A Study On The British Museum Library Reform And Knowledge Popularization(Mid-18th Century To Late 19th Century)

The Industrial Revolution promoted the sustainable development of British social economy.Industrialization and urbanization changed the social structure of Britain and created the emerging middle class and working class.At the same time,the Industrial Revolution brought great changes in machines,promoted the further development of printing and paper making,and provided technical support for the rise of book trade.In the 19 th century,all kinds of publications in British society grew exponentially,and the public’s demand for reading is also growing.As the first national museum in Britain,the Board of Trustees of the British Museum has defined its public nature since its establishment.Through Sloan’s will,the British Museum Act of 1753 and several meetings of the Board of Trustees,the initial management system of the British Museum has been successfully established when it officially opened to the public in 1759.However,before the 19 th century,the public of the British Museum was extremely limited,especially the readership of the reading room was mainly concentrated in the upper middle class,and knowledge was in the hands of a few elites.For the 19 th century,the changes in the attitude of museum managers,the foresight and sagacity of advanced elites,the attention of the state(parliament)to museums,and the growing of the public subject consciousness etc,promoted the continuous optimization and upgrading of the admission rules of museum and its reading room.By the end of the 19 th century,the British Museum Library had made significant achievements in the quantity and quality of its collections and the service of its reading room.The British Museum Library became a truly public institution for the dissemination of culture and knowledge.The first chapter of this paper introduced the establishment and the creation of the early rules of the British Museum,and analyzes the shortcomings of the early rules.The second chapter discusses the causes and consequences of museum reform in the first half of the 19 th century.Joseph Planta,the chief librarian of the British Museum from 1799 to 1827,started the reform of the admission rules in the 19 th century.Based on the practical management of the museum,he simplified the admission procedures for the public and lowered the age limit to 10 years old,increasing the number of visitors.After 1810,the public criticism of the reading room aroused the attention of the trustees,and with the promotion of the public,the recommendation procedure for admission to the library was improved.The parliamentary committee hearings held in 1835-1836 to investigate the management status of the British Museum contributed to a significant change in the national management concept of museums,indicating that the nation paid more attention to the construction of the British Museum library.By the 1850 s,the foresight of Anthony Panizzi,the chief librarian of the British Museum Library,led him to make outstanding contributions to the library’s loan process,book stock and the construction of new reading rooms,so that the British Museum Library developed into a national museum commensurate with the strength of the British Empire.The third chapter analyses the changes of readers under the library reform,and explains the important relationship between the library reform and the flow of knowledge from the upper class to the middle and lower class.Chapter four introduces and analyzes the status quo of the British Museum Library in the late 19 th century in terms of opening hours,book storage and reading room service,and explains that the mission and status of the British Museum Library as a public culture space have been comfirmed.