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MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY

JAMES DUFF BROWN

MANUAL OF
LIBRARY ECONOMY

BY THE LATE
JAMES DUFF BROWN
CHIEF LIBRARIAN, ISLINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARIES
AUTHOR OF
‘SUBJECT CLASSIFICATION,’ ‘LIBRARY CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING,’
‘A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF MUSICIANS,’ ETC.

THIRD AND MEMORIAL EDITION
REVISED AND REWRITTEN BY
W. C. BERWICK SAYERS
CHIEF LIBRARIAN, CROYDON PUBLIC LIBRARIES
LECTURER IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON SCHOOL OF LIBRARIANSHIP
AUTHOR OF
‘CANONS OF CLASSIFICATION,’ ‘AN INTRODUCTION TO CLASSIFICATION,’
‘THE CHILDREN’S LIBRARY,’ ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, FORMS, AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES

GRAFTON & CO.
COPTIC HOUSE, LONDON, W.C.1
1920

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY
OF
JAMES DUFF BROWN
1862-1914

He lived and died, content to view
His labours making knowledge free;
He opened every book he knew
For other men to see.

PREFACE

This work was published by the late author in 1903, and a second, and largely remodelled, edition appeared in 1907. For some years past it has been out of print, to the loss of more recent students. The delay, however, has not been without its compensations, as librarianship has made several advances which have been generally accepted, and has made many experiments, the issue of which is not yet decided, in the twelve years since the publication of the second edition. The work has been regarded with much justice as the most comprehensive complete treatise on library economy, and is the standard to which most British libraries conform in general; indeed, it is not too much to say that the whole modern school of librarians here has been moulded by the work. When, therefore, I was asked to prepare a new edition I was faced with the question of how best to preserve its comprehensive character. I might have revised it conservatively, merely touching up the statistics, adding to the bibliographies, and correcting statements which have been modified by later experience; but that would have left the book partial and incomplete. Rightly or wrongly, I have rewritten almost every chapter, have added sections on questions touched upon only lightly or not at all in previous editions, and have omitted several statements in which strong personal views were expressed; in fact, I have tried to preserve everything that seemed to be of permanent value, to excise everything merely controversial, and to avoid obtruding any idiosyncrasies of my own. I cannot hope to have succeeded completely, and any suggestions for the improvement of future editions will be welcomed.

Both of the earlier editions retain their value for students, but the criticism which may fairly be levelled at them is that Brown rarely contemplated the needs of a library of more than 40,000 volumes, and, therefore, omitted much that is necessary in the administration of such libraries. I have tried to balance this. It is perhaps desirable to set out the particulars in which the third edition differs from the second. The following chapters have been rewritten in their entirety: IV., V., VI., XV., XVIII., XX. and XXVII. The following are new: all Divisions I., XIII. and XIV.; and Chapters VII., XXVII., XXVIII., XXIX. and XXX. Everything else has been retouched, except the chapter on museums and art galleries; that I have left, because although the librarian ought to have a knowledge of curatorship, that knowledge is not library economy; and, within its limits, the chapter is good common sense. I have dealt drastically with the bibliographies, which consisted in the main of lists of articles in library periodicals. Every library student knows that textbooks and treatises are supplemented by periodical literature, and a reference to the indexes of library journals should be an obvious thing for him to make on any subject; and seeing that we have Cannons’s Bibliography of Library Economy, 1876-1909, for the years covered by the title, and that the best articles are now indexed in the Library Association Index, it seemed sufficient to make a general reference to Cannons and otherwise restrict the lists with few exceptions to separate publications. Appendix II, “The Librarian’s Library,” has been revised by Mr Richard Wright, M.C., to whom my thanks are due. An important omission is the Appendix of “Factors and Percentages,” which gave figures for calculating the size, cost, output, etc., of libraries. This has been deliberate; the conditions created by the War are so fluid that factors which are likely to have a permanent value are impossible to compile. Brown’s Guide to Librarianship gives the pre-war factors, and it is unnecessary to reprint them here.

The Memoir is based upon the obituary notices and appreciations which were collected and edited by Mr L. Stanley Jast for The Library Association Record, the biographical facts in particular being drawn from the memoir by Brown’s nephew, Mr James Douglas Stewart, which is included in those notices. Others will share my regret that his preoccupation with his new work at Manchester prevented Mr Jast from revising this Manual. I cannot but perceive, now that my work is finished, how much better it would have been had he filled my place. A few notes, prepared by Mr Jast for Chapters I.-II., have been included.

Usually, when one has written a book, one has to acknowledge much help from other librarians, but, owing to the extraordinary circumstances in which this revision has been made, I felt that I ought not to call for help from others already overburdened. My own task has been completed under great pressure, most of the work being done between 6.30 and 8.30 a.m. My wife has saved me from many blunders, and her experience as a former member of Mr Brown’s staff has been most valuable to me.

W. C. BERWICK SAYERS

Postscript.—As the final proofs are leaving my hands I learn that the long-expected Government Bill to remove the penny rate limitation was introduced into the House of Commons by Mr Herbert Lewis and read a first time on the 28th of November. The second reading occurred on the 2nd of December, and the Bill became law on the 23rd of December 1919.

It is now practically certain that the powers in regard to Public Libraries which were held by the Local Government Board now accrue to the Ministry of Education, and, consequently, wherever the Local Government Board is mentioned in the Manual, the Ministry of Education should be understood.—W. C. B. S.

Croydon, 1919

The Publishers desire to thank those who have kindly allowed them the use of illustrations and have lent blocks, or have offered other facilities for reproduction; especially the following:

The Librarians of Bristol, Bromley, Cardiff, Chelsea, Coventry, Croydon, Fulham, Glasgow, Lambeth, Liverpool, Montrose, St Pancras, and Southend; The Library Association; Messrs Cedric Chivers Ltd., Messrs Fordham & Co., Messrs Kenrick & Jefferson, Mr Arthur W. Lambert of Croydon, Messrs Libraco Ltd., and Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons.

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, FORMS, ETC.

DIVISION I
INTRODUCTORY

MEMOIR

On Christmas Day 1878 a Scottish lad of seventeen, having realized a cherished desire and obtained an appointment as junior library assistant at the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, presented himself before the then unimposing portals of that institution at the north corner of Ingram Street, and found them closed. He concluded characteristically that this was because the librarian was an Englishman. The lad who endeavoured to begin what was his real life-work on this unusual day was James Duff Brown, who was to become in many ways the greatest practical influence of his time in the British public library movement, who lived through its most expansive period, codified and published its methods and results, experimented boldly, faced and overcame a remarkable force of opposition, and left behind him a memory which present librarians revere, and works which will not easily be forgotten.

We have no record of his earliest years, other than that he was born at Edinburgh on 6th November 1862, and during boyhood showed tenacity and mental acquisitiveness. At thirteen he became an apprentice in the publishing house of Edmonstone & Douglas in his native city, and in the same year, when Mr Douglas left that firm at the establishment of that of Douglas & Foulis, he remained with Mr Douglas. A year later found him at Glasgow with the firm of W. R. McPhun & Sons. The work done for these firms gave him an initiation of a kind into literature, but the earlier Glasgow period was never a happy memory of his, and his true career began at the Mitchell Library. Here he spent ten years, enlarging his knowledge, specializing thoroughly in librarianship, devoting much of his leisure to musical lore, and by ability and purposefulness working his way to responsible positions on the library staff. When he was twenty-one he began to collect material for his Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, which appeared four years later in 1886; at twenty-three was Glasgow correspondent to The Musical Standard; and he was the editor and reviser of the six large quarto volumes of Chalmers’s Caledonia which appeared 1887-90. The industry thus shown was inherent in his character. He told Mr T. A. Aldred that he acquired the early-rising habit in youth, and that most of his work was done in the mornings before he began his official day’s work at 9 a.m.; and the Mitchell was at some distance from his home. This habit, which few of us ever acquire, he retained through life. It is interesting to know that he served from 1886 to about 1888 in the Third Lanark Volunteers; a little booklet from his pen, A Volunteer Reconnaissance, records his experiences.

A large library, however liberally administered, does not often offer opportunities for a man’s larger initiative unless he occupies one of the chief positions; and the exercise of his gifts did not come fully until his appointment in 1888 to the newly-established Clerkenwell Public Library in London. The building is a comparatively small edifice occupying a triangular site, and hardly one in which experiments little short of epoch-making might be expected; but Brown was a man of ideas and courage who could make the most of such a building. Moreover, London offered him openings which he did not hesitate to take. Retiring in person as a rule, nervous in speech, and in appearance of no special significance, he yet threw himself with quiet energy into the work of the Library Association. It must be remembered that from about 1888 to 1898 the public library movement in England received its greatest impetus, probably because in those years the full effects of the Education Act of 1870 came into play. Few of the libraries founded in that period are entirely without marks of his influence. In 1891 he conceived the idea—very old in itself, but quite new in its application to municipal libraries in this country—of throwing open the shelves to the choice of readers; and he formulated a scheme, which he called by the somewhat tautological name of “safe-guarded open access,” and published it anonymously in The Library in a paper entitled “A Plea for Liberty to Readers to Help Themselves.” A visit to America in 1893, where he attended the Chicago Conference of the American Library Association as a delegate of the Library Association, confirmed him in his opinion of the practical desirability of the system, although he says, “There was no such thing as proper safe-guarded open access as now understood anywhere in America when I was there”; but free access there was, without the locking wickets and other safeguards which he introduced at Clerkenwell. In brief, his method was to admit readers to the shelves, but by way of a wicket at which their credentials were checked unobtrusively, and to allow them to pass out at another wicket at which the books chosen were charged. Thus the reader was locked in the library while making his choice. The results of his experiment were presented to the Belfast Conference in a paper he wrote in collaboration with one of his Committee, Mr Henry W. Fincham, entitled “The Clerkenwell Open Lending Library,” which was modest and restrained in tone; but although the discussion that ensued was generous and appreciative to an extent, it was the fiercest yet known amongst librarians, and the question became the most contested one in our work. So sharp were the divisions the simple suggestion created that the municipal library profession went into two armed camps, and friendships and good-feeling were frequently destroyed by it. It is difficult for younger librarians to realize the courage and confidence that were needed to champion open access twenty-five years ago against the active antagonism of 90 per cent. of the profession. There were not wanting men, however, who were drawn to the champion, amongst them Mr L. Stanley Jast, then librarian of Peterborough, Mr T. Johnston, librarian of Croydon, and Mr Brown’s own assistants, Mr Charles Riddle in particular, who opened the first library outside London on this system at Bournemouth in 1895. In 1896 Croydon adopted it, Hornsey followed in 1898, and although progress was slow at first, to-day it has so far won the battle that the opening of a new library on any other system is a matter for surprise, and many of the more conservative libraries, even in the largest cities, have adopted it at least in some part of their system; moreover, the question itself has become impersonal, and no librarian to-day would criticize another for any views he might hold in connexion with it. It was, as Sir J. Y. W. MacAlister declared in 1894, “the dawn of a new epoch; a hundred years hence the authorities of the greater municipal London, which will then be carrying on the work now only attempted by the present congeries of village communities, will pass a resolution ordering a tablet to be fixed to the wall of a quaint three-cornered building in Clerkenwell, to commemorate the fact that here, in 1894, the revolution had begun which in a few years had changed the entire system of public libraries throughout the land.”

