Books and Borrowers, 1747-1857: Innerpeffray Library and the History of Scottish Reading

Innerpeffray是苏格兰历史最悠久的免费借阅图书馆。它由马德蒂勋爵大卫·德拉蒙德于1680年创立，最初是在Innerpeffray教堂楼上的一个小房间里，马德蒂把自己的书放在那里。他的遗嘱中详细说明，他“最近开始了一座图书馆”，将“为所有年轻学生的利益”，留下一笔可观的款项(并将遗产收入捆绑在一起)，以确保图书馆“在不久的将来”得以生存和扩大。这座图书馆被使用过，但没有得到很好的管理，最终得到了罗伯特·海·德拉蒙德(Robert Hay Drummond)的应有的照顾和关注，他在17世纪40年代继承了它，并委托建造了乔治时代的建筑，至今仍收藏着这些藏品。他还看到藏品得到了扩充，就像最初的打算一样。在海伊·德拉蒙德的一生中，在最初的大约450本藏书的基础上，至少增加了3000本书，他们的获得在某种程度上是由他自己的建议决定的。直到1968年，图书馆一直免费向公众开放，向公众开放。除了是公共借阅图书馆的一个极好的早期例子外，Innerpeffray还是一个如此稀有的来源，因为它收藏着从1747年到1968年的连续借阅书籍。这些记录不仅提供了对图书馆的受欢迎程度和常客的阅读习惯的洞察，还提供了周围环境的社会和经济构成，通常会给出借款人的地址和职业，以及他们什么时候借的细节。对于研究图书馆和阅读史的学者来说，这是一种无价的资源。虽然其他学者，如Mark Towsey，作为其他项目的一部分，可以在Innerpeffray访问借阅者的记录和收藏品，但我的博士研究独特地允许我广泛、长时间地访问档案和收藏品，使我有机会比以往任何时候都有机会更深入、更有背景地探索借阅者。Maxine Branagh在她之前为21世纪图书历史学家博客撰写的帖子中，对查看借阅者记录的历史的利弊进行了很好的概述。虽然我的项目直接关注借阅者登记册第一卷的时期(1747-1857)，但到目前为止，我的研究问题更多地与图书馆史有关，而不是阅读史，尽管两者是相互补充的。这意味着，当每个借款人从货架上取下一件物品时，他们需要寻找更全面的情况，了解是什么决定了他们的选择。一开始它是怎么到那里去的？是谁决定把哪些书包括在内的？单卷是什么样子的？阅读是什么感觉？如果没有像Innerpeffray这样的幸存者，我们几乎不可能知道这一点。Innerpeffray是指图书、借款人的登记簿和建筑本身都保存在原址的地方。

Innerpeffray is the oldest free lending library in Scotland. Founded by David Drummond, Lord Maddertie, in 1680, it began in a small upstairs room of Innerpeffray chapel, where Maddertie deposited his own books. His Will details that he has "lately begun a library" and that it is to be "for the benefit of all young students", leaving a significant sum (and tying up income from the estates) towards ensuring the survival and expansion of that library "in time comeing". Used, but not well managed, the library was finally given due care and attention by Robert Hay Drummond, who inherited it in the 1740s, and commissioned the Georgian building in which the collection is still housed. He also saw that the collection was augmented, as originally intended. At least three thousand books were added to the original collection of around 450 during Hay Drummond's lifetime, and their acquisition was informed to some extent by his own suggestion. Here the library stayed, open for borrowing to the general public for free, until as recently as 1968.Apart from being a fantastic early example of a public lending library, Innerpeffray is such a rare source at it houses a continuous register of books borrowed from 1747 until 1968. These records provide an insight not only into the popularity of the library and the reading habits of its frequenters, but also the social and economic make-up of the surrounding landscape, often giving the address and occupation of the borrower alongside details of what they borrowed when. This is a resource invaluable to scholars of the history of both libraries and reading. While other scholars, such as Mark Towsey, have had access to the borrowers' records and collections at Innerpeffray as part of other projects, my doctoral research uniquely allows me extensive, lengthy access to the archives and collections, giving me the opportunity to explore the borrowings in more depth and with more context than ever before.Maxine Branagh, in her previous post for the 21st-Century Book Historian blog, has given a great overview of the pros and cons associated with looking at the history of reading from Borrowers' records. While my project is directly focused on the period of the first volume of the borrowers' register (1747-1857), my research questions so far are more related to Library History than the History of Reading, though both feed into each other. This has meant looking for the fuller picture of what informs the choice each borrower makes when they pluck an item from the shelf. How did it get there in the first place? Who decided which books were included? What does the individual volume look like? What does it feel like to read? This is almost impossible to know without survivals like Innerpeffray, where the books, the borrowers' register and the building itself all survive, together, in their original location.