Daer Stephen
I am doing research into the communication of science in the east
midlands in the period 1700-1760 and this has led me into the
relatively new area of library history. The main source of libraries
is Robin Alston's herculean work on the existence of libraries in
Britain up to c. 1860. This is all available on the Net try--
http://www.r-alston.dircon.co.uk/ or some variant.
Another interesting site with some good academic contacts is
The History of the Book at Oxford--
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~pembo0049/bkdirect.html#graduates
The only article I know which seems to be relevant to your student is
is from some time ago. It is in "Informal Agencies of Education"
?1979 published by the History of Education Society. The article is
by Dr Keith Dent and is entitled "The private library of the landed
classes: its role in informal education in the eighteenth century"
"Books and their Readers in the c18th", ed I Rivers 1982 Leics Univ
Press I have found helpful but its not really on libraries
I hope these citations are useful and correct. Do get back to me if
they are inadequate; its difficult to get references right in a quick
e-mail
Best wishes
Michael Honeybone
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