The First Two Libraries of the Society for Promotion of Rural Free Libraries-Reading Rooms in the Tomsk Province (the first decade of the 20th century)

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There is considered the preparatory work of the Council of the Society for promotion of rural free libraries-reading rooms in the Tomsk province on promotion among the rural population of the idea of benefit of libraries. There is described in details the opening of the first libraries of the Society for promotion — in Sudzhensk and Novo-Kuskovo of the Tomsk district of the Tomsk province. For the first time there is restored in detail the age and educational structure of their readers, who were mainly the students of the local village schools and those who attended these institutions in that time. There are shown the main indices of the first months of libraries’ operation and circulation of books by departments. There is given the comparative characteristics of the readers’ interests. Fiction literature was of the greatest demand in both libraries: fiction books were taken by more than half of the visitors of libraries. Books of spiritual and moral content, as well as on history and geography were also of interest to the rural readers. For the first time it was calculated the readability — the number of books, which took to read one visitor during the certain period of time as a whole, as well as per one month on average. On the basis of several years reports of the Council of the Society for promotion there is traced the further fate of these libraries and revealed quantitative indicators of their work. Basing on study of the reading circle of the villagers, there is made conclusion on the insufficient extent and depth of penetration of modernization processes in Siberian village.