Library Work with Children | Page 9

in communication with and under the influence
of these masters.
It only remains now to say that, as we have before intimated the public
library should be viewed as an adjunct of the public school system, and
to suggest that in one or two ways the school may work together with
the library in directing the reading of the young. There is the matter of
themes for the writing of compositions; by selecting subjects on which
information can be had at the library, the teacher can send the pupil to
the library as a student, and readily put him in communication with,
and excite his interest in, classes of books to which he has been a

stranger and indifferent. Again, in the study of the history of English
literature, a study which, to the credit of our teachers be it said, is being
rapidly extended, the pupils may be induced to take new interest, and
gain greatly in point of real culture by being referred for illustrative
matter to the public library.

BOYS' AND GIRLS' READING
This first of a series of yearly reports on "Reading for the young" was
made by Miss Caroline M. Hewins at the Cincinnati Conference of the
A. L. A. in 1882. It embodies answers from twenty-five librarians to
the question, "What are you doing to encourage a love of good reading
in boys and girls?"
Caroline Maria Hewins was born in Roxbury, Mass., October 10, 1846.
She attended high school in Boston; received her library training in the
Boston Athenaeum; taught in private schools for several years, and
took a year's special course in Boston University. In 1911 she received
an honorary degree of M.A. from Trinity College, Hartford. She has
been librarian in Hartford, Conn., for many years, from 1875 to 1892 in
the Hartford Library Association, since that time in the Hartford Public
Library. She has done editorial work for various magazines and has
contributed many articles to the library periodicals. Her list of "Books
for boys and girls," of which the third edition was published in 1915,
represents the result of many years' thoughtful and appreciative study
of children's literature. Library work with children owes to Miss
Hewins a debt of gratitude for her unusual contribution to the
establishment of high standards, the development of a broad vision, and
the maintenance of a wholesome, sympathetic, but not sentimental
point of view.
About the first of March I sent cards to the librarians of twenty-five of
the leading libraries of the country, asking, "What are you doing to
encourage a love of good reading in boys and girls?" and soon after
published a notice in the New York Evening Post and Nation, saying
that statements from librarians and teachers concerning their work in
the same direction would be gladly received The cards brought, in
almost every case, full answers; the newspaper notice has produced few
results.
The printed report of the Thomas Crane Public Library, Quincy, Mass.,

says: "The trustees have recently made a special effort to encourage the
use of the library in connection with the course of teaching in the
public schools. Under a rule adopted two years ago the teachers of
certain grades of schools are in the practice of borrowing a number of
those volumes they consider best adapted to the use of their scholars,
and keeping them in constant circulation among them. During the year
two lists of books for the use of the children in the public schools were
printed under the direction of the trustees. One of these lists contained
works in juvenile fiction; the other, biographies, histories, and books of
a more instructive character. All the works included were selected by
the trustees as being such as they would put in the hands of their own
children. The lists thus prepared were then given to the teachers of the
schools for gratuitous circulation among their scholars."
Mr. Green, of the Worcester, Mass., Free Public Library, writes: "The
close connection which exists between the library and the schools is
doing much to elevate the character of the reading of the boys and girls.
Many books are used for collateral reading, others to supplement the
instruction of text-books in geography and history, others still in the
employment of leisure hours in school. Boys and girls are led to read
good books and come to the library for similar ones. Lists of good
books are kept in the librarian's room, and are much used by teachers
and pupils."
Mr. Upton, of the Peabody Library, Peabody, Mass., gives as his
opinion: "If teachers did their duty, librarians would not be troubled as
to good reading. My experience of about thirty- five or forty years as a
public grammar-school teacher is, that teachers can control, to a great
extent, the