The Small Library/Chapter 5
One of the most important varieties of the Small Library which has remained practically undeveloped in the United Kingdom, is the School Library, which is sometimes looked upon as a plaything, sometimes as an unnecessary adjunct to educational work. In the United States great progress has been made in the co-ordination of school and municipal library work, but even in that land of unlimited resources, the school library is not such an intimate and useful factor in the life of the average scholar as it might be made. But there is a vast difference in the methods and aims of the two countries in all that concerns school libraries. In the United Kingdom we have a series of isolated, and more or less successful, experiments, which are not recognized by any central educational authority, and not, it must be admitted, directed towards any specific or well-defined end. In America, the school library movement is in touch with both the State and Federal authorities, while in many cases, the sympathies of the Municipal authorities are enlisted as well. The library and educational authorities of America are in close touch with each other, and work hand in hand, but in Britain the same authorities are scarcely on speaking terms, save, as already said, in a few iolated instances. It will be enough if, in illustration of this, it is stated that although we have many good, bad and indifferent collegiate, public school, board school, church school, academic, and Sunday school libraries, they simply exist as concessions to a kind of convention, and not as useful and working units of a great national system of education and literary recreation. It is true that this ideal has not yet been attained in America—indeed, there is a good deal of expenditure of fruitless energy and waste of library resources there—but they have secured the interest of the Central Education Department, and they are gradually assembling, coordinating and applying their library resources in an economical and profitable manner.
It is not the purpose of this book to describe methods of organization or work which will be equally suitable for school libraries like those at Harrow, Eton or Charterhouse, and the small collections in elementary schools, but to give a few general hints which may be useful in strengthening and improving the smaller school libraries of the country. The ordinary elementary and Sunday school libraries are not selected on very broad or useful lines, nor are they worked on the best and simplest methods. The scholastic mind seems to have a reverence for the goody-goody in literature, which is either a tradition, or the outcome of a long struggle with unruly boys and girls. This has perhaps brought about the opinion that mild, sloppy, intellectual fare may prove effectual in curbing healthy animal spirits. It is hard to say what merit may lurk in this dietetic policy. It may safely be assumed, however, that diet will have no effect of an appreciable kind in subduing the strong, natural and boisterous spirits of the healthy young. There are plenty of instances on actual record of very brave Arab warriors reared on nothing but rice and dates; Irish heroes fed chiefly on potatoes; Scottish soldiers on oatmeal; English men of might on beef and beer; and Boer fighters on biltong and water; so that no accurate forecast can be made of the future behaviour of a youth or maiden fed on bread and milk or tea and toast. As it is with the alimentary, so it is with the intellectual diet. A course of Sandford and Merton plus A Candle Lighted by the Lord, and similar pieces of morbid religious reading, will not model our Tom Sawyers, Stalkys, and Tom Browns, into the uniform bundles of obedient deference, so greatly prized by many teachers. It might be less trouble for the schoolmasters, but it would be very bad for the boys and girls if their reading or training turned them into milksops or prudes.
Many guides to the formation of libraries for the young have been issued, and the best of these have been compiled by practical librarians, and not by teachers. Usually, the schoolmaster's list is full of vapid, colourless and goody-goody stuff which children will not read. They cannot be expected to take great delight in literature which is reminiscent of school lessons, or which is calculated to hurt their self-respect, by being what a London lad once contemptuously called them—'Kids' Books'. The Kids' Books' issued by the various religio-commercial agencies, with their extremely proper estimates of good and evil, and their awful slaughter of good and innocent little heroes and heroines, who are made to die young from malignant diseases, as a reward for virtue, is just the very class of literature which every healthy-minded boy or girl will repudiate. Yet, this is the kind of books with which most of our Sunday and elementary schools are supplied, if any kind of library exists at all. Now, instead of this utterly feeble stuff, which is more likely to induce boredom than inculcate moral principle, why not start with a small reference library, which will simplify studies, and aid scholars in their pursuit of knowledge? Both teachers and students would benefit by the presence of a small, up-to-date reference collection in some accessible part of the school, and the books noted at the end of this chapter will probably meet the needs of most elementary schools. The same books, or others of a similar kind, should find a place in the reference collections which ought to be found in every Municipal Juvenile Library. One of the most effectual hindrances to the selection of suitable books for school libraries is the want of sufficient funds. It is the same disability which hampers the work of municipal libraries, and indeed everybody, save a few American and Hebrew millionaires. Unless an adequate grant is made for the purchase of new, and the renewal of worn-out books, no school library can possibly be equipped with good books, or maintained in a fair condition of efficiency. Most of the school libraries are divisible into two categories—the Used and the Unused. The former are freely accessible to all the scholars, and the books are generally worn to rags, because there is no fund from which to replace them. The latter are kept in locked presses, under the care of a schoolmaster, and the books are only occasionally doled out to the boys who give least trouble, as a reward for the successful repression of their natural animal spirits. The contents of both kinds of library are not distinguished by much taste or catholicity in selection, and many of the books are faded 'chestnuts' which no self-respecting scholar will waste time over if he or she can get anything with more life in it. The school libraries in question generally contain some volumes of Peter Parley's Annual; a few ragged Ballantynes, Kingstons, and Vernes; the Quiver; a ragged assortment of Chatterbox; a missionary record or two; Pinnock's Catechisms; Corner's History of England; and similar accurate and stimulating works, many of which are undoubtedly the gifts of pious donors who wished to make room in their own collections for something fresh. On a rather higher plane, but still suffering somewhat from the withering influences of redtape uniformity and goody-goodyism, are the lists of books for school libraries and prizes prepared by the Education Committee of the London County Council. Here the selection is much more catholic and extensive, but here also the Henty-Ballantyne-A.L.O.E. influence is strongly marked.
It will be sufficient to make reference to the following work for a good deal of useful information concerning Sunday school libraries—institutions, by the way, which are no longer so much cultivated as in former days: Sunday School and Village Libraries, with a List of Suitable Books and Hints on Management, by Thomas Greenwood. London: Jas. Clarke & Co. 1902. This little work is the best textbook on the subject hitherto published, and its author is the chief authority on municipal libraries in Britain. It only requires revision in the book-selection department to bring it well up to date, and this can be done by comparing it with the lists published in more recent guides. The general administration and care of School Libraries differ but little from the method described for small municipal libraries, and there is no reason, therefore, for traversing ground already fully covered. Instead, this chapter will be fitly concluded with lists of the authors and books suggested as suitable and useful for Juvenile Reference and Lending Libraries, whether attached to schools or municipal libraries.
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N—Literary Forms.
Nield. Guide to the best Historical Novels and Tales.
Grainger. Index to Poetry.
Collection of Ballads of England and Scotland.
Collections of Songs and other Anthologies.
Palgrave. Children's Treasury of Lyrical Poetry.
Henley, ed. Lyra heroica.
Collections of Anecdotes, Proverbs, Mottoes, and Books of Quotations.
Brewer Dictionary of Quotations.
Bartlett. Familiar Quotations.
1,001 Anecdotes by Miles.
1,001 Animal Anecdotes by Miles.
Christy. Proverbs and Maxims of all Ages.
O-W—History and Geography.
Ollier. Universal History.
Duruy. History of the World.
Low and Pulling. Dictionary of English History.
Blair. Chronological Tables.
Haydn. Dictionary of Dates.
Chisholm. Gazetteer of the World.
Mill. International Geography.
Johnston's Royal Atlas (small edition).
Histories of England, France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Italy, Russia, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, Rome, India, China, Japan, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, British Colonies.
X—Biography.
Chambers' Biographical Dictionary.
Dictionary of National Biography (Index).
Books of Flags and Crests.
Who's Who.
Hulme (F. E.). Flags of the World.
LENDING BOOKS FOR JUVENILE LIBRARIES.
FICTION.
'A.L.O.E.' See Tucker.
Adams (H. C.). Set.
Alcott (Louisa M.). Set.
Andersen (Hans C.). Fairy Tales.
Contes. [French text.]
Marchen. [German text].
Andrews (Jane). Set.
Animal Autobiographies (Series).
Arabian Nights Entertainments.
Asbjörnsen (P. C.). Set. [Fairy Tales].
Atkinson (J. C.). Set.
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——The Water Babies (also told to the children by Amy Steedman).
Kingston (Wm. H. G.). Set.
Kipling (Rudyard). Captains Courageous.
——1. Jungle Book.
——2. Second Jungle Book.
