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dent Schools Education C
Independent Schools
A STUDY OF LIBRARIES
IN SCHOOLS OF
THE SECONDARY EDUCATION BOARD
by
Oscar H. McPherson
Librarian, The Lawrenceville School
January, 1938
Bureau of
Research.
SECONDARY EDUCATION BOARD
MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Library Science
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PREFACE
The following pages are the first report of a study being made for
the Bureau of Research of the Secondary Education Board and begun in the spring
of 1936.
To readers not connected with the Secondary Education Board, it
should be explained that the organization consists of about 150 private sec-
ondary schools of all types but chiefly of boarding schools. It includes most
of the well-known schools in the United States, especially in the East. Found-
ed in 1924, its purpose was originally to establish standard curricula for the
upper grades of the elementary schools and the lower grades of the secondary
schools and to set examinations for transfer from one to the other. This has
continued to be one of the chief functions of the Board, an activity very sim-
ilar to that carried on by the College Entrance Examination Board for the
higher levels of the secondary schools. In addition to this examining function
the Board engages in research activity in matters which have to do with the
sorts of school included in its membership.
When given this assignment, the author was requested to make this
study the basis of recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of exist
ing librarie's or for creating effective libraries in schools not having them.
The Executive Committee of the Board has now decided that there
should be two reports of this study: The first, merely a compilation of the
facts gained, to be distributed at once; the second, a comprehensive series of
deductions from the facts with a thorough discussion, as untechnical and read-
able as possible, of implications and of why and how the effectiveness of sec-
ondary school libraries, their scope, and the emphasis placed upon them should
be greatly increased. This second report, it is hoped, will be in book form
and will be published in about a year.
-
So diverse are the characteristics of the schools in the membership
of the Board that it has been found exceedingly difficult to classify the fac-
tual results of the study in such a way as to make them equally suggestive or
significant to all. Because of this diversity, it seems wise, in making recom~
mendations and attempting to give workable suggestions, to focus the discussion
upon the secondary grades, particularly grades eight to twelve, although the
factual report in this study deals as completely with schools serving lower ·
grades as with the others. Yet the application to lower grades of much that is
said should not be difficult.
The information made available by the return of the questionnaire
prepared for this purpose has been added to by personal visits on the part of
the author, by correspondence, and by consulting all available published mate-
rial. This questionnaire was divided into the following groups: Information
Concerning the Schools in the Study; Functions of School Libraries; Housing
and Equipment; Organization and Administration; Promotion or Methods of Gaining
Effectiveness; and Opinion and Comment of schools reporting.
Except in the last of the headings mentioned, the compiler tried
earnestly to make the questionnaire an easily-answered check list. This made
it so long that some schools may have been discouraged from replying. Yet if
it had been shorter and less easily checked, the results probably would have
been no better. Moreover, it was sent out in May, when the schools were all
busy with the final activities of the year. Many of the returns were incom-
plete, some so much so that the information given was of little or no value.
Replies were received for over a year, the last one in July, 1937. Whatever
the reason for the failure to respond at all or promptly, the percentage of
replies was fifty-four.
1
To save time in preparing this first report, it has been decided to
present the facts in sentence form rather than to use tables, charts, and
graphs. This form of exposition will be more likely to attract lay readers.
Schools lacking trained librarians have only laymen to read discussions of
library procedures, and it is to those schools especially that this study ap-
plies.
It is hoped that the reports will be of value not only to schools in
the Board, but to other secondary schools, both private and public, interested
now or later in developing their library facilities and service.
A STUDY OF LIBRARIES IN SCHOOLS OF THE SECONDARY EDUCATION BOARD
GENERAL INFORMATION CONCERNING SCHOOLS IN THE STUDY
Questionnaires were sent to 142 schools. Replies were received from
seventy-seven, seventy-three of which were returned questionnaires and four
letters from headmasters who felt that their schools were so small that elab-
orate replies were not justified. These seventy-seven schools consist of forty
boys' boarding schools, six girls' boarding schools, two coeducational boarding
schools, four boys' urban day schools, one girls' urban day school, four co-
educational urban day schools, sixteen boys country day schools, four girls'
country day schools. Thirty-one of the forty-seven boarding schools reporting
admit day pupils. Five schools are coeducational in the elementary but not in
the higher grades. Eleven dub themselves "progressive" schools.
schools. Six are among
those chosen by the Progressive Education Association for experimenting with
new methods of admission to college. Two of the largest schools for boys have
a 'conference plan" of instruction with maximum discussion-group classes of
twelve. Two of the schools reporting are ranch schools; thirteen are affili-
ated with definite religious sects. Most of these schools have small classes,
the maximum not being over twenty.
11
In enrollment the largest school is 950. There are two of 700, one
of 650, one of 540, two of 500, two of 450, two 400, seven 350, five 300, six
250, seven 200, five 175, ten 150, five 120, eleven 100, eight 50, one 30 and
The average for the seventy-seven schools reporting is 227 plus.
one 20.
Classified according to the scholarship grades accommodated, sixteen
schools serve only elementary grades, with one of them having also the ninth
and tenth; one has only the middle grades, three to nine; thirty have the upper
grades only; and thirty have all grades, one going through the fourteenth, a
few starting with the third or fourth, a few having nursery and kindergarten
grades.
2
FUNCTIONS
The reported functions of the school library were, in order:
encour-
age voluntary extra-curricular reading, sixty-eight; meet the needs of the cur-
riculum, sixty-three; develop skills and techniques in elementary research,
forty-nine; meet intellectual needs of the whole school community, forty-nine;
develop the character and personality of pupils, forty-four; provide an escape
from the regimentation of the classroom, twenty-nine. Others written in were:
To provide a convenient place with a literary atmosphere for older boys to stay
in during school hours; to make every student a librarian; to develop a liking
for books and judgment in selecting them; to develop correlation among depart-
ments; to develop reading along hobby lines; to provide a pleasant, social,
clublike atmosphere; to train students for the use of other libraries; to give
students experience in proctoring; and to serve as a museum. Each of these
replies written in was a single one
HOUSING AND EQUIPMENT
Thirty schools have separate libraries, twenty-one in adapted former
classrooms and nine in separate buildings. Twenty-three schools have their
libraries in places devoted to other uses also. Four have them in principals'
offices, homes, or libraries; ten, in assembly rooms; five, in corridors; and
four in study halls.
Forty-eight schools reported that they have reading rooms.
Of these,
one reports that it has seven, one has four, four have three, and ten have two.
Fourteen have newspaper and magazine rooms; twelve have workrooms; eleven have
browsing rooms; eight have library classrooms; eight have clubrooms; five have
conference rooms, one having five and two having two each.
There are other schools which have made special and unique arrange-
ments for their libraries. One school has a separate library for each of the
following groups: elementary pupils, junior secondary pupils, higher secondary
pupils, students of art, students of music, and faculty. Another school, serv-
ing only elementary and junior secondary grades, has a library for grades three
to five, a reference library for the lower grades, a library for teachers, and
a reference library for seniors. This school also has a reference collection
of 100 books in each classroom. Another school has libraries of science and
art separate from its main library and not under the supervision of the library
staff. Another has a separate room to accommodate a hobby which they emphasize,
that of bookbinding. This library also has four separate stackrooms.
school has a regular system of classroom loans from the main library.
One
Another
Of the schools with normal arrangement of their books, forty-two have
the libraries on the first floor; twenty, on the second floor; eight, on the
third floor; and two, in the basement. Several schools have their libraries
scattered from one extreme to the other of their respective buildings.
school, owned and operated by a Friends' Meeting, is served by its own library,
separated into three sections on three floors, and also by a public library on
the school grounds controlled by the same Friends' Meeting. This, of course,
could happen only in the Philadelphia region.
