Development of the Public Libraries in Turkey

In this thesis, I try to explore the changing role and development of public libraries in Turkey since the turn of the twentieth century, especially following the establishment of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923. More specifically, I wish to examine whether and how demographic growth, urbanization, and infusions of changing information technologies globally have impacted the increasing number of public libraries and their spatial distribution in Turkey. I argue that the development of Turkish public library system has been influenced by two key developments: the traumatic beginnings of the republican ideology and how it conceptualized "culture” and viewed its presumed relationship to education (1923-1940s); and, lack of a comprehensive public library legislation due to interventions by international organizations such as International Federation of Library Association (IFLA) and United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) discouraging such legislations in the developing countries.