Wikipedia
A subscription library (also membership library or independent library) is a library that is financed by private funds either from membership fees or endowments. Unlike a public library, access is often restricted to members, but access rights can also be given to non-members, such as students.
Usage examples of "subscription library".
The first subscription library in America emerged out of a club for mutual improvement formed by Benjamin Franklin, which met at a Philadelphia alehouse every Friday evening.
He started the first subscription library, organized the first fire department, improved the postal service, helped to pave and clean the streets, invented the Franklin stove, for which he refused to take out a patent, took decided steps toward improving education and founding the University of Pennsylvania, and helped establish a needed public hospital.
They love walks in the park and the newest novel borrowed from the subscription library and babies and sunshine and roses.
He was enabled to extend the range of his reading by the help of the North Shields Subscription Library, to which his father entered him a subscriber.