Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-06-06
WOMAN LIBRARIAN
CR|T|C|SES BOOK

ASBURY PARK, June 6.-Miss Corinne
Bacon, of the Newark Public Library,
took up the afternoon session yesterday
of the Institute of Library Science, talk
ing about libraries that are alive as
she styled the progressive library. Miss
Edna Whitman. of the Pittsburg Train.
ing School, gave a morning talk on story.
telling.
Some of the new arrivals at the insti.
tute were DIR. and Mrs. W. A. Forrest, of
Princeton; Miss Agnes Miller, Mr.. and
Mrs. Edward Katzenbach, George +. Pal
mer, Miss Margaret NJ. Shill, of Trenton;
Miss Adele Wiley supton, of Railway;
Miss Louise Il. Morris, Mrs. II. b. Con.
~stantine, Miss Ida Il. Kirk, of Summit
Miss Elizabeth +. Campbell, Miss An.
t~oinette T.. Campbell, of Riverton; Miss
Elizabeth Tote, of Atlantic City; Miss
Mable Shear, of Ocean Grove: Miss Jane
barrow, of Madison; Miss Ida Il. Slater,
of Matawan; Miss Caroline A. Tornaker,
of this city; Miss Maria Hetrick, of Lock
Arbor; Miss Anna Il. Hull, Miss Eliza
beth Hansen, of Hoboken, and Wilson
Taylor, of East Orange.
Miss Bacon said her discussion really
concerned how to get good books read.
ANY librarian can easily get a large cir
c~ulation of third and fourth rate felton,
said she, but it takes brains and push
TO circulate some of the books best worth
while.
This talk is about the great continue
ton school of the American people which
from the time formal education ceases
should minister to their educational
needs. The problem of good circulation
Is to make the right books reach the right
people. IL they are to be read it is just
as necessary to advertise them as it is
to advertise a new breakfast food.
The librarian of today must know her
community and identify herself with all
the forces in II that are making for So
cial betterment in order to choose the
best books for that community. She
should administer the library s~cientif-
ically, but with the least possible use of
red tape
The speaker entered into an interesting
discussion of the moral effect of some of
the new novels, as TO why some of them
should and some of them should not be
admitted to library shelves.
Now hat the hue and cry Is over
regarding Robert Chambers's Common
Law - said she, Suppose we try to state
calmly some reason for its exclusion from
our libraries. It's insincerity. ana vul-
garity form a sufficient reason. In speak
ing of its vulgarity | am not finding fault
with its opening chapter describing Va
lerie's appearance as a model. That is
done with decency and restraint. But the
atmosphere of the book as a whole is not
decent. Chambers tried to write a novel
at eonce sufficiently risque to catch one
class of readers and sufficiently proper
to attract another, a task as impossible
as to advocate both Taft and Roosevelt,
House of Bondage is horrible.
SO is a surgical operation, but this book
never confuses moral issues nor describes
evil for the sake of rolling it as a sweet
morsel under the tongue. 1t is a power
full tract rather than a novel, one In
which the facts preach, a book for young
people exposed to the dangers of which It
treats. Here then is a book whose sub
ject matter is loathsome, but whose trend
is distinctly ethical.
"In this connection it cannot be re-
peated too often that morality is a ques-
ton Of treatment rather than of subject
matter and that the knowledge of dis
agreeable facts cannot harm us IL we
keep fast hold of spiritual values.
Vachell's recent novel, Blinds Down is
a telling account of what is likely to hap
pen when one denies the existence of the
unsavory facts of life. The novel that
degrades our intellects, vulgarizes our
emotions, kills our faith in people, is an
immoral book, but the novel that stimu-
lates, quickens our sense of humor, gives
us a deeper insight into men and women,
a finer sympathy with them and arouses
a spirit of %helpfulness toward them Is
a moral book, no matter what range 1t
has.
THE 16-year-old girl who reads the
newspapers and sees modern plays has
not much left to learn of the shady side
of life. In any case Libraries are for
men and women as well os children. Nor
should the entire responsibility of what
the girl reads be put upon the shoulders
of the librarian. h girls mother should
take at least as much interest in the
style of book her daughter reads as in
the style of gown she wears"