Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1916 — LIBRARY WEEK [ARTICLE]

LIBRARY WEEK

Plans are under way for the celebration, early in December, of “library week.” The purpose, generally, is to educate the public in a wider use of the library and its fa-

cilitles. Specifically, however, this first week of its kind will be devoted to urging the public to "raise the standard of children’* reading.” “Buy the best books for jrour children” will be the slogan of the campaign. And it has.to do directly, of course, with purchases of books for Christmas gifts. It is suggested, in this connection, that libraries all oyer the country join in a movement to distribute lists of approved books, to urge women’s clubs to discuss the subject, to induce teachers to cooperate by stimulating the interest of the children themselves, and, through various avenues of publicity, to arouse parents everywhere to the necessity for closer supervision of the books read by boys and girls. This may mean additional work for the librarians, "but it is undoubtedly work that Is needed. So numerous are the publications for juvenile readers and so rapidly is the list increasing that the scrutiny recommended is a necessity of the times.

Parents can hardly be expected to keep abreast of the output of juvenile literature. To a certain extent, winnowing the chaff from the grain must be done for them. But, this accomplished, it still remains the duty of the parents to give the personal, intimate supervision that is necessary. And that, say those who have originated "library week,” is a duty that is sadly neglected. Parents often conclude that if a child draws most of his reading matter from the shelves of the public library his literary fare will be wholesome. Much depends upon the characteristics of the child to make this a safe rule of procedure. Nothing will take the place of the parental censorship that “library week” will advocate. It might be well, at the same time, to call attention to the nature of some of the fiction published in current magazines. Recent years have witnessed a notable increase in the number of magazine publications and it requires only a glance to inform any oqe of ordinary intelligence that some of these magazines are far from desirable as reading for children. They are most likely, of course, to fall into the hands of girls and boys in their teens—a period when supervision is most difficult, but most important.