COLUMBIA
LIBRARY
 

-•^m^     C O L U M N S
 

Remember Diddie, Dumps and Tot'.
 

DARTHULA WILCOX
 

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"^HIS is the confession of a sentimentalist. The Columbia
Libraries, as readers of the Columns know, are made up
of outstanding collections of books. jMany of the volumes
shelved in Butler Library are beautiful, intrinsically valuable, and
to scholars invaluable. Of them all my favorite is a small group of
books not widely used, with no high market value, and which, at
first glance, will remind you of a Fourth Avenue Association
sidewalk display. This is the Children's Historical Collection,
which forms part of the Library Service Library.

One reason for my choice may be that I passed my youth read¬
ing everything printed I could get hold of—even though later as
a public librarian I spent years insisting on only the very best
books for children. The Library School also holds to high stand¬
ards in making additions to its open-shelf ju\enile collection,
maintained for the use of classes in children's literature. We insist
on up-to-date content, readability, legibility, good illustrations
and binding. But in administering the Children's Historical Col-
lecti<m, we seem almost to reverse our point of view. Carefully
locked up in a special stack section are volumes which arc cheaply
made, badly printed, battered, incorrect in factual content,
slanted in editorial outlook, with titles which appear on few lists
 

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