Private Libraries Research Articles

Wandering books in the global Enlightenment: The life of an eighteenth-century library that crisscrossed the Atlantic

ABSTRACT This study examines the “life” of an eighteenth-century private library that migrated from Spain to New Spain in 1765 and returned, greatly reduced, back to Europe in 1772. The collection’s owner was José de Gálvez (1720–1787), a reformist Spanish statesman and recently appointed royal inspector of the Mexican viceroyalty. Standing at the crossroads of book history, the history of reading, and political history, this piece examines the library and its books from both a material and intellectual perspective. It relies on “Thing Theory,” a methodological approach that opens avenues for further research on human-object relations in the Atlantic world. Examining the interplay between the owner, his ideas, his biography, and his book collection, this study expands book history’s geographies and proposes a new narrative about the global dimensions of the Enlightenment.

"Władysławowi Orkanowi z wiarą w słowo wieczne i w miłość wieczną, i w żywot wieczny…"O dawnej dedykacji jako gatunku, geście i konterfekcie

The aim of the article is to analyze the dedication entries that the authors put on books donated to Władysław Orkan. They all come from his private library donated by the writer's family to the Podhalan House in Ludźmierz. The acquired dedication texts were considered in terms of their place in the genre field of the dedication, taking into account canonical, alternating and adaptive patterns. In addition, the implementation of the strategy of positive politeness inscribed in individual texts was considered. In addition, the dedications were treated as a contribution to the reception of the person and work of Władysław Orkan by his contemporaries.

HISTORIES AND FATE OF BOOK COLLECTIONS OF NOVOROSSIYSKYI UNIVERSITY LECTURERS AT THE TURN OF THE 1910s – 1920s

The article is aimed at studying histories and fate of the book collections of Novorossiyskiy University lecturers that entered the University library at the turn of the 1910s and 1920s and have been stored in its stocks in various amounts. The authors of the article considered it necessary to fill in certain gaps in academic literature concerning the histories and fate of the book collections of University staff in the specified period. The article represents publications from the book collections coming from outstanding employees of Novorossiyskiy University S. G. Vilinskyi, O. L. Kotseyovskyi, O. O. Kochubynskyi, I. A. Linnichenko, V.-P. N. Pavlovsky, O. V. Rystenko, E. M. Shchepkin, O. P. Dobroklonskyi who made a significant contribution to culture of the country, special attention being paid to books from the collection of the latter). The facts of acquisition of these book collections by University library are recorded in a number of documents of the State Archives of the Odesa Region, as well as in library’s inventory books, which registered book acquisitions at the turn of the century. The documents explaining the selection of a number of books listed in the appendix have not been found. However, the fact of their availability in private libraries of University lecturers can serve as additional evidence of thorough and in-depth study of relevant aspects of the humanities to which these publications are devoted by the owners of the above- mentioned collections. As a result of the research, a number of copies coming from these book collections have been identified. The article presents a brief description of book collections under consideration: personal data about the owner, the time of the book acquisition by the library, a number of identified copies, owner’s main centers of interest, information on book owners’ inscripts and bookplates if available. The authors also show whether one or another collection is kept as a single unit or is dispersed in library stocks as well as its relevance for readers. The paper deals with the importance of preserving the cultural heritage of previous centuries.

Civic Fictions: Modelling book-reader interactions in the Age of Revolution

This article describes a new, database-linking project, Civic Fictions, based at Radboud University (The Netherlands), and funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), that seeks to develop digital tools to address a series of questions that have long been fundamental to literary studies, and to book history and 18th-century studies more specifically. Is it possible to model the effects that books had on real readers in the past? How can we understand such book–reader interactions using both existing and new bibliographic data collections? How might prosopographical, longitudinal studies focusing on readers supplement or enrich quantitative bibliographic sources on books? Can this enrichment offer us insights into the long-term reading habits of book readers, owners or borrowers? And can we then extrapolate the impact of books onto the various social networks in which these readers participated throughout their lives? Building on the European Research Council-funded MEDIATE database, and creating an ecosystem of linked databases, Civic Fictions seeks to empirically test various modern theories about fiction’s supposed ability to foster empathy, work through trauma and build community during the Age of Revolution (c. 1760–1830). In doing so, it addresses a major challenge in book history, the lack of comprehensive reader-reception data like ego-documents, by using large-scale data on the circulation of books among identifiable, individual readers as a reader-reception source. Thus, the project links book ownership (private library catalogues, bookseller’s archives), borrowing practices (library lending-records) and other sources to individual actors and larger (socio-economic, professional, gender, etc.) groupings. Coupling data on ownership to longitudinal studies of book owners’ lives and societal interventions, it thereby aims to reveal macro-patterns allowing historians to infer how works of fiction might historically have moved readers.

Schweizerische Drucke in den bürgerlichen frühneuzeitlichen Privatbibliotheken in den Prager Städten

Based on an analysis of the probate inventories of the burghers of the New Town of Prague in the 17th century, the paper identifies religious and secular literature produced by Swiss printers in Prague burgher private libraries and examines its occurrence in the context of the development of a multi-confessional society in Bohemia before the Thirty Years’ War and subsequently in the phase of the recatholization policy towards a mono-confessional Catholic society. The prints of Swiss printers are analysed in the context of their contemporary offer on the Central European book market in Frankfurt a. M., which was mainly imported to Prague by Nuremberg merchants, and also in the context of the local Prague market, which offered titles by Swiss authors in translation. The reception of Swiss printed literature in the Prague towns is compared with the situation in one of the typical royal towns in Bohemia. The role of the Unity of Brothers in the reception of the production of Swiss printers is also taken into account.

My Own Private Library

My Own Private Library

BOOK REVIEW: The Private Library

Reid Byers, The Private Library (New Castle: Delaware, Oak Knoll Press: 2021), 540pp. US $85 (Hardback) ISBN 9781584563884

Samshodhana Mandala: An Important 'Private Library' in Nepal

The paper deals with the private library of Dr. Mahes Raj Pant. This study aims to explore his private library status and the reasons behind his enormous collections. Some reports have shown that private libraries in Nepal are expanding and this paper explain son what kinds of collections they have in their collections, how they are organized, the future aim for their library and etc. In Nepalese history, private collectors have greatly aided in the growth of national collections. So, if the government is interested in preserving valuable documents of this library or allowing the authority to run it, this study gives light to such a potentiality.

Critical reading self-efficacy of gifted students

The present study aimed to determine the critical reading self-efficacy levels of gifted students and to discuss certain variables that affect self-efficacy levels. The study was conducted with 299 (Female: 138, Male: 161) students attending four Science and Arts Centers (SACs) in Ankara during the 2022-2023 academic year. The participant were 5th and 6th grade students in the Recognition of Individual Talent (RIT) program. Participant Data Form and Critical Reading Self-Efficacy Scale were used to collect the omit data. The study was designed with the quantitative relational research method and the analyses were conducted on the SPSS software. The study findings were analyzed with descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, and ANOVA. Analysis findings revealed that the critical reading self-efficacy levels of the gifted students were high. Ownership of a private library significantly affected the critical reading self-efficacy levels of the gifted students. In other words, the critical reading self-efficacy level of the students who had a library was higher than those who did not. Furthermore, students who read books every day had higher critical reading self-efficacy skills when compared to the students who did not read books every day. Other study findings demonstrated that gender, education level of the parents and household income did not have a significant effect on the critical reading self-efficacy level. In the study, it was also determined that gifted students mostly read science fiction and scientific books.

The Private Library: The History of the Architecture and Furnishing of the Domestic Bookroom

The Private Library: The History of the Architecture and Furnishing of the Domestic Bookroom

My Own Private Library

My Own Private Library

‘A reading people’: mapping the personal libraries of prominent British Methodists

Reading is acknowledged to have been a key means of transmission and reinforcement of the Methodist message in Britain, yet the role played by libraries in the history of the movement has been comparatively neglected, certainly in the aggregate. This article offers a preliminary collective overview of non-institutional private libraries and collections of Wesleyana formed by individual British Methodists, from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first, and seeks to ascertain what became of them over subsequent years. Information is assembled about ninety-five collectors, a combination of ministers and laity, who mostly achieved some prominence in British Methodism. Although the need for further research into the topic is recognised, it has already been possible to detect several trends, not least the historically relatively weak appetite of what is now the Methodist Church of Great Britain for the acquisition and preservation of its library and documentary heritage, a reticence which has contributed to the loss of a significant portion of it overseas.

Origins, Trends and Perspectives of Historical-Epistemological Research on Piaget

In this paper, several points of view are adopted to present the research directions of contemporary Piagetian historiography. This article first notes the immensity of the secondary literature (20’000 texts) related to Piaget’s work, between empirical and historical-epistemological works. In order to get a more precise idea, we carried out various analyses of the scope of influence of his work: on the 2000 keywords of the thesaurus of secondary literature from 1945 to 2012; on the reception of Piaget’s idea in France between 1920 and 1940; and on the disciplines of insertion of a thousand works from his private library, which were dedicated to him. These analyses corroborate Piaget’s multidisciplinary impact in the 20th century science and culture and indicate the existence of an international Piagetian movement, which has not yet been studied. The factors of production and the recent orientations of the secondary literature are then discussed, showing the changes in the historiography of the last 50 years. Finally, future research directions are outlined between the exploitation of unknown archives and the use of a digital edition of Piaget’s work, which is currently underway.

Ethical challenges in the use of information in selected public and private university libraries in Ghana

Library professionals all over the world constantly encounter an ethical issue that affects the dissemination of information. Academic libraries are faced with different ethical challenges including information dissemination, lack of financial resources, human capacity etc. The study explored the ethical challenges in the use of information in the selected public and private libraries in Ghana using the PAPA’s model as a guide. The study adopted the survey method and quantitative approach. The study setting was in four universities namely: KNUST (public), UG (public), Central University (private) and Garden City (private). Ninety-three (93) library staff were the total population surveyed. The sampling technique employed was purposive sampling, whiles questionnaires were the instrument in use in collecting data. All data collected in person and online were coded and analyzed using SPSS version 26. After analysis, the results were presented in tables and charts. The study revealed that scholarly materials are the nature of information materials in the library, while academic books are the type of information materials in the library. The study discovered that educational books are purchased from publishers while information materials are published through the university’s repository and online system. The study also demonstrated that patented materials are the only materials that can be subjected to copyright laws. Recommendations identified include: adhering to professional codes of ethics, developing and implementing policies and procedures, encouraging originality and creativity, providing education and training on accessibility, and reviewing and updating collections and resources.

Librarians as Agents of German Foreign Policy and the Cultural Consequences of the First World War

AbstractIn this article I explore the cultural impact of the First World War by analysing the work of libraries and librarians in different settings, from German-occupied Belgium and prisoner-of-war camps to Germany's own public and private libraries. By examining the work of German, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and American librarians, the article makes a case for applying the notion of a ‘long’ First World War to cultural and intellectual history. Considering ephemeral and established libraries, along with new types of collections generated by the war itself, the article sheds light on the changes to library work as a result of mobilization, censorship, and the growth of mass readership. While these changes concerned librarians in all belligerent states, German librarians were particularly affected after the burning of the Leuven library during the city's occupation by German forces. This singular event damaged Germany's national reputation and thereby laid the groundwork for a significant politicization of library work all the way to the Second World War. In addition to tracing the importance of librarians for German foreign policy, the article reconstructs how this professional community, whose intellectual formation was ultimately supranational, responded to the First World War.

The Reflection of the Amateur Interpretation of the Termoid “Sibirica” in the Structure of V. P. Domaevsky’s Book Collection

While librarians and bibliographers accept by default the understanding of Sibirica as “literature about Siberia”, book collectors developing a Siberian theme do not adhere to this approach and proceed from less strict ideas about the scope and content of the concept. Besides the thematic criterion for the selection of literature, they take into account a number of formal ones (Siberia as the place of publication, the place of birth / temporary stay of the author, “Siberian” inscriptions) and also track the indirect connection of sources with the region and their typological significance for Siberian studies. The resulting amateur collections implement a kind of field model, where along with the core (Sibirica in the conventional sense) there is a precore, of near and far periphery (Sibirica in the unconventional sense). The private library of Tomsk local historian and bibliophile Vladimir Domaevsky, formed in the last third of the XX – early XXI century, is a vivid example of a collection with the described structure. The analysis of the publications from this book collection stored in the fund of the Tomsk Regional Universal Scientific Library named by A. S. Pushkin, with the involvement of the “Sibirica Domaevsciana” catalog data, allowed us to reveal the complexity of the amateur interpretation of the termoid “Sibirica” and to substantiate a broader view of the tasks of regional bibliography.

My Own Private Library

My Own Private Library

‘Correct provision can be made for their wants’: the reading rooms of the Santa Fe Railroad

Private libraries for the use of the working man were established throughout the United States in the nineteenth century, beginning in 1820 in large Eastern cities. These libraries were often part of institutes which included museums, schools, and exhibits of mechanical inventions, and were intended to ‘promote orderly and virtuous habits, diffuse knowledge and the desire for knowledge, improve the scientific skills of mechanics and manufacturers’. With the rise of organised labor movements in the 1870s, the purpose of such libraries shifted to serve as ‘antidotes of strikes and communism’. At this time, the work of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) with railroad and industrial workers began to focus on promoting loyalty to the corporation and rejection of unionisation and political unrest through the Railroad YMCA and Industrial YMCA divisions. Multiple railroads both partnered with the YMCA and opened their own libraries and reading rooms to achieve similar goals. One of these was the Santa Fe Railroad, which established reading rooms throughout the Southwestern United States in large part to serve as a ‘civilising’ influence on railroad employees and towns. Initially restricted to Santa Fe Railroad employees and their families, these reading rooms soon became the social and intellectual centres of the communities in which they were established. The vast majority of reading rooms closed between 1929 and 1940, owing in part to the Great Depression, but also as victims of their own success, as the communities in which they were located grew and expanded and provided alternatives such as churches, schools, and public libraries. Their history mirrors the history of the establishment of public libraries during the same period – they were even being called ‘quasi-universities’ – and reveals much about the greater social and cultural climate in which both institutions developed. Like those of public libraries, the users of these reading rooms utilised them for their own purposes, regardless of the intentions of the founders, and turned them into public places and spaces.

Hernando Colón’s New World of Books: Toward a Cartography of Knowledge

Hernando Colón’s New World of Books: Toward a Cartography of Knowledge

Sixteenth-Century Readers, Fifteenth-Century Books: Continuities of Reading in the English Reformation

Sixteenth-Century Readers, Fifteenth-Century Books: Continuities of Reading in the English Reformation