Egerton Ryerson’s Public School Libraries, 1850—1876

Egerton Ryerson, n.d.

In February 2007, I made a presentation on the common school library system that Egerton Ryerson established for Canada West (after 1867 Ontario) after he became Superintendent of Education in 1844. Ryerson, of course, is considered to be the founder of the Ontario school system and a leading Canadian figure in 19th-century education. And he is also a central figure in the development of ‘free’ public libraries in Canadian history. Before Ryerson launched his library scheme in 1853, subscription libraries created to serve specific groups dominated the public space across the southern part of Canada West. Adults could access libraries for a fee in a variety of organizations designed for a diverse clientele such as mechanics’ institutes; literary, agricultural and scientific societies; community library associations; and mercantile or commercial groups. But for rural residents, who comprised the majority of the population, access to books could be a difficult proposition. Ryerson recognized this problem and concluded that libraries, i.e. school district libraries, should be supplied through the growth of the school system he was establishing. Similar systems existed in the United States and in the Maritimes to provide reading for adults and school children. In his 1847 Report on a System of Public Elementary Instruction for Upper Canada, he outlined his library plan,

I mean the establishment of Circulating Libraries in the various Districts, and as far as possible in the School Sections. To the attainment of this object, local and voluntary co-operation is indispensable. Government may perhaps contribute; it may assist by suggesting regulations, and recommending list of books from which suitable selections can be made; but the rest remains for individual and local efforts to accomplish. And the advantages of the School can be but very partially enjoyed, unless they are continued and extended by means of books.

Over the course of his superintendency, hundreds of school libraries were formed and hundreds of thousands of books were delivered to local communities through the agency of a Book Depository which was established in Toronto. It offered discount prices on books. But, eventually, with the expansion of the frontier in Ontario and population growth, urban communities found public school libraries less attractive to an alternative appearing in Britain and the United States—free municipal public libraries. As well, the government was helping fund another source of library books in hundreds of mechanics’ institutes and frequently petitioned by a small, developing book trade to abolish the Depository’s monopoly. Nevertheless, Ryerson stood his ground, and the school libraries he created and nourished remained in place until the Depository closed in 1881 and the Ontario Legislature passed the Free Public Libraries Act in 1882. The original presentation lasted about a half hour with questions afterwards and follows below.

There is no commentary in the MP4 video of the PowerPoint presentation I made in 2007. It is about a 20-minute read, and viewers should adjust the settings to the slowest slide speed, i.e., 25 seconds.

Regarding the conclusion, there was some discussion at OLA, so perhaps a bit more information would be helpful for viewers. The concept of models is often used in historical explanations. The concept of ‘state formation’ has become important in the colonial experience of Canada West, 1841–67. State formation is the process whereby governing bodies during the period of growing responsible government and public institutions (such as libraries) exercised greater regulatory powers. In this development, government gained greater authority over the urban and rural populace ensuring the advance of liberal democratic rule and inculcating moral, cultural, and economic values aligned with capitalism. Bruce Curtis wrote on this topic four decades ago: “‘Littery Merrit,’ ‘Useful Knowledge,’ and the Organization of Township Libraries in Canada West, 1840–1860,” Ontario History 78, no. 4 (1986): 285–311. He concluded that while libraries were believed to promote certain ideals, such as literacy, his research indicated that few adults read the books supplied through Ryerson’s system because book selection was centrally controlled and officially excluded much published literature through the agency of the Book Depository. If the Dept. of Public Instruction sought to make the populace more governable, there must be some doubt about the successful role of the Ryerson system.

It seems, too, more difficult to make the case for another useful model, social control. Social control was a popular topic in library history and education, especially in America, beginning with the revisionist histories of the 1970s. There are many articles concerning its pros and cons due to its imprecise nature. Did Ryerson set out to use libraries to structure controls around public reading as well as provide moral instruction? It is a good question, yet the success of his scheme often relied on local responses, so it is fair to say that there was not just compliance but collaboration in building libraries. Also, there were many limitations to the concept of social control in library history: the degree of general public acceptance, the different levels of public usage, and opponents, especially booksellers or reluctant politicians and taxpayers.