Housing of
Library
Different
Rooms
Provided
Location
of library
if not
separate
building
3
2.
Seating
Capacity
Number of
Books
i
Periodicals
In seating capacity the libraries are as varied as they are in every
other way.
They run from five to 600. Several schools having separate librar-
ies for reference and for recreational reading, have interesting variations in
the seating capacity for each function. One, for example, seats 144 pupils in
the reference room and thirty-six in the recreational reading room.
The equipment listed by these libraries is as follows: Sixty-eight
have open shelves; sixty-six have reading tables; sixty-six have card catalogue
cases; forty-four have bulletin boards; thirty-seven have charging desks and
magazine display racks or tables; twenty-eight have newspaper racks; twenty-two
have files for pictures; twenty have files for clippings; nineteen have files
for pamphlets and bulletins; eighteen have display cases; eight have.department
files for classroom use; six have files for maps; five have individual study
desks for pupils; four have files for stereoptican slides; one has files for
motion picture films; one has a file for phonograph records; two have museum
cases; two have units for display of pictures; two have statuary; one has
locked cases for valuable books; two have large terrestrial globes; one empha-
sizes display, frequently changed, of arts and crafts; one has complete equip-
ment for bookbinding, and one has a grand piano.
In number of books the collections in the various schools range from
approximately 40,000 down to 200. Thirty-seven schools reported emphasis on
American history and biography; seventeen, drama; fifteen, current fiction;
fourteen, modern social problems; ten, the Greek and Latin classics; six, valu-
able sets; six have the Carnegie Art Collection; and five have collections of
rare books, such as incunabula, Virgil, first editions. Two give special at-
tention to religious books.
Here the conditions met in the different schools are, if possible,
even more various than those affecting other forms of library service. Obvi-
ously, day schools should and do have fewer magazines than boarding schools.
It is equally obvious that schools predominatingly elementary will have fewer
magazines than those serving the secondary grades. With these qualifications
in mind, consider some of the figures reported: The largest number of regular
subscriptions is ninety-six. These are in a school, both boarding and day,
serving all the elementary and secondary grades, as well as children of nursery
school and kindergarten age, with a total enrollment of 950. Of these ninety-
six magazines they bind only eight. Another school with a student population
of 500 subscribes to ninety-one periodicals. This is a boys' boarding school
with the five upper secondary grades. It binds twenty-seven of its magazines.
It has a proportion of one magazine to every five pupils. The third school, in
the order of number of magazine subscriptions, also a boys' boarding prepara-
tory school but with 700 pupils, has seventy-five, which include many foreign
publications, the gift of a special foundation. It binds no magazines. It has
a proportion of one to nine. The fourth school takes forty-four periodicals
and has an enrollment of approximately 700, a proportion of one to fifteen.
The other schools concerned with this study range down to those having no regu-
lar subscriptions. There are two schools in this category, but both receive
weekly and monthly gifts of magazines subscribed to by students and members of
the faculty. One other school, in addition to that already mentioned as not
binding magazines, also feels that unbound periodicals are more convenient than
bound for reference purposes.
The schools reporting the titles of periodicals to which they sub-
scribe take the following fifteen in order of frequency:
The National Geographic Magazine
Harper's Magazine
60
46
-
-
g
4
Literary Digest
Atlantic Monthly
Nature
American Boy
Fortune
Current History
Forum
Illus. London News
New Republic
Collier's
New York Times Book Review
News Week
L'Illustration
44
31
31
30
30
25
It is interesting and perhaps significant that a western ranch school
subscribes to Esquire. Schools in this group receive annually in the aggregate
gift subscriptions to the number of 148. The largest number received by any
one school, a large preparatory school for boys, is twenty.
23
22
21
20
19
19
18
Of the daily newspapers in general circulation throughout the country, Newspapers
the New York Times comes first with twenty-nine, the New York Herald-Tribune
second with twelve, and the Christian Science Monitor third with nine. These
figures are separate from those giving the number of schools subscribing to
the New York Times Book Review and the New York Herald-Tribune Books.
ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION
A practice has developed in recent years that very much affects the
number of newspapers purchased by libraries. That practice is the establishing
of student agents for certain great metropolitan newspapers. These agents sell
subscriptions to the respective student bodies. The results in both boarding
schools and colleges have been remarkable. One preparatory school, for example,
with an enrollment of 500, for several years, until 1930, had fifteen daily
papers in its library. Now it has six, since considerably more than half of
its students have individual subscriptions. The same sort of thing has been
reported by several other schools in this study.
Sixty-three of the schools reporting as to the kinds of library ser-
vice rendered give curricular service. Forty-nine have unrestricted extra-
curricular service; forty-two have guided extra-curricular service; twenty-
eight have professional faculty service. In twenty schools all lesson assign-
ments are met by the library. Twelve school libraries supply textbooks.
One
boarding school reported having a definite scheme for giving library service
to the whole school community. This school has an enrollment of 500, but the
community, including faculty, faculty families, and the whole indoor and out-
door staff of the school, consists of about 900 people. Several schools report
that they have separate services for younger and older pupils. One has a li-
brarian for the primary department and another for the elementary and upper
grades. One, a choir school, has a musical library for the faculty. Another
has a special collection for its infirmary under the supervision of the regu-
lar librarian. One school has a separate library for the professional use of
its faculty. Several schools have special departmental collections, not ad-
ministered by the library staff. These special collections are generally in
the fields of either science, music, or art. Fourteen schools have classroom
libraries, but only a few of these are under the supervision of the library
staff. Thirteen have separate libraries for each department, generally without
G
··
Kinds of
Library
Service
5
Reference
Book
Selection
Apportion-
ment
Frequency
of Book
Purchase
any central library or without even a teacher-librarian. Six have dormitory
libraries, two administered by the librarians.
It was assumed in the questionnaire that all schools with adequate
libraries would have the usual reference material. It is interesting, however,
to note that of the many schools reporting on encyclopaedias and dictionaries,
only twenty-one have general encyclopaedias published as recently as 1929.
That is the figure for the Britannica. There are six each of the World Book
and Compton's in recent editions. Four schools have The Americana. Several
schools have more than one set of encyclopaedias. Of the one-volume encyclo-
paedias there are four Lincoln Library, two Columbia, and one General. Of the
unabridged dictionaries published in or since 1929, nineteen schools have Web-
ster and four, Standard. Six schools have the great Oxford Dictionary and four
have the Shorter Oxford. It should be noted again that many schools that are
known to have first-class library service were, through an error in the ques-
tionnaire, not asked to report on their reference collections.
Many schools
require every student to have a dictionary of his own, some specifying what
dictionary.
In thirty-five schools faculty library committees are largely respon-
sible for book selection. In twenty-seven schools the principal either selects
the books or checks lists provided by others. In twenty-seven schools sugges-
tions by readers are either the sole method of selection or are used as one.
In twenty-three schools faculty library committees make suggestions. In twenty-
one the librarian has sole final responsibility; in eight, partial. Two
schools report that conferences of their library staffs are held to assist in
book selection. Two schools have joint committees of teachers and pupils for
selecting books. In five schools teachers choose all books for the libraries.
In several schools special reading lists compiled by teachers are also order
lists. One school reports that a library committee of pupils selects all books.
Another school has a committee of parents and teachers for book selection.
