Present-day conditions in a branch library in a crowded district of a large city are pictured in the last paper to be included in this compilation,with special emphasis on the necessity of understanding the traditions and customs of foreign peoples in order to know how to appeal to them.It was read by Miss Josephine M.McPike before the meeting of the Missouri Library Association at Joplin,Missouri,in October,1915.
Josephine Mary McPike was born in Alton,Illinois,and studied in Shurtleff College,Upper Alton,and in the University of Illinois.She became a member of the staff of the St.Louis Public Library in 1909.In February,1917,she resigned from the position of First Assistant at the Crunden Branch to become the librarian of the Seven Corners Branch of the Minneapolis Public Library.
Crunden branch is the kind of place,the thought of which makes you glad to get up in the morning.It is an institution a state of mind.And as we workers there feel,so do the people in the neighborhood.We have heard over and over again the almost worn-out appellation "The people's university";Crunden has a different place in the thoughts of its users.It is really the living-room of our neighborhood--the place where,the dishes having been washed and the apron hung up,we naturally retire to read and to muse.
True,it is a large family foregathered in this living-room of ours,much greater in number than the chairs for them to sit upon,but,as in all large families,there is much giving and taking.In the children's room,crowded to overflowing,the Jewish child sits next to the Irish,and the Italian and the Polish child read from the same book.Children of all ages;babes from two and a half years to boys of twenty who spend their days in the factory,and are still reading "Robinson Crusoe"and the "Merry adventures of Robin Hood."There too,sometimes comes the mother but lately arrived from the "Old Country,"wearing her brightly colored native costume.Unable to read or to write,she feels more at home here with the children whom she understands,and beams proudly to see her little "Izzey"reading "Child life"or "Summers'reader."
Some social workers report that their greatest difficulty in dealing with the children of the tenement district is absolute lack of the play spirit.Our observations have been quite to the contrary;in all of the children there is a fresh and healthy play-fulness--indeed,we feel at times that it is much too healthy.Our constant attendance is needed to satisfy them all,insatiable little readers that they are.
But the question of discipline becomes a real problem only in dealing with the mass spirit of the gang.There is one more or less notorious gang in the neighborhood which is known as the "Forty Thieves."To gain admittance into this friendly crowd it is necessary for the applicant to prove to the full satisfaction of the leaders that he has stolen something.En masse they storm into the children's room,in a spirit of bravado.We gradually come to realize that at such a time as this the library smile--that much used and abused smile--touches some of the boys not at all,and the voice of authority and often the arm of strength are the only effective methods.We believe that we have found a most satisfactory way of meeting this situation.The children's librarian induces all of the older boys to come down stairs to a separate room and for a half hour tells them tales of adventure and chivalry,thus quieting the children's room and directing the energy of the boys into more peaceful channels.
This story in the evening takes the place of the story hour for older children during the daytime,which on account of the scarcity of boys and girls of suitable age has been discontinued.
The younger children still have their fairy stories told them,and there,ever and anon,the frank spirit of the family manifests itself.That child who all through one story hour sat weaving back and forth muttering to herself,and when pressed for an explanation,remarked that she "was counting 'til you're done"--is a happy and independent contrast to the usually emotional type that embraces and bids its indescribably dirty and garlic tainted little brothers--"Kiss teacher for the nice story."The young library assistant comes to Crunden branch graciously to teach--she stays humbly to learn.Full of new theories and with a desire to uplift--a really sincere desire--she finds in a short time much to uplift her own spirit.Since ours is a polygot neighborhood consisting mostly of Russians,Jews,Poles,and Italians,with a light sprinkling of Irish,it brings us into contact with such different temperaments that before we can attempt to satisfy them we must needs go to school to them.We know to some extent the life of our American child and with a little thought we can usually find the way best to appeal to him.
But the peoples who have come from across the water have brought with them their traditions and their customs,and have each their own point of view;and it is with these traditions and customs that we must become familiar and sympathetic in order to understand the little strangers.There is the eager,often fearful Jewish child;the slower,stolid Pole;the impulsive Italian;each must be approached from a different angle and each with a different inducement.At first this task is rather appalling,but gradually it becomes so interesting that from trying to learn from the child in the library we listen to the mother in the home,and often to the father from the factory;and from these gleanings of their life in the home and their habits of thought we try to understand the nature of the strange child and grope about for what he most needs and how to make the greatest appeal to him.
