'The Fiction Nuisance' in Nineteenth-Century British Public Libraries

The early decades of British public libraries were characterized by a definite prejudice against fiction reading. This article presents a study of the roots of the nineteenth-century public library's difficulties in coming to terms with the relationship between the realities of user demand and a more theoretical view of a library's true function. The ways in which public libraries came to terms with fiction provision are examined by considering three aspects of the topic: the perceptions of the purposes of public libraries; attitudes to fiction outside the library profession; and the profession's capacity to generate its own distinctive approach. The article considers three interlinked elements which were central to nineteenth-and early twentieth-century librarians' responses to the challenge : the social and educational status of entrants to librarianship; the ability of the Library Association and other professional bodies to act as an effective medium for the evolution of an independent consensus to opinion; and the progress of professional education and training.