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.

Literacy Skills as Local Intangible Capital: The History of a Rural Lending Library c. 1860 - 1920

“…Barton & Hamilton 1998;Barton & Papen 2010. 65 Eide 2010Peatling 2004;Skouvig 2007. that have already been published or at least on databases collected by other researchers, 66 but there has been less empirical historical research utilizing as a main source the combination of those traditional original sources, in which the authorities or other people than themselves described the life of rural persons studied. is is pertinent, when the persons studied here did not produce any autobiographical sources by themselves, because otherwise we would know hardly anything about their relationship to the literacy skills and the signi cance they, i.e.…”

Ikke-læsning som «problem» i dansk kulturpolitik - En analyse af læsekampagnen Danmark Læser

“…(Skouvig 2004: 127ff. ;2007) Fokus i undersøgelserne har aendret sig siden 1960'erne og 1970'erne, hvor undersøgelserne havde et eksplicit fokus på at kortlaegge omfanget og anven-This article is downloaded from www.idunn.no delsen af befolkningens fritid (se endvidere Balling & Kann-Christensen 2013). Dette skyldes ikke mindst at disse undersøgelser foretages i en tid med faldende arbejdstid og øget ferie og fritid, hvilket sandsynligvis kan forklare det brede kulturbegreb, som undersøgelserne er baseret på.…”

Literature Promotion in Public Libraries – Between Policy, Profession and Public Management

“…That cultural policy has a higher goal than the immediate needs of the users, is nothing new. Goals such as education and enlightenment of the citizens can be traced back to the establishing of the modern library (Skouvig 2007). This more humanistic goal is in perfect harmony with the view on literature promotion among librarians.…”