I propose to delimit the subject so as to fit the present set-up of Schools in Maharashtra, both urban and rural.

Before we can validly discuss the norms, it seems to me, we ought to go over what we consider to be the aims and objects of a school library – not in a mere academic way but in an eminently practical way so that we shall not get lost in words and lose sight of the harsh reality in our schools.

The primary purpose for which school libraries came into existence was the great need felt for supplementing the instruction in school. We are all conscious of the thousand and one short-comings of our instruction in school, There is first the artifical division of knowledge into subjects. The most of the teaching aids are artificial and seem to create nothing but mere academic interest in our pupils, if any, at all. Children always seem to think that the world outside the classroom is a totally different world from the world inside. They feel that this world of their teacher’s creation has no validity at all, outside the four walls of the classroom.

We teachers, too, are aware of our drawbacks. We therefore, wish to supplement the classroom instruction. And that’s why I believe school libraries have come into existence.
Consequently, too, we have laid down for our own guidance the following, as the aims and objects of a school library:
(1) To encourage the reading habit.
(2) To introduce boys and girls to books of all kinds.
(3) To develop in pupils the ability to learn from books without a teacher
(4) To break down the rigid divisions which the school time-table often creates between different subjects.

To put it briefly, we may say that the school library covers the three purposes of :
(a) Reference,
(b) Study, and
(c) Re creative reading.

Before we proceed with our discussion let me ask and answer a question. We say that our instruction in the classroom is inadequate and unreal and, therefore, needs to be supplemented by the use of a good library. It is not true that all instruction in school should be through the medium of a good library and classroom instruction should supplement it in so far as our children fail to benefit from the library by themselves? This gives the library a pre-eminent place on our school and reduces instruction to a secondary place. I feel this is what it should be. The library should be the centre of our school activity rather than the periphery. It is true that at the very beginning, it may not be quite possible to organise teaching in this way: but later on it should be possible to do so – and I can visualise school Where this is done quite satisfactorily to the benefit both of the teachers and the taught in the schools. I have in mind, the children will, of the m accord, find their way to the school library as a result of their inborn urge explore and discover their environment.

I may now that my subsequent discussion is based on this assumption.

Our school libraries have, therefore, a two-fold function to perform: (1) In the initial stages to supplement the classroom teaching; and
(2) In the later stages to bring the outside world to the classroom. Let me amplify the two points.

We need books of many kinds to supplement our instruction at the early stages. Examples may, perhaps, make this point clear. Our principal aim in the primary school is to teach reading and writing in the early stages. We all know the way we do it. We have perhaps a text-book. It is the centre of our teaching. But if we confine ourselves to the text-book alone, we always fail.. Our pupils who have learnt to interpret the various symbols in the text book quite readily, fail miserably if confronted with the same symbols elsewhere. The wise teacher knows that the best way to teach the various sound symbols to his children is to let them meet them in different places at different times. If he has then a library of well-chosen books, it comes very handy. The teacher of Hindi or English in the fifth standard, too, finds a similar use for the library. He has to get across to his pupils a number of, say, words or structures. The time at his disposal is very short and he can achieve very little within that time. He has to supplement his pupils’ English work inside the classroom by a fairly good amount of work in the library.

The function of a library in this set-up of things is supplementary. But once the stage is over, the function is no longer a supplementary, subservient or passive one. It is dynamic. It is not intended to lead to classroom instruction. On the contrary the instruction in the classroom should aim at leading the pupils to the library. This is what Sir Richard Livingstone refers to in his following remark:

‘The most important room in any school is the Library. If it contains good books, well-chosen and well-used, we may be reasonably sure that … it is a place where real education is given.”

Thus our school library is not one library but two. The one consists of books written for the purpose of supplementing the classroom teaching. It may, incidentally, serve to create a love of reading in the child; but that is not why it is there.

The second library is the library in the true sense of the word .It may be on a much smaller scale than the public library for the adult reader; but it is essentially of the same kind. Just as the public library the quintessence all that is good (or bad) in the society at the time, so is the school, should be, on its modest scale. It is quite true that in the world of today its mass media for communication of information, it is quite possible one to go through life, without ever feeling a need for books. But such a life could never be satisfactory. It has no significance at all. We don’t want children to be condemned to this kind of insipid, shallow living. We want them to develop a love for deeper understanding and we cannot do better than take them gently but firmly to a good library.

