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diff --git a/76583-0.txt b/76583-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6958636 --- /dev/null +++ b/76583-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7098 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76583 *** + + + + + +THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. + + + + +[Illustration: KING’S LIBRARY, BRITISH MUSEUM. + + _Photo by Donald Macbeth_ +] + + + + + THE + PUBLIC LIBRARY + + By ERNEST A. BAKER, D.Lit. + + PUBLISHED IN LONDON + BY DANIEL O’CONNOR + 90 GREAT RUSSELL STREET, + W.C.1. 1922. + + + + +France and England literally, observe, buy panic of each other; they +pay, each of them, for ten thousand thousand pounds’ worth of terror, +a year. Now suppose, instead of buying these ten millions’ worth of +panic annually, they made up their minds to be at peace with each +other, and buy ten millions’ worth of knowledge annually; and then +each nation spent the ten thousand thousand pounds a year in founding +royal libraries, royal art galleries, royal museums, royal gardens, and +places of rest. Might it not be better somewhat for both French and +English? + + RUSKIN: _Sesame and Lilies_. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAP. PAGE. + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + PREFACE + + I.--HISTORICAL SKETCH 1 + + II.--WHAT IS A LIBRARY SERVICE? 32 + + III.--LIBRARY EXTENSION 96 + + IV.--RURAL LIBRARIES 135 + + V.--A NATIONAL LIBRARY SERVICE 169 + + VI.--TRAINING IN LIBRARIANSHIP 211 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAGE + + KING’S LIBRARY, BRITISH MUSEUM Frontispiece + + _To face page_ + + LAMBETH PALACE LIBRARY 12 + + CENTRAL PUBLIC LIBRARY, NOTTINGHAM 22 + + READING ROOM OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM 44 + + GUILDHALL LIBRARY 52 + + READING ROOM, STEPNEY PUBLIC LIBRARY 56 + + PATENT OFFICE LIBRARY 74 + + LIBRARY OF THE INSTITUTE OF ACTUARIES, STAPLE INN HALL 90 + + LIBRARY OF THE SOUTH-EASTERN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, WYE 162 + + READING ROOM OF THE GENERAL LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 178 + + THE ORATORY LIBRARY 200 + + UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, GENERAL LIBRARY 214 + + READING ROOM OF THE GOLDSMITHS’ LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 226 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Our Public Libraries are entering upon the critical period of their +history. They have been saved by the Act of 1919 from imminent +bankruptcy; but the efforts of the Adult Education Committee to find a +place for them in a national scheme of reconstruction seem to have come +to naught. An Act which it was hoped might have been a new charter, and +have ensured their utilization as a chief instrument of adult education +and the intellectual and spiritual development of the people, did away +with two heavy grievances the abolition of which was long overdue; it +left a programme of constructive reforms unfulfilled. + +In this brief account of our public libraries, the work they have done +and the far greater work they are capable of doing, many points have +been suggested that call for more comprehensive legislation. The one +hope now is that the urban and rural libraries already existing or soon +to be may be co-ordinated into a national system, or group of systems, +worked on economic lines, and empowered to act the part they were +surely destined for in a civilized world. + +Sociologists, including those treating of education in the widest +sense, have paid scant attention to the part played by the public +library in social life, in the present or the future. Even such an +inventory of our intellectual assets as the Cambridge History of +English Literature has in its fifteen big volumes no reference to the +effects of the Ewart Act or to the vast collections of literature +amassed and thrown open to the people through its operation. This book +will be a small addition to a very small group of works on various +sides of a momentous subject. + +The author is deeply indebted to Mr. W. C. Berwick Sayers, Chief +Librarian, Croydon Public Libraries, for his kindness in reading the +proofs and for many useful suggestions, and to his daughter, Miss Ruth +Baker, for indexing the book. + + E. A. B. + + + + +I. + +HISTORICAL SKETCH. + + +In the period of reconstruction after Waterloo, there was, among other +analogies with the present time, a keen popular desire for education +and opportunities for self-culture. It met with both encouragement and +discouragement from the governing classes, more of the latter than +the former, much more of direct opposition than dare show its head +to-day. The state of the universities and the public schools had been +since the middle of the last century more backward than ever before +in history. Both universities still shut their doors to Dissenters. +They had no sympathy with and probably no consciousness of the needs +of the masses for self-improvement. In spite of earnest writers on +education, and manifold discussions of Rousseau’s doctrines, even in +the ingratiating form of fiction, nothing could stir the sullen apathy +of the ruling powers; and in educational machinery and practice England +lagged far behind both Germany and France. Samuel Whitbread introduced +an Education Bill in 1807 which was rejected by the Lords. After his +death, Brougham became leader of the group of educationists in the +House of Commons, and in 1816 secured the appointment of a Select +Committee to inquire into the education of the lower orders of the +metropolis. The report of this committee furnished material for two +Bills. The first, for the reform of educational charities, passed in +1818, after its best features had been pruned away by the Government; +but the Education Bill of 1820, which would have extended to England +the excellent parish school system of Scotland, was thrown out. Not +until 1833 was the work already being performed by voluntary agencies +approved, by the grant of an annual sum of £20,000 to assist in the +erection of school buildings. Not until 1839 was there any recognition +of the national responsibility for primary education. In that year, +a committee of the Privy Council was appointed to superintend the +application of grants for educational purposes. This was the forerunner +of the Education Department to be established in 1856. Roebuck in 1833 +had failed to carry a resolution in the Commons in favour of universal +compulsory education. On the eve of the Education Act of 1870, it was +computed that there were nearly as many children without any kind of +schooling as there were attending all the state-aided and private +schools put together. So slowly had education advanced. + +But, whilst Parliament was engaged in repressing or ignoring +educational demands, or debating whether it was wise or safe that +the commonalty should be educated at all, the people, headed by those +who had faith in an educated nation, were establishing the requisite +machinery for themselves. There had been elementary schools of a +sort in existence in most parts of the country for nearly a century. +The academies set up by the Dissenters after the Toleration Act, +the charity schools of the Society for the Promotion of Christian +Knowledge, the schools founded by the Methodists and the Society of +Friends, provided a general education based primarily on the principle +of moral and religious instruction. Many of these schools catered for +grown-up persons as well as children; the Sunday Schools, for instance, +which sprang up after 1780, taught reading and sometimes writing to the +illiterate of all ages. There were also private schools in the towns +and many villages where the rudiments were imparted, unsatisfactorily, +for a few pence. These organized efforts were mainly the work of +middle-class evangelicals and philanthropists intent on the moral and +religious improvement of the people. But new motives came into play +in the new century, and the people themselves began to take an active +part in the movement, with far-reaching results. Political agitation +might be repressed, but an intellectual awakening could not be +extinguished. Knowledge was demanded for its own sake; it was demanded +also for economic reasons. The artisan who saw wonderful mechanical +inventions enabling him to perform his operations with undreamt ease +and efficiency, or depriving him of his job, was roused to an intense +interest in science and a desperate desire to fit himself for a place +in the new industrial order. The country was flocking into the towns; +the major part of the population was becoming industrial. Education was +perceived to be a necessity of life, and a necessity that concerned, +not merely the rising generation, but even more momentously the adult +workman. A passionate demand for education was faced with a sporadic +supply, and it was a demand for education in other directions than had +been contemplated by the promoters of charity schools and Dissenting +academies. + +Whitbread and Brougham, Bentham, Place, and Mill encouraged and +directed these aspirations. Philosophic Radicalism affirmed the right +of every citizen to an elementary education, which the State was in +duty bound to provide. Further, such education must be unsectarian; and +here were the beginnings of the age-long strife between the advocates +of secular education and the defenders of voluntary schools, which +were now being planted all over the country by the National Society +and the British and Foreign Society. Throughout the nineteenth century +the history of education was chequered by these conflicts over the +rights and wrongs of religious teaching. Another thing that hampered +progress was the temptation to provide schooling on the cheap, by the +monitorial system and other contrivances, which were maintained for +reasons of economy long after they had been discredited. We shall find +this British failing again and again crippling the finest schemes, and +entailing costs in the long run incalculably greater than the saving at +the outset. It is a form of economy that is not economic. + +How deep and sincere was the working man’s desire for enlightenment +is illustrated most tellingly by the co-operative institutions which +it now brought into being in almost every industrial centre. The +Mechanics’ Institutes were not gifts from a railway company or a large +firm to its employees, but the creation of the operatives themselves, +established and kept up mostly from their own unaided resources. +Apart from the schools and classes for children and adults carried on +by the religious bodies in the eighteenth century, these Mechanics’ +Institutes, with their lectures, classes, study-circles, debating +societies, libraries, and other educational activities, were the real +beginnings of adult education in this country. They were the immediate +forerunners of the municipal library, and, at a further remove, of the +modern technical college and the polytechnic. Thus adult education +begins in a spontaneous movement, ready for large self-sacrifices to +achieve its practical ideals; and, at the outset, the library is +recognised as an integral part of its scheme. The great mistake in +the Public Library Acts, we shall find, was that they failed to build +on the combination of reciprocal activities in this promising model, +and thus divorced the library from the other departments of adult +education. Conversely, the weakness of many admirable schemes for adult +education has been neglect or omission of the library as an essential +part. Once the separation had taken effect, it became very difficult +to establish relations again. Librarians have since learned the +impossibility of making one part of the social machine work properly in +detachment from the rest. The Mechanics’ Institutes were not troubled +with unprepared and indifferent readers. They led their horses to the +stream and had no difficulty in making them drink. The troughs provided +by their municipal successors were larger and handsomer, but the +excellent supply of water was too often unappreciated. + +Ewart and his coadjutors in 1850 concentrated on the single object, +libraries; and libraries they got, their bare object--bare at first +in the literal sense of the word, till they were later on allowed to +spend money in furnishing them with books. As a consequence of this +policy, libraries and art galleries, schools, technical education, +university extension, tutorial and continuation classes, have carried +on their work on separate lines, though labouring for identical ends, +and though they might have worked in unison much more effectively and +economically. The problem now is to bring them into harmony again. +Perhaps the time was not ripe for such a comprehensive alliance. +Perhaps, also, had such an idea been realized it would have had +to undergo the blighting influence of the examination system and +payment by results. On the other hand, a popular institution might +have contained the antidote to those delusions. At all events, it +is a matter for lasting regret that a great opportunity was missed. +Nationalized Mechanics’ Institutes, cured of the imperfections due to +their dependence on the voluntary support of the unwealthy, with their +numerous activities developed, their technical and utilitarian classes +supplemented by humanist, non-vocational teaching, and the recreative +side fully expanded, would have been an invaluable instrument for +the great social effort which was then and is now required. And the +initiative would have come from below, not from above; the danger of +bureaucratic and academic projects for other people’s welfare would +have been avoided. A central part of this many-sided organism would +have been the library, a part ministering directly to every other +part. Such a conception is still useful. In town life the different +agencies may have to work side by side, though there need not be dense +partitions between. In the villages, where there are no museums or +picture-galleries, and the club is too often only a well-meaning but +aimless substitute for the public-house, institutes of such a composite +and elastic type are obviously the very thing required. + +The first of these promising institutions came into existence in 1823. +George Birkbeck had given free courses of lectures to artisans at the +Andersonian Institution in Glasgow, where, after his removal to London, +there had been a schism. The seceding members set up for themselves +the Glasgow Mechanics’ Institution, and elected Birkbeck their first +president. Next year, the London Mechanics’ Institution, now Birkbeck +College, was started in emulation, speedily enrolling some 13,000 +working men as members. That same year saw the establishment of an +institute at Manchester, which had had a Literary and Philosophical +Society since 1781, an offshoot of this, the College of Arts and +Sciences, being a sort of prototype of the new working men’s +institution. Huddersfield, Leeds, and other industrial towns followed +suit next year; and by 1837 the West Riding had so many that a union of +mechanics’ and similar institutions was formed, to be followed in 1839 +by a Metropolitan Association, and by a Lancashire and Cheshire Union +in 1847. “In 1851 it was estimated that there were 610 institutes in +England with a membership of over 600,000, that the number of lectures +delivered in 1850 was 3,054, and that the number of students attending +classes was 16,029.”[1] In 1849, four hundred Mechanics’ Institutes had +between three and four hundred thousand volumes, with a circulation of +more than a million. + +In his Practical Observations upon the Education of the People, +Brougham, one of the four trustees of the London institution, announced +the programme of what Peacock in _Crotchet Castle_ nicknamed the “Steam +Intellect Society.” Lectures and conversation classes, on the lines of +a modern tutorial class, libraries and book-clubs, were to be provided; +and, as a more extended enterprise, elementary primers and other cheap +works on science and the useful arts were to be published for the +benefit of the working classes. Brougham was the first president of +the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, founded in 1827 to +give effect to this second part of the scheme. Dr. Folliott tells the +company at Crotchet Castle how his house was nearly burned down by his +cook taking it into her head to study hydrostatics, in a sixpenny tract +published by the Steam Intellect Society, and reading what he calls +“the rubbish” in bed. Other persons, besides Peacock, were disturbed by +this portentous “march of intellect.” The Mechanics’ Institutes spread +to all parts of England and Scotland, but they failed, from lack of +means, to find the qualified lecturers and experienced teachers that +their well-meaning but ambitious aims required. Good teachers were very +scarce in those days. It was more than combinations of the lower middle +classes unaided by public funds could be expected to achieve. When, in +the course of two decades, the first enthusiasm faded, the buildings +fell more and more into the hands of those who could afford to maintain +them as comfortable lounges and literary clubs. This educational +failure and the secular nature of the education that they sought made +them unsatisfactory in the eyes of the Christian Socialist group, +who in 1854 founded what they considered a better type of mechanics’ +institute in the Working Men’s College. But the Mechanics’ Institutes, +though most of them were transformed or absorbed into a different +kind of institute, did not cease to exist; a number have survived to +this day or the eve of it, and some have carried on work of priceless +importance, side by side with the public libraries, which were now +about to arise. + +To say that there were no free libraries for the people before 1850 +is practically though not literally true. Those interested in the +history of libraries can point to many older examples, certain of which +were open to all comers. Long before the nineteenth century idealists +schemed to provide every reader in the nation with access to books, +as for instance the Scottish grammarian James Kirkwood, author of a +pamphlet in 1699 entitled “An Overture for Founding and Maintaining of +Bibliothecks in every Paroch throughout the Kingdom,” and of a project +for erecting a library in every presbytery or at least county in the +Highlands. The project was approved by the General Assembly, but had no +great results. In the Middle Ages, many of the monastic libraries were +nominally open to the public; but as a reading public hardly existed +the fact does not amount to much. Nor is it of more than antiquarian +interest whether London had a public library as far back as the early +fifteenth century, the joint foundation of Sir Richard Whittington and +William Bury. Readers did exist at the beginning of the next century, +wherefore the appearance of a city library here and there is of more +significance. Norwich claims to have the oldest of these that has never +perished, founded in 1608 and preserved in the public library there +to-day. The library founded at Bristol in 1615 came under the operation +of the Public Library Acts when these were adopted by that city in +1876. The venerable Chetham Library at Manchester dates from 1654, +when the books were placed in the quarters they still occupy in the +college built in 1421. The number of volumes is vastly greater, but the +Chetham Library has not changed in character or in the atmosphere of a +still remoter antiquity that it had at its beginning. Dr. Bray and his +associates established 78 parochial libraries and 35 lending libraries +between 1704 and 1807, which were meant for the use of poor clergymen. +He also secured an Act “For the Better Preservation of Parochial +Libraries;” but this in time became a dead letter. The British Museum +was established by Act of Parliament in 1753, opened to the public +in 1759, and gradually absorbed various royal and other collections, +forming a great storehouse of books for scholars and other literary +workers. London, nearly a century later, when the public library +agitation was in progress, had four public or semi-public libraries, +those at Sion College and Lambeth Palace, and Dr. Williams’s and +Archbishop Tenison’s libraries. In a number of large towns, readers of +the better class enjoyed the advantages of good reference and lending +libraries belonging to the Literary and Scientific Institutions.[2] The +library work of the Mechanics’ Institutes has already been described. +But the libraries of various kinds that were in existence, most of +them subscription libraries or otherwise restricted to a narrow class +of users, served only to whet the appetite of the ardent seeker after +knowledge, and to provide the apostle of popular culture with an +illustration of the possible. + +[Illustration: + + _Photo by Langley & Sons._ + +LAMBETH PALACE LIBRARY.] + +The campaign which led to the Public Library Acts of 1850 and 1853 +opened in 1844, when Richard Cobden presided at a public meeting in +Manchester to consider the means of improving popular taste. Joseph +Brotherton, the member for Salford, laid the proposals carried at this +meeting before the influential William Ewart, member for the Dumfries +Burghs, a rich, well-educated, much-travelled person, who was an old +parliamentary hand, with a general desire to see his country provided +with library facilities at least equal to those which he had found on +the Continent. Brotherton, a Liberal of the Manchester school and a +strict Nonconformist, had a profound belief in an educated people, and +a special confidence in the Lancashire operative; he was returned again +and again for Salford, holding the seat continuously 1832-57. These two +public men found an energetic and well-informed coadjutor in Edward +Edwards, a supernumerary assistant in the British Museum, who had cut a +prominent figure in the parliamentary inquiry into the administration +of that library, writing pamphlets and appearing as an expert witness +before the second Select Committee in 1836, after forcing himself +into notice by his severe handling of the evidence laid before the +committee of 1835. His wide knowledge of libraries at home and abroad +and his thorough acquaintance with the methods of the British Museum, +particularly on their defective side, together with the freedom and +far-sightedness of his criticisms and suggestions for reform, impressed +the committee, and led, rather surprisingly, to his being given his +post in the Museum in 1839. Later, his independent attitude led to +friction with his chief Panizzi, and he left abruptly in 1850. + +Edwards was broad-minded enough not to pin his faith on libraries alone +as an engine of intellectual progress; he took part as a pamphleteer +in the warfare over London University in 1836, persistently maintained +that libraries and schools were complementary to each other, and +pointed out that libraries should fulfil a very definite function in +promoting the intellectual life of all classes. His radical views on +the extension of hours and the opening of the reading room in the +evening, on branch libraries for the utilization of duplicate books, +on improved catalogues, the better supply of foreign literature and +materials for research, and on numerous points of administration at the +British Museum, have been fulfilled in large part since his time; yet +some still remain a counsel of perfection. + +His aid was enlisted by Ewart and Brotherton after he had published +some long articles, packed with statistics, on the inadequacy and +inaccessibility of the library resources of Great Britain and Ireland, +and on the liberal provision enjoyed on the Continent, which had a +great deal to do with making converts and securing votes when public +library legislation was before Parliament. Edwards probably exaggerated +his case, and painted too glowing a picture of the wealthy Continental +libraries, at any rate in the freedom of access said to be enjoyed +by every citizen. But his instances of British scholars put to undue +expense and compelled to live abroad in order to have libraries of +historical material at hand were relevant enough. Gibbon complained +that he had the greatest difficulty in consulting books and had to +obtain them from abroad at a heavy expense; he found himself better +provided when living in Switzerland or France than in his own country. +Buckle, later on, and, still later, Lecky and Acton had to seek their +material in Continental libraries. One telling point Edwards made, that +England was unrivalled in its private collections, though so poor in +those open to the public--a state of things by no means wholly remedied +yet. + +Meanwhile, Ewart and Brotherton having put their heads together, +a piece of legislation was secured that would and did ensure the +establishment of a certain number of public libraries, rate-aided if +not entirely rate-supported. This was the Act of 1845 for “Encouraging +the Establishment of Museums in Large Towns,” first-fruits of the +proposals passed by the Manchester meeting of the previous year. It +authorized the levy of a halfpenny rate, in towns of not less than +10,000 inhabitants, for the erection of museums of science and art; +it did not allow public funds to be used for purchasing books or even +exhibits; and it was supposed that salaries and other maintenance +charges would be defrayed out of the penny-fees for admission. Timid +and inadequate as such measures were, the Act was followed at once by +the opening of museums at Warrington, Salford, Canterbury, Liverpool, +Leicester, Dover, and Sunderland, the first three towns forming +collections of books as well. In 1848 Warrington provided the first +free reference library under the Act, and also a lending library for +the use of subscribers. Brotherton, with the aid of a local benefactor, +saw to it that a library and museum were opened at Salford in 1850. +Thus, although looking back we may think it strange that museums should +be started before libraries, they did prove a stepping-stone to the +greater necessity. + +Ewart now applied himself to inducing the House of Commons to appoint +a Select Committee on the question of public libraries, and availed +himself of the services of Edwards in preparing evidence and framing +proposals. Edwards was the chief witness before the first Committee +appointed, in 1849, and a special motion of thanks for his services +was appended to their Report. He gave an account of the resources, +conditions, and relative accessibility to the public of 35 British +libraries, the majority of which were university or college foundations +and only two, the Warrington and Chetham libraries, public in a true +sense; he drew an elaborate comparison with 383 libraries of not less +than 10,000 volumes apiece which, he affirmed, were open to every one +on the Continent, and with about a hundred in the United States. In +his examination by the Committee, he pleaded for grants from the Privy +Council to supplement local contributions, as were already being given +for elementary education; the inspection of libraries by the Committee +of Council on Education, and the institution of a Ministry of Public +Instruction charged with the control of public education and the +supervision of public libraries; the establishment, not as a tax on +publishers but at the national expense, of public depositories for all +books published in the United Kingdom; the international exchange of +books for the encouragement of libraries. Edwards urged other advanced +ideas, some of which, such as the provision of a different class of +public libraries for country parishes, have generations later begun to +be put into actuality. A second Select Committee was appointed early +next year to report on the best means of extending the establishment of +free public libraries, and Edwards was again in request as a witness. +An article of his in the British Quarterly for Feb., 1850, had no doubt +considerable influence on the passage of the Public Libraries Act on +March 13th, in spite of damaging criticisms of his statistics. + +The Ewart Act, as it is often called, “for Enabling Town Councils to +Establish Public Libraries and Museums,” was purely permissive. A poll +of burgesses was required before the Act could be put in force, and +a two-thirds majority was prescribed. The promoters believed that if +buildings were put up, suitable contents would be forthcoming from +local benefactors. Accordingly, no power was granted to buy books. The +rate levied must not exceed a halfpenny, the same as had been allowed +by the Museums Act, of which this was merely an extension. The debate +on the second reading is remarkably interesting. The arguments of +Ewart, Brotherton, the father of Labouchere, and even John Bright, +were essentially utilitarian. “Nothing,” Bright was sure, “would tend +more to the preservation of order than the diffusion of the greatest +amount of intelligence, and the prevalence of the most complete and +open discussion, amongst all classes.” Brotherton said, “Here were +£2,000,000 a year paid for the punishment of crime, yet honourable +gentlemen objected to tax themselves a halfpenny in the pound for the +prevention of crime. In his opinion it was of little use to teach +people to read unless you afterwards provided them with books to which +they might apply the faculty they had so acquired.... He was satisfied +that expenditure upon this object would be productive not only of +immense moral good but of very material public economy in the long +run.” The adverse arguments were likewise utilitarian and, as a rule, +economic in the purely mercenary sense. Roundell Palmer, afterwards +Earl of Selborne, “was most truly desirous to see learning extended,” +but protested against compulsory rating, which he loftily said would +put a positive check on the “voluntary self-supporting desire for +knowledge which at present existed amongst the people.” One obstructor, +who “did not like reading at all, and hated it when at Oxford,” said, +“However excellent food for the mind might be, food for the body was +what was now most wanted for the people;” and that he would have been +“much more ready to support the honourable gentleman if he had tried +to encourage national industry by keeping out the foreigner.” Summed +up, the objections were four: that increased taxation was undesirable; +that it was unjust if not unconstitutional to make non-users pay +for the upkeep of the new institution; that too much knowledge was +a dangerous thing; that there were ulterior objects in the project, +and that libraries might become centres of political agitation, awake +feelings of discontent, and encourage economic unrest. The same +arguments, observe, were heard in the brief debates accorded to the +abortive amending Bills in the decade before the last Public Libraries +Act. Yet the Ewart Act, at this interval of time, looks a timid, +experimental, and by no means far-sighted enactment, defended against +excesses by clauses that could scarce fail to make the very existence +of the institutions it brought forth precarious and unfruitful. Such +clauses could hardly have been accepted had not the framers of the Bill +contemplated further legislation at an early date, and concentrated +their efforts on making a small but irrevocable beginning. + +The operation of Ewart’s Act was extended to Ireland and Scotland in +1853, and the same year the Act was amended with respect to Scotland, +raising the rate limitation to one penny. Ewart brought in a Bill +in 1854 for raising the rate limit in England and Wales to the same +figure, and authorizing expenditure of the rate income on books. By +this time thirteen towns had adopted the Act. As the Government opposed +the Bill, it was dropped after the second reading; but next year he +brought in a new Bill, which, after a keen debate on the proposal to +provide newspapers out of the rates, passed with little demur. The rate +limit was now one penny, and places of 5,000 inhabitants or more were +entitled to the benefits of the Act; clauses dealing with borrowing +powers, the acquisition of sites, the mode of adoption by a poll of +ratepayers, and the special circumstances of the City of London, were +included. There were amending Acts in 1866 and later years, but this +remained the principal statute for England and Wales till 1892. + +The first town to set up a municipal reference and lending library +under the Act of 1850 was Manchester. A subscription reaching £12,823, +of which £800 was collected by a working men’s committee, was raised; +the Act was adopted by an enormous majority of ratepayers; Edward +Edwards was appointed librarian, and books were acquired in readiness +out of the voluntary fund. The original building in Campfield +was opened on September 2nd, 1852, with great ceremony, Dickens, +Thackeray, Lytton, and Monckton Milnes being among the statesmen and +other personages on the platform. Dickens described the Manchester +undertaking as “a great free school bent on carrying instruction to the +poorest hearths.” Thackeray improved upon Hogarth’s contrast of the +wicked mechanic reading Moll Flanders and the good mechanic reading +the story of the apprentice who became Lord Mayor, by picturing the +Lancashire mechanic reading Carlyle, Dickens, and Bulwer. John Bright +looked forward to when the farmer and country labourer would have a +library service. Norwich and Bolton were actually before Manchester +in adopting the Act, Oxford and Winchester were almost as prompt. +Liverpool obtained a special Act in 1852 to raise a penny rate for +a library and museum. Brighton had got a local Act in 1850, but was +late in establishing its library. Sheffield and Exeter refused at +first to adopt the Act, but reversed their decision in 1853 and 1870 +respectively. Blackburn, Cambridge, and Ipswich voted for libraries in +1853; Maidstone, Kidderminster, and Hereford, in 1855. Airdrie was the +first town in Scotland, and Cork the first in Ireland to adopt the Acts +pertaining to those countries. Birkenhead, Leamington, and two parishes +in Westminster adopted the Acts in 1856, Walsall, and Lichfield in +1857, Canterbury in 1858. In London progress was slow and chequered. +Adverse polls were recorded in the City of London, Islington, +Paddington, Marylebone, St. Pancras, and Camberwell, though several +wiped out the stigma later; Hackney, Whitechapel, Putney, Cheltenham, +Bath, Hull, and other places were likewise recalcitrant; but Cardiff, +after voting down the proposal by a majority of one in 1860, adopted +the Acts in 1862. Leicester, Burslem, Warwick, Oldham, Dundee, Paisley, +Nottingham, Coventry, Leeds, Doncaster, and Wolverhampton, were among +the forty-six places that had accepted public library legislation by +1868, the year taken in a parliamentary report dated April 11th, 1870, +from which it appears that fifty-two libraries had been established, +nearly half a million books acquired, and an annual issue of 3,400,000 +attained. This was the year of the Elementary Education Act, which +was to do away with the enormous amount of sheer illiteracy that +still prevailed, and to raise up potential readers in their millions, +though it was yet too early to ask for that intimate co-operation +between schools and libraries which would have taught the people not +only to read but also how and what to read, and tended to make the +results of even a brief elementary education deep and permanent. + +[Illustration: CENTRAL PUBLIC LIBRARY, NOTTINGHAM.] + +The library movement made most headway in the northern counties and +the midlands; the southern towns were slow in coming in. Scotland also +was late in adopting the Acts--a curious fact, probably due to the +way Scotland is used to the private endowment of public foundations. +The Scots are frugal and saving; but no people are so generous in +works for the common weal. Hence it is not difficult to understand the +reluctance of Glasgow to saddle itself with a library rate, when it +already had its Baillie’s Institution and Stirling’s Library, and the +Mitchell Library was coming--it actually came in 1877. Edinburgh also +rejected the Acts, obviously on similar grounds, until in 1886 an offer +of £50,000 from Andrew Carnegie induced the city to change its mind, +at first however, levying only a halfpenny rate. Ireland was very much +behindhand. + +The following table shows the relative rate of growth, down to 1909, +of public libraries established under the Acts; it does not include a +number provided by voluntary agencies or under special legislation.[3] + + England. Wales. Scotland Ireland. Totals. + + 1840-1849 1 -- -- -- 1 + 1850-1859 18 -- 1 1 20 + 1860-1869 12 1 1 -- 14 + 1870-1879 38 5 5 -- 48 + 1880-1889 51 5 9 5 70 + 1890-1899 121 17 15 8 161 + 1900-1909 125 29 42 12 208 + --------------------------------------------------- + 366 57 73 26 522 + --------------------------------------------------- + +Accelerated growth from the seventies onwards was due to various +causes, first and foremost the general advance in education, especially +when the effects of Forster’s Act of 1870 began to tell. Successive +amending enactments, down to the consolidating Act of 1892, each +removed some obstacle. Thus the resistance of London ratepayers was +conciliated by an Act in 1877 permitting them to vote a lower limit +than one penny. More libraries were opened as a consequence, but +the handicap of an exiguous income militated against their welfare. +Many gifts of funds, buildings, or special collections of books were +received from time to time, often with a proviso that the municipality +should build and maintain a library. The old objection to the public +endowment of libraries, that it would discourage private bounty, was +thus shown to be against experience as it was against reason; though +British generosity in this respect cannot stand comparison with that +of rich Americans. It was calculated by an English librarian, Thomas +Formby, in 1889, that in the last thirty-five years British libraries +had received a million pounds from private sources, and American +libraries six times as much. + +A stimulus of far-reaching effect came into operation towards the +close of the century, when Andrew Carnegie began to make systematic +contributions, first to Scottish and then to other British +municipalities, for the establishment and extension of public +libraries. The benefactions of an English philanthropist Passmore +Edwards, though more modest in amount, had relatively a more salutary +result, because they were more carefully adjusted to local needs. The +policy of Mr. Carnegie was, however, very sagacious. As a rule, he gave +money for buildings and fixtures alone, on the understanding that the +maximum rate allowable should be raised. The expectation was that, once +started, the library enterprise was bound to go on, and that with a +building free from debt it was bound to thrive. The sequels were not +always so satisfactory. Many places were tempted by the free gift to +build more expensive premises than they had the wherewithal to maintain +efficiently. Some embarked on ambitious schemes that left them with a +heavy burden of debt. Large buildings meant, of course, large staffs +and heavy establishment charges; but the income was strictly limited. +Hence many libraries were unable to pay their way, and at the same +time afford a proper service of books. There was a judicious clause in +the Scottish Act which ought to have been inserted in all, by which +authorities were forbidden to raise a loan of more than twenty times +one quarter of the annual rate income. + +The insufficiency of the penny rate was early and acutely realized. +It weighed heaviest on places with small incomes. The larger the +establishment to be kept up, the smaller the ratio of establishment +expenses to maintenance. The limitation had been fixed so low that +most towns with a population between 50,000 and 100,000 had to pursue +a hand-to-mouth policy, and content themselves with spending on books +such sums as happened to remain over when all fixed charges had been +defrayed. The main reason for the library books, had to be neglected +for the sake of the building, the mere case that held the books. The +inadequate staff that looked after both cost still more, yet were +overworked and underpaid. Larger towns were better off, not merely +through being able to apportion expenses more economically, but also +because they had more chances of getting legislative concessions. +Furthermore, the civic spirit is usually stronger in big cities: it +is one of the reasons why they are big cities. There, in the great +industrial centres, the old Mechanics’ Institutes were born. They have +been strongholds of educational endeavour; they were the pioneers of +the library movement. Thus it is not surprising to find Wolverhampton, +Swansea, Warrington, Sheffield, Manchester, Salford, Birmingham, +Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Oldham, St. Helens, Walsall, Preston, Wigan, +Sunderland, and several smaller industrial towns obtaining increased +rating powers and widening their library provision. Many other towns +would gladly have sought the same privileges, but for the cost of +promoting a special Act. + +For many years before the great war it was borne in more and more to +the minds of friends of the movement that not all was well with public +libraries, and a series of amending Bills to do away with the obsolete +restriction of income and introduce various constructive reforms were +brought into Parliament and steadily blocked. The various Acts for +England and Wales had been consolidated in the Public Libraries Act of +1892. This harmonized several conflicting enactments, laid it down that +adoption of the Acts should be by resolution of the local authority, +except in London, and allowed neighbouring districts to combine for +library purposes. It left the rate limitation where it was. Some +infinitesimal relief came from the Museums and Gymnasiums Act of 1891, +whereby the upkeep of museums could be charged to a special museum +rate. The Local Government Act of 1894, on the other hand, introduced +some complications into library law, and made it even more impossible +than heretofore for rural districts to come under the Acts. Amending +Acts for Scotland and Ireland passed that year. + +In certain points, the Scottish Acts, which had been consolidated +in 1887, had advantages over the English. The precaution against +extravagant building loans has been mentioned already. Further, +committees must contain not less than ten and not more than twenty +members, half the number being appointed from the local magistrates or +councillors and half from other householders. Many if not most English +authorities draw their committees exclusively from their own body. +The disadvantages are twofold. The ordinary borough councillor is an +overworked person, attending many committees, among which the libraries +committee rarely, in municipal politics, counts as the most important. +He is apt to regard his duties on that committee in a perfunctory way. +The ordinary member of a council, moreover, is elected oftener than not +for very different objects from the welfare of a public library, it +may be simply to keep down the rates; and his qualifications for these +objects may very well tend to disqualify him for enlightened service +on the governing body of a public library. A book sub-committee with +hardly a single member that reads, has, unfortunately, been no rarity +under the conditions that still prevail, with a chairman standing +for an obscurantist and reactionary policy towards this despised +department of the municipal entity. Hence the peculiar desirability +of having outsiders with liberal views, a liberal education, and some +familiarity with books and libraries, added to the representatives of +the council. This question will arise again when the possibilities of a +new regime come in for discussion. + +From time to time it was suggested by critics and would-be reformers +that public libraries ought not to remain a series of isolated +institutions, able to co-operate neither with each other nor with the +schools and other intellectual activities. Edward Edwards and also his +biographer Thomas Greenwood, one of the wisest and most disinterested +friends the library movement has ever had, looked forward to the +co-ordination of all these departments of the body politic as a body +intellectual under the supervision of a Government minister. The same +reform was mooted by J. J. Ogle, a public librarian and a secretary of +education, who, in _The Free Library_ (1897), easily disposed of the +argument that State inspection and State grants would mean uniformity +of method. In 1904 the Library Association at their annual conference, +after several sessions had been devoted to considering the pros and +cons, passed a strong resolution affirming “That the public library +should be recognized as forming part of the national educational +machinery.” + +Thus the ideas of close interaction promoted by central control and +of intimate correlation of libraries and the other instruments of +public education had been well-debated, long before they were taken +over, along with the more pressing question of the rate limit, as +obvious items for the agenda of the Adult Education Committee, which +was appointed in July 1917 as a sub-committee of the Reconstruction +Committee, to be merged presently in the Ministry of Reconstruction. +How this Committee handled the constructive proposals will be shown +later on. Two of the reforms they recommended were embodied in a +Government Bill, which became law on December 23rd, 1921. Both of +these were, in essence if not in form, the abolition of illogical and +obsolete disabilities, inherited from the early days of the Ewart Acts. +The first grievance to be removed was the rate limit. When even the +advocates of the public library thought it would be mainly the working +classes that would use it, there was some reason for keeping down the +cost, economic reasons as well as reasons of policy. When libraries +had been in existence for more than half a century, and every class in +the community used them without distinction, it was monstrous that a +municipality owning a library should be debarred from keeping its own +property up to the mark if it was willing to pay the bill. Bankruptcy +was already threatening many library authorities even before