CHAPTER XXXII

THE CHILDREN’S DEPARTMENT

=482. General Considerations.=--The declaration of the Library Association that library work with children is the foundation of all other library work represents, so far as Great Britain is concerned, an ideal rather than an accomplished fact. The will to make provision for the child has not been lacking, but the means at the disposal of library committees have hitherto been insufficient for other activities, and the child has necessarily been dealt with in a parsimonious manner. Undoubtedly, in circumstances hitherto prevailing, the axiom that to pursue work for children at the expense of the efficiency of the library as a whole is to defeat its very purpose, is true. But from comparatively early times the book needs of the children have been recognized. So long ago as 1882 Nottingham possessed a reading room for children, and, with intervals, such departments have been multiplied, and there is now hardly a town of any size which does not make _some_ provision for young readers. The object of the children’s department is to provide the intellectual workshop for the use of the child. He is taught to use intellectual tools in the school, but the library provides him with the material upon which they may be exercised. Usually the department serves children from the age of six to the age of fourteen. In a completely organized department there are library, reading department, and study corners; and such activities as story hours, lectures, reading circles, and the keeping of festivals are maintained.

=483. What has been Done.=--Separate, distinctive children’s departments are a quite modern institution. Hitherto, in the majority of libraries, an alcove, or a number of shelves, have been set aside for children’s books in the adult lending department, and no provision has definitely, been made for newspapers, magazines and other reading material for the young. Many difficulties have arisen from this arrangement. The age of admission to libraries is usually fourteen, and children under this age, except in special circumstances, have been limited to books in the shelves allocated to children. But children of eleven or twelve frequently require books which cannot by any ordinary reasoning be regarded as juvenile works; and on every such occasion special concessions have been made, the requiring and the granting of which are irritating both to the child and the librarian, however liberal-minded the latter may be, and therefore subversive of the best results. More recently the age of fourteen has been regarded as too high, and in some towns twelve, or even ten, years has been regarded as a suitable age at which children may be given the freedom of the whole lending department. This seems better, and where such low age limits have been set the results have been good. It is obvious, however, that the limited provision we have described in this section is not calculated to prove the “foundation of all library work.”

=484. Children’s Libraries.=--From these considerations has developed the modern children’s department as an entirely separate part of the library, equivalent in rank and importance to the adult lending or reference departments. In England the most elaborate system of such libraries is that at Cardiff, but many other towns, including Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Islington, Chelsea, Hampstead, Coventry, St Helens, and Nottingham, have such separate departments, and every modern librarian in planning a library system provides for them. The limits of this _Manual_ do not permit of an exhaustive study of the many varieties of children’s libraries and their manifold activities, but an outline of the methods most commonly in vogue here and in America (where the work is far more highly developed than here) are an integral part of our work.

The children’s department, then, should be an apartment as effective in architectural character as any other department: well-lighted, spacious, lofty, and decorated tastefully. These factors are overlooked at times, sometimes, unfortunately, of necessity; but we insist upon them, because the atmosphere induced by a handsome and suitable library is necessary if we are, first, to avoid ruffling the sensitiveness of children who are as jealous of their rights in the public libraries as are adults; and, second, to create that feeling of reverence and respect for books which is a factor in obtaining discipline in the apartment. An ill-lighted, crudely-decorated basement is sometimes devoted to the purpose, and this may have its uses, but it is certain to fall short lamentably of the full possibilities of a children’s library. The apartment being provided, several problems have to be settled. The systems in existence differ in different places. In some towns the children’s department is a reading room and reference library merely, and books are not lent for home reading. It is thought, in such cases, that the children can best be provided with books for home reading through a system of school libraries, such as we describe in the next chapter. This, however, seems to ignore the fact that such school libraries are usually restricted to public and council schools, that there are other kinds of schools in every town, and large numbers of children, therefore, who have not access to school libraries; and their claims to library facilities are as strong as those of public and council school children. Such is the system in vogue, we believe, at Cardiff. In other towns the department embraces lending library, reading room, and reference library, and good examples of these are to be seen at Islington. Here the room is divided into two parts, the smaller part being an open access lending library, and the greater part a reading room, with special tables set apart for quiet study, and containing a carefully-chosen collection of reference books. These methods have both great advantages, and are worthy of rather more detailed consideration.

