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LIBRARY HANDICRAFT AT GREELEY, COLO.

Joseph F. Daniels,

Librarian, State Normal School.

In a library there is a great deal of wear and tear, and it is well to
keep books in good repair by the stitch-in-time method. It requires
some laboratory work not as elaborate as that done a bindery, and it
demands a little time.

After four years of pasting and stitching and binding, we found
that we bad covered some ground, had accumulated tools, and a trifle
of knowledge of the subject; so, with simple faith, we offered a course
in library handicraft (and library science) in a rather indefinite
announcement in the catalogue. The laboratory was to occupy about
ninety minutes a week on the program. The course was made to con-
form (i) to the ability, life, and environment of the student; (2) to his
pleasure in the work, as manifested in finish or in ornament, in con-
versation or in other personal actions; (3) to conditions over which
we had no control, such as the time schedule, the curriculum of the
school, and inadequate equipment; and (4) to my point of view.

There were tw7enty-five students for whom we had to provide, and
we bought three sewing benches, three finishing presses, three sets of
backing-boards, one good skiving knife, knives and rules for the class,
a Gaylord mat-cutter, binder’s sundries, paper stock, leather, cloth, and
such materials, to the extent of about $50.

From the beginning we avoided the idea of the “ model ” as given
in sloyd or other manual-training school courses, and to impress this
condition I offered the very first class-work for sale. The first thing
made was a portfolio, which was placed on the market at an advance
on the cost of the materials and a margin for labor. It was quickly
sold out to the senior class in the history of art, and netted about $30,,
with which we purchased leather and boards for a better port-
folio, which became the property of the maker and left the class some-
what ahead in the transaction. We then made our tool-boxes, our
record-boxes, and our notebooks; and throughout the course, when
we needed anything, we made it when we could do so.

We had been warned by the dealers in paper stock that prices were
to go up, and the trade journals seemed to think likewise; so we held
1901]	89

Jy 090	MANUAL TRAINING MAGAZINE	[JANUARY

class council and took advantage of the rising market in immediate
purchases. In this democratic way I hoped to make the students who
were to go out in the world to teach somewhat self-reliant and
acquainted with responsibility. I have heard so much about stubborn
school boards who will do nothing for the teachers, that I thought it
best to make teachers able to do a little without the aid of such per-
sons. Most teachers confine themselves to tuition and are helpless in
a schoolroom, unless there be a mechanic near at hand for the simplest
repairs or odd jobs. I do not presume to discuss the duties of the
hired teacher in this paper; I am writing of another thing. I will say
in passing that I think that a teacher is legally bound to do almost
nothing in a schoolroom beyond recitation work and (in the country)
building the fires and sweeping out, and that a great many of them are
lawyers enough to hug their rights with more effort than they put into
anything else in their lives.

When we went into the portfolio business, a perplexing question
arose : there were about ninety students in the school who wanted port-
folios, and there was neither time nor inclination to begin a manufac-
tory in the school. I gave permission to the members of the class to
make portfolios when convenient, subject to inspection; but still we
did not have enough to go around. Then we agreed to teach as many
as wished the secret of making good portfolios—“ better than you buy
in the shops.” The demand seemed satisfied, and all sorts of port-
folios came into vogue like Easter bonnets.

The mounting of pictures a la passepartout, flat, hinged, with bevel
mat, and in other styles, crept over the school after the portfolio, and
our laboratory soon became the resort of the amateur craftsman who
wished to bind a set of Kipling in limp or to repair a family heirloom.

The ninety minutes a week were faithfully given to the class by the
instructor; but the question, “Who left the cover off the glue pot?”
would surely disclose the fact that some student or member of the fac-
ulty had been doing something in the laboratory out of class hours,
and soon it had to be open every day and all day long.

In applied design we had much grief. None of the students knew
the grammar of ornament even by name, none had done drawing
before, and the board and T-square were strange, unknown things. We
had begun with freehand working drawings and sketches of everything
made. Such work was done in the notebooks, which were diaries
more than books for the taking of notes. In this way some of the
rough places in freehand had been made smooth; but with theLIBRARY HANDICRAFT

91

1901J

introduction of ornament, and in color, there was trouble — almost a
stampede. We crawled through title-pages, head and tail pieces and
borders. A few students liked color and did some original work on
book-marks and book-jackets; but for the most part they were glad
to get through the work in design in the most perfunctory manner.
This was a disappointment
to me, for I am very fond
of the work in color, and
I thought myself better
prepared for the teaching
of design than of any
other part of the course.