A third model, the one I followed in my Free Books for All: The Public Library Movement in Ontario, 1850-1930, is less structured, libraries as a social movement. In short, people and groups from all sectors of the population organize formally or informally to support and produce societal or political change. Ryerson’s system displays a political characteristic of liberal democracy: a partnership between central and local authorities with the aim to establish public institutions. The central body instructs and local bodies supply the services. The political values are efficiency and participation in representative, responsible government. In time, a successful movement will eventually diminish because its objectives are mostly achieved and into woven into the fabric of government. Thus, the government sponsorship of libraries and universal public access that Ryerson espoused fits this general context until about 1930 when all the major cities and towns in Ontario had established free library service through local plebiscites.

Another influential Canadian historical thesis, the ‘liberal order framework’ proposed by Ian McKay, asserts that liberal-minded politicians and business leaders successfully shaped the nation’s consensus around individualism, private property and capitalist accumulation. This thesis is influenced by the Marxist philosopher, Antonio Gramsci, who developed the concept of cultural and social hegemony that reinforced the power of dominant classes. In this political environment, the impetus to create libraries would come from powerful individuals or groups seeking to legislate-regulate libraries and public reading by a ‘top down’ process. Gramsci is an important representative of Western Marxism.

The ongoing application of new models and theoretical approaches to library history may inject alternative views of the library system Ryerson developed over a quarter-century. Certainly, the recent development of Critical Librarianship, which strives to examine librarianship and library structures in relation to systemic ideologies, offers an opportunity to re-investigate power/knowledge relationships identified by Michel Foucault. For example, his formulation of ‘governmentality’ (governing people’s conduct through positive means) offers a theory of examining power relations in a different way. The prospect of other approaches looms in the future, but these were not part of my 2007 presentation.

Further information on my history of free public school libraries in Canada West can be viewed on the Internet Archive in my  Free Books for All: The Public Library Movement in Ontario, 1850-1930 published in 1994.

Citizen Participation in Library Decision-Making: The Toronto Experience by John Marshall (1984)

Citizen Participation in Library Decision-Making: The Toronto Experience edited by John Marshall. Metuchen, New Jersey: School of Library Service, Dalhousie University in association with the Scarecrow Press, 1984. p. 392., illus. and maps.

John Marshall, n.d.

Toronto Reform Movement in 1970s and Toronto Public Library

In the early 1970s, reform-minded politicians began to dominate the old city of Toronto council. Strong mayors, such as David Crombie (1972-78) and John Sewell (1978-80), as well as new city councilors were concerned with the direction of urban development, expanded social services, and transparency in politics. They believed community initiatives and citizen action trumped centralization and bureaucratic management. In the previous decade, the Toronto Public Library (TPL) had committed to a long-range plan of building larger regional libraries to better serve the growing population. However, there was a legacy of many older, smaller branches extending back to the Carnegie era and the administration of George Locke that had been neglected during this phase of planning. With the influx of immigrants after 1950, Toronto had become a more diverse city with many different neighborhoods that identified with the idea of ​​‘community.’ Progressive municipal politicians were interested in expanding citizen participation in government; thus, a number of reformist citizens were appointed as library trustees in the first half of the 1970s.

The idea of ​​citizen surveys, public consultation, or ‘friends groups’ working in concert with library boards and library personnel was limited, not new. Yet, the style of political action leaned more  to responsiveness with local community advisory groups. With the ongoing construction of a Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library scheduled to open in 1977, TPL’s trustees could forego district branch construction and focus on refurbishing local branches and services. During the next five-year planning cycle, there were major renovations to older branches such as Earlscourt, Dovercourt, Yorkville, Gerrard, Wychwood, and Eastern, and new branches such as Spadina Road, a timely partnership with the Native Canadian Centre. As well, the library’s focus turned to purchasing more Canadian books, decentralizing authority within the TPL pyramidal management structure, equalizing services across the city population, and offering better services to ethnic groups. TPL had a good reputation for Canadiana and George Locke had emphasized Canadian writers, but renewed nationalist sentiment in the 1970s demanded more attention to these resources.

