Public library development in New South Wales

David J Jones

Today every citizen in New South Wales has access to public library services through a sophisticated network, a partnership between local and State Government. Free public libraries are so much part of our lives, from pre-school days until our retirement years that it may seem that they have always been there. In fact, free public libraries in New South Wales only began to operate in any numbers after the end of World War II - not even sixty years ago.

Why did it take so long here, bearing in mind that free public libraries were commonplace in the United Kingdom and the United States even in the nineteenth century? What prompted the change of climate in the 1930s and 1940s? The development of free public libraries in New South Wales is a fascinating mix of individual vision, professional action, community mobilisation and political will.

Good in parts: libraries in nineteenth century New South Wales

'In a colony which contains only a few hundred hovels built of twigs and mud, we feel consequential enough already to talk of a treasury, an admiralty, a public library, and many other edifices, which are to form part of a magnificent square,' wrote Watkin Tench in 1791, three years after the establishment of the convict settlement at Sydney Cove. At the time the idea of a grand public library containing books which all people could freely use must have seemed far-fetched. But as the colony became less precarious, thoughts turned to libraries as a way of diffusing useful knowledge, as well as saving souls. In 1809 the Reverend Samuel Marsden advertised in England for donations to help found a 'Lending Library for the general benefit of the inhabitants of New South Wales'. The library would cover 'Divinity and Morals, History, Voyages and Travels, Agriculture in all its branches, Mineralogy and Practical Mechanics'. Although he did return to Australia with a number of donations to the 'Port Jackson Lending Library', some of which survive today in the library of Moore Theological College, no public institution actually eventuated.

A number of commercial reading rooms and circulating libraries for those able to pay did begin operating, first in Sydney and later in other centres of population. From the 1830s there were also mechanics' institutes, schools of arts, athenaeums and literary institutes, most of which included a library. One of these was the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, dating from 1833 and still in existence. Only subscribers were normally permitted to borrow, although as a condition of local or colonial government financial assistance citizens were sometimes allowed to read items on the premises free of charge. By the end of the nineteenth century there were over a thousand institutions of this type in all parts of Australia.

By the mid-nineteenth century the free public library idea was already gaining ground in England and Wales, where the Public Libraries Act of 1850 enabled local authorities to use public funds to establish and maintain libraries. In Australia, however, it was a colonial government, Victoria, which made the first move into free public library services with the opening of the Melbourne Public Library (the forerunner of the State Library of Victoria) in 1856. This was purely a reference library, only available to people who visited in person.

The Free Public Library, Sydney

In New South Wales it was several years before the government followed suit, purchasing a virtually bankrupt subscription library. In September 1869 it reopened as the Free Public Library, Sydney, the first truly public library in New South Wales. (It was later known as the Public Library of New South Wales, then the Library of New South Wales and is now the State Library of New South Wales).

Public reaction to the new library was enthusiastic: 60 000 people signed the visitors' book in its first year of operation. In 1877 the Free Public Library opened a lending branch available to people who lived within about a ten mile (sixteen kilometre) radius of the centre of Sydney. By the standards of the time it was a popular facility. In 1890 50 000 people a year would be visiting the lending branch. The library also began to lend boxes of books to distant institutes. A little later, books from a separate Country Circulation Department were lent to individuals living outside the Sydney metropolitan area.

The Municipalities Act

In the meantime local councils were showing little spontaneous interest in establishing and maintaining free libraries, although the Municipalities Act of 1867 in New South Wales empowered them to do so. As a stimulus the Government offered non-recurrent grants of £100 or £200 to buy a basic reference collection or to furnish a reading room in the town hall. The first council to take up this offer in New South Wales was the Municipal Council of Newtown. On 21 June 1869 its free reference library was opened by Henry Parkes, author of the free public library clauses in the Act. Over the next thirty years many such libraries were established under this and later Acts, all simply collections of reference books in a room in the town hall. The government made no provision to maintain them: it was hoped that voluntary endowments and local rates would assure their future, but this was wishful thinking. Of the 67 local public libraries established under various local government acts in New South Wales in the nineteenth century, not one survived into the twentieth.

