Bibliography (Chapters XXXII.-XXXIII.)

524. The Children’s Department, and School Libraries

524. The Children’s Department, and School Libraries:

Ballinger, John. Children and Public Libraries. In British Library Year Book, 1900-01.

—— Work with Children. In Library Association. Public Libraries: Their Development and Future Organization, 1917, p. 15.

Bostwick, A. E. (Ed.). The Relationship between the Library and the Public Schools, 1914.

Cleveland Public Library. Work with Children and the Means used to Reach Them, 1912.

Dana, J. C. (Ed.). Modern American Library Economy, 1912-. Pt. 5: (1) School Department Room, (2) Course of Study for Normal School Pupils, (3) Picture Collection (revised); Pt. 7: (2) High School Branch; Pt. 19, Pictures and Objects.

Emery, J. W. The Library, the School, and the Child, 1917.

Fay, L. E., and Eaton, A. T. Instruction in the Use of Books and Libraries: for Normal Schools and Colleges, 1915.

Field, Mrs E. M. The Child and His Book, 1895.

Field, W. T. Fingerposts to Children’s Reading, 1911.

Jast, L. S. The Relation of Libraries to Education. In Library Association. Public Libraries, etc., 1917, p. 15.

Miller, E. M. Libraries and Education, 1912.

Olcott, F. J. Library Work with Children. In A.L.A. Man. of Lib. Econ., Preprint of chapter xxix., 1914.

—— Children’s Reading, 1912.

Sayers, W. C. Berwick. The Children’s Library, 1911.

Stevenson, Lilian. A Child’s Bookshelf, 1918.

Ward, G. O. The High School Library. In A.L.A. Man. of Lib. Econ., Preprint of chapter vii., 1915.

—— Practical Use of Books and Libraries (with Teaching Outline, in separate vol.), 2 vols., 1911.

For articles see Cannons.

525. The Story Hour

525. The Story Hour:

Bryant, S. C. How to Tell Stories to Children, 1911.

—— Stories to Tell to Children, 1911.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Stories to Tell to Children; by Edna Whiteman, 1918.

Shedlock, M. L. Art of Story-Telling, 1915.

Partridge, E. N., and G. E. Story-Telling in School and Home, 1913.

For articles see Cannons, under headings Child and Children, in the Index (many references).

Note.—Work with children has been more written, and, probably, overwritten, than any library subject. The Library Journal and Public Libraries issue special Children’s Library numbers at intervals, and hardly a month passes without an article appearing upon some phase of the subject. Students new to the subject should be made aware that much of the writing upon it is too sentimental, and too concerned with bypaths, to be of great value; but this criticism does not apply to any of the works in the list given above.

DIVISION XIV
LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER XXXIV
THE LECTURE ROOM

526. Lecture Room and Platform.

526. Lecture Room and Platform.—Library development is a somewhat elastic term covering the various active measures taken by librarians to attract readers. It is now a commonplace that while the prime purpose of the library is to supply and circulate literature—that is to say, everything in literary form from books to news-cuttings—modern librarians increasingly adopt the point of view that it is part of their duty and privilege to create readers. Of the various ways in which this is done lecture and similar work stands prominent. In the design of libraries provision should always be made for a lecture room with adequate accommodation for an audience, chaired comfortably, equipped with lantern and screen, a platform, and blackboard and similar accessories. The platform deserves care in its design; it should have an electric lantern signal communicating with the lanternist, and for scientific and technical demonstrations, water, gas, and a movable electric light should be brought to it. The platform is better for being large enough to accommodate a number of persons for dramatic readings, musical parties, etc.; should be approached by a door from the back; and curtain arrangements for it are desirable. The construction should be solid, and the platform floor should be covered with a thick cork or other matting to deaden the distracting sound of shuffling feet.

527. Lectures and Lecture Societies.

527. Lectures and Lecture Societies.—Lectures of two kinds may be given—those provided by societies who merely use the library, and those arranged by the library itself. Of the former kind many can be arranged by placing the lecture-room at the disposal of local scientific societies, branches of University Extension, the Workers’ Educational Association, and similar bodies, non-sectarian and non-political, which have an educational or partly educational purpose. These should not involve the staff in much labour, or the library in much expense, although there are cases where the librarian or a member of his staff acts as organizing secretary to such societies. Every effort to centre these activities in the library can be justified; the object is to make the library the intellectual centre of the town; but it should be understood that the staff cannot develop into mere lecture agents, or conduct such work at the expense of the main purpose of the library. Where the staff is sufficient this objection does not apply, although it is perhaps well to say that the library should not duplicate work of this kind which other institutions in the town are doing efficiently. A discriminating use of voluntary workers, who are frequently forthcoming, is a solution of many difficulties.

528.

528. It is doubtful whether it is legal for library committees to arrange lectures; certainly expenditure upon them has been questioned at times of audit; but various ways of overcoming this difficulty have been discovered. One is to form a lecture society which is a separate organization using the lecture-room, and this raises subscriptions, sells programmes, etc., and so defrays expenses; this has been done at Walthamstow and Newark-upon-Trent. The more frequent way is to obtain voluntary lecturers and to keep the running expenses at a negligible figure; most towns have acceptable lecturers who are willing to serve the public in this way. In some towns, not subject to Government audit, as in Liverpool, great miscellaneous series of lectures are arranged by the libraries, not because they are regarded as a library activity, but because the Libraries Committee is regarded as the most convenient committee for doing this desirable public work.

529.

