CHAPTER XXXIV

THE LECTURE ROOM

=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.=--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.= 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.= 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.=--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.= 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.=--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.=--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.=--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.=--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.= 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.=---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.= 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.=--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.=--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.