Saltus Grammar School - Yearbook (Hamilton, Bermuda)

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28 Through the library we aim: 1 . To foster a love of good and tastefully printed books. 2. To teach the child to regard a good book as a treasure to be handled with respect. 3. To foster the determination to build up a personal library of worth- while books. 4. To provide supplementary material for the work In the school — in- formative books of a non-textbook character. 5. To meet the child ' s personal Interests and hobbles. 6. To introduce the child to new interests and pursuits. 7. To secure the cooperation of the child with the staff In pursuing educational ends. 8. To train the child in responsibility and citizenship through a system of library monitors and individual cooperation. 9. To cooperate with the work of the public libraries and to equip the child to enfer the larger world of books. 10. To secure the cooperation and interest of the parents. The school library is like a stone cost Into a pond. Its use will couse undulations and reflected ripples in oil directions. The assistant librarians for 1965 are: Ferguson, Marson, Siggins 1, Taylor 1, Diamond, Gibbons, Lindo, Kay, Taylor 2, French, Goodwin, SIgglns 2, Hamilton, Rand, Ahern 1 . VICTOR BOLTON, Librarian.

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27 LIBRARY The time for arguing the case for libraries in secondary education has passed. It must now be made more evident that a school library is not a book collection housed in o special room, but a piece of educationol equipment designed to further definite ends. It will not be sufficient to satisfy the immediate demands made by the curriculum or the child. Education is a continuous process, and the library work must be planned so that the child turns to the public library before losing contact with the school library. The school library has a great opportunity here. The public librories offer to all the accumulated wisdom of the ages, but few persons possess the techniques which would enable them to explore. Can a person claim to be truly educated if unable to use a library with confidence? It is a primary duty of a school to train its pupils for the proper use of the public library. The school library should be seen as only one very imp ortant section of the system. The home should, but often does not, supply the child with good books from the moment he is able to understand a story. The primary stage schools in conjunction with the children ' s libraries should amplify. But the greatest respon- sibility seems to rest on the secondary school, for it is at the end of this phase that most children will hove to continue the progression procticdly unaided. The library habit should be more firmly established than the cinema visit. At the age of sixteen the child is in on unhappy position. He feels too old for the children ' s library, and the majority of the books in the main library ore too adult. Therefore, if the child leaves school with a lasting regard for good literature to carry him over this adolescent period, and with the necessary skills to satisfy an enquiring mind, the school library will hove succeeded admirably. In reorganizing the library at this school the books have been aroused from their state of complete repose and anonymity. They have been classified, indexed and catalogued afresh, in accordance with the international Dewey system. They have been housed in subject sections and arranged to follow closely the pattern of the local Bermudion libraries. With the generous gifts made to the library by such unselfish benefactors as Mr. R. A. Ferguson, the stock has now been brought to the level where we might soy, with some degree of truth, that Saltus Grammar School is possessed of o library favourably to be compared with any in the island. But no matter how well organized a library may be, its value must finally be judged on the educational end it serves. The organization is only a means of achieving those ends. In formulating and implementing the aims of the library we must consider the immediate effects, and the ultimate benefits, which we hope to bestow on the child.

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29 PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION 1964 The second annual public speaking competition was held on May 5th In the assembly hall and the three ajudicators were Doctor Bill Cooke, the Reverend George Buchanan and Mr. Victor Bolton. The holder of the junior division, John Casling, won the trophy for the second year with a speech advocating the establishment of a centre for scientific education in Bermuda. In the senior section A. P. Margaronis won the trophy. He spoke as a member of the Progressive Labour Party concerning the need to set up a scheme for socialised medicine in the Colony. John Barritt and John Slack came second respectively. The competition, as the judges stressed, was of a high standard and it was encouroging to see the increased number of entries. J.C 6.