529. Librarians differ as to the value of courses of lectures as compared with individual miscellaneous lectures. The course certainly provides information more or less exhaustive, and is of more benefit to the fewer people who attend it; but they are few; and on the other hand it is argued that it is no part of the function of the library to teach in the manner implied in a set course, but rather to stimulate interest in various subjects with direct reference to books. This latter object should influence all such activities as those we are considering; there seems to be little justification for lectures or exhibitions organized by the library which do not definitely lead to the use of libraries. Random lectures have a value of their own, but they are not our province. When, therefore, a syllabus of lectures is drawn up, it should be accompanied by brief reading lists on the subjects chosen. In this way lectures on topography (there are usually too many of these, however), art, science, literature, or indeed any subject, may be a direct incentive to reading, and in some places this is emphasized by the use of lantern slides and “privilege” issues.

530. Organization.

530. Organization.—Much labour can be saved by the use of a few simple methods in organizing lectures. Invitations to lecturers should never be on stereotyped circular forms, but should be individual personal letters, especially where the lecturer is not to receive a fee, but he may be asked to reply on a definite memorandum (see [Fig. 178], [p. 470]).

A circular of information should also be enclosed describing the conditions of the lectures, the library at which they are held, the way to reach it, and, in particular, drawing attention to their purpose of calling notice to books, and inviting suggestions as to the best books on the subjects. A stamped addressed envelope for reply, which the librarian may apologize for enclosing on the ground that it will save the lecturer’s time, should not be forgotten. The memoranda, when returned, can be filed for reference, and their use enables the needs of the lecturers to be met completely.

531.

531. The syllabus should give the list of lectures, conditions of admission, the hour and place of their delivery, and contain the reading lists. These last, as indicated already, should be brief; a long list of references defeats its own object, because readers are frightened by it. Half a dozen carefully-selected titles are usually enough. Syllabuses should be distributed free to readers in the library; and little other advertisement is necessary. A small poster giving the programme, of such size that tradesmen will place it in their shops, clergy and ministers in church porches, and may be displayed in other places, has its uses; and sometimes an advertisement in the local papers has a good effect. For special lectures, for which an attendance larger than the lecture-room will hold is expected, tickets of admission may be used, which can be distributed free. The back of these tickets can be used for reading lists.

LECTURER’S MEMORANDUM.

Name (as you desire it to be printed)................................................................

................................................................................................................................

Title of lecture......................................................................................................

Library...................................................................................................................

Date..........................................

Hour.........................................

* I shall use
Lantern slides.
Blackboard.

* I wish to see the Catalogue of Lantern Slides.

Any other instructions.......................................................................................

...............................................................................................................................

* Please cross out words which do not apply.

Fig. 178.—Lecturer’s Memorandum ([Section 530]).

532. Lantern Slides.

532. Lantern Slides.—The lantern is used at many lectures, and is a valuable auxiliary. All lists of books should be transferred to lantern slides, and displayed at the beginning or end of the lecture, and—this is the important point—the lecturer should be persuaded to comment upon them. Clear glass-slides with a surface prepared to take pen writing in india or even ordinary ink can be obtained at any photographic chemist; but if expense is a consideration, a simple method is to obtain lantern slide cover-glasses, which cost a few pence the dozen, make a solution with one per cent. of Nelson’s photographic gelatine in warm water, apply this to the cover-glasses with a sponge or soft cloth, and in a few minutes they will be dry and will take pen-writing admirably. The cover-glasses can be cleaned after use, re-coated, and used again as often as necessary. For general illustrative lantern slides it is very useful to take out a subscription with one of the circulating collections of lantern slides, as E. G. Wood’s in Cheapside. These issue catalogues which may be lent to prospective lecturers, who may then draw upon these collections. The accessibility of slides often secures a lecturer. Librarians can use slides in a number of ways, to illustrate contents of books, the differing character and scope of works of reference, and bring home the use of books in a way that no other method can be made to do. So far we do not know of a library that has a cinematograph installation; but some libraries already collect films, and the uses of the cinematograph will one day be recognized. The most valuable projection apparatus of all is the epidiascope, which projects illustrations, pages of books, and solid objects from these actual things, and does not require lantern slides. It is, however, rather expensive, and requires skill in manipulation, but it would be an excellent investment for any large library.

533. Privilege Issues.

533. Privilege Issues.—In order to bring readers to the books on any subject while it is fresh in mind Mr Jast initiated a method of privilege issue. The books on the subject of the lecture are displayed on tables in the lecture-room, so that the audience may examine them before the lecture. On the tables is the following announcement:

PRIVILEGE ISSUE.

Any one of these books may be Borrowed without a Ticket by any resident whose name appears in the local directory.

To obtain a book, all that is necessary is that the borrower shall sign his (or her) name and address on the slip provided. Such signing will be taken as indicating that the book will be returned to the library within 15 days, and that payment will be made for undue detention, damage, or loss, as provided for in the Library Rules.

Fig. 179.—Privilege Issue Notice ([Section 533]).

The issues are made at the conclusion of the lecture. The slip mentioned is of ordinary paper of a size suitable to be used in orthodox card-charging, and plays the same part in the charge as a borrower’s permanent ticket. The book is stamped and issued to the applicant in the usual way, and a long narrow slip bearing the following text is inserted:

PRIVILEGE ISSUE.

This book is issued on the distinct understanding that it is returned to one of the Lending Libraries within 15 days. Or, if kept longer, the Library fine of 1d. per week (or portion of a week) for such detention will be paid, together with any cost of notification; also that any damage or loss will be made good.

This being a “privilege” issue, it does not entitle the reader to another book in exchange. If, however, the reader is not a member of the Lending Libraries, he should return the accompanying Application Form, properly filled up, along with this book, when he will be allowed to take another book at the time of return, and thenceforth exercise the privileges of membership.

Fig. 180.—Privilege Issue Information Slip
([Section 533]).

A voucher of application for membership goes with this, and borrowers frequently return it filled and become regular readers. The charges when made are inserted into the ordinary sequence of the day’s issues, and there is no distinction between them and the card charges made for regular borrowers’ books. This privilege service was extended to accredited societies in the town, who undertook to issue and to secure the due return of the books. So far we know of only two libraries that have adopted the system of privilege issues; but it has been successful, and has not, so far, entailed any loss of books.

