Three Centuries of a City Library: an Historical and Descriptive Account of the Norwich Public Library Established in 1608 and the present Public Library opened in 1857Stephen, Geo. A. (George Arthur)
History
Three Centuries of a City Library: an Historical and Descriptive Account of the Norwich Public Library Established in 1608 and the present Public Library opened in 1857
Stephen, Geo. A. (George Arthur)
Norwich (England). Public Libraries
The wear and tear of the juvenile books proceeded apace, and the report
for 1894-95 stated that when they were last called in "1,700 had to be
rebound or repaired, and in the four circulations about 800 volumes have
been found defective or worn out and withdrawn. The Committee therefore
decided to issue the reduced number of books, to such schools as made
application for them, under more systematic regulations." The juvenile
books went from bad to worse, and in the report for the year ending March
1900 it was stated that the Committee had decided to hand over the stock
to the Norwich School Board, which had recently decided to establish and
work a Juvenile Library of its own. Thus ended an experiment which was
financed unsatisfactorily, badly controlled, and of very doubtful utility
as a means of developing the work of the Library.
The large increase in the stock of the lending library necessitated a new
catalogue, and one (304 pp.) was printed and published in 1889, which was
followed by supplements (88 pp. and 106 pp.) in 1889 and 1895. These
catalogues were compiled on the dictionary plan, the authors' names and
the titles and subjects of the books being arranged in one alphabetical
sequence.
The question of Sunday opening was discussed by the Committee in July,
1884, but the Council declined to sanction the Committee's recommendation
to open the Reading Room. Five and a half years later the Council
revoked its decision, and the men's and women's reading rooms on the
first floor were opened on Sundays between the hours of 3 and 9 p.m. In
the annual report following the Sunday opening the experiment was
described as "quietly successful," and in the reports for the next few
years the visits were estimated at 15,000 annually--a daily average of
289. The Reading Room continued to be open all the year round until
1913, when owing to the small attendances during the summer months it was
closed from June to September inclusive; in that year the average
attendance on the Sundays was 117. Having regard to the small
attendances and the inadequate library staff, the Committee in 1915
decided that the Reading Room should be closed on Sundays during the war.
The Report for the year ending March 1894 briefly reviewed the work of
the Library after forty years. By that time the stock had reached 30,124
volumes in all departments, and the annual issue from the lending
library, excluding 49,000 books issued by the teachers in 36 elementary
schools, was 86,355. The Reference Library, including the Local
Collection, contained 10,520 volumes and 5,367 pamphlets.
The large room on the ground floor vacated by the Museum was extended and
renovated during the year 1895-6, and was partially furnished with
book-cases and shelving in order to provide accommodation for the
Reference Library, which then comprised 8,450 volumes and 2,081
pamphlets, with 2,987 local books and 4,327 local pamphlets.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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