Report on Luton Public Library (1908)

This study surveyed the funding of public libraries in Nigeria with Imo State Library Board, Owerri as the case study. The research design adopted was the survey method using questionnaire and interview for data collection. The population of the study consisted of 5 senior administrative officers who are in a position to answer to issues on the funding of public libraries. The five questionnaires that were administered were returned representing 100% return rate. In the study, government was identified as the major provider of funds for the public library. The result also showed that the source(s) of funds are not adequate. The paper indentified factors affecting funding of public libraries which include: inadequate management of funds released; insensitivity on the part of government; lack of public-private partnership; and appointment of non-librarians as board members. Finally, the paper made recommendations on how to alleviate the problems of funding namely, good management of fund; strengthening alternative sources of funding like bookshop, printing, publishing, information brokerage and collaboration with the private sector. The paper also emphasized that with adequate funding of public libraries, effective library services will be achieved.Key words: Public Library, Funding, Government, Imo State.

<p>This research is an attempt to clarify the extraordinary and new concept in public libraries - trust as a form of governance. Public libraries world wide are faced with the dilemma of having to find funding to keep the services they provide for their communities as good, or preferably better, than it has been. Trust as a form of governance is just one possibility facing public libraries in New Zealand today. At the onset of this research it became clear that no literature has been produced or research undertaken on the topic of trusts in public libraries in New Zealand or on the governance of public library trusts. As trust as a form of governance could become an important issue in the restructuring and funding of public libraries in New Zealand as well as in the management changes facing public libraries in New Zealand today, it is important that research be done on the topic and made available to the public library community. As a supporting theoretical framework for planning the research, Everett Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation theory and more specifically, the theory of the innovation process in organisations has been used.</p>

Purpose This research study aims to examine influences on the public library funding decision from the perspectives of New Jersey mayors and public library directors. Design/methodology/approach Content analysis was used to explore statements of 84 public library directors and 45 mayors about what was most/least effective in a recent library budget request. Findings Although they may differ on the relative importance of a specific concept, the public library directors and mayors in this study have high levels of agreement about what information is important in the budget decision process. Research limitations/implications The primary limitations of the findings of this study stem from the reliability of self-reported data and the low response rates. While the researcher believes that the findings and conclusions are valid for the survey respondents, it is less certain that they are valid for all public libraries in New Jersey, and it is not recommended that the conclusions be extended to public libraries outside of the state which differ in state mandates and other circumstances. Practical implications Understanding more about the factors that can influence library funding decisions provides insight into the very complex public library funding process and may help public library directors and mayors engage in mutually satisfactory budget negotiations. Originality/value This study contributes to the Library and Information Science research literature on library budgets by examining influences on the public library funding decision, specifically adding the perspectives of mayors and public library directors on a recent budget cycle.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the «Ministry of Education Journal» as a historical source on the history of libraries and librarianship. The magazine was published in 1834–1917. During the journal activities it published about 45 thousand articles, over 300 of which were devoted to librarianship. This is an average 3.42 publications per year. They are normative acts in the field of librarianship, articles devoted foreign librarianship, history of domestic libraries. A large number of notes were reprinted from local editions and dedicated to the provincial public libraries and libraries of educational institutions.For the first time in the national librarianship the author analyzes the editorial policy of the journal related to library construction. The first stage was based on the concept of official nationality of the Minister of Education S. Uvarov, which was focused on publishing articles on the library system organization and familiarizing readers with the world librarianship development. The editorial policy second stage, began in 1860, was based on N. Ushinsky views about education nationality and upbringing through the book. The special attention was paid to activities of the Imperial Public Library, Rumyantsev Public Museum and Vilen Public Library. For the first time the journal publishes articles devoted to the problem of academic libraries acquisition, cataloging, etc.