John Maitland Marshall, a professor at the University of Toronto library school, noted this reform trend and edited a series of essays by contributors who had participated in this remarkable period which lasted for a brief decade. One might argue that urban reformers had more impact on library services than on other major city services, such as policing and housing. The essays demonstrate the concept of urban reform in relation to library services had many aspects and was by no means a uniform political perspective. Services attuned to local public viewpoints was not a new idea, but library planners now would significantly enlarge the scope of ‘stakeholders,’ a term which quickly gained currency after 1980. John Marshall began his career as a public librarian in 1952 and he retired in 1983 after contributing many insightful library publications. His biography is available at the Ex Libris Association .

My book review on Citizen Participation which follows was first published in Canadian Public Administration 28(3) September 1985, pp 497–499.

* * * * *

Public participation in the delivery of library services in Ontario has evolved in a variety of ways since the late nineteenth century. The concept that citizens participate to some extent with elected municipal officials and administrators in decision-making or program implementation has become firmly entrenched. Initially, the main thrust was political. A tax-supported free library was established by local referendum and its board of management was appointed by school trustees and municipal councillors. In theory the library trustees were broadly representative of their community, and the power vested in the board itself was politically significant: it controlled all aspects of policy-making, planning, raising funds, budgeting, personnel management, and so on.

This participatory model served the library community for a few decades before 1914. It satisfied the general liberal democratic consensus that municipal government was an educational process, the radical position that demanded participation as a right, and the conservative preference for non-elective offices by which prominent persons could exercise some social control. With the advent of scientific management and the growth of the library profession, political/administrative functions were shared to a greater degree. During this period, the model of citizen participation was reshaped and internalized. In larger urban centers “Friends of the Library” support groups were mobilized with some success after the beginning of the Depression. In rural villages and townships, where it was not feasible to establish public libraries, voluntary organizations such as women's institutes were encouraged to incorporate as Association Libraries to provide limited services as a substitute for municipal leadership.

When local government reforms commenced in the 1960s, important changes challenged traditional library governance. Local special purpose bodies were believed to fragment effective planning by municipal councils. Trustees, especially those appointed by greatly enlarged school boards, were held to be unaccountable to the local electorate. In larger regional governments the inherent community-based representative nature of boards was dismissed. In this environment genuine non-elective contributions to the political process became a low priority. Incorporating citizens in government planning by using technical needs assessments or performance evaluations was more prevalent. Feedback, not decision-making, was the rationale for citizen involvement.

Viewed in this context John Marshall’s Citizen Participation in Library Decision-Making is an essential anthology documenting the unprecedented transformation that occurred in the Toronto Public Library between 1974 and 1981. Fifteen contributors, who were either directly involved or close observers, recount their experiences in detail and give various opinions about the value of citizen participation. The editor does a fine job of unifying these disparate views by adding six chapters that explain events and analyse trends. Generally, Marshall and his contributors found participation a worthwhile activity with significant consequences for libraries.

The introductory chapters by James T. Lemon and Michael Goldrick acquaint the reader with the political context of the urban reform movement at Toronto City Hall and the neighbourhood citizen power groups that came into prominence in the early 1970s. As Marshall points out, at this stage the library board and administration were ill-prepared to accommodate any reformers — one participant, Alderman Dorothy Thomas, described the board as “dominated by north Toronto professionals.” But by 1975 reform-minded trustees were in a majority, and dramatic change was under way.

James Lorimer and others describe the entire affair as a turnaround. Over a period of five years TPL was transformed from a closed to an open system, from a hierarchical to a reasonably decentralized structure. Citizen interest in newly formed committees and public input at meetings reordered library priorities at both the system and neighbourhood levels. The library’s administrative practice was reorganized and a staff union created. The concept of district libraries was abandoned; in its place renovated or newly constructed community branches appeared. Inequalities in service were identified and long-range plans set in motion to equalize resources. Library collection policies were reassessed to place greater emphasis on multilingual, Canadian and popular (as opposed to quality) items. By the end of this period, citizens’ advisory committees became a standard feature at TPL.

