This edition had all images removed.
LoC No.: 22020655
Title: The public library
Original Publication: London: Daniel O'Connor, 1922.
Contents: I. Historical sketch -- II. What is a library service? -- III. Library extension -- IV. Rural libraries -- V. A national library service -- VI. Training in librarianship.
Credits: Carla Foust, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Summary: "The public library" by Ernest A. Baker is a treatise on library history, policy, and practice written in the early 20th century. It examines the rise and role of public libraries in Britain, urging their integration with adult education and their coordination into a national system. Drawing on history and current practice, it defines what a complete public library service should include—from lending and reference work to children’s, rural, and technical services—and how governance and funding must adapt. The opening of the book sets a reformist tone: after noting that recent legislation averted financial collapse but left bigger aims unmet, it calls for urban and rural libraries to be coordinated into an economic, national service and criticizes how little sociologists have valued libraries. It then sketches the movement from post-Waterloo self-help and Mechanics’ Institutes through Ewart’s permissive Acts, highlighting Edward Edwards’s advocacy, the early focus on museums, debates over taxation and “dangerous” knowledge, uneven municipal adoption, philanthropy (notably Carnegie), and the crippling penny-rate limit. The narrative shows how consolidating Acts and Scottish provisions improved matters but left libraries isolated from schools and other educational agencies until the Adult Education Committee pressed for change; a later Act removed the rate cap and enabled county-based rural systems, yet deeper structural reforms were deferred. Turning to practice, the book contrasts progressive with perfunctory services, then defines the lending library’s purpose, the shift to open access, the value of branches over mere delivery points, and liberal borrowing to encourage serious study amid chronic shortages of books. It outlines the reference library’s tools and functions, notes local special collections, and treats newspapers and periodicals as “current history,” best curated alongside ready-reference works to foster informed citizenship. It advocates study rooms, small class spaces, and, crucially, robust children’s departments modeled on the best American examples, illustrated by the Croydon junior library’s lectures, storytelling, classification training, and close work with schools. The section closes by introducing the need for commercial and industrial library services, signaling a detailed treatment to follow. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Reading Level: Reading ease score: 43.3 (College-level). Difficult to read.
Author: Baker, Ernest A. (Ernest Albert), 1869-1941
EBook No.: 76583
Published: Jul 28, 2025
Downloads: 540
Language: English
Subject: Public libraries -- Great Britain
Subject: Library extension -- Great Britain
LoCC: Bibliography, Library science
Category: Text
Rights: Public domain in the USA.
This edition has images.
LoC No.: 22020655
Title: The public library
Original Publication: London: Daniel O'Connor, 1922.
Contents: I. Historical sketch -- II. What is a library service? -- III. Library extension -- IV. Rural libraries -- V. A national library service -- VI. Training in librarianship.
Credits: Carla Foust, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Summary: "The public library" by Ernest A. Baker is a treatise on library history, policy, and practice written in the early 20th century. It examines the rise and role of public libraries in Britain, urging their integration with adult education and their coordination into a national system. Drawing on history and current practice, it defines what a complete public library service should include—from lending and reference work to children’s, rural, and technical services—and how governance and funding must adapt. The opening of the book sets a reformist tone: after noting that recent legislation averted financial collapse but left bigger aims unmet, it calls for urban and rural libraries to be coordinated into an economic, national service and criticizes how little sociologists have valued libraries. It then sketches the movement from post-Waterloo self-help and Mechanics’ Institutes through Ewart’s permissive Acts, highlighting Edward Edwards’s advocacy, the early focus on museums, debates over taxation and “dangerous” knowledge, uneven municipal adoption, philanthropy (notably Carnegie), and the crippling penny-rate limit. The narrative shows how consolidating Acts and Scottish provisions improved matters but left libraries isolated from schools and other educational agencies until the Adult Education Committee pressed for change; a later Act removed the rate cap and enabled county-based rural systems, yet deeper structural reforms were deferred. Turning to practice, the book contrasts progressive with perfunctory services, then defines the lending library’s purpose, the shift to open access, the value of branches over mere delivery points, and liberal borrowing to encourage serious study amid chronic shortages of books. It outlines the reference library’s tools and functions, notes local special collections, and treats newspapers and periodicals as “current history,” best curated alongside ready-reference works to foster informed citizenship. It advocates study rooms, small class spaces, and, crucially, robust children’s departments modeled on the best American examples, illustrated by the Croydon junior library’s lectures, storytelling, classification training, and close work with schools. The section closes by introducing the need for commercial and industrial library services, signaling a detailed treatment to follow. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Reading Level: Reading ease score: 43.3 (College-level). Difficult to read.
Author: Baker, Ernest A. (Ernest Albert), 1869-1941
EBook No.: 76583
Published: Jul 28, 2025
Downloads: 540
Language: English
Subject: Public libraries -- Great Britain
Subject: Library extension -- Great Britain
LoCC: Bibliography, Library science
Category: Text
Rights: Public domain in the USA.