By JAMES L. CLIFFORD Reading and the College Library

F COLLEGE LIBRARIANS sometimes ap­ lifetime obsession. Even when her eye­ I pear harassed and perplexed, the re­ sight finally failed, she kept up with the cent rapid rise in enrollments is only one best literature through talking ;records for cause of worry. Equally important, the blind. Scornful of the soap operas though perhaps less publicized; is the and melodramas which made up the fact that within the last half century usual daytime radio programs, she de­ there has occurred a rna jor shift in our manded, even in her eighties, solid intel­ reading habits, and, as a result, libraries lectual stimulus, and kept the mailman are now called upon to provide services busy bringing large packages of books. which used to be found elsewhere. In her last year, when almost eighty­ Let me illustrate by some personal five, she insisted on listening to a new recollections. As I grew up, the center version of one of the old Greek classics, of my education was in the home. My and passing on its story to her grand­ parents, for whom this beautiful library children. is named, 1 were avid readers. Indeed, no Father, too, was a buyer of books, with two people ever loved books more. What a wide variety of interests--chiefly sci­ stands out clearest in all my childhood ence, theology, and politics. His collec­ memories is books--walls lined with tion of books on astronomy was out­ books--books on the tables-books standing. He tried to keep up on every stored in boxes and cases in the attic. subject, and was always complaining And they were not on the shelves merely about lack of time to range as far as he for decoration; they were being read. would have liked. Mother was an enthusiastic reader of To be sure, neither Mother nor Father history, biography, and poetry. From the was a collector in the strict sense of the time that she left Wellesley College after word. They had no interest whatsoever only one year, she started the practice in first editions or rare volumes. Thev of buying large quantities of books. did not delight in beautiful bindings or Heavy packages would regularly arrive in de luxe publications. They had no from a well-known Boston bookseller, bibliographical tastes, and little schol­ filled with sets of the classics and the arly discrimination in the choice of texts. historians--collected works of the major Father's attitude was that the more figures of literature. More and more books he could buy for the money he bookcases had to be purchased, and soon had to spend the better. It was what was they lined every available wall in the inside the books that counted. large middle-western family home. Nor were my parents the kind of pos­ For her the love of books remained a sessive book lovers who insist on reading 1 This article is part of an address given at the only what they have in their own col­ dedication of the Clifford M emorial Library of E vans­ ville College, Evansville, Indiana, on March 19, 1957. lections.· There were constant visits to the library-not a short trip by horse Dr. Clifford is professor of English, and carriage in those days-and the Columbia University, and the author of stacks of borrowed books on the living the recently published Young Sam John­ room table were continually changing. son. But basically it was the mass of books

SEPTEMBER 1957 369 permanently on our own shelves which was pitched higher than their immediate made up the core of our family life. comprehension. It was mental stretching Both Father and Mother read aloud to which was important. If the main themes us children from the time we could un­ went over our heads, and if we played derstand, and there was never any con­ with tin soldiers while the reading was descending to childish tastes. Father going on, they thought that the char­ was a slow reader, who grappled with acters from the novels would make some every word, and Mother one of the most impression, and the sound of the words, rapid I have ever known. When reading those long Victorian cadences, would be­ merely for her own pleasure she would come part of our imaginative thinking. dash through a volume with amazing I like to think that my parents' theory speed. When reading out loud she would was correct- that my brother and I did push ahead for hours, never apparently get something real and lasting from tired or bored. Between the two, my those long hours of exposure to the clas­ brother and I were exposed to a never­ sics. That it fostered a love of reading is ending succession of classics-novels, bi­ undeniable. As I grew older, I developed ography, history-all of Scott, Dickens, the habit of browsing among those books Thackeray, together with lesser writers that had been read to me years before. whom not many people today would I can't say that I actually read them all even remember. On our shelves, I recol­ again, but I kept going back to favorite lect, there was a twenty-six volume set of passages and to beloved characters such the complete works of Bulwer-Lytton, as Dick Swiveller and the Marchioness which Father methodically read to us in Dickens; Old Curiosity Shop, Mark from beginning to end. To this day I Tapley in Martin Chuzz lewit, and Cap­ have a sentimental and nostalgic feeling tain Cuttle in Dombey and Son. I doubt about that minor Victorian novelist, not if I ever went all through that four-foot for the well-known Last Days of Pom­ set of Bulwer-Lyttori, but even there I peii, which everybody read, but for other devoured some of the novels over and long-forgotten novels like Wha·t Will over. Then there were favorite scenes He Do With It? and Paul Clifford. from the past to be found in the many On Sunday afternoons there were volumes on American history-exciting more serious works. Mother took us adventures of explorers, or accounts of through the long histories by Parkman scientific discovery. The books were fac­ and Prescott, and the whole of Motley's ing me every day as I passed through Rise of the Dutch Republic. Father in­ the rooms and halls. It was easy to stop· troduced us to some of the eighteenth­ and pull out a volume, drop into an century classics: selected passages from easy chair, and thumb through the the letters of Lord Chesterfield, to teach pages. Along with the old favorites there us good manners (and I have heartily were others which I had never heard of. disliked Chesterfield ever since), and The walls of books were an ever-present Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. The lure to further delights. So it was that I only time, I remember, that we success­ ranged about merely as the whim of the fully rebelled w.:ts over Bishop .T oseph moment directed. Butler's Analogy of Religion, Natural It was in this way, you may remember,. and Revealed, to the Constitution and that Samuel Johnson in the eighteenth Course of Nature, which even Father century acquired most of the wide at last found too heavy going. knowledge which fitted him to produce It was my parents' theory that chil­ the first great dictionary of the English d~en would benefit from hearing serious language. Since his father was a country books read aloud, even though the level bookseller, the boy had access to thou-

370 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES

...... \ sands of volumes as they passed through bination library and rumpus room or the shop. These he was able to sample, combination television and book room to dip into as he wished, to savor with with a few shelves for magazines and the happy excitement. He always felt that most recent selections of the Book-of­ he had acquired more of value from the-Month Club. But modern methods such casual dipping than by any later of construction, which now can employ imposed assignments. A boy's own dis­ wider windows and less wall space, leave coveries, he said, make more impression little room for book shelves. I wonder than any forced · discipline. And I am how many people have thought about sure that he was right. the effect of the increase of light in mod­ But you will be eager to reply that ern houses-with broad picture-windows the kind of large family library which or rows of dormers-on the reading hab­ I have been describing scarcely exists to­ its of our children. With constantly day. I will at once agree, and I am afraid shrinking wall space there are fewer that there are incontrovertible reasons places for books. why it will never come back. No matter Modern taste in interior decoration how much we may deplore its passing, is also partly responsible. Today we dis­ there are practical reasons that stand in like clutter. Our aesthetic approach is the way of many parents' achieving the becoming more severe, and we prefer sort of bookish surroundings which my plain walls and the opposition of masses father and mother provided for their of color. Dog-eared volumes or the varie­ boys. Yet this is no reflection on the in­ gated patterns produced by differing telligence or tastes of the present gener­ jacket designs tend to spoil the modern ation. It is simply that conditions have decorator's schemes. A friend re~ently radically changed. That fine books are told me of the remark of a well-known more expensive is only one considera­ interior decorator who had been called tion. Most people today simply do not in to advise about re-doing a living have the physical space to house thou­ room. When the professional heard that sands of volumes. People now want space must be provided for shelves of smaller houses which are easier to take books, he was horrified, and protested care of. Few have the necessary help to violently. "One of the few good things keep long shelves of books dusted. about Hitler," he growled, "was that he Changes of building methods and a burned so many books." new taste in interior decoration have I have friends-literate, bookish combined to banish great family collec­ friends-who shudder every time they tions of books. Compare the kind of Vic­ are lured into buying a new book, or torian house that I was brought up in have one given to them-wondering with a typical compact ranch house to­ where they can put it on their meager day. In the old homes there was. always shelves. Something will have to be a large room set off as a library, and thrown away to make the space for each when its shelves were filled there were new acquisition. In a small apartment many dark halls and other rooms wait­ or ranch-style house, with no attic, no ing to be filled. People liked cluttered wall space for bookcases, they simply rooms, and apparently the more book­ cannot have the fun of book collecting cases and bric-a-brac the better. Besides, that their parents had. there was always a spacious attic to han­ Now I should be sorry to sound like dle the overflow. the proverbial discontented old timer, Whoever heard of a medium-priced complaining that nothing is the way it modern house with a special room for a was when I was young, that everything library? To be sure, there may be a com- is going to the dogs, merely because peo-

