ABSTRACT
In seeking to explain the inheritance and the culture of community librarianship, this chapter extracts from the history of the public library evidence supportive of the proposition of continuity and, alternatively, that which might be employed to substantiate the position of those claiming a new status. Since their statutory inception in 1850 public libraries in Britain have been essentially parochial in character. Particularly important was the prevention of the 'deserving' being subsumed into the 'undeserving' element of the population. Increasing interest in the public library as a truly national service ran parallel with the growth of collectivism in the early twentieth century. In the final analysis, however, what stands out is the discontinuity, in terms of ideological content, which community librarianship represents in the history of the public library. The roots of community librarianship in the history of the public library are manifold and identifiable.
