Objective/Context:

This article examines the presence of students from the National University among the readers of the National Library during the first half of the 1870s. Although some contemporary observers considered the library to be inoperative, the institution was an active agent in the circulation of books in Bogotá: a space of student sociability and a place of university knowledge.

Methodology:

First, the paper examines the institutional relationship between the library and the university. Then, it characterizes the students and their readings at the library. Finally, it analyzes the recorded readings in relation to the programs of courses taught at the National University, the academic performance of students, the presentation of public speeches, and library attendance by students from regions other than Bogotá and its surroundings.

Originality:

In a scenario of educational reforms promoted by liberal governments during the 1870s, the National Library was described as “anachronistic” and “useless” by the agents themselves of the nineteenth century. These critical judgments have become a commonplace in historiography. The analysis of new documents, especially library reader records-an unpublished source-, enriches the field of reading appropriation and offers empirical elements that vindicate the institution’s centrality at a time of political and ideological struggles.

Conclusions:

The article demonstrates that young students at the National University used books from the public repository in academic spaces of professional training, which calls into question the idea of its inoperative character as well as the reasons that originated this liberal criticism.

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