Vistnok uvurderlig! - folkebibliotekerne i det litterære liv i Danmark

Abstract

The Danish public library as a new institution and the corresponding new librarian profession were established by law about 1918-20 and soon played an active role within circulation and mediation of literature/fiction. From a view of the sociology of literature and via a brief assessment of the concept of the literary life, the article intends to overview the position and significance of this institution in Denmark during these hundred years, and as for some special subfields more detailed and methodologically to discuss the interplays of the literary life and field. Not focusing on the growth rate of the libraries‘ buying and lending of fiction copies, of educated librarians, or of the increasing importance of the compensating artist royalties to the authors as evident quantitation markers, some other thematic subfields have been selected: buying structure at the book market, librarians as literature specialists, book selection as for function, taste and qualification, the library as self-interest publicity including relations literary periodicals/magazines, and examples of mediation initiatives, and finally a short adding up of today. These subfields are inquired each chronologically, there is no total account, so. Reminding the priority of the public libraries within the Danish cultural policy, there may have been little interest and focus of them by the sociology of literature; unlike this, the discussions of the article with a long historical view substantiate that the significance of the libraries in the Danish literary life has been manifold, strong and not overvalued.