534. General.

534. General.—Lecturers should be reminded of their engagement a few days before each lecture. Nothing should be taken for granted. The lecturer’s instructions should be gone over carefully, and the state of the lantern screen, lantern, platform, signals and other accessories examined in time for any fault to be corrected. Attention to such details makes for success, while nothing is more annoying to lecturer and audience than a fault in such things.

535. Library Readings.

535. Library Readings.—Library readings revive, in a manner, the once famous popular penny readings; but in their new form such readings are free and are of subjects chosen because of their value and not primarily because they entertain. It is found that audiences are not only ready to listen to lectures about books, they are also ready to listen to readings from the books themselves. For some years at Southwark Mr R. W. Mould read The Christmas Carol and other famous works aloud to large audiences of library people. There is scarcely any limit to books that may be read aloud in this way—nearly all the novelists, poets, letter-writers, essayists, humorists, diarists can be used; and these are fairly easy for a good reader to deal with. But the reader must be a good one; poor reading is worse than none. It is usual for the reader to give a brief introductory sketch of his author, and to link the readings by connecting remarks. It is really remarkable to note the willingness of audiences to listen to readings of books which “everybody has read”; perhaps because they revive pleasant memories; probably, too, because the reading reveals unsuspected qualities in the book read. A more difficult, but even more interesting, type of reading may be made upon a subject, which is explained and illustrated from various authors; for example, on “Volcanoes, the genesis and development of scientific theory regarding them.” In this case an extract was read from Judd’s Volcanoes defining a volcano and presenting the ideas of the Greeks upon the subject; then extracts from the two Plinys; then the mediæval views were drawn from Pietro Toledo; Sir William Hamilton afforded an account of Vesuvius in eruption in 1767; and later matter was drawn from Elié de Beaumont, Scrope, Dana, Judd, Bonney, Anderson and Flint, and Heilprintz. Such a reading has proved most successful. These, too, can be illustrated with lantern slides, and the obvious value of slides showing titles, extracts, maps, etc., from books from which the readings are drawn need not be emphasized. The programme of a reading, given with slides, may be subjoined to show another treatment of a subject:

The Englishman in the Alps.

Early Views.

1. A Letter from the St Bernard Pass, February, 1188.

2. Seventeenth Century Dragons: Notes from Gribble’s “Story of Alpine Climbing.”

3. Over the Simplon Pass; from John Evelyn’s “Diary.”

4. Windham’s Climb to the Montanvert; from Matthew’s “Annals of Mont Blanc.”

5. Horace Walpole on Mont Cenis; from his “Letters.”

The Alps and the Poets.

6. Shelley and Mont Blanc; from his “Six Weeks’ Tour.”

7. Mont Blanc. Byron.

8. Chillon. Byron.

Modern Alpine Story.

9. A Winter Storm; from Leslie Stephen’s “Playground of Europe.”

10. The Conquest of the Matterhorn; from Whymper’s “Scrambles in the Alps.”

11. June on the St Bernard Pass; from Sayers’s “Over Some Alpine Passes.”

12. The Riffelhorn; from Kynnersley’s “A Snail’s Wooing.”

13. The Rewards of the Climber; from Mummery’s “My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.”

14. Why Climb the Mountains? from Blackie’s “Lays of the Highlands and Islands.”

536.

536. Another form is the dramatic reading, and this is the most acceptable of all when it is well done, and its value is undeniable from the library point of view. In it a party of readers, each taking a character, read a play without scenery, costume, or action other than is necessary to make clear a movement which the scene requires and the text does not convey. Such plays as Hardy’s Dynasts, most of Shakespeare’s plays, etc., have been dealt with in this manner; but the peculiar value of the dramatic reading is to draw attention to great plays, which are seldom read or performed, such as the miracle plays, the Elizabethans other than Shakespeare, and Browning’s various plays (for example); and series by well-known writers who in individual manner deal with the same subject, such as was done in a sequence of Cleopatra plays—Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, Dryden’s All for Love and Bernard Shaw’s Cæsar and Cleopatra—which were given in three successive weeks with great success. All that has been said of the necessity of focussing the work on the actual authors, plays, and works about them by means of lists, applies as strongly here as elsewhere.

537. Exhibitions.

537. Exhibitions.—-A few simple arrangements make the lecture-room convenient for exhibitions of books, prints or other matter which it is desirable to bring particularly to public notice. Stands on the model of the standard newspaper slope illustrated in [Fig. 166], but lighter, and made in parts or collapsible, with a projecting bottom edge to support books or prints, and a wire stretched near the top to keep them in position, have been used; and the walls can have run along them a narrow moulding grooved to take the prints, with a taut wire, which can be made adjustable to any height, above them as on the slopes. With such an arrangement a modest but effective exhibition can be made in a very short time. It is thought by some that an open access library is itself a book exhibition, but even with this system, and certainly with the indicator system, there are many things that can be exhibited with advantage. Such works as Williams’s History of the Art of Writing, the facsimiles published by the British Museum, and other large treasure houses; photographic surveys; connected series of rare or interesting books; books on subjects of immediate interest, and so on, can all be exhibited to good result. Simple but careful guiding is desirable, and every method of connecting the exhibition with the reading facilities of the library must be brought into play. Usually the exhibitions can be arranged from material in the library’s stock, but they may often be borrowed from national institutions, other libraries, and private collectors. Whenever material is borrowed an insurance policy should be arranged covering loss or damage.

538.

538. The warning is perhaps not unnecessary that the library is neither museum nor art gallery; and exhibitions which trespass upon the field of these institutions should only be arranged in towns where they do not exist; and even then a certain restraint should be observed; but circumstances will determine this question. If the exhibition leads to the use of books, it is justified; if not, the library is doing work which is not properly in its province.

