The possibility of library story telling in schools as a means of interesting a larger number of children than is possible at a story hour held in a library is suggested by Miss Alice A.
Blanchard in the following paper,also given at the Conference at Clark University in 1909.Alice Arabella Blanchard was born in Montpelier,Vermont;was graduated from Smith College in 1903;from the New York State Library School in 1905,and was a special student in the Training School for Children's Librarians in 1905-1906.From 1906to 1908she was the head of the children's department of the Seattle Public Library;in 1909the head of the school department of the Free Public Library,of Newark,N.J.;from 1910to 1912the head of the Schools division of the Seattle Public Library;from 1913to 1915the First Assistant in the Children's Department and the Training School for Children's Librarians in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh,and since that time has been supervisor of work with schools and children in the Free Public Library of Newark,N.J.
The subject which the printed programme for this morning's session assigns to me is How to guide children's reading by story telling.I must begin my talk by an apology;for I shall speak upon only a limited phase of that subject.The subject of guiding children's reading by story telling is a pretty broad one.Tell a good story to a child and he wants to read the book from which it comes.This simple statement means that wherever the child is,at home,at school,in the playground,in the library,in Sunday School,in the settlement,we can exercise a very direct influence upon his reading taste by the stories we tell him.
Story telling is a most excellent method of advertising the good books of the world.I shall consider it as a means of advertising books from the librarian's point of view,and treat it simply as a library method,calling it,if you will let me,a library tool.
Story telling is becoming widely popular in schools,in libraries and as a profession by itself.We know that it is an effective method of reaching and influencing children,and that as a method it has advantages over the printed word.Libraries are considering it a part of their work and are using it on a more or less elaborate scale.
It may be too soon,for we have not been using it very long,to know just what place story telling should take in the work of the library;but some of us feel that we are not considering the subject with sufficient care,that we are letting our enthusiasm run away with our common sense in the matter,a little too much in the manner of our friend who has the automobile fever and forgets that life can hold anything else.
It is evident that since no public library ever has enough time and money at its disposal for the work it has to do,it cannot afford to undertake story telling or any other activity which does not further this work.We say that the function of public library work with children is to give them an intelligent love for the best books,and in trying to do this we must reach the greatest number of children at the least expense.If story telling can be an effective tool,enabling us to reach with books more children at less expense than any other method at our command,then it has a legitimate place in library work.If it cannot do this we should let it alone.
Most of us feel that school and libraries have experimented with story telling long enough now to prove that it has its place as a legitimate and valued tool of the library.At the same time we see these facts,however;many libraries do not understand what this place is;many libraries are using story telling as a tool for another's work at the expense of their own;and some libraries are using story telling when,because of their peculiar situation,another tool would better answer their purpose.
If the library is to use story telling it must be to bring children and books together.This it can do successfully.Library reports show that it has interested thousands of children in the library,increased greatly the general circulation of books from the children's shelves,and created popularity for the books from which the stories were selected.
Incidentally,the Story Hour makes a delightful form of entertainment,for the average child loves to hear stories told.
It also establishes a very pleasant personal relation between the children who hear the story and the person who tells it.Herein lies a danger for the library of which we take too little account.Because she can by her stories so delightfully entertain her audience and thereby win their affection the story-teller is tempted to lose sight of the purpose of her stories,namely,to guide the children's reading.If she does forget this purpose,her stories,although they may bring the children week after week in throngs,will leave them where they were before,so far as their reading taste is concerned.The fact that the Story Hour makes a delightful form of entertainment,the fact that it establishes a pleasant personal relation between story teller and children,must not be the reason for its adoption by the library.
The story teller must tell stories from books which are to be found upon the library shelves and she must tell the children that they are there.Unless the Story Hour advertises the best books,and results in an increased use of them,the library is wasting time and money in its story telling--to put the matter in its most favorable light.
