Egerton Ryerson was the first to encourage the free-of-charge tax-supported public library concept with his Common School Act of 1850. This Act authorized the establishment of ‘district libraries’ in Canada West (later Ontario) by providing for libraries in ‘common’ (public) schools. Ryerson followed up by publishing extensive regulations in 1853 to cover book selection, provincial grants, the appointment of librarians, circulation records, and reports to the Dept. of Public Instruction he superintended. These libraries were free public libraries, i.e., there was no charge at the point of access, tax funding was authorized, and universal access for children and women (not just adult males) was encouraged. However, the location in school houses often mitigated book use by adults and after two decades local support for these libraries had greatly diminished.
A second legislative effort came in 1851 when Robert Bell, a Member of Parliament for Lanark (Ontario), introduced a bill to facilitate the formation of mechanics’ institutes and library associations. His law (and subsequent similar acts in other provinces) contained influential ideas about public libraries. It recognized that a public library would be available to persons through voluntary decisions, not mandated legal regulations. The Library Association and Mechanics’ Institute Act of 1851 established that libraries would be governed by local boards of trustees mostly independent from control by municipal politicians, a ‘special purpose body’ in modern public administrative terminology. Further, the Act provided public recognition of libraries as incorporated bodies through public legislation, thereby creating the opportunity for provincial grants in the public interest to supplement local fundraising efforts. However, unlike the Ryerson scheme this legislation did not stipulate public funding, although permissive Legislative grants were made to dozens of institutes and associations (as well as combinations of both) until 1858 when funding ceased due to an economic downturn.
A third stimulus for legislative initiatives took no notice of free libraries in schools or subscription libraries in associations and institutes. This development attempted to emulate the establishment of free public libraries in the United Kingdom and the United States. There is evidence for this trend shortly after 1850. Canadian efforts focused on the establishment of free library service by municipal corporations which were encouraged by the famous Baldwin Act of 1849. This important legislation permitted the incorporation of cities, towns, villages, and townships governed by locally elected councils across Canada West. William Henry Boulton, the Conservative member for Toronto in the Legislative Assembly, introduced a bill in 1852 which was essentially identical to the public library act passed by the American state of Massachusetts in the previous year (1851). His bill was premature: at this time, only a handful of municipal corporations existed in Canada West and in Canada East (Quebec) there was no general municipal legislation until 1855. The bill was not read a third time and died at the end of the parliamentary session. Later, in 1866, when support for Ryerson’s scheme had wanted and mechanics’ institutes were experiencing financial difficulties, Alexander Morris, a Liberal-Conservative member for the riding of Lanark South, sponsored novel legislation that supported the establishment of free public libraries by municipalities but also allowed a role for potential donors to contribute to the support and management of a semi-independent board. However, because a political union of Canadian colonies was well underway, Morris’ bill was discharged in August 1866 at the end of the Province of Canada’s last Parliament (1863–66).
Throughout this period, subscription libraries (often called library associations and occasionally in Canada social libraries) were established in all Canadian colonies. These ‘public libraries’ were accessible to all residents of a community (mostly males) but not generally free because they required voluntary payments. They performed a public function but were not agencies of the state. For the most part, the Canadian historiography of the subscription library has emphasized its social role as a prototype, a stage towards the development of the modern free public library. However, given the per-Confederation efforts to establish free libraries in schools and the abortive bills of 1852 and 1866, it can be seen that the subscription library was less important as a model for public funding and more important as an exemplar to establish the public library’s local roots by its identification with a sense of community, by its reliance on boards of management composed of citizen trustees, and by its example that access would be on a voluntary basis.
My article on proposed public library legislation for the Province of
Canada (now Ontario and Quebec) in 1852. The bill was originally published in Ex Libris Association Newsletter 42 (Fall 2007): 15–18. See my earlier blog post on William Henry Boulton.
My article on public library legislation that was not passed by legislators of the United Canadas in 1866. Originally published in Ex Libris Association Newsletter 44 (Fall 2008): 10–13. See my earlier blog post on Alexander Morris.
For my revious post on Egerton Ryerson and his public libraries in schools, click here.
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