In 1835 the New York State Legislature passed a law establishing libraries for the school districts of the State. These libraries were much extended and improved by later laws, and till 1853 they practically supplied the place of the public libraries. Other States established these school district libraries, open to scholars and all citizens, Massachusetts and Michigan following in 1837, Connecticut in 1839, Iowa and Rhode Island in 1840, and others at various dates down to 1876, when Colorado passed a similar law. The failure of this system in many places led to the first Town Library Law being passed by the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1848, under which the City of Boston was authorized to establish a free public library and levy a tax of $5000, or £1000, for its support. This was the first State law passed in America, and in 1849 New Hampshire passed a general law for the whole State. Massachusetts next extended its library law from the City of Boston to the whole State in 1851, and Maine followed in 1854. The other northern States followed slowly, till now nearly all the States, save a few in the South and West, have laws enabling municipal libraries to be established. Previous to this, most of the States, as they became incorporated in the Union, established libraries for the use of the legislative councils in the capital towns of each State, and these State Libraries, as they are called, constitute a very important class of public library in the United States. The first actual municipal library opened in the United States was that of the town of Peterboro’, in New Hampshire, which in 1833 established and supported out of the local taxes a public library, which still exists. From this it appears that there was nothing either in the Federal or State law of the United States to prevent any town from supporting a library at the public expense if it saw fit. The principle of interference in local affairs by central authorities is, however, a thoroughly Anglo-Saxon convention or principle, and though the Federal Legislature in America does not impose local laws on the State authorities, these State legislatures impose the same restrictions upon local municipal authorities which are common throughout the British Empire.

The main provisions of the State Library Laws of America are:

It is important to note that in the United States the basis of taxation is entirely different from what it is in this country. Here rental, minus a certain deduction, is adopted as the unit from which to make up the rateable value of a town. In the United States the value of all property is taken, instead of mere rental, as the unit from which the rateable value is built up. If a house in England is worth £420, and rents at £36, it would be assessed at about £30, and the library rate would be levied upon the £30, producing 2s. 6d. In the United States the same house, plus contents, would pay rates on the £420, being the value of the property, but on a smaller poundage. One mill on the dollar is the thousandth part of 4s. 2d., or about one-twentieth of 1d. If, therefore, the library rate in an American town is 1 mill, or the twentieth of 1d., on the dollar, property valued at £420, or $2100, would pay a total library rate of about 8s. 6d. Other classes of property, such as live stock, crops, etc., are also taxed, so that in America the produce of even a comparatively small library rate is much greater than in a town the same size in England, and this fact should always be kept in mind when comparisons are being made between the library systems of the two countries.

There is one other point which should be mentioned as illustrative of the difference of the methods of the United Kingdom and the United States in regard to the adoption of the library laws by municipalities. In those States of America where a poll of the citizens is required before the libraries can be established, no special vote is taken, but instead, at the annual election of councillors, the voting papers bear the question: Are you in favour of a library being established at a tax of —— mills on the dollar? Thus at one election the municipal council is returned to office, and their library policy dictated to them by the ratepayers. The liberal library laws of the United States have produced a great number of very large and magnificently equipped public libraries, which are administered by well-educated officers, who are paid adequate salaries for the work they accomplish. No other country in the world can show such a scheme of libraries closely in touch with all the other educational bodies and recognized by the State as part of the national system of education.

In one respect the library authorities in the United States have shown more wisdom than those of other countries, by establishing Boards of Library Commissioners charged with the responsibility of supervising the library work of the whole of a State. These Library Commissions are established in some of the States, but not in all, and are generally composed of five or six educational experts. They have power to advise in the establishment of local libraries in every respect as regards selection of books, cataloguing, etc., and may expend public money in the purchase of books for libraries in towns which do not possess municipal libraries. They are also authorized to pay for all clerical work required in connexion with the Board, to issue reports and collect statistics, and in some cases to organize travelling libraries. All these State Library Commissions issue handbooks, and those of New Jersey and Wisconsin will give some idea of the important work in co-ordinating the library forces of America now being accomplished by these Commissions.

9.

9. No country in Europe has a library law like that in force in Britain and the United States, but a certain amount of recognition is accorded to public libraries by the State in most countries. Municipal libraries exist in France under State direction, but very few towns in other countries have done much to foster public libraries in their midst; but in recent years movements for the establishment of municipal libraries on British or American lines have been initiated in several European countries, and such libraries are now to be found in Norway, Holland and Germany. In some cases endowed or university or royal libraries are recognized or partly supported by the State or the municipal authorities, but so far no European nation has passed a general library law which gives communities direct control of the establishment, organization and support of public libraries by means of a tax or rate.

10.

10. It is fitting to close this chapter with a brief reference to future library legislation in Great Britain. The most urgent and insistent need, without which further development is impossible, is to remove or raise the limitation of one penny in the pound on the library rate, which was fixed by the Act of 1855. Over forty places, including nearly all the large towns, have acquired extended rating powers by means of special local Acts, but such a course is practically prohibitive in the small towns, where relief is generally needed most. In view of the growth of the demand for branch libraries, technical and commercial departments, children’s reading-rooms, and for educational work in many directions—extensions certainly never contemplated by the original Acts—the penny limitation is an anachronism, which it was the business of Parliament to have removed long ago. Another anomaly which presses for remedy is that the County Councils, alone of all the related local government bodies, such as Borough and Urban District Councils, have no expressed power of adopting the Libraries Acts. The consequence has been detrimental to the establishment of village libraries. A Parish Council may adopt the Acts, and a few parishes have done so, but the yield of a penny rate in a parish is so small that in most cases it is impossible to meet even necessary administrative expenses, with nothing whatever left over for books and papers. It is not surprising in these circumstances that the rural population of the country is still deprived of the social and educational advantages of the public library. What is obviously indicated is a larger administrative authority, such as the County Council, which could group the parishes, pool the income from the rate, and administer from one centre a system of travelling libraries, combined with local stationary collections of books and the provision of suitable reading-rooms in the various districts. Such schemes have been initiated in about a dozen counties by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust in conjunction with the County Councils, but while the Scottish Education Act of 1918 gives County Education Authorities power to provide and maintain libraries, there is no mention of libraries in the English Education Act of 1918. These and other needed reforms in the library law are made in a Bill, now being promoted by the Library Association, which every well-wisher of the movement must hope will receive the sanction of the Legislature without further delay.