A word also as to the cost of carriage: This is at present so high, whether the means be mail or express, that we may properly set it down as the chief obstacle to the free development of inter-library loans. – William Warner Bishop, “Inter-Library Loans,” 1909

Every man should have a library. The works of the grandest masters of literature may now be procured at prices that place them within the reach almost of the very poorest, and we may all put Parnassian singing birds into our chambers to cheer us with the sweetness of their songs. – William E.A. Axon, October 1867