Libraries in Context: Social, Cultural and Intellectual Background 1750-1850

This chapter sketches some broader contexts for library development: demographic, economic, social, cultural and political. Growth in numbers of libraries has to be set against a background of population growth. To illustrate the geographical and social context of library provision in the early nineteenth century, let us take a look at patterns of library provision in Gloucestershire. Setting aside ecclesiastical and school collections, whose incidence and vitality are particularly hard to assess, some sixty-seven libraries have been identified as having existed in Gloucestershire between about 1830 and 1842. Population growth, changes in living patterns and the growth of wealth all had effects on patterns of effective demand for libraries. Traditional grammar schools often gave rise to new commercial adjuncts, not limited by founders' statutes. The end of the eighteenth century saw a marked rise in enthusiasm for promoting the education of the poor, especially through Sunday Schools, later through an enhanced network of cheap day schools.