The value of a well conducted Story hour or Reading club as a means of sustaining the library connection and of influencing the spontaneous choice of books by boys and girls has not been fully recognized because it has been only partially understood.There are various methods of conducting Story hours and Reading clubs.
There are many differences of opinion as to whether the groups should be large or small,differentiated by age or by sex,whether the groups should be made up entirely of children or whether an occasional adult may be admitted without changing the relation between the story teller and the children.Those who desire suggestion of material and specific information as to method and practice will find much that is valuable and practical in the publication of the Carnegie library of Pittsburg and in the Handbook of the Cleveland public library.Those who are seeking to place a Story hour in work already established will do well to remember that it is a distinctly social institution and as such is bound to be colored by the personality of its originator whether she tells the stories herself or finds others to carry out her ideas.Make your Story hour the simple and natural expression of the best you have to give and do not attempt more than you can perform.I believe the Story hour is the simplest and most effective means of enlisting the interest of parents and of stirring that active recollection of their own childhood which leads to sharing its experiences with their children.Folk tales told in the language his father and mother speak should give to the child of foreign parentage a feeling of pride in the beautiful things of the country his parents have left in place of the sense of shame with which he too often regards it.The possibilities in this field are unlimited if wisely directed.
The value of exhibits depends upon the subject chosen and the exercise of imagination,good taste and practical knowledge of children's tastes in selecting and arranging the objects or pictures.The subject must be one which makes an immediate appeal to the passing visitor.There should not be too much of it and it should not be allowed to remain too long in the room.A single striking object is often more effective than a collection of objects.Some interpretation of an exhibit in the form of explanation or story is needed if the children are to become very much interested in reading about a subject.
To those who believe that Story hours,Clubs,Exhibits,and Picture bulletins are not "legitimate library work,"I would say,suspend your judgment until you have watched or studied the visible effects of such work in a place where it is properly related to the other activities of the library and to the needs of the community in which it is situated.If by the presence of an Arctic exhibit in an Italian and Irish-American non-reading neighborhood an interest is stimulated which results in the circulation and the reading of several hundred books on the subject during the time of the exhibition and for months afterward,the exhibit certainly seems legitimate.
5.Since it is true that social conditions,racial characteristics and individuality in temperament enter very actively into the problems of the care of children in libraries and since it is also true that the books children read and the care which is given to them in libraries are frequently reflected in their conduct in relation to the School,the Church,the Social settlement,the Playground,the Juvenile court and to civic clubs as well as to the Home,a more enlightened conception of the work of all these institutions is essential if the Children's library is to play its full part in the absorption of children of different nations into a larger national life.
This need is being recognized and partially met by lecture courses and by the practice work of students in library training schools but listening to lectures,reading,and regulated student practice does not take the place of that spontaneous eagerness to see for one's self,the social activities of a neighborhood or town which makes a library in its town a place of living interest.Librarians,en masse,in relation to other institutions,stand in a similar position to that of the representative of those institutions.On both sides a firsthand knowledge of the aims and objects and methods of work of all the forces at work in a given community and a perception of their interrelationship is essential if we wish to do away with the present tendency to duplicate work which is already being carried on by more effective agencies.How far a library should go in relating its work to that of other institutions it is impossible to prescribe.The aim should be to make its own work so clear to the community in which it is placed that it will command the respect and the support of every citizen.
