Rola książki w działalności Towarzystwa Szkoły Ludowej (1891–1918). Szkic do dziejów książki w Krakowie

Abstract

The turn of the twentieth century was a period of intensified development of various forms of organized social life. One of the societies established at that time was Towarzystwo Szkoły Ludowej (The People’ s School Society). It was founded in Krakow in 1891 to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Constitution of 3rd May. The Society made associations to the national, progressive traditions and patriotic attitudes of the Poles. It was active in two main directions: education and upbringing of children and youth (school education) and popularization of education and national culture among adults (non-school education). The undertaken tasks were inspired by the motto “through education to freedom”. Books were a medium used by TSL in all kinds of its activities. Books were used to realize the most important of all tasks – to popularize education. They were also used to promote readership. A network of libraries was created, which provided books but also encouraged self-study. Books were one of the sources of income for the Society. TSL published books that had been considered useful for the Polish people or which presented the activity of the Society. TSL also took care of the distribution of books. The permanent concern about the efficiency of the conducted work and the undertaken tasks shows that the Society took efforts to provide the wide masses of the Polish society with books, so that they affected people’s national and social-political awareness.