the war; +before the end of it, some were being shut up, numerous others were +cutting down their services to the vanishing point. Councils were +forbidden by law to pay the ordinary war bonus to their library staffs, +who had before these changes been the worst-paid of their employees. It +was a question of life or death. Relief must come at once, or half the +libraries in the country would cease to exist. Relief was vouchsafed, +and with it a second restriction was ended, that which debarred County +Councils from setting up a library service for the villages. Systems +of rural libraries were already springing up through the monetary +grants of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, and were being carried +on, legally or illegally it was doubtful which, by the Education +Committees. To do something to stimulate an intelligent social life on +the land was indispensable, if the dreams of recolonizing Britain and +reviving agriculture were to come to anything. + +The Bill passed, without an echo of the strenuous opposition that had +greeted its many predecessors, which had made much smaller demands +on the public purse. It removed two crippling disabilities, but the +constructive proposals of the Adult Education Committee it did not +touch. Two most formidable obstructions had been cleared away: the +forward leap was yet to take. Was it to be deferred indefinitely, +or might the Act be accepted as prelude to a comprehensive library +charter, to be prepared as soon as the Committee’s numerous +recommendations could be reduced to legislative form? + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Adult Education Committee. Final Report, p. 14. + +[2] e.g. That at Edinburgh (dating from 1725), London (1749), Liverpool +(1758), Manchester (1781), the Newcastle “Lit. & Phil” (1793). + +[3] Professor W. S. B. Adams. Report on Library Provision and Policy +(Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, 1915). + + + + +II + +WHAT IS A LIBRARY SERVICE? + + +There is an enormous difference between the library service enjoyed +in the more progressive municipalities, where public opinion has been +properly educated and the authorities mean to do their best, whatever +the financial impediments, and have a clear conception of what is the +best, and the perfunctory service in places where the library is an +unwelcome addition to the municipal family, which cannot be got rid of +but must be prevented from becoming a burden on the rates. The most +progressive of librarians and library committee-men would freely admit +that no public library in this country is doing all that it might for +the community, or anything like what it will do when the library habit +has been instilled into the average citizen. The most progressive are +but leading the way; the goal is still in the future. Accordingly, an +account of the best work now being done by the best libraries will +serve two purposes: it will show the possibilities that are actually +being attained; it will help the reader to build up mentally a complete +type of what a library service might be. + + +LENDING LIBRARIES. + +“The jug and bottle department,” as it has been cynically called by +illiberal critics, is the oldest and, in a sense, the fundamental part +of a public library service. There were lending libraries before 1850, +but none that could be regarded as its prototype. It was a consequence +of the new democratic idea. In earlier times a library simply provided +books to be read on the spot. Circulating libraries, such as began to +be common in the eighteenth century, were shops that lent out books, +chiefly light literature, to subscribers of the leisured classes. +The literary and scientific institutions allowed their books to be +borrowed, without troubling to divide their stock into distinct +collections, or worrying themselves with the standing puzzle of the +modern librarian, should this book, which is neither a novel nor an +encyclopædia, go on the lending or the reference shelves? + +The strongest argument for rate-supported libraries was that the +studious person who could not afford to buy books, or the no less +meritorious person who wished to enjoy good literature in an armchair +but could not pay a subscription, should be enabled to read at home. +Access to libraries was an excellent thing, and every seeker after +knowledge was entitled thereto, but a supply of books in the home was +a greater boon, and one that would have a far deeper effect on the +mental life of the nation. Even a Freeman could not work in a reference +library, but had to borrow--or buy. Circumstances of a different kind +make the library of the British Museum, and even the local reading +room inaccessible, or at any rate insufficient, to most busy people. +The existence of the London Library--the finest lending library in the +world--is proof enough of the most serious kind of reader’s need for a +home supply of books. + +Catering for all classes, for all ages, and for users having all sorts +of motives for reading, the municipal lending library will not admit +any petty or restricted purpose to limit the scope of its contents. +Costly books, if it acquires such by purchase or gift, and works of +the atlas or dictionary type, will for different but equally obvious +reasons go into the reference department, however small that may happen +to be. Very cheap books, with certain exceptions, it will not supply. +College text-books may be refused, on the score that students should +have them for their own, unless there are circumstances that justify +a different course. Some books may be rejected for reasons of public +morality, though a narrow-minded puritanism must not be tolerated. +Otherwise, the lending library should develop on the most catholic +lines. + +The light literature that was the staple of the old-fashioned +circulating library will, with the rubbish sternly and drastically +sifted out, form a considerable proportion of the stock-in-trade. In +the minds of some short-sighted people, indeed, the public library is +identified with over-thumbed and dog-eared novels, and supposed to +be a purveyor chiefly of books for private amusement at the public +expense. The statistics that seem to authorize such a view are +misunderstood. Half-a-dozen novels usually take less time to read than +does a single substantial work of science, history, or even the other +kinds of belles-lettres; and make six times as much show in the record +of issues. If allowance be made for this obvious fact, study of the +figures will usually reveal that a greater amount of reading having +a serious value is going on than of reading for mere pastime. One +ought to apply a different kind of calculus; but till a sort of mental +foot-pound, a unit of energy expended effectively in self-development, +has been fixed, we can merely ask that statistics should be interpreted +with a due consciousness of what humane literature is, and with common +sense. Over-thumbed novels are no argument against public libraries, +but a very strong argument for making sure that the supply of fiction +is of the best, and for doubling, quadrupling, and multiplying further +the supply of first-rate novels. If there are always enough of these +to go round, critics on the one hand and grumblers on the other may be +disregarded. + +The workshop theory, which is on the face of it a sound guide for the +development of the reference library, though by no means a complete +statement of its functions, applies also to the lending department. On +the one hand, this should minister to our recreations and our æsthetic +and spiritual needs; it will be well-stocked with excellent novels, +the best poetry, drama, essays, and humane literature in general. On +the other hand, it will cater for the student and serious reader in +all branches of knowledge, and will provide all the books it can of +general use for industrial and amateur craftsmen, shopkeepers and +other business people, and the professional classes. The librarian +and the book-selecting committee will have a keen eye for the needs +of teachers, journalists, ministers of religion, and all who are in +any way intellectual leaders. One healthy consequence of the workshop +theory is the rule that a library must never be cumbered with dead +stock. Books that have been superseded or have outlived their interest +must be ruthlessly discarded. The workshop library has no room for +any but live books. Such from the first have been the aims of the +great bulk of our public libraries, with, naturally, some laxity +here and there, and in rarer instances too much strictness in regard +to education and mental improvement or the cult of mere utilitarian +efficiency. + +There are between five and six hundred library buildings under the +Public Library Acts in this country, and with few exceptions each +contains a lending library, and some hardly anything else. A corollary +of this distributing service is the branch library. Liverpool had two +branches by 1853, and other towns quickly followed suit. A very large +proportion of these buildings are branch libraries, established so as +to bring a stock of books for lending as near as may be to your door. +To-day, the biggest provincial cities have each from a dozen to a score +such district libraries; the average town or metropolitan borough has +two or three. Some places are content with delivery stations; some +have these and branches as well. The delivery station is a device for +bringing books that have been asked for from the central reservoir to +the nearest point, and is a convenience to readers who have not the +time, or do not think it worth while, to visit the library in person. +Given a first-class catalogue and intelligent readers, the delivery +station is a useful makeshift. But there are weighty reasons why +it is much better to invite Mahomet to the mountain--why a service +through district libraries will have more valuable results than one +through delivery stations. The best systems combine the advantages of +both methods, making the reader free of all the branch libraries in a +town, with the right of direct access to the book-shelves, and at the +same time bringing books from other branches to the one nearest the +reader who is unable or finds it inconvenient to visit the library +in person. Manchester and Glasgow, for example, have a motor-service +whereby all the books in a score of district libraries are pooled as +one vast stock, accessible, with a minimum of expense, difficulty, +or delay, to the borrowers situated at any point in the civic area. +Make your library area big enough, and you can provide the maximum of +opportunities at the minimum cost. + +During the last two decades, public libraries have been reverting to +that old and sensible mode of working which, on its reintroduction, +was styled “Open Access.” Practice varied in former times between +letting the reader loose among the books and shutting these behind +doors or shutters. When the new era began in 1850, the new race of +librarians beheld themselves confronted with an unprecedented and +hazardous problem. Here was the multitude of famished readers, who had +never experienced the civilizing influence of libraries, who might be +dishonest, and who certainly had to be served expeditiously and in +large numbers; and there was the stock of books, which must be kept in +working order and unpilfered. Hence the closed library--the books on +one side of a counter and the reading proletariat on the other. Then, +in an ill-omened moment, indicators were invented, and the proletariat +could not even see the books at a distance, but must try to find out, +first, what it wanted from a catalogue, perhaps an abbreviated form of +hand-list conveying little meaning to the unbookish and then, through +a numerical system compared to which Bradshaw or a census competition +is an intellectual delight, whether there was a chance of getting what +it wanted. The library movement would have spread with far greater +rapidity, and its results on the national mentality would have been far +deeper and more extended, but for the long reign of the closed system. + +Very large libraries must keep the main bulk of their accumulations in +a place apart; otherwise they could not contain them at all. When the +stock begins to approach six figures, a librarian begins to think of +having a stack, or some analogous form of magazine, accessible to none +but officials and attendants. But in libraries of moderate dimensions +there is no reason why the public should be locked out, and the most +convincing reason why it should be invited and persuaded to come +in. One must be something of a book-expert to know always precisely +what book one wants; and then one may fail to obtain it through the +mechanism of a catalogue and an indicator. The ordinary person will +assimilate more mental food from browsing among the shelves than he +would in thrice the time from reading what the chance of the indicator +brought him under this discredited system. It may be that more books +will disappear; but a certain percentage of losses may be faced with +equanimity; it is one of the running expenses of true efficiency, and +the results are well worth the cost. + +In all the most recent public libraries, and in a very large number of +the older, reorganized in the light of this reform, the public have the +inestimable advantage of handling the books, and seeing, as it were in +a bird’s-eye view, their relations to the other books in the sphere of +knowledge or of art, before deciding what they want now and will want +later on. This has had an immeasurable effect on the quality of the +reading--on the education of the public taste. Only librarians know how +difficult it used to be to lift a certain class of reader out of an old +rut, to persuade him, or more often her, to try an unfamiliar author. +Once get over the difficulties of an introduction to George Eliot, +Thomas Hardy, or Tolstoy, and the devotee of Guy Boothby and Charles +Garvice, who was stone-blind to the blandishments of the printed +catalogue, will march on steadily in the new world that has been +opened. It is the first step that counts in his literary salvation, and +in an open access library the first step is pretty sure to be taken, if +the contents have been well and tactfully selected. + +An inducement to read other things than fiction is offered in many +progressive libraries. This is a general permission to borrow two books +at a time, provided only one is a novel. Teachers and other privileged +persons are often allowed as many as half-a-dozen at once. There is +indeed no reason except insufficiency of stock why any intelligent +reader should not be able to have three or four books together, and a +great many arguments for liberality. Three are regularly allowed at +Coventry, and in American libraries, generous concessions are made on +any reasonable grounds; in some the daring principle of “Take as many +as you like” is in vogue, and many libraries lend freely to all comers +without the irritating insistence on local residence or local guarantee +which rules over here. To a man pursuing a serious course of study it +is a manifest advantage to have several works in hand; the habit should +be encouraged. The cost will be considerable; but it will be a cost in +books not buildings, since the extra books will usually be in the hands +of readers and not in need of house-room and larger premises. The cost +can and ought to be borne now that library incomes are more elastic, +if authorities take a serious view of their responsibilities and the +part they should play in the business of education. Look at the empty +shelves in almost any popular library, and the nature of the problem +will be apparent. + +The actual situation is significant. The need is for more books, and +better books, rather than more buildings. The one essential to a +successful library service exists, a great public demand--wanting +more guidance, perhaps, and susceptible of education in the wiser use +of books, but still vigorous, spontaneous, and unsatisfied. There is +an unprecedented demand for books, fully commensurate with the demand, +all over the country, for educational facilities. And there is an +unprecedented shortage of books on the lending library shelves. During +the war, expenses were kept down, and the gaps due to wear and tear +were not filled up. Binding was allowed to fall into woeful arrears. +Now, the cost of bookbinding has gone up threefold, the price of books +has doubled. Yet under these disabling conditions, many a provincial +town and a number of London boroughs have an annual issue of a million +or thereabouts. Manifestly, the municipal lending library is a mighty +power in the land. One librarian, in a borough where, it has recently +been affirmed, the average intelligence is eighty under proof, tells me +that out of 690 volumes of Rider Haggard’s various novels, which have +to be duplicated over and over again, he would not expect to find more +than sixteen on the shelf at a given moment. Sir Henry Rider Haggard is +not a classic; he lies on the border between the kind of fiction to be +tolerated and the kind to be encouraged. Nevertheless, empty shelves +are a powerful argument. + +The following paragraph surely speaks with a most convincing eloquence +of the work public libraries are performing; it is from the prospectus +of the latest London borough to set up a library system, the borough +that has the largest population of the lower middle class and the +poor. This system is still in its infancy, yet it has achieved an +annual issue of nearly a million volumes, and the separate uses of +its libraries and reading rooms are estimated, on a count, to number +3,496,000 during the year. + +“The cost of the Public Libraries to each inhabitant of Islington is +one-fifth of a penny per week. For this outlay each person has at his +or her disposal: Lending libraries containing 75,000 volumes; Reference +Libraries containing 10,000 volumes; Children’s libraries containing +10,000 volumes; Reading rooms containing all the best current +newspapers, magazines and periodicals of importance; and all these +resources are constantly increasing. + +“A penny newspaper daily costs 35 times as much as this extensive +service.” + +Books are not the only wares in which the lending library deals. Most +of them circulate music in bound volumes, in sheets, in portfolios; +some lend pianola records. Ordnance Survey maps are issued to ramblers +and tourists, geological maps to students; prints and technical +diagrams and other articles of use to the scientist, craftsman, or +student are sometimes among the circulating stock. + + +REFERENCE LIBRARIES. + +The lending library is for study and recreation, the reference library +for study and information, the latter term covering the sources to +be explored by the research student. A reference library is a much +more expensive thing than a lending collection of the same numerical +extent. Dictionaries, miscellaneous modern encyclopædias, atlases, +many-volumed treatises, books having costly illustrations, and the +numerous and rapidly multiplying books of inquiry, directories, +year-books, and other compendiums of information, bibliographies +and other registers--all these find their appropriate home in this +department, where also are stored calendars of state papers, Annual +Registers, Hansard, bound periodicals, transactions of learned +societies, and other long sets, the risk of mutilating which renders +them unsuitable for lending out. Such works as the Cambridge History of +English Literature and the Mediæval and Modern Histories are usually +duplicated, one set at least being available for lending; a host of +smaller works, even the expensive ones, are likewise duplicated when it +can be afforded. + +In the large centres of population, reference libraries were opened +soon after the passing of the Ewart Act, and they have grown apace, to +no small extent as the result of windfalls in the shape of gifts or +legacies of private collections amassed by amateurs and other experts. +In the lesser towns, the lending department bulks large in comparison +with the reference department, which too often has had perforce to be +neglected. The one has been regarded as a necessity, the other as a +luxury that must wait for better times. The places in the kingdom where +a scholar could live and pursue his tasks with most of his material +within easy reach, in public or semi-public libraries, can still be +counted on the fingers of one hand: London and Edinburgh, the two +ancient university cities, perhaps Manchester, and possibly Dublin. +These towns have been favoured by other dispensations than the Public +Library Acts. Yet Liverpool, Birmingham, and Glasgow each command at +least a quarter of a million books in their reference libraries; and +Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Leeds, Bristol, Cardiff, Nottingham, and indeed +most towns with over 100,000 inhabitants, possess reference collections +respectable in the size and quality of their contents. + +[Illustration: + + _Photo by Donald Macbeth._ + +READING ROOM IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.] + +To regard this department as merely a luxury is a bad mistake. True, +it is not a daily necessity of life to the average man; but there was +a time--there still is a time in many parts of the country--when even +a lending library is not supposed to be that. Yet the more lending +libraries are used to good purpose, the greater will be the average +man’s need for a place where he can seek or verify information of +every sort; where the student may consult the larger works of which +his text-books are but elementary abstracts or expositions, and find +encyclopædias, lexicons, atlases, and commentaries to aid and elucidate +his reading; where the busy worker, whatever his occupation, may see +the expensive technical treatises and illustrated monographs that are +indispensable to an intelligent pursuit of his calling. The political +and social worker will find here the statistical returns, the inventor +the Patent Office specifications, the researcher, if he cannot get all +he wants, will discover where it is to be found from a liberal supply +of catalogues and bibliographies. + +Reference libraries are the obvious complement to a service of books +for home consumption. The boundary between their domains is not +easy to mark out, nor will any attempt be made here to answer the +favourite question of the gravelled examiner in library routine: What +distinguishes a reference book from one for the lending library? +In most cases the distinction is obvious; in the more difficult, +local circumstances may settle the point. Librarians in charge of +comparatively small libraries may well shirk a final verdict, and +allow much latitude in the use of reference books for lending, and the +converse when the lending library book is in. Thus the whole stock of +books on the premises is at the reader’s disposal without any pedantic +restrictions. As an American authority sensibly puts it, “Obviously +there is no book that may not be used for ‘reference.’ A reader who +consults one of Anthony Hope’s stories to ascertain the name of a +character or to refresh his memory in regard to some incident, without +reading it consecutively, is using it as a reference book.”[4] Even a +magazine or review may be a work of reference. Back numbers of all that +are worth taking in are worth preserving for reference purposes; and +these, with the bound sets of past years, should be always available +for use. Energetic librarians index all the important articles as +they come out; the published indexes to periodicals forming a key to +the older numbers. Lastly, the very newsroom has its place in the +reference scheme, its contents being a daily appendix to the stores of +information in the library. No department of the library economy should +work in isolation. + +In London, principally through the circumstance that the twenty-eight +boroughs now existing were preceded by eighty-two parishes, two-thirds +of which had set up libraries for themselves before the present library +districts and borough authorities came into being in 1902, there are +far too many reference libraries in proportion to lending libraries. +Most of these are of indifferent or inferior quality, and, if they +were suppressed and their collections centralized in a series of large +district reference libraries, few would miss them, and the general +gain would be enormous. All the same, more numerous ready-reference +libraries are wanted. Every branch library should have a collection +of dictionaries, atlases, and general encyclopædias, in short all the +books that a business firm, a school, or the like usually provides +for daily use. But, since reference libraries are so expensive, +it is a vain and wasteful policy to duplicate them at random; and +the result is merely a scattered series of middling libraries, far +inferior to those open to all the world in Birmingham, Liverpool, +and Manchester, with a crippling of resources in other directions. +This is not said to belittle local effort. The point is that, though +Islington, Westminster, or Chelsea may each build up a reference +library not inferior to that found in the average provincial town of +like population, Islington, Westminster, and Chelsea are, after all, +parts of London, and the Londoner ought to be vastly better off than +the average provincial--else why should he stay there? + +Though to one acquainted with the exacting needs of all grades and +varieties of readers the deficiencies of our reference libraries are +evident enough, it is none the less true that the richness of their +contents and the value they yield to judicious users are realized by +only a fraction of the public. Librarians have never been allowed to +advertize their wares; a notice in the press such as a university or +a State department would not consider beneath its dignity would have +called down a reprimand and probably a surcharge from the Government +auditor. In a strange town, the visitor may have some trouble to +find out, first whether a public library exists, and then where. +Advertisements in tramcars and finger-posts in the street are usually +looked for in vain. Things being so, it is better to lay stress on what +the reference library can and does do than on any delinquencies, since +public opinion is sure to learn in time from the books that are there +to be read, the immensity of the desiderata. In the cities previously +mentioned as possible abodes for a worker among books, one may acquire +a competent idea of this immensity. In other large towns and in several +London boroughs, one may find reference libraries sufficing for the +ordinary demands of all but the specialist and the researcher, and, in +addition, one commonly finds special collections that attract readers +from far away. + +Thus Manchester, besides the ample provision of general works that +everybody would expect to find on its reference shelves, and a large +mass of works on textiles which would also be anticipated in the +metropolis of Lancashire, has a fine collection of English dialect +literature, others on music, the gipsies, and shorthand, and in the +Greenwood collection the largest library of works for librarians +in this country. The magnificent Hornby Library of engravings at +Liverpool is as great a pride to the city as its Walker Art Gallery. +Birmingham is famous for its Shakespeare Library, and possesses smaller +collections relating to Milton, Byron, and Cervantes. The Boulton +and Watt collection is also there. Stratford-on-Avon, again, is a +depot for Shakespeare literature, having the memorial building and +the valuable collection housed at the birth-place as well as the town +library. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, owns the Bewick collection, Northampton +the library of the poet Clare, Nottingham another accumulation of Byron +literature and association books, Kilmarnock a Burns library, Glasgow +among its many special sections a vast collection including not only +Burns material but Scottish literature in general; Bristol is rich in +works concerned with Chatterton, Cardiff specializes in Welsh books, +though the National Library of Wales, at Aberystwyth, designed to +be a British Museum for the principality, is fast outstripping this +as a storehouse of Celtic literature in the wider sense. A library +is fulfilling only its obvious duty by specializing in the staple +industry. At Stoke-on-Trent, however, the valuable library of ceramics +collected by Louis Solon, and acquired after his death by the Carnegie +United Kingdom Trust, has been placed, not in the public library, +but in the National Pottery School, where the library of the Ceramic +Society is also housed. + +Many London libraries specialize in the same useful way, sometimes +in response to local needs, sometimes as the accidental result of +local associations. At Guildhall is the national Dickens library, at +Hampstead the Keats collection, at Chelsea one devoted to Carlyle. The +Bishopsgate Institute vies with Guildhall and St. Paul’s Cathedral +Library in a huge collection of London books, prints, maps, and other +miscellanea. The typographical library at the St. Bride Foundation +contains the notable collection of William Blades, biographer of +Caxton. But to consider London without taking into account the public +and semi-public libraries that are not under the Acts, many of them +highly individualized in the nature of their resources, and fitted to +fulfil definite functions in the national library machine, would be +absurd; and to treat them properly would require a volume. In fact, the +volume exists, though it makes only modest and tentative suggestions +for the wider application of all this intellectual wealth, much of +which is lying dormant or only half-used.[5] + +It goes without saying that every provincial reference library worthy +of the name has a local collection of some importance. Most county +towns collect county literature, and other large places have their +regional collections. Regional surveys are largely carried on now +by schools and local organizations, often with the library and its +local collections as their central depository, and at all events +helping and helped by the library. Some public libraries have been +made depositories for the local records, and there is a strong case +for conferring or imposing this duty upon them by law. A librarian, +properly trained in palæography and the treatment of archives, is the +right sort of custodian; a well-appointed library is the right place +for the safe preservation, calendaring, and public use of documents. +The historian, social student, biographer, and genealogist would always +know then where to go for local information not to be found in London. + +There are many other abiblia which Charles Lamb himself would approve +that are rightly supplied in generous measure by a good reference +library: modern maps, both of our own country and of the world, those +of the neighbourhood within a wide radius, including large-scale +Ordnance maps, accompanied by older maps of historical importance; +prints and drawings in well-organized series, and lantern-slides for +illustrating library lectures, or even to be issued on loan. The +systematic collections of lantern-slides at the Croydon Public Library +will be mentioned again later on. In this enterprising library numerous +other things are collected and made accessible for general use; for +example, illustrations, cut out and preserved, not because of their +individual merit as prints, but because of the value they acquire +in organized sets illustrating definite subjects. They are mounted in +uniform style and classified in vertical files; thus they are available +for reference purposes, and may be borrowed by teachers to illustrate +lessons in class. Croydon has about 12,000 such illustrations, and +the stock is constantly growing. Photographs of lace, woodwork, +astronomical phenomena, and other subjects are collected on similar +lines, and lent in sets to artists, craftsmen, and students. The +vertical file in which the Manchester commercial library stores its +press clippings and other items of information will be mentioned +later; it is an object-lesson in the preservation, classification, +and indexing of material which was erstwhile discarded as soon as it +had served the moment’s use, a lesson in the value created out of the +well-nigh valueless by mere organization; and teachers and business +organizers have not failed to bring their pupils and their staffs to +study what sheer method can accomplish. + +[Illustration: GUILDHALL LIBRARY.] + +But the whole library should be an object-lesson of high educational +value. A large, well-organized collection of books, especially if the +public be admitted to the interior, is a graphic example of method and +order, not to mention the enormous increment of value given to any +stock of material by systematic indexing. The art of classification +is not only an excellent mental discipline, but may be applied +with advantage in every province of business and life. Though a +classification of books is not the same thing as a classification of +things, and may depart widely from the exactness of logical theory, +there is no better way of inculcating the benefits of system than by +allowing the reader to find his way from shelf to shelf, and follow +the tracks pointed out for him to other book-cases the contents of +which are more distantly connected with his subject. It is superfluous +to point out the assistance the library gives in the choice of books, +not only to the reader who relies on it for his whole supply, but +on the book-lover and the purchaser of books. Of the aid offered to +the student and the potential student, over and above the library +organism itself as an efficient reading machine, more will be said +under the heading of library extension. In American libraries certain +members of the staff are told off for “floor duty,” that is, to keep a +sympathetic eye on persons looking out books and to offer guidance. It +is a duty calling for high attainments and insight into the particular +requirements and idiosyncrasies of readers. It would be unfair to +say it is a duty unfulfilled in libraries over here, since the more +active public libraries are beginning to organize themselves as real +bureaux of information; but in the precise form just described it is +practically unknown. Our method is to be ready with advice when it is +asked for; and in big libraries, such as the British Museum, it is +the most useful kind of advice, that of the specialist, which is our +particular forte. Yet we still repeat, “The librarian who reads is +lost!” More specialism, not less, is what we want. + + +NEWSROOMS AND MAGAZINE ROOMS. + +Among the old-established departments the reading rooms where +newspapers and other periodical literature are displayed must, to judge +by statistics of use, take a foremost place. Hundreds of thousands +enter these newsrooms daily, twice as many as come into the lending +libraries. Until the question was raised ten years ago by the late +J. D. Brown, a librarian who attempted reconstruction in library +administration long before the word began to be written with a big R, +it seemed the most natural and unchallengeable thing in the world to +put a newsroom in every library building and furnish it with a motley +array of dailies and weeklies of all denominations. Brown induced the +committee of the Islington Public Libraries to reform the reading room +in a drastic way. No newspaper except the “Times” was provided for +public consumption, though the advertisement columns were cut out from +others and posted for the benefit of the unemployed. + +This violent departure from routine did bring out the fact that +newsrooms, at any rate as they were and as they are at present, occupy +a somewhat illogical position. At first sight, there hardly seems any +better justification for their inclusion in a library than that they +also provide reading matter. But it is reading matter, too often, of a +very different and doubtful kind; and the awkward fact that it is not +the same people who use the newsroom that use the library, in short +that the library proper and the newsroom, but for an inconsiderable +overlap, cater for two different publics, gives occasion for thought. + +To put it roundly, the proper place in the library scheme for the +newspaper and its like has never been thought out. Brown went too far, +and the library which was the scene of this experiment is now furnished +with a careful selection of newspapers as well as with magazines and +reviews of good standing. But he gave the problem serious thought. In +the various public reading rooms which were under his care, he saw +to it that the right kind of periodicals were provided, and the best +of each kind. Among his many publications on library practice was a +classified and annotated list of English and foreign periodicals, which +ought to have done even more than it has to help provide something far +better and more scientific than the mere hotchpotch of journalism with +which too many tables are littered. Here again, economy of the baser +sort has been the offender; for the poorest journalism is, of course, +the cheapest, and a steady provision of the high-class periodicals +recommended by Brown is an expensive drain on slender funds. + +[Illustration: READING ROOM, STEPNEY PUBLIC LIBRARY.] + +The library cannot do without the newspaper any more than it can do +without the review, the technical periodical, and the learned society’s +journal. All of these are necessary supplements to the books, since +they are records of new knowledge; and they require the same care in +selection, the guiding principle of which must be a clear idea of +what they are there for. The much-debated dictum that history is past +politics and politics current history needs no debate as a reason why +the leading newspapers and the weekly reviews should be accessible +in public libraries. Almost every one takes in a paper suited to his +opinions: the public newsroom should give the opportunity of studying +other opinions, and also of checking information by comparison of +different sources and versions that conflict. The newsroom is to the +library as the open-air excursion to the botany class, the laboratory +to the lecture-room. Here theory and doctrine are seen in action; +applied politics, applied sociology, all the different phases of the +science of life set forth in books illustrated, tested, verified, +or confuted. Which study is of more importance than the other? +Fortunately, that is a futile question: the relevant one is, how +incalculably each gains by conjunction with the other. + +There is no need to provide the paper that every one buys. Nor are +those that deal in police news, divorce cases, spice and sensation, the +journals that a public institution is called upon to buy. The most +authoritative journals, representing each of the recognized parties, +weekly reviews of similar credentials, and the leading provincial +organs, are all that need be supplied in this group. Even in a large +and prosperous library, it is better to duplicate such than to make +too wide a selection. Subsidized journals, sent gratis by political +or social cliques or by advertising agents, might as well be rejected +altogether; where they are accepted, the approved course is to +pigeon-hole them until there is an applicant. The least approved is to +employ this worthless stuff to cover serious gaps, and offer the public +a stone when it asks for bread. A library committee should feel the +same responsibility for a newspaper as for a book. By admitting either, +they virtually give it a public guarantee. + +But if the newspaper is to be treated as the organ of current history, +then the newspaper room should be equipped with every facility for +rendering current history real and intelligible. Maps of every part +of the world should be hung over the reading stands. The room itself +should be in the closest contiguity with the reference library, and +should contain a ready-reference collection on open shelves, enabling +readers to consult dictionaries, encyclopædias, statistical year-books, +compendiums of geography, and other sources of general information as +they read. That it should not be separated from the reading room where +the periodical magazines and reviews are kept goes without saying. +Files of such as are preserved should be close at hand. All this +means that the reading room for newspapers will be another expensive +department; yet the policy of making it a vital part of the whole +library undertaking is in the long run economic. Here, surely, that +training for citizenship which so many are preaching may be carried on +without the features that make it objectionable to the old-fashioned +party man. The existence of public newsrooms where the daily papers +are read intelligently and their pronouncements checked and compared, +might, in the course of time, react healthily on the daily press itself. + +As to the lighter class of periodical, the same discretion has to be +exercised in shunning the frivolous and worthless as an intelligent and +responsible committee, not devoid of a sense of humour, would display +in handling fiction. It is high time that the policy of treating this +department as a kind of bait for the unregenerate, something to make +the library popular, were abandoned. It is a delusive policy, grounded +on two false assumptions--the first, that it is our duty to get people +to read, no matter what they read; the second, that if you start them +reading and bring them into the library they will eventually proceed +to higher things. Every librarian knows that the habitual consumer +of silly and pernicious reading-matter never can, without some almost +miraculous change of mind, be taught to read and enjoy anything else. +If you lure him with rubbish, you are encouraging tastes that are a +greater obstacle to library progress than absolute illiteracy; you are +putting obstacles in the road you propose to take him. The remark of an +American librarian about certain popular novelists, that the people who +like that sort of thing would be more sensible and better educated had +they never learned to read, applies even more forcibly to the besotted +victims of our periodicals of the baser sort. But the mere fact that +the public who kill time with this sort of chewing-gum are not the +public that borrow books or use the reference library, at once disposes +of such a plea. By all means, let us have light literature, but let it +be literature, and not an unrecognizable imitation. + +Much, however, and far the largest amount of the material in a +well-appointed reading room will not be literature at all, but simply +information. In the chief London and many provincial libraries a large +number of scientific and technical periodicals are taken, including +publications of research societies and a good many foreign periodicals. +More are required, and, as our public libraries are able to spend more +money, one at least in each large area of population ought to be as +well provided in this respect as are the science libraries at South +Kensington, the university libraries, or, say, the Manchester Literary +and Philosophical Institution, to take a good provincial example. These +publications are as necessary as it is to keep editions of scientific +and technical books thoroughly up to date. Their contents should be +fully accessible, and to ensure this every library must subscribe to +the Subject-Index to Periodicals. A practice increasing in frequency +is that of indexing the current periodicals as they arrive, and +mounting the entries in a mechanical guard-book or vertical file. +Such libraries as possess a stock of long sets will naturally be +provided with Poole’s and the other older indexes to periodicals; even +libraries not possessing such long sets ought to have the indexes, for +the same reason as they have other bibliographical guides, namely, +to show inquirers in what books or periodicals information exists, +an intelligent staff being relied upon to point out in what nearest +libraries the books or periodicals are to be found. + + +SPECIAL READING ROOMS. + +Not much is to be said nowadays in favour of separate reading rooms for +ladies; the segregation of the sexes is going out of fashion, even in +railway travelling. Yet they are still provided; for instance, the fine +library building now all but completed at Dunfermline has a ladies’ +room worthy of its scale and dignity. Far more urgent is the need for +separate rooms where students can read and write in peace and quiet; +children’s reading rooms will be discussed under another head. The +Adult Education Committee wisely emphasized this desirability. “It is, +in our view, essential that in all public libraries, in addition to the +usual reading room where newspapers and magazines are consulted, there +should be a room for the purposes of study. It is too often forgotten +that many students have no place where they can study in comfort. It +is also most desirable that all public libraries should possess a room +large enough to be used for classes, lectures, and discussions.”