At any rate disorder is almost unknown. We started with the idea of perfect quiet in the building. The text "Be gentle and keep the voice low" was given a prominent place on the walls of the children's room for the first year and I'm sure was helpful.
If the little children get to visiting, usually a glance or a shake of the head is sufficient. To the older children it has been necessary a few times to say quietly, "We must have perfect quiet here." This of course is said privately so that no one but the offender hears.
Sending home seems a legitimate punishment and if judiciously used ought to produce good results.
The good will of the children, with good nature and firmness on the part of the librarian would seem the chief essentials to good order.
If disorder has once become a habit the problem is a serious one. In small libraries with but one person in charge it would seem wise to hire an assistant or have an apprentice to do the desk work during the evening hours or whenever disorder is likely to occur, and let the librarian be free to go about the rooms and use her best efforts to establish order, by every tactful means possible.
Our building is so arranged that every part of it can be seen by the librarian at her desk. This doubtless is a very great aid in discipline, and perhaps explains why we have never been troubled by the boys and girls making a "meeting place" of the library.
Miss Agnes J. Petersen, Manitowoc, Wis.
Reading over your questions on the subject of discipline in the library, brought back very vividly to my mind, the first years of our library work.
From the first day of opening, absolute quiet was made one of the rules of the library, and many boys and girls went home early in the evenings before they would recognize the rule. The fact that no disturbance of any kind would be tolerated was so impressed upon everybody, but, especially upon the children, that now, though the supervision is not so strictly kept, the same good order is easily maintained. A word or look of warning is at most times sufficient now to keep a roomful of 75 children in order except on rare occasions. We did practically I believe what every librarian does. The offender was warned concerning his conduct, and if, after several warnings, he still "dared us" he was sent home, not permitted to return to the library, nor draw books for a week or two as the case might be, only returning after promising good behavior in the future. When, as it happened a few times, the offender did not respond to this treatment, the president of our Library Board sent a note by the chief of police to the offender's parents, and that inevitably ended the matter. Only one boy was suspended for two weeks during this past year, and he gives a great deal of trouble at school, also.