SCHOOL LIBRARIES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 885, 3 August 1910, Page 5

SCHOOL LIBRARIES.

■s, A NEW DEVELOPMENT ' ■ According to the municipal : estimates .for the ' current. financial, year, tho City ■.■: Council ; has in -view certain . proposals with regard to the extension of the children's sido of tho municipal librarj. At present the juvenile department of tho Newtown library represents, practically, the sole effort of , the City Council in this direction, and the ever-increasing popularity of this department among the children of the district has been ono of the .most notable features iu tho pro. gress of the library. Various suggestions I. with regard to the' extension of this tie-, ■ partment of a work of tho municipal Library Committee have been put ionviu-d from tiuio to time. The most progressive of these is \tho idea, based upon the American system, of establishing branch ■; libraries in tho schools, and , it is fairly certain that the City Council will deal ..with the matter along thesn Hum. 'I'liu system would provide for thexappoint- . ment of a children's librarian, who would • necessarily be , required to possess special qualifications of 'a very high order. The children's' librarian ..would be entrusted . yith the duty of selecting suitable works to be placed on the shelves of the school , libraries, maintain iVolose and intimato -touch with the school authorities in all matters affecting the general literature of the school, to the end that the children's library department would not ojily be ■ the medium for the circulation of recreative reading for the leisure lime of the scholars, but' also a department of reference in connection with the work of the school itself. Pictures, plans, books of reference would be available for: loan to the schools. In short, the institution would in time become almost an integral part of the ."chool work. '.•■:.. : There is no doubt—this is the opinion of many teachers—-that such a system would be a 'very, considerable improvement on the present one: The school library of the average school is very often but a perfunctory institution.. There is rarely in evidence n system of classification .which affords an'easy method of reference. ' The. school library, is usually opened to its subscribers—consisting of from ten' to fifteen -per cent, of rlw> school population—for about an hour each wei>k, and very little lime is available i for the: systematic cultivation of the .school taste in reading. In one or two of the schools more system , prevails; but,, generally speaking, tho institution is' run' W a very hap-bazard way. . :