Libraries and their value Part 4 (Conclusion)

This is the last part of the article/lecture

Value

Having spoken about libraries for a while let me conclude by addressing the question of their value. In days gone by The Evangelical Library Bulletin would invariably carry the slogan Preservation information circulation. These words highlight very helpfully what it is about libraries that makes them valuable. Let us think about libraries under these headings.

Preservation

Libraries are valuable because they preserve books and their contents. One of the great things libraries do is to preserve treasures from the past. To use a picture, we can think of the books produced down the ages, a figure something over the 135 million mark, as akin to the multitude of species of flora and fauna with which God populated the world in the beginning. We know that many of the species are now extinct but great efforts are being made to keep any more from being lost. This is being done on the basis that we do not know fully how useful each may be in days to come.

Librarians are engaged in part in a similar task – like so many Noahs they are seeking to preserve in readable form, the books that have been written. We should be thankful that such work goes on. Many books have been lost. The Bible refers to some, such as The Book of Jasher or The Visions of Iddo the Seer. (See 2 Samuel 1:18 and 2 Chronicles 9:29, etc.) There are many, many more of these, especially from ancient times. On rare occasions one is found tucked away somewhere or on the reverse of a palimpsest. To know such works exist is tantalising.

There are also some cases where only one or two copies of an original book survive. Thankfully, if one good copy survives, more can easily be reproduced and often are.

Information

Libraries are valuable further because they inform people of the existence of these preserved books and what they contain. Once books have been preserved people can be informed of their existence. Library catalogues are a fascinating source of knowledge that inform us firstly of what types of book exist and then of the books themselves.

Imagine someone seeing that there is a classification biblical hermeneutics or systematic theology, for example. That may be the first thing to alert them to the existence of such items. I recall a time when I did not know what a thesaurus was. The moment I discovered what it is was a great moment for me. Something similar happened with systematic theology. The first one I was aware of was that by Augustus H Strong (1836-1921) and the first one I began to read was that by Louis Berkhof (1873-1957). Reading Berkhof, to quote Keats, made me feel “like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes he star'd at the Pacific”. (See On first looking into Chapman's Homer.)

Once you know a certain type or genre of books exists you can begin to find out who has written in that area. I remember a friend when I was in seminary who would deliberately scan the library shelves finding out what existed. Of course, one can take advantage of electronic search methods these days. What a help that is.

If the question is raised as to what advantage libraries have over bookshops, let me illustrate. Say I want books on the priesthood of all believers. If I go to the Amazon store and search what books they have on this subject I can find at least twenty possible titles though several are no longer in print. If I go, on the other hand, to the OCLC (Online Computer Library Centre)'s World catalogue there are a lot more books listed – hundreds. I can see that as far back as 1521 Jerome Emser (1477-1527) wrote on the subject in German. I thus have a potentially more thorough grasp of what has actually been written.

(See

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords= priesthood+of+all+believers and

https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_bks&q=priesthood+of+all+believers&fq= dt%3Abks.

Both accessed March 2017.)

Circulation

Libraries are valuable finally because they circulate news of the books they have preserved and their contents. Circulation goes on not only by means of books being picked up and read but also by them being quoted or footnoted or listed in bibliographies. It is sometimes not until a book appears in that context that some people realise it exists.

I read recently Iain Murray's new biography of J C Ryle Prepared to stand alone. In one of the footnotes I saw a reference to a book by Penelope Fitzgerald on The Knox brothers (1997) a biography of her father and his three brothers. Now I chose to download the book in electronic form rather than using a library but it was Iain Murray's footnote that alerted me to its existence. (Footnotes can be misleading, of course. I heard of a man once who read an interesting article on the Psalms that included a reference to a book in German called Die Psalmen by Berthold Seemann, the Psalms. When he got hold of the book, it turned out to be called Die Palmen by Berthold Seemann, and was actually all about palms!

Application

I am a preacher so it is right that we at least end with an application. What do we do about libraries?

1. Do support them, especially Christian ones. As you can imagine, they are constantly in need of funds. Join the Evangelical Library. Even if you do not use it, you are still helping support it.

2. Use libraries. Use their catalogues (many are online these days). Find out what is available. Do not remain in ignorance.

3. Gather your own library if you can and help others build theirs. I was most gratified to hear one of my sons say recently that now he is off to University he wants to start forming his own library.

