10. Books for young people—lists, prices, etc.; books and articles on the subject. 11. Books in the schoolroom-general works for teachers, books for children, different methods of using them: for reference, for reading, for lending.

12. Schoolroom collections, furnished by the school board or by the public library. 13. A general library in a school building — advantages, disadvantages, character, methods of use.

14. Relations of teachers with the public libraries.

15. Importance to teachers of collecting libraries of their own.

DISCUSSION

JAMES M. GREEN, principal, State Normal School, Trenton, N. J.-The normal schools, in the nature of things, cannot undertake to give special training in library work, consistent with their supposed function, viz., to prepare teachers for the common-school branches of the state. It is legitimate, however, and proper for the normal schools to furnish their students with a somewhat liberal catalog of the best bibliography on each of the branches in the course of study, and, so far as possible, to have these students consult these books in the library during their course in the normal school. Furthermore, the normal school should familiarize each of its graduates with a course in English adapted to the different grades of pupils in elementary and secondary schools, and reading supplementary to this course.

A course of study should in English have reference to psychology. That is, each master in any style of composition contributes to a certain phase of mental development especially; for ins'ance, George Eliot to the metaphysical, Butler to the logical, Dickens to character. Such a notion of a course of reading would give definiteness in library work.

Each normal student could be taught to consult the card catalog and the simple principles of classification on which the catalog is based.

E. ORAM LYTE, principal, State Normal School, Millersville, Pa. It is the duty of the normal school to prepare teachers for the schools of the country. As far as possible, every boy and girl should be taught to be at home in a library, with all that this means. Every child should be led to acquire a taste for good literature, and be taught where to look for good literature. He should be made to feel how precious a thing a good book is. He should be taught to love good books, how to care for them, and how to use them. Many of our children do not have the opportunity of acquiring these lessons at home, but must look to the school for them, if they are to be learned at all. It is evident, therefore, that some knowledge along the line here suggested should be part of the qualifications of every good teacher. The teacher has the right to demand of the normal school a certain amount of training to prepare him to give these lessons to children.

You will all agree with me that among the definite lessons that may be provided for in a library course in a normal school there should be included lessons in selecting books for pupils of various grades, in buying books, in caring for books, in using books, in teaching pupils the care and use of books, etc. These lessons include the more technical ones of classifying and accessioning books, shelf-listing and cataloging them, etc. Lessons should also be given in the use of magazines and newspapers, of pamphlets of various kinds, and of government publications.

Every normal-school library should contain lists of books for school libraries costing five dollars, ten do ars, twenty dollars, fifty dollars; or, what is better, the books themselves should be put in a library case, and properly arranged, for the normal school student to examine. Normal-school students should be made acquainted with the travel.

ing library. If the normal school were to make itself the center of a system of traveling libraries for public schools and this can be done - normal-school students could be practically taught the use of the system and would demand that the schools they teach after they leave the normal school should receive the great benefits to be derived from such a system.

In concluding let me say that the duty of the normal school with respect to definite library instruction is plain; the task is an easy one; and the public will welcome any steps we may take to bring the blessings of good literature into the hearts and lives of the children of the land.

PRESIDENT J. N. WILKINSON, State Normal School, Emporia, Kan.-The effort made at the State Normal School of Kansas for many years past to give training in using the library has seemed either too much or too little: too little, when students with only enough training given to them to show that everything must be in its place have not become as enthusiastic as they should be about library work, and have not cared to go among our open shelves, but rather to continue calling on the librarian to find their books; too much, because asking busy students to master a self-help that they do not see will help them in a region where they know of few well-organized libraries. We have thought it best to go to the length of giving a course of library instruction such as is offered by the best summer library schools. We are not pretending to do more in this line than we can do. We are not going to allow our students to believe that the instruction given here can rank with what is given in the regular library schools. We believe that the public-school teacher is the most effective agent for introducing good library management into our state. We have few public libraries in the ordinary sense; we have had for years provision for a library tax for the public schools. That money has been squandered because few teachers knew how to use it to the best advantage. The normal school is the agency for reaching the entire state on this subject. I have seen students there from every one of the more than one hundred counties of the state, and I want them to see work going on in our library course that will impress them with the possibilites in this direction. Our high schools and our small colleges are not able to secure the full time of library-school graduates, but they will seek teachers who know how to manage the small library as a side matter. There is no other way to make school libraries effective, and why should not the normal school give teachers the training for this part of their work? Thru such leading in the school libraries, our public libraries will be brought into recognition of the value of trained librarians. A normal school is like the voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare ye the way!"

