PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND NOVELS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—" Librarian " has surely not read, or has misunder- stood, Sir Charles Grant Robertson's admirable letter to The Times, to which I have already referred. That letter showed conclusively that a Board of NoVel Censors, working oP 'lines similar to the Board of Film. Censors; was unworkable and, indeed, nonsensical. But " Librarian "-clings to the idea. He is apparently unaware that to rely on the guidance of this hypothetical body (nominated by whom ? -financed by whom ?) with its " definite test " (defined by whom ?) would merely widen and deepen- the sea of his-difficulties. " Libra- ' flan" seems to-hate-had the courage Of his own convictions ' in 'selecting hooka for the'publie- library under his charge.
Let him stand fast, and refuse to tremble before the pro- testers, unless he is convinced, that they really speak for the main body of citizens whose books he is engaged to select and circulate. To fall back for support on an outside body which could have no proper understanding of a librarian's particular, and often local, problems would be to abdicate a great part of the powers with which a trained librarian is very properly entrusted. It is tantamount to suggesting that librarians today are incapable of dealing with the work for which they are paid.
I never suggested that a librarian should read, or even consider without reading, 15,000 books a year. " Librarian " must know that this figure is absurd, as it includes many thousands of publications, technically classed as " books," which are not books in the ordinary reader's sense, and need never bother any ordinary librarian. But I do suggest that the task of selection ought to be, and in fact is, well within the power of the competent public librarian with such assist- ance as is customarily available. On the whole, indeed, as he is less open to the fickle currents of fashion and ephemeral curiosity, his work of selection is simpler than that which confronts the large commercial circulating libraries.—
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