We celebrated our 179th birthday last weekend, and if 3rd May 1841 marks the day when we were born, then this article in the Times from 1839 comes close to marking the day we were conceived! Thomas Carlyle had been contemplating the idea setting up a lending library in London since 1838 and in 1839 the prospectus was launched and promoted through various newspapers. The Times reported that “The experiment seems at least to be worth trying and we have little doubt that it will succeed”. The rest, as they say, is history.