The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-17
CIR Tthrariatt'h Gnrnrr
CONDUCTED BY
FRANK PARKER STOCKBRIDGE.

M AKING readers out of the raw material OF
If1 the human race is precisely the same sort
of process as making farmers authors or arsto-
Gratis out of the same basic stuff. The formula is
simplicity itself. 1t is somewhat like this:
l. Catch them young-the younger the better
2. Immerse them in an environment composed
mainly of the elements of the art or habits you de-
. sire them to acquire and keep them there until
they grow up
g. Never tell them what you are trying to do
with them.
1t never fails to work. Surround a child with
luxuries and with lackeys to wait on him and you
always get parasite. Bring him up on farm
under conditions that make farm life seem even
tolerable and he will never at heart be anything
but farmer Throw him into the society of tel
lers of tales and weavers Of romance and he will
sooner or later try to emulate or excel them. And
as surely as you fill his immediate vicinage with
books books as playthings, not as tasks, just as
you must let him think that farming writing
or maintaining one s social position is something
one does by preference and not duty-as surely
as you do that you Will make reader of him. For
children are remarkably like the rest of humanity
in that they like to think that whatever they do IS
the result of their own unaided volition
Catching Them Young.
Librarians are keeny alive to their opportunity
to make children into readers. Listen to the talks
at any gatherings of librarians pick up any pub
LEGATION dealing with library work. and one cannot
fail to be impressed with the supreme importance
of the child as factor in the development of the
public library. This is true not only IL the big
city libraries with their children rooms and story
hours and their close liaison with the public school
systems, but down to the very smallest communi-
he (or usually she) can find ways to get the chill
dren into the reading habit the time will come when
the library will be what most people still regard it
merely more less imposing public building
that every one points out to the visiting stranger
and nobody enters.
In picking out the small town librarians to be
awarded prizes for meritorious library work the
New York Library Association has placed first and
greatest emphasis upon the relation of the library
to the child These prizes take the form Of Estate
Meeting Scholarships the recipients of which are
to receive their travelling expenses to the annual
meeting of the State Library Association at Rich
field Springs in the second week of September in
addition to certificates of excellence under the seal
of the association. Fifteen small town librarians
are to be thus honored three from each of five
sizes of towns ranging from villages of less than
500 population to towns of 5000. And of the
six points considered in making the awards
the first is the extent of the cooperation of the
library with the public schools and the fifth the
percentage of juvenile books in the total number of
books in the library. Cooperation Of the library
with activities, circulation per unit of popula-
ton, percentage of increase in circulation in the
past year and value of the library as an educational
factor in its community are also taken into account
At Richheld Springs
To the village librarian who is expected to form
and direct the reading habits of her community,
and thereby largely mold the community itself
into something nearer to the hearts desire. for
$50 month, the opportunity to attend such an
experience meeting as the at Richfeld Springs
is almost like realizing the dream of a lifetime.
For here will be the librarians from Buffalo Roch-
ester, Syracuse Troy, Schenectady, Binghamton.
Elmira, Utica-all the big cities that to upstate
people stand so much closer than New York does.
that seem to them to represent truly the cul-
tur how icb