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Page 29 text:
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THE GOLDEN-ROD 27 | Our Library i2s A H THE SCHOOL LIBRARY MOVEMENT There is an old saying that all roads lead to Rome. The modem equivalent in our high school would be “All roads lead to the library.” This may seem strange, perhaps, to people who went to school when school libraries were un- heard of or, at least, small and struggling. The beginnings of high school libraries were weak and insignificant. In New York, in 1835, a law was passed making it possible for the tax payers in any school district to vote a tax not exceed- ing $20.00 for the purpose of buying books which were to be called the district library. The district clerk was to be the librarian. These so-called libraries were a pathetic failure. The books were kept at the home of the district clerk; there was no trained librarian, no efficient charging system; and, as a result, the books were lost and scattered. Then in 1838 the State of New York appropriated $55,000 to be used for school district libraries. The books in these libraries were “not to be children’s books, or light and frivolous tales and romances, but works conveying solid in- formation which will excite a thirst for knowledge, and also gratify it, as far as such a library can. Undoubtedly, it wasn’t very far! Those old-time libra- ries were usually only collections of stale, uninteresting books kept in the principal’s office. How different is the school library of today! Nowadays the library is recognized as the “heart of the school,” indispensable to teachers and students. To the library, every period of the school day, comes a crowd of students intent on many differ- ent things. To the librarian all during the day come many perplexed and anxious pupils, asking questions, on every subject under the sun. They are given the de- sired information, if at all possible. To the library come many who ask no ques- tions but quietly take a book, perhaps a book of poems, and sit down in a corner to read. To the library come people who just like to be .where there is. such a pleasant feeling. Why are modern school libraries so different? Why do pupils know that if they ask for help they usually get it? Why do people like to visit there? The answer is simple. When educators be- gan to realize how important is a good school library, they hastened to improve the old system, trying to establish in each high school a library with modem equip- ment and a variety of books. Millions were spent on good books, not only en- cyclopedias and dictionaries but books on all kinds of subjects, chemistry, biology, forestry, biography, travel, poetry and fiction. No heavy books “of solid in- formation” but light, airy books to tempt the fancy of the scholar and give him the love of books. But that is not all. They realized that a trained librarian was necessary, not a part-time teacher, for she has enough to do, but a person whose duty it would be to manage the library and teach the hun- dred and one little things that teachers don't have time for. The modern idea of education is not
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Page 30 text:
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28 THE GOLDEN-ROD that one should learn one book from cover to cover, but that one should read widely, getting the viewpoints of several authors and then forming one’s own opin- ion. That is why the library is so im- portant as a laboratory or workshop. The pupils get library slips to come into the library for study periods because they have definite work to do assigned by some teacher, in English, history, French, science, geography, or music apprecia- tion. They know that the library is the place to gather the material, and they do so. There is another important phase of the work of the high school library. It is the task of the librarian to teach the student how to use the library. This knowledge once gained will be of untold value after high school days. For this reason lessons in the use of library re- sources are given usually through the English classes. Classes in history, geography, and other subjects, the nature of which calls for considerable reference work are given instruction in special ref- erence books suited to their needs. Pupils asking where a book on a particular sub- ject is kept, are encouraged to use the card catalogue. In this way they get more confidence in themselves, and they learn to use the library. Thus the modem high school library serves a three-fold purpose, that is, to provide “information, recreation, and in- spiration.” Violet Johnson, Feb., 1929. THROUGH THE YEARS WITH THE Q. H. S. LIBRARY Previous to September, 1917, the library, so called, was an unorganized col- lection of books housed in the school office, presided over by the school clerk, and added to annually but meagerly from the interest of the Rock Island Fund. In 1917, however, the courts decreed that the net income of the Adams Temple and School Fund, originally used in support of Adams Academy, could be used for the enrichment of the curriculum in the High School. The first move toward making use of these funds was “the equipping of an adequate school library and the engagement of a trained libra- rian.” With the opening of school in the fall of 1917 the thousand books constituting the library were moved to more commo- dious though inadequate quarters in the balcony of the school auditorium and Miss Anna Bates, now of the Hartford Public High School, was installed as librarian. During Miss Bates’ two years in Quincy one thousand volumes from current fiction to reference books were added to the collection, so were three daily papers and fifteen magazines. Miss Bates reports the average period attend- ance in the library as having been 18, and the average daily circulation of books as 30. But her work was not confined to interesting pupils in the library and act- ing as custodian of books. Lessons were given in the use and make-up of books, followed by library problems, and by means of class visits to the Thomas Crane Library, instruction in the resources of that library. With the coming of Miss Edith Coul- man, our present librarian, and her assist- ant, Miss Hazel Vaughan, in 1919 and the reorganization of the school on a definite morning and afternoon basis, the library was moved to a large room on the first floor where the work begun by Miss Bates was admirably and efficient- ly carried on. Here the attendance and circulation increased, partly as a result of increased registration in the school, but more because of the growing interest in libraries and books. Naturally, with the removal of the school to its present location, the facilities of the library were increased and im- proved. Because the ninth year pupils were to remain in the old building, now Central Junior High School, the refer- ence books of primary value to them were left behind as a nucleus for the
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