Public libraries timeline

A gallop through 150 years of public libraries



1850 Public Libraries Act

1859 Liverpool Library Service first to offer music scores

1860 Warrington Library states that: "No person shall be admitted with dirty hands or clothes, or in a state of intoxication"

1872 Manchester Library opened first Boys' Reading Room

1877 The Library Association established; First international conference of librarians held in London

1880 In Blackpool, Kate Lewtas became the first woman chief librarian. By 1998 33% of chief librarians were women

1884 Microfilm first used by public libraries

1885 First exams for librarians (thanks to the Library Association)

1887 Libraries evolved into community cultural centres. Swansea's new library included a museum and art gallery, offering art and science classes and free evening lectures

1901 Belfast Public Library announced that: "Any person suffering from an infectious disease shall not borrow any book from the library." Sickly miscreants were to be fined £5. (It was believed that fatal diseases could be passed through the pages of books.)

1902 Leyton Public Library listed among its borrowers: five telegraphists, three saddle-makers, two ivory workers and one bullet-maker

1920 The first motorised mobile library service—Perthshire rural library motor van

1924 Exeter Public Library, the first (and only) library to acquire a death mask of Napoleon

1932 Barbara Stanwyck played a librarian in "Forbidden". "I wish I owned this library . . . I'd get an axe and smash it to a million pieces and play a ukulele while it burned"

1935 Middlesex County Library first to lend gramophone records

1940 During the Blitz, Sheffield Library issued books, gas masks, ration books and clothes and provided a furniture storage service. It was the start of the Sheffield Information Service

1954 The Orkney Library introduced a Family Box Service where remote islanders received their order of books with their groceries at the nearest shop. It is still in operation today

1972 Cardiganshire Joint Library Service first to loan cassettes

1974 Kentish Town Library first to use a barcode loan system

1982 Somerset first public library with an Online catalogue

1995 First library to offer public access to the Internet, Marylebone Input Output Centre

1995 More than half of people aged 15 and over held a library ticket

1997 Milton Keynes was Britain's busiest library with 1,210,980 issues

1998 Going to the library was the fourth most popular pastime in the UK after going to the pub, a restaurant, and eating at a fast food outlet

1998 Hendon Library opens first full multimedia centre

2000 150 years of public libraries