Tabard Inn Library

The Tabard Inn Library was a circulating subscription library with numerous exchange stations across the United States. It was founded in March 1902 by Seymour Eaton. The library operated as a commercial lending service, using distinctive revolving bookcases placed in various shops, each holding between 125 and 250 books. Borrowing required both a membership and an exchange ticket, which could be purchased from agents managing the exchange stations. The books were often referred to as "nickel books" due to the common exchange fee of five cents.
The Tabard Inn Library could be classified as a hidden library, as stations were located in stores, offices, and private homes. Membership provided access to all stations within the distributed network of libraries, with members taking ownership of borrowed books for any duration. Travelers could return and exchange books at any station. Memberships were transferrable, making the service popular for holiday gifts.
The Tabard Inn Library was an outgrowth of the Booklovers' Library but under the same management in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The libraries later became available in Canada operating out of Montreal in 1906.

Differences

Private libraries

Unlike libraries at the time that required private membership, the Tabard Inn Library operated similarly to the public subscription libraries headed by Boots and W. H. Smiths.

Circulating libraries

The shelves were regularly stocked with the latest publications, setting it apart from other circulating libraries of its day.

Bookslovers library

The Tabard Inn Library and the Booklovers Library differed primarily in their membership structures and borrowing methods. The Booklovers Library operated with a limited membership, charging annual fees ranging from $5 to $25, and allowed members to request specific books for home delivery. In contrast, the Tabard Inn Library offered unlimited membership for a one-time fee that was significantly lower than the Booklovers Library's rates. Rather than providing home delivery, the Tabard Inn Library functioned as a self-service system, resembling a modern-day Little Free Library. Members could return books at any station by placing them on a designated shelf, select another book from the collection, and deposit an exchange ticket into a slot within the bookcase. Both libraries offered access to the latest publications of their time.

Bibliostats

At its peak, the Tabard Inn Library claimed to have thousands of exchange stations across the United States. By 1905, the library's president reported locations in over 2,000 cities, with additional stations available on at least 40 trains and steamships. Initially launched as the Tabard Inn Club Service, the collection offered 125 books, with an exchange fee of 25 cents.
Promoted as "The Largest Circulating Library in the World," the library's advertisements boasted over one million books in circulation. In early May 1905, the company liquidated 50,000 used books from a selection of approximately 250 titles.

Locations

Historic

On March 27, 1905, Seymour Eaton, President of the Tabard Inn Corporation, stated that the business had operations spanning from Seattle to Atlanta and from Boston to San Francisco.
See List of Tabard Inn Library locations

Today

Library of Congress : The collection is part of the larger Jacob Blanck Collection. It includes an assortment of books, and various related volumes and catalogs. It does not include an exchange station. The collection is located in the Thomas Jefferson Building, on the second floor within the Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room. It can be accessed using the call number Z664.T33 T33 1900 .
Elisha D. Smith Public Library : On display in the main atrium of the library. Patrons can check out books on display. Materials on shelves are old, but not original to Tabard Inn. The exchange station had been lent out previously to Menasha Historical Society for a centennial event in February 2023. The library had displayed various printed ephemera and artifacts of the 20th century lending library in 2010.
Oceanside Public Library : A Tabard Inn bookcase was restored by the El Camino Real Questers. It was donated to Oceanside Public Library in 2010. Over the next four years, the California Questers took on the task to locate 36 original books to place on the shelves.

Operation

Philadelphia

Serving as the central hub of the Tabard Inn Library, the Philadelphia headquarters coordinated the establishment of exchange stations, book distribution, and inventory management across the country.

Establishing stations

The company placed advertisements in newspapers seeking individuals to canvass and represent the library, offering up to $50 per week. District Managers traveled to various cities, visiting shops and advertising locally to recruit station managers and establish distribution branches. The library targeted cities with populations of 2,000 or more, with a particular focus on partnering with drugstore owners.

Distribution

Books were shipped from Philadelphia using express companies that transported them by train and wagon. A fleet of horse-drawn wagons operated by the affiliated Booklovers' Library facilitated deliveries directly to members’ homes.

Excess inventory

Returned books that were no longer needed at stations were sold by the sales department through clearance lists, as they had already generated a profit during their circulation.