Although safe-guarded open access was the principal practical contribution of Brown to library practice, he introduced other things of great importance. His Quarterly Guide was the first annotated library bulletin published in England. He invented an indicator, more compact and perhaps as effective as most others, as a challenge to another similar inventor. He improved the sheaf catalogue, and indeed many of the commonest appliances now in use were of his contriving. A description of these, and others, he gave in his Handbook of Library Appliances, 1892, published by the Library Association. As open access abolished the need for alphabetical indicator-keys, he was at liberty to consider the question of catalogues radically; and he advocated the classified catalogue and class-lists as fulfilling the needs of students and readers better than other forms. In this advocacy he secured the vigorous co-operation of Mr Jast; and in this matter also a great controversy ran for some years, dignified amongst librarians as “the battle of the catalogues.” The issue is still in doubt as to the entire desirability of the classified catalogue for all purposes and places, but to-day the classified catalogue is certainly as common as any other form.

His brain and pen were active throughout life. In 1897 he published, in conjunction with Stephen Stratton, a British Musical Biography, another valuable biographical dictionary. In 1898 he founded, and for many years was to edit, The Library World, an independent and radical journal of library methodology and politics, which has held its own to this day. Opinions of all kinds were expressed in its pages; Brown wrote innumerable articles for it; and many librarians of present distinction first saw themselves in print in its pages. Especially did Brown encourage through its pages the struggles of young and unknown men at a time when encouragement was of priceless value to them. A list of his works is given at the end of this chapter, and will be sufficient to show his energy; but the appearance of his Manual of Library Classification and Shelf Arrangement, 1898, which contained his Adjustable Classification, was a real event, because it was the first comprehensive treatment of a till then little understood and much abused subject; as was that of his greatest work, the Manual of Library Economy, which first appeared in 1903, and has influenced all library methodology.

Quiet as he was in many ways, he was of a social disposition, a trait which found an outlet to some extent at the Library Association, of which he was a councillor from 1890 to 1911; but for closer purposes of camaraderie he founded, with Mr Jast, the well-known Pseudonyms, a dining-club of librarians and their friends, which had its origin in the ‘nineties, and flourished for many years. The meetings were held in various Bohemian restaurants in Soho, professional and literary topics were debated, and Brown reported them in The Library World. The reports had little relation to the actual proceedings, and few people were more entertained, and, incidentally, astonished at their own wittiness (as reported) than the Pseudonyms themselves. This is but one instance of his humorous way of regarding all things. In conversation, and in writing of even the most dryasdust subjects, it seemed impossible for him to talk or write without humour.

Brown’s sixteen years at Clerkenwell made the library perhaps the most reputed in the country. Mr Jast may be quoted upon this: “Mr Brown’s influence and reputation extended far beyond his own country. Foreign librarians visiting London almost invariably made for two places; one was the large and handsome room overlooking a stately west-end square, which Mr J. Y. W. MacAlister occupied for so many years; and the other was a small room, high up in a rather dingy-looking triangular building, overlooking a dingier street in Clerkenwell, which was so hidden away that one rather stumbled upon it than found it, where Mr J. D. Brown worked in his official capacity as Librarian, before he was called to a sphere more worthy of his labours, in Islington. How many librarians, how many members of library committees, how many workers in the Library movement have been charmed, interested, and instructed in these two rooms?” Not only was he required to give advice in his own country; at different times he was called upon to lecture on “free public libraries” in the United States, in Holland and in Belgium. “A Bruxelles,” writes M. Paul Otlet, “il parla devant l’auditore du Musée du Livre et son succès fut très grand.” I cannot help thinking that his success depended more upon his subject and his clear writing than upon his speaking; he was on the whole an indifferent speaker, his nervousness was painful to himself and others, and his ineradicable Glasgow accent was a real obstacle. He told my wife that the only place in which he enjoyed speaking was the meetings of the Islington Staff Club; he confessed to a horror and nervousness in public speech.

In 1904 he was appointed the first Borough Librarian of Islington. Here the public libraries scheme had its very beginnings under his care, and he was responsible for the interior design of the fine central library and the north and west branches; probably also for the south-east branch, but of that I am not sure. These libraries, I dare affirm, represented the highest achievement in library-planning in this country, with their handsome, adequate and practical rooms, economy in working, and general suitableness for their purpose. Here he brought into practice two of his principal innovations. The first was the Subject Classification, a huge, minute scheme, which we describe in more detail in the later pages of this book, which challenged comparison with the great and more popular American schemes in its completeness, logical arrangement, and admirable notation. Its focus upon British requirements made it specially attractive to British librarians, and although it may never supersede the more universal Decimal System of Melvil Dewey, it is nevertheless a work of the greatest value to all librarians. The second and more revolutionary innovation was the exclusion of the newsroom as usually understood from the libraries. In his account of his visit to America, he mentioned with something approaching disapproval the absence of this department from American libraries and the sense of desertion which resulted there; but at Islington he adopted the American plan. I am told that the Islington public did not approve the omission quite as much as did its author, but the arguments he used for it were common-sense ones, although he has had few, if any, British imitators.

To give in detail all his work for Islington would be to occupy a disproportionate space in a memoir of this compass. Suffice it to say that he provided this not entirely grateful Borough with a system which is the admiration of our profession. He gathered round him an accomplished staff, published a model select catalogue, encouraged the formation of an excellent staff guild for his assistants, and did many other invaluable things. He had long been a teacher of young librarians. When the Library Association courses were inaugurated at the London School of Economics he became the lecturer in library organization and routine, and served in that capacity for many years. As one of his students, I can vouch for his conscientious, painstaking teaching, his care in clearing up difficulties, the encouraging and friendly way in which he answered our questions, marked our exercises, and generally made our work of interest and value. No librarian who turned to him for advice ever went unhelped, whatever his age or school of thought. He wrote hundreds of letters to such purpose in his beautiful minute handwriting, and a collection of these would form, I believe, an excellent journal of contemporary librarianship. He seemed, in particular, to have a minute knowledge of all librarians and library assistants, their capacities and work accomplished. His obvious sympathy with young assistants first drew many of us to him. From the day I met him in 1896 at Bournemouth to his death he showed me by constant signs his regard for younger men and women who had a real interest in the work that he himself loved. He treated us with equal consideration in his correspondence, and the youngest correspondent received the same courtesy as his elders. He drafted the constitution of the Library Assistants’ Association, which with slight modifications has proved most wise and successful; and he frequently, especially in his last years, attended the meetings of this Association, taking part in the discussions when invited to do so, but seldom intruding his opinions unasked upon his young listeners, who, be it remarked, were always eager to hear him.

It is a difficult task to sketch “the man in his habit as he lived,” but a few words may be written. The portrait which forms our frontispiece is almost life-like, with its thoughtful, quiet, and, if one looks carefully enough, intent and humorous face. In person he was small, but not too obviously so; fragile-looking, but yet compact and vital in appearance and movement; he had brown hair and beard, delicate features, deft and supple hands; he thought calmly, was a rapid, consistent, and persevering worker; what he began he finished. His writings have been pronounced by Dr E. A. Baker to possess unmistakable quality, although “he scoffed at the word ‘style’ as denoting some futile kind of verbal legerdemain” (I think he must have done so jokingly, as his own personal library showed that he was by no means blind to the qualities of literary expression). “Shrewd, practical common sense, rough on cranks and sentimentalists, unmerciful to muddlers, impervious to a good many ideas, but a steady assertor of those he had tried and approved—this was the stuff of Brown’s writing,” is Dr Baker’s estimate, and in the main it coincides with my own. His personal tastes may be inferred from his work. “He once told me,” writes Mr Aldred, “he knew three subjects only, viz., library economy, music, and Scotland. I forget the order in which he placed them. Being a Scotsman, probably Scotland came first. In many respects, however, J. D. B.’s knowledge was of the encyclopædic order—he appeared to know a little of any subject named.”

In early life he was pronounced to be consumptive, but he told me, “I have lived to see the doctors who condemned me in their graves,” by careful living, and probably by sheer will power. But in his later years he had to meet many difficulties at Islington, where the libraries became the sport of a political party and he had a committee which was unable to assess his powers. It is useless to revive this now, but it probably helped to bring about his early death. He first became seriously ill in 1911, and with a few intervals, when we believed him to be practically himself again, he gradually weakened. In the last few months of his life a stay at Bournemouth was tried as a final resource, and here he read musical biography assiduously and maintained the keenest outlook upon all things; but no improvement ensued in his health, and he returned to London a dying man. The end came at his house, 15, Canonbury Park South, Islington, on 26th February 1914; and he was buried, amid every sign of regret and affection, at New Southgate Cemetery. His only memorial to the present are his works; I believe they will be an enduring one.

To sum up: Brown entered upon his library career at a time when the library movement received its greatest impetus, and brought the whole force of a fertile and inventive mind and a ready pen into its service. He wrote the first text-books actually intended for English public librarians, collected and systematized all available methodology, and, thoroughly believing in his mission, this man more than any other in his generation fashioned in this country a living, interesting profession out of the despised materials of the popular library. An impression written by Alderman H. Keatley Moore, B.A., B.Mus., J.P., a veteran worker for public libraries, who made his acquaintance early, may serve to conclude this necessarily brief account of our author:

“What was it especially that made one feel so clearly that one was in the presence of a true man, of an absolute master of his subject, of one, in fact, whom it was an honour to know?

“I think it was that curious quietness, the repose of a man who has thought out everything fully for himself, and is content to leave the facts as he has arranged them to tell their own story. He was still, because he was so strong; he was undisturbed by clamour because he had been through it all, and now stood in the open with the conquered fortress behind him, its strength his strength made visible; one gradually grew rather timid of this shy talker because he always had the facts on his side.... He was the most unaffected and modest man of real mark that I have ever met in my long public life. I shall always be glad to have known him. I shall always remember the great services he rendered to me, to my town, to our country. Across my sincere regret at his loss flickers the whimsical thought of how he would wonder at the fuss we are making over him.”

Bibliography

The following is a list of Brown’s separate publications. His articles were legion, and will be found by reference to the indexes of all library periodicals and transactions. Nearly all the anonymously-written articles and editorials in The Library World from 1898 to about 1906 are his:

1886. Biographical Dictionary of Musicians: with a bibliography of English writings on Music. Paisley: A. Gardner.

1888. A Volunteer Reconnaissance.

1892. Handbook of Library Appliances: fittings, furniture, charging systems, etc. L.A. Series, 1.

1893. Guide to the Formation of a Music Library. L.A. Series, 4.

1897. Greenwood’s Library Year-Book. Scott, Greenwood.

(The second edition, 1900-01, was entitled British Library Year-Book.)

1898. Manual of Library Classification and Shelf Arrangement. Libraco Series. Library Supply Co.

(Chapter vi., which contains “The Adjustable Classification,” was published separately under that title.)

1903. Manual of Library Economy. Scott, Greenwood. Second edition, 1907. Library Supply Co.

1904. Annotated Syllabus for the Systematic Study of Librarianship. Libraco.

Classified List of Current Periodicals: a guide to the selection of magazine literature. L.A. Series, 8.

1906. Manual of Practical Bibliography. Routledge. Subject Classification. 1906, Libraco. Second edition, 1914, Grafton.

1907. The Small Library: a guide to the collection and care of books. Routledge.

1909. Guide to Librarianship: reading lists, methods of study, etc. Grafton.

(Supersedes the “Annotated Syllabus.”)

1912. Library Classification and Cataloguing. Grafton.

(Incorporates much of the matter in the “Manual of Library Classification” in revised form.)

1913. A British Library Itinerary. Grafton.

Works written in Collaboration

1897. With Stratton, S. S. British Musical Biography: a dictionary of musical artists, authors and composers born in Britain and its Colonies. Birmingham: Stratton.

1901. With Moffat, Alfred. Characteristic Songs and Dances of all Nations.

1915. Stewart, J. D., and Others. Open Access Libraries: their planning, equipment and organization. With Introduction by J. D. Brown. Grafton.

(This work was planned by Brown.)

INTRODUCTION
LIBRARIANSHIP IN GREAT BRITAIN. THE PRESENT SCOPE OF THE LIBRARY PROFESSION. METHODS OF THIS BOOK

I. Library economy is a term covering every branch of work concerned with libraries; and libraries may be defined in a phrase as institutions devoted to the collecting, conserving and exploiting of literature. Originally the prevalent character of libraries was that of conserving rather than exploiting institutions, and much of the technical equipment of the modern librarian has come into being as a result of their progress from their original “museum” to their present “workshop” character. Our subject, then, covers the founding, organizing, administration and routine of libraries. It is one of much wider compass than is commonly supposed. Whatever may have been the original intention, for example, of the pioneers of the municipal public library movement, and there are still many who seem to regard that movement as a counter-attraction to the seductions of the saloon bar and similar places of recreation, the present public library is a many-sided, active civic institution, making its appeal to all classes of the community as a centre of education, culture and recreation, with a trained service to direct it. Nearly every other type of library also is most concerned with the best means of attracting people to make use of literature, and is an active force in the community rather than a passive one.

II. Libraries have been recognized as important in all ages, and a brief study of the early civilizations of the East and of the Mediterranean countries, as well as all later periods, shows the existence of state, public, ecclesiastical and monastic libraries for which there was some sort of librarianship, with even such seemingly modern appliances as classification and cataloguing of a kind. But the library as we know it to-day, and librarianship in particular, may almost be said to be the creation of the last half of the nineteenth century. Earlier town libraries indeed existed, the first, it is believed, being that at Norwich, which was opened to the public in 1608; but although there were individual instances, the municipal public library (commonly but erroneously called the “free library,” because no charge is made for its use) was a result of the Libraries Act of 1850 promoted by William Ewart, M.P., who had at his back the real pioneer of public libraries, Edward Edwards, whose Memoir of Libraries is the most monumental of treatises on library history and administration. The Act of 1850 had in view the needs of the poor, sanctioned the levying of a halfpenny rate, and, with curious want of vision, left the provision of books to the generosity of private donors. The debates upon the bill before it became law are curious and entertaining reading; and it appears that the special purpose of libraries was the prevention of crime! Progress was slow at first, but in 1853 it was stated that thirteen towns had adopted the Act. In 1855 its provisions were extended to Ireland, and in this amending bill the amount that might be levied for libraries throughout the kingdom was increased to a limit of one penny in the pound.

III. We need not follow the history of the movement, as an excellent monograph by J. J. Ogle, The Free Library, is available on the question; nor need we go into the parallel and in some respects more wonderful development of the movement in America. So far as this country is concerned libraries have grown up in every considerable town, with very few exceptions; but the whole movement has been retarded, even crippled, by the retention of the limit of one penny in the pound as the amount a local authority may spend on library provision. The advance in general education—it must be remembered that in 1850 not more than one-seventeenth of the children of the people were receiving an education which could be called satisfactory even when judged by the low standards of that time—has created a new reading public more vast than was contemplated by the promoters of the Act; but the only legal help towards meeting its demands has come from the increased product of rate assessments; the limit remains sixty-five years after its imposition. But the increase we have mentioned has not been negligible, even if it is entirely insufficient, and it has been assisted in a remarkable way by private generosity. Amongst many who have provided towns with public library buildings, Passmore Edwards, Lord Brassey, Henry Tate, Colonel Gamble and Professor Sandeman may be mentioned; but the greatest impetus to the movement was given by the systematic and almost universal munificence of Andrew Carnegie, which began in 1886 and has been continued by him and by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, which he has endowed, to the present. His system has been to provide a suitable building on the condition that the authority accepting it adopted the Libraries Act and provided a site from other charges than the library rate. By this means scores of towns which were without or had only inferior library buildings now possess one in some way worthy of the name.

IV. The expansion of libraries gave rise to the modern profession of librarianship. The older libraries were usually in the charge of scholars, whose main work was that of “keeper” of the books, a title which the librarian in charge of the British Museum still bears, although it does not now comprehend his work. The municipal library required a man who was not primarily a scholar, although scholarship was an invaluable basis for his work; he was rather required to be an administrator, a purveyor of books, and, because of the very limited moneys at his disposal, something of a business man. For some years, however, there was no definite science or art of librarianship in this sense. Edward Edwards, in the second volume of his Memoirs of Libraries, laid firmly the foundations of present library economy in a résumé and exposition of the multifarious methods of cataloguing, classification, library planning and administration used in the various libraries of the world. Little followed in England until the growing needs of the work caused a few far-seeing librarians to find some means of bringing librarians together. This they succeeded in doing in the successive conferences of librarians, British and international, the first of which was held in London in 1877. Out of these sprang the Library Association in 1878, with Mr Henry R. Tedder and the late E. B. Nicholson as its first honorary secretaries, and the late Robert Harrison as honorary treasurer. In the first year the late E. C. Thomas succeeded Nicholson, and somewhat later he was associated in his office with Mr (now Sir) J. Y. W. MacAlister, one of the most significant and creative personalities in our work; while Mr Tedder assumed the office of treasurer, which he holds to this day, an office in which his wisdom and counsel as well as his unsparing industry have done much to create the present stability of the Association. By means of frequent gatherings, especially by its annual meetings, the Library Association gradually brought together the whole body of librarians in this country, who read and discussed professional papers, published proceedings, initiated scheme after scheme for the promotion and improvement of libraries, and generally became the controlling factor in library polity. It was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1898. For many years it was recognized that training in technical methods was necessary for librarians, and the Association has devoted much attention to this work. At first it held summer schools and, from 1898, other brief courses for library students, and examined the students upon them. Later it established, in connexion with the Governors of the London School of Economics, regular courses of lectures at that institution. A carefully-designed and remarkably helpful syllabus of instruction was drawn up, and on this examinations were held and certificates leading up to a diploma in librarianship were issued. The latest phase of the educational work of the Association has been the securing of a grant from the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust for the establishment of a School of Librarianship at University College, London, which it is expected will commence on 1st October 1919. This will primarily be a day school with courses of study founded on the syllabus of the Association, which has been carefully revised and extended to meet the new circumstances. It is ridiculous to prophesy, but if this School is a success it is probable that it will revolutionize the whole character of library service in this country.

V. There have been various definitions of the purpose of libraries and librarians, few of them entirely adequate. We shall not attempt another dogmatically, but we may suggest that that purpose is to provide a representative and systematically arranged collection of literature from the daily newspaper to the elaborate treatise and encyclopædic work of reference. The methods of doing this, and of exploiting in the public interest the collection when made, are the subject-matter of this manual. Until this primary purpose of a library is fulfilled any attempts at those added activities which are advocated by some librarians to-day are likely to be mistaken, or at least ill-advised. The Library Association has not issued a comprehensive manifesto covering this matter, and might very well do so, if care were taken, as no doubt it would be, to give considerable elasticity to the definitions. At the Annual Meeting in 1917, however, it did adopt a series of resolutions of great importance, which, as the almost unanimous pronouncement of the profession, must find a place here. In the light of the rough definition given, their inadequacy as a comprehensive statement of library work is obvious enough, but they have great value as showing the trend of that work in the effort to meet the remarkable intellectual, industrial and other conditions created by the European War; and this seems to us a justification for treating each of the resolutions at greater length in the following pages:

1. “That the aim of the library as an educational institution is best expressed in the formula ‘Self-development in an atmosphere of freedom,’ as contrasted with the aim of the school, which is ‘Training in an atmosphere of restraint or discipline’; in the school the teacher is dominant, because it is possible to pass on a form, to teach an art; but in the library the pupil strikes out his own line, and becomes his own teacher; the library supplies the material upon which the powers awakened and trained in the school can be exercised; the library and the school depend upon different ideas, deal with different material in different ways, and there is no administrative relation between the two; furthermore, the contacts of the library with organized education necessarily cease at the point where the educational machinery itself terminates, but the library continues as an educational force of national importance in its contacts with the whole social, political and intellectual life of the community; that the recognition of the true place of the library in education must carry with it the provision of adequate financial resources, which is impossible under the present limitation on the library rate; such limitation therefore should be removed at the earliest possible moment.”

