Subscription Library - Origins

Origins

In the United States the earliest subscription libraries date back to the 18th century, when societies or groups of individuals joined to purchase books for a commonly run library. The Library Company of Philadelphia was the first of these libraries, started in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin.

With the advent of free public libraries in the 19th century most subscription libraries were replaced or taken over.

Subscription libraries, also known as social libraries, share many common factors with circulating libraries, making it difficult to tell them apart from one another because the difference between them is often subjective. Occasionally subscription libraries call themselves 'circulating libraries', and vice versa.

"Many ordinary circulating libraries might call themselves 'subscription' libraries because they charged a subscription, while the earliest private subscription libraries, such as Leeds, Warrington, or Liverpool, describe themselves as 'circulating' libraries in their titles. Since many circulating libraries called themselves after the town where they were situated, it is often difficult to distinguish the type of a particular library, especially since many are only known to posterity from a surviving book label, with nothing but the name as identification".

During the 18th century, many small, private book clubs evolved into subscription libraries, charging high annual fees or requiring subscribing members to purchase shares in the libraries. The materials available to subscribers tended to focus on particular subject areas, such as biography, history, philosophy, theology, and travel, rather than works of fiction, particularly the novel. However, the increasing production and demand for fiction promoted by commercial markets led to the rise of circulating libraries, which met a need that subscription libraries did not fulfil. Circulating libraries also charged subscription fees to users and offered serious subject matter as well as the popular novels, thus the difficulty in clearly distinguishing circulating from subscription libraries.

Subscription libraries were democratic in nature; created by and for communities of local subscribers who aimed to establish permanent collections of books and reading materials, rather than selling their collections annually as the circulating libraries tended to do, in order to raise funds to support their other commercial interests. Subscription libraries initially relied only on the regular subscription fees collected from their subscribers to maintain the premises housing their collection, rather than keeping the collection at the home of one of the members. Even though the subscription libraries were often founded by reading societies, committees, elected by the subscribers, chose books for the collection that were general, rather than aimed at a particular religious, political or professional group. The books selected for the collection were chosen because they would be mutually beneficial to the shareholders. The committee also selected the librarians who would manage the circulation of materials. Those employed to maintain the library collection had little influence on the selection of materials for the collection, as the members who owned the library wanted to maintain their control over the selection process.