[6] +The latter requirement should have been framed differently. A lecture +room is not a good class room. Every library should have its lecture +room; it should also have one or more small rooms suitable for classes, +tutorial or other, of the cosy size and character that help so much +to bring out comradeship and intimacy. Whoever has tried to conduct a +seminar numbering more than a dozen members will have experienced how +difficult it is to break down shyness and evoke a frank and genuine +exchange of thought. Rooms that are small and intimate are wanted for +reading circles and discussions; at a pinch, the study room can be +utilized; but both purposes must be served, and often at the same hour. +The need for still other rooms dedicated to special uses will appear +when we deal with the various forms of library extension. + + +THE CHILDREN’S DEPARTMENT. + +During the nineties of last century a good many libraries began to +allot separate reading rooms to the children, at first, as a rule, +to boys only, but later to boys and girls, sometimes in separation, +sometimes together. At first experimental and subsidiary, this +children’s reading room, usually combined with a children’s library, +has come to be an essential part of the modern public library: those +that are without it have no claim to be considered modern. Its relative +importance varies according to the views of different committees and +librarians, and also according to the local ability or willingness +to meet the heavy cost of running such a department on proper lines. +When we remember that the children are our future reading public, and +when, taking a broader view, we imagine what it would have meant had +every man and woman been trained from childhood in the intelligent +use of books, we see how impossible it is to overrate this side of +public library work. We must treat the child in the library in the most +liberal, sympathetic, and respectful way. We must give the child in our +libraries and reading rooms, from the outset, all the privileges and +dignity of a citizen, and the future of our libraries and reading rooms +will be ensured. + +Birkenhead seems to have been the first town to become alive to the +need of special provision for the youngest readers. Child readers +enjoyed the advantage of a special section in the lending library +there as long ago as 1865, and a few years later they were furnished +with a separate catalogue of the children’s library. At Nottingham, +a benevolent M.P., the late Samuel Morley, gave a sum in 1882 to +found a separate building for children. These English libraries laid +the first stone; but it was in American libraries that most of the +building now took place. In the United States, the mere children’s +corner rapidly developed into the separate library and reading room, +and then gradually into a very peculiar and admirable thing, the +children’s room--a distinct department, under the control of persons +trained to work with children. It is a sort of autonomous children’s +institute, combining something of the kindergarten with a well-planned +school library ministering to both teaching and recreation. There are +readable books to be read on the spot or taken home; works of reference +to help in doing school work and make this more interesting; pictures, +statuettes, and miscellaneous exhibits, which have more meaning given +them by reading courses, talks, and illustrated lectures; and, finally, +there is the story-telling--an art on which the American librarian +pins much faith as a mode of awakening interest and evoking the right +atmosphere before a child reads books on any given subject. + +In this country, the Junior Library at Croydon is perhaps as near an +approach as any we have made to the American idea. It occupies one of +the largest rooms in the central building, and combines the functions +of lending and reference library and magazine room. There is a platform +and a lantern screen; ferns and other plants are dotted about. Any +child of school age is admissible on the recommendation of a teacher. +The librarian in charge and the one assistant do nothing but work +for children; the children make it possible for them to carry out an +extremely full and varied programme by acting as voluntary helpers, +and are trained to serve at the counter, put books back in classified +order on the shelves, and act as monitors. Others are drilled in groups +for various duties, such as cutting out and mounting pictures for +the great cyclopædia of illustrations, lettering posters, writing up +bulletins of topical information for their fellow-readers. Lectures +are delivered once a week at least, and story hours come much oftener. +The children’s librarian takes classes brought from the schools, and +explains the value of classification or the use and pleasures of books. +Teachers, also, are allowed to use the children’s library at times as +a class-room, illustrating lessons from the books and other exhibits +there. Sometimes a class is brought and the children are simply +allowed to browse at will. The collection of pictures is utilized in +many ways. Sets of illustrations are hung on green baise screens to +illustrate current events, the seasons of the year, the birthdays of +notable men, and so on, with lists of the books in the library on the +subjects to which the children have been introduced. A large part of +the librarian’s time is taken up with showing the young readers how to +find their way about among the reference books, and how to make the +easiest and most remunerative use of these in their school lessons and +their private hobbies. But the children are also gradually trained to +help each other, and eventually to help the librarian in the daily +routine of what they soon come to regard as their own library; they +grow, in fact, into a sort of union society, running all sorts of +affairs on their own account, with the official but not too officious +eye directing and assisting rather than controlling their efforts. +They might be compared to a group of patrols under a scoutmaster. The +library in the children’s room contains about 4,000 volumes, and issues +from 1,000 to 1,200 every week; in the period of five months from the +report on which many of these details are taken, 1,200 new borrowers +enrolled themselves. + +Discipline, of course, must be maintained; this is essential to smooth +working; but it must be evoked rather than imposed. Only the right +sort of person, having had the right sort of training, even if born +with the right disposition, is competent to evoke it and at the same +time keep the children friendly, happy, and occupied with interesting +things. Scores of children’s reading rooms have been a failure from the +lack of this well-qualified superintendent. It is a waste of time to +try running them as a minor department, to be committed to the hands +of each junior assistant as his turn comes on the time-sheet. A mob +of youngsters idling their time away and making the pleasant place a +bear-garden would be the certain result. One common mistake that has +a bad initial effect is to make the junior readers enter the library +at a separate door, usually guarded by a special custodian who is a +martinet. This preliminary insult to a child’s dignity is, perhaps +unconsciously, resented; it strikes a wrong note. The idea that he or +she must be segregated from grown-up readers subtly provokes a spirit +precisely the opposite of that which needs to be cultivated. It is more +fatal than the contrary mistake of pampering and idolizing children. +Put him or her on nearly the same footing as their elders; mutual +deference is infinitely better than the eighteenth century doctrine +that every child is either a limb of Satan or a little imbecile. + +To attain full success, librarian, teacher, and parents must learn +to co-operate. Few parents take any interest in what their children +read, and those few often take too much; they do not understand that +coercion, or even a too didactic purpose, is fatal to the true object +of an apprenticeship to reading, and will assuredly not lead children +to love and enjoy reading, or to discover for themselves the values it +can give to their own interests and pleasures. Until parents in general +are capable of taking a wise interest, it is better perhaps that they +should remain as indifferent as most parents are. In the fulness of +time, when our children’s rooms are less markedly inferior to those +across the Atlantic, when each has an adequate staff of persons trained +for this highly specialized work, and teachers understand how much can +be done by suggestion to direct the child’s reading and so lighten +their own labours in teaching, by then the parent will doubtless have +learned to take a proper share of interest and responsibility. All this +cannot be achieved in one generation. We have now had public libraries +for three-quarters of a century; but, for the arrears of intelligent +use we have to make up, we might have only just begun experimenting +with them. + +The secret of success is to bring out the child’s own initiative. +This, it may be taken for granted, is not a tendency to original sin. +Good taste, like good art, is at bottom a natural thing: a misguided +belief that it must be painfully instilled has done more than aught +else to pervert it. Children perceive as much instinctively; hence +their suspicion of well-meant efforts to put them on the right paths. +A boy will hate even _Robinson Crusoe_ if he is told he must read it; +rather let him discover the realms of gold for himself. All which means +that children want handling in matters of taste with a refined skill +to which the mere common sense and tact required by the adult reader +in a library is nothing. It means, again, that though the children’s +librarian is sometimes born, when he, or rather she, has to be made, +the making is an important and highly specialized process. + +Other obvious points must be borne in mind, by teachers, parents, +and librarians. The mere posture in reading, and the need for a good +light at the proper angle, are not minor points, for bad habits in +this respect are ruinous and alarmingly common. Many children read far +too much. They must not be allowed to become bookworms; the parent +ought to see that they have a healthy outdoor life, and the teacher +that the charms of the book-world do not lead to the neglect of tasks +set at school. Steady co-operation with the teachers in leading +children to find in books aids to the business and the pleasures of +life, is characteristic of those library systems where the children’s +department has been given its due place in the scheme, and is not a +mere side-show, ignorantly mismanaged and not thought worth spending +money on. It is characteristic, for instance, of the admirable group +of children’s libraries and reading rooms in the Islington Public +Libraries, with its stock of 10,000 volumes set aside for the junior +clients. There are numerous others in London and the provinces where +co-operation is carried on in some form or another; but differences +of opinion on the comparative merits of school libraries and of the +library in the children’s reading room make for differences of method. +Yet access to a school library does not render the public library any +the less valuable to an intelligent child; and there ought to be the +fullest mutual understanding and the keenest desire to help each other +between librarian and teacher. + +The fare provided in the children’s department consists, not only +of books, but also of the best juvenile magazines, together with a +sprinkling of illustrated weeklies and monthlies intended by the +producers for readers of any age. Easy French magazines are sometimes +provided. On the reference shelves stand suitable encyclopædias, +atlases and gazetteers, dictionaries of several languages, works on +local history and topography, illustrated natural histories, the works +of the poets, and many other books that are likely to prove useful to +children in their home work. The choice of books for children is a +different thing now from what it was before the advent of Kingsley, +Kingston, and Kipling. With a few exceptions, the didactic trash that +constituted the whole stock of children’s literature a century ago may +now be jettisoned, along with a still greater volume of more recent +lumber depressingly written down to the childish intellect. Any modern +author, for children or any one else, knows, if he knows his business +at all, that the first thing to avoid is the habit or affectation or +process of writing down to an inferior mind. Lewis Carroll, Sir James +Barrie, Walter de la Mare conquered the child by writing as children +themselves, and writing their best, writing with all their genius and +with all the gusto due to things that are high and serious. Didactic +writing is always bad. It cannot help being bad. The moment a writer +begins to think of his audience instead of his subject, he becomes +self-conscious and artificial. Worst of all when he has the effrontery +to think of that audience as inferior to himself, and tries to adapt +his thoughts to feebler understandings. Children are not slower than +those of riper age to detect the false note, and be insulted by the +condescension. Thus it is far better to offer children books that have +been written for their elders than such as have been manufactured on +the plan of mild adulteration. In fact, a very large proportion of +the best books in the junior library belong to this higher category. +_Robinson Crusoe_ and _Gulliver_ are obvious examples; _Uncle Tom’s +Cabin_ is another; _Kidnapped_ will be received as warmly as _Treasure +Island_ or _The Black Arrow_, and if _Lavengro_ has not such a +universal appeal there will be no hesitation about _The Cloister and +the Hearth_. Many of the novels of Blackmore and Stanley Weyman, most +of Dickens’s, some of Thackeray’s and all of Scott’s are on the shelves +of every good children’s library; and Jane Austen, Mrs. Gaskell, and +some at any rate of George Eliot’s novels will meet the taste of girls. +Many works of travel, some histories, and biographies not a few, +such as the delightful life of Frank Buckland, are as much in place +here as in the senior library; and among the poets and essayists the +same freedom of choice may safely be exercised. Both publishers and +librarians are now at one in seeing that there is nothing shoddy in +the format of the books provided for children any more than in their +contents; good paper, readable print, and illustrations of artistic +merit, are becoming the rule. In the last-named particular children’s +books at the present day are immensely superior to the volumes of +popular fiction that seem to be perfectly satisfactory to thousands who +are obviously their elders, but hardly their betters. + +The advantages of a closer relationship between education authorities +and library authorities are manifest both in children’s rooms in +libraries and children’s libraries in schools. The library is certainly +part of the educational fabric. On the one hand, the teacher is aided +enormously by the child’s work in the library, all the more if that +work is spontaneous and enjoyable; on the other hand, the children +who find out the vital part a library can play in their work and +recreations, who have become familiar with books of reference and +periodicals, with the uses of catalogues, the vistas opened by files, +albums, and indexes, and the order and intelligibility brought about +by a clear system of classification, will have acquired something of +inestimable value in the process of self-development to be carried on +long after school-days are over. The Adult Education Committee were of +opinion that the intimate relationship required could not exist without +a common administration; and they would accordingly have placed all our +public libraries under the care of the education authorities. There +is no need at this point to discuss their proposals, beyond assenting +to the argument for the closest bond between school and library. Even +if they continue to be managed by different authorities, all library +activities in the schools should be worked from the library. Whether +school libraries are stationary or circulating collections, they should +be administered from the children’s library as the base, and their +complementary relation thereto should be an important fact in the mind +of every child reader. + +In England it must not be hastily assumed that every town or even the +majority are blessed with all the facilities described above for the +benefit of children. Only a few have faced the problem seriously, and +hardly any have faced the expense of a thorough service. A town like +Toronto employs twenty-one assistant-librarians in the mere work of +supervising the school libraries, and many American cities have much +larger staffs engaged on this alone. It is obvious, at all events, that +no library authority can be expected to carry on such an undertaking +except at the cost of the sister authority, ready though it may be +to furnish the knowledge and experience of a trained staff. Common +administration, or at least harmonious administration under departments +of the same supreme body, seems a logical consequence. + + +COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL LIBRARIES. + +Libraries, like the books they house and distribute, have multiplex +reasons for their existence. Their highest aim, like that of education +itself, is to promote the mental and spiritual life of the community; +they are humanist foundations. But the race must be conserved; our +daily needs must be satisfied. National safety, liberty to develop +ourselves, the economy of our physical existence, must be assured, or +humanism is a chimera. Our libraries must perform their necessary part +in the functions we label utilitarian, without, however, omitting or +slackening in their higher purposes. A general library, in short, is +concerned not only with human knowledge, but also with every human +interest and activity; not only with science, philosophy, theory, +but with all the practical arts, those which are for the preservation, +as well as those which are for the highest development of humanity. +In the department of the public library now to be considered these +material objects are the main concern. A modern commercial library is +something utterly different from any library heretofore considered. +Here, as an advocate of more and better commercial and technical +libraries puts it, “The humanist will have to give way to the economist +and man of science.” + +[Illustration: PATENT OFFICE LIBRARY.] + +From their earliest years, public libraries have admitted these claims, +and they have put forth special efforts to supply the peculiar needs of +the working classes. The nature of the industries carried on has been +the chief factor determining the directions in which the stock of books +should differ in any given locality from what may be described as the +standard selection. Text-books on such industries and their subsidiary +subjects, illustrated treatises and other expensive works of reference, +have been provided as liberally as funds permitted; and the same +attention has been paid to the local trades and professions. Certain +obvious restrictions must be allowed for, besides limited resources. +Few places have been able to provide a law library or an extensive +collection of medical books. The solicitor usually has his own +book-case of legal literature, and so with the physician and surgeon; +they also have access to large professional libraries. Nevertheless, +if the public library seems to disregard certain professions, it is +rather on the score of expense and of limited demands than that it +disclaims its duty. A national system of libraries would certainly have +to provide for these classes, probably by organizing a central supply +and loans to the nearest library, in the way proposed for dealing with +the more advanced and costly technical works for industries. + +The working mechanic, the small manufacturer, the factory workman, +the technical student, and the tradesman are in a more necessitous +condition; they cannot give a standing order for all the newest +manuals, they have no professional library from which to borrow. In +highly technical industries, only the largest firms can afford to keep +abreast of the rapid growth in scientific knowledge; and to do it +they must install, not only a costly arsenal of books, digests, and +periodicals recording the fruits of research, but also a special staff +to extract, register, and index the most recent information. So rapid +is the rate of progress in all departments of knowledge that books +are quickly left behind, and the proceedings of scientific societies, +technical periodicals, and even the daily press, must be systematically +ransacked by the information bureau, if a progressive firm is to be +sure of utilizing every invention and improvement in the fullest +economic way. Andrew Carnegie said that his own firm wasted hundreds of +thousands of dollars through failing at first to provide their managers +with the fullest information on what had been done throughout the world +in their departments. Is the public library to confine itself to the +narrower mission of assisting the needy worker, or to launch out on +this more ambitious project, and compete with the skilled staff work +employed by the wealthy industrial corporation? After all, the wealthy +corporation has contributed in proportion to its rateable assets to +the upkeep of the library, and has, on the face of it, as good a claim +to some return as the meanest ratepayer, unless the original idea +that the public library was only for the working classes is still to +prevail. If the public library were, in the full sense, a working part +of the machinery for national welfare, there could be no doubt about +the answer. As it is, only a few of the more prosperous and energetic +libraries have accepted the larger obligation; and, even so, no British +library can be compared with the great commercial libraries of America, +with such a foundation as the Commercial Museum of Philadelphia, with +its exhaustive collections of technical and business information and +its staff of consulting specialists, or with the Institute of Commerce +at Antwerp. + +The utter inability of the public library service to cope with the +requirements of industry and commerce was growing more manifest +before the war. It was true then as now that no single library could +satisfy the technical needs even of its own district, and that some +system of mutual aid and central supply must be devised to supplement +the finest local provision. With the violent awakening to the lack +of organization of our resources which the war brought about, the +problem came into clearer focus. The Library Association took the +matter up with due seriousness in 1916, first inquiring into the +best methods of developing the scientific and technical departments +of public libraries, and then into the collateral problem of +commercial libraries. The dual subject was before the important annual +conference of 1917, and strong resolutions were passed in favour of +establishing commercial libraries in the chief centres of trade, and +technical libraries in all large manufacturing towns, in both cases +as an integral part of the public library systems.[7] Since then, +the Technical and Commercial Libraries Committee appointed by the +Association has put together a mass of evidence on the subject, and +has carried on a vigorous propaganda. Their views did not, however, +meet with the full approval of the Adult Education Committee, who +inclined to the representations of the Committee of the Privy Council +for Scientific and Industrial Research that an independent series of +technical libraries should be created in connexion with industries +rather than with the existing libraries.[8] The weak point of the +Library Association’s case had been a certain vagueness as to the +methods by which, and the particular authority by whom, their admirable +proposals should be carried into effect. Although they acknowledged +that the work could not be done on a proper scale by the public +libraries unassisted, or without some measure of co-operation, they +hesitated to recommend that the public libraries should be organized +into a reciprocating system for the purpose. They declined to say who, +in their opinion, should set up and who should control the machinery of +co-operation, or precisely what the “measures of co-operation” should +be. This, of course, is the essential point of any scheme for concerted +action, and the rival project of the Adult Education Committee, +unfortunate as it must appear to any one experienced in the working of +libraries and alive to the wastefulness of duplication, at any rate was +free from this defect. + +The question between the rival proposals now lies in abeyance. It is +as well that it should lie there, till a more constructive plan is put +forward on behalf of the public libraries. The country cannot afford to +set up an independent system of libraries at a time when expenditure +must be adjusted to strict necessities; it would be uneconomic to do +so at any time. Whatever the shortcomings of the nation’s libraries, +shortcomings due to the nation’s neglect in the past, these libraries +are a going concern, a machine well able to carry a larger load, under +which indeed they would run all the better and at a lower rate per +output. How absurd to erect new machinery when the old wants only a +little oiling! The proposals of the Adult Education Committee are +mistaken; those of the Library Association are defective. The theorist +failed to call in the expert: the expert suffered from obtuseness of +vision. Will they come together now to talk it over? + +Meanwhile, the public libraries have been strengthening their +collections of technical literature, and commercial libraries have +actually been established as an offshoot of the central library +at Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow, Leeds, Bradford, Bristol, and +Manchester, whilst at Norwich, Northampton, Bolton, Croydon, and +Rochdale parts of the library have been set aside as business sections, +and catalogues or guide-books printed showing how their contents may +be utilized with the maximum of ease and profit. The advent of the +commercial library has done more at a single blow to rouse the public +imagination than any other event in the history of public libraries. +Business men, who had been indifferent to mere accumulations of +literature, found in this new species of library, containing hardly a +single volume that Charles Lamb would have dignified with the name of +a book, a bureau performing gratis all the useful services that the +wealthy business concern obtains at exorbitant expense from its large +office library or department of information. Within a year, the Glasgow +librarian was able to report that 30,000 visits had been paid to the +new establishment by business people, and a large number of inquiries +by letter, telephone, or telegram satisfactorily answered. The average +daily consultations during the first year at Manchester, by all sorts +of persons from managing directors to messengers, was three hundred.[9] +In Bristol last year the consultations of books, periodicals, files, +and indexes totalled 51,181. Elsewhere the tale is the same. + +A more particular account of the Manchester Commercial Library, the +latest to be opened, will indicate the distinctive features and +functions of these new departments. Its quarters are a large room in +the Royal Exchange, in the heart of the business region of the city: +here it was inaugurated by the Lord Mayor on October 23rd, 1919. A +handbook stating its aims and explaining its uses was issued, in which +it is pointed out that the commercial library is there to provide “any +and every kind of commercial information that may be obtained from +printed matter, and such additional information as it may be possible +to procure from public or private sources; and for the collection, +arrangement, and cataloguing of such printed matter, so as to render it +quickly and conveniently available for inquirers and readers. It is not +a technical library; those who want books on processes of manufacture +must consult the collection in the reference library in Piccadilly. Its +object is to cater for the man who markets commodities, and buys and +sells them; not for the man who makes them.” + +In the fittings, furniture, and apparatus many new devices have been +introduced, such as the contrivance for mounting and storing maps on +vertical cylinders, and for displaying them flat on large tables--a +method that has certain advantages, especially when a number of +different maps have to be consulted in turn. But the most striking and +in many respects the most useful piece of library mechanism is the +vertical file. This is a vast accumulation of cuttings from newspapers +and other sources, systematically arranged, in which any item of +information that may be of service to the business man is preserved and +made available for instant reference by a subject index. About 100,000 +clippings had been laid in, arranged, and indexed by March, 1921; +and this home-made encyclopædia, this vast inquire-within, enabled +the staff to answer off-hand a large percentage of the miscellaneous +queries coming in from hour to hour.[10] The periodicals taken number +over two hundred, and include a good many foreign publications. The +latest maps are added to the collection as they appear, and the +atlases include several that can hardly be found elsewhere, at least +in places accessible to the public. Thus the contents of the library +are multiform, books, pamphlets, leaflets, charts, tables, as well +as press cuttings; all are minutely classified, and graphic methods +of subject-cataloguing make it easy to trace the most out-of-the-way +information. Here is the summary of the contents given by the official +handbook:-- + + +THE CONTENTS OF THE LIBRARY. + +These may be roughly summarized as follows: + + _Directories._--These embrace the whole of the United Kingdom, some + of the British Colonies, along with other countries of the world, and + the principal cities of the United States and Canada. Many important + trades are represented by trade directories and year books. There is + a Post Office Telephone Directory for the United Kingdom. + + _Periodicals._--A careful selection has been made of over 150 trade + periodicals from all parts of the world. + + _Parliamentary Publications._--The varied and most valuable + publications of the British Government, bearing, either in whole or + part, on commercial interests, are received regularly as issued. + + _Chambers of Commerce Reports._--These include Chambers at home, and + in many foreign countries--Brazil, Egypt, South Africa, Australia, + India, Norway, Sweden, &c. The collection of Chamber of Commerce year + books is of value as illustrating the industries of the different + towns in the United Kingdom. + + _Codes._--A.B.C., Bentley, Lieber, Lieber’s Five Letter, Scott’s + Western Union, &c. + + _Dictionaries._--English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, + Portuguese, Russian. + + _Tables._--Calculating tables and tables of foreign exchanges. + + _Text-books._--Commercial law, banking, advertising, accountancy, + office methods, insurance, business organization, tariffs, + salesmanship, transportation, raw materials, and the commercial side + of textiles and engineering, are represented on the shelves by the + most recent books. + + _Trade Catalogues._--These are collected purely from the point of + view of the value of the information contained in them, or as types + of catalogue production. At present a beginning only has been made, + many firms not having published catalogues during the war. The + catalogues are classified and catalogued in the same way as other + books. + + _Maps and Atlases._--Commercial routes and different countries are + well represented, and the best of the new maps and atlases will be + added when published. + +Parliamentary command papers dealing with commercial matters are +received on publication, and liberal assistance is given by the +Department of Overseas Trade, Chambers of Commerce both home and +foreign, trade societies, business firms, and British consuls and trade +commissioners. Bulletins are issued by the library month by month, +giving lists of books on accountancy, banking, foreign directories, +scientific management, advertising, foreign trade, and similar topics. +Even a manufacturer’s catalogue becomes a work of high utility and +importance when it takes its proper place in such a collection, +often affording valuable assistance to inquirers in search of the +manufacturer of any given article. + +The Library of Commerce at Bristol is similarly organized, and has met +with like appreciation. The following is a return of the consultations +from February 1920 to January 22nd, 1921:-- + + 1920 Books. Directories. Maps. Periodicals. Total. + Feb.-June 4378 6102 725 8137 19342 + July 837 1502 172 2181 4692 + August 735 1276 261 1780 4052 + September 823 1402 172 1806 4203 + October 986 1510 158 2115 4769 + November 1221 1256 161 2079 4717 + December 710 1155 133 1739 3737 + + 1921 + Jan. 1 (1 day) 21 43 3 81 148 + + Week ending + Jan. 8 184 333 34 513 1064 + Jan. 15 220 326 35 504 1085 + Jan. 22 220 301 36 518 1075 + ------------------------------------------------------------- + Grand Total 10,335 15,206 1,890 21,453 48,884 + ------------------------------------------------------------- + +Here are some examples of the questions that have been asked and +answered--in several instances with the direct consequence that the +inquirer has been saved losses running into very large figures:-- + + What are the means of communication in Bechuanaland? + + Was the 1893 vintage good? + + What has been the _monthly_ percentage of the increase of the cost of + living since July 1914 (retail and wholesale)? + + What is the procedure for the winding up of a company? + + What is the bank deposit rate? + + What is the amount payable for brokerage? + + What is the state of the wool market in Australia? + + Who are the principal makers of knitting machines? + + Can the movements of a vessel be traced through 1920? + + What is the stamp duty on a form of contract? + + What is the position of trade in the Argentine? + + What time would a steamer take to go from Hull to the Canary Isles? + + What is the difference in the rate of exchange in U.S.A. in September + 1919 and July 1920? + + What is the duty on wine and spirits? + + What is the position of the Belgian industries? + + What is the time-limit for stamping a form of agreement? + + Several inquiries for help in coding and decoding cables. + + The width of the River Tees from Stockton to Middlesbrough. + + Names of Portuguese shipowners trading with English ports. + + Owners of steamers sailing between Dover and Calais, and particulars + of service. + + The latest information re Indigo in India. + + The flat rate of pay for seamen. + + Price of bunker coal in New York in July, 1920. + +At Leeds, the commercial library is combined with the technical +library--an unusual arrangement, but one for which there is a good deal +to be said as well as against. Technical libraries exist for the supply +of information, and also to subserve technical education: a commercial +library is for information simply. There are inconveniences attached to +the combination; it is not a mere question of logical differentiation. +Commercial libraries are open during business hours, and closed in the +evenings and on Saturday afternoons, the very time when the technical +student would use the library most. The one, again, is arranged +and furnished to facilitate rapid consultation, not as a place for +prolonged study. Logically, of course, it seems absurd to separate the +literature on making a thing from the literature on selling it, the +production department from the sales department. Big libraries may some +day divide naturally into a modern side and a humanist side, and this +might prove as convenient a dichotomy as it is suited to the logic of +modern life. At any rate, the experiment at Leeds is worth watching, +and public expedience must settle the point. + +These commercial departments have enlarged the ordinary province +of the public library, and have developed into something like the +intelligence bureau of a large industrial firm. The staff is prepared +to supply, not only the means of information, but also information +itself. Many years ago, in the Cardiff and some other public libraries, +a new institution called the information desk came into vogue, +where a trained assistant sat at the receipt of questions, oral, +postal, or telephonic, which he answered forthwith, or after search +in directories, dictionaries, and other compendiums of information, +including the file of inquiries already handled. In a commercial town, +this departure from old-fashioned practice was welcomed as extremely +useful. Public libraries suddenly became popular with a class who had +hitherto scarcely noticed their existence. The new commercial libraries +perform the same function much more effectively, because they have far +larger masses of information tabulated and mobilized, and are ready to +lead up their reserves at any moment. + +The Adult Education Committee criticize this transformation of part +of the library into an intelligence bureau. There seems to be a fear +that it may compete with the commercial intelligence department of +the Government or with the chambers of commerce. Admitting that the +boundary between the province of these organizations and that of the +commercial library is not easy to define, they protest “that the +function of the commercial department of a local library is primarily +to provide books concerned with the theory and practice of commerce +and cognate subjects, rather than detailed information on matters of +trade.” Here the mind of the theorist, the stern logician, is again +at work, making havoc of expediency, and also of common sense. If the +commercial library is doing the work so well, and doing it cheaply +into the bargain, then if you are going to shut up anything, shut up +the Government department: the trade association will be only too glad +to be saved doing the job over again. Give the library its proper +equipment in money and privilege, give it room and opportunity to +develop into an institute of commerce, and the taxpayer and many other +people’s pockets will be spared.[11] These outside organizations, +whether run by the Government or by the traders, are in fact working +under disadvantages so long as they are not lodged in a first-class +commercial library and carried on by a staff trained in library +methods, the results are less satisfactory and more costly to produce. +Every library, in one of its aspects, is an information bureau. +Pedantic classification may draw a sharp line between one sort of +information and another; experience and expediency point to the library +as the right place for the retail of intelligence, whether practical or +theoretic. + +[Illustration: + + _Photo Pictorial Agency._ + +LIBRARY OF THE INSTITUTE OF ACTUARIES, STAPLE INN HALL.] + +The commercial library or the technical library provided by the +municipality will not lead to the extinction of the library belonging +to the private firm; rather may it be expected to tend to the +multiplication and development of these, just as access to books in +public libraries has led to more book-buying by readers, who have +learned the value of books, and feel the need to have certain works +always by them on their own shelves. The great immediate benefit is +to the smaller firms and the individual worker; but even they will no +doubt acquire eventually far more books for themselves, and a much +better selection of books, as a direct result of access to a public +business library, familiarity with its contents, and realization of the +enormous advantage of being in constant touch with the latest sources +of information. In the United States, which are incomparably better +off than this country in all sorts of commercial, technical, and other +special libraries provided by public funds, there are now about 2,500 +business libraries established by progressive firms.[12] + + +BOOKS FOR THE BLIND. + +As long ago as 1857, the Liverpool Public Libraries set the example of +providing books in raised type for the blind. At Nottingham, one of +the first to follow this lead, I remember many years later visiting +the room set apart for the blind, and watching several blind people +at work producing new pages in embossed print from another sightless +person’s dictation. Along the walls were deep cases enclosing long +sets of portly quartos or folios--novels by Scott or Dickens in eight +or ten volumes apiece, Macaulay’s _History of England_ in seventy-two, +the Bible in thirty-eight, and so on. At that time, the supply of +books for the blind had been so far centralized that most libraries +relied upon collections at Manchester, Nottingham, London, or other +places, run chiefly by voluntary organizations. And now, few if any +public libraries provide books for the blind themselves, the National +Library for the Blind, in Tufton Street, Westminster, or its branch +at Manchester, being a depot for all. This admirable institution, at +once a great bookstore and a place for both recreation and educational +work, with its reading rooms, music room, and hall for meetings and +discussions, was provided by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust. Public +libraries and other institutions all over the country are entitled to +borrow from it for the benefit of their blind readers, on payment of +a moderate subscription. “It is closely affiliated with the Students’ +Library at Oxford, which is gradually being built up to supply the +special needs of University men.”[13] + +Stamping machinery is now used for the production of metal plates, from +which any number of copies of books in embossed type may be obtained, +though the process is costly. The Carnegie Trust has provided funds +for the manufacture of metal plates by the National Institute for the +Blind and by the Royal Blind Asylum and School at Edinburgh. All copies +of standard works thus printed--if the word may be used--are presented +to the National Library, and the stereotype plates remain on hand for +further issues. + +The work of transcribing books by hand is, however, growing enormously, +and is of vast importance, as is shown by the fact that during 1920, +431 complete new works of literature running into 1,371 volumes of +Braille were produced in this way from ink print by the Library’s +voluntary workers (of whom there are some 500) whilst during the same +period 89 complete new works were published by the stereotyping houses. +It will thus be seen that if the blind of the country depended only on +the stereotyped books produced, their choice of reading matter would be +exceedingly limited. + +Blind copyists are employed to duplicate the books at an average cost +of 25s. per volume, whence it is obvious that literary provision for +the blind is very expensive, and is possible on any adequate scale only +if liberal public support is forthcoming. Recently, alas, there has +been a vast increase in the numbers of blind persons. The idea of the +old charitable institutions that such readers would be satisfied with +books of moral edification was abandoned long ago; nowadays it would +be absurd. Books on every subject, serious reading and light reading, +educational literature and literature recording recent scientific +advances and expressing the latest phases of thought, are in demand +among blind readers representing every grade of culture. In short, +there is no more limit, except the cost of producing copies in this +special form, to the contents of a modern library for the blind than to +those of any other general library. At present, the National Library +has nearly 65,000 books on its shelves, besides some 12,000 volumes of +music. + +The public library in any subscribing locality is thus relieved of the +serious burden, not merely of purchasing, but also of housing these +bulky volumes. A reader sends in his list of books required, which +is transmitted to the National Library, and the books are then sent +direct to the reader’s home. It is a work of public benefit, yea, of +national obligation, that surely cries loudly for State aid. In the +United States consignments of books for the blind are carried free to +the nearest post office or station. “Of 12,819 books for the blind +circulated by the New York Public Library in 1908, 8,558 were sent +free by mail.”[14] Our Post Office has made concessions not quite so +generous, allowing a book weighing 6¹⁄₂ lbs. to travel for 2d., and +one weighing 5 lbs. to be sent anywhere abroad for 2¹⁄₂d. The cheaper +transmission of books by post will become an urgent question whenever a +national system of interchange between all manner of libraries becomes +an accomplished fact; but, even then, the case of the blind will be one +calling for exceptional liberality. + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] A. E. Bostwick. “The American Public Library,” p. 56-7. + +[5] R. A. Rye. “The Libraries of London: a guide for students” +(University of London, 1910). + +[6] Adult Education Committee: Final Report, par. 5. + +[7] _A Question of the Day: Public Libraries_ (Library Association, +1918). + +[8] _Third Interim Report_:--C.--Technical and Commercial Libraries. + +[9] The following shows the number of readers monthly:-- + + Oct. 1919 1,316 + Nov. 4,361 + Dec. 4,405 + Jan. 1920 5,608 + Feb. 5,259 + March 6,166 + April 5,585 + May 4,416 + June 1920 6,029 + July 5,772 + Aug. 5,936 + Sept. 6,365 + Oct. 6,871 + Nov. 7,428 + Dec. 6,617 + Jan. 1921 7,043 + + +[10] On the other hand, the complexity and the efficiency organization +required in the technical library and information department of a +modern business undertaking, may be realized from an article on +“The Library at the Ardeer Factory of Nobel’s Explosives Co., Ltd.” +(_Library Association Record_, June, 1921). + +[11] American opinion is all in favour of the use of the library as an +information department. “The aim of the business library is rather to +function as a central information, statistical, or research bureau, +or, like other departments, to aid directly or indirectly in profits, +in increasing quantity, quality, or efficiency of production, in +building up an intelligent work force, or in the general improvement +and extension of the business. Only in so far as it does this is +the business library justifiable.” J. H. Friedel, _Training for +Librarianship_, p. 115. + +[12] “Within the last three years the number of business libraries has +more than doubled.” J. H. Friedel: _Training for Librarianship_ (1921), +p. 113. See also the chapters on Special Libraries, Agricultural +Libraries, Financial Libraries, Law Libraries, Technical Libraries, etc. + +[13] Library Association Record, Aug., 1920, p. 258. + +[14] A. E. Bostwick: _The American Public Library_, p. 31. + + + + +III + +LIBRARY EXTENSION. + + +Library Extension is closely analogous to the more familiar phrase +University Extension. It stands for various activities that go outside, +often far outside, the province marked out by the Public Libraries +Acts, yet are natural if not inevitable corollaries of the educational +and social doctrines that formulated those Acts. They carry the +services and influence of the library into other spheres--the school, +the home, the voluntary association--and expand its functions from +the mechanical disposal of books as stock-in-trade to their treatment +as atoms packed with vital force, electrons charged with incalculable +energies capable of working great consequences in that susceptible +region, human life. A library may confine itself to a passive attitude, +and so long as it responds more or less freely to external pressure it +may be acceptable and useful to a small proportion of the persons who +pay for its upkeep. But it was long ago borne in upon the far-sighted +librarian and committee-man that a more active, nay, a positively +militant policy was required if the public library was to exercise +all its powers for good in the social economy. More books have +mouldered away or come to a like inglorious and ineffectual end than +were ever worn out by hard use. You can offer your public the finest +collection of books--it has been done again and again by profligate +philanthropists--and never get them read, or the people’s life and +taste improved. It is easy to buy books; it is much more difficult, and +far more important, to create readers.