A Fault-Line in Library History: Charles Goss, The Society of Public Librarians, and ‘The Battle of the Books’ in the Late Nineteenth Century

AbstractThis paper will commence with a brief professional life of Charles Goss (librarian at London's Bishopsgate Institute from 1897 until 1941), focusing chiefly on his strenuous efforts to maximize public access to literature, information and knowledge throughout his career. It will point out that these efforts have been altogether eclipsed over time, obscured in library history accounts by a reductive preoccupation with Goss's trenchant and outspoken opposition to open access during the so-called ‘Battle of the Books’. A short description of this battle follows, paying particular attention to the ‘ridiculous’ views held by the losing side. This perspective has been neglected in the past largely because victory for open access was, eventually, so complete. Yet an assessment of the arguments of such pro-indicator stalwarts as Goss and some of his fellow professionals in the Society of Public Librarians exposes, among other things, the sheer impotence of those in the profession who attempted to oppose o...