It is well for us all to remember, to whatever country we owe allegiance, we should be stirred by one purpose only, a common purpose that recognizes neither international barriers nor impalpable lines of latitude; our great aspiration being to increase the spread of pure literature, the democracy of letters through the coöperation of the public library which as an educational factor is soon destined to be recognized as of equal importance with university, college or school.
Before submitting to you my views on the trustee's duty to the public let me briefly recite library conditions that at present prevail in Ontario. Ontario, practically, is the only province in the Dominion of Canada that has an aggregation of public libraries, 434 in all, supported in part by the local legislature, under the fostering care of a sympathetic minister of education and a very liberal government.
The first library organized in this province, then Upper Canada, was at Niagara-on-the-Lake in 1800. In 1835, the first legislation dealing in any way with the library movement was passed and the same year the first government aid was granted. In 1851 a new act was introduced creating what was known for many years as the Mechanics' Institute, the authorities believing that technical books for the working classes were not less important than those for the learned professions. At this time only $2,000 per year was appropriated and this was found utterly insufficient for the purpose. In 1869 general literature was recognized in Upper Canada in this connection, in addition to the acquisition of technical books. In 1882, the first free library was organized in Canada, at Toronto.
In 1900, following upon the good example set by your organization, the Ontario library association was instituted, but it was not until 1909 that the present Ontario public library act was passed by the legislature, under which all public libraries, free and association, are now organized and controlled. Today we have 140 free libraries and 244 association libraries in this province operating under the provisions of this act.
In Ontario, whether the library is free or association, the financial and domestic affairs of both are under the supervision of a board of trustees, the only difference in these two boards being that in the case of the free library, the governing body is called a library board and in the case of the association library, a board of management; the financial responsibilities are not altogether the same, for while the trustees of the free library are custodians and paymasters of an income derived from the special rate levied yearly for library purposes by the municipality, the board of the association libraries have no fixed income to disburse, being supported largely by the fluctuating fees of the members.
The rates levied to support a free library vary, and are based principally, as in many instances in your own country, on population, and range from a minimum rate of one-quarter of a mill on the dollar to a maximum of three-quarters of a mill. In the case of both of these classes of libraries, government aid, of course, is extended in the form of a yearly grant based upon the annual report of the expenditure of the library upon books and paid in conformity with the libraries act, subject to departmental regulations.
Once a library in Ontario accepts a government grant, it automatically becomes a public library. Thenceforward it is amenable to the provisions of the statute and failure to keep open or render an annual report to the department of education for two consecutive years, is the signal for dissolution. In other words, it commits suicide. The minister may then take possession of all its books, its magazines and periodicals and dispose of them as he may deem best. Further, if a library fails in any year to comply with the regulations, the minister has power to withhold the whole or a portion of the government grant for that year.
The Ontario act, as you have seen, provides for two classes of libraries, both of which are public libraries; the business of both classes being administered by a board of trustees, one of whom is elected chairman, and while the responsibilities of these boards is greater in the case of the free libraries, both have equal, if not similar obligations as custodians in law of the people's interests.
Before proceeding to submit my own ideas of what appears to be the most important, if perhaps the unwritten duties of a library trustee to the public, and which I present with extreme diffidence in the presence of so many experts, let me briefly enumerate what are the legal obligations of a trustee in this Province as set forth in the statute regulating the same at the present time.
These powers are vested in the mayor, or reeve, as the case may be, with three other members appointed by the local municipal council, three by the local public school board or board of education and two by the separate school board representing the Roman Catholic section of the community; nine trustees in all who elect their chairman and retire annually in rotation. These trustees forfeit their position if they absent themselves from three consecutive monthly meetings without leave.