BOOK INFLUENCES FOR DEFECTIVES AND DEPENDENTS: HELPING THOSE WHO CANNOT HELP THEMSELVES
Needy humanity divides itself into three classes, those whom it is said the Lord helps, those who will not and those who cannot help themselves. In no form of need, however, are we interested today save that of the book, nor with the willfully book needy.
For are not they served by the public libraries which go even into the highways and byways and wellnigh compel the uninterested to come to the feast freely offered to them? And though there are still rural districts not yet supplied with public or traveling libraries, many of them have the ability to provide themselves with books had they the desire.
But there are those, not always removed by space but far removed by condition from such privileges, because crime, weakness or misfortune has deprived them of their freedom and for the safety of society, their own restoration to health or their care and education they are detained behind closed doors. These are the morally, mentally and physically defective and the dependent upon the bounty of the state. With this class of helpless are we concerned, with their needs and with what is being done to bring to them the influence of books. Of their needs let me speak briefly while I define and locate the different classes, giving a few figures which perhaps may not be amiss in helping us to realize their numbers.
Of the moral defectives 113,579 have heard the grated doors of prison, penitentiary or reformatory close behind them, for some never to open. For others in a few years perhaps these doors will swing outward to freedom. Shall it be to useful citizenship, or to become a greater menace to society and again to be put behind the bars? Most of these are men who are employed during long working hours. There is much time for idle thoughts during those hours, in addition to evenings and Sundays spent alone in locked cells. Large is the opportunity here for the book in its threefold mission of recreation, instruction and inspiration to lives barren of pleasure and interest.
But these are not all. We must add 22,900 juvenile delinquents found in the state industrial and training schools of the United States, boys and girls whose steps have early found the downward path, in most cases, I believe, because of the influences into which life ushered them. But many of these are yet within the years of susceptibility and to the other upward influences with which it is now sought to surround them should be added the society of books which will bring wholesome pleasure while they present high standards and make right living attractive.
These numbers are exceeded by the mentally defective of whom 187,454, disturbed or confused, dazed or depressed, look through grated windows or sit in shadowed corners of the insane hospitals. To take their thoughts from themselves and direct them into healthful channels may mean a step toward mental healing and adjustment. This books will often do and to fail to furnish them may mean to omit a remedial influence in their treatment. Of the feebleminded, there are 20,199 in the institutions for that class of defectives. With them the task is not so encouraging, but a right to the pleasure of books is theirs and should not be withheld.
There are 61,423 to whom the printed page must speak for they hear no other voice, and 44,310 to whose touch the raised letters bring their message. Shut out from so much which others enjoy shall these be denied this means of recreation and instruction?
The charitable institutions shelter 268,656 dependents which include the old, the sick and the children in the state public schools, orphanages and homes. The former need books to cheer them in their fight for health and strength, or to while away the hours of waiting for their final summons. The children need them not only for the enjoyment which comes from childhood reading, but as a means of development of mind and character. I would lay especial emphasis on the importance of libraries in these and in the industrial and training schools. Useful as books are in the other institutions, there the help which they bring is but to the readers themselves. Here we have citizens in the making and the state has not only the opportunity of laying the foundations of character, but by laying them deep and broad and strong of receiving returns for their efforts in intelligent and useful citizens. To librarians I need not speak of the value of books in giving the education which makes for intelligence and the ideals which make for usefulness.
To meet these needs what do the institutional libraries offer? I shall not give you figures which at best would be inaccurate and incomplete, but such information as could be obtained showing the efforts which are being made to provide books and reading for defectives and dependents, the adequacy and suitability of the libraries and their use of modern library methods.
The list of states is incomplete, some failing to respond, others giving vague information, and an omission may not mean that nothing is being done along this line. What is given will serve to show the general trend of interest in the work.
California plans to serve the institutions through the county system of libraries, but just how this is to be done or whether any institutions have libraries or have received assistance was not stated.
