Excerpt from Annual Report of the Department of Education, Vol. 1: For the Year Ending November 30, 1925<br><br>The Department of Education is greatly interested in improving the refer ence libraries in the high schools of the State; There is probably no State so well supplied with public libraries and library service as Massachusetts. There is in most cities and towns a commendable spirit of co-operation between the public libraries and the schools. These facts do not, in the judgment of the Department, furnish a reason for not providing an adequate reference library in the high school: A good library in the school, at all times easily accessible to teachers and pupils, is necessary. The library must be the working laboratory of most Of the departments. This is essential for the em ployment of the best methods of instruction and for securing the' best results of such instruction. The quality and size of the high school library still leaves much to be desired. In the absence of any Officially determined standard, the Department tentatively accepts the standards adopted by the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in December, 1921. This provides that there shall be four volumes per pupil up to five hundred pupils and one volume per pupil in excess of five hundred. This is a minimum standard and should be understood to mean carefully selected usuable books exclusive of textbooks. In 1924 - 25 there were only 41 high schools out of 233 which met the above standard even without any considera tion of the kind and quality of the books reported. A policy of adequate annual appropriations for reference books is a serious need. There is reason for encouragement in the fact that a considerable number of school commit tees are recognizing this need.<br><br>In order that the best results may be obtained from the library, it is also important in the larger schools that there be a trained librarian. In the smaller schools some teacher or teachers should be given time from their regular program to carry on as well as possible the work of the librarian. In 192445 _27 schools reported trained librarians and 87 schools reported that systematic instruction in the use of the library was being given. This is an encouraging situation, but there is evident need of much further progress.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.