A mixed bag

So it was that a century after Tench envisioned a Sydney metropolis with a library as one of the signs of civilisation, public libraries in New South Wales were a very mixed bag. There was the Free Public Library, Sydney, with its Lending Branch, travelling boxes of books and loans to individuals in remoter parts of the State. There were a few town hall-based reference libraries, under-resourced, under-utilised and mouldering away. And there were literally hundreds of subscription libraries within athenaeums, schools of arts, mechanics' and literary institutes, with continuing colonial and occasionally local government subsidies to supplement their membership fees. Many of these were at the time well run, but their membership represented only a small proportion of their local population.

Odd as it may seem to us today, there is little evidence of serious dissatisfaction with the libraries available. There was little public pressure to open new free libraries and a consequent lack of official and political interest. Libraries were still generally seen as a colonial government-funded operation and there remained a distinct reluctance on the part of local authorities to take on increased responsibilities by developing and maintaining local public libraries. In Sydney the local councils could point out that reference and lending services were already available from the Public Library of New South Wales.

As for the library profession, it had not developed to the extent where practitioners could put the case for free library development. They would not begin to do so in earnest until well into the twentieth century, when key practitioners, lay people and prophets from abroad would so mobilise public opinion that governments, local and state, would be obliged to act.

Steady as she goes: the early twentieth century

Following the handover of the Lending Branch of the Public Library of New South Wales to the Municipal Council of Sydney, a new institution - the Sydney Municipal Library (now the City of Sydney Library) - opened in 1909. Although funded entirely by the Municipal Council out of its rate income, it was open to all Sydney residents, including those from suburban municipalities. Together with the free public library at Broken Hill, dating from 1906, the Sydney Municipal Library was destined to be one of only two free public lending libraries in New South Wales to survive the Great Depression and beyond.

Charles Bertie transformed the Municipal Library from 'a library over which hung a pall of dirt and decay'. He had the library cleaned, furniture repolished, washable covers bought for the magazines, a floor built for a new open access collection and electric lighting installed. He opened a separate children's library. His reference staff fielded questions on subjects as diverse as leather manufacture, organ playing, cabinet making, education and democracy, the economic value of the eucalyptus, poultry and grain handling. Between 1910 and 1911 circulation doubled. In a little over ten years the library budget quadrupled. By 1918 each volume was lent an average of thirteen times per year and the collection was simply wearing out. In the mid 1920s the Library was performing valiantly, but was victim of its own success, and was reluctant to advertise its services.

Schools of Arts examined

Meanwhile the schools of arts continued to provide their partial library services in the suburbs and country towns. In 1912 a New South Wales committee was set up to examine whether the £10 000 subsidy paid annually by the government to Schools of Arts and similar institutions was money well spent. It wasn't: book resources were meagre, especially non-fiction, services were limited and the committee recommended phasing out or reducing subsidies in metropolitan areas and municipalities. They also recommended encouraging local authorities to take over schools of arts 'in accordance with the practice which obtains in the large cities of the old world, where Public Libraries are maintained and controlled by the Municipalities'. In the event these recommendations were not implemented, thanks to powerful local lobbying. Government subsidies to schools of arts continued to be paid right up to the time of the Great Depression, whilst the question of free public libraries was studiously avoided.

The Munn-Pitt Report

For Charles Bertie at the Sydney Municipal Library there was 'at least one redeeming feature of the depression, in so far as it has turned the thoughts of people towards the value and solace of books'. There was growing awareness of the value of free public libraries across a broad spectrum of society, urban and rural. The ground was preparing itself for a constructive approach, but not before the intervention of an overseas expert.

As part of its grants programme the Carnegie Corporation of New York had been interested in Australian education for many years. In 1932, after receiving an assurance that there was widespread support among Australian library authorities, the Corporation agreed to fund a survey of Australian libraries. A leading American librarian, Ralph Munn, director of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, was appointed to carry out the survey, with the assistance of E R Pitt, principal librarian of the Public Library of Victoria. During two months in 1934 Munn and Pitt inspected over 100 libraries around Australia, and reviewed 1500 questionnaires sent to all known libraries in Australia.

Their report was released in January 1935. It was scathing. The 'wretched little institutes' had in most States become 'cemeteries of old and forgotten books'. The institutes' limited availability to the public, untrained staff, poor collections, general lack of non-fiction, absence of catalogues and poor record of service to children all came in for criticism. Some excellent work was being done by the municipal lending libraries, notably at Sydney and Prahran in Victoria, but they were pitifully few in number.

The significance of the Munn-Pitt Report lay not so much in the presentation of a general blueprint for development - as time has shown, library services have in fact developed very differently and at a varied pace in different States - but in the shock of its trenchant criticism by an informed and impartial observer. As later commentators expressed it, 'we required the prophet from abroad, and fortunately he came'. The words of the prophet were powerful propaganda for a free public library system. What was needed now was a band of evangelists.

The Free Library Movement

In June 1935 there was a decisive first step: forty representatives of local parents and citizens' and progress associations met at Chatswood-Willoughby School of Arts in Sydney, and the Free Library Movement was born. Its objects were simple: 'To advocate and work for the establishment of Free Libraries. To create and foster public opinion on the value of Free Libraries'.

The Free Library Movement was broad-based and decentralised, with branches formed by representatives of Progress Associations, teachers, members of parliament of all political persuasions, local councillors, the Country Women's Association, the United Associations of Women, business groups, the Returned Sailors and Soldiers League, Rotary and other service clubs, trades unions and Parents and Citizens' Associations. 'Under Australian conditions it is no mean achievement to secure the support on the one hand of the Chamber of Commerce and the Bank of New South Wales, and on the other hand the support of the militant members of the Labour and Trade Union Movements,' wrote Geoffrey Remington, a Sydney solicitor and businessman and the Movement's chief lobbyist.

Remington and John Metcalfe, deputy principal librarian of the Public Library of New South Wales, embarked on a campaign to spread the word across New South Wales and beyond. Branches sprang up rapidly: by the end of 1938 there were branches at Ashbury, Chatswood-Willoughby, Casino, Muswellbrook, North Sydney, Lane Cove, Wagga Wagga, Orange, Bathurst, Newcastle, Maitland and Cessnock. Movements were established in Queensland and Victoria in 1937, in Tasmania in the following year, but not until 1944 in Western Australia and 1949 in South Australia.

A great strength of the Movement was that it was a lay organisation, not a lobby group of professionals promoting their own interests. Librarians like John Metcalfe were certainly involved, but only informally. Librarians, also stimulated by the Munn-Pitt Report, were in the process of establishing their own professional organisation, the Australian Institute of Librarians, founded in 1937 'to unite persons engaged in library work, and to improve the standard of librarianship and the status of the library profession in Australia'. So whilst the Australian Institute of Librarians set about addressing issues such as professional training and communication, the Free Library Movements pursued promotion and lobbying.

The Libraries Advisory Committee

Reaction in New South Wales was speedy. In June 1937 the Minister for Education, D H Drummond, appointed a committee, including representatives of the Free Library Movement, to examine ways to improve library services and to prepare draft legislation. In the following year the Libraries Advisory Committee presented its report, providing a formula for the state government to subsidise local councils which established free libraries, subject to standards set by a new Library Board. Staff would be trained at a new Library School at the Public Library. The government would not compel councils to establish free libraries, but a poll of electors could oblige a council to do so. Smaller councils would be encouraged to join other councils in creating sustainable library services. Cabinet met on 18 January 1939 and unanimously adopted the Report in principle, setting the Parliamentary Draftsman to work on a Library Bill.

