Libraries and Education
• [Halifax is a progressive town : this article by its Librarian shows how the interest in adult education is growing.—ED. Spectator.] AFTER many years of popular education in this country it is significant that the trend of educational thought and activity is now largely directed to the adolescent and the adult. For too long we assumed that schools and teachers—indispensable as both are— constituted the whole of education for the masses ; but now we recognize more fully that education is a continuous process, and that the foundations of the school must be developed in an entirely different atmosphere.
The growing mind must be stimulated, not disciplined and guided in any narrow sense, and most good is likely to be secured by studying individual preferences and capacities and building upon them. The chief success of such organizations as the Scouts, Guides, and the W.E.A. (the latter particularly) has followed such recognition. If then the pursuit of adult education • requires a variety of avenues, it is pretty certain that a most potent one is an intelligent use of books and libraries. In this connexion the co-operation of school and library is doing much, although for a long time the library service as an educational asset was not recognized. Another line of advance is concerned with broadcasting. In Halifax the activities of the B.B.C. have not only increased the volume of reading, but also directed it into channels and awakened interests that might otherwise have remained dormant. The recommended books in each new syllabus of the B.B.C. are noted and the lists marked with the class-numbers of the books contained in the library ; all necessary additions being secured by loan or purchase.
To give, however, an adequate idea of the work of the public library in Halifax it is necessary to chronicle briefly the policy of the past twenty-odd years. Its beginnings included a break from the methods of com- mercial and proprietary libraries, which are run on the demand and supply 'principle : that is, the chief provision of books in strongest demand, irrespective of literary or any other merit. It was felt that a public library, existing on public funds, should largely he a selector, and so avoid second-rate and ephemeral pro- ductions. Such- policy allows ample choice and also a free duplication of really worth-while books. Another change was the entire reorganization of the library from the closed or indicator system to the open access, whereby borrowers may browse and select from the shelves direct. This was but one of the links in a policy• for bringing the institution into more intimate relationship with the intellectual needs of the town. By co-operation with, and financed by, the Education Committee, a comprehensive system of libraries in the schools, over forty in number, and containing in the aggregate 15,000 volumes, is now in operation, and thus the beginnings of an intelligent interest in books is secured. The library lesson links this work with that of the Public Library. This lesson is given in the library, in school hours, to small groups of children by their teacher, and it explains the arrangement of the books and the best way of using them. Another link in the chain is research work in the library by the older scholars, unaccompanied by a teacher, and it is gratifying to observe young people digging from books intOrmation on topics they arc individually interested in, and at the same time dis- covering other sources of interest hitherto unknown. One possible outcome of this system is the promotion of that intellectual independence which is the need of the citizen when schools and teachers may be almost forgotten.
Other features of the Public Library policy in Halifax include the publication of a monthly Readers' Guide, which besides providing annotated lists of additions also includes a literary calendar, a lecture calendar covering the lectures given in the town, and some editorial- notes, designed to promote the best use of the large collection of books available. Two thousand copies of this Guide are distributed gratis to readers, the cost of publication being defrayed by advertise- ments.
Another fruitful activity is that of informal lectures given each winter to local organizations by the Librarian. One such, "A Young Man's Reading," dealt with volumes of possible interest in biography, travel, history, and sociology, and it emphasized the importance of a wider knowledge of citizenship and indicated the literature of the subject. Another, called "The City Beautiful," preceded the formation of a branch of the Gardens Guild. We have also a school newspaper for use in the schools, which deals with reading and the use of libraries. It is financed by the Education Committee and edited by the Librarian. Two thousand five hundred copies of The Satchel appear fortnightly, and the journal presents to young readers suitable extracts from selected news- papers, together with short passages from books and other sources. Such extracts often carry a foot-note directing attention to more detailed information contained in the books of the library.
Largely as a result, I think, of this policy, Halifax now has nearly 30,000 of its 100,000 population enrolled as readers in the Public Library. The annual circulation of books has increased from 146,000 in 1906 to 575,000 issues last year. The quality of the reading has also advanced, to judge by a consideration of the books in common use.
Among philosophical works those by Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Matter and The Analysis of Mind, claim many thoughtful readers, and interest in the literature of psychology is reflected in the circulation of books by J. Arthur Hill, Freud, Brill, Sir Oliver Lodge, Myers, McDougall, William James, and Stanley Hall. In religion it is difficult to make a small selection, but it is of interest to note that Lord Balfeur's The Foundations of Belief continues to attract many readers. Also popular are 'Whitehead's The Making of Religion, Brown's This Believing World, Glover's Progress in Religion, Stoddart's Old Testament Life and Literature, Moffatt's Old Testament, Grace Winter's The Loveliest Life, Sheppard's The Impatience of a Parson, Jones's Christ of the Indian Road, and the works of Canon Peter Green and Alexander Irvine.
In sociology the choice is wider still. The works of J. L. and Barbara Hammond, The Town Labourer, etc., find many readers here. Benn's Confessions of a Capitalist and Henry Ford's To-day and To-morrow interest the acquisitive mind, and Karl Marx, Mallock, and others of the chief exponents of socialism and indi- vidualism have a pretty wide following. Stephen Reynolds's Seems So is still read and Laski's Grammar of Politics finds favour with a few readers. The books of Sidney and Beatrice Webb on local government and trade unionism are well used, particularly the latter, and the books on India by Mrs. Besant, Miss Mayo, and a few others are in very common use.
It is very refreshing to me to note the evident interest in philological works. First and foremost, the great Oxford Dictionary is in daily use, whilst the Concise and the Pocket editions are as well used and thumbed as the more popular novels. Also well used are Fowler's Modern English Usage, Smith's Words and Idioms, Cobbett's English Grammar, George Sampson's English for the English (several copies), the Report of the Depart- mental Committee on the Teaching of English, and the several dictionaries and works in Latin, French, German, Spanish, and other languages.
Turning to books on science, those of a general nature in popular use include Whitehead's Science and the Modern World, Seward's Science and the Nation, and the works of Smithells, Soddy, and Sir Oliver Lodge. Tech- nical books of every variety are extremely well used, particularly those covering textiles, engineering, and other trades of the town. Books on drawing, painting, and architecture are also in general use, and the interest in ornamental gardening and the cultivation of flowers is represented by the call for works by Mrs. Cran, Miss Jekyll, Elizabeth of German Garden fame, H. IL Thomas, and W. P. Wright.
In Halifax we have also a considerable demand for poetry, drama, and literary essays. Among the -latter J.. C. Squire is Well to the front; as are Belloc, E. V. Lucas, Arnold Bennett, and 'Aldous 'Huxley; especially' Proper Studies. .Besides a well-maintained- demand.-' for the older dramatists, the works of Shaw, Barrie, Bennett, Lady Gregory,' Galsworthy,- Masefield, Drinkwater,- Synge, and De la Mare are extremely popular. Another popular class is history. Here in addition to the continued use of the older works, in the writings of Trevelyan and H. G. Wells's Outline of History there is evident interest, whilst Joan Parke's Travel in England in the Seventeenth Century is as meritorious as it is popular.
As regards fiction, the taste of Halifax readers is pretty sound. They cultivate the best of the older writers, and the moderns with any claim to merit are freely patronized. Naturally the thriller and semi-sensational claim many readers, here as elsewhere, but the enormous circulation of the freely duplicated works by such outstanding novelists as Halliwell Sutcliffe, Joseph Conrad,' Arnold Bennett, John Galsworthy, H. G. Wells, W. J. Locke, Sheila Kaye-Smith, and Sir James Barrie provides adequate testimony to the literary taste of the town.
EDWARD GREEN-.
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