<P> William James Sidis in The Tribes and the States claims the public library, as such, was an American invention . Founded in 1848, it has 6.1 million books . </P> <P> There were parish (parochial) libraries open in Anglican churches all over the American colonies . The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, founded in 1701, subsidized libraries as a regular part of their missionary activity whenever they sent a priest to an Anglican mission or church that did not have a library already . There would thus have been parish libraries at the 289 Anglican churches, and at various missions . </P> <P> According to Edmund Farwell Slafter, the first public library was founded in Boston by the Rev. John Checkley at the Old State House sometime between 1711 when Boston's Old State House was built, and 1725 . In a letter to the Rev. Dr. Thomas Bennet, dated June 15, 1725, Checkley wrote: </P> <Dl> <Dd> "In a short Time I propose to send you an account of the charitable Society of the Church of England, and of the public Library erected here: the laying the Foundation of both which, I have been (thanks to my good God) the happy tho' unworthy Instrument ." </Dd> </Dl>

Where was the first public library in america located