Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1909-01-23
The Public Libraries and the
Schools.
Editor of the Age:

Pomfret last summer. l have been
looking mp the subject of the rela-
tions of the public libraries to the
schools of this country. | wanted
to be well informed before / wrote
you. This is the reason for my long
delay in answering Prof Williams.
Before going on l wish to express
my appreciation of the good work
Prof. Williams has done in improv-
ing and maintaining the Woodstock
library, and to say that l appreciate
also the good work he has done in
many other directions in this COM
munity. Much of this work, has
been known to few, and is all the
more wortl, while on that account.
Prof. Williams in his paper last
summer seemed to express the idea
that it was not wise for public libra
ries to attempt to be of much help
to public schools, teachers or pupils,
at least not in any direct way. l
found this was not the conclusion of
librarians generally. In fact study
of one or two volumes Of proceedings
of the American Library Association,
and q hasty examination of a few
volumes Of the two journals devoted
to library work in this country show
that from Maine to California, in all
public libraries, the one thing that
is considered better worth while than
anything else in library work is the
securing of the cooperation of prin-
cipals and teachers in the work of
stimulating and directing the read
ing of children.
Prof Williams seems to think that
the teachers are tickle in their choict.
of books and will not be long salts
fed with what the library may at
any time furnish In so far as this
is true, it is a good sign. Everyone
knows that in the last ten or twenty
years the old-iashioned reader in a
series of four or five volumes has
gone out of use almost entirely. In
former days the reading of children
in school, and the home-reading of
children so far as the teacher direct
ed that reading, was confined almost
entirely to those four or five volumes
in a graded series. This is no longer
true. All active public schools now
furnish teachers with volumes of
what are called supplementary read
ing. This consists of fables, poems,
stories, history, biography, books on
nature, looks of travel, etc. Many
of these re taken from the classic
writer's. Many are written for young
people ty literary men of the first
ability. These books are used as
readers in the schools. Children
are encouraged, through their inter
est in them at school, to read them
also at nome. The outlook upon
literature. on knowledge of the best
the world has written, which the
average public school child of four
teen has today, is much greater than
was the outlook of child of twenty
five years ago.
Now, in addition to this good work
on the part of the schools, comes the
work of the public library, which in
cooperation with principals and
teachers brings to the attention of
children interesting and helpful
books adapted to their respective
ages. in hundreds of towns and
cities in this country the teacher in
almost every school room has on or
near her desk collection of from 80
to so books borrowed from a public
library. These books are adapted
first to her own special tastes and
abilities, adapted next to the age of
the children in her room and next to
the special studies which they are
pursuing. These books the teacher
selects at the public library herself,
or has them selected for her by peo-
pie in whom she has confidence.
They are sent to her room. She en-
courages the chilren to read them
In rooms where the children are very
young she reads to them from these
books. She permits the children to
take the books home to be read there,
or to take them home for their par
ents to read.
In this way, adding perceptibly
to the teachers labors, hundreds and
thousands of school teachers in this