MELVIL DEWEY, director, New York State Library, Albany, N. Y.-We have from the beginning said that it is not worth while to spend too much time with the old people, for we might as well try to work plaster of paris after it is stiff as to try to shape the reading habits of those above thirty. Nothing is comparable with sending out a boy or girl with a taste for good reading. If he will read day by day thru life, he is doing the best thing. The majority of parents cannot train the children in this way; it is the work of the teachers. We have only recently gone to the normal school for this help. Education is in two halves, the home and the school. Tho both should go along together, we should also drive them tandem.

We in the libraries get those who choose to come. No one ever proposes a compulsory library attendance. You in the school must give a taste for the library, or the children will never come to the library. I do not believe anyone thinks the normal school should take the place of the library, but it should teach the use of the library by its own pupils, who are preparing themselves for teachers; and, secondly, it should train these students how to take care of their private libraries. Teach them how to handle wisely their own libraries, and they will be able to teach others to use books wisely.

Teachers are the best men and women to serve on library boards, and the normal schools should train students in this direction also. It is necessary to impress upon them what the scope and the functions of the public library are. They should be shown that a pile of books is no more a library than a heap of bricks is a building. Study clubs, traveling libraries, and traveling pictures, all center around the library, and are for use at home as well as in school. If we can impress their use on every teacher, we have done the greatest possible service. In my own time at Amherst, just across in Mount Holyoke was a turning of the motto, "not to be ministered unto, but to minister," into the saying, "not to be ministers, but ministers' wives." You are training students not to be librarians, but to be the librarians' most efficient allies.

DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL EDUCATION

SECRETARY'S MINUTES

FIRST SESSION.-WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 1903

The department met in the First Baptist Church at 9:30 A. M., and was called to order by President Edward E. Allen.

The following program was carried out :

President's Address-Edward E. Allen, principal of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, Overbrook, Pa.

Topic I: "The Influence of the Study of the Unusual Child upon the Teaching of the Usual"-Frank H. Hall, ex-superintendent of the Institution for the Education of the Blind, Jacksonville, Ill.; George E. Johnson, dean of the Lower School, University School, Cleveland, O.

Discussion-Francis Burke Brandt, professor of pedagogy, Central High School, Philadelphia, Pa.; Charles F. F. Campbell, London, England.

Topic II: "Should the Scope of the Public-School System Be Broadened to Take in All Children Capable of Education? If so, How Should This Be Done?"-Mary C. Greene, ex-superintendent of special classes for the blind in the board schools, London, England.

Discussion-Thomas D. Wood, M.D., professor of physical education, Columbia University, New York city; Ellen Le Garde, director of physical training, including that of backward children, public schools, Providence, R. I.; John T. Prince, agent of Massachusetts Board of Education; Walter E. Fernald, M.D., superintendent of Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded, Waverly, Mass.; Mr. B. Pickman Mann, Washington, D. C.

The president appointed as committee on nominations :

A. L. E. Crouter.
E. A. Fay.

F. H. Hall.

G. E. Johnson.

W. E. Fernald.

SECOND SESSION.-FRIDAY, JULY 10

The department met at 9:30 A. M., President Allen in the chair.

The following program was presented :

Topic III: "How Can the Term 'Charitable' Be Justly Applied to the Education of Any Children?" -Edward A. Fay, vice-president of Gallaudet College, Washington, D.C., editor of American Annals of the Deaf.

Discussion by William B. Wait, principal of New York Institution for the Blind, New York city. Topic IV: "What Teachers Need to Know about Sense Defects and Impediments: Messages Chiefly from Specialists in Medicine"- Clarence J. Blake, M.D., professor of otology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.; Myles Standish, M.D., instructor of ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.; Allen Greenwood, M.D., ophthalmic surgeon, Boston City Hospital; Eugene A. Crockett, M.D., assistant in otology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.; Mrs. E. J. Ellery Thorpe, specialist on speech defects, Newton Centre, Mass.

Topic V: Report of committee on statistics relative to children in the public schools of the United States who need special methods of instruction.

The president appointed the following committee to continue the investigation into the number and conditions of pupils having defective faculties who attend the public schools, and to report at the next meeting of the department:

F. W. Booth, Mount Airy, Pa., Chairman.

Percival Hall, Washington, D. C.
Clarence J. Blake, M.D., Boston, Mass.

O. H. Burritt, Batavia, N. Y.

F. Parke Lewis, M.D., Buffalo, N. Y.