539. Reading Circles, etc.

539. Reading Circles, etc.—Reading circles in connexion with the National Home Reading Union and similar bodies, or arranged locally, present special opportunities for libraries, and are to be encouraged. Good leaders can be obtained in most towns; books on the subjects discussed can be made available in the room where the circle meets, and in various ways the library can help effectively. One or two libraries have literary societies of the debating kind; but these are more difficult to arrange.

540. General.

540. General.—The statement made in the last edition that all the work described in this chapter is secondary to the main purpose of the library is repeated. Its value has been proved and is indisputable, but it is easy for the enthusiastic librarian to involve himself and the library in more of these activities than his own time, his staff, or his means justify. Only local circumstances and common sense can fix the limits beyond which they ought not to be carried. Voluntary assistance, if it is forthcoming of sufficient and satisfactory quality, should be encouraged; but even here discretion is required. Moreover, certain good standards for lectures, readings, etc., should be fixed; bad lectures and readings may do more harm than good, and only towns with many good readers amongst the people should attempt work so full of chance as dramatic readings. Excellent and much to be desired in their right measure and kind, all extension activities should be pursued with considered moderation.

541. Bibliography

No monograph. For articles see Cannons: F 96, Lectures; F 20-95, Exhibitions; E 115, Privilege Issues; F 12, Reading Circles.

CHAPTER XXXV
RURAL LIBRARIES

542. The Need, and Earlier Schemes.

542. The Need, and Earlier Schemes.—Until recently a rural dweller in Canada, the United States, and some parts of Australia was better provided with literature than the villager in the United Kingdom. It is true that private generosity had established village libraries and circulating collections of books in several counties; and honourable mention may be made of the schemes of the Union of Lancashire and Cheshire Institutes, 1847; the Yorkshire Union of Educational Institutes, 1854; the Central Circulating Library, 1888; the Bishop of Hereford, 1906; the Dorset Book-Lending Association, 1908; and the extensive scheme for the Highlands and Hebrides of Mr James Coats of Paisley; as also Sir Charles Seeley’s scheme for the Isle of Wight, and the Westmorland scheme, which are both, however, public ventures worked through the County Council in the first case, and, in the second, through the Kendal Public Library. All of these (except the Coats scheme) work on the sound method of dispatching to selected (and, in some of the private instances, subscribing) centres boxes of books which are changed twice or thrice yearly.

543.

543. The private schemes, effective as they are, are unable to supply that co-ordinated service which may be expected from a state, or rate, maintained service; and as a whole the rural population is unprovided as yet. Although the need for general library provision has been abundantly recognized, the imagination of British legislators seems to have been unable to compass anything practical towards meeting it. The reasons for lack of village libraries turn upon the small product of the penny rate, which in an average population of 400—a frequent population figure for a village—rarely exceeds £10 yearly, a sum manifestly inadequate to provide or maintain a library. Ignorance of even this possibility and the traditional apathy or actual hostility of squire and parson, at least until lately, to any scheme of rural enlightenment may also have been factors; but, however that may be, in 1915 only seventy-six out of all the parishes of the kingdom had libraries working under the Acts. Co-operation alone can produce for these scattered populations the benefits of a sound service; but although the Libraries Acts (1892, Sections 9-10; 1893, Section 4) permit the co-operation of neighbouring urban districts or parishes for the provision of libraries, the method has been resorted to only occasionally, as at Workington and Harrington in Cumberland, where some such combination exists.

544. The County Council as Library Authority.

544. The County Council as Library Authority.—The obvious authority to establish and administer rural libraries is the County Council; but there is no explicit legislative instruction, or even permission, for them to do so. The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust has given careful and sympathetic attention to this problem, and to this body the recent rapid development of rural libraries is due. Acting on a recommendation of Professor W. G. S. Adams, in his valuable Report on Library Provision and Policy, 1915, that experimental library systems should be established in five selected areas in different parts of the kingdom, the Trustees invited certain County Councils through their education committees, and certain towns well placed in regard to surrounding rural districts, to accept grants for such work. Professor Adams advised the provision of (1) a central library, from which the books could be distributed at regular intervals, and from which also there should be supervision of the whole area; (2) village libraries, usually placed in a school, with the schoolmaster as librarian, and consisting of a permanent collection of important reference and standard works, and a circulating library which would be exchanged at three-monthly or other suitable intervals. The first areas chosen were Staffordshire as a county; Worksop, Nottinghamshire, as a town centred amongst villages; and the Trustees themselves established at the public library of their own centre, Dunfermline, a system to deal with the Orkneys, Shetland and the island of Lewis, and to reinforce by circulating collections the Coats libraries in other districts. The scheme has developed rapidly, and at the time of writing the counties of Dorset, Gloucester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Somerset, Stafford, Warwick, Westmorland, Wilts, York, Montgomery, Brecon, Buckingham, Cardigan, Carnarvon, Forfar, Lewis, Orkney and Shetland, Perth, Kerry and Limerick are all administering, or have accepted, grants for rural libraries. The grants range in amount from about £3000 to £7000 each, and are initial and experimental; that is to say, the sum provided is intended to establish and maintain the library system for a space of five years, after which it is expected that they will be administered entirely from county funds.

545. The Methods of Carnegie Rural Libraries.

545. The Methods of Carnegie Rural Libraries.—It is too early yet to assess the results of these schemes or to expatiate with any certainty upon their methods; but an account of the administration of the Trust’s own scheme for the North of Scotland may be taken as typical, because, with the necessary variations imposed, or considered desirable, in the various county schemes, it is the standard for them all.

546. The Central Repository.

546. The Central Repository.—At the central repository the books are collected, classified, catalogued, dispatched and received; and accommodation sufficient for these purposes is provided. The extent of the initial stock, which is intended later to be fully representative of English and translated foreign literature, literature in Gaelic, local industries, science, history and topography, is such as to provide a collection of about seventy-five books for each centre to be served; and the travelling collections consist in equal proportions of general works, fiction for adult readers, and literature for children. Later, however, the selection will be influenced largely by the demands made by the local librarians. In the first case collections were exchanged twice yearly. Certain current periodicals, not returnable, were also sent out in boxes.

