Library History Today Blog

  Public Libraries and Marxism by Joe Pateman and John Pateman. London and New York: Routledge, 2021. 119 p., indexed. Public libraries offer an amazing range of information and services in Western society, but to what end? Library organizations and librarians mainly focus on the functional aspects of library services and professional activity while ignoring power relationships and the institutional framework of libraries within society. Public Libraries and Marxism analyzes the public library from a Marxist perspective by challenging our conventional liberal-democratic views that focus mostly on delivering services while ignoring its hegemonic basis of authority. John Pateman has extensive administrative experience. He headed libraries in the UK before he came to Canada in 2012 to be the CEO of Thunder Bay Public Library in Ontario. He has written articles and books with a Marxist viewpoint, such as Public Libraries and Social Justice (2010) and Developing Community Led Public ...

Programme for Library Development in British Columbia . Victoria, B.C.: Joint Committee on Library Policy, 1945. 36 p. maps Programme for Library Development in British Columbia, 1950: Being a Condensation and Revision of the “Programme for Library Development in British Columbia,” 1945 . Victoria, B.C: Joint Committee of the British Columbia Library Association and the Public Library Commission, 1950. 10 p. Survey of Union Libraries in British Columbia . Victoria, B.C.: British Columbia Public Library Commission, 1950. 59 p. Programme for Library Development in British Columbia, 1956 . Victoria: British Columbia Public Library Commission, 1957. 15 p. (cover illustration below) Over the course of a decade following the Second World War, British Columbia trustees, officials, and librarians sought to improve library services across the province. The provincial Public Library Commission (PLC, est. 1919), in conjunction with financing from the Carnegie Corporation, had issued two previous ...