Page 107 - DLIS101_LIBRARY_AND_INFORMATION_SOCIETY

Library and Information Society

Notes Manchester, which claims to be the oldest public library in the English-speaking world, opened in
1653.

The early town libraries of the UK include those of Ipswich (1612), Bristol (founded
in 1613 and opened in 1615), and Leicester (1632). Shrewsbury School also opened its
library to townsfolk.
In Bristol, an early library that allowed access to the public was that of the Kalendars or Kalendaries,
a brotherhood of clergy and laity who were attached to the Church of All-Hallowen or All Saints.
Records show that in 1464, provision was made for a library to be erected in the house of the
Kalendars, and reference is made to a deed of that date by which it was “appointed that all who
wish to enter for the sake of instruction shall have ‘free access and recess’ at certain times”.
At the turn of the 18th century, libraries were becoming increasingly public and were more frequently
lending libraries. The 18th century saw the switch from closed parochial libraries to lending libraries.
Before this time, public libraries were parochial in nature and libraries frequently chained their
books to desks. Libraries also were not uniformly open to the public. In 1790, The Public Library
Act would not be passed for another sixty-seven years. Even though the British Museum existed at
this time and contained over 50,000 books, the national library was not open to the public, or even
to a majority of the population. Access to the Museum depended on passes, of which there was
sometimes a waiting period of three to four weeks. Moreover, the library was not open to browsing.
Once a pass to the library had been issued the reader was taken on a tour of the library. Many
readers complained that the tour was much too short. At the turn of the century, there were virtually
no public libraries in the sense in which we now understand the term i.e., libraries provided from
public funds and freely accessible to all. Only one important library in Great Britain, namely
Chetham’s Library in Manchester, was fully and freely accessible to the public. However, there had
come into being a whole network of library provision on a private or institutional basis. Subscription
libraries, both private and commercial, provided the middle and middle to upper class with a variety
of books for moderate fees.
The increase in secular literature at this time encouraged the spread of lending libraries, especially
the commercial subscription libraries. Commercial subscription libraries began when booksellers
began renting out extra copies of books in the mid-18th century. Steven Fischer estimates that in
1790, there were ‘about six hundred rental and lending libraries, with a clientele of some fifty
thousand. The mid to late 18th century saw a virtual epidemic of feminine reading as novels became
more and more popular. Novels, while frowned upon in society, were extremely popular. In England
there were many who lamented at the ‘villanous profane and obscene books’ and the opposition to
the circulating library, on moral grounds, persisted well into the 19th century. Still, many
establishments must have circulated many times the number of novels as of any other genre. In
1797, Thomas Wilson wrote in The Use of Circulating Libraries: “Consider, that for a successful
circulating library, the collection must contain 70% fiction”. However, the overall percentage of
novels mainly depended on the proprietor of the circulating library. While some circulating libraries
were almost completely novels, others had less than 10% of their overall collection in the form of
novels. [26] The national average at the turn of the century hovered around novels comprising about
20% of the total collection. Novels varied from other types of books in many ways. They were read
primarily for enjoyment instead of for study. They did not provide academic knowledge or spiritual
guidance; thus they were read quickly and far fewer times than other books. These were the perfect
books for commercial subscription libraries to lend. Since, books were read for pure enjoyment
rather than for scholarly work, books needed to become both cheaper and smaller. Small duodecimo
editions of books were preferred to the large folio editions. Folio editions were read at a desk, while
the small duodecimo editions could be easily read like the paperbacks of today. Much like paperbacks

102 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY