Page 131 - DLIS101_LIBRARY_AND_INFORMATION_SOCIETY

Library and Information Society

Notes 11.9 Public Libraries Act 1850

The Public Libraries Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict c.65) was an Act of theUnited Kingdom Parliament
which first gave local boroughs the power to establish free public libraries. The Act was the first
legislative step in the creation of an enduring national institution that provides universal free access
to information and literature, and was indicative of the moral, social and educative concerns of the
time. The legacy of the Act can be followed through subsequent legislation that built on and expanded
the powers granted in 1850 and the 4,540 public libraries that exist in the United Kingdom in 2010 can
trace their origins back to this Act.
In the 1830s, at the height of the Chartist movement, there was a general tendency towards reformism
in the United Kingdom. This prompted much new legislation to be passed, such as the Parliamentary
Reform Act 1832, the Factory Act 1833, the first instance of a Government grant for education in the
same year and the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. The Capitalist economic model had created
shift patterns which left workers with free time, in contrast to the agrarian model, and the middle
classes were concerned that the workers’ free time was not being well-spent. This was prompted
more by Victorian middle class paternalism rather 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.
In 1835, and against Government opposition, James Silk Buckingham, M.P. for Sheffield and a
supporter of the temperance movement, was able to secure the Chair of the Select Committee which
would examine “the extent, causes, and consequences of the prevailing vice of intoxication among
the labouring classes of the United Kingdom” and propose solutions. Francis Place, a campaigner
for the working class, agreed that “the establishment of parish libraries and district reading rooms,
and popular lectures on subjects both entertaining and instructive to the community might draw
off a number of those who now frequent public houses for the sole enjoyment they afford.”
Buckingham introduced to Parliament a Public Institution Bill allowing boroughs to charge a tax to
set up libraries and museums, the first of its kind. Although this did not become law, it had a major
influence on William Ewart and Joseph Brotherton, MPs, who introduced a bill which would
“boroughs with a population of 10,000 or more to raise a 1/2d for the establishment of museums.”
This became the Museums Act 1845.
The advocacy of Ewart and Brotherton then succeeded in having a select committee set up to consider
public library provision. A paper entitled “A statistical view of the principal public libraries in
Europe and the United States” by Edward Edwards, an assistant at the British Museum Library,
came to Ewart’s attention and Edwards became a key witness to the select committee. Edwards was
“a self taught former bricklayer... passionately convinced of the value and significance of libraries”.
The select committee of 1849 produced a report in which Edwards and Ewart ensured that “no
stone was left unturned” in proving their case that existing public library provision was inadequate
and that provision in other countries was far superior. The Select Committee reported that “while
we learn that, more than half a century ago, the first step taken by a foreign writer was to consult a
public library on the subject of his studies or composition; we find that no such auxiliary was at the
service of the British intellect.” The Report also argued that the provision of public libraries would
steer people towards temperate and moderate habits, the same argument as was made by James
Silk Buckingham fifteen years earlier. With a view to maximising the potential of current facilities,
the Committee made certain proposals, including:
• public use of university libraries
• improved public access to the British Museum Library
• duplicate books from the British Museum Library collection to be redistributed to local libraries.
In order to achieve such ends, the Committee made two significant recommendations. They suggested
that the Government should issue grants to aid the foundation of libraries and that the Museums

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