SEPTEMBER 1957 371 pie cannot now have large private li­ stretching, it must be done by very slow braries. I am well aware that not all degrees. families today have foregone culture, Yet when everything is brought down that there are other media for intellec­ to the teen-age level, when all abstruse tual stimulation. I know you will say and unusual words are eliminated from that we now see classics on television or our reading, there is little development at . the movies. We can pick them up in of the mind. I like to think that when I paper-backs at the drug store, read them listened as a boy to four feet of the works quickly, and throw them away. Indeed, of Bulwer-Lytton, with all his turgid you may claim that more people are ac­ style and pompous language, with all tually being exposed to the great imag­ his formal approach and verbose de­ inative ·works of the past than in the scriptions, it was of more value to me days when a few privileged children than any number of modern abridg­ could read them at home. And again I ments or television presentations care­ will agree. There is no doubt that tele­ fully adjusted to what would be consid­ vision and the movies have greatly wid­ ered my proper men tal level. ened our base of culture. In total num­ Yet I can imagine many of you mut­ bers the change has been remarkable, tering: "What is all this leading to? though I might add in an aside that the 't\Thy all this tearing of hair over some­ percentage figures showing how many thing which cannot be changed? Who people watch the classics on television today could ever find time to read are sometimes disillusioning. For ex­ through all those old, stuffy and tedi­ ample, four times as many people pre­ ous classics? The pace of modern life ferred to watch "I Love Lucy" than to makes this impossible. And ·you have switch to a spectacular production of yourself already admitted that physical Romeo and Juliet. Yet even if only 10 limitations of modern houses preclude per cent of the viewers in the country the amassing of large family libraries. can be lured into watching a classic, Life has changed, and we must do the that means millions more than would best we can in the new frame of refer­ ever read the book. ence. What else can we do?" All this is good. Quantitatively, the ef­ The answer to the protest about time fect has been outstanding. Yet I have is easy. There is always time to do what some qualms as to the qualitative effect one wants most. People find time for of all this democratization. In order to double features and for three-hour spec­ make certain of the appeal to a wide taculars. Something would have to be audience, it has been necessary to sim­ sacrificed, of course, but there is always plify everything. There is constant cen­ time for serious reading if there is a sorship so as to keep from offending this genuine desire. group or that. In the major mass media The answer to the other complaint there is a continual effort to· shield us brings me squarely to the door of the from controversial issues. Moreover, librarian. Now that so few of us have there is always some cuttin1!. Classics the opportunity to live with thousands must be made easy for all kinds of view­ of family books, the general library, ers. Those in charge seem to think that public and college, must take the place if the ideas of the past are to be brought of that beneficent and broadening at­ to millions of people who would never mosphere. For most young people today reach for a book, everything must be it will represent the one surviving men­ carefully adjusted to a teen-age level. No tal challenge, the one last ditch stand of one must be bored by things he cannot undigested knowledge. It is the one place understand. If there is to be any mental where young men and women today may 372 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES be exposed to the really hard books, to ran eagerly to one side of the room, in­ those that defy abridgment, to those tent on poring over the backs of the books. Sir Joshua observed (aside), "He that demand intense study and continual runs to the books, as I do to the pic­ rereading-the kind of abstruse volumes tures ...." that cannot be found in drugstores or distributed by book clubs. And when their host commented on The college library, in particular, the oddity, which he himself had, of need not be designed to pander to easy delighting in merely looking at books on modern tastes, but to widen the fron­ the shelves, Johnson wheeled about and tiers of knowledge. It is a place where answered: censorship and leveling can be resisted, Sir, the reason is very plain. Knowledge where ideas can be valued not for their is of two kinds. We know a subject our­ marketability but for their basic truth. selves, or we know where we can find in­ It is the one place where best-sellers do formation upon it. When we inquire not necessarily have the front shelves. into any subject, the first thing we have And, incidentally, it is one place where to do is to know what books have treated one can get away from the telephone. of it. This leads us to look at catalogues, But if the college library is to be­ and at the backs of books in libraries. come the center of a student's educa­ Fanny Burney, too, tells how whenever tion, if it is to take the place of the van­ ishing home collections, it must offer Johnson came into a room he instantly much more than utilitarian services in pored over the lettering on each volume within his reach. Shelf by shelf he would preparing assignments. Of course, there curiously see what was there, and be­ should be expert help with course work. cause of his nearsightedness he would Assigned reading and research are basic move along with his eyelashes almost in a college, I should almost say abso­ lutely central to the whole process of brushing the volumes. I have sometimes wondered if there learning. But they are not everything. was not some kind of intellectual osmo­ Another function of the library must sis which occurs when one indulges in be to provide intellectual breathing this kind of shelf reading. Merely look­ space. It is often more important for a ing at the titles is broadening, for in student to broaden his whole outlook some mysterious manner something of on life than to grind out routine work, the contents of the books appears to and casual browsing may be as valuable pass on to the viewer. Whether it be as carefully planned reading. by association of ideas-from the title Dr. Johnson, whom I mentioned or the name of the author-or whether earlier, used to say that he found great it be by some other process of assimi­ pleasure merely in looking at the backs lati'on-ald memories are revived and of books on the shelves. On one memo­ new associations suggested. rable occasion, which Boswell described Of course, the best kind of shelf reader in his famous biography, Johnson went is the "dipper." He is the one who lets his out to Twickenham, together with Bos­ eye run down the stacks of books, and well and Sir Joshua Reynolds, to dine when a title strikes some chord of curi­ with a minor writer of the day, Richard osity, pulls the volume off the shelf and Owen Cambridge. In his own inimitable carelessly thumbs through the pages. way Boswell tells wQ.at occurred when Not all books have to be completely di­ they arrived: gested. Some, says Bacon, need only be No sooner had we made our bow to Mr. tasted. "Sir, do you read books through?" Cambridge, in his library, than Johnson Johnson once exploded. And he was not

