Abstract
ABSTRACT The Public Libraries Act of 1850 provided the catalyst for British public library development. The background and the relevance of this seminal piece of legislation are discussed and analyzed. The utilitarian and idealist views held by middle-class social reformers in early Victorian Britain are evaluated in terms of their effect on the debate and passage of the Act. The following conclusions are drawn: The social concerns of middle-class reformers were instrumental in the development of the British public library movement; utilitarianism and idealism were the guiding social philosophies; and the framers of the Act envisioned public libraries primarily as an agency for both social control and betterment of the working class.
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