THE JEWISH LIBRARIES ON THE TERRITORY OF BELARUS BEFORE THE WORLD WAR I

Abstract

The condition and development of the Jewish libraries on the territory of Belarus before the World War I is researched. The author emphasizes that the Jews were one of the biggest ethnic groups in the region; therefore, they influenced cultural and educational processes on the Belarusian territories, including the development of librarianship. Special attention is paid to the quantity of the Jewish population on the Belarusian territories before the World War I (1897– 1914). It is also stressed that the Jews used the oral and written language at a sufficient level: this is an important condition for the development of nation-based libraries. The author analyses the state of the Jewish libraries in Vilno, Vitebsk, Grodno, Minsk and Mogilev provinces. The positive points are as follows: a good number of readers, free access to books outside the libraries as a stimulating measure to increase some interest among visitors, and periodicals reading rooms in some Jewish libraries in Belarus. Some obstacles on the way to the active development of the already existing and newly appearing Jewish libraries are revealed. They are as follows: weak state financial support, untimely book fund renewal, narrow target groups (mostly children and teenagers), non-qualified staff, low level of record management and local authorities’ bans for the registration of new libraries.