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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.

The calendar means nothing when one 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 experiment with interest.

The first county library law which passed the California legislature in 1909 was found to be inadequate and the new law of 1911 was drafted, superseding the first. The 1911 law was so carefully thought out, that very few changes have since had to be made. This provided for the establishment by the Supervisors of a county, and the levying of a tax on that part of the county lying outside of cities and towns which had libraries of their own for the support of a library with headquarters at the county seat and distributing point throughout that taxed section of the county. If towns with existing city libraries wished, they could join the county system by paying a small tax. Many towns throughout the state with small public libraries did submit to this provision, and were well pleased with the supplementary service they received from the County Library. Two Monterey County towns, Carmel and King City, were quick to take advantage of the service.