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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
d)
importance of democracy (moral foundation of the state);
e)
social foundation of living in a state;
f)
social healthcare and physical education.
Executive orders or decrees of the Ministry (e.g. No. 61.796
dated 15 December 1919; No. 61.977 dated 19 December 1919)
provided the detailed structure of the enlightenment societies
responsible for the enlightenment policy implementation:
a)
okresné osvetové zbory [district enlightenment boards] –
consisted of no more than 20 people – representatives of
political parties, local governments, district school boards,
prominent educational associations and popular educators.
Their main duty was the inspection in municipalities;
b)
mestské osvetové zbory [municipal enlightenment boards] –
established in municipalities with over 10 000 residents, in
larger cities, there could be more than one board; they were
not subordinate to the district enlightenment boards;
c)
miestne osvetové komisie [local enlightenment committees]
– local branch of the district enlightenment board in a
particular municipality, had 3-4 members.
For practical reasons other bodies were established too, for
instance:
ústredie osvetových zborov [the Central Office for
Enlightenment Boards]: covered the territory of a župa [a
county] and ensured the coordinated organization of all
cultural-enlightenment events. Its responsibilities were:
popular educators’ training, keeping records of all activities
within the county, arranging meetings between individual
district boards, maintaining a county library, etc.
menšinové okresné osvetové zbory [district enlightenment
boards for minorities]: established in a district with over
2 000 members of a particular national minority.
A prominent historian Š. Pasiar said: “In accordance with the
Act on Civic Education free educational courses shall be
organized on the whole territory of Czechoslovakia. The courses
provided people with information about the state’s structure and
administration, and about their rights and civic duties, etc. It
encouraged learning about the new reality – the newly
established republic - which was very different from the state in
which Czechs and Slovaks had lived before 1918” (Pasiar, 1975,
p. 215).
The second legislative measure that contributed to the
development of enlightenment activities was the Act No.
430/1919 Coll. on Public Communal Libraries adopted on 12
July 1919. Article 1 of the Act states: “to complement and
deepen the knowledge of all social classes, the political
municipalities are ordered to establish public libraries providing
truly valuable books of educational, scholarly, and entertaining
nature” (Bakoš, 1996, p. 36). In Slovakia, the Act No. 430
together with the regulation No. 607/19 Coll. did not come into
force until 21 March 1925 due to unsatisfactory conditions and
lack of financial resources.
In accordance with the Act, every municipality, within its own
limits, was to establish a public library by the end of 1925. The
district enlightenment boards in cooperation with district chiefs
were to ensure compliance with the Act. The association
libraries shall be made public; every municipality shall establish
a library board members of which were to be a teacher, a notary
public, and a local secretary. The district board also observed
that municipalities allocate from their budget a certain amount of
money to the establishment and a further support of public
libraries.
To develop and organize popular librarianship the Slovak Office
of the Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment issued
on 21 March 1925 a decree No. 17-743 asking teachers of all
categories to accept librarian posts, run public communal
libraries and deliver lectures on the importance of libraries in
accordance with the Act on Public Libraries (Jelínek, 1936, p.
144). District library officials were recommended to inform local
secretaries about the popular librarianship, to organize lectures in
municipalities, where a library was to be established and to
cooperate with Matica slovenská in Turčiansky Sv. Martin.
Table 1: Public communal libraries in
ČSR in 1926 – 1930
year /
number
of
libraries
volumes
borrowers
books
lent
income
1926
14 755
5 079 907
866 725
13 476
148
16 062
697
1927
15 355
5 444 884
880 326
14 440
593
16 275
308
1928
15 896
5 768 887
892 087
14 383
625
16 958
762
1929
16 168
6 334 319
961 769
14 899
798
19 036
524
1930
16 461
6 635 844
953 775
16 226
805
20 885
886
Source: Matula, 1934, p. 403
The library boards governed public communal libraries and the
association libraries that were made public. Four people sat on
the board in municipalities with over 2 000 residents, six people
served on the board in municipalities with 2 001 – 10 000
residents, and the board had eight members in municipalities
with over 10 000 residents. Half the members of the board were
elected by the municipal council adopting a principle of
proportional representation from among the municipal electorate
(including representatives of local authority) and other members
were initially co-opted into the board from among popular
educators and later elected by the borrowers (Jelínek, 1936, p.
137). The head of the local enlightenment committee joined the
board as its last (odd) member.
Library boards met at least four times a year to exercise their
duties, which were:
to appoint a librarian and auxiliary staff, to ensure that the
municipal authority pays them their salary;
to be responsible for financial administration of the library;
to approve purchase of new books and removal of
inappropriate books based on the librarian’s proposal;
to establish a set of rules for borrowing books from the
library and for using the reading room;
to safeguard the interests of the library against the
municipal authority and the general public;
to compile an annual report on their activities
supplemented with a balance sheet and statistical
statements, and send it to the municipal authority and the
Slovak Office (Jelínek, 1936, p. 155).
Minority libraries were governed by a special library board, all
the members of which were members of the national minority
for which the library was promoted. At least four people sat on
the library board in a municipality with over 2 000 members of a
national minority. The board had six members in municipalities
with 2 001 – 10 000 members of a particular minority and in
municipalities with over 10 000 members of a particular
minority, the board comprised of eight members. The
composition of the minority library board was approved by the
respective district enlightenment board. The board members
were appointed for a two-year term and their service was
gratuitous. The board elected a chairperson, a manager, and a
treasurer. Besides the auxiliary staff and a skilled person
responsible for financial administration, the library could also
hire a music expert.
All libraries were under the close supervision of the Ministry of
Education and National Enlightenment, and other special bodies
created by the Ministry, as well as the district and county
authorities. The supervision over the legal matters concerned
provision of material and personnel costs. The supervision over
the technical issues concerned suitable location and equipment
of the library, and supervision over the ideological and
educational matters concerned mostly suitability of book
collections.
Librarians were responsible for their library’s agenda; they were
members of the library boards in an advisory capacity and they
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