Part 15
But the most important and fundamental of the library arts is that of book selection, which is best defined, not as choosing the best books, but as choosing the right, the appropriate books. The student of librarianship is taught literary history so that he may be a safe and discriminating selector of books, and be qualified to see that the library contains the right sort of material. The object of library lectures and reading circles is to direct readers to the right books to read. In her account of a very interesting experiment,[50] Miss Sayle describes how the Hampshire villagers were allowed the casting vote on every book purchased by the simple expedient of eliminating those books that failed to attract readers. The results sound lamentable. Whole sections went under the hammer. Autobiography, Gardening, Lives, Travels, Poetry, are one and all reported “Abolished, owing to lack of readers.” _Waverley_, _Kidnapped_, _Barnaby Rudge_, and Pierre Loti’s _Iceland Fisherman_, were among the classics discarded in one year in order to make room for the works of Mrs. Henry Wood, Miss Worboise, Baroness Orczy, and Gene Stratton Porter. Lamb’s _Tales from Shakespeare_ seldom left the children’s cupboard. Now Miss Sayle is undoubtedly right in extolling the principle of giving her village readers the initiative in the choice of books for their own library, the library they founded and maintain out of their own pockets. But her story is not creditable to those who might, had they gone the right way to work, have guided the tastes of these village readers, so that they would have chosen and enjoyed the very books that had to be discarded. One can hardly imagine a reading circle finding much to discuss in books by the luminaries mentioned as chief favourites; but it is quite as difficult to imagine that a paper or a reading or an intimate talk about Stevenson, Scott, Dickens, and a few of the poets, would have failed in opening many eyes to the charms of the writers abolished. To prescribe what people shall read is impossible; it is foolish to present any public, in town or country, with a well-chosen library, and tell them to take it or leave it. Coercion would be as fruitless as it is impossible. But to leave the choice to the untrained and unguided initiative of the villagers, without some attempt at training and assisting their powers of choice, is hardly less absurd than it would be to let the children in a school decide what lessons they should be taught.
This is the real inwardness of the great fiction question, on which so much wordy argument has been expended. There is no need to deplore the high percentage of fiction that is read; if this is of any literary value, the percentage is so much to the good. The innuendo underlying the Adult Education Committee’s sneer at “unsystematic and recreative reading” betrays an illiberal conception of the cultural value of belles-lettres, of which Meredith said:--
“Light literature is the garden and the orchard, the fountain, the rainbow, the far view; the view within us as well as without. The Philistine detests it, because he has no view, out or in. The dry confess they are cut off from the living tree, peeled and sapless, when they condemn it. The vulgar demand to have their pleasures in their own likeness--and let them swamp their troughs! They shall not degrade the name of noble fiction.... Shun those who cry out against fiction, and have no taste for elegant writing. Not to have a sympathy with the playful mind is not to have a mind.”
The question is not whether public libraries ought to provide novels, nor simply whether they should provide only the best novels and reject the bad. The important problem is, how the general reader is to be led to choose and enjoy the best. To spend public funds on the public provision of feeble and enfeebling reading-matter is indefensible. True, there are librarians who defend it: one head of a large system has recently pleaded for fiction of the Charles Garvice and Ethel Dell type, because the charwoman and the overworked housewife find it restful and soothing, and cannot afford to subscribe for it to the circulating library. But public libraries are not a sort of poor relief: their mission is not to provide, even these unhappy folk, with opportunities for mental dissipation; but, the very reverse, to introduce them to higher pleasures. Would apologists for bad novels recommend our public art galleries to adopt similar standards of taste? Or our museums? No doubt, if we turned them into a kind of Madame Tussaud’s or sensation-mongering picture-house, these would be much more popular with a very large and a very important class.
This kind of argument hardly needs confuting: but many committees and librarians have been led astray by the specious doctrine that by giving people the inferior stuff they like they will eventually be led to prefer something better. The present writer, who has devoted years of hard work to shepherding the general reader into the right way of appreciating good fiction, would be the last to deny the humanizing value of the novel and its right to an honourable place in the public library; but he would be the first to deny that to get people to read any kind of novel, or to bring them at any cost into the public library, is a sure way of inducing them to read something better. Than much of the reading done at the expense of the library rate it would be better if no reading were done at all. A kind of mental dram-drinking, it is stupefying to the brain and soul, and thoroughly anti-educational. Homœopathic application of continual doses of the hair of the dog that bit you is a futile mode of treatment. The time has come for saner methods, and the only sane method is to refuse to recognize the stuff as having anything to do with the literature which a public library has to supply. Earlier pages have dealt with the various methods by which the standard of fiction reading can be raised--duplication of the best on shelves to which the reader has free access, descriptive catalogues and readers’ guides, lectures, talks, and reading circles. Our crusading efforts at raising the level of popular taste must be as strenuous as those of a revivalist mission.
