Histories of Home
‘The necessity of clear expression’ home-grown writing, organisational learning and the library staff magazine in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century
Professor Alistair Black (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
3 July 20

Magazines to read (Photo credit: Longzero)

 

Abstract: Unlike staff magazines in private enterprises, which pre-date them by two decades, library staff magazines of the early-twentieth century were more truly the product of employees, operated as they often were by staff associations. The library staff magazine provided opportunities for employees to write – as a pastime, as a form of organizational learning and networking, as a contribution to labour solidarity, and, finally, as a vehicle for personal professional advance and identity formation, though one which contained an element of “othering,” of the public as well as junior and female staff.

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