Lionel Roy McColvin (1896–1976), commonly referred to as Lionel McColvin, was a British librarian. He has been described as "the dominant figure in British public librarianship" in the mid-20th century and a "world leader" in the profession of

librarianship Library science (often termed library studies, bibliothecography, and library economy) is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and ...

. Through his membership of the

Library Association The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, since 2017 branded CILIP: The library and information association (pronounced ), is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge management, knowle ...

and several international library committees he worked constantly to improve the "status of librarianship" and its "standards of service".Alistair Black
National Planning for Public Library Service: The Work and Ideas of Lionel McColvin
''

Library Trends ''Library Trends'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal founded in 1952 and published quarterly by the Johns Hopkins University Press. It covers international developments and future directions in the fields of library and information scie ...

'', Spring 2004, pp. 902-923. Retrieved 24 September 2020.

Early life and career

Lionel McColvin was born at Heaton,

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

on 30 November 1896. His parents were Andrew McColvin, a portrait painter, and his wife, Isabel (''née'' Stewart).B. C. Bloomfield
"McColvin, Lionel Roy"
''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' (online edition). Retrieved 26 September 2020. After his family moved to London in 1901, he attended the Portland Road Primary School,

South Norwood South Norwood is a district of south-east London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon, Greater London and formerly in the historic county of Surrey. It is located 7.8 miles (12.5 km) south-east of Charing Cross, north of Wood ...

and, after winning a scholarship, the

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

Council Boys' Secondary School. In 1911 he became a junior assistant at the Croydon Public Libraries, in the Central Library, Katharine Street, Croydon, working successively under the Principal Librarians Stanley Jast and W. C. Berwick Sayers. Under Jast and Berwick Sayers, that library exhibited many "new ideas and developments" in such areas as "open access,

cataloguing In library and information science, cataloging ( US) or cataloguing ( UK) is the process of creating metadata representing information resources, such as books, sound recordings, moving images, etc. Cataloging provides information such as auth ...

, subject cataloguing, extension activities, and work with children" and was a good training ground for McColvin. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he enlisted in the 24th Middlesex Regiment and then transferred to the 2nd Border Regiment. He fought in the

Third Battle of Ypres The Third Battle of Ypres (german: link=no, Dritte Flandernschlacht; french: link=no, Troisième Bataille des Flandres; nl, Derde Slag om Ieper), also known as the Battle of Passchendaele (), was a campaign of the First World War, fought by t ...

. After the war he returned to the Croydon Public Libraries and in 1921 was appointed as chief assistant, "with chief responsibility for reference services", at

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

Public Library. Wigan's

reference library A library is a collection of Document, materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or electronic media, digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a ...

was " closed access" when he arrived but was later "opened up with a commercial and information section". He studied at the school of

at University College, University of London, successfully taking the

examinations and defending a thesis with the title ''Music in Public Libraries'' (which would be published by Grafton & Co. in 1924), resulting in his gaining a Library Association Diploma.

Ipswich

Appointed as Chief Librarian in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

in 1924, he was involved in planning the interior of the new central library there and making much of it

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

, restocking the book shelves, creating a children's collection, promoting musicals, drama and other extension activities, and actively publicising the library service. In those efforts he was supported by the generosity of Bill Paul, the head of the local firm of corn merchants, R. & W. Paul Ltd. During his years in Wigan and Ipswich McColvin began his long writing career, with books published including ''The Theory of Book Selection for Public Libraries'' (1927) and ''Library Extension Work and Publicity'' (1925).

Hampstead

In 1931 McColvin was made Borough Librarian at

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

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and the curator of the

Keats House Keats House is a writer's house museum in what was once the home of the Romantic poet John Keats. It is in Keats Grove, Hampstead, toward the edge of inner north London. Maps before about 1915 show the road with one of its earlier names, John S ...

Museum. He was a central figure in the launch of the new Belsize Branch Library that was opened in a

Modern Movement Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

building in 1937. The reference stock at Hampstead was "excellent" but its lending stock "left much to be desired". For that reason he refreshed the lending book stock. He continued his predecessor's series of "extensive lecture programmes" and introduced a programme of

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

concerts. He published a number of "influential" books on topics including public libraries and music librarianship.