4. Pray for them. Andrew Bonar (1810-1892) really appreciated the collection of books in his study. Indeed at times he was concerned that he thought too much of them. He realised their usefulness. He noted in his Diary on Monday 12 November 1855

Led to-day to notice that all my books, my many suitable and profitable books that come to help my study and suggest what I might preach, as well as those papers, and the like, that stir up the soul, are all part of God’s calling of me. By these He carries on what He began, and so by every verse of Scripture which He gives me the heart to feel. (Andrew Bonar Diary and Letters Marjory Bonar in loc cit).

Be thankful for your own library and for others like the Evangelical Library and the Dr Williams. Give thanks to God for them. Pray they will be provided for and be used in a way that will bring glory to God.

Libraries and their value Part 3 (Specialist Libraries)

Specialist libraries

There are all sorts of specialist libraries. Obviously our interest is theological and Christian. ABTAPL (The Association of British Theological And Philosophical Libraries) was originally formed to be the UK member of an international Association of Theological Libraries set up in 1954, following a meeting convened by the WCC under UNESCO auspices.

They provide an online directory that lists some 53 such libraries here in London and another 400 elsewhere in the British Isles.

(https://www.newman.ac.uk/abtapl/database/contents.html Accessed March 2017. There are 30 in Oxford, 20 in Cambridge, 29 in Scotland, 17 in Ireland and 8 each in N Ireland and Wales.) Some of these are of lesser interest (University libraries, local public libraries, Roman Catholic ones and others to do with other religions and sects.) but some are worth mentioning

• The London Library (with a million volumes all told)
• The Huguenot Library in nearby Gower Street
• The Lambeth Palace Library, which since 1996 has included the bulk of the largely Puritan Sion College Library
• The Bible Society Library, Oxford
• The Angus Library and archive for Baptist history, Oxford
• Tyndale House Library, Cambridge (42,000 volumes)
• The Gospel Standard Baptist Library, Hove
• The Gladstone Library, Hawarden, North Wales
• The various Wesley libraries in Bristol, London and Oxford 

(http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/

http://www.huguenotsociety.org.uk/library-and-archive.html

http://www.lambethpalacelibrary.org/

https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/about-us/our-history/archives-at-cambridge/

http://theangus.rpc.ox.ac.uk/

http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/library

http://www.gospelstandard.org.uk/Library/

https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/ The Gladstone Library is residential)

Dr Williams Library (For more on Dr Williams's Library see http://dwl.ac.uk/)

To look at two more libraries in a little detail, you probably know that the library in which this lecture is being given was established by the will of Welsh born Presbyterian Dissenter Dr Daniel Williams (1643-1716). After serving in Ireland he became a leading London nonconformist minister. When he died he left instructions to his trustees to turn his private collection into a public library available for nonconformist ministers, tutors and students in the City of London. The library first opened in Red Cross Street, Cripplegate in 1730, largely due to the selfless efforts of his trustees who contributed and raised the necessary funds to build and equip a separate library building.

The collections were greatly enlarged over the years with many important gifts of books, manuscripts and portraits, so that the original 7600 books now form only a small part of the library which goes well beyond Puritanism to cover all sorts of biblical subjects, church history and more.

In 1865 the Metropolitan Railway bought the Red Cross Street premises and after a temporary stay at No.8, Queen Square, there was a move to a new building in Grafton Street in 1873. In 1889 the then Trustees acquired University Hall, Gordon Square, where the Library opened in 1890, where it has been ever since. The Congregational Library is also housed there. Last year, 2016, marked the tercentenary of the Trust and a new history was prepared by Dr Williams's Research Fellow, Dr Alan Argent.

(The building's designer was the winner of an architectural competition, Thomas Leverton Donaldson (1795-1885), Professor of Architecture at University College, London. It was built in 1848-49 as University Hall to mark the passing of the 1844 Dissenters' Chapels Act. The premises were shared by Manchester New College from 1853, which acquired the lease in 1882. When the college (now Harris Manchester College) moved to Oxford in 1889, the building was acquired from its trustees by Dr Williams's Trust)

The Library currently has about 250,000 volumes and about 150 periodical runs. It adds about a thousand volumes a year and 80 periodicals. Special collections include a 17th Century French Protestant theology one.(There are also Unitarian collections under the names Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808) and Joseph Priestley (1733-1804); Christopher Walton's Theosophical Library; Norman H Baynes' Byzantine Library, the G H Lewes & George Eliot Library and the New College, London Library.) There are also manuscript collections, including those of Roger Morrice (1628-1702); the Westminster Assembly minutes; Richard Baxter's letters and diaries, etc and mss of George Herbert (1593-1633).

