Sept. 3.
The excerpts from the minutes of the Library Committee, issued in the Municipal Gazette for August 31, lindicato that thay body is taking its duties seriously and means to make the Public we live in, A visit to the library and a walk through the rooms in which the books are stored gives one the impression of being in book morgue rather than in a library. One of the recommendations passed by the committee was that the librarian be requested to prepare lists of, say, fifty books which might be Successively; discarded. The discarding of old books is one fof the most difficult tasks that library who gives a story hour for children on Saturdays. Those who have ever seen the children grouped round the story-teller, breathlessly listening to the tales, can never again doubt the value of this educational entertainment, But the children would spoil the books through careless andiing? Well, a thousand times better that' they should be spoiled than as now carefully hidden away up a dark corridor where they rot on the shelves. But a capable librarian can see to it that the children learn care land cleanliness in handling the books. A boy returns a book with dirty thumb-mark on its clean page. The librarian points to' accusingly "What is this, Johnny?" The little head drops land there is no answer. The librarian, regretfully "I'll have to mark you down as 'a goof', Johnny." And the entry is made in the book and Johnny goes away more depressed than a leaptain who has been dismissed is ship by court martial, He'd sooner be well birched than known as "a goof" to his chum. Of course, a lavatory is needed [where little hands can be washed fall to the lot of a book lover.
It is like getting rid of an old dog or a worn-out horse. One looks at his bookcase and says, "L need more room. There ar. and the habit of cleanliness taught, Tt would be a lot of trouble but it is trouble well worth taking and trouble that is taken in Kundreds of cities fat least a score of books in that in the Western world. We have ease that T never will look at again, let me get rid of them. That first step is easy, but when you have raked out the doomed twenty, if you value your reputation for consistency, do not open one of them. If you do, you are doomed. You read a few Pages and say "Really, that is too good; Til read it again," and back it goes into its accustomed place. No such difficulty will beset the librarian of the Public Library in choosing the first ten sets of 50 books each which are to be discarded. We yearned unwelcomed amongst the bookshelves in the library' and at a venture, selected a volume of an American encyclopedia, It was dated 1842! Now, in the name of wonder of what value a book of reference that is eighty-six years old? What unfortunate would seek information from its mouldy leaves? The Dooks are excellently kept and the care given them by the Chinese staff is responsible for their venerable antiquity. It also creates a false impression of a greater abundance of available literature than really exists, Fifty per cent. of the Dooks are as dead as the mummy of Tutankhamen and ought be rasilessly weeded out existence, The gaps left on the shelves would be an eloquent plea for a supply of real books; a supply that ought promptly to de provided, Is there a child's book in the whole collection?, We doubt very much if there fs and yet the children's room ina modern library is one of its most prized adjuncts. There is a reading room for subscribers which might very well be dispensed with and turned into a children's reading room. It should furnished with all the nonsense books that the child's soul do-lights in, Books of adventure pirates, historical novels. Children's books on the romance of astronomy, engines and steam boats. "The books should be in shelves low enough for the children to reach them and they should be allowed to browse freely and at their heart's content. Pictures, too, there should be. " Not hung high up on the walls where a child would need a telescope to see them but on a level with the' eyes of the duyenile students. In many ities there is a specialist in the built many expensive schools and pay a large staff of experienced teachers to train our children. Why not spend a very little money in teaching them that most valuable of all accomplishments—a love of reading jand the value of a good book?
Shanghai needs another phil-Janthropist like the late Mr. Henry Lester and the donor of the General Hospital. Wanted Jo man who will build and endow children's library. It should be easy of access and yet be placed in a garden with swings, sand heap and a fountain, A place children would love to go to and be loth to come away from. It should have lots of rooms with comfortable low, seats; books and pictures, "p'everything." Also a trained lady librarian who knows books and children and loves them both. We know the place where children's palace should be built and we could name half-a-dozen men, any one of whom could do themselves the honour and the privilege of making a present of this delightful children's paradise to the present and future generations of Shanghai tizens. There is an empty. niche in the hall of worthies and, in Chinese phrase, we stand on tiptoe to see the man who will step up and fill it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.