Library and Library Society of Employees and Workers of Perm Cannon Factories

Based on pre-revolutionary sources, the article presents the activities of the library and the Library Society of employees and workers of the Perm (Motovilikhinsky) cannon factories for the period 1907–1915 for the first time. The regulatory documents, regulating their activities during this period, are analyzed. The author has identified and characterized sources of financing for the library and the Library Society, the main of which are: subscription fees for using books, donations from employees and workers, interest on a savings book, renting out the hall of the People’s House, income from a tea room (buffet), etc. He has considered the departments for which the factory library was completed and the distribution of the number of books issued to readers by departments, months and years. Statistical information is given on the number of members of the Library Society, subscribers, readers and books issued for reading from the library, its attendance is indicated. The articles of expenditure of the library are indicated: remuneration to the librarian, purchase of books, extract of periodicals, their binding, printing a catalog, work on a new extension for the stage and its design, making curtains, decorations, purchasing costumes, etc. The author has established specific examples on the library, that it, in addition to fulfilling its main task to provide employees and workers of the plant with the opportunity to use its book fund, also carried out educational, and cultural and leisure functions.