I worked in the Finsbury Central Library (James Duff Brown's Clerkenwell) in
the late 1950s. Books loaned to houses in which people contracted
notifiable diseases had to be either fumigated or destroyed. This was in
relation to public health legislation to prevent the outbreak of epidemic
diseases. My recollection is of of scarlet fever, typhoid, TB, polio and
diphtheria as being the diseases which had to be notified to the local
director (?) of public health. If you contracted one these diseases you
were supposed to be sent to an isolation hospital until it was either cured
or you died. I am eternally grateful to the doctor who turned a blind eye
to my having scarlet fever in 1948 and leaving me to have my hallucinations
at home - even though at that time I did not know about public libraries!
Kate Wood
Head, Professional Qualifications Department
The Library Association
7 Ridgmount Street, London WC1E 7AE
Tel: 0171 636 7543; Fax: 0171 436 7218
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sylva Simsova [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, January 29, 1999 12:53 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Cc: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Hygienic Libraries
>
> In message <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask] writes
> >There have been a couple of messages recently (I think) about hygienic
> >libraries, which then expanded into notes about what was done with books
> >returned from households suffering from infectious diseases. Well, I was
> >wondering how far this concern is dependant on the type of library
> involved,
> >and whether it became an issue in the early days of the public library,
> as
> >a result of the expected clientele, the working class, the lower orders
> or
> >whatever you wish to call them.
>
> I think it may have been related to the attitude to health and hygiene.
> In the 30s I was expected to wear gloves when travelling by train as a
> protection against germs!
>
> Some illnesses, for instance TB, were incurable and infectious. People
> were really afraid of them.
>
> If I remember correctly, in the British public libraries of the early
> 50s some books used to be returned via the public health department.
>
> I also remember, and this time quite clearly, how in 1951 the librarian
> in my first branch library (Islington West) invited the staff to witness
> the burning of a book in which a bed bug had been found. I was the only
> one who knew bed bugs, the other juniors had never seen any.
>
>
> --
> Sylva Simsova
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