RURAL LIBRARY PROVISION IN HEREFORDSHIRE; THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY Available to Purchase

Although Herefordshire does not have long traditions of rural library provision two experiments took place in the 1890s. (1) In 1894, the newly founded Colwall Parish Council started providing a wide range of services, including a rate supported library from 1899. The problems of library administration within the framework of parochial government are examined. (2) From 1899 John Percival, bishop of Hereford, provided an itinerating library service based on ecclesiastical parishes. Although reorganised and extended in 1906 it proved expensive to operate and met with hostility from community leaders. It pioneered features found in the later county library service.