Westminster

In 1938 McColvin was appointed as Librarian of the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

in central London, a position he held until his retirement in 1961. When the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

broke out, he spent much time on

civil defense Civil defense ( en, region=gb, civil defence) or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from man-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, miti ...

duties and was appointed Officer-in-Charge of the City Hall Report Centre in Westminster. After the war he opened a branch library, known as the Central Lending Library, at

Charing Cross Road Charing Cross Road is a street in central London running immediately north of St Martin-in-the-Fields to St Giles Circus (the intersection with Oxford Street) and then becomes Tottenham Court Road. It leads from the north in the direction of ...

and was one of a group that in 1948 set up the Gramophone Record Library (sometimes referred to as the Central Music Library and now known as the Westminster Music Library),Westminster Music Library
westminster.gov.uk. Retrieved 24 September 2020. which incorporated the

private library A private library is a library that is privately owned. Private libraries are usually intended for the use of a small number of people, or even a single person. As with public libraries, some people use bookplates – stamps, stickers or ...

of the late music critic Edwin Evans. Both the Central Lending Library and the Gramophone Record Library were extremely popular, with 700,000 books being lent per year. Meanwhile the

Central Reference Library Central Reference Library is an Indian National Bibliographic Agency in Kolkata which run under Ministry of Culture of India. It provides bibliographic services to scholars, universities, institutions and government agencies. This library has star ...

was relocated to St. Martin's Lane, in the

. In 1941 McColvin was appointed by The Library Association to undertake an exhaustive survey of the libraries of Great Britain. He was instructed to inquire into the immediate wartime problems being experienced by libraries and into possible postwar developments. After a tour of all the libraries up and down the country, he submitted his report on 9 September 1942. In it he analysed the "finance, staff and ... organisation" of each library and gave a "detailed blue-print" of a proposed new library service in the years to come with suggested improvements in many fields of librarianship. This report was published as ''The Public Library System of Great Britain: Its Post-war Reorganization and Development''. Often dubbed the ''McColvin Report'', its advocacy of its modern goals, including careful

planning Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. The evolution of forethought, the capacity to think ahead, is consi ...

benchmarking Benchmarking is the practice of comparing business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other companies. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost. Benchmarking is used to measure performan ...

and budgeting, and improved library standards and service, along with a higher professional status for librarians and better library education, was, however, countered by "

parochialism Parochialism is the state of mind, whereby one focuses on small sections of an issue rather than considering its wider context. More generally, it consists of being narrow in scope. In that respect, it is a synonym of "provincialism". It may, pa ...

" and "conservatism" among British librarians which were only defeated after thirty years of debate and with changes in local government in the 1960s and 1970s. From July 1945, as evacuated stock and archives returned to Westminster, McColvin established a children's section in

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster. Notable landmarks ...

and the Westminster History Collection of "archives, books, prints, maps and other materials". In 1946 he opened another children's library in

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...

and in 1947 he launched a Service for Old People. During the 1950s he rehoused the Council's archives and created a separate Children's Library Department, he consolidated book stocks and acquired a number of special collections (for example, the Pavlova Memorial Library), encouraged the "deposit of parish and other records", and built the Churchill Gardens Children's Library which opened in 1960. He published further books, including ''The Personal Library'' (1953), ''The Chance to Read'' (1956) and ''Public Library Services for Children'' (1957).

Library Association

McColvin was active in the United Kingdom's

, being a member of its Council (1925-61) and serving as its Honorary Secretary (1954-51), its President (from 1951) and finally an Honorary Fellow (from 1961). He also edited the Association's

journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

, the ''Library Association Journal'', for several years. He urged the Council of The Library Association to "take continuous and positive action" to secure the professional position of librarians and he was the founder, chairman and first president of the Society of Municipal and

County A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Chief Librarians, which was the first

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

for Chief Librarians.

