San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Special Libraries, 1919 Special Libraries, 1910s 11-1-1919 Special Libraries, November 1919 Special Libraries Association Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1919 Part of the Cataloging and Metadata Commons, Collection Development and Management Commons, Information Literacy Commons, and the Scholarly Communication Commons Recommended Citation Special Libraries Association, "Special Libraries, November 1919" (1919). Special Libraries, 1919. 8. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1919/8 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Libraries, 1910s at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Special Libraries, 1919 by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Special Libraries NOVEMBER, x g I g No. 8 Safety Education and the Library BY E. GEORGE PAYNE Principal, Harris Teachers' College, St. Louis, Mo. Author, "Education in Accident Prevention" One of the finest educational outcomes of defend the curriculum on the ground that it the Great World War has been the recog- develops a healthy citizenship and is worth nition on the part of educators as well as of while without being able deflnitely to show business men generally that school keeping the elements of citizenship and personality is an exceedingly serious and important busi- that are created through school instruction. ness. People have discovered that school We must be able to show how this is to be keeping is vitally significant because of the done. Therefore, the principle of impor- fact that the schools occupy a crucial place tance in the education of the chlld for the In the program of social reconstruction. The complex life of the community of the present wealcnesses and strength af our educaWonal dalr is that he is trained by learning, not systeqI have become apparent in the world the useless, but the useful things. The old struggle. Faults and failures of educational notion that a person by some mysterious endeavor have been magnified by the exi- way is being educated when he is learning gencies of the world struggle until, to any something that he can never use is doomed. but the blind, it has become evident that the We are committed to the principle, with all schools have a new task and a new oppor- its implications, that a person learns best tunity for service. and learns to think most effectively when he What are some ,of these shortcomings of is dealing with subject matter which has a the schools? The war made it evident that practical bearing and of the purpose of the new notions and habits of thrift are essen- study of which he is deflnitely aware. tial in the American people to make a It is obvious that a child as well as an healthy and robust nation. It is, moreover, adult writes and speaks best when he is clear that health, both socid and individual, dealing with subject matter with which he must be conserved and accidents must be is familiar. For that reason, the best pos- prevented if the American people are to face sible English exercises deal with accidents, with vigor the problems of democracy and as they come within the experience of the promote democratic civilization. It i8, child and possess enough of the dramatic furthermore, common knowledge that the character to engage his attention and in- American people must be created anew in terest. It is, moreover, true that the great- their civic, political, and moral life if they est stimulus to thinking is found in matter are to perform the world function forced that is related to the life interests of the upon them by an uninvited world conflict. individual. The child as well as the adult These problems and many others are not thinks best when he faces a situation the only vital, but their solution depends upon mastery of which seems necessary for the the school teacher in a very large measure. accomplishment of his purpose in life The The educators of the country are therefore point of view represented here is exactly facing the necessity of reconstructing their that from which we constructed a program method and subject matter so that social of education in accident prevention, a pro- outcomes may be realized; so that the re- gram that is not supplementary to the cur- sult of school instruction will be health, riculum, but is a vital part of it. The necea- safety, civic righteousness, and morality. sity of teaching accident prevention has long The problem of the educator looms large been apparent; and, therefore, this plan pre- on account of this very definiteness of the sented has been accepted and put into ope^ demand upon him made by the American ation in a remarkable way by the educator8 people who have come to fully appreciate of the country. education. The day is past when we can In recent years, however, there has grown 210 SPECIAL LIBRARIES up in our midst an institution which is in- ports of the United States Government, re- 'dispensable to successful school keeping; ports of the national and local safety coun- and that is the library. In the complex life cils coroners' reports of the various cities, of the modern community one cannot, even daily newspapers and magazines. From if it were necessary, come into contact with these different sources may be gathered all all situations that he will have to face in the data necessary for effective work In his later career. Furthermore, the individ- arithmetic and an abundance for history ual may take many short cuts by having put and geography. (There is, however, a dearth at his disposal the experiences of others in of reading material that relates to safety.) the community. We have, therefore, found Third, such books as "Safety First for Lit- indispensable to our school work books and tle Folks" and "Sure, Pop" are valuable pub- libraries. The school and the library, then, lications, and use may be made of them, but cannot function separately; that is just as what we need is not so much stories con- true in safety education as in any other kind structed for the occasion with a protruding of education. moral, ,but actual stories as they are re- We are even at a much greater disadvan- ported in newspapers and statistical reports, tage when it comes to accident instruction which, because of their very nature, hold than we are in the regular school work be- the minterest of the child. cause of the fact that no textbooks are pre- The library is in a position to gather this pared in which safety material has found a material from its various sources, grade it, place. The book prepared by the National and make it available for the reading class Safety Council entitled "Education in Acci- in school. I do not need to g~ into detail dent 'Prevention," does, not purport to give and point out how material may be gathered the data. It is, rather a book in educational for English, geography, history, civics, draw- methods and principles with abundant con- ing and other subjects, because these ex- crete suggestions to help carry out the the- amples suggest the relation of the library ories discussed; but the plan there sug- to the movement of education in accident gested can be successful only when the class prevention. room teacher is provided with abundant In concluding this article I must empha- data from which she may draw a store for size the necessity of regarding the whole the enrichment of her instruction. question of education in accident prevention This material may be comprised under a in a comprehensive way. We must not number of heads: flrst statistics. ,One of conceive of safety education as simply the the most valuable publications of statistics development of certain controls that wilf 38 a book entitled "Mortality Statistics of keep the individual out of danger. Those Insured Wage Earners and Their Families"' controls are important, but we do more than Metropolitan Life Insurance Company 1919. that. The individual must become master This is the type of material that should be of his environment; and being master of his gathered together in the libraries and made environment demands knowledge, ideas, available by them for the use of the teacher ideals, attitudes, and points of view as well in her daily instruction. The teacher can- a8 habits and skill. The individual must, not construct problems out ot nothing. More- furthermore, have ideas about all those or- over the children themselves cannot con- ganizations and institutions that have for struct and solve problems without data of their aim the protection and Care of human this Mnd. There is an abundance of ma- life. This Ideal can only be realized when terial but it needs to be brought together the libraries do their share by putting, at and put ipto such shape as will make it the disposal of the class room teacher a available for the use of the teacher. Second, body of data and subject matter that she reports. These include the reports of the may uhe for the purpose of realizing her state departments, the census and other re- aims and ideals. Building Up a Safety Library BY SIDNEY J, WILLIAMS Secretary and chief Engineer, National Sufety Council The Librarian's present or potential in- but must also reflect more or less completely terest in safety rests on two facts: flrst, the many-sided and rapidly changing world that the modern library, if it is to be of in which the men and women of today live, real service to the community or tq the en- work, and play; and second, that the safety terprise with which it is connected, must movement occupies a deflnite and an impor- not only contain an epitome of the world's tant glace in present-day American life.