So our first requirement in the matter of a good library is a suitable room. It should be fairly large, having regard to the number of books in the library. It should be a pleasant room. On this point I had better quote L.R. McColvin. He has this on this point :

‘The children’s library must be a place to which it is a pleasure to come -friendly, comfortable, and bright. I would not say that it should be more attractive than the children’s own homes-though if it is reasonably well-equipped it will be more attractive than many.’

If the school is a large one, more rooms than one may be necessary; it is more likely, however, that only one room is provided. But I feel we must set our face against all schools where no room is provided and where library cupboards are disposed in different classrooms and office rooms where they have no right to be.

The dimensions of the library room will necessarily depend on the number of books to be displayed. It is suggested that a minimum of 35 to 40 square feet should ideally be allowed for each seated user. But 25 square feet should be considered to be a compromise. I feel common sense is a better guide than either authority of statistics.

Given a fairly good room, the problem is to find books to fill it with ideally speaking, there is no limit to the number of books to be put in the library. But the school finances impose a severe limit which in turn raises the problem of book selection.

In general it may be said that the school library should provide a well balanced collection of books. It should present a fair cross-section of the public library without, of course, entering into competition with it.

So far as the teacher’s special purposes are concerned, his word should be decisive. Here the library is subservient to his teaching and should, therefore, strictly conform to the demands of his classroom practice. It may perhaps be preferable to hand over these books to the teachers concerned and not to burden the librarian with them at all. But the selection of all other books is primarily his task. He may seek the help of senior teachers in his school, but he should consider himself to be responsible for the final choice. This means the library work must not be given to a clerk in the school establishment. It should be given to the most experienced teacher in the school.

Because the task of selecting books is difficult, there are many agencies that have come forward to help the librarian, most good publishers being out their catalogues periodically. A good many newspapers and periodicals of a high order contain reviews on books published at the time. Special agencies, such as the Extension Services Departments, attached to training colleges, issue periodical lists of books suitable for school libraries. A serious librarian should not refuse to accept help from whatever source it is forthcoming.

There are two ways in which books can be stored in a library. Books can be put on open shelves. They can also be put in cupboards. Though much can be said in favour of the open-shelf libraries, I am afraid very few schools can have them. The next best thing is to organise an efficient library service. This demands that the school library books should be placed on shelves in cupboards with glass doors. There should be only one row on each shelf, not two or more one behind the other. The books should be properly placed so that the readers are able to read the title, etc. on the spine of the book. I have often soon labels with the library’s mark on the posted on the spine in such a way as to cover the number of the volume or other of information. This should be carefully avoided.

Just as the selection of books is an important thing, so is the discarding of them when they are no longer serviceable. How many of our library cupboards are cluttered up with unwanted and little-used books!

The books in a library are certainly the most important part of it, but librarian has no mean place. He is literal, no less than figuratively the life and soul of the library. It is no exaggeration to say that most of our noir for efficient library service relate to him.

The first requirement is that the librarian should be a person of pleasant manners. Good figure or an impressive personality is things that cannot be cultivated. Either you have them or you haven’t. But pleasant manners can be developed and it is, therefore, not unjustifiable to expect pleasant manners in a librarian. He has to meet school children who have not yet developed insensitiveness of people’s appearance. They go by them. It is very easy to scare them away from the library by putting in it a librarian of a formidable appearance.

Secondly, the librarian should have a sense of proportion and beauty. He should learn to love his library. If he has this love, one will not fail to notice it. It will be evident in the way the books are arranged or displayed, in the way he maintains the records of the library, in fact, in the way he moves about in his library and handles the books. This is an important qualification for a librarian, for it is necessary that the library room should be an attractive place, friendly and comfortable. It is here that children develop a love of reading which will be a priceless possession with them to the end of their lives.

Thirdly the librarian himself must have genuine love of books for if he has it. , he will be ready, even solicitous, to help and serve those who have who have or are developing a similar feelings.

Far too often, unfortunately, we have librarian who regard every reader who comes in their realm as an unwanted intruder. They hate his incessant they are annoyed by. The way is fumbles among the books and is infuriated if he goes away without taking away any books. ‘If you don’t know what you want,’ he seems to say, ‘why do you come to my library at all?

If some librarians do not wear a positively forbidding appearance, they have subtle ways of insinuating that you are unwanted in their domain. When you approach them they always appear to be awfully busy, they have no time even to look up from their innumerable files and registers and index cards and what not. When they finally do look up from their work, they cast a glance at the clock on the wall behind them, to tell you either that you are late and the scheduled time is over, or that you must be sharp, for the librarian has no time to waste on you. .