Accession.—A slip suggestions record is used, one slip being written for each title; and from this the order list is compiled. Both order and slips are stamped with the date of the order, and when the books are received and found to be correct the slips are stamped with the date of receipt. The slips are then filed to form a continuous catalogue of accessions. Accessioning is done the ordinary way; all books are stamped throughout with a rubber-stamp impression of the name of the Trust; and the board label reads thus:

RURAL LIBRARIES.

Readers are requested to take great care of the books while in their possession, and to point out any defect they may notice in them to the librarian.

All books should be returned to the Library within 14 days from date of issue; but an extension of the period of loan will be granted when desired.

Fig. 181.—Rural Library Board Label
([Section 546]).

Classification.—The Decimal classification is used, to two places for general works, and to four places for works on specific subjects; this enables a fairly minute arrangement. The common adjustments are made of removing Fiction and Biography from 900, and arranging the former in alphabetical-author order, and the latter alphabetically by persons biographed.

Cataloguing.—A simple form of classified catalogue, with author and subject indexes, is used; and the date of publication is omitted from the bibliographical particulars, as the latest editions are always to be presumed. Complete catalogues in this form are eventually to be sent to all centres, but meanwhile separate typed lists, covering each collection, are sent out with the collection.

Central Charging.—The method of charging books to the various centres is simple. A card index in the usual form is drawn upon, the cards for each consignment of books being abstracted and placed behind a guide bearing the name of the centre. A date guide is inserted when the dispatch is made, and the “deliveries index” thus made forms a convenient guide to the books at any given centre, and, of course, is a means by which returned books are checked.

Dispatches.—Books are dispatched in boxes, specially constructed in deal, 18 × 12 × 12 inches inside measurements, which hold about forty-five volumes. They are banded with hoop iron, which is secured by screw-in iron bolts, and iron bars, screwing with nuts to the bolts, secure the lid. The interior is lined with waterproof paper; and flush handles are fitted to each box. The design is intended to meet the very rough usage probable in transit to remote districts. In ordinary rural service a much lighter box, of three-ply wood, has been found to be quite suitable. It is probably better, too, to have smaller boxes, as the handling of heavy boxes of books is a difficulty for both carrier and librarian.

547. The Village Centres.

547. The Village Centres.—Local Administration.—The local administration of the libraries is in the hands of central committees formed of members of secondary education and library committees, and other interested people, with the librarians of the towns in the area as secretaries. These committees cover each a number of parishes, and for the immediate supervision of the parishes local sub-committees of members of school boards, teachers, etc., have been formed, and of these the schoolmaster is generally the secretary and local custodian of the books. These committees advise on book requirements and on such matters as shelving, etc.; central committees are also expected to raise the small funds for the conveyance of the books. The average library finds accommodation in the schools, and permanent collections, which include the more expensive and general reference books, are deposited in village institutes and existing Carnegie public libraries. Schools requiring shelves are supplied with deal cases, having five adjustable shelves, and a book-capacity of 150 volumes.

Charging.—The record of stock in use at the centres is on cards which are sent out in their card-case from the central repository. These card-cases are of cloth over strawboard, hold approximately 150 cards, are 8 × 5¹⁄₂ inches in size, and are made in the shape of an ordinary square-backed book-cover, with eyelet holes below the hinge through which cords are laced on which the cards are secured. Inside these cases the cards for each consignment of books are arranged in classified order. The card used is as shown on [page 482] ([Figs. 182] and [183]).

When books are received at the local centre the librarian checks them with the cards and arranges them in the order of the cards on the shelves. The charging method is obvious. The charge is made under the name of the author, particulars of readers and date of issue and return being entered in the appropriate columns, the word “adult” being written in the age column for readers obviously over twenty-one. The charges are returned to the repository at the exchange periods, and these enable statistics to be made.

Library...................................................................				Book No. ......................
Author .................................................................				Card No. ..............
Title ......................................................................
Name of Reader.	Age.	Occupation.	Date Borrowed.			Date Returned.
Name of Reader.	Age.	Occupation.	Day.	Mth.	Yr.	Day.	Mth.	Yr.


Continue on other side

Fig. 182.—Front of Charging Card—Carnegie Rural Library Scheme.
The size is 7³⁄₄ × 4³⁄₄ inches.

Continued
Name of Reader.	Age.	Occupation.	Date Borrowed.			Date Returned.
Name of Reader.	Age.	Occupation.	Day.	Mth.	Yr.	Day.	Mth.	Yr.

Don’t write below this line.

Fig. 183.—Back of Carnegie Charging Card.

548. Museum of Rural Library Appliances.

548. Museum of Rural Library Appliances.—The above are, in brief, the chief features of the North of Scotland scheme, which seems to be serving its purpose admirably; and in connexion with it the Trust is building up at Dunfermline a small museum of rural library appliances, to include different types of boxes, forms, and other machinery tried in the various centres. This valuable work will in time furnish librarians with a considerable amount of important and useful data.

549. Other Schemes

549. Other Schemes.—As the North of Scotland scheme is continuing in the control of the Carnegie Trust, it is on a rather different footing from the county schemes, which are in the control of the county education committee. In general, however, the methods are the same. There is a central repository where books are selected, catalogued, dispatched, and overhauled on return, and where reading courses, special catalogues, etc., may be prepared; indeed, whence skilled advice and assistance may be drawn by all the village centres. And, as recommended by Professor Adams, local village schools are the deposit centres, with schoolmasters as a rule for librarians. The smaller towns have in some places made arrangements by which they amalgamate or co-operate with county schemes, but the larger towns usually work independently.

