Public libraries in the Great Depression suffered along with everyone else, but at least two federal programs actually expanded the reach of libraries. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) began operation in May 1933. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) superseded it in 1935. WPA continued in operation until 1943.
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John Newbery is known as the father of children’s literature. He was not the first publisher to issue books for children. He was not even the first to publish books for children to enjoy, but he did it on a much larger scale than anyone before and introduced many innovations. Before the invention of printing, when hand-copied books cost more than most people could afford to pay, there were no books for children. The concept of children as a special customer base for books and the idea that children ought to enjoy them seems to have originated in the 1690s. Newbery printed his first children’s book in 1744. The publishing industry has never looked back.
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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.
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Library cataloging rules might not sound very exciting, but they’re the only way you can find anything in a library. It’s not too much to claim that the history of library catalogs can be divided into periods before and after Anthony Panizzi (1797-1879). Modern library cataloging rules trace their origin to Panizzi’s 91 rules, published in 1841.
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Melvil Dewey was born in 1851 in a part of New York known as the “Burned Out District.” It got the name from the evangelical fervor that led to so many religious reform movements. His parents shared that fervor. (Of course, they spelled his name Melville. He changed it later.) As a young boy, he had a passion both for learning and organization. He organized his mother’s pantry to make it more efficient when he was 5. At age 13, he bought an unabridged dictionary for himself, declaring it the most essential book. At age 15, he decided on a career as reformer, although he had no idea yet just what to reform.
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