THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 542, 24 June 1909, Page 8

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

• LITERATURE FOR. CHILDREN. ! CIRCULATING LIBRARY AND READING •: ROOM.. A children's reading room and circulating branch, in conncction with tho; Public Library, has been under consideration for, some time past, and it is understood that the Library Committee of the City Council decided yesterday to put the scheme into operation as early as possiblo. It is stated that the s'chemo has been found to work very .'successfully in other placce, and has been in voguo at tho Newtown Library for a considerable time. Books-for : such a scheme, wero purchased some time, ago, so that it appears to be only a matter of setting aside a portion of the library for the new branch, and arranging details as to how the department -will bo carried on.- In addition to catering especially for the juvenile portion of 1 the .community, the*.new idea will relieve the main portion of the library of its-pat-rons among the young, people. libraries are a feature of. the principal American libraries, and a few particulars as to the lengths, to which they have gone-in America were. furnished to a representative of The Dominion yesterday by a gentleman who has recently been in close touch with some of the greatest libraries in America. At the Cleveland library, for . instance, the books for children are selected with two main objects in view:—(1) To supply in sufficient .numbers good books for the child., of'usual taste,'and' (2) to furnish books to meet , the taste of the-unusual boy or girl. It is recognised a children's library miist contain enough elementary books on ahy : subjcct to encourage an individual tendency, and that literature • for children is largely heroic, and ideal, which two qualities,; are subjected .to a most careful. criticism, and many of the principles .of criticism for adult literature cannot be. applied to children's books., The Cleveland authorities , have recognised that the line drawn in books for grown-up peoplo, between fic r tion and fact,, is a false ono for children. There are but two , general lines, of interest in, books for .children,. the \ human and tlip scientific. The human .interest is a natural interest, and lies m folk lore, fables, Biblical stories,. histoiy, . travel, biography, animal life, and stories.. The scientific is, the developed interest that lies' in inventions, the sciences, and arts, and crafts. It. is urged that the. great books of the imaginative life, fables, folk tales and legends, are . the host ground work for a boy who has,reached the age wherd he wants books of modern life, because ho'is . construing his literature in relation to what His own life may be. If .he has the best of , these, it ,is contended that.he ,will want the good.modern story instead of tie' flashy one, as he would detest in the latter its luridness. and', untruth. Curiosity is, held by the Cleveland authorities to be one" of the strongest aids in interesting children, in books, and_ihat good illustrations can , Qhimine , many"^en' unattractive, text, is another of their theories from ■ experience. ■ .Unattractive .editions,, and dull bindings, are not encouraged, and the library, in ; question sends • many of. its i books to tho bindery to bo resown llefore they are circulated, simply that the, attractive covers may be preserved as long as possible., ';The children's departeient locally will; be only , a small but, with the experience of America,\and tho.great lengths to which they have gone, tho\ scheme may be. enlarged ■ from ; time, to. time, until it is perhaps .tho, greatest foatiiro of tho library— a, steady,, undermining influence ,on thi absorption, of , : :tlio ■~contents of the . "penny dreadful'.' ; and., the "shilling shocker" • style of literature. ' .