large corridors and three rooms in the Washington Irving High School were assigned for this exhibit and an effort has been made to illustrate the entire work of the modern high-school library, showing its relation to each department, commercial, manual training etc., as well as academic. In the planning and preparation of this exhibit we gratefully acknowledge the help given by many teachers and librarians in different parts of the country. That part of the exhibit which can be lent in the form of scrapbooks, pamphlets, etc., will be kept by our committee as a permanent loan exhibit to be sent wherever it can be of service. There is great need at present that educational leaders be given a visible demonstration of what we mean by a modern high-school library. If they cannot actually see one in action the exhibit will prove the next best thing.

For the loan of the exhibit or any section of it apply to Mary E. Hall, the Girls' High School, Brooklyn, N.Y. Borrowers are expected to pay expressage both ways. There is no further charge.

PERMANENT LOAN EXHIBIT OF HIGH-SCHOOL LIBRARY WORK

In order that leaders in the movement may know the nature of this exhibit we submit the following rough outline with the hope that it may be suggestive as to its scope and value for educational and library meetings. Librarians of high schools will also find sections suggestive to them in their own work.

Planning and equipping a high-school library:

1. Collection of architects' blueprints showing floor plans of leading high-school libraries which are well planned and well equipt according to modern library standards. 2. Scrapbook showing photographs of interiors of high-school libraries, floor plans, etc. Aids in building up a high-school library:

1. Collection of the best printed lists of books recommended for high-school libraries. These cover all departments.

2. Scrapbook showing magazines on file in various types of high-school libraries. 3. Aids in buying pictures, lantern slides, post cards, and other illustrative material. Aids in organizing a high-school library:

1. Books and pamphlets on the administration of small libraries.

2. Scrapbook illustrating methods actually in use in different high-school libraries, changes in classification, charging system, rules, printed forms, etc.

The work of a modern organized high-school library:

The aim of this section of the exhibit is to illustrate as fully as possible what the modern high-school library contributes to the entire work of the modern high school. The most progressive high-school libraries in the country were askt to prepare scrapbooks fully illustrating their work. This section of the exhibit consists of the following scrapbooks at present. It will be augmented from time to time.

1. Chicago University High School.

2. Cleveland. High-school branches of the Cleveland Public Library.

3. Decatur, Ill. High School.

4. Denver, Col. North Side High School.

5. East Orange, N.J. High School.

6. Grand Rapids. Central High School.

2: Scrapbook giving outlines and courses in different high schools. (Does not include courses already included in the scrapbooks made by high schools listed above.)

The use of a modern high-school library by each department.

1. Art department.

2. Biology.

3. Commercial subjects.

4. Domestic science and domestic art.

5. English department. Home reading lists in various high schools.

6. English department. Oral English and the library.

7. English department. Collateral or supplementary reading for English classics. 8. Julia Richman High School. Supplementary reading list on R. L. Stevenson. 9. Scrapbook illustrating the use of magazines and newspapers in high-school English; compiled by B. A. Heydrick, High School of Commerce.

10. Hunter College High School, New York City. Scrapbook illustrating how the English department uses library aids.

11. History department, Los Angeles High School. Charts prepared by Miss Stewart to illustrate the use of a library in the teaching of history.

12. History department. Scrapbook giving history reading lists for European history, ancient and modern.

13. History department. American history and civics. Scrapbook.

14. Latin department.

15. Manual Training and Technical courses.

16. Modern languages: French, German, Spanish.

17. Vocational guidance.

The report of the committee of the Department of Secondary Education which appears in the proceedings of that department should be read by those who desire to secure a good idea of the present situation of high-school libraries.

In closing, the committee wishes to express its appreciation of the splendid cooperation given by librarians and teachers in all parts of the country and to suggest the following new lines of work for the next year:

1. The establishment of a model high-school library in every college and university maintaining a school of education, where students preparing to teach in high schools may gain some knowledge of what their own highschool libraries in the future ought to be.

2. The maintenance of an exhibit of the high-school library aids in every college and university giving summer courses for teachers. If possible,

an experienst high-school librarian should be in charge to meet teachers and principals of high schools and advise with them on the care of their small school libraries.

3. The introduction of a brief course in library methods in every college and university and that this be a required course for all prospective teachers. 4. Occasional informal conferences of trained librarians in cities with teachers in charge of small high-school libraries in near-by towns.

REPORT OF THE ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL COMMITTEE EFFIE L. POWER, SUPERVISor of work WITH SCHOOLS, CARNEGIE LIBRARY, PITTSBURGH, PA.

The Elementary-School Committee of the Library Section of the National Education Association was authorized at the St. Paul meeting in 1914 and has since been continued under the same chairman with a change in members. The first report made at the Oakland meeting was in the form of an outline of organization of departmental library work with elementary schools, and was not final. Its aim was to cover the field of library work in elementary schools in connection with public-library systems in large towns and cities only, and not to encroach upon the work of the committees on rural schools nor of those on normal schools.

During the last year the new committee has endeavored to develop one point in the outline submitted in 1914; that is, the book-collection needed for departmental-library work with elementary schools.

