Early library history and the invention of tradition

This paper addresses the role of the invention of tradition in early library history writing and its influence on the subsequent discourse. The Invention of Tradition is a phrase coined by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger to describe cultural practices that appear traditional but which are of comparatively recent innovation. Examples include neo-classical civic architecture, the symbolic construction of national identities, and the adoption of anachronistic rituals in essentially modern institutions. Hobsbawm and Ranger argue that invented traditions have an important social function in helping to foster cohesion, legitimising authority structures, and cementing social values by rooting contemporary institutions and social practices in a factitious past. This paper argues that early library history writing can be understood as an invented tradition that acted to validate the social function of libraries by appeal to the distant historical past. While library history lacks ritualistic and ceremonial aspects, it displays a similar ideological function in securing an ostensibly novel social institution against the authority of tradition. It first discusses the nature of invented traditions and their relevance to library history. The paper then analyses library history writing between 1859 and 1914, and its influence on subsequent library discourse. Finally the paper analyses the specific tension in the nineteenth century that gave rise to the invented tradition of early library history writing. The paper predominantly addresses the development on library services in Britain.