The Evangelical Library (For more on The Evangelical Library see http://evangelical-library.org.uk/)

It has been my privilege to be on the board of the Evangelical Library many years, latterly as chair. The Library's founder was London Strict Baptist businessman Geoffrey Williams (1886-1975) who founded it as the Beddington Free Grace Library in 1933. His vision for the library began with the accumulation in his Beddington home, 12 miles from London, of a private collection of Reformed and Puritan evangelical classics but he soon developed a vision fuelled by a double realisation. First, the anomaly that a Protestant nation that by then possessed a variety of specialist information libraries yet lacked a national repository for the best Protestant evangelical literature. At the same time, there was the growing realisation that many excellent evangelical works were fast disappearing from the public domain. Puritan and Reformed literature was being banished from theological libraries and ministers studies with alacrity.

So Geoffrey Williams set himself the task of reclaiming as many volumes as possible as a heritage for future generations. The silver lining in it all was that at the time original works, some very rare, were turning up on barrows in street markets and similar places at rock bottom prices. Williams systematically scoured the length and breadth of the country pursuing a wide range of important books for the collection. His tireless efforts were richly rewarded and today from the acorn of that original collection a rich oak has grown. 

A crucial moment was when in 1938 Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was made aware of the Library. (This happened through a Welsh speaking Calvinistic Methodist minister Eliseus Howell (1893-1969))

He immediately saw how it tuned in with his own burning desire for what we may call the three R’s: Restoration of God's Word at the heart of the Christian community, Reformation of the church that teaches that Word and, ultimately, Revival of the people brought about by a personal relationship with Christ.

Lloyd-Jones was keen to bring the Library to central London and in 1944, even though the country was still at war, this happened. The first location was Gloucester Road, South Kensington but in 1946 the Library was installed in an old school building on Chiltern Street near Baker Street Tube. An attractive location in many ways, it was possible to have use of the building on very attractive terms. As the years went by problems became apparent, however, with draughts and leaks and great difficulties heating the place. The second and third floor location was also a problem for some although it was possible to install a lift latterly.

Eventually, it was agreed that a move was necessary and after several options were explored a move was made near the end of 2009 to a brand new double unit with parking spaces in North London, near Bounds Green Tube Station. The new location has proved a great asset, maintaining the London connection but escaping damp conditions, a potentially unsympathetic landlord and the congestion zone.

The Library currently has about 80,000 volumes and about 60 periodical runs, including a complete run of the now defunct Christian Herald magazine. It adds volumes as and when it can (about 500 annually) and takes in about a hundred periodicals. There is a small manuscript collection that includes letters from A W Pink (1886-1962), letters to George Whitefield (1714-1770) and what appear to be sermons by Philip Henry (1631-1696). There is also an interesting portrait collection. The Library now houses the archive of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity and has recently agreed to house The Strict Baptist Historical Society collection of 5000 books, several periodicals and 350 church minute books, account books, etc. from over a hundred churches. We hope shortly to receive a collection of about 5000 books originally kept in Grove Chapel, Camberwell but that have been in Australia for over 25 years.

Libraries and their value Part 2 (Categories and Personal Libraries)

NLW Aberystwyth

Categories

One can think of various types of library – public, private, mobile, national, school, church, specialist, personal, etc. 

I have had experience of most of these - from the mobile library that used to come to our housing estate in the sixties (Where I learned to devour the William books of Richmal Crompton (1890-1969) and first discovered detective novels) through being a school librarian in a comprehensive school (Here I discovered Punch magazine and the Tin Tin comics of Georges Remi (1907-1983). I used to like to close the library with the phrase “time gentlemen please”) to the Hugh Owen Library, Aberystwyth University, as an undergraduate, which I confess was not visited enough.

Then there are the national libraries in Wales and London. The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth (another copyright library) is an excellent resource. (It was in that Library that one day I discovered that there are not only bibliographies but bibliographies of bibliographies. One inevitably wonders if there are bibliographies of bibliographies of bibliographies (there are! Aksel G S Josephson (1860-1944) was the pioneer here.) 

