Part 22 (1/2)
If the a.s.sociation is large, if its meetings are well attended, if its proceedings as published show that the problems of library work are carefully studied, if the published proceedings are widely circulated, it is easier to persuade the intelligent part of the public that the librarian's profession is serious, dignified, and calls to its members.h.i.+p men and women of ability and zeal. If the public is persuaded of these things, the position of the humblest as well as of the highest in the profession is thereby rendered better worth the holding. To attend diligently to one's business is sometimes a most proper form of advertising one's merits. To be a zealous and active member of the A.L.A. is to attend to an important part of one's business; for one can't join it and work with it and for it and not increase one's efficiency in many ways.
State a.s.sociations have been organized in the following states: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Maine, Ma.s.sachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hamps.h.i.+re, New Jersey, Vermont, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa.
The following states have state library commissions: Connecticut, Georgia, Ma.s.sachusetts, New Hamps.h.i.+re, New York, Ohio, Vermont, Wisconsin, Indiana, Colorado, Michigan, New Jersey, Minnesota.
The following cities have library clubs: Buffalo, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York city, Was.h.i.+ngton city.
An inquiry for information regarding any of these a.s.sociations or clubs, addressed to any librarian in the states given, will receive attention.
Much of what is said above about the A.L.A. applies with equal force to the a.s.sociation of one's state or neighborhood. Often, moreover, it is possible to attend a state a.s.sociation meeting at small expense of time or money.
CHAPTER XLVI
Library schools and training cla.s.ses
As libraries have become more thoroughly organized, as they have become more aggressive in their methods, and as they have come to be looked upon by librarians and others as possible active factors in educational work, the proper management of them has naturally been found to require experience and technical knowledge as well as tact, a love of books, and janitorial zeal. It is seen that the best librarians are trained as well as born; hence the library school. The library school--a list of those now in operation will be found at the end of this chapter--does not confine itself to education in the technical details of library management. It aims first to arouse in its pupils the ”modern library spirit,” the wish, that is, to make the library an inst.i.tution which shall help its owners, the public, to become happier and wiser, and adds to this work what it can of knowledge of books, their use, their housing, and their helpful arrangement. Perhaps the ideal preparation for a librarian today would be, after a thorough general education, two or three years in a good library school preceded and followed by a year in a growing library of moderate size.
A few libraries have tried with much success the apprentice system of library training, taking in a cla.s.s, or series of cla.s.ses, for a few months or a year, and at the end of the period of apprentices.h.i.+p selecting from the cla.s.s additions to its regular corps.
List of library schools and training cla.s.ses
New York state library school, Albany; Pratt inst.i.tute library school, Brooklyn; Wisconsin summer school of library science, Madison; Drexel inst.i.tute library school, Philadelphia, Pa.; University of Illinois state library school, Champaign; Amherst summer school library cla.s.s, Amherst, Ma.s.s.; Los Angeles public library training cla.s.s; Cleveland summer school of library science.
CHAPTER XLVII
The Library department of the N.E.A.
The Library department of the National educational a.s.sociation holds meetings annually at the same time and place with the N.E.A.
The National educational a.s.sociation is the largest organized body of members of the teaching profession in the world. Its annual meetings bring together from 5000 to 15,000 teachers of every grade, from the kindergarten to the university. It includes a number of departments, each devoted to a special branch of educational work. The Library department was established in 1897. It has held successful meetings.
It is doing much to bring together librarians and teachers. It is arousing much interest in the subject of the use of books by young people, briefly touched on in the later chapters of this book.
Following the example of the N.E.A., many state and county a.s.sociations of teachers throughout the country have established library departments. At these are discussed the many aspects of such difficult and as yet unanswered questions as: What do children most like to read? How interest them in reading? What is the best reading for them?
CHAPTER XLVIII
Young people and the schools
If possible give the young people a reading room of their own, and a room in which are their own particular books. These special privileges will not bar them from the general use of the library. Make no age limit in issuing borrowers' cards. A child old enough to know the use of books is old enough to borrow them, and to begin that branch of its education which a library only can give. The fact that a child is a regular attendant at school is in itself almost sufficient guarantee for giving him a borrower's card. Certainly this fact, in addition to the signature of parent, guardian, or adult friend, even if the signer does not come to the library, will be guarantee enough.
Teachers should be asked to help in persuading children to make the acquaintance of the library, and then to make good use of it. To get this help from teachers is not easy. They are generally fully occupied with keeping their pupils up to the required scholars.h.i.+p mark. They have no time to look after outside matters.