ABSTRACT
Following the passing of the 1850 Act, there was hardly a rush to make public libraries available. Only eight were opened in the first five years following the Act, but two of these, at Manchester and Liverpool, were to play a major part in public library music provision throughout the next 100 years. The 1880s saw some improvement in the provision of music in public libraries. By 1899, in proportion to the total number of library authorities in the country, there were still relatively few public libraries where the provision of music was taken seriously and where collections were being built up purposively. There were several interesting developments relating to music provision in public libraries during the 1930s. Liverpool concentrated the musical stores of its 16 branch libraries at the Central Lending Library in 1930 to form a music section of some 5000 volumes.