International librarianship

In 1936 he was commissioned by the Library Association to visit the United States for three months and conduct a survey of public libraries there, the results of which were published in 1938 as ''A Survey of Libraries''. In 1946-47 he made a similar investigative tour of libraries in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

and the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and in the 1950s similar tours in various parts of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. All of those tours resulted in recommendations for improvements in the library practice. He was a champion of the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

and in particular the functions of its overseas libraries of fostering understanding and closer ties between the British people and people in other lands. He was a close friend and ally of Sir

Ronald Forbes Adam General Sir Ronald Forbes Adam, 2nd Baronet, (30 October 1885 – 26 December 1982) was a senior British Army officer. He had an important influence on the conduct of the British Army during the Second World War as a result of his long tenure ...

, the Council's Director General from 1946 to 1954. He was vice-president and chairman of the public libraries section of the

International Federation of Library Associations The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is the leading international body representing the interests of people who rely on libraries and information professionals. An independent, non-governmental, not-for-pro ...

(IFLA), a member of the International Federation for Information (also known by its original French name, the Fédération internationale de documentation, or FID), and a member of the British co-operating committee of

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

Besterman/McColvin Medals

The Library Association's and now the

Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, since 2017 branded CILIP: The library and information association (pronounced ), is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers in the ...

(CILIP)'s ISG (Information Services Group) Besterman/McColvin Awards (often referred to as the Besterman/McColvin Medals) which originally were "for outstanding works of reference" and now are for "outstanding works of electronic resources and e-books", were named for both men.

Legacy

McColvin was an idealistic "visionary" who worked for the development, reconstruction and modernisation of libraries, particularly

public libraries A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also civil servants. There are five fundamenta ...

, during the rise of the

welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...

in 20th century Britain and the social and economic recovery from the Second World War. He emphasised the national importance of libraries and also their contribution in the international sphere to building a "better postwar world".

Personal life

In 1922 McColvin married Mary Carter, whom he met in Wigan. She was the eldest child and only daughter of William and Esther Carter. They had four children together: Roy (born 1923), Malcolm (born 1925), Margaret (born 1927) and Janet (born 1943). After being forced to retire in 1961 following two

strokes A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop funct ...

, McColvin died on 16 January 1976 at

Southgate Southgate or South Gate may refer to: Places Australia *Southgate, Sylvania *Southgate Arts and Leisure Precinct, an area within Southbank, Victoria Canada *Southgate, Ontario, a township in Grey County * Southgate, Middlesex County, Ontario Ed ...

, a suburban area of north

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Honours

* C.B.E. - awarded in

1951 New Year Honours The 1951 New Years Honours were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced on 1 January 1951 for the Brit ...

Bibliography

Books

*
The Theory of Book Selection for Public Libraries
', London: Grafton & Co., 1925. * ''Euterpe, or the Future of Art'', London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1926 (To-day and To-morrow series).
publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 30 September 202. * ''How to Use Books'', London: Cambridge University Press for the National Book League, 1933; 2nd edition: 1947; first paperback edition: 2016. * ''Library Stock and Assistance to Readers: A Textbook'', London: Grafton & Co., 1936. * ''Libraries and the Public'', London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1937. * ''Music Libraries: Their Organisation and Contents, with a Bibliography of Music and Musical Literature'' (2 vols.), London: Grafton & Co., 1937–8; revised and expanded edition (Jack Dove, ed.): London: Andre Deutsch, 1965 (2 vols.). * ''The Public Library System of Great Britain: Its Post-war Reorganization and Development'', London: The Library Association, 1942-43. Often referred to as the "McColvin Report". * ''How to Find Out'', London:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

for the National Book League, 1947. * ''British Libraries'', London: Longmans, Green for The British Council, 1949. Joint author: James Revie. *
Public Library Extension
', Paris: UNESCO, 1949. * ''The Personal Library: A Guide for the Bookbuyer'', London: Phoenix House, Ltd., 1953. * ''The Chance to Read: Public Libraries in the World Today'', London: Phoenix House, 1956. *
Public Library Services for Children
', Paris: UNESCO, 1957.

Articles, papers

"Public Libraries and Other Libraries"
''Libri'', Volume 6: No. 4, 1956, pp. 304-321.

References

External links

*
David Gerard, A Conversation with Lionel McColvin
in ''Library History'', 11:1, 1995. {{DEFAULTSORT:McColvin, Lionel 1896 births 1976 deaths British librarians Members of the Order of the British Empire Writers from Newcastle upon Tyne