Future progress depends on a wide diffusion of the library arts; it depends on the attitude of that much-abused person the general reader. When the general reader uses public libraries wisely and well, and finds them indispensable to a full life, their position will be assured. The largest body of readers will always be composed of this class: the object of education is to turn out intelligent general readers.[51] The Adult Education Committee expressed too narrow a view of the library’s function in the social organism when they insisted on the paramount claims of vocational and non-vocational education, and spoke slightingly of the general reader, the vast multitude who are guilty of “unsystematic and recreative reading.” It is only fair to notice, however, two passages in which the Adult Education Committee did not overlook the claims of the general reader and of imaginative literature:--
“The Lending Department is the main feature in the smaller libraries; it provides such books as are suitable for continuous reading or study and in convenient form. The books cover the whole range of knowledge, physical and metaphysical, ancient and modern, philosophy, religion, sociology, language and literature, science, fine and useful arts, history and travel. The recreative element in reading bulks largely in the statistics of this department. Very much of what is best and most elevating in English literature takes the form of fiction, and selecting this with care and discretion the library gives valuable impulse in the direction of broadening the mental outlook, enlarging the sympathies, and elevating the tastes and feeling of readers. Any estimate of the cultural work of the library which omits the effects, more or less unconscious, of the reading of the best poetical and imaginative literature is gravely incomplete and inadequate.”
“It is clear, however, that local education authorities may neglect the ‘general reader’ in their desire to obtain from the public libraries the maximum of assistance for more serious students. This is a danger which must be guarded against. It is part of the problem of how to retain the freedom and elasticity of the library with the more organized administration of the system of public education. It is with no desire to subordinate the libraries or belittle their importance that we recommend the union of educational and library administration.”[52]
It will not do merely to tolerate this large section of those who use libraries, on condition that its interests are made secondary to the “serious students and trained readers.” This would be fatal to the true purpose of the public library, which should minister to intellectual life in all its fulness. The general reader must be put first, not second. A clear conception of what is best for the general reader will ensure that the interests of education shall not be neglected. It is on the growth of a new consciousness, a new attitude towards the institutions subserving humanism, that we must pin our faith in the great library system of the future.
A FURTHER COURSE OF READING.
PUBLIC LIBRARIES, PAST AND PRESENT.
BOSTWICK, Arthur E. The American Public Library. Appleton. 1910. 8vo. illus.
BROWN, James Duff. A British Library Itinerary, Grafton. 1913. 8vo.
BROWN, James Duff. Manual of Library Economy, ed. by W. C. Berwick Sayers. Grafton. 1920. 8vo. Illus.
GREENWOOD, Thomas. Edward Edwards, the chief pioneer of municipal public libraries. Scott Greenwood. 1902. 8vo.
GREENWOOD, Thomas. Public Libraries: A history of the movement, and a manual for the organisation and management of rate-supported libraries. Cassell. 1894. 8vo. illus.
OGLE, John J. The Free Library: its history and present condition, edited by R. Garnett. Allen. 1897. 8vo. [The Library Series.]
THE LIBRARY QUESTION OF TO-DAY.
ADAMS, Professor W. G. S. A Report on Library Provision and Policy, to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trustees. Edinburgh. Neill. 1915.
BOSTWICK, Arthur E. Library Essays: papers related to the work of public libraries. New York. H. W. Wilson. 1920. 8vo.
BOSTWICK, Arthur E. A Librarian’s Open Shelf: essays on various subjects. New York. H. W. Wilson. 1920. 8vo.
HARDY, E. A. The Public Library: its place in our educational system. Toronto. William Briggs. 1912. Illus.
LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. The Library Association Record. 8vo. 1899 in progress.
LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. Public Libraries: their present position and future development in national reconstruction. Library Association. 1918. 8vo. Illus.
LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. Year Book for 1921; edited E. C. Kyte. Library Association. 1921. 8vo.
Contains statistics of existing libraries and their work.
MCKILLOP, John. The present position of London Municipal Libraries with suggestions for increasing their efficiency. Reprint from Library Association Record. 1906.