As for the British Library two reminiscences (a fourth copyright library – the other two are in Edinburgh and Dublin.) I once went to consult The intercession of Christ by 19th century Reformed Presbyterian Thomas Houston (1804-1882) of Knockbracken. The copy was largely uncut. I had to send it back to the librarians to deal with. It struck me as rather sad to think of a book sat in the Library since 1882 or whenever (over a hundred years) and never read. It was a little exciting too to be reading it for the first time, as old as it was. (When a book is bound, trimming is the final thing done (or not done) so its leaves can be turned. A sheet folded in quarto has folds at the spine and across the top, so the top folds must be trimmed. A signature (a section that contains text) folded in octavo or greater may also require that the other two sides be trimmed. Deckle Edge or Uncut books are sometimes of special interest to booksellers.)

Another time, who should I sit next to but well known polymath and atheist Jonathan Miller. As I researched the life of a 19th Century Baptist called James Harvey (1826-1893) in From Suffolk Lad to London Merchant - his conversion, how he served the Lord in part by arguing with rationalists, etc, next to me sat a notorious atheist. I wanted to point out the irony but resisted. (It also took some self-control when he wandered off not to take a pencil and write in his notebook “There is a God”, “God is great” or “Eternity” - those were the alternatives I considered.)

I should also say something about church libraries, a mixed blessing in my experience. We had one in my home church in Wales. I remember borrowing a two volume Gospel Standard set Sermons of J K Popham (1847-1937). (James Kidwell Popham was the 19th century High Calvinist pastor of Galeed Strict Baptist, Brighton who wrote against Moody and Sankey. The church I attended was not at all Hyper-Calvinist.) I recall helping to catalogue the Library. My pastor used to say certain books we were given were for “the poison cupboard”. I recall The Jesus of history by T R Glover (1869-1943) being one put in there. (Glover's book was first published in 1917. Terrot Reavely Glover, a classics lecturer, was a Baptist and an Anti-supernaturalist.)

We have a church library in Childs Hill, that is used only from time to time. Just recently a former member came back to London from Nigeria eager to read. She fished out by herself the peerless Holiness by J C Ryle (1816-1900) which she soon finished and More than conquerors on Revelation by William Hendriksen (1900-1982). Last Sunday she asked for a good book on eschatology. I was able to locate a rather grubby copy of a little book from 1970 The Momentous event by W J Grier (1902-1983) – not approved by everyone perhaps but one that explains the Amillennial position very well. (Holiness was first published in 1877, More than conquerors in 1939 and The Momentous event in 1970.)

Anyway, today I want us to think chiefly of the value of personal and specialist libraries.

Personal libraries 

A recent report by Aviva insurers suggested that around 6.5m people in Britain (1-in-10) do not own any printed books. In the 18-24 age range, the number increases to 1-in-5. Although the report sounds alarm bells, Sunday Times literary editor, Andrew Holgate, said he was not surprised at the figure and being positive declared that "at least that means 90% of homes do have books". (See article here http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/1-10-people-do-not-own-single-book-uk-households-have-8-web-connected-devices-1602428 Accessed March 2017.) It may also be the case that some are taking in their information by other means. 

I grew up in the sixties in a household with few books. The few books we did have made quite an impact. There was the 1958 Waverley Encyclopedia edited by Gordon Stowell, later supplemented by a Collins Modern Encyclopedia in Colour (1969) and an almost complete set of the multi-volume Children's Encyclopedia (one of the post-1943 sets) published under the name Arthur Mee (1875-1943). Religious books were few and far between so I remember well the Watchtower publication From paradise lost to paradise regained especially the pictures and W L Emmerson's Adventist work The Bible Speaks. (Not recommended these volumes from 1958 and 1949 respectively were accessed March 2017 in these locations:
http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/paradise/1958_From_Paradise_Lost_To_Paradise_Regained.pdf http://www.temcat.com/L-4-Topical-Library/Answers/The%20Bibl%20Speaks-Emmerson.pdf
I also seem to recall Uncle Arthur's Bedtime stories another Adventist title but aimed at children).

It was only when I was converted at the age of 12 that I discovered that both my parents both owned Bibles. 

Once I became a Christian, I began to gather my own personal library. The first Christian book I read was F B Meyer (1847-1929) on Paul A servant of Jesus Christ in a Lakeland Publications paperback. When I began to gather a personal library of good Christian books there was much talk about the importance of having hardbacks. These are more expensive, of course, but more durable. If you are not careful, some paperbacks can fall apart on a first read. 

