Historical background
In the 1830s, at the height of the Chartist movement, there was a general tendency towards reformism in the United Kingdom. This prompted much new legislation to be passed, such as the Parliamentary Reform Act 1832, the1849 select committee
The advocacy of Ewart and Brotherton then succeeded in having a select committee set up to consider public library provision. A paper entitled "A statistical view of the principal public libraries in Europe and the United States" by Edward Edwards, an assistant at the British Museum Library, came to Ewart's attention and Edwards became a key witness to the select committee. Edwards was "a self taught former bricklayer ... passionately convinced of the value and significance of libraries". The select committee of 1849 produced a report in which Edwards and Ewart ensured that "no stone was left unturned" in proving their case that existing public library provision was inadequate and that provision in other countries was far superior. The select committee reported that "while we learn that, more than half a century ago, the first step taken by a foreign writer was to consult a public library on the subject of his studies or composition; we find that no such auxiliary was at the service of the British intellect".Select Committee on Public Libraries, ''Report'' (1849) The report also argued that the provision of public libraries would steer people towards temperate and moderate habits, the same argument as was made by James Silk Buckingham fifteen years earlier. With a view to maximising the potential of current facilities, the committee made certain proposals, including: * public use of university libraries * improved public access to the British Museum Library * duplicate books from the British Museum Library collection to be redistributed to local libraries In order to achieve such ends, the committee made two significant recommendations. They suggested that the government should issue grants to aid the foundation of libraries and that the Museums Act 1845 should be amended and extended to allow for a tax to be levied for the establishment of public libraries. However, it was not thought necessary to subsidise stock provision for the libraries so the levy was to be used to provide buildings, furnishings and staff salaries. The authors of the report believed that donations from members of the public would be more than adequate to stock the new libraries.Public Libraries Act 1850
The 1850 act was much more contentious than the Museums Act 1845. The major arguments against the bill included: * Although the boroughs were represented by elected bodies, many people argued that the act enforced taxation without consent. * There was opposition to the act simply on the grounds that founding and maintaining the new libraries would mean an increase in taxation at all, consensual or otherwise. * Concerns were expressed that it would infringe on private enterprise and the existing library provision such asScottish provision
The Public Libraries Act 1850 initially applied only to England and Wales, but it was extended to Scotland and Ireland by the ( 16 & 17 Vict. c. 101). The following year the ( 17 & 18 Vict. c. 64) granted library authorities the for there to be a poll of ratepayers for the act to be adopted and uptake was instead authorised by a two-thirds majority at a public meeting of those who possessed or occupied a house of £10 annual value. This referred to homes that might reasonably be expected to have a net annual rental value of £10 a year or more. However, a poll could still be requested by any five voters present. In 1855, similar amendments were introduced in England and Wales in the more wide-ranging Public Libraries Act 1855. This included provision for the 1d rate and the authority to buy books, newspapers, maps and specimens. It also contained the amendment that had already been made in Scotland, that of the two-thirds majority at a public meeting of ratepayers.Further legislation
The 1850 act was noteworthy because it established the principle of free public libraries, but in practice it was unsatisfactory. It placed many limitations on the type of councils that could adopt it, the amount of money that the boroughs were permitted to spend and the ways in which this money could be spent. Efforts were later made to develop the act further and remove many of these restrictions. The Public Libraries Act 1855 ( 18 & 19 Vict. c. 70) increased the maximum rate that boroughs could charge to fund libraries to 1d. Like the 1850 act, the bill for this act had to be guided through the House of Commons by William Ewart. It met with a great deal of opposition and Ewart was obliged to abandon a proposal to enable municipal boroughs to adopt it by simple resolution of the town council. There was some confusion regarding the provision of public libraries outside corporate towns; that is those towns incorporated by legal enactment and entitled to pass by-laws and use a common seal. This resulted in difficulties in extending public library provision to rural areas. The Public Libraries Act 1855 tried to resolve these difficulties by stating that a library authority could be a borough council, an improvement board or commission, a parish vestry or group of vestries, provided they covered a minimum population of 5,000. Since the 18th century, improvement boards had been established in many urban areas to take responsibility for paving, lighting and cleaning of streets, but over time their functions became wider in scope. From 1835 onwards, their responsibilities were assumed by elected town councils in the reformed boroughs but they continued in the urban areas outside the boroughs. Becoming a public library authority was another extension of their authority. A decade later, an amending act was passed, the ( 29 & 30 Vict. c. 114), which eliminated entirely the population limit and replaced the two-thirds majority previously required for adoption with a simple majority. It also allowed neighbouring parishes to combine with an existing or potential library authority. This act applies to both England and Wales and Scotland. A year later the ( 30 & 31 Vict. c. 37) was passed to amend and consolidate the application of the law to Scotland. It established a form of library committee composed of a maximum of twenty members, of which half were to be members of the council and the other half to be selected by the council from householders.Legacy
The Public Library Acts of 1855 and 1866 were the last to be advanced by William Ewart, who retired in 1868. He had made great efforts to promote the public library system in Great Britain and perhaps his greatest achievement was the complete elimination of the population limits, as it allowed even very small towns or parishes to set up a public library. It was later found that this could present a problem, as many public libraries were established by library authorities that did not in fact have enough money to run a library satisfactorily. Despite the rise in the level of tax public libraries could levy, it was still very difficult for boroughs to raise enough capital to fund new libraries. The growth of the public library movement in the wake of the 1850 act relied heavily on the donations of philanthropists such asSee also
*References
Citations
General and cited references
* LISU (2009)Further reading
* Gray, D. (1949)'The Public Library Makes a Century', ''Library Review'', 12 (2) pp. 83–86. * Charing, S. (1995) 'Self-Help v State Intervention: the 1850 Public Library Act as a Reflection of Mid-Victorian Doctrine, ''Australian Library Journal'' 44(1), pp. 47–54. * Hoare, P. (ed.) (2006) ''Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ; Primary sources * ''External links