No, 7 JUL 29 1901 Library Association Record A MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF LIBRARIANSHIP AND PUBLISHED FOR THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION BY HORACE MARSHALL AND SON, 125 FLEET STREET, E.C. B. RILEY & CO., LIBRARY BOOKBINDERS, Westgate, Huddersfield, England, SUPPLY THE BEST VALUE OBTAINABLE IN LIBRARY BINDING. New Books Supplied bound from the sheets, or Re-binding once for all". Catalogues, Prices and Samples sent free on application. HARVEY'S PATENT Pneumatic Dusting & Sweeping Apparatus, FOR LIBRARY AND MUSEUM USE. Cleans books, shelves, etc., thoroughly, and completely removes the dust without smother. Prices from 10/6. HARVEY'S NEW LIBRARY TEMPORARY SHELF or BOOK-CARRIER automatically attaches to the edge of any ordinary shelf, very convenient for carrying the books necessarily removed when dusting high and full shelves. Size 12 in. x 6 in. Price 10/6. HARVEY'S NEW "DUSTER-BRUSH" is shaped like a brush, but sweeps as clean as a duster, and does not flick the dust into the air; a very handy article for book and shelf dusting. Price 3/6. Send for List, containing Illustrations of the above, to CHARLES J. HARVEY, Manufacturer and Patentee, KIDDERMINSTER. SOME THINGS OF GENERAL INTEREST IN THE BRISTOL MEDICAL LIBRARY. By L. M. GRIFFITHS, M.R.C.S. ENG., (Continued from page 297.) Fit is true that Jack Cade considered that the man who had erected a grammar school had most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm, that any one who caused printing to be used or a paper mill to be built had committed a grave offence, and that those were most worthy to live who could not read, he had a like-minded successor in one who would have disclaimed any relationship to him. For the same spirit breathes in Sir Anthony Absolute, who declared that "a circulating library is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge". If there is any truth in this dictum, the dwellers in Clifton about this time must have been in a parlous state, for there were two institutions of the kind, in one of which at least there was the opportunity for its clients to make their purchases from "an extensive assortment of foreign and English perfumery, jewellery, hardwares, toys and stationery". Besides these there was the City Library in King Street, which Shiercliff describes as a handsome freestone building, with a valuable collection of books which then reached in number about two thousand. In library matters Bristol has a strange record. In the fifteenth century, if not earlier, the local Fraternity of Kalendars, an Order which had done much excellent literary work here and elsewhere, threw its library open to the public. The access was a little too open, as the Guild found to its cost, for several of its 1018-233 MSS. were stolen. It is a matter for profound regret that a collection upon which so much care had been bestowed was in 1466 destroyed by fire. The City Library owes its origin to private munificence. In 1613 Master Robert Redwood, a citizen of Bristol, gave a building in what .became King Street for the purpose of a library for public use. To look after the books, many of which had been given by the Archbishop of York, the City Council in January, 1616, appointed a librarian, at the annual salary of 40s., with a residence. This continued till 1691, when the Corporation decided not to appoint a successor to the existing librarian; they stored the books away in a part of the establishment, and let the rest of it as a dwelling. By 1725 the building had become dilapidated, and the books had been removed to the Council House. In 1740 a new building, which still stands was erected, and three years later a librarian was again appointed. But the citizens made scarcely any use of the library. In fact, library matters were at a very low ebb for many years, and there was no improvement till 1772, when the Bristol Library Society was formed on subscription lines. This society obtained for its use the city building, and in a short time the free use of any books by the citizens was strongly resented by the subscribers, and they were practically used only by the members of the society which held possession of the building. In 1854, the Council having been made to realise, largely through the labours of Mr. Tovey, the departure from the original intention, ordered the society to give up possession of the building, which in 1856 began a new existence as a real free public library. The society, then known as the Bristol Library, moved in 1855 to premises near the top of Park Street, and in 1856 received the collection of books which had been formed by the doctors under the title of the Bristol Medical Library on the condition that its efficiency should be constantly maintained. In 1867 the society allied itself to the Bristol Philosophical and Literary Institution which had been founded in 1817, and in 1871, in the building known as the Museum and Library, the work of the two societies was carried on conjointly. Many difficulties beset the new institution; the stipulation about |