Oases Of Culture: A History Of Public And Academic Libraries In Nevada

2. The State Library: The First Century, 1865–1965

     Literary clubs for purchasing and sharing books emerged in a dozen other mining camps and railroad towns.The instability of these communities and their transient populations made it difficult for literary societies to survive. “One can only guess at the number of ‘ghost’ libraries left behind when the boom towns faded away,” historian Russell R. Elliott wrote.5 t h e e a r ly l aw s The first law authorizing public libraries to be funded with tax dollars emerged from the Nevada legislature in 1895.6 The process could be started with a petition,signed by either a majority of the taxpayers or taxpayers who owned more than half of the taxable property within a city, town, or school district. Once a petition was presented to the county commissioners,for example,they were required to impose a small property tax for a library fund. The tax could range from one to five mills on each $100 of assessed valuation and would be administered by a three-man board of library trustees, appointed by the commissioners. Five mills was a minuscule amount of money—not nearly enough to operate even a modest library.The drafter of the final bill undermined the intent of its sponsors by inserting such miserly funding authority. Yet the 1895 statute was significant because it created the possibility of an independent library board with its own source of tax revenue and with authority to acquire property, erect a building, purchase books, and manage the institution. “Said library and reading room shall forever be and remain free and accessible to the people of such city, unincorporated town or School District, subject to such reasonable rules and regulations as the LibraryTrustees may adopt,”the statute said. The 1895 session also provided,for the first time, for a clerk in the secretary of state’s office to act as librarian with a salary of $720 per year.      f r a n k n o r c r o s s Frank Norcross, one of the three members of the first graduating class of the University of Nevada in 1891 and later a law student at Georgetown University, designed the policy under which public libraries were established for seventy years. He was a supporter of the 1895 law sponsored by Assemblyman S. L. McNaughton of Esmeralda County,which formed the basis of public library policy from 1895 until 1965. He guided that law through several subsequent changes to make it workable. After his return from law school in Georgetown, Norcross was elected district attorney of Washoe County in 1895–1896. The county owned a parcel of land on the Truckee River atVirginia Street (where the downtown U.S. post office building has stood since the 1930s),which the county commissioners intended to sell but which Norcross struggled to retain as the site for a library.Several years of litigation followed,with Norcross serving as the attorney for those who wanted to hold the property for public use; ultimately he prevailed, in spite of opposition from commissioners. While serving in the state assembly in 1897, Norcross introduced a bill to amend the defective 1895 statute, significantly increasing the taxing authority of county commissioners for library purposes after a petition had been submitted to them.7 The bill was easily enacted. Norcross also assumed the role of fund-raiser. On November 14,1901,he composed a letter toAndrew Carnegie,the Pittsburgh steel magnate,commenting on Carnegie’s previous gifts for public libraries and proposing such a benefaction for Reno.8 It was a city of between seven thousand and eight thousand people, Norcross said—the largest community between Sacramento and Ogden. It had no library except one at the University of Nevada, which was not open to the public. He provided a cogent argument showing that the community could establish the taxing authority to operate a library if it exercised its right of petition available under state law.      Carnegie’s spokesman replied on February 12, 1902, with a question about the population figures Norcross had provided; the census of 1900 reported only forty-five hundred people in Reno. Norcross responded with data about the adjacent Glendale and Brown precincts and statistics from the post office showing a substantial increase in the volume of mail since 1900. Carnegie was satisfied.On March 14 he responded by saying that if the city council would...