LENDINGLIBRARY

Lending library

A lending library is a library from which books are lent out. The earliest reference to or use of the term "lending library" yet located in English correspondence dates from ca. 1586; C'Tess Pembroke Ps. CXII. v, "He is ... Most liberall and lending," referring to the books of an unknown type of library, and later in a context familiar to users of contemporary English, in 1708, by J. Chamberlayne; St. Gt. Brit.; III. xii. 475 "Libraries of Cambridge are Lending-libraries; that is, he that is qualified may borrow out of it any book he wants". This definition is closely associated with libraries in England before the ...

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