1915 Kansas Census asked about home libraries!

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1915 Kansas Census asked about home libraries!

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1myshelves
Nov 15, 2009, 8:42 pm

The 1915 Kansas State census included a column headed:

HOME LIBRARIES (Containing 20 or more volumes, exclusive of school books)

The person was to list the number of volumes.

That's my kinda census! :-)

(Cross-posted to Book Talk.)

2auntmarge64
Nov 15, 2009, 11:00 pm

Now that is very neat!

3TLCrawford
Nov 16, 2009, 3:29 pm

My first thought was, yes this is neat, but then I started to wonder, why do they want to know?

4myshelves
Nov 16, 2009, 5:55 pm

#4

Maybe something to do with the need for public libraries in various parts of the state?

5thornton37814
Nov 16, 2009, 6:10 pm

Given the other questions regarding literacy on the census, I suspect it was some sort of attempt to determine if people had access to materials to read at home (other than textbooks which were excluded from the home libraries). It may have even been some sort of justification for establishing and/or funding public libraries.