The Voluntary Libraries of Victorian Britain: Volume 2

This volume provides an examination of the kind of free (or nearly free) libraries which were available to the general public in Scotland and Wales in the late nineteenth century, but which were not supported by local taxation. They were effectually substitutes for municipal public libraries in areas where that sort of library provision did not exist. They may have been funded by wealthy philanthropists or by well-wishers. Attention is paid too to libraries which were aimed at specific communiti