THIS PAMPHLET is addressed to teachers and others interested in school libraries, and its subject is the problem of teaching the use and enjoyment of books. It gives a picture of what some schools are actually doing; it relates their ideas to the main current of our teaching tradition and offers a few reflections on the place of reading, study and reference in the school curriculum today; and finally it sums up the essentials of a good school library.

The word 'library' is ambiguous in denoting both a collection of books and the place in which they are kept. But the books are more important than the place. These pages can, it is hoped, be read with interest and perhaps with some profit by teachers who have the books but not the room; if they have neither it may encourage them to make a beginning at any rate with the books.

Books in this context are not to be mistaken for 'school books'. With school books, including text-books, primers and manuals, this pamphlet is not concerned. They have their legitimate purposes but they are useless for the problem before us. The books we are concerned with must in the eyes of the pupils be 'real' books; they must be for individual rather than class use; and they must be part of a collection, however small, formed for the encouragement of the pupils as readers.

Many, if not most, schools have some such collection. In the majority it is rudimentary; in some it consists of, or is supplemented by, loans from a public library; in a relatively small number it is a substantial library amounting to five thousand volumes or more. Some schools - as yet only a small minority of the total - have a library in the sense of a special room for the housing and reading of the books; in many this purpose has to be served by a classroom or any space that is available. Whatever its character and circumstances this collection of books marks the school's awareness of the particular problem; it also associates the school, as we shall see, with a long and proud tradition.

What exactly is the problem? Quite simply it is to make as many children as possible keen and proficient readers,

[page 4]

so that when their schooldays are over they will turn naturally to books for profit and enjoyment. Dogberry was of the opinion that 'to write and read comes by nature'. Mistaken as he may have been about mere literacy, he was even more so about the reading of books. Eighty years of compulsory schooling have shown that the desire to read, the ability to discriminate in reading and the habit of using books to enrich life are assuredly not effects that can be left to the operation of nature. They have only too plainly been 'gifts of fortune' that passed the majority of children by. 'A power of reading', said Matthew Arnold, 'well trained and well guided, is perhaps the best among the gifts which it is the business of our elementary schools to bestow; it is in their power to bestow it, yet it is bestowed in fewer cases than we imagine.' Looking back over the seventy-three years since that remark was made and reflecting on its undiminished applicability today, we are forced to the conclusion that, with the resources the schools had at the time, the gift was not as much within their power as he believed, and that the magnitude of the problem had not in fact been realised.

His reference to elementary schools reminds us of how our vision has had to be broadened. The reading problem is confined to no particular kind of school and no school is exempt from the responsibility of facing it. The importance of books in our civilisation is such that it is the duty of every school to make sure that, whatever else a pupil learns, he learns to make the fullest use of books to the extent that his age and abilities allow. Moreover, education is a sequence of experiences and every stage from nursery school to sixth form - and beyond - has a contribution to make that cannot be made so effectively at any other stage. This pamphlet accordingly makes no distinction of schools; all are concerned. While much of what is said will clearly apply more to one stage or type of school than another, the principles are common to all; they reach up to the sixth form and down to the junior classes and are rooted in dispositions shaped in the infants' school.

SCHOOLS differ widely in respect of the books they possess and the use they make of them. In some schools there is hardly a book to be seen except sets of text-books; in some there are rows of books on classroom shelves, in halls, in corridors, in the head master's room, on window-sills, in cupboards, in boxes; books in attractive covers, books in library bindings, torn and tattered books. In some schools there is a library corner, in some a library classroom, in some library rooms almost empty, in others rows of books overflowing from the library into adjacent rooms; some have specially designed rooms with modern equipment and furniture, some have ingenious makeshifts, some have no room for a library at all; in some the library is completely free and open, in some it is used only under supervision, and in some it is hardly used at all.

The idea of a school library is only now making its way into our system of education at large and progress is, therefore, very uneven. To give a clearer conception of the objective towards which most schools are groping, with however limited success as yet, it may be helpful to describe what is being done in some schools that have already embodied the idea in one form of practice or another.

In order that children may grow up with the companionship of books as far back as they can remember, many nursery and infants' schools display appropriate books on stands or shelves in such a way that the charm of the cover and the illustrations can exert their fascination for curious eyes. The children freely examine the books, turning their pages and becoming absorbed in them. From time to time some children gather round the teacher, who reads to them from a book on her lap. These children will want to read for themselves one day, and meanwhile the books are contributing to the delight of their surroundings as they do in any good home.

