I say THOUGHTFUL administration because the children's library is no sooner opened than it begins to present problems.Some of these are simply administrative and economic,others take hold of social and ethical foundations.There will be scarcely a day on which the librarian and the children's librarian will not have to put their heads,and sometimes their hearts,together over puzzling cases--cases of fraud,of mischief-making,of ignorant evil-doing,of inherited tendencies,physical,mental,and moral--and sometimes it will seem as if the whole human creation were incurably ailing,and the doctrine of total depravity will take on alarming probability.But at this point some sound,smiling,active boy or girl comes in with a cheerful greeting,and pessimism retires into the background.And all this reminds me of one more quality which the children's librarian must have--a sense of humor.It is literally saving in some circumstances.
Our own experience has led to the following suggestions,made by the children's librarian in our library to those who come in at given hours from the other departments to take her place or to assist her.It will be seen that most of them are the product of observation and thought arising from the daily evidence of the room itself:
"Always tell a child how to fill out his application-blank,even when you are busy.Tell him just where to write his name in the register and stay near him till it is completed.Whenever it is possible,go to the shelves with a child who has just received his card of membership.Show him where different kinds of books are to be found.Ask him what kind of book he likes.Show him one or two answering to his description and then leave him to make his own selection.
"Explain the routine carefully and fully to children just beginning to use the library.
"Let no child sign the register,look at a book,receive or present an application,with soiled hands.Soiled and crumpled applications are considered defective and cannot be accepted.
"Do not expect or demand perfect quiet.Frequent tapping upon the desk excites the children and betrays nervousness on the part of the person in charge.Let the discipline of the room seem to be incidental;let the child feel that it is first and foremost a library where books are to be had for the asking,and that you are there to make it easier to get them.
"Never call children's numbers,but use their names if necessary,though a glance of recognition pleases them better.Do not force acquaintance.Children like it even less than grown people.Be sympathetic and responsive,but beware of mannerism or effusiveness.Remember,too,that questioning is a fine art,and one should take care not to offend.
"Speed is not the first requisite at a children's desk.Children have more patience with necessary formalities than grown people.
"Let some of the children help in the work of the room,but do not urge them to do so.
"Avoid stereotyped forms of expression when reproving a child or conversing with him.Let him feel you are speaking to him personally;he will not feel this if he hears the same words used for 50other boys."For evening work,when there is no circulation of books:"read to them sometimes;talk to them at others;and sometimes leave them quite alone.They are more appreciative when they find you are leaving work to give them pleasure than they would be if they found you were making their pleasure your work."These are a few of the instructions or suggestions consequent upon daily observation and experience.Doubtless every children's librarian could supplement them with many more,but they are enough to show what I mean by "thoughtful administration."Occasionally the librarian who serves children will have to take account of stock,sum up the changes for better or for worse in the use and treatment of the room,in the manners and habits of the children and in their reading.She will have to retire a little from her work,take a bird's-eye view of it,and decide if on the whole progress is making toward her ideal.Without identifying itself with any of the movements such as the kindergarten,child-study,and social settlement,without losing control of itself and resigning itself to any outside guidance,the children's library should still absorb what is to its purpose in the work of all these agencies."This one thing I do,"the librarian may have to keep reminding herself,to keep from being drawn off into other issues,but by standing a little apart she may see what is to her advantage without being sucked in by the draft as some enthusiastic movement sweeps by.Must she have no enthusiasm?Yes,indeed;but is not that a better enthusiasm which enables one to work on steadily for years with undiminished courage than the kind that exhausts itself in the great vivacity of its first feeling and effort?
