W SŁUŻBIE IDEOLOGII. CENTRALNY ZAKUP CZASOPISM I ZALECENIA DOTYCZĄCE PRENUMERATY DLA SZKÓŁ W POLSCE W LATACH PIĘĆDZIESIĄTYCH XX WIEKU
IN THE SERVICE OF IDEOLOGY: THE CENTRALISED PURCHASING OF MAGAZINES AND SUBSCRIPTION RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SCHOOLS IN POLAND IN THE 1950S

Summary/Abstract: After World War II, the educational authorities had a significant influence on what was to be held by school libraries. The Ministry of Education published lists of books of enduring literary, cognitive and educational value, qualified for primary school libraries. Since 1945 they essentially helped schools properly manage the modest subsidies they received, which — other urgent needs aside — were to cover the costs related to amassing and completing their library collections. The aforementioned lists were also to help librarians in the ‘planned’ compilation of collections in accordance with official recommendations and to facilitate the ‘management’ of reading among children and young adults. They were to be used by publishers and booksellers in shaping publis- hing policy. Some of the recommended titles, especially just after the war, reached schools through the centralised purchasing system. The centralised purchasing of magazines for school libraries at all school levels and for teachers’ collections is a lesser known fact. It clearly shows how the authorities exercised political influence on society through schools after 1949. School libraries and common rooms were supplied with periodicals for students and teachers