Remarks on the Practice and Policy of Lending Bodleian Printed Books and

Chandler, Henry W. (Henry William), 1828-1889Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.5

Word count: 139K words
Chapters: 14

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Remarks on the practice and policy of lending Bodleian printed books andAuthor: Chandler, Henry W. (Henry William), 1828-1889,Language: English, Class: Z: Bibliography, Library science, Release Date: Oct 26, 2011

Editor's review

This book is Henry W. Chandler's discussion of the practice and policy of lending printed books from the Bodleian Library, a primary source in the history of librarianship and collection management. The author examines whether public or institutional libraries should lend printed books externally, addressing the tension between collection preservation, reader services, and administrative systems. It holds documentary value for understanding how nineteenth-century British university libraries conceived their operations. The text is argumentative in tone and modest in length, suitable as supplementary material for research in library science, book history, and institutional history. General readers with little interest in library management will find it dry, but researchers in relevant fields can see in it historical echoes of today's debates over lending policy. The electronic edition facilitates keyword searching and quotation of the original text.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students and researchers in library and information science
Scholars of British library history and collection management
Book history enthusiasts interested in the Bodleian Library
Authors of papers needing primary sources on nineteenth-century library policy

Not a good fit for

Practicing librarians seeking a lending guide or practical management manual
General leisure readers uninterested in library institutional history
Beginners needing a systematic theoretical framework rather than historical argumentation

Reading tips

First learn the basic history of the Bodleian Library, then read the main text to grasp the argumentative context more easily.
Compare the book's claims with contemporary library lending systems, making excerpts and annotations of its viewpoints.
Best read by skipping between chapters, focusing on the core arguments about lending policy.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What is the core question this book discusses?

The core question is whether printed books at the Bodleian Library should be lent externally, and how practice and policy should balance the relevant considerations. The author discusses this from angles including collection preservation, reader convenience, and administrative systems, reflecting nineteenth-century library debates over external lending. It is a primary source in the history of libraries and collection management.

Can readers without a library science background read it?

Yes, but some background knowledge is needed. The arguments center on specific institutional rules and collection management, without modern introductions or annotations. General readers interested in book history or institutional history can browse it as a historical text; those reading only for entertainment may find the subject too specialized.

Does this book still have reference value for library management today?

It has reference value as a historical document. It presents the classic tension between collection preservation and reader services, and libraries today still face similar trade-offs over lending permissions and rare book management. However, its specific institutional rules are outdated and should not be applied directly; it is better suited as comparative material for the history of ideas.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Chandler, Henry W. (Henry William), 1828-1889 Author · 1828–1889

Henry W. Chandler (1828–1889) was a nineteenth-century writer known for two commentaries on the lending policies of the Bodleian Library. The first discusses the practice and policy of lending printed books, while the second extends the discussion to the lending of manuscripts. Both texts address the same question: how a public collection can balance access to its holdings against their preservation. His writing focuses on concrete institutional and practical matters, in a cautious tone with a clear argumentative edge, reflecting contemporary scholarly concern about library openness and the protection of collections. Because public information is limited, little is known about his life, nationality or professional background, and his output is small, with only two works held in this collection. Their main value lies in offering primary documentary clues for the study of nineteenth-century library lending systems.