or future environment. The stories of the sacrifices and achievements of those who subdued the Middle and the Far West will interpret the struggles of the Pilgrim Fathers and Pilgrim Mothers and are just as noble and worthy. Assistance in gathering the local material and in assembling it falls within the scope of the high-school library.

Strong emphasis on the relations of the individual as a member of the group must henceforth be the prominent feature in the teaching of civics. The rights, duties, and liberties of every individual are linkt with the laws, conventions, and requirements of society, and no one can radically separate himself from his social fellows. Anarchy is the failure to recognize the interdependent relation in the development of the individual. Without such recognition there can be no family, community, state, or national life. In our present great crisis we are thinking less and less in terms of the individual and more and more in terms of the nation.

The future economic structure of society is largely within the keeping of the high schools of today, for those who are now in school are to be called upon for such a large contribution in the reconstruction of the world. It is a wonderful opportunity to be young now and on the threshold of great possibilities for achievement. It is a glorious privilege for those who are older to set the feet of the young people in the right path, fitting them for the rich accomplishments that are to be theirs.

Thru all the preparation for this gigantic task, with its scientific preparation for citizenship, the teachers of literature are still the persons who give the inspiration. The rich heritage of vision, knowledge of mankind, sound judgments, justice, and wisdom must come from them. If this be our aim, it is clear that a textbook alone and a great teacher are not sufficient, but that a finely selected library and well-directed outside reading are necessary. For an intellectual comprehension of our world-situation the young citizen must have supervised independent reading; for the supreme object of his study of literature is to have him realize the beauty of literature as an interpretation of life.

Another chief aim of the high-school library is to make sure that there is to be a continuation of education beyond the high school. The young citizen should have definite plans for continuing his education thru the public library and be thoroly imprest with the importance of following them. In a western high school with an enrolment of more than three hundred a careful inquiry disclosed the fact that out of all those pursuing higher learning 90 per cent never entered the public library and took little or no interest in the communities' activities.

It is the duty of the high-school librarian to stimulate and, so far as possible, to direct the vacation reading of the pupil. When he finally leaves school he should go with well-defined plans for continuing his reading and should be turned over to the public librarian, with whom the high-school librarian works always in helpful cooperation.

HIGH-SCHOOL LIBRARY STANDARDIZATION AIMS FROM THE
POINT OF VIEW OF THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR

JESSE H. NEWLON, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, LINCOLN, NEB.
(Discussion of Committee Report)

In the erection of high schools in the past a fair provision has been made for the accommodation of the sciences and the practical arts. The planning and equipment of shops and laboratories have been standardized. School boards and superintendents have found it possible to obtain definite information as to the demands of science and practical-arts instruction in schools. There have been standards relating to the number and the types of various rooms and shops, to their lighting, heating, and ventilation, to the arrangement of floor space and of window and wall space, to their equipment to the minutest detail. The result has been excellent shops and laboratories.

The library is the laboratory of the social sciences, English, the languages, art, and indeed of practically every other subject taught in the secondary school. It will be impossible adequately to socialize methods of instruction and to cultivate fully the initiative and originality of pupils in these subjects without an adequate library properly administered.

Outside of some of the newer, large high schools there are very few wellplanned libraries. We have had no standards of plans and equipment. This report sets up definite standards relating to the materials that should be found in libraries in schools of various sizes. It will furnish school executives with authoritative information as to the needs of high-school libraries, with the result that in making the annual budget and in designing schools they can be guided by authoritative information. We may now expect good libraries.

To my mind the committee has completed only one-half of its work. Its next important task is to investigate the best methods of using the high-school libraries. It is one thing to secure adequate reference books and materials and another to develop an effective technique for their use. The latter is a big problem, and the success of the high-school library depends upon it quite as much as upon the material equipment. In most schools such technique has not been developt. Its development involves the training of high-school librarians and teachers and the working out of methods of cooperation between the librarian and the teacher. This committee should be continued with instructions to take up the consideration of this important problem.

WAR LIBRARY SERVICE

WILLIAM H. BRETT, LIBRARIAN, CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY,

CLEVELAND, OHIO

American libraries have greater opportunities than ever before. It is their duty to carry on the work at home more fully, to provide information about the war, and to help educate public sentiment for its support; to provide technical and military books-books on food production and conservation; to help in Red Cross drives, Liberty Bond sales, and every patriotic work, and with it all to carry on the normal work of the library.

Our home folk need relief from the strain and stress of war work, from the anxiety they now feel, from the sorrow which is inevitable. They need the relaxation, the consolation, the inspiration, of good books.

