I am in hearty sympathy with the opinion expressed that "the management and spirit of the children's room should correspond to that of other departments of the library." There seems to be a tendency to make these rooms a play-room—the children coming to be amused, and the time of one person devoted to their amusement. If this is the design of the children's room, our own young people at Pawtucket will be sadly disappointed. While we will put in the pictures, the birds, the plants, the busts and all else to make the room interesting, and while we will have frequent talks in the lecture room, the children being quietly led on to express themselves freely, the quiet dignity of the children's library room as an important part of the library will be maintained. The books will also be charged at the main charging desk for them, as we feel that this bringing of the adult and the child into close contact is of mutual benefit.
The discipline of the children's department has never been a serious question to us. Give them a very few brief rules, and enforce them, and we shall have no great troubles to contend with; the children will virtually take care of themselves.
The question is asked us, "For what does the children's room stand, what is its real purpose?" It is evident that it has a different purpose in different libraries. To us the children's library room is for reading, for study, for observation, for questioning undisturbed and undisturbing, while the entire library is still at the service of any child who desires to make practical use of it.
Miss Charlotte Wallace read a paper on
BULLETIN WORK FOR CHILDREN.
(See[ p. 72.])
Two papers were read on
VITALIZING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE SCHOOL AND THE LIBRARY,
Miss May L. Prentice treating
THE SCHOOL.