MINISTRY OF RECONSTRUCTION. Adult Education Committee. Third Interim Report. Libraries and Museums. H.M.S. Office. 1919.
MINISTRY OF RECONSTRUCTION. Adult Education Committee. Final Report. H.M. Stationery Office. 1919.
MOREL, Eugene. La Librairie Publique. Paris. A. Colin. 1912.
PUBLIC LIBRARIES ACT, 1919. H.M.S. Office. 1919.
RURAL LIBRARIES.
ANTRIM, Saida B. and Ernest I. The County Library. Ohio, Pioneer Press. 1914. 8vo. Illus.
CARNEGIE UNITED KINGDOM TRUST. Annual Reports. Dec. 1914--Dec. 1920. Edinburgh. Constable. 1921.
SAYLE, A. Village Libraries: a guide to their formation and upkeep. Grant Richards. 1919. 8vo.
WEAVER, Sir Lawrence. Village Clubs and Halls. Newnes. 1920. 8vo. Illus.
TRAINING IN LIBRARIANSHIP.
FRIEDEL, J. H. Training for Librarianship: library work as a career. Lippincott. 1921. 8vo. Illus.
ROSS, James. Technical Training in Librarianship in England and abroad. Reprint from Library Association Record. 1910.
FOOTNOTES:
[47] Samuel Butler: _Erewhon_, XXXV. “The Book of the Machines.”
[48] J. H. Friedel: _Training in Librarianship_, p. 92.
[49] See, _e.g._, the _Cambridge History of English Literature_, and compare it with the _Cambridge History of American Literature_, a model of arrangement, indexing, bibliography, and general editorial work.
[50] A. Sayle, _Village Libraries_.
[51] “Education should be preparation for life. Its purpose is to prepare the immature human being for the life he is to lead when he becomes mature. It is to fit the child for the life he is to live when he shall be no longer a child. That is, to my mind, the purpose of education.” Dr. C. A. Mercier (_The Principles of National Education_, 1917.)
[52] Adult Education Committee: _Third Interim Report_, par. 12.
INDEX
Adams, Prof. W. G. S., on library provision, 136-139
_Administration_, 14, 183-184, 200-210, 221
_Administration of Centralized Library System_, 179
_Adult Education_, 4-6, 98-99, 111, 149, 154, 202-204, 208-209
Adult Education Committee and Board of Education, 200-201
Adult Education Committee and Central Library for Students, 190-191
Adult Education Committee, centralization, 73, 171-2, 175, 194, 197, 198, 202
Adult Education Committee, fiction question, 230-235
Adult Education Committee, _Final Report_, 165-167
Adult Education Committee, on grants, 186-187
Adult Education Committee, on intelligence bureaux, 89-90
Adult Education Committee, on lectures, 111
Adult Education Committee, on reading Rooms, 62
Adult Education Committee, on reconstruction, Preface, 30, 31, 73, 171-172, 175, 194, 197, 198, 202
Adult Education Committee, Technical and Commercial Libraries, 78-80
_Advertising_, 48-49, 103
_Agricultural Libraries_, America, 160-161
Airdrie, adoption of Library Act, 22
America, books for the blind, 94
_America_, children’s libraries, 64, 68, 74, 131
America, Education Authorities a. Library Authorities, 201-202
America, indexing, 227-228
America, inspection of Libraries, 184-186
America, librarianship, 224
America, libraries, 25, 41, 118
America, library schools, 213, 216, 219-220
America, rural libraries, 156-162
America, school and library, 131
America, State Library Commissions, 156, 184-186, 209
America, travelling libraries, 156
American Library Association, 211
_Ancient Libraries_, 11
Andersonian Institute, Glasgow, 8
Antwerp, Institute of Commerce, 77
_Apparatus_, Library, 219
_Apprentice Classes_, America, 220
Archbishop Tenison’s Library, 12
Architecture, library, 219
_Assistants_, 212, 217-219
“Athenæum”, The, 181
Baillie’s Institution, Glasgow, 23
Bath, adoption of Library Act, 22
_Bibliography_, 131, 171, 220, 223, 225
Birkbeck, George, 8
Birkbeck College, 8
Birkenhead Public Library, 22, 64
Birmingham Commercial Library, 80
Birmingham, library rate, 27
Birmingham Public Libraries, reference library, 45, 48, 50
Bishopsgate Institute, reference library, 51
Blackburn, adoption of Library Act, 22