2. “That the creation in the child of intellectual interests, which is furthered by a love of books, is an urgent national need; that while it is the business of the school to foster the desire to know, it is the business of the library to give adequate opportunity for the satisfaction of this desire; that library work with children ought to be the basis of all other library work; that reading-rooms should be provided in all public libraries, where children may read books in attractive surroundings, under the sympathetic and tactful guidance of trained children’s librarians; but that such provision will be largely futile except under the conditions which experience, especially in America where the importance of this work has long been recognized and where it is highly developed, has shown to be essential to success.”

3. “That in view of meeting trade conditions after the war, commercial libraries should be established in all the great trade centres of the kingdom, as a part of the municipal library system, where business men may obtain reliable commercial information, by means of the collection and arrangement for rapid consultation of all Government and other publications relating to commerce; that such libraries should act as outliers or branches of the Commercial Intelligence Department of the Board of Trade; and that such Department should further the work of these libraries in every possible way; that in the smaller towns commercial collections should be formed.”

4. “That technical libraries are as essential, both to technical education and to manufacture, as the laboratory or the workshop; that discovery and invention are stimulated by books; that the technical library, therefore, should be established as a special department of the public library in all important manufacturing towns, with a special organization, including a librarian trained not only in library method and in the bibliography of technology, but possessing also a sufficient technical knowledge to enable him to act as a source of information to inquirers.”

5. “That collections of books and other printed and manuscript matter bearing upon questions of local government should be established in connexion with municipalities; that such collections to be effective must be in charge of a trained librarian; that the management of such collections should be placed under the library committee; that the cost of such libraries will be small in proportion to the valuable part they will play in serving the needs, not only of officials entrusted with the carrying out of public work, but also of members of the municipality responsible for local government finance and policy.”

VI. Since the succeeding chapters of this manual were revised the Ministry of Reconstruction has issued a report on libraries and museums which has been made by its Adult Education Committee. This traverses in a general way the ground covered by the Library Association resolutions and makes recommendations of much moment and gravity. The aim of the report is to explain the extent of libraries and to secure their co-ordination. It criticizes Resolution 1 on the ground that it represents the aims of education inadequately, and it deduces from several very cogent arguments the policy of placing libraries under the local education committees in order that they may be merged into and worked as an extension of the national education system. For London this would mean taking libraries from the boroughs and placing them in the care of the county. The matter is too unsettled to admit of argument here, but such a policy, if carried out, might alter radically the whole character of library provision and administration. The linking up of libraries is recommended by means of a central lending library in London, the municipal libraries, special libraries, and rural libraries; the central lending library would supply the more expensive, little-used books to students direct or through the municipal or rural libraries, and special libraries should be drawn upon in their specialities for books to be used throughout the country. To the end that the service should be developed to the greatest extent, the present income of libraries should be increased, either by an increase in the separate library rate or by abolishing that rate altogether and allowing the estimates of the library to be included in general education estimates.

It seems quite probable that the near future will see a removal of the main financial difficulties.

VII. This manual is based upon the syllabus of the Library Association, but excludes sections 1 and, in part, 2 (Literary History and Bibliography), and includes the subject-matter of the resolutions of 1917. Primarily it is a manual of municipal library practice, but is by no means exclusively so. Special libraries have their individual methods, and a general conspectus of librarianship cannot include them; and state, university, institutional, club and private libraries are equally matters for specific treatment such as would be impossible here. But all libraries are faced with very similar problems of selection, accession, classification, cataloguing, etc., or at any rate they differ in these matters in degree rather than in kind; and it is hoped that for them much that follows will be at least interesting and suggestive. To this end the method aimed at is expository rather than argumentative; and when two or more methods are in vogue they have been placed side by side in order that the student may review them and form his own judgment of their relative merits. Where we are dogmatic we are so unconsciously, and we hope that aberrations of this kind will be passed over with forbearance.

DIVISION II
FOUNDATION, COMMITTEES AND FINANCE

CHAPTER I
LEGISLATION

1. Municipal Libraries: Acts of Parliament.

1. Municipal Libraries: Acts of Parliament.—The principal Acts of Parliament under which British public municipal libraries are now constituted consist of the following:—

Ireland

1855. “18 & 19 Vict., c. 40. An Act for further promoting the establishment of Free Public Libraries and Museums in Ireland.” (The principal Act.)

1877. “40 & 41 Vict., c. 15. An Act to amend the Public Libraries Act (Ireland), 1855.”

1894. “57 & 58 Vict., c. 38. An Act to amend the Public Libraries (Ireland) Acts.”

1902. “The Public Libraries (Ireland) Amendment Act.” Gives power to District Councils to adopt the Acts, and empowers County Councils to make grants in aid of libraries.

Scotland

1887. “50 & 51 Vict., c. 42. An Act to amend and consolidate the Public Libraries (Scotland) Acts.” (The principal Act.)

1894. “57 & 58 Vict., c. 20. An Act to amend the Public Libraries Consolidation (Scotland) Act, 1887.”

1899. “62 & 63 Vict., c. 5. An Act to amend the Public Libraries (Scotland) Acts.”

England and Wales

1892. “55 & 66 Vict., c. 53. An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to Public Libraries.” (The principal Act.)

1893. “56 Vict., c. 11. An Act to amend the Public Libraries Act, 1892.”

1898. “61 & 62 Vict., c. 53. An Act to provide for the Punishment of Offences in Libraries.”

1901. “1 Edw. 7. An Act to amend the Acts relating to Public Libraries, Museums and Gymnasiums, and to regulate the liability of managers of libraries to proceedings for libel.”

[Note.—This Act does not deal with actions for libel. It was originally intended to do so, but the clauses were struck out of the bill, and the title escaped emendation.]

2.

2. The whole of these are in force, and they repeal all the former Acts dating from 1850, while incorporating some of their provisions. In addition to these general Acts, a considerable number of local Acts have been passed on behalf of various towns, which include provisions for the modification of the general Acts, chiefly in regard to removing the limitation of the rate, and for other purposes. Such powers are usually contained in improvement or tramway Acts, and the principal towns which have obtained them include Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Halifax, Darwen, Sheffield, Cardiff, etc. Several towns, like Brighton, Huddersfield, Kingston-on-Thames, have also special Acts which confer the power of establishing libraries, independently of the general Acts, so that the public libraries of Britain are not constituted under one general law.

3.

3. The Public Library Law is further modified or extended by various other statutes which were passed for different purposes, and the principal Acts of this kind are as follows:

“24 & 25 Vict., c. 97. An Act to consolidate and amend the Statute Law of England and Ireland relating to malicious injuries to property,” 1861.

This gives power to prosecute for misdemeanour any person who unlawfully and maliciously destroys or damages any book, manuscript, etc., in any public museum, gallery, cabinet or library.

“56 & 57 Vict., c. 73. An Act to make further provision for local government in England and Wales,” 1894.

Enables rural parishes to adopt the Public Libraries Act, 1892, by means of a parish meeting or poll of the voters in the parish.

“62 & 63 Vict., c. 14. An Act to make better provision for local government in London,” 1899.

Confers the power of adopting the Public Libraries Act, 1892, on the Metropolitan Borough Councils, by extending to them the provisions of the Public Libraries Act, 1893.

The remaining statutes which in any way deal with public or private libraries will be noticed in connexion with the departments of library administration, to which they specially refer, such as loans, rating, etc.

The only other Acts of Parliament which may in the future influence public libraries are the Education Acts passed since 1902. Under these Acts local Education Boards are empowered to “promote the general co-ordination of all forms of education,” and in many districts the education and library authorities are amalgamated for common purposes. It remains to be seen what further extensions will take place.

4. Main Provisions of the Municipal Libraries Acts.

4. Main Provisions of the Municipal Libraries Acts.—A brief summary of the leading practical points of the various Acts will serve to give an idea of the powers which are conferred upon municipal authorities in regard to libraries:

(a) Adoption of Acts in Towns.—The Acts may be adopted in any city, county borough, burgh or urban district by a resolution passed by the council, at a special meeting of which a month’s notice shall have been given, and the resolution must be advertised publicly in the usual way, and a copy sent to the Local Government Board, if the adoption is in England or Ireland; while a notice of the fact of adoption must also be sent.

(b) Adoption of Acts in Parishes.—In parishes in England and Scotland the Acts can only be adopted by a majority vote of the householders or voters.

(c) Library Rate.—A rate of one penny in the £ on the rateable value of an administrative area is the limit fixed by the Act, but power is given parishes to fix a smaller sum by a popular vote, and urban districts of all kinds to remove or fix any rate within the limit of one penny by resolution of the council.

(d) Powers.—The Library Authority may provide public libraries, museums, schools for science, art galleries and schools for art, and for that purpose may purchase and hire land, and erect, take down, rebuild, alter, repair and extend buildings, and fit up, furnish and supply the same with all requisite furniture, fittings and conveniences. The Library Authority shall exercise the general management, regulation and control of every department established under the provisions of the Acts, and may provide books, newspapers, maps and specimens of art and science, and cause the same to be bound and repaired when necessary. Also appoint salaried officers and servants, and dismiss them, and make regulations for the safety and use of every library, museum, gallery and school under its control, and for admission of the public thereto. Power is also given to make agreements with other library authorities for the joint use of library or other buildings; and to borrow money, with the sanction of[22] the central authorities, for the purpose of buying sites, erecting buildings and furnishing them. The Irish Act of 1877 also gives power to establish schools of music as part of a library scheme.

5. Non-Municipal Libraries: Acts of Parliament.

5. Non-Municipal Libraries: Acts of Parliament.—The legislation affecting the large number of British libraries which are not supported out of the rates is neither extensive nor satisfactory. The chief feature of most of the Acts of Parliament which have been passed seems to be the benevolent one of granting certain facilities to various kinds of landowners to divest themselves of their property in order to provide sites for literary and scientific institutions. There are similar clauses in the Public Libraries Acts, and, of course, most of the Acts named apply to municipal libraries; but in reality this kind of legislation is not particularly valuable. To make the transfer of land for public purposes more easy is quite laudable, but it has not yet had the effect of inducing landowners to part with free plots of land as building sites, either to public library authorities or literary institutions.

6.

