CHILDREN’S LIBRARIANS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29501, 1 May 1961, Page 18

CHILDREN’S LIBRARIANS

Advice Given On Work Children’s librarians were urged to get out among the "children milling around in the library,” to laugh and talk with them and to listen to what they had to say, by Miss A. K Elliot at the regional conference of the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Library Association yesterday. Miss Elliot said she considered there was a tendency for children's librarians to get too wrapped up in their administrative duties and, in some cases, to lose essential contact with their young readers. Speaking about “The Children’s Library Service." Miss Elliot, a former librarian at the Timaru Public Library, traced the pioneering work in children’s library services carried out by the Dunedin Public Library. She said the real upward swing in its development had come about in 1938. At first teachers had sometimes been inclined to close their ranks when librarians arrived with their suggestions on the right sort of books for children, but over the yean greater co-opera-tion had emerged, she said. The selection of books for special classes, such as retarded children. spastics. crippled children or those intellectually handicapped, was a problem. It involved much work and patience. Help had been given by headmasters, teachers, school committees and the Canterbury Education Board, she said. Added to the librarian’s problems were parents who. tn some cases, considered their children read far too much. “A willingness to listen, and talk over their problem is always effective and uruaHy rewarding,” said Miss Elliot.