On the other hand, the advantages in having the instruction given by a regular college instructor are that he deals with small sections of students, not with "numbers which are appallingly large;" that he knows the individual student; that he is able to relate the bibliographical work with the individual student on the one hand, and on the other hand with the special subject with which the student is working.
Personally, I can but feel that the assumption made by the committee of the New England college librarians, by the librarian of the Newark public library, by the dean of the collegiate department of the University of Illinois, and by others in the library field that college instructors are not interested in this matter and would oppose instruction in it is not really warranted by the condition that exists.
May I venture to describe somewhat in detail what is done in one college in showing students how to use books, how to become acquainted with the opportunities of a large library, and how to avail themselves of these opportunities in a direct personal way. In giving this account of what is done in Vassar College, may I emphasize the statement that the work done is by no means peculiar to one college,—other institutions all over the country are doing much that in principle is precisely the same, although the details may vary.
The first aid in knowledge of the library building, of its equipment, and of how to use its collections is given the Vassar College student literally during her first hours on the college campus. She is met by a member of the senior or the junior class and taken about the campus, and it is the duty of these student guides to give every entering student a copy of the Students' Handbook. In this she is urged to "become acquainted with the library as soon as possible." "The reference librarian," the Handbook tells her, "expects every new student to come to the reference desk to be shown about the arrangement of the library and the use of the catalog and to receive a copy of the library Handbook."
The guides point out the library and they are instructed to urge the new students to seek out the reference librarian at once and to make the library trip immediately. The new student goes to the residence hall where she is to live and she finds on the bulletin board in this hall an invitation to take the library trip. The records kept by the reference librarian show that a very large percentage of the entering students almost immediately avail themselves of this invitation extended by guides and reiterated by Handbook and by bulletin boards.
When the new student first enters the library she is given a plan of the building showing the arrangement of the different sections and a handbook explaining in full the library privileges. Armed with this, she is met by the reference librarian and then joining a group of three others she is taken through the library where she makes connections between the plan in her hand, the books on the shelves, "the inanimate reference librarian—the card catalog—" and the animate reference librarian in whom she finds a guide, counselor and friend.
This library trip can be, and is intended to be only general in character. The student gains from it first of all the consciousness of having found in the reference librarian a friend to whom she can always go for help and advice; second, her interest is aroused to become better acquainted with the card catalog and with the general facilities for work afforded by the library; and third she gains a determination to follow the injunction of the Students' Handbook, "do your part to make the library an ideal place in which to work."
It is at this stage, after this general instruction given by the reference librarian, that the majority of the entering students meet the officers of the department of history. We give them collectively during the first week, usually the second day, an illustrated lecture on the library. This includes slides showing the catalog cards of a few of the books they will use most in their history work, the cards of the most important reference works, periodicals, and atlases, slides showing the difference between a "see" card and a "see also" card, slides that explain incomplete series, continuation cards, and every variation that concerns their immediate work. Every slide concerns a work on history that is to be used almost immediately, and the form used in cataloging, the notation and the annotation, the hieroglyphics of the printed card, and the bibliographical features of the card are fully explained from the screen.
The students then meet their individual instructors, each one having previously provided herself with a pamphlet called "Suggestions for the Year's Study, History I." This pamphlet, besides giving detailed instructions for the preparation of the work, includes a plan of the library; suggestions in regard to its history, as also the description and the meaning of its exterior and interior; a facsimile and explanation of the catalog card of the text book used in the course; hints concerning the general card catalog; an analysis of the general form and different parts of a book; special directions for preparing the bibliographical slips or cards that must accompany every topic presented, together with an illustration of a model card; a full classification, with illustrations under each, of all the works of references the class will presumably use, including general works of reference, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, periodicals, year books, atlases, autobiographical material, including the various forms of Who's Who? together with biographical, ecclesiastical and various miscellaneous dictionaries and encyclopaedias; an elaborate chart devised to show the authoritativeness as history of the text book used in the course, accompanied by a full explanation of it; suggestions in regard to the purchase of histories for a personal library; and finally, a recommendation to make use of another pamphlet called Suggestive Lists for Reading in History. The main points in the pamphlet Suggestions for the Year's Study are talked over between instructor and students, and constant reference is made to it throughout the year.
The next step in the history work is to assign each student one or more questions written on a slip and drawn by lot. These questions are intended to test her assimilation of the bibliographical help already given, and her ability to apply to a concrete case what she has gained. As soon and as often as possible the students in the different sections of this class in history go to the library with the instructor for such additional and special help as they may need.