LIBRARY 



3403 



LIBRARY 



Franklin, who tells the story of its inception 

 in his famous autobiography, and who is called 

 the "Father of the Circulating Library." This 

 was a subscription library and circulated books 

 to its members only, but it extended reference 

 privileges to the general public. 



The idea of providing books for free use at 

 the expense of the community by means of 

 taxation originated in America. A town 

 library was conducted on this plan in Salisbury, 

 Conn., as early as 1803, and in 1833 the town 

 of Peterborough, N. H., founded a free circu- 

 lating library, supported by public taxation, 

 which is still in existence. But the history of 

 the modern American public library properly 

 begins with the adoption of laws by the various 

 states authorizing cities, towns and villages to 

 organize public libraries and to levy taxes for 

 their support. Such a law was first adopted by 

 Massachusetts, in 1848. 



In the United States the spread of the pub- 

 lic library idea has been rapid and extensive. 

 In 1876 an organization of librarians jcalled the 

 American Library Association was formed in 

 Philadelphia which now has over 6,000 mem- 

 bers and holds annual conventions. In most of 

 the states, also, and even in some of the larger 

 cities, there are clubs and associations which 

 meet for consideration of professional prob- 

 lems. These associations have been largely 

 instrumental in promoting professional con- 

 sciousness and cooperation in the creation of a 

 body of doctrine and practical technique which 

 has been crystallized into a uniform and 

 authoritative system called Library Science. 

 Underlying this is the conviction that the pub- 

 lic library is an integral part of public educa- 

 tion to which every member of the community, 

 young or old, great or humble, lettered or un- 

 lettered is equally entitled. Among the most 

 striking departures from former practice is the 

 growing tendency' to allow free access to the 

 book shelves. This is called "open access" and 

 has been widely adopted in the administration 

 of American public libraries. 



The modern public library, moreover, has 

 ceased to wait for its patrons to seek it out, 

 but employs means and methods for attracting 

 the public which are both enterprising and ef- 

 fective. Branch libraries are installed in resi- 

 dence districts, often in buildings specially 

 designed for this purpose. The New York Pub- 

 lic Library, the greatest free circulating library 

 in the world, maintains, besides a magnificent 

 central building, a chain of forty-two branches 

 in separate buildings erected from a gift of 



$5,200,000 from Andrew Carnegie. Similar 

 branch systems, though not in every case so 

 handsomely housed, form an important part of 

 nearly every large American public library. 

 Brooklyn has twenty-nine branches; Boston, 

 twenty-eight; Philadelphia, twenty-six; Cleve- 

 land, forty; Cincinnati, twenty; Pittsburgh, 

 eight; Chicago, thirty-five; Detroit, eleven; 

 Los Angeles, twenty. Branch buildings are ar- 

 ranged upon a generally accepted plan com- 

 prising separate reading rooms for adults and 

 for children, with books on open shelves along 

 the walls or in book stacks easily accessible. 

 Frequently they include halls for meetings of 

 neighborhood societies. 



In Canada. The province of Ontario has 

 about 400 public libraries, and this number 

 exceeds the total in all the remainder of the 

 Dominion. The largest is the public library 

 of Toronto, but in 1917 Montreal was organiz- 

 ing a library which was expected to equal in 

 size and equipment the one in Toronto. The 

 Montreal institution is the first one of a truly 

 public nature in the province of Quebec. The 

 War of the Nations, which began in 1914, put 

 at an end for several years ambitious projects 

 to organize libraries in many other Canadian 

 cities. 



Carnegie Libraries. The name of Andrew 

 Carnegie is inseparably linked with the growth 

 of public libraries in the English-speaking 

 world during the past twenty-five years. At- 

 tributing much of his own success to the in- 

 fluence of the books loaned to him by a citizen 

 of Allegheny, Pa., where he lived as a youth, 

 he began his donations by the erection of a 

 public library in that place, following it shortly 

 by the gift of a splendid museum and library 

 building to the city of Pittsburgh. Many 

 other large cities, among them New York, 

 Philadelphia and Saint Louis, have accepted 

 his benefactions, while thousands of smaller 

 places in America and in Great Britain and 

 hei colonies bear testimony to his generosity 

 in the public libraries made possible through 

 his aid and, in many cases, bearing his name. 

 Up to the end of 1915 the total amount of his 

 grants to public libraries was nearly $65,000,000. 

 See CARNEGIE, ANDREW. 



Librarianship as a Profession. The adminis- 

 tration of a modern public library is now 

 recognized as a specialized occupation or pro- 

 fession requiring training, experience and a 

 high degree of executive ability, while the sev- 

 eral branches of the work call for special skill, 

 learning and scientific accuracy. One of the 



