Item #447 [LEFT FRONT OF LIBRARY WORK] Krasnyi bibliotechnyi front: Materialy Leningradskoi gubernskoi bibliotechnoi konferentsii 23-26 iunia 1924 goda [i.e. Red Library Front: Materials of the Leningrad Regional Library Conference on June 23-26, 1924]

[LEFT FRONT OF LIBRARY WORK] Krasnyi bibliotechnyi front: Materialy Leningradskoi gubernskoi bibliotechnoi konferentsii 23-26 iunia 1924 goda [i.e. Red Library Front: Materials of the Leningrad Regional Library Conference on June 23-26, 1924]

Leningrad: Izdatelstvo Knizhnogo sektora Gubono. Item #447
ISBN: 1924

106 pp. 22,5x15 cm. In original constructivist styled wrappers. Very good. Uncut. Loss of a small part of the spine touching rear wrapper, tiny tear and loss of the margin of the front wrapper.

First and only edition. One of 2000 copies. Very rare.
This is a collection of materials gathered after Library Conference in Leningrad in 1924. Here are seven reports (mostly on educational role of libraries; interesting report was on mobile libraries - car-libraries, mobile corners, libraries were organized at canteens, on new buildings, in rest homes, in theaters, in the cinema, etc.), resolutions of the conference and supplement of the normal (standard) plan of the library acquisition (from one of the reports). This plan lists such sections as religion, philosophy, history, fiction, social studies. Amounts for cities and province are different. Interesting are side notes (the core of the library should be marxist literature, the core of lower types of libraries should consist of books for masses, etc.). Also interesting are provided titles of catalogues or suggested lists of books for libraries to hold. Another interesting thing is a point in resolution for city libraries to provide village and small libraries with books.

Overall the main promise of the conference was an understanding that libraries and libraries carry an important part in building a new Soviet man. Libraries under the old regime was an institution serving primarily the intelligentsia. There were so-called ‘people’s libraries’ but their book funds were miserable, the number of
such libraries was relatively small. For the broad, especially the rural masses, the use of the library was unusual. The war of 1914 popularized the library business through the reading rooms (‘izba-chital’nya’) where both literate and illiterate peasants flocked to learn news from the front. The October Revolution gave a tremendous impetus to the library business. A very large number of private libraries were mastered, huge book wealth was collected, many new libraries were open. The propaganda of libraries, literacy, self-education was prioritized.
This conference was held a week prior to the first Soviet all-union library congress which proves the scale of importance of libraries.

Worldcat locates copy only in the British Library and The Berlin State Library.

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