has not been allowed the opportunity afforded by the new law for continuing and developing under new and more favorable facilities the work which he has prosecuted so long and so successfully under disadvantageous circum- | stances. His retention in office has been strenuously urged by the A. L. A. committee on public documents and by individual members of the association, and his retirement is a serious loss, not only to the bureau of documents but to library interests, which he has always served and aided to the utmost of his power. WITH the passage of the bill amending the act for the "consolidation of library companies in the city of New York," the legal way is made clear for the consolidation of the Astor and Lenox libraries and the Tilden Trust. The act does not in any way incorporate the great "Public Library of New York," nor does it make such incorporation obligatory. It simply removes any legal obstacles in the way of consolidation, when final action towards that end shall be taken by the trustees. Such action is still to be taken, although it is presaged in the assent of the various trustees to the consolidation plan. So many other details will remain to be decided after the incorporation becomes an accomplished fact that "'twere well 'twere done quickly," and it is to be hoped that within the next few weeks the "New York Public Library – Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations" may have entered upon its corporate existence. Communications. THE FIRE AT THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY. MAY I send through the JOURNAL a general message of most sincere thanks for the kind letters which our reported loss by fire has called out? I should like to answer each one individually but am unable to do so. It was a very narrow escape indeed for the library, but by the faithful, heroic work of the firemen, with the inspiration and direction of the president of our board of trustees, the fire was checked in the corner portion of our building and we were spared loss by either fire or water. It is one more object-lesson of the necessity for quick work with our new building. The control of its erection has been vested, by an act of the present legislature, in the library and museum trustees. The architect promises that plans and specifications shall be ready for the advertising for bids for construction by May first, and it seems now as if the building should be well out of the ground before snow flies. THERESA WEST. A WORKING EXAMPLE. THE following letter, addressed to a member of the A. L. A., who has given her energies largely to the guidance and development of children's reading, is sent to the JOURNAL by its recipient as an illustration of what may be done in that direction, even with limited resources, if enthusiasm and perseverance go to the task: MY DEAR MISS: I have been working all winter under the inspiration of the ideas and ideals gained last September at the Conference, and I write you to-day to thank you for the large share you had in helping me. Under another cover, I send you a copy of a "reading list for the young people" that I prepared early in the winter. In January, armed with these lists, I visited the schools, coming in contact with 2000 children and young people. Evidently the children heard and heeded, for we have been busy enough caring for them ever since, not only at the delivery desk but in the reference room as well. They are learning to be students. From a librarian's point of view, my lists are very imperfect, and I am almost ashamed to send them to other libraries. The type was set at odd moments by the city editor of our daily paper; "A personal favor" he said, "in exchange for the articles you have written for me" -library notes, he meant. So all the lists cost was the price of paper and press work, The omission of call numbers is due to the fact that they were too much for the city editor, and because the work was a gift I omitted them; but we know our shelves so well that we are not troubled by their omission. The capital letters form the most glaring fault, for, spite of copy headlines gained and carried the day. and many warnings, the newspaper idea of But the lists are serving their purpose, and that is best of all. We are having an exceedingly busy and prosperous winter. We count our increase in every department by one or two thousand every month over last year. And in number of books we have attained this winter accessions to 10,000, and we are now aiming for 20,000. THE COLLATION OF BOOKS. MR. FLETCHER's remarks in regard to collating bring to mind a personal experience. In an invoice of several hundred volumes from London, where most of the books had been rebound to order, it was afterwards discovered that the binders had inserted a signature of Mrs. Somer. ville's "Physical geography" in the middle of a volume of Crabbe's Poems. Upon this, the first-named work was examined, and found to contain the missing pages of poetry, ready to be "said or sung" by the surprised student. So the two volumes were sent back to London, where the binders, who had so pleasantly diversified" their contents, had the trouble of reconstructing them. More recently, what was supposed to be a set of "The Kalevala,” in two volumes, was after a time found to consist of two copies of vol. I, without any vol. 2, although the covers were all right. M. O. N. HOW TEACHERS SHOULD CO-OPERATE WITH LIBRARIANS.