THIS YEAR IS the 40th anniversary of the public library at its premises in South Street although it may not be there for much longer. Plans are afoot to move it to the Town Hall, mainly utilising space released by the courtroom on the first floor which was vacated by the magistrates last year.

The proposal will require close examination by councillors because the availability of books to enlighten and entertain has been part of our culture for almost two centuries and anything that is likely to change and perhaps restrict this facility needs careful consideration and an appreciation of what has become acceptable in past times.

The first public library in Bourne dates from the middle years of the 19th century when the demand became evident by the popularity of a reading room which was established in 1863 as a place where people could sit and read newspapers and magazines. The opening was held on New Year's Day at a rented room in the Market Place adjoining the tailor's shop at No 1 North Street run by Mr William Todd (now the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society) and the intention was that it would be self supporting with at least 60 subscribers each paying twelve shillings a year and opening from 10 am until 10 pm on six days a week. It became so popular that within a few months, the organising committee headed by the vicar, the Rev Joseph Dodsworth, were soon discussing a scheme which enabled subscribers borrow books on a regular basis and so the town’s first circulating library was opened in 1865.

The reading room and library continued at the North Street premises until January 1871 when it moved to the Corn Exchange that had just been built with space for the new facility which now had a stock of 1,000 volumes and was open every weekday from 10 am until 8 pm. The project started well but was soon hampered by the lack of funds, a recurring problem because subscriptions were always less than expenses and the only other income was donations from charitable townspeople.

By 1875, the situation had become so desperate that the committee was forced to stop ordering weekly newspapers and magazines and the library and reading room closed soon afterwards. A local newspaper was outraged by the decision and their correspondent reported: "Now that so suitable and comfortable a room is provided in the public hall for the library and reading room, it is a pity, if not a disgrace to the town, should there not be found sufficient public spirit to maintain this institution in an efficient manner."

The gap in the market was subsequently filled by John Morris, newsagent and bookseller, who opened a commercial reading room and subscription library at his shop in West Street containing 1,000 volumes and open for twelve hours each day with all of the principal newspapers available for subscribers on payment of one penny a visit. This venture continued to thrive until the early years of the 20th century when Mr Morris retired and sold the business.

Meanwhile, a second library had opened at the Temperance Café and Working Men’s Club in South Street in 1880, run by the Bourne Temperance Society in an attempt to keep people out of the public houses. This continued on a voluntary basis until the opening of the Bourne Institute in West Street in 1896, a non-sectarian, non-political organisation devoted to healthy recreation, education and mutual intellectual improvement which also included a library that began with a modest collection of 400 books. There were many other amenities on offer at the institute but it was the library which proved to be the most popular and its collection of volumes expanded rapidly, through gifts and purchases financed by various fund-raising activities, all eagerly sought by those anxious to read and expand their knowledge of the world.

The first free public lending library in the town to be run by the local authority was based at the old National School in North Street (now the headquarters of the Grantham and Stamford Conservative Association) and was opened on 14th November 1924. This was part of a Rural Library Scheme launched by Kesteven County Council, now superseded by Lincolnshire County Council, and was equipped by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust that had presented them with 4,000 volumes of which Bourne had 240. The working expenses were met out of public funds and the library was intended mainly to help students requiring a higher standard of work to study in any particular subject and who could obtain the books they needed by paying the cost of postage to and from London where a central library was based.

The facility continued to operate until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 when the school was taken over for emergency uses and it was not until 1953 that a more permanent home was found, ironically at the Bourne Institute where Kesteven County Council leased a room for the purpose and employed a part-time librarian.

The library remained there for 30 years during which time the number of borrowers gradually rose as the population increased and the accommodation eventually became inadequate. The council therefore decided that a brand new library should be built and in 1967 a site in Abbey Road was chosen but the following year the country’s Civil Defence was stood down and when the Bourne headquarters building in South Street was declared redundant, the building was immediately earmarked for refurbishment as the town’s new library.

It opened in 1969 and since then there has been a continuous programme of expansion and in 1992, the entire lending system was computerised and borrowers were issued with bar-coded computer tickets, linking Bourne to the central library department in Lincoln and therefore enabling staff check on screen for the availability of books being sought by readers that are not on the library shelves. From small beginnings at a cramped reading room in North Street 150 years ago, the exciting revelations of the printed word are now available to all.