Such a collection should contain books for intensive work in literature in the classroom, supplementary reading on all class topics, but chiefly books of literature and information for children's home reading. It should differ from a collection of the same size for use by children in a library room in the following points: the standard of selection should be higher, and the number of titles less; there should be more duplicates of standard and classic books; the local-school course of study should be more fully considered, and the collection should be correlated to all other collections in use in the local schools.

In 1914 the committee recommended five lists of books as aids toward book-selection, but was not able to find a satisfactory short list which could be used by libraries or schools beginning departmental-library work in elementary schools on a small scale. To meet this need a tentative list of 800 books has been prepared to serve as a basis for such a collection. It consists of a selection of standard and classic books for children, together with a number of books on subjects in common demand. The latter have been tested and are recommended as the best available at the present time. It is the plan of the committee to extend this list to 1000 or 1200 titles arranged by grades, with descriptive notes on each book. [As long as the

supply on hand lasts, Miss Power will be glad to send a list on request.— EDITOR.]

The committee has kept in mind the fact that any list made for general use will need to be supplemented by books of information to meet the demands of the curriculum of the individual school. The selection has also been made on the basis of a definite plan of distribution.

The committee believes that the books used in the first grade should be limited to fifteen or twenty titles and that these should be duplicated to the number required. About five more titles have been allowed for the second grade. The oral presentation of selected folk-lore and poetry should be emphasized to little children, the book being introduced as a means toward the enjoyment of this literature. They should also be allowed to read some books in part, as a grown-up reads a book in a half-known foreign tongue, because their literature is often interpreted by means of pictorial illustration as well as by word symbols. Following these principles, the collections for the lower grades have not been limited to the child's capacity for classroom reading, and the books listed are not intended to be used as textbooks.

The collection for grade three should be more miscellaneous in character, but should be confined chiefly to folk-lore and poetry. More books of information should be included beginning with the fourth grade, emphasis being placed upon nature subjects and biography.

The next expansion should come at the beginning of the seventh grade, when the number of books should be materially increast. At this age the child's love for reading stagnates, or grows by leaps and bounds, and more variations in taste are noticeable among members of groups. It is the age at which to introduce standard adult fiction and adult books of biography, history, and science.

In listing the classics for children, particular attention has been applied to the selection of an attractive edition, but a cheaper one has been added in most cases.

THE RURAL-SCHOOL LIBRARY

I. ORPHA MAUD PETERS, ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN, PUBLIC LIBRARY, GARY, IND. So much needs to be done toward placing the needs and possibilities of the rural-school library before the people that the question to be solved by the Rural-School Committee was, What is the most valuable piece of work this committee can do? How can we best succeed in creating an interest in the rural-school library, in causing investigation as to the existing conditions, and at the same time get results which will be of real value in the national campaign for better school libraries ?

Most people who have investigated the rural-school problem realize the deplorable condition of the majority of these libraries, and are awakening to the fact that something must be done. What organization directs the

work matters not so much as that the work be done. In any case the rural teacher plays a most important part in the rural school-library and can at least assist in its general supervision. There are those who contend that the rural teacher is too busy to bother with the library; that she has all grades and that every minute of her time is occupied by her school duties. Those who advocate this, however, are considering the library an adjunct to the school when it should be a vital factor in the school curriculum.

Someone has said that the efficient country school must be a "community center of education, instructing both children and adults in terms of country life and pointing the way to community prosperity and welfare." To make the school such a community center, there must be provided, in some way, an adequate library, and the teacher should know how to judge good books and should know the fundamental principles in using and caring for them.

Realizing these things, the Rural-School Committee undertook as its chief piece of work (in addition to a small rural-school exhibit) the preparation of a bulletin on rural-school libraries which should serve as a handbook for the rural teacher. Mr. Claxton, United States Commissioner of the Bureau of Education, has kindly consented to print it, and it is now in his office awaiting publication. This bulletin, which will be distributed widely will consist of a general survey of rural-school libraries in the United States, an article on the organization of a rural-school library, an article on children's literature, a list of four hundred books for a rural-school library, and a selected bibliography on the rural-school library. Existing conditions in rural-school libraries are practically identical in many states. They consist of a collection of several hundred books in extreme need of repair, unorganized and with no provision for use outside of the school building. For this reason, the survey is not a detailed statement of the conditions existing in each state, which would be of little value to a rural teacher, but of what is being done in some of the states where experiments have been tried and fruitful results have been obtained. For example, a good article is included on the county-library method which has proved so successful in California. The article on the organization of the rural-school library by Helen L. Price, of the Michigan Library Commission, contains only the fundamental things which will be valuable to the rural teacher in making the school library of greater use, not only to the children, but also to the grown people of the community. Most states issue a list of books for use in connection with the course of study mapt out by the state, and therefore the article on children's literature, written by Frances Jenkins Olcott treats particularly (tho not entirely) of inspirational books. It also contains an outline for a year's study, for parents and teachers, on children's books. The list of four hundred books for a rural-school library is based on the one-hundred-book list and the two-hundred-book list prepared by members of former rural-school committees. In order to make the bibliography of