Karla Selihar
Univerzitet u Novom Sadu
Pedagoški fakultet – Katedra za bibliotekarstvo, Sombor
kselihar@pef.uns.ac.rs

No. 29 (November 2016), p. 62-66

Contributions to the History of Serbian Social Libraries:
The Social Libraries in San Francisco, Paris, Munich, Geneva and Zurich

Summary

Social libraries as cultural institutions were created in the period when books and the written word began to penetrate more intensely into wide social layers that were trying to fulfill their needs for reading, knowledge and information through a variety of reading clubs. A body of research on the subject has shown that the Serbs in Vojvodina established sixty social libraries in the period from 1842 to 1918. Apart from creating their funds and the reading public, these libraries, that had a specific national character, were bearers of the cultural and educational revival of the Serbs living on the territory of Hungary. In addition to the social libraries throughout the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, as well as those in Serbia, Serbs started setting up their social libraries in some other European countries and the United States of America. The social libraries in San Francisco, Paris, Munich, Geneva and Zurich were working actively on presentation of the Serbian culture and tradition to the people of Europe. They were organizers of public lectures, speeches and balls, parties, celebrations of anniversaries significant for Serbs, and were actively involved in charity work. Also, they had extensive cooperation with the social libraries in Serbia and in what is now Vojvodina, as well as with the other cultural institutions such as Matica Srpska and the Serbian Literary Association.

Keywords:

social libraries, Serbian diaspora, 19th century, 20th century, Pan-Slavism, reading societies, pupils’ associations, Enlightenment

Submitted: 22nd March 2016
Correction to the manuscript: 19th August 2016
Accepted for publication: 23rd Septembre 2016.

Contributions to the History of Serbian Social Libraries: The Social Libraries in San Francisco, Paris, Munich, Geneva and Zurich by Karla Selihar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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