[15] + +The librarian’s duty, he has found by harsh experience, is twofold: to +contrive a library service, and to see that the best use is made of it. +Instruction in the art of reading and in the choice of books, it may +be objected, is for the teacher, not the librarian. Theoretically, it +may be so; but the rejoinder is, our teachers have never succeeded in +the task, they have not even addressed themselves to it, and they are +not likely to succeed unless they work hand in hand with the librarian: +they must, indeed, rely on the librarian, the book-expert, more and +more under modern conditions, for guidance in their own reading and +in carrying out their own functions according to the newest lights. +It is largely owing to the lack of any regular correlation between +schools and libraries that the results of the Education Acts have been +so unsatisfactory. The mistakes of 1850 might have been rectified in +1870 by bringing the new system of schooling into the closest contact +with the public libraries. But, though it was enacted that every child +should be taught to read, that children should be taught how to read, +and where and what to read, seems to have scarcely entered the minds +of those responsible for elementary education. In introducing the +Education Estimates for 1917-8, Mr. Fisher said in the House of Commons +(April 19th, 1917):-- + +“I have been impressed by the fact that boys who have been stirred up +at the age of sixteen or seventeen to attend the technological classes +attached to our new universities in the north of England have so lost +the habit of intellectual activity as to cloy and impede the efficient +working of the college.... The country does not get full value out of +its elementary schools, because so much of the training and instruction +is subsequently lost.” + +Why had these boys lost the habit of intellectual activity? Because, +first, though they had received the usual primary schooling, they +had never had instilled into them intellectual habits, interests, +or likings; and, second, because, even where libraries and other +intellectual institutions existed, they had never been brought inside +their doors, or learned that these things were their own and would +satisfy their multifarious needs the more they used them. Library +Extension aims at the repair of these oversights. The activities +which it connotes should be an important part of the library service +when this is reorganized on a national basis. In reality, Library +Extension is a return to the broader idea of the people’s institutes. +The lectures, reading circles, meetings for study and discussion, the +co-operative alliances with energetic bodies such as the Workers’ +Educational Association, the local field club, scientific society, +or the like, the closer relations with schools and all intellectual +agencies, are revivals and developments of the social efforts at adult +education which gave life to those institutions in the early nineteenth +century. + +As would be expected, the towns which have taken the lead in such +extension efforts as courses of public lectures have been places where +the traditional bond between the library and kindred foundations like +the museum and art gallery have never been severed. Such a combination +is a much more appropriate engine of extension activity than is the +library that is merely a library. It usually contains a lecture hall, +if not smaller rooms for study and discussion. In addition to the +books, which must be available and must be read if lectures are to +have any lasting results, the collections in the museum are there +for use in connexion with scientific and historical lectures, and +the gallery provides the most appropriate illustrations for those on +artistic subjects. In some towns, library, museum, and art gallery +are housed under one roof, governed by the same committee, and even +superintended by the same curator. Sometimes the technical school is +one of the group. Too close a coalition may have detrimental results. +Administration by one chief officer is hardly justifiable unless the +whole establishment is only on a moderate scale. There is always the +risk that one department will flourish at the expense of the others. +One of the most disastrous instances within my experience was when +the committee of a many-sided institute chose a librarian for his +qualifications as a college lecturer. In this case, it was the library +that went to the wall. In others, it has been the museum, the picture +gallery, or the school, when there has been one attached; or the +whole has suffered from the lack of close attention or of the special +knowledge and experience required equally by each department. But +this is no argument against the policy of putting them all under one +committee as branches of one corporate undertaking. + + +LECTURES IN THE LIBRARY. + +At Liverpool, where library, museum, and art gallery are in the same +suite of buildings, and under one general committee, sections of which +are detailed to supervise the several departments, there is an example +of intimate correlation on the largest scale. Here, in the Picton +Theatre under the central library and in the lecture halls attached to +the branches, free courses of lectures have been carried on ever since +1865, averaging now some two hundred yearly, with an aggregate annual +attendance of nearly 200,000. At Bootle, Salford, Warrington, Wigan, +Cardiff, Wallasey, Bristol, Derby, Norwich, Maidstone, Leek, and other +places, mostly in the midlands, and at Islington, Croydon, Woolwich, +Walthamstow, Camberwell, Kingston, Chelsea, Hampstead, Fulham, Hornsey, +Bromley, and other public libraries in the London area, winter series +of public lectures were in full swing in the years before the war, and +in many cases have not been discontinued or have since been revived. +A good proportion of these libraries are of the old composite type, +complete with museum and art gallery; others are tending to become +such. At Nottingham, where the public library is in partnership, as it +were, with the University College next door, among various extension +efforts the half-hour talks on books and reading have for several +decades been a popular mode of stimulating taste and self-education, +both in adults and in children, and have been widely imitated. The +Manchester Public Library was the pioneer in this provision of lectures +bearing directly on the uses of libraries and the best methods of +reading and private study. + +A large proportion of the library buildings put up during the last +two or three decades are possessed of lecture halls. “It is also +most desirable,” say the Adult Education Committee, “that all public +libraries should possess a room large enough to be used for classes, +lectures, and discussions.” And yet, only in a few spots, such as +Liverpool, enjoying the privileges of special Acts of Parliament, +is it legal to pay a lecturer’s fee, or indeed to spend a penny on +this invaluable and, one would think, indispensable work. Among +the principal reasons put forward by the Committee of 1849 for the +establishment of people’s libraries was the growing demand for public +lectures. Unfortunately, the point was overlooked or dropped out for +motives of policy when the Act was drafted, and repeated appeals to +have such expenditure legalized have fallen on deaf ears. Thus the work +is carried on under the most discouraging and repressive conditions. If +a public library is so reckless as to embark on illustrated lectures, +it must get hold of a lantern, in forma pauperis from some benevolent +donor, or borrow it from a neighbourly institution that is not hampered +by legislative taboos. Even to print a programme or post up a placard +means surcharge by the Government auditor. In some places, accordingly, +the cost is defrayed out of gifts by public-spirited citizens or by +sending round the hat for subscriptions. One excellent device, which +has obvious advantages over and above the financial expedience, is to +enrol the regular attendants at the lectures into a literary society +with a small subscription. Another and a very objectionable method is +to make advertisements on the programmes pay the printer’s bill. A +public institution ought not to be driven to such shifts. And, even +in the happiest circumstances, very rarely are funds forthcoming for +the engagement of professional lecturers: library committees have had, +almost without exception, to fall back upon the volunteer. + +Nevertheless, efficient volunteers have been forthcoming: it is indeed +surprising how many lecturers of a high order can be enlisted by a +librarian who keeps his eyes open for ability and scholarship and +no caprice for hiding the light under a bushel. It was the present +writer’s duty to organize regular weekly lectures at the central +and the two chief district libraries of a large London borough for +several successive winters. By the exercise of some vigilance and +diplomacy, first-class lecturers on a variety of subjects were +secured, without a penny of expense to the borough. The quality of the +lectures was witnessed by the attendance, which averaged well over two +hundred--hundreds turned away on nights when there were bumper houses +not being counted. There is another side to this question of voluntary +lecturers, which may perhaps be urged by the Lecture Agency and the +University Extension boards, that it is robbing the paid lecturer of +his occupation. In the present condition of things the point hardly +arises. There is no money for the professional lecturer, so that the +amateur cannot be charged with blacklegging; but it will assuredly +arise when lecture and other tutorial schemes are properly recognized +and financed. When that time arrives, however, there will be such a +demand for lecturers that the whole question will be seen to have +different bearings. There will be courses of lectures running, or +demanding to be run, at every library, including most of the branch +establishments; there will be tutorial classes, reading circles, and +other groups requiring teachers or at least competent leaders, going +on concurrently. The library proper, that is the working collection +of books, will have become, or be tending to become, the heart, the +functional centre, of a complex organism; it will fall into its place +as the analogue of the library in a big college. Thus there will be +a wide and importunate demand for lecturers, and demand will create +supply only if every possible source is utilized. There will not be a +glut of trained lecturers, or even a sufficient supply. Rather, when +all the lecturers empanelled by official and commercial agencies are in +full employ, there will be keen competition for their spare moments. +When public libraries were first mooted, it was prophesied that the +bookseller would be deprived of a large part of his market, and every +new public library is supposed to be a blow to the trade. The results +are in direct contradiction. A better supply has created a keener +demand. Access to books has stimulated a desire to possess books. The +day of popular libraries was speedily followed by the day of the cheap +edition. There are many more bookshops than ever there were before; +and since there are more booksellers it may be safely concluded that, +in spite of complaints of bad trade, the sale of books has largely +increased. Even the commercial circulating library continues to +flourish. Similarly, it may be anticipated, the public organization of +lectures and teaching for adults, even though every source of supply is +tapped, including the amateur and the volunteer, will lead to a greater +demand for the trained professional, who will find his occupation not +gone but all the more thriving and profitable. + +The modern museum and the art gallery in a large town have daily +lectures, or perhaps half-a-dozen lectures a day, provided to teach the +public how to understand and appreciate the value of their contents. +This is one of the main objects of lectures in public libraries, the +contents of which are far more various and extensive. But there are +other reasons for selecting the library building as the most suitable +place for all kinds of lectures for which appropriate illustrations in +the form of works of art, museum exhibits, and other material objects +are not available. Any lecture that aims at permanent results should +provide every member of the audience who wants to pursue the subject +with a reading list; better still, the actual books, arranged by the +librarian and the lecturer in a graduated course of reading, should be +on exhibition, and every facility should be given to the interested +person to take home books and commence his studies there and then. + +Such are the considerations kept always in view by the modern librarian +who runs his courses of lectures, not as a side-show, or as a method +of advertizing the library and bringing in new readers, but as an +integral part of the library machine. In the Croydon Public Libraries, +to take one of several good examples, about a hundred lectures are +given annually, some to ordinary mixed audiences, some to bodies of +school children or to the young people in the junior library. The +halls are nearly always crowded with eager listeners. Most of the +lectures are accompanied by lantern illustrations, and the methods of +bringing them directly to bear on the stores of books in the library +are as thorough as in any place I know. The lecturers, who give their +services free, are furnished with lists of the books the library +contains on their particular subjects, and are requested to point out +any serious gaps. The titles of the books are shown on the screen, and +the lecturer makes his personal comments on each. After the lecture, +the actual books are exhibited, and any one in the audience, who +verifies his or her identity from the local directory or otherwise, +is allowed to borrow from these on the spot. Another useful method is +to distribute descriptive lists of the relevant books, arranged if +possible on a continuous plan of reading, such lists being drawn up in +collaboration with the lecturer. It was at Croydon, I believe, that +the library reading was introduced as a form of lecture. The librarian +or some other person well acquainted with a subject and also with the +literature of the subject to be found in the library, reads pieces of +description, notable prose, or fine verse, on such a topic as “The +Englishman in the Alps;” or “Byron, the poet and the man.” It is a +sort of spoken anthology, in short, stimulating interest in the works +illustrated. + + +UNIVERSITY EXTENSION COURSES, TUTORIAL CLASSES, READING CIRCLES. + +Many years’ experience of library lectures from the internal point of +view, that is from the point of view of the librarian and organizer, +and also from that of an occasional lecturer in most of the public +libraries in and near London, as well as careful study of the effects +upon all kinds of hearers, has, however, convinced me that the opinion +of most educators and other critics is right: the only lectures which +are likely to have sound and lasting results are those that have +been carefully arranged to form part of a course. Sporadic lectures +are all very well in their way, but very much inferior in promoting +serious study and developing real knowledge. Reading an occasional +magazine article is not to be compared with reading a book. At the +same time, even if continuous courses can be provided, it would be a +mistake to drop the other sort altogether. The results, if usually +ephemeral, are not to be despised; such lectures are as a rule more +popular than the thorough-going University Extension course, and may +be a stepping-stone to that. And the organizer of such miscellaneous +series may, if he gives thought to the matter, arrange the lectures by +different specialists into groups on allied topics or aspects of the +same subject. He may do still better. The person, whether professional +or volunteer, who is qualified to deliver a first-class lecture would +usually prefer to deliver several, dealing with the same subject more +thoroughly and methodically--it is usually easier, and always far more +satisfactory. In nine cases out of ten, the results would be enormously +more valuable. To dispatch a serious theme in an hour’s discourse is an +effort that usually means a rapid and perhaps brilliant but superficial +handling, and does not always mean that surplusage is avoided. It is +too much like putting the day’s rations into a single meal. + +One invaluable concomitant of the best and most remunerative form +of lectures is usually absent at those of the ordinary type, and +that is free discussion. This is not always invited, and, when it +is, discussion often resolves itself into complimentary speechifying +or else passages of arms in which the same orators week after week +display their gifts. To have any real success, lectures must arouse +debate. If there are no questions, no give and take between the mind +of the lecturer and of his hearers, the entertainment is likely to +remain barren. A University Extension lecturer will always invite +questions and the discussion of points that need elucidating; but he +will not always break down the shyness of those who would fain have +more light, even though a course going on from week to week tends to +make his listeners better prepared, and enables them to save up their +difficulties for an opportune moment. Here it is that the tutorial +class, which is run on the lines of a seminar, shows its superiority. +The tutorial class is a small and intimate circle, so small and +friendly that the most diffident are hardly likely to feel that asking +a question is like making a speech; its head is a leader and moderator +rather than a lecturer, and its methods are devised to call out +individual thought and initiative, and ensure that the subject shall be +viewed from every side and all difficulties of comprehension cleared +away. The members of the class do as much work as the teacher: the +better he is the more he gets them to do. Reading circles are usually +conducted on a very similar plan, the preparatory work of course being +done by the members at home. When instead of formal lectures papers +are read or discussions opened by members of a literary society, +fairly satisfactory results are usually obtained; but whatever scheme +be adopted, it is far better to split up into small groups than to be +ambitious of large attendances. + +Many public libraries have wisely supplemented their own lecture +schemes by co-operating with University Extension. Even where the +library has not been able to offer a lecture room on the premises, +such co-operation may be very valuable, and a reciprocal advantage +to all concerned. The library can provide books for the students, +issuing reading lists which have been drawn up in consultation with +the lecturers; useful exhibitions, also, can be organized, from the +library’s own stores or from other sources. The tutorial classes +organized by the Workers’ Educational Association have been aided +effectively by such co-operation, which always reacts beneficially, in +more ways than meet the eye, on the libraries themselves. When there +is intimate association between libraries and technical colleges, +polytechnics, and the like, half at least of the real work will be done +in the library or through the books supplied by the library. Nor is it +only the urban libraries that are able to assert their true place in +adult education thus; several of the new rural repositories are working +hand in hand with the Workers’ Educational Association and its tutorial +classes, which have not failed on their part to utilize machinery +so apt to its purposes. Besides the ordinary stock of miscellaneous +books for the general reader, the wise rural librarian lays in a +good selection of the works required by reading circles and tutorial +classes, if necessary duplicating until there are enough copies for all +demands. But for this special call upon his resources, he would rely +upon the Central Library for Students to meet the requirements in works +of this class. + +But public libraries as yet do not appear to have instituted tutorial +classes themselves, or indeed to have taken on their own shoulders +the financial responsibility of University Extension courses. Though +they have their own lecture halls and smaller rooms suitable for +the various purposes here enumerated, even the best and most active +library authorities have not done much more than hold such series of +miscellaneous and disconnected lectures as are, admittedly, not the +best.[16] That so much should have been accomplished, even whilst the +public libraries were toiling under the yoke of the penny rate limit, +is to their enduring credit; but it is little to what ought to be done, +under less hampering conditions, and to what the progressive among +them will assuredly do ere long. But the Act of 1919 merely restored +the right of every community to spend as much as it liked on certain +library purposes; it did not restore its natural right to spend money +on what objects it liked, as for example, library lectures or library +classes; still less did it infuse an eagerness to do so where no such +desire had previously existed. The removal of an unreasonable and +effete restriction can hardly be delayed much longer; but even when +there is no legal ban upon expenditure the cost of a paid university +teacher will often be prohibitive. Why then should not the alternative +be taken of appointing a volunteer? This is continually being done by +reading circles all over the country, organized in connection with or +in imitation of the National Home-Reading Union, and the results are +highly encouraging. + +The fact is, our resources in private ability and willingness to +serve in such functions as these have never yet been fully explored: +they will have to be explored. Men of high academic attainments are +expensive items in a tutorial scheme providing for the intellectual +avocations of perhaps not more than a dozen zealous students; and, as +was hinted before, there will not be enough of them to go round--there +would not be enough now if a serious attempt were made to ascertain +actual wants and provide for them adequately. Vast numbers of +continuous courses, of multifarious kinds, are required everywhere in +these days of intellectual keenness. Let us try then to run some of +them at least on the lines of mutual help that have served so well in +the past. There has never been in this country any dearth of one kind +of personal ability, that of clear and racy exposition, in the sphere, +for instance, of local politics and lay preaching. It does not exist, +though appearances may be deceptive, in the sphere of intellectual +activity. It should not be more difficult to find leaders for reading +circles and study groups, or lecturers competent to deliver a short +course, than it is to find chairmen for parish councils, political +meetings, or local committees. Nor, if we proceed with common sense +and lay no stress on artificial difficulties, will there be any dearth +of discussion. The part of the leader will rather be to direct the +spontaneous flow, and prevent the study circle from degenerating into a +mere talking-shop. But even loquacity can be controlled and kept to the +point if there is a definite subject, and a course of reading clearly +marked out. A well-informed, tactful, and judicious leader will work +wonders if he observes the golden rule not to overwork himself. The +librarian himself and chosen members of any large staff should be able +to run at least a reading circle, if not to deliver public lectures. +The success of all such undertakings will depend of course on his +personal competence and insight; if he can take his own share in the +work with credit, he will be in the more intimate touch with the mental +attitude and potentialities of his public. + + +DRAMATIC AND OTHER CIRCLES. + +Lectures and classes by no means exhaust the modes in which the +public library may carry on useful extension work; in truth, the ways +are almost unlimited, except that some forms of study, teaching, or +entertainment may cause inconvenience, unless the building is very +large and special accommodation arranged. Thus a small library is not a +suitable place for musical performances, although many public libraries +cater on a lavish scale for students of music. It is not an uncommon +thing, however, for dramatic readings and even full-length plays to +be introduced into the scheme of lectures, or for the library to be +the headquarters of a dramatic society. There is no better method of +imparting a real understanding and appreciation of our best literature +than to induce people to study a classical play dramatically. To begin +with, simple readings should be attempted, each member of the class +or study group taking a distinct part. As soon as the readers have +a grip of the action and plot, they should proceed to act, still +keeping the book before them. A few properties may be introduced, such +as a table and a chair or two and a flagon, in the revelling scene in +_Twelfth Night_, or a screen, in _The School for Scandal_--there is no +need for scenery or costumes. At some libraries, properties--and even +gestures--are entirely suppressed, and the reading is a reading pure +and simple. + +Mention of these two plays brings to mind several incidents when this +rudimentary kind of acting brought out as fine and penetrating an +interpretation of the dramatist as any performance by professional +actors, with the usual lavish apparatus, that I have ever witnessed +in a West End theatre. Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Maria +and the Clown, were people I knew very well, attired in their ordinary +dress. The stage was a bare platform, and there was nothing on it but +a table and a few chairs. The performers had the book in their hands; +but, evidently, they were word-perfect in their parts. The scene +went with a verve and a naturalness that could hardly be bettered; +and--best of all--it was Shakespeare, interpreted by intelligent and +well-educated persons, who were the last people in the world to cut or +rewrite or recreate a part as they thought Shakespeare ought to have +written it. Another Sir Andrew Aguecheek is still more memorable. This +gentleman would probably have been a failure or a very indifferent +success in any other character: he was Sir Andrew Aguecheek in the +flesh--the wonder was how we had never noticed it all the years we +had known him. A still more delightful proof of the latent genius +that may be revealed by such modest performances was a certain Lady +Teazle. She was a plain and not a very youthful person; the stage was +as unfurnished and void of decoration as her get-up was plain and +ordinary. Yet, by dint of dramatic instinct that any much-beparagraphed +actress might envy, she easily conveyed the sense of youth and charm +and beauty--she was the finest Lady Teazle I have seen, on or off the +regular stage. + +The London County Council and other educational bodies have thoroughly +recognized the untold possibilities of the dramatic study of drama. +It is undoubtedly the right method. Charles Lamb, in a famous essay, +propounded the doctrine that in the theatre we see the actors but +we may entirely fail to see the play. The plays of Shakespeare, he +paradoxically argued, “are less calculated for performance on a stage +than those of almost any other dramatist whatever.” The actor gets +between us and the dramatist; and if that was so in the days of Kemble +and Mrs. Siddons, how much more is it so in these days of sophisticated +stage-display and mannered acting. But put the student of Shakespeare +on the stage, however rudimentary the stage may be, and let him find +his way into the mind of the great playwright by himself, so far as he +may: that is how to study Shakespeare, and that is the mode of approach +sought in such dramatic readings or more elaborate interpretations as +are recommended here. Even the modest group of readers will probably +go on from strength to strength. One group which I first set on this +track were content at first with a series of readings, which were given +in public, after many rehearsals, at the various district libraries +of a London borough. Then they embarked on the complete presentation +of _The Merchant of Venice_, _As You Like It_, and _Twelfth Night_, +with scenery and costumes; and even ventured on a tragedy, all without +discredit. Ultimately, a troupe of experienced players, they gave +a series of Shakespearian plays at the Town Hall and other places, +not only clearing all expenses, but realizing a handsome sum for an +important charity. One of their number later on wrote a comedy, which +they produced with some success. Here, surely, is a piece of library +extension work having high cultural value; it is indicative of what may +easily be done by apt suggestion and cultivation of the group spirit; +and there are innumerable directions in which similar results may be +achieved. + + +RELATIONS WITH WORK OUTSIDE. + +The principle to be kept in view is that the civic library is a most +natural home for all the intellectual activities of a social kind +going on in each community. Even if it is not convenient for all such +bodies to have their headquarters there, the library should entertain +the most friendly and active relations with every one. In the United +States, the public library in most cities performs a large part of +its most remunerative work through the medium of public and private +organizations outside. It may be likened to a nerve-centre, with +a network of efferent and afferent fibres and a series of ganglia +throughout the social organism. Thus the New York Public Library has +a long and miscellaneous list of clubs, leagues, musical societies, +classes of all sorts, business and other associations that hold their +meetings in its various branches. Many American libraries are ready +to plant a delivery station, dispatch a travelling library, or a +collection of special works, anywhere that it is asked for, or even +to provide an industrial firm with books, so long as accommodation +and an acting librarian are supplied. They will prepare select lists +of books on any given subject, get up an exhibition to celebrate any +event or help on any deserving movement: there is no end to the ways in +which they are prepared to put their services at the disposal of the +common weal. British libraries have laboured too much in isolation. +The future depends upon, more than anything else, its coming into the +closest touch with every intellectual and social agency in the body +politic. It should be a matter of course for the local scientific and +literary societies, the field club, the local branch of the Workers’ +Educational Association and the National Home-Reading Union--to name +only two out of many--to make their home in the library building. The +antiquarian society should deposit its collections and books and maps +here, the natural history society its specimens and apparatus, thus +laying the foundations of a local museum to be housed in the situation +most favourable for study, both by themselves and by other inhabitants. +Local historical and regional surveys are rapidly developing, whether +as pieces of research aiming at the extension of knowledge or as a +practical form of education: the library, with its local records, maps, +and other historical material, should always be the base. + +The Croydon Public Library is the centre from which the Photographic +Survey and Record of Surrey operates. Surrey took the lead in this +important branch of topographical history, and the photographic records +of buildings, scenery, and miscellaneous objects of interest now +collected in the library comprise some 8,000 prints and lantern-slides, +all elaborately classified and indexed for instant reference. Housed +along with these is the Regional Survey of Croydon, consisting of +maps prepared from actual surveys of the district within fifteen +miles’ radius, showing the geology, vegetation, surface utilization, +industries, etc. This also is accompanied by photographs. Further, an +artist has been commissioned to paint faithful records of architectural +or natural features that are likely to perish or be disfigured by +modern changes--a thing that will be of priceless value to future +generations. This logical extension of the work of preserving local +records, minute-books, newspapers, and various fugitive material is +being carried on elsewhere, notably at Coventry, Brighton, Northampton, +and Nottingham. It deserves the attention of the many local societies +that have not yet thrown in their lot with the local library. + + +LIBRARY EXHIBITIONS. + +Libraries may themselves get up exhibitions or grant hospitality to +those organized by kindred bodies. The more the library takes a hand +in the preparation, the more can the series of exhibits be related to +the appropriate books, and the more effective will such efforts be +as aids to popular enlightenment. There is a wide choice of suitable +subjects--book-production and its various branches, engraving and other +arts, local history and geography, the sciences. The library will be +able to supply many of the exhibits from its own stores; usually it +is not difficult to borrow useful material from commercial or private +sources; and loan exhibits from the State museums are available +as nucleus, supplement, or even as forming the whole display. Such +exhibitions are placed under the care of keen and intelligent members +of the staff, and lectures or demonstrations are given illustrated by +the actual objects; the results are enormously ahead of those achieved +by the ordinary static exhibition. Lines of reading are pointed out, +and books brought into juxtaposition with their subject realities, in a +way that even the trained conductor in a museum or picture gallery can +hardly compass. Actual experience in organizing and running a number of +such exhibitions has left me with no doubt of their popularity or their +educational value. When an exhibition illustrating such a subject as +the production of a book goes on for three months in the libraries of a +London borough, and the average attendance during that period exceeds a +thousand a day, we may feel that we are beyond the experimental stage. + +Even our rural libraries, when they are located in the village hall or +have a suitable building of their own, need not hesitate to attempt +an exhibition. In many ways, they have exceptional opportunities. To +begin with, there is nothing to compete with them; the novelty would +be absolute. And then there is suitable material of some sort or other +in abundance, botanical, geological, horticultural or agricultural, or +such as illustrates local history, local industries, or any subject +having strong associational interest. Differences of scope being +allowed for, the rural librarian would probably find he had much less +to do with his own hands than if he were getting up a show in the town. +Such places as rejoice in the possession of museums and art galleries +as well as libraries are specially favoured; but it does not inevitably +follow that these departments of public culture do combine forces so +effectually as do the places where the work is on a more frugal scale +but comes at any rate from one and the same fount of activity. + + +RELATIONS WITH THE SCHOOLS. + +The chapter before this concluded with some account of library work +with children. The correlative of the children’s library and reading +room is the school library or the periodical loan of books to the +schools--sometimes it is the alternative. Under the Act of 1919 the +library authority in places newly adopting the Acts will be the local +education committee, and elsewhere the control of existing libraries +may be handed over voluntarily to that body. Long before this Act, +certain education committees had acted jointly with library committees +in establishing school libraries and other modes of bringing school +children into contact with good books. The aims and interests of +library and school in large measure coincide. Recent legislation +virtually admits this sound principle. Into the question whether it +is wise to vest the control of libraries in the education authority, a +question canvassed both for and against in the United States as well +as in this country, there is no need to enter at the moment. Everybody +agrees that children must be taught, or at least encouraged, at a +fairly early age, to read books for themselves and to have some idea of +the uses of a library. Most teachers and librarians would also agree +that every school should have a library of its own, and that at some +stage or other each child should be introduced to the public library. +Perhaps this is as far as we need go in the direction of agreement: +uniformity is surely not advisable, and local circumstances, relative +situation in particular, may have to determine the nature of the +interaction of library and school, and the more important point, how +soon should the school child shift the centre of his reading interests +from the school library to the public one, the one that is there to be +his intellectual mainstay throughout life? From the point of view of a +public librarian, it might be undesirable that a school library should +be so efficient and amply sufficing that elder children were deterred +from finding their way into the wider realm of the public library. The +school library should be but a tributary flowing into that main stream. + +There are three modes of dealing with the problem of books for the +school child, and these may be variously combined. (1) There may be +a permanent collection, stationed in the school, consisting of graded +sets of reference works required to illustrate any of the subjects +taught or studied in the school; and further, a collection, large or +small, of such books, mainly of a recreational kind, as it may be +thought fit to provide for home reading. Such a collection may be +built up by the school itself or by the staff of the public library, +who would act, as a rule, in close consultation with the teachers. One +great advantage of having all the books permanently located at the +school is that the children look upon it then as really the school +library, and the teachers are able to familiarize themselves with the +contents, and thus can influence the children’s reading to the maximum. +If there are funds enough, a fairly large and representative collection +can be provided--one that the most voracious boy or girl is not likely +to exhaust till he or she is old enough to join the public library. The +best books become household possessions; children talk about them to +their chums, and not to have read them is a lapse that must be wiped +out. If, on the other hand _Westward Ho!_ or _Little Women_ is merely a +loan and has gone back to the central library, how can the young reader +get even with the luckier ones? + +(2) To save the expense of a number of permanent school libraries, +an education authority may arrange with the public library to +organize a series of travelling collections or merely boxes of books +to circulate among the schools. This system may be combined with the +other, the reference collection being regarded, most reasonably, as +always indispensable and therefore permanent, and loans of books for +recreation supplied at fixed intervals. There is one unquestionable +boon attaching to this arrangement--the children enjoy the stimulus, as +the date comes round, of choosing and rejoicing among a fresh lot of +books. Many teachers too, no doubt, are not averse from a change. + +(3) The third method implies suppression of the school library, at any +rate so far as it is anything beyond the indispensable collection of +volumes required for use in the school; it is to send the young reader +to the public library. If this is not far away, and especially if it +has a first-class junior department, where suitable reference books +can be used as well as books for entertainment borrowed for reading at +home, there is nothing to deplore; but to children in distant schools +the loss will be serious. The value of this third solution of the +problem, when it is a real solution and not an evasion, is that the +child is introduced early to a large collection of books, and also +comes into a different atmosphere from that of school. Its danger is +that the child may come unchaperoned to a library where there is but +a perfunctory service for the juniors, and will be turned adrift in a +pathless wilderness. + +This third method may be seen at work in the schools of Poplar. One of +the poorest among the metropolitan boroughs, Poplar has been a leader +in many library movements, such as the scheme of interchange between +adjoining boroughs whereby all the books in a large group of libraries +are made available for borrowing by dwellers in any part of the area. +The libraries have long co-operated with the schools as actively as the +teachers would permit. Nothing is more essential to the mental life and +the economic efficiency of the future citizen than that the gap between +schooling and maturity should be bridged over. Poplar has realized the +fatal nature of that gap, and has long been doing its utmost to fill +up the chasm. School children come to the public library to do their +preparation and spend their leisure in the enjoyment of books. Classes +are brought by teachers during quiet hours, and sit in the public rooms +doing “silent reading.” For a long while measures have been taken so +that no single boy or girl in the schools shall go out into the world +without being introduced to the public library, and made acquainted +with all that books and libraries can do to help them in life and the +pleasures of life. Twice a week, the upper classes from schools in the +borough, coming in regular rotation, attend at the nearest library +to hear an address by the borough librarian, Mr. H. Rowlatt, or one +of his chief assistants, on the libraries of their own borough and +libraries in general, what they are and what they contain, and how +freedom and ability to utilize the manifold services they afford is +an invaluable part of the individual’s equipment for life.