2. Teachers are often too indifferent, careless, or over-pressed by work to come to the public library.
3. Visits to the public library for reference work, inside or outside of school hours, takes up pupils' time, even if the school is convenient to the public library. This difficulty gets worse as reference work increases.
4. Library instruction should cover a number of periods, and if given in the public library, the necessary number of visits deranges schedules, wastes time and raises questions of discipline.
5. The public library is sometimes unable or unwilling to duplicate books freely enough to meet school needs.
6. The public library is not on the spot to answer instant needs.
The independent high school library meets peculiar difficulties and dangers in fulfilling its duty. It is right to say here that the highest point of development in high school libraries has, to the best of my knowledge, been reached in certain high schools in which the library has no connection with the public library, but where it is managed by a well-paid, trained and experienced librarian. Generally speaking, however, especially in the case of high schools which do not employ a trained librarian, I think I may say that the independent high school library at present is likely to be narrow in scope, badly administered, self centered and neglectful of co-operation with the public library, and hampered by red tape getting books promptly through boards of education.
Neither school library nor public library, it seems to me, can alone meet high school needs. The school library needs the public library because of the broadening influence of the usually larger institution. It needs the resources of the usually larger collection. It can often benefit by suggestion and aid in administrative details, especially when in untrained hands.
The public library needs the school library, among other reasons, to bring it into closer contact with the school system officially. The public library, it seems to me, should require the high school librarian to attend its regular staff meetings if she be a public library official or invite her to attend them if she is not. The high school librarian in many cases attends school faculty meetings, and by regularly attending public library staff meetings she can intelligently interpret school to public library and vice versa. The public library needs the high school library so as to get earlier and more certain information of books needed for class use, for the purpose of reserving in the public library or of concentrating them in the school library. Six copies of a title concentrated at call in the high school library and lent from there for short loans, prevent a few students from monopolizing books, and so do much more satisfactory work than twice the number lent from the public library in the usual way. In general, the public library by working through the high school library should work more effectively by meeting the school on its own ground.
It is pretty clear, I think, that the school library and the public library need each other. The questions remaining are: What kind of co-operation is most effective? How can that co-operation be brought about?
I doubt if there is a universal answer for either question. I think that local conditions will have to be studied in each case, and under local conditions I include the school situation, the public library situation, personalities, local politics, etc.