第38章 THE GROWING TENDENCY TO OVER-EMPHASIZE THE CHILDRE

I next noticed and with some alarm the feminization of the library corps.And I confess that I see no remedy.The schools are facing the same difficulty,but eventually it will be solved for them in the raising of certain salaries to a man's standard.

This is not likely to happen in library work.Consequently we have this feminization to reckon with,and to me it is an active factor in the diversity of library practice to which I have referred,for women far more than men are prone to indulge individual fads.

A third impression was the lack of fitness of some library workers for their posts.This is particularly unfortunate when it occurs in a children's room.Unless the person in charge possess the requisite qualifications,better far close the room.The fault lies perhaps with the colleges offering library courses.It may well be that the training in these should be more specialized than it is.Take the case of a student intending to pursue a given line of work--say children's departments.Something definite should be offered her,something corresponding in worth to the graduate courses in practice and observation offered students of education in departments of education at universities.This is a practical suggestion;it only requires on the part of colleges and libraries similar agreements to those already existing between universities and schools.A second phase of this question is that of libraries whose employees are not drawn from library schools or colleges,but who reach the several posts by a system of promotion based on efficiency and faithful service.Is there any reason why employees of such a system,specializing in children's work should not serve an apprenticeship in the children's department at central and be required to return to it again and again for further instruction?

As far as I know the heads of these children's departments have no duties of this kind.But would not the value of a library corps be increased tenfold if they had?They seize eagerly the opportunity to go out and instruct the teacher,to go out and instruct the parent.They have classes for the schools in the use of the library.But they neglect utterly the training of the library employee who is to serve as assistant first,as chief later,in the children's room at branch or station.Yet the knowledge acquired by only one day of observation under skillful guidance in the children's department at central would prove invaluable to these women.Broaden the training given employees,and centralize experimentation.

I found no TRUE affiliation with the schools.There was none in North Carolina;there is none here.In countless ways the library and the school are overlapping.Why there should not be a clearer vision as to what is library work and what is school work is incomprehensible to an outsider.

I grew to have a horror of children's rooms--as distinct from children's departments.Intellectually,physically,morally,Ibelieve them harmful.Neither can I see their necessity.

As regards classification of books,I received the impression that the broad division into "adult"and "juvenile"is too dogmatic,too arbitrary.Whatever other forms or divisions are necessary,this particular one should be abolished.It lowers the intellectual standing of the library with the community.