- Dean, Heather. (2011) "'The persuasion of books': The Significance of Libraries in Colonial British Columbia." Libraries & the Cultural Record, 46 (1), 50-72.
- http://bit.ly/2mQw0HK
I stumbled across this article while looking for more information on colonial or Revolutionary-era America. But the introduction had me hooked. "Reading was not
a passive and apolitical activity but instead had a significant impact on
frontier society." According to Dean, "Victoria's elite believed that libraries
and literary pursuits would promote the respectable and reliable
masculinity necessary for fostering healthy families and, by extension, a
prosperous and stable colony." This is another article that will focus on the role of literacy in society.
I found myself thinking about Lutie Stearns, who founded the traveling libraries in Wisconsin because the rural communities were lacking for literature, and of the lighthouse libraries, which were created to alleviate the isolation of the keepers. Settlers felt the same isolation and missed the "mental food" of their home country. Then when miners came over, they were frustrated with having "no place
to which they can go to spend a leisure hour in rational enjoyment." The higher class men who ran the territory wanted to bring libraries in then as an attempt to culture up the miners, who because of no other options, would hang out in bars and brothels. That reminded me of Albert Meyzeek, who feared for black youth in Louisville because they had no healthy recreation or educational options, and so agitated for a YMCA and for a library. This article was another that reiterated the role of literacy in societies, and the importance of education.
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