* BY GEORGE WATSON COLE, Librarian Jersey City Free Public Library. IN the "Vision of Mirza," by Addison, there is an allegorical description of the Bridge of Human Life. This bridge consists of about 100 arches, each arch representing a year of human existence. At its entrance is seen a multitude of people, rushing forward to cross it. In each arch are numerous pitfalls, through which many are precipitated into the River of Time, which flows below, and are forever lost to view. As this crowd passes along, it is constantly diminishing in number. After the middle of the bridge is passed, the number is so small that but here and there is any one to be seen. Before the further end is reached, all who started have disappeared, each having fallen through some one of its numerous arches. A similar picture would not inaptly represent those who start out to receive the education which is provided by our schools, academies, and colleges. Many of those who enter the primary and grammar schools drop out before reaching the high school, and but a small part of these pass on to the college and other higher institutions of learning. Statistics show, unless I am greatly mistaken, that a large percentage of children leave school before they are 12 years of age. This being the case, it becomes a vital question with our teachers how to train this class of pupils so that the limited time they spend in school shall be most profitably employed. At best, the time is too short in which to do much. What shall be done? Upon what basis must we plan this important work? The duty is a responsible one, which does not cease when the teachers have imparted to the pupil all the information contained in the prescribed text-books. After all has been said and done, they can only train the pupil to become self-educating, and implant in his mind a desire and resolution to go on, after he shall have left their hands, and continue to develop himself in those directions in which nature has specially fitted him to excel. How shall this be done? As librarians, we believe it to be the first duty of the teacher to encourage the young to acquire the reading habit. Do not mistake the term reading habit for reading as usually taught in the schools. It is something more. It is an overmastering desire on the part of the young, fed by a lively curiosity * Paper read before the New York Library Club, at the Teachers' College, New York, Nov. 8, 1894. and interest, to gain information, which finds expression in reading voraciously everything that tends to satisfy this craving. When once the reading habit takes possession of a boy he is in a fair way, provided his tastes are properly directed, to become self-educating. Thus it is of more importance for teachers to impart this to scholars than to teach them most perfectly every study in the curriculum of the school. Every child is endowed by nature with an insatiable curiosity, which should be encouraged and directed for his good. However dull he may seem, there is some subject in which he is much interested, and it is the teacher's duty to study each case until this is discovered. In this connection, Mr. George E. Hardy, in a paper on "Literature for children," says: "The great problem of the schools to-day is not to teach our pupils how to read, but what to read. The true function of the reading-lesson is to stimulate and control the child's imagination, to fill his mind with the highest thoughts of the best men, and to create for him an ethical ideal which shall dominate his entire being, and be at the very centre of his consciousness; and it is our bounden duty as teachers to supply such inspirations to our pupils at every stage of their intellectual life by presenting them the best of our literature that they can appreciate and understand." "If we fail to do this, and content ourselves with giving the child the mere mechanical ability to read, we are leaving him in the possession of a power that is equally potent for evil as it is for good. For nowadays a child who can read will read; and if we do not lead and direct his taste, the enemy, who is ever lying in wait for poor, faltering humanity, will give the child abundant opportunity to taste of the knowledge of evil; and this evil, whose knowledge is death to the soul of every pure boy or girl, is crowding us at every turn and corner of life." "In what way can we save our little ones from contamination? My answer is, by making it impossible, from the very beginning, for them to like such literature, and by filling their minds, from the earliest years, with great thoughts, so that by constantly thinking of them, they' will become like greatest men.' 'But you ask, Where shall such important work be commenced? Every intelligent teacher agrees nowadays that English literature should be substituted for the modern graded reader in the upper grades. Not every teacher, however, is prepared to agree with me, I venture to say, | when I state that a child should commence the reading of real literature when he has acquired the mechanical power of reading; in other words, when he has mastered the 'primer.'" room. These books may be illustrated; if so, the pictures will interest your scholars and give them much to think of and talk about. Read extracts to the class upon points or places mentioned in the lesson. The books can be given out to be read by the pupils; if so, question them on what they have read to see if they have read intelligently. Just here it may be well to name several books, a thorough knowledge of which will aid the teacher materially in co-operating intelligently with the librarian. And first there is Mr. Geo. E. Hardy's" Five hundred books for the young," a graded and annotated list, published by Scribner's in 1892. This is one of the latest lists, if not the latest one published, and consists of books in print at the time it was issued. It is carefully graded and will prove of great value in selecting books well within the intelligence of the pupils. It is just at this point that the library, which is, after all, the people's great university, comes