Only nine schools reported that their book purchases are apportioned
either to pupils and others in the school community or to curricular and extra-
curricular needs of pupils. Of those, four buy all their books for pupils. Of
the five others, two spend 80% of their funds on pupils; one, 93%; one 87-1/2%;
and one, 75%. Five schools report that they apportion their expenditures for
students between curricular and extra-curricular purchases. One devotes 75% of
these funds to curricular purchases; one, 58%; two, 50%; and one, 25%. The
same five schools have an apportionment of funds to non-pupil book purchase.
One buys 25% of its books for the school community other than students, making
special purchases for children of the faculty as well as for others who are not
pupils. Two devote 20% of their funds to purchases for teachers; one, 12-1/2%;
and one, 7%. Only five schools reported on the proportion of extra-curricular
book purchases devoted to fiction and non-fiction. Six schools confine book
purchases wholly to curricular needs of pupils. One school spends 75% of its
extra-curricular purchases on fiction; two, 50%; and one, 25%. One boasts that
it has no fiction except for young children in the lower grades. This school
has one of the largest book collections in the group.
Seventy schools reported as to the frequency of book purchase, not
counting the schools that said they bought them as needed. Forty-nine schools
make purchases at irregular periods; seven make annual purchases; four buy
books three times a year; two, four times a year; two, semi-annually; three,
monthly; and three, weekly.
6
Fifty-five schools reported on the proportion of new publications in
each book purchase: six, none or negligible; twelve, one-fourth; twelve, one-
half; ten, three-fourths; three, variable; one, "mostly new"; one, two-thirds;
and one notes that the proportion of new books is much smaller for its young
pupils than for the others.
It
Forty-six schools report expenditures. Sixteen of these are on a
definite itemized budget system. Three, unlike some of their shy brothers, re-
port salaries only. One reports expenditures for books for teachers only.
is interesting to note that an allowance of $125.00 per year per teacher is
made in that school for that purpose. This school shows a more than normal ex-
penditure for library service for pupils, but no definite sum or system is re-
ported. Another school is in a highly specialized class in that a public li-
brary is housed on its grounds, and its librarian serves both school and public
libraries. This school also has separate classroom and departmental libraries
of its own, but no distinction is made in the report of expenditures. Several
schools also report as salaries for teacher-librarians only the sums given
those persons for library service alone, deducting these amounts from their
full salaries in the reports. Of the forty schools remaining, the highest an-
nual expenditure per pupil, exclusive of salaries, is $12.16. The next highest
is $7.52. Four schools have annual per capita expenditures ranging from $7.00
to $5.00. Only nine schools reporting expenditures spend less than a dollar
per pupil; the lowest is thirty-one cents. And the average for the forty
schools is $2.35. One school, reporting a per capita expenditure of seventy-
one cents, is not included in the list from which the average is taken because
it has two gift funds which richly supply the departments of art and science,
whose collections are not administered by the library and are housed separately.
It should be noted also that these figures do not give the complete picture,
inasmuch as many schools report extensive gifts, some of them systematic and
annual.
Several schools also receive incomes from library fines that increase
their library expenditures. These sums, of course, are exceedingly variable,
but many of them are large. They range from $300.00 to $2.00 a year, with four
schools generally collecting $150.00 or more per year. Some of the information
about these fines may be considered interesting and even suggestive. Thirty-
one schools report a collection system for overdue books; thirty-six say def-
initely that they do not charge fines. In the former group nine charge one
cent for each day each book is overdue, twenty charge two cents, two charge
three cents, two charge five cents. Only nine report that these charges are
made on all borrowers of books, including teachers. Twenty say definitely that
they exempt teachers from fines, and one reports that fines are added to li-
brary funds; one, that this money must be turned in to the school. One reports
that one cent a day is charged if the fine is paid when the book is returned;
two cents, if not. One charges a fine of $1.00 after the third notice. One
school continues to charge two cents a day after the book is returned with fine
not paid.
Ge
•
Proportion
of
New Books
Purchased
Expendi-
tures
Only sixteen schools reported salaries for full-time librarians. They Salaries
range from $4,000.00 to $875.00. The librarian of one large school receives
$2800.00; another, $2600.00; another $2520.00. Each of four schools gives its
librarian $2,000.00; another, $1760.00, including maintenance; one, $1700.00
and maintenance; one, $1350.00 and maintenance; another pays $1070.70; one pays
$1,000.00 to the full-time assistant librarian and nothing to the part-time
head librarian. Another famous school pays its full-time trained librarian
$900.00. This may or may not be with maintenance, although the school concerned
is a boarding school. Taking an average of the twelve schools reporting indi-
Fines
7
Admission
and
Attendance
vidual salaries and not including maintenance, we find the figure of $1919.00.
This average is determined from a list that includes one at $4,000.00 and the
next highest salary at $2800.00. None of these salaries from which this aver-
age was taken was reported as including maintenance. It should be remembered
also that it is the well-established policy of several schools to disclose no
salaries. It should also be reported that four of these schools maintain li-
brary staffs and report aggregate salaries. One, with a full-time trained
staff of five, pays them all $12,606.00. This includes also some $600.00 paid
to student assistants. Another school, having a full-time staff of four, pays
$8632.00. Another pays two $4150.00. Another pays two $3833.00.
Five schools report salaries for teacher-librarians. The salary of
one is $1200.00 and maintenance; of another is $1100.00. One pays $525.00 for
this service, in addition to the regular teacher's salary; one pays $240.00
additional for library service, and one $100.00. The teacher-librarian of a
girls' boarding school which is coeducational in the lower grades and accom
modates all the grades, with a total enrollment of eighty-five, is paid fifty
cents an hour for her part-time service in the library. In justice, it should
be recorded that the school paying $875.00 for a full-time trained librarian,
gives also complete maintenance and pays some $700.00 for student assistants.
The school paying its teacher-librarian $1200.00 and maintenance also pays
about $200.00 for student assistants.
It should also be noted that several schools receive assistance from
regularly assigned students on scholarships.
Under this heading we find that twenty-three schools require all
their pupils to study all assignments in their libraries; seventeen to study
the use of books and libraries; nine have pupils spend their study periods in
the respective libraries; and one requires students to go to the library as
punishment for disorder in the classroom. In thirty-three schools the library
is used for study only on special assignments. Several schools report that the
use of reference material is the only link between the library and the class-
room. In another school the library is used for chess tournaments. One small
school requires all pupils to go to the library for reading periods on Sunday
evenings. In one, teachers take their classes en masse to the library for com-
pletion of some assignments. Only one school reports that its library is used
for occasional group conferences between teachers and classes.
It is encouraging to note that more schools have voluntary than re-
quired use of their libraries. In forty-two schools pupils are permitted to
attend the library when not due in other school activities. In thirty-nine
schools this voluntary reading is done in the afternoon, by twenty-one in the
evening, by twenty-one at any time. Thirteen schools report that written per-
mission must be obtained for such use of the library; nineteen, oral.
The special practices of some schools are indicated by the following
quotations: "on afternoons when inclement weather makes outdoor programs im-
possible"; "as privilege for good scholastic record" (three schools); "written
permission varies with time of day and standing of pupils"; "may leave regular
study hall by written permission" (two schools); "library intensively used Sat-
urday nights, all day Sunday, and Sunday nights"; "library is used by seniors
and juniors only for class work; other classes use books taken from library to
the study halls"; "individual research is encouraged"; "physical obstacles pre-
vent use during class periods. In A.M. used for classes"; "for (b) and (a)
contracts of advanced pupils".