6. The principal Act bearing on literary and scientific institutions is entitled “An Act to afford greater facilities for the establishment of Institutions for the promotion of Literature and Science and the Fine Arts, and to provide for their better regulation,” 17 & 18 Vict., c. 112, 1854. This is nearly all taken up with provisions for transfers of lands and other property, and with a few regulations concerning members, rules, altering, extending or dissolving the institution, etc. This Act was afterwards to some extent modified by “An Act to facilitate the transfer of Schools for Science and Art to Local Authorities,” 54 & 55 Vict., c. 61, 1891. These, and the other Acts referred to, which deal with transfers of property, have had very little to do with the development of voluntary literary and scientific institutions or libraries; the principal statute under which most of them are now governed being an Act passed primarily for quite a different purpose. This is the “Act to amend the ‘Companies Act, 1862,’” 30 & 31 Vict., c. 131, 1867, under Section 23 of which power is given the Board of Trade to grant licences to literary and similar associations, providing for registration with limited liability, and conferring all the privileges attaching to limited companies. In connexion with this Act, and those of 1862 and 1877, the Board of Trade have issued a series of circulars and forms, which include draft rules, articles of association, etc. Under these licences a considerable number of British literary institutions have been established and organized.

7. British Colonial Library Legislation

7. British Colonial Library Legislation has proceeded very much on the lines adopted in the mother country, and in every case the permissive character of the Acts has been preserved, and, in most cases, the rate limitation. On the other hand, some effort has been made to keep in touch with schools and universities.

In South Africa a Government proclamation established the South African Public Library at Cape Town in 1818. This was further regulated by an ordinance passed in 1836, which gave the library the right to receive a free copy of every publication issued in Cape Colony. Other libraries in the large towns now receive grants from the Government, and a large number of smaller libraries also receive grants equal to the annual average amount raised by subscriptions and donations during the three preceding years; but in no case shall the amount of the Parliamentary grant exceed £150 for any one library in one year. No grants are made if less than £25 is raised by subscription. In return for the grant, reading-rooms and reference libraries are to be open free to the public, and an annual report has to be presented to the Government. In Natal the same arrangement is made, though on a much smaller scale. In both colonies books are only lent for home reading to subscribers. In 1874 an Act was passed by the Legislature of Natal for regulating literary and other societies not legally incorporated.

In Canada, under a General Libraries Act of 1854, County Councils were authorized to establish four classes of libraries: (1) Ordinary common school libraries in each school-house for the use of children and ratepayers; (2) a general public library available to all ratepayers in the municipality; (3) professional libraries of books on teaching, etc., for teachers only; and (4) a library in any public institution under the control of a municipality. Arrangements were made whereby the Education Office sold books at low rates to the school libraries; and afterwards the Education Department of the Legislature gave annual grants, equal to the amounts contributed by members for book purchase, to mechanics’ institutes, etc., and subsequently increased such grants for books to $400 (£80) annually. The province of Ontario, in 1882, passed “An Act to provide for the Establishment of Free Libraries,” on lines very similar to the English Acts. Power is given any city, town or incorporated village to provide libraries, newsrooms, museums and branches, on the petition and with the consent of the qualified electors. The management is vested in a board chosen from the Town Council, citizens other than councillors, and the Public School Boards. The library rate is limited to an “annual rate not exceeding one half of a mill in the dollar upon the assessed value of all rateable, real and personal property.” This form of limitation is borrowed from the practice of the United States. About ninety places have adopted this Free Libraries Act in Ontario. In 1895 an Act was passed in Ontario to enable mechanics’ institutes to change their names and transfer their property to municipalities on condition that the libraries were made free to the public.

The Australian colonies have all passed separate laws, somewhat similar to those in force in other parts of the Empire, in regard to their adoption being left to local option, and rates being more or less limited. In 1870 Victoria passed an Act establishing the Library, Museum and National Art Gallery at Melbourne, and in 1885 “The Free Libraries Act” was passed. But, in 1890, these Acts were repealed by “An Act to consolidate the Laws relating to Libraries.” The Melbourne Public Library, which was established in 1853, is now wholly supported by Government, and it lends books to any municipality in the colony. In addition, the Government make grants from public funds to most of the mechanics’ institutions, athenæums and other literary societies in Victoria.

South Australia has quite a body of library laws, dating from 1863, when the South Australian Institution was incorporated, but most of them have been repealed or incorporated in the two principal Acts regulating institutes and free libraries. By the various Acts passed in connexion with institutes or literary societies, grants in aid are made by Parliament on lines similar to those in force in the other colonies, while rules and regulations are made and power given to transfer such institutes to the municipalities. Public libraries are regulated by “An Act to establish Free Libraries in Corporate Towns and District Councils,” 1898, subsequently amended by an Act of 1902. This Act gives local authorities power, on the request and with the consent of the ratepayers, to adopt the Act, subject to the rate not exceeding 3d. in the £. Municipal libraries are also entitled to receive the same grants as are made to institutes.

In New South Wales public libraries may be established under the “Municipalities Act,” 1867. The Government makes grants for the purchase of books on a scale according to population, and other funds must be provided by the subscriptions of members. Schools of art are entitled to receive a Government grant in proportion to the amount of monetary support accorded by the public. In addition, the Sydney Public Library (established in 1869) is entirely supported by the Government, and it sends out carefully selected boxes of books to 128 institutes throughout New South Wales, the entire cost being defrayed by Parliament.

In Western Australia grants are made to institutes as in the other colonies, but there is no general Library Act in existence yet. In 1887 the Government established a Public Library at Perth, and contributes £3000 per annum for its maintenance. The only legislative enactment concerning libraries in Western Australia is an Act for establishing a Law and Parliamentary Library for the Legislature, which was passed in 1873 and amended in 1889.

Queensland passed an “Act to consolidate and amend the Laws relating to Municipal Institutions, and to provide more effectually for local government,” 1878. This was extended by the “Divisional Boards Act” of 1887, and now Municipal Councils or Divisional Boards may make bye-laws for the establishment, maintenance and management of public libraries. Brisbane Free Public Library, the only library of importance opened under this Act, has an annual grant from the municipal funds varying from £800 to £1000. One hundred and forty schools of art throughout the colony also receive Government grants for library and other purposes to the extent of about 8s. 2d. for every pound subscribed by members.

Tasmania has a model library law, which is worthy of adoption in every civilized country. It is contained in “An Act to amend the Law relating to Public Libraries,” passed in 1867. It is so short, and so much to the point, that the whole of it may be quoted. After a two-line preamble it declares that: “The Municipal Council of every municipality may, from time to time, apply such sum as it sees fit, out of the rates of such municipality, in and towards the formation and maintenance of Public Libraries within such municipality.” That is the whole Act, and it gives no indication of the grudging limitations which other countries inflict. The only blemish on this admirable statute is the fact that it is not compulsory. Most of the Tasmanian towns being small, only Hobart has put the library law into force, by appropriating a penny rate to the support of the Tasmanian Public Library (1849), which is also maintained by Government grants. The small libraries throughout Tasmania receive grants, on the usual conditions, from the Government.

The library law of New Zealand is based on a series of Acts, similar to those passed in this country for the regulation of municipal libraries and literary institutions. The principal Acts are: (1) “An Act to promote the establishment of Public Libraries,” 1869, giving power for the governing body of a city, village or district to adopt the Act with the consent of the ratepayers, and to levy a rate not exceeding 1d. in the £; (2) “An Act to confer powers on Public Libraries and Mechanics’ Institutes,” 1875—a series of rules for incorporation and management; (3) “An Act to promote the establishment and support of Public Libraries,” 1877. In this Act it is laid down that the grant for public libraries is to be apportioned among provincial districts, in proportion to the population of such districts, and that a subsidy equal to the amount of the library rate is to be paid to municipal libraries established under the Act of 1869. Free admission to reading-rooms is permitted, but no person to be allowed to borrow unless he contributes not less than 5s. per annum.

None of the West Indian dependencies have legislation relating to libraries, although grants are paid from Government funds towards the maintenance of libraries in different British possessions.

In India the Government subsidizes only libraries connected with the leading departments of State, such as law and parliamentary libraries for the use of legislators and the Councils forming the Indian Government. It cannot be said to redound to the credit of the Government that the only public library systems in India have been established in native States. The Gaekwar of Baroda has instituted such a system, which extends from the capital city to the smallest village, and his example has been followed by the native State of Indore.

The British colonial libraries are thus established and regulated on lines very similar to the municipal libraries of this country, and literary institutions of all kinds are incorporated and recognized in the same way as in the United Kingdom. There are numerous differences, however, in points of detail, because, although the permissive clauses are retained for municipal libraries in every case, in some cases, such as Tasmania and South Australia, the rate limit is either non-existent or greatly increased. Again, it is a universal provision in colonial administration for the Governments to assist all kinds of libraries, to the extent of contributing, within limits, as much money as is raised by the subscriptions of members or produced by a municipal library rate. Also, more attempt is made, especially in Canada, to embody the libraries as part of the national system of education, and in this respect our colonies are ahead of the mother country.

8.

8. The Library Legislation of the United States is of very great importance, because of its variety, liberality and consistent aim to make libraries an essential part of the system of national education.

As Dr Thomas Bray was the first to procure library legislation in England, so was he the first to obtain a law of this kind in North America. He founded a library in South Carolina, which in 1700 formed the subject of an Act passed by the Legislative Assembly of South Carolina for its regulation and protection. In 1715 a similar law for the same purpose was passed by the Legislative Assembly of North Carolina. In subsequent years many laws were passed by different States for the incorporation and regulation of all kinds of social, subscription, mercantile and other libraries, much on the same lines as were found necessary in other countries, in order to give such associations legal standing and recognition. In some of the States laws have been enacted providing for the payment of an annual grant to proprietary libraries, on condition that they are made free to the general public for reference purposes. This plan of utilizing existing library facilities for the public benefit is common to both the United States and our own colonies, and there are many less effective ways of securing reading privileges at a comparatively cheap rate. It would add enormously to the educational resources of London, for example, if, in return for an annual Government grant, the general public could have access to the reading-rooms of some of the more important literary, scientific and artistic libraries, especially those which are rich in the current periodical literature of other countries.

In the “Report of the Commissioner of Education” for the United States, 1895-96, vol. i., there is a very elaborate account of the “Library Legislation in the United States,” to which reference must be made by those who want minute details of the laws of the different States of the Union. Here it is only possible to deal with the laws affecting school and municipal libraries, and to give typical examples of the legislation in each class.

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:

• (1) The adoption of the library laws of the State by any city or municipal council, with or without the petition or consent of the ratepayers. The practice differs in the various States, but it is permissive and not compulsory in every State.
• (2) Power to levy a rate for the establishment and support of municipal libraries, varying from the fraction of a mill per dollar on the taxable value of the town to any sum the council may see fit to levy.
• (3) Power to appoint trustees and do everything necessary for the equipment and efficient administration of the libraries.

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.

