Library Work with Children | Page 4

Libraries. (Public Libraries, 1908, P. 349.) JOHN
COTTON DANA.
Story-telling--A Public Library Method. (Child Conference for
Research and Welfare, 1909, P. 225.) FRANCES JENKINS OLCOTT.
Story-telling as a Library Tool. (Child Conference for Research and
Welfare, 1909, P. 39.) ALICE A. BLANCHARD.
Report of the Committee on Story-Telling. (Playground, 1910, P. 160.)
ANNIE CARROLL MOORE.
Reading Clubs for Older Boys and Girls. (Child Conference for
Research and Welfare, 1909, p. 13) CAROLINE MARIA HEWINS.
Library Clubs for Boys and Girls. (Library Journal, 1911, p. 251.)
MARIE HAMMOND MILLIKEN.
Library Reading Clubs for Young People. (Library Journal, 1912, p
547.) ANNA COGSWELL TYLER.
Home Libraries. (International Congress of Charities, Correction, and
Philanthropy, 1893, Second Section, Report, p. 144.) CHARLES
WESLEY BIRTWELL
Home Libraries. (Library Journal, 1896, p. 60.) MARY SALOME
FAIRCHILD.
Library Day at the Playgrounds. (Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.
Monthly Bulletin, 1901, p. 275.) MEREDYTH WOODWARD.
Library Work in Summer Playgrounds. (A. L. A. Proceedings, 1911, p.
246.) GERTRUDE ELIZABETH ANDRUS.
The Selection of Books for Sunday School Libraries and Their
Introduction to Children. (Library Journal, 1882, p. 250.) SAMUEL
SWETT GREEN.
The Children's Museum in Brooklyn. (Library Journal, 1910, p. 149.)
MIRIAM S. DRAPER.
Work with Children at the Colored Branch of the Louisville Free
Public Library. (Library Journal, 1910, p. 160.) RACHEL D. HARRIS.
The Foreign Child at a St. Louis Branch. (Library Journal, 191, p. 851)
JOSEPHINE MARY MCPIKE.

LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN
HISTORY AND GENERAL DISCUSSION
The history of library work with children is yet to be written. From the
bequest made to West Cambridge by Dr. Ebenezer Learned, of money
to purchase "such books as will best promote useful knowledge and the
Christian virtues" to the present day of organized work with children
--of the training of children's librarians, of cooperative evaluated lists
of books, of methods of extension-- the development has been gradual,
yet with a constantly broadening point of view.
A number of libraries have claimed the honor of being the first to
establish children's work--a fact which in itself seems to show that the
movement was general rather than sporadic. The library periodicals
contain many interesting accounts of these beginnings, a number of
which have been mentioned in the articles included in this volume.
Certain personalities stand out very clearly in the history of the early
days, and many of the same ones are still closely associated with
children's work in its later developments. The Library Journal says
editorially in 1914: "Probably the credit of the initiative work for
children within a public library should remain with Mrs. Sanders of the
Pawtucket Library, who made the small folk welcome a generation ago,
when, in most public libraries, they were barred out by the rules and
regulations and frowned away by the librarian."
Three articles from Miss Caroline Hewins's pen have been chosen for
this collection, the last written thirty-two years later than the first. They
not only give details of the history of children's work, but reflect Miss
Hewins's personality and opinions.
A paper given by Miss Lutie E. Stearns at the Lake Placid Conference
of the American Library Association in 1894 has been referred to as
one of the most important contributions to the development of work
with children. This paper was printed in the first volume of this series,
"Library and school" (New York, 1914).
The leading editorial in The Library Journal for April, 1898, says:
"Within the past year or two the phrase 'the library and the
child'--which was itself new not so long ago--has been changed about.
It is now 'the child and the library,' and the transposition is suggestive
of the increasing emphasis given to that phase of library work that deals

with children, either by themselves or in connection with their schools."
Mr. Henry E. Legler, in the last paper in this group, traces the growth
of the "conception of what the duty of society is to the child"; claims
that the children's library should be one in a union of social forces, and
asserts that it contributes to the building of character, the enlargement
of narrow lives, the opening of opportunity to all alike.
Thus the modern viewpoint includes the ideals of democracy in
addition to Dr. Learned's emphasis on "knowledge" and "virtue" and
probably points the way to the future development of library work with
children.
PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND THE YOUNG
The special report on "Public Libraries in the United States of
America," published in 1876 by the U. S. Bureau of Education includes
the following paper by Mr. W. I. Fletcher, in which he advocates the
removal of age-restriction and emphasizes the importance of choosing
only those books which "have something positively good about them."
This and the following eight papers give, in some measure, a history of
library work with children.
William Isaac Fletcher