The usefulness of the reading club as an opportunity of broadening the interests of the child is emphasized in the following paper,printed in the Library Journal,May,1911,which gives an account of the organization of clubs under the direction of a supervisor in the Cleveland Public Library.Marie Hammond Milliken was born in Pittsburgh,Pa.,was graduated from Wellesley College in 1905and from the Training School for Children's Librarians in 1907;was children's librarian in the Cleveland Public Library from 1907to 1910;Supervisor of reading clubs from 1910to 1912,and since that time has been a branch librarian.
The 13-year-old president of one of the Cleveland library clubs said recently,in explaining the purpose of the club to a new member,"The idea of this club is to give you what you couldn't get anywhere else."This is a rather ambitious program.I should be slow to say that any club I have known has succeeded in doing that for its members.Considering the character of the communities in which the public library is generally placed,particularly the branches of a large library system,I am inclined to think,however,that clubs organized and conducted by the library offer to the children some things they are,at least,not likely to get anywhere else--and to the library another means of strengthening its effectiveness as an educational and social center in the community.
In speaking of library clubs,I have in mind the organized,self-governing club,with a small and definite membership,as distinguished from the reading circle.Definite organization means a constitution,officers,elections,parliamentary procedure --all the form and ceremonial so attractive to children of the club age.From the first meeting,when the constitution of the club comes up for discussion,the organization begins to develop the child's sense of responsibility.A simple form of parliamentary procedure will not only prove conducive to orderly and business like meetings,but,especially with young or immature children,delight in its formalities will help to hold the club together while interest in other phases of the club work is being developed.
The chief advantage of the self-government of the club is as a first lesson (frequently)in the principles of popular government.In the club the too-assertive child learns wholesome respect for the will of the majority,while his more retiring brother discovers that one man's vote is as good as another's.
When one has seen a club of ambitious lads who,when they first organized,cared only for success,reject a boy who is a good debater and athlete on the ground that in another club he had shown that "he was a sorehead and couldn't seem to understand that the majority's got to rule,"one is tempted to feel that organization can do so much for the children that an organized library club justifies itself on that score alone.
Club work is a very effective means of extending the active educational work of the library.In the clubs conducted by the Cleveland Public Library,the plan has been to encourage the children themselves to make suggestions for the club work.Then a tentative program is made out,based on some general interest shown in the suggestions made by the club.As far as possible,the program is planned with the idea of stimulating broad,as well as careful and intelligent reading.The program is,of course,subject to changes which may suggest themselves to the club or to its leader.Travel in foreign lands,the study of the lives of great women,nature study,the reading and discussion of Shakespeare's plays,in the girls'clubs,and,in the clubs for boys,debating and reporting on current events,have been the subjects most successfully worked out for club consideration,probably on account of the variety of interest which they present.Travel means not only the manners and customs side of the country--it means the art,the literature,the history,the legend;biography,not simply the life of the individual studied,but the period and country that produced it.The subjects discussed in the debating clubs are almost always of the boys' choosing,and represent a broad field of interest,economic,social,moral and political.
