Sokolov Viktor

Subscribers to Public Libraries in Ukraine in the Middle of the XIXth – Early XXth Centuries

Abstract: In the article the author explores the semantic signs of the term «subscriber» and features of its use in library activity in Ukraine in the middle of the ХІХ and at the beginning ХХ century. The author described the main historical factors that influenced the formation of the content of this concept, inparticular in connection with the development of commercial libraries, and proposed the definition of the term «subscriber» on the basis of studying the specifics of its use in public bookshops and the payment of library services in public libraries. The specificity of formation and tendencies of the development of the cost of payment for the use of publications in public libraries of the specified period was investigated. The purpose of the proposed article is to distinguish characteristics of such a category of readers as subscribers of public libraries of the 19th and early 20th centuries; disclosure of the specificity of the formation and trends of the development of the social and professional membership of public libraries of the specified period. In his scientific work the author widely used general scientific and historical methods of research: historical-comparative, chronological, biographical methods, the method of diachronic analysis, etc. The following definition of the term is proposed «subscriber» (reader, user) – a kind of user of public libraries in the Russian Empire in the second half XVIII – at the beginning XX century, which was the main body of book readers, whose representatives, as a rule, were distinguished by a constant interest in reading and a clear continuity of visits to the library institution for a fee. Subscribers were the names of those who regularly came to the library and received books and magazines for reading under the certain conditions of the corresponding fee for library services (for a month, a quarter, six months, a year, etc.), visiting a reading room book-book or ordering a publication home. The main categories of subscribers were: «annual subscribers», subscribers for six months, for three months and a month. It should be noted that not all visitors (readers) of the library were its subscribers. In the Russian Empire and in the Soviet Union the cost of library services was always differentiated, depending on the categories of subscribers (readers), their material status and social status. The payment for the use of library services reflected the real social inequality and changed in accordance with socio-political changes in society. However, both in the Russian Empire and during the Soviet era in the 1920’s, there were free public libraries and various forms of providing free library services for certain categories of subscribers (readers). With the development of democratic relations in society, book library funds gradually became increasingly accessible to readers of various social groups. Free-of-charge forms of library services were increasingly distributed to various layers of the population and representatives of different social classes. Accordingly, the term «subscriber» gradually lost its sense of meaning associated with the payment of the service and was increasingly replaced by the notion of «reader», which finally took root at the turn of the 1920’s and 1930’s until this term was finally left out of public use.

Keywords: history of libraries, library business XIX – beg. 20th century, public libraries, commercial libraries, reader, subscriber.

  Full-text PDF    https://doi.org/10.15407/bv2018.06.015     Citation

• Sokolov Viktor (Yaroslav Mudryi National Library of Ukraine, Kiev, [email protected])

Cite:
Sokolov Viktor (2018). Subscribers to Public Libraries in Ukraine in the Middle of the XIXth – Early XXth Centuries. Bibliotechnyi visnyk, (6) 15-25. (In Ukrainan). doi: https://doi.org/10.15407/bv2018.06.015

References:

1. Abramov, K. I. (2007). Kommercheskie biblioteki [Commercial Libraries]. Bibliotechnaia entsiklopediia (pp. 514–515). Moscow: Pashkov dom. [In Russian].
2. Abramov, K. I. (1980). Istoriia bibliotechnogo dela v SSSR: ucheb. dlia bibl. fak. in-tov kultury, ped. vuzov i un-tov [History of librarianship in the USSR: studies. for bibl. a fact Institute of Culture, ped. universities and high schools]. Moscow: Kniga. [In Russian].
3. Aliferenko, I. (2017). Dukhovna skarbnytsia [Spiritual treasury]. Literaturnyi Chernihiv: Shchokvartalnyi mystetskyi zhurnal literaturnoi spilky «Chernihiv». 3, 183–189.
4. Borodina, H. H. (2003). Merezha bibliotek Pivdnia Ukrainy: formuvannia ta tendentsii rozvytku (XIX – pochatok XX st.) [Network of Libraries of the South of Ukraine: Formation and Development Trends (XIX – early XX centuries)]. Candidate’s thesis. Kyiv. [In Ukrainian].
5. Dvorkina, M. (2007). Podpischik [Subscriber]. Bibliotechnaia entsiklopediia. Moscow: Pashkov dom. [In Russian].
6. Iziumova, L. F. (2017). Zaporizka oblasna universalna naukova biblioteka [Zaporizhzhya Oblast Universal Scientific Library]. Ukrainska bibliotechna entsyklopediia [Elektronnyi resurs].
7. Karoieva, T. R. (2016). Pro zdatnist publichnykh bibliotek Podilskoi hubernii zadovolniaty chytatskyi popyt naselennia na pochatku XX st. [About the ability of public libraries in the Podillya province to meet the reader’s demand of the population at the beginning of the XX century.]. Bibliotechna sprava na Podilli: istoriia i suchasnist: materialy naukovo-praktychnoi konferentsii, m.Kamianets-Podilskyi, 21 chervnia 2016 r. (pp. 19–26). Kamianets-Podilskyi. [In Ukrainian].
8. Kozlova, I. (2000). Rozvytok bibliotechnoi spravy na Zaporizhzhi v 20-ti roky XX storichchia [The development of the library business in Zaporozhye in the 20 years of the 20th century]. Bibliotechne kraieznavstvo. (Vol. 2, pp. 12–15) Zaporizhzhia. [In Ukrainian].
9. Lisova, I. (2017). Komertsiini biblioteky [Commercial Libraries]. Sait Natsionalnoi biblioteky Ukrainy. Ukrainska bibliotechna entsyklopediia.
10. Hapchenko, P. B., Zvorskyi, S. L., Liubarenko, L. M., Mastypan, O. O. (1996). Litopys Natsionalnoi parlamentskoi biblioteky Ukrainy. Ch. 1: 1866 – liutyi 1917 r. [Chronicle of the National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine. Ch. 1: 1866 – February 1917]. Kyiv. [In Ukrainian].
11. Luchka, L. (2015). Pershi biblioteky Katerynoslava [The first libraries of Yekaterinoslav]. Prydniprovia: istoryko-kraieznavchi doslidzhennia. (Vol. 13, pp. 146–153). [In Ukrainian].
12. Luchka, L. Vid Publichnoi do Miskoi hromadskoi: storinky istorii Dnipropetrovskoi oblasnoi universalnoi naukovoi biblioteky [From Public to City Public: History pages of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Universal Scientific Library].
13. Maliovana, T. H. Nikopolska miska biblioteka: istoriia i suchasnist [Nikopol City Library: History and Modernity]. Nikopol: Bibliotechno-informatsiinyi tsentr «Slovo» [Elektronnyiresurs].
14. Matveev, M. Yu. (2012). Publichnye i narodnye biblioteki v Rossiiskoi imperii v 1850–1860-kh gg. [Public and folk libraries in the Russian Empire in the 1850–1860’s.]. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo instituta kultury, 4(13), 114–121. [In Russian].
15. Melnyk, M. Do 135-i richnytsi Mykolaivskoi miskoi hromadskoi biblioteky [To the 135th anniversary of the Mykolayiv City Public Library]. Sait Derzhavnoho arkhivu Mykolaivskoi oblasti.
16. (1911). Otchet Aleksandrovskoi gorodskoi obshchestvennoi biblioteki za 1911 god [Report of the Alexander Town Public Library for 1911]. Derzhavnii arkhiv Zaporizkoї oblasti. F–24. Op. 1. Spr. 281. Ark. 54–59.
17. Pryimak, I. M. (2014). Knyzhkovyi fond ta chytachi Zhytomyrskoi publichnoi biblioteky (1866–1910 rr.) [Book fund and readers of the Zhytomyr public library (1866-1910 biennium)]. Rukopysna ta knyzhkova spadshchyna Ukrainy. (Vol. 18), (pp. 267–277). [In Ukrainian].
18. Radzivilo, A. A. (1995). Z istorii publichnykh bibliotek Ukrainy u druhii polovyni XIX – pershomu desiatyrichchi XX st.: (Z arkhivnykh materialiv) [From the history of public libraries of Ukraine in the second half of the nineteenth and first decades of the twentieth century: (From archival materials)]. Istoriia bibliotechnoi spravy v Ukraini. (Vol. 1), (pp. 9-15). Kyiv. [In Ukrainian].
19. Reitblat, A. I. (2014). Ot Bovy k Balmontu i drugie raboty po istoricheskoi sotsiologii russkoi literatury [From Bova to Balmont and other works on the historical sociology of Russian literature]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie. [In Russian].
20. Rubakin, N. A. (1975). Etiudy o russkoi chitaiushchei publike [Etudes about the Russian reading public]. Rubakin, N. A. Izbrannoe: V 2-kh tt. (Vol. 1), (pp. 35–104). Moscow: Kniga. [In Russian].
21. Rusov, A. A. (1899). Opisanie Chernigovskoi gubernii [V 2-kh tt.]. [Description of the Chernigov province]. (Vol. 2). Chernigov: Tipografiia Gubernskogo Zemstva. [In Russian].
22. Istoriia biblioteky [History of the library]. Sait Mykolaivskoi OUNB.
23. Siedykh, V. V. (2013). Istoriia bibliotechnoi spravy v Ukraini: navch. posibnyk [The history of library business in Ukraine: teach. manual]. Kharkiv: KhDAK. [In Ukrainian].
24. Simoni, P. K. (1927). Knizhnaia torgovlia v Moskve XVIII–XIX stoletii. Moskovskie knigoprodavtsy Kolchuginy v ikh knigotorgovoi deiatelnosti i v bytovoi obstanovke [Book trade in Moscow XVIII–XIX centuries. Moscow book sellers Kolchuginy in their bookselling activities and in the domestic setting]. Leningrad: Leningradskoe obshchestvo bibliofilov. [In Russian].
25. (2012). Stanovlennia pershoi hromadskoi biblioteky hubernii [The formation of the first public library of the province]. Bloh Sektoru informatsii Chernihivskoi OUNB im. V. H. Korolenka.
26. (2013). Stanovlennia pershoi hromadskoi biblioteky Chernihivskoi hubernii [Formation of the first public library of Chernihiv province]. Bloh Viddilu naukovoi informatsii ta bibliohrafii Chernihivskoi OUNB im. V. H. Korolenka.