Three Centuries of a City Library / an Historical and Descriptive Account of the Norwich Public Library Established in 1608 and the present Public Library opened in 1857

by Geo. A. Stephen

Pending this decision the distribution of the books was suspended, but the Committee have now decided to continue the circulation for another twelve months.”

The wear and tear of the juvenile books proceeded apace, and the report for 1894-95 stated that when they were last called in “1,700 had to be rebound or repaired, and in the four circulations about 800 volumes have been found defective or worn out and withdrawn. The Committee therefore decided to issue the reduced number of books, to such schools as made application for them, under more systematic regulations.” The juvenile books went from bad to worse, and in the report for the year ending March 1900 it was stated that the Committee had decided to hand over the stock to the Norwich School Board, which had recently decided to establish and work a Juvenile Library of its own. Thus ended an experiment which was financed unsatisfactorily, badly controlled, and of very doubtful utility as a means of developing the work of the Library.

The large increase in the stock of the lending library necessitated a new catalogue, and one (304 pp.) was printed and published in 1889, which was followed by supplements (88 pp. and 106 pp.) in 1889 and 1895. These catalogues were compiled on the dictionary plan, the authors’ names and the titles and subjects of the books being arranged in one alphabetical sequence.

The question of Sunday opening was discussed by the Committee in July, 1884, but the Council declined to sanction the Committee’s recommendation to open the Reading Room. Five and a half years later the Council revoked its decision, and the men’s and women’s reading rooms on the first floor were opened on Sundays between the hours of 3 and 9 p.m. In the annual report following the Sunday opening the experiment was described as “quietly successful,” and in the reports for the next few years the visits were estimated at 15,000 annually—a daily average of 289. The Reading Room continued to be open all the year round until 1913, when owing to the small attendances during the summer months it was closed from June to September inclusive; in that year the average attendance on the Sundays was 117. Having regard to the small attendances and the inadequate library staff, the

Committee in 1915 decided that the Reading Room should be closed on Sundays during the war.

The Report for the year ending March 1894 briefly reviewed the work of the Library after forty years. By that time the stock had reached 30,124 volumes in all departments, and the annual issue from the lending library, excluding 49,000 books issued by the teachers in 36 elementary schools, was 86,355. The Reference Library, including the Local Collection, contained 10,520 volumes and 5,367 pamphlets.

The large room on the ground floor vacated by the Museum was extended and renovated during the year 1895-6, and was partially furnished with book-cases and shelving in order to provide accommodation for the Reference Library, which then comprised 8,450 volumes and 2,081 pamphlets, with 2,987 local books and 4,327 local pamphlets.

In 1896 a loan of £1,300 was sanctioned by the Local Government Board for defraying the cost of the extension of the Reference Library and fittings, the purchase of a Cotgreave Indicator, installed in 1897, the restoration of the exterior stonework of the building, and interior decoration and repairs. The total expenditure amounted to £1,740, the difference between the cost and the amount of the loan being paid from the balance in hand.

During the year 1898-1899 a catalogue of the Reference Library was prepared for printing in sections, and in the following year five were printed. The entries in these sectional catalogues were single-line author and subject entries, the latter being merely inverted title-entries.

Mr. J. Geo. Tennant, the Sub-Librarian, who had been appointed to that position in 1888, having previously been engaged part-time at the Library, was promoted to the office of Librarian in 1901, following the death of Mr. Easter. A few months later the Committee advertised the vacant office of Sub-Librarian, candidates to have had training and experience in a public library, and Mr. Llewellyn R. Haggerston, an assistant in the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Public Libraries, was appointed.