British Public Libraries Research Articles

British Public Library Buildings (Book Review)

British Public Library Buildings (Book Review)

Book Expenditure in British Public Libraries 1966–7

AT THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES CONFERENCE at Dublin in 1967 my paper entitled ‘What should we provide?’ included an appraisal of where we stood in the matter of book expenditure, and this appraisal was based on the Public Library Statistics 1965–66 issued by the Institute of Municipal Treasurers and Accountants and the Society of County Treasurers. As is generally known, these statistics are compiled with the help of the Library Association and are recognized as the official statistics for public libraries by the Department of Education and Science. What is apparently not so widely known is that these statistics are published after the lapse of about a year from the end of the period they cover. This seems to me to be perfectly understandable but it did result in a good deal of criticism that the figures I had used in Dublin were out of date.

British Public Library Reports

Faced with the annual torrent of library reports, one longs for more shooting and less mumbling, and perhaps at the end of the season, one agrees with Macbeth. Stanley Snaith has written that “the theory and technique of annual reports is a subject which has been rather neglected in our professional literature” and that “no substantial contribution to the subject has appeared in this country.” The most recent American writings on the subject are Robert D. Franklin's articles in Library Review.

Penny Rate: Aspects of British Public Library History, 1850-1950. W. A. Munford

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsPenny Rate: Aspects of British Public Library History, 1850-1950. W. A. MunfordSidney DitzionSidney Ditzion Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Library Quarterly Volume 22, Number 2Apr., 1952 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/617884 Views: 1Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Situation as we now see it

I want to begin this, the last of six articles on public library policy, with a personal explanation. When I wrote the first I nursed, with reasonable justification, hopes that have not been fulfilled. I hoped that during this great year of centenary celebrations we should enjoy changes in library legislation which would go far to remove some of the obstacles to the future development of the British public library service, which would enable us better to provide that kind of public library which the experiences of a hundred years have taught us to be necessary and possible.

The Public Library Makes a Century

So wrote Philip James Bailey in his forgotten Festus. What deeds do we celebrate in the centenary year of British Public Libraries? First, that the 1850 Public Libraries Act should have been passed at all when it was, considering the forces ranged against it, including the representatives of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. “It was a moot point,” wrote Thomas Greenwood, “whether or not the rough uncultured democracy should be permitted even with the most stringent precautions to invade the sacred precincts of a library building.” The workers might get ideas beyond their station, and the buildings become hotbeds of sedition. What poppycock it all sounds nowadays!

The Library World Volume 45 Issue 9

A PUBLICATION which is an event of much importance is the list of books suitable for British Public Libraries which, under the title Interpreting the United States, has just been issued from the National Central Library. Our readers will no doubt have received copies of it by this time, because the obvious intention of the Ministry of Information, which fathers it and the Carnegie Trustees who paid for it, is that it should have definite beneficial influence in all parts of these islands. The actual choice of books has been made for “the light their authors cast on the history, institutions and foibles that seem peculiarly American,” by the A.L.A. using a group of representative librarians whose choice has been submitted to some twenty literary critics and professors and to the comment of some European refugees now in the United States. A feature of the list is that arrangements have been made to overcome the great difficulty the shipping position imposes on the importing of American books. The books can actually be obtained, some from the National Central Library and the others from English booksellers. It therefore becomes possible for any library to acquire the reasonably authentic collection, long desired, of books that are really representative of the great other half of the English‐speaking family. Among the six hundred books are, fortunately, many which are already on the shelves of any well‐selected library. Books of all prices are included, among them some rather expensive ones, but the average cost per volume is about twelve shillings. Of the importance of bringing the truth about America to our people no librarian needs to be persuaded and we are sure that the welcome we extend to this list will be echoed everywhere.