[17] The +librarian and his coadjutors have always thrown themselves heart and +soul into the work of co-operation with the schools; the children +listen eagerly, and the results are seen in the statistics of reading. + +The vital importance of this work has now been recognized by the +London Education Committee. Similar schemes are being introduced in +the boroughs of Islington, Greenwich, and Hackney, and it may be hoped +that they will become general. This is by no means all that the Poplar +libraries are doing for the school children. Attempts are made to +help the older children in making up their minds on the occupation +they would choose. Sets of books illustrating various trades are put +before such children, from which they can gather an intelligent idea +of what is the real nature and interest of some craft or trade which +was previously a mere name. This has proved a real help in the critical +moment of many a child’s life. All formalities, such as monetary +guarantees against loss or damage, have been reduced to a minimum or +abolished for the benefit of school children, who are admitted to +full privileges on the bare recommendation of the teachers. Thousands +avail themselves of the opportunity thus held out, and many thousands +of books have been borrowed as a result without the loss of five +shillings’ worth of books per annum. The help given to the children in +general has likewise proved to be indirectly of inestimable value to +the teachers. They admit that the introduction of the library habit +among their young pupils has opened their own eyes to points they had +never realized. One head master volunteered the statement that it had +done away entirely with surreptitious reading of trash among the girls. +Poplar cannot afford a regular system of school libraries; yet, in +spite of poverty, it is signally doing yeoman’s service in moulding the +minds of our future citizens: it is a shining example to boroughs of +far superior resources. + +On the whole, my own preference is for the stationary library, when the +school can afford a good one; but one’s preferences may be modified, +or even reversed, in altered circumstances. Whichever plan be adopted, +supervision, or rather sympathetic guidance, is essential. Such +guidance will, of course, be entirely of a positive, not a negative +kind, and will consist of tactful suggestion, suggestion as unobtrusive +as possible, by means of story-telling, illustrated talks, and personal +help. There is not the slightest need for attempting to fit the book +to the child. Let children read books for grown-ups if they have a +mind to, let boys read girls’ books; the girls will read the boys’ +books whether you want them or no. It is taken for granted that the +whole library will be well-chosen, and everything in it worth reading. +Alarmist nonsense, emanating from English justices or militant New +England moralists, about boys led into crime by stories of brigands +and pirates, are not likely to upset parents or librarians with all +their faculties about them, including a normal sense of humour. If you +listened to these people, Stevenson and Dumas would have to be put into +a strait jacket, and Michael Scott, Aimard, and Mayne Reid burned by +the hangman. It is the last expiring gasp of the prudery and lust for +chastening the young which made the old-fashioned library for children +a byword. Far more important than any anxiety about moral or immoral +influence is an anxiety about good literature. Edification is thrown +away if the well-meaning author is unpossessed of charm. The first +requisite of a spell is that it shall work. Happily, the charm of fine +literature can hardly be attained but by the fine personality. Good +literature is healthy literature. Among the books a child will read +with delight, it is doubtful indeed whether a single example can be +found of a work of true literary worth that could lead a child astray. +Harrison Ainsworth’s _Jack Sheppard_ and Lytton’s _Paul Clifford_ +perished from the catalogues of junior libraries, not because they were +wicked books, but because they were bad literature. + +The best books should be duplicated over and over again, especially in +libraries that let their young readers roam along the book-shelves and +choose what they like--as all libraries should; and duplicated as far +as possible in various editions, especially illustrated editions. This +is a far wiser policy than aiming at a very comprehensive selection, +which means that quantities of second and third-rate stuff will be +introduced. After all, if life is short childhood is much shorter, and +if every child had the opportunity of reading all the books that are +fit, there would not be much time left before the date arrived for +migrating to wider spheres. + +A bibliography of ideal works for children would not, however, be a +voluminous affair. The children’s librarian should form something of +the sort for use, and the books starred in its pages as superlative +should never be out--there should always be copies enough to ensure +this. The young reader will find it hard to resist the appeal, if he +sees one attractive copy and next week another staring him in the face: +it will assuage disappointment for the absence of something else, or +charming pictures may tempt to a second reading of a classic already +familiar. By such careful management the taste of a healthy child will +remain unspoiled, and in later life sound judgment and appreciation of +the best will show the results of this novitiate. + +In America, the question of circulating versus stationary libraries has +been well thrashed out, though not to a unanimous verdict. At Buffalo, +the respective spheres of the library and the education authority +have been carefully defined. School libraries are limited strictly to +the works of reference required in school work, the public library +acting as book-selector. For all further requirements the school and +the school children rely on the public library. In New York City, the +public library deputes this branch of its work to a special department, +under a supervisor of work with schools. The city is divided for the +purpose into districts, in each of which there is a branch library and +a group of schools. A school assistant, usually a woman, is appointed +by the library to look after the work in each district, to make herself +personally acquainted with every teacher, to give advice, and keep +the machinery running smoothly. Formal regulations are kept down to +a minimum. Teachers are allowed to borrow books in large quantities, +and to keep them six months at a time if they need them; they are +expected and assisted to make themselves reliable counsellors and +guides to their pupils in the choice and use of books. Assistants in +the libraries are told off to address groups of teachers and assemblies +of school children on the objects and the resources of the libraries; +children are brought to the library in classes to have its working +and its benefits explained; and, finally, they are encouraged to do +their home lessons in the children’s library, and are provided with a +reference collection adapted to the purpose. + +In this country, the relationship between the school and the public +library remains undetermined. Many of our primary schools are destitute +of a library worthy of the name, and if a census were taken it would +probably be found that the secondary schools are even worse off. Many +school libraries have attained a musty and precarious existence through +some passing gust of philanthropy, and maintain it in a more or less +accidental fashion. This is not the fault of the public libraries, +many of which have done more than their share in providing schools with +books, and most of which are ready with the expert services needed to +put school collections on a proper footing. The failure is due more to +lack of a clear realization of the function of school libraries than to +mere neglect or oversight. The work already described as done in the +junior department at Croydon, where as at Coventry and divers other +places, separate collections of books on education and teaching are +provided, from which the teacher may borrow and which the public may +use for reference, may be taken as representing the kind of endeavour +put forth by the more active library authorities. Loan collections for +schools are organized by some authorities, stationary school libraries +by others. But in a vast number of places, though many if not all of +the facilities enumerated above are held out by the library, the saving +propensities of education committees or the indifference of teachers +have left things as they were. The need for a comprehensive treatment +of the problem is still more apparent now than when the Library +Association in 1904 urged that the nation’s libraries were, or ought +to be, an integral part of the national machinery of education. It is +a vital part of the educational problem and of the whole problem of +public libraries; and, whether there are to be two sets of machinery, +working side by side or in reciprocation, or one set controlling both +schools and libraries, the library service for the schools and the +school children must be put on a proper basis, or the future of adult +education and of public libraries also will be in jeopardy. Here, +surely, Ruskin’s saying has a particularly forcible application--“It +is open, I repeat, to serious question, which I leave to the reader’s +pondering, whether among national manufactures, that of souls of good +quality may not at last turn out a quite leadingly lucrative one.” +(_Unto this Last_). + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] The modern public library believes that it should find a reader +for every book on its shelves, and provide a book for every reader in +its community, and that it should in all cases bring book and reader +together. (Bostwick, p. 1.) + +[16] The Adult Education Committee attribute the most obvious defects +of adult education to-day, to the discontinuity of much of the work +done, the tendency to rely unduly on lectures and to neglect classwork, +and the inadequate supply of books to the students attending lectures +or classes. “It is, in our judgment, essential that whilst regularity +of attendance and seriousness and continuity of study should be +insisted upon, there must be freedom of teaching and freedom of +expression.” (Final Report, par. 146.) The Committee are strongly in +favour of continuous courses of lectures, and of that grouping in +classes of moderate size that makes for “the frank interchange of +thought and experience which is essential to adult education,” and +without which “the work carried on will lose its vitality or change its +character.” + +[17] METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF POPLAR. + +Lectures to Boys and Girls attending at the Libraries from Elementary +Schools. + + +SYNOPSIS. + +How knowledge is handed down by books. During school-life advice +and help can be obtained from the teachers: after leaving school +guidance in reading and study can be obtained at the Libraries. Public +Libraries, their ownership and the right to use them. The contents +of the News and Magazine Rooms. Lack of home accommodation, and how +the Reference Rooms can be used for quiet reading and study. Books +in Lending Department on all subjects, elementary, intermediate, and +advanced. Assistance given by staff. How to use the Libraries in +conjunction with Continuation Schools and Evening Classes: also when +learning a trade, business, or domestic arts and occupations. Children +are urged to retain the knowledge gained at school and to supplement +it. Wisdom of acquiring General Knowledge, and how to acquire it: +with special reference to time-tables, directories, atlases, and +dictionaries. The lighter side of Libraries:--Use of holiday guides; +books of travel, manners and customs; music; home interests, such +as gardening, poultry-keeping, pets and hobbies. The care of books. +(Syllabus of one of the lectures described above). + + + + +IV + +RURAL LIBRARIES. + + +Before the Act of 1919, more than two-fifths of the population of +these islands, which means practically those living outside the towns +and urban districts, were entirely without a library service. A few +attempts had been made, with various degrees of success, to found small +libraries or contrive methods of circulating collections of books in +the villages. Such were the library of the Lancashire and Cheshire +Union, inaugurated in 1847, the scheme of the Yorkshire Village +Libraries Association, in 1856, and the Coats Libraries supplying +many parts of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Besides these, +there was an odd village library here and there, such as the excellent +miniature institutes given to the inhabitants of East Claydon, Middle +Claydon, and Steeple Claydon, in Buckinghamshire, by the late Sir +Edmund Verney, or the library founded in a Hampshire village by the +unaided efforts of the villagers themselves, which is described by +Miss Sayle in her little memoir _Village Libraries_. Many other rural +libraries have flourished for a time, and then decayed, leaving no +history. Professor Adams found that of the total population of the +United Kingdom in 1911 not more than 57 per cent. resided within +library areas. He contrasted the library provision in different parts +of the country in the following table:-- + + --------+-------------------+--------------------+--------------------- + | Total | Population in | Percentage + | Population, 1911. | Library Districts. | of Total Population. + --------+-------------------+--------------------+--------------------- + England | 34,194,205 | 21,103,317 | 62 + Wales | 2,025,202 | 938,303 | 46 + Scotland| 4,760,904 | 2,403,283 | 50 + Ireland | 4,390,219 | 1,245,766 | 28 + --------+-------------------+--------------------+--------------------- + | 45,370,530 | 25,690,669 | 57 + --------+-------------------+--------------------+--------------------- + +“These figures,” he remarks, “would in themselves suggest what is an +outstanding feature of the present situation, the fact that libraries +are chiefly in the larger town areas, while the smaller towns and +country districts remain to a great extent unprovided for.” + +The reason for “this partial and unequal development” was the absence +in the early Public Library Acts of any clause providing for concerted +action among bodies competent theoretically to become library +authorities, but unable practically, because to furnish an adequate +income out of a parish rate would have required an Aladdin’s lamp.[18] +If the county authorities had been permitted long ago to establish +systems of public libraries for the villages, and the product of a +penny rate throughout the county had been spent on the upkeep, there +might by now have been a rural library service not inferior in quality +to that in the towns. But before 1919 the potential library authority +in country districts was the parish council; and, even if parish +councils had been persuaded to combine, the unit of organization would +have been too poor to support anything but a miserable apology for a +library. In his report of 1915, Professor Adams observed that there +was a growing consensus of opinion that the county authorities should +be empowered to adopt the Acts and impose rates, and that the rural +library systems so established should be closely linked up with the +educational system. By this plan the financial difficulties would be +overcome, and, since “common thought and common action” are hard to +attain in a dispersed population, it was only reasonable that a more +widely representative body should be authorized to take the initiative. +“It is part everywhere of the rural problem that there needs to be an +organizing centre for the concentrating and directing of rural thought +and action.”[19] Professor Adams outlined “a public State system” of +rural libraries, “supported by the rates, and, like the educational +system, universal.” It would be closely associated with, if not under +the control of, the county educational authority. “It would radiate +from one or more centres, according as the county is large or small.” +“There would be ample room for voluntary organization and effort +within this framework, and a good village and rural library system +must depend largely on voluntary co-operative work. But the framework +of the system must be strongly knit, and must secure especially at +the centre a library institution, well equipped, and with expert +management and supervision. A new corps of librarians, in the form of +county library superintendents, will be required if the movement is +to be progressively developed.” I have quoted an important passage in +the actual words of Professor Adams, since it must be always borne in +mind that he proposed something far more substantial than the mere +circulation of boxes of books among villages or small country towns +such as asked for the privilege. One of the primary requisites of each +local library, even in the initial scheme which, he suggested, should +be experimented with in a few select areas, was “a permanent collection +of certain important reference books and standard works.” That, indeed, +must be the minimum foundation for the most unambitious kind of library +service, as distinguished from a mere book service. This latter may be +furnished by a circulating system, centering in a repository at some +distance; but the permanent collection must be there, in the village, +or the book service will be bereft of most of its educational value. + +The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, at whose request Professor Adams had +carried out his investigation, adopted for the sake of experiment his +suggestion that the Trust should take over the Coats Libraries in the +Highlands and Islands, which had been initiated by Sir Peter Coats of +Paisley and at that date numbered 186 on the mainland, 59 in Shetland +and Orkney, 33 in Lewis and Harris, and 37 in the other Hebrides. A +repository was established at Dunfermline, from which these local +centres were supplied with periodical batches of books. This was the +beginning of the Carnegie rural library scheme, which during the next +few years offered the public and the Government an object-lesson in the +methods of supplying the neglected two-fifths of the population in the +four kingdoms with a library service. + +The first county scheme to be set on foot was in Staffordshire. In +1915 the Trust offered £5,000 to this county council to be expended in +five years on a central repository, a stock of books, travelling boxes +and other equipment, and the costs of administration and carriage, +asking in return for “reasonable assurances that, at the conclusion +of the period and after the expenditure of the grant named, the +scheme would be maintained and supported on funds other than theirs.” +From 54 centres at once established in Staffordshire schools the +scheme gradually spread in four years to 206. The county councils of +Gloucestershire, Cardiganshire, Somerset, and Wilts undertook similar +schemes under like financial conditions, and the Trust made grants to +the public libraries of Perth and Grantham to organize a service in +the neighbouring country parishes. These rural systems were given a +statutory basis in Scotland, under sec. 5 of the Scottish Education Act +of 1918; but it was not till the Public Libraries Act of December, 1919 +that the position in England and Wales was legalized. That Act gave an +immense stimulus to the rural library movement. Library schemes have +now been prepared for nearly half the rural area of Great Britain, and +a large number are in actual working order.[20] The Trustees in 1920 +set aside a sum of £192,000 for grants to county authorities during the +six years 1920-5, such grants to be employed on the initial expenses +of the stock of books, boxes, shelving, and similar accessories for +the central repository. From that date they ceased to pay for the +erection of buildings or for running expenses. The premises used are +mostly temporary buildings, such as Government huts, or else rooms +in schools. These central repositories look bare and insignificant +to the uninitiated, since they are furnished with little but a few +tables or benches for packing books on and enough shelving to hold a +fraction of the working stock of books, most of which are out in the +villages and when they come home are off on another journey almost at +once. A few stout boxes, with simple fittings countersunk to avoid +damage in transit, lie about, full or empty. These are sent out, each +carrying fifty or a hundred volumes, by rail, carrier, or motor-van, +to the village schools or perchance the village club, to be handed +to the readers by volunteer librarians, who are in most cases the +schoolmasters. + +In a typical county, where the population is mainly rural and the +repository is quartered in a borough of moderate size without a library +of its own--where indeed the local inhabitants, hungering for books +which their own borough council will not consent to provide, have to be +kept at arm’s length by warning notices--some three hundred villages +are each at present receiving about two hundred and fifty books a year. +It is not much; it is not much more than an experiment; but anyhow +it is a beginning; and, remember, until the rural scheme arrived the +labouring man never saw a new book, from year end to year end, unless +his child won a Sunday School prize. The circulating stock consists of +books for children and the class of books commonly defined as for the +general reader--that is to say, works for entertainment primarily and +in the second place for knowledge or information. Further, there is in +this particular centre a strong collection of educational works for the +use of teachers, and a numerous and sound selection of sociological +literature for the special benefit of the Workers’ Educational +Association, who have many tutorial classes in the district, most of +them studying economics, social philosophy, or the science of politics. +The teachers are allowed to borrow several books at a time, to further +their work; and in addition, the requirements of modern methods in +teaching reading are met by the allowance of perhaps fifteen or two +dozen copies of certain select books, to enable every child in a class +to have a copy--the reading-circle system applied in the school. If any +studious person should ask for a book not in the printed catalogue, +a book obviously in advance of the general demand and costing rather +more than the average price bargained for, the librarian sends for it +to the Central Library for Students, in Tavistock Square, London. Even +the newest and least-developed rural library aims at an ideal that the +great commercial circulating libraries have given up as unattainable, +to enable any reader to have access to any book, of unquestioned value, +that he applies for--and few failures to achieve this end, by one means +or another, have to be reported. + +The librarian superintending another county system, a lady who has +built it up from the foundation stone, has, after three years been able +to announce an average circulation of two thousand books a week. This, +in spite of difficulties of transport, and the absence of facilities +for reaching the adult readers directly. The work here is done entirely +through the schools, and of the eighteen thousand and odd borrowers +recently on the register not much more than eight thousand are above +school age. Nevertheless, she reports, even if the parents have “to +snatch the books from the children or to wait patiently until they are +all in bed” ... “the people will read if they get the chance.” + +“In one Cotswold village there are seventy readers, forty of whom are +adults; among them are several farmers, a painter, a butcher, a sadler, +domestic servants, railwaymen, builders, labourers, many mothers, and +the postmistress. Forty books were sent there in January, and by June +these books had 389 readers, an average of 9.5 readers per book. One +teacher reports that his male readers include a carter, a cowman, a +rivetter, farm-labourers, the policeman, a workhouse attendant, the +night watchman, the schoolmaster, and the vicar. Another writes: +“Our readers are chiefly as follows--cloth-workers, carpenters, +clerks, plasterers, house-decorators, tailors, gardeners, printers, +engine-drivers, ironworkers, chauffeurs, railwaymen.” When one looks +at lists like these one realizes that to pack a box to meet all tastes +is no easy matter. In Stroud there is an old lady of seventy-nine who +borrows books regularly from the school, and at Coln St. Aldwyn, in the +Cotswolds, a disabled soldier read, in three months, nineteen out of a +possible twenty-six books. One of our former borrowers who came in by +train every day left her book in charge of a porter in the evenings. It +was some time before she discovered why he was so surly at times, and +then she found she had changed her book before he had finished it!”[21] + +Here are samples of the letters received from imaginative +school-children, who had been told about that inexhaustible +treasure-house, the Central Library:--“Please send me a book on +carpentering and oblige.” “Dear Sir, Could you kindly send me on one of +your nature study painting books as you spoke of in our schoolmaster’s +letter from you and oblige, Yours sincerely.” “Dear, Sir, I should be +pleased if you would kindly forward me a book on the study of knitting +a Jumper.” And here is an extract from a teacher’s account of her +library centre:-- + +“We all feel greatly indebted to the Carnegie Trustees, it is +impossible to over-estimate the boon that the Library is in these +country districts. If the Trustees could see for themselves the +excitement and pleasure when the books arrive, and the rush to see them +and choose, I am sure they would realize afresh how well-spent their +funds are. Our only difficulty is that there are never enough books for +all who want them, but that, without doubt, is a difficulty common to +all Carnegie rural librarians.” + +The Carnegie Trustees calculated their grants on the understanding that +purchases by the rural libraries should be restricted to the cheaper +books in general demand (averaging 3s. 6d. new or second-hand), and +that when other or more expensive books were required they should +be obtained on loan from the Central Library for Students. To this +library, which forms a central store of technical, scientific, and +other high-class works, for supplying both the rural systems and those +urban libraries that pay a small subscription, the Trustees are now +making a subsidy of £1,000 a year. It may eventually develop into +an invaluable auxiliary to all the public libraries in the kingdom, +and money spent on increasing its stock is a thoroughly economic +expenditure, since it saves an incredible amount of overlapping among +the different units of the nation’s library service. + +Different counties have employed different modes of distribution. Rail +and carrier are the usual medium where the centres are not far from +the railways, and some counties have secured half rates for conveyance +of books by passenger train. Experiments have however been made with +hired motor transport, with a saving on costs and a much more important +saving in time and trouble, since more than a score of boxes can be +delivered and the time-expired boxes collected in a single day’s trip. +The Perthshire authority have acquired a motor-van of their own to +be used for conveying books and also for the librarian’s tours of +inspection. This will no doubt be the plan adopted elsewhere when +the systems reach a further stage of development. More miscellaneous +and more picturesque methods have had to be followed in the North of +Scotland service, which feeds the Islands, including St. Kilda, with +much-needed books. After many abortive attempts to reach St. Kilda, +it was found that a trawler was going there from Fleetwood, and in +this roundabout way the first box of books from Dunfermline arrived +there last year. In the Orkneys, Shetlands, and Hebrides, crofters, +fishermen, and cobblers, we are told, look eagerly for books on +natural history, science, and philosophy, from the Central Library for +Students. How many people passing the drab house in Tavistock Square +have the remotest idea that from this centre, unmarked by anything +more grandiose than a small brass plate, mental and spiritual light +is being steadily radiated to the inhabitants of utmost Thule. In the +island of Foula, where the grown-up people cannot leave their crofts +in the scanty summer, the school-children are enlisted as carriers. A +schoolmaster describes how in the winter he carried the books himself +until he fell in with the sheep-dogs sent out to bring them to the +distant croft. On this island a population of 175 borrows 1,300 books +a year. Guiberwick, with a population of 200, calls for 700 every six +months. Minute records are kept at Dunfermline of the kind of reading +that appeals to various kinds of readers. “For the fiction,” says the +librarian, Miss Thomson, “taken on a whole, they read very good novels. +The general works are of a varied nature, but I have noticed that books +dealing with the literature, fauna, flora, and topography of each +island are much in favour. We also supply books in Gaelic, which are +widely read both by adults and juveniles.” Anyone who has wandered in +the lonelier parts of the Highlands will know what are the difficulties +of a service to the remote glens and the foresters’ stations in the +deer-forests, and what a priceless gift a handful of books always is. + +It must be evident from this short account that the rural problem has +been tackled on the cheapest lines. The maximum cost of any county +scheme has in no instance exceeded the yield of a halfpenny rate; and +until there are centres throughout a shire, or until supplementary +means are employed, such as the establishment of stationary libraries +at accessible points in certain areas, it is not likely to increase +appreciably. The following typical examples of county expenditure are +given by the Trustees in their report on the year 1920:-- + + Total School + pop. pop. Cost + Age of of area of area Total Rate per No. of + County. Scheme. served. served. Cost. equiv. head. Centres. + Staffordshire 4th yr. 246,000 35,000 £525 ¹⁄₁₈d. ¹⁄₂d. 206 + Gloucestershire 2nd “ 212,000 30,000 500 ¹⁄₈d. ¹⁄₂d. 303 + Cardiganshire 3rd “ 60,000 6,500 440 ¹⁄₄d. 1³⁄₄d. 45 + Wiltshire 1st “ 181,000 34,000 435 ¹⁄₁₂d. ¹⁄₂d. 90 + Notts 2nd “ 100,000 13,421 580 ¹⁄₆d. 1¹⁄₂d. 164 + Somerset 2nd “ 335,000 52,000 450 ¹⁄₁₈d. ¹⁄₃d. 223 + +It was a wise stroke of policy to make a beginning through the schools +and the children. A reading public is in process of manufacture, +and through the books and the readers thus introduced into rustic +households even the stubborn bucolic mind can hardly fail to receive +some impression. But the risk of beginning in a small way is that +people will be content with small results, or, even worse, that the +service may have such insignificant consequences that nobody will +mind if it declines into something like the old-fashioned school +library or disappears altogether. The country districts are being +supplied with boxes of books; they are not being put into contact +with libraries--they are not yet supplied with what Professor Adams +laid down as the first essential, “a permanent collection of certain +important reference books and standard works.” Such a permanent nucleus +is in truth the essential basis of a library service; a rotation of +book-boxes is, in reality, but auxiliary to this. Unless it be firmly +realized that what has been done is only a very small beginning, and +that enormously more remains to be done before an adequate library +service is provided, a fatal mistake will have been committed, as +paralysing to future progress as the blunder of 1850, which made public +libraries a failure on the whole throughout the first period of their +existence. The warning ought by now to have been taken to heart. In +their manner of dealing with the rural library, the county education +authorities are on their trial. If the wonted errors of bureaucratic +management are committed, if there is a lack of vision and of sympathy +with the villager, especially the villager who will not be hustled +inside the fold of organized adult education, failure to come to +grips with the thorny problems of rural psychology, and, above all, a +one-ideaed zeal for economy and a cheap sort of efficiency, not much +can be hoped for until public opinion, when our new readers have grown +up, imperiously demands more. + +So far, little has been attempted, except in one or two counties +blessed with an open-minded and energetic librarian, to secure the +personal contact and the insight into local needs and local avenues +of approach that are the indispensable preliminaries to success. For +the extension work that has proved so lucrative in urban libraries +there is doubly and trebly a need in the country, if libraries are to +play any vital part in the rural economy. During the last few years, +fortunately, many agencies have come into being or have acquired a new +lease of life through which missionary enterprises can be carried on, +granted the necessary intelligence and driving-power at the centre. +Rural conditions have changed profoundly since the war. There is a keen +desire to make life in the country interesting, to open the stagnant +backwater into the general stream. Here there is a village club or a +women’s institute, there a branch of the W.E.A.; the Y.M.C.A. and the +Y.W.C.A. have both identified themselves with these and other local +activities and initiated fresh projects themselves, including small +libraries, reading circles, and educational programmes; one place has +a field club, another a musical society; almost everywhere there are +boy scouts, girl guides, and other elements of social life, to all +of which the library movement should come as an aid and a stimulus. +Some of these may form a natural home for the village library; others +will provide materials for reading circles and similar enterprises on +the part of librarians having some insight into the rustic mind and a +determination to break down initial barriers. But to make such efforts +effective, the policy of the rural library authority must be pushing, +adaptive, and not a parsimonious one, and the staff of librarians must +be something more than machines for distributing books. + +The directors of education and the county librarians who are in charge +of rural systems might learn a good deal from the district organizers +employed by the Village Clubs Association. This organization was +founded during the war, with Government assistance, to stimulate social +life in the country, and counteract the tendency of the villagers to +migrate into towns. It works principally by encouraging the formation +of village clubs and institutes, and assisting these with advice and +practical help, especially by getting them to co-operate in schemes +for lectures, classes, entertainments, sports, competitions, and the +like. Several hundred thriving clubs are affiliated to the Association, +and the staff of officials--men chosen for their experience of rural +conditions and insight into rustic mentality--are in touch with +everything that goes on throughout a radius extending over two or three +counties. Many clubs have through local benefactions acquired large and +beautiful village halls, which are obviously the destined home of the +village library--in point of fact, they are not yet the actual home +even where the village has a library centre, bureaucratic authority +much preferring the school, official routine and discipline to mere +human nature. + +The Village Clubs Association takes an active interest in the +intellectual side of rural life; it promotes the formation of village +libraries, very sensibly urging every club to make itself the owner +of a small reference collection, to buy some books for lending, and +borrow from the Central Library to satisfy demands beyond the average. +The Association, further, busies itself in promoting study circles, +lectures, and evening classes, official or otherwise. It has its +own library and education committee, whose activities coincide in +large measure with the work that the county education committees and +directors of education are doing, or ought to be doing, in carrying +out the rural library scheme. Yet the Village Clubs Association and +the educational authorities, even in counties where rural libraries +exist and both are ostensibly engaged in furthering the same purposes, +have done nothing yet in concert, have not availed themselves of each +others’ services, and so far as a person who is not a Government +official can make out, do not know of each others’ existence. In +short, this is another notable instance of our national gift for doing +things twice over and at the same time leaving them undone, of paying +twice for the same job and declining to do it properly because of +the expense. This too, in days of anti-waste campaigns and niggardly +economy. The education committee and the director of education in each +county work under the Board of Education; the Village Clubs Association +is foster-mothered by the Board of Agriculture. It is, apparently, not +official etiquette that the Association should recommend the village +clubs to seek the benefits of the education authority’s library +scheme--their pamphlets of information and advice do not mention the +new possibilities opened out by the Act of 1919--or, on the other hand, +for the education authority to utilize the organizing experience and +fit its own schemes into the framework which the Association could put +at its disposal. + +If the education authorities ignore official or semi-official work +such as this, it is to be feared that they will be slow to recognize +and co-ordinate the thousand and one activities, the libraries and +institutes founded by private effort, and the numberless bodies +that are trying hard to infuse a new spirit into rural life. Will +they take over or work in any kind of partnership with the library +schemes of the Y.M.C.A., the village library association working +in Worcestershire, or that centred in Barnett House, Oxford? Will +they make the various field clubs and other local societies their +coadjutors? Unless they do, all the elements of a real social and +intellectual resurrection in the villages will be left just outside +their radius. It was a good thing to begin with the schools, but +the work must get beyond the school at the first opportunity. The +village school is only a makeshift base for the great intellectual and +civilizing crusade in which all available forces must be concentrated. +It is very difficult indeed to evoke in a schoolroom the congenial +atmosphere of the library, the reading circle, and the village +institute. The very word education, with its narrow associations, is +unpopular and repressive. Adult education will have to get rid of the +second term before it can become an inspiration. The sooner, therefore, +the rural library can leave the school and schooling behind the better. +To do so everywhere, in most places perhaps, is not yet possible; but +where it is possible, directors of education must not be allowed to +frown upon the suggestion. Freedom and initiative, spontaneous personal +development, are the chief things to aim at, and they will be attained +most easily in regions outside the range of our present educational +machinery. + +Salvation will probably come to the rural library movement from such +counties as are enlightened enough to form leagues between villages, +with real not perfunctory libraries in convenient centres, or +combinations of borough or urban district libraries with neighbouring +villages. Only when a growing proportion of the rural public has the +opportunity of direct contact with libraries, and not merely with small +batches of books sent them at stated intervals, will they realize what +a true library service can do. Only then will there be much hope of +co-ordinating all the miscellaneous local efforts into active schemes +of library extension. Incidentally, unless events have meanwhile +hurried on the process of linking up all our public libraries into a +national system, such combinations may furnish a suggestive example to +the towns. But to achieve all this, it is doubtful if we should make +heavy demands upon the county education committees, unless they depute +this side of their work to a strong sub-committee, reinforced with +co-opted members from outside. Representation of other interests than +those of schools and education, representation of the many voluntary +bodies who are striving to reanimate the countryside, representation, +above all, of the people who read or whom we want to read the books, +is a radical necessity. To this point there will be a return in the +next chapter, where the general question of who shall manage our +reconstituted libraries will arise. + +In the United States, where the obstacles to a rural library service +are still more formidable, the town population being only 45 per cent. +of the whole, various plans have been tried, and a different method +than that recently adopted in this country has met with most success, +the method of expansion outwards from a library at the centre, freely +open to the public. The State library commissions do not flatter +themselves that they have completely solved the problem, for only 794 +of the 2964 counties in the United States have as yet one or more +libraries of not less than 5,000 volumes; but they are apparently on +the highroad to success. At all events, they are fully aware of the +extent and value of their opportunities. All the states in the union +have State libraries, and most have library commissions, which operate +in different ways, some with exemplary thoroughness, and some, it +must be confessed, rather perfunctorily. Many states have systems of +travelling libraries, that in New York being the most extensive and +flourishing. Yet comparing this with the rival county system now to +be described, a well-informed critic says, “The few people reached +compared with the great rural population of the state of New York, +wherein the travelling library under the direction of the State +Library Commission seems to be more widely used than in any other +state of the Union, indicates the futility of trying, by means of a +travelling library system operated from the capital of the state, to +supply farm homes with library privileges.”[22] Municipal libraries +have reached their highest development in Massachusetts, which has on +its public shelves more than six million volumes, about two to each +inhabitant; but in the absence of a county system the rural population +is neglected. Indiana also has an admirable township law, empowering +townships to combine and work in concert; yet only one rural inhabitant +in each eleven enjoys library privileges. A very different tale is told +in those states where the system of the central county library has been +set up, though the system is even now but in its infancy. + +The pioneer county library was established in 1901 in Van Wert, Ohio, +in a state where the library movement had hitherto made but indifferent +progress. Funds for a building had been left to the county town by +a self-made banker, J. S. Brumback, and his heirs decided that it +should be a library for the whole county, whereby 30,000 people would +enjoy benefits that would otherwise have been restricted to 8,000. +The county is small and compact, measuring 405 square miles, and is +predominantly a rural area, 16,300 persons at that time living on farms +or in out-of-the-way spots, and the inhabitants of the towns depending +largely for business on the rural population. The county spirit is +strong. There are county parks, a county fair, a county hospital, a +county Chautauqua, agricultural shows, sports, singing contests, and +other county affairs. Hence the tree was planted in the right soil, and +took hold at once. A county tax was sanctioned, a large initial stock +of books was acquired, and has been continually augmented; and when +the stock had increased to 25,000 the whole library service, which is +threefold, dealing with the town of Van Wert, with fifteen branches, +and with the schools in town and country, was run at an aggregate +cost of $7,000 per annum. The staff is divided into three departments +corresponding to the three divisions of the service, besides the +custodians at the branches, who receive an honorarium for their +attendance at certain hours. An equal if not a greater circulation of +books is attained through the schools than even through the branch +stations. Sunday schools are pressed into the work, and the extension +activities are multifarious. Collections of 125 books are sent to each +branch every three months; in addition, supply boxes of a hundred +books go regularly to some branches, and when required to others. +Every inhabitant of the county it must be understood, is entitled to +borrow direct from the central library. This is an important point, +and, observes the librarian, it would be still more important if the +central library were worked on the open access system. In 1920, the +total number of agencies in operation was 142, comprehending, besides +the central library, five city stations, six city schools, fifteen +branches, and 115 school collections. The registered borrowers comprise +nearly sixty per cent. of the whole population, three-quarters of them +using the central library, whether they live in the town or in the +villages. Though weeding-out is a regular practice, obsolete books +being ruthlessly discarded and the library supplied with the latest +books so as to be a real workshop, the total stock is now 30,597,[23] +which is rather more than one volume per head of the population. + +Van Wert is a small county, and the compactness of the area served +gives it an immense advantage over areas of the size of most English +counties, which would have to be divided into library districts to be +put on the same footing. But the superiority of the county system, with +its facilities for direct access as well as its service through the +branch stations and the schools, over the mere travelling library, was +so manifest that the system rapidly spread. Among the states that have +adopted county library laws, following Ohio’s example, are Wyoming, +Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, California, Maryland, Washington, +Nebraska, Oregon, Iowa. Canada, also, has welcomed the system. +California has the largest number of county libraries, and is not far +from covering the whole area of the state with a library service. It +has a state board of examiners in librarianship, and only certificated +persons are eligible to county library posts. One laudable social +object is clearly realized as a motive behind rural library policy in +the United States, to encourage the people to live as far as they can +from the heart of the cities, in spots where they can own a little +ground for cultivation, and enjoy pure air and a wholesome environment. +If the practical American looks at it in this way, we may be sure that +there is much force in the contention that a first-rate library service +in the country would be a real attraction and help materially in the +movement back to the land. + +Here it is worth while mentioning a different class of library that is +multiplying fast in the United States, greatly to the furtherance of +the same movement--agricultural libraries. There are three varieties of +these, the library of the agricultural college, that attached to the +experimental station, and the agricultural library formed by a private +individual or a farming corporation. Their are sixty-five agricultural +colleges in the States, maintained by state or federal funds. +Primarily, such libraries serve the college students; but the colleges +have adopted a strenuous extension policy, running short winter courses +for farmers, organizing agricultural clubs, sending out instructive +groups of exhibits, batches of books, reading lists and reading +matter, in the form of pamphlets, cuttings, and answers to inquiries. +The University of Wisconsin distributes books by parcel post and issues +bibliographical bulletins; the Massachusetts Agricultural College has +a system of travelling libraries; Purdue University prepares select +libraries of agricultural literature and takes steps to sell these to +farmers. “Through the farmers’ papers, on the special trains, at fairs +and at institutes, the work was carried on.”