In junior and preparatory schools rows of attractive books are again a prominent feature. The books are more numerous here and match the developing taste of the pupils, on the imaginative side for adventure and exploration, on the practical side for hobbies that involve collecting, making and doing things. There is

[page 6]

also a proportion of informative books relating to the curriculum. Often the books are dispersed in class libraries; sometimes there is a small central collection in addition to the class libraries; occasionally they are all together in a single unit, as in a secondary school. Pupils develop rapidly but unevenly from the early stages of reading to a degree of maturity in which they can use books as tools of knowledge. In the junior, as in the infants' school, children may be seen inquisitively dipping into the books and exercising their choice, whether for reading at home or in school. They also become absorbed in reading, as a rule in a quiet period assigned for the purpose. They go to books for facts, sometimes at the suggestion of the teacher, who tells them to find out something for themselves and shows them where and how to do it; sometimes on their own initiative as, for example, when they have collected something and wish to classify it or when they are intent on the construction of some model. Provided it is well illustrated, a book of quite an advanced character can be profitably consulted at a comparatively early age.

Periods of silent reading are often carried through into the secondary stage where the master or mistress - like Charles Lamb - believes in the value of 'browsing'. A whole class may be seen in the library, one or two pupils moving about from shelf to shelf, taking books out and looking at them, most of them sitting at tables with books before them, a few perhaps turning rather rapidly from illustration to illustration, a larger number lost in reading. The teacher is there to maintain the right atmosphere, evidently aware of the pupils who need advice or encouragement and making an opportunity to have a word or two with as many as possible. In one school this reading period appears to have no other object than to allow the pupils to cultivate literary curiosity; in another, where perhaps the class is rather older, the pupils have note-books and appear to have in view some kind of exercise in writing.

Attention might well be drawn to two characteristics of all the schools concerned, irrespective of the age or ability of their pupils. The first is the effect that the mere presence of books has upon the environment. They suggest the wider world, with all its promise of interest, adventure and achievement beyond the school walls. Even a humble assortment 'makes one little room an everywhere', and some school libraries manage by the art of their arrangement to convey the fascination of a place of thrilling vistas. The second characteristic is the effect that a collection of books or periodicals has on the habits of a school in its times of leisure. During intervals, before or at the end of sessions, during periods of waiting or of unexpected freedom, there is often quite a throng of

[page 7]

readers in the library. The new additions set out on a special shelf and the current magazines in an open rack have a general and irresistible appeal, while for a few pupils there are somewhere on the shelves - perhaps among the bound volumes of over-sized books - the favourites that have grown to be the tried companions of leisure moments.

In boarding-schools after school hours or at week-ends there is an intermittent drift of boys or girls to and from the library, which occupies a prominent place in their personal lives. Here are the opportunities, that in a day school are so restricted, of spending leisure among books. Here the habit of turning to books for recreation can grow naturally out of the ordinary routine; in a day school a great effort has to be made to ensure that it does so. The phrase 'use of the library for recreation' hardly does justice to the educational significance of what is going on. Here are boys or girls choosing of their own free will to live for the time being the life of the mind; an act of the will from which all culture starts. The books are selected, with all the skill the school librarian possesses, to make this leisure reading as profitable as possible.

In many schools a class may be seen in the library accompanied by its form or subject teacher and engaged in some piece of investigation. The pupils are consulting numerous books individually or in little groups and making notes and perhaps diagrams. The room is by no means silent; there is, though subdued, a hum of activity. Some pupils, working in groups, are busy with particular projects. At another time, when much the same sort of activity is going on, the form are following an ordinary scheme of work but have reached a point in the syllabus at which the topic can best be dealt with by individual assignments; it may have seemed in fact an appropriate moment to 'turn the pupils into the laboratory and let them get on with the job'. In a third instance the teacher may have gone out of his way to arrange his work so as to provide practice in independent study, training the pupils to learn for themselves and helping them to plan a whole field of work, dividing the labour and enjoying the fruits in common.

These, however, are not the commonest uses to which the library is put. The solid bulk of the work there is done by individuals who go to spend longer or shorter periods in private study. Throughout the day, when the library is not the scene of such activities as have been described - or often indeed while they are going on - a few places are filled with a succession of individual readers who collect their pile of books and settle down to study. They have the air of students, for whom the business of learning is no longer something for which they are dependent on a teacher, but for whom it is now a personal responsibility and an adventure of high seriousness. These boys and

[page 8]

girls have mastered the craft of study, and here they are exercising it with a certain pride. They are in fact practising a skill which it is one of the main purposes of the school to teach.