Another large preparatory school for boys reports that the only
use of the library is on special assignments, that all boys in the last three
must"
8
*
years of their five-year course are permitted to attend the library at any
time, day or night, that they are not due at other school exercises, and that
the younger boys may go at any time during the day and at night if they are
free from scholastic difficulties; if not, they may go to the library with oral
permission of their house master. Nine schools report that the arrival and de-
parture of each pupil is recorded. Six keep a daily attendance record, while
fifty-two report that no such record is kept.
Eight schools report the normal approximate daily library attendance,
two estimated. Six of these are boarding schools, and the percentages of their
attendance are seventeen, twenty-one, thirty-one, for three of these schools
with normal conditions. One large preparatory school for boys reports a daily
normal attendance of 600 with an enrollment of 700, both figures approximate.
It should be noted that in this school the only study room provided is in the
library, and most pupils are in the habit of bringing in their textbooks and
doing all their studying there. Only a few of those in the number go to the
library for what would otherwise be normal library procedure. Another prepara-
tory school for boys reports an attendance of eleven percent, five days a week,
but of forty-four percent on Saturdays and Sundays. A day school with an en-
rollment of fifty reports a daily attendance of 100. Here the library is in
the assembly room or study hall. The last school reporting, a large country
day school, has a normal daily attendance in the library of thirty percent.
Another large preparatory boarding school for boys reports that, although no
record of daily attendance is kept, for normal library purposes it is usually
about twenty-one percent of the enrollment.
In one case,
ser-
We find that thirty-six schools use local public libraries; three,
county libraries; nine, state libraries; and nine, college or university li-
braries. It is remarkable that the use made by some schools of these library
services is extensive and unusual. Five schools use them to give their pupils
instruction in the use of library techniques. Included among these are two
with outstanding libraries of their own. In one school the librarian of the
local public library helped in the organizing of the library. In the same
school students go to the library of the local state university to study the
card catalogue. Several schools in the Philadelphia region make annual con-
tributions to public libraries for special services rendered.
this contribution is $50.00; in another, $13.00. In several small schools,
ving chiefly elementary grades, the teachers themselves bring books from the
local public libraries for pupils' use. One school issues special public li-
brary cards and sends pupils with them to the public library. In this school,
both boarding and day, many day pupils have public library cards of their own,
and all are encouraged so to do. Another school reports an interesting pro-
cedure in that a local commercial lending library has been persuaded to put in
books on the school's summer reading list. Another school borrows fifty books
a year from each of two public libraries, state and local, respectively. It
keeps a circulation record of these books, which is reported when the books are
returned. One large boarding school for girls, with a highly efficient library
of its own, uses every possible public library service, including that of two
colleges and of at least three public libraries. Two schools send their boys
to the local public library when preparing for debates.
Three schools use their libraries for radio broadcasts, chiefly of
classical music and of the Damrosch Musical Appreciation Hour.
Some sixty-five schools reported under this head. Sixty-three have
alphabetical card catalogues, fifty-nine with author-title entries, forty-eight
with subject entries also. Thirty-four have shelf lists; forty use accession
numbers; thirty-seven use call numbers on the backs of all books but fiction.
9
Relations
with
Other
Library
Services
Technical
Organization
and
Activity
PACA
Neamt.
Reading
Records
Library
Notices
Library
Hours
Circulation
Thirty-eight use the Dewey system of classification, several with modifications.
One reports that it uses the Sanborn system and one the Library of Congress sys-
tem. Ten use Library of Congress cards for all books but fictions, and three
for all books. Thirty report that they do not use L. C. cards. Of the seventy-
seven schools reporting, fifteen have the U. S. Catalogue, fourteen with sup-
plements to date. Twenty-six have the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature;
eleven schools have librarians who are members of the A. L. A.; twenty-one sub-
scribe to the A. L. A. Booklist; eight to the Library Journal; thirty-one sub-
scribe to the Wilson Bulletin; four, Book Review Digest; three, Children's Cat-
alogue; two, Drama Index; two, Essay Index; one, Library Quarterly; one, Lit-
erature Index; one, One Thousand Books for the High School Library; one, Penn-
sylvania Library Notes; one, Play Index; two, Publishers' Weekly; one, Reading
and the School Library; two, Short Story Index; four, Standard Catalogue for
High Schools; three, Subscription Books Bulletin; five, Vertical File Service.
Only one school has all of these aids to library service, with the exception of
Pennsylvania Library Notes. Three schools use cooperative cataloguing in some
form and thirty-seven report that they do not.
-
Twenty-six schools have some sort of record of each pupil's reading.
Sometimes these records are made and kept by English Departments; sometimes
they are filed in administrative offices. Thirty-three report that no such
record is kept. Of the twenty-six schools reporting the keeping of these
records it is perhaps noteworthy that one uses its record for grading pupils on
the number of books read each month. Another school uses its records in award-
ing a library prize for reading each June. In only one school are reading
records made and kept by the librarian for use in reading guidance.
Eighteen schools send out daily notices of books held in reserve;
twenty-three report that they do not do so; twenty-three send out daily notices
to those having overdue books; nineteen do not. Thirteen send notices of a-
mounts of fines due; seven use a check-list notice card.
G
In general, boarding schools with adequate libraries keep them open
all the time from early in the morning until late in the evening, seven days a
week. There are, of course, incidental departures from this practice occasioned
by meal hours or school exercises. A few never close and have consequent dif-
ficulties. Day schools with libraries, as a rule, keep them open throughout
the school day and perhaps for an hour after school.
fund
In eight schools the libraries remain open all summer. In ten they
are open through the Christmas holidays and in seven during the spring vacation.
Ten school libraries give service through vacations to the staffs on duty. Six
schools have summer sessions during which their libraries remain open. Three
school libraries serve the local community outside each school. In eleven
schools the librarians perform technical duties during the summer, such as
taking inventories.
Seventeen schools keep circulation records, fifteen of them classi-
fied. Forty-six report that they keep no such records. Of the seventeen re-
porting, three have a monthly circulation of some four books per pupil; one,
three; five, two; one from one to two; three, about three-fourths of a book
per pupil. Two schools keep separate circulation records for curricular and
extra-curricular books. One of these, a large preparatory boarding school for
boys, has an extra-curricular circulation for each student each month of 85%
of a book, a curricular circulation of nine percent of a book. In another
school, a large preparatory boarding school for girls, the per capita circula-
tion per month is, curricular, 1.9; extra-curricular, .89.
10
Fifteen schools report a marked variation in circulation from month
to month. Most of the reasons checked are what could be expected. But two
schools give another reason, apparently significant, which is that the circu-
lation increases throughout the school year as pupils learn to know the library
and develop reading habits, so that there is a marked increase in the winter
circulation over that of the fall and in the spring over that of the winter.
In the fifty-four schools reporting instruction in the use of librar-
ies, thirty-three require it, nineteen do not, two do not say.
The average
number of hours per year devoted to this subject in the schools reporting is
three, the range being from one to twelve. The average number of pupils in
each group is seventeen, the range there being from six to thirty, with only
four schools reporting groups of more than twenty. In nineteen of these schools
the librarian or a member of the staff gives the instruction; in twenty-six,
teachers give it; and in eight, teachers assist librarians. In one country day
school accommodating the first eight grades, with an enrollment of 175, required
library instruction is given by a committee of the students, under the super-
vision of a teacher, and teachers, unassisted, give instruction in the use of
classroom libraries. The report from some schools on this point, as on others,
is very vague and unsatisfactory. Such expressions as "some", "a little", "now
and then", "occasionally", are seen frequently. One large boarding preparatory
school for boys has no required instruction, but classes are taken into the
library by teachers and given effective instruction nevertheless. This school
also has "a visible card catalogue showing step by step what happens to a book
on entering the library". The librarian believes that an important function of
the library is "to make every student a librarian".
