Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/367

 Free Lectures in Connection with Free Public Libraries. 355 work, or out of the library funds but a want had been felt of popular lectures to supplement the instruction given in the school ; and the Library Committee, [considering that such a plan came legitimately within the scope of their commission, arranged for four courses of lectures one on geology, one on chemistry, one on geometry, and one on natural philosophy ; the admission to the lectures being gratuitous, and the audiences consisting chiefly of the readers in the library. Out of this small beginning has arisen that most important and successful develop- ment of free library work which is the subject of the present report. The Liverpool lectures were originally given in the Brown Lecture Hall, which held 400 people. When the Picton Read- ing Room was being built the lectures having in the mean time become immensely popular the happy thought occurred to the committee to construct underneath it a large lecture hall in the form of an amphitheatre, the galleries being formed in the solid rock of which the foundations of the great reading room consist. This was opened in January, 1882, and accommodation was thus provided for 1,100 persons, all comfortably seated, while, on occasion, nearly 2,000 persons could be packed within the area ; and the result of the increased accommodation was that during the winter season of 1882 the attendances, during forty lectures, averaged 1,032, whereas only the year before, in the old premises, the average attendance had been 370. This excellent movement has been carried on with the same spirit and energy in that city ever since, and few, even of the best of the subscription courses of lectures in connection with the leading institutes, have offered so excellent a programme as that which is arranged every winter at Liverpool, and open to all classes alike, without fee or subscription. In 1874 a movement was set on foot in connection with the Wolverhampton Free Library for the establishment of a series of Saturday evening popular lectures and entertainments, not altogether free, a small charge being made to cover expenses. They were at first held in the class-room, holding from seventy to eighty persons, this being the largest room available for the purpose but the experiment proved so successful that in a few years a large hall was erected, capable of holding 550 persons. The aim of the Wolverhampton Committee was frankly admitted to be the provision of an intellectual entertainment, and, as such, they felt that a small charge might fairly be made to cover