The Mission of "Little Star":Juana Manrique de Lara's Contributions to Mexican Librarianship Phillip Jones (bio) In the wake of the Mexican Revolution and after a year studying library science in the United States, Juana Manrique de Lara returned to Mexico City to begin work as library inspector for the Federal District. The story of her life and career in public and children's library service and library education is an historical narrative of both her emerging profession and her nation. This study focuses on Manrique de Lara's formative years (1899–1925) as she acquired an education and began her life's work in the midst of Mexico's prolonged civil war and subsequent reconstruction. Foremost, this study is a tribute, intended to share what too few librarians, even in Mexico, know: Juana Manrique de Lara helped establish librarianship in Mexico and passed her enthusiasm for the profession to a generation of librarians. Every society of the West today needs a certain number of doctors, magistrates, soldiers, and librarians—to cure their citizens when sick, to administer justice to them, to defend them, and to make them read. —José Ortega y Gasset, "Misión del bibliotecario" You have no idea of the enthusiasm I had, the love I felt for my profession. Indeed, it was my life, and they paid me. —Estela Morales Campos, "Entrevista: Juana Manrique de Lara" In the summer of 1924 and in the wake of the Mexican Revolution, twenty-seven-year-old Juana Manrique de Lara returned to Mexico City fresh from a year of study at the Library School of the New York Public Library to begin work as inspectora de bibliotecas (library inspector) for the Federal District. Manrique de Lara's mission, so well articulated over the course of her nearly forty-year career, was to recognize and respond to the needs of Mexicans of all ages for reading and for public libraries. In the midst of civil war she acquired an education, forged a career, and [End Page 469] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Juana Manrique de Lara, first professional librarian of the Departamento de Bibliotecas. In Estela Morales Campos, Educación bibliotecológica en México, 1915–1954 (Mexico City: UNAM, 1988), 97. made lasting contributions to librarianship in her homeland. The depth and reach of Manrique de Lara's work are reflected in her professional passions, which first encompassed children's library service, expanded to public library management, and then found tandem expression in teaching library education and as a government-appointed library consultant. Remarkably, as a young professional she succeeded by both conforming to and defying bureaucratic practice to bring children's library service, public libraries, and library education to the federal government's attention in the midst of and following the Mexican Revolution. There is very little scholarship that mentions Manrique de Lara and even less that examines her life and work in any depth. Accordingly, piecing together Manrique de Lara's early life and career is a challenging task. To do so, one must draw from a limited number of articles or sections of monographs, a single interview, contemporaneous government sources, and Manrique de Lara's own writings, almost all of which are Spanish-language materials published in Mexico and found in few public, university, or research libraries across North America. The foremost scholarship on Manrique de Lara is the work of Mexican library historian Martha Alicia Añorve Guillén, whose master's thesis led to two published articles on Manrique de Lara's contributions to the federal [End Page 470] government's library programs and to children's library services during the 1920s. Her conclusion, based on close comparisons of Manrique de Lara's early articles and Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP) documents, is that although no official attribution was ever made, we can infer that the SEP heard and incorporated Manrique de Lara's suggestions into its now-landmark library planning between 1920 and 1924.1 Ample, yet not abundant in number, Manrique de Lara's own writings comprise the most compelling testament to her life, work, and ideas. With the exception of children's stories...

Information professionals in a globalized world: Kosova libraries: Where practical steps are most needed

1. Philosophy in the Library: A Healthy Debate or a State of Confusion?Lately there seems to be considerable debate-or confusion, depending on how you understand it-as to what libraries are, what the proper object of study for library science, and even whether or not library science really scientific. Enter the philosophers, and who knew there were so many among us! Although Zwadlo (1997) cited a 1934 paper by Danton in which it was reported that only 1 to 5 percent of library publications have any philosophical discussion, the debate about philosophy for libraries renewed in the 1990s, and Danton would be astonished at the number of publications appearing since the year 2000. One of the most noticeable aspects of this renewed interest a focus on epistemological and ontological issues, a focus that can be traced back to a series of papers published in Library Quarterly in the 1990s (see Radford [1992], Budd [1995], Zwadlo [1997] and Dick [1999]). That was largely an AngloAmerican academic debate (Dick writing in English from South Africa). The task I set myself in this paper was to look at the debate during the past decade, and especially to consider views from beyond the Anglo-American universe. I chose seven books to examine, looking at them in particular for the political and ethical dimensions of the discussion.2. The Library: A Radically Political InstitutionI shall begin with Serbian librarian Zeljko Vuckovic's 2003 monograph Javne biblioteke i javno znanje (which could be translated in English as Public libraries and public knowledge). Like the other authors discussed below, he focuses on epistemological issues; more than any of the others he concerned with the potential of libraries for political life. The hypothesis the author wishes to explore the following:Public libraries are the most open and most democratic form of the institutionalization and use of public knowledge. Hence their key role in designing and building a library information system and infrastructure and their strategic importance in economic and social development. Providing free, equal and unrestricted access to the achievements of culture and civilization, to knowledge, ideas and information, the public library contributes to the development of a democratic public and the quality of life in the community, and the practical realization of the concept of rational communication [Vuckovic, 2003, p. 7].Jesse Shera's social epistemology a guiding theoretical-methodological orientation in the first half of this work as the author proceeds through a discussion of terminology and chapters on the function of the library, public librarianship as a social institution, the development of the idea of public librarianship, and the legal foundations and history of public libraries in Serbia. The second half of the book looks at public librarianship in the context of international legal regimes, UNESCO declarations and IFLA, the public library as part of postmodern culture and the changes and challenges of public libraries in the information society with its digital libraries. A short chapter on the development of technical information systems for public libraries in Serbia then followed by an even shorter chapter on the philosophical and axiological principles of public librarianship. It those few final pages that are chiefly of interest to me, since the discussion within the book assumes these principles rather than argues them.The final chapter begins with the question Why philosophical considerations in an area that primarily practical and pragmatic, in a service- and client-oriented activity? (p. 174). It a question that nearly every one of the authors discussed below asks. The answer, he suggests, depends on the definition of philosophical inquiry but even more importantly on whether one thinks that librarianship needs a systematic theoretical foundation. In the author's view, systematic theory is an indication and measure of professional responsibility . …

