of preparation. In Pittsburgh the librarians who were to tell stories had special training under Miss Shedlock, a well-known English story teller, and gave thorough study to the subject before attempting to interest the children. This library has published a pamphlet on Story telling to children from Norse mythology and the Nibehulgenlied. This pamphlet contains references to material on selected stories, an annotated reading list for the story teller and for young people, a full outline of a course, and many valuable suggestions. The same library published in its bulletin, October, 1902, the following outlines:

LEGENDS OF KING ARTHUR AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE Story 1. Merlin the Enchanter Story 2. How Arthur won his kingdom and how he got his sword Excalibur. Story 3. The marriage of Arthur and Guinevere and the founding of the Round Table. Story 4. The adventure of Gareth Story 5. The adventure of Geraint. Story 6. The adventure of Geraint and the Fair Enid. Story 7. The story of the dolorous stroke.

Story 8. How Launcelot saved Guinevere; or, The adventure of the cart. Story 9. Launcelot and the lily-maid of Astrolat.

Story 10. The coming of Galahad Story 11. The quest of the Sangreal Story 12. The achieving of the Sangreal.

Story 13. The pa.s.sing of Arthur.