=485. The Reference-Reading Method.=--We have used this name for want of a better to indicate the system which limits the use of the contents of the room to the room itself---a system, we may add, which has been approved by the Conference of Librarians held at Manchester in 1918, as the better of the two described. The library is usually a large room with wall-cases for books upon two or three sides of the room, but with one wall left blank and whitened for use as a lantern screen, and intervals of the walls covered with baize screens upon which pictures, bulletins, lists, etc., can be displayed. Part of the room is reserved for children who desire to do home lessons, or make special study, or who wish (as is more frequently the case than is generally supposed) to become authors. For these, small desks, separate if possible, are provided, and the use of ink is permitted. Another set of tables is allocated to such newspapers and periodicals as are suitable for children. The selection of the latter is a matter requiring special care. Good daily newspapers may be provided--_The Daily Graphic_, for instance, is interesting to most children--but there is a real need for a definitely children’s _newspaper_, one that presents in a manner attractive to the child mind a selection of the matter occurring in the ordinary newspaper; the recognized children’s periodicals in English and French, and in other languages where circumstances warrant it; such “instructive” periodicals as those teaching shorthand, languages, how to make things, and simple “trade” periodicals; as well as a selection of such weekly journals as _The Illustrated London News_ and _The Graphic_. Children are more virile mentally than is sometimes supposed, and many ostensibly adult periodicals are quite suitable for them. The remainder of the room may be devoted to tables or desks for the reading of the books from the cases.

=486. Lending Library.=--All the features enumerated in the foregoing section should be found in the department which has also a lending library, except that the number of books to be provided for reading in the room will probably be smaller, and fewer book-cases will in that case be necessary. The lending section will be conducted on principles similar to those governing the adult lending library, with such adaptations as experience suggests to be desirable. Simplicity is the keynote of the work, and the regulations governing the issue of readers’ tickets and the lending of books should be made as easy and unambiguous as possible. A few of these may be mentioned:

1. Children should be permitted to borrow books upon the recommendation of the head teacher of the school they attend. In some libraries a more definite guarantee is required to prevent possible loss and to recover the cost of loss or damages, as it is obvious that the teacher cannot be expected to accept financial responsibility in this connexion and would undoubtedly refuse to do so; and these require the children to be guaranteed by burgesses in the same manner as adult readers. It will be found, however, that children have frequently some difficulty in finding a guarantor; even parents at times refuse to bind themselves in this way; and, with careful supervision, the teacher’s recommendation will be found to be effective. A good form of application is as follows:

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | SCHOOL READERS UNDER 12 YEARS | | | | .............................................. _No._ ........... | | | | NEWTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARIES. | | | | _To be signed by the Applicant._ | | | | I, the undersigned, being a scholar, under twelve years of age, | | at .......................................................... | | School, apply for a Ticket enabling me to borrow books from a | | Lending Library, in accordance with the Rules, which I promise to | | obey. | | | | _Name in full_................................................... | | | | _Address_........................................................ | | | | _Age_.................... _Date_.............................. | +====================================================================+ | _To be signed by the Head Teacher of the School the Applicant | | attends._[1] | | | | I, the undersigned, am of opinion that the above Applicant may be | | trusted to use the Libraries carefully, and to his/her advantage. | | | | _Signed_......................................................... | | | | _Head Teacher of_.........................................School. | | | | _Date_........................... | | | | [1] _The signing of this Voucher does not involve the Head | | Teacher in any financial responsibility._ | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+

FIG. 176.--Voucher for Children (Section 486). The back is the ordinary guarantee, as Fig. 135.

2. Children should be permitted to borrow books on the application of the head of their household. In this case the householder may be expected to assume the responsibilities of any ordinary guarantor.

3. In ordinary circumstances a child should be permitted to borrow one book only at a time, and should not be permitted to change it for another more frequently than once a week.

