How the Library May Stimulate 

 Local Bird Study 



This bulletin of Indiana birds is intended for the use of 

 librarians over the state, in assisting teachers and pupils with 

 local bird study in the schools. The bulletin is merely suggest- 

 ive. The real work that counts in stimulating local nature 

 study must be done in the library. The librarian cannot do it 

 alone, but with the help of club women, nature lovers, college 

 students, and local natural iistory enthusiasts, she may bring 

 to the library these various interests and thus make the 

 library the vital educational center of the community. 



The following are some suggestions of ways by which the 

 library may interest children in a study of the birds of the 

 locality : 



1 A special comer, table, bulletin-board, and book shelf 

 devoted to the subject of birds, where children may look for 

 and expect something interesting each day. 



2 A bird calendar, on which the dates of the arrival of 

 birds is kept by the children themselves. 



A black-board, bulletin-board, or large sheet of paper may 

 be used for these records. A list of the birds likely to appear 

 during the month may be printed on the board or sheet of 

 paper and the: children may check each day the birds seen by 

 them for the first time. The record of these dates of arrival 

 should be preserved and at the end of two or three years they 

 may be printed in folder form, that the child may continue 

 each year to keep for himself this same record. The calendar 

 of bird migration giving the record of the spring observa- 

 tions, published by the Springfield, Mass. Library, will be 

 interesting to librarians. Lincoln Park, Chicago, publishes a 

 bulletin of bird migration for the use of the Chicago schools. 

 Lists of birds, with space for a note of the date, weather, and 

 locality, are used by the University of Illinois in field work in 

 local bird study. 



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