11.

11. The solution of the problem may, indeed, come from another direction, as the present President of the Board of Education (Mr H. A. L. Fisher) indicated in an interview with a library deputation (April 1919) that the powers relating to public libraries then held by the Local Government Board were to be transferred to another department. The Board of Education was thus indicated, and it may be that new sources of support, means of co-ordination, and possibly periodical Government inspection of libraries, may flow from the transfer; but it is too early to speculate upon the matter.

Bibliography

12. English Legislation:

12. English Legislation:

Chambers, G. F., and Fovargue, H. W. The Law Relating to Public Libraries and Museums, etc. 4th edition. 1899.

This is the principal work on the subject.

Fovargue, H. W. Summary of Library Law. N.D.

13. Foreign and Colonial Legislation

13. Foreign and Colonial Legislation:

Canada. Hardy, E. A. The Public Library. 1912.

Colonies. Society of Comparative Legislation. Legislation of the Empire, 1898-1907. 4 vols. 1909.

France. Pellisson, M. Les Bibliothèques à l’étranger et en France. 1906.

Richou, G. Traité de l’administration des bibliothèques publiques. 1885.

Robert, U. Recueil de lois, decrets, etc., concernant les bibliothèques publiques, etc. 1883.

Germany. Franke, J. Der Leihbetrieb der Öffentlichen Bibliotheken. 1905.

United States. Bureau of Education. Report of the Commissioner, 1895-6. Vol. i., chapter ix., Library Legislation in the U.S., pp. 523-599.

The fullest account.

Yust, W. F. Library Legislation. Preprint of American Library Association, Manual of Library Economy, chapter ix. 1911.

Annual reviews of the library legislation in the U.S. appear in the Library Jl.

For articles, see Cannons, pp. 90-96: LWK, Legislation, Library Commissions, pp. 241-245.

CHAPTER II
ADOPTION OF ACTS, FOUNDATION AND COMMITTEES

14. Methods of Adopting the Public Libraries Acts.

14. Methods of Adopting the Public Libraries Acts.—There are only two methods prescribed by the Libraries Acts under which public libraries can be established. In rural parishes a parish meeting, called upon a requisition signed by ten or more voters and held at the time and place appointed, may adopt the Acts by a bare majority of those present and voting. At least seven days’ notice of the meeting must be given, but it is better to allow a month. Should a poll be demanded, it must be conducted by ballot according to the rules laid down by the Local Government Board. Full particulars, including forms of requisition, will be found in Chambers and Fovargue’s Law Relating to Public Libraries, 1899.

15.

15. As already stated in [Section 4], any county borough, urban district, burgh or other similar authority may adopt the Libraries Acts by a resolution of the council, without reference to the voters. A month’s notice of motion must be given in the customary form, and a bare majority of the council can pass the resolution. A copy of the resolution adopting the Acts must be sent to the Local Government Board, and it must also be advertised in the local papers and posted on the doors of all the churches and chapels—where such notices are usually posted. It is best to make the resolution state a particular date when the Acts are to come into operation, as is required by the Scotch Act. In some places the Acts after being adopted have been allowed to become a dead-letter owing to neglect of this necessary precaution. As the urban districts and burghs are given power to fix the amount of rate within the limitation of one penny, it is not necessary to include in the resolution adopting the Acts any stipulation as to the amount of rate. A useful form of resolution is as follows:

That the Public Libraries Act [state date of principal Act] and all subsequent Acts amending the same be, and are hereby adopted, for the county borough of ————— [state place], and shall be in force throughout the borough [or other area] on and after the . . . . . . day of . . . . . . . . [state year].

16.

16. As the power of adopting the Acts in populous areas is now vested in the local authorities, there is no longer, as formerly, any need to educate opinion among ratepayers as to the necessity for establishing public libraries. The Library Association has issued a useful pamphlet, The Establishment of Public Libraries, 1909, and most of the other propagandist literature of a useful kind appears in the various books of Mr Thomas Greenwood (Public Libraries, British Library Year Book, etc.), and these should be consulted by anyone in a rural parish who desires to raise the question in a practical form. As regards urban districts the initiative may safely be left in the hands of the intelligent members of council, who will sooner or later move in the direction of placing their districts in line with all the other large towns in the country.

17.

17. At present about 534 towns and districts in the United Kingdom have adopted the Public Libraries Acts, or local Acts, and this number includes every large town in the country. The principal areas still unprovided with public libraries are the Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone and the towns and districts of Bacup, Crewe, Scarborough, Swindon, Govan, Leith, Pollokshaws and Wishaw; together with Dover, Jarrow, Llandudno and Weymouth, which, though they have adopted the Acts, have taken no steps to put them into force.

18. Endowments.

18. Endowments.—Little need be said about the foundation of public libraries by endowment or bequest. The wills of Stephen Mitchell and George Baillie, of Glasgow, are models of what a liberal bequest should be, both as regards the amounts bequeathed and the conditions laid down for the formation of the library itself. The practical condition attached to all the gifts made by Mr Andrew Carnegie and Mr J. Passmore Edwards for public library purposes should be adopted by every benefactor who proposes to found a library. This is the very sensible one that, if the gift of money is accepted by the community, the local authority must adopt the Public Libraries Acts, in order to maintain the library in a state of efficiency for all time. The only alteration suggested in the form of future bequests is that, when money is offered to a small town on the condition that it adopts the Libraries Acts, the whole of the gift should not necessarily take the form of a building fund. Small towns usually have very inadequate incomes from the library rate, and for this reason it might be wise if a fair proportion of the gift were directed to be invested as a book fund. A large library building without books is by no means as useful to the people as a much less ambitious building provided with a fund which permits of the annual purchase of £50 to £100 worth of books, independently of the library rate. At the same time, the endowment of libraries in the manner suggested would not always act as an encouragement to town councils to provide proper funds for libraries; indeed, it might act as an excuse for withholding them.

19. Appointment of Committees.

19. Appointment of Committees.—The first step after the Libraries Acts have been adopted by a local authority will be the appointment of a committee, and it is desirable that only capable men should be elected. The best interests of the library will be served by a committee consisting of good business men and literary or professional men or women, in about equal proportions. It is quite evident that the legislature did not contemplate the formation of public libraries by committees consisting exclusively of the rank and file of local authorities, who are chiefly concerned with paving, drainage and other equally material matters. By Section 15, Sub-section 3, of the “Public Libraries Act, 1892,” it is ordained that “an urban authority may if it think fit appoint a committee and delegate to it all or any of its powers and duties under this section, and the said committee shall to the extent of such delegation be deemed to be the library authority. Persons appointed to be members of the committee need not be a member of the urban authority.” The “Public Libraries (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1877,” gives similar power to elect members outside the local authority. Section 4 ordains that “the committee in which the general management, regulation and control of such libraries, museums or schools may be vested under the provisions of the 12th Section of the principal Act may consist in part of persons not members of the council or board or commissioners.” By the “Public Libraries Consolidation (Scotland) Act, 1887,” Section 18 ordains that the local authority shall “appoint a committee, consisting of not less than ten nor more than twenty members, half of whom shall be chosen from amongst the magistrates and council, or board, as the case may be, and the remaining half from amongst the householders of the burgh or parish other than the magistrates and council, or board, and three members of such committee shall form a quorum.” It is further ordained, Section 21, that this committee “shall manage, regulate and control all libraries and museums established under this Act, or to which this Act applies; and shall have power to do all things necessary for such management.” It is thus clear that local authorities are fully empowered to select the best expert advice it is possible to obtain in the district, and that the administration of the library should not rest entirely in the hands of the local authority. It is therefore advisable that library committees, while consisting of a majority of members of the local authority, should be strengthened by a good proportion of members selected from among the best qualified citizens. The principle of co-option is compulsory in the case of Education Committees, and so far as this principle is concerned the arguments for its adoption on Library Committees are equally cogent.

20. Constitution of Committees.

20. Constitution of Committees.—The portions of the Acts already quoted make it plain that in Scotland the library committees shall be independent bodies, with power to provide everything necessary, without requiring the sanction of the local authorities, or doing more than from time to time reporting their proceedings. In Ireland, under Section 12 of the principal Act, “the general management, regulation and control of such libraries and museums, etc., shall be, as to any borough, vested in and exercised by the council or board, and as to any town, in and by the town commissioners, or such committee as they respectively may from time to time appoint, who may from time to time purchase and provide the necessary fuel, books, appoint and dismiss officers, make rules,” etc. This approximates closely to the English law, which differs from that of the Scottish in leaving the power of appointing an independent or semi-independent library committee in the discretion of the local authority. The English Act has already been quoted in the previous section, and it now remains to give reasons why every Public Library Committee should be independent of the control of the local authority, save for certain purposes. The fact that, in Scotland, the hybrid composition of the committee is regarded as a reason for making it practically independent of the local authority offers a strong argument in favour of a similar course being pursued in England and Ireland. A mixed committee is entitled to act without the special sanction of the local authority, if only for the reason that all its members cannot take part in the ratifying proceedings of the council or board. It seems illogical to invite capable citizens who are not members of the council to pass certain resolutions and then submit them for confirmation to a council on which they have no vote or voice. Furthermore, a committee of any kind appointed to administer an Act, like the Public Libraries Act, which lays down clearly what may be done and how much may be expended, does not require the same kind of oversight and control as an ordinary committee appointed for some municipal purpose with comparatively unlimited powers of expenditure. No committee appointed for an educational purpose should be subject to the delays and difficulties caused by having to submit all its proceedings for confirmation by a superior authority. All these arguments furnish reasons why local authorities in England and Ireland should follow Scotland in giving Public Library Committees a complete or partial delegation of powers under the Public Libraries Acts.

21. Delegation of Powers.

21. Delegation of Powers.—A delegation of powers under the various sections of the Acts quoted should provide for a fair measure of independence for the committee, with a fair share of general control on the part of the local authority. As a matter of policy, as well as in the public interest, it is very desirable to maintain harmonious relations between a central board and its acting committees, and for these reasons information as to the proceedings of a committee should always be available, if required. But, for the reasons already set forth, a Public Library Committee should be a reporting and not merely a recommending body. With the exception of public libraries in the Metropolitan Boroughs, which are compelled by Section 8 (3) of the “London Government Act, 1899,” to receive the sanction of the Borough Council and its Finance Committee for expenditures over £50, every Public Library Committee in England and Ireland should be constituted under a special delegation of powers, such as was contemplated and authorized by the Acts already quoted. A fair and workable form of delegation of powers, which has been adopted with good results, is as follows:

That the [name of authority] hereby delegates to the Public Library Committee all the powers and duties vested in it as the Library Authority under the Public Libraries Acts, 1892, and all subsequent amendments, with the following reservations:—

• 1. The sanction and raising of loans for new buildings or other purposes.
• 2. The making and collection of the annual library rate.
• 3. The confirmation of agreements with adjoining library authorities for the joint use of libraries.
• 4. The confirmation of the appointment or dismissal of the librarian.
• 5. The sanction of any scheme for the formation of branch libraries.
• 6. The proceedings of the Public Library Committee to be reported monthly to the [name of authority], but only for confirmation and sanction as regards Clauses 1 to 5 of this constitution.
• 7. The librarian to act as clerk to the Public Library Committee.

