@article{7787,
  author = {Peter Hoare},
  title = {The Operatives' Libraries of Nottingham: A Radical Community's Own Initiative},
  abstract = {Nottingham's operatives' libraries may not have been unique, but they were certainly remarkable. These libraries served the lowest class of manual worker. Significantly they were started and run by the members themselves; they were not imposed on the workers by a higher class. Beginning in the 1830s, Nottingham (England) was the home of at least a dozen similar libraries, based in public houses. The city was a centre of Chartism — it even had a Chartist Member of Parliament — which helps to explain why this phenomenon became so popular. Some of these libraries existed for fifty years and collected many thousands of volumes.},
  year = {2003},
  journal = {Library History},
  volume = {19},
  pages = {173-84},
  language = {English},
}