_Blind_, libraries for the, 91-95, 171
Board of Education, 208-209
Board of Education as central authority, 200-201
Bolton Public Library, 21, 80
Book issues, 25, 40, 41
_Book selection_, 34-36, 54, 97, 129-130, 179, 215, 223, 224, 228-235
_Book selection_ for children, 68, 70-72
_Book selection_, periodicals, 57, 59
_Book supply_, 41-43, 70, 105, 142
_Bookbinding_, 42, 180-181
_Bookbinding demonstrations_, 218-219
_Book-box system_, 138, 139, 141, 142, 144, 146, 149, 164, 165
_Books_, requirements of good, 72, 180-181, 227
Bootle Public Library, lectures, 101
_Borough councils_, 173
_Borrowers’ restrictions_, 40-41
Bradford Commercial Library, 80
_Braille system_, 93
_Branch libraries_, 37
Bright, John, 18, 21
Brighton, Local Act, 1850, 21
Brighton Public Library, 120
Bristol Commercial Library, 80, 81, 86, 85-87
Bristol Public Library, 11, 45, 50, 101
British Museum, 12, 13, 14, 170, 182
British Museum Library, 34, 54, 55, 195
Bromley Public Library, lectures, 101
Brotherton, Joseph, 13-19
Brougham, Lord, 1, 4, 9
Brown, James Duff, 54, 55
Buckinghamshire, village libraries, 135
_Bureaucracy_, dangers of, 7, 208, 222
Burslem, adoption of Library Act, 22
Bury, William, 11
_Business librarians_, courses for, 216
Camberwell Public Library, 22, 101
Cambridge, adoption of Library Act, 22
Canterbury, 16
Canterbury, adoption of Library Act, 22
Cardiff Public Libraries, 22, 45, 50, 89, 101
Cardiganshire Rural Library, 140
Carnegie, Andrew, 23, 25, 77
Carnegie Rural Library Scheme, 31, 139
Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, annual report, 140-141, 145-146
Carnegie United Kingdom Trust and Central Library for Students, 145-146, 190
Carnegie United Kingdom Trust and National Library for the Blind, 92-93
Carnegie United Kingdom Trust and rural libraries, 31, 139
Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, Scotland, 139-142
Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, and training in librarianship, 213
_Catalogues_, 39, 40, 171, 182, 226, 232
_Cataloguing_, 179, 218
_Central clearing house_, 170
Central Library for Students, 111, 170, 177, 188, 190
Central Library for Students, relations with rural libraries, 143, 145, 147
_Central repository_, 139, 141, 142
_Centralization in library system_, 29-30 Rural, 137-138, 161 Urban, 169-210
_Chambers of Commerce_, 85
Chelsea Public Libraries, 51, 101
Cheltenham, adoption of Library Act, 22
Chetham Library, Manchester, 11, 17
_Children_, books for, 129-130
_Children_, library work with, 216, 219
_Children’s Libraries_, 63-74, 205-6
_Children’s Reading room_, 63, 64
_Choice of books_, _See_ Book Selection
Christian Socialists, 10
City and Guilds Institution, 194-195
_Classification_, 53, 83, 213, 223, 225-226, 227
_Closed system_, _See_ Open access
Coats Libraries, 135, 139
Cobden, Richard, 13
Cockerell, Mr. Douglas, on bookbinding, 180
_Commercial Libraries_, 74-91, 219
_Co-operation_, 174-176, 177, 196-197
_Co-operation_, rural 150-155
_Co-operation with industries_, 97
_Co-operation with outside organizations_, 117, 150-155
_Co-operation with schools_, _See_ Schools
Cork, adoption of Library Act, 22
_Correspondence classes_, 212
County Education Authority and rural libraries, 149
_County library schemes_, 137-139, 156-160
Coventry, 22
Coventry Public Library, 22, 41, 120, 133
Croydon Public Libraries, 80, 101, 106-107, 119
Croydon Public Libraries, junior library, 65, 66, 106-107, 133
_Curriculum_ of School of Librarianship, 218
Czechoslovakia, library school, 220
_Degrees in library science_, America, 219
Derby Public Library, lectures, 101
Dickens, Charles, on libraries, 21
_Digests_, from periodicals, 182
_Discipline in children’s libraries_, 66-67
_Discussion_, value of, 109-110
Dr. Williams’s Library, 12
Doncaster, adoption of Library Act, 22
Dover, 16
_Dramatic Circles_, 114-117
Dublin Public Library, reference library, 45
