An investigation of rural libraries in North Carolina and of library work with children in Boston and New England towns led Miss Caroline Matthews,a member of the Examining Committee of the Public Library of Boston to believe that "exaggerated leaning toward one phase of library work must throw out of the true the work as a whole."The following paper explaining her conclusions was read before the Massachusetts Library Club in October,1907.
Caroline Matthews was born in Boston in 1855.She has contributed articles to the Educational Review and to the Atlantic Monthly.
Miss Matthews is at present living in Switzerland.
I have been asked to speak on this subject,not because I have professional or technical knowledge of the subject to be discussed,but rather because I have not.This does not mean that I have no knowledge whatever of this or other phases of library work.It simply means that the little knowledge I do possess is non-professional,and that my impressions,points of view,conclusions,are wholly those of an outsider.
Up to three years ago I had had no connection with public libraries beyond being an occasional borrower of books.Then suddenly,through making a comparative study of the financing of public school systems here and in France,I found myself in touch with the public schools of an American city,and through them with the school deposits of the Public Library of the same city.
Even so,I did not come in touch with the library side of the work.It was always the school or teachers'side,or the pupils' side,never any other.
The second year I became a member of the Examining Committee of the Public Library of the city of Boston.My position on this committee for my first year of service was a minor one.There was never anything very important to do,certainly not enough to keep up one's interest to the point of being a live interest.
Moreover,I spent the winter away from town.But I had the great good fortune to pass it in the mountains of North Carolina.There I lived for weeks at a time in the homes and cabins of the mountain whites.I knew the men their wives,their children.Ivisited the logging camps,the mines,the missions,the mills,the schools.The life was rough,but it was worth while.It gave me an intimate knowledge of the social surroundings of the people,and I found the one vital problem,the problem touching the citizen the nearest,to be that of the rural school,and affiliated with the rural school,though affiliated in a crude way,was the library.
Thus,for the second time in my life,I came into contact with the library by means of the school.This coincidence led me to think,and I reasoned out that library workers North and South must be working along similar lines toward unity in practice.
Both were doing educative work.And both,apparently,had the same goal--the reaching of the parent or adult through the child or through child growth.
How far such work was legitimate work,how far such work had intellectual or educational value,how far such work lacked or had balance,I now wished to determine.To do this it was necessary to assume some line of active investigation;also to study results from the standpoint of the library,as well as from that of the school and the citizen.
There was no need to search for a subject.I had it at hand.
Living as I did with the people I found myself in the very center of the rural library movement--a movement so splendid in conception;so successful in results,if statistics are credited;so direct as to method,the entire appropriation being expended on but two things,books and bookcases;so naively simple as to administration,there being neither librarians,libraries,or pay-rolls--that a study of it could not fail to prove helpful.
What were the actual conditions?First,the name "rural libraries"I found a misnomer.It in no sense represents facts.
The words imply community interests,interests alike of adult and child,whilst the reality is that these libraries are simply school deposits,composed wholly of "juvenile books,"graded up to but not beyond the seventh grade.When one realizes that these books reach a total of 200,000volumes,that they are sent to people living in scattered communities strung shoe-string fashion high along mountain ridges--back and apart from civilization--to a people of rugged character,demanding strength in books as in life,capable of appreciating strength,one sees what a stupendous opportunity for community uplift has been wasted,and one stands aghast at the folly,economic and intellectual,of the limitations imposed.Why should children alone be considered?And if they alone are to be considered why should they be fed nothing but "juvenile"literature?It is both over-emphasis and false emphasis of the most harmful kind.
