The following paper embodies practical suggestions for helping to give the children's room a "natural,friendly atmosphere."It was read by Miss Clara W.Hunt before the Long Island Library Club,February 19,1903.A sketch of Miss Hunt appears on page 135.
So many of the problems of discipline in a children's room would cease to be problems if the material conditions of the room itself were ideal,that I shall touch first upon this,the less important branch of my subject.For although the height of a table and width of an aisle are of small moment compared with the personal qualifications of the children's librarian,yet since it is possible for us to determine the height of a table,when mere determining what were desirable will not insure its production where a human personality is concerned,it is practical to begin with what there is some chance of our attaining.And the question of fitting up the room properly is by no means unimportant,but decidedly the contrary.For,given a children's librarian who is possessed of the wisdom of Solomon,the patience of Job,the generalship of Napoleon,and put her into a room in which every arrangement is conducive to physical discomfort,and even such a paragon will fail of attaining that ideal of happy order which she aims to realize in her children's reading room.The temper even of an Olympian is not proof against uncomfortable surroundings.
Children are very susceptible,though unconsciously to themselves,to physical discomfort.You may say you do not think so,for you know they would sit through a whole morning and afternoon at school without taking off their rubbers,if the teacher did not remind them to do it,and so,you argue,this shows that they do not mind the unpleasant cramped feeling in the feet which makes a grown person frantic.But while the child himself cannot tell what is wrong with him,the wise teacher knows that his restlessness and irritability are directly traceable to a discomfort he is not able to analyze,and so the cause is not removed without her oversight.While the children's librarian will not have the close relations with the boys and girls that their school-teachers have,she may well learn of the latter so to study what will make for the child's comfort,that,in the perfect adaptation of her room to its work,half the problems of discipline are solved in advance.
Let us suppose that the librarian is to have the satisfaction of planning a new children's room.In order to learn what conveniences to adopt and what mistakes to avoid,she visits other libraries and notes their good and weak points.She will soon decide that the size of a room is an important factor in the question of discipline.Let a child who lives in a cramped little flat where one can hardly set foot down without stepping on a baby come into a wide,lofty,spacious room set apart for children's reading,and,other conditions in the library being as they should the mere effect of the unwonted spaciousness will impress him and have a tendency to check the behavior that goes with tenement-house conditions.We of the profession are so impressed with the atmosphere that should pervade a library,that a very small and unpretentious collection of books brings our voices involuntarily to the proper library pitch.But this is not true to the small arab,who,coming from the cluttered little kitchen at home to a small,crowded children's room where the aisles are so narrow that the quickest way of egress is to crawl under the tables,sees only the familiar sights--disorder,confusion,discomfort --in a different place,and carries into the undignified little library room the uncouth manners that are the rule at home.In planning a new children's room then,give it as much space as you can induce the librarian,trustees,and architects to allow.Unless you are building in the North Woods,or the Klondike or the Great American Desert you will never have any difficulty in getting small patrons enough to fill up your space and keep the chairs and tables from looking lonesome.
The question of light has a direct bearing on the children's behavior.Ask any school teacher,if you have never had occasion to notice it yourself,which days are the noisiest in her school-room,the bright,sunny ones,or the dingy days when it is difficult to see clearly across the room.Ask her if the pencils don't drop on the floor oftener,if small feet do not tramp and scrape more,if chairs don't tip over with louder reports,if tempers are not more keenly on edge,on a dark day than a bright one.I need not say "yes,"for one hundred out of a hundred will say it emphatically.So,if you cannot have a room bright with sunshine,do at least be lavish with artificial light,for your own peace of mind.
Floors rendered noiseless by some good covering help wonderfully to keep voices pitched low.I have seen this illustrated almost amusingly in Newark,where frequent visits of large classes were made from the schools to the public library.The tramp of forty or fifty pairs of feet in the marble corridors made such a noise that the legitimate questions and answers of children and librarian had to be given in tones to be heard over the noise of the feet.The change that came over the voices and faces as the class stepped on the noiseless "Nightingale"flooring of the great reading room was almost funny.The feet made no noise,therefore it was not necessary to raise the voice to be heard,and no strictures of attendants were needed to maintain quiet in that room.
