Often referred to as the Rogers Free Library Act, the Rogers Act of 1878 (officially,

California State Senate The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento, Cal ...

Bill Number 1) was an 1877

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

written in the upper house of the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legisla ...

and signed into law on March 18, 1878, by

Governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constitution of California, the g ...

William Irwin. It was entitled "An Act to establish and maintain free

public libraries A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also civil servants. There are five fundamenta ...

and reading rooms" and popularly named after its lead author, State Senator George H. Rogers.

Content

The general provisions were permissive rather than mandatory. They granted authority for public library maintenance to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

's incorporated municipal governments; allowed cities to levy taxes "not to exceed one mill on the dollar" (a

property tax A property tax or millage rate is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net wealth, taxes on the change of ownership of property through inheri ...

rate equal to of one cent per dollar of assessed value) to support public libraries; and set limits on the powers of library trustees. The law specifically appointed 11 founding members to the Library Board of Trustees for the City and County of San Francisco: * George H. Rogers, state senator *

John S. Hager John Sharpenstein Hager (March 12, 1818March 19, 1890) was an American politician from the state of California. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1873 to 1875. Life Hager was born near Morristown, New Jersey, on March 12, 1818. He completed pre ...

, former U.S. senator * Irving M. Scott, Union Iron Works * Robert J. Tobin, Hibernia Bank * E. D. Sawyer * John H. Wise * Andrew J. Moulder, superintendent of schools * Louis Sloss,

Alaska Commercial Company The Alaska Commercial Company (ACC) is a company that operated retail stores in Alaska during the early period of Alaska's ownership by the United States. From 1901 to 1992, it was known as the Northern Commercial Company (NCC). In 1992, it resumed ...

* A. S. Hallidie * C. C. Terrell *

Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...

History

While prior to 1878, the California cities of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, Marysville, and San Jose had organized public libraries within their municipalities, the Act resulted from the effort to organize what would become the

San Francisco Public Library The San Francisco Public Library is the public library system of the city and county of San Francisco. The Main Library is located at Civic Center, at 100 Larkin Street. The library system has won several awards, such as ''Library Journals L ...

. A meeting was held on August 3, 1877 at Dashaway Hall in San Francisco; as reported by the ''

Daily Alta California The ''Alta California'' or ''Daily Alta California'' (often miswritten ''Alta Californian'' or ''Daily Alta Californian'') was a 19th-century San Francisco newspaper. ''California Star'' The ''Daily Alta California'' descended from the first ...

'', the meeting was convened by Senator Rogers, who had surveyed "all the principal libraries in the United States and Europe" with the intent to create a public library, which was deemed capable of "furnishing moral, religious and intellectual food for the masses." On August 5, the ''Daily Alta'' published an editorial describing their advice to an unidentified donor some years past, suggesting that he donate annually to allow the Mercantile Library, one of the private libraries that then existed in the city, to lend its collection freely. The initial meeting on August 3 concluded by resolving to draft legislation to be sent to Senator Rogers for consideration at the state level. Eureka was the first city to reform its

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

into a free library following the passage of the Rogers Act, the Oakland Free Library was the second, and at least ten others were established within the first 24 months, including

Chico Chico () means ''small'', ''boy'' or ''child'' in the Spanish language. It is also the nickname for Francisco in the Portuguese language (). Chico may refer to: Places *Chico, California, a city *Chico, Montana, an unincorporated community *Chic ...

(April 1879) and

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

(June 14, 1879).

References

External links

*
Direct URL
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Direct URL (Microsoft Word)
{{authority control 1878 in law California statutes Public libraries in California