In two schools library instruction is made an English project for
every student at some time during his school course. The first of these is a
famous boys' preparatory boarding school; the instruction is elaborate and ef-
fective. Passing this course is required for graduation. In the other school,
accommodating 300 boys and girls in all twelve grades, each student in four of
the upper grades has library instruction as a full week's English project.
Sý
It should perhaps be noted that four of the outstanding boys' prepar-
atory boarding schools of the country report no library instruction and that,
while three of them do not have adequate libraries, one of them has a library
nearly the first in that field, with a trained staff of three. Of the famous
day schools having no library instruction only one accommodates no upper
grades.
As to curriculum enrichment material, twenty-eight schools report
picture collections; nineteen, clippings; twenty-seven, pamphlet files; four,
the National Geographic picture collections. One school adds a special collec-
tion of bulletin-board material, including poetry broadsides, travel posters,
and pictorial maps. Three other schools have the Bowker pictorial maps. The
following interesting practice is reported by one school: Each teacher keeps
an enrichment file for her own subject, while the library has a general file
which includes a collection of picture postcards. One school reports a collec-
tion of educational films for use in classes and assembly. These were obtained
from film companies and from the great museums of New York. Several schools
report collections of personal hobby material and one a file of supplementary
material for use in seventh and eighth grade social studies courses.
In twenty-one schools all this material is assembled and administered
by librarians. In one famous boys' boarding school a very fine curriculum en-
richment file has been assembled in the library by teachers. Each major de-
Variation
in Circu
lation
Library
Instruction
Curriculum
Enrichment
File
How Admin-
istered
11
Staff
Pupil
Assis-
tants
partment appoints a member of its staff for this purpose. It consists largely
of pictures, including illustrations taken from books purchased for the purpose.
Large sums of money are spent annually for this file, of which the school has
reason to be very proud.
PERSONNEL
Sixty-three schools have librarians. Of these, twenty-two are full-
time, with training in library service. Two of the full-time, trained librar-
ians are men. There are also three full-time librarians who have attended no
library course; they are all men. There is also one trained teacher-librarian,
a woman. There are twenty-five untrained male teacher-librarians and twelve
untrained female. Of the famous boys' preparatory boarding schools one has a
trained full-time male librarian. Eight have trained full-time female librari-
ans, and two have male librarians who have had only the training that they have
obtained from their jobs. Of the untrained teacher-librarians in boys' schools,
four are women and twenty-five are men.
Sand
Of the twenty-two full-time librarians reporting, seven mention def-
inite technical training as teachers and only five, teaching experience. The
librarians of four of these schools are considered heads of departments; thir-
teen of them are considered members of the faculty; eleven of them are in con-
stant touch with curricular developments; and five are members of faculty com-
mittees other than the respective library committees.
-
Of these twenty-two schools with full-time librarians it should be
noted that seven have assistant librarians. One, a coeducational urban day
school, having all twelve grades and an enrollment of 650, has one full-time
and three part-time assistants. Another boys' preparatory boarding school, at
the time of the report of the questionnaire, had one part-time assistant. This
school has an enrollment of 385. Another boys' preparatory boarding school has
three full-time assistants and an enrollment of 500. One of these assistants,
with library and secretarial training, acts as the librarian's secretary, is
making a complete revision of the catalogue, and is developing a vertical file.
Another boys' boarding school, having upper grades and an enrollment of 400,
has a part-time assistant with purely supervisory duties. Another boys' board-
ing preparatory school, with an enrollment of 540, has a part-time typist as-
sistant. Another similar school has four full-time trained assistants. One of
these acts as the reference librarian, two are cataloguers, and one is in charge
of circulation. This school has an enrollment of 700. Another school, similar
in enrollment and type to the last, has one full-time assistant with previous
library experience and one part-time, untrained assistant. A large city co-
educational day school, with kindergarten and twelve other grades and an en-
rollment of 950, has one full-time and one part-time assistant. Finally, a co-
educational day school with twelve grades and an enrollment of 300 has one full-
time, trained assistant.
**
Forty-two schools report that they have pupil assistants in their li-
braries. Six of these schools obtain library service from scholarship pupils.
Five others pay from twenty cents to fifty cents per hour per pupil for this
service. Of these, two schools pay twenty-five cents; one, twenty-five cents
to fifty cents per hour for eight to ten hours' weekly service, the amount de-
pending upon the age and skill of the assistant. One school pays twenty cents
and another forty cents per hour.
12
The number of assistants in these schools varies from twenty in a
coeducational twelve-grade day school with an enrollment of 300 to one in a
similar school with an enrollment of 426. Of the twenty-two schools having
full-time librarians, thirteen also have student assistants, several in addi-
tion to adult staffs. In four schools the libraries are almost entirely under
the supervision and administration of pupils, generally with a committee of
four or five who perform not only general supervision but all routine technical
tasks. In one of them this library committee recommends books for purchase and
performs whatever there is in the way of readers' advisory service. In another,
this student committee supervises the study hall as part of its library service.
In one, a boys' day school having the first eight grades, there is a pupil li-
brarian in each class and a general library committee of ten pupils, and these
students together perform all library routines. In none of these four schools
is there pay for this service. Two schools, whose replies to the questionnaire
indicate that they have unusually effective libraries, each with a full-time,
trained librarian and a staff, have sixteen and twenty paid assistants, respec-
tively. The length of time per week spent by these student assistants varies
in the schools reporting from one and a half to ten hours each.
The average
number of assistants in the schools reporting is six and of weekly hour of
service, four.
S
Eight schools report that they have library clubs. Of these eight,
five are boys' boarding preparatory schools, one with an enrollment of 175,
and the others all over 400 each. In each of the larger schools the library
club renders service in the library, in addition to promotional service out-
side. Membership ranges from twelve to sixty in these five boarding schools.
The other three schools are country day schools, one, for girls, having the
first twelve grades, and the other two, coeducational, with grades one to ten.
In these two coeducational schools girls only are members of the library clubs.
PROMOTION OR METHODS OF GAINING EFFECTIVENESS
Fifty-four schools report that their faculties cooperate to this end.
For this purpose seventeen request frequent reports from teachers on classroom
needs. Forty-four librarians ask that every teacher feel free to recommend
books for purchase. Thirteen ask for the names and reading diagnoses of pupils
having scholastic difficulties; twelve make reports to teachers on reading be-
ing done in the library by their pupils; seven give remedial reading courses.
One librarian buys all the books offered for prizes by curricular departments.
Several schools offer opportunities in their libraries for displaying results
of classroom activities.
The librarians of thirty-four schools encourage pupils to acquire
private libraries. In two schools that is done by Christmas book sales, ar-
ranged in cooperation with local bookshops, with a percentage of all sales
contributed by the shop to library funds. Two schools also arrange private-
library contests through their libraries. Twenty-six librarians make individual
pupil reading lists on request. Twenty-two schools report that they attempt to
make the library readers' advisory service as adequate as possible. Various
devices are in use in rendering this service. Nine librarians check the en-
rollment of their respective schools to find non-readers and then confer with
each. Eight obtain the I. Q. of each pupil requesting reading advice; twelve
confer with each borrower to learn his home background and reading history.
Fourteen attempt to supply motives to pupils to encourage them in improving
their skill in reading.
