Library and Information Science

The word “children” used by children's librarians covers wide range of age, interest and reading abilities, from the preschool and kindergarten through junior high school; thus the term “children's literature” could mean any literature that children can intelectually comprehend and can mentally thrive on.

But it is a kind of term most conveniently used to cover the varied subject areas. Sometimes it is used in a restricted sense to imply only productions of literary merit and in other occasions it is used to cover every type of readings the children enjoy, excepting their school textbooks. Historically the connotation naturally varies from period to period as book materials for children have changed and developed.

Yet as the time has gone by the books for children have developed to such extent as they have become to be able to meet different needs of individual children. And at the same time variety in types and subjects of the present day children's books present not a few problems for the library processing.

To organize the children's book collection to be used most effectively by different users it is necessary to define the scope of the children's literature in different terms from the literary point of view and to analize the literary genres, types, subject areas of children's books, and their interrelationship. Other important facets are the analysis of characteristics of users; their age levels or developmental stages, interest, reading abilities, and different motives.

These facets will influence to set up a classification scheme to be used to meet a given situation; and when and how a standard numerical classification scheme can be applied to the children's book collection.