The Policies for Libraries from the Tanzimat to the Armistice (1839-1918)

Abstract

Tanzimat (1839) created significant changes not only in state institutions but also in the institutions that constituted the system of the production and distribution of knowledge. The most important ones of these institutions were the military and civil educational institutions. The reorganization of essential government institutions and institutions forming the knowledge production and dissemination system have not only affected the formal organizational structure of the state but also changed social, cultural and political life in the society. We believe that state institutions should be analyzed by considering both the relations among them and with the existing environment in which they took place in order to have a clear understanding of the effects of this reorganization. Therefore, we claim that Ottoman libraries and their services must be examined in the light of various periods that can be considered as cornerstones which deeply affected social, cultural and political life in the Ottoman Empire. This paper examines the reorganization of educational institutions in connection to the libraries; and emphasizes the role of libraries in dissemination of knowledge to society. This paper also aims to explain how libraries and their services were comprehended and affected by the reorganization of the state (1839-1922) with respect to political, legal and cultural changes through related examples.