After realising retrospectively how fortunate I was to have had so much good-quality free reading material, I went on to think about the people of the past and wonder what they had in the way of public libraries.
There is a lot of information about the libraries of the past available online. I now know that the public libraries I used were preceded first by libraries that charged their members then later by free libraries that were established by Victorian social reformers primarily for the improvement of the working classes.
Predecessors of public libraries
As books were an expensive luxury, for many centuries only people at the higher levels of society had their own private libraries.
Ecclesiastical, vocational, social and educational establishments also had collections of books, semi-private libraries that only selected people had access to.
Circulating libraries, or lending libraries, were established in the 18th century. It was just the books that circulated: these were not mobile or travelling libraries!
Circulating libraries were run for profit, so subscriptions and borrowing fees were payable. Although there were costs, borrowing a book was very much cheaper than buying it would have been. By joining a circulating library, even people who could afford to buy books would get a lot more reading material for their money.
These libraries were used by people of leisure, some of whom wanted more variety than existed at home. The libraries in their fathers' studies were unlikely to contain the romantic and Gothic novels that were becoming increasingly popular among young women, so they would have to borrow them from the circulating library.
Not only did readers benefit from this facility, so did some future writers: the Brontës for example are said to have been members of the circulating library at Keighley.
Both family libraries and circulating libraries are mentioned in Jane Austen's books:
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”
From Pride and Prejudice
The downside of the existence of libraries was that because of the high costs of books, if they had the option many people would borrow rather than buy them. Jane Austen wrote in a letter in 1814, “People are more ready to borrow and praise, than to buy –which I cannot wonder at.”
There were no purpose-built buildings for the circulating libraries, just dedicated areas inside the local shops. So these libraries were not quiet places to read, but places to meet people, exchange gossip and buy various items.
A circulating library in Regency times:
The first public libraries
The Public Libraries Act of 1850 gave local boroughs the power to establish tax-funded, free public libraries.
Some information from WiKi:
“The middle classes were concerned that the workers' free time was not being well-spent. This was prompted more by Victorian middle class paternalism than by demand from the lower social orders. Campaigners felt that encouraging the lower classes to spend their free time on morally uplifting activities, such as reading, would promote greater social good...
The Bill passed through Parliament as most MPs felt that public libraries would provide facilities for self-improvement through books and reading for all classes, and that the greater levels of education attained by providing public libraries would result in lower crime rates.”
Some of these campaigners were part of the temperance movement.
So public libraries were established from on high to keep the workers out of trouble and improve their minds. It was hoped that supplying food for the mind would reduce the craving for the demon drink!
One of the first free UK public libraries was opened in Manchester in 1852:
Andrew Carnegie and the modern public library
The modern public library as we know it took off at the end of the nineteenth century. Philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie gave huge amounts of money towards the establishment of large numbers of public libraries for the edification of the masses.
Carnegie demonstrated Victorian values; he believed in helping the deserving poor and hard-working and ambitious people who were committed to bettering themselves through education. He was a rags-to-riches, self-educated man himself and he wanted to help others of his kind.
Libraries offered underprivileged people with few if any other options free improving books and a warm, safe, quiet place to study, often in imposing surroundings; advice and information were also available from the librarians on request.
Thanks to my previously mentioned passive education from library books, I became familiar with the name of Andrew Carnegie from an early age. He was a major unseen influence in my life in that at least two of the impressive library buildings that I used as a child were built with Carnegie money. I would have seen his name above the door in buildings such as this:
The golden age of public libraries
The demographics of library members expanded to include new categories of users.
Although libraries were still used by ambitious and studious people who were trying to improve their lot, just as happened with the circulating libraries some of the respectable people who could afford to buy books also used the public libraries. Many of these people joined mainly for entertainment and distraction so borrowed books such as popular light fiction and biographies.
The Education Act of 1944 made secondary education universal and free for the first time. This increased the demand for reading material and many people relied mainly on their local library for it.
This golden age has come to an end. These are dark times for many public libraries; their current plight will be the subject of a future article.
The great benefactor Andrew Carnegie, who died 100 years ago this year:
