1. The 1850 Public Libraries (or Ewart) Act allowed boroughs with a population of over 10,000 and a two-third poll of ratepayers to levy a ½d. rate for buildings and their management. The 1855 Public Libraries Act lowered the population limit to 5000 and permitted the levying of a 1d. rate, which could be used to additionally purchase books and other materials .
2. The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland, iii: 1850-2000, ed. by Alistair Black and Peter Hoare (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)
3. A. Black, A New History of the Public Library: Social and Intellectual Contexts, 1850-1914 (London: Leicester University Press, 1996)
4. and A. Black, The Public Library in Britain, 1914-2000 (London: British Library, 2000) .
5. Black, A New History of the Public Library, p. 107 .