An Extension Of The Dewey Decimal Classification Applied To Canada

Free Books for All provides a detailed and reflective account of the people. groups, communities, and ideas that shaped library development in the decades between 1850 and 1930, from Egerton Ryerson to George Locke, from Mechanics Institutes to renovated Carnegie libraries. A chronological narrative, lively writings by the people involved, tables, maps, graphs, and period photographs combine to tell the stories of the librarians, trustees, educators, politicians, and library users who contributed to Ontario’s early public library system. The book brings to life a fascinating period of library history. The movement to use the power of local governments to furnish rate-supported library service for citizens was a successful Victorian and Edwardian thrust. Today, more than 500 public libraries span the province, serving as intermediary points between authors and readers and providing a wide scope of information and programming services for educational and recreational purposes. The libraries themselves are, in part, a tribute to the men and women who worked tirelessly to promote library service before 1930. This new study will deepen our understanding of the people and processes that established the foundation for modern public library service in Ontario and Canada.

George H. Locke, chief librarian of the Toronto Public Library between 1908 and 1937, was Canada’s foremost library administrator in the first part of the twentieth century. During this period, free public libraries and librarianship in Ontario expanded rapidly due to the philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie, improvements in library education, and the influence of American library services. Locke was closely associated with all these trends; however, his outlook was primarily guided by his Methodist upbringing, the Anglo-Canadian academic tradition of British Idealism, and his association with John Dewey’s contribution to American progressive education. These religious and intellectual strands encouraged personal action to improve social conditions. As director of Toronto’s libraries, he brought his ambitious ideas to bear in many ways: the building of neighbourhood branches, library service for children, formal education for librarians, suitable reading for immigrants and young adults, and the idea of the public library as a municipal partner in the self-education of adult Canadians. By 1930, Toronto’s public library system was recognized as one of the best in North America and George Locke’s reputation as a visionary leader had vaulted him to the Presidency of the American Library Association. Although he had created a large organization that might have succumbed to bureaucratic practices and formalized centralization, Locke resisted this development. He remained faithful to his moral, intellectual, and humanistic values acquired during his early schooling and university career. For Locke, libraries and librarians were less about organization and formal duties. Both needed to be faithful to the main principle of serving the public interest by delivering knowledge and by guiding individual self-development through experiential learning and transcendent ideals.