15 - Introduction: library provision in the countries of the British Isles

Summary

Library development occurred at a different pace and in different ways in different places: the various chapters on public libraries, subscription libraries and libraries in higher education make this plain. Many factors influenced the foundation and fortunes of libraries over the years, from local politics and economic cycles to nationalist movements and world wars.

In particular the existence of the ‘home nations’ in the British Isles, with Wales, Scotland and Ireland (North and South) all differing from each other as well as from England, and having at various times different relationships with the United Kingdom as a whole, has led to quite different library traditions reflecting the history and culture of each country. Each has a national library (except England, which as so often assumes it does not need to assert its own national identity within Britain). The position of each country on its ‘minority’ languages (specifically Welsh and the closely related Gaelic and Irish) has varied over time and again is reflected in library provision. Legal and educational systems have had their own influence, in both cases overlaid with questions of religious allegiance.

This section of the volume, therefore, presents the reader with national perspectives – from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales – that cross-cut the wide variety of library experiences described in other chapters. A series of views of the library scene in a typical English city over 150 years sets the tone; sub-sections for Wales, Scotland and Ireland then survey library provision (particularly but not only public libraries) and the appropriate national library – with the following section of the volume dealing with the national library of the whole United Kingdom.