Library
Clubs
13
To this end also several libraries keep records of all pupils' read-
ing. Two librarians report that each pupil keeps a notebook of the assigned
and leisure reading of library books. One library supplies a notebook which
contains special printed forms. In three schools the librarians send frequent
reports to pupils or teachers or both on recent acquisitions; two librarians
list for general school use, with brief characterizing notes, important maga-
zine articles. Another sends reports to teachers on books concerning their
hobbies.
Thirty-seven school libraries engage in definite efforts to keep
their service before their respective schools. Four librarians write frequent
articles about their libraries in school publications. In another school a
member of the library staff does this. In another, it is one of the functions
of the library club; in three others, of teachers; and in three others, pupils.
Nine librarians report that they give book talks to various school groups, fre-
quently those talks being discussions of the service offered by the library.
In six schools other staff members give these talks; in one, members of the
library club; and in three, teachers. One librarian frequently gives talks on
books in the library to parent-teacher groups. In fifteen schools library an-
nouncements are made systematically through the respective administrative
agencies provided for that kind of service. Seven librarians report that they
have frequent conferences with administrative officials to interest them in the
work of the library and to persuade them to give it as much publicity as pos-
sible in the school.
S
G
Some thirty schools report the use of exhibitions in their libraries.
Twenty display hobby collections, such as coins, stamps, baggage labels, hotel
labels, ship models, airplane models, coach models. In twenty-seven libraries
book jackets are regularly displayed after the new books are put into circula-
tion. Most of the schools that make displays have special equipment for varied
and frequent exhibitions. Three schools mention art exhibitions under the
supervision of dealers in prints. These prints are offered for sale and, in
most cases, no expense to the schools is involved. On the contrary, it is the
usual practice for the dealer to contribute a percentage of his sales to the
funds of the library making the display. Several schools find it convenient
and profitable to have close cooperation between art departments and the li-
braries. One school has on constant display prints in the Carnegie Art Collec-
tion which are related to the weekly projects in art classrooms. For this and
other graphic displays, two-sided portable screens are used. There are frequent
displays of the work of the pupils in many schools; one stresses "one-man shows",
another, an annual commencement exhibition of art students' work. Several
alert líbrarians have daily bulletin-board displays of newspaper clippings in-
teresting to pupils. In one school monthly reading scores are posted to stimu-
late competitive reading among the grades. In another a novel exhibition is a
student book-selection contest. Another says, "A notebook entitled, 'What
Shall I Read? Suggestion Within', is kept on the library table and contains
annotated book lists, news notes about authors, pictures illustrating good
books. Changes are frequently made in this loose-leaf notebook." Several
schools avail themselves of the opportunities offered by various museums and
other organizations to display loan collections of books, prints, and other ob-
jects. Many schools find loans from state museums stimulating to the inter-
ests of pupils and to library attendance. The librarians of two schools write
in advance to speakers on their assembly programs to learn in some detail what
each is to talk about and, at the appropriate time, display either biographical
material concerning the speaker or books dealing with his subject.
The "Friends-of-the-Library" movement has hit the schools also, three
reporting that they have such organizations. The same purpose is accomplished
in other ways by other schools, particularly through parent-teacher groups and
through library committees of trustees or of faculty wives. In several schools
14
In another there
constant efforts are made to interest parents and alumni in the libraries, ask-
ing them to contribute new books when they are through with them. In one school
every pupil gives at least one new book a year to the library.
are two library programs a year given in the assembly. Another has a tea during
Book Week every year.
In one there are speakers on the assembly program every
year, coming from the outside, who discuss books and reading. In another a
bulletin-board project table is in frequent use.
-
The schools willing to report their own lacks and needs feel that the
greatest is room. This need, of course, differs specifically in different
schools. It is, first, the need for more book space. Perhaps it is significant
that fewer schools feel the need of conference rooms, of places where the li-
brarians or members of the staff may discuss library problems of various sorts
with readers. The need of rooms, however, is almost inseparable from that of
time. Almost without exception and those exceptions are the three schools
that have full-time staffs of two or more - the librarians feel keenly the lack
of time to engage extensively in reading guidance or in almost any other but the
routine activities. Even where the replies to the questionnaire do not speci-
fically complain of lack of room and time, the implication of those lacks is
clear. Because of them there is universal recognition of inability to engage
in what should be the vital activities of all school libraries. Most schools
feel that more money is needed for their libraries. A few wish not only more
money, but a more systematic and regular method of appropriation, with budgets
carefully apportioned to various needs.
$
In regard to expenditures and to funds available for that purpose, it
should be remembered that several of the schools cooperating in this study have
endowments. The number for which definite figures are given in Sargent's Hand-
book of Private Schools, Twenty-first Edition, published in 1937, is twenty-one.
Of these, fourteen are boarding schools. With one exception, these boarding
schools charge each pupil having no scholarship allowance from $1200.00 to
$1600.00 per year. At that one, the charge for tuition and living is $375.00.
This school, however, is a so-called work school, where every boy has regularly
assigned duties outside the classroom, either on the farm or at some other of
many tasks.
It has an endowment, according to Sargent, of $1,375,000.00, the
income from which is $80,000.00. The endowments of these boarding schools,
with their respective enrollments, expenditures, and salaries, are as follows:
Endowment
OPINION AND COMMENT
1,500.
80,000.
250,000.
260,000.
400,000.
500,000.
500,000.
*600,000.
700,000.
840,000.
1,375,000.
1,500,000.
2,000,000.
7,000,000.
Enrollment
175
120
115
250
200
335
325
260
360
500
550
450
400
700
15
Expenditures
€9
900.
200.
350.
1,300.
(@
700.
1,700.
1,050.
3,760.
1,000.
1,200.
335.
8,512.
#Salaries
$
900.
1,000.
875.
8,632.
1,000.
12,016.
Needs
*There are two schools, one for boys and one for
girls, under the same foundation and endowment. The enroll-
ment figures are for the boys' school only. It also has
both boarding and day pupils, the latter predominating.
It should be noted also that another famous preparatory school for
boys, with an enrollment of 700, is generally known to have a large endowment.
This school, however, prefers to announce neither its endowment nor any of its
salaries.
$
#Blanks indicate failure to report or figures re-
ported were for teacher-librarians. Most figures here given
apparently included full or partial maintenance.
The enrollments and endowments of the day schools, with all expendi-
tures and salaries reported, are as follows:
Endowment
56,000.
70,000.
100,000.
110,000.
175,000.
475,000.
1,294,000.
Enrollment
200
426
315
650
500
150
950
Expenditures
$
400.
400.
350.
140.
1,500.
Salaries
$4,150.
Attention should be called to the fact that, in the time elapsing
since most of the reports were received in the summer of 1936, there have been
changes. The school with an endowment of $2,000,000.00, which reported an an-
nual expenditure of $355.00, and had one full-time trained librarian, now has
a full-time staff of three men and has increased its expenditures several fold.
The same sort of thing is true of several other schools not in the list of those
endowed.
16
-
In the endowed boarding schools listed, eight have trained librarians,
seven of them on full-time. One has a full-time staff of four, and one, of
five. Of the endowed day schools, two are included in the group of those having
outstanding libraries and referred to elsewhere. But it is also significant
that among the twenty-one endowed schools there are only ten of these libraries,
and that ten or twelve libraries in unendowed schools are distinctive.
It is to be noted that only one school reports, as a regular item in
its budget, expenses for the librarian in attending library conferences. One
school librarian, with deep feeling, expresses the belief that such an appro-
priation is one of the vital needs for making school libraries effective. Many
schools report the need of a full-time, trained librarian. Many also feel that
their libraries can be made effective only by greatly increased cooperation
with the faculty. Several librarians have the courage to report frankly that
their work cannot be effective until they have staffs under their direction.
