THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. [Illustration: KING’S LIBRARY, BRITISH MUSEUM. _Photo by Donald Macbeth_ ] THE PUBLIC LIBRARY By ERNEST A. BAKER, D.Lit. PUBLISHED IN LONDON BY DANIEL O’CONNOR 90 GREAT RUSSELL STREET, W.C.1. 1922. France and England literally, observe, buy panic of each other; they pay, each of them, for ten thousand thousand pounds’ worth of terror, a year. Now suppose, instead of buying these ten millions’ worth of panic annually, they made up their minds to be at peace with each other, and buy ten millions’ worth of knowledge annually; and then each nation spent the ten thousand thousand pounds a year in founding royal libraries, royal art galleries, royal museums, royal gardens, and places of rest. Might it not be better somewhat for both French and English? RUSKIN: _Sesame and Lilies_. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PREFACE I.--HISTORICAL SKETCH 1 II.--WHAT IS A LIBRARY SERVICE? 32 III.--LIBRARY EXTENSION 96 IV.--RURAL LIBRARIES 135 V.--A NATIONAL LIBRARY SERVICE 169 VI.--TRAINING IN LIBRARIANSHIP 211 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE KING’S LIBRARY, BRITISH MUSEUM Frontispiece _To face page_ LAMBETH PALACE LIBRARY 12 CENTRAL PUBLIC LIBRARY, NOTTINGHAM 22 READING ROOM OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM 44 GUILDHALL LIBRARY 52 READING ROOM, STEPNEY PUBLIC LIBRARY 56 PATENT OFFICE LIBRARY 74 LIBRARY OF THE INSTITUTE OF ACTUARIES, STAPLE INN HALL 90 LIBRARY OF THE SOUTH-EASTERN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, WYE 162 READING ROOM OF THE GENERAL LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 178 THE ORATORY LIBRARY 200 UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, GENERAL LIBRARY 214 READING ROOM OF THE GOLDSMITHS’ LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 226 PREFACE. Our Public Libraries are entering upon the critical period of their history. They have been saved by the Act of 1919 from imminent bankruptcy; but the efforts of the Adult Education Committee to find a place for them in a national scheme of reconstruction seem to have come to naught. An Act which it was hoped might have been a new charter, and have ensured their utilization as a chief instrument of adult education and the intellectual and spiritual development of the people, did away with two heavy grievances the abolition of which was long overdue; it left a programme of constructive reforms unfulfilled.