International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature

Because of their economic power (in the 1960s and 1970s it was said that about 90
per cent of children’s books published in hardback were bought for libraries), children’s
librarians have influenced publishing; for example the publication of young adult or
teenage books and books for the very young was stimulated by and evolved from
librarians’ concerns. Similarly, non-racist, non-sexist, multi-cultural, dual-language
books, books for the mentally or physically disabled, as well as books of high interest for
readers with low reading skills have all been suggested and encouraged by librarians. As
project work became more common in schools, so they pressed for simple information
books.
As the Unesco Public Library Manifesto of 1973 stated:

It is in early life that a taste for books and the habit of using libraries and their

resources are most easily acquired. The public library has therefore a particular

duty to provide opportunity for the informal and individual choice of books and

other material by children. Special collections and if possible separate areas should

be provided for them. The children’s library can then become a lively stimulating

place, in which activities of various kinds will be a source of cultural inspiration.

Quoted in Ray 1979:7

Children’s librarians have also had a profound influence on children’s literature which
has only declined with a general rise in interest in the subject, and its acceptability as
an academic study.
The following detailed account of the development and present state of library services
to children and young people in Britain may be paralleled in many countries, the
current situation being dependent on educational, economic, political, and social
circumstances.

Public Library Services to Young People in Britain

The early years

Prior to the first Public Libraries Act of 1850, library provision for children in the United
Kingdom was sparse, facilitated by a small number of day schools, Sunday schools and
collections in the Mechanics Institutes. It was with the passing of the Public Libraries
Acts of 1850 and 1855 that the public library service to children was created, the earliest
known provision being a reading department for boys in Manchester Public Library in

1862. The Elementary Education Act, 1870, provided an important stimulus and,
      during the remaining years of the nineteenth century, children’s collections were
      established in other provincial towns. By 1898, however ‘only 108 out of more than 300
      libraries in England and Wales had made provision for young people’ (Ellis 1971:14).
      Developments were due not to any national plan, but to the dedication and
      enthusiasm of individual librarians. Among early pioneers were John Ballinger (Cardiff),
      J.Potter Briscoe (Nottingham), L.Stanley Jast (Manchester) and W.C. Berwick Sayers
      (Croydon). In Scotland, Ernest A.Savage of Edinburgh took a particular interest in
      provision for children and included chapters on children’s literature in A Librarian Looks

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