As regards Metropolitan Borough Councils, it may be desirable to add a clause to the effect that no expenditure exceeding £50 be incurred without an estimate being first obtained by the Finance Committee of the Borough Council. But it is doubtful, if even this restriction is necessary, if, when the rate is made, the Borough Finance Committee passes an estimate for the whole amount of the public library rate, to be expended on general library purposes according to a budget or scheme prepared by the Public Library Committee. This will get over the difficulty of having to obtain fresh estimates every time £50 worth of books is ordered. The “Public Libraries Act (Amendments) Act, 1901,” contains a clause making it quite clear that for library purposes a Metropolitan Borough is an urban district.

22. Standing Orders.

22. Standing Orders.—The standing orders or bye-laws regulating Public Library Committees need not be very elaborate. Generally, they should be the same as those governing other committees of the local authority, with the exceptions as to powers. The committee should be elected annually by the local authority, and the number of members should be small rather than large. The needs of districts differ, but a Public Library Committee of over twelve may be an encumbrance rather than a help to the institution. At the same time a larger committee means a larger representation on the Council, and help from more people who are actually or nominally interested in the library service. Probably the largest committee in England is that at Wallasey, which has thirty members, of whom thirteen are Council members. Where such large committees exist it is usually found that the actual executive work devolves upon a sub-committee, such as the Book Sub-Committee. Meetings are generally held once a month; certainly there is ordinarily no occasion for the committee to be called more often, and in some towns a quarterly meeting is found to be sufficient. A chairman should be elected annually by the committee; he should invariably be a Council member, as he is the natural representative of the committee on the Council; but the vice-chairman may fittingly be a co-opted member. The principle of a constant change of chairmen, adopted in some Councils, is a bad one on a Library Committee, as the work is quite different, in many respects, from other departments of the public service, and knowledge and experience are required if a sound and consistent library policy is to be pursued. This is impossible under a system in which chairmen come and go annually. The same remarks apply to the committee as a whole; its personnel should remain reasonably stable. Three members should form a quorum. The committee should control its own clerk, who ought to be the librarian, although, as we have implied, this is by no means generally the case, and, indeed, is sometimes impossible under the standing orders of the Council. The Public Libraries Acts require that a separate account be kept of receipts and expenditure from the library rate, and library committees should see that this is done in all cases where the accounts are kept and payments made by the Council officials.

23. Duties of Committees.

23. Duties of Committees.—To a considerable extent these are fixed by the delegation of powers granted and the standing orders adopted. But there are certain broad principles which should be observed by library committees in the ultimate interest of their work. The chief of these is that the committee is concerned rather with library policy than with library administration; with what shall be done rather than with how it shall be done. The administration, planning, arrangement, methods, etc., of a library are technical matters purely appertaining to the librarian; and many libraries are stultified by well-meant and conscientious interference in details of this character by library committees. The committee has the right, and it is its duty, to expect the results of its policy to be visibly effective in the library service, but it should confide the means of obtaining those results to its librarian; only in this way can the special training which librarians now bring to their work be made of maximum use to the community. With the modifications implied in these principles the duties of the committee cover:

• 1. General oversight of buildings, staff and the work of the various departments of the library.
• 2. Careful supervision of the selection of books.
• 3. Compilation and revision of public rules and regulations.
• 4. Regular checking of accounts and expenditures, including those of all officers.
• 5. Regular meetings on fixed dates.
• 6. Every member of committee should become acquainted with the elements of public library administration, and for this purpose should possess copies of all the live Acts of Parliament.

24.

24. To cover the work effectively, various sub-committees are necessary, which should be small, but large enough to give each member of the committee an actual interest in some definite department of library work. Usually the sub-committees appointed include a Book Sub-Committee, which undertakes the examining of all lists of books suggested for purchase; an Accounts Sub-Committee, to which all financial matters are committed; and a Staff Sub-Committee, which is concerned with the appointment, dismissal, remuneration, and training of the employees. Some of the large libraries have a Buildings Sub-Committee to regulate the proper maintenance of library properties; Lectures and Extension Sub-Committee; Branches Sub-Committee; and such other groupings as the local circumstances warrant. In most cases, however, the needs of the authority are met by the three sub-committees first-named; and the multiplying of sub-committees is not desirable where there is not enough business to keep them interested and occupied.

Bibliography

25. Adoption of Acts

25. Adoption of Acts:

Fovargue, H. W. Adoption of the Public Libraries Acts in England and Wales. 1896. (L.A. Series, No. 7.)

Greenwood, T. Public Libraries, 1891, p. 76.

Library Association. The Establishment of Public Libraries, 1909.

Lord, J. E. The Free Public Library. Preprint of A.L.A., Man. of Lib. Econ., chapter vi., 1914.

Wire, G. E. How to Start a Public Library. 1902. (A.L.A. Tracts, No. 2.)

26. Committees and Trustees

26. Committees and Trustees:

Bostwick, A. E. Administration of a Public Library. Preprint of A.L.A., Man. of Lib. Econ., chapter xii., 1911.

Greenwood, T. Public Library Committees. In his Public Libraries, 1894, p. 352.

Notes for Library Committees. In Greenwood’s Year Book, 1900, p. 1.

Hardy, E. A. The Public Library, chapter v., p. 103.

Sayers, W. C. Berwick. The Library Committee: its Character and Work. 1914. (Library Assistants’ Association Series, No. 6.)

Wynkoop, Asa. Commissions, State Aid, and State Agencies. Preprint of A.L.A., Man. of Lib. Econ., chapter xxvii., 1913.

For articles, see Cannons, E 1-3, Library Organization and Administration; E 8-12, Personnel, etc.

CHAPTER III
FINANCE, LOANS AND ACCOUNTS

27. The Library Rate.

27. The Library Rate.—The general library Acts passed for Ireland, Scotland and England all limit the amount to be raised by rate for library purposes to one penny in the pound on the annual rateable rental of all properties within the areas, with certain exceptions or modifications as to gardens and agricultural lands. Great doubt exists as to what is meant by a penny rate and on what value it is to be levied. Some authorities maintain that the income from a penny rate can only represent the net sum realized by a penny on the rateable value, after all deductions have been made on account of empty houses and other irrecoverable items. Against this may be set the actual practice in several places, of paying over the full sum which a penny rate on the nominal rateable value would produce, without any deductions whatsoever. As the Public Libraries Acts have placed a limitation on the amount of the library rate, it may be assumed that the libraries were intended to benefit to the full extent of the rateable value. At any rate the Acts are silent on the point, and practice differs so much that it is fair to say that a public library, because of the present limitation, and because some places now give the full product, is entitled to the full amount which a penny rate would yield when calculated on the full rateable value of the town or district, without deduction of any kind, either for unproductive properties or cost of collection. It has been decided that no deduction can be made from the income produced by the library rate on account of the cost of collection, and as this rate is now collected as part of a general or other unlimited rate, it seems unfair to saddle it with any part of the cost of collection. If it were collected as a separate rate, or with rates similarly limited by Act of Parliament, the position would be different. The difference between the amount paid over to public libraries and the actual sums which would be produced were the rate charged on the full rateable value is sometimes considerable. The losses range from over 20 to 5 per cent., and thus a considerable limit is placed upon the book-purchasing power of a large number of libraries.

28. Unexpended Balances.

28. Unexpended Balances.—In some places the local authority has appropriated unexpended balances of the public library rate and applied them to other local purposes. This action is clearly illegal, and could only have been taken by those who are ignorant of the decisions of the Local Government Board on the point. It is true the Acts do not specify how unexpended balances of the library rate are to be dealt with, but it is equally true that as the money was raised under a special Act for a strictly defined purpose, it cannot be diverted to any other purpose, nor can it be carried forward as a portion of the library rate for a succeeding year. No doubt the wording of the Act is responsible for the interpretation which has been put upon the section entitled “Limitations on expenditure for purpose of Act.” It reads: “A rate or addition to a rate shall not be levied for the purposes of this Act for any one financial year in any library district to an amount exceeding one penny in the pound.” The Local Government Board have decided that any unexpended balances of the library income must be carried forward to next year’s library account, without prejudice to the next year’s library income. This decision has been upheld by all the district auditors of the Local Government Board, and it is difficult to understand the reason why a few places still cling to the belief that the library rate can be further limited by this illegal procedure of appropriating unexpended balances. Committees who are threatened with this action can always protect themselves against the injustice by taking care that there are no balances to appropriate; but it will prevent them from saving a little money for necessary book purchases, cleaning or other purposes. It should be pointed out, furthermore, that the section of the Act above quoted does not really refer to the total amount to be raised by rate in a given year, but only to the poundage or rate which may be charged for library purposes, namely, not more than a penny in the pound. The question of the product of this rate of a penny is not mentioned anywhere in the Acts, and it is this lack of clear definition—the failure to distinguish the amount of a rate from the total amount which it will produce annually—which is responsible for many of the difficulties hitherto met with in administering the Libraries Acts.

29. Annual Estimates.

29. Annual Estimates.—The Scotch principal Act is the only one which requires an annual estimate or budget to be prepared by the library authority for the information of the local authority. Section 30 of the Act of 1887 provides that “The Committee shall in the month of April in every year make up, or cause to be made up, an estimate of the sums required in order to defray the interest of any money borrowed, the payment of the sinking fund, and the expense of maintaining and managing all libraries and museums under its control for the year after Whitsunday then next to come, and for the purpose of purchasing the books, articles and things authorized by this Act,” etc. This estimate has to be submitted to the local authority, who “shall provide the amount required out of the library rate to be levied by it, and shall pay over to the committee the sum necessary for the annual expenditure by it in terms of its estimate.” By the standing orders of most local authorities yearly or half-yearly estimates have to be prepared and submitted by the various committees, and as practice varies everywhere, it will be well for the library authority to follow the local practice.

30.