Colorado reports libraries in all the state institutions, the best being that at the state penitentiary where the visitors' fees yield a considerable income which is used for books. In Georgia two institutions only have libraries, which are reported to be neither well selected, kept up to date nor administered according to modern methods.
The only information received from Idaho was that traveling libraries are sent to the industrial school.
In Illinois libraries are reported in the eighteen charitable and three penal institutions of the state, though not all are adequate or suitable in selection.
In Indiana several institutions receive annual library appropriations ranging from $1,000 down to $200. No institution is without a library though not all are organized or well selected or large enough for the needs of the institution. The library commission lends an organizer to assist in this work and in some cases the book selection and the affairs of the library are put into the hands of the commission. The librarian from the School for Feeble Minded Youth will attend the summer school.
In Iowa libraries exist in all of the fourteen state institutions; all are classified, organized and administered according to approved library methods. All except the penitentiaries have appropriations of $300 to $500 each for the purchase of books. In the penitentiaries the fund received from visitors' fees is used for this purpose. Reports are made each month to the Board of Control showing the reading done by classes in each institution. A trained librarian appointed by the Board of Control gives all her time to the institutional libraries, superintending the work, doing the book selection, supplying the technical knowledge, instructing the librarians and stimulating the reading.
In Kentucky the prisons and hospitals are under separate boards, neither of which has done much for the libraries in the institutions under their charge, but both have the matter under consideration and better things are looked for in the future. The prison libraries are represented as inadequate and unsuitable. One only has a fund for the purchase of books and that only $50. The only books in the Houses of Reform are the traveling libraries loaned by the library commission. Two state hospitals have very small libraries and no fund. One has about 800 volumes and an annual fund of $250.
The chairman of the Board of Control of State Institutions in Kansas writes that considerable interest is taken in providing suitable reading for the dependents and defectives of that state and that the institutions are urged to systematic work, but does not state whether all have libraries.
The Maine Insane Hospital has an endowment which yields an income of about $600 annually which is expended for books for the general library, periodicals and medical books. According to the chaplain of the Maine state prison "additions are made to that library from three sources, a few volumes by purchase, some by gifts from individuals, but mostly by gifts from the state library of books no longer useful in the traveling libraries."
The Massachusetts prison commission reports libraries in substantially all the prisons. The larger ones are classified.
Michigan has a state appropriation for books. All the institutions have libraries of some kind, but none are classified or organized according to modern methods. The selections are made by the state librarian.
Minnesota has also an appropriation for books in the state institutions. The public library organizer from the Library Commission pays regular visits to the institutions, selects the books and supervises the work. Not all are classified and several need new books. The two asylums for incurable insane and the hospital for inebriates have only traveling libraries.
In Missouri five institutions have no libraries. Traveling libraries are sent to the insane hospitals. In the boys' training school the library is managed without system. If a boy wants a book the superintendent takes what may be at hand and gives it to him.
Nebraska has a state appropriation of $2,000 made directly to the Library Commission to be expended by them for the thirteen institutional libraries. This is used for books, supplies and periodicals except in two institutions which supply their own magazines. The institutions are asked to furnish cases only and some one to loan the books. Books are selected by the commission and prepared for circulation in the commission office.
In New Hampshire the legislature makes an appropriation for the libraries in the state prisons and state hospitals.
The February number of New York Libraries was made an institutional number and among other things contained reports from the institutional libraries of the state showing libraries in all but two or three institutions which are supplied by traveling libraries. The following editorial comment is made on these libraries: "Of the thirty-six institutions from whose libraries detailed reports are herewith presented, there are not more than two or three whose library conditions would be regarded as up to the standard commonly expected and demanded for public libraries. For not one of them does the state provide a sufficient appropriation for the attainment of such a standard." The committee appointed by the State Library Association on libraries in the penal institutions in the state of New York in making their report recommend a change of title for the committee to include the charitable as well as the penal and reformatory institutions and a request that the legislature pass an act authorizing the appointment of a supervising librarian for the state institutions.
