speaks of Mr. Gillis. His actual life spanned only 60 years, but his experiences and contribution to the library field leaped over the “mediaeval” period of state libraries, when books were “chained” to the shelves, to the ultra modern times of unification which have not yet, after nearly 50 years, been equaled, much less surpassed, by any other state or county.
Mr. Gillis strongly believed in the “modern library movement” and developed a philosophy and message: “Any book for anybody” meant all counties needed to participate to reach all the residents. “Economical” meant no duplication in materials or in labor. “Complete” meant there was one unified system; books could be obtained from any library in California and from other states. Miss Eddy wrote that “California was not the first state to propose the county as a unit for library service…but was the first to undertake as its goal the establishment of a county free library service in every county in the state, and one that would be equal, economical and complete.”
Miss Eddy met Anne Hadden in 1909 at a California Library Association meeting in Santa Cruz County. Anne was the city librarian of Palo Alto at the time. Miss Eddy later wrote about Anne: “Her intelligent understanding of the unified plan helped to make the meeting in Big Basin as friendly as it was, and later brought Monterey County to its success when she became County Librarian there.”
During this time, people were concerned about possible tax increases due to the new County Library Law. At the meeting in Santa Cruz, Miss Eddy encountered much protest complaining about increased taxes in the form of an editorial attack in the local paper. Yet she persevered, saying, “I asked myself if I believed in the library plan or in what the paper said. I knew that I believed in equality of opportunity in educational privileges, and that the library, unified, would give one of those chances.” She pushed on with her job…..
Mr. Gillis and Miss Eddy were influential in amending the 1909 County Library Law and proposed a new law that was passed by the California Legislature in 1911. Controversial parts of the old 1909 law were changed, including the method of taxation and supervision of the county libraries. Cities that already had libraries were not taxed under the new law, which established library service in areas where there was no library. The establishment of the county library was to be by City Supervisors. Mr. Gillis wished for cooperation: “My idea is to have the law provide for a combination of counties for a contract with each other and a general system of cooperation.” Mr. Gillis worked closely with the Legislature and the Attorney General to obtain the best law possible. The law has stood the test of time, for it became the foundation of the County Free Library system for many years to come.
Miss Eddy continued publicizing the plan by informing residents and city leaders throughout the state. In 1912 she visited Monterey County. On August 6, 1912, Miss Eddy Glover, who wrote articles for the Salinas Morning Democrat, published a report about Miss Eddy’s visit:
The proposed establishment of a County Free Library now under consideration by the Board of Supervisors has met with a splendid response from the people all over the county who feel that it offers a possibility of untold benefits… For the last 10 days Miss Harriet G. Eddy of the State Library has been traveling about the County to acquaint the people with the County Free Library plan. In speaking of her trip in an interview with the Democrat last evening, Miss Eddy said, “The interest all over the county has been fine and most gratifying. I have visited practically every town in the county and have found the people a unit for the county free library. The fact that this county had about 12 traveling libraries when that system was being carried on by the State Library goes to prove that Monterey County has people who like books. As soon as I would reach a town there would be immediate inquiries as to what could be done to further the cause. The school teachers and school trustees I saw are much in favor of the plan… Without exception I found the people anxious that the plan of the County Free Library be adopted. I have received word from Aromas, Pajaro, Castroville, Carmel, Pacific Grove, Monterey, Chualar, Spreckels, Gonzales, Soledad, Fort Romie, Greenfield, King City, San Lucas, Jolon, San Ardo, and Bradley that endorsements have been sent in.”
Anne wrote about the importance of the Carnegie Corporation and the 1911 County Library Law. In 1955, Miss Eddy published a book that described Mr. Gillis’s ideas of the future library system, an excerpt of which follows.
From HARRIET EDDY’S MEMOIRS:
County Free Library Organizing in California 1909-1918
Published in 1955
But the big idea that Mr. Gillis had first conceived on that memorable day back in 1898 was to bring the entire State Library within the reach of every person in California from the Oregon line to Mexico. The entire State Library must be extended! How could it be done? Some intermediate library unit must be found between the State Library and the little boy in Modoc County; study clubs and traveling libraries were not sufficient to reach the ranch woman in Imperial County. Many library workers clung to the municipality as the answer. One prominent library worker from the East, who had come to live in California, hoped to see “the entire state dotted with municipal libraries, just like Massachusetts.” But it was not the answer for California, which had a greater number of people living outside of towns than inside. Other librarians thought the township was the correct unit. But there were too many townships and their assessed valuation was too small to furnish adequate funds for library support. The ideal sought was a unit that would be equal, furnishing the same quality and quantity of service, whether the borrower lived under the shadow of the capitol dome, or in the almost impenetrable forests of Trinity County; it would be economical, by doing away with endless duplication, as the first unit would own the books and other library material most generally needed, with supplementary service coming from the State Library and other libraries willing to lend; it would be complete by having all the library facilities unified, and available (later through the Union Catalog). And the unit chosen must be one that would, when all were organized, cover the entire state. Then the slogan would be realized: EVERY BOOK FOR EVERYBODY.
The answer was the county. California had fifty-eight counties, all of them small enough to operate as a unit, and most of them large enough to give adequate support. And with the counties organized, California would be covered with a network of libraries, so unified that they would satisfy the hope for equal, economical, complete library service.
ANNE HADDEN in her own words:
THE CARNEGIE CORPORATION and the 1911 CA Library Law
The Carnegie Corporation was greatly interested in the development of libraries. At first during Mr. Carnegie’s lifetime, buildings were given to towns that agreed to support a public library, appropriating at least 10% of the fund received for building – later it was decided that more than one building was required and grants were given to Library training schools, publications and useful books of limited demand were subsidized. Scholarships were given for work in specialized fields, and library work in other countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa was financed. Experimental regional libraries were started in certain states where County Libraries were not in operation. The Carnegie Corporation also encouraged the arts, giving collections of books on art to University and other libraries, which had no funds for these specialized collections.
One of the Carnegie Corporation’s many special interests was along the line of the microfilm for copying rare books, and in developing the instrument for reproduction, adapting the reading of the film to the structure and motions of the human eye. This meant the support of much research work.
Great interest from many directions was taken in the California County Library plan. It was developed by Mr. J. L. Gillis with the invaluable assistance of Mr. Milton Ferguson, the law librarian at the State Library, and others, including Mr. Ripley, the City Librarian of Sacramento, who had made the experiment of serving adjoining rural communities with books from the City Library. Mr. Gillis had watched this