Primers and "easy books"have a use for children who are learning to read but too free a use of them may be one of the influences responsible for that lack of power of sustained attention and limitation in vocabulary which is frequently shown by boys and girls from twelve to fourteen years old.
The edition in which a book for children appears is a matter of very much greater importance than is realized by those who view the work from a distance.It is not purely an aesthetic consideration.It has a very practical bearing on whether the book will be read or not and libraries which have the least money to spend should be most careful to spend it for books in editions which are attractive to children.
2.The only thoroughly successful means of securing respect and good care of library books is for libraries to maintain higher standards of excellence in respect to intelligent repairing and binding,to discard promptly a book which is to any extent mutilated or which is so soiled as to make it seem unwarrantable to ask a boy to wash his hands before touching it.The books on the circulating shelves should be the most attractive part of a children's room.That it is possible to make and to keep them so is not a theory but a demonstrable fact.Three years ago a branch library was opened in one of the poor districts of a large city.
The usual problems in the discipline of individuals and of gangs were present.Many of the new books were soiled,others were mutilated and several were missing at inventory taking.The librarian believed the moral lesson conveyed to children by training them to take care of library books to be one of the first requirements of good citizenship.She determined that no boy or girl should be able to say:"I took it that way",in returning a soiled or mutilated book.In order to carry out her ideas to a successful issue it has been necessary for her to inspire her entire staff with a sense of the value of such training and to impress upon them that careful handling of books by library assistants is the first requisite to securing like care on the part of the children.Every book is examined at the time it is returned and before it is placed on the shelves it is given such repair as it may need.By careful washing,skillful varnishing and by the use of a preparation for removing grease spots many books are given an extended turn of service without lowering the standards established.Paper covers are provided as wrappers on rainy days and on sticky days.Such care of books requires time and sustained interest but I believe that it pays in the immediate as well as in the future results,when grown into men and women,the boys and girls who were taught this first lesson in citizenship will look back upon it with feelings of respect and satisfaction.
The cost to the library is less in expenditure for books and for service.The library mentioned affords direct evidence that loss of books by theft is very largely controlled by such simple means provided the means are consciously and consistently related to the larger end of regarding the property rights of others.It is interesting to note that three-fourths of its membership has been sustained during the three years.
