Part 11
In the case of large, 50,000 v. libraries and over, less care need be taken, both on account of expenditure of money and on account of worthlessness of the book itself. A few hundred dollars' worth of rubbish, more or less, does not count and almost any book no matter how poor comes in use some time. But in the case of the small, 5000 v. library or under, with little money to expend and the whole realm of knowledge to cover, it is different. Of course the covering will be scanty and thin, but it will do for the first layer. They should buy but few books in philosophy and religion, more in sociology, only the latest and most popular in the arts and sciences, comparatively fewer in literature and more in history, biography and travel.
Of course fiction, adult and juvenile, must also be bought and at first a disproportionately larger amount in many cases. Too much reliance should not be placed on what some larger library has or on what the neighboring library has.
Avoid imitation and duplication, especially the latter. Now that inter-library loans are coming in, each small library in the more thickly settled portions of the country may be able to supplement its neighbor. Travelling libraries should also help out the smaller libraries which can ill afford to sink a large part of their annual book-fund in evanescent fiction, which soon moulds on the shelves.
As the commissions become better organized, they should also be able to send expensive reference works for the use of study clubs, and so help the small libraries all the more.
The needs of the constituency should be carefully studied and the most pressing should be attended to at first, others can wait. As to buying technical books for those engaged in manufacturing, I think a more conservative policy is now favored. Better wait a while and feel your way before spending much on these high priced books which rapidly go out of date. Theoretically the operatives of a cotton mill should be much interested in all that relates to cotton, but practically when their hours of drudgery are over they are more inclined to a novel, if inclined to read anything. And how much encouragement have they to read in most factories? Better begin with the owners, who may be on your board, or the superintendent, who may live on your street. As liberal purchases as possible should be made in reference books--always selecting the latest and freshest to start on. For example Seyffert's "Antiquities," Bulfinch's "Age of fable," and Murray's "Mythology" will serve better than Smith's books, now out of date and expensive beyond all return for the money invested in them. More will be said along this line under head of cost. Of course in a library of this size, no foreign books should be bought other than perhaps some fiction.
I thoroughly believe in America for Americans. Foreigners would not buy our books under the same circumstances and why should we buy theirs? Reciprocity is good policy. Even in the case of English books most of those on geology, botany, zoology, on fishing and hunting, are valueless to us, by reason of climatic, or other local conditions. Their local history and antiquities are quite as unprofitable for most of our public libraries.
2. _As to the matter of outside experts._--Most of us have seen bad examples of the work of outside experts, in fact I think we are safe in saying there are more bad than good examples. In the case of arts and sciences it is quite the fashion to refer the book list to the nearest high school or college professor, with the idea that in his line he knows all there is to be known about these books. In some cases he is practically given _carte blanche_ and his selection is bought without a murmur. The natural consequence is that in many libraries are to be found high priced technical works of momentary interest, fit only for class-room or laboratory use, too deep for general reading and soon out of date. Most of these so-called experts are not even competent to select works for their own department, let alone the public library.
Personal bias, the quarrels of investigators, loyalty to instructors, jealousy of other workers in the same lines are powerful factors which far outweigh the question of real merit. In New England many of the libraries are overloaded with good, blue, orthodox theology, bought on the suggestion and for the sole use of the dominie who was on the library committee. It was a glorious opportunity for him and it has rarely been neglected. These libraries are now really addicted to this habit; it has become a species of intoxication with them and they continue the pernicious practice.
3. _Choice by committee._--One of the latest fads is selection by voting or by committee. This usually results in a mediocre selection, all the really good books or pictures being left out, or else a preponderance of votes for a few favorites. Voting choice is seen in the list of books sent out each year from New York State Library as a result of voting by members of the New York State Library Association. This is a list of the 50 best books for a village library from a list of 500 books, including fiction, adult and juvenile. Of course fiction takes a large per cent., while the remaining few books make a most patchy lot. The first list is too large and the last list is too small. Another publication by the Regents of the State of New York is a list of pictures for schools--not so much selected as neglected by a jury of 75 persons. Between religious prejudice, prudishness, peace policy and finical art criticism only the husks of architecture and stately ruins are left for the youths of the Empire State to gaze upon. Think of leaving out the "Sistine Madonna," "1807," "Christ in the Temple," "Queen Louise" and the "Horse fair." Some of these were omitted in cold blood because they were "poor and popular" and "pupils would like them and should not." Most of us, however, have gotten beyond the idea of trying to make people read George Eliot when they want Mary Jane Holmes. Nothing I have seen in the nature of criticism is so cold, hard and repelling as this. It is to be hoped no other state will follow this example, but that is just the perniciousness of such lists made out by people who are supposed to be experts, but who too often fail worse than common mortals. This whole matter of selection by committee is virtually begging the question of individual responsibility.
