Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/224

 The Dawn of a New Epoch. A HUNDRED years hence the authorities of the greater municipal London, which will then be carrying on the work now only attempted by the present congeries of village com- munities, will pass a resolution ordering a tablet to be fixed to the wall of a quaint three-cornered building in Clerkenwell, to com- memorate the fact that here, in 1894, ^ e revolution had begun which in a few years had changed the entire system of public libraries throughout the land. For here in Clerkenwell had been found, for the first time, the liberality combined with courage which enabled the administrators of a public library to throw off the traditions of the past, and to submit to the test of actual practice the theory that the British democracy was honest enough and enlightened enough to use its own books without abusing them or stealing them. Up to May ist, 1894, m spite of all the fine things that have been said to the British working-man by the promoters and adminstrators of libraries as to the elevating influence of literature, they have in practice shewn that they considered it necessary to keep the British working-man at a distance, and to treat him, indeed, with that suspicion and care which is only excusable on the part of bankers in dealing with strangers at the change counter, or on the part of railway companies in giving out tickets to the public. In several cases the experiment of allowing the public free access to the shelves of a reference library has been tried ; but although, so far as I am aware, in no single instance have the authorities been compelled to revert to the old system on ac- count of damage or loss, no committee, until that of Clerkenwell has had the courage to be logical, and extend the same hospital- ity to the borrowers from the lending library as had been given to the users of books in a reference library. At Clerkenwell, the system in vogue in other libraries is simply reversed, for the public are now inside the counter, and