I remember shelling out the extra cash to buy The Welsh Revival of 1904 by Dr Eifion Evans in hardback. I am glad I did that. It is a very enlightening book that I still have. (This appeared in 1969. The year before Brynmor Pierce Jones (1925-1999) who I later came to know had published The King's Champions. He always referred to Dr Evans' book, a little aggrieved, as “the official version” ie with the focus on Evan Roberts). But then pursuing my policy I went next for Yale scholar Jaroslav Pelikan (1923-2006)'s Spirit Versus Structure: Luther and the Institutions of the Church. I struggled through it but this academic work is not really for teenagers. 

I did better with paperbacks such as J C Ryle Five English Reformers (Published by the Banner of Truth Trust from 1961) and Brian Edwards' mid-seventies EP biographies of William Tyndale (1494-1536) and John Newton (1725-1807) God's Outlaw and Through many dangers. I also really appreciated a little book by Dr G Coleman Luck (1913-1976) The Bible book by book. (Dr Luck was a Moody Bible Institute professor and his book first appeared in 1955.) It is an introduction to Bible synthesis, which involves reading whole books of the Bible through at a time. It was when I started doing this as a University student that I recalled that I had just the book to help me. 

Throughout my student years I took advantage of Banner offers and such like and once I became a minister the church was happy to help me in securing the tools of my trade. Prior to the birth of my fifth son I was persuaded to move my library from the manse to the church. This has not been a happy arrangement. I most often work at home so I am not seeing my library on a daily basis and so lack the familiarity with it that would make it more useful. Further, as expected, it is not unusual for me to lose track of a book's whereabouts. Is it in the chapel or at home? Perhaps if I had begun with this arrangement it would be less difficult. 

In more recent years there has been a revolution in the online availability of good books and I am in a sort of halfway house where many of the books I consult I have only in electronic form – on esword, online or on my kindle. I have found it useful to maintain a virtual library at Librarything. I have only catalogued about 800 volumes so far but it means that I have an easily accessible record of books, religious and secular, that I own or once owned. (For e-sword see http://www.e-sword.net/ and for Librarything, https://www.librarything.com/ Kindle is an Amazon product https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0186FESVC. 

Christians who want to maintain a personal library today probably fall into three broad categories. Many, especially younger men, use Logos software or something similar so that most of their books are in electronic form. The advantage here is that such libraries are highly portable and easily searched. (See https://www.logos.com/) 

Everything printed from 1475-1700 can be accessed through Early English Books Online if you have the access (anyone in Wales can do this through the National Library). Most items from 1700-1800 are also available (ECCO). (See https://eebo.chadwyck.com/home and http://gale.cengage.co.uk/) There will always be a need for conventional books but for younger men this will increasingly be the way to go, making private (as well as public) libraries much less crucial than they were, though, I want to argue, still necessary. 

At the other end of things are those who deal almost exclusively in conventional books. My father-in-law, Geoff Thomas, has recently retired and moved out of the manse he occupied for over 50 years where he amassed a huge library of thousands of volumes. His story perhaps includes some cautionary advice for those who take the conventional route. The story often told by students of the library that is sinking due to the weight of its books is apparently an urban myth but books can cause structural damage, especially if stored in private homes. Most of my father-in-law's volumes were kept on the first floor and there does appear to be some structural damage. He also has the problem of where to house the collection next. Many have had to go into storage for now. S M Houghton (1899-1987) who was such a help to the Banner of Truth in its early days, had a library of 30,000 volumes. He had to resort to using chicken sheds in his garden to store them all! 

In George Orwell's novel Keep the aspidistra flying he refers to bookseller Mr Cheeseman whose favourite way of acquiring stock “was to buy up the libraries of people who had just died, especially clergymen. Whenever a clergyman died Mr Cheeseman was on the spot with the promptness of a vulture. Clergymen, he explained to Gordon, so often have good libraries and ignorant widows." (See Chapter 10 of the 1936 novel). Whether my old minister, Derek Garwood, was aware of that quotation or simply the fact, he made valiant efforts to overcome that problem before he died but to no avail. Thankfully, most of the books went to the Library now owned by Union in Bridgend. If we are looking at things with a financial eye, the truth is that personal libraries need to be dispersed before we die not after!

