[f. LEND v.2 + -ING2.] That lends. Lending library, a library from which books are lent out.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. CXII. v. He is … Most liberall and lending.
1708. J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., III. xii. 475. [The Libraries] of Cambridge are Lending-libraries; That is, he that is qualified may borrow out of it any book he wants.
1886. Willis & Clark, Cambridge, III. 401. The … collection was … divided into what we should now term a Lending Library, and a Library of Reference.
