The History of Public Libraries

The late 19th century saw some of the first public libraries being built in America. The thinking went that if you were too young to read, obviously there would be no need for you to go to the library. Jilla Pore: For the children of the wealthy and middle classes who often had their own small book collections at home, being banned from libraries wasn't really a problem. It's completely bound up with class discrimination, right? Because it's not until the 1920s that you have a very strict regulation against child labor.