Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/126

 ii4 The Library. trumpet-blasts nor acts of legislature will ever keep in check ! The branch library system was at work in Manchester before Boston had well got its central library squarely into order, for in 1857 the Hulme and Ancoats branches were established, two years after the main Boston Public Library was started for lending. It was not till November, 1870, that the East Boston branch library was established, being the first, as far as I am aware in America. Before that date many branch libraries had been opened in England. 1 The free book deliveries claimed are, I assume, the Chicago, Boston, Jersey City and Baltimore delivery stations, which, by the way, have not been welcomed with universal enthusiasm even by American librarians. And what are they after all, but a variation of Samuel Brown's itinerating libraries which flourished in East Lothian in Scotland for many years early in this century? The reason why such stations have not been established in England is because, as compared with branches, they are not considered sufficiently convenient for the public, in towns. I may be allowed to point out that the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics' Institutions has had, for many years, a delivery system somewhat similar to the American ones, and it is likely the plan will in time extend to counties for which it seems best suited. Somewhere about 1725, Allan Ramsay, a Scots poet, established in Edinburgh a circulating library, to the shelves of which the readers had open access. Since then, every proprietary library, society library and mechanics' institute has allowed direct access with more or less freedom. In Cambridge Public Library the practice dales from 1858 ; and the British Museum and Patent Office, London, furnish examples of un- restricted access to shelves probably unequalled anywhere outside the Australian colonies. The practice is one of very long standing in Britain, and though far from general in public libraries will pro- bably be extended to most of them in the course of a few years. The Rudolph indexer is the invention of a native of Germany. Apart from that, the idea of a panoramic catalogue is at least of ten years' standing in England ; while Mr. Rudolph's indebtedness to the late M. Jacquard, of Lyons, for the mechanical part of his machine is quite evident. But why claim a cataloguing method of such very recent intro- duction, which most practical Americans shake their heads over ? The linotype permanent catalogue in its present state of development is a thing rather to avoid, but we are obliged to the Americans for experi- menting with it. Finally, I am informed that the revolving book-case was originally the subject of an English patent, but that it was first suc- cessfully introduced on a commercial basis in the States. 2 After all, what are any of these appliances or developments of practice compared to the great British democratic library, established by the people, managed by the people and used by the people, which is the real parent of modern librarianship ? If anything has tended to influence the progress of the modern library and its work, it has been the spectacle presented only in Britain, of poor communities cheerfully taxing themselves to establish libraries, and in hundreds of cases fighting strenuously in the cause, as if contending for a mighty privilege. When everything is said that can be said on either side, the fact remains that both Britain and the United States have much to learn from each other. Then, on the other hand, each has much to teach its own people, and I can instance the enormous amount of missionary work 1 The Liverpool branches date from 1853. 2 The Patent of Benjamin Crosby, bookseller, London, is dated 1808, No. 3153. In some respects it is superior to the so-called "American" revolving case. ED.