We desire to avoid controversial matter in this _Manual_, and this provision, we expect, is open to criticism; indeed, when it was suggested elsewhere an American librarian remarked that it “seemed unnecessary.” British librarians, however, have actually been requested by teachers to make these restrictions on the arguments that few children do any comparative reading, and that still fewer can read more than one book in a week and at the same time do their home lessons and spend as much time in outdoor recreation as is needful for their health. Another less satisfactory reason is that some librarians have found the child population, when not so restricted, crowding the lending library to such an extent that their staffs have been unable to maintain the discipline without which effective work is impossible, or to meet the demands of the children. Such librarians have divided their register of children alphabetically, and children whose names begin with certain letters are admitted to the lending library only on certain days.

4. The rules should embody simple provisions governing the duration of loan (usually fourteen days are allowed, but circumstances may warrant an extension of this time), cleanliness, care of books, and the disposal of books in cases where the child or any member of the household is in contact with infection.

A difficult matter is what, if any, penalties should be inflicted upon children in the case of undue detention of books or for other offences. Fines are sometimes imposed, as in the adult library, but often they cannot be recovered without great trouble, and they should usually be remitted when any reasonable excuse can be offered. Many children cannot obtain the necessary pence, except from their parents, and to press for fines frequently means that the child will be forbidden the use of the library by the parents. In this matter the librarian should have the fullest discretion. Persistent offenders are effectively dealt with by the suspending of their tickets for a time; but we do not wish to insist upon this method, as the librarian naturally desires to have books used rather than to prevent their use. Lost books must be replaced by parents as a matter of course whenever it is possible to get at them; and the teacher will often lend his powerful assistance in securing the return or replacing of missing volumes, and, indeed, in seeing that the library rules generally are observed by his pupils. Co-operation and sympathy between librarian and teacher are first essentials of successful work.

=487. Furniture and Fittings.=--The furnishing of the children’s room is governed by the considerations explained in Division V., but again with adaptations dictated by the fact that the furniture is for children and not for adults. Desks, tables, chairs, reading slopes, etc., should be of such heights that they can be used with comfort. In regard to tables and chairs, 25¼ inches is a suitable height for the former and 14¼ inches for the latter. Book-cases should be approximately 6½ feet in height as against 7 feet for adults. Such rigid furnishing as that which provides long narrow desks resembling school forms for the children, so arranged that the children all face one way, is to be deprecated. Tables which provide the maximum of space, comfort and seclusion are as desirable for this room as for any other. Each periodical and reader requires three feet of lateral space, and there should be three feet between each table, or four where the space is a gangway. Screens of some soft wood, covered with baize, should be placed on the walls, at intervals; and a blackboard and an optical lantern are valuable parts of the equipment. Any space that may remain on the walls may be devoted to pictures, which need not be many, but should be large, deal with definite subjects, and be good of their kind. These are the more obvious differences between the children’s and the adult departments, except that in some libraries lavatory accommodation is provided in order that children may wash their hands before entering the library proper. Such accommodation has distinct advantages, as many children come into the department straight from playing in the street, and it is rather hard to refuse them admission because their hands are not in a suitable state for the using of books. On the other hand, strict supervision of such accommodation is necessary, and this is difficult to provide on account of the increased cost involved.

