The construction of the working-class user: Danish free public libraries and the working classes, 1880–1920

Abstract

The aim of this article is to investigate how the public library user was constructed in a Danish context in the period 1880–1920. The article argues that the definition and understanding of users as coming from all classes in society is a blind spot in Danish librarianship today. The article applies the theories of Michel Foucault on discourse and power in order to discuss how the user was constructed as a classless category and as a means of controlling the masses in libraries. This requires an examination of the way the library population was categorized, as well as of the bureaucratization and normalization of the user.