Manual of Library Economy / Third and Memorial Edition

by James Duff Brown; W. C. Berwick Sayers

510.

510. The control of such school libraries takes several forms. In the simplest the education authority grants a certain sum yearly to the library committee for children’s work, making only the condition that library service on their behalf shall be efficient. In other cases the education authority desires to take a more definite part in the work, and it has been found that a sub-committee, consisting of members of the library and education committees and of representatives of the head teachers, with the librarian as executive officer, will work satisfactorily. Such a sub-committee should be free from the limitations imposed upon subordinate bodies, and although it should report its activities, it should not be expected to submit them to the respective committees. Friction is soon generated if the sub-committee’s book-selection, or indeed any other feature of its work, is liable to amendment by another body, and we have known really good library schemes to come to grief through such interference.

511.

511. A grant for school libraries should consist of an initial capital sum for equipment and stock, and an annual sum for additions and maintenance. Grants vary from about £500 to £25 per annum, and the amounts, of course, are conditioned by the size of the town and the number of schools to be served, as also by the current cost of furniture, books and service, all of which are at present in a state of great fluctuation. A good arrangement is that in operation at Cardiff, where the Education Committee grants £2, 10s. yearly for every hundred children permanently on the school registers. The work of preparing, cataloguing and classifying the books is carried out by the library staff as a whole in small libraries, or by the children’s library staff where one exists, or by a special school libraries assistant. In providing the commencing stock, a few decisions must be made upon which the future usefulness of the libraries will largely depend: (1) the period for which books are to remain at each school; (2) the desirability of an unchanging deposit collection at each school; (3) the method of charging at the schools; (4) the methods of recording the whereabouts of each book. And there are other matters.

512.

512. The period of loan to each school varies from three to twelve months, and the smaller the available stocks of books, the more frequent should be the changing of them. Frequent changes, however, involve much labour, and it is well that the collections should be as large as possible at the outset in order that they may serve efficiently for longer periods than three months. They should not remain longer than a year, as by that time the interest of the collection will be much reduced and the books themselves will probably be in need of overhauling. It is a good thing to have a basic, unchanging collection at each school, consisting of the books which by common consent are children’s classics. These will naturally be duplicated in most of the schools, as the list of such books is by no means a long one. Their existence gives assurance that every child has access to the best of children’s books during his school career. The ultimate aim should be to increase the school collections so that periodical interchange between the schools becomes unnecessary, except in so far as additions of new books are concerned.

513. Cataloguing.

513. Cataloguing.—The accession and cataloguing methods may resemble those described for Rural Libraries ([Sections 546]-[47]). One suggestions-slip may serve for any number of copies, the accession numbers being added to the card; this forms an inventory of the stock. For each copy another catalogue card, in very brief form, should be written, which may be placed behind a guide card bearing the name of the school at which the copy is located. A printed catalogue of the whole of the school library system is a very useful thing, but is difficult to maintain. In any case a list of the books sent to the school should accompany each dispatch.

514. Charging.

514. Charging.—The head teacher usually appoints a school librarian, who may be a teacher, but is more often a senior scholar, and to the school librarian is entrusted the issuing of books and the keeping of the necessary records. The charging system will be some simplified form of that in use at the public library. A card-charging system has been found to be satisfactory. Trays, pockets, and properly-written book-cards are provided by the library staff, and a supply of readers’ tickets which are made out by the school librarian as required. Another method is that described in [Section 547], which can be adapted readily to school libraries. Scholars are usually allowed to change books once a week, during a special “library hour,” which is recognized officially as part of school time; but this is a matter of local arrangement.