4. _Choice by librarian experts._--This seems to be the most satisfactory solution of the problem. It is true that many if not most of the existing small (5000-10,000) libraries have not or can not afford a trained librarian. But it is also true that more and more are employing trained people as organizers and an increasing number are retaining their organizer as librarian. It is their study and their business to know what books are best suited to the needs of the community. Even should we go beyond that into the larger public library, the reference library or the college library I still hold that the librarian is the best judge of books for the library. His taste is sure to be more catholic, wholly unbiassed and he makes a more even and better rounded selection on the whole. In the small public library he is able to carefully study the constituency and then knowing what books are standard in other places he makes the necessary allowances for the case in hand. The time has, I trust, wholly gone by when the local editor, local clergyman, and local schoolmaster have the pleasure of picking out their favorite books, or of ordering "standard sets" or the "classics" in history and literature at the public expense. Most of these books are on the shelves to-day faded but not worn, the leaves not even cut and usually only the first volume slightly used.
Of course books in useful art and sciences were largely overlooked. Nowadays library committees are turning more and more to the librarian, knowing that he has made a study of book selection and that they will get better results to leave it with him. This is as it should be and the librarian should not lower himself by going outside for assistance on any line. I count it as slipshod and a confession of ignorance for any librarian to tag around after outside "experts." Let him study up his subject and master it himself. There are only a few in which he cannot easily surpass outsiders, and profiting by his knowledge of the many, which enables him to do that part quickly and easily, let him pay more attention to the hard and less familiar subjects. The librarian who delights in religion, philosophy or folklore says of lists on biology, botany, steam-engineering or sanitation--"I leave all that to Professor So and So--of course he knows all about it." Why should he, more than the librarian? What is the librarian for, if not to know things? Is it not time to turn from the material things and concern ourselves more with a higher standard of scholarship and more outside work in our profession? And for the small libraries of 5000 v. or under there are the library commissions who are supposed to, and do, advise them. There is difference with the commissions, some are in closer touch with the local situation than others, some are more conscientious than others about costly books, and some are given to this "expert" business which I have named, but on the whole they are doing good work and bid fair to do better.
5. _Matter of cost._--This should be carefully considered. I hold it to be little short of criminal to recommend high priced books for libraries of limited means. By high priced books I mean those costing over $5 a volume. This of course does not apply to reference books. And yet in one annual list such books constantly appear, as not only suggestions but, considering the source, as recommendations or even commands. I am thankful the Wisconsin Library Commission has taken up this work systematically and is doing all it can to discourage such foolish waste of money. The worst example is the "Encyclopædia Britannica" now from 25 to 10 years behind the times and never a satisfactory book of reference at its best. Take De Bry's "Mycetazoa," it stands on the shelves of dozens of libraries, leaves uncut, totally unused, each copy meaning at least four dollars wasted money. These are only given as an example--there might be hundreds of them. There are scores of books now published and more coming out every day on various questions of philosophy, sociology, science, art and particularly literature and history priced from $1 to $2.50 which are far superior for practical purposes to the heavy weight monographs at $5 a volume and upwards. You thus get two or three books on the same subject for the money, and in a small library this is a vital question. The money must bring in the largest possible number of good books.
BOOK REVIEWS, BOOK LISTS, AND ARTICLES ON CHILDREN'S READING: ARE THEY OF PRACTICAL VALUE TO THE CHILDREN'S LIBRARIAN?
BY CAROLINE M. HEWINS, _Hartford (Ct.) Public Library_.
A children's librarian has three sources of reliance in the choice or purchase of books. They are: 1, Book reviews in current or earlier periodicals; 2, Lists, graded or ungraded, for libraries; 3, Articles on children's reading in books or periodicals.
1. The children's librarian, or any librarian, who orders children's books from reviews often finds the books entirely different from what the description has led her to suppose. Even if there is no positive untruth in a notice, it is often misleading from the lack of a standard of comparison with the best books for children.