Throughout this process management was in a state of flux. So too were old-guard trustees and “Friends” groups that supported the traditional political/administrative structure which had evolved. Lorimer concludes that library managers and trustees need to reassess their basic rationale for providing service — that is, they must involve the public to relate collection policies and services to enlarge the community base. Meyer Brownstone stated that TPL's trials and tribulations show that one advantage of an appointed library board is its flexibility vis-à-vis “the more rigid, political, bureaucratic character of the municipal government with its general centralizing tendencies and its pseudo participation.”

Marshall agrees with their analyzes and suggests one way to encourage more responsiveness in libraries is to foster the concept of active advisory committees. Another proposal is to promote administrative commitment to include staff and public in planning and evaluation of services, a parallel structure of decentralized decision-making at the neighborhood (community) and branch (system) levels. Naturally, the major institutional hurdle is to set in place this scheme and keep it operating, Marshall advises the employment of area-based library community organizers to coordinate this activity.

There are a few lessons to be drawn from the Toronto experience. A decade ago, a comprehensive survey by Jane Robbins, Citizen Participation and Public Library Policy, found that participation was the exception rather than the rule. Since 1975 library administrators and trustees in larger urban centers have gradually moved toward involving the community in more significant ways by using committees, meetings or needs assessments. However, the Toronto experience remains unique for the degree of change introduced in institutional goals and objectives, organization, staffing and interface with the public. The drawbacks of participation — the costs in terms of expected money, energy, staff time and so on — are not examined by Marshall at length. In rural libraries where the heritage of voluntarism lives on and the theory of trustee representativeness remains plausible, there is some skepticism about the necessity to adopt participatory methods. What is clear today is that the traditional trustee/administrator monopoly in policy and management is in transition. New forms of citizen participation, use of marketing approaches, and program evaluation techniques offer hope for more responsive and accessible public libraries.

Lome Bruce, McLaughlin Library, University of Guelph

One Place to Look; The Ontario Public Library Strategic Plan (1990)

One Place to Look; The Ontario Public Library Strategic Plan. Prepared by the Ontario Public Library Strategic Planning Group. Toronto: Ontario Ministry of Culture and Communications, 1990. 68 p., illus. Also published in French with title: Une voie d'accès à l'information.

Planning for Public Libraries in Ontario

Soon after the passage of the seminal Public Libraries Act in 1985 by the Progressive Conservative government in Ontario, provincial library planners in the Ontario Library Association (OLA) began focusing on information policy and strategic planning in 1987. The strategic plans which the newly formed provincially-funded Ontario Library Service (OLS) areas began after 1989 were limited in scope, and, as a result, librarians and trustees from municipalities, the OLA, and professional groups began to concentrate on all of Ontario. An agreed upon strategic vision for all types of libraries would further cooperative work and develop consistency and direction that was absent in legislative library provisions. After the Ministry of Culture and Communications (MCC) agreed to finance a province-wide plan through the OLA, the public library community actively began the difficult task of finding common ground. The previous 1982 extensive process and report by Peter Bassnett in the early 1980s, Ontario Public Libraries: The Provincial Role in a Triad of Responsibilities, had struggled to find consensus and dealt with a simpler technological environment. There now was a new opportunity at the outset of a new decade when the term ‘electronic library’ was gaining increasing parlance.

By the start of the 1990s, public-sector strategic planning meant the development of a mission statement, a more complete analysis of the factors influencing library service, specific recommendations about goals, long-term objectives to achieve these goals, and recommendations for implementing the new vision. An inclusive method could lead to agreement about principal services and structures. By mid-1988, a small planning group chaired by Elizabeth Hoffman, a founding member of the Association of Canadian College and University Ombudsmen and a Toronto Public Library trustee, came together to plot Ontario’s first strategic plan for library service. For many years, librarians and trustees had looked to briefs, regulations, and legislative provisions to define the library’s role and functions. Now, legislative provisions were not to be the outcome. Now, planners had to submit convincing recommendations to many partners and hope for a successful implementation process on the part of many libraries across the province—large or small!

