The National Child Conference for Research and Welfare was organized at a meeting held at Clark University,Worcester,Mass.,in July,1909.Several papers on library topics were presented at this meeting,one of the most interesting of which was given by Miss Olcott.In this paper she presents the story hour as a method of introducing "large groups of children simultaneously to great literature,"and asserts that "the library story hour becomes,if properly utilized,an educational force as well as a literary guide."Frances Jenkins Olcott was born in Paris,France;was educated under private tutors,and was graduated from the New York State Library School in 1896.From 1898to 1911she was Chief of the Children's Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.In 1900she organized and became the Director of the Training School for Children's Librarians.Since 1911Miss Olcott has contributed to library work with children by writing and editing books for parents and for children.
The library is a latter day popular educational development.It supplements the work of the church,the home,the school and the kindergarten.Its function is to place within the reach of all the best thought of the world as conserved in the printed page.
This being its natural function,all methods selected by the library should tend directly to arouse interest in the best reading.Methods which do not do this are,for the library,ineffective and a waste of valuable energy and public funds.
The library movement has grown with such startling rapidity that it has not been possible to codify the best methods of library work,but there has been an earnest endeavor to establish a body of library pedagogy by careful experimentation.Unfortunately during this experimental stage methods have been introduced which do not produce direct library results.Many of these methods,which in this paper it is not expedient to enumerate,are interesting and appeal to the imagination;they may impart knowledge,but they are not,strictly speaking,library methods.
As childhood and youth are the times in which to lay the foundation for the habit of reading and of discrimination in reading,it falls to the library worker with children to build up a system of sound library pedagogy leading to the increased intelligent use of the library.The library worker has to deal with large crowds of children of all ages,all classes and nationalities.In a busy children's room she is rarely able to provide enough assistants to do the necessary routine work and help each individual child select his reading,therefore it becomes necessary for her to direct the children's reading through large groups and to adapt for this purpose methods used by other educational institutions.But these methods have to be adapted in a practical,forceful way,otherwise they become sentimental and ineffectual.For instance,a method useful in the kindergarten for teaching ethics,in the public schools for teaching geography,science or history,if rightly applied by the public library,may be useful in arousing interest in good books and reading.Such is the story telling method,one of the most effective,if rightly applied,which the public library uses to introduce large groups of children simultaneously to great literature.On the other hand,if the library worker uses story telling merely as a means of inculcating knowledge or teaching ethics,the story fails to produce public library results and the method becomes the weakest of methods,as it absorbs time,physical energy,and library funds which should be expended to increase good reading.