This arouses two reflections, the first about the conditions in which this study is carried on, and the second about the preliminary training needed to produce the capacity for it. To produce the conditions is the work of a master or mistress who has drawn upon some common fund of expert knowledge and applied it with skill and diligence to the circumstances of the particular school. The result is a room made for study, a room in which there is not only the right apparatus of books and catalogues but the right furniture, the right decoration, the right rules of usage, all creating an atmosphere in which it is natural to study. And the kind of training has been devised with the same qualities of forethought, skill and care. New entrants are taken by the school librarian on their first visit to the library, shown what interesting books it contains, taught how to look for them, how to handle them, how to consult them and how to borrow them. This is the first of a series of formal lessons that the school gives in library usage because it is convinced that the instruction is well repaid. Given this start, the pupils will afterwards, as they go up the school, have opportunity at every stage to use the library for this and that purpose - for browsing, for group study, for individual study and for occasional reference, as well as for recreational reading and to borrow books - and the whole of their subsequent school career will confirm these early lessons and develop their proficiency as students.

A large share in the management of the library, even in some junior schools, is undertaken by the pupils. They can take responsibility for issuing and replacing books, and, provided the school librarian is prepared to train them and organise the work to suit them, they can give a good deal of help with the more skilled operations of librarianship.

Finally, an inquiry into the errands of those who visit the library, young and old, pupils and members of staff, builds up a pattern that reflects the complete life of the community, corporate and individual: work, pleasure, hobbies, sport. Here then is the focus of interests, 'the centre of the intellectual life of the school'. It is, as Menenius Agrippa said of the subject of his apologue:

'The storehouse and the shop of the whole',

'Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body'.

[text continues after photographs]

EUROPEAN CULTURE is based upon a tradition of book learning. The boy, the schoolmaster and the book appear on the Greek vase, the Roman monument and the medieval illuminated manuscript. From the time of Horace onwards the schoolboy with his satchel is a perennial theme for poets.

'What is that upon your back?'
Quo' the fause knicht upon the road.
'Atweel it is my bukes',
Quo' the wee boy, and still he stude.

That is the tradition and its inspiration. It has been challenged on many occasions by ancients as well as moderns, and from many points of view, religious, philosophical, economic, pedagogic; but it still survives. Books are neither the sole means nor the sole end of education; there have always been other media of communication, and in our own time the alternatives are more numerous and efficient than ever before; and there are important kinds of experience and forms of skill that must come through other avenues than the reading of books. But the fact remains that education does not proceed very far without resort to books.

In our own age the tradition is facing a new and perhaps its most formidable challenge. Granted its serviceability in the past, can it meet the demand of modern society? The new factor in the situation, the implications of which we are only beginning to grasp, is the advent of universal education. Were our predecessors of the last

[page 10]

century too ready to assume that a teaching tradition which had so long proved effective with a fraction of the population could by a simple process of multiplication be extended with equal success to the whole; that if all, and not merely the few, were taught the basic skill of reading, all could without more ado enter into the national heritage of literature? The disappointment that is frequently voiced over the failure of the schools to produce a reading population seems to suggest a serious miscalculation in their hopes. It might, in fact, almost be said that it has proved comparatively easy to teach the children of the nation how to read; to create in them the wish to read and the ability to distinguish between what is worth reading and what is not has proved exceedingly difficult.

What may be called the frontal attack upon the problem - the patient building up of good habits and good standards through the teaching of literature in the classroom - has been pressed forward steadily, and the results of the accumulating experience of teachers of English are evident in the successive revisions of the Handbook of Suggestions for Teachers and in various Reports, from that of the Cross Commission in 1888 to that of the Norwood Committee in 1943 (1). In the meantime, however, an attack began to develop on another front. The Report of the Cross Commission included among its recommendations the establishment of school libraries. 'Unless', the Commissioners said, 'the scholars ... acquire a taste for reading, their school learning will not be followed up in after life and accordingly the establishment of school libraries is strongly recommended.' It took some years for the suggestion to bear fruit. In 1906 the Board of Education incorporated it in its Building Regulations for Secondary Schools so far as to state that a room furnished for use as a library was 'desirable'. By 1914 this room had become 'essential'. In 1915 the English Association published its pamphlet (No. 33) on School Libraries, drawing attention to the use certain well-known schools were making of their libraries. It was not, however, till the period after the first world war that the movement amongst schools to make deliberate use of the library as an educational instrument achieved real momentum.

