Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-12-05

| The subscription paper or articles of asso-
least forty subscribers (2) That the sum OF
| $50 paid at one time or So in five successive
years should entitled to certificate of share
in the library, and to all its privileges subject
to such rules and regulations as might be
| adopted; 60 That no assessment should be
| made until the society had been in operation
| five years and then only by majority of the
| stockholders; (4) That in order to keep the
society free from debt its officers should be
| prohibited in the rules and regulations from
| involving the society in any liability beyond
its immediate means, and also that the pur-
chase of theological works of sectarian char
acter should be prohibited.
The first meeting of the subscribers was
held Sd JAN, 1912, when president, Sec
| rotary and librarian, a collector and treasurer
and five directors were elected, and a vote
passed authorizing the latter to take
measures for organizing the society under
the statute, or otherwise.'' The first pur-
chase of books, the IIallowell Common
School Library, % vols.-was made on the
10Th of January; these constituted the nucle-
US of the present large library.
The requisite preliminaries hayin! been
| regarded, The subscribers, at meeting held
in the Office of H. X. Baker on the evening of
the 9TH of February, voted that:
1--WE as proprietors in common of a libra
ry in Hallowell, do hereby in pursuance of
the S4th" now 55th] "chapter CT the revised
statutes, form ourselves into a society under
the name of the Proprietors of the Social
Library in the town of Halowell, for the ex-
press purpose of holding, preserving, in
creasing and using said library"
A code of bylaws was adopted Fixing
the time for and manner of holding annual
and other meetings; naming the officers and
prescribing ther duties; providing for amend
ments of bylaws; declaring that 'the books
or funds of the society shall never be sold or
divided, except by majority of the proprie-
tors, and in case 4 division or distribu-
ton shall ever take place, it shall be made
amongst the persons then holding shares in
proportion as near as practicable to the
money paid on each share;" that the proper
ty of the association shall be in shares and
that every person complying with the terrns
of the original subscription, shall receive a
certificate of share, transferable at the
holders pleasure; naming the day and
specifying the hours when the library shall
be open, and providing the manner in which,
and conditions under which, books might be
taken for subscribers use.
The clerk was sworn and the library then
fairly entered upon its thus far entirely sue
cessful career. By January 1913, the num-
Der of books collected by purchase and dona-
ton was 527; the number added in 1913 was
sc; and every succeeding year has seen new
and desirable books multiply upon the
shelves. When first established, the library
was not accessible to the general public;
only the subscribers and the members of their
families were entitled to use the books. But
in lS47, it became practically Public Libra
ry and has SO continued until the present
time; at the annual meeting OF the subscrib-
ers in January of that year they voted that
"the use of the library be offered to individ-
uals o'her IMAM pFoPiieIors Oh the payhehl III
advance to the treasurer or librarian of So
for year, or 80 for six months" The next
year the annual subscription price was re-
duced to 81, and has so remained ever since;
in 1913, the stockholders voted to assess
themselves 81 a year, for each share; this
assessment has been repeated each year, and
upon its payment depends the shareholders
right to use the books of the library; it is
paid with the same punctualty as are the