A reader found this page in a used book he bought and wrote Coolopolis trying to figure out what kinda joint both sells and lends books. We went through a buncha old Lovells and found that long ago certain Montreal people randomly just declared themselves libraries apparently. These included: The Mary Arden Lending Library on Park. The Patricia Circulating Library on Christopher Columbus. The Golden Dog Lending Libary on Sherbrooke. Mrs. D. Smythe (widow Samuel) on St. Denis. And so forth. The area around Sherbrooke and Decarie seemed particularly rife.
In a way, it's not that different from the Fraser-Hickson library in NDG, which was a semi-public library that wasn't part of the City of Montreal network...
ReplyDeleteBut likely on a smaller scale. The concept
ReplyDeleteonly looks odd from the viewpoint of a society
with public libraries, but independent libraries
aren't uncommon. The Atwater Library, the
Montreal Children's Library and the Jewish
Public Library are all independent, though some
get some funding from some level of government.
I can't imagine it being different elsewhere.
But all of those were full blown libraries,
with a good foundation of funding. For that
matter, libraries do not have to be non-profit.
It looks like this notion is a much smaller scale,
and the fact that this is news indicates they likely
didn't have that much staying power. That some sold
books too suggests they were more about profit than
public good, and it was seen as profitable to rent
books to people who couldn't afford to buy the books.
Thirty years ago, I could go to a for-profit record
library on Crescent Street, and who can forget Crazy
Irving's software libary, that seemed mostly to be
a way of copying software. Even today, there are
for-profit libraries in the form of video rental
stores. I can rent tools, in effect a library
system, and the fact that some want to start "tool
libraries" suggests that most people think of a library
in terms of non-profit where a fixed fee is paid rather
than per item. Used book stores might even be considered
for-profit libraries, since many will buy back the books
you've bought from them (and often giving more credit
towards future purchases than if you want outright cash).
In that context, it's not so odd to read about someone
who had some books that they'd loan out.
Michael
Note that the above example, though, was a for-profit bookstore running a non-profit lending library in parallel. "No membership fee" according to ^the regulations.
ReplyDeleteI can understand why that might not be a sustainable business model. I'd sure like to know exactly what became of Burton's.
As for the array of libraries and book-loaning institutions once available - I'm impressed.