But some may ask, 'What is there so new about the idea of a school library? The association of a school with a library is no novelty.' This association is indeed an important fact and deserves emphasis. It was inspired by the humanism of the great schoolmasters who disciplined

(1) Of special interest are: Secondary Education (Spens Report), 1938, price 8s. 6d.; Curriculum and Examinations in Secondary Schools (Norwood Report), 1943, price 4s. 6d. (All published by H.M.S.O.)

[page 11]

sixteenth-century England to the New Learning and who were roundly warned by Sir Thomas Elyot in his Boke named The Governour: 'It is nat inough ... to have rad poetes, but all kyndes of writying must also be sought for.' When a man had hungrily amassed and lovingly cared for the collection of a life-time, what could he do better than follow the example of Reginald Bainbrigg, head master of Appleby Grammar School, whose will, dated 1606, expresses a hope that was often to be realised: 'I bequeath all the books I now have to the honour and fame of this school. ... I have done this led by the hope that others after me will follow my example and leave part of their library to the school and thus be gathered a fitting collection of books; thereby will I rejoice through God that I have been the founder of a good tradition.' But the story by no means begins there; it takes us back to Alfred's Grammar School at Winchester, where 'books in both languages, Latin and Saxon, were read continually' (1), to the Minster School at York, where Alcuin inherited from his predecessor 'the school, the Master's chair and the books which the illustrious Master had collected, piling up treasures under one roof', to Jarrow and Hexham in the Northumbria of the age of Bede, and finally to the very beginning of our English school tradition at Canterbury in 598 (2). Nor must we dismiss these historical collections as entirely irrelevant to our modern ideas about the purpose of a library. Already in 1660 Charles Hoole in his New Discovery of the Old Art of Teaching School 'offers a "Note of School Authors" for the school library running to between 250 and 300 books' and describes how for the making of Latin themes and speeches pupils must first be taught to find and use subject-matter (3).

By 1678 Christopher Wase, drawing presumably on his experience as head master of Tonbridge School, not only says 'The greatest benefit to learners after the Master is a good library', but has practical advice to give (in his Considerations concerning Free-Schools, as settled in England) on such matters as quick reference, the importance of selection, gifts, the duties of the 'Library Keeper' and Library Rules. The important principles that a school needs a reference library and that accessibility is the first consideration in siting it had received recognition at a much earlier date. It is recorded that at Cheltenham in 1586 'the corporation bought two dictionaries for the use of the pupils, which were to be "tied fast with little

(1) Asser: quoted Leach, The Schools of Mediaeval England, Chap. 5. (Methuen, 1915.)

(2) Leach, loc. cit., Chap. I.

(3) Foster Watson: The English Grammar School to 1660, Chap. 18. (Cambridge University Press, 1916.)

[page 12]

chains of iron to some convenient place in the school"' (1). The conception of the library as a place where other reference material besides books may be kept is illustrated by Ashton's Ordinances at Shrewsbury in 1578, which prescribed buildings to include 'a library and gallerie for the said schools, furnished with all manner of books, mappes, spheres, instruments of astronomye and all other things apperteyninge to learning which may be eyther geven to the schoole or procured with the schoole money".

However, in the course of the seventeenth century the tides of contemporary thought turned educational energy in other directions and the library idea had still long to wait before coming to fruition. Reading to capture, absorb and enjoy the spirit of an author, the ideal of the great Humanists, fell into the background and had to remain there till other developments allowed it to come again to the fore. Here it is relevant only to note that the change of direction took place and that a recall to their ideals has already been sounded. 'The Renaissance educators did clearly perceive, what was all too soon lost sight of, that the essence of a liberal education is the study of a great literature. ... And the spirit in which they approached the literature which to them was all in all was the spirit which we desire to recapture on behalf of English today.'

(1) J. H. Brown: Elizabethan Schooldays. Chap. 1. (Blackwell, 1933.)