Deciding on subsidies

The Committee had agonised over the principles of subsidy. They rejected a fixed subsidy because that would have given just as much assistance to wealthy districts as to poor ones. Finally they decided use the Unimproved Capital Value (UCV) of properties in the local government area as the basis for calculating the local contribution. This would be topped up by a Government subsidy so that the minimum total expenditure would be two shillings (20 cents) per head. The subsidy would be on a sliding scale, starting at sixpence (5 cents) per head of population and ranging up to a shilling (10 cents). If some councils were unable to raise the equivalent of 1s 6d per head, they would receive a higher subsidy. The Government subsidy would therefore range from 25 and 50 per cent, and the local government contribution from 50 and 75 per cent, with the higher subsidy applying to the less wealthy shires and municipalities. (In later years a combination of per capita subsidy and other components was introduced).

The Library Act

With the declaration of war on 3 September 1939 free libraries faded into the background and Cabinet decided to defer the Library Bill. Dismayed, Remington and WH Ifould, the principal librarian, immediately began lobbying the Minister, the Premier and the opposition leader. They also canvassed friends and supporters of the Free Library Movement: the Taxpayers' Association, newspaper editors, business leaders and members of the Australian Club. Threatening to resign and mount a media campaign against the Government, Ifould urged his Minister to 'stick to the Library Bill and press Cabinet to go on with it, even if you have to provide for the Government subsidy not to be operative until a date to be fixed in the future'.

When they met in October, Cabinet agreed to this compromise, and in the early hours of 3 November 1939 the Library Bill finally passed through the New South Wales Parliament with bipartisan support. It was proclaimed on 22 December 1939 and was planned to take effect, except for its financial clauses, in six months time.

June 1940 was the ill-starred month of the Dunkirk evacuation, the German occupation of Paris, Italy's entry into the War and the French capitulation. Any hopes that the Library Board and local councils would immediately set up a free library system in New South Wales were dashed and the outbreak of war in the Pacific in the following year prolonged the delay. Serious thoughts did not turn to free public libraries until the tide of war eventually began to turn. In November 1943, at the official opening of the new Public Library of New South Wales building, William McKell, the New South Wales Premier, announced that the Library Act would be fully proclaimed from 1 January 1944.

The Act takes hold

The impact of the Act was startling. Within eighteen months thirty-two New South Wales councils had adopted the Act and seven were already providing library services. Sixteen were planning to begin operation during 1945. The financial arrangements were working smoothly. The dream of total coverage of the State by free public libraries was becoming reality. By the end of 1946 a quarter of the three million inhabitants of New South Wales were being served by a free public library.

In the 1950s and 1960s more and more local authorities adopted the Library Act and set up free library services. Many took the option of forming co-operative library services to benefit from economies of scale and to share resources. In the 1970s several regional libraries were established in rural areas, bringing viable library services to smaller communities. The missing pieces of the library jigsaw were gradually being filled in. In 1992 the adoption of the Act by Junee was hailed as the final step towards a complete network, but this was not quite the case. The huge and sparsely populated Central Darling Shire does not have its own library service, but its population is able to use the resources of the pioneering Broken Hill Public Library through its outback letterbox library service.

The library services of today are a far cry from the earliest free public libraries set up towards the end of World War II. Their collections and services have expanded, along with their popularity. Their buildings have generally grown and are much more user-friendly by today's standards. They have added new media and new technology to meet the needs of their communities and innovative programmes for target groups. They have well-trained and highly professional staff. They contribute to the social and economic well being of their localities. They are a highly valued and respected part of their communities.

These developments are just what the far-sighted promoters of free libraries and sponsors of the Library Act, a generation or so ago, would have wanted, although in their wildest dreams they could not have imagined how far libraries have progressed and to what extent technology is facilitating the way libraries perform their work today.

