Making it Happen

"If you can't find a challenging job, then create one for yourself," an older friend told Pat Bates in the early 19705, and she did.

Since that advice, Pat has administered nearly a half million dollars in grant money, money she applied for and received; she has brought humanities projects to more than 90 public libraries and helped many more libraries design their own programs. In that same time, she earned her Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) degree from Dartmouth College while keeping up with her artist-husband and their three teenage-to-young-adult children. Today, she serves the American Library Association (ALA) as Chief Consultant for its $900,000 Reading and Discussion Program based on Pat's own model. And this spring, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced a $130,000 award to Pat for her newest project, a 2-year history-through-literature program to be placed in 30 libraries in Vermont and the Southern Adirondack region of New York.

Pat Bates has always operated on the idea which her older friend expressed: if you can't find it, make it. When she and her husband first came to Rutland, Vermont, in 1971, Pat wanted to join a Great Books Discussion group. Learning there was none in the area, she sought out other women who liked to read, and started a book discussion group-it still meets regularly today. She wanted her children to have a well-rounded education, so she joined the Crossroads Arts Council, a small, mostly volunteer organization which brings cultural activities into the public schools. Although originally she signed up to work for the Council to help provide her children with some of the extras public education couldn't afford, she found educational opportunities there for herself.

When she speaks to groups today, she stresses the value of learning through volunteering. She learned the skills which are the backbone of her job while she worked for the Crossroads Arts Council, she says. Grant writing, contract writing, publicity, consulting, dealing with artists and scholars, addressing community groups, and handling volunteers were some of the specific tasks she learned, none of which she'd- ever had any experience with before. But the most important skill she learned there, she says, is working with people diplomatically.

In 1975, Pat took a part time job as the Rutland Library Program Director. Immediately, she put her grant writing knowledge to work, asking the Vermont Council for the Humanities and Public Issues to fund a series of forums which would explore the First Amendment freedoms of the press, of speech and of assembly.

Because the program was highly successful, she developed another for the next year on capital punishment. This project included an additional dimension: a lunch-time book review which was delivered the following day about a book related to the previous evening's discussion. Although this program was extremely well-received with its added book review, Pat says that many participants wished they had read the books before they had heard the book reviews.

Pat wrote up a small project application responding to this wish and submitted it to Victor Swenson, Director of the Humanities Council in Vermont. The proposal requested funds for a reading and discussion program organized around a theme, hiring scholars who would lecture on each book, and allowing time for discussion of the books and the issues which they raised.

The Vermont Council approved this project in 1978 for the Rutland Library. Pat selected 12 books around the theme "Women in Literature"; she purchased copies of the books and loaned them out through the library, and she contracted scholars to present 45-minute lectures leading into small group discussions. She hoped to reach an audience of 50 people. That would prove to her that this kind of programming was needed. One hundred and ten people signed up and the program was off and running.

In 1979, Pat organized her second literature program in Rutland and extended it to the Brandon Public Library. Two hundred and twenty people signed up in Rutland and 60 in Brandon. Success. Clearly Pat had demonstrated a need and a way to fulfill that need.

Always seeking knowledge for herself, and now constantly rubbing elbows with the humanities scholars whom she hired for her programs, Pat yearned to get back into the classroom. Elizabeth Baer, a close personal friend and an associate professor in the English Department at Dartmouth, suggested that Pat look into Dartmouth's MALS Program. Elizabeth thought it was just made for Pat, she recalls. She could tailor it to her own interests combining, disciplines in a way which was not possible in other types of masters programs.

In 1980, Pat enrolled in the MALS Program and at the same time wrote a grant application to NEH to fund her reading and discussion programs in 40 Vermont libraries and to set up a system which would help other libraries create their own programs. The project was approved.

As Pat administered the $156,000 in grant money, hired over 240 scholars to lecture to more than 800 Vermont public library goers, she went to classes and lectures at Dartmouth, learning about Women in Western Religion from Nancy Frankenberry; Religion, Philosophy and Literature from Nancy Crumbine; and History Through Literature from Mary Kelley. In the same way that Pat's programs opened readers' eyes to authors, ideas, and books they would not otherwise have been exposed to, Pat's thinking was being revolutionized. "Dartmouth opened a new world to me. The MALS Program was one of the most fulfilling things in my life," she says. "I know that I know so much more, and I feel so much better because I do."

Her Vermont project took hold and spread throughout the state. Libraries began their own reading and discussion series. The State Library and Humanities Council pitched in and helped libraries by bulk-buying of books, loaning them out in large quantities, and publishing a catalog of speakers. Vermont was rolling, so Pat turned her attention to other New England states.

In 1982, she applied for and received another grant from NEH to establish her programs in 50 more libraries, 25 in New Hampshire and 25 in Massachusetts, over the next two years.

William Bennett, Chairman of NEH, began to take note of Pat and the Vermont programs. He set them up as models at the National Press Club, on radio broadcasts, and at conferences and meetings. He recommended that other states and organizations pattern their programs after Vermont.

In 1983, the American Library Association (ALA) got on the bandwagon and applied to NEH to initiate programs in 30 states based on Pat's formula. The $900,000 requested was granted as seed money to get states started; then the states could continue the programs through their own humanities boards and councils just as Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts had already started doing. From the beginning of ALA's project, Pat has been the Chief Consultant for Reading and Discussion Programs. As such, she has travelled often to ALA Headquarters in Chicago to help organize and set up ways to maintain this huge project. In the coming year, she will travel extensively throughout the country looking for and training people to head up each state's program.

During 1983-84, as she wrapped up her Massachusetts and New Hampshire project, Pat finished the course work and her master's thesis for her MALS degree which she received this June. Not one to sit still, she has developed a new project for 1984—86; she has written a grant application to NEH and has received notification of funding. Her project was inspired by an independent study she took with Mary Kelley at Dartmouth. Its format will teach history using literature, scholars, and discussion. The major difference between this and her established reading and discussion programs is that instead of having a different scholar for each book in the series, each history series will be led by one scholar all the way through. By concentrating on history, Pat hopes to appeal to more men in these programs, since the reading and discussion programs seem to draw mostly collegeeducated women.

Like most degree candidates at Dartmouth, Pat walked down the Commencement steps this June leaving an era behind her. Unlike most graduates, though, Pat has a fully-developed career ahead of her-one she has chosen and has created herself. With that thought in mind, she is already beginning to plan her Ph.D. program, hoping to get started soon, because "the more learning I get, the more I want," she says most enthusiastically. "I'm just itching to get back into the classroom!"

Pat's vivacious way carries her listener along as she talks about how important education is, learning from experience, learning through discussion and reading, through going back to school, learning in all its forms.

"What I'm thinking is this," she says. "With enough information, people can make informed decisions, not just off-the-top-of-the-head decisions. If enough people learn to get information first, then it pervades all their lives, their family, their community.

"We must study the past to have a future. When I see people doing that through literature, then I know there's hope for the world!"

Bates had hoped to reachan audience of 50 people. That would prove toher that this kind of programming was needed.One hundred and tenpeople signed up.

"Dartmouth has openeda whole new world tome. The MALS Programwas one of the most fulfilling things in my life."

Peggy Sadler, a free-lance writer and photographer, lives in Hanover. Her work hasappeared in New Hampshire Journal andother publications.