IN 1928 the Board of Education published a Memorandum on Libraries in State-Aided Secondary Schools in England, and soon the indications of interest and activity in school libraries began to multiply. When the Board published in 1931 a pamphlet on the planning of new Secondary School Buildings it now described a 'room set apart for use as a library'. In 1934 the Incorporated Association of Assistant Masters convened a conference of teachers from whose deliberations there issued in 1937 A Guide for School Librarians. In 1936 a Report to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust on Libraries in Secondary Schools was published; that same year saw the coming together of enthusiastic school librarians to form the School Library Association, and also the first of the annual short courses for school librarians organised by the Board of Education. The Spens Report on Secondary Education (1938) noted, in dealing with the teaching of English, that 'there is often more real education going on in a good school's library than in any of its classrooms' and the Norwood Report on Curriculum and Examinations in Secondary Schools (1943) devoted a considerable amount of attention to libraries.

The passage of the new Education Act in 1944, making secondary education universal, followed by the Ministry's Building Regulations prescribing a library in every secondary school, created a new situation fraught with immense opportunity. In 1945 there appeared the first document to take account of its implications for the school library movement, namely, School Libraries in Post-War Reconstruction, a report drawn up by a Joint Panel of the School Libraries Section of the Library Association and the School Library Association. This was revised and reissued in 1950 as School Libraries To-day. In 1950 also the Ministry published (1) its most explicit statement of the requirements for a school library and offered suggestions to architects for meeting them.

The rebirth of interest in libraries and the initial experiments in their use took place, it is true, mainly in public schools and grammar schools. These had the

(1) Ministry of Education Building Bulletin No. 2. New Secondary Schools. (H.M.S.O., 1950.) Out of print.

[page 14]

premises and other resources that made the experiments possible. The effect on aim and method in teaching began to be noticeable in the nineteen-twenties and thirties. Sentences such as the following begin to appear in the reports of His Majesty's Inspectors during this period: 'The Librarian is enthusiastic and by the use of library periods in school hours is attempting to train the pupils in the wider and more intelligent uses of reading.' References occur to experiments such as 'choosing a topic for the term and reading it up in supervised library periods', to 'library schemes involving co-operative inquiry', to 'browsing periods' or to 'the incidental class reading period when the whole form vacates its classroom'. But it was not long before it was realised that the encouragement of reading and study by creating the right conditions had its significance for other types of school. The demands of the grammar school might differ from those of other secondary schools because of the difference in its age range and curriculum, and the demands of secondary schools would differ from those of primary schools for the same reasons; but the claim of the pupils, and the promise of success if the books were appropriately selected, remained everywhere the same.

Accordingly, when progress was resumed after the war, it was on a vastly wider scale. In grammar schools the advance has become general; the new secondary schools are striving to make up leeway; primary schools are moving fast. Although satisfactory libraries are still comparatively few and schools are still far from perfecting the technique of their use as educational instruments, there is a widespread and growing consciousness that they are a powerful addition to teaching resources.

It has been shown that the basic idea of the school library is no novelty. What is new is the favourable nature of the circumstances in which it is reborn. Three circumstances in particular have increased its feasibility. First, thanks to the champions of child study and the progress of educational psychology, we have a better understanding of the needs and capacities of schoolboys and schoolgirls than had the Humanists. Second, we have unprecedented opportunities of putting our ideas into practice, owing to the improvement in school facilities, particularly books, space and furniture. Third, the pioneer experiments have been made and we now possess a body of doctrine based on experience, about the proper character, management and use of a school library.

The idea in its simplest terms is that, given the right books and the right conditions for their use, pupils will become good readers. What the right books and conditions are is defined in the documents that have been mentioned and in the publications of the School Library Association generally. The chief tenets are:

[page 15]

(i) 'The library should be the centre of the intellectual life of the school, available at all times for reference, for study and for private reading' (1). This pamphlet has already illustrated a number of ways in which schools are attempting to bring this about.

(ii) One of these ways is to supply the literature, apparatus of reference and a place of study for the subjects of the curriculum and so to make students in those subjects. 'Every secondary school needs at least a minimum collection of books of reference and other books bearing directly on the school work.'

(iii) But the school library has a specific purpose beyond its relation to 'subjects', namely, to make readers. It is a field where 'the boundaries imposed by subjects and syllabuses are removed to offer a width of outlook which is part of the preparation for the use of books throughout life' (2). Fact and fiction, reference and recreation all have their part to play. 'An adequate school library should contain books on all subjects of interest to children at the appropriate age' (3). It reflects impartially the classroom, the workshop, the playing field, the hobby corner, the home, the world at large and, not least, the 'realms of gold'.

