The blessings rather than the limitations of the small library are portrayed and the "possibility of personal,individual,first-hand contact with the children"is emphasized in this paper presented by Miss Clara W.Hunt at the Niagara Conference of the A.L.A.in 1903.A sketch of Miss Hunt appears on page 135.
As the young theological student is prone to look upon his first country parish as a place to test his powers and to serve as a stepping-stone to a large city church,so the librarian of the country town who,visiting a great city library and seeing books received in lavish quantities which she must buy as sparingly as she buys tickets for expensive journeys out of her slender income,a beautifully furnished,conveniently equipped apartment especially for the children,for the student,for the magazine reader,evidences everywhere of money to spend not only for the necessities but also for the luxuries of library life--so it is quite natural for such a visitor to heave a deep sigh as she returns to her library home and contrasts her opportunities,or limitations as she would call them,with those of the worker in a numerically larger field;and quite natural is it for her to long for a change which she feels would mean a broadening and enlarging of outlook and opportunity.
It is encouraging sometimes to look at our possessions through other people's spectacles,and perhaps I may help some worker in a small field to see in what she calls her limitations,not a hedging in but an opening,by drawing the contrast from another point of view--from that of one who is regretfully forced to give up almost all personal,individual work with the children and delegate to others that most delightful of tasks,because her library is so large and she has so much money to spend that her services are more needed in other directions.With a keen appreciation of the privilege it is to have charge of a small library,I am going to enumerate some of my reasons for having this feeling.
I should explain,in this connection,that my thoughts have centered about the small town library,the library whose citizen supporters do not yet aggregate a population large enough to admit to dignifying their place of residence with the name of a city,a place,therefore,where the librarian may really be able to know every citizen of prominence,every school principal and teacher,the officers of the women's clubs,many of the mothers of the children she hopes to reach,and a very large number of the children themselves.
What are the attractions in a spot like this,the compensations which make up even for the lack of a large amount of money to spend?Let me begin first with the less apparent advantages,the "blessings in disguise,"I should call them.
The first is the necessity for economy in spending one's appropriation.I imagine your astonishment and disapproval of the judgment of a person who can count the need of economy as any cause for congratulation.But let us look for a moment at some of the things you are saved by being forced to be "saving."The greatest good to your public and to yourself is that you must think of the ESSENTIALS,the "worth while"things first,last and always.You cannot afford to buy carelessly.Every dollar you spend must bring the best return possible and to the greatest number of people.Every foolish purchase means disappointment to your borrowers and wear on your own nerves.So,instead of being able to order in an off-hand way many things which may be desirable but which are really not essential,one gets a most valuable training in judgment by this constant weighing of good,indifferent and indispensable.To apply this to the principle of the selection of children's books--and nothing in work with children,except the personality of the worker with them is so important as this,we cannot buy everything,we must buy the best,and we therefore have an argument that must have a show of reasonableness to those borrowers who advocate large purchases of books you tell them your income will not cover.
What are the essentials in children's books if your selection must be small?Our children can grow up without Henty.They must not grow up without the classics in myth and fable and legend,the books which have delighted grown people and adults for generations,and upon the child's early acquaintance with which depends his keen enjoyment of much of his later reading,because of the wealth of allusion which will be lost to him if he has not read aesop and King Arthur and the Wonder Book,Gulliver,Crusoe,Siegfried and many others of like company,in childhood.Then the librarian cannot afford to leave out collections of poetry.Her children must have poetry in no niggardly quantity,from Mother Goose and the Nonsense Book to our latest,most beautiful acquisitions,"Golden numbers"and the "Posy ring."And American history and biography must be looked after among the first things and constantly replenished.So must fairy tales,the best fairy tales--Andersen,Grimm,the Jungle books,MacDonald,Pyle,"The rose and the ring."Much more discrimination must be exercised in selecting the nature and science books than is usually the case.
But,of course,most of the problems come when we are adding the story books.Here,most of all,the necessity for economy ought to be a help.It is a question of deciding on essentials,and having nerve enough to leave out those books whose only merits are harmlessness,and putting in nothing that is not positively good for something.The threadbare argument that we must buy of the mediocre and worse for the children who like such literature (principally because they know little about any other kind)will look very thin when we squarely face the fact that by such purchases we shut out books we admit to be really better,and when we honestly reflect upon the purpose of the public library.
