American Sunday-School Library in the 19th Century

Abstract

The American Sunday-Schools, which were established and rapidly expanded through the 19th century as an activity of Protestant Christian mission works, had their own library for children and young people. The purpose of the paper is to study the significances of the Sunday-School Library as a prototype of the children's libraries, by examining its contemporary literature and modern researches. It can be concluded, that the Sunday-School Library was the most important stepstone for the development of the public library services for children which started at the end of the 19th century. Comparing to the contemporary public libraries they advanced on the following points; 1st, widely opened to young people all over the country, 2nd, lent books without charge, 3rd, no age limit for younger children. The idea of making the recommended book list was started by the people concerned the Sunday-School Libray. Although the quality of the Sunday-School books was criticized, they stimulated the publishing of children's books as well as popularized the reading habits of children and their families. Due to the Sunday-School Library, the service for children at public libraries was smoothly accepted and developped all over the United States.