 Ontario Public Library Strategic Planning 1988–90

An Ontario Public Library Strategic Planning Group (SPG) began its process in March 1988, forming teams to prepare reports, such as technology, and developing a mission statement that later became a Statement of Purpose. Elizabeth Cummings for the Libraries and Community Information Branch (LCIB) and Margaret Andrewes for the OLA maintained a communication plan and helped coordinate the work of the SPG to support its deliberations. For months, the SPG attended meetings to outline the process and collate information on areas of fundamental interest, such as service to northern Ontario, equity of access, education for staff, technology, or funding. The task groups studied and analyzed major issues, and by summer 1990, the SPG was ready to finalize its drafts after receiving more than two hundred briefs and presentations at local public hearings. A final document, One Place to Look, was released in time for the November 1990 OLA Toronto conference. At this convention, there was some optimism about the organization’s strategic document. So, plans were commenced to form a consensus and implement as many SPG recommendations as possible. All stakeholders, i.e., the provincial government, municipal councils, library boards, and library users, needed to be proactive in developing their strategy for implementing One Place to Look in their community.

One Place to Look was a progressive vision that sought to situate libraries on “the crest of the information wave” that was beginning to sweep the globe. In 1989, the National Science Foundation’s NSFNET in the United States had gone online, and in the following year, Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, unveiled the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In 1991, CERN introduced the World Wide Web and the number of websites began to proliferate. The development of Netscape Navigator, Yahoo!, and a Microsoft browser for Windows 95 quickly followed. The ‘electronic library’ would soon give way to the ‘digital library.’

Nevertheless, several themes in One Place to Look were familiar. The mantra of “access to the right information at the right time” harked back to an earlier 20th-century motto about books: “the right book for the right reader.” The cornerstones for progress would be:
(1) equitable access to information; (2) helping people find the right information; (3) provision of materials for pleasure and relaxation; (4) free access to resources; and (5) the library as a lifelong educational agency (p. 13). Four goals were to achieve these societal purposes, each with basic objectives and several recommendations. It was a plan with a purpose, ways and means to get there, and a collaborative approach that would give all participants a common purpose and direction. Its four fundamental goals were:
1. Every Ontarian will have access to the information resources within the province through an integrated system of partnerships among all types of information providers;
2. Every Ontarian will receive public library service that is accurate, timely, and responsive to individual and community needs;
3. Every Ontarian will receive public library service that meets recognized levels of excellence from trained and service-oriented staff governed by responsible trustees;
4. Every Ontarian will have access to the resources and services of all public libraries without barriers or charges.

Detailed objectives were the key to the entire strategic planning process because they linked goals with outcomes. There were twenty objectives, which were grouped around several major concerns:
—development of an information policy and strategy for Ontario;
— an integrated, province-wide public library information network;
— promotion of effective units of service;
— effective, electronic access to all collections in the province-wide network;
— a program to preserve printed and electronic information;
— programs to encourage innovation and removal of barriers to service;
— an education program for trustees to provide leadership;
— development of staff expertise;
— removal of barriers to service due to “race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, family status, or handicap;”
— equity of access to service for all Ontarians, regardless of geography;
— public library service and access to the provincial network for all Ontarians without charge;
— funding to support the integrated, province-wide public library information network.

One Place to Look was an inspired visionary document. At a time when a 1989 Gallup Canada Survey revealed that only 43% of the people it interviewed were aware that they could phone the public library for information, the SPG was saying that people would be able to access materials in their libraries from the comfort of their homes. For many people, the futuristic vision was difficult to square with current conditions. Unfortunately, the strategic plan was rolled out just as North America entered a major recession that ravaged Ontario between 1990–92. Government revenue at all levels shrank; consequently, hard choices were made, and cutback management became more important. Although the MCC announced in early 1991 that its funding for libraries would not be cut and that money for Indian Bands and libraries would be increased, government per capital library revenue peaked in 1992 and remained flat for another three years. At the same time, some library services, such as reference and circulation, continued to grow.