30. Local circumstances alter the conditions materially in every place, and hitherto there has been a lack of uniformity in presenting financial statements which makes any attempt to produce a model budget to be suspect. The form of the statement is often governed by the practice of the Borough Accountant, who arranges the order of items in accordance with his own views; but wherever it is possible to do so, it would be well if the form of annual estimate conformed with the order adopted in the report made by Professor W. G. S. Adams to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust in 1915, On Library Provision and Policy, which would arrange in some such order as in the table on [page 46].

Each of these items will probably need analysis, and the order given here may be inverted; indeed, the form shown is merely meant to be suggestive and to show the nature of the information which the Council usually requires when it is considering the annual estimates.

Fig. 1.—Form for Annual Estimates.

31.

31. The distribution of the income over the various items is again subject to local circumstances; but, thanks to the inquiry of Professor Adams, a [table] of comparative distribution of income drawn from the figures of about 500 library systems throughout the kingdom has been published, which gives the best information at present available. It is qualified by the facts we have emphasized in the last paragraph, and still more by the changed conditions which result from the European War, which have increased such items as salaries, and reduced the book-purchasing (and indeed every other purchasing) power of libraries considerably. We give the table of percentages of expenditure for libraries with, and without, loans, merely remarking that it may serve as a rough guide by which library committees may work. Again, the librarian, in submitting his budget for the use of his committee, will analyse the items into general administrative, central, reference and branch libraries’ expenditure, and under each will show salaries as distinct from wages paid for unskilled service; and books will be divided into “new,” “replacements,” etc.; periodicals into those filed permanently and others; maintenance charges into building expenses, furniture and fittings, stationery, repairs to fabric and furniture, and so on. The Council as a rule does not require so detailed a statement.

Classified Percentages of Library Expenditure

Fig. 2.—Returns compiled from Professor Adams’ Report on Library Provision and Policy [Carnegie United Kingdom Trust], [Sec. 31].

32.

32. We must consider in some detail the principal expenditures to which library committees are subject.

33. Loans.

33. Loans.—The Libraries Acts give fairly full instructions as to loans for public library purposes. In England under the principal Act “every library authority, with the sanction of the Local Government Board . . . may borrow money for the purposes of this Act on the security of any fund or rate applicable for those purposes.” In parishes the regulations for borrowing prescribed by the “Local Government Act, 1894,” are to apply. As a preliminary to borrowing, an inquiry is held locally by a Local Government Board inspector, who receives evidence as to proposed buildings, sites, amount required, etc., and also hears objections to the proposal. The Local Government Board print bills announcing the inquiry, and these must be posted and paid for by the library authority. At such inquiries full particulars should be prepared as to income, date of adopting Acts, etc., as well as particulars of the proposed scheme. After the inquiry is held it is generally about three months later before the sanction of the Board is received. This states the amount sanctioned and for what period the money can be borrowed for sites, buildings, furniture or books, as the case may be.

The security for loans is declared by the “Public Health Act, 1875,” Section 233, to be the “credit of any fund or all or any rates or rate out of which they are authorized to defray expenses incurred by them in the execution of this Act.” And it is further laid down that “they may mortgage to the persons by or on behalf of whom such sums are advanced any such fund or rates or rate.” It thus appears that neither library buildings nor the library rate can be mortgaged for the purposes of library loans, but only the rate or rates out of which the expenses of the Public Health Act are paid. This practically means the general rate of a district.

34.

34. The Local Government Board will fix the period for which sums of money for particular purposes may be borrowed. Generally the periods are as follows:

The money may be borrowed from the Public Works Loan Commissioners, County Councils, Banks, Friendly Societies or private individuals. The rate of interest varies, according to the state of the money market. Four per cent. may be regarded as an average interest at present, but library authorities have borrowed for as low as 3 per cent.

[1] A loan for purchasing an existing building will not be sanctioned by the Local Government Board for a period exceeding twenty or twenty-five years.

35.

35. The methods of repayment vary, and this must be entirely a matter for local arrangement, and should follow the practice in vogue with other municipal loans. An equalized repayment of principal and interest on the annuity system has the advantage of distributing the payments uniformly over the whole period, and of placing part of the burden on succeeding ratepayers as well as upon those who establish the library. This is much fairer than making the pioneer ratepayers practically bear the whole foundation cost of establishing an institution which increases in its value to the community as it progresses. On the other hand, buildings are sure to depreciate in value, and the question of repairs is a constant one, so that some authorities maintain that loans on structures should be paid off by annually diminishing instalments of principal and interest. In Scotland repayments of principal must be made from a sinking fund which is to be formed from a certain proportion of the rate put aside annually.

The arrangements for negotiating a loan and drawing up the necessary deeds should be placed in the hands of a solicitor, but in many cases the accountant or town clerk of the district is responsible for all arrangements, and will see that the deed is duly sealed as prescribed by the Act.

In connexion with this it should be noted that by Section 237 of the “Public Health Act, 1875,” a register of the mortgages on each rate must be kept, and that “within fourteen days after the date of any mortgage an entry shall be made in the register of the number and date thereof, and of the names and description of the parties thereto, as stated in the deed.” Furthermore, “every such register shall be open to public inspection during office hours at the said office [local authority’s office] without fee or reward.” As the auditor will call for this register, the clerk to the library authority should see that it is provided, if the local authority has not already done so.

36.

36. The arrangements for loans in Ireland and Scotland are somewhat similar to those just described. In Ireland no power to borrow was given under the principal Act, but the Amendment Act of 1877 gives the power, provided the commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury approve. The Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland may lend, and power is given to mortgage, as security, either the borough fund, town fund, or the library rate itself. In Scotland the local authority may borrow, without any other consent, on mortgage or bond on the security of the library rate, a sum or sums not exceeding the capital sum represented by one-fourth part of the library rate, capitalized at the rate of twenty years’ purchase of such sum. A sinking fund must be formed, consisting of an annual sum equal to one-fiftieth part of the money borrowed, which is to be invested and applied to the purpose of extinguishing the debt.

Before leaving the question of loans, it may be well to offer a word of warning against the danger of overborrowing, which has very seriously crippled the work of various libraries. In some places as much as one-half the library income has to be devoted to the repayment of principal and interest of loans; in others, one-third is similarly spent. One-fourth is the maximum which in any case should be set apart for the purpose.

37. Assessment to Rates and Taxes.

37. Assessment to Rates and Taxes.—The assessment of public library buildings to rates and taxes has been for long a burning question, and is still far from final settlement. The limitation of the library rate to a penny in the pound has always been considered by library authorities a strong reason why all additional burdens on the meagre income raised thereby should be resisted. But all local authorities and assessment committees did not think likewise, and a good deal of friction resulted.

In 1843 was passed “An Act to exempt from County, Borough, Parochial, and other Local Rates, Land and Buildings occupied by Scientific or Literary Societies,” 6 & 7 Vict., c. 36, under which a few public libraries obtained certificates of exemption from the payment of local rates, from the Registrar of Friendly Societies, as allowed by this Act. Some of these certificates were recognized by the rating authorities, others were ignored, and it was frequently maintained that a public library was not a scientific or literary society within the meaning of the Act. In 1896, however, a complete change took place as regards this point, by a decision of the House of Lords, which ruled that public libraries were literary societies or institutions for the purposes of the “Income Tax Act of 1842,” under which such institutions were granted exemption from the payment of income tax. Although the case, brought by the Corporation of Manchester against the Surveyor of Income Tax for Manchester, did not directly refer to the Act of 1843, the decision that public libraries were literary institutions effected all that was necessary for the purpose of claiming exemption from local rates under the “Literary Societies Act of 1843.” A full report of this case and decision is printed in the Library for 1896, in the Times law reports and elsewhere. The effect of this decision was to remove any doubt from the mind of the Registrar of Friendly Societies, who has power under the Act to grant certificates exempting public libraries from the payment of local rates, and as a result many libraries obtained certificates, and now enjoy complete or partial exemption. It is not necessary to quote the Act of 1843, which can be obtained for one penny from the King’s printers, but the procedure requisite for obtaining a certificate of exemption may be noted.

38.

38. An application claiming exemption under the 1843 Act must be addressed to the Registrar of Friendly Societies at London, Edinburgh or Dublin, as the case may require. With this must be enclosed a copy of the rules and regulations of the library, signed by the chairman and three members of committee, and countersigned by the clerk or librarian. These rules must include the following, or others in similar terms:—

1. “The —— Public Library is a society established for purposes of literature and science exclusively.”

2. “The library is supported in part by a rate levied in accordance with the Public Libraries Acts, and in part by annual voluntary contributions of money and gifts of books and periodicals. The Library Committee shall not make any dividend, gift, division or bonus in money unto or between any of the members.”

These two rules are absolutely necessary to a successful application, and, if not already incorporated, should be included by special resolution of the library authority before application is made. It is best to send printed copies of the rules, and it should be noted that three identical copies, all signed, must be sent. On these the registrar endorses his certificate, and sends one to the Clerk of the Peace for the district, one to the library authority, and retains one. The form of certificate usually attached is as follows:

It is hereby certified that this society is entitled to the benefit of the Act 6 & 7 Vict., c. 36, intituled “An Act to exempt from County, Borough, Parochial and other Local Rates, Lands and Buildings occupied by Scientific or Literary Societies.”

Date.

Seal of
Registry of
Friendly
Societies.

The application should show that annual voluntary contributions of money, books and periodicals are received, but there is no direction laid down as to the amount of voluntary contributions which will pass muster. The point is somewhat vague, but it may be assumed that the amount received from gifts, subscriptions, sales, books, periodicals, etc., need not form a substantial proportion of the income. As the English Registrar accepts donations in kind as annual voluntary contributions, it is only necessary to value these to make up a respectable sum.

39.

39. Certificates are not granted as a rule in cases where a charge for admission is made. Furthermore, it is doubtful if the exemption from local rates would be allowed by hostile local authorities for any occupied portions of library buildings. A caretaker’s or librarian’s residence would in all probability be separately assessed, if the certificate were otherwise recognized. By a decision of a Court of Quarter Sessions at Liverpool in 1905, it has been decided that the Corporation of Liverpool is liable for local rates on a library building; but it is not possible to say how far this may affect libraries holding these certificates. Legislation is pending, and till something is definitely settled, the question must remain open.

40.

40. The House of Lords’ [decision] already noticed also freed public library buildings from income tax, but it should be distinctly understood that inhabited house duty can be charged for the whole of a building, even if only partly occupied as a residence, when included under one roof, unless it can be shown that the library and residence do not communicate directly with each other.