Teachers, it must be added, do not always see the values of these returns, and may consider them an irritating and unnecessary superfluity. If they could be made in the form of an estimate once a year the purpose might be served.
518.
518. The head teacher should not be held responsible in a financial sense for lost books, nor should he be expected or permitted to replace them. He would, however, be expected to take reasonable steps to recover them, and in case of loss, a penalty of some kind, however small, is generally inflicted upon the loser. Books which have been in contact with infectious disease are sent from the home to the Public Health Department, where they are disinfected, or, in some places, destroyed, at the discretion of the Medical Officer of Health. Some sanitary authorities themselves replace the books which are destroyed.
519.
519. At what time in the history of school libraries the collections should cease to circulate between the schools and become permanent libraries in individual schools is a matter upon which opinion differs. At Cardiff this stage was reached when there were 600 volumes in the large school, and no school with less than 200. Allowing the average time in which a child will use the library, to be four years, the lesser of these figures provides that each child may read at least one volume a week throughout that time; but it is impossible to allow the child a choice of books in these circumstances, and this is a very grave defect. It can only be affirmed that there should be at least one book for every child of reading age, and that this minimum should be increased as rapidly as possible.
520.
520. Other fields for the public library presented by the schools may be indicated briefly. They may be used as deposit stations for adult readers in anticipation of the establishment of permanent branch libraries; and this method has met with success. The head teacher, too, should be allowed the right of requisitioning temporarily any books in the public lending libraries which may be desirable for the use of the scholars in connexion with their class studies; and a generous policy in lending works from the reference library for use in the school building is a natural corollary of this.
521. Sunday School Libraries
521. Sunday School Libraries have not received much attention from British public librarians. They present a useful field of work, in which the municipal library may suggest books and methods and offer simple training in library practice to the teachers. As is the case with all other teachers, the stores of the public library should be made available for their use in the widest sense.