important work can we do in the Library Department of the National Educational Association than to show in the clearest manner possible the interrelation of the forces of the two great educational institutions, the library and the school? Today they stand face to face in the land, each somewhat jealous of the other's claims, each timidly asking the other's help, but each somewhat fearful of the other's encroachment upon native rights and privileges. These fears must be removed; these jealousies must give way to confidence and respect; these two great educational forces must unite in a common warfare upon ignorance. To this work also your attention is invited.

NEED OF A TRAINED ASSISTANT IN EVERY LARGE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND PUBLIC SCHOOL

A good public library stands for what is highest and best in a community. An ideal librarian knows and loves books, and he will make any needed sacrifice to assist both young and old in selecting such courses in reading as are most likely to interest, instruct, and healthfully stimulate the reader. But the duties of a librarian are usually so exacting that he has little time to give to the instruction or the entertainment of his patrons. Why may not every large library employ at least one person of prime scholarship, and of excellent judgment and tact, whose sole business it shall be to teach the people what and how to read? This result may be reached by the free distribution of suggestive leaflets, by familiar talks, and by practical illustrations in the library itself which will show how to find, in the books before the readers, some timely information respecting matters of common interest. Why may not the people, whose industry and thrift make a library possible, be led to feel that their highest interests and the highest interests of their children may be lovingly conserved by one whose education, whose social standing, and whose devotion to literature make him a fit counselor of young and old?

Most of our large graded schools, at least in many of the states, have small but carefully selected libraries. These books, if well chosen, supplement the work of the class-room, or they furnish the beginnings of literature for the lower grades, and real literature for the pupils in the grades above. In the grammar schools, history, geography, and nature study lead the pupil at once beyond the limits of an ordinary text-book, and collateral works upon the subject of study are needed to supplement the only books furnished to the pupils.

The ordinary reading books serve an excellent purpose by furnishing material for training pupils in the art of reading; but such material is too scrappy to lay a satisfactory foundation for reading good literature. The child must be led by orderly steps (1) to become a lover of good reading, and (2) to become a somewhat reflective and appreciative reader of the best books in our libraries. Such training will be successful only when the teacher himself is a lover of good books; a person whose whole

nature responds to the author's thought, and whose intellectual training makes him appreciative of the beauty of the author's language in which his thought is clothed. With such a teacher the child soon acquires a love for the best literature, and he may be left to follow his own will in the choice of books. But many of our teachers have not had the training that would make them safe guides for children, and it is often better to designate one from the many teachers in a school to take charge of this work. May we not hope that our school authorities will soon recognize the need of expert training of children in the use of books, and will appoint at least one teacher in every graded school who has special fitness for such work?

NEED OF NORMAL-SCHOOL TRAINING IN LIBRARY METHODS

May we not also hope that all our normal schools will give careful instruction in library methods to be followed in the reading and in the study of books, to the end that all pupils of whatever grade may become intelligent patrons of the public library? We expect to present to this department during the present session of the association sufficient evidence to show that instruction in library methods is now given in some of our normal schools, and some evidence to show that such instruction is having a salutary influence upon the public schools. If we can clearly demonstrate the need of what, in this paper, we have termed library methods in using books, there is no doubt that the normal schools. of the country will heartily respond to our demands. But such demonstration must not only be clear, it must also reach the people who make public libraries possible. I most respectfully invite your attention to this important matter.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS SHOULD GIVE SUCH TRAINING TO CHILDREN AS WILL MAKE THEM LOVERS OF GOOD BOOKS

While calling upon the libraries for all the help which they are able to give both to the school and to the community, I would not forget the duty which the school owes to the library. Building up large public libraries, filling the shelves with the best and most costly books, employing skillful librarians and assistants to administer the affairs of the institution when completed-all these will fail to make the free public library a great public blessing, unless the schools do their share in preparing children for a wise use of the treasures which the libraries now so freely offer. What boots it to spend time and money upon expensive books. and rare pictures, if one-half the patrons of the library want only cheap, sensational literature, have no taste for a work of art, and no use for map, chart, or curious manuscript?

Schools should be furnished generously with good books by the school authorities, and these books should be carefully read by the pupils under the direction of some accomplished instructor. A large saving of

time is made when chapters, and even whole books, are read in class, freely commented upon by teacher and pupils, and beautiful passages pointed out, carefully studied, and committed to memory. Much of the reading, however, may be done by the pupils at home, leaving the "reading hours" in school for informal discussion, and for asking and answering questions by teacher and pupils. Children thus come to love good. books, and to appreciate an author's art in the construction of his story. What better work can a teacher do for his pupils than to lead them on step by step, in their daily reading, until they become lovers of good reading, and then step by step, still forward, until a taste for what is best in literature is surely gained, and becomes the guiding star in all future reading? To this plan of work with books the attention of teachers is most earnestly directed.

Finally, we should heed the criticism which comes to us from high places that we read too much and think to little. Dryden, in his caustic criticism of men and measures in the time of Charles II., says:

But far more numerous was the herd of such

Who think too little and who talk too much.

Much good will come to the reading public when the best thinkers among our literary men and women work out and publicly declare the principles which should guide us in the reading of books.

ment.