[24] Agricultural libraries +are an essential auxiliary to the experimental station, where the work +is forwarded materially by the services of an expert librarian skilled +in searching out information. The experimental station and its library +play a part in answering queries from working agriculturalists, similar +to that played by our commercial and technical libraries for the +benefit of manufacturers and men of business. + +The advantages of basing a rural library service on a central library +to which the readers can resort if they desire are manifold. Foremost +is the supremely important point that the users can come if and when +they will to see and handle the books and make themselves familiar +with the library’s contents. Open access in town libraries has been, +not merely an educational factor, but an inspiration. The box of books +doled out from a repository that the reader has never seen, and to +which he would not be admitted if he applied, is better than nothing, +but it is a library service only to those who have hitherto had +nothing. A town takes a pride in its library; the villager would have +the same personal interest in the collection of books housed in the +village hall. An inaccessible repository is not likely to excite the +feelings of county patriotism which have been a valuable element in the +success of the Brumback Library, Ohio. Such patriotism is needed, if +the unanimous social effort required of this new experiment, much more +than it was required in the towns, is to become a reality. + +The ideal plan would be to divide the large counties into sections, +each centering in a town or regional library. The town libraries +exist, and if proper financial conditions were arranged the towns +would probably not be averse from coming into a well-planned scheme. +They would gain, not lose, by the change, since the available stock +of books would be enlarged indefinitely and there would be a wider +apportionment of overhead charges. At present, Somerset is worked from +the little watering-place of Burnham, which has no library service +for itself, and books are actually sent across the width of the shire +into the suburbs of Bath, a town rejoicing in a large collection of +lending-library books used mainly for desultory reference purposes. How +much better were Somerset mapped out into districts served from the +existing public libraries at Radstock, Weston-super-Mare, Taunton, +and Bridgewater, with new ones established at Glastonbury, Wells, or +other places, unable singly to afford a library. Why should not Sussex +be supplied from the chain of admirable libraries in her south coast +towns, with a new one in the hinterland at Horsham? Kent has public +libraries at Maidstone, Gravesend, Chatham, Bromley, Canterbury, and +Folkestone; Maidstone, with its Bentlif Institute comprising library, +museum, and art gallery, would form a central magazine hardly to +be surpassed, and with subordinate centres at the other places it +would be easy to cater for the whole county. Wiltshire is served +from Trowbridge, where the bookless inhabitants have to be sternly +repulsed from the sacred repository, whilst Calne and Salisbury have +libraries of their own that might co-operate in supplying this large +agricultural area. Similarly, the Gloucestershire repository is in the +county town, and has no dealings with the Gloucester Public Library. +Examples might be multiplied; but the reader need only open the map of +the United Kingdom to see how easy and natural a thing it would be to +adopt the American county library system and centre our rural service +in an accessible library building, with its reference collection, its +reading rooms, and above all, its lending book-shelves thrown open +to all comers. The Librarian of the National Liberal Club, Mr. C. R. +Sanderson, prepared a scheme for Middlesex, one of the latest counties +to accept the Carnegie grant, for organizing a regional service +worked from a central library established within the joint boundary +of Southgate and Friern Barnet, which have between them a population +approaching 60,000. The alternative to this proposal is the usual +travelling library system, and it remains to be seen which will be +ultimately adopted. Middlesex, most of which is mere suburb of London, +is in circumstances very different from those of the average county. +It already has a score of public libraries in its towns and urban +districts, many of which would be anything but worse off if they were +linked into a county scheme. Failing that consummation, towards which, +however, it may be hoped that future events will lead, there seems no +reason but timidity and short-sighted frugality to hesitate in choosing +the American pattern. + +[Illustration: LIBRARY OF THE SOUTH-EASTERN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, WYE.] + +The more rapidly the method of the travelling book-box spreads into +counties in which efficient urban libraries are already working, the +sooner will its radical defects appear; common sense and obvious +convenience will presently call for the abolition of such anomalies, +and insist on a proper utilization of existing resources. The earlier +this happens the better, for such utilization will be far more economic +than an ineffective system, however cheaply run. The outcome will +be something much nearer the goal indicated by the Adult Education +Committee in their Final Report.[25] + +“The hope lies in the recognition of the county market town as the +natural centre for the surrounding villages and the gradual development +of transport facilities radiating from the market towns.... The +development of transport and the extended use of electric power will +tend to the decentralization of industry and the movement of firms +from the town to the country. It is improbable, however, that town +workers will be prepared, in any large numbers--even when the housing +shortage is remedied--to exchange urban life for life in the country so +long as the latter is without the counterpart of the many and varied +activities to which they have become accustomed in the towns.... The +rural problem, from whatever point of view it is regarded--economic, +social, or political--is essentially a problem of re-creating the rural +community, of developing new social traditions and a new culture. +The great need is for a living nucleus of communal activity in the +village, which will be a centre from which radiate the influence of +different forms of corporate effort, and to which the people are +attracted to find this satisfaction of their social and intellectual +needs. We conceive this nucleus to be a village institute, under +full public control.... The institute should contain a hall large +enough for dances, cinema shows, concerts, plays, public lectures, +and exhibitions. At the institute there should be a public library +and local museum. If arrangements can be made for games and sports, +so much the better. The institute, in a word, should be a centre of +educational, social, and recreational activity.... As the institutes +will be used more and more for public and quasi-public purposes, it +seems to us that they should be established out of public funds. In +the main, the establishment of village institutes should be a national +charge. The complicated social and economic questions which we call +collectively the rural problem are a matter of the greatest national +importance. They do not admit of any simple solution. They need to be +approached by many roads; one of the most important is through direct +encouragement to the establishment of a new communal organization and +to the development of corporate activities and social institutions in +harmony with modern social ideas. The State cannot create a new social +spirit; it can but provide opportunities for its growth and expression. +One of the chief of these opportunities is the village institute, +and we can think of no more profound or far-reaching piece of rural +reconstruction than the provision of buildings expressly designed as +a focus of the social activities of village communities. Whether such +institutes become active centres of social and educational work will +depend largely upon the degree in which voluntary organizations of +various kinds co-operate in utilizing the opportunities which the +institutes present. It is clear that a village institute can never +become the mainspring of organized life in the village unless the +organized activities of the village centre in the institute. The +success of village institutes in the future rests upon an appeal to +groups of people with common interests, rather than to individuals. It +is because they have, in recent years, begun to flourish that we look +forward hopefully to a vigorous life within the village institutes.” + +Only let the library hold the central position in these rural +institutes that it held in the Mechanics’ Institutes before the Public +Libraries Acts, and let the numerous libraries--and institutes--be +knitted together in active fraternal union, and the Committee’s dreams +may easily be accomplished.[26] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] The Adult Education Committee may have been justified in laying +the blame for this state of things on “the want of foresight of the +original promoters of the movement, who assumed that the institutions +would appeal only to the artisan classes of the large centres of +population”; but they were hardly right in going on to ascribe it more +particularly to their mistake in allowing the legislature “to restrict +the expenditure of public money to the product of a penny rate.” + +[19] _A Report on Library Provision and Policy_, by Professor W. G. S. +Adams (1915), p. 15. + +[20] “Prior to 1920, pioneer rural schemes had been financed or +assisted by the Trust in the counties or areas noted in column ‘A’ +below; column ‘B’ shows the counties to which grants have been +sanctioned this year; column ‘C’ shows the counties whose Authorities +are in negotiation (preliminary or advanced) with a view to a grant.” + + A + Perthshire + Caithness + Montrose District + Nottinghamshire + Staffordshire + Wiltshire + Gloucestershire + Buckinghamshire + Dorsetshire + Somersetshire + Yorkshire Village Library + Cardigan + Carnarvon + Brecon & Radnor + Denbighshire + Montgomeryshire + Grantham District + Westmorland + Warwickshire + + B + Sutherland + Clackmannan + Renfrewshire + Forfar & Kincardine + Midlothian + Berwickshire + Peeblesshire + Dumbartonshire + Kent + Pembrokeshire + Glamorganshire + West Sussex + Cheshire + Inverness + + C + Flint + Carmarthen + Anglesey + Middlesex + Hampshire (Isle of Wight) + Hampshire (Southampton) + Worcestershire + Northamptonshire + Cumberland + Durham + Northumberland + Kirkcudbright + Nairn + Fife + Bedfordshire + Surrey + Linlithgow + Shropshire + Cambridge + Isle of Man + +(Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, _Seventh Annual Report_, 1921; p. 9.) + +[21] _Library Association Record_--“The Gloucestershire Rural Library +Scheme,” by Miss A. S. Cooke (Feb., 1921). + +[22] S. B. Antrim and E. I. Antrim, _The County Library_ (1914), p. 238. + +[23] Total number of vols. accessioned (Dec. 31, 1920) 37,302; number +in the library 30,597. + +[24] J. H. Friedel: _Training for Librarianship_, p. 106. + +[25] pp. 141-5. + +[26] The character of the best type of village institute may be judged +from the following account of the Nettlebed Working Men’s Club and +Institute:-- + +“Perhaps the most original feature of the equipment of the hall is +the provision of a cinematograph apparatus. The provision of picture +palaces in all English villages would be a doubtful advantage, if they +showed the baser sort of ‘cowboy’ and other sensational films. Given +some restraint in the choice of subject, however, moving pictures make +winter evenings more changeful. During 1918 the cinema was used very +little, but it is now running every Saturday evening, and draws full +houses. Mr. Fleming’s main idea in installing a cinema at Nettlebed was +to make use of its educational possibilities. The Oxfordshire Education +Committee welcomed the provision, as also did the Inspector of Schools, +the more so because it extended advantages to the school children of +six parishes near Nettlebed. The Education Code permits teachers to +take the whole or part of a school for rambles or visits to places of +educational interest during school hours, and films have been shown +at Nettlebed on certain afternoons to a concourse of children. The +subjects of the pictures were chosen to illustrate geography, history, +English, and nature study. A village club can conduct its ‘cinema +department’ by joining a lending library of films, so that the subjects +can be duly varied. + +“The higher aspects of village life have not, however, been neglected +at Nettlebed. Concerts, lectures, and dances are held in the men’s +hall, which is laid with a special dancing floor of oak, famous +throughout the district, and this is protected in the ordinary way by +a cloth covering. Dancing classes are held weekly for children in the +afternoon and for adults in the evening, and are conducted by a lady +resident in the village. An instructress, under whose care the young +girls in the village and district are taught cookery, laundry work, and +housekeeping, lives in a house near the hall. Across the road is the +school garden, divided into some fourteen plots, each cared for by one +boy. At the back of the playground is an old building converted into +a carpenter’s shop, in which another section of the boys work under +the supervision of the village schoolmaster. All of these branches +are under the control of the County Education Authority. Altogether, +it will be seen that in these various ways instruction as well as +amusement is provided.” Sir Lawrence Weaver, _Village Clubs and Halls_ +(1920), pp. 82-3. + + + + +V + +A NATIONAL LIBRARY SERVICE. + + +Centralization proved to be the only way of extending a library service +to the rural districts. No village, unless through the largess of +a plutocrat, could build up and maintain anything worth calling a +library for itself. Given a centralized system, some sort of service +can be run cheaply, and a first-class service can be run economically. +Does it not follow that some measure of centralization would be good +for urban libraries, enabling them to save in certain directions, +and making their resources go a great deal further than they go at +present in the direction of widest utility? The largest libraries +have managed to be self-sufficing, not merely because they have more +money to spend, but rather because their service is organized on the +principle of a centralized group. There is a point beyond which it +does not pay a library to provide from its own resources all that its +users may possibly require. Each library must determine this point +for itself. The everyday wants of its readers ought to be satisfied +on the spot and at the moment; but to go far beyond that point even +should a local Crœsus provide the wherewithal, would be extravagant, +entailing surplusage, overlapping, and waste. Spending money on books +only in occasional request is to spend too little on books in continual +demand. The library of moderate means cannot pretend to satisfy both +daily and exceptional wants, unless it is able to call upon outside +resources, such as a Central Library for Students developed to such a +capacity that it forms a sufficient reservoir for supplementing all the +moderate-sized stocks in the country. If most of the urban libraries +were brought into a co-operative network of libraries, with mechanism +for interchange by which the book lacking here would be supplied there, +or else from a larger regional library or a clearing-house at the +centre, obviously a service equal to the pooled resources of the whole +system would be provided without the present waste on overlapping. + +Central organization exists in the big provincial cities; that is the +reason for their superiority, and they are superior in a degree far +beyond that of mere size. It does not exist in London; that is why +serious readers must have recourse to the British Museum or the big +special libraries, to satisfy their requirements; or if, like the great +majority, they can rarely do this, they must go without. London is the +most glaring illustration of the vices due to mere parochial methods; +it suffers, not so much because its library resources are limited, as +because they are not mobilized. For certain purposes, it has already +been noted, both London and provincial libraries acknowledge the +economic value of some centralization. Thus every municipal library has +given up buying books in Braille type for the blind, and relies for +this branch of its service upon the National Library at Westminster. +A great many subscribe to the Central Library for Students, and draw +upon that for books required by specialist readers. A large number +help to provide the funds for the great Subject-Index to Periodicals, +which makes the contents of reviews, magazines, technical and +scientific journals, filed in their reference departments, available +for instant use. This may not seem much compared with the results +of joint effort or of State supervision in America, where they have +co-operative cataloguing, co-operative publication of bibliographies +and aids for readers, and elaborate facilities for professional +training; but it is a beginning. The Adult Education Committee can +think of no way to endow the industries of the country with an adequate +series of technical libraries except by centralization. Although many +librarians, represented by the Library Association, do not approve of +the particular scheme put forward, they are at one with the Committee +in admitting that co-ordination of the separate libraries and the +establishment of a central supply is the only way to solve this +problem. + +Although, however, the partial and unequal development of public +libraries which the Adult Education Committee by a slip in their +logic put down to the rate limit, is due, as the report conclusively +shows, to their having had to struggle along in isolation, it would be +disastrous to take the control of the local libraries entirely out of +the hands of the local authorities. This would stultify all efforts +to inspire public opinion and evoke local pride. No institution in a +civilized society is more sure to be an expression of corporate life +and local individuality than a communal library, in the building up of +which the actual users have had a hand. A system, however complete and +efficient, bestowed by a Government department, however benevolent, +would be sure eventually to stifle all such aspirations. The local +communities in both town and country must have a decisive voice in the +management of their libraries. They must have a larger voice, not a +smaller, than they have had hitherto. Local initiative has never had +free play. Why is it that public libraries rarely excite that interest +and enthusiasm in which the promoters hopefully confided? The answer +is obvious. Libraries have suffered from official repression, and have +not had even the doubtful advantage of official tutelage. If a town +wished to spend liberally on its library, it was pulled up by the rate +limit. If it wanted lectures, the Government auditor put in his veto: +he does so still. And so with any of the excursions from the programme +prescribed from above that would have helped to realize a higher +ideal. Library authorities have been confined to the unimaginative +duty of exercising circumscribed and inadequate powers, and the +library committee has enjoyed the least prestige of all the council’s +departments. More local control, more powers of initiative, and more +representation of the actual users of the library are needed, if a +vigorous and useful life is to be maintained. + +But this is fully compatible with healthy co-operation between the +different authorities under the guiding supervision of a central +department. Some authorities may require a stimulus; they should not +be allowed to victimize those among their constituents who crave the +very necessities of civilized life. Cases are not unknown where borough +councils have failed to carry out, or have deliberately emasculated, a +library scheme approved by a majority of the ratepayers. Education is +compulsory: it is a question whether one of the chief instruments of +education should be at the mercy of a local body to grant or withhold. +For, so inconsiderable a place does the library take at present in +local politics, the average borough council, elected to manage the +trams, the streets, water, electricity, and other mundane affairs, +seldom represents the views of the citizen on such a different matter +as libraries; and the committee appointed by such a council hardly +ever represents or is fully cognizant of the views of the people who +actually use the library. + +Fortunately, the times when a policy of rate-saving at all costs, +or the selfishness of a leisured class enjoying their subscription +libraries and not in favour of too much education for the lower orders, +or the interested opposition of the liquor trade and the music hall +proprietor, were able to keep out or keep down public libraries, are +gradually passing away. They have not gone altogether; but it would +be invidious to name the two or three distinguished boroughs where +these influences are still rampant. The problem now is to bring the +great crowd of under-developed and under-nourished libraries into +line one with other, to assist the halt, help the blind to see, and +by schemes for concerted action enable all to reach the same level of +efficiency as the big towns have attained without undue exertion. A +simple licence to spend more than a penny rate will not secure this by +itself. Reorganization on a co-operative ground-plan will do as much as +the mere expenditure of money, and money will not be spent lavishly in +these frugal days. The merit of such a reorganization is that so many +and so great values will be secured at a minimum cost. The material is +in existence for an enormous improvement of the services. + +Had not the sweeping proposals of the Adult Education Committee for +making the local education authority the library authority been +negatived before the late Bill came into Parliament, the heterogeneous +units that constitute the library service of London would after the Act +of 1919 have come under the unifying influence of the London Education +Committee. It was such a near thing that we may pause to consider +the probable results. As already noticed, library development in the +metropolis has been unequal in the extreme. Certain boroughs are still +destitute of a public library system. The total number of books in +the remainder is about a million and a half. All these metropolitan +libraries are established under the same Acts; till recently they drew +their income from a uniform rate (except in certain boroughs where a +high rateable value allowed the penny to be reduced to a halfpenny); +the governing bodies are in each district a committee of the borough +council. Yet each group of libraries is a distinct entity. Each +authority is a law unto itself. A ratepayer in one borough is not +permitted to borrow from the library in the next though interchange of +privileges would have been, not merely a logical but a great economic +advantage. There has been no consultation between the authorities +to avoid overlapping in neighbouring reference libraries, though +correlative specialization would have been easy and remunerative.[27] +Every reference library develops on individual lines, perhaps as a +British Museum in miniature, with the result that, out of a number much +larger than the total number of boroughs, not one is above the standard +of a second-rate library in the provinces. Some committees offer a +cordial welcome to students at school or college in their boroughs. +Others repulse such students unless they are ratepayers or at least +residents in the borough.[28] + +The immediate advantage of combining all the local libraries of London +and Greater London into one system, all available to any one living or +working in any quarter, and supplementing each other by a simple method +of interchange, is manifest. The majority of the reference libraries +should be shut up at once, and the space used for library purposes +that have hitherto been neglected. Provided that every branch has a +good collection of quick-reference books, there is no need for most of +these--many of them are legacies of the still more parochial government +of London before the present boroughs were formed. A proportion of the +contents should be used to augment the stock of the Central Library for +Students, which is now, in a small way, a central depot for the lending +libraries of both London and the country. The remainder, after all +useless and obsolete material had been sent to the destructor, would be +brought together to form the initial stock of some six or eight really +excellent reference libraries, so placed that every potential reader +would be within the radius of a tram-ride. Six or eight large central +libraries might be selected for the purpose, and would require little +alteration beyond the removal of the lending department, for which room +would have been found elsewhere. + +Whenever the present haphazard library service of London is superseded +by a unified system, there will be a possibility of incorporating into +it, or associating as auxiliaries, various public or semi-public +libraries not belonging to the municipalities. London is not poor in +its bibliothecal possessions, though badly served. In 1910, Mr. R. A. +Rye calculated that in the public and administrative libraries and +those belonging to various institutions, Greater London had a total +of eight and a half million volumes, of which one and a half million +are inaccessible to the general public.[29] This gave a supply of one +volume per head, which may be compared with Berlin’s two volumes, +Dresden’s three, and the four per head in Paris. Such comparisons, it +should be observed, are not a matter of simple arithmetic. A larger +community may find its account in a smaller relative stock, be that +organized for use. A family of five with ten books would be badly off. +A town of 50,000 with 100,000 volumes would be opulent. London, with +a system of centralization and distribution comprehending all these +varied resources, would probably be as well off as any city in the +world. It is largely a question of realizing the intellectual capital +that is now paying such poor dividends. Special libraries, such as +that of the Patent Office, the National Science and the National Art +Libraries at South Kensington, the Public Record Office, and others, +like the various economic and sociological, historical, medical, +legal, and other libraries attached to technical or scientific +institutions, would continue to stand apart, but would stand in a +definite relation to the general service. + +[Illustration: READING ROOM OF THE GENERAL LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF +LONDON.] + +The proper balance between local control and the superintending +departments--and sub-departments, if the nation’s libraries are +reorganized as several great territorial systems--would not be +difficult to contrive, so as to preserve and foster the rights of +each community to self-expression. It is not proposed to work these +out in detail here. Briefly, the functions of the central board +would be:--(1) to install and operate the machinery for interchange +and central supply, the latter ultimately superseding the former +altogether; (2) to see that the local libraries and more especially the +selection of books are maintained at a proper level; (3) to undertake +such wholesale services as cataloguing and the compilation of aids +to readers, work which is now done over and over again by individual +library staffs at great expense, or else is neglected; (4) to organize +and finance the training of librarians, and see that they are properly +paid. Ultimately, librarianship might be organized as a sort of civil +service; at any rate, librarians ought to be as carefully looked after +by the State as are the teachers. + +Many other enterprises of vast public benefit could be, most +appropriately, engineered by the central office; for example, the +publication of large editions of non-copyright books in a form +suitable for lending library use. Bookbinding is another item of +local expenditure that calls urgently for mass treatment. It is not +proposed, however, that the central library authority should set up a +binding factory in opposition to the trade. This would be unnecessary, +for it would be in such a commanding position, as by far the largest +purchaser in the market, that it could dictate its own terms to +publishers, printers, binders, and even to paper-makers. The fact is, +the rebinding of books in public libraries might, for the most part, be +done away with, if paper, covers, and binding were originally designed +to stand the wear. As a leading authority on the subject, Mr. Douglas +Cockerell recently said, “Publishers still design books to meet the +fancy of the casual buyer, and very largely ignore the requirements of +the libraries, which are for many books their largest customers.”[30] +Light, fluffy paper is selected by publishers solely to bulk out books; +the thicker the book the higher the price. “Now the public may like +to pay for fluff and wind, but the librarian’s interests are directly +opposed to this. Increased bulk means more shelf-room, and the use of +this paper means that the books will fall to pieces after a very short +time.” But our central authority would surely see to it that a book +produced for library use should be printed on paper of good quality +and cased in split boards, which “should last in ordinary library +circulation until the librarian is forced to discard it on account of +the dirt it has picked up.” + +Another need of paramount importance to all engaged in the pursuit of +knowledge is that the contents of the numerous periodicals produced +throughout the world, registering advances in all branches of +science and research, should be abstracted and indexed, so that the +material should be rendered accessible or at any rate its existence +fully known.[31] Mention has already been made of the Subject-Index +to Periodicals, in which some hundred and fifty periodicals are +systematically indexed. This important undertaking was initiated some +years ago by Mr. E. Wyndham Hulme, late librarian to H.M. Patent +Office; it has been carried on successively under the auspices of the +“Athenæum” and of the Library Association. It is at present a heavy +burden upon a few devoted shoulders, although a very large part of +the labour is performed by volunteers; yet its scheme is susceptible +of indefinite expansion, if all the requirements of scientific and +technical workers are to be, even approximately, met. It is eminently +a task pertaining to the library, the university and college library, +the special library, and the research department of all types. Were +there a central library department in existence, it would undertake +this as part of its ordinary routine. It would also undertake the +collateral task of preparing and publishing a union catalogue of the +long sets of periodicals of all kinds to which the Subject-Index gives +the references, and it would indicate where these sets are to be found. +Besides the indexing, it would perhaps carry out the further but +hardly less valuable work of drawing up and issuing systematic digests +of important new knowledge contained in the learned periodicals. It +has been recently proposed that the British Museum should carry out +this necessary piece of national work, the cost of which, sales being +allowed for, would not be excessive.[32] + +Such results, however, invaluable as they would be to the whole nation, +through the services rendered to several classes of workers, would be +only a by-product of the centralizing and systematizing process, the +immediate object of which would be the betterment of our libraries. +Let us return then from this digression. In the middle of last +century and towards its end, Edward Edwards and then his biographer, +Thomas Greenwood, both stated their conviction that central control +was necessary, and that one of its most useful instruments would be +systematic inspection. Greenwood quotes the following from Edwards:-- + +“If every Library in this country on which the public has any fair +claim, could be brought distinctly under public view, by a precise and +periodical statement, comprising at least three particulars: (1) what +it _is_; (2) what it _has_; and (3) what it _does_; a long train of +improvements would inevitably follow. But the systematic inspection of +Public Libraries to be effective must be national.”[33] + +He goes on: + +“The present writer is convinced that there will never be a full +measure of health and vitality in libraries generally until some +central control of this nature is established. The largest and best of +the public libraries do not need it, but would welcome it to secure +the welfare of the library body politic. But there is a class of +libraries, and it is to be feared that it is not a small one, which +seriously need to have light from the outside brought to bear upon +their administration. Such libraries are managed in a narrow, illiberal +manner, with rules which hamper rather than help the public. The staff +is selected without regard to conditions of suitability, training, or +merit, and every method adopted is of the tamest and least efficient +kind. Only national and systematic inspection can alter this state +of affairs. His Majesty’s inspectors of public schools perform an +efficient and salutary work without curbing local aspirations, and +similar inspectors of public libraries would be able to carry out an +equally useful task in connection with the municipal libraries. But +it is plain that no form of public Government inspection would be +agreeable to existing library authorities, unless accompanied by some +kind of substantial State aid.”[34] + +Government inspection of libraries is not unknown in other countries, +on both sides of the Atlantic, and appears to cause no friction but a +spirit of good feeling and mutual help. It is carried on, for instance, +in Canada, and it is one of the functions of the State library +commissions in the United States. The libraries accept it in the spirit +which Edwards saw would animate the efficient library authority, and, +further, welcome it as a potent means for extending their benefits +into regions hitherto unreached. In Ontario the Minister of Education +is responsible for the administration of the Public Libraries Act, +and assigns this part of his duties to the Public Libraries Branch, +of which the Inspector of Public Libraries is superintendent. But in +Ontario the local authorities are so whole-hearted in their zeal +that the energies of the Branch are mainly confined to general work +in the interest of libraries, to routine inspections, the collection +of statistics, and the payment of grants. Yet, it is admitted, the +majority of librarians and library trustees would welcome a demand for +a minimum standard of efficiency. + +The American State commissions usually include the State librarian, +other professional librarians, prominent educators, literary men, +library trustees, and business men interested in the work. “Instead +of regarding with jealousy the assumption by the State of powers like +these, librarians generally welcome the increase of systematic work +fostered by State aid and control. They are active everywhere in +efforts to establish State commissions, where such do not exist, and +the opponents of their efforts are usually persons unfamiliar with +the modern library movement, or politicians who see in such action no +benefit to themselves. In some cases, where legislatures have refused +to enact a proper State library law, State library associations, +voluntary bodies of librarians, have agreed to initiate and carry on, +at their own expense, some of the activities usually supervised and +financed by the State.”[35] + +“A former agent of the Massachusetts Free Library Commission won for +himself the title of ‘the travelling bishop,’ descriptive both of the +estimation and affection with which he was regarded.” “State library +commissions exist at present in thirty-seven states. In a few states +such as in California, New York, and Utah, the State library or the +State board of education, in lieu of a library commission, exerts the +functions that such a commission would have.”[36] + +The question of State grants to local authorities is perhaps important, +but certainly not so important as some critics would make out. +Equalization of burdens would of course have to be arranged. Yet, on +the other hand, there should be nothing to prevent a very enterprising +authority from spending a great deal more if it chose on further +developments of its library service. Progress would ultimately come to +a standstill if there were not this liberty; uniformity, at any level, +is ultimately stagnation. The Adult Education Committee speak of State +grants to local exchequers; but, apparently, these were to have been +calculated on the measure of a local authority’s zeal in co-operating +with educational work in the narrow sense, and not made a handle for +beneficent central control. It might or it might not be advisable to +assist local effort or reward enterprise by a policy of grants in aid. +Anyhow, it should be borne in mind that the material benefits of +such a scheme of centralization as has been roughly outlined would be +tantamount to a large financial contribution by the State, though it +should cost the State nothing. Apart from equalization of burdens[37] +and, perhaps, rewards for noteworthy efficiency--or the converse, fines +or refusal of grants for failures in efficiency--there seems to be +little use in discussing what proportion of the cost of our systems +of libraries should be defrayed by local rates and contributions +from local authorities and what by the State. Both rates and taxes +come ultimately from the same source, and, so far as that source, the +rated and taxed individual, is concerned, he might as well spend his +time debating which pocket he should keep his purse in. Inspections +and grants from the local exchequer would, obviously, go hand in hand; +but the allotment of grants would certainly not be the sole or the +principal end of the system of inspection. + +If all the libraries in the kingdom were linked together in a national +system, the division into urban libraries and rural systems would to +a large extent disappear. A large number of the urban libraries would +be absorbed into groups of town and country libraries, analogous to +the American county groups; and large rural areas, with small village +libraries and a service of boxes, would have their focus in new central +institutes easily accessible to readers in the vicinity and available +for occasional visits by students at a greater distance. Many populous +areas would remain much as they are at present, with some increase of +facilities. But, instead of one Central Library for Students, there +would have to be, sooner or later, several large supplemental libraries +in convenient spots, forming magazines supplying, not individual +readers, but the scattered libraries; and, probably the British Isles +would have to be divided for library purposes into several provinces, +each centering in one of these. Supervision of library activities in +such provinces would devolve upon regional committees, elected by the +county and borough authorities in each province, the central board +exercising co-ordinating functions and carrying out such work as is for +the general welfare. + +These central supplemental libraries would be built up largely by +a careful redistribution of existing resources. There is hardly a +library of any size that does not contain many books which are very +seldom used, books, however, which no librarian would dare to jettison, +because he knows that some fine day a reader is sure to come along +to whom one volume or another will be of priceless importance. There +are many other books so infrequently called for that it would be an +immense convenience to store them elsewhere, and utilize the valuable +shelf-space for books in continual request. Books of this sort should +be kept at the supplemental library, duly catalogued, and ready to be +sent to any library throughout the area served, when readers require +them. The supplemental libraries would, of course, be always buying +more books; they would have to keep abreast of the latest advances in +all subjects; but the works just described would form an important +part of their original contents, and would be transferred to them free +of cost. Local libraries are constantly put to the expense of buying +books for one or two users; such users are, no doubt, among the most +deserving of all their clients, and it is but just that their urgent +wants should be satisfied. But it is a tax upon the capacities of small +libraries that should be met somehow else; they would be spared it +by the new system, and the cost of the supplemental library would be +saved over and over again, the local library then having more funds to +maintain the stock of books in regular demand. + +The present Central Library for Students is a step in the right +direction, but it is only a step; the work will have to be done on +a very large scale. This library was an outgrowth of the efforts to +supply students attending university tutorial and W.E.A. classes +with books to carry on systematic reading. At the end of 1915, the +Carnegie United Kingdom Trust undertook to provide £600 to assist in +the establishment of the library, £2,000 for additions to the stock, +and £400 yearly for five years, if £320 were raised by subscription. +The subvention was afterwards raised to £1,000 a year, and in 1920 the +issues of books numbered 15,500. The Adult Education Committee were +deeply impressed by the exceptional value of the work performed by this +library, and proposed that it should be made the nucleus of a central +circulating library to supplement the local library service all over +the country. With an assured income of £2,000 a year for ten years, +they calculated that an annual circulation of at least 40,000 volumes +would be attained; their estimate being based on an estimated cost +of 1s. per volume issued. The actual cost of each issue, under our +present benevolent postal regime, is considerably more. The figure is +now probably not less than 1s. 6d. Add return postage to this, and you +will see that, after borrowing a book two or three times, you might as +well have bought it outright. The method of sending out books singly is +too expensive. And a circulation of 40,000 a year would be a mere drop +in the ocean; any small provincial library has an annual circulation +of at least 40,000; a large borough library system in London expects +an annual circulation of about a million. The thing must be done on a +vast scale to be worth doing at all, and then it can be done cheaply, +even if, as might reasonably be expected, the Post Office declines +to grant a large rebate on the transmission of books issued from the +national libraries. The proper method is to make our central library or +libraries an integral part of the whole machine, supplying to all other +libraries all, or nearly all, of the books that are not imperatively +necessary on the spot for everyday purposes. Then the issues from the +central library will not be in twos and threes, but in large batches, +and the average cost will be reduced to an economic amount. + +Mr. John McKillop produced a workmanlike scheme in 1907 for such a +supplemental library in London as would have provided all the students +and other hard working readers throughout the twenty-eight municipal +boroughs with all the books required in the most exacting course of +study. He proposed that it should be established by the Education +Committee of the London County Council, since its greatest immediate +effect would be to supply students with expensive works not now within +their reach. + +“With eighty-five municipal libraries already established in London, it +would be useless duplication for the Education Committee to undertake +all the work of registering borrowers and issuing volumes to them +and safeguarding their return. It is suggested that the contents of +the Council’s collection should be lent on application to the public +libraries and the libraries of educational institutions which could +then lend them to their clients. This method would avoid the necessity +for a very large staff. The central collection would have as borrowers +merely the eighty-five libraries and branches already established, +and those which may be added from time to time by the boroughs in the +future, together with the fifty or so polytechnics, and such other of +the institutions for higher education as may care to avail themselves +of the facilities offered. In any case its borrowers could not exceed a +couple of hundred, and though each of these might daily draw and return +large numbers of books, the clerical labour required would be but a +fraction of that necessary in a smaller library, where a large number +of borrowers withdraw and return one or at most two volumes each.”[38] + +Mr. McKillop based his estimate of cost on the number of volumes +contained in the Patent Office Library, viz., 105,000 volumes, which +comprehend a very large proportion of modern scientific works. “If we +take 35,000 as the number of volumes required for a modern working +science library of reference (_i.e._, excluding the smaller text-books +and class-books), and if we allow four times this number for the needs +of departments other than science, we get a total of 165,000 volumes as +the size of the collection. As a basis to calculate the capital cost of +the collection probably 5s. is too little and 10s. too much per volume. +Taking 7s. 6d. as a working figure the total cost would be about +£62,000 (one penny rate in London produces £171,000). But it would be +impossible to spend for this purpose wisely and economically such a +sum as £62,000 within less than ten years, and the collection could be +got together with reasonable rapidity by the expenditure of not more +than £10,000 in any one year. The average expenditure would probably be +nearer £5,000. In regard to administration the cost would be probably +easily covered by £5,000 a year when in full working order, but would +be four or five years in getting up to that figure.”