Game of books: popular libraries and child readership in Southwest Buenos Aires (Argentina, 1880-1930)

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes two popular libraries in the southwest province of Buenos Aires, Argentina-the Bernardino Rivadavia of Bahía Blanca Library, founded in 1882, and the Domingo F. Sarmiento de Tres Arroyos Library, inaugurated in 1899-and the creation of their respective children’s sections in 1925 and 1928. This paper looks at the formation of these children’s sections within the context of expanding public education and child readership in the province. By the end of the 1920s, a verifiable process of expansion and diversification of reading groups had unfolded that was both a product of, and, at the same time, an incentive for further library development and its related transformations. These institutions introduced modifications in order to respond to the growing demand and tried to play an active role in the configuration of a new readership, both by regulating behaviors and reading spaces as well as experience and tastes of the users.

Key-words:
libraries; childhood; readership; education; Argentina