and punctuation which all stenographers must have. I fancy that is the most pressing problem before you. The teaching of letter composition seems to me equally important, and I don't believe many schools succeed with it any better than with the other phase, but there is not time now to go into that.

To summarize, our first step should be to make sure that we have a list of all the points on which errors are likely to be made in business letter writing and talking, and that these are arranged in the order of frequency with which errors are made, the commonest errors being taken first so they will get the most frequent review as the course proceeds. In spelling it is almost entirely a matter of memory, but in grammar and punctuation it is a matter of bringing the simple working principle into consciousness through numerous examples that show it in different applications. First we make the pupil vividly conscious of his errors through tests arranged and carried out according to a pretty exact technic. Then by rapid testing on the whole range of the subject each pupil is given an individual assignment of the points on which he is weak, clearly separated from the points which he has already learned and has tucked safely away in his unconscious mind from which he should never be made to bring them out. They are far safer in the unconscious mind if they are right there. Finally, the points to be mastered should have varying degrees of intensity of study, secured through going over the work rapidly and eliminating such points as are mastered, and then concentrating all effort on those that remain unmastered, and then repeating this process till even the most persistent bad habits have been corrected. This is a method by which every pupil can, in a comparatively short, but of course always variable time, master every difficulty to the 100% point. In my opinion it is destined to prove a far more nearly complete method of teaching business English than anything we have hitherto had at our disposal. I am happy to add that the tests on spelling, punctuation, and grammar have been adopted by the Underwood Typewriter Co. and are now in daily use in its free employment office in New York. I have been employed to prepare twelve parallel series, equal in difficulty but different in material.

The Library and the School

MARTHA CONNER, LIBRARIAN, UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE,

T

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE.

HE Library and the School are inseparable factors in our educational system; their effects are reciprocal, the work of one reflecting clearly in the work of the other; the success of both go hand in hand. Let us consider first the library as a storehouse of knowledge and as a laboratory in the study of the humanities. The sum total of human knowledge has grown so vast that no one person can know everything there is to know about even one particular thing. The best one can do is to know where to find everything that has been recorded about any particular subject. We can advance knowledge only by profiting by the experience of others who have gone before us; starting where they stopped and forging ahead for our brief life's span, leaving a record for someone else to take up the work where we drop it.

When Winston Churchill returned from the African war, he said to the students of Cambridge University, "Do not make your mind a magazine for the storing of ammunition, make it gun to fire the other fellow's ammunition." We know it is not so much the well-stored mind, as the mind which can make available the world's cumulation of knowledge, that is needed in the life of today. So we must have the library, the magazine stored with ammunition, close at hand for the students in our schools, and they must be taught to use it. We must give them the advantage of the knowledge already available, teach them to use "the other fellow's ammunition."

Modern methods of teaching can scarcely be pursued without the co-operation of the library. Instead of a single text-book, committed to memory page by page, as of old, we have a multitude of textbooks. The student is required to read from a dozen books

on the same subject, getting the cream of the thought of a dozen minds instead of one, and as many viewpoints, and thus is taught to detect prejudice in opinion and to think for himself, which is an ability much needed in the world today. The library must be the labatory in this method of teaching, for it is plain to be seen that each student cannot be expected to buy for himself these multiple textbooks. A single set of books in the library can meet the needs of a large class by being available for use at any time of the day, if several days are allowed for the completion of the work.

No modern school is doing its duty if it does not teach the interpretation of current events. We can never hope to make the world safe for democracy, or democracy safe for the world, unless in the public schools we make citizens who study public events and are able to interpret them. In this work there must be a school library well stocked with periodicals, newspapers and federal and state publications.

English cannot be taught successfully in a school where there is no library; for examples of style are as necessary as textbooks on technique. Books of information are also needed to furnish material for the themes. In teaching argumentation, the library must furnish material for the debates on questions of the day.

The history teacher needs the library to furnish different viewpoints on some period of history, and to stimulate interest in the subject. The library must furnish the historical fiction which portrays the social customs of the time and furnishes local color.

Vocational education is gaining in importance. If we are to have a shorter working day and a higher level of living, each individual must be more productive. The vocational school, and its companion the continuation school, are especially dependent on the library, with its books and periodicals, which make available the latest discoveries in science and the newest inventions in mechanics. In fact, the library itself is a great continuation school. Boys who attend these schools need no urging. Wherever boys have access to a library you will find the current numbers of the

Scientific American and Popular Mechanics worn to shreds. Bound volumes of these magazines have frequently to be rebound, so constant is their use. Every teacher feels the need of the library in his own particular field.

The famous old receipt for hare pie begins, "First catch your hare." So we must first get our school library. The initiative must come from the teacher. The School Board and the community must be made to feel its importance.

Where there is already established an efficient public library system, the best method has been found to be this: the school authorities furnish the room and pay for the permanent collection of books, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, special reference books and periodicals, while the public library supplies the books for circulation, selects the reference collection, organizes the library, and appoints and pays the librarian. The latter is always selected with the approval of the principal of the school in which the library is located. Sometimes the school pays the salary of the librarian, and sometimes the salary is divided between the school and the library. The above method is followed in Chicago, Grand Rapids, Cleveland, and other cities having well-organized public library systems. It is most economical because it entails no duplication of work. The Public Library already maintains an efficient corps of workers for the selection, purchase and cataloguing of books, all of which is done at the central library for all branch school libraries. The selection of books for the school work is made, of course, by the teachers of the various subjects, and when a book is no longer needed in a school library it can be transferred to some branch of the library system where there is a demand for it. The general policy of the library may be directed by the principal of the school, the technical organization, with which he cannot be familiar, being left to the discretion of the public library. By this method, duplication of any part of the work is avoided.

In towns and cities having no public library system the school inust obtain and organize its own library. The school authorities

must be made to feel its indispensability, so they will appropriate means for its establishment and maintenance. In case this is done a librarian should be provided, the first thing. The librarian should have the same educational preparation and the same salary as the teachers in the school. In schools in which high school and normal school training are required of the teachers, the librarian should have high school and library school training. In the schools in which a college degree with professional training is required, the librarian should be appointed the first thing. The librarian ing. In each case the librarian should be paid the same salary as the teachers and be subject to the same rules for promotion.

Much of the success of the library depends upon the personality of the librarian, who should have wide sympathy and boundless enthusiasm and a real love for books, as well as high professional attainments. Everything depends upon her ability to get the right books into the hands of the students. Time was when the library world put its faith in the card catalogue, but we have come to the realization of the fact that while the catalogue is an indispensable tool, it is the librarian who knows books, who really makes the library effective. Having selected your librarian with this in view, allow her to select your reference collection, purchase the books and decide upon the organization and administration of the library. If you cannot afford a full-time librarian, put the library in charge of a part-time teacher who has had one of the summer courses offered for teacher-librarians. If necessary, let the school pay her expenses to take such a course. Your state library commission will assist you in the selection of your books and advise as to organization. There are many excellent lists of books for school libraries published by the various state library commissions, which may be had for the asking. Student assistance may be used under the direction of your librarian or teacher-librarian, but is seldom satisfactory in handling a library alone.

A well organized county library will take care of your rural schools by means of travelling libraries, sent by book wagon from school to school. This is the most economical arrangement, since