The papers oftenest taken in a country household or small library are a daily or semi-weekly from the nearest large town or city, a religious weekly, and an agricultural weekly or monthly, sometimes all three, oftener only one or two, and it is from the notices and advertisements with quoted notices in these papers that estimates of books must often be formed. Libraries and library trustees who send book lists from such sources as these to a state public library commission are often surprised that they do not receive what they ask for, and write anxious inquiries as to why certain books have not been bought. "There surely can be no objection to them," they say, "for we took the titles from reviews in the ---- or ---- or ----," naming denominational papers. Now, lest the Children's Section should be accused of unfairness and denominational prejudices, I shall quote no reviews from these papers, except one which came from a leading religious weekly taken by the household in whose pew I have a seat. It is of Eden Phillpotts' "Human boy," a series of sketches of English schoolboy life, which is dismissed with this remarkable sentence: "The scene here, too, is in the west, and various hunting experiences are recorded." The librarian who orders that book for boys greedy for big game will be disappointed!
Such a mistake as this is not common, but reviews in both religious and secular papers are often perfunctory and meaningless. One reason of this is that many books are published for the Christmas trade, between the 15th of September and the 15th of December, when they come into newspaper offices with a rush, until they are piled in stacks on the desk of the hapless reviewer, and hastily noticed, sometimes by title only. In a new edition of Elizabeth Sheppard's fine, but forgotten novel, "Rumour," whose keynote is the quotation from "Lycidas" on the title-page,
"Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, Nor in the glistering foil Set off to the world, nor in broad Rumour lies, But lives and spreads aloft in those pure eyes And perfect witness of all-judging Jove,"
the reviewer did not understand the meaning of the lines, and called the book "a good example of the working, influence, and effect of rumour." On one of our own local papers not long ago there was a review of Mrs. Barr's "Maid of Maiden Lane," which was referred to as the sequel to her "Beau of Orange River." Even in newspapers fortunate enough to command the services of specialists for history and science, and an additional critic for novels, the children's books are hastily noticed, sometimes by the youngest reporter in his spare minutes. In smaller offices the task of reviewing all books falls to the hard-worked editor, who is, like Jacob Riis, also his own "reporter, publisher and advertising agent," but whose sense of literary values is often not in proportion to his knowledge of state politics or local reforms.
It is unfortunate that in the newspapers of as high a class as the _Outlook_, _Independent_ and _Dial_ the notices of children's books are often carelessly written, and show the lack of a standard of comparison. In the _Outlook_ for Nov. 27, 1897, Richard Pryce's "Elementary Jane," a most unchildlike book, is classed among books for children, and "Pansy" and "Elsie" are recommended in other numbers.
In the _Independent_, where notices of books for older readers are written with discrimination, Ellis's "Klondike nuggets" is described: "Full of lively adventures and exciting experiences, and is told in a straightforward, off-hand style just suited to the purpose." (Oct. 6, 1898.) There is nothing absolutely untrue in this, but there is nothing to guide a reader in comparing it with better books. One of Alger's heroes is mentioned as "An admirable boy with wonderful ability to take care of himself" (Oct. 20, 1898), and a book by Stratemeyer as "a stirring tale, told with enthusiasm." (Oct. 6, 1898.) Stratemeyer is an author who mixes "would" and "should," has the phraseology of a country newspaper, as when he calls a supper "an elegant affair" and a girl "a fashionable miss," and follows Oliver Optic closely in his plots and conversations.
Mrs. Cheever's "Little Mr. Van Vere of China," with its cheap sentiment and well-worn plot of a stolen child coming to his own at last, is commended as "well made, well illustrated." (_Dial_, Dec. 6, 1898.) A notice in the religious paper mentioned above says, "He is a thoroughly fascinating little fellow, and his story is told most acceptably." One of Amanda Douglas's tales is spoken of as "A story with a fine moral influence, yet not preachy, in the end leaving in the reader's mind the sense of having been in good company." (_Independent_, Dec. 15, 1898.)
One notice of "Elsie on the Hudson" is: "The multitude of young people who have read the Elsie books, by Martha Finley, will eagerly welcome this volume by the same author. It has to do with American history in the days of the Revolutionary war, and the style is simple and pleasing." In another: "Miss Martha Finley continues also the instruction which is mixed up with that young woman's experiences." (_Dial_, Dec. 6, 1898.)
It is, I think, the same periodical, though I have not been able to verify the quotation, which commends Harry Steele Morrison's "Yankee boy's success" thus: "The book is interesting, full of push and go. Boys will read it with a gusto; yet they must remember that what this lucky Yankee boy did is not what they all can do." Another number which puts a just estimate on Master Morrison as a "very unlovely and unpleasant sort of boy, whose impudence and enterprise ought later to fit him for a place on a yellow journal," entirely mistakes the purpose of Pugh's "Tony Drum," a realistic story of London slum life, and classes it as a book for boys. (_Dial_, Dec. 16, 1898.)
