A Global History of Modern Libraries
Ulrich Schneider’s long-term research project is the global history of libraries and modern libraries, more specifically. He focuses on the use of libraries and their social status in different societies. His planned three-volume study offers an overview of modern libraries, i.e., libraries since the nineteenth century. He defines a modern library as (a) a building that accommodates people as well as books, that (b) amasses its holdings according to needs, and that (c) produces catalogues for everyone’s use. Schneider is especially interested in the diversity of libraries’ users. As early as 1857, the reading room of the British Museum reserved places for women; in 1870, the Boston Public Library opened a reading room for children. From early on, many countries established libraries for the working class. Public libraries became a nearly ubiquitous feature of continuing education. His aim is to find out how exactly modern libraries are defined by their usage.
Schneider brings to his project not only over twenty years of experience working in academic libraries, but also the research interests of a trained philosopher, who has researched, taught, and published in the field of cultural studies.
Ulrich Johannes Schneider is Professor at the Institute of Cultural Studies at the University of Leipzig. He was the director of the University of Leipzig Library from 2006 to 2022. In his current long-term project, he researches the global history of modern libraries, following readers into reading rooms and observing them in a social setting dedicated to fostering individual ideas. Fittings and decorations are equally important, as the modernity of library buildings is evident in both.
Foucault im Hörsaal. Über das mündliche Philosophieren, Wien 2022; Der Finger im Buch. Die unterbrochene Lektüre im Bild, Wien 2020; »Über den Stuhl im Lesesaal«, in: Flandziu. Halbjahresblätter für Literatur der Moderne, NF 10 (2018), S.157–159; »Lesen als Arbeiten in der Bibliothek«, in: Achim Bonte und Julian Rehnolt (Hg.), Kooperative Informationsinfrastrukturen als Chance und Herausforderung, Berlin 2018, S. 277–288; »Die Geburt des Lesesaals«, in: Robert Felfe und Kirsten Wagner (Hg.), Museum, Bibliothek, Stadtraum. Räumliche Wissensordnungen 1600–1900, Berlin 2010, S. 153–171.
Der Lesesaal wird im 19. Jahrhundert als Teil der modernen Bildungskultur entwickelt; er ist bis heute ein stark aufgesuchter Ort geblieben. Seine Anfänge sind eindrucksvoll: Weltweit entstanden zwischen 1870 und 1920 mehrere Tausend Lesesaalbibliotheken. Dabei wurden verschiedene Typen ausgebildet, von öffentlichen über universitäre bis hin zu Nationalbibliotheken.