A rough estimate of the cost of an actual rural library scheme founded on a Carnegie grant may be given:

Capital expenditure:
Repository, building	£800
Books	2100
Boxes	140
Accessories	100
Initial clerical labour	100
		£3240
Annual expenditure:[484]
Salary of librarian	£180
Clerical assistance	50
Heating, lighting, cleaning	50
Rates and taxes	25
Carriage of books	100
Repairs, etc.	25
		£430
Ultimate additional annual cost:
Repairs and renewals	160
		160
		£590

Thus the annual cost of the scheme after the initial expenses have been met is reckoned at £590, but the salary allowed here is inadequate. It is at this point that the legal powers of the County Councils may be tested. It is difficult to imagine the Local Government Board auditor ruling that they cannot provide such library maintenance out of education funds because the Education Act of 1918 does not mention it (although the Scottish Act of 1918 does, and permits it), but the matter has not been questioned yet.

550. General Considerations.

550. General Considerations.—Every librarian will see the potentialities of this work, as completing in a large measure the public library system of the country; moreover, its rapid and successful development is an earnest of the immense future of libraries as a whole. By co-ordinating this village work with such educational agencies as University Extension, and the Workers’ Educational Association, it will be possible to give to rural life many of the intellectual advantages hitherto exclusively the possession, for the non-wealthy classes, of town life, and this at a time when settlement on the land is proceeding apace. Meanwhile the supervising rural librarian may make regular visits throughout his area, in which he will give advice on reading, demonstrations in the use and care of books, and exercise the undoubted opportunities he will have of bringing people of like intellectual pursuits, but in different villages, into touch with one another. All this presupposes the existence of a professional librarian in control of the entire scheme. An initial mistake has been made in some counties in appointing teachers to this position, on the theory, no doubt, that the training of teachers is a very suitable basis for work with libraries which are locally administered by teachers. It may be so—the evidence is not yet forthcoming—but we do not think so. Library organization, especially at the outset, demands the specialist, and the librarian differs radically in training and mental attitude from the teacher. Further, the salaries hitherto offered have ranged from £150 to £300 per annum—have in only one case reached the higher figure—and these sums must be augmented considerably if the rural libraries are to attract and retain the librarians they really need.

551. Bibliography

Adams, W. G. S. Report on Library Provision and Policy, 1915.

Carnegie United Kingdom Trust. Annual Report, 1915 to date.

Farr, Harry. Libraries in the Rural Districts, 1909. Library Assistants’ Association Series, 2.

Hetherington, A. L. Rural Libraries, 1916.

Ministry of Reconstruction. Third Interim Report of the Adult Education Committee: Libraries and Museums, 1919, p. 7.

Wynkoop, Asa. Commissions, State Aid and Agencies. In A.L.A. Man. of Lib. Econ., Preprint of chapter xxvii., 1913.

For articles see Cannons: F 3, Village Libraries; F 4, Travelling Libraries.

DIVISION XV
MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES

CHAPTER XXXVI
MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES

552.

552. There are museums of all kinds in existence, some of them of world-wide importance, and they may be roughly classified into the following groups:

General Museums.—These are collections of a miscellaneous kind, comprising art, science, archæological and other objects, and aiming more or less at universality. The British Museum was at one time a universal collection, but since it was divided into art, ethnological, natural history and industrial departments, it no longer forms a general collection under one roof. Soane’s Museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, is a general museum, and there are many others in the provinces.

National Museums.—Collections illustrative of the arts, manufactures, antiquities, literature and history of a nation. These range in extent from the great German, Hungarian and French museums, down to museums of national antiquities, like those of the Societies of Antiquaries of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Science Museums.—Comprising Anatomical, Botanical, Geological, Chemical, Physical, General Natural History, Astronomical, Ethnological and other varieties. Typical examples are the Hunterian Museum of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons, London; the Herbarium at Kew; the Museum of Practical Geology; the Pharmaceutical Society; the Natural History Museum at South Kensington; the United Service Museum (Naval and Military) at Whitehall; and the historical collections of the British Museum which include Ethnology.

Local Museums.—These are to be found in all parts of the country, and they usually serve to illustrate and preserve the natural history and antiquities of a particular district; and they differ from national museums, in being restricted to a particular locality.

Special Museums.—Of these there is practically no end. They have been formed to illustrate certain restricted departments of science, art or history, such as Hygiene, Numismatics, Watch-making, Heraldry, Costume, etc., and they resemble exhibitions of a special kind, save that they are permanent.

553.

553. Generally speaking, a museum is a collection of the objects which go towards the formation of a subject, just as a library is a collection of the literature connected with a subject or subjects. The museum is necessary to the material conception of a subject, just as literature is essential as the permanent record of the subject. For example, in tracing the evolution of the printed book from its manuscript forms, one can form an idea of the appearance of such books by reading up the relative literature, and examining a few facsimiles, and so on; but, in order to realize in a perfect way the aspect, atmosphere and details of early writing and printing, one must go to the great exhibitions or museums of such books at the British Museum or John Rylands Library, Manchester. It is the same with machinery. While a diagram of a machine as it appears in a book may be comprehensible to a few specially educated minds, it would be a mere puzzle to an ordinary human being unless he could go to a museum like that at South Kensington and see a working model of the machine in operation. He could then realize in a practical and concrete way the merely graphic or theoretical view afforded by the book.

554.

554. All the great State museums in the country have been established under the provisions of special Acts of Parliament. Some of these, like the various acts establishing the British Museum, date from the eighteenth century, while others are much more recent. It is not proposed to deal with the legislation and history of the State museums, nor is it necessary to do more than describe, later on, their relations with the municipal museums which may now be considered.

555.