The libraries in many of the state institutions of North Carolina are reported so small and poorly cared for that they are practically useless. The School for the Blind has a separate library building called the Laura Bridgman Library and there is a good library in the School for the Deaf classified by the teachers. The value of this work is appreciated by the Board of Charities but there is a lack of funds.
The North Dakota Library Commission has recently been asked to assist in selecting books and organizing a library for the state penitentiary where a thousand dollars is to be expended. No libraries exist in the other state institutions.
The Oregon Library Commission reports libraries in all the state institutions except one just opened. All the institutions are located at Salem and receive direct assistance from the commission in organization and book selection and management of their libraries. Purchases are made from a general fund. All are reported adequate except one to be made so. Three are classified and the rest are to be.
Pennsylvania has libraries in all the state institutions but none are organized, classified or administered according to accepted library methods. The Library Commission takes the position (wisely it seems to me) that their part lies in stirring up the boards in charge of the institutions to active interest in these libraries, rather than themselves mixing in the affairs of another organization, though as yet little has been accomplished in that direction.
Tennessee has a library in the School for the Blind, the School for the Deaf and the state prison, but none in the insane hospitals. These are organized and classified to a limited extent only.
From the biennial report of the Texas Library Commission I quote the following: "Only a few of the institutions have libraries and as a rule these are small and without reference to the purpose they are to serve. Some have nominal librarians, but none trained and a library without a trained librarian is like a piano without a pianist, valuable, even expensive, but of little use or pleasure."
In Vermont an appropriation of $500 was made in 1910 and $200 is now appropriated annually. This is divided between the libraries in the State Prison, House of Correction, State Industrial School and Insane Hospital and is under the control of the Free Public Library Commission which purchases the books and oversees the cataloging. A card catalog of each institution is kept at the commission office. The State Prison also has a printed catalog.
Washington has a library of some kind in all its institutions, but in none is it a real factor. None are classified.
In Wisconsin no institution is wholly without a library. They are organized and classified in a limited way only. The commission assists to some extent in book selection.
From these reports we may draw the following conclusions: (1) Libraries of some kind exist in many state institutions. (2) Probably most of these libraries are only partially adequate, if not wholly inadequate and unsuitable. (3) Few are organized or administered according to the best methods, have proper rooms or a librarian in charge to render even their present collection useful. (4) In a few states only is there trained supervision or systematic library work undertaken in the institutions. (5) Where appropriations are made they are seldom sufficient to properly maintain the libraries.
The responsibility for this work lies (1) with the governing bodies, the Boards of Control and other boards to whom is committed the care and welfare of the defectives and dependents of the state and the superintendents of the various institutions who are directly responsible for this care, and (2) with the librarians entrusted with library extension and the carrying of books to those who would otherwise be bookless, the state library commissions.
That the superintendents partially appreciate the value of the book is evidenced by library beginnings in many institutions and their readiness to co-operate in movements toward the improvement and increased usefulness of the libraries. But they are busy men with many departments on heart and mind and the boards are charged with many interests.
It is not surprising, therefore, that it is the librarians who have recognized the importance of these libraries and the fact that if they are to become a real force in the institutions the work must be given to some one whose business it shall be, who is trained for it, and who has the time to give it proper attention.
As few institutions are yet in a position to individually employ a trained librarian, the solution of the problem has seemed to be a joint or supervising librarian for all the institutions of a state or of a kind in a state.
Iowa through the influence of Miss Tyler and Mr. Brigham was the first to undertake this work and is still the only state in which institutional library work is done by a librarian working under the Board of Control and giving all her time to the institutions. The other states having institutional supervision are Indiana, Minnesota, where an officer from the commission gives part and Nebraska the whole of her time to the institutional libraries, and Oregon, Michigan and Vermont where the work seems to be done directly by the secretary.
If the Board of Control and the institutional heads are not affected by party changes the advantage, it seems to me, lies with the librarian employed by them, who goes into the institutions with authority from the board to do what needs to be done and not as a guest, who is sometimes unwelcome. The book selection can thus be better guarded and I believe books purchased with institution funds will be better cared for by both officers and inmates than those received by donation. Appropriations are also likely to be larger if made directly to each institution than if made in a lump sum to the commission.
