Septimus Pitt

Septimus Albert Pitt (November 19, 1877 – August 27, 1937) was the second City Librarian (from 1915-1937) of Glasgow, Lanarkshire, where he greatly extended the library services.

Early life

Septimus Albert Pitt was born on 19 November 1877 in Low Fell, Durham, England, the seventh-born son of Henry Pitt (24 March 1839 – 20 September 1906), a glass works manager, and Susan Harley (30 July 1839 – 7 May 1918). His maternal grandfather, Robert Henry Harley (1803-1875), was a bookseller and stationer. While his parents originated from Birmingham, they raised their large family (of eight sons and three daughters) in the counties of Durham (in the 1881 census, the family lived at 12 Victoria Terrace, Gateshead ) and Northumberland (in the 1891 census, the family lived at Rock Cottage, Bamburgh ).

Personal life Pitt married Cecilia Philip (or Phillips) Keir (1876–1952) at Robinson’s Temperance Hotel and Restaurant, 31 Lothian Road, in the parish of St. George, Edinburgh, Midlothian, on 30 August 1899. The Pitts’ only child, daughter Cecilia Jessie Pitt (1900–1971), was born on 17 October 1900 at 18 Devonshire Road, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire.

Public life At the age of 14, Pitt began work as a junior assistant in the South Shields Public Library, County Durham. He began his professional career early, being appointed Sub-Librarian in 1894, just before the age of seventeen, he came to Glasgow in 1901 to open Gorbals Library, the city’s first public lending library. However, by 1908, Pitt had left Scotland to become City Librarian in Coventry, Warwickshire,

Following his appointment in December 1914, Pitt took up his duties as City Librarian for Glasgow on 15 March 1915, serving in this capacity for 22 years, based at The Mitchell Library, Glasgow. ) On his return to Glasgow, Pitt greatly extended the library services, organising the first municipal commercial library in the country in 1915. In 1919, Pitt spoke of his support for the idea of ‘open-access’ libraries (first introduced to Britain by James Duff Brown at Clerkenwell Public Library in London), speaking against the ‘indicator system’, which was an adjunct of ‘closed-access’ libraries, in which access to books is not readily accessible for reading or browsing but tightly controlled by library staff, saying,“Familiarity with books is the most important element in the education of the people and unrestricted access to a library power, because a book is power.” In 1924, Pitt served on the Departmental Committee on Public Libraries, which reported in June 1927.

Pitt served the Library Association as a member of the Council from 1915, Vice-President in 1920, and as President in 1934. He was also, twice (from 1927-1928 and from 1931-1932), a President of the Scottish Library Association.

In 1928, Pitt was one of two commissioners (the other being Milton J. Ferguson, State Librarian of California, USA) who, under the auspices of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, was sent to survey and report on the library services in South Africa and Kenya. at which they discussed their findings and suggested proposals towards improved public library services in the country. This conference (the first library conference in South Africa), is regarded as a watershed event in South African library development as it helped instigate the demise of the subscription system in favour of free libraries. where he resided until his death on 27 August 1937 at "Holmleigh", Coldingham, Berwickshire, at the age of fifty-nine. Septimus Albert Pitt was laid to rest in the graveyard of Parish Church of Saint Aidan, in Bamburgh, Northumberland.

Posthumous reputation Pitt is recognised as having organised the first municipal commercial library in the country, which opened in Glasgow 1915, and he was an ardent advocate for their development elsewhere.

J. M. Mitchell, Secretary of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust Fund, described Pitt as follows:“At all times he kept his singularly agile, though cautious, mind alert to assess the value and the possibility of new ideas."