W.C. Berwick Sayersと児童図書館

抄録

　Ever since W. C. Berwick Sayers (1881-1960), at the age of fourteen, started his career as junior assistant at Bournmouth Public Library, he has made a great contribution to the British libraries for sixty years through his activities as practical librarian, educationalist and writer. This article intends to shed some light, among other things, on his achievements in children library.
　He founded children library room, which was quite rare at the time, in the public libraries of Wallasey and Croydon in 1910s. Particularly at Croydon, while making various experiments in introducing lectures, play readings and exhibitions, he made efforts in developing young librarians.
　Out of these experiences, he published in 1932 a book titled A manual of children's libraries, a bibliography of the related literature published in England and America. Since then this book has been guiding the childsen libraries in English speaking countries for half a century, Another of his books published in 1913, The children library, was translated into Japanese by Jikai Imazawa with translater's introduction and comments, and was publishod in Japan in 1918 under the title of Jido toshokan no kenkyu. This book, too, was the guide of Japanese children libraries at the time of pre-war period.
　Other than these, Sayers endeavored to develop librarians for children library and to raise their status. The purpose of this article is to describe his various activities, and also to think about his influence upon the present children libraries.