=488. Book Selection.=--A few principles governing the selection of books for children may be given here, drawn from an immense mass of written material upon the subject. In a general way it may be asserted that the child is the best judge of its own literature, and the classics for children survive as such simply because they receive the continued suffrages of children. Excellent bibliographies and lists exist, especially American ones, and many libraries have issued catalogues of their children’s libraries. A comparison of these is a necessary preliminary to stocking the department. Catholicity and a not too rigid insistence upon high literary merit are proper attitudes, because there is no exact definition of a children’s book, and any book likely to be used by children should be regarded as suitable; and the variations in taste and capability of children are so great that if there is too pronounced insistence upon high literary quality many children will neglect the books provided. It is better to commence with a lower average of merit and attract children, and then, by placing better books in their way, to improve their tastes without too much obtruding of the fact upon them. By this it is not meant that worthless books are to be included, but there are undoubtedly books having no claim to high rank which are wholesome and harmless. A preponderating part of the lending stock will be of fiction--perhaps twenty per cent. of it--and here the librarian has the accumulated experience of other librarians to assist his selection, and, with regard to contemporary writings, they are not so numerous that the characteristics of any given author cannot easily be tested. Books of classic rank should be available in such numbers that there are always enough copies to meet the current demand and at the same time to leave a copy on the shelves. A librarian should never be compelled to reply to a child that _Ivanhoe_, _The Last of the Mohicans_, _Alice in Wonderland_, _Robinson Crusoe_, or _The Jungle Book_, for example, is “out.” It is questionable whether abridged or adapted versions or extracts from classics should be stocked; they often give children an entirely false impression of the work they represent, and as a general rule works that may be “extracted” for children should be provided in their original form. A “Bowdlerized” Shakespeare is an objectionable work; the more virile or doubtful parts of the complete plays rarely touch children or are understood by them. In other classes of literature great discretion must be exercised. A balanced selection covering the whole field of knowledge should be the aim, and although there are still many blank spaces in this field, there are fortunately thousands of works on the arts, sciences, history, biography, and, indeed, upon most subjects, eminently adapted to children. Mere simplicity is not the first essential of such books. Children of quite tender years can make use of many books which are not intended primarily for them, and these may frequently be admitted with great advantage. The intrinsic side of selection may be summarized briefly: Admit all books which appeal to children so long as they are in good English, have no immoral tendency, do not bring the sanctities of life into ridicule, are accurate, and have a worthy quality of humour. This last condition is important. The average child has not a very refined sense of humour, he prefers it of a concrete quality, without irony or sarcasm, and too often founded upon human depravity, deformity and misfortune; this taste must be counteracted.

=489.= The physical side of books is only less important than the literary, a fact frequently overlooked. Good, legible, well-inked type, good paper, well-drawn, coloured and accurately-registered illustrations should always be sought. There is an æsthetic value in books which should not be neglected, and this is absent from ill-produced works; and the eyesight of children should be guarded from small or illegible print. Bindings should be strong and durable, an almost impossible condition at the present day when cheap machine-made cases are the rule. The life of the book of to-day in continual use is at best only a few months. Before the European War publishers were gradually introducing reinforced and other strong bindings for children’s books, and it is to be hoped that this desirable practice will in due course be resumed.

=490.= Recent events have so affected the book-market that any rigid estimate of the average cost of books would be futile, as being subject to probable immense fluctuations. Five years ago 3s. 6d. was a fair average price for a lending library book for young readers; at the time of writing 5s. would be nearer the sum that would have to be paid. It can only be assumed that a considerable time will elapse before books will return to their original prices. Any other assumption would be unwise.

=491. Administration.=--Primary factors in successful work are freedom of access, the maintenance of proper but not oppressive discipline, and the administration of the department by a specially trained and qualified staff. Ruskin’s theory that a child should be let loose in a good library to choose or reject as he wills has proved to be satisfactory in practice, and to promote that sense of personal proprietorship in the library which it is desirable that he should possess. Other reasons for the open access system are the opportunities it gives for close contact between the child and the librarian, of the opportunities it gives the child of learning what treasures are at his disposal, in addition to every other advantage which may be said to accrue to the system when used for adult readers. The hours of opening should be governed by the school hours; that is to say, it is hardly ever necessary to open during school hours; and the library should close at a reasonable hour in order that children may not be induced to remain there at times when they ought to be in their homes. These hours differ in different localities. At holiday times, however, the library should be accessible during the greater part of the daytime.

=492.= Discipline, it has been well remarked, is the problem of the children’s department. While the dragooning methods of the parish beadle would be deplorably out of place, it is impossible to agree with the American librarian who declares that “children usually do not mind noise and crowding,” because, even if in theory they do not, it is impossible to carry on effective work in conditions of congestion and noise. Too precise a method would defeat its object, but it would seem wise to limit the admissions at any time to such numbers as may be controlled easily by the librarian. Mr L. Stanley Jast has gone so far as to affirm that the children should not be more than can easily be “contacted by the librarian,” on the ground that more efficient work can thus be done. It is a matter upon which a decision can only be made from a knowledge of the conditions and the character of the child population. Clearly, however, a qualification in a successful children’s librarian is the power to keep order, to prevent practical joking, loud conversation and laughter in the reading room. Firmness displayed with kindness, but with decision, and the excluding of unrepentant offenders have been found to be effective.