We explore the potential of libcitations from local research‐oriented and public library catalogues for a study of the societal and cultural impact of books authored by academics from the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). The study relies on data from the bibliographic database VABB‐SHW, the Flemish public library catalogue Cultuurconnect, and the Belgian research library catalogue UniCat. We find that whereas a majority of academically authored SSH books appear in research‐oriented libraries, the holdings in public libraries are limited. However, libcitations in public libraries are indicative of societal and cultural impact, particularly for books written in the domestic language (in this case Dutch) and books that are not primarily aimed at academic peers (and are not peer‐reviewed). Additionally, we find that the books held in local libraries include different genres and dissemination types, as SSH scholars contribute to the creation of societal and cultural impact in a variety of ways. An overview of the types of books attaining high scores in public and research‐oriented libraries showcases avenues for the creation of societal impact through popularized literature.

2 - United States

Charity and Public Libraries: Does Government Funding Crowd-Out Donations?

Information history has gained success as a unique perspective on past societies and cultures, although as Toni Weller has shown in her introduction to information history one currently finds a British dominance within the discipline.1 In Denmark, much information history research can be found within related areas such as library history, media history, history of technology and communication, or book history, for example.2 Book history offers, for instance, aspects on how information was distributed in the various written media of books and almanacs.3 The neighbouring and joint discipline of library history has a long and strong tradition mainly focusing on the construction period of the public library system in Denmark, from 1880 to 1920.4 The strong concentration on public library history has therefore in many respects led to scholars neglecting the research libraries, other kinds of libraries and more broadly library functions. In short, traditional library history in Denmark is a typical example of the focus on the library as an institution, and not on the library as a function. From my point of view, information history comprises the history of the library and reframes it by rethinking its history as a question of the library function of dispersing and distributing information, of gathering and preserving information in many other areas than just within the frames of the library. Libraries have to a large extent monopolized these functions — a position that library historians (including the author of this chapter) have reproduced when concentrating alone on public libraries.

The relevance of the study is due to the need to fill the historiographical gap in the study of public libraries activities of pre-revolutionary Russia as an element of the provincial cultural environment. We consider formation and activities history of Tambov public library (opened in the city of Tambov in 1833). Novelty of the work is the introduction of previously unused historical sources in the characteristic of public libraries. The subject of the study are staffing table features, use pattern of the fund, ways of functioning of the stock company in public library, specifics of shares issue and disposition, social composition of readers. An important element of the study is the research of Tambov public library decline problems in post-reform time, reasons for the lack of material resources and attempts to transfer institution to the balance of the Tambov city budget. We note the role of private initiative in the arrangement of library at different stages of its development. We assess the books catalogues published at the institution which are one of the first printed bibliographies of public libraries in Russia. In the framework of literary preferences of library users study, we consider the assessments of the gymnasium director and Tambov Seminary rector, whose tasks included supervision of students’ reading and librarians’ implementation of circulars and decrees of public education minister. Theoretical and concrete historical analysis of Tambov public library allowed to draw conclusions about the significant impact of the library institution on the local cultural environment. We emphasize that the formation of library brought together the structure of provincial society, contributed to the qualitative social and cultural transformations of local population.

