Public Libraries and the Working Classes

Abstract

This article highlights evidence regarding the use of public libraries by the working classes from the mid-nineteenth century until the Second World War. Although public libraries were used extensively by some sections of the working class, most notably autodidacts, use by working-class people was never a mass activity. The article was prompted by presentations made the conference on 'Libraries and the working classes since the eighteenth century', held at the School of Information Management, Leeds Metropolitan University, 16–17 June 2004, especially the keynote address of Jonathan Rose, author of The intellectual life of the British working classes, published in 2002. In his book Rose makes a number of references to working class use of public libraries; and this article draws attention to a selection of these.