| Description | Minute volumes indexed. The minutes are handwritten and printed and signed by the committee Chairman. Volumes BCC/1/AT/1/1/1 - 13 pre-date the uniformly titled and dated sequence, and are entitled 'Free Libraries Committee' or 'Public Libraries Committee', with no dates on the spines or the cover. The initial volume is entitled 'Free Libraries & Museums Committee'. The volumes from BCC/1/AT/1/1/13 onwards are in the dated volumes entitled 'Public Libraries Committee'. Minute volumes BCC/1/AT/1/1/9 - 10 are currently missing. The minutes include the reports of the committee to Council, the reports of the various sub-committees, reports on visits to branch libraries (mainly in the later minutes), tables of statistics for visitor numbers, issues of books and the like (for main central library and branch libraries), lists of books or collections bequeathed to the library by members of the public, details relating to maintenance, staffing, wages and library stock for the various buildings, lists of books to be purchased compiled by the Reference Library Book Sub-Committee (mainly in the later minutes), tables detailing persons charged with unlawfully holding on to library books (with fines imposed), specifications and plans for new library buildings, accounts and statements of income and expenditure, press cuttings, and related correspondence and papers. The minutes of 5 February 1877 include a copy of minutes of proceedings of a Conference of Representatives of Municipal Corporations convened by George Baker, Mayor of Birmingham, on 5 January 1877 to investigate the possibility of funds and collections accumulated in London as a result of the Great Exhibition, 1851, being circulated in the provinces, which 'would be of essential service to the artisan for the purposes of study, and tend greatly to the encouragement and advancement of technical education amongst the working classes' (see minutes 3086 - 3087 in BCC/1/AT/1/1/4). The minutes of that month also include a list of books presented to the Corporation of Birmingham as a bequest in the will of the late George Dawson, one of the main proponents of the 'Civic Gospel' (see minutes 3092 - 3093 in BCC/1/AT/1/1/4), whilst minute book BCC/1/AT/1/1/4 in general includes a number of reports and correspondence concerning various deputations made to the British Museum in London, concerning the centralisation of national collections and the desire of provincial museums and libraries to have a share in the material, and improve access to the working classes for educational purposes. The minutes of 20 January 1879 include reports, including in-depth transcripts of discussions at meetings reported in the local press, concerning the destruction of the Free Library by fire, the impact the calamity had on the collections and education in the city and the pressing need to restore or rebuild the libary (see BCC/1/AT/1/1/4). |