The general characteristics of reference books should be discussed with the meaning and significance of those universal but little known elements of all modern books, the title page, table of contents and index. The growing popularity of bibliographies of all kinds suggests instruction in their make-up and use while the growing importance of periodicals of all kinds shows the need of knowing how to use the general periodical indexes. In all this work there can be and should be the closest relation to the other work of the school course and the various teachers can easily suggest material of direct use to them which will be quite as interesting and valuable for illustrating the use of the library as set problems compiled exclusively by the librarians. Moreover, such procedure will demonstrate conclusively both to teacher and to pupil the direct value of the library in helping school work to be done better and quicker. Though any teacher can be of help in this way, English, geography, civics and history are particularly good subjects with which to begin this co-operation.
It is doubtful whether the librarian should attempt much formal instruction in book selection in the high school unless it is done with the full knowledge and with the assistance of the other teachers. Otherwise, such instruction will almost inevitably lead to duplication and to conflict with the work regularly given in other courses. Tactful suggestions to teachers on the value of material which they overlook or know nothing about and personal attention to the voluntary reading done by pupils outside the school-room and not connected with the regular work of the school will furnish any school librarian plenty of opportunity for missionary work.
Some description of the anatomy of a book will probably help cultivate a greater respect for books as books and may lessen the tendency to use books badly which is now so prevalent among school children furnished with books paid for by the school board and not directly bought by their parents.
All of this teaching should be very simple. What is perhaps the most successful manual of the present on the subject of teaching the use of books in schools (Ward's Practical use of books and libraries), owes its success largely to its attention to the small details which everybody, large and small, is supposed to know but of which nearly everybody is quite ignorant.
No high school course of this kind is complete unless it cultivates friendly relations with the public library and promotes the use of the library after the pupils have left school, by calling on it for aid while they are still in school. The best school librarians make every possible use of the public library while they are at the same time using to the utmost the resources of their own school libraries.
The amount of time required for such a course as that outlined here and which is substantially the same as dozens of other courses outlined elsewhere, depends considerably on whether any preliminary work of the kind has been given in the lower grades, and, to some extent, on the size and general character of the school's collection of books. Something worth while has been done in five or six lessons, though not much can be done in less than ten or twelve, and the twenty to thirty periods which interested principals have sometimes granted are none too many. The general plan will also depend partly on whether the instruction is all given in one year or throughout the entire high school course.
In the normal school the purpose of the library course should be not only to teach the use of books, but to teach, in addition, the principles of their proper selection and enough of the essentials of library technique to enable the teacher to administer successfully a small school library and to understand the methods used in larger libraries. It should be not only for individual improvement, as in the high school, but designed also to give skill in teaching others how to use the library. It is necessary, of course, to supply any deficiencies in training of the kind that was suggested for the high school, before the administrative side of the work can profitably be taken up.
The technical side of the work, therefore, will be more in evidence in the normal school course. The preparation, adaptation and use of the important records such as the accession book, the shelflist, the catalog and the charging system are necessary parts of the equipment of any teacher who is likely to be put in charge of a school or class-room library. A study of the most common trade lists and a few typical booksellers' catalogs with some comment on trade discounts and the purchase of second-hand books will save much time and trouble later when the teacher is expected to advise as to what and where to buy.
Instruction in simple methods of book repair will yield large dividends in the shape of better cared for and longer lived books.
Simplicity and direct relation to school work are the two things to be insisted upon throughout. Though the subjects and, to some extent, the treatment should be the same as that of the library school, there is neither opportunity nor need of the same variety and extent of instruction and practice which should characterize schools for the professional training of librarians, nor should any school which can afford special teachers in other subjects thrust technical library work upon its regular teachers. To the teacher, the library is auxiliary to her main work and insistence on elaborate administrative methods will defeat its purpose.