Knatchbull-Hugessen (E. H.), Lord Brabourne. Set.
Lamb (C. and M.). Mrs. Leicester's School.
——Tales from Shakespeare.
Lancaster (Wm. J. C.), ’Harry Collingwood’, pseud. Set.
Lang (Andrew) ed. Set. of fairy books
Lanier (S.). Set.
Leighton (Robert). Set.
Macdonald (George). At the Back of the North Wind.
——Gutta-percha Willie.
——Light Princess.
——1. Princess and the Goblin.
——2. Princess and the Curdie.
——Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood.
——Rough Shaking.
Macgregor (Mary). Set. (Stories of King Arthur, also adaptations of the Pilgrim's Progress and The Heroes.)
Macleod (Mary). Set.
Malory (Sir T.). (Adaptations of the Story of King Arthur by Clay, Cutler, Frost, Greene, Macgregor, Macleod, Pyle and others.)
Marryat (Frederick). Children of the New Forest.
——The Litile Savage.
——Masterman Ready.
——The Mission.
——Settlers in Canada.
Marshall (Emma.) Set.
Meade (L. T.). Set.
Miles (Alfred H.) ed. Fifty-two Stories Series.
Molesworth (Mrs. Mary L.). Set.
Moore (F. Frankfort). Set. (Sea stories).
Nesbit (Edith). Set.
’Ouida.' See De La Ramée
Parry (Edward A.). Set.
Perry (W. C.). Boy's Iliad.
——Boy's Odyssey.
Pickering (Edgar). Set.
Pierson (Clara D.). Set.
Price (Eleanor C.). In the Lion's Mouth.
Ragozin (Z. A.). Frithjof.
——Siegfried.
Reed (Taibot Baines). Set.
Reid (Mayne). Afloat in the Forest.
——The Boy Slaves.
——The Boy Tar.
——1. The Bush Boys.
——2. The Young Yägers.
——3. The Giraffe Hunters
——Bruin.
——1. The Plant Hunters.
——2. The Cliff Climbers
——1. Ran away to Sea.
——2. The Ocean Waifs.
——The Vee-Boers.
Robin Hood, Stories of. (Adapted for Children by Creswick, M'Spadden, Marsh, Pyle and others.
Russell (W. Clark). Master Rockafellar's Voyage.
Saunders (Mrs. Marshall). Set.
Scott (Michael). Cruise of the ’Midge'.
——Tom Cringle's Log.
Scott (Sir Walter). See Bell's Reading Books, also abridged editions of Ivanhoe, A Legend of Montrose, The Talisman, with notes and a short biography by A. Lang.
Scudder (H. E.). Children's Book.
Sewell (Anna). Black Beauty.
Shakespeare. Prose adaptations by Lamb, Lang, Lanier, Quiller-Couch, Townsend and others.
Sharp (Evelyn). Set.
Smith (Mrs. Castle), ’Brenda'. Set.
Smith (Hannah), 'Hesba Stretton '. Set.
Spenser. Prose adaptations by Macleod, Royde-Smith, Towry.
Stables (Wm. Gordon-). See Gordon-Stables.
Stanley (Sir Henry M.). My Dark Companions.
——My Kalulu.
Stevenson (Robert Louis). Treasure Island.
Stowe (Mrs. H. Beecher). Uncle Tom's Cabin: told to the children by H. E. Marshall.
——See also Bell's Reading Books.
Strang (Herbert). Set.
'Stretton (Hesba)'. See Smith (Hannah).
Swift (Jonathan). Gulliver's Travels: told to the children by John Lang.
——Voyages de G. [French text: abridged for children.]
Tabor (Eliza). Set. (Pub. all anon., When I was a little Girl, Eight Years Old and others.)
Tucker (Mrs. C. M.), ’A.L.O.E’ Set.
Turner (Ethel). Set.
Verne (Jules). Set.
Walton (Mrs. O. F.). Set.
Warner (Susan), ’Elizabeth Wetherall'. Wide, Wide World.
Whistler (Charles W.). Set.
Wiggin (Kate D.). Set. (Children's stories).
Woolsey (Sarah C.), ’Susan Coolridge'. What Katy Did Series.
Wyss (Johann R.). Swiss Family Robinson.
——Le Robinson Suisse. {French text.]
——Willis the Pilot.
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