If you have a librarian of this sort, you had better shut up shop; for the school library is a library meant for little children who are very sensitive. They may have come there out of idle curiosity. They may have perhaps seen some of their classmates visiting the library and themselves want to be in the fashion. Or perhaps a hint, dropped by the teacher in the class, may have caused this journey into the library on the part of the child. It is, of course, not improbable that he has come into the library out of a genuine love of books. But the odds are heavy against this probability. So it is quite necessary that the librarian must be a kindly person, who is ready to go out of his way, to hold, so to say, the trembling, little hand and lead it into what innumerable ways in which he can achieve his task.

It is the duty of the librarian to see that the love of books is inculcated in the pupils in the school. There are innumerable ways in which he can achieve his task.

When it is time for the children to come into the library he should brush aside all clerical work, and should place himself entirely in the hands of his little charges. He should appear to have no other work than that of helping the children to take out the right books from the library. He should move about briskly, always ready to carry out the least little desire of his little readers expressed or otherwise. He can best impart respect for books by the very way in which he handles books himself. For example when a boy comes to return comes to return a book he has borrowed, he should not me him the place where he should deposit it. He should receive it himself loving care and should say a word or two or ask the child a question about before he returns it to the cupboards. These little acts on the part of the librarian will go a long way to develop in the little children a love and respect for books.

It is not necessary for me, I hope, to say that the lending or receiving books must be very efficient. I do not propose to lay down any rules in this respect. Convenience, special conditions governing the institution and above all commonsense should guide the practice. The only thing that should be insisted upon is that the service should be prompt and efficient. No redtapism should be tolerated. The child, who wants a particular book, wants it at once or not at all. It won’t do to tell him that he must bide his time. This is not to say that there should be no discipline in the library. All that is meant here is that discipline should not be allowed to kill sensitiveness.

But perhaps the librarian can render invaluable service to the cause of education, if he takes to his heart what is at present considered to be merely an ‘extension service’.

This includes the librarian’s active part in the project work that may be going on in the school. For example, a teacher may have ask his class to collect what material they can on certain topic. The class comes to the library hunting for the books. It is here that the librarian can render useful service. He should lead the class to all the books that there are on the subject in the library. He should also be able to point out where else they may get further material.

This means, the librarian must keep himself in contact with libraries and around the school area. If he is so in contact he will be very valuable not only to the pupils but also to their teachers.

He can also help the teachers in their task of developing interest books in their children. Somewhere in his library he can put up a little blackboard containing a few, very provocative questions, followed by brief notes as to where the answers may be found.

The librarian also can compile a record of the hobbies of the children coming to his library. The kinds of books they constantly demand indicate their likes and dislikes. This information is sure to be useful to the Guidance Counsellor in the matter of vocational guidance.

While on this point, let me point out a very useful kind of service that the librarian can render to the school community. We know that newer and newer problems are cropping up daily. Now and again some event somewhere in the world shocks all mankind and sets it furiously to think. When such a problem arises or such an event occurs, the librarian can put in some prominent place all the written material connected with that problem or that event. This is a very useful kind of service and both teachers and pupils will be thankful to him for it.

And the last, but not the least, thing to be expected from a librarian is his readiness to do some research work with regard to the reading habits of the children. He should maintain a regular record on the number of books that are very popular, of books that are not often read and of books that are never read at all. Often we hear of statistics that tell us how much a particular school spends over books per pupil. My school (Balmohan Vidyamaadir, Dadar) for example spends a little over one rupee per pupil in the secondary school and a little over 50 paise per pupil, in the primary school. These figures are, I feel, unreal, if you do not know the number of books read by the pupils and the number of books not read by them. This research will not help the school concerned; perhaps, but also help educationists, authors and publishers.

I have practically come to the end of what I have to say on this subject. But I cannot close without referring to what appears to me to be the most vital function of a school library. In our discussion we have all along proceeded on the assumption that the justification for a school library is the fact that it caters to the demands of the pupils in a school. We have story books in our libraries because they are in great demand. We have fiction here for we have children who love fiction. There are collections of poems, for we believe some of our pupils want them. In other words we supply whatever is in demand. But is this all that we expect from a library that this is just half the story. We expect much more from a library.

A good writer gives his readers what they want. Otherwise he would not be there at all. But he does not stop there. He knows what his readers want and gives them it, but he also knows what they should want and gives them that also. In other words he creates his audience rather than they create him.

This is just what a library should try to do. It should give what the pupils want. But it should also produce that pupil who wants what it wants to give.