Leisure and the rise of the public library

• Main Author: Snape, Robert (Author)
• Format: Unknown
• Language: English
• Published: London Library Association Publ. 1995
• Subjects: Public libraries > Great Britain
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.
• Item Description: Includes index
• Physical Description: 148 pages 24 cm
• ISBN: 9781856041317

This study of public library policy traces the origins of the leisure function to the reforms of the mid-19th century, describing how the differing approaches to fiction provision were determined by library committees according to the political, social and religious beliefs of their members. Drawing on research and case study material, the book throws light on libraries' ambivalent relationship with leisure and discusses: librarians as leisure managers; charges for fiction borrowing; the influence of social and economic climates, and of local and national politics.