Libraries and Class Identity in Scotland, 1800-1842: The Significance of Libraries in an Industrialising Society

This research project will uncover the significance of libraries in establishing and/or disrupting senses of class identity in an increasingly industrialised society. It analyses the socio-economic conditions that determined how libraries were managed and accessed in Scotland between 1800 and 1842. I am part of an existing research team, AHRC-funded 'Books and Borrowing 1750-1830' (Books and Borrowing, no date, borrowing.stir.ac.uk), which is transcribing borrowing records from eighteen Scottish libraries into a Content Management System, to be launched publicly as an open access database in April 2023. By exploring library archive materials and tracing the individuals represented in the borrowing records from eight libraries around Scotland, I will create a substantial dataset from which I will conduct an analysis of the interrelationship between libraries and class identity in early nineteenth-century Scotland. My research will be conducted on the following eight libraries:
Chambers Circulating Library, Edinburgh
John Gray Library, Haddington, East Lothian
The Leighton Library, Dunblane
The Library of Innerpeffray, Perthshire
Orkney Library, Orkney
Selkirk Subscription Library, Selkirk
Westerkirk Parish Library, Dumfries and Galloway
Wigtown Subscription Library, Wigtown
These libraries have been chosen to represent, firstly, a wide geographic range, facilitating a comparison of library use between the far North and far South of Scotland, as well as between urban and rural areas, and, secondly, to represent a wide demographic range, with members of the labouring classes as well as the gentry and professional classes represented in their borrowing records.