A BASIC BOOK COLLECTION; for Junior High Schools

This is an essential tool for teachers in junior high schools where classroom libraries are used either as supplement to or substitute for a central school library. Valuable, too, for schools planning expansion of library beyond elementary school level, as a minimum requirement, literally ""basic"" collection of approximately 650 titles..... An excellent list, selective, broad in scope, well balanced as to standard and modern inclusions. A careful analysis shows up some specific needs -- inadequacies in such subjects as travel, collecting hobbies (such as stamps, rocks, etc.); a tendency to include rather surprisingly young material in the fiction lists; and of course, as in every list -- omissions that seem surprising at the level of personal interests. On the whole, however, this will stimulate interest and analysis of current collections. It should help in the difficult weeding out process. It should provide a springboard for sound increase of collections. The titles are annotated, classified by Dewey Decimal System, and cross indexing indicated. There's an index by title and subject matter at the back -- again not wholly successful, but some judicious hunt and guess usually locates the title or subject desired. Pupils have worked with teachers and librarians in compiling this, which is partly responsible for the lively timeliness of the inclusions in the fields of contemporary interest, science, etc. About four pages are devoted to careful analysis of magazines for junior high.