Others who will be remembered are William Lucas Steele (died May 5, 1918), for thirty-three years superintendent at Galesburg, Ill., a member since 1890, reading a paper in 1899 on the elective system in high schools; Henry O. Wheeler (born in 1841, died July 17, 1918), a first lieutenant in the Civil War, graduated from the University of Vermont in 1867, a lawyer in Burlington, 1871-80, and superintendent of schools there, 1880-1913, a member since 1905; Warren E. Knapp (January 22, 1850-October 14, 1918), educated at Cornell, who went to Fort Collins, Colo., in 1882, as a banker, and two years later to Denver as principal of Franklin School, becoming in 1885 superintendent of Arapahoe County, and after two terms in 1902 principal of Cheltenham School, Denver, a member since 1907; Theodore C. Mitchill (fifty-two years old, died December 27, 1918), graduated from Columbia in 1886, and since 1910 principal of the Jamaica High School, member since 1905; and William A. Campbell (June 6, 1852-November 23, 1918), district superintendent in New York City, a member since 1905.

STANDARD LIBRARY ORGANIZATION AND
EQUIPMENT FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS
OF DIFFERENT SIZES

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON LIBRARY ORGANIZATION
AND EQUIPMENT

FOREWORD

C. C. CERTAIN, CHAIRMAN

The Library Committee of the Department of Secondary Education of the National Education Association was organized in 1915 at the annual meeting in Oakland, Calif. The members of the Committee at that time decided that two purposes should be carried out during the year: first, to investigate actual conditions in high-school libraries throughout the United States; and second, to make these conditions known to school administrators and to secure their aid in bettering existing conditions. The first purpose was accomplisht thru a series of surveys, including the states of the South, of the Middle West, of the West, and of the East. A report based upon these surveys was presented to the Secondary Department at the New York City meeting in 1916 and publisht in the Proceedings of that year. Gathered together at that meeting were high-school principals, teachers, librarians, and state and city superintendents, who, in discussing the problems relating to high-school libraries, gave a new conception of the status of the library in the high school. It was thru this program that the Committee accomplisht its second purpose. Taking part in the discussions at the meeting were such men as Dr. Davidson, of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Mr. Jesse B. Davis, of Grand Rapids, Mich., and Professor Charles Hughes Johnston, of Urbana, Ill. A full account of the meeting, with papers contributed by the speakers, is publisht in the National Education Association Proceedings for 1916.

It was the sense of the department at that time that the Library Committee should be continued and that it should work out a constructive program of library development acceptable to the Secondary Department. Professor Johnston consented to take the leadership in this movement. He was also chairman of the Commission on Unit Courses and Curricula of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. As chairman of this Commission he organized a library committee with the purpose of preparing, under the guidance of the members of the Commission, a much more detailed report than seemed possible in the National Education Association. It was my great pleasure to act as chairman of this Library Committee of the Commission and to work under the leadership of Professor Johnston. He planned to secure the adoption of the projected report by the North Central Association and then to present it to the Secondary Department of the National Education Association for similar action.

Professor Johnston's untimely death in the early stages of these plans brought irreparable loss to the teaching profession; but his plans, which were projected with characteristic clearness and vigor, have survived and have been given expression in the following report prepared by the Library Committee of the Commission. I was askt to accept the chairmanship of the Library Committee of the Secondary Department and hence have

had the privilege of carrying out the program planned by Professor Johnston. According to his plans I have presented the report of the Library Committee both to the North Central Association and to the Secondary Department of the National Education Association. The report has been adopted by both organizations. The action of these organizations has thus given school administrators a national standard for high-school library development.

The Library Committee has been instructed to prepare a report on "Methods of Using the Library in Teaching the High-School Subjects," to be presented at the next annual meeting of the Secondary Department.

THE NEED FOR HIGH-SCHOOL LIBRARY STANDARDIZATION JESSE NEWLON, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, LINCOLN, nebr.

In the building of high schools in the past twenty-five years it has been the custom to provide adequately, or approximately so, for science and a little less generously for household arts and manual arts. I do not wish to say anything whatever in disparagement of the provision made for science. We have not provided more than adequately; we have invested no more money in science than we should. In fact, the war is teaching us that we must spend more money in every line than we have ever spent before. But in planning our high schools we have overlookt, with very few exceptions, the high-school library.

What is true of high schools in general is true of junior high schools in particular. The library in the junior high school is just as important as the library in the senior high school; indeed, far more so in many respects. Most boys and girls leave school before they reach the senior high school, in fact before they reach the tenth grade of the public schools. If we are really to teach them to use the library, if we are really to create in them an interest in good books, an interest in study, it must be done in the junior high school. In my mind the need of library development applies in particular to the junior high school.

There are few well-planned high-school libraries in the United States. Sometimes there is a large study-hall for the library-generally just one room with no workroom or conveniences of any kind for the library staff. The reason for this has been that in the science department we have had definite standards by which to design. These standards have been workt out during many years in the colleges and in the secondary schools. We have appreciated the importance of science in the high-school curriculum. We have had standards in the university laboratories. In the laboratories in the high schools we have laboratory equipment. It has been easy, therefore, to convince boards of education that it is necessary to provide these and so for the chemistry department, the physics department, or for science of whatever kind common to the curriculum. We have been