The initiative, however, will undoubtedly lie with the library commission and the importance of institutional library work is such that should the boards fail to use their opportunity it may become the part of the library commission to at least inaugurate the work, which having begun they will probably be allowed to continue.
Before closing may I emphasize very briefly three important points in connection with institutional library work. I wish I might elaborate both these and the other points which I have touched so hurriedly, but time forbids.
1. If the libraries are to become a real factor for good in institutional work, the book selection must be differentiated to meet the needs of the different classes of readers, and great care used to exclude the harmful and include helpful books only. 2. To make these libraries most useful there should be suitable rooms, not only for the proper shelving of the books, but for use as reading rooms where the atmosphere of book lined walls may yield its helpful influence and prepare the way for public library use by the boys and girls at least when the opportunity shall come to them. 3. Though there may be a supervising librarian in the field, there should be a competent institutional librarian who shall not only do the routine work, but have sufficient knowledge of books and readers to be able to fit them together and sufficient time to do the work properly.
Thus shall these libraries, not only bring brightness and cheer to lives otherwise dull and colorless, for
"This books can do;—nor this alone; they give
New views to life, and teach us how to live;
They sooth the grieved, the stubborn they chastise,
Fools they admonish, and confirm the wise;
Their aid they yield to all: They never shun
The man of sorrows, nor the wretch undone;
Unlike the hard, the selfish and the proud,
They fly not sullen from the suppliant crowd;
Nor tell to various people various things.
But show to subjects what they show to kings."
The PRESIDENT: I am very glad to be able to announce that Miss Rathbone has kindly consented to exhibit some extremely interesting charts which have been prepared and exhibited in connection with the work of the library school at Pratt and I am sure that all of you will miss something if you do not avail yourselves of the opportunity which is here presented to see them and to hear the explanation concerning them.
Miss RATHBONE: I am very glad indeed to tell you a little about our exhibition because we found it an interesting thing to do and the people who saw it were interested in it. The genesis of the matter was this: When Miss Alice Tyler was at the school this spring we were speaking about budget and other exhibitions and she said, "I do wish librarians could find some way of graphically presenting library work so that people could understand it as the child welfare work has been presented." That remark of hers, coupled with the fact the library school has never taken part in the exhibition that Pratt Institute has held for a great many years, at the end of the third term, suggested to me the idea of putting the problem to the class of devising an exhibition that should be a visual presentation of the school course and also of library work in general in a form that would be interesting and intelligible to the general public. After a visit to the Bureau of Municipal Research, where Dr. Allen gave them a talk on the value of graphic presentation of facts, I told the students that they were to have the entire responsibility of the planning and execution of this exhibition as a problem in the library administration seminar. It was, of course, an experiment but I was sufficiently convinced of its success after the class made their first and only report of progress, to invite the staffs of the neighboring public libraries to the exhibition. When the material was assembled and installed it created a good deal of interest both in the Institute among the librarians who saw it, and, best of all, on the part of the public at large. We had about five hundred visitors in the four days it was open and it seemed to awaken in the minds of the people who saw it some conception of what library work means. We heard many comments of this kind, "Well, now that I understand the work the library does, I am going to use it more intelligently." One high school boy said, "Gee! I've had an awful time trying to use this library before, but I think I know what it is about now." That sort of a thing made me realize that the exhibition might be of value to some of you as showing one way by which people could be interested in the actual work done in a library, so I wrote to see if space could be had to install it here. It was too late, however, so I simply brought up a few of the charts as examples.
The exhibition began with the technical work of the library—the progress of a book through the various steps was illustrated by a ladder the rungs of which were labeled, Book Selection, Ordering, Receiving, Accessioning, Classification, etc. Books were shown running toward this "Library Ladder," nimbly climbing the rungs, while at the top they acquire wings and fly "off to the public." This chart hung over a table on which the successive operations were shown in detail the same book being used as an illustration throughout. The successive steps were numbered to correspond to the rungs of the ladder. For example, Book Selection was shown by a group including the A. L. A. Booklist, the Book Review Digest and two or three of the reviews. The descriptive card read "No. 1. These are a few of the aids in book selection."