to the aid of the school. It is a great storehouse from which may be drawn that mass of supplementary reading which in the near future is, we believe, to play a very important part in the education of the young. The old-time method of memorizing text-books has had its day. Many a boy and girl has had interest changed to apathy, if not disgust, by this senseless, yes, pernicious method. The pupil who was deemed dull in the routine studies of the school was bright enough when reading books which appealed to his curiosity. This has been shown time and time again in the case of many students, even collegians, who, while never manifesting especial scholarship in their pre-extended variety of books from which to select. scribed studies, have yet become famous in after life in branches which they had little or no opportunity to develop during their school life. The teacher of to-day instead of attempting to make all his pupils conform to a fixed standard, which too often is equivalent to forcing square pegs into round holes, and vice versa, interests himself in the individuality of his pupils by studying their tastes; and by kindly advice and watchful supervision encourages them to develop themselves in the various directions which nature seems to have laid out for them. How is the teacher going to co-operate with the librarian in carrying on this broader method of education? To begin with, I would suggest that the teacher encourage his pupils to pursue a course of reading which shall supplement the studies pursued in the school. To make my meaning clearer, let us suppose a class is studying the geography of Spain. Call on the librarian, tell him what you are teaching, and ask him what books he has in the library on the geography or description of that country and what books of travels in Spain he can supply. He may possibly have 15 or 20. If the library issues teachers' cards upon which a number of books may be drawn at a time, get the librarian to issue you such a card and draw all the books the rules permit, and carry them to your school Sargent's "Reading for the young," a classified and annotated catalog, published by the Library Bureau in 1890, is similar in scope to Hardy's book, but has a larger number and a more The teacher in geography will find in Charles F. King's" Methods and aids in geography" (Lee & Shepard, 1888) frequent references to books on the subject, especially in chapter 19: "Scurces of information and illustration," and chapter 20: "List of a thousand geographical books." While the teacher in American history will find in Gordy and Twitchell's “Pathfinder of American history" and Winsor's "Reader's handbook of the American Revolution " valuable suggestions as to supplementary reading. Lists have also been printed in several of the reports of different state boards of education The teacher should be cautioned, however, not to place too much reliance upon any one list, however excellent or well selected. These lists soon get out of date. New books are constantly appearing, and what a wealth of illustration, beauty of letter-press and binders' designs are given to the young readers of the present day! How many talented writers are constantly producing books for the young of a literary excellence that was quite unknown a generation or two since! I ought not to omit to state that graded lists have been prepared by teachers in several places, as, for instance, in Poughkeepsie, by Mr, Sickley. Catalogs of reading for the young are issued by many libraries and, where no separate list is issued, nearly every library distinguishes in Lamb. Special effort to guide the young in their reading is made in some libraries, among which may be named those of Cleveland and Milwaukee. Mr. Brett, of Cleveland, has prepared and printed a paper relating to this subject, and Miss Lutie E. Stearns, superintendent of the circulating department of the Milwaukee Public Library, had a very excellent paper on the work she is doing in that city, which is printed in the Proceedings of the Lake Placid Conference of the American Library Association. In Jersey City we have taken great pains to get all the teachers in our public schools interested in the Free Public Library and have them induce their pupils to take out borrowers' cards. Many of the scholars have done so. From the nature of the case it is impossible to keep statistics as to their number. The fact that of our entire circulation during the year 1892-93 a little over 24% was juvenile fiction shows for itself | how largely the library is used by the young. For the past year or two we have sent to our schools copies of the classics for children published by Ginn & Co., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., and others. We have purchased from three to four dozen each of the following books, viz.: Æsop. "Child's version of fables." Ginn & Co. 48 copies. Andersen. 'Fairy tales," v. I. 48 copies. Hale's 44 "Tales from Shakespeare." Ginn & Scudder. "Fables and folk stories." H., M. & To these we have just added 50 copies each of Numbers 2, 3, 4, and of "Selections from the Youth's Companion for supplementary reading," published by Perry, Mason & Co., of Boston. They are entitled respectively "Glimpses of Europe," "The American tropics," "Sketches of the Orient," and "Old ocean." These sets are sent to the schools, being charged to the teachers, who are permitted to renew them once so that they are kept in one school for four weeks. The sets are not broken up, but are sent entire to the school entitled to receive them by our schedule; that is, the whole 48 copies of "Black Beauty" go to one school. These books may be used for class reading, distributed for home reading, or given out for reading in school hours to those who have performed their school studies, as the teacher may deem most expedient. The teachers thus distribute them to their pupils, but we have not asked them to keep any record of the number of times they are circulated while in their possession. This plan has been very successful in its results and is heartily commended by the teachers. Ginn & Co. Many of the pupils, and not a few of their parGinn & Co. ents, have by this means come to get their first taste of real literature, which might not have been the case had they been turned loose in the library. I think much can be done in this way towards creating and fostering the reading habit and I look for still greater results in the future. "Seven little sisters who live on a Ginn & Co. 36 Andersen. 