Humans have always found a way to communicate in some way or another and we know this not least because of the cave paintings left by early man, and the indications are that a thirst for knowledge is an inherent trait. There are finds such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Rosetta Stone, tablets bearing Cuneiform and the Hieroglyphs left by the ancient Egyptians. Symbolic marks from the Aztec and Inca civilisations and from the Chinese which ultimately became written characters. History also shows us that the ancient Greeks were very learned people with a great love for Philosophy and the Arts; and the Romans skilled in all manner of things including engineering, architecture and warfare. And all of this information would be recorded at some point in time by historians, poets and playwrights and gathered together in collections. The first archive is thought to have been built by the Sumerians in around 3400 BC when writing first began to develop but probably the most famous collection from the ancient civilisations is the great Library of Alexandria. It is thought to have been built around 285 BC and would have housed papyrus scrolls used by the scholars of the day.
During an archaeological dig in Bloomsbury in 2016, over 400 wooden tablets were found which proved to be financial records kept by the Romans. But early developments in the UK are mainly associated with the coming of religion and setting up of monastic institutes. Every monastery had a Scriptorium where documents were created, copied and illuminated by the monks. This includes the Anglo Saxon Chronicles which is a collection of historical records from around the 9th century during the reign of King Arthur. It provides a fairly accurate source of the happenings between the Romans leaving Britain and the Norman Conquest. Some of the texts were primarily educational such as that of Alcuin of York in the 8th century, the writings of The Venerable Bede, or those of the great Cathedral schools of France and England in the 12th century. From Saint Benedict however, till the 13th century, the only Libraries that could boast stability and permanence from one generation the next were those of the monastic institutions. It is little wonder then that libraries have, from the earliest times, been closely associated with holy places. Wherever the church penetrated, the book went too.
But the accumulation of books was not always an advantage to the church. Books were seen as the weapons of God in medieval times, and as such were the aggressive and defensive armament of the Church. In times of strife involving religious houses it was these ‘weapons’ that were burnt and destroyed. There was a saying that a monastery without a Library was like a castle without armour.
Scrolls, parchments and medieval manuscripts were kept in chests or cupboards, and the Precentor, who acted as a Librarian in monastic libraries was known as an Armarius, the keeper of the cupboards. The Libraries in parish churches were usually small and required little further maintenance, but by the mid-15th century rooms for books began to be used in the monastic houses. They were often built over a cloister or aisle of a church and were fitted with lecterns for reading. The drawback was that the lecterns could only hold a few books at a time and, if the collection was very large, only a portion of the books could be housed. Leicester Abbey had a collection of almost 1,000 volumes by the beginning of the 16th century. About a quarter were there for people to read or refer to, the rest were available for lending, an early example of the reference/lending library, but with limited use as the only people who could use it were the clergy and students, and those who could read Latin. The books were also very precious and held on chains so that they could not be stolen.
In general, libraries were not established in towns where there were Cathedral Libraries, the main exception being Norwich where a Town Library was set up in 1608. (The books are now in the City Library). Other Town Libraries of the period include Bristol, Ipswich and Leicester.
The work involved in producing a book or document was both costly and time consuming, everything being done by hand. Just consider that the works of Chaucer would have been written by a copyist whilst the Shakespearean manuscripts one hundred and fifty years later will have been in print. Paper was used instead of parchment or vellum, and books were bound with compressed paper boards instead of wood. Copies could be made literally in minutes instead of days. It was to be a development that not only brought down the cost of books, but also increased the numbers in circulation.
News-sheets made their first appearance during the Civil War and increased rapidly in number when Government censorship lapsed in 1694. Their popularity increased along with Coffee Houses where the news-sheets were mainly circulated and discussed by the customers. All these developments tended to encourage the growth of the reading public and an interest in secular subjects. Public lectures, literary, scientific and antiquarian societies, debating clubs, all were the product of the 18th century and the Coffee House society; and all contributed to the diffusion of knowledge.
It was also at this time that the novel emerged as an important literary form. This was the word of the traditional story-teller only written down, with contributors such as Daniel Defoe, Richardson and Fielding. From the middle of the 18th century the population of Britain began learning to read for pleasure, and people were realising that books could have entertainment value. Dr Samuel Johnson is attributed with the remark that “the English have become a nation of readers” but strictly speaking, it was an occupation of the wealthy and upper classes as those who could read were in the minority.
