Libraries in the Post War Period by Charles Sanderson, 1944

Libraries in the Post War Period, Being the Report of the Chief Librarian to the Toronto Public Library Board, January, 1944 by Charles R. Sanderson. Toronto: Toronto Public Library Board, 1944. 18 p.

Charles Sanderson’s Libraries in the Post War Period, published in January 1944, naturally focused on Toronto’s efforts and touched on the integration of national, provincial, and local matters. Sanderson had been recruited in England by George Locke to come to Toronto to be his assistant, and he succeeded Locke after his death in 1937. The new chief librarian had a first-hand knowledge of British library development and American service ideals that were penetrating Canadian librarianship. Beginning with Toronto, Sanderson developed a theme of library cooperation and formalized networking. In his introductory passages, he promoted five viewpoints:

■  the concept of metropolitan regions with linkages between large urban systems and smaller suburban libraries;
■  regional library systems utilizing bookmobiles;
■  a Dominion Library Commission which, as one part of its mandate, would establish a National Library that could provide an active book lending function;
■  Provincial Library Commissions would establish (or designate) Public Lending Libraries in cities, regional systems, and metropolitan areas. “All in their need would draw upon the Provincial Lending Libraries, which in their turn would draw upon the National Library.”
■ a per capita library expenditure of $1.25 would be sufficient on a national basis for such a workable national scheme.

After outlining his views on general library developments, Sanderson turned to the role of individual libraries within this network environment. He noted that libraries, especially in the United States, were undertaking many new ventures. During the war, collections were established in soldier’s camps and hospitals. Turning to his own library, Sanderson outlined some of the activities in Beaches, Gerrard, and Riverdale branches. These neighbourhood libraries were exhibiting the artists’ work, supporting an active drama league on a makeshift branch stage, hosting lectures, offering discussions and even concerts. Sanderson felt the community centre idea in the library provided an excellent opportunity to contribute to the development of cultural life. But he believed these activities were ancillary to the library’s primary purpose: providing and promoting books was the first requirement.

But the primary purpose of any public library, small or large, might be defined as “getting books read”: the creation and expansion of reading habits and the supply of books and collateral material to meet those habits, with the final purpose of making books contribute towards the well-being, material, mental, and cultural, of its community. (p.8)

He provided specific examples of this type of library service.

Citizens’ Forum at London Public Library, 1945

Citizens’ Forums: librarians should aim to make their knowledge useful in the form of suggestions for reading that could make the discussions informative and worthwhile and ensure that reading materials were available.

Lectures: Sanderson thought these much be sequential rather than different from one another. Groups such as the YMCA often provided a program of lectures that focused on a particular aspect that led to self-improvement. Assisting lecture series with requisite books could “build up” to something worthwhile in peoples’ lives.

Book talks: this form of library work was a proven staple in many urban centres. Sanderson could point to the Toronto library’s external relationships with various voluntary associations: the Workers’ Educational Association, the YWCA, adult and young people’s groups in churches, industrial-plant recreation clubs, and Home and School Councils. “Our own ‘book-talks’ are rather aimed towards reaching out to groups where reading is not yet a regular habit, that is, towards creating new readers.” These talks, library acquisitions, and lending, in general, should be less about recreational and novel reading and more about non-fiction. “Nobody pretends that all non-fiction is superior to all fiction,” but in a postwar setting, books helpful to the education and rehabilitation of veterans, focusing on training and skills, was one such subject area that demanded more attention, and consequently, an increased library budget.

In retrospect, Sanderson was comfortable with a metropolitan theme where larger urban libraries and smaller suburban areas could co-exist and enjoy their interdependence and independence. Metropolitan area jurisdictions and regional systems could meet the library needs of many without involving “any change in local autonomy beyond a co-operative agreement for public book provision.” (p. 2) From his perspective, the primary function of libraries was “getting books read” and providing the resources for individual adults and children, informal groups, national and local agencies, and different communities of interest to create and expand reading habits. Supplying aids for discussion groups, radio forums, book clubs, lectures, displays, exhibitions, and fairs would further the local library’s aim in the field of adult education. Toronto Public Library often created booklists built around the CBC’s Citizens’ Forums that started in 1943. Sanderson’s theme was grounded in local public library service ideas that most Ontario librarians could recognize and appreciate. The idea of civic art centres, community centres, libraries, auditoriums, and swimming pools serving as utilitarian war memorials was a current topic in Canadian newspapers.

However, broad plans for action across the nation required not only local or provincial revenue but also federal grants-in-aid. These grants were not forthcoming because the centres and libraries were considered to be locally administered and outside federal authority. Establishing a national library commission or national library also presented difficulties and delays. The metropolitan scheme advocated by Sanderson did not come into being in the Toronto area until 1953 and libraries were originally excluded from “metro” government arrangements. A coordinating metro library agency was not established in Toronto until 1958, two years after Charles Sanderson passed away.