began its actual and public existence, and we are showing below a concrete manifestation of what it has begun to do. It is a letter addressed to one of the Directors of the Spreckels Association after the latter had offered definitely to cooperate, in service and purpose, with the larger body.
MONTEREY COUNTY FREE LIBRARY
Salinas, Cal., September 9, 1913
Director of the Spreckels Library Association, Spreckels, CA
Dear Sir:
The Monterey County Free Library is now being organized. Work is being carried on under difficulty as our quarters in the City Library building are not yet ready for occupancy. As soon as possible I shall go to Spreckels and consult with the Library Association in regard to establishing a branch of the County Library there. Meanwhile the people of Spreckels might like to have an opportunity to suggest books they wish to see in the Library, and I send under separate cover a few request slips. These are to be filled out with the author and title of each book requested, and the name of the one who requests it.
These can be mailed separately or ten enclosed in an envelope for two cents.
(Signed) Anne Hadden, Librarian
These cards (in limited numbers) will be available at the library evenings or procurable from any of the Directors upon request.
There has always been on the part of certain over-critical Spreckels people the objection that the local library did not have sufficient books to make it interesting or worth visiting. (The objectors in all probability had never seen the inside of the library itself, of the catalog of volumes issued by the Association, or of a single book listed in that catalog. But they know its lots easier to say a man is a prevaricator than to debate with him according to parliamentary rules and prove him mistaken.)
Under the organization that can be built up in Monterey County with the help of Monterey County people, and from the branch of it to be established at Spreckels, if properly encouraged, there will be books available. And then if local bookworms don’t patronize the reading room, there will be no sound reason for not changing the spelling of their class and calling them hookworms. Is it necessary to say more?
Anne Hadden, Head Librarian, 1913 - 1929 (Courtesy of the Monterey County Free Libraries, Marina, CA)
History of County Libraries in California
In the early 1900s, library pioneers worked on a plan to extend library coverage to all the citizens of California, not just for those who lived in cities. This was a new idea for libraries. California had a diverse population with few large cities, many small towns, and numerous isolated self-sufficient families. Librarians realized that each person, regardless of where they lived, could benefit from knowledge and culture obtained from books. By 1911 the state legislature passed a workable law that supported their goals, and progress was made to expand public access to books through the new County Free Library system. In future years, other states and countries abroad would look to California for guidance in developing rural access to libraries.
Anne Hadden was a university student when historical changes—instigated by Andrew Carnegie—started taking place in America. The discussions of the future of libraries during these years may have had an impact on her selection of a career.
Mr. Andrew Carnegie and the Expansion of Small Town Libraries
The philanthropic work of Mr. Andrew Carnegie was most important for the historic changes made in libraries starting in the late 1800s. When he sold the Carnegie Steel Company in 1901 to J.P. Morgan for $450 million, he became the richest man in America. Mr. Carnegie believed in giving most of his fortune back to mankind. A rich man makes money, and then must spend time giving it away.
Mr. Carnegie wrote in his autobiography, “It was from my own early experience that I decided there was no use to which money could be applied so productive of good to boys and girls who have good within them and ability and ambition to develop it, as the founding of a public library in a community which is willing to support it as a municipal institution.” Born in 1835 in Scotland, Mr. Carnegie worked as a young boy to help support his family. After the family immigrated to America in 1848, his schooling ended, and he worked as a messenger and a telegraph operator. Every Saturday Colonel Anderson, a wealthy man in Mr. Carnegie’s home town of Pittsburgh, lent books out of his vast library to working boys. Mr. Carnegie never forgot that kindness, and the chance to realize the importance of reading books and of continued learning for success and opportunity.
When Mr. Carnegie was a child, libraries were not free, and librarians did not trust the public to safeguard books, so they did not make them readily available.
Andrew Carnegie became the most important man in the “modern library movement” that developed during the 1890s and early 1900s. He wrote many essays discussing the subject of wealth and philanthropy, and thought the best gift that could be given to a community was a free library, “provided the community will accept and maintain it as a public institution, as much a part of the city property as its public schools, and, indeed, an adjunct to these.” He believed in “taking a part in public matters especially those connected with education and improvement of the poorer classes.”
Leading librarians of the time came to understand the need for more library service and the need to provide service to everyone. Libraries should be available to less populated areas and to less prosperous areas. It was a “modern idea” for a library to have open shelves and a children’s section. Some states started taking active roles in establishing state agencies to support library expansion.
Starting in the 1890s, Mr. Carnegie focused on donating funds to small towns in America where libraries did not exist. He supplied the money for the building, requiring towns to supply the rest: the land, the books, the staff, and the continued maintenance. Mr. Carnegie created a system of shared responsibility for the library’s continuance. He eventually supplied more than 2,800 libraries to American cities and some to other countries.
In 1906 the Salinas Civic Club, a women’s group, was determined to build a public library for the city of Salinas. After a very successful fundraising campaign among the residents of Salinas, they raised enough money to purchase a lot. They then secured a $10,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie for the building. The books from two private collections were donated to the future public library, which was built and opened on November 4, 1909.
James Gillis and Harriet Eddy—Partners in the Development of the County Free Libraries in California
The most prominent state librarian for the future of library growth in California was James Gillis. He grew up in Sacramento and was active in state politics, taking various jobs in the Legislature, but he never forgot his childhood dream of being able to help other children obtain books. In 1898 he developed ideas for expanding library service in the state. And in 1899, he applied for the open position of California state librarian, surprising his political colleagues. He hired Harriet Eddy, who became his “right hand woman,” charged with organizing the development of the county libraries by traveling to bring the message to all counties in the state. She wrote about Mr. Gillis in her 1955 memoir CountyFree Library Organizing in California 1909–1918:
On the building facing the California State Library in Sacramento is carved the inscription, “Bring me men to match my mountains.” This could well have been the frieze in the JAMES L. GILLIS HALL on the second floor of the Library itself, for the state may never have had a person who matched its mountains better than its illustrious State Librarian, Mr. James L Gillis.