Circulating libraries began to appear in fashionable places such as London, Brighton, Bath and Margate, and these were to women what Coffee Houses were to men. Attached to milliners or drapers, they served as much for social gossip and the meeting of friends as the cafes of today. Books were borrowed and returned to the shop as an excuse for a shopping expedition. As books came into the home, ideas of where and when to read them also changed. It was more relaxing in the boudoir, or on the chaise longue in the withdrawing room. Books took on a new meaning; they were for killing time and in some instances, hiding quickly from disapproving elders.
Elsewhere in the country, parish libraries were being established and named after their initiator, Dr Thomas Bray who was responsible for setting out a plan for providing a lending library in each deanery in England with books to the value of thirty pounds, paid for by local subscription. The Bray Libraries were located in market towns for the use both of clergy and gentry. There was nothing new in his proposals, but he gave fresh direction and impetus, and probably did more than any other person to popularise the idea of lending libraries. The S.P.C.K., which was created in 1699, took a great deal of interest in his work which had produced at least fifty-six libraries in England and ten in Wales, by the time of his death.
The British Museum opened in 1753 and included the Royal Library, the Cottonian collection (donated by Sir John Cotton, grandson of the owner) and the collection of Sir Hans Sloane; so the Library and the Museum grew up together. The British Museum Library was organised properly by Sir Anthony Panizzi who seemed to understand exactly what he wanted to create and made himself very unpopular whilst doing it. The result fortunately was a well run library and reading room which finally earned him the respect he deserved. His aim was that all books should be available for study by the poorest student and the richest man in the kingdom. He also managed to convince the government of the day that Librarians should be given professional status.
England of the eighteenth and nineteenth century was undergoing enormous upheaval with the Industrial Revolution. People flocked to the towns seeking work in the new manufacturing industries, and towns became cities almost overnight spread by cheap houses and slums. Amongst the poor conditions of the masses there grew up reformists with radical ideas and a vision of education for all.
Subscription Libraries began in Lanarkshire, Scotland, with the employees of the Leadhills mines forming the Leadhills Reading Society in 1741, and by 1780 there were others in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield. Progress being much slower in the midlands and the south of England; but generally speaking the trend was forward as the quest for knowledge began to grow.
It must be noted that these were gentlemen’s libraries, supported by a middle-class of merchants, manufacturers and professional men. The rules were strict and closely adhered to. Opening hours were restricted by hours of daylight, and Librarians were poorly paid. In comparison with today, fines were heavy. For keeping a pamphlet one day past its due date in Leeds in 1768 you would be fined one penny (old coinage). The current fine on a book is twenty five pence a day. The only fully free Library which was accessible to the public was Chethams in Manchester; the oldest public Library in the country.
A Select Committee on Public Libraries was appointed in 1849 to review the government’s criteria for the provision of Library facilities from public purse. Their main concerns were: a) that the existing public library service was totally inadequate. b) that much better arrangements were made in continental countries and the United States. c) that an extensive provision of public libraries was essential for the welfare of the country.
The first Public Libraries Act was passed in 1850, but that did not mean that libraries were instantly set up all around the country. In fact the powers were very limited, and it took a number of years, a great deal of struggling and much supplementary legislation before the Library Service as we know it, came into being. Even in 1900 there were many towns without these facilities.
Report after report was published, the most notable being that of Professor W G S Adams in 1915, and the Kenyon report in 1927. Both upheld the future prospects of the library movement in a developing society. Both echoed the sentiments of earlier days in their desire that those who wished to improve their minds should be given every opportunity so to do. Rapid development came in the 1930s not only in the provision of buildings, but also in the education of the Librarians and administrators. This progress continued until the outbreak of World War Two which put everything in the doldrums for at least the next ten years. Libraries had been bombed, destroyed and looted and there was much restoration work to be done.
But the modern Library continues to flourish despite the threat of cutbacks. A different kind of service is now provided with the advent of computers and self-issuing of books, and staff dealing with a very wide range of people from every kind of social background and age- group.
The popularity of the Open University (founded in 1969), the trend towards more self-education, the high cost of labour and the tendency to ‘do it yourself’ together with latterly the effects of unemployment and the need to retrain for new skills are all factors which have led to a much more purposeful use of our libraries than ever before.