To this is added the work of supplying our men in camp and field and fleet here and overseas. The libraries of this country, united in the American Library Association, took up this work as soon as our country went into the war. The Association carried on a campaign for money which produced over $1,700,000. It has erected 36 camp library buildings and is serving more than 553 camps, stations, and vessels. It has sent nearly 200,000 selected books overseas, has purchast over 300,000 volumes, mostly military, naval, and other technical books, and has sent to camps and stations nearly 2,000,000 books and 5,000,000 magazines.

All this work is under the charge of Dr. Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress, with headquarters in Washington at the Library of Congress Building. Dr. Putnam is serving without compensation, and more than one hundred and fifty librarians from different parts of the country are in the service; the services of many of these are volunteered personally or are supplied by their libraries. The Library Association will institute a campaign, within a short time, for a fund of $3,000,000 to continue and increase this great work.

The schools have cooperated very cordially and effectively with the libraries in the campaigns for supplying books for our soldiers and sailors, as they have in so many other things.

The men are eager for books, the need is immediate and they are most gratefully received and appreciated. This need will continue as long as the war lasts, and I am sure that we shall receive the continued support of the schools.

LIBRARY COOPERATION WITH THE JUNIOR RED CROSS EFFIE L. POWER, HEAD, CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT, CARNEGIE LIBRARY PITTSBURGH, PA.

In a little book called Adrift on an Ice-Pan, Doctor Grenfell, the great medical missionary to Labrador, tells how he once faced death in a field of floating ice. The big thing he expresses is what religion is and how it

actually helps a man in a crisis. In interpreting this Dr. Grenfell relates an experience of having recalled to his mind, in his extreme trial, a hymn which was an unconscious memory of boyhood days. In the enrichment of the subconscious self (or soul) lies the reward of great literature.

For many years the public libraries in this country have placed before children the best of books, secure in the belief in their power to prepare the children to meet the emergencies of life. Looking back over an experience of twenty or more years in various children's rooms the writer can recall many a tousled head buried deep in a dingy volume and bright eyes meeting hers in mutual admiration of a great story-book hero. Of these browsers among books one is now "flying for France"; one is directing a battalion of men in an American training camp; one is organizing a department of industry for the national government. Have they forgotten their boyish dreams of Perseus who slew the dragon which was devastating his country? Or of Hercules, who battled with the hundred-headed serpent and before Troy, and who was not ashamed to clean the king's stable? Or of King Arthur, honorable and gentle knight? Or of Beowulf, "bold to rashness for himself, prudent for his comrades, daring, resourceful, knowing no fear, loyal to his king"? No! The young men of today are meeting the emergency of war with an idealism that shows a marvelous spiritual background. This has not been gained overnight thru the beating of drums but is the result of gradual growth by the grace of God, and in this growth good books have played their part.

The reading of great books stimulates and directs the imagination, and it is the properly stimulated imagination of the children which the Junior Red Cross organization expects to turn into channels of constructive patriotic service. Library service can assist the Junior Red Cross (1) by promoting the reading of great heroic literature; (2) by properly informing children regarding their national life; (3) by training children to be useful members of society; (4) by keeping children normal in war time thru recreative reading, story hours, reading clubs, etc.

These aims are not new ones, but present conditions have placed new emphasis upon them. The public library is accepted as a great democratic institution where children of all nationalities, classes, and creeds mingle and thru the free use of books and equipment are taught to respect and preserve public property. The attendance is voluntary, but groups are organized for story hours, poetry hours, and reading clubs. Books on history, biography, and civics are generously provided, and the process of Americanization among the little new citizens is an interesting feature to observe. The times demand, however, that children's librarians shall intensify their interest and effort in order that no opportunity shall be lost or past lightly over, and that time may be saved for the children for other lines of activity required of them.

To carry out this plan the following program of reading is suggested: 1. Heroic and patriotic literature which shall make a strong emotional appeal.

2. Books of American history and travel which shall fully inform the reader.

3. Accounts of critical periods in the history of the world, selected to show loyalty to the country.

4. Accounts of critical periods in American history.

5. Biographies of heroes and heroines of service.

6. Autobiographies of New Americans.

7. Popular books on civics, showing duties and privileges of Americans. Books on handicrafts, teaching Red Cross activities.

8. Modern patriotic poems, speeches, letters, and narratives.

9. General recreative reading.

The method of procedure to be followed in presenting this literature to Junior Red Cross members should be the usual one followed in wellorganized children's departments. They may include the purchase of books in attractive editions, the setting aside of special shelves attractively labeled, the use of posters, the preparation and distribution of lists, special story hours, lectures, etc.