SEPTEMBER 1957 373 only expressing impatience at the plod­ viously means open shelves everywhere, ding scholar for whom reading was pri­ with plenty of light and easy chairs. This marily a duty, but urging the delight of may mean new experiments in arrang­ skimming through large tracts of knowl­ ing and cataloging the bQoks. It may edge with no intent to become an ex­ even be possible to discover new ways pert. Education, as he well knew, is of tempting curious students into skim­ much more than the acquiring of infor­ ming through areas of knowledge far mation. It is a way of life, a point of removed from their own special fields. view. It is basically the nurturing of an But here I rashly step outside the intellectual curiosity which transcends range of my own competence, for the the practical needs of the moment. practical means of achieving these uto­ The moral of all this should by now pian goals must be worked out by li­ be clear. College libraries of the future, brarians themselves. One thing is c~r­ if they are to take the place of the rap­ tain: the challenge is there. Somehow idly diminishing home collections, must young people must be brought to think concentrate on making shelf reading and of the library no~ merely as a service browsing convenient and easy. This ob- station, but as their intellectual home.

Eastern Librarians' Conference

The forty-third Annual Eastern College Librarians' Conference will be held this year at Columbia University in New York City on Saturday, November 30, 1957. The conference will be devoted to two current prob­ lems in academic libraries: The Evaluation of Academic Libraries and College Libraries and Expanding Enrollments. At the morning session Maurice Tauber, Melvil Dewey Professor of Library Service at Columbia University, will present a case study report of the recently concluded self-survey of the Columbia University Libraries. Morris Gelfand, librar­ ian of Queens College, will discuss the practical techniques used in eval­ uating libraries by accrediting teams. Millicent Mcintosh, president of Barnard College, will begin the after­ noon session with a discussion of "The Future of the American College." She will be followed by Wyman Parker, librarian of Wesleyan Univer­ sity, Middletown, Connecticut, who will speak on "College Library Stand­ ards and the Future." Wayne Yenawine, dean of the Syracuse University School of Library Science, will talk on "Trends in Education for Aca­ demic Librarianship." The conference will be held in the Harkness Theater on the Columbia University campus. No advance registration is necessary.• Correspondence concerning the conference should be addressed to Russell Shank, Pro­ gram Chairman, Eastern College Librarians Conference, Columbia Uni­ versity Libraries, New York 27, N.Y.

374 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES

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