Financial considerations came to the fore because revenue was stagnant; thus, library boards and CEOs seriously investigated other sources, such as budget trimming and user fees. Deliberations on strategic planning were also lessened by the rapid development of the Information Highway and the need for libraries to develop Internet services and expend more on technological considerations. One Place to Look required two critical structures for successful implementation: first, a central provincial office to coordinate and manage an integrated provincial network; second, a Strategic Planning Council with representation from all library organizations to advise and recommend policy to the coordinating body based on an agreement in the broader community. However, provincial governments for decades had been unenthusiastic about establishing a central coordinating body to provide province-wide administration for library services. The two 1990s provincial OLS agencies (South and North) were a means, not formal agencies, to carry out liaison, coordination, and advisory services across the province. Generally, the period 1991–95 was punctuated by cabinet shuffles and ministry realignments; consequently, there were few opportunities to prioritize libraries or expand the Libraries and Community Information Branch’s (LCIB) role. From its reorganization in the late 1970s, the LCIB (especially under Wil Vanderelst) had actively promoted coordination among Ontario library boards and had worked to improve their efficiency. In 1993, the LCIB did publish a short statement, One Place to Look: Ontario Public Library Strategic Plan, 1990: 3 Years Later, without much fanfare. As well, work towards formation of Network 2000, an an effort to connect Ontarians to the global information highway through their public libraries, had commenced. However, in 1995, the LCIB was reformed into a new Ministry and its functions merged with a new, broader-focused Cultural Partnerships Branch.

For strategic planners, the recession, the lack of government continuity, plus the absence of a major coordinating body at the provincial level were major impediments. One promising development was the creation of an Ontario Public Libraries Strategic Directions Council (SDC) in 1992 that began working on marketing, telecommunications, and revision of the strategic plan. This group consisted of representatives from all library sectors: all public libraries; the OLS and LCIB; Metro Toronto Library; and the OLA. As a practical consideration, additional project money for a second-generation network, INFO, the Information Network for Ontario, was put into place in 1992 by the MCC to create a provincial database for distribution on cd-roms. INFO could then connect with a regional high-speed network, ONet, to become part of a larger publicly accessible enterprise. Later, in February 996, the SDC released a short discussion paper: A Call to Action: Specific Initiatives to Advance Public Library Development in Ontario, but it failed to generate sufficient attention during the ‘Common Sense Revolution’ turbulence unleashed by the Progressive Conservative government.

During this period, the OLA emerged as the biggest booster of library strategic planning. At OLA’s 1991 conference, a new division, the Ontario Library and Information Technology Association (OLITA), was created to address the impact of the burgeoning Information Society. In May 1992, OLA published A Proposal for an Information Policy for Ontario which updated a report from the 1989 exercise leading to One Place to Look. To interest small libraries under 10,000 in strategic planning, OLA’s conferences in 1991 and 1992 featured “The Hometown Library” mini-conference sessions for trustees and staff. To raise information awareness and sustain One Place to Look, OLITA began to promote interdisciplinary exchanges, research, standards, monitoring of new technologies, and development of models for library systems and networks. In 1992, it joined with the ALA to sponsor a series of meetings on international technology, “Ten Days to 2000,” which heightened consciousness about networking, the Information Highway or the Internet. In the following year, 1993, OLA formed the Coalition for Public Information with representatives outside libraries as a voice for public participation in the emerging telecommunications-information field. Partnerships like the Coalition represented one of the objectives the Strategic Planning Group had recommended to broaden the action base on important issues. Thus, on some fronts, the strategic planning process was progressing despite challenging economic conditions.

Nonetheless, the effects of the recession hampered OLA’s ability to promote libraries at a crucial time. Public sector realignments exposed libraries and librarianship to the rationalization of work and technological expertise in an increasingly unionized workplace and magnified the weaker form of tiered library governance (province-municipality-board) and multiple professional and trustee associations. For a time, OLA was coping with declining membership and finances. Staffing levels for librarians and technicians had moderated after the Bassnett Report in the early 1980s, and there was little flexibility in personnel budgets. One Place to Look continued to be a rallying cry into the early 2000s. Many of its objectives were a work in progress for many years: improved guidelines for smaller libraries, certification programs and better training for staffing, more effective electronic access, a program to preserve printed and born-digital information, and other worthy activities. For the most part, the strategic plan was eventually a successful endeavour and a model for future library planners. References to it still appear in library publications, and the catchy phrase, ‘One Place to Look,’ continues to reverberate in library language, in many ways supplanting older library mottos that emphasized reading and books.

One Place to Look has been digitized and is available for viewing on the Internet Archive.

My earlier 2022 blog on the Bassnett Report is also available for viewing.