The skiving knife
brought out the best work
of the hand, and but few
in the class could use the
tool to any purpose,
although each attempted
a slip-case for note-pads.

The case was made in
green calf, with slightly
rounded corners ; a very
sharp knife and a steady
hand were the only things
necessary. We all found
that much practice is re-
quired to produce good
work with the skiving
knife. At this point in
the work I showed some clever bindings, in which the leather was
peeled to the thinness of tissue. This set them all at it again, and there
was some improvement in the work; but no salable or passable work
seemed possible with the skiving knife. All of the slip-cases were poor,
and some of them were sliced and cut into rags before they were ready
for the glue pot. We are too far from the best examples of workman-
ship, and we do not know all of the possibilities of the idea of library
handicraft; but we have been at work and ought, slowly, to do better.

I he question of method has been the great problem of the year,
and in the face of comment I have to say that I think that there is
something wrong with manual training in this land. Our schools are

SEWING BENCH.

Books too badly worn for ordinary repair are re-sewed
(whipstich—one on) on tapes as shown. A cloth reinforce-
ment is overstitched at first and last sections. About one
volume of this work is required of each student.92

MANUAL TRAINING MAGAZINE

[JANUARY

too big, or the instructors are too big with having been to Germany
too long or too often, or in some way too much institutional work is
done for the moral good of the pupil. If I could tell you just where
the trouble lies, I should do so and win fame in the bargain. This I
do know: that children should own their schools in some sort of fee,
and they should be made to understand it. I said that some teachers
go to Germany. There is nothing wrong in that; it is positively good
for a man to go to Germany or anywhere with an honest desire for the
good things to be had in education. It cures arrested development
and ought to broaden a man’s mind. But I refer to a desire on the
part of many instructors and directors' to go through with all the cere-
monials up to the thirty-third degree, in a perfunctory way, in order
that they may be absolved of further educational work except as it is
thrust on them in meetings and gabfesis.

It is not my purpose to give our course in detail, but rather to
insist that such a course is desirable in normal schools, and to encour-
age those librarians who wish to expand their sphere of usefulness.

In the matter of pedagogy it is, perhaps, better to go ahead with
some intention, good or bad; with some direction, right or wrongs
than to dally with diverse interests and to stand at educational cross-
roads reading sign-boards ; for often one cannot read the mass of
painted and repainted words, one over the other. For better or worse,
we went ahead to do something with the little knowledge and light at
command. When we began library handicraft in this school, I felt
that an educational foundation built of interest, attention, point of
contact, method of the recitation, culture epochs, localization of the
cerebral functions, and other known and unknown pedagogical build-
ing stone discovered and to be discovered, might insure success, what-
ever the subject-matter; but I was not sure that I could identify the
blocks or “bed and build ” them. Then my point of view was needed
in the course, as I have indicated at the beginning of this article.

The point of view needs some explanation and will probably
account for the fact that a librarian attempted anything beyond library
science. My father was a mechanic, and after college I was appren-
ticed to an architect at nothing a week. For this man and the whole
office I ran errands, ground ink, kept things tidy, and, if good, I was
allowed to do a little tracing, or to study projections, or Trautwine, in
order to improve my mind and to be out of the way. My first thought-
ful acquaintance with school matters came with a new apprentice, a
graduate of a school of technology. I shall not name the school, butI9Ol]

LIBRARY HANDICRAFT

93

this occurred far east of Chicago. The young man made a detail draw-
ing of a bath tub with copper a quarter of an inch thick (copper was
good for tubs in those days). He told me that he had never seen a
bath-tub construction, and I soon learned that he had seen very little
of any real workmanship; so when we came to the detail of the drip on
a heavy stone cornice,

I was not surprised to
find that the drip was
left out. He was a
good boy, though,
and soon outgrew his
unfortunate handi-
cap. He grew to be
a man and an archi-
tect, but it was a close
shave. From him and
others not unlike him
I learned that educa-
tion is like religion :
it is either practical
or useless in business.

Soon after my
office experience I
was “called” to teach, and found that I was no stronger than others
who hope to do great things; but 1 got help from other schools
and from factories and from workingmen, and I began to learn. Then
I discovered that there is a science of education, and I thought that I
had the key to the whole situation — but the key didn’t fit. Some
there are who have keys — pretty trinkets for watch-fob wear—with
which they are so well pleased that they seek to convince us that
the fault is in the keyhole, and they would have the whole thing
adjusted to fit the key. Just as old Omar sighs, they would remold
it nearer to the heart’s desire. I had worked very hard for years
in the manual-training schools, resident and absent treatment, and
yet the key would not fit. I had had charge of a school and
several instructors, who believed that the good God would take care
of his own and bring us out all right, if we but read the credo
regularly and observed the doctrine and the rites. We did all of these
things and added the sacrifices, and we had a pretty good school too,
but we never found the key. Without argument, I hold that the keys

FINISHING PRESS AND BACKING BOARDS.