The Other Brown v. Board of Education Kenneth R. Bailey In 1928, long before the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision ended official segregation in education in the United States, Anderson H. Brown and a group of black residents sued the Charleston (West Virginia) Independent School District to allow blacks to use the former state capitol annex which had been purchased for use as the Charleston library. The suit, captioned as Brown v. Board of Education of the Charleston Independent School District, resulted from a decision to segregate the library which had previously been used by both races. The change in policy was directly related to the influence and money of one prominent white supporter, Albert E. Humphreys, and marked a switch in attitude toward the separation of the races in West Virginia's capital city. The Charleston Public Library, now the main branch of the Kanawha County Public Library System, had been created in 1909 by the Woman's Kanawha Literary Club. This group, which had established a tradition of promoting literacy, recognized that, though Charleston occasionally had lending libraries promoted and run by book stores, there was no ongoing establishment in the city to allow ready, and free, access to books. The members of the literary club organized meetings to promote a library and recruited George S. Laidley, the superintendent of the Charleston Independent School District, to lead the effort to raise funds for a public library. After a year-long fund drive, the group opened a library in two rooms of the newly constructed YMCA in downtown Charleston. In addition, a trained librarian, Mabel Delle Jones, was employed to staff the library. Though she remained in her position only four years, Jones established a professional operation that was continued and improved upon by successive librarians to the present.1 In its early years, the library grew as books were donated and the number of patrons increased. Members of both races used the library, apparently with no controversy, and both races supported the library. The biggest problems, in the library's infancy, were the inability to find a permanent home for the main collection and a lack of secure funding. The library [End Page 53] depended on donations for its existence, even though it attempted to attach itself to the school district and to utilize its levying ability. State law did not provide for school districts to support public libraries until a 1911 law authorized them to levy taxes for that purpose. Upon passage of the law, the Charleston Independent School District levied a property tax on behalf of a library and funding for basic library services was assured. Even though it was dependent on the school district for most of its funding, the library was run by an independent board which included George S. Laidley, the superintendent of the school system, in its membership.2 Soon after receiving funding from the school district, library board members began to discuss building a permanent home for the library collection. There was talk but no action and instead, after two years in the YMCA, the library was asked to move to make way for new "Y" programs. The library moved to the Kanawha Presbyterian Church manse for a few months and then to the YWCA for about a year. Forced out once again, the library found quarters in a building on the corner of Kanawha Street (now Boulevard) and MacFarland Street where it would remain for seven years. In 1921, the library was asked to move from that facility to make way for a business that wanted the building, and the library moved to the former Red Cross building which was located on the river bank near what is now Haddad Park. During the seven years on MacFarland Street, the Charleston Independent School District and the taxpayers provided a level of funding sufficient to establish branches of the library on Charleston's West Side (Lincoln Branch, 1917) and on Shrewsbury Street (1919) in an area that was shared by both blacks and whites, but was predominately black. Both branches were used by white and black residents of Charleston, as was the main library. The library board...

As public libraries are becoming e-government access points relied on by both patrons and government agencies, it is important for libraries to consider the implications of these roles. While providing e-government access serves to reinforce the tremendously important role of public libraries in the United States social infrastructure, it also creates new demands on libraries and opens up significant new opportunities. Drawing upon several different strands of research, this paper examines the nexus of public libraries, values, trust, and e-government, focusing on the ways in which the values of librarianship and the trust that communities place in their public libraries reinforce the role of public libraries in the provision of e-government. The unique values embraced by public libraries have not only shaped the missions of libraries, they have influenced popular opinion surrounding public libraries and fostered the confidence that communities place in them as a source of trusted information and assistance in finding information. As public libraries have embraced the provision of Internet access, these values and trust have become intertwined with their new social role as a public access point for e-government both in normal information activities and in the most extreme circumstances. This paper explores the intersections of these issues and the relation of the vital e-government role of public libraries to library funding, public policy, library and information science education, and research initiatives.

In the following brief look at the history of public libraries in the Second World War, I shall look at two areas of interest which I think helped to ensure the success of the public library service on the home front. Firstly, at the political level where the Library Association took steps to defend the interests of the service as soon as war seemed to be a possibility; and secondly there are the activities at the local level which ensured that public libraries made an important contribution to the communities whom they served. My research on the history of public libraries in the Second World War is based on London, and most of the examples used in this paper are drawn from the experience of the service in London. However, the fact is that similar activities were taking place in public libraries throughout Britain. This paper was read at the Library History Group's ‘Libraries and Modernity’ conference held at Manchester in June 1997.