=493.= The training of the children’s librarian is special and necessary. In England it has not been developed in any degree commensurate with the need, and our ideals in this matter must be drawn from our American cousins. They require a sound preliminary education in the candidate, a knowledge of the broader lines of general library administration, and, added to these, a study of the child mind, practical social service work, the study of the bibliography of juvenile literature, and practice--usually gained by actual work in children’s rooms--in story-telling, subject-hunting, bulletin-making, and similar matters. Cataloguing, classification, the preparing of attractive lists, etc., for children are all somewhat modified from the forms in use in the grown people’s departments, and all are treated specially. All these studies premise that the librarian has the requisite “personality,” and this is a matter of natural inheritance rather than of training. In Europe this special training can only be gained in the children’s room, and, as a matter of fact, is not always gained. Too often librarians have perforce been obliged to hand the conduct of the department to any member of the staff who might be available at the time. This state of affairs must receive attention if the children’s department is to accomplish its purpose. Probably the ordinary training of the Froebel system superadded to general library training is the best preparation that can be given to the British children’s librarian at present.

=494. Activities of the Department.=--To bring the child into contact with the proper book is the aim of the department. Free choice amongst books will suffice in a number of instances; but such passive methods will not always secure good results. The assistant in charge must win the confidence of the children and guide them in the most unobtrusive manner possible to the books likely to be of interest and use. Various active methods are in use to gain this end. The most popular of these is the Story Hour.

=495.= It has been premised that children from six to fourteen years of age will frequent the department, and there is a vast range of ability and taste in children in the various years between these ages. Little children require simple large-print books with plenty of illustrations, and may be drawn to them if story-telling forms part of the librarian’s activities. Story hours, indeed, are most attractive to children of all ages. They are given informally, the children usually being grouped round the librarian in a half-circle while she tells them a fairy story, or stories drawn from the greater writers, from history, poetry, or what not. The connexion between the story hour and the after reading of the books which contain the stories is clear. Such story-telling requires special and intelligent study, good elocution, fluency and the sense of the dramatic. The objection frequently offered to the work is that it is harmful to children for them to hear a story by a great writer delivered in inferior language and brokenly by an indifferent librarian. This, however, is purely a matter of experience and training, and there are admirable manuals of story-telling method by Miss Marie Shedlock, Miss L. M. Olcott, and others which may help in this matter. Otherwise the value of the work is undoubted. The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh sets the standard which has general approval. There it is found that groups of thirty children are convenient in size, although it is often necessary to have larger groups. “To the younger children miscellaneous stories are told, selected chiefly from the folk-tales of various countries, legends, myths, fables, modern realistic stories and Bible stories. Two stories are usually told to each group, and whenever possible variety is given by the selection of stories of different types. Poems and nursery rhymes are occasionally included in these programmes. Special days are celebrated if stories can be found which express the spirit of the holiday and are sufficiently dramatic in form. The same stories are sometimes repeated during the year because of the deeper impression made through repetition, and the value to children of an intimate acquaintance with a few of the best things in literature appropriate for them. If something new is given each time, the impressions are confused and dissipated, and material which is either beyond a child’s appreciation or unsuitable for story-telling must finally be used. When an additional story is told, and the children are allowed a choice, the story requested is almost without exception a very old and well-known one. To the older children some of the great cycle stories are presented by telling one story each week. High adventure and romance, as depicted in these hero tales, have a special appeal to the boy and girl from ten to fifteen, and at this age interest is easily sustained.”[17]

[17] Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. _Stories to Tell to Children._ See List at end of this division.

=496.= More formal lectures prove entirely successful with children, the difficulty as a rule being to find accommodation for the numbers who desire to attend them. They differ from lectures given to adults principally in the fact that they are simpler, but not always even in this particular. Lecturing to children demands a freedom of manner and from mannerisms, decision and fluency; and it will be found that the audience is one of the most critical a lecturer can encounter. All the conditions of definite, clear and accurate subject-matter, refined humour, etc., which are required in books are also required in the lecture. Such subjects as the history of inventions and historical episodes appeal strongly to boys, but perhaps not so greatly to girls, who find nature, literary and similar lectures more to their taste--although dogmatic statement on this point is entirely unwise. The judicious use of lantern slides, pictures and exhibits enhances these lectures, but many subjects are better treated without them. Pictures of characters in works of imagination, for example, often destroy the child’s own, and therefore more valuable, conception of the characters. Good discipline is essential to successful lectures, and this depends upon the lecturer; uneasiness in the audience usually means that it is bored, and the lecturer is wise to consider it thus.

