We think of a public library as one operated by a town or county. It serves the general public without charge. Peterborough, New Hampshire started the first one in America in 1833. It is not, however, the first American circulating library. That honor belongs to the Library Company of Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin founded it in 1831. Franklin’s library was a subscription library. Its members pooled their resources to purchase books for their own use. At the time, books were rare and expensive in the American colonies. Only the most wealthy citizens could afford to buy very many books. Harvard University and other educational institutions had libraries, but they generally protected their books from the public. Open limited hours, they offered access to only a few people. Until Franklin decided to establish his library, the very idea of a library people could actually use hardly existed.