Dundee, adoption of Library Act, 22
Dunfermline, central repository, 139, 147
Dunfermline Public Library, 61
Edinburgh Public Library, 23, 45
_Education_, 1-6, 72-74, 98, 122, 173, 184, 210-211. _See also_ Libraries and education
Education Act, 1870, 2, 24
Education Act, 1918, 224
Education Act for Scotland, 1918, 140
_Education authority as library authority_, 175, 200-210
Education Bill, 1807, 1
Education Bill, 1820, 2
Education Department, 2
Edwards, Edward, 13-17, 21, 29, 183, 184
Edwards, Passmore, 25
Elementary Education Act, 1870, 22
_Engravings_, 50
“Erewhon,” 221-222
Ewart, William, 6, 13-19
Ewart Act, _See_ Public Libraries Act, 1850
_Examinations_ in Librarianship, 212, 214, 219
Exeter, adoption of Library Act, 21, 22
_Exhibitions_, 120-122
_Fiction_ question, 34-35, 230-235
_Filing_, 58-59, 226
_Finance_, 25, 26, 31, 41, 42, 102, 148, 193
Fisher, Mr. H. A. L., 98
Formby, Thomas, 25
Forster’s Act. _See_ Education Act, 1870
France, librarianship in, 220
Fulham Public Libraries, lectures, 101
_Furniture, fittings, etc._, 82
Germany, library schools, 220
Glasgow, 8, 23
Glasgow Commercial Library, 80
Glasgow Mechanics’ Institution, 8
Glasgow Public Libraries, 38
Gloucester Public Library, 163
Gloucestershire Rural Libraries, 140, 163
_Government department as library authority_, 172-3
_Government grants_, 184-188
_Government inspection of libraries_, 183-188
Grantham Rural Libraries, 140
_Grants_, 29, 184-188
Greenwich Public Libraries, co-operation with schools, 127
Greenwood, Thomas, 29, 183
_Guide-books to books_, 179, 225, 232
Guildhall Library, 51
Hackney Public Library, 22, 127
Hampstead Public Library, 51, 101
Hebrides, rural library scheme, 147
Hereford, adoption of Library Act, 22
_History of library movement_, 1-31
Holland, library school, 220
Hornsey Public Library, lectures, 101
Huddersfield, 8
Hull, adoption of Library Act, 22
_Illustrations_, 43, 52, 53, 64, 65
_Indexing_, 47, 53, 61, 181, 213, 223, 226, 227, 228
_Indicators_, 38-39, 222
_Industrial libraries_, _See_ Technical libraries
_Industries_, co-operation with, 79
_Industry as local authority in technical library system_, 198
_Information Bureau_, 54, 76, 82-83, 88-90
_Information desks_, 89
_Inspection of libraries_, 183-188
Ipswich, adoption of Library Act, 22
Ireland, Public Library Act, 20, 22
Ireland, reference libraries, 45
Islington Public Libraries, 22, 43, 55, 69-70, 101, 127
_Issues as index of reading_, 25
Italy, library schools, 220
Jast, Mr. L. S., on Schools and libraries, 203-204
_Journalism_, schools of, 223
Kidderminster, adoption of Library Act, 22
Kilmarnock Public Libraries, reference library, 50
Kingston Public Libraries, lectures, 101
Kirkwood, James, 11
Lamb, Charles, 116
Lambeth Palace Library, 12
Lancashire and Cheshire Union library, 135
Lancashire and Cheshire Union of Mechanics’ Institutions, 8
_Lantern slides_, 52, 106, 119
Leamington, adoption of Library Act, 22
_Lecture rooms_, 62, 99-107
_Lectures_, 64, 65, 99-107, 211, 212, 215, 228, 232
Leeds Commercial Library, 80, 88
Leeds Public Libraries, 8, 22, 45
Leeds Technical Library, 88
Leek Public Library, lectures, 101
Leicester, adoption of Library Act, 16, 22
_Lending libraries_, 33-43, 233, 234
_Librarian_, 66, 67, 69, 106, 107, 127, 205, 214, 216
_Librarianship_, definition of, 216-217
_Librarianship_, training in, _See_ Training
_Libraries and education_, 29, 175, 200-210
Libraries Board, suggestions for a, 209-210
Library Association of the United Kingdom, on bibliography, 227
Library Association on centralization, 171-2
Library Association, commercial and technical libraries, 78, 80
Library Association, libraries and education, 29, 202-203, 204
Library Association on rural libraries, 153
Library Association and school libraries, 13
Library Association, Subject-Index to Periodicals, 181
Library Association on technical libraries, 198-201
