Yearbook of Bibliology and Press Studies

Summary

The article presents the housing situation of country libraries of the Warsaw Province in the years 1918-1939. It refers to municipal, community, parish, private and school libraries and is based on library instructions, published sources and archival materials. According to the register of Polish educational libraries from 1930, one can state that the greatest number of libraries in this area was situated in primary schools (28,9%). Relatively, a lot of libraries were situated on the own premises of the organisations (23,6%). Other library seats included parish houses (13,4%), independent premises (12,3%), private flats (10,9%), premises of other organisations and institutions (3,9%). In few cases libraries were situated in community houses (1,8%), and in premises belonging to industrial establishments (1,4%). Due to housing problems, the opening time of libraries was shortened or it was adapted to the working period of the institution in which the library rented the premises, which made it difficult to readers to use the library and caused a smaller utilisation of the library.