The _Outlook_ says of Frances Hodgson Burnett's mawkish "Editha's burglar," which was well parodied in _Punch_ by Anstey in his "Burglar Bill": "This story of the queer, loving little girl and her daring and successful effort to protect her mother, and the equally queer burglar, is too well known in play and story to need comment." (Dec. 10, 1898.) This story is in almost all library and school lists, even the best selected and classified. The same number calls "Mr. Van Vere" "a charming story." (The adjective is used for four different works for young people in that week's grist.)
Even Noah Brooks, in a signed article in the _Bookbuyer_ (Dec., 1898), gives praise to Drysdale and Stratemeyer, commends the uninteresting Chilhowee books, refers to Pansy's as "strong and helpful," and one of Amanda Douglas's as "rich in chastened and refined sentiment." He mentions Oliver P. Tunk's "Awful alphabet" as "a fit companion for 'A coon alphabet.'" Perhaps it is, but when libraries and schools are circulating Jane Andrews's "Seven little sisters" to teach the brotherhood and sisterhood of all nations, and teachers, in the language of Professor Thurston, of the Chicago Normal School, are "encouraging each nationality to contribute the best it has of song, story, game, home customs and occupations to the life of the school," it is wrong to buy a book for a white child in which black children are held up to ridicule, as they have been many times in _Harper's Young People_. "Blackberries" and "Comical Coons" are also recommended in the _Dial_ (Dec. 16, 1897), where Gertrude Smith's "Ten little comedies," a book entirely different in spirit from her "Arabella and Araminta" stories; Marion Harland's "Old-field school girl," which has a story of horrible cruelty of a schoolmaster to a child, and is not meant for children; the silly "Elaine" book, and the equally silly and sometimes coarse "Father Goose" are favorably reviewed.
The _Nation's_ reviews of children books have lately not been up to the old standard, as for instance a review of Sydney Reid's would-be funny "Josey and the chipmunk" (Dec. 13, 1900), which is called "a perfectly delightful child's book, nearly as good as the 'Alice' books, and, indeed, might be pronounced quite as good if Lewis Carroll, like Shakespeare, had not 'thought of it first.'"
It will be seen by these instances that reviews help children's librarians very little, and that it is impossible under present conditions for a library to determine the worth of a book without seeing it.
2. There have been in the last 25 years many lists of children's books by libraries, schools, denominational societies and other organizations. The earlier lists, although interesting to a student of the evolution of the Children's Section, have so many books out of print or superseded that they do not concern us now, except in that they are not made for very young children, and often have a profusion of material which is over the heads of boys and girls below, or even in, the high school age. Some of them are made from hearsay or from other book lists, without an intimate knowledge, or indeed any knowledge at all, of books recommended, as in the following instance: A paper read at a library meeting and afterward printed in the report of a state librarian describes the "library ladder" as "a list of books beginning with a tale of adventure. From this the reader's attention will be drawn to the next in order, leading on and out, until finally the child will be unconsciously delving into the mysteries of science; for example, we could first take Butterworth's Indian story, 'The wampum belt': next, Brooks's 'Story of the American Indian'; from this lead to Bancroft's 'Native races,' and finally various United States histories."
Any one who has ever seen the five ponderous volumes of Bancroft's "Native races of the Pacific States" knows that although it has some value as a work of reference, not as a history, for older readers, it is entirely useless as a stepping-stone for children, who can easily go without its aid from Brooks's, or better, Grinnell's "Story of the Indian" to a good one-volume United States history, or even to John Fiske or Parkman. It is no more meant for boys and girls than the other thirty-four volumes on the history of the Pacific coast completed by Bancroft and his corps of assistants.
Some tests of a library or school list are: Are the books in it chosen for their permanent value? Has the maker of the list read them? Will it tell an overworked teacher or librarian what the best modern straightforward stories in simple English are, the best life of Lafayette without any long words like "evacuation," or the best account of a salamander in language that a child of 10 can understand? A list for teachers is not a help in choosing books for children, unless from the point of view of child-study, which has another place than on the shelves of a children's room.
In one list the "Dotty Dimple" and "Flaxie Frizzle" books are recommended for the third-reader grade. Children who are in this grade cannot read the ungrammatical baby-talk easily, and if they could it would demoralize their English.
Another has for the seventh grade a part of the "Library of wonders," translated from the French, and out of date 20 years ago. Teachers should be careful in buying books of popular science that they are modern, and also written in a style that makes them attractive to boys and girls. In a long experience in libraries I have never found that boys and girls liked the "Library of wonders."