Book Borrowing farce: Last week we published a list of books which had been borrowed more than others from the Free Library, but I have had a remarkable instance this week that borrowing books, to some extent, is as farce. I cannot bring my mind to believe that people borrow books for the sake of parading them in the streets; or — ahem — because they are fond of talking with an unmarried librarian. It is very nice to know that we have popular authors residing amongst us in Harborne. I do not intend to give any pain to Mrs. Pinsent, whose residence is, I believe, on Wellington Road, but it is by means of her book that I have discovered that books are sometimes never intended to be read by the borrowers. I have taken out Mrs. “Jenny’s Case,” a book which has been favoured with the highest praise in the literary world. It has been taken out of the library four times, once on the 19th of December, once on the 28th, and twice on January 2nd. When I came. To look through it I found that even so early as page 30 two of the leaves had not been cut, and then similar evidence in more than a dozen cases throughout the book that it had not been read. So we see that the number of times a book is borrowed does not necessarily mean that it is read by the public. A good many of the bindings of the books in the Library are very gingerly done. Nearly all of them part company with the backs, even after the first or second issue. Mr. Shuttleworth tells me they cannot get them with better bindings. It seems very strange, for I am sure we have all books on our shelves which we have used hundreds of times and yet they show no signs of giving way. Even the book of Mrs. Pinsent, which I referred to above, is giving some indication of parting with Its backs.
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive
Referenced
GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949