This is the transcript of the second part of a lecture given at the EFCC Conference 2017

Libraries and their value Part 1 (Definition, Bible, history)

Hereford Cathedral Library

Let me begin by thanking those responsible for giving me the opportunity to deliver this lecture. I must say that it is an honour to have my name associated with that of Alan Tovey. It is good to see his widow here, now Mrs Lucy Beale.

I understand that Alan was from Hafodyrynys, only nine miles away from where I grew up, although Cwmbran, it must be said, has a different feel to Hafodyrynys. As a boy we in Cwmbran and Newport used to refer to such places as part of “Welsh Wales”. (Welsh Wales has been defined as “post-industrial South Wales, epitomised by the coal mining valleys that fan out northward from Swansea, Cardiff and Newport”. Assembling identities, Sam Wiseman, Cambridge, 2014, 72.)

I recall being up in Welsh Wales with my dad one day when we passed a very compact little soccer field. “That's where we used to play” my dad said. My father was from Newport and was a keen footballer and a decent one. For a little while (at the end of his career I think, in the early fifties I guess) he was goalkeeper for the Hafodyrynys team.

Definition
And so to libraries. A library can be defined as “a place in which reading materials, such as books, periodicals and newspapers, and often other materials such as musical and video recordings, are kept for use or lending”. (Free Dictionary). The word can also refer to such a collection of materials, especially when systematically arranged. The word is sometimes used more loosely as in toy library, tool library, even seed library. 

Today we are thinking specifically of books, which the original word suggests. Library is from Latin librarium. It originally referred to a chest of books. It is interesting to note that the Latin word Liber can refer to a book or with different inflexion (Lee-ber) a free person (the two decline differently liber, libri, libro, etc and liber, liberi, libero, etc). There is also the adjective liber, libera, liberum. It is tempting to give an attractive but false etymology – Library, a place of freedom!

The Bible

The Bible itself is often spoken of as a library, as it contains 66 books by different authors, from different times and situations, using different styles and genres and originally addressing different audiences. The statement is open to abuse but if we maintain both that the Bible is a library and one book we will not be far from the truth.

In one volume in the Library, 2 Timothy, we read (4:13) Paul's words When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments. We are not sure what the distinction between scrolls and parchments may be. Clearly Paul wanted books, however. He did not look down on book learning but was keen to use books. It is a fair inference from the verse that reading is important for Christians, especially ministers, and that libraries are potentially a good and useful thing. John Calvin (1509-1564) says the verse refutes “the madness of the fanatics who despise books and condemn all reading and boast only of ... their private inspirations by God” and “commends continual reading to all godly men as a thing from which they can profit.” (John Calvin, NT Commentary Corinthians, Timothy, Titus and Philemon, eds S W Torrance, T F Torrance, California, 1960, 341.) Matthew Henry (1662-1714) adds that we should thank God that he “given us so many writings of wise and pious men in all ages” and seek “that by reading them our profiting may appear to all.” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the whole Bible, in loc cit.)

In another volume in the Library, Ecclesiastes (in 12:12) is a well known verse that makes a different point of making many books there is no end. It is often quoted. Our location today well illustrates the point. The following phrase is often quoted too, usually with a wry smile, and much study wearies the body!

Church father Origen (184-253), in his commentary on John, says that it appears to indicate two things - “that we ought not to possess many books, and .. that we ought not to compose many”. (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume IX, Chapter 2). Conscious that he himself is composing a book he is aware of the irony, as others have been addressing the text. He suggests that it is a caution rather than a prohibition, which must be right Solomon himself was composing a book when he wrote as he did. John Gill (1697-1771) picks out the application well when he says on the place (John Gill, Exposition on the whole Bible, in loc cit.)

A man may lay out his money, and fill his library with books, and be very little the better for them; what one writer affirms, another denies; what one seems to have proved clearly, another rises up and points out his errors and mistakes; and this occasions replies and rejoinders, so that there is no end of these things, and scarce any profit by them; which, without so much trouble, may be found in the writings of wise men, inspired by God, and in which we should rest contented …

My subject is the value of libraries. I am happy to address it but by way of a disclaimer it is fair to add a caution. In a fallen world, fallen men and women can be harmed as well as helped by libraries. The experience of Richard Baxter (1615-1691) perhaps offers a graphic illustration of the need for caution. On one occasion we learn that as he sat in his study one day

the weight of his greatest folio books broke down three or four of the highest shelves, … and they fell down on every side of him, and not one of them hit him, except one upon the arm. Whereas the place, the weight, and greatness of the books was such, and his head just under them, that it was a wonder they had not beaten out his brains, or done him an unspeakable mischief. (Baxter's Practical Works, Volume 1, ix)

One shelf just above him apparently held the huge Polyglot Bible edited by Bishop Brian Walton (1600-1661), the complete Works of Augustine of Hippo (354-440) and several other weighty tomes. The story serves as a reminder that libraries can do harm as well as good.

