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A PLAN OF WORK FOR THE LIBRARY DEPARTMENT OF THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

AZARIAH S. ROOT, A. M.

LIBRARIAN, OBERLIN COLLEGE, OBERLIN, O.

The title of this paper, which was assigned me by another, is, I fear, a very ambitious title for the few suggestions that I have in mind. It has seemed to me, as I have glanced through the proceedings of the department for earlier years, that it was time that the department should form some definite policy, and be trying to do some definite task. The value of this Association ought not to be found in the proceedings which it publishes, or in such great gatherings as we are having here, but rather in the quiet organized work which its departments shall undertake. I therefore ask you to consider, in an informal way, with me this afternoon for a little while, the question - "What can this department do?"

And first of all, why should there be a department of libraries in this Association? Clearly because the library is one of the great educational forces of the country, and because the aim of the Religious Education Association is to unite all the great educational forces of the country, in bringing about a keener interest in and attention to religious education. According to President Harper, in an address at the first meeting of the Association, in which he outlined a general policy for the Association, the great work of the Religious Education Association is to be that of co-operation with existing agencies rather than rivalry of them. We may then, state our problem in this way: "What can the Department of Libraries of this Association do to co-operate with existing library agencies ?"

A. Co-operation with the public library. No one can doubt that the public library is one of the great educational forces of the country, but no one can fail to see that when it undertakes to render service in the matter of religious education, it is in a position of great embarrassment. It is the representative of all the people, and it must, therefore, select those books which are likely to meet the wants of all the people. With the great dividing line between Protestant and Catholic, and with the many clefts separating the various sects of Protestantism from one another, it is extremely difficult for the public library to decide to what extent it shall endeavor to help in the matter of religious education, and what books will be suitable to its limitations and its constituency. Here is a place where the Religious Education Association may prove of ser

vice. This Association represents all religious agencies and interests, and while perhaps the Catholic forces are not as much represented in it as we could wish, still the organization so far represents the world of Protestant churches that it is in a position, as is almost no other organization, to do something effective in the line of co-operation with the public library.

First, this department might set on foot the preparation of a list of books, the addition of which would put the public library in a position to be of service in the matter of religious education. Such lists should be prepared by a committee representing both leaders in theological thought and practical librarians, the co-operation of the leaders in religious thought being necessary to secure books representative and historically correct as to their subject matter, and of librarians because they, far more than such religious leaders, can tell whether a book is written in such a style, and presents the matter in such a way, as to really be readable by the common people. Such a combination of forces, co-operating together, might prepare lists which the public library could use. Most of the lists which have come under my observation, having been prepared solely by theological experts, have soared entirely above the comprehension of the average user of the public library.

Second, every public library must feel, in some degree, the pressure for books suitable to the needs of some of the Sunday-school teachers. Particularly is this pressure felt when, after a year or eighteen months study in the New Testament, the International Lessons suddenly take up the Old Testament. The Sunday school, it is admitted on all hands, is a far less effective agency for religious education than it ought to be, and the reason for this, it seems to be also conceded, is primarily in the lack of preparation on the part of the teaching force of the Sunday school. This lack of preparation, in turn, is to a considerable measure due, in many schools, to a lack of adequate books for the study of the lesson. But it is not easy for the ordinary public librarian, especially in small libraries where not more than $5.00 or $10.00 can be devoted, in any one year, to books of this sort, to know which are the best books for the average Sunday-school teacher. The reviews of such books in the journals are either by those trained in the theological schools, whose standard is far superior to that of the average Sunday-school teacher, or on the other hand, they are by representative Sunday-school workers, who often have a stronger appreciation of the value of striking illustrations than of the theological up-to-dateness and accuracy of the book. Now the Department of Libraries is in a position to secure the co-operation of theological experts, of practical Sunday-school workers, and of

trained librarians, and the co-operation of these forces ought to result in the preparation of a list of books which should be at once theologically satisfactory, suitable for teaching, and thoroughly readable by the average Sunday-school teacher. I suggest these two lines of co-operation with the public library as immediately practicable. If, as the result of experience in these two lines, some progress is made, other lines of work will naturally suggest themselves.

