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. ...

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 Pl ...

written in the upper house of the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...

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 (United States), governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constit ...

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

public libraries ''Public Libraries'' is the official publication of the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). It is devoted exclusively to public libraries. The print edition is published six times a year and i ...

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 that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

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

property tax A property tax (whose rate is expressed as a percentage or per mille, also called ''millage'') 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 Wealth t ...

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 New Jersey who represented the state of California in the U.S. Senate from 1873 to 1875. He was a Democrat. Early life Hager was born near Morristown, New Je ...

, former U.S. senator * Irving M. Scott,

Union Iron Works Union Iron Works, located in San Francisco, California, on the southeast waterfront, was a central business within the large industrial zone of Potrero Point, for four decades at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. ...

* Robert J. Tobin, Hibernia Bank * E. D. Sawyer * John H. Wise * Andrew J. Moulder, superintendent of schools * Louis Sloss,

Alaska Commercial Company Alaska Commercial Company (ACC) is a grocery and retail company which operates stores in rural Alaska, beginning in the early period of Alaska's ownership by the United States into the present. From 1901 to 1992, it was known as the Northern Comm ...

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

Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist, Social philosophy, social philosopher and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of ...

History

While prior to 1878, the California cities of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, 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 in United States. The Main Library is located at Civic Center, at 100 Larkin Street. The library system has won several awards, such as ''Libr ...

. 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 Eureka often refers to: * Eureka (word), a famous exclamation attributed to Archimedes * Eureka effect, the sudden, unexpected realization of the solution to a problem Eureka or Ureka may also refer to: History * Eureka Rebellion, an 1854 g ...

was the first city to reform its

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

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 (April 1879) and

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

(June 14, 1879).

References

External links

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