555. In 1845 was passed the first Museums Act (8 & 9 Vict., c. 43) “for encouraging the establishment of museums in large towns,” under which the local authorities of towns over 10,000 of population were permitted to erect museums and levy a halfpenny rate. No specimens could be bought, but an entrance fee of 1d. could be charged. This Act was practically inoperative, as only Canterbury, Warrington, Leicester, Dover, Salford and a few other places adopted it, and in 1850 it was incorporated in the first Public Libraries Act, 1850 (13 & 14 Vict., c. 65), which repealed it and added the permissive clauses which existed till 1893. This Act in its turn was repealed by that of 1855, and again this was repealed by the Public Library Act of 1892 and subsequent amendments, which remain the leading Acts under which libraries may be established, with such subsidiary departments as museums and art galleries. A digest of the powers conferred on local authorities by those various Acts appears in [Section 4] of this Manual. The authorities seem to have become aware of the difficulty of supporting so many institutions out of one restricted rate, because in 1891 was passed “An Act to enable Urban Authorities to provide and maintain Museums and Gymnasiums.” Under this Act, which did not apply to Scotland or the County of London, but only to England and Ireland, local authorities were enabled to levy a special rate of ¹⁄₂d. per pound for museum purposes, and a rate of ¹⁄₂d. per pound for gymnasium purposes, and to make regulations for the purposes of both kinds of institutions. In 1901 this Act was extended to the County of London by the “Public Libraries Act, 1901.” A resolution of the local authority is sufficient for the purpose of adopting this Act, and the regulations for adoption are similar to those prescribed for the Public Libraries Acts. The principal clauses of the Act are as follows:

Clause 4.—“An urban authority may provide and maintain museums for the reception of local antiquities or other objects of interest, and gymnasiums with all the apparatus ordinarily used therewith, and may erect any buildings, and generally do all things necessary for the provision and maintenance of such museums and gymnasiums.”

Clause 5.—“A museum provided under this Act shall be open to the public not less than three days in every week free of charge, but subject thereto an urban authority may admit any person or class of persons thereto as they think fit, and may charge fees for such admission, or may grant the use of the same or of any room therein, either gratuitously or for payment, to any person for any lecture or exhibition or for any purpose of education or instruction. . . .”

Full power is given by other clauses to make all necessary regulations as to hours, staff, order, etc., in both museums and gymnasiums, and for borrowing money for buildings or other purposes.

Separate accounts are to be kept, and “The amount expended by an urban authority under this Act shall not in any year exceed the amount produced by a rate of a halfpenny in the pound for a museum, and the like amount for a gymnasium established under this Act.”

556.

556. A new provision in legislation of this kind is contained in Clause 12, which empowers an urban authority to sell a museum or gymnasium after seven years’ trial, if it is deemed unnecessary or too expensive, but only with the consent of the Local Government Board. Any moneys received from such sale are to be applied, in the first instance, to the repayment of loans, and if not all required for such a purpose, may, with the approval of the Local Government Board, “be applied to any purpose to which capital moneys are properly applicable.”

557.

557. It is further provided (Clause 13) that the powers given to urban authorities under the Act “shall be deemed to be in addition to and not in derogation of any other powers conferred by Act of Parliament, law, or custom, and such other powers may be exercised in the same manner as if this Act had not been passed.” In other words, the powers conferred by the “Public Libraries Acts,” for example, with regard to museums, still hold good, and the new powers created by the “Museums and Gymnasiums Act” can be exercised as an addition to them. It should be noted that, in addition to the general legislation contained in the Public Libraries and Museums Acts, many private or local Acts have been passed, under which different localities have obtained power to spend money on the provision of museums and art galleries, greatly in excess of the limits imposed by the general Acts.

558.

558. This represents practically the whole of the legislation connected with municipal museums, and it may be inferred, from the financial provision allowed by Parliament, that no museum which depends entirely upon the halfpenny rate can be in a very flourishing condition. The deficiencies of the rate-income are in many cases made up by the donations and bequests of private donors; occasionally public bodies render valuable aid; not infrequently the closely restricted library rate is nibbled at and diverted from its real purpose; and very often the State, represented by the Victoria and Albert Museums at South Kensington, circulates useful and valuable loan collections. In these various ways museums are helped, and within the past few years, or since the Museums Association was established in 1890, the organization, scientific value and equipment of museums have improved in a very marked degree. No doubt in some localities can still be seen the old-fashioned hotch-potch collection of miscellaneous lumber styled a museum, wherein a stuffed walrus jostles a suit of armour, and local fossils and meteorites are beautifully mixed up with birds’ eggs, flint implements and coins. Such collections only require an alligator, and a canoe from Fiji on the walls, to be perfect specimens of the Wardour Street kind of museum. Happily this kind of omnium-gatherum museum is rapidly dying out before the advance of rational classification, and in some cases where collections are small and contained in one room, yet by means of intelligent arrangement incongruous objects are kept apart, and the little museum is made an instructive nucleus, instead of a high-class marine-store.

559.

559. This leads to such questions as the elements of museum classification and description, which are the most important points in the relations between libraries and schools and museums. Without classification a general or even special museum is comparatively useless. Without effective arrangement and descriptive labelling the specimens remain uninstructive and misleading. On these two points museums resemble libraries, and it is only when they agree in the essentials of classification and description that the institutions become mutually beneficial. A well-classified and arranged cabinet of minerals, with a full set of descriptive labels, is simply invaluable to the student of mineralogy and geology. When, therefore, a student is referred from the literature to the objects described in the text-books, he is educated to the extent of being able to appreciate the fact that objects are grouped together in respect of certain resemblances, and that classification into related groups is the basis of the science he is studying. On going to a museum of specimens, such a student, if he were an entomologist, would naturally expect to find together all the butterflies, bees, beetles, flies and other objects properly classified according to order, genera and species. If he found all the moths, bugs, flies and beetles mingled in one huge jumble, and labelled Insects, the collection would be uninstructive and would throw no light on his previous reading.

560.