=497.= Reading clubs and circles often form part of the activities of the department. In these the members, who are admitted to them formally, undertake to read through some special book under the guidance of a leader who, of course, may be a member of the library staff, although an older child may be induced to become leader. Usually the children read the prescribed portion of the book privately, and at the circle they go over it, talk about it, ask questions, and look at pictures, maps and other books that may throw more light on their reading or increase its interest.

=498.= A valuable auxiliary of story hours, lectures and reading circles is a collection of illustrations. Such collections are becoming a feature of some British, and have long been used in American, libraries. The collection is made up of illustrations abstracted from all suitable sources, worn-out books, periodicals, catalogues, advertisements, etc., in addition to pictures separately published. Each picture is mounted individually upon a mount of standard size--12½ inches by 10½ inches for the greater number, and 17 inches by 13½ inches for larger pictures have been proved to be quite suitable--of manila, art paper, or some similar stiff material; and the pictures are minutely classified, and may be filed in closed pamphlet boxes, or, better, vertically in a filing cabinet. Systematic abstracting of such illustrations for the available sources of an ordinary library will soon produce a large collection. The rule to be observed is that the pictures must illustrate some fact, scene or object. Pictures from the average modern novel, views of scenes which may be found in any country, “pretty” pictures, etc., have practically no value. An exception may be made in favour of illustrations of classic works by distinguished artists, but for the reasons advanced against lantern slides in illustrating such works even this is doubtful. The collection should be available not only in the department, they should also be lent to teachers for use in class work in school and to reading circles and other people who may desire to use them. Such pictures may form the basis of what is called bulletin work. On suitable occasions, holidays, birthdays of great men, anniversaries of all kinds, and as illustrating current events, pictures should be displayed on screens in the room in conjunction with brief lists of illustrative books. Sometimes bulletins are specially made for such occasions if an assistant with the necessary artistic ability is available; attractive borders, small appropriate sketches and similar embellishments are added to the pictures and lists. It is possible, however, that the bulletin may exercise too great a fascination over its maker and too much time be spent upon it; but within limits the bulletin is an excellent device for drawing the attention of children.

=499.= At all seasonable times additional activities recommend themselves, but extravagance should be avoided. Exhibits of many kinds, wild flowers in their seasons, and the common objects and fauna of the district, are frequently displayed with satisfactory results; and, indeed, on every opportunity the librarian should make the room of current living interest to the children.

=500.= In almost all these activities voluntary help from interested people may be had and should be welcomed. Large picture collections have in some places been provided almost entirely by this means, and every town has people in it who would help as lecturers, leaders of circles, collectors and arrangers of exhibits. The wider the lay interest taken in the department, provided it is directed judiciously, the greater its success is likely to be.

=501. Library Lessons.=--Library lessons may form a useful part of the activities of the department. Teachers may bring their classes to the libraries in school hours and give lessons on subjects in connexion with the ordinary school lessons. Such lessons are frequently given in the Cardiff children’s rooms, and in giving them the teachers use the books, illustrations, maps and other material in the rooms, and are able to reinforce these with books or materials from the adult departments. There is a novelty in lessons given in such conditions which removes them in the child’s mind from ordinary lessons and gives them emphasis. A pleasure is added to them if the children are allowed a space at their conclusion in which they may indulge in individual reading according to their own choice from the shelves.

=502.= The library is perhaps more directly concerned with lessons in which the library itself is the subject taught, and these lessons fall to the staff. A preliminary lesson may consist of a simple demonstration of the purpose and means of access to the library--its divisions, cataloguing and classification, and an exercise in finding books; and this may be followed by other lessons on the making, use and care of books; and other lessons may follow on reference work, subject-hunting, the use of periodical indexes, bibliographical aids, dictionaries, maps, etc. They must be purely objective to succeed, and everything described should be placed before the children. These lessons are also given as a rule in school hours, and inspectors have shown themselves willing to regard them as part of the school curriculum. Their value both to the children and to the libraries is very great.

