Tactics of books acquisition for public libraries of Right-Bank Ukraine before introduction of library censorship (1866–1884)

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to clear out the practice of books acquisition for public libraries of Right-Bank Ukraine used by acquisition officers within the period when the state library policy was freely interpreted by them prior to introduction of censorship restrictions. Methodology. Catalogues of those public libraries were the basis of the research source base. Scientific novelty. Political, economical and cultural factors affected the tactics of books acquisition for public libraries have been clarified. The political factors include the task of russification of the local population that was the basis of public libraries existence; as well as taking into account changes in the domestic policy of the Russian Empire including changes in attitude towards certain ethnic communities and social movements. The economical factors include competition with commercial private libraries and the need of attracting the widest possible readership to improve the financial budget of libraries. The cultural factors include the functions performed by libraries as the means of imparting culture and dissemination of education. The influence exerted by the mentioned factors on technical and content aspects of tactics of books acquisition has been outlined. The practice of acquisition of fiction books for library stocks prior to introduction of censorship of public libraries has been clarified. Several myths have been debunked including those about disregard of readers’ requests and lack of Ukrainian-language publications in the library stocks. The attention is mainly paid to acquisition officers and the representation of the literary process in library stocks taking into account ethnic and socio-political needs. Conclusions. Public libraries of Right-Bank Ukraine have fulfilled their main function of involvement of readers in Russian cultural and informational space even prior to introduction of library stocks censorship. Until the time when the state had developed clear requirements related to public libraries, acquisition officers acted as typical representatives of the intelligentsia, who should promote progress and sympathize with the dissemination of knowledge. Nevertheless, despite the enlightening rhetoric about the educational function of libraries, the economic factor forced acquisition officers to follow the tastes of readers acquiring entertaining reading matter.