Library Association Education Committee, 211
_Library authorities_, 173, 174, 175
_Library authority_, parish council as, 137
_Library committees_, 28, 173, 175
_Library economy_, 213
_Library extension_, 96-134, 219, 224
_Library provision_, 136, 139
_Library rate_, 15, 18, 19, 26, 136, 137
_Library schools_, 211-220
_Library service_, 14, 32-95, 138
_Liberal education_, 217, 222
Lichfield, adoption of Library Act, 22
_Light literature_, _See_ Fiction
Literary and Scientific Institutions, 33
Literary and Scientific Institutions Libraries, 12
_Literary history_, 228
Liverpool Commercial Library, 80
Liverpool Public Libraries, 16, 37, 45, 48, 50, 91, 100, 102
Liverpool, Special Act, 1852, 21
_Loan Collections to schools_, 122, 124-125, 133
_Local collections_, 51-52
Local Education Committee, 31
Local Education Committee as library authority, 201
Local Government Act, 1894, 27
_Local records_, 52
London, City of, 20, 22
London Education Committee, 127, 175, 192
_London libraries_, 22, 47-48
_London libraries_, lectures, 101
_London libraries_, reading rooms, 60
_London libraries_, reference libraries, 45, 49, 50
_London libraries_, special collections, 50-51
_London libraries_, statistics, 178
_London libraries_, and students, 195-196
London library, 34
London, Library Act, 1877, 24
London Mechanics’ Institution, 8
London School of Economics, 211-212, 225
London, University of, School of Librarianship, 213, 216, 218-219, 222
London, University of, University College, 191, 213
McKillop, John, supplemental library scheme, 191-197
_Magazine rooms_, 55
_Magazines_, _See_ periodicals
Maidstone Public Library, 22, 101, 163
Manchester, 13, 15
Manchester College of Arts and Sciences, 8
Manchester Commercial Library, 80, 81
Manchester Commercial library, contents, 83-85
Manchester Commercial library, vertical file, 225
Manchester, library rate, 27
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 8, 61
Manchester Public Libraries, 21, 38, 45, 48, 49, 101
_Maps_, 43, 52, 58, 82, 119
Marylebone, adoption of Library Act, 22
Massachusetts Agricultural College, 161
Massachusetts Free Library Commission, 185-6
_Mechanics’ Institutes_, 5-10, 26
_Mechanics’ Institute Libraries_, 5-10
Meredith, George, on fiction, 230
Metropolitan Association of Mechanics’ Institutions, 8
Middlesex, rural library scheme, 163-164
Ministry of Reconstruction, 30
Mitchell Library, Glasgow, 23
_Monastic libraries_, 11
_Motor service_, 38, 141, 146
_Museums_, 15-16
Museums Act, 1845, 15, 18
Museums and Gymnasiums Act, 1891, 27
_Music_, 43
National Art Library, South Kensington, 178
National Home-Reading Union, 112, 119
National Institute for the Blind, 93
National Library for the Blind, 92-95, 171
_National library service_, preface, 155, 169-210, 220
National Science Library, South Kensington, 60-61, 178
New York Public Library, 94, 118, 132-133
Newcastle-upon-Tyne Public Libraries, 27, 45, 50
_Newspapers_, 43, 55-59
_Newsrooms_, 47, 55-59
_Non-municipal libraries_, incorporation of, 177-178
Northampton Public Library, 50, 80, 120
Norwich Public Library, 11, 21, 80, 101
Nottingham Public Libraries, 22, 45, 50, 64, 91-92, 101, 120
_Obsolete methods_, 220-221
Ogle, J. J., 29
Oldham, adoption of Library Act, 22
Oldham, library rate, 27
_Open access_, 37, 38-40, 161, 232
Orkneys, rural library scheme, 147
Overseas Trade Department, 85
Oxford, adoption of Library Act, 21
Paddington, adoption of Library Act, 22
Paisley, adoption of Library Act, 22
_Palæography_, 52, 218, 220
_Parish council_, as library authority, 137
_Parochial libraries_, 11-12
Parochial Libraries Act, 12
Patent Office Library, 178, 193, 195, 200
Peacock, Thomas L., 9
_Periodicals_, 47, 56-61, 181-182
_Periodicals_, indexing of, _See_ Subject-Index to Periodicals
_Permanent collections_ of books in country districts, 138, 149
Perthshire Rural Library, 140, 146
Philadelphia, Commercial Museum, 77