Leisure and the rise of the public library

Abstract

Whereas most histories of the British public library have focused upon its development as an institution primarily concerned with education, this book argues that the leisure function of the public library between 1850 and 1914 was not only its predominant aspect in quantitative terms but was also crucial to its popularity and survival. Based on the author?s doctoral research it demonstrates that the potential of public libraries to provide a socially acceptable form of leisure in urban areas was a powerful argument in the campaign for the 1850 Public Libraries Act and that fiction provision lay at the core of the public library service.

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