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sure in observing one ; Uy which they admit , with the same facility ¦ as their own subscribers , any gentleman or lady , who naay visit the town , " and can prove that they are subscribers to a similar instittitionS * The liberality of such a plan is particularly striking , and I believe that a similar regulation in some other society has been mentioned by you . Sir , with approbation in a former number . See vol . n . p . 50 *
This library is only of a few years * standing , and has succeeded beyond expectation * , but tbis phrase applied now to such institutions , has become almost common-place , for wherever they have been once established , like the
good seed sown in good grotind , there do they prosper , nine times out of ten , and yield a produce a thousand-fold ; the great object is 5 to sowr the seed / ' or to drop the similitude , and to use a very general expression u to make a
beginring . * ' I inquired how this had beenu effected at Greenock , and was informed that two gentlemen > or three , )* ad [ found in many of their friends of each sex , a general complaint against * ' tjsc trash in circulating libraries /* and a wish for such an establishment
as a * book-club ^ a book-society , or a general subscription library , term . it which you please , and proposing that they would immediately transfer their subscriptions from the common libraries of the town .
and even increase them , provided they could get books of real knowledge and utility to read , which should also be the property of the subscribers , Finding such a spirit , these two gentlemen put up written notices at the booksellers ' ahojfi , at , the coffiee 4 iousJb , inns ,
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&c \ &c . ^ requesti ng a meeting of the frictids of such a plan , atofee o ; f th principal hotels of th « place , * For * this meeting , rules were « taawu up , which met its genera } coiacurrence , and I believe many < pif Uate
gentlemen offered the use ox th ^ eir private libraries to the society ^ **«* - til their own public one hud gpt the / first or second order for its . books accomplished . Sufascriptkras were i m mediately oppned , : a ad it was alsK > agreed to , that , for a
certain time , perhaps the first six months , every one who liked die plan , and could pay a guinea per year , should become -a member without the formality of aballot . A committee was appointed from amongst tliesubscribers at ihisfirst
meeting , and a room tvas or < fercc ^ to be prepm * ed to ; contain , thvir books , Th ^ Sir , was the Q rv ^ nock subscription library ^ estP ^ bKshcd . As , the books whi ^ they have ptii chased , are getting hpv
numerous for their fi ^ t room ? I am told that a plan Uas lately bet ^ n fat agitation amongst the members , to build by way < rf a I tontine , in small shares , a r ap ^ ptable house for their better acepmmo *
dation , in * somje eligible part of the town , and to let off , the , uaderjSats , ' as they call $ * e ground stories in Scotland , either for . warerooms , shops , oflices ; ^ or whatever v- ^ ay may be thought most respectable , most useful according / to the situation in the town which they
purchase , and consequently most advantageous . I believe their librarian , is a school-master , and th ^ t the y mean one part of the upper story for fiifnself and hip family , and the other part for his school . Thus the whole building wijl be coipplejtely Qcc ; wpiedf To those gentlemen , w , ho _ by a , vt * y
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Subscription JJbrdrty at Greeno ^ k * 133
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1808, page 133, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2390/page/13/
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