Exchange stations

Establishment

Storekeepers who acted as local representatives collected membership payments from subscribers, which were held in a bank until the minimum threshold of fifty—or in some cases, seventy-five—subscribers was met. Once this requirement was fulfilled, the first shipment of books was delivered to the store.
In the early years of the service, storekeepers could purchase the library exchange station for $100, along with a fixed annual fee for Tabard Inn Library services. Books were available for purchase at $1 each in lots of 25, 50, or 100, selected from a catalog of approximately 2,000 titles. Each station could house up to 250 books, with collections rotated weekly in larger cities or once or twice a month in smaller locations. The social columns in local newspapers often announced the arrival of new books. Specialized catalogs were available, including one dedicated to French foreign literature, featuring titles numbered 7001 through 7093.

Operation

Upon delivery, all books arrived pre-labeled and ready for circulation. Members could return and exchange any number of books each month, with transportation costs included in the rental fee. This system ensured that each station maintained a fresh selection of titles. At the conclusion of the service period, all books were returned to the company.

Discontinue

If a storekeeper chose to discontinue the Tabard Inn Library service, they were required to return all books and book checks, except those issued to individual members, or compensate the company for any unreturned items. Each member was permitted to retain either one book or one book check as part of the service's termination policy.

Members

Obtaining membership was open to the public. Anyone could purchase a book or book check/ticket at an exchange station, or through mail. Some member agreements required a set number of exchanges each month. The system was setup to allow both annual and lifetime membership. An annual membership was $1.50, but a life membership at $5 allowed an unlimited number of exchange tickets at 5 cents each. Exchange tickets were available in packages of six for 25 cents or 25 for one dollar. In December 1903, all memberships were treated as lifetime memberships at $1.50 and exchange tickets for extra books were no longer valid.
Renewing membership fees were dropped by some vendors, and treated patrons as if they had a lifetime membership.
Transferring Membership was as simple as handing a book to someone else. However, there was also a transfer fee of twenty cents.
Checking out a book was done either through the purchase of book, exchanging a book, or turning in a book check/ticket. The book came in a cloth case to both protect the book and distinguish it from other books. The exchange operated as a self-service system, allowing members to rotate the bookcase to access a compartment on one side and deposit the five-cent exchange fee.
Returning a book could be done without any identification other than possession of a Tabard Inn Library Book, at any Tabard Inn Library station regardless where the book originated from. The agent would charge an exchange fee and any overdue fines if they opted to impose them. Members would pay 5 cents for every week that they had kept the book. Afterwards, the member could choose a new book. Books could be exchanged more than once a day.
Discontinuing membership: Members could temporarily discontinue membership by asking for an Out of Service ticket when returning a book after settling the exchange fee and any overdue fines. They would no longer be required to exchange books throughout the month until they reactivated their membership.
Reactivating membership Book checks could be provided in exchange for a book, without any fee.
Lost Books were handled by purchasing a new membership.
Fines & Fees varied, and were often left up to each agent of an exchange station to set.
Requesting Books: Members could look through book catalogs provided by the individual managing the station, to have the books ordered with the next delivery.

Pricing

Pricing was for the most part left up to the operators of each Tabard Inn Library exchange station. However, the pricing model changed over time to impose overdue fees as members visited the stations less often, affecting the libraries ability to sustain itself.

Service	Description	Common Price	Price Range
Annual Membership	Cost to purchase book or check/ticket	$1.50	$1 – $5
Lifetime Membership	No annual fee, checkout multiple books	$1.50	$0.69 – $5
Transfer Membership	Transfer to another family member or friend	$0.20	-
Book Exchange	Cost to exchange one book for another	$0.05	$0.05 – $0.10
Book Renewal	Cost to extend time to checked out book	See book exchange	-
Late returns	Charges for returning books past a week	$0.05 per week	$0.01 – $0.02 per day $0.05 – $0.10 per week
Inconsistent usage fees	Changes for failing to exchange books below a set threshold in a month	Equivalent in Exchange fees	-
Temporary Suspension	Cost for a book check to pause membership.	none	-
Lost Book	Cost for a lost book.	New membership	-