Publications of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh ALPHABETICAL FINDING LIST OF THE PERIODICALS RECEIVED. (Third edition now in press.) BOOKS ON PHILATELY IN THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY OF PITTSBURGH. 1901. 7 pp. Postpaid $.02 .02 GRADED AND ANNOTATED CATALOGUE OF BOOKS FOR THE USE OF THE .60 LIST OF THE PUBLICATIONS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES AND THE PERIOD- .03. CATALOGUE OF ENGLISH PROSE FICTION. 1898. 103 pp. CATALOG OF BOOKS. 1895. 376 pp. A dictionary catalogue issued in time for the opening of the Library in ANNUAL REPORTS, 1st-5th, 1895-1900 MONTHLY BULLETIN. (Not published in August and September.) .15 .35 Free .25 Free at the Library. Wylie Avenue Branch, Wylie Avenue at the head of Green Street. Mount Washington Branch, 324 Grandview Avenue. Hazelwood Branch, Monongahela Street near Hazelwood Avenue. Library Hours. Central Library-Reading rooms open from 9 a. m. to 10 p.m. every day, Sundays and holidays excepted. The Reference, Reading, and Children's rooms open on Sunday also from 2 to 6 p. m. Loan department open from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m. every day, Sundays and holidays excepted. Branch Libraries-Reading rooms open from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m. every week day, holidays excepted; on Sunday from 2 to 6 p. m. Loan departments open from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m. every day, Sundays and holidays excepted. Published monthly, except August and September, by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at a subscription price of 25 cents a year. The Children's Story Hour. The Library story hour for the children began in a very modest way at our West End Branch. It has passed through the experimental stage and is now a part of the regular routine of our six children's rooms. At first disconnected stories were told, but when we found how much the stories influenced the children's reading, we began to follow a regular program, which has proved more effective than haphazard story telling. Last year we told stories from Greek mythology and Homer and had an attendance of over 5,000 children. The books placed on special story hour shelves were taken out 2,000 times. This year the stories are drawn from the Norse myths and the Nibelungen Lied. They are told by the children's librarians and the students of our Training School for Children's Librarians, every Friday afternoon from November first to April first. As the hour draws near, the children's rooms begin to fill with eagerly expectant children. There is an atmosphere of repressed excitement, and when the appointed minute comes, the children quickly form into line and march into the lecture room where the story is told. Once there, the children group themselves on the floor about the story teller, and all is attention. It may be that the story is a hard one to tell, the process of adapting and preparing it may have been difficult, but in the interested faces of the children and in the bright eyes fixed upon her face, the story teller finds her inspiration. Extra copies of books containing Norse myths have been provided for each children's room. Since few of these books are for very young children, we tell these poetic stories of our Northern ancestors to the older boys and girls only. For the younger ones there are such stories as The Three Bears, Hop-o'-my-thumb, and other old nursery favorites. At Thanksgiving, Christmas and a few other holidays, the program story is dropped and one full of the spirit of the season is told instead. That the children enjoy and appreciate the stories is seen by the steadily increasing attendance, and by the fact that the same children return week after week. Teachers say the very worst punishment they can inflict is to detain a child so late on Friday that he misses his story hour. During the summer months and early fall, when no stories were being told, there were many anxious inquiries as to when the story hour would begin. At our West End Branch the children clamored so for their stories that the work was commenced a month before the time for beginning the regular program. And what is the use of story telling? Is it merely to amuse and entertain the children? Were it simply for this, the time would not seem wasted, when one recalls the bright and happy faces and realizes what an hour of delight it is to many children, oftentimes their only escape from mean and sordid surroundings. Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson once said that to lie on the hearth rug and listen to one's mother reading aloud is a liberal education, but such sweet and precious privileges are only for the few. The story hour is intended to meet this want in some slight degree, to give the child a glimpse beyond the horizon which hitherto has limited his life, and open up to him those vast realms of literature which are a part of his inheritance; for unless he enters this great domain through the gateway of childish fancy and imagination, the probability is that he will never find any other opening. To arouse and stimulate a love for the best reading is then the real object of the story hour. Through the story the child's interest is awakened, the librarian places. in his hands just the right book to develop that interest, and gradually there is formed a taste for good literature. University Extension Lectures at the Branch Libraries. A course of six lectures on "European capitals and their social significance," is now being given at the Hazelwood Branch, by Professor Jerome H. Raymond, of the University of Chicago. Professor Raymond delivered the first lecture, "Constantinople: despotism and revolutionism," on Monday evening, November 18, before a large and enthusiastic audience. Beginning with December 2, the following lectures will be given on alternate Monday evenings, "St. Petersburg: |