National planning for public library service: the work and ideas of Lionel McColvin

Library Trends, Spring, 2004 by Alistair Black

McCOLVIN'S LIFE AND CAREER

The son of a portrait and figure painter, Lionel Roy McColvin was born on November 30, 1896, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne into a middle-class family of modest means. In 1901 the family moved south to London, eventually settling in the southern suburb of Croydon, where the young McColvin won a scholarship to secondary school.

During his fifty-year career in librarianship, McColvin rendered distinguished service, man and boy, to a number of public library authorities. Having served a ten-year "apprenticeship" at Croydon Public Library, which he joined at the age of fifteen, McColvin went north to Wigan in 1921, armed with his recently achieved Library Association professional certificate, to take up the post of deputy librarian, with chief responsibility for reference services. In 1924 he finally obtained the position of chief librarian, at Ipswich. Here he virtually "re-created the library service," establishing a new central library and developing extension activities in music and drama (Vollans, 1968b, p. 16). In 1931 he returned to London as Hampstead's chief. Finally, in 1938 McColvin was appointed to the top job at Westminster, where he was to remain until his retirement, brought on by ill health, in 1961.

McColvin was consistently active in promoting libraries and librarianship in print. His interests were varied--ranging from music librarianship and work with children, to book selection and library extension work (McColvin, 1924, 1925, 1927, 1952, 1957; McColvin and Reeves, 1937-38). (3) On more than one occasion he took the opportunity to promote the library cause on radio and television, beginning with a broadcast on the BBC on January 7, 1936, on the subject of "The Public Library Service" (Vollans, 1968b, p. 20).

McColvin served the Library Association, in various capacities, throughout almost the entire span of his career as a chief librarian. He worked tirelessly to improve the status of librarianship and the standards of service received by the public, efforts that were rewarded by a CBE in 1951. (4) Elected to the Library Association Council in 1925 (on which he remained until 1961), between 1934 and 1951 McColvin served as honorary secretary. He was the association's president in 1952 and was made an honorary fellow in 1961. Between 1941 and 1945 he edited the Library Association Record. McColvin also became a well-known figure in the international library field. His international work began in 1936, with a three-month investigative tour of libraries in the United States, the results of which were contained in the Library Association's A Survey of Libraries, published two years later (McColvin, 1938). It was only after 1945, however, that he grew into a truly international library figure. In 1946-47 he undertook an extensive tour of Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the Middle East, and the United States, and throughout the 1950s he made numerous visits to a variety of European countries. These visits, and the evidence of library purpose and practice he came across, were recounted in his authoritative book The Chance to Read (McColvin, 1956). In addition, McColvin served on committees in the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), the International Federation for Information (FID), and UNESCO.