Bad readers of a good library over 100 years ago in Vilnius: Vilnius Public Library Diary in the context of public library movement in Lithuania

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Dienoraštis; Dienoraštis, 1910–1911 m.; Represinė cenzūra; Skaitymas; Skaitymo istorija; Skaitytojai; Viešoji biblioteka; Vilniaus viešoji biblioteka; Vilnius; Diary; Diary, 1910–1911; Public libray; Readers; Reading; Reading history; Repressive censorship; Vilnius; Vilnius Public Library.

ENThe Vilnius Public Library was established as a pillar for Russian imperial ideology in 1867. Its establishment was not supported by a large part of Lithuanian society, which actively took part in patronage of the Vilnius University Public Library and viewed it as a “common affair for citizens”. From late 19th to early 20th century the Vilnius Public Library generally became a “Russian” library in its customer focus. Its Diary became a tool to monitor and control reading habits and to report them to superiors or maybe even government (security) institutions. The Diary does not provide the ethnic composition of the readers but the author takes interest in the balance of male and female readership, perhaps in the context of the rising emancipation movement. Men read more but women are the most active visitors of the museum and especially its nature department. The author often can be identified as a censor who decided which readings are appropriate and which are not. Obvious tendencies towards Russian literature are clear. The library is good as a keeper of Russian cultural and historical memory of the empire. The Diary also reveals the tendency to exaggerate statistics (reader numbers etc.), which were quite common in various Russian empire libraries. The Diary has elements of first-person narrative, but the text is not autobiographic, it is official in a Russian nationalist way and influenced by imperial ideology.In spite of the official loyalty, the author of the Diary does not just reveal a fragment of the official early 20th century culture; but he also provides a lot of little known information about the iden-tity and self-consciousness of the inhabitants of Vilnius, who were readers of the Library. The information provided is not at odds with the essential postulates of historiography, but it modifies the recent tendency of historical narratives to emphasize “the Russian Silver Age” and liberal cultural policies. Obviously, the evidence of liberal-ism in the relations between the Library and the reader is meagre. It is advisable to continue the search for, and study of, library diaries, daybooks, journals, memoirs and correspondence of librarians and other historical sources, also called egodocuments, containing elements of first-person narrative in Lithuania, as well as in other countries of East, Central and North Europe. [Extract, p. 301-302]

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• Istorija / History