The Tottenham Experiment

 This is a piece based on research for my father's biography. Sarah has been kind enough to advise on it for me.

The Tottenham Experiment
"We are very pleased to welcome, our new Director of Libraries and Museum, Mr
A.W.  McClellan. As. many of you know, Mr McClellan began his library career here
in Tottenham, and we are delighted to welcome him back to his home territory as the
whole nation makes a fresh start after the turmoil of world war." Thus on 3rd January
1946, the Chairman of the Library and Public Buildings Committee introduced the
new director. This was met with nods and good wishes, before Mac thanked the
chairman and the committee, hoped his pleasure at his appointment was self evident
and emphasised the chairman's point that the borough was entering a new era. At next
month's meeting he would present the committee with an outline programme of
development for the borough's libraries. The seven page document was duly
circulated with the papers for the February meeting, but discussion was deferred until
April, when it was officially approved.
As he stated in his conclusion, the report had been put together in some haste,
but the principles it represented were the result of a great deal of thought and
experience over his twenty years working in public libraries. He clearly distinguished
between purpose, function, objectives and uses. In his view purpose applies to all
libraries: it is to facilitate the communication process.
He goes on to define the function of a library as:
To acquire and store books and printed material and to organise the material
in such ways as to enable any of the material to be readily available to users. The
underlying principle of Mac's thinking was that the reader and not the book should be
the priority of the public library. This was a contentious principle in the first half of
the twentieth century. Libraries had not been set up in response to public demand, but
by Victorian and Edwardian philanthropists who wished to bring education and
improvement to the lower classes. As late as 1934 the Library Association Record
published an article stating that:
'public libraries should have the best books and then find readers for them.'
 Their benefactors had seen public libraries as a service to the public, not a
commercial enterprise, and therefore impervious to changing demands. As the
quotation above illustrates, the quality of the reading matter in the eyes of the
professional librarians was the key criterion. This inevitably led to the values of
people from educated backgrounds influencing book selection, generally in favour of
the humanities. Scientific and technical subjects were not considered as culturally
significant and were therefore less well represented
Some librarians had acknowledged the need to go some way to meeting wider
requirements. but no coherent methodology had been put into practice My father
(McClellan) argued that with the more egalitarian age developing after the 1945
election, and the implementation of the 1944 Education Act, there would be an
increasing need and demand for a wider range of books. If public libraries were to
contribute to the post war recovery and justify their allocation of public money from
the rates they were going to have to offer rather more than a stuffy selection of
literature of interest only to a minority. In order to serve the population of the borough
the whole system would have to change. The basic elements of these changes were
contained in the plan approved at the committee meeting in April 1946.
If the readers were going to be served well, there was a need to understand
their requirements. McClellan's plan involved engaging Mass Observation to conduct
a survey of the whole population of the borough. In addition the book stock had to be
far more accessible. The proposals suggested that the library should be far more open
plan: that books should be shelved and labelled in ways that the public could
immediately relate to, and that librarians should be retrained to become advisers in
specific subject areas. This wouId involve the reorganisation and refurbishment of the
Central Library and the five branch libraries within the borough. Accessibility applied
beyond the library as well as within it. Thus a system of providing disabled or elderly
people who could not easily leave their homes with a regular delivery to the door was
agreed and introduced before the end of 1946. Reaching children and working with
schools involved the provision of mobile libraries, which could also be used two
evenings a week in areas of the borough where access to the central or branch
libraries was difficult.
The mobile library service agreed in the development plan in April 1946 was
at the planning stage three years later. The articulated vehicles were very large and the
issue arose as to where they could be safely garaged and maintained. The Libraries
and Public Buildings Committee learned that a fire station in the borough was no
longer in use and could be made available. By July 1949 the vehicles were
approaching readiness. The Director had worked with the Borough Education Officer
to involve local schools in the programme, but there were areas of the borough where
the service would be available to adults. Councillors and Officers were asked to
identify suitable sites.
At the December meeting the director reported that the service would be ready
to start in early January 1950. Members of the Committee felt that the mayor should
be asked to officiate at the formal opening of the service. However, it soon became
clear that the vans would not be ready in January. At the March meeting the director
reported that the vehicles were now expected by the end of the month.
The director sought the committee's help in the detailed organisation of the
launch The size of the vehicles was again a consideration and so a suitable site would
be required In addition the Mayor would need a rostrum from which to conduct the
ceremony, and light refreshments would need to be provided.
The Lido and Baths Committee were approached and permission to use the
lido parking area was granted between the hours of 6 00pm and 8 00pm on 26"'
April. The Entertainments and Catering Committee were approached to ascertain
whether a suitable rostrum could be borrowed for the evening. It was reported that
they were happy to give permission, but it would be the responsibility of the Public
Libraries and Buildings Committee to provide the means of transporting the
rostrum"'.
After some discussion the Finance Committee agreed to the expenditure of
£10 for light refreshments. The discussion centred on how the sum should be entered
in accounts. It was finally agreed that it should be charged to 'other civic expenses.'
Everything now seemed in place and the scheme was launched with great
fanfare, the rostrum safely returned and the service formally began on I" May 1950.
The Vans served schools during the day and three areas of the borough twice a week
between 600pm and 8.00pm.
A last minute hitch occurred when the schools discovered the books were
stamped with labels for Tottenham Public Libraries. They insisted that the books
should be labelled as the property of Middlesex County Council. In his next
Director's Report, my father was able to reassure members of the committee that a
workable compromise had been reached, and that the service was running we11. The
school children loved the service and flocked to the vans whenever they appeared.
Thus the aims of easier access and cultivating a love of reading from an early age
were given a big boost in the borough.