A black and white image of the first mobile library purchased in 1951. There are four people standing in front of the vehicle.

Pioneering County Librarian

04 Mar 2024

This year Northumberland Libraries are celebrating a centenary of the County Library service. For Women’s History Month we would like to look back and remember the first County Librarian, Miss Ruth Eveline Baker. Ruth made an outstanding contribution to the growth of the service over her 36 years in the role.

Ruth was born in Derbyshire on 26 April 1896. Her father was Ernest Albert Baker (1869 – 1941), a librarian too and author of several books including “The History of the English Novel” (in 10 volumes between 1924 and 1939) and “The Public Library”. In the 1911 Census the family were living in Eltham, South East London, above the public library as her father was the Borough librarian at that time.

Librarianship ran in the family and when the newly formed County Rural Libraries Scheme advertised for a librarian, Ruth was one of 69 applicants. She was invited for interview along with 3 other candidates on Thursday 18 December 1924. All candidates were chosen based on their library qualifications but Ruth was particularly well qualified with a B.A. English Honours, a Board of Education Teacher’s Certificate and a University of London Diploma in Librarianship.

Ruth was offered the job and began her career as County Librarian for Northumberland on 1 February 1925 aged 28 years old.

Extract from a newspaper article with the title " A Little Woman's Big Job".
In the Journal and North Star of Monday 17 October 1927, a short piece in the Sidelights on Women’s Interests section refers to Ruth as “a surprising person to find in charge of such a big task”. Hers was an extremely big task, setting up the service from scratch.

A year later, in the same section, a short piece describes how much the service has grown in such a short time with over 15000 volumes circulating. “More than 100 villages have small libraries, with a constantly changing supply of books brought to them by the Book Van.” Journal and North Star of Monday 2 April 1928.

Over the years brief insights into her commitment to growing the service can be seen in the commentary in various newspaper articles. In 1927 Ruth was at the monthly meeting of the Literary and Field Club in Stamfordham, encouraging the group to start a reading circle. Then in November 1936 at an event organised by the Northumberland Rural Drama Committee, Ruth had an “excellent show of books” on drama on display. She was a guest speaker at a luncheon party held by the Northern Counties Women’s Club on 11 December 1937.

Ruth is pictured above (far left) with the first mobile library purchased for the County Library Service in 1951. This particular mobile was affectionately known as “Bessie”.

Extract from a newspaper article with the title "Librarian Retires".
Ruth retired in 1961 and was honoured at a dinner of County Librarians in Newcastle. A piece in The Journal of Monday 1 May 1961, mentions how she nurtured the growth of the service from virtually nothing to include 280 library centres, 12 branch libraries and four mobile libraries.

Learn more about “Our Century of Stories” celebrations at www.mylibrary.co.uk.