[39] + +If the cost of Mr. McKillop’s scheme was to be £5,000 a year in pre-war +money, we can hardly expect much from £2,000 a year now, especially +when the whole of the United Kingdom, and not London alone, is to be +supplied. Further, it is hardly too optimistic to conjecture that the +number of students and other serious readers in the population is a +great deal higher now than it was in 1907, and, accordingly, that the +demands upon our supplemental libraries would be proportionately more +exacting. No, the Adult Education Committee have not looked far enough: +a much bigger scheme is required, and the expenditure of much larger +sums than they contemplate. But there is no need to be frightened by +the cost; one may safely affirm that the general economic saving will +be in direct proportion to the outlay on the establishment and upkeep +of the experimental libraries. Whatever is spent at the centre, will be +far more than made up by savings at the circumference. + +Mr. McKillop put the case of the student of science and technology, for +whose difficulties he felt most concern, although there are numerous +others whose state of destitution is no less pitiful, with a cogency +that cannot be bettered. + +“These students may be either those whose means enable them to pursue +courses of study in the splendid laboratories of University College, +the Royal College of Science, the City and Guilds Institution, and +other schools of equal rank, or they may be young men and women whose +circumstances compel them to earn their living by daily work, and have +only access to the culture and improvement offered by evening study. +While the former presumably have access to the best literature of their +subject in the libraries of the institutions in which they work, the +latter, although, it is suggested, showing probably greater devotion +and sacrifice in the pursuit of knowledge, are debarred by the hours of +opening and closing from the use of the magnificent collections in the +British Museum, Patent Office, and other public libraries of reference. +The polytechnics, it is admitted, do make great efforts to supply the +books required by their students; but it cannot be contended that at +present they can compete in this respect with the other institutions +named, which provide for the student who has all his day for study. +It is precisely for this latter class that the public rate-supported +libraries of London ought to provide, and it is a well-established +fact to those who know something of the inner working of the public +libraries in London, that it is one of the great sources of discontent +among London’s public librarians that insufficient funds, and sometimes +also unsympathetic borough council committees, prevent their doing +more than is done for this class. But there are inherent difficulties +which have to be taken into consideration. London is not a unit; it is +twenty-eight independent units without even a semblance of federation, +and it would impose an insupportable financial burden on the ratepayers +if every one of the twenty-eight boroughs were to attempt to supply, +through the public libraries, the books required by advanced students +in science, technology, history, literature, art, and other domains of +study which can be pursued in London.” + +... But why should London provide twenty-eight sets of all these works? +There is no probability that one student in, say, Bermondsey, and one +in, say, Finsbury, will require the same volume of the Philosophical +Transactions at the same time, and, therefore, it is not necessary +that both Bermondsey and Finsbury, and every other library in London, +should possess a set. But there is a probability that more than one +student in the same borough might require the same volume at the same +time; for instance, a teacher at the Battersea Polytechnic might +recommend the half-dozen or so students in his advanced class in +chemistry to read some classical memoir; and Battersea Public Library, +to meet this demand efficiently, would require two or three sets of +the Philosophical Transactions, which would be an obviously absurd +arrangement. The absence of any system of co-operation between the +metropolitan libraries renders it impossible for them at present to +co-operate in any way in meeting this difficulty.[40] Mr. McKillop +went on to show that it might be possible for the local libraries, +trusting to the central collection for an adequate supply of what may +be called students’ works, relatively seldom used, to work with a +standard collection of popular works which would be the same in all +boroughs. “When this point is reached, it might be possible to have a +common catalogue for all the libraries.... The way is, in consequence, +easy for a local authority which decides to establish a collection. It +can procure for a very small sum the catalogue of all its collection +ready made on the best lines, and all it has to do is to purchase the +books, etc.”[41] Without endorsing this idea of stereotyped libraries, +an idea which is obviously contrary to the vital principle that a local +library, if it is truly alive, will by the predominant character of its +contents show itself to be the expression of local individuality, we +must admit that it opens up suggestive possibilities. + +Another proposal of the Adult Education Committee lies open to more +severe criticism. This was a project for assisting industries and +technical students and research workers by setting up a great chain +of industrial libraries forming “a technical library system for each +industry,” independently of the municipal library system. Side by +side with the latter, not yet, and perhaps not even then, organized +as a reciprocating system, there would be erected a complex and +highly expensive series of special collections, open, apparently, to +members of the particular industries alone. “In the case of general +libraries the unit of organization and administration is the local +authority, in the case of the technical library system it should be +the industry.”[42] The amount of costly and unnecessary duplication, +both of contents and of machinery, in such a cumbrous scheme dumbfounds +the experienced librarian, especially when he reflects that all the +libraries in the kingdom could be put on a scientific basis, and +all the wants of both the general public and the special industries +amply satisfied, at much less the price. Such a scheme must obviously +have been framed by persons having but a rudimentary idea of the +library arts, or they would have thought out a much more practical +and economical plan. The extravagant cost and the impracticability of +the proposal have been exposed in a special Memorandum by the Library +Association, representing the trained librarians of the country, who, +strange to say, were not consulted before the scheme was evolved. The +gist of their criticism is contained in the following paragraphs:-- + +“The Library Association is not prepared to admit that this policy is +sound or economical. Clearly, extensive overlapping cannot be avoided, +because a large number of industries require general technical +libraries and not special technical libraries. For example, the motor +industry is special, but a library for that industry must contain +books special to many other industries, on metallurgy, chemistry, +physics, and other subjects. An industrial library should comprise +information, not only on the industry itself, but on subjects and +industries in contact with the industry for which the library is +intended. As a rule the industrial and technical student, unless he +is a beginner, needs information just off the line of his special +work. Hence, libraries formed round an industry will tend to become +general technical libraries. Few industries are confined to one area. +Birmingham is usually regarded as the centre of the hardware trade, +which, however, is spread widely over the country. A technical library +for an industry must have a centre and branches with all the machinery +of inter-communication and exchange. Even so, the books could not be so +readily accessible as by an extension of the present library service, +which has developed naturally in response to the people’s demand for +information. A better plan, therefore, would be the proper organization +of the existing libraries of technical societies, and an extension of +the present service of public libraries, the technical collections of +which (so far as funds have allowed) have been selected to aid the +industries of the locality. The public library service is already +extensive; improvement on it is essential; but to organize another +parallel service would be a regrettable waste of money in view of the +great need at this time of obtaining the best technical library service +at the least cost. + +“The Library Association is strongly of opinion that scientific and +technical information should be freely available to people who are +not yet enrolled in or who are outside an industry; otherwise that +industry would tend to be impervious to new ideas, except from within. +They earnestly press for the efficient equipment and expansion of +the existing public technical collections, and for the foundation of +technical libraries, in large provincial cities, on the lines of the +Patent Office Library in London.” + +The all-important question remains to be discussed: If a centralizing +authority is required to enable the libraries of this country to take +their proper share in reconstruction and in carrying on civilized life +in an intelligent and orderly way, who is to be this centralizing +authority? What Government department is fit for such a charge? Unless +a new one is to be created, the Board of Education obviously has sole +claim. This was the unhesitating conclusion of the Adult Education +Committee. The Library Association, the membership of which is made +up principally of salaried officers or elected representatives of +the present municipal authorities, took alarm at this proposal, and +especially at the corollary that the library authority should be the +local education committee. The objections are, briefly and summarily, +two: That the interests of the libraries might tend to be subordinated +to those of the schools, and that bureaucratic control would stifle +local interest and local initiative. But, as was urged in the chapter +dealing with the interaction of libraries and schools, if the Board of +Education undertook this wider responsibility, it should, and doubtless +would, become a board of something more than scholastic education. +Libraries must not be allowed to take a second place to the schools, +the work of which at an early period of life they are destined to +transcend. Let the local education committee attend, as now, to the +schools, which will be, and should be, its first consideration. But +let another body, appointed definitely for the purpose, partly no +doubt from the same personnel, but well seasoned with co-opted members +representing the wider intellectual interests of each locality, be +responsible for managing the public library.[43] + +[Illustration: THE ORATORY LIBRARY.] + +American librarians, who have had experience of administration of both +libraries and schools by boards of education, are not in favour of +vesting the control of libraries in the education authorities. “Too +close an administrative connection ... has not been beneficial to +the library ... it has generally been found that when the control of +a public library is vested in a body created originally for another +purpose it is regarded as of secondary importance and its development +is retarded. It is better that the library should have its own board of +trustees, and that the two institutions should co-operate in the freest +manner. Such mutual aid is, of course, founded on the fact that the +educational work of both school and library is carried on largely by +means of books. That of the school is formal, compulsory, and limited +in time; that of the library is informal, voluntary, and practically +unlimited. It is greatly to the advantage of the scholar, and of those +informal processes of training that are going on constantly during life +whether he wills it or not, that he should form the habit of consulting +and using books outside of the school. When books are thought of merely +as school implements their use is naturally abandoned when school days +are over.”[44] + +Similar views were submitted by the Library Association to the Adult +Education Committee. Part of their resolution ran as follows:-- + +“The aim of the library as an education institution is best expressed +in the formula ‘self-development in an atmosphere of freedom,’ as +contrasted with the aim of the school, which is ‘training in an +atmosphere of restraint or discipline’; in the school the teacher +is dominant, but the pupil strikes out his own line in the library, +which supplies the written material upon which the powers awakened +and trained in the school can be exercised; furthermore, the contacts +of the library with organized education cease where the educational +machinery terminates; but the library continues as an educational +force of national importance in its contacts with the whole social, +political, and intellectual life of the community....” + +“In speaking to the resolution, Mr. L. Stanley Jast, formerly Secretary +of the Library Association, developed the argument--“The work of the +librarian is sharply contrasted with that of the teacher. The teacher +deals with human material, the librarian with the written record, and +only incidentally with the people who come to consult and use it. But +not only is there this wide difference in the nature of the material +upon which the teacher and the librarian respectively work; there is +a difference of immediate aim of so basic a character that one is +almost the negative of the other, and therefore are they perfectly +complementary to one another.... The library and the school supplement +and complement each other. And the virtue of each is that it is not the +other.... The material of each is different, the aims are different, +and the administrative machinery of the one has no real relation to +that of the other.... The resolution has a second thesis, which is +that it is after all only a portion of the library field which touches +education.... We outgrow the school; we cannot outgrow the library.”[45] + +“We have examined these arguments with the care to which the policy +of the Library Association is entitled. The first argument, however, +rests upon a sharp distinction between the library and the school which +should not, in our opinion, exist. A school is a more complex and +many sided institution than the argument would appear to assume, and +its functions are too narrowly confined by the phrase ‘training in an +atmosphere of restraint or discipline.’ The class-room is but part of +a school. Other institutions--the workshop, the gymnasium, the playing +field, and the library--are essential features, each of them making its +peculiar contribution to that self-development which is claimed to be +an end of the library. The school in fact, is a community which fulfils +its end through a variety of agencies of which the class-room is one +and the library another. The ideal school is one which seeks to aid +self-development through the medium of ‘discipline’ on the one hand, +and by providing opportunities for the pupil ‘to strike out on his own +line’ on the other. + +“The antithesis between the teacher and the librarian is also, in our +judgment, too sharply defined. Powers are trained by their exercise, +and the printed book is an integral part of the equipment of the +school. If the librarian deals with the written record, it is but as a +means to self-development in the scholar. In other words, the library +is part of the educational fabric, just as much as the art room or +the school clinic. The school and the teacher will perform their true +function only in so far as they enter into the closest co-operation +with the library and the librarian. The latter will fill their real +place only through co-operation with the former. Both school and +library will be immeasurably strengthened when the artificial line of +demarcation is obliterated. + +“It is sometimes argued that the libraries would lose by the process +and become subject to an over-rigid systematization, to which +librarians are rightly opposed. This attitude of mind appears to us to +be based on a want of knowledge of the strong trend towards greater +freedom and initiative within the publicly provided schools of the +country. This movement, we believe, would receive a valuable stimulus +from closer association with the libraries, without necessarily +imposing a mechanical organization upon the libraries. + +“The provision of children’s rooms in libraries, the assembling of +books bearing upon the work and interests of students, library lessons +and other developments and proposals will forge strong and necessary +links between the school and the library; but it is difficult to see +how this intimate relationship can be generally established unless +there is an organic connection arising from a single policy based +upon the complex needs of the pupil. Under certain circumstances the +frank interchange of experience and inter-relation of interests may be +possible with dual control. But it is at least open to doubt whether +they will be generally and permanently attained without a common +administration. + +“The second argument in support of independent administration for +libraries is, in the words of the resolution referred to above, that +‘the contacts of the library with organised education cease where +the educational machinery terminates.’ The Education Act, 1918, +provides for compulsory continuation education up to the age of 16, +and ultimately 18. Further education of this character must lead to a +growth of both technical and general education beyond these ages. There +is certain to be an extension of technical education after the war, and +there will be a growing demand for non-vocational education to be met. +With the latter question we shall deal at greater length in our Final +Report. A greater call than in the past will undoubtedly be made upon +our educational resources, and the necessity will arise for that close +co-operation between educational institutions and libraries which is +admittedly desirable in the case of school pupils if the school and the +library are to fulfil their functions. + +“It is true that we cannot outgrow the library: but it is equally true +that we cannot outgrow the school, in other words, that we cannot +outgrow the need for systematic education. The whole purpose of our +inquiries into adult education has been directed towards formulating +recommendations based upon this truth. Our inquiries, further, justify +the view that there is a growing recognition of the need for education +and an increasing desire for it on the part of men and women. + +“But though the public library has an important function to perform +in relation to educational institutions, its activities travel beyond +assistance to formal education. It exists to serve the needs of a +public with varied interests. It must satisfy the requirements of the +serious student; but it must also cater for that large class of people +who are ‘general readers,’ and those who go to books for recreation. +The unsystematic and recreative reading which the libraries have +stimulated do not, however, it seems to us, provide any argument +for maintaining the public libraries as an independent municipal +service.”[46] + +In the present writer’s opinion, the distinction drawn by Mr. Jast +is a sound one, and is corroborated by the reluctance of American +librarians to placing libraries under an authority primarily appointed +to administer schools. But, since there remains so much in common in +the aims of the two sets of institutions, if the supreme authority +were entrusted with a scheme of education in the larger sense--call it +culture, humanism, or personal development, since the term education +smacks too much of the school and college--then it would be logical +and salutary to put our public libraries under a department of that +authority, making this responsible, side by side with the education +department in the narrower sense, to the supreme Board--which may +or may not continue to be called the Board of Education. Dread of +bureaucratic control has become almost instinctive with thoughtful +people. The habit of working in watertight compartments, and repressing +every spontaneous activity that cannot be forced into the strait-jacket +of official routine, inspires observant critics with distrust even +of rural library schemes conducted on strictly official lines under +education committees. To put the control of both urban and rural +libraries in the preoccupied hands of those whose attention is centred +in schools, discipline, and organized education, would be a blow at +the freedom and elasticity of the library. After all, the problem +of the young person is much the same everywhere, and education may +for the most part be reduced to a system. People who have grown up +and developed personality, however, will not submit to have their +intellectual nutriment doled out on a system. They must have a say in +managing and developing their own libraries, and in choosing the books +they are to read. + +The notion of a Libraries Board side by side with and independent of +the Board of Education would find no support in this country. Nor are +we likely to see State library commissions on the American model, +though we may as well digest the lesson from the United States, where +they certainly know how to manage libraries so that they bulk large in +the social consciousness. Co-operation, but not subordination, must +be the watchword. The department of the general Board of Education +charged with supervision of the national system of libraries would +contain, besides those who are educators in the widest sense of the +term, representatives of those versed in the government and the actual +administration of public libraries, from the British Museum and the +university libraries downwards. Such a combination would be less likely +than the mere education committees of to-day to negative the proposals +of those who understand the needs of libraries and of the people who +use them. The local committees would likewise be well-seasoned with +co-opted members representing all the varied intellectual interests of +each locality, and, above all, representing the actual readers, the +people most concerned in each library’s well-being. Local initiative +must be welcomed, not merely tolerated: it is the vital element of +progress. In between would come the regional committees, charged with +the maintenance of the central supplemental libraries, and with all the +general activities carried on throughout each great library province. +Thus, surely, the proper equilibrium between the central co-ordinating +body and local volition would be safely established. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[27] cp. America:--“In towns where there is more than one library +accessible to the public, these should reach as soon as possible some +_modus vivendi_ that will prevent the useless duplication of any class +of literature. This may usually be done by agreeing to specialize. +For example, in Chicago such an agreement has been made by the Public +Library, the John Crerar Library, and the Newberry Library. The Public +Library specializes in general literature, the John Crerar in science, +and the Newberry in history, economics, and so on. In pursuance of +this policy, the Newberry Library has even transferred to the John +Crerar its medical collection, which had reached a considerable size. +Such action is evidently a long step toward the complete understanding +between civic institutions that is so much to be desired; and it +deserves the highest commendation.” Bostwick: _The American Public +Library_, pp. 73-4. Similar specialization has been effected in the +Astor, Lenox, Bar Association, Academy of Medicine, and Columbia +University Libraries in New York. + +[28] There are great irregularities in the distribution of these +libraries; for instance, the ratepayer in Holborn has to walk on the +average 540 yards to get to a library; in Camberwell he would have +to go 1,030 yards; in Wandsworth 1,400; while in the huge borough of +Woolwich, if it were all built up, he would have to travel about 2,400 +yards. The majority of the boroughs, however, only expect their readers +to walk between 500 and 1,000 yards. + +If we consider the provision of libraries in proportion to the +population, we find that the extreme variations are that Hampstead +supplies a library for every 14,000 inhabitants, while 75,000 +inhabitants in Stepney share one between them. + +But the demand for library facilities is not the same in all the +boroughs, for we find that while in Hampstead 125 out of every 1,000 +of its inhabitants are registered as using the library, in Shoreditch +only 29 per 1,000 avail themselves of the facilities which exist in +that borough. The effect of this is that the number of _readers_ per +library varies considerably, for while Poplar and Hammersmith share a +library or branch between 1,200 readers, Stoke Newington and Chelsea +are satisfied with one establishment for 4,600 readers. + +(John McKillop: “The Present Position of London Municipal Libraries +with suggestions for Increasing their Efficiency,” in _Library +Association Record_, Dec. 1906.) + +[29] Rye, R. A., _The Libraries of London_ (1910)--“Preliminary Survey.” + +[30] In a lecture at the School of Librarianship, University College, +London, on May 23rd, 1921. + +[31] “Sometimes a discovery of vital moment lies concealed for +many years in a little known periodical; the most striking recent +case is that of Mendel’s experiments, now the inspiration of the +most productive school of modern biology, described in 1865 in the +periodical of a natural history society in Brünn but buried until 1900, +when a happy chance revealed them.” _Times_, June 29, 1921--“Indexing +of Technical Literature.” + +[32] “A union catalogue of the current periodicals preserved in +the German libraries, published in 1914, comprised some 17,000 +entries. A similar list for the periodicals filed in the libraries +of the United Kingdom, prepared in 1914-15 by some English State and +copyright librarians, was submitted for publication to the Department +of Scientific and Industrial Research, but the proposal met with no +encouragement. Yet the compilation of such a list is an essential +preliminary to the proper national organization of knowledge. For a +union list indicates the relative strength and weakness of our national +libraries in respect of their periodical collections: it enables +the librarian to correct the latter without unduly increasing the +expenditure of the library in that department of literature.” _Nature_, +June 9, 1921--“Co-operative Indexing of Periodical Literature.” + +[33] _Edward Edwards_, by Thomas Greenwood, p. 137. + +[34] Ibid. + +[35] Bostwick: _The American Public Library_, p. 28. + +[36] Friedel: _Training for Librarianship_, p. 176. + +[37] “The amount produced by the penny rate varies from borough to +borough within very wide limits. The wealthy City of Westminster +receives nearly £23,000 for every penny of its imposed rate; Kensington +comes next with £9,500, and the others fall gradually till we find that +Stoke Newington receives only £1,400. But to estimate the burden it is +necessary to consider the produce of the penny rate in relation to the +number of inhabitants, and in doing this we find that while every 1,000 +inhabitants in Westminster can raise for library purposes £128, in +the over-burdened east and south-east, Poplar and Camberwell can only +raise £20, while Stepney comes lowest on the list with £19 per 1,000 +inhabitants. But this does not express the whole of the burden, for +while 1,000 inhabitants of wealthy Westminster have the power to spend +£128, they find that their five libraries, well stocked with books and +liberally staffed, cost them only £65, while Poplar, which finds six +[actually four] establishments too little for its needs, must perforce +expend the whole of the £19 per 1,000 citizens that it is enabled +to raise.” J. McKillop: _The Present Position of London Municipal +Libraries_. These figures were put down in 1907; the present situation +may be understood from later statistics. The areas and populations are +similar. + + +FROM L.C.C. LONDON STATISTICS, 1913-4. + + Charge falling + on Rates. Amount + Poplar 4 Libraries .99 £3,080 + Kensington 3 ” .61 £5,905 + Westminster 4 ” .43 £11,784 + + +FROM L.C.C. STATISTICAL ABSTRACT, 1920. + + Assessable Value. 1d. produces + Poplar £835,583 £3,482 + Kensington £2,451,335 £10,214 + Westminster £7,011,845 £29,216 + +Current estimate at Poplar, £8,318 to 2.17d. in £. + +Poplar, it should be noted, has one of the most efficient library +systems in London, though the buildings are not pretentious and the +furniture is for use and not ornament. To provide and work this +admirable system something like an economic miracle had to be worked, +for so narrow was the financial margin that as the borough librarian +picturesquely put it, if a few slates fell off the roof the cost of +replacing them had to come out of the book fund. + +[38] J. McKillop: _Present Position of London Municipal Libraries_. + +[39] Ibid. + +[40] Ibid. + +[41] Ibid. + +[42] Adult Education Committee: _Third Interim Report_, 20. + +[43] “The public libraries and museums should be remitted to special +committees of the education authority. On each of these committees it +would be desirable to co-opt representatives of voluntary organizations +and societies specially interested in the work of the committees, such +as local educational bodies, scientific societies, and art clubs. +Librarians and curators should, of course, have direct access to their +respective committees and the fullest possible scope for their powers +and special knowledge.” Adult Education Committee: _Third Interim +Report_, 56. + +[44] Bostwick: _The American Public Library_, p. 95. + +[45] Adult Education Committee: _Third Interim Report_, 19. + +[46] Adult Education Committee: _Third Interim Report_, par. 9-12. + + + + +VI + +TRAINING IN LIBRARIANSHIP + + +The pioneers of our municipal libraries were mostly men who had had +no experience of library administration, and learned their craft +and coached their assistants after studying the best type of older +libraries, improvising new methods to suit new circumstances. In +1876 the American Library Association was founded, and in 1877 the +Library Association of the United Kingdom. Their objects were first, +educational, through the medium of personal intercourse and the +exchange of information; and secondly propagandist, the furtherance +of the library movement. In some of the larger towns classes were +carried on for the instruction of the staff; and in 1884 the Library +Association drew up an examination syllabus, which was a first step +in defining the proper qualifications of a librarian. Classes open +to any assistant were held at various centres, and in 1893 an annual +summer school was started. The Association next appointed an Education +Committee, which before long co-operated with the London School of +Economics in holding courses of lectures, conducted correspondence +classes, elicited similar efforts from provincial branches, and +held yearly examinations. Certificates were granted in the separate +subjects, Literary History, Bibliography, Classification, Cataloguing, +Library Organization, and Library Routine; and when an assistant +had taken these seriatim he might obtain a full diploma, after he +had shown some knowledge of Latin and of a modern foreign language, +and written an original thesis on an appropriate subject. The weak +point of this admirable programme was that it did not provide for +systematic training or even for continuous study. Perhaps it was an +initial mistake to award certificates in single subjects, for the +majority of those gaining such certificates never approached the final +stage, and in a dozen years less than a dozen candidates won the +diploma. But the standard of the qualifications had to be adapted to +the educational level of the ordinary library assistant, and to the +extreme disadvantages under which he laboured. His hours were long, his +pay was low, and, penny rate libraries being uniformly understaffed, +he could not be spared to attend many classes, even if any were held +in his neighbourhood. The diploma scheme of the Library Association +is still in being, and provides an alternative method of qualifying +for professional certificates to working assistants who are unable to +benefit by the training system next to be described. + +During the war, whilst the Adult Education Committee were trying to +find a place for libraries in a comprehensive plan of reconstruction, +the Carnegie United Kingdom Trustees were in consultation with the +Library Association on the question of a more thorough system of +training. The University of London School of Librarianship came into +existence as the outcome of these conferences in 1919, a few months +before the new Act. This was a momentous event in the history of the +profession. The School is a department of University College, the +largest school of the University; its curriculum fits into the scheme +of the Faculty of Arts; the students participate in the social and +intellectual life of the college. Thus it is not a separate vocational +institution, like the majority of the American library schools, but +part of a great foundation dedicated to the liberal arts and sciences. +The normal course of training occupies two years, and students must +devote their whole time to lectures, private study, and practical work; +but for the benefit of assistants who cannot throw up their occupation, +and also of booksellers, publishers’ assistants, and others desirous +of knowing something of library economy and useful subjects like +classification and indexing, part-time attendance is allowed, by which +the training is spread over a period varying from three to five years. +But it must be continuous. This and the thoroughness of a college +training, coupled with the initial requirement of a general education +of matriculation standard, make the advent of the school a great +stride forward. In time, the training may develop into a postgraduate +course, and instruction may be given in a series of advanced subjects, +such as Historical Bibliography and the Bibliography and History of +Scholarship, Latin, Greek, Biblical, Celtic, Romance, Teutonic and +Scandinavian, courses which the present writer was able to introduce as +possible subjects for study and research into the Library Association’s +syllabus, when he was Hon. Secretary of their Education Committee. + +The growing complexity and diversity of library work and the +multiplication of technical and other special libraries call for +new types of librarian. The administrator of a large urban or rural +system must be a highly educated and many-sided person. Knowledge +of the relative values of books on an immense range of subjects is +hardly more necessary than ability to help other persons, not only to +select the right kind of books, but also to read, not at a venture, +but methodically. The able librarian must have a wide comparative +acquaintance with the contents and the technique of many libraries. He, +or perhaps she--for women are at least as well-fitted as men for almost +any kind of library work--must be a competent organizer, a good judge +and controller of others, and one who can infuse keenness and interest. +It is a tradition that he should be a master of the superficial, a +compendium of second-hand learning, knowing something about everything; +but that it would detract from his qualifications as a kind of walking +index to universal knowledge, if he knew too much about anything in +particular. This is an inhuman and impossible ideal. The oft-quoted +dictum of Mark Pattison that the librarian who reads is lost, unless +it be wantonly interpreted that we have lost the well-read librarian, +is a mistaken warning. One must have a hobby for mere vitality’s sake; +and, unless we specialize in something, we shall not even know what +knowledge is about anything. + +[Illustration: + + _Photo by Langley & Sons_ + +UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, GENERAL LIBRARY.] + +The corner-stone of the edifice is the science and art of book +selection. The librarian must be a first-class judge of books, and +of books for definite use. He is to be the guide and counsellor +of innumerable readers; the inspirer of untold thousands more. He +should be ready at a moment’s notice to deliver a lecture on the +art of reading, and, with reasonable time for preparing his notes, +to conduct a tutorial class or at any rate lead a reading circle. +Some specialization will give him a good start on either run. A mere +smattering is not of much use in this branch of library extension work. + +Thus the desideratum is an appropriate blend of general and special +accomplishments, and there is no question as to which should be +acquired first. Entrants to the School of Librarianship are expected +to have matriculated beforehand: if they aim at academic honours, +they should take their degree before they specialize in professional +subjects. Many of the present students are pursuing librarianship as a +postgraduate course: this may become a general rule as the programme +of studies is enlarged. The University has recently allowed the course +to be taken as the final stage in a degree course, under certain +regulations. Some American library schools have highly specialized +curricula; the Carnegie Library School of Pittsburg, for instance, has +courses in Library Work with Children and School Library Work; and +at Washington, in association with the School for Secretaries, there +is a Training School for Business Librarians. High school or college +graduation is usually required for admission, and in the library +schools at Syracuse University and the University of Wisconsin there +are courses leading to a degree. Too much specialization in the library +school itself is not desirable. The best librarian for a technical, +scientific, historical, or other special library is one who has taken +the B.Sc., B.Eng., or honours Schools, and then followed a course in +Librarianship. Librarianship is not a science, notwithstanding the fact +that a number of the American library schools call themselves schools +of library science, and that a baccalaureate is granted in this, but +an art. It is the application of knowledge, knowledge which must +be attained first; education must have preceded training. That is a +rough-and-ready way of putting it; but such is the main principle that +should guide us in drawing up a course in librarianship. + +Both in England and in America, two orders of librarians and library +assistants are tending to become clearly differentiated, on the +analogy of the two orders in the Civil Service. On the one hand are +those who enjoyed a liberal education and have supplemented this with +a first-class technical training; on the other, those who had a poor +start educationally. The latter may by intelligence and perseverance +catch the former up; there will be no watertight partitions between +the classes. But the difference between them will become more and +more accentuated as library activities become more complex and more +specialized. In one way, a school of librarianship forms a medium +between the two grades; it may enable an energetic man or woman to +overcome the disadvantages of a poor start in life; in another way, +it helps to differentiate the classes, those persons who proceed +successfully through the courses and win diplomas going automatically +into the higher class, and those who fail to attain more than a few +odd certificates, into the lower grade. The main determining factor +is to have enjoyed or to have missed a good preliminary education, +comprising a knowledge of languages and fair general culture. + +The present curriculum of the School of Librarianship is as follows:-- + + (i.) English Composition. + + (ii.) *Latin _or_ Greek _or_ Sanskrit _or_ Classical Arabic. + + (iii.) *A Modern Language other than English. + + (iv.) Bibliography. + + (v.) Library Organization (including Public Library Law). + + (vi.) Library Routine. + + (vii.) Cataloguing and Indexing. + + (viii.) Literary History and Book Selection. + + (ix.) Classification. + + (x.) Palæography and Archives. + +In the purely technical subjects, the instruction is partly theoretic +and partly practical. The students are set to work, under expert +supervision, cataloguing sections of a library; they classify masses +of books, and perform upon them various routine processes; they are +given mediæval English, Latin, and Norman-French documents to decipher +and translate, mediæval manuscripts to catalogue and calendar. They +watch bookbinding demonstrations, and are shown, not only how a book is +bound well, but also how the job is done in a shoddy way by dishonest +binders. Skins of the finest quality and other bookbinding materials +are hanging up in the school, and all sorts of library apparatus and +equipment are on exhibition. During the long vacation the students +are expected to work as voluntary assistants in libraries of the most +modern type, and no opportunity for practical experience or for seeing +things actually being done is neglected. Lectures on such phases of the +prescribed subjects as library architecture, rural library systems, +library work with children, technical and commercial libraries, and +library extension, are continually being given by special authorities +not on the regular staff. The student who is not a graduate must +pass examinations in all the ten subjects set out above, before he +can receive the diploma; the graduate may be exempted from the first +three. Those candidates who have not held salaried offices in approved +libraries do not receive the Diploma until they have done at least one +year’s work in such capacity. It is apparent, then, that the course +is partly general and partly technical; and, whether the entrant is a +graduate or not, there is no escaping the basic requirement, a good +general education, or the other essential, practical experience. + +America had library schools thirty years before Great Britain; there +are now eighteen library schools in the United States, several +requiring a college degree before admission, some qualifying their +alumni for a degree in library science. Other agencies for training +librarians are apprentice classes and summer schools; and the training +these last provide is more continuous and thorough than is afforded +by the same kind of institution in this country. Certain general +colleges, also, hold courses in bibliography, palæography, and kindred +subjects, useful not only to the librarian but also to the research +student. Germany, Italy, and Sweden preceded us in the establishment +of library schools, the first-named in 1861. France exacted +technical qualifications from candidates for university libraries +in 1879. Holland has a library school, and 1920 saw one started in +Czechoslovakia. All these are Government or university foundations. If +our libraries become a national concern, training in librarianship will +necessarily be an affair for the community to regulate and finance. + +Old-fashioned library committees and librarians still exist who +are well content with the library assistant that, as they put it, +“has gone through the mill,” in other words, a person without any +education worth mentioning and without training in any real sense, +who has learned his work by having had to do it and never studied the +why or the wherefore of library practice. There are still librarians +who regard librarianship as simply a job like any other job, which +has got to be carried on and incidentally find some one a berth; and +who feel aggrieved if called upon to furnish anything beyond the +most rudimentary service--lending and reference library and reading +room--and regard any sort of library extension as incipient bolshevism. +Committees and librarians of this stamp actually prefer the uneducated +junior, the youth, that is, who has enjoyed nothing more liberal than +primary schooling; whereas the intelligent and progressive committee or +librarian would rather appoint, even to a senior post, a well-educated +person who has to learn his duties, than one poorly educated yet having +had a great deal of practical experience. The former would have to +spend some time in picking up the ways of a new post, but, given equal +abilities, he would show himself the better man in a brief space of +time. + +Perhaps a more insidious danger than this survival of the obsolete +is the view, to which all administrators of systems are apt to fall +a prey, that high mechanical efficiency is the be-all and end-all of +library economy. Perfect and smooth-running machinery is an admirable +thing; it will certainly be one of the characteristics of every +library system that achieves complete success. But there are elements +still more essential, which cannot be secured by the pursuit of mere +mechanical perfection. To put mechanism and mechanical organization +first, knowledge and ideas second, is as bad a mistake as crass content +with the old, inadequate service. The danger of being dominated by +mechanism is, in truth, as real a danger in the world of libraries +as ever it was in Erewhon. “True, from a low materialistic point +of view, it would seem that those thrive best who use machinery +wherever its use is possible with profit; but this is the art of the +machines--they serve that they may rule.”