Following the British Library Act of 1972 the British Library was created to bring together all of the national library collections and archives, including the British Museum Library. Parliament’s vision was for a single institution at the heart of the UK’s information network, which would aid scientific and technological research, business, the arts and humanities. Built on the site of an old rail goods yard at St Pancras, it finally opened in 1997 with a mission statement to ‘make our intellectual heritage accessible to everyone, for research, inspiration and enjoyment’. The institution receives a copy of every printed publication in the UK which, since 2013 includes UK websites and electronic publications. It holds over 150 million items in over 400 languages plus approximately an additional 3 million new deposits each year. Moreover there is an additional site at Boston Spa holding the National Newspaper collection, the National Lending Library for Science and Technology and the British National Bibliography.
Access to knowledge and information of all kinds is recognised as an important adjunct to the well-being of a nation in a rapidly changing and highly competitive world.The advent of the internet and all the information stored therein has meant another fork in the road for Libraries; but, rising to the challenge most modern facilities provide the use of computer terminals which are free to access by the public, usually in limited time-slots.
So what else can a Library provide? There is the well known Home Reader service where people can select often up to ten books for adults and children to take home for a maximum of three weeks before renewal or submission. Books not in stock can ordered for a small fee, and these may be either borrowed from other libraries, or purchased new. Children are given every encouragement both with school libraries and also with own facilities in a library setting. There are nursery collections, pre-school story hours and a number of activities held in school-holiday time, as well as the usual selection of books from the very young to adolescents.
I have fond memories of the Central Library in Scarborough where I was taken as a child and fell instantly in love with the hallowed space of the Junior Library. I can still see it in my mind’s eye, and smell that strange mix of books, polish and resin. I would sit quietly and read for as long as I was able and delight in choosing my books. I remember the thrill when the Library assistant took the cards and put them in my Browne Library ticket before stamping the books which would mean that I could return in three weeks for another selection.
Libraries are also an essential part of our institutes of learning, from the book selection corner of the classroom in any primary school to the vast academic libraries in our Universities and colleges.
The reference library still maintains a vast store of directories, dictionaries, atlases, encyclopaedias, government and official publications, and many more professional reference books. Most Yearbooks and professional publications are now on-line for which the library service pays a subscription; the bonus is that it saves a lot of storage space as it is true to say that most Reference Libraries may to be compared to icebergs in that about only one quarter of their potential is visible. With copies of Hansard going back to the year dot, Wisden, Punch magazine, Country Life, and local newspapers and many other items that will not be found on the internet today. You will also find a Local History section in most libraries supported by some very keen Local Historians.
One of the greatest research tools for any Librarian is the Dewey system for the classification of non-fiction works and which can be compared with the map of the London Underground in its logic. Using a three digit code to identify the main subject, books of a similar nature can be kept within the same bookcase making it easy to locate. The system was developed by an American, Melvil Dewey in the late 19th century whilst working at Amherst College Library in Massachusetts. There have been many reviews and updates over the years but it still remains a positive guide for anybody wishing to locate a reference book.
Reference is my favourite area of the Library, and I can still feel the pride when I achieved my Library and Information Assistant’s City and Guild certificate. I took an interest in what people were researching and was always eager to help where I could, and I soon discovered that research was as much about asking the right questions as knowing where to look. One gentleman was tasked with repairing the decorative ceiling coving and central light rose of a fire damaged room in a local stately home. He was amazed when I found a photograph of the room in an edition of Country Life from the 1920s which gave him the detail he needed to reproduce the work.
Another gentleman who attended every day, used the facilities to trace both his, and his wife’s family back to the Norman Conquest using the local records and the Family History websites. It took a few years, but he did it and as his wife said at the time, it kept him out of mischief.
Periodicals, newspapers, talking books, audio visual facilities and a business section can all be found in the bigger libraries, whilst satellite services include the branch and mobile libraries, hospital libraries and braille reading. Even the armed forces, seamen and prisoners are considered.
Reading is still a favoured past-time with so many genres to choose from and material from the annual Literary prizes is always eagerly received. It must be noted that charity shops have taken over from Libraries as a source for many of the novels that are read now, and reading groups flourish on the internet, in libraries and community centres.
Talking was frowned on in Libraries when I was a child and I do believe that in the 21st century the concept of a Public Library is taken for granted. However I do like the more relaxed atmosphere and you are more likely to find a café area amongst the books to encourage you to sit and browse a little longer.
Ask the average person in the street what a public library does, and he will inevitably answer that it loans books. But the truth is way beyond that and anyway the underlying consideration is that all literature should be available to all people, freely, without fear or favour, through the medium of a national network of public Libraries.
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