B. Co-operation with the Sunday-school library. As the papers in the session this afternoon have disclosed, the Sunday-school library problem is one of the vital problems of the up-to-date Sunday school. Clearly it ought, in the future, to have much more of the reference element than it has hitherto had; and this fact suggests as the first point where this department might co-operate with the Sunday-school library, namely, in the preparation of lists, of small, medium, and large reference libraries for Sunday-school teachers. Such a reference library should perhaps not be kept in the church, where it is in many cases not accessible through the week, but should be at some central point, say the house of the Sunday-school superintendent, where it could be visited day by day, and where it could be accessible at the weekly teachers' meeting. In communities where there is a public library open daily, such a collection might be deposited in the public library. I think the newer Sunday-school spirit is already developing a class of schools which would be glad to build up such reference libraries for teachers, but very often they are not informed as to the best books to be selected for such libraries. I am aware that many lists have been published, but most of those which I have seen seem to me to be open to the same criticisms as were passed upon the existing lists which have been suggested for public libraries. They are either on the one hand made up of books too scholarly, too heavy, to meet the needs of the average Sunday-school teacher, or on the other hand, they are lists of books suggested by some Sunday-school worker, because of their supposed adaptability for Sundayschool work, without being representative of modern theological thinking. Here again, a committee composed of theological leaders, Sundayschool workers, and representative librarians, might, I believe, prepare a list which would be more satisfactory than any hitherto published, and which, going out in the name of the Department of Libraries of this Association, might receive attention where a denominational or Sundayschool Association list would not be considered.

And there is another phase of the Sunday-school library problem where, it seems to me, this Association might be helpful. I am one of those who believe that it is a good thing for children to have a distinction

between everyday books, and Sunday books, and that there are books, in story form, perfectly acceptable from a literary point of view, possessing also a religious value, and able to hold the attention of the average boy or girl, which are not likely to be added to the public library. It seems to me that a representative committee, composed of elements such as those I have already indicated, with perhaps the addition of a committee of mothers who have wrestled with this problem, might succeed in the preparation of a list of books of this sort. This list should aim to give the Sunday-school library a distinctive character of its own, take it out of competition with the public library, and enable it to furnish books which would really relieve the strain and nervous tension of the child's week-day reading, by giving a pleasant variety from the ordinary public library juvenile, while at the same time the books should minister to the religious education of the child, and be therefore eminently suitable for Sunday reading. This would be, of course, an extremely difficult list to prepare, and would require much time and reading, but such a list,when prepared, would suggest books far different from the ordinary so-called Sunday-school library book, and I think, would prove to meet a felt need.

C. Can the Department of Libraries in any way co-operate with the individual book buyer, who desires to have representative religious books in his collection? This is, in some respects, the most difficult task of all, because individual likes and temperaments vary so greatly, yet even here I think that this department, with the co-operation of other departments, might easily make suggestive lists, small, medium and large, of books suitable for private libraries.

D. In addition to these lists which have been suggested, there seems to be a real service which might be rendered to all classes of book users in the preparation of annotated lists, not perhaps exhaustive, but thoroughly representative, showing the important books upon all religious questions, these lists not to attempt to recommend some rather than others, but to state with absolute fairness the position of each book theologically and critically, to indicate the points at which it has contributed or summarized new material, and its relative value and importance. Doubtless in the making of such lists there would develop considerable divergence of opinion, which could be indicated by symbols, and if the divergence should be thus frankly recognized and indicated, there would be no danger of a merely colorless list made up of books to which nobody thought it worth while to object. It might not prove to be worth while to publish these lists, but I believe it would be well worth while to make the attempt and see what sort of a result would be attained.

Besides co-operation with existing agencies, Dr. Harper, in his

paper, suggested that another great value of the Religious Education Association would be in the fellowship which it brought about. Now librarians, as a class, are not suffering from too little fellowship among themselves. But of fellowship with workers in other departments of activity, there is undoubtedly a great need, and it seems to me the existence of a Department of Libraries in the Religious Education Association offers to us a real opportunity to cultivate this fellowship side. Why could we not have something corresponding to the so-called Round Table meetings of our educational organizations, in which there should be an informal talk by two or three prominent representative theological leaders and by two or three representative librarians on some phase of library activity in the field of religious education, these informal conferences to be followed by a half hour or an hour of social and very informal intercourse, to which all the librarians within a reasonable distance of the place of meeting should be especially invited. I feel confident that such a frank and informal conference as I have in mind, based on some theme relating to religious education, would deepen greatly in librarians the sense of their personal responsibility for religious education, and would help the theological leaders to realize more than ever the necessity of working with the common people, and so would be mutually profitable.

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