A Librarians Open Shelf

A Librarian's Open Shelf

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Title: A Librarian's Open Shelf
Author: Arthur E. Bostwick
Release Date: September 10, 2004 [EBook #13430]
Language: English
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A LIBRARIAN'S OPEN SHELF
ESSAYS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS
ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, Ph.D.

1920

PREFACE
The papers here gathered together represent the activities of a librarian
in directions outside the boundaries of his professional career, although
the influences of it may be detected in them here and there. Except for

those influences they have little connection and the transition of
thought and treatment from one to another may occasionally seem
violent. It may, however, serve to protect the reader from the assaults of
monotony.
A.E.B.

CONTENTS
DO READERS READ? (The Critic, July, 1901, p. 67-70)
WHAT MAKES PEOPLE READ? (The Book Lover, January, 1904, p.
12-16)
THE PASSING OF THE POSSESSIVE; A STUDY OF BOOK
TITLES (The Book Buyer, June, 1897, p. 500-1)
SELECTIVE EDUCATION (Educational Review, November, 1907, p.
365-73)
THE USES OF FICTION Read before the American Library
Association, Asheville Conference, May 28, 1907. (_A.L.A. Bulletin_,
July, 1907, p. 183-7)
THE VALUE OF ASSOCIATION Delivered before the Library
Associations of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana and Ohio,
October 9-18, 1907. (Library Journal, January, 1908, p. 3-9)
MODERN EDUCATIONAL METHODS (Notes and News, Montclair,
N.J., July, 1908)
SOME ECONOMIC FEATURES OF LIBRARIES Read at the
opening of the Chestnut Hill Branch, Philadelphia Free Library,
January 22, 1909. (Library Journal, February, 1909, p. 48-52)
SIMON NEWCOMB: AMERICA'S FOREMOST ASTRONOMER
(Review of Reviews, August, 1909, p. 171-4)
THE COMPANIONSHIP OF BOOKS Read before the Pacific
Northwest Library Association, June, 1910. (_P.N.W.L.A.
Proceedings_, 1910, p. 8-23)
ATOMIC THEORIES OF ENERGY Read before the St. Louis
Academy of Science. (The Monist, October, 1912, p. 580-5)
THE ADVERTISEMENT OF IDEAS (Minnesota Library Notes and
News, December, 1912, p. 190-7)
THE PUBLIC LIBRARY, THE PUBLIC SCHOOL, AND THE
SOCIAL CENTER MOVEMENT Read before the National Education
Association. (_N.E.A. Proceedings_, 1912, p. 240-5)

THE SYSTEMATIZATION OF VIOLENCE (_St. Louis Mirror_, July
18, 1913)
THE ART OF RE-READING
HISTORY AND HEREDITY Read before the New England Society of
St. Louis. (_New England Society of St. Louis_. Proceedings, 29th
year, p. 13-20)
WHAT THE FLAG STANDS FOR A Flag Day address in St. Peter's
church, St. Louis. (_St. Louis Republic_, June 15, 1914)
THE PEOPLE'S SHARE IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY Read before the
Chicago Women's Club, January 6, 1915. (Library Journal, April, 1915,
p. 227-32)
SOME TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN THOUGHT Read before the
New York Library Association at Squirrel Inn, Haines Falls, September
28, 1915. (Library Journal, November, 1915, p. 771-7)
DRUGS AND THE MAN A Commencement address to the graduating
class of the School of Pharmacy, St. Louis, May 19, 1915. (Journal of
the American Pharmaceutical Association, August, 1915, p. 915-22)
HOW THE COMMUNITY EDUCATES ITSELF Read before the
American Library Association, Asbury Park, N.J., June 27, 1916.
(Library Journal, August, 1916, p. 541-7)
CLUBWOMEN'S READING (The Bookman, January-March, 1915, p.
515-21, 642-7, 64-70)
BOOKS FOR TIRED EYES (Yale Review, January, 1917, p. 358-68)
THE MAGIC CASEMENT Read before the Town and Gown Club, St.
Louis.
A WORD TO BELIEVERS Address at the closing section of the
Church School of Religious Instruction.
INDEX

A LIBRARIAN'S OPEN SHELF
ESSAYS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS

DO READERS READ?
Those who are interested in the proper use of our libraries are asking
continually, "What do readers read?" and the tables of
class-percentages in the annual reports of those institutions show that

librarians are at least making an attempt to satisfy these queries. But a
question that is still more fundamental and quite as vital is: Do readers
read at all? This is not a paradox, but a common-sense question, as the
following suggestive little incident will show. The librarian-in-charge
of a crowded branch circulating-library in New York City had occasion
to talk, not long ago, to one of her "star" borrowers, a youth who had
taken out his two good books a week regularly for nearly a year and
whom she had looked upon as a model--so much so that she had never
thought it necessary to advise with him regarding his reading. In
response to a question this lad made answer somewhat as follows: "Yes,
ma'am, I'm doing pretty well with my reading. I think I should get on
nicely if I could