ST. AUGUSTINE’S RECORD 3
A geiieratioii ago students depended largely on
text books for study and used the library for ir
regular collateral reading, but because of changes
in methods of teaching due to the rapid expansion
of all fields of knowledge and the urgent need of
keeping abreast of the work and of the thought of
the world, it may be said of the present day stu
dent that the whole library is his text-book. It is
his laboratory where all educational problems are
worked out.
The college library touches both faculty and
students in every department of the institution;
this touch is vital, stimulating, and informed. It
supplements and enriches the formal processes of
instruction; it provides and makes easily access
ible for both student and faculty, standard cul
tural and recreative reading wholly apart from
the fixed curriculum. It contains the materials
The problem of making Caesar’s life and times
interesting may be solved in the library. William
Stern Davis’ novel, “The Friend of Caesar,” for
instance, makes him as real as you or I; by show
ing him jjarticipating in the ordinary human
relationships and by giving details of his daily
life, the author has fitted Caesar into a back
ground which explains and humanizes him.
student who reads this book will fail to find
Caesar a great and even likable personality.
It is generally supposed that science does not
permit the exercise of the imagination. This is,
of course, true in regard to the principles taught
and the laboratoi’y work carried on, but there is a
large group of books of the popular science type
in the library which gives information and ap
peals to the imagination. By taking advantage
Dean Boykr and Professob HAi.Liin’RTos
CoLLKGK Graduating Class with
and facilities for research in the fields which lie
in the graduate program of the institution.
We may say the duty of the college library is
to eollect, preserve and distribute knowledge along
‘ill lines. Here in the library we find the best
books of bibliographies and encyclopedias; phil
osophy, religion, sociology, philology, natural
science, useful arts, fine arts, literature, and his
tory. No branch of knowledge is omitted.
A student interested in some art or occupation
will enjoy reading about people who have ac
complished something in that field. The lives of
Pasteur and Edison are of real interest to those
to whom their genius is cither an ideal or a chal
lenge. CJreat lives have the quality of inspiration.
College libraries are stocked with books of
travel. There is a fascination about distances and
strange places that never grows stale.
In connection with history the reading of his
torical fiction will help to make historical events,
movements, and personages real to the student.
of these books for extensive and free reading the
science department can increase enormously the
interest in pure science. Such books as, DeKruif’s
“Microbe Hunters,” have the surprising and very
pleasing combination of scientific accuracy and
imaginative appeal blended with the touch of
humor that science usually lacks.
With such a collection of material to choose
from the student can find exactly what lie enjoys
reading. Here there is no pressure, here he is
free to choose or reject. By the voluntary reading
the student does in the library the real evidence of
his adaptation can be obtained.
We may say that the highest and best influence
of the college library may be summed up in the
single word “culture.” No other word so well
describes the influence of the diffusion of good
reading among the students, giving tone and
character to their intellectual life.