The Service Area of a Teachers College Library

A N D W H A T SERVICE s h a l l the t e a c h e r s college library render to its affiliated rural schools, its alumni, or teachers of the vicinity? M a y I describe what we are doing at the St. Cloud, Minn., State Teachers College Library. W e believe—perhaps all of you d o — that there is need for service in these areas. So far, we have dealt most with the affiliated rural schools. In our section of the country, central Minnesota, there are many rural schools. Affiliated with the college are twelve schools of which two are two-room schools. Into these schools, each six weeks, go the cadets. These student-teachers live in the country and teach there under the direction of the local teacher and the rural supervisor. But of what import is this to the teachers college library? Have you visited a progressive rural school lately ? If you have, you know that the one-text, fixed-grade type of school is disappearing. Today, you may find John of the eighth grade, M a r y of the sixth, James of the fifth, and even, fourth-grade Jean, all working together on a common subject of study such as the importance of rubber in modern warfare. Nor is fourteen-year-old Bill ashamed to recognize the fact that he cannot read and to work at the first-grade fundamentals of reading. T h e concern of the modern school is enriched classroom teaching and interested, mentally-growing children. But such study, we all know, cannot be accomplished without many good books, pamphlets, clippings, pictures, and other kinds of illustrative materials. O u r library staff believes that we have a special responsibility in seeing that these schools, affiliated with the college,. have such reference materials. W e believe that our rural student-teachers not only need these materials for effective student teaching but that the future teachers will here, in the school, learn best to use and get the habit of using library materials in building up, with their pupils, a vital type of classroom study. O u r cadets have studied children's literature; they have had the brief fundamentals of library organization, such as mending, classification, book use, and appreciation. W e believe that, in the affiliated rural school, the teachers college library finds an excellent opportunity to prove that it all actually pays and "works."