Following that was a chart (exhibiting it) to illustrate the utility of classification, on which was presented a group of ten scientific books unclassified, followed by the same ten in D. C. order, with the question, "In which group would it be easier to find the books on insects." That was followed by another exhibit to prove the utility of subject cataloging. Two copies of the same book were obtained, one new and the other quite worn, the book being Gleason White's "Practical designing," which is made up of a number of papers on minor arts, by different authorities. The new book with a single author card lay on the table surrounded by radiating interrogation points, questions unanswered, and over the book hung this inscription: "This book looks new. Why? Because nobody knows what is in it. It is poorly cataloged." The worn copy lay on the next table and radiating from that were a number of questions with the catalog cards that answer them attached. Over that was the screed: "This book shows wear. Why? Because it can be reached from twenty-four sources. It is well cataloged." People who had not known before what a catalog meant studied that thing out and the change of expression which came to their faces when they saw the new book and the worn book side by side and understood what it signified was delightful. It struck home.
The work of the reference department was tellingly illustrated by an arch in which the reference library was the keystone, all intellectual activities depending on it.
(Miss Rathbone then exhibited various other charts and described them in detail.)
In addition to this, children's work, the field work, the courses in binding and printing, the making of reading lists, the course in fiction were represented.
Altogether we felt that graphic illustration of library work was not only possible but distinctly worth while and that the exhibition had done a good work in educating the library's public, as well as the class, and we expect to make it a permanent feature of the year's work.
Adjourned.
FOURTH GENERAL SESSION
(Thursday morning, June 26, 1913)
The PRESIDENT: We begin this morning the fourth session of this Thirty-fifth Annual Conference and I shall ask the chairman of the Committee on Library Administration to submit at this time his report.
(Dr. Bostwick here read the report.)
The PRESIDENT: You have heard the report of the Committee on Administration. This report embodies some recommendations which it seems to the Chair should be acted upon. Therefore the recommendation which suggests the appointment of a committee to undertake certain work will be referred to the Executive Board for their attention, as, in accordance with the terms of the Constitution, it devolves upon the Executive Board to name the committees. The report will be printed in the proceedings.
(This report is printed with other committee reports. See page [126].)
Mr. RANCK: Mr. President, there is just one item, about questionnaires, if I may have a moment to state it, that I think the committee has not referred to. It is a matter of some importance to us at our library. I think we answer, in the form of questions of one kind or other, not all from libraries however, about a thousand a year. I should like to insist on the importance, when a blank is sent out on which spaces are left for writing in the answers, that a duplicate be sent so that a library can keep a copy of the answers sent. Again and again we have to copy them because we feel it very important that we should know just exactly what we are sending out in that way. And if possible, in the printing of that report I should like to see the committee include that, if they are willing to accept the suggestion.
The PRESIDENT: The suggestion is a very good one.
The PRESIDENT: I feel like congratulating you this morning upon the program for this fourth session, the general theme being: "Children and young people; their conditions at home, in the school and in the library." No matter how splendid a structure may be reared nor how beautiful it may be, without an adequate foundation it is most insecure. We have learned to realize in library work that we must begin at the beginning if our work is to have any perpetuity or any permanent result. We feel that, splendid and admirable in every way as the work with the adults is, that that alone is not enough. That work invites, as it deserves, our respect and admiration, but in the work with children is centered our affection. And when I say this I do not mean to intimate for one moment that that work is enveloped in sentiment. I believe most firmly that the work with children is constructive work of the very highest order. If there are any in this audience who doubt that I am sure that after we shall have heard the papers of this morning the doubts will be dispelled. We shall have this work in three volumes this morning, the first volume comprising two chapters. The title of the first volume is The Education of Children and the Conservation of their Interests, and Chapter One will be contributed by Miss FAITH E. SMITH, of the Chicago public library, on