Loved the readings

A HISTORY OF THE LILLIAN H. SMITH and OSBORNE COLLECTIONS

Prior to the readings required for today, I was in dark. Though this semester marks the beginning of my final year of my graduate studies at FIS, still, I am not certain of my desired career path. Furthermore, I did not think that I, a person who does not wish to baby-sit, bear or adopt children, would be so interested in youth/children's librarianship.
While reading Margaret Crawford Maloney's, "Public Trust: Special Collections of Children's Material", I became intrigued. I was unaware how rich Toronto's history of children's librarianship truly is. Being a lover of history this reading appealed to me.
Not having previous courses that dealt with the subjects of collection development or rare books, I found it useful that the author defines many terms. For example, Maloney defines something of rarity as, "intrinsic merit, significance within a field of study or research and scarcity in relationship to desirability" (144).
I knew that our upcoming field trip was to visit the Lillian H. Smith and Osborne Collections, but I had no idea the story behind these collections. Maloney's reading gave me the much needed insight. Furthermore, this reading sparked my interest in Judith St. John's The Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books, a Catalogue and Lillian H. Smith's The Unreluctant Years.
My journey to and through information studies was sparked by an interest in information policy, specifically, public access; therefore, I was pleased to read that, "Identification, organization and ultimately the detailed cataloguing demanded by the nature and use of rare materials is needed to maximize public access" (Maloney 145). For all those who are skeptical, 1320 is not an out-of-date class, as the aforementioned sentences states, it is integral to the understanding of public access.
I found it fascinating and awesome how much emphasis is put on respecting the benefactor's gift by preserving it and providing access to the gift.
I look forward to touring this PUBLIC TRUST! This essay was the perfect appetizer to the main course.

A HISTORY OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS AND LITERATURE

Zena Sutherlan detailed and commented on the history of children's literature. My favorite line in "Chapter 3: The History of Children's Books" from Children and Books is, "We need perspective in judging children's books. We need to look at the past with modern eyes and view the present with the accumulated wisdom of the past" (41). I feel that that advice/statement is applicable to many areas of study and life.
From this reading I learned a lot about children's book history. It is interesting that many of the titles regarded as children's literature I thought to be adult literature. Some titles include:
- Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Sarah Plan and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
Similarly, today, though a different medium, there are many children's films that seem to have humour directed at adults opposed to the intended audience, yet children still laugh. The previous sentence relates to children's book history which Suterlan outlines children enjoying the stories (literature) that were intended for adults. One could concluded that there can be a blurred line between what is deemed children's literature (entertainment) and what is adult literature (entertainment).
I could not help laughing out-loud when I read that some believe that the first children's book was on table manners. I did not snicker at the belief, but that the first book intended to be read by children was not about having fun or being young, but about etiquette.
I thoroughly enjoyed the section on Puritans and children's literature. With some of the literature the Puritans had their children reading I was surprised that Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" was not on the list. I found it quite humorous that as Sutherlan notes, a happy child was not defined according to the Puritans as a child that smiled and seemed cheerful, but “This meant [in order to make children happy their] being [was] secure in the avoidance of Hell and the assurance of Heaven" (45).
As if the Puritan's belief of what defined children's literature was unbelievable, it is hard to imagine that 300 + years ago marks the first appearance of the picture book. Furthermore, I think that it is lunacy that only since 1744, "marks the beginning of English books [being read] for their delight" (Sutherlan 47).
I learned a lot about the history of children's literature from Sutherland. I also learned her viewpoint on tradition of didacticism.
I enjoyed reading about the history though I am baffled by her deeming pedantical writings as "oppressively informative" (Sutherlan 53)???


------------------------------REFERENCES---------------------------------------

Maloney, Margaret Crawford. 1990. Public trust: Special collections of children’s materials. In Lands of pleasure: Essays on Lillian H. Smith and the development of children’s libraries, eds., Adele M. Fasick, Margaret Johnson and Ruth Osler, 143-151. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow.

Sutherland, Zena. 1997. Chapter 3: History of Children's Books. In Children and books, 9th ed., 41-61. NY: Longman.