Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-10-07

class of people. Fortunate. indeed. arc
| the citizens of MarShalltoWn In their
! librarian, for her time. strength and
| best effort are given to each depart
| ment We open with pride the doors
of this beautiful building, and ask you
! to enter and examine. approaching
! how much we owe to our librarian. All
/ honor to work we'll done: we find too
! little OF it in this world and so arc
| glad to pay tribute to it.
| Thru the extension committee the
| Iowa federation is organized in dis
! tricts and thru the district chairmen
/ many rural clubs are added to the
membership. 1t is impossible to esti-
mate the value of the travelling IL
| brary to these clubs. To the farmers
wives the club means more than to the
| townsmen. for oftentimes 1t is the only
means for study as Well as for social
recreation. Almost invariably, too, the
| program of the rural club is carried
out fully and as there is less to divert
| the thought, more real study is done.
| Our club program committee is en-
deavorng to do away with the miscel-
laneous program. With the one topic
program and the library of reference
books on the special subject, great in
tellectual advancement can be looked
for in the club women OF the small
towns and the country.
THE library committee of the Iowa
fedora ton still has work to do and by
cooperating with the state library
commission hopes to see the day when
every man, woman and child in Iowa
shall have access to good public IL
brary, as have the citizens of Mar
shalltown.'
Superintendent William /. Crane. of
the Marshalltown public schools. fol-
lowed Mrs. Fletcher speaking on THE
Relation of the Public Library to the
Schools" Mr.. Cranes address was an
able effort, and his remarks held the
closest attention of the audience. By
way Of introduction he said there We're
two ways of getting information; thru
our own observation and thru the OBJ
servations of others; thru their Ian
guage The second method may be
further divided in two ways Getting
the observation of others from their
lips. and getting it frora their written
or printed words The last of these
concerns the llDTaTIdI
He showed that the work of the
public schools is to develop in the boy
the love of securing information in this
channel, while the function Of the Ii
brary is to afford him the means He
condemned the practice of trying to
force a boy or girl to love the books
which cultivated readers love, and said
that we must begin with the boy where
he is. even if>that be on The Glaciers
Revenge" or The Bloody Putty Knife"
He quoted from DR. Samuel Johnson.
who said that any one should be de-
lighted to find a boy getting en-
joyment out of any kind Of book. Tha,
by wise guidance he would find the
better books afterward.
The thing which he emphasized most
was his condemnation of the practice
of Librarians in setting out on separate
shelves selected lists of books on GER
tain subjects for the pupils. Both in
life and in college the young person
must gather for himself, and he should
be. taught how TO find them in the Ii
brary. No one sets out a block of
clients for the young attorney, nor
group of patients for the young doctor.
lie must md lneHl IoT HlHiseli. i ne
habit of setting out certain books,
which no one else can touch, develops
piteous helplessness. Mr.. Cranes main
contention was, therefore. that, de-
spite the trouble TO the librarian, the
student should be taught how to use
the indexes and find in the library all
the material bearing OH the subject
on which he is working, for this is ex-
aetly what he must do in life, and this
searching, by himself, is the kind of life
lesson which develops initiative and
successful prosecution by the student.
College Librarians Meet.
The college librarians held meeting
this afternoon in the museum. All who
We're interested in reference to catlalog-
ing were invited to meet with the col