In this paper I have defined, at least in part, the so-called library moveIt is a movement which will be completely successful only when all the forces that have given rise to it work together in harmony. Not only are the library and the school co-ordinate educational institutions, working together for the general welfare, but the people themselves are a mighty force, now fairly aroused, and demanding a share in that training which makes for greater material prosperity, for a higher intellectual growth, and for purer standards in morals and religion.

I would again call your attention (1) to the need of information concerning the libraries of the country, and to the work which they are trying to do; (2) to the need of trained assistants in large public libraries and in large public schools, to give help to children and to adults in the selection of books, and in marking out courses of reading; (3) to the need of training in library methods in the normal schools of the country; (4) to the need of judicious training of pupils, in public schools, in the reading of books, in order that our children at an early period of their lives may become lovers of good literature; and (5) to the criticism, now going the rounds of the public press, that we read too much and think too little.

I invoke your best thought to the solution of such problems as are connected with the library movement, and to a consideration of such phases of educational work as will make that movement a blessing to the people of this country.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

JAMES H. CANFIELD, LIBRARIAN OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK CITY

[STENOGRAPHIC REPORT]

It is well for those engaged in any undertaking to stop occasionally and take stock, to render an account, to make such observations as will enable them to determine exactly where they are and why they are there. We who are present this afternoon are connected with public libraries, and we are to discuss their relations to and with the public schools. It will be proper and wise to determine just why this system of education exists.

Undoubtedly the fundamental reasons for maintaining public schools, at public expense, briefly stated, are these:

The keynote of American life, political and social, is individual responsibility. In this country we do not recognize any class distinctions, in the sense that one class has the right to control and direct other classes, or is directly responsible for the well-being of other classes. The individual citizen is the corner stone of the American political system; and he is individually responsible for the correct and efficient discharge of his duties as a citizen. Every man in the United States is born a policeman; and as soon as he reaches his majority even before that— he is responsible for the preservation of law and order. He is responsible also for intelligent planning and effective working in behalf of the common weal. This individual responsibility necessarily demands individual intelligence intelligence as complete in its mastery of all public and private affairs as the state can possibly make it.

The state maintains a public-school system from absolute necessity rather than thru choice. Of all the elements working political, social, economic, and individual disaster, decay, and final and complete ruin, the most swift and terribly effective is that tool of the partisan and the demagog in all nations and in all ages-an ignorant and turbulent populace. The state must insure itself against such a condition. Just as it protects its archives against fire, its courts against intimidation, its officers against interference in the discharge of their official duties, and its citizens generally against loss of life or property, and against restrictions in their choice of right of way, so it must protect itself and all its interests, its citizens and all their interests, against the blighting and devastating effects of ignorance. The state does not give free public education as an act of generosity—as direct and special advantages to certain individuals for their own benefit. The state maintains the public-school system as an act of self-protection; an act grounded in the highest and most effective selfishness.

The structure of government in this country - local, state, and

national constantly gives force to public opinion. The ordinances of a municipality, the statutes of a state, the acts of Congress, are little more than expressions of public opinion. Possibly it would be better for all of us if those acts and ordinances expressed public opinion even more clearly and completely than they do. The entire civil life and policy of the country is a reflection of public opinion. This being true, it necessarily follows that public opinion must be enlightened, if we are to get on with any safety, with any celerity, with any surety. Certainly we all desire advancement, and that our advancement shall be marked by these three characteristics. It is impossible, however, even to hope for this, unless public opinion is enlightened.

The American people are their own masters-in all respects and in every detail of their daily lives. We know of no kings in this country except the American sovereign, who puts a man under his hat every time he leaves his own house, and who rarely uncovers unless he addresses himself. We do not attach very much importance to the fact that certain well-known American names may appear in some human herd-book, or on the rolls of state or national officials. Pedigree counts with us when it gives a man a brain of finer fiber and eyes that are clearer and hands that are cleaner and feet that are swifter in the service of his fellow-men. Beyond this it counts for little. It is doubtful whether there was ever a time in the history of the world, or a country in the history of the world, within which the individual citizen was left so entirely to his own resources as in this country and today. And we are our own masters for good or for ill, and must have this absolute freedom of choice -- even to the point of doing harm to ourselves or there is no real freedom of choice whatever. That this self-mastery may be a mastery for good and not for ill, comes an imperative demand for public intelligence as widespread as the public schools can possibly accomplish.

The public school is today the most purely democratic institution in the land. Its doors stand wide open to the children of all classes of citizens from the children of the great uncommon common people to those of parents who claim a much higher rank. Within the schoolroom there is but one ground of distinction, and that is merit; and this distinction is possible to all. It is a free-for-all race, in which only the best win recognition and renown. Certainly there can be no better means for preserving republican equality, in a country in which republican equality is the cardinal characteristic of citizen life.

The state has no resources at all comparable with its citizens. Richness of soil, vast extent of forest, commerce and trade and manufactures all these are but the means which minister to the well-being of the industrious and intelligent citizenry. The state believes that great men are better than great cities, and that wisdom and experience put in the service of the state are better than silver and gold. Because the tendency,