(iv) Its educational efficiency is the first consideration. 'Administration, routine, finance are regarded as subordinate to use; the angle of approach is: "These are the uses to which we wish to put the library; what does this mean in terms of planning, equipment, book-selection, classification and so on?'" (4)

(v) Yet administration does matter. 'While the administration of a school library is not to be judged solely by the efficiency of its routine, but rather by the extent to which it educates in the care and handling of books and by the amount of effective and discriminating reading it stimulates, it is none the less of great importance, since upon the method and intelligence with which the library is organised and administered so much of its educational possibilities depend. ... [It is] important to use good and recognised methods' (5)

(1) Ministry of Education Building Bulletin No. 2, p. 25.

(2) Norwood Report, p. 77.

(3) School Libraries To-day. Chap. 1, para. 10. (The School Library Association.)

(4) C. A. Stott. School Libraries: a Short Manual, p. 7. (Published by the Cambridge University Press for the National Book League and the School Library Association, 1947.)

(5) School Libraries To-day. Chap. 5, para. 34-5.

BOOKS are used in school for three purposes, namely, to obtain information, to build up a body of organised knowledge, and to enjoy an imaginative experience. We usually call the activities involved reference, study and recreative reading. The activities often overlap and the purposes are indistinguishable - study involves reference, and recreative reading often results in both information and knowledge - but the three divisions form convenient headings for certain considerations relevant to the theme of this pamphlet.

Reference, that is, the consultation of authorities, is the basis of study, and to feel the necessity of knowing the facts, to have established the habit of searching for them and to have acquired the skill to find them, is to have gone far towards becoming a student. The term 'reference books' is sometimes loosely used to cover almost everything that is not classed as fiction. Any book that contains required information may, of course, be used for the purpose of reference, but, properly speaking, reference books are books compiled and arranged with the object of making it easy to look up items of knowledge. At one extreme they are the apparatus of advanced study, at the other the student's first box of tools. If suitably designed and written, they can be used as soon as children are able to read and understand them. And there is a great deal to be said for making as early and as full use of them as possible. Even at the level of mere fact-finding, and short of a real process of study, the practice of reference has great educational values.

The day of the polymath and the infant prodigy is over.

And still they gaz'd, and still the wonder grew,
That one small head could carry all he knew'

'But past is all his fame'.

[text continues after photographs]

WHAT HAS BEEN SAID may often have appeared to take for granted a large and well-found library in a school of some size. But for some of the activities referred to the only ultimate essentials are a collection of suitable books, supplemented, perhaps, by the resources of the public library, and a clear idea in the mind of the teacher about the use to make of them. Given these, the principles involved in bringing pupils and books together are applicable in almost every school, whatever its size and circumstances. Certain facts cannot be ignored, however. The results that can be hoped for will be governed to some extent by three conditions, namely (i) the material circumstances of book supply, accommodation and furniture, (ii) the skill of the school librarian in the selection and management of the books, and (iii) the amount of opportunity created by the school organisation for the use of them.

(i) The supply of books is improving. Local education authorities are now more generous in their grants for the purchase of library books, and public librarians are showing the utmost goodwill in coming to the assistance of schools in every way possible.

Scarcely less important are accommodation and furniture. 'The arrangement and furnishing of the library', said the Carnegie Report, 'should create an atmosphere such as will give the reader, on entering, the immediate impression of space and light, ample and welcoming, with a reassuring promise of quiet and detachment from the unavoidable noise, hurry and interruptions of the ordinary classroom life.' Architects and furniture designers have striven to realise this ideal, and now a certain number of school libraries, although few in relation to the total, are in satisfactory surroundings. The Building Regulations, 1944, foretold the expansion of library accommodation to come, and Building Bulletin No. 2 suggests how sound principles of planning can be embodied at reasonable cost. But many schools are having to make the best of moderate or poor resources and some of them are doing so with marked success. There are

[page 27]

numerous examples of improvised libraries working with a high degree of efficiency in premises designed for quite other purposes, frequently in a classroom, but in some instances in a hall or corner of a hall, a medical room, a cloakroom or a corridor. No less ingenuity has been shown both by local education authorities and by individual schools in converting disused or outmoded furniture into tolerable shelving, tables and chairs.