Three large schools feel that their libraries are much too decentral a
ized, with their books scattered through classrooms or department libraries,
with their books for recreational reading confined to dormitories, or with all
their books separated in home rooms or grade rooms or scattered from floor to
floor throughout their school buildings.
Similar in set-up and equipment to these three schools which consider
their decentralized plans handicaps, there are two other large schools where
decentralization seems on the whole to be considered a virtue. Since these
schools are perhaps typical of a good many others the country over, it seems
well to present detailed pictures of their libraries. The first of these con-
sists of two coordinate book collections, one of which contains books chosen
for their recreational value, while the other contains books closely correlated
with the school curriculum. The recreational collections (2,226 books), shelved
in a very charming and spacious room on the third floor of the dormitory, is a
circulating library. The other collection (2601 books), shelved in the main
study hall, is a reference library. Students may use these reference books only
in the study halls. In addition, there is a group of 139 books on art, kept in
the studio, while a group of 588 books on literature is kept in an English
The Lower School library (150 books), is kept in the Lower School
classrooms. A teachers' library is shelved separately from all other sections.
The two large collections and the four smaller collections are the Library.
Its unifying agent is the card catalogue. In commenting on this arrangement,
the librarian reports: "The true book strength of our library is not apparent
except to those readers who take the trouble to study its full resources. Our
plan of dividing the library into special collections and placing each where it
is most needed is good, in that it saves many a teacher or student a long trip
to the central library; but no one of the separate collections inspires the
reader with a sense of ample and widely varied sources of information. To make
this divided library entirely satisfactory would be expensive in time and money,
but it would be well nevertheless to have an assistant for each division.
This,
however, is not practicable."
classroom.
In the other, the main library contains a reading room, a workroom, a
periodical room, and a browsing room. In addition, placed elsewhere in the
school building, and separated from each other, there is a library for the
elementary grades, another for the junior high grades, another for the teachers,
and a library of art and music. The librarian's comment is: "The greatest
difficulty here is that, in order to have our books most easily accessible to
a particular group, we have scattered our book collection (totaling over 8,000
volumes), over a large building. It is not easy to administer this, but the
disadvantage is offset by its usefulness. The great service of a library is to
have its books readily available to all. Efficiency demands administration,
but it must be simple, never interfering with the primary aim. After a long
experience in many kinds of school libraries, I have worked out an exceedingly
simple organization and administration. It serves its purpose and gives me the
freedom from petty detail necessary in keeping close contact with faculty,
classrooms, and publications."
Cooperation is, of course, closely allied to correlation between li-
brary and curriculum, and several schools feel the need of such correlation.
In some of the conservative schools, librarians feel that a more progressive
spirit on the part of teachers would vastly improve the effectiveness of their
libraries. But, in all except one school, this feeling is implied rather than
expressed.
Another need that is more or less general is improvement and increase
in library facilities of various sorts. In all but a very few schools equip-
ment is inadequate. In several, also, progressive librarians feel that too
little attention is paid to acquiring books for leisure reading, although some
schools boast of their small circulation in fiction as compared with other
fields. Often, too, the need for more careful planning on the part of school
authorities for the future of their libraries is implied. The programs of sev-
eral librarians are so crowded that they cannot engage in teaching the use of
libraries, although they consider such teaching a vital need of their pupils.
17
Without exception, the schools whose libraries are in assembly rooms
or study halls report that adequate library service is thereby made difficult,
if not impossible.
Several schools are dependent upon undirected book donations for all
or most of their books. The results are universally unsatisfactory. Such
practice invariably means lack of balance in the book collection and a large
proportion of outdated and worn out books. This, of course, is not true in the
rare cases when book donations are directed and selected by librarians or
teachers. Of the excellent way in which this procedure is handled in one school,
more later.
Another difficulty, which one thoroughly experienced librarian feels
is universal, is the failure of publishers of magazines to standardize the way
in which dates and volume numbers are printed on their publications.
Another questionnaire, filled out by a teacher in a large elementary
school for boys, voices a difficulty which is probably as common as any other.
The quotation from that section of this questionnaire is therefore given in
full: "Lack of delegation (probably personnel) has prevented our library from
functioning efficiently. Its purpose till now has been one of 'exposing' the
boys to a great deal of good and varied opportunities for reading. Except as
the class teacher has corrected it, our library does little to find and aid the
non-reader. The geniuses 'gene', but the dumb-bells find no clapper."
The librarian of a large boarding preparatory school voices another
too common need when she says that the library should be recognized in every
school as a scholastic department on the same footing with other major scholas-
tic departments. Another says that too often the school library is one in name
only, since it is merely a storeroom for "sets" used in the classroom.
Another, "Because of the smallness of our library, most fiction is
limited to classics, and it is difficult to get poor readers to read such ma-
terial."
S
In contrast to this, another school reports a complete catalogue with
"good fiction separated from the trash shelf". The point of that item is that
this is apparently the only school that recognizes the value of having trash.
Another says quite truly, and thereby touches a most serious handicap
in the whole school library field, public and private, that school administra-
tors need education as to the possibilities of libraries and librarians. He adds
slyly, and with his tongue in his cheek, "So do librarians."
Another, librarian of one of the largest boarding schools for boys,
whose report is full of courage, of high purpose, and of the modest record of
true achievement, feels that the school authorities should cooperate much more
actively in the collection of fines. Another, in commenting on the wide prac-
tice of administering school libraries wholly or largely through student li-
brarians or through teachers already over-scheduled in their own work, says,
The excellent service rendered by the librarian is of a type which cannot be
obtained from student assistants on working scholarships or from teachers
taking charge of the library for limited periods of time. There are strong
reasons for using student and teacher help, but the live supervision of the
librarian becomes neutral when her assistants are in charge."
Gund
-
Some teacher-librarians feel that too often libraries are places
where books are kept and not read or distributed. This is particularly true,
they feel, of libraries administered, as they too often are, by old-fashioned
librarians who consider themselves book-custodians. Another feels that too
18
often there is no coordination between the various elements in the school and
no thought of trying to achieve it. She feels that this coordination should
extend to student body, faculty, alumni, and parents. Another feels that a
very definite need in boarding schools is the development of the spirit of co-
operation among teachers and their wives to encourage reading among pupils.
Another, the efficient trained librarian of a very large day school, comments:
"Although reference work is important, it is much more important that the
child leave the school with the feeling that reading is a more or less neces-
sary part of his life."
Finally, far too many schools are handicapped by the sort of diffi-
culty that perhaps can best be described as a defeatist attitude. These schools
are not confined to any one group but are found throughout the range of the
study. Space permits the quoting of the report from only one school illustrat-
ing this attitude: "We are an elementary school, and what with all the proc-
esses to learn, with art, carpentry, music, and plenty of outdoors, and early
to bed, the library-research-and-outside-reading-habit cannot find time to
function".
The summation of all these needs and difficulties can perhaps best be
stated in two other quotations, first, from the head of an English Department
in a boys' boarding school with extensive book-service but with no real library;
the other, from an alert full-time, trained and experienced woman, who is
struggling to give adequate library service single-handed in a large and famous
boarding school for boys: "Most boarding school boys need a sympathetic but
insidious teacher to get them to read such books as will break down their prej-
udices, national and social. A less specific but finally a more telling in-
fluence is a group of enthusiastic masters and wives who unconsciously adver-
tise the delights of intelligent reading".
"Private school libraries have been for years in the hands of frail
retired masters and over-burdened teachers."
It should be remembered regarding all these lacks and needs that the
questionnaires went through the hands of both librarians and school heads or
other administrators in authority. There is obviously evident embarrassed
hesitation to report, either in general or in detail, the shortcomings of the
respective schools. This is also true in the schools having no librarians or
in those in which, for one reason or another, school administrators or school
teachers made the reports. Few schools are willing to hurt their own reputa-
tions by the admission of inadequacy. Several make earnest efforts to reveal
their library service as much more adequate than do the facts. A few are re-
freshingly courageous in their honesty.
We see now a much more cheerful, not to say inspiring picture. But,
lacking space to attempt extensive evaluation, with certain exceptions we shall
report, for whatever value they may have, what some of these libraries consider
their most useful activities. Several schools in the group feel that they are
under the necessity of having pupils administer their libraries with little or
no faculty supervision. One school justifies this practice with the slogan,
"Of the boys, by the boys, and for the boys in the running of a school library
appears to have many advantages", It should be said in passing that this
school is a city day school for boys of grades one to eight, with an enrollment
of about 300. It is apparently an attitude that makes a virtue out of what
these schools like to consider a necessity. Yet it is to be noted that this
particular school has acquired a full-time, trained librarian since this re-
port was made.
Another small country day school for boys, with an enrollment of
Library
Projects,
Accomplish-
ments, and
Suggestions
19
about 100, serving the first ten grades, feels that in book promotion emphasis
should be placed upon graded fiction. The report does not state whether that
means fiction graded according to value or according to the age of the pupil
readers.
In another coeducational city day school, with an enrollment of 175
and accommodating the first eleven grades, it is found that recreational read-
ing so interferes with regular school programs that a time limit of one period
a day has to be put on each pupil's use of the library. This practice is evi-
dently considered laudable.
Another boys' boarding preparatory school, with an enrollment of 110
and a library of 1600 volumes, has what appears to be a most amazing book cir-
culation record. The report from this school shows that half of their book
purchases are current, that they have an average monthly circulation of 200,
with an average of fifteen books per boy per year, that 96% of the boys drew
books out during the year, and that their teacher-librarian gives readers' ad-
visory service. Perhaps the following quotation from the report from this
school will give a satisfactory explanation. We quote thus at length because
the practice described seems significant of a widespread tendency: "Boys re-
turning books write in on their Reading Credit Card name and author of each
book as it is returned. The librarian, at the close of each term, adds up the
number of books read by each boy and the total number of points each boy has
for his reading. Each book counts a certain number of points, determined by
two members of the English Department, the librarian being one, on a basis of
length, subject matter, and literary quality; (e.g., Dicken's A Tale of Two
Cities and Anderson's Mary of Scotland are in the highest group, with five
points each).
.
"So far, although the library is never locked and although boys
charge their own books, we have lost no book the past school year.
bang
As would be expected and as has already been noted, a very common
handicap of private school libraries is insufficient funds. This is particu-
larly true of small day schools. Some of the devices in use to solve this
problem are worthy of note and perhaps suggestive. In a boys' country day
school, serving the first twelve grades and having an enrollment of about 100,
a very active Drama Club has voluntarily assumed responsibility for keeping
the library in funds, donating all its profits for that purpose. Apparently
this results in an annual income of about $100.00.
Much the same sort of thing is done by several small schools, with
annual fairs or with assembly programs conducted by pupils. In a boys' board-
ing school for grades eight to twelve, with an enrollment of 175, a book club
of the two upper forms, to which each student pays $2.00, buys all the current
fiction of value, and all such books are given to the library at the end of
the school year.
In another school each pupil is asked to contribute one dollar a year
for the support of the library. Another boys' day school, with the first eight
grades and an enrollment of 300, had a book drive some six years before the
questionnaire was distributed in which 1,000 books were donated to the school
library with the understanding that only such books as were considered suitable
and useful should be accepted. More than 600 of them were kept, and the result
has been "an attitude of belongingness which still persists".
Finally, a large boarding school for girls, serving the first twelve
grades and having an enrollment of about 300, has adopted a procedure which
would seem to be of unusual intelligence and effectiveness. A most carefully
compiled list of several hundred classified books was sent to all patrons and
friends of the school, with a modest but moving appeal from the Head of the
school. This resulted in a marked increase in the books that were particularly
needed.
20
In addition to methods of raising funds and encouraging book dona-
tions, several schools have used devices or practices which may be useful as
suggestions to others. One large boarding school for boys, with a full-time,
trained librarian, makes every effort to have the library a "recreational
center, a laboratory and a desired haven for all student types". Constantly
the librarian is trying to increase facilities with a minimum of increase in
expense, hence a new browsing room has recently been arranged in the basement
of the school building. An essay contest on the title, "what Improvement I
Would Recommend for Our School Library", fostered by the English Department,
brought fine results: first, in the recommendations of pupils; second, in the
adoption of many of those recommendations; and third, in the development of a
spirit of cooperation and of owning the library on the part of the student
body. The questionnaire returned by this school, filled out by the librarian
and checked by the headmaster, is proof of the spirit of cooperation existing
there.
In another boarding school, coeducational, accommodating 360 pupils
in the four upper secondary grades, there is a most excellent library, and from
it one of the most complete and cooperative replies was received. This is one
of the Friends' institutions, dedicated to plain living and high thinking and,
if the replies from all the schools in this group are criteria, clear thinking,
fostered and encouraged by their libraries and librarians. This librarian is
constantly alert to the individual needs and interests of all readers, teachers
or pupils. She notes the particular interest of each pupil as indicated by
his reading record card. She informs him of the acquisition of new books or
magazines in his range of interests. She gives to each teacher and pupil spe-
cial notices of new material of value in individual hobbies also. She urges
and tries to maintain as much contact with curricular departments as her over-
crowded program permits. Another Friends' school, which, like most of them
does not encourage the reading of fiction, solves that problem by establishing
lending rental libraries in that field, thereby accomplishing several purposes
at the same time. Another school, a highly endowed preparatory school for
boys, has laid special emphasis on acquiring what is called "a scholars' li-
brary" for the faculty. The librarians of two schools make frequent visits to
local bookshops to browse and select books for frequent purchase. One of these
also is a constant reader of the Publishers' Weekly, checks the list of new
books there in and orders them on approval to determine whether or not they are
suitable for use in his library.
,
S
Again, attention should be called to the fact that three schools re-
port interesting variations of the usual systems of fines. In one, a cent a
day is charged for overdue books if the fine is paid when the book is returned,
two cents a day if it is not. Another permits reserved books to be taken out
over night for return at eight the next morning, with ten cents an hour charged
for late return. Another school charges $1.00 for every book returned after
the third notice. In another school library,
In another school library, interesting or revealing book
jacket reviews are pasted in the flyleaf of new books. In the same school
reading lists of interest or value are posted on the library bulletin board.
And so we come to the end of the factual section of this study. The
general deduction is that there are perhaps twenty schools in the group that
have admirably effective libraries, made possible by the enlightened awareness
of their heads; by their possession of sufficient funds from endowment or fees
or both; by their developing and establishing traditions of cooperation and
belief in the efficacy of book and museum service as indispensable educational
media.
The facts reveal conditions throughout the private school world, how-
ever, that offer convincing evidence of the need for radical changes in the gen-
eral attitude toward the private school library as necessary prerequisites to
increasing the number of libraries and the effectiveness of those already in
existence.
21
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Suggestions
Summary
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