College and Research Libraries


B y W . G . J O H N S O N 

Encouraging Freshmen to Read 
Mr. Johnson has served as chairman of 

the Freshman Reading Committee of the 

English faculty of the University of Illi-

nois. 

EVERY STUDENT in Freshman Rhetoric at the U n i v e r s i t y of Illinois must read 
at least three books supplementary to his 

regular assignments each semester. A l -

though instructors have the privilege of 

recommending books, the supplementary 

books are usually selected by approxi-

mately three thousand freshmen from the 

list prepared by members of the rhetoric 

staff and annually revised by a committee 

of instructors. ( I n a f e w experimental 

sections, the books for outside reading 

must be purchased by the student.) T h e 

books are shelved in a room set aside in 

the university library as a freshman read-

ing room. 

F o r many years the members of the 

rhetoric staff have insisted that one of the 

important aims of the course is to en-

courage intelligent student reading. U n -

til 1926, the supplementary books were 

arbitrarily selected by the staff w i t h o u t 

permitting the student any choice. In 

1926-1927, a list of 547 titles, from w h i c h 

the student chose six books during the 

year, w a s prepared and printed in the 

Rhetoric 1 and 2 Manual and Calendar. 

A l t h o u g h the extended list gave the stu-

dent some measure of choice, he still could 

not examine the books themselves, for they 

were shelved in stacks closed to under-

graduates. In 1931-32, the books w e r e 

placed on reserve, but not until October 
I> I937> was the student able to examine 

the books before making his selections. A t 

that time, the Freshman R e a d i n g Room 

w a s opened. 

T h e reading list1 consists in 1940-1941 

of 1 1 4 6 titles, divided into these sections: 

Autobiography and biography . . 1 4 7 

T r a v e l 141 

Popular science 77 

T h e arts 50 

Essays 58 

Social points of v i e w 67 

Contemporary prose fiction . . . . 1 7 9 

Standard prose fiction 129 

Short stories 58 

D r a m a 148 

Poetry 92 

Selected to appeal to students w h o v a r y 

greatly in training, backgrounds, interests, 

and ability, the books on the list are ob-

viously varied. F o r this reason, certain 

sections of the list are divided into three 

subsections: ( a ) books that students w h o 

have read widely are likely to e n j o y ; ( b ) 

books that students w h o have read some-

w h a t are likely to enjoy, and ( c ) books 

that students w h o have read little are 

likely to enjoy. T o help the student still 

further, the committee has divided the 

1 T h e list is published in the Rhetoric / and 2 
Manual and Calendar for 1940-1941, which can be 
obtained through the Illini U n i o n Bookstore, Cham-
paign. T h e collection consists of approximately two 
thousand volumes; m a n y of these are duplicates, of 
course. 

124 ' COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



popular science and arts sections accord-

ing to subject matter. T h e popular sci-

ence list is divided into these subsections: 

the stars and the universe; physics—matter 

and e n e r g y ; the e a r t h — g e o l o g y and geog-

raphy ; m a n — a n t h r o p o l o g y , archeology, 

e t c . ; animals, birds, fish, insects, plants ; 

applied science; and surveys of scientific 

thought. T h e arts list is divided into sub-

sections on aesthetics, architecture, danc-

ing, industrial design, movjes, music, 

painting, and primitive art. 

Revision of Reading List 

Each year a committee of instructors is 

appointed to consider the revision of the 

reading list. Before any final decisions 

are made, all the members of the staff are 

asked to offer suggestions for adding new 

books and for removing old ones. T h e n 

the librarians are consulted for suggested 

changes. A s they have kept a circulation 

record for each book and get a fairly 

reliable impression of student reactions, 

their suggestions are particularly valuable. 

A f t e r having weighed these suggestions, 

and after having considered as many new 

books as possible, the committee makes its 

revision. A s a guide in adding new books, 

the committee uses the late Professor B . L . 

Jefferson's statement of principles con-

trolling the selection of new books: 

1. T o lead students from adventure 
books, pure and simple, to travel books of 
the ordinary kind, to travel books with 
philosophical or artistically presented con-
tents. 

2. T o lead from books that discuss our 
own type of civilization to books that deal 
with older or distant types of civilization. 

3. T o begin with biographies of men and 
women who have succeeded in work similar 
to that in which students are interested and 
to lead to biographies of men and women 
unlike the students. 

