Part 7

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.