Not so easy come...

The following post is dredged up from February when, for some reason I forget, I forgot to publish it online. As you will see, this is the second time I've dredged it up. Let us hope for York's libraries that it again proves third time lucky...

Yesterday, for the second time in my life, I moved out of York. In spite of all its tedious flatness and tourist jam, York is very dear to me, and it is always sad to be leaving. 

A month ago Francis Maude gave York council some money to farm off their library services. I don't know where they are with these plans, or what will come of them (this site offers some background), but I do know that one must deal wisely with pawnbrokers. 

What follows is a post dredged up from the "abandoned" bag. It's a brief account of the struggle to create York's public library, and is cribbed heavily from a chapter in The Noble City of York (ed. Alberic Stacpoole, 1972). I present it now merely as a reminder not to casually destroy the hard efforts of others...

In 1850, the Public Libraries Act scraped into existence. Boroughs with a population in excess of 10,000 would be able to fund the building and staffing of a library for a halfpenny on the rates. This was extended to 1d in 1855 to include the costs of stock. Not everybody was keen on the public library idea, and this post takes a look at the struggle to create a public library in York. 

The York Herald were one of the leading campaigners for a library. Of the existing libraries in the city, it was the Herald's view that: 

• The Minster Library, Yorkshire Museum Library, and Subscription Libraries catered only for a small minority.
• The Railway Library was limited to company employees.
• The circulating libraries' stock was substandard and of "doubtful utility", with rates in considerable excess of the financial burden of a public library service.

But it wasn't until the 1880s that broader opinion began to shift, momentum being developed via a series of public addresses on the topic. In 1882 a poll was held to determine the appetite for a public library and the rates increase its creation would demand. 3,045 voted for a public library, 4,309 voted against. In a city that charged tolls on its bridges, many felt that a rate increase might be put to more practical use in the abolition of such charges. 

Five years later, the council saw the Queen's Jubilee as an opportunity to create a commemorative public library. It calculated that £12,000 would suffice for a library and gallery: £5,000 from public subscription, the rest from sale of other holdings and from loan. Another poll was held, and again the proposal was defeated (by a margin of 817 votes). 

It was central legislation that forced the matter, assisted by the acquisition of an existing library building. The Technical Instruction Act of 1889 would apparently only benefit councils that had a school board or public library. A new campaign was launched, and the York Institute offered their library building for £4,100. Another poll was held, and it was third time lucky by a majority of 2,961. The library was taken on in 1891 and formally opened in 1893 with a staff of Librarian (£170pa), Assistant Librarian (£70pa) and two boys (on 5s and 6s pw).

Forty years of campaigning, and the library was still only brought into being as a means to an end rather than as an end in itself. Things so often come into this world kicking and screaming and we must ensure they do not more gently slip away from us. The effort expended in creating our public library system may need to be matched if we are to prevent its demise.

Yesterday there were reports of job cuts. It's a long way short of problems elsewhere in the country, for now at any rate, but doubtless a call to vigilance.