Bibliotecas y división de clases: las bibliotecas cuasi públicas en el sistema burgués británico durante los siglos XVIII-XIX

摘要

The author explains subscription and circulating libraries, reflecting class divisions, during the XVIII and XIX centuries in Great Britain. He asserts that these two types of libraries clearly demonstrate socially stratified service for the upper, middle and lower classes. That is, these libraries were classist because they universalized a system of values belonging to the ruling class in the context of the market and economic power related to the cultural sphere of capitalism. It is also clear that the pursuit of knowledge and information in these libraries was not feasible for most members of the working class because they had to daily perform exhausting and stressful tasks.