=503. Classification and Cataloguing.=--The classification and catalogue methods of the department should be preliminary to those of the adult departments; but they may be simpler with advantage. Young children would probably find the decimal classification in its orthodox form too intricate. At the same time the system that they use should be in its essentials the main classification of the library. The following simplified form of the decimal system may be suggestive; it is not meant to be more than that:

0 General Works

01 Bibliographies. Aids to Reading, Catalogues, etc. 03 Encyclopædias 05 Children’s magazines 07 Newspapers

1 Philosophy

10 General 17 Temperance 19 Conduct

2 Religion

20 General 22 The Bible and Bible Stories 29 Mythology. Stories involving the Gods

3 Sociology

30 General 32 Government 35 Army 36 Navy 37 Schools and Colleges 39 Etiquette, Customs 395 Legends, Folk-lore Fairy Tales go in 833

4 Language

40 General 42 Grammars and Readers 45 Composition, Essay-writing, Précis-writing

5 Science (Mathematical and Natural)

50 General 51 Mathematics, Arithmetic, Geometry 52 Astronomy 53 Physics, Electricity 54 Chemistry 55 Earth, Sea, Air (Geology, Oceanography, and Meteorology) 56 Fossils 57 General natural history; Outdoor books 58 Trees; Flowers 59 Man; Races; Origin and Development

6 Useful Arts

60 General 61 Ambulance 615 Gymnastics 62 Engineering (Steam, Gas, Electrical) 629 Aerial Engineering 63 Farming 64 Domestic Economy, Cooking 65 Railways, Shipping 66 Fishing and Fisheries Angling is 79 67 Trades and Industries, alphabetically 69 Building

7 Fine Arts

70 General 71 Gardens 72 Buildings (Architecture) 73 Sculpture 74 Drawing 75 Painting 77 Photography 78 Music 79 Games

8 Literature

80 General 81 Poetry 82 Drama 83 Stories and Tales 833 Fairy Tales 835 Animal and Other Natural History Fables 84 Essays

9 Travel (Including Geography and Descriptions of Countries)

90 General 91 Atlases and Geographies 912 Travels in Great Britain 914 Travels in Europe 915 Travels in Asia 916 Travels in Africa 917 Travels in N. America 918 Travels in Central and South America 919 Travels in Australasia; The Polar Regions; Isolated Islands 92 Lives of Famous People: Collective 921 Lives: Individual Alphabetically by persons written about

93 History

930 Ancient History 940 History (Modern) of Europe 942 History of Great Britain and Ireland 95 History of Asia 96 History of Africa 97 History of N. America 98 History of Central and S. America 99 History of Australasia and Isolated Islands

This outline can be expanded as desired without difficulty or dislocation.

=504.= Similar principles may well govern the cataloguing of the children’s library. It is well that youngsters should become familiar with the arrangement and use of sheaf and card as well as of printed catalogues. Moreover, the Anglo-American code is here the best basis upon which to do the cataloguing. It should be remembered that the children use the catalogue, or ought to use it, and not adults. All recondite bibliographical terms, and abbreviations except the simplest, should be avoided; and explanatory notes should be written in language such as the children may be expected to understand. Indeed, a rule that all cataloguing should be expressed in such language--we mean all that is added to the title--would be a safe one to follow. Some extended rules, with examples, which may prove helpful in this matter are given in Berwick Sayers’s _The Children’s Library_, chapter iii. It will be seen that no particular _form_ of catalogue is recommended; librarians differ widely upon this question. Perhaps the best printed catalogue is that issued for schools by the Pittsburgh Library: a catalogue in divisions corresponding to the grades in the schools, in which each division contains books which are thought to make appeal to the children in the grade it represents.

=505.= Reading lists follow the same rules. These, to make any useful appeal, should be presented simply, attractively, and be rigidly selective. A few titles, well presented, are likely to have more effect than lists so long that they frighten the child.