by Tom Emery

March 18, 2015

Today, library users in Illinois enjoy of the best public libraries in the nation and a statewide commitment to resource sharing and library technology that is the envy of the nation. It wasn’t always that way.
This March marks the anniversary of the signing of the Public Library Act by then-Governor John M. Palmer in 1872. The law provided for the tax-supported, free-usage public libraries that Illinoisans know today.
Before then, Illinois residents had no access to free reading, and had to join private organizations for library material. Social libraries date to 1818 with the founding of such organizations in Albion and Edwardsville. A subscription library was founded in Belleville in 1821, and by 1872, there were an estimated forty such libraries across the state.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.