[CALIBK12] Gossip Girl

Mon Sep 15 11:00:12 PDT 2008

That is fabulous, Richard! I must add that highlighted bit to my selection policy!

Mrs. Darla Brown, TL, M.Ed.
Teacher Librarian
Garces Memorial High School
"60 Years of Excellence in Catholic Education"
661-327-2578 x133
dbrown at garces.org

From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu [mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of Richard Moore
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 10:43 AM
To: calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu
Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] Gossip Girl

Some advice from John Cotton Dana in 1899:

In the first purchases buy largely for children. They are the library's best pupils. They are more easily trained to enjoy good books than their elders. Through them the homes are best reached. They will, by their free use of the library, and by their approval of it, do much to add to its popularity. The best books for children will be enjoyed by all.

In selecting fiction, get from the older librarians a statement of what are the most popular of the wholesome novels found on their shelves. A better guide than this it will be difficult to find. Fiction is of the greatest value in developing a taste for reading. Everyone should be familiar with the great works of imagination. Nearly all the greatest literature of the world is fiction. The educational value of the novel is not often questioned.

But don't buy a novel simply because it is popular. If you follow that line you will end with the cheapest kind of stuff. Some librarians pretend that they must buy to please the public taste; that they can't use their own judgment in selecting books for a library which the public purse supports. Why these librarians don't supply the Police gazette it is difficult to understand. "The public" would like it-some of them. We select school committees and superintendents and teachers to run our schools. We ask them to inform themselves on the subject and give us the=2 0best education they can. They don't try to suit everybody. They try to furnish the best. Library trustees and librarian are in a like case. The silly, the weak, the sloppy, the wishy-washy novel, the sickly love story, the belated tract, the crude hodge-podge of stilted conversation, impossible incident, and moral platitude or moral bosh for children-these are not needed. It is as bad to buy them and circulate them, knowingly, as it would be for our school authorities to install in our schoolrooms as teachers romantic, giggling girls and smarty boys. Buy good novels, those the wise approve of, in good type, paper, and binding; keep plenty of copies of each on hand; put them where your readers can handle them; add a few each year of the best only of the latest novels, and those chiefly on trial (not to be bought again if found not to have real merit) and your public will be satisfied, and your library will be all the time raising the taste of the community.

Some books should not be put, at least not without comment, into the hands of young people. Other books, some people think, should not be read by young people. Other books, some people think, should not be in a public library at all. A good course to follow in regard to such books is to consider the temper of your community and put into the library as many of them as are noteworthy in a literary way as your public and your resources permit.
A Library Primer by John Cotton Dana
http://www.gutenber g.org/ebooks/15327

[http://presence.webmail.aol.com/mailsig/?sn=richardguy]<http://presence.webmail.aol.com/IM/?sn=richardguy&locale=en-us&pd=0> Richard K. Moore, InfoSherpa
Huntington Beach, CA
**********************************************************
To be educated in any true sense of the word, one must use the
library, and master the experiences of mankind. -- William T. Harris, 1893
*************************************************************

-----Original Message-----
From: Darla Brown <dbrown at garces.org>
To: Daydream Queen <daydream.queen at gmail.com>; calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu <calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu>
Sent: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 8:28 am
Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] Gossip Girl
Hi Sarah: I have them. They're vapid, but even the non-reader girls check them out like crazy, so I'm willing to keep them around.
P.S. I'd always seen your quote attributed to Marilyn Monroe...

Mrs. Darla Brown, TL, M.Ed.
Teacher Librarian
Garces Memorial High School
"60 Years of Excellence in Catholic Education"
661-327-2578 x133
dbrown at garces.org<mailto:dbrown at garces.org>

From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu<mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu> [mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu<mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu?>] On Behalf Of Daydream Queen
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2008 4:56 PM
To: CALIBk12
Subject: [CALIBK12] Gossip Girl

With all the buzz going around about the Gossip Girl TV series based on the books, I'm curious how other high school librarians feel about the book series.. Do you have it on your shelves?

--
Sarah Bosler, Teacher Librarian
Montclair High School
Chaffey Joint Union High School District
http://mohigh.com

"Well-behaved women rarely make history" - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

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