The Commercial circulating library in the 1970s

Abstract

IN THE 1930S the twopenny 'pay-as-you-read' library was pronounced as soon to be 'a permanent and all-pervading addition to the library resouces of the country'.1 Yet by the 1950S the 'tuppenny' service w~s declining and few may remember it today. People may be familiar with the better quality subscription services such as Boots' ,Smith's and, before the Second World War, Mudie's circulating library, and studies have been made of them, but there is little ofa descriptive or analytical nature in the professional literature about their poor relations, the commercial circulating library. There was, however, much discussion in the professional press of the ' 30S about the relationship between commercial and public libraries as regards the provision of recreational literature. 2 Indeed, as recently as 1971, W. J. Murison recommended that recreation and entertainment should be left to 'commercial organisations'. 3 Circulating libraries have been defined as those from which books might be borrowed in return for a subscription or small fees paid to the business concerns providing them.4 Before, the post-war expansion of the public library service, many people relied on circulating libraries for their fiction and often non-fiction. National agencies provided varying levels of subscription service: high quality clubs such as the Times' or Harrods' were more expensive than the popular Boots' or Smith's, which were run