After the book is taken from the sewing bench and “ rounded ” it
is placed in the finishing press for “backing.” Glue, super-head-
bands, and paper are then laid on the exposed back, and, after drying,
the book is ready for its case, either cloth or leather. The binder’s
hammer with its peculiar pean is shown in the illustration.94 .

MANUAL TRAINING MAGAZINE

[JANUARY

need filing or should be made from new blanks. All but the key-hold-
ers seem to think that the key is to be found later in the history of edu-
cation. I do not know, and, with all your wise looks and clever words,
I suspect that you do not know.

That is my point of view and a brief of the training which persuades

me. It is not strange that in this library
handicraft I resolved to make it all very
practical to the point of commercial-
ism, and that market values as tests of
workmanship played some part up to
the point of manufacturing.

Since we began the work in Greeley, we have
had a number of persons, school-teachers and
others, apply for instruction in applied design,
illuminating, the making of portfolios, binding
of books, and the making of a few trinkets for
the drawing-room; but we have been too busy
with the library to go beyond the school, and
we shall have to give over the work altogether,
unless assistance is given the librarian. I believe
that the work could be established in independ-
ence, with a little courage and grit, and that it would succeed. I think
that it is especially useful in a normal school, because so many teach-
ers need such training for actual, practical schoolroom use.

In addition to the course as described we had desk and record
work, talks on books, and library matters which made up a small taste
of library science. I have little faith in
“ talks ” as I have heard and have given
them ; they are pedantic and have none of
the lively interest which attaches to con-
versation in a small laboratory. They are
wasters of good time, and, like so many
things in our great system of education,
they assist in that process of extracting the
backbone from the student.

The difficulty to overcome in the intro-
duction of library handicraft is the condition of most normal-school
libraries. The librarian is usually overworked in the larger libraries,,
and occupies a place on the faculty by courtesy only; or the incumbent
is incompetent in many of the smaller libraries, because anybody canLIBRARY HANDICRAFT

95

1901]

do the work, and there is no demand for a better library. The salary
paid librarians is very small, and is always less than that paid to the
faculty of the school. This poverty restricts the opportunities of the
librarian, and the work resolves itself to sweeping the work into a cor-
ner to the accompaniment of that cheerful ditty:

Come day, go day;

God send pay day.

Alack! It is the slave blood that gets into us from drudgery, and
the need of a sustaining philosophy, that hinders all work; and there is
too much of the curse in Deuteronomy:	“In the morning thou shalt

say, Would God it were even ! and at even thou shalt say, Would God
it were morning ! ”

The name “library handicraft” is used to designate this work,
because it is an adjunct to the library and a great deal of the incentive
is found in the library. It is centered about the library, and, with any
other human interest as a center, might preserve the distinctive features
of this course. It is the intention to avoid the same course for two
years in succession, and to get at the keynote of every class in the
work planned.AN OUTLINE OF TEN LECTURES ON FORESTRY,
LUMBERING, AND WOOD.

John C. Miller,

English High and Manual Training School, Chicago/

THE\)utline given below is one prepared for use m the English
High ana\ Manual Training School of Chicago. In/ the first year’s
work a series of ten lectures is given to the students on the materials
used in that Vear, each lecture being illustrated /6y the lantern and
slides dealing with every division of the subject. / Notes and sketches
are taken by students, and an examination is given upon them at the
end of the term. iBy this means we believe that the education of our
students is broadened and carried beyondrthe limits of that of some
manual-training schools. No other notes Aan those given in this out-
line are found necessary, in delivering the lectures when the headings
given are accompanied by\proper slide/.

FORESTRY, LUMBER, WOOD.

L^OTURE I.

Forestry.

Meaning of the term.

Colleges having courses in.

Associations devoted to.

In foreign nations; results/

Results in the United Sta/es, with examplesX

United States Department of Forestry.

Forests.

Preservation.

Effect on climate/rainfall.

Propagation as/an investment.

Rate of growth
Time and a/e of cutting.

Length oh/life.

Pruning/or lumber.

Forest/overs, wind breaks.

Trees

LECTURE II.

Classes — exogen, endogen.
Structure— stem, root, leaf.

[JANUARY

96