[47] This very danger is +already apparent, it has been noted, in some of the rural systems +superintended by bureaucratic directors of education. Their criterion +of efficiency is uniformity, in method and results. But uniformity is +of no value except as a mark of excellence or fitness. When uniformity +is sought for its own sake, it is bound to stultify aspiration and +suppress spontaneity. In the earlier days of the public library, +there were librarians who thought that they had achieved immortal +fame by inventing that surprising piece of mechanism, the indicator. +Library progress for decades was checked by the indicator and the +repressive form of organization of which it was the symbol, the closed +library. To infuse a new spirit into the reading and the non-reading +public will do infinitely more for the future of libraries than any +amount of mechanical efficiency. That is the reason why the School of +Librarianship has erected its course of professional training on the +broad base of a liberal education. This is no slight to the technique +of librarianship; but means that technique must be the servant, not the +master, and that machinery will be used best if those who control it +have intelligence and vision. + +And why should training in librarianship be confined entirely to +librarians? It has often been urged that bibliography should be taught +in schools. Book selection, indexing, classification, in short, most +of the professional subjects, are elements of a general training in +organization and in methods of study and research. When there comes +about a thorough correlation between libraries and schools, young +people will, as a matter of course, acquire the rudiments of the +library arts. Since the child, as soon as he leaves school, will have +to pursue his intellectual activities chiefly through the medium of +books, he should be taught something about bibliography, at any rate +the maxims and methods of book selection. Self-education to-day is +rendered more difficult and uncertain by the very multiplicity of +books that solicit attention. Even advanced university students are +surprisingly ignorant of the means for ascertaining the nature and +relative value of the literature of the subjects they are working +on. A thorough grounding in book-selection and certain other of the +library arts might work a reformation in the newspaper world: it +is a point for the attention of schools of journalism. Imagine the +results if there were a reference library of high quality in every +office and every reporter and sub-editor had been trained in using it +accurately. No one is competent to be a guide in intellectual matters +or a dispenser of knowledge who is not engaged in a continual process +of self-education. The value of a knowledge of librarianship to the +layman is recognized in the United States: in 1914 ninety-one American +colleges gave courses in what is there called library science.[48] + +One result of the library extension work described in an earlier +chapter is a wider diffusion of the library arts. When the Education +Act of 1918 comes into force throughout the land, and the school-child +becomes a “young person”; when intellectual training is carried on +right through the plastic period of mental development, the opportunity +for cultivating the library arts will be laden with profound +consequences. If elementary schools and continuation schools then work +in due co-ordination with libraries, the new curricula will in large +measure comprehend what we desire: instruction in the art of reading +and the enjoyment of literature, guidance in the use of scientific and +technical books and in the methods of research. Every young person +should be shown how to make himself master of the multifarious contents +of a library, to acquaint himself with other library resources that are +within reach, to become his own bibliographer, map out his reading to +the best advantage, and be able to choose books wisely, whether he is +buying for his own shelves or making use of the public library. + +The vital importance of the library arts to the researcher and to +all whose work is among books, pamphlets, or records, needs no +expatiation. Mr. Sidney Webb, in lecturing to young librarians some +years ago, depicted the infinite pains with which he constructed his +own bibliographies of social science. He had to acquire the library +arts in the hard school of experience, when manuals of bibliography and +guide-books to books were fewer than they are now; and, no doubt, the +fine library at the London School of Economics may be regarded as in no +small part the result. Modern specialization has extended the field of +knowledge so enormously that the finest education is, in a large sense, +only elementary--only a preparation of the individual to use human +knowledge and exert himself in extending it. + +Exact classification is making its way in all directions. The art of +classification is not only an invaluable mental discipline, it may +be applied with advantage in every province of work and business. +It stands for order and method in all sorts of affairs. Though a +classification of books is not the same thing as a classification of +things, and may depart in many respects from the exactness of logical +theory, there is no better way of inculcating the usefulness of system +than by illustrating it in a well-classified library, where the +reader can find his way from shelf to shelf, and follow the tracks +pointed out for him to other book-cases the contents of which are more +distantly connected with his subject. Commercial firms have learned the +value of systematic filing. Representatives of business corporations +and parties of students from schools and colleges visit the Commercial +Library at Manchester in order to examine the vertical file and have +its principles explained. It is in the research departments of the +technical firms that classification, filing, and indexing are pursued +to their furthest reaches. It is to be wished that the librarian’s +near relations, the publisher and the bookseller, would make more use +of system. When the bookshops are arranged on an intelligible plan, +there may be less romance in the Charing Cross Road, but it will be +better for business. And, though some might think there was more +lost than gained in the second-hand shop if “Americana” were shelved +according to Dewey and “Book Rarities” placed in their proper decimal +order, there is at any rate no sentimental objection to the scientific +arrangement of new books. But, with the notable exceptions of two or +three large firms of publishers and the university presses, no one +seems to think it worth while to issue classified catalogues of new +publications. Booksellers and publishers prefer to arrange their wares +and compile their catalogues by the sizes of books, by binding, or +by prices--by anything except the subject. Both are sadly in need +of a course in librarianship. Publishers have declined to take the +expert advice of the Library Association, or to learn anything on +the materials, printing, format, or even the kinds of books that are +wanted. The fact is, their books, their catalogues, and their methods +of marketing are adapted to the momentary satisfaction of a public +having no acquaintance with the library arts. When we are each our own +bibliographer, these perfunctory ways will have to be dropped, or the +reader and book-buyer will want to know why. + +[Illustration: + + _Photo by Langley & Sons_ + +READING ROOM OF THE GOLDSMITH’S LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.] + +Classification is the natural basis of indexing, or rather classifying +and indexing are complementary to each other, the object being to +have everything in its place and to show how it can be found. Every +author, every one who uses or dispenses information, every one who +keeps so much as a commonplace book, ought to be an efficient indexer; +yet ignorance of what constitutes a good index is almost universal. +There has been a slight improvement of late in the proportion of +books indexed; but the general standard of precision and scientific +arrangement is still very low. Apart from inaccuracy, which is a common +defect, our methods, in regard to thoroughness and ease of reference, +are painfully inferior to American methods; [49]the fact is patent +even in some of our big co-operative treatises, which have no excuse +for their slovenliness on the score of economy. Yet the public seem +to be content. They are used to taking what is offered them, and have +never considered what minimum of efficiency in book-production they are +entitled to expect. A review here and there makes its protest against +a bad or omitted index, or against inadequate or forgotten maps, or +illustrations that do not illustrate, and to this may be attributed the +slight improvement noticed. Yet the importance of indexing, in all the +affairs of life, is so obvious that, apart altogether from its function +in books and libraries, it ought to find a place in any well-planned +scheme of education. + +But the most important and fundamental of the library arts is that +of book selection, which is best defined, not as choosing the best +books, but as choosing the right, the appropriate books. The student +of librarianship is taught literary history so that he may be a safe +and discriminating selector of books, and be qualified to see that the +library contains the right sort of material. The object of library +lectures and reading circles is to direct readers to the right books to +read. In her account of a very interesting experiment,[50] Miss Sayle +describes how the Hampshire villagers were allowed the casting vote +on every book purchased by the simple expedient of eliminating those +books that failed to attract readers. The results sound lamentable. +Whole sections went under the hammer. Autobiography, Gardening, Lives, +Travels, Poetry, are one and all reported “Abolished, owing to lack +of readers.” _Waverley_, _Kidnapped_, _Barnaby Rudge_, and Pierre +Loti’s _Iceland Fisherman_, were among the classics discarded in one +year in order to make room for the works of Mrs. Henry Wood, Miss +Worboise, Baroness Orczy, and Gene Stratton Porter. Lamb’s _Tales from +Shakespeare_ seldom left the children’s cupboard. Now Miss Sayle is +undoubtedly right in extolling the principle of giving her village +readers the initiative in the choice of books for their own library, +the library they founded and maintain out of their own pockets. But her +story is not creditable to those who might, had they gone the right way +to work, have guided the tastes of these village readers, so that they +would have chosen and enjoyed the very books that had to be discarded. +One can hardly imagine a reading circle finding much to discuss in +books by the luminaries mentioned as chief favourites; but it is quite +as difficult to imagine that a paper or a reading or an intimate talk +about Stevenson, Scott, Dickens, and a few of the poets, would have +failed in opening many eyes to the charms of the writers abolished. +To prescribe what people shall read is impossible; it is foolish to +present any public, in town or country, with a well-chosen library, and +tell them to take it or leave it. Coercion would be as fruitless as it +is impossible. But to leave the choice to the untrained and unguided +initiative of the villagers, without some attempt at training and +assisting their powers of choice, is hardly less absurd than it would +be to let the children in a school decide what lessons they should be +taught. + +This is the real inwardness of the great fiction question, on which so +much wordy argument has been expended. There is no need to deplore the +high percentage of fiction that is read; if this is of any literary +value, the percentage is so much to the good. The innuendo underlying +the Adult Education Committee’s sneer at “unsystematic and recreative +reading” betrays an illiberal conception of the cultural value of +belles-lettres, of which Meredith said:-- + +“Light literature is the garden and the orchard, the fountain, the +rainbow, the far view; the view within us as well as without. The +Philistine detests it, because he has no view, out or in. The dry +confess they are cut off from the living tree, peeled and sapless, when +they condemn it. The vulgar demand to have their pleasures in their +own likeness--and let them swamp their troughs! They shall not degrade +the name of noble fiction.... Shun those who cry out against fiction, +and have no taste for elegant writing. Not to have a sympathy with the +playful mind is not to have a mind.” + +The question is not whether public libraries ought to provide novels, +nor simply whether they should provide only the best novels and reject +the bad. The important problem is, how the general reader is to be +led to choose and enjoy the best. To spend public funds on the public +provision of feeble and enfeebling reading-matter is indefensible. +True, there are librarians who defend it: one head of a large system +has recently pleaded for fiction of the Charles Garvice and Ethel +Dell type, because the charwoman and the overworked housewife find +it restful and soothing, and cannot afford to subscribe for it to +the circulating library. But public libraries are not a sort of poor +relief: their mission is not to provide, even these unhappy folk, +with opportunities for mental dissipation; but, the very reverse, to +introduce them to higher pleasures. Would apologists for bad novels +recommend our public art galleries to adopt similar standards of taste? +Or our museums? No doubt, if we turned them into a kind of Madame +Tussaud’s or sensation-mongering picture-house, these would be much +more popular with a very large and a very important class. + +This kind of argument hardly needs confuting: but many committees +and librarians have been led astray by the specious doctrine that by +giving people the inferior stuff they like they will eventually be led +to prefer something better. The present writer, who has devoted years +of hard work to shepherding the general reader into the right way of +appreciating good fiction, would be the last to deny the humanizing +value of the novel and its right to an honourable place in the public +library; but he would be the first to deny that to get people to +read any kind of novel, or to bring them at any cost into the public +library, is a sure way of inducing them to read something better. +Than much of the reading done at the expense of the library rate it +would be better if no reading were done at all. A kind of mental +dram-drinking, it is stupefying to the brain and soul, and thoroughly +anti-educational. Homœopathic application of continual doses of the +hair of the dog that bit you is a futile mode of treatment. The time +has come for saner methods, and the only sane method is to refuse +to recognize the stuff as having anything to do with the literature +which a public library has to supply. Earlier pages have dealt with +the various methods by which the standard of fiction reading can be +raised--duplication of the best on shelves to which the reader has free +access, descriptive catalogues and readers’ guides, lectures, talks, +and reading circles. Our crusading efforts at raising the level of +popular taste must be as strenuous as those of a revivalist mission. + +Future progress depends on a wide diffusion of the library arts; it +depends on the attitude of that much-abused person the general reader. +When the general reader uses public libraries wisely and well, and +finds them indispensable to a full life, their position will be +assured. The largest body of readers will always be composed of this +class: the object of education is to turn out intelligent general +readers.[51] The Adult Education Committee expressed too narrow a view +of the library’s function in the social organism when they insisted on +the paramount claims of vocational and non-vocational education, and +spoke slightingly of the general reader, the vast multitude who are +guilty of “unsystematic and recreative reading.” It is only fair to +notice, however, two passages in which the Adult Education Committee +did not overlook the claims of the general reader and of imaginative +literature:-- + +“The Lending Department is the main feature in the smaller libraries; +it provides such books as are suitable for continuous reading or study +and in convenient form. The books cover the whole range of knowledge, +physical and metaphysical, ancient and modern, philosophy, religion, +sociology, language and literature, science, fine and useful arts, +history and travel. The recreative element in reading bulks largely +in the statistics of this department. Very much of what is best and +most elevating in English literature takes the form of fiction, and +selecting this with care and discretion the library gives valuable +impulse in the direction of broadening the mental outlook, enlarging +the sympathies, and elevating the tastes and feeling of readers. Any +estimate of the cultural work of the library which omits the effects, +more or less unconscious, of the reading of the best poetical and +imaginative literature is gravely incomplete and inadequate.” + +“It is clear, however, that local education authorities may neglect +the ‘general reader’ in their desire to obtain from the public +libraries the maximum of assistance for more serious students. This +is a danger which must be guarded against. It is part of the problem +of how to retain the freedom and elasticity of the library with the +more organized administration of the system of public education. It +is with no desire to subordinate the libraries or belittle their +importance that we recommend the union of educational and library +administration.”[52] + +It will not do merely to tolerate this large section of those who use +libraries, on condition that its interests are made secondary to the +“serious students and trained readers.” This would be fatal to the true +purpose of the public library, which should minister to intellectual +life in all its fulness. The general reader must be put first, not +second. A clear conception of what is best for the general reader will +ensure that the interests of education shall not be neglected. It +is on the growth of a new consciousness, a new attitude towards the +institutions subserving humanism, that we must pin our faith in the +great library system of the future. + + +A FURTHER COURSE OF READING. + + +PUBLIC LIBRARIES, PAST AND PRESENT. + + BOSTWICK, Arthur E. The American Public Library. Appleton. 1910. 8vo. + illus. + + BROWN, James Duff. A British Library Itinerary, Grafton. 1913. 8vo. + + BROWN, James Duff. Manual of Library Economy, ed. by W. C. Berwick + Sayers. Grafton. 1920. 8vo. Illus. + + GREENWOOD, Thomas. Edward Edwards, the chief pioneer of municipal + public libraries. Scott Greenwood. 1902. 8vo. + + GREENWOOD, Thomas. Public Libraries: A history of the movement, + and a manual for the organisation and management of rate-supported + libraries. Cassell. 1894. 8vo. illus. + + OGLE, John J. The Free Library: its history and present condition, + edited by R. Garnett. Allen. 1897. 8vo. [The Library Series.] + + +THE LIBRARY QUESTION OF TO-DAY. + + ADAMS, Professor W. G. S. A Report on Library Provision and Policy, + to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trustees. Edinburgh. Neill. 1915. + + BOSTWICK, Arthur E. Library Essays: papers related to the work of + public libraries. New York. H. W. Wilson. 1920. 8vo. + + BOSTWICK, Arthur E. A Librarian’s Open Shelf: essays on various + subjects. New York. H. W. Wilson. 1920. 8vo. + + HARDY, E. A. The Public Library: its place in our educational system. + Toronto. William Briggs. 1912. Illus. + + LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. The Library Association Record. 8vo. 1899 in + progress. + + LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. Public Libraries: their present position and + future development in national reconstruction. Library Association. + 1918. 8vo. Illus. + + LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. Year Book for 1921; edited E. C. Kyte. Library + Association. 1921. 8vo. + + Contains statistics of existing libraries and their work. + + MCKILLOP, John. The present position of London Municipal Libraries + with suggestions for increasing their efficiency. Reprint from + Library Association Record. 1906. + + MINISTRY OF RECONSTRUCTION. Adult Education Committee. Third Interim + Report. Libraries and Museums. H.M.S. Office. 1919. + + MINISTRY OF RECONSTRUCTION. Adult Education Committee. Final Report. + H.M. Stationery Office. 1919. + + MOREL, Eugene. La Librairie Publique. Paris. A. Colin. 1912. + + PUBLIC LIBRARIES ACT, 1919. H.M.S. Office. 1919. + + +RURAL LIBRARIES. + + ANTRIM, Saida B. and Ernest I. The County Library. Ohio, Pioneer + Press. 1914. 8vo. Illus. + + CARNEGIE UNITED KINGDOM TRUST. Annual Reports. Dec. 1914--Dec. 1920. + Edinburgh. Constable. 1921. + + SAYLE, A. Village Libraries: a guide to their formation and upkeep. + Grant Richards. 1919. 8vo. + + WEAVER, Sir Lawrence. Village Clubs and Halls. Newnes. 1920. 8vo. + Illus. + + +TRAINING IN LIBRARIANSHIP. + + FRIEDEL, J. H. Training for Librarianship: library work as a career. + Lippincott. 1921. 8vo. Illus. + + ROSS, James. Technical Training in Librarianship in England and + abroad. Reprint from Library Association Record. 1910. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[47] Samuel Butler: _Erewhon_, XXXV. “The Book of the Machines.” + +[48] J. H. Friedel: _Training in Librarianship_, p. 92. + +[49] See, _e.g._, the _Cambridge History of English Literature_, and +compare it with the _Cambridge History of American Literature_, a model +of arrangement, indexing, bibliography, and general editorial work. + +[50] A. Sayle, _Village Libraries_. + +[51] “Education should be preparation for life. Its purpose is to +prepare the immature human being for the life he is to lead when he +becomes mature. It is to fit the child for the life he is to live when +he shall be no longer a child. That is, to my mind, the purpose of +education.” Dr. C. A. Mercier (_The Principles of National Education_, +1917.) + +[52] Adult Education Committee: _Third Interim Report_, par. 12. + + + + +INDEX + + + Adams, Prof. W. G. S., on library provision, 136-139 + + _Administration_, 14, 183-184, 200-210, 221 + + _Administration of Centralized Library System_, 179 + + _Adult Education_, 4-6, 98-99, 111, 149, 154, 202-204, 208-209 + + Adult Education Committee and Board of Education, 200-201 + + Adult Education Committee and Central Library for Students, 190-191 + + Adult Education Committee, centralization, 73, 171-2, 175, 194, 197, 198, + 202 + + Adult Education Committee, fiction question, 230-235 + + Adult Education Committee, _Final Report_, 165-167 + + Adult Education Committee, on grants, 186-187 + + Adult Education Committee, on intelligence bureaux, 89-90 + + Adult Education Committee, on lectures, 111 + + Adult Education Committee, on reading Rooms, 62 + + Adult Education Committee, on reconstruction, Preface, 30, 31, 73, + 171-172, 175, 194, 197, 198, 202 + + Adult Education Committee, Technical and Commercial Libraries, 78-80 + + _Advertising_, 48-49, 103 + + _Agricultural Libraries_, America, 160-161 + + Airdrie, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + America, books for the blind, 94 + + _America_, children’s libraries, 64, 68, 74, 131 + + America, Education Authorities a. Library Authorities, 201-202 + + America, indexing, 227-228 + + America, inspection of Libraries, 184-186 + + America, librarianship, 224 + + America, libraries, 25, 41, 118 + + America, library schools, 213, 216, 219-220 + + America, rural libraries, 156-162 + + America, school and library, 131 + + America, State Library Commissions, 156, 184-186, 209 + + America, travelling libraries, 156 + + American Library Association, 211 + + _Ancient Libraries_, 11 + + Andersonian Institute, Glasgow, 8 + + Antwerp, Institute of Commerce, 77 + + _Apparatus_, Library, 219 + + _Apprentice Classes_, America, 220 + + Archbishop Tenison’s Library, 12 + + Architecture, library, 219 + + _Assistants_, 212, 217-219 + + “Athenæum”, The, 181 + + + Baillie’s Institution, Glasgow, 23 + + Bath, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + _Bibliography_, 131, 171, 220, 223, 225 + + Birkbeck, George, 8 + + Birkbeck College, 8 + + Birkenhead Public Library, 22, 64 + + Birmingham Commercial Library, 80 + + Birmingham, library rate, 27 + + Birmingham Public Libraries, reference library, 45, 48, 50 + + Bishopsgate Institute, reference library, 51 + + Blackburn, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + _Blind_, libraries for the, 91-95, 171 + + Board of Education, 208-209 + + Board of Education as central authority, 200-201 + + Bolton Public Library, 21, 80 + + Book issues, 25, 40, 41 + + _Book selection_, 34-36, 54, 97, 129-130, 179, 215, 223, 224, 228-235 + + _Book selection_ for children, 68, 70-72 + + _Book selection_, periodicals, 57, 59 + + _Book supply_, 41-43, 70, 105, 142 + + _Bookbinding_, 42, 180-181 + + _Bookbinding demonstrations_, 218-219 + + _Book-box system_, 138, 139, 141, 142, 144, 146, 149, 164, 165 + + _Books_, requirements of good, 72, 180-181, 227 + + Bootle Public Library, lectures, 101 + + _Borough councils_, 173 + + _Borrowers’ restrictions_, 40-41 + + Bradford Commercial Library, 80 + + _Braille system_, 93 + + _Branch libraries_, 37 + + Bright, John, 18, 21 + + Brighton, Local Act, 1850, 21 + + Brighton Public Library, 120 + + Bristol Commercial Library, 80, 81, 86, 85-87 + + Bristol Public Library, 11, 45, 50, 101 + + British Museum, 12, 13, 14, 170, 182 + + British Museum Library, 34, 54, 55, 195 + + Bromley Public Library, lectures, 101 + + Brotherton, Joseph, 13-19 + + Brougham, Lord, 1, 4, 9 + + Brown, James Duff, 54, 55 + + Buckinghamshire, village libraries, 135 + + _Bureaucracy_, dangers of, 7, 208, 222 + + Burslem, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + Bury, William, 11 + + _Business librarians_, courses for, 216 + + + Camberwell Public Library, 22, 101 + + Cambridge, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + Canterbury, 16 + + Canterbury, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + Cardiff Public Libraries, 22, 45, 50, 89, 101 + + Cardiganshire Rural Library, 140 + + Carnegie, Andrew, 23, 25, 77 + + Carnegie Rural Library Scheme, 31, 139 + + Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, annual report, 140-141, 145-146 + + Carnegie United Kingdom Trust and Central Library for Students, 145-146, + 190 + + Carnegie United Kingdom Trust and National Library for the Blind, 92-93 + + Carnegie United Kingdom Trust and rural libraries, 31, 139 + + Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, Scotland, 139-142 + + Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, and training in librarianship, 213 + + _Catalogues_, 39, 40, 171, 182, 226, 232 + + _Cataloguing_, 179, 218 + + _Central clearing house_, 170 + + Central Library for Students, 111, 170, 177, 188, 190 + + Central Library for Students, relations with rural libraries, 143, 145, + 147 + + _Central repository_, 139, 141, 142 + + _Centralization in library system_, 29-30 + Rural, 137-138, 161 + Urban, 169-210 + + _Chambers of Commerce_, 85 + + Chelsea Public Libraries, 51, 101 + + Cheltenham, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + Chetham Library, Manchester, 11, 17 + + _Children_, books for, 129-130 + + _Children_, library work with, 216, 219 + + _Children’s Libraries_, 63-74, 205-6 + + _Children’s Reading room_, 63, 64 + + _Choice of books_, _See_ Book Selection + + Christian Socialists, 10 + + City and Guilds Institution, 194-195 + + _Classification_, 53, 83, 213, 223, 225-226, 227 + + _Closed system_, _See_ Open access + + Coats Libraries, 135, 139 + + Cobden, Richard, 13 + + Cockerell, Mr. Douglas, on bookbinding, 180 + + _Commercial Libraries_, 74-91, 219 + + _Co-operation_, 174-176, 177, 196-197 + + _Co-operation_, rural 150-155 + + _Co-operation with industries_, 97 + + _Co-operation with outside organizations_, 117, 150-155 + + _Co-operation with schools_, _See_ Schools + + Cork, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + _Correspondence classes_, 212 + + County Education Authority and rural libraries, 149 + + _County library schemes_, 137-139, 156-160 + + Coventry, 22 + + Coventry Public Library, 22, 41, 120, 133 + + Croydon Public Libraries, 80, 101, 106-107, 119 + + Croydon Public Libraries, junior library, 65, 66, 106-107, 133 + + _Curriculum_ of School of Librarianship, 218 + + Czechoslovakia, library school, 220 + + + _Degrees in library science_, America, 219 + + Derby Public Library, lectures, 101 + + Dickens, Charles, on libraries, 21 + + _Digests_, from periodicals, 182 + + _Discipline in children’s libraries_, 66-67 + + _Discussion_, value of, 109-110 + + Dr. Williams’s Library, 12 + + Doncaster, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + Dover, 16 + + _Dramatic Circles_, 114-117 + + Dublin Public Library, reference library, 45 + + Dundee, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + Dunfermline, central repository, 139, 147 + + Dunfermline Public Library, 61 + + + Edinburgh Public Library, 23, 45 + + _Education_, 1-6, 72-74, 98, 122, 173, 184, 210-211. + _See also_ Libraries and education + + Education Act, 1870, 2, 24 + + Education Act, 1918, 224 + + Education Act for Scotland, 1918, 140 + + _Education authority as library authority_, 175, 200-210 + + Education Bill, 1807, 1 + + Education Bill, 1820, 2 + + Education Department, 2 + + Edwards, Edward, 13-17, 21, 29, 183, 184 + + Edwards, Passmore, 25 + + Elementary Education Act, 1870, 22 + + _Engravings_, 50 + + “Erewhon,” 221-222 + + Ewart, William, 6, 13-19 + + Ewart Act, _See_ Public Libraries Act, 1850 + + _Examinations_ in Librarianship, 212, 214, 219 + + Exeter, adoption of Library Act, 21, 22 + + _Exhibitions_, 120-122 + + + _Fiction_ question, 34-35, 230-235 + + _Filing_, 58-59, 226 + + _Finance_, 25, 26, 31, 41, 42, 102, 148, 193 + + Fisher, Mr. H. A. L., 98 + + Formby, Thomas, 25 + + Forster’s Act. _See_ Education Act, 1870 + + France, librarianship in, 220 + + Fulham Public Libraries, lectures, 101 + + _Furniture, fittings, etc._, 82 + + + Germany, library schools, 220 + + Glasgow, 8, 23 + + Glasgow Commercial Library, 80 + + Glasgow Mechanics’ Institution, 8 + + Glasgow Public Libraries, 38 + + Gloucester Public Library, 163 + + Gloucestershire Rural Libraries, 140, 163 + + _Government department as library authority_, 172-3 + + _Government grants_, 184-188 + + _Government inspection of libraries_, 183-188 + + Grantham Rural Libraries, 140 + + _Grants_, 29, 184-188 + + Greenwich Public Libraries, co-operation with schools, 127 + + Greenwood, Thomas, 29, 183 + + _Guide-books to books_, 179, 225, 232 + + Guildhall Library, 51 + + + Hackney Public Library, 22, 127 + + Hampstead Public Library, 51, 101 + + Hebrides, rural library scheme, 147 + + Hereford, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + _History of library movement_, 1-31 + + Holland, library school, 220 + + Hornsey Public Library, lectures, 101 + + Huddersfield, 8 + + Hull, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + + _Illustrations_, 43, 52, 53, 64, 65 + + _Indexing_, 47, 53, 61, 181, 213, 223, 226, 227, 228 + + _Indicators_, 38-39, 222 + + _Industrial libraries_, _See_ Technical libraries + + _Industries_, co-operation with, 79 + + _Industry as local authority in technical library system_, 198 + + _Information Bureau_, 54, 76, 82-83, 88-90 + + _Information desks_, 89 + + _Inspection of libraries_, 183-188 + + Ipswich, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + Ireland, Public Library Act, 20, 22 + + Ireland, reference libraries, 45 + + Islington Public Libraries, 22, 43, 55, 69-70, 101, 127 + + _Issues as index of reading_, 25 + + Italy, library schools, 220 + + + Jast, Mr. L. S., on Schools and libraries, 203-204 + + _Journalism_, schools of, 223 + + + Kidderminster, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + Kilmarnock Public Libraries, reference library, 50 + + Kingston Public Libraries, lectures, 101 + + Kirkwood, James, 11 + + + Lamb, Charles, 116 + + Lambeth Palace Library, 12 + + Lancashire and Cheshire Union library, 135 + + Lancashire and Cheshire Union of Mechanics’ Institutions, 8 + + _Lantern slides_, 52, 106, 119 + + Leamington, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + _Lecture rooms_, 62, 99-107 + + _Lectures_, 64, 65, 99-107, 211, 212, 215, 228, 232 + + Leeds Commercial Library, 80, 88 + + Leeds Public Libraries, 8, 22, 45 + + Leeds Technical Library, 88 + + Leek Public Library, lectures, 101 + + Leicester, adoption of Library Act, 16, 22 + + _Lending libraries_, 33-43, 233, 234 + + _Librarian_, 66, 67, 69, 106, 107, 127, 205, 214, 216 + + _Librarianship_, definition of, 216-217 + + _Librarianship_, training in, _See_ Training + + _Libraries and education_, 29, 175, 200-210 + + Libraries Board, suggestions for a, 209-210 + + Library Association of the United Kingdom, on bibliography, 227 + + Library Association on centralization, 171-2 + + Library Association, commercial and technical libraries, 78, 80 + + Library Association, libraries and education, 29, 202-203, 204 + + Library Association on rural libraries, 153 + + Library Association and school libraries, 13 + + Library Association, Subject-Index to Periodicals, 181 + + Library Association on technical libraries, 198-201 + + Library Association Education Committee, 211 + + _Library authorities_, 173, 174, 175 + + _Library authority_, parish council as, 137 + + _Library committees_, 28, 173, 175 + + _Library economy_, 213 + + _Library extension_, 96-134, 219, 224 + + _Library provision_, 136, 139 + + _Library rate_, 15, 18, 19, 26, 136, 137 + + _Library schools_, 211-220 + + _Library service_, 14, 32-95, 138 + + _Liberal education_, 217, 222 + + Lichfield, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + _Light literature_, _See_ Fiction + + Literary and Scientific Institutions, 33 + + Literary and Scientific Institutions Libraries, 12 + + _Literary history_, 228 + + Liverpool Commercial Library, 80 + + Liverpool Public Libraries, 16, 37, 45, 48, 50, 91, 100, 102 + + Liverpool, Special Act, 1852, 21 + + _Loan Collections to schools_, 122, 124-125, 133 + + _Local collections_, 51-52 + + Local Education Committee, 31 + + Local Education Committee as library authority, 201 + + Local Government Act, 1894, 27 + + _Local records_, 52 + + London, City of, 20, 22 + + London Education Committee, 127, 175, 192 + + _London libraries_, 22, 47-48 + + _London libraries_, lectures, 101 + + _London libraries_, reading rooms, 60 + + _London libraries_, reference libraries, 45, 49, 50 + + _London libraries_, special collections, 50-51 + + _London libraries_, statistics, 178 + + _London libraries_, and students, 195-196 + + London library, 34 + + London, Library Act, 1877, 24 + + London Mechanics’ Institution, 8 + + London School of Economics, 211-212, 225 + + London, University of, School of Librarianship, 213, 216, 218-219, 222 + + London, University of, University College, 191, 213 + + + McKillop, John, supplemental library scheme, 191-197 + + _Magazine rooms_, 55 + + _Magazines_, _See_ periodicals + + Maidstone Public Library, 22, 101, 163 + + Manchester, 13, 15 + + Manchester College of Arts and Sciences, 8 + + Manchester Commercial Library, 80, 81 + + Manchester Commercial library, contents, 83-85 + + Manchester Commercial library, vertical file, 225 + + Manchester, library rate, 27 + + Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 8, 61 + + Manchester Public Libraries, 21, 38, 45, 48, 49, 101 + + _Maps_, 43, 52, 58, 82, 119 + + Marylebone, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + Massachusetts Agricultural College, 161 + + Massachusetts Free Library Commission, 185-6 + + _Mechanics’ Institutes_, 5-10, 26 + + _Mechanics’ Institute Libraries_, 5-10 + + Meredith, George, on fiction, 230 + + Metropolitan Association of Mechanics’ Institutions, 8 + + Middlesex, rural library scheme, 163-164 + + Ministry of Reconstruction, 30 + + Mitchell Library, Glasgow, 23 + + _Monastic libraries_, 11 + + _Motor service_, 38, 141, 146 + + _Museums_, 15-16 + + Museums Act, 1845, 15, 18 + + Museums and Gymnasiums Act, 1891, 27 + + _Music_, 43 + + + National Art Library, South Kensington, 178 + + National Home-Reading Union, 112, 119 + + National Institute for the Blind, 93 + + National Library for the Blind, 92-95, 171 + + _National library service_, preface, 155, 169-210, 220 + + National Science Library, South Kensington, 60-61, 178 + + New York Public Library, 94, 118, 132-133 + + Newcastle-upon-Tyne Public Libraries, 27, 45, 50 + + _Newspapers_, 43, 55-59 + + _Newsrooms_, 47, 55-59 + + _Non-municipal libraries_, incorporation of, 177-178 + + Northampton Public Library, 50, 80, 120 + + Norwich Public Library, 11, 21, 80, 101 + + Nottingham Public Libraries, 22, 45, 50, 64, 91-92, 101, 120 + + + _Obsolete methods_, 220-221 + + Ogle, J. J., 29 + + Oldham, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + Oldham, library rate, 27 + + _Open access_, 37, 38-40, 161, 232 + + Orkneys, rural library scheme, 147 + + Overseas Trade Department, 85 + + Oxford, adoption of Library Act, 21 + + + Paddington, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + Paisley, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + _Palæography_, 52, 218, 220 + + _Parish council_, as library authority, 137 + + _Parochial libraries_, 11-12 + + Parochial Libraries Act, 12 + + Patent Office Library, 178, 193, 195, 200 + + Peacock, Thomas L., 9 + + _Periodicals_, 47, 56-61, 181-182 + + _Periodicals_, indexing of, _See_ Subject-Index to Periodicals + + _Permanent collections_ of books in country districts, 138, 149 + + Perthshire Rural Library, 140, 146 + + Philadelphia, Commercial Museum, 77 + + _Philosophical Radicalism_, 4 + + Polytechnics, 195 + + Poplar, school and library, 126-127 + + Post Office, transmission of books by, 95, 191 + + _Practical instruction in librarianship_, 218-219 + + _Press clippings_, 53, 65, 82 + + Preston, library rate, 27 + + Prints, 43, 52, 119 + + Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, 78-79 + + Public Library Acts, 6, 96, 136 + + Public Library Act, 1850, 12-20, 30 + + Public Library Act, 1853, 12-20, 26, 30 + + Public Library Act, Ireland, 1853, 20 + + Public Library Act, Scotland, 1853, 20 + + Public Libraries Act, 1892, 24, 27 + + Public Libraries Amendment Acts, 1894, 28 + + Public Libraries Act, 1919, preface, 112, 122, 135, 140 + + Public Libraries Act, 1921, 30 + + Public Library Acts, adoption of, 21, 22, 23, 24 + + Public Library Bill, 1854, 20 + + Public Record Office Library, 178 + + _Publications_, library, 179-180 + + Purdue University agricultural library, 161 + + Putney, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + + _Rate_, library, 27, 30, 172, 174, 175, 187-188, 193 + + _Readers_, issues, 40, 41 + + _Reading circles_, 62, 64, 65, 104, 110-111, 112-114, 143, 215, 228-229, + 232 + + _Reading courses_, 64 + + _Reading_, standard of, 40, 42, 60, 229-235 + + _Reading rooms_, 55, 61-63 + + _Ready-reference library_, 48 + + _Reconstruction_, preface, 29-30 + + Reconstruction Committee, 30 + + _Reference books_, 44, 46, 47, 52, 58, 70, 138, 149 + + _Reference libraries_, 34, 36, 44-55, 176-177, 223 + + _Regional committees_, 189, 210 + + Rochdale Public Library, business section, 80 + + Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 1 + + Royal Blind Asylum and School, Edinburgh, 93 + + Royal College of Science, 194 + + _Rural libraries_, 31, 110-111, 112, 135-168, 188, 219 + + _Rural libraries, co-operation with outside organizations_, 150-155 + + _Rural libraries_, co-operation with schools, 141-144, 148-149, 150-155 + + Ruskin, John, 134 + + Rye, Mr. R. A., libraries of London, 178 + + + St. Bride Foundation Library, reference library, 51 + + St. Helen’s, library rate, 27 + + St. Kilda, transport of books to, 146-147 + + St. Pancras, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + St. Paul’s Cathedral Library, reference library, 51 + + _Salaries_, 179, 212 + + Salford Public Library, 13, 16, 27, 101 + + Sayle, Miss, village libraries, 135 + + _School libraries_, 70, 72, 73, 122-125, 216 + + School of Librarianship, University of London, _See_ London, University + of + + _Schools_, 2-5, 98, 154, 200-210, 224 + + _Schools_, co-operation with, 23, 29, 51-52, 64, 65-74, 97, 106, 122-134, + 137-138, 141-144, 148-149, 150-155, 200-206, 223-224 + + Scientific associations’ libraries, 178-179 + + Scotland, adoption of Library Act, 22, 23 + + Scotland, Education Act, 1918, 140 + + Scotland, Public Library Acts, 20, 26, 28 + + Scotland, reference libraries, 45 + + Scotland, rural libraries, 135, 140 + + Selborne, Roundell Palmer, Earl of, 19 + + Sheffield, adoption of Library Act, 21, 22 + + Sheffield, library rate, 27 + + _Shelf-room_, 180 + + Shetlands, rural library scheme, 147 + + Sion College Library, 12 + + Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 9 + + Somerset Rural Library, 140, 162-163 + + _Special collections_, 43, 49-51, 52, 53, 119-120, 198, 225 + + _Staff_, 76, 77, 90, 183, 184, 211 + + Staffordshire Rural Library, 139-140 + + _State aid_, _See_ Grants + + _State control_, 29, 137-8, 179 + + State Library Commissions, America, 156, 184-186, 209 + + _Statistics_, Bristol Commercial Library, 86 + + _Statistics_, Islington Public Libraries, 43 + + _Statistics_, library provision, 136 + + _Statistics_, London libraries, 178 + + _Statistics_, public libraries, 16, 17, 23, 35, 43, 81, 86 + + _Statistics_ of reading, 35 + + _Statistics_, rural libraries, 140-141, 144, 148 + + _Statistics_, supplemental library, 193, 194 + + “Steam Intellect Society,” 9 + + Stirling’s Library, Glasgow, 23 + + _Story-telling for children_, 64, 65 + + Stratford-on-Avon Public Library, reference library, 50 + + _Students_, 41, 46, 54, 62, 195-7 + + Students’ Library, Oxford, 92 + + _Students’ reading rooms_, 62 + + Subject-Index to Periodicals, 61, 171, 181, 182 + + _Summer Schools_, 211, 220 + + Sunderland, library rate, 16, 27 + + _Supplemental libraries_, cost of, 193-194 + + _Supplemental libraries in national scheme_, 188-193 + + Swansea, library rate, 27 + + Sweden, library schools, 220 + + Syracuse University, library school, 216 + + + _Teachers_, 72-73, 132, 133, 142, 205 + + Technical associations’ libraries, 178-179 + + _Technical libraries_, 74-91, 197-200, 219 + + Thackeray, W. M., on libraries, 21 + + _Training in librarianship_, 171, 179, 211-235 + + _Transport_, 38, 141-142, 146-148, 191 + + _Travelling collections for schools_, 124-125 + + _Travelling libraries_, 135, 139, 156 + + _Tutorial Classes_, 104, 109-111, 142, 215 + + + Union Catalogue, 182 + + _Union of educational and library administration_, 72, 73, 122, 133-134, + 200-210, 234 + + _Universities_, 1 + + University Extension Courses, 107-114 + + _University libraries_, 45 + + _Utilitarian function of the library_, 74-77 + + + Van Wert County Library, Ohio, 157-159 + + Verney, Sir Edmund, village libraries, 135 + + _Village clubs_, 141 + + Village Clubs Association, 151-153 + + _Village Institutes_, 8, 165-167, 168 + + _Village libraries_, 135 + + _Voluntary workers in libraries_, 103, 138, 141-142 + + + Wales, National Library of, reference library, 50 + + Wallasey Public Library, lectures, 101 + + Walsall Public Library, 22, 27 + + Walthamstow Public Libraries, lectures, 101 + + Warrington Public Library, 16, 17, 27, 101 + + Warwick, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + Washington Training School for Business Librarians, 216 + + “_Weeding-out_,” 36, 159, 177, 225 + + West Riding Union of Mechanics’ Institutions, 8 + + Westminster, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + Whitbread, Samuel, 1, 4 + + Whitechapel, adoption of Library Act, 22 + + Whittington, Sir Richard, 11 + + Wigan Public Library, 27, 101 + + Wilts Rural Library, 140, 163 + + Winchester, adoption of Library Act, 21 + + Wisconsin, University of, 161, 216 + + Wolverhampton Public Library, 22, 27 + + Woolwich Public Libraries, lectures, 101 + + Workers’ Educational Association, 99, 110-111, 119, 142 + + Working Men’s College, 10 + + “_Workshop theory_,” 36 + + + Yorkshire Village Libraries Association, 135 + + Young Mens’ Christian Association, 150, 153, 154 + + Young Women’s Christian Association, 150 + + + + +RECENT NEW BOOKS + + +The Story of the Mikado + + By SIR W. 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Some +delicate, elusive other-worldly quality seems distilled from his pages, +whose magic the most prosaic must feel.”--_Outlook._ + + +Advancing Woman + + By HOLFORD KNIGHT. Crown 8vo. =3s. 6d.= net. + +“A singularly able discussion. Mr. Knight, who was in 1913 the +pioneer of the movement to open the English Bar to women, deals in +separate chapters with women as jurors, as lawyers, as magistrates, +and in relation to the legal profession generally.”--_Times Literary +Supplement._ + + +Ireland Since Parnell + + By CAPTAIN D. D. SHEEHAN. Demy 8vo. =12s. 6d.= net. + +“A book which certainly helps towards an understanding of the tangle +which is now in progress of being combed out.”--_Daily Mail._ + + +Ireland in Insurrection + + An Englishman’s Record of Facts. By HUGH MARTIN. Preface by Sir + PHILIP GIBBS, K.B.E. Crown 8vo. =3s. 6d.= net. + +“I hope that Mr. Hugh Martin’s ‘Ireland in Insurrection’ will have the +wide circulation and careful study which it deserves.”--The Rt. Hon. H. +H. Asquith, M.P. + + +The Lady with the Hands + + By C. N. LONGRIDGE. Crown 8vo. =8s. 6d.= net. + + A novel with peculiar attractions for Devonshire readers. + +“Mr. C. N. Longridge has a knowledge of a character and an engaging +style.... The story is interesting and written with considerable +ability.”--_Bookman._ + + +DANIEL O’CONNOR, 90 Great Russell Street, W.C.1 + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber’s note + + +Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Hyphenation +has been standardized. + +For this version in the table on page 148, some of the headers have been +abbreviated to allow the table to fit within the margins. + +In the Index “Selborne, Roundell Palmer, Earl of, 19” was out of +alpha order and was moved. Page number references in the index are as +published in the original publication and have not been checked for +accuracy in this eBook. + +Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following +changes: + + List of Illustrations: + + “Library of The South-Western” “Library of The South-Eastern” + + Page 5: “rom a railway company” “from a railway company” + Page 8: “working mens’ institution” “working men’s institution” + Page 27: “to find Wolverhamption” “to find Wolverhampton” + Page 38: “could not even seen” “could not even see” + Page 70: “provided in the childrens’” “provided in the children’s” + Page 71: “greater volume to more” “greater volume of more” + Page 87: “Stockton to Middlesborough” “Stockton to Middlesbrough” + Page 101: “free course of lectures” “free courses of lectures” + Page 177: “of interchange, are manifest” “of interchange, is manifest” + Page 202: “ran as follow:--” “ran as follows:--” + Page 216: “University of Winconsin” “University of Wisconsin” + Page 219: “ten subject set” “ten subjects set” + Page 224: “his own bibliogapher” “his own bibliographer” + Page 227: “take the expect advice” “take the expert advice” + Page 232: “appeciating good fiction” “appreciating good fiction” + Page 241: “Gloucester Public Libary” “Gloucester Public Library” + Page 242: “of Library Act, 161, 22” “of Library Act, 16, 22” + Page 247: “Sir JOSEPH BBOODBANK” “Sir JOSEPH BROODBANK” + + Footnote 43: + + “voluntary organizattions” “voluntary organizations” + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76583 *** |