第70章 WORK WITH CHILDREN IN THE SMALL LIBRARY(3)

The question of having insufficient help gives an excuse for getting a personal hold on some of the bright older boys and girls who can be made to think it a privilege to have a club night at the library once in a while,when they will cut the leaves of new books and magazines,paste and label and be useful in many ways.Of course they have to be managed,but you can get a lot of fine work out of assistants of this sort,and do them a great amount of good at the same time.

Another of the blessings for which the town librarian may be thankful is that her rules need not be cast iron,but may be made elastic to fit certain cases.Because the place is so small that she can get to know pretty well the character of its inhabitants,she need not be obliged to face the crestfallen countenance of a sorely disappointed little girl who,on applying for a library card,is told that she must bring her father or mother to sign an application,and who knows that that will be a task impossible of performance.The town librarian may dare to take the very slight risk of loss,and issue the card at once,enjoying the pleasure of making one small person radiantly happy.

Then there is the satisfaction of doing a little of everything about your library with your own hands and knowing instantly just where things are when you are asked.To illustrate from a recent experience of my own.At one of the small branches or stations rather,of the Brooklyn Public Library,a certain small boy used to appear at least two or three times a week and ask the librarian,"Have you got the 'Moral pirates'yet?"And over and over again the librarian was forced wearily to answer,"No,not yet,Sam."Now,although the library's purchases of children's books are very generous,running from 1,500to 2,000volumes a month for the 20branches,of course with such large purchases it is necessary to systematize the buying by getting largely the same 50titles for all branches,varying the number of copies per branch according to each one's need.The branch librarian of whom I am speaking did not feel like asking often for specials,realizing that she was only one of many having special wants,and knowing that we would in time reach the "Moral pirates"in the course of our large,regular monthly purchases.But one afternoon I went up to this station and helping at the charging desk,this small boy appeared asking me for the "Moral pirates."The librarian told me of the hopeful persistence of his request,and it did not take long after that to get the "Moral pirates"into the small boy's hands.I only hope the realization of a long anticipated wish did not prove to him like that of many another,and that his disappointment was not too unbearable in finding a pirate story minus cutlasses and black flags and decks slippery with gore.

The point of this tale is,that in a great system it is impossible often to get as close to an individual as in this case,while the town librarian,who does everything from unpacking her books to handing them out to her borrowers,can many a time have the personal pleasure of seeing a book into the right hands.

I have only indirectly alluded to the greatest joy of all,the possibility of personal,individual,first-hand contact with the children whom you can get to know so well and to influence so strongly,and another joy that grows out of it--seeing results yourself.

We are so ready to be deceived and discouraged by numbers!The town librarian reads of a tremendous circulation of children's books in a city library,and straightway gets the blues over her own small showing.But I beg such an one to think rather of what the QUALITY of her children's use of the library may be as compared with that of the busy city library.A great department must be so arranged for dispatching a large amount of work in a few minutes of time,that in spite of every effort,something of the mechanical must creep into its administration.

The town librarian may know by name each child who borrows her books.Not only that,but she may know much of his ancestry and environment and so be able to judge the needs of each one.She will not be so rushed with charging books by the hundred that she cannot USE that knowledge to help him in the wisest,most tactful manner.But the joy of watching her children develop,of seeing a boy or girl whom she helped bring up,grow into a manhood and womanhood of noble promise,of feeling that she had a large influence in forming the taste of this girl,in sending to college that lad who wouldn't have dreamed of such a thing had he not been stirred to the ambition through the reading taste she awakened in him--these are pleasures the city children's librarian is for the most part denied.

The latter can see that her selection of books is of the best,she can make her room as attractive as money will admit,she can choose her staff with great care.She knows that good must result in the lives of many and many a child from contact even in brief moments with people of strong magnetic personality,and from constantly taking into their minds the sort of reading she provides.But very rarely will she be permitted to see the results in individual cases that make work seem greatly worth while,and that compensate in a few brief minutes,for weeks and months and years of quiet,uninspiring,plodding effort.

And so I congratulate the worker with children in the small library.It would be a delight to me if I could feel that my appreciation of the blessings that are yours might help you to look upon your opportunity as a very great and worthy one.The parents of the small town need your help,the teachers cannot carry on their work well without you,the boys and girls would miss untold good if you were not their friend and counselor,the library profession needs the benefit of the practical judgment your all-round training gives.And so you may believe of your position that though in figures your annual report does not read large,in quality of work,in power of influence it reads in characters big with significance,radiant with encouragement.