"Causal Factors in Public Library Development" by Jesse Shera

It was very interesting to me that the donors of many early libraries were actually those “native sons” who felt beholden to their hometowns. While this kind of philanthropy seems obvious once explained, I had mainly the industrial philanthropist like Carnegie in mind when I think of donors. Indeed, the public library in my hometown is a Carnegie library.

I thought that it was very interesting that the author did not pay lip service to the idea of wealthy men and grateful citizens. I especially appreciated the anecdote about Franklin donating a library when a bell had been requested for the town. I think it is very important to remember that any democratic input of the masses was not considered for much of the early libraries’ creation and maintenance. This seemed to me to be illustrated by a small point about how Ticknor and Jewett had “toured Europe” buying books for a Boston library. That one sentence seemed to me to illustrate how the public just happened to be the recipient of the wealth that to these men would have been normal. “Ah, yes, just out on another pleasure tour of Europe. But before we hit the German baths we simply must stop at the book stores for a little project of mine back home!”

While Ticknor and Jewett really were intending to create a public benefit with their own money, which they were under no obligation to do, I cannot shake the sense of condescension inherent in the donor-recipient relationship of American public libraries, or even our public University here in Madison. The ones with the money always get to decide the form of their donation, and public demand is left out of the equation. Thus, even though public libraries are sometimes held up as one of the great achievements of American democracy, their creation was not that democratic.