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.