Public library

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Image:Carnegie lib interior.jpg A public library is a library which is accessible by the public and is often operated by civil servants and funded from public sources.

Public libraries exist in most nations of the world and are considered an essential part of having an educated and literate population. Scottish-American businessman Andrew Carnegie donated the money for the building of thousands of Carnegie libraries in English-speaking countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In addition to books and periodicals, most public libraries today have a wide array of other media including CDs, software, video tapes, and DVDs, as well as facilities to access the Internet.

Many public libraries around the world pay authors when their books are borrowed from libraries. These are known as Public Lending Right programs.

1 Origins of the public library as a social institution
- 1.1 United States of America
- 1.2 United Kingdom
2 See also
3 External links

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Origins of the public library as a social institution

The origins of the public library as a social institution have not been well explored or recorded. The institution may have been inspired by the libraries of European universities, which in turn attempted to imitate research libraries in antiquity.

Many claims have been made for the title of "first public library" for various libraries in various countries, with at least some of the confusion arising from differing interpretations of what should be considered a true "public library". Difficulties in establishing what policies were in effect at different times in the history of particular libraries also adds to the confusion.

In antiquity, books were copied by hand. Because of the great expense of a hand-copied book, and the temptation to use books as fuel, toilet tissue or writing materials, books almost never left a library. The usual way to gain reading rights was to periodically copy a book in a library's scriptorium. Since most books were in ancient languages, scholars needed a substantial education to make a fair copy and gain reading rights.

Western civilization's roots were preserved in historic libraries: The Library of Alexandria is probably the most prominent. It was part of the Museion, the temple of the muses. Wealthy persons often collected and preserved books, and bequeathed them to friends who maintained a library. Pornographic and magical texts were often prized by the ancients, but failed to survive because they were not copied by monks.

The first libraries open to the public were the collections of Greek and Latin scrolls which were available in the dry sections of the many buildings that made up the huge Roman baths of the Roman empire. However, with few exceptions, they were not lending libraries.

The library at Alexandria was destroyed sometime around 400 AD, which destroyed most Greek texts. When the western Roman empire fell in the mid-800s, its libraries were plundered, and most books were burned as fuel. In the early 1400s, just before the printing press was widespread, Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman empire, was sacked by the Turks, and its libraries were destroyed or plundered. These events destroyed most classical texts. Some classical works survived haphazardly via copies from Irish monasteries and occasional Islamic scholars.

The "halls of science" run by different Islamic sects in many cities of North Africa and the Middle East in the 9th century were open to the public. Some of them had written lending policies, but they were very restrictive. Most patrons were expected to consult the books in situ.

Later, European universities often instituted libraries for research and study. These were also very restrictive.

A selection of significant claims made for early libraries operating in a way at least partly analogous to the modern public library is listed below by country and then by date.

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United States of America

In his unconventional history The Tribes and the States William James Sidis claims the public library is an American invention and states that the first town library was established in Boston, Massachusetts in 1636.
The St. Phillips Church Parsonage Provincial Library, established in 1698 in Charleston, South Carolina
The Library Company of Philadelphia was founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin and a group of his friends (the Junto) as a means to settle arguments. The subscription library was born. A subscription library allowed inviduals to buy "shares." The money raised from the sale of shares went into buying more books. A member or shareholder then had rights to use the library. The Library Company, which may have been the first truly public library (members could actually borrow books), is still in existence as a nonprofit, independent research library. [1]
A library founded in 1833 in Peterborough, New Hampshire [2]
The Boston Public Library [3]
The Franklin, Massachusetts public library [4]
The New York Public Library in New York City, begun in 1849 and consolidated in 1901, one of the most important public libraries in the United States [5]

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United Kingdom

The foundation of the modern public library system in the UK is the Public Libraries Act 1850.

Chetham's Library in Manchester was founded in 1653 and claims to be "the oldest public library in the English-speaking world". It is unclear, however, whether the library was public from its inception date.
St. Mary's Church, Reigate, Surrey opened on March 14, 1701

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