History

(A good introduction to this subject can be found in The Story of Libraries, Second Edition: From the Invention of Writing to the Computer Age, Fred Lemer, London, 2009.)

It is apposite to attempt a very brief survey of the history of libraries. It is generally agreed that the earliest were collections of clay tablets gathered and catalogued in Mesopotamia by the Sumerians and their Akkadian and Persian successors. There may have been other early libraries that used less robust materials. If so, they have not survived.

The first explicit reference to an ancient Egyptian library dates back to 1788 BC. A stele exists on which King Neferhotep records his desire “to see the ancient writings of Atum” in the library of the temple at Heliopolis. A famous Egyptian library also existed in the time of Rameses II (d 1213 BC), possibly the Exodus Pharaoh.

It was probably not until the fourth century BC that individuals, such as the Greek philosophers Plato (427-337 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC) began to amass personal libraries. A saying is attributed to Plato, though perhaps erroneously, that “a house that has a library in it has a soul”.

We know little about it but the most famous of ancient libraries is the Hellenic one at Alexandria dedicated to the Muses. Established in the third century BC by Ptolemy I (c 367-283 BC), it was part of the Musaeum there. Greatly reduced in the time of Julius Caesar (48 BC) and Aurelian (270 AD) it was tragically destroyed by fire in 391 AD and probably entirely lost when the Muslims invaded Egypt in 642 AD.

Roman Emperors commonly founded libraries and in the early years AD libraries were founded not just in Rome but all over the Empire. When Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD a library containing 1800 volumes was destroyed in the Villa of Pisones in Herculaneum. 

Christians were early aware of the usefulness of libraries. Bishop Alexander (d 251) founded one in Jerusalem before 250 AD and Origen did the same around the same time in Caesarea. Clement (150-215) used one in Alexandria to quotes from nearly 350 authors in his works. Christian Libraries were one of the targets of Diocletian (244-311) when he persecuted Christians. The one in Caesarea survived. We know that Eusebius (263-339) used it to write his Ecclesiastical History and Jerome (347-429) after him.

While the papyrus roll ruled for hundreds of years, by the first century AD, the use of vellum and parchment was coming in, the former being eventually supplanted. The other technological change, famously pioneered by Christians, was the codex or book. By the fourth century AD it had overtaken scrolls in popularity. (There is a hilarious sketch on Youtube where a mediaeval monk gets help with the new technology, which he does not quite have the hang of.See here (Accessed March 2017). 

In the mediaeval period libraries began to centre on monasteries and monks became famous for copying manuscripts. In the sixth century one of the first copyright disputes occurred in Ireland, when Columba (521-597) secretly copied a psalter, or perhaps a whole Bible, belonging to Finian (470-549). They took their dispute to High King Diarmait mac Cerbhiall (Dermot McKervil, d 565) who ruled against Columba, saying “to every cow belongs its calf and to every book its copy”. It was one of the reasons Columba left Ireland for Iona.

It was in this period that libraries began to chain their more valuable books in order to keep them from being purloined. One of the largest chained libraries, one that you can still visit today, is in Hereford Cathedral. Another, the first endowed for use outside an institution, is the Francis Trigge Chained Library in Grantham, Lincolshire, established 1598, a forerunner of later public libraries.

The invention of printing had its own impact, increasing the number of books and the ease with which they could be reproduced. Before 1602, The Bodleian Library was refounded in Oxford through Thomas Bodley (1545-1613). (Today one of six copyright libraries in the British Isles, ie one entitled to a free copy of every book published in the UK.) Other early libraries include Norwich City Library (1608) and Chetham's Library, Manchester, (founded through Sir Humphrey Chetham 1580-1653) which claims to be the oldest public library in the English-speaking world (1653). Other early town libraries are Ipswich (1612) Bristol (1613-15) and Leicester (1632). The British Library was established 1753. (Another copyright library.)

This is the transcript of part of a lecture given at the EFCC Conference 2017