County Library Work in a Village

IT was in September, 1927, that the rural extension scheme of the South‐West was launched in Devon, financed by the Carnegie Trustees. The faith and persistence of a few gained recognition for the county, and their optimism has been justified. In six months fifteen new centres have been opened in villages with group meetings of four and eight talks, with a total average attendance of some 550 adults and with some 750 people passing through these groups. From the inception of the scheme, there has been close and reasoned co‐operation with the county library. These notes are based on our experience. They are not intended to be dogmatic generalisations; anyone who realises the social barrier of Dartmoor in the life of Devon, the intimacy of its valleys, the difference between Exmoor and Dartmoor, the different type of valley farmer and the small holder wrestling with the upland for his scant food, will know that any generalisation will be but a half truth, necessarily modified in each village. On the other hand, an intimate study of the varied types of villages, together with a more desultory knowledge of the difficulties over a wider area, may indicate some of the possibilities and the obstacles in the true functioning of a county library.