Postscript: the librarian and the laymen - an extract from the author's doctoral thesis

'On 26 June 1935 Ifould was invited to a meeting at Chatswood-Willoughby School of Arts at which the future of library services was to be discussed. He asked Brunsdon Fletcher to ensure that a Sydney Morning Herald reporter was present. He also asked Tom Dunbabin, editor of the Sun, to send a reporter, promising him that there would be enough interesting morsels left by the Herald for the afternoon paper. Ifould addressed the forty representatives of parents and citizens' and progress associations on free public libraries, emphasising the need for a State-wide system, co-operation between new public libraries and a central library, and for a demonstration of unity in order to attract government support.

At this meeting an organisation "to be known as the Free Library Movement, having in general the objects outlined by Mr W H Ifould" was formed. Ifould gave the Movement guarded official encouragement. In private he assured the organisers of his wholehearted support. He helped financially: with Billy Hughes, Sir Frederick Stewart, Ruth Fairfax, and A Lyell Scott, he stood as guarantor for a bank loan for the Movement. He also helped secure Carnegie financial support for the Movement through the Australian Council for Educational Research.

As he later described his relationship with the Movement:
I am careful not even to be a member of it much less an executive officer, but for all that I have taken care that the policy of the Free Library Movement should be our [ie the Library's] policy.
This was one of the Movement's great strengths, as Metcalfe later pointed out: it was 'essentially a laymen's movement.' The axes which its members ground would be seen as those of society in general, not of a profession guarding or promoting its own interests. It was also a grass roots movement, working through branches and associated with organisations which enjoyed widespread community support. Metcalfe would play a leading role in the Movement's activities as its "informal adviser," and attended all its executive and council meetings. Metcalfe's wife Thelma was an early member of the Movement's executive committee. Ifould attended the Movement's council meetings.

In October 1935 Ifould dined with members of the Free Library Movement committee at the Metropole, a short walk from the Library and from the Movement's office in O'Connell Street, and they discussed a draft constitution for the Movement. Its objects were simply expressed: 'To advocate and work for the establishment of Free Libraries. To create and foster public opinion on the value of Free Libraries.' To encourage wide membership, fees were kept to a minimum: one shilling per year for individuals, and five shillings per year for organisations.

The constitution was endorsed on 25 November 1935, the centenary of the birth of Andrew Carnegie, and the Movement was formally launched at a well-reported meeting at the Public Library. Delegates from public bodies in the Sydney area, as well as a number of country members of parliament, heard John Ferguson, bibliographer and judge, recently appointed to the Library's Board of Trustees, talk on Andrew Carnegie. Ifould spoke once again on the need for better library services. Delegates were urged to return to their districts and set up branches of the Free Library Movement, involving local members of parliament, representatives of Progress Associations, Chambers of Commerce, Municipal and Shire Councils, Parents and Citizens' Associations and similar bodies.

Remington

Geoffrey Cochrane Remington was a leading light of the Free Library Movement from its inception. He was a well-known Sydney solicitor and businessman who involved himself in a range of organisations, including the Australian Institute of Political Science (of which he was a founder member) and the Constitutional Association of New South Wales. He was one of the driving forces behind the Royal Australian Institute of Public Administration. In June 1935 Ifould had helped form the New South Wales branch of this organisation.

Frank Tate, chairman of the Australian Council for Educational Research, had handed Remington a copy of the Munn-Pitt Report, with words to the effect: 'So you want to help poor suffering humanity, do you? Well get your teeth into this.' It was largely due to Remington's infectious energy and enthusiasm, and his valuable connections, that the Free Library Movement had such a firm foundation and made such early progress.'

Biographical information

Dr David J Jones has worked at the State Library of New South Wales since 1970. He co-ordinated the Library's new building and refurbishing project between 1983 and 1988, and is now library building consultant and principal of the Building and Planning Advisory Service. Since 1989 he has worked on more than 200 library building projects in Australia and overseas.

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