“Reading became fashionable”: Ben Franklin and the Privatization of Libraries

With the story in yesterday's Times about the privatization of public libraries in several states, I was put in mind of Benjamin Franklin and the bit of his autobiography which describes the founding, in 1731, of the country's first public library. The Library Company, as it was called, was the project of the Junto, Franklin's "society of mutual improvement," formed so that the club's members could hold books in common. It still exists today, housed in a building on Locust Street, in Philadelphia. In the "Autobiography," Franklin describes the conditions which necessitated the formation of the library: the high cost of books and the scarcity of bookshops; the lack of bookish men; the fact that they were all so poor. Reading his account of the swift change that came over the populace as it embraced his library is nothing less than thrilling.

I am not certain what the news about the privatization of libraries signals. Libraries are often the first to go during a budget crisis, and I'm glad that these cities have opted to keep them open, even if it means bringing in private companies (Santa Clarita's reasons are less clear, but they also have to do with "ensuring survival"). Obviously the "public" part of "public library" is not negotiable: since these libraries are still open to the public (and paid for by the public), they are keeping the most important part of "public" alive. But we all know how well this has worked for other public services that are run by independent agencies (D.M.V., M.T.A., Amtrak). Farming out the running of libraries may not raise the ethical questions that, say, hiring a mercenary army does, but we should be aware that it isn't necessarily a quick fix for the system.

Below, an excerpt from Franklin's book. You can read the entire passage here.

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I know not whether an account is given of the means I used to establish the Philadelphia public library, which, from a small beginning, is now become so considerable, though I remember to have come down to near the time of that transaction (1730). I will therefore begin here with an account of it, which may be struck out if found to have been already given.

At the time I establish'd myself in Pennsylvania, there was not a good bookseller's shop in any of the colonies to the southward of Boston. In New York and Philad'a the printers were indeed stationers; they sold only paper, etc., almanacs, ballads, and a few common school-books. Those who lov'd reading were oblig'd to send for their books from England; the members of the Junto had each a few. We had left the alehouse, where we first met, and hired a room to hold our club in. I propos'd that we should all of us bring our books to that room, where they would not only be ready to consult in our conferences, but become a common benefit, each of us being at liberty to borrow such as he wish'd to read at home. This was accordingly done, and for some time contented us.

Finding the advantage of this little collection, I propos'd to render the benefit from books more common, by commencing a public subscription library. I drew a sketch of the plan and rules that would be necessary, and got a skilful conveyancer, Mr. Charles Brockden, to put the whole in form of articles of agreement to be subscribed, by which each subscriber engag'd to pay a certain sum down for the first purchase of books, and an annual contribution for increasing them. So few were the readers at that time in Philadelphia, and the majority of us so poor, that I was not able, with great industry, to find more than fifty persons, mostly young tradesmen, willing to pay down for this purpose forty shillings each, and ten shillings per annum. On this little fund we began. The books were imported; the library was opened one day in the week for lending to the subscribers, on their promissory notes to pay double the value if not duly returned. The institution soon manifested its utility, was imitated by other towns, and in other provinces. The libraries were augmented by donations; reading became fashionable; and our people, having no publick amusements to divert their attention from study, became better acquainted with books, and in a few years were observ'd by strangers to be better instructed and more intelligent than people of the same rank generally are in other countries.

When we were about to sign the above-mentioned articles, which were to be binding upon us, our heirs, etc., for fifty years, Mr. Brockden, the scrivener, said to us, "You are young men, but it is scarcely probable that any of you will live to see the expiration of the term fix'd in the instrument." A number of us, however, are yet living; but the instrument was after a few years rendered null by a charter that incorporated and gave perpetuity to the company.

The objections and reluctances I met with in soliciting the subscriptions, made me soon feel the impropriety of presenting one's self as the proposer of any useful project, that might be suppos'd to raise one's reputation in the smallest degree above that of one's neighbors, when one has need of their assistance to accomplish that project. I therefore put myself as much as I could out of sight, and stated it as a scheme of a number of friends, who had requested me to go about and propose it to such as they thought lovers of reading. In this way my affair went on more smoothly, and I ever after practis'd it on such occasions; and, from my frequent successes, can heartily recommend it. The present little sacrifice of your vanity will afterwards be amply repaid. If it remains a while uncertain to whom the merit belongs, some one more vain than yourself will be encouraged to claim it, and then even envy will be disposed to do you justice by plucking those assumed feathers, and restoring them to their right owner.

This library afforded me the means of improvement by constant study, for which I set apart an hour or two each day, and thus repair'd in some degree the loss of the learned education my father once intended for me. Reading was the only amusement I allow'd myself. I spent no time in taverns, games, or frolicks of any kind; and my industry in my business continu'd as indefatigable as it was necessary.

(Image: the Library Company's first building, at Fifth and Chestnut.)

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