e
last two are published by the Library Bureau.

With this broad equipment of the best books in every field, and vigilance
in constant exercise to add fresh stores from the constantly appearing
and often improved text-books in every science, the library will be a
treasury of knowledge both for teachers and pupils in the schools. And
the fact should not be overlooked, that there will be found as much
growth for teachers as for scholars in such a collection of books. Very
few teachers, save those of well-furnished minds and of much careful
reading, are competent to guide their scholars into the highways and
byways of knowledge, as the librarian should be able to do.

To establish a relation of confidence and aid with teachers is the
preliminary step to be taken in order to make the library at once
practically useful to them and to their scholars. In case there are
several public schools in charge of a general superintendent, that
officer should be first consulted, and tendered the free aid of the
library and its librarian for himself and the teachers. In some public
libraries, the school superintendent is made an _ex officio_ member of
the library board. Then suitable regulations should be mutually agreed
upon, fixing the number of books to be drawn on account of the schools at
any one time, and the period of return to the library. It is most usual
to charge such books on teachers' cards, or account, to fix
responsibility, although the teachers loan them to the scholars at their
option.

In places where there are no school libraries proper, the public library
will need to provide a goodly number of duplicates, in order to meet the
special school demand. This, however, will usually be of low-priced
rather than costly books, as the elementary text-books do not draw
heavily upon library funds.

A very attractive feature in providing books for the young is the large
number of illustrated books now available to all libraries. All the
kingdoms of nature are depicted in these introductory manuals of science,
rendering its pursuit more interesting, and cultivating the habits of
observation of form and of proportion, in the minds of the young. Pupils
who have never accomplished anything in school have been roused by
interest in illustrated natural histories to take an eager interest in
learning all about birds and animals. This always leads on and up to
other study, since the mind that is once awakened to observation and to
t