The First Sale doctrine long precedes public libraries.

The First Sale doctrine was established by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1908 case Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobbs-Merrill_Co._v._Straus>

The first US Public Library dates to 1848 (Boston).

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Public_Library>

The first public libraries ever dates to at least the 4th century BCE, with one known instance begun by Clearchus in Heraclea, on what is now the Black Sea coast of Turkey.

<https://research-bulletin.chs.harvard.edu/2017/09/11/clearch...>

More recently, and post-classical / Roman times, there is still the 1447 example of the Malatestiana Library.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malatestiana_Library>

Public libraries significantly pre-date the First Sale doctrine by several measures.

Thank you for the correction. I'd thought/assumed that first sale doctrine is something that came down from English common law.

I wonder if the absence of such is why authors in Canada are entitled to royalties from public libraries?

TBH, I wasn't certain of that either, which was why I'd looked up the background. I'd be surprised if there weren't some common-law precedent or foundation cited in Straus, and should look that up.

Michael Geist might be a good source to look to for specifics of Canadian law, though AFAIU the Canadian royalties programme is defined under Public Lending Right:

<https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/154625>

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Lending_Right>

Geist ... has apparently written on this: <https://www.michaelgeist.ca/tag/public-lending-right/>

Nope. Surely the copyright holders won't allow a library to be created today.

Once upon a time (when libraries were born), the community (actually the State) ruled over the lobbies.