'Fairy tales," v. 2. De Foe. Francillon. Hawthorne. 66 Ginn & Co. Ginn & Co. True stories." H., M. & Co. 42 copies. Hawthorne. "Wonder book." H., M. & Co. Teachers will uniformly find librarians ready to aid them in every way in their power. If the library is provided with a suitable room for the purpose, teachers should go there with their classes and look over and talk about books which pertain to their school studies. The librarian will be only too glad of the opportunity to lay out as many books as they wish to use for this purpose. Such occasions should be improved by explaining to the scholars the scope and use of dictionaries, encyclopædias, indexes, and other works of reference. Another way of utilizing the library is to give out subjects to be looked up by the pupils, sending them to the library to get the desired information. In Cleveland the library sends to schools 50 or 100 volumes which are retained until the end will often form for himself unconsciously a corof the term as a school-room library. rect standard of the true and the good; and acting under its influence, he will reject the false and impure. In the course of time he will become possessed of a conscious ideal of life which, while not rising to the highest ideal, will yet serve him as an ethical touchstone to which he can safely refer many of the problems of life. In the possession of even such a modest standard he will refuse to accept phrases as principles, turgid sentiment as virtue, and jingling words as measures of right living. If we can thus advance our pupils upward in the path of virtue, we shall have attained the highest results that teachers in our schools can hope to attain." WHAT CAN BE DONE TO HELP A BOY TO LIKE GOOD BOOKS AFTER HE HAS FALLEN INTO THE "DIME NOVEL HABIT"? BY ELLEN M. COE, Librarian New York Free Circulating Library. MUCH may be done which will in many, perhaps most, cases be followed by appreciably good results. It may be after many days; indeed, the sower of the good seed must not expect to see the dry stony ground bring forth good and pleasant fruits, except after much well-directed effort - possibly after watering with tears. But truly the case of the dime-novel-reading boy is not nearly so hopeless as that of the yellownovel-reading girl or young woman. What shall be done, however, requires in the librarian or director of the reading much knowledge and more wisdom. It is first most important to know your boy, to get from the slight acquaintance which an occasional visit to the library may give some clear understanding of his moral and intellectual character and abilities, to see the good possibilities under an often unprepossessing or sometimes even repulsive exterior, to discover inclinations, however slight, towards right and good things, so that one's suggestions or hints may jump in the direction of those inclinations and tendencies; above all, to do whatever one does in so tactful a way as not to scare away the shy bird, for boys are very keen to discover and resent officious missionary effort to reform. All this requires some extraordinary qualities and qualifications in the librarian — mainly the same which are to be found in the successful school-teacher. (By the way, an interesting and eminently satisfactory proof of the position accorded by the boy to the librarian is that he almost always addresses her as "Teacher.") with many boys is difficult if not impossible; still, I am constantly receiving astonishing proof that much is accomplished in the way of establishing confidential and friendly relations between readers and librarians as I go about among my six libraries— the librarians evidently knowing the characters as well as the names and faces of the readers, and the readers having their own particular friend among the library force, from whom alone they are willing to accept service in the way of book-selection or assistance in selection. Doubtless this is first to be done in all cases: to establish confidential relations, then to see that the confidence is not abused, to be sure in knowledge of the books recommended. Also of first importance is this: the change must not be made sudden or abrupt. Nothing will more quickly destroy all hope of beautiful flowering of your lily or hyacinth than to bring it at once from the dark cool room or cellar in which the bulb has put forth its pale blossom-shoot into the bright, heated, sunny parlor window. No, you must graduate wisely the transfer to higher temperature and sunshine—a little at a time; there is no wiser proverb than "one step at a time." If the boy has delighted in red-handed tales of Indian border wars, coax him into the realm of history by means of Custer's books. I have never seen the boy who would refuse these. And there are quite a number of similar books sufficiently sanguinary to conceal their strictly historical character which will keep him in reading until In a large city library intimate acquaintance | his taste is formed for the historical without the |