Chapter II: Adoption of Acts, Foundation and Committees

=14. Methods of Adopting the Public Libraries Acts.=--There are only two methods prescribed by the Libraries Acts under which public libraries can be established. In rural parishes a parish meeting, called upon a requisition signed by ten or more voters and held at the time and place appointed, may adopt the Acts by a bare majority of those present and voting. At least seven days’ notice of the meeting must be given, but it is better to allow a month. Should a poll be demanded, it must be conducted by ballot according to the rules laid down by the Local Government Board. Full particulars, including forms of requisition, will be found in Chambers and Fovargue’s _Law Relating to Public Libraries_, 1899.

=15.= As already stated in Section 4, any county borough, urban district, burgh or other similar authority may adopt the Libraries Acts by a resolution of the council, without reference to the voters. A month’s notice of motion must be given in the customary form, and a bare majority of the council can pass the resolution. A copy of the resolution adopting the Acts must be sent to the Local Government Board, and it must also be advertised in the local papers and posted on the doors of all the churches and chapels--where such notices are usually posted. It is best to make the resolution state a particular date when the Acts are to come into operation, as is required by the Scotch Act. In some places the Acts after being adopted have been allowed to become a dead-letter owing to neglect of this necessary precaution. As the urban districts and burghs are given power to fix the amount of rate within the limitation of one penny, it is not necessary to include in the resolution adopting the Acts any stipulation as to the amount of rate. A useful form of resolution is as follows:

That the Public Libraries Act [_state date of principal Act_] and all
subsequent Acts amending the same be, and are hereby adopted, for the
county borough of -------- [_state place_], and shall be in force
throughout the borough [_or other area_] on and after the . . . . . .
day of . . . . . . . . [_state year_].

=16.= As the power of adopting the Acts in populous areas is now vested in the local authorities, there is no longer, as formerly, any need to educate opinion among ratepayers as to the necessity for establishing public libraries. The Library Association has issued a useful pamphlet, _The Establishment of Public Libraries_, 1909, and most of the other propagandist literature of a useful kind appears in the various books of Mr Thomas Greenwood (_Public Libraries_, _British Library Year Book_, etc.), and these should be consulted by anyone in a rural parish who desires to raise the question in a practical form. As regards urban districts the initiative may safely be left in the hands of the intelligent members of council, who will sooner or later move in the direction of placing their districts in line with all the other large towns in the country.

=17.= At present about 534 towns and districts in the United Kingdom have adopted the Public Libraries Acts, or local Acts, and this number includes every large town in the country. The principal areas still unprovided with public libraries are the Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone and the towns and districts of Bacup, Crewe, Scarborough, Swindon, Govan, Leith, Pollokshaws and Wishaw; together with Dover, Jarrow, Llandudno and Weymouth, which, though they have adopted the Acts, have taken no steps to put them into force.

=18. Endowments.=--Little need be said about the foundation of public libraries by endowment or bequest. The wills of Stephen Mitchell and George Baillie, of Glasgow, are models of what a liberal bequest should be, both as regards the amounts bequeathed and the conditions laid down for the formation of the library itself. The practical condition attached to all the gifts made by Mr Andrew Carnegie and Mr J. Passmore Edwards for public library purposes should be adopted by every benefactor who proposes to found a library. This is the very sensible one that, if the gift of money is accepted by the community, the local authority must adopt the Public Libraries Acts, in order to maintain the library in a state of efficiency for all time. The only alteration suggested in the form of future bequests is that, when money is offered to a small town on the condition that it adopts the Libraries Acts, the whole of the gift should not necessarily take the form of a building fund. Small towns usually have very inadequate incomes from the library rate, and for this reason it might be wise if a fair proportion of the gift were directed to be invested as a book fund. A large library building without books is by no means as useful to the people as a much less ambitious building provided with a fund which permits of the annual purchase of £50 to £100 worth of books, independently of the library rate. At the same time, the endowment of libraries in the manner suggested would not always act as an encouragement to town councils to provide proper funds for libraries; indeed, it might act as an excuse for withholding them.

=19. Appointment of Committees.=--The first step after the Libraries Acts have been adopted by a local authority will be the appointment of a committee, and it is desirable that only capable men should be elected. The best interests of the library will be served by a committee consisting of good business men and literary or professional men or women, in about equal proportions. It is quite evident that the legislature did not contemplate the formation of public libraries by committees consisting exclusively of the rank and file of local authorities, who are chiefly concerned with paving, drainage and other equally material matters. By Section 15, Sub-section 3, of the “Public Libraries Act, 1892,” it is ordained that “an urban authority may if it think fit appoint a committee and delegate to it all or any of its powers and duties under this section, and the said committee shall to the extent of such delegation be deemed to be the library authority. Persons appointed to be members of the committee need not be a member of the urban authority.” The “Public Libraries (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1877,” gives similar power to elect members outside the local authority.