Do we still need libraries in the internet age? (II)

The present day: Whether forged by fire or faith, libraries before the 18th Century did not operate the way they do today. In his paper on the history of modern libraries, Professor Thomas Augst  said the old archives chained  books to the desk in order to keep them safe. Further, they did not allow books […]

The present day:

Whether forged by fire or faith, libraries before the 18th Century did not operate the way they do today. In his paper on the history of modern libraries, Professor Thomas Augst  said the old archives chained  books to the desk in order to keep them safe. Further, they did not allow books to be circulated; this therefore, restricted access and circulation.

However, there  is so much access today, yet even as early as the beginning of the 20th Century, there were limitations to access even in the United States the so-called bastion of democracy and equality.

Threats:

i. Access

In the early 18th Century, Benjamin Franklin and friends introduced a subscription based model to the library world when they formed the Library Company of Philadelphia. They operated like a joint stock company where members pooled  resources together for their mutual benefits. The members could borrow books and take home.  The library was also stocked based on the expressed interest of the subscribed members.

But the subscription based system had flaws.  There were barriers and segregation based on class, race and gender. Also, you had to have the money to be able to afford the subscription.

In 1845, the UK Parliament passed the Museum Act and in 1850 passed the Public Library Act which gave towns the opportunity to open their own libraries.

The combination of these measures brought about explosion of public libraries and a shift in the way people thought about them.

Soon philanthropists started funding libraries. For instance Andrew Carnegie used his vast fortune to fund 1,689 libraries across the US – and hundreds more in countries like Malaysia, Mauritius, Serbia and South Africa; more than 2,500 in total around the world.

“Andrew Carnegie was once the richest man in the world,” Susan Sternberg wrote for NPR. “Coming as a dirt poor kid from Scotland to the U.S., by the 1880s he’d built an empire in steel – and then gave it all away: $60 million to fund a system of 1,689 public libraries across the country.

“Carnegie donated $300,000 to build Washington, D.C.’s oldest library – a beautiful beaux arts building that dates back to 1903. Inscribed above the doorway are the words: Science, Poetry, History. The building was “dedicated to the diffusion of knowledge.”

The writer Paul Dickson noted that the Carnegie libraries also played important aesthetic roles in the cities.

Public libraries later became the symbol of social equality as Susan Sternberg noted in an article for NPR that black people said in the early 20th Century, the public libraries were the only place in downtown in which they were allowed to use the bathroom.

“It [Carnegie Library in D.C.] opened in 1903 to women, children, all races – African-Americans remember when it was the only place downtown where they could use the bathrooms. During the Depression, D.C.’s Carnegie Library was called “the intellectual breadline.” No one had any money, so you went there to feed your brain,” Sternberg wrote.

Yet, even at that time, some of these libraries often fell short of providing services to all  citizens without bias. That was why black librarians in the US and the civil rights movement opened their own libraries.  Professor Michael Fox said after the American civil war, the black communities in the south prioritized building schools instead of libraries but  by early 20th Century, black-run libraries began to spread nationwide.

ii. War

Surprisingly, human beings are still not beyond the destruction of books even today.  In the night of August 25-26, 1992, Serbian forces destroyed the National and University Library of Bosnia during which two million documents disappeared in a blaze.  Also, during the World War II, Japanese forces destroyed Chinese libraries.  And as early as 2003, libraries were destroyed in Iraq during the war with the United States.  The foregoing examples show that wars still pose great risks to libraries even in the 21st Century.

iii.Technology

The Library Company of Philadelphia’s model was made possible because of the introduction of mass printing which brought down the cost of producing a book. Due to technology there was no longer the need to chain books to the desk.  When mass production increased in the 19th Century, it was now easy to make multiple copies of the same book.  Books no longer cost as much as one’s house. To boot, books were easy to replace. Also, when the new idea of writing novels appeared in the 18th Century, it made sense to allow patrons to take books home to enjoy.

To be continued.

This is the paper I presented as the guest speaker at the Nigeria School Library Association’s 34th Annual Conference in Minna  on 29 October, 2019.

PS: Those who requested for the paper with the complete references should have received it.  But if not, please remind me at [email protected]