County Libraries

COUNTY LIBRARIES Whilst the library movement made notable headway during the last quarter of the 19th century, largely through the generous financial encouragement of Andrew Carnegie, the 28 years that followed have witnessed a greater, and, since 1918, a much more rapid advance. Before this date the service was severely handi capped by two restrictions : the one penny rate limit, which, ex cept in the largest cities, precluded anything like adequate expend iture on books and salaries, and the almost total impossibility of applying the Public Libraries Acts in the smaller centres of population. An admirable statistical report, setting forth in detail the anomalies and difficulties of the situation, was prepared by Prof. W. G. S. Adams and published by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust in 1915. From this it was manifest that the position in the towns could not be remedied without the removal of the rate limit, and the only hope for the rural areas was in some broad scheme of co-operation. The Library Association had persistently agitated for new legislation, with the former object as the most urgent item. Pending action by the Government, the Carnegie Trustees now set up a number of circulating systems on a regional basis, as an experiment and an object lesson to show how the rural problem should be solved.

Legislation.

The position of these rural systems was regu larized in Scotland by the Education (Scotland) Act of 1918, empowering county education authorities to make book provision for children and young persons attending schools or classes, and for adults. The subject was also dealt with in an interim report by the adult education committee of the Ministry of Recon struction; and, almost immediately, the Public Libraries Act of 1919 was passed, authorizing county councils to adopt the acts, to levy a rate, and provide a library service through their educa tion committees. Similar powers were granted in Northern Ire land by the Public Libraries Act of 1924, and in the Irish Free State by the Local Government Act of 1925.

Success of the County Library System.

Hitherto, such ru ral library systems as had been established, were financed by the Carnegie Trustees, who continued to offer to defray the capital expenditure of county councils which were willing to adopt the acts. During the period 1915-27, the grants made by the trustees

for this purpose in Great Britain totalled £263,785, with some sup plementary grants for the period ending in 193c). Further sums are being allocated to Irish county libraries, and grants are made from time to time for special objects. In their report issued in March 1928, the trustees show that 22 English, three Welsh and six Scottish counties are now independent of their assistance, and will henceforth rely entirely on public funds. Thus it is obvious that the progress of the system has been extremely rapid, only five counties, by the end of 1926, not as yet adopted the Public Libraries Acts, one of these being London, where there is no area not already provided for by previous adoption of the acts, and the other Westmorland, which has a scheme based on the Kendal public library. The rate of this expansion is indicated by the figures given in the report of the Public Libraries Committee set up by C. P. Trevelyan, then president of the Board of Edu cation, in 1924, which completed its proceedings in 1927. In 1911 the population in England and Wales resident in library areas amounted to 62.5% of the total. The percentage rose to 68.8 by 1921, to 9o-4 by 1924, and by 1926 to 96.3. Of this last figure, the urban library service accounts for 64.1%, and the county systems for 32.2%. Thus only 3.7% of the population now reside in areas for which there is as yet no provision and none even contemplated. The committee therefore propose that the remaining county councils should be constituted library au thorities for their areas; and, further, that those councils which have excluded certain populous areas, covered by towns or urban districts, should be constituted library authorities for the whole. The result would be to bring in a further population of 1,332,000. The report pointed out, however, that a library area does not necessarily imply a library service, and that, so far as they were able to ascertain, in 1925 only about one-half of the 12 millions dwelling in county library areas were actually enjoying a library service.