560. Whatever set of concrete objects a student sets out to examine in a museum, after being referred from his books, he expects to find some relationship between the literature he has studied and the objects he means to compare and examine. On this principle all the large museums of the world are arranged, and the result is that no student who has previously acquired an elementary knowledge of an art or science from text-books should experience any difficulty in finding his way about a museum. It is true that, for purposes of popular display and to tickle up juvenile interest in natural history, some museums exhibit fine specimens of birds or mammals out of their order, where they will attract notice, but the bulk of the collection will be found in strictly classified order. In many important museums it has been found useful to illustrate animal structure and comparative anatomy by means of key or type collections, which are kept apart from the genera classification, yet serve to illustrate important points in comparative zoology, which it would be difficult to do on a very extensive scale. There are many text-books written exactly on the same principle. One author takes a rabbit, another a crayfish, and from these bases teach the main facts of animal structure which apply all round. So in a museum. While it would be absolutely impossible to repeat at every centre such a fine collection of minerals as has been gathered together at the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, yet it is possible to illustrate the main facts and classification of mineralogy by means of a selection of actual specimens or models. Similarly at the British Museum, the student of early printing does not find himself confronted with a complete chronological sequence of all the books printed in the fifteenth century to illustrate the incunabula, but he finds a selection, or type collection, which in the most effectual way traces the development and evolution of the printed book. The more these type collections are adopted and utilized, the greater will become the value of museums for elementary science teaching, and as most museums are unable to collect and display specimens of everything in the world, it is obvious that they must do as libraries have to do—select only what is best, most typical and instructive, and leave indiscriminate collecting to the great universal museums supported by the State.

561.

561. A well-arranged and classified museum, whether of a general character, or which is confined to local botany, zoology, geology and archæology, has great bearing on the educational work of public libraries. It enables a reader to realize the material side of his studies, and by showing him related objects in a definite order, broadens his outlook on the subject, and brings home to him the reality of the matter. As object-lessons are to school-children, so are museums to library readers.

562.

562. Art galleries are divisible into three classes—1. Those maintained or assisted by the State=the National Gallery; Scottish National Art Gallery, etc. 2. Those endowed by private munificence or by public bodies=the Wallace Collection; Tate Gallery; the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, the Harris Art Gallery, Preston, etc. 3. Those maintained from local rates levied under special Acts of Parliament; or, under the Public Libraries Acts, which empower local authorities to support art galleries out of the penny rate. There is no special Act for the establishment of art galleries similar to the Museums Act already described, and apart from special Acts, the Public Libraries Acts are the only ones which empower the establishment of art galleries. Needless to say, such powers are rarely exercised unless other sources of endowment or income are forthcoming. So many single pictures cost more than the produce of a penny rate in most towns, that it is, on the face of it, absurd to think of art galleries only as departments of public libraries. In some cases part of the library rate is no doubt used to defray part of the expenses of art galleries, particularly buildings, but it is very unusual to purchase pictures from such a meagre fund. Art galleries are greatly assisted by loan exhibitions contributed to by artists, picture owners, both public and private, and the national art authorities acting through the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington. Annually the South Kensington authorities lend to over 400 museums, exhibitions, schools of art and science, etc., no fewer than 47,000 objects, of which 46,000 are works of art, including pictures, embroideries, photographs, metal-work, pottery, etc. But for these circulating collections, comparatively few of the smaller art galleries of the country could keep alive interest simply by means of their own permanent collections. It is only in large towns, like London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Glasgow, Birmingham, Liverpool, etc., where great and representative collections are kept illustrating the leading schools of art, that any direct educational value can be said to attach to art galleries. So far as educational value is concerned, an art gallery cannot for a moment be compared to a museum or a library. Its appeal on the educational side is to a very small section of the public, and even to this section such appeal is limited by the size and character of the collection. The student of early Italian or Flemish painting can learn nothing in a little provincial art gallery, containing fifty or sixty modern landscapes and figure subjects; and the student of Impressionist painting will not find much to help him in a gallery composed of examples of old Dutch and French masters. The value of an art gallery depends, therefore, on its size and representative nature so far as art students are concerned, and on the appeal which fine paintings make to the higher feelings and perceptions of mankind for its influence as a creator of taste and stimulator of a love of the beautiful. When an art collection takes the form of a special exhibition illustrative of a subject, rather than a particular school of painting, its value and interest are enormously increased. Suppose, for example, that an art gallery is devoted to an exhibition illustrative of some great historical subject, like the career of Napoleon I. The value of the pictorial side of the subject at once stands forth with great prominence, and one can realize the educational value of art in the exposition of history. But in a mere random collection of pictures, on all kinds of subjects, by all kinds of painters, there is no kind of consecutive teaching or definite connexion with the art literature contained in a library, and, therefore, such a miscellaneous selection of pictures is chiefly valuable as a kind of vague appeal to the æsthetic feelings of the casual observer. Only great collections like those of the National Gallery in London, and the Louvre at Paris, can be said to illustrate the literature of art, and it is chiefly in regard to such art galleries that some direct connexion can be traced between art collections and libraries.

Bibliography

563. Museums and Art Galleries

563. Museums and Art Galleries:

Chambers and Fovargue. Law relating to . . . Museums.

Flower, Sir W. H. Essays on Museums, 1898.

Greenwood, T. Museums and Art Galleries, 1888.

Jackson, M. T. The Museum: A Manual of the Housing and Care of Art Collections, 1917.

Murray, David. Museums: Their History and Use, 1904, 3 vols. [Vols. 2-3 are a most extensive bibliography.]

Museums Journal.

For articles see Cannons: F 17-18, Museums; F 19, Art Galleries.

APPENDIX I
THE NOMENCLATURE OF LIBRARY POSITIONS [18]

[18] A report contributed by L. Stanley Jast and W. C. Berwick Sayers to the Congrès International des Archivistes et des Bibliothécaires, Bruxelles, 1910.