4. T o capitalize their interest in motion 

pictures by giving them dramas and novels 
from which motion pictures have been made. 

5. T o use Illinois poetry and simple 
poetry of American life as an introduction 
to other poetry. 

T h e books in the collection are shelved 

in the Freshman Reading Room, k n o w n 

as the Seven-Day Book Room, an arrange-

ment w h i c h permits the student to examine 

the books before he decides to read a 

particular one. F r o m the point of v i e w 

of the librarians, the room is an experi-

ment in open shelving. F r o m the point 

of v i e w of the rhetoric instructors, it is 

a means of giving the student the oppor-

tunities of becoming acquainted w i t h a 

collection of c a r e f u l l y selected books and 

of exercising, w i t h i n the limits of a fairly 

extensive collection, freedom of choice. 

T h e room is equipped w i t h three read-

ing tables, eighteen chairs, a bulletin 

board, a desk, and open shelves w i t h a 

capacity of t w o thousand volumes. It is 

supervised by t w o members of the library 

staff w h o keep a careful record of the 

circulation of the books and also supple-

ment the guidance given the students by 

their rhetoric instructors. T h e librarians 

have also arranged attractive exhibits, 

which have called the attention of the 

students to books dealing w i t h current 

topics and to books w h i c h undergraduates 

w o u l d be likely to overlook. T h e li-

brarians have also supplied a number of 

reference books. 

Since the room is open from 9 to 12 

A.M. and f r o m 2 to 5 P.M. on the first 
five school days of the week and from 

9 to 12 A.M. on Saturdays, and f r o m 7 to 
10 P.M. M o n d a y through T h u r s d a y , ade-
quate time is granted the student to make 

use of the collection. T h e student is per-

mitted to take out each book for a period 

(Continued on page 145) 

MARC hi, 1941 125 



some instances there w e r e joint meetings 

of faculty representatives of departments 

to determine an intelligent and practical 

division of fields in which library collec-

tions w e r e to be developed. 

T h i s program could very easily be ex-

panded to include four or five other col-

leges and universities located w i t h i n a 

fifty mile radius. A beginning along this 

line has already been made at the U n i v e r -

sity of N o r t h C a r o l i n a where a joint cata-

log of all books of a research nature found 

in N o r t h C a r o l i n a libraries is being col-

lected. 

Encouraging Freshmen to Read 
(Continued from page 125) 

of seven days. A c c o r d i n g to the records 

kept by the librarians over a number of 

years, an average of about seventy-five 

students w i t h d r a w books daily. 

T h e expense for equipping and operat-

ing the Freshman Reading Room exclu-

sive of the cost of processing and servicing 

the books, has amounted to $ 1 8 1 0 : furni-

ture (desk, shelves etc.) $ 3 1 0 ; books 

purchased in 1 9 3 7 ) $800; and books 

(purchased since 1 9 3 7 ) $700. In the 

spring of 1940, the committee selected 

101 books for addition to the collection 

and added 20 additional copies of books 

already on the list. 

Students Benefit More 

T h e exact measurement of the values 

of a freshman reading room is impossible, 

no doubt, but, since the opening of the 

room, most of us w h o are members of 

the rhetoric staff have felt that students 

have benefited much more from their sup-

plementary reading than they did in the 

old days before they had direct access to 

the books and had to make their selections 

w i t h o u t the privilege of examination. 

A m o n g other valuable results generally 

agreed upon by the older instructors a r e : 

1. T h e freshmen approach their supple-

mentary reading much more favorably 

than they used to. 

2. M o r e freshmen are reading books from 

the collection in addition to the mini-

mum requirement of three per semes-

ter. 

3. Better book reviews appear more often. 

4. T h e Freshman Reading Room has 

served as an introduction to the facili-

ties of the library to many of our stu-

dents. 

T h e problem of supplementary reading 

has always been difficult, as every in-

structor knows and the results are fre-

quently unsatisfactory. Y e t there are f e w 

instructors w h o do not believe it is w o r t h 

while. 

A t the University of Illinois, the prob-

lem of supplementary reading has been 

at least partially solved through the suc-

cessful operation of the Freshman Read-

ing Room. M u c h of the credit for w h a t 

has been accomplished must go to the 

members of the library staff w h o have not 

only granted the requests made by our 

staff but have also cooperated enthusi-

astically in our attempt to encourage fresh-

men to read. 

MARC hi, 1941 145