(ii) It is in the selection of their books that the less experienced school librarians meet their greatest challenge. Too frequently the books on the shelves of a school library show a want of balance that does injustice to some section of the school or to some of the pupils' main interests. Sometimes they have too much the appearance of a random collection assembled without any clear view of the purpose to be served. Some libraries are cumbered with volumes that are never read and would be better elsewhere. A good library faithfully reflects the current life of the school.

The management of the books calls for a certain amount of special knowledge and skill. The importance of using good and recognised methods has already been mentioned (p. 15). Courses of short duration are organised for teachers by the Ministry of Education and by local education authorities to give an introduction to the principles and practice of school librarianship; longer courses are available for those able and willing to undertake deeper study and gain wider experience. Much may, however, be learnt from books, from the various publications of the School Library Association and from personal contact with the librarians of public libraries, to whose generous and able co-operation a large number of teachers are deeply indebted. The task is not so difficult that any teacher need feel debarred from making a start on it.

A large share in the management of a school library may properly be taken by the pupils. Its claim on voluntary service is a reasonable one in that it offers in return a valuable opportunity of learning to take administrative responsibility and to carry it with business-like efficiency. A board of pupil librarians can be organised to provide assistants for much of the work entailed. If these are suitably distributed in age range to secure a succession of senior librarians who have gained experience under their predecessors, many of the routine tasks will be quietly and effectively carried on with little intervention by the master or mistress ultimately responsible. That this teacher should have sufficient knowledge of school library management, should have organised the routine on sound principles, and have given thought to the training of the pupils, needs no emphasis.

[page 28]

(iii) Organisation. Schools have been known to possess a library and to keep it locked except at stated times when the librarian was in attendance for the issue and return of books. Others have been known, and indeed are still not rare, that have a number of books but no teacher with special responsibility for them and no regular system of putting them to use. In others, again, the timetable is so arranged that only a minority of the pupils has any opportunity to use the library except for borrowing. In yet others the pressure on accommodation has been too readily allowed to rule out the use of a room as a library. These are illustrations of the way in which the influence of the library is limited by the pattern of school organisation. The relationship between pupils and books finally depends on such factors as the assignment of responsibility to a member of the staff competent and willing to undertake it, the use of accommodation with due regard for the claims of the library, the arrangement of the daily routine to allow full use of the books, and - what has been assumed without apology - the easy discipline of a well-ordered and happy community.

A final word to school librarians. To their predecessors this pamphlet owes its substance and its inception. If in these pages a great deal has been asked of them - that they should make themselves masters of the art of selecting books and of the technique of school library administration, that they should be guides and tutors to the boys and girls exploring their bookshelves, that they should consult and serve their colleagues as well as appealing for their co-operation - it is because teachers of vision and devotion have themselves set the example and created the standards for this new branch of their craft.

THIS summary of practical suggestions is addressed chiefly to teachers who are undertaking school library responsibilities for the first time, whether it be the creation of a new library or the taking over of one already established.

Many books and articles have been written about librarianship and a number about school librarianship, and some of them should be read. A very full list (1), with descriptive notes, has been published (second edition, 1950) by the School Library Association, Gordon House, 29 Gordon Square, London, W.C.1. The other publications (various pamphlets and the terminal periodical, The School Librarian) of this Association, and those of other bodies such as the National Book League (7 Albemarle Street, London, W.1), the Incorporated Association of Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools and the Library Association, are valuable. Primary Education (H.M. Stationery Office, 1959, price 10s. 0d.) and several of the pamphlets of the Ministry of Education, referred to previously in footnotes, contain relevant material.

The inexperienced school librarian can learn a great deal from personal contacts. He should seek advice and help from public librarians and from his fellow school librarians at local and national meetings.

Most of the societies referred to above, and many public libraries, issue useful book lists which should be consulted. Newspapers and periodicals carry helpful reviews of children's books, and book exhibitions provide an excellent opportunity for the librarian himself to 'browse'. Many county libraries offer special facilities to school librarians, of which full advantage should be taken.

The school librarian should be familiar with books about children's reading. Reference to the chief works, and to a number of periodicals and book lists, will be

(1) List of Books on Librarianship and Library Technique of Interest to School Librarians. The same pamphlet, price 2s. 6d., also contains A List of General Reference Books suitable for Secondary School Librarians.

[page 30]

found in the School Library Association's list of books on librarianship already mentioned.

As soon as a small number of books has been acquired, the need for their orderly arrangement on the shelves will become apparent. In some school libraries the books are arranged roughly according to school 'subjects'. Very soon, however, it is found that some of the most popular and informative books do not fit easily into these categories, while others relate to several 'subjects'. A scheme is clearly required which will provide a place (and as far as possible only one place) for every book, with a system of letters or numbers which will make it easy to find any book. If this scheme is well worked out and covers all knowledge, it will guide pupils both in their browsing and in their selection of books for study and it will give them a glimpse of the relationship between the different fields of knowledge.

The invention of such a system is an expert task, and there are many arguments in favour of adopting one of the recognised systems of library classification. The arguments for each of these, and suggested modifications for school libraries, will be found in the literature of school librarianship. The advice of an experienced school librarian will be very valuable on this point.

It is necessary to keep a careful record of the books put into the library. Since this will be permanent, it is best made in a well-bound book, called the accessions register; in it each volume is given an individual number and all its particulars are entered. Stout books, ready ruled, are sold for the purpose.

To enable pupils to use the library intelligently, and to help in the checking of the books, some form of catalogue is required. These are usually made on standard cards, one for each entry, though other forms of catalogue are used for some purposes. School library catalogues may well be simpler than those of large public libraries, but they should be accurate and informative.

Records of books issued enable the school librarian to follow the reading of individual pupils and note the relative popularity of the books.

The school library ought to have a business-like system for issuing books which will not take up too much time and labour. The various systems - that of the public library, book-card, reader's card, book-slip - fulfil slightly different purposes and should be considered carefully

[page 31]

before a decision is made to adopt one of them. Whichever method is used, arrangements are needed for filing the cards or slips in some simple order so that they may be quickly found when the books are returned.

Physical conditions contribute very considerably to the school library atmosphere. It is part of the librarian's responsibility to see that the library has the best shelving, tables, chairs and equipment that circumstances will permit. The chief items of equipment to be borne in mind are the librarian's desk or table, the cabinet of drawers to hold catalogue cards, the trays for the filing of issue cards or tickets, neatly mounted or framed labels for shelves and bookcases, and display boards for notices and bookjackets. These items may be studied in a good public library and in the illustrated catalogues of the library furnishers.

The resources of the school library are immeasurably strengthened when all the books are in one collection under one administrative control. In a large school library there may, of course, be more than one librarian. But the understanding co-operation of colleagues is essential if the library is to realise its full possibilities, and everything possible should be done to cultivate it. This co-operation is often given formal expression by means of a Library Committee and a well-used suggestions book.

The routine work of administering a school library would fall heavily on a librarian working alone. But, as has already been suggested, pupils can always be found who are able and very willing to help, and if the work is well organised it is of great value to them. Many who are otherwise undistinguished find in the school library a niche which they can fill with credit.

These words frequently appear in the literature of school librarianship and in discussions on it, and it is interesting to note that they do not always bear the same meaning. While it is probably not possible, or even desirable, to reach an agreed definition of' library periods', it is well to know what the term means in any particular context. The different kinds of activity to which it refers all have their value and are, of course, not mutually exclusive.

(a) It may mean a period in which a class goes to the library for instruction in its use. This may take the form of an introduction to the library for newcomers, during

[page 32]

which the school librarian briefly describes the classification system and the arrangement of the books on the shelves, and possibly the use of the catalogues; or it may be expanded into a series of lessons on 'How to find a book', and go on to such topics as the use of reference material (a wide subject) and the planning of elementary research.

(b) It may mean a period in which a class goes to the library to explore its resources, to browse, and perhaps to change books. Here the function of the librarian is to stimulate and advise readers individually. Much of the value of such a library period would be lost if it were to be used solely for the business of book-borrowing.

(c) It may mean a period, spent either in the library or in the classroom, during which pupils are reading books for pleasure or using them for individual or group research. A form or subject teacher may be in charge of this activity, but the librarian will probably have had a hand in the choosing of the books in advance. This kind of co-operation between the librarian and the subject teacher is an example of the way in which the library can permeate the life of the school.

'Books are the masters who instruct us without rods or ferules, without hard words and anger, without clothes or money. If you approach them they are not asleep; if, investigating, you interrogate them they conceal nothing; if you mistake them they never grumble; if you are ignorant they cannot laugh at you. This feeling that books are real friends is constantly present to all who love reading.'

Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham. 1344.