Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-10-15


! ing a wide range of informat ton in books
| adapted TO every age. 1t thus supplements,
| and In proportion to the extent and judi
! cious choice of its collections helps to COM
| plete the education, which the school falls
| short Of. In this view we see the great i'm
| portance of making sure that the public
| library has not only a full supply Of the
best books in every field, avoiding the bad
or the inferior ones. but also that it has the
best Juvenile and elementary literature in
ample supply. This subject of reading for
the young has Of late years come into UNI
precedented prominence. Formerly, and
even up to the middle of our century, very
slight attention was paid to it, either by
authors or readers. Whole generations had
been brought up on the New England pri-
mer, with its grotesque wood cuts and an
tique theology In prose and verse, with a
few moral narratives in addition. as solemn
as a meeting house, like the "Dairyman's
Daughter" the History Of Sanford and
Merton" or the shepherd of Salisbury
Plain Very dreary and melancholy do
such books appear to the frequenters of our
| modern libraries. filled as they now are with
thousands of volumes of lively and enter
tanning juvenile books.
The Transition.
The transition from the old to the new
in this class Of literature was through the
Sunday school and religious tract society
books. professedly adapted to the young.
" lille some of these had enough Of inter-
est to be fairly readable, If one had no
other resource. the mass were irredeemably
stale and poor. The mawkishness of the
sentiment was only surpassed by the fee
bleness Of the style. At last weary of the
gcody-goody and artificial school of juven-
lie books which have been produced for
generations. until a surfeit of it led to
something like a nausea in the public mind,
there came new type of writers for the
young, who at last began to speak the
on some semblance of life and human ma
ture, and boys and girls were painted as
real boys and genuine girls, instead of life
less dolls and manikins. The reformation
went on until We now have a world of
| books for the young to choose FROM very
many Of which are fresh and entertaining.
| But the very wealth and redundancy of
| such literature is a new embarrassment to
the librarian, who must indispensably make
selection, since no library have or
ought to have IT all. Referring to the
function of the public library as the coad-
| jutor of the school, let us see what
classes of books should form essential parts
| OF its stores
The Best Books for Young Readers.
| 1. AS geography, or account Of the
| earth on which we live. is fundamental
| part Of education, the library should pos
| sess liberal selection of the best books
| in that science. The latest general gazetteer
| of the world, the best modern and good
| ancient atlas. one or more of the great
| general collection of voyages a set Of
Baedekers admirable and inexpensive guide
| books, and descriptive works of travels in
nearly all countries-those in America and
Europe predominating-shou be secured
The scholars of all grades will thus be
| able to supplement their studies by ready
| references and every part Of the globe Will
| lie open before them all. as it were, by the
aid Of the library.
2. The best and latest text books in III
| the sciences. geology. chemistry, natural
history, physics, botany, agriculture, me-
chanic arts mathematics. mental and
moral science, architecture. fine arts, music
sociology, political science, etc, should be
accessible.
3. Every important history, with all the
latest manuals of elementary books in gen.
eral and national history. should be found.
4. The great collections Of biography,
| with separate lives Of all noted characters,
should be provided.
8. Dictionaries. cyclopaedias, statistical
ANIMALS and other books Of reference will
be needed In abundance
8. small but select number Of APP
proved works in law. medicine and theOl-
ogy should be embraced in the library.
Z. / need not add that the poets and nov
elists should be well represented, as that
goes without saying in all popular libraries.
Juvenile Collection.
Especial attention should be paid to build
ing up collection of the best books for
Juvenile readers. such as have passed the
ordeal Of good critical judgment among the
librarians, eminently At to be read.
There are several useful catalogues of
such reading. as Caroline Nj. Hewins'
Books for the Young" G. F. Hardy's
Five Hundred Books for the Young and
the admirable List of Books for Girls and
Women" by Augusta H. Leypoldt and
George lies, contributed by many experts.
| and copiously supplied with notes describ-
ing the scope and quality of the books.
The last two are published by the library
bureau.
VIII this broad equipment of the best
books in every field and vigilance in con-
slant exercise to add fresh stores from the
| constantly appearing and often improved
text books in every science, the library will
be treasury of knowledge both for teach
ers and pupils in the schools And the fact
should rot be overlooked that there will be
found as much growth for teachers as for
scholars in such collection of books.
Very few teachers. save those Of well-fur-
nished minds and Of much careful reading.
are competent to guide their scholars into
the highways and byways of knowledge as
the libraries should be able to do.
To establish relation of confidence and
aid with teachers is the preliminary step to
be taken in order to make the library at
once practically useful to them and to their
| scholars. In case there are several public
| schools in charge OF general supern-
tendent. that officer should be first consult
| ed, and rendered the free aid Of the library
and Its librarian for himself and the teach
| ers. In some public libraries the school
| superintendent is made an ex-officio men,
! Der OF the library board. Then suitable
regulations to be mutually agreed upon. fix
ing the number Of books to be drawn on ac-
count Of the schools at any one time, and
| the period of return to tine library. 1t is
| most usual to charge such books on teach
| ers' cards, or account. to fix responsibility
although the teachers loan them to the
| scholars at their option.
| Duplicates.
| In places where there are no school libra
res proper the public library will need to
provide a goodly number Of duplicates. In
| order to meet the special school demand
This. however. will usually be Of low-prlced
| rather than costly books, as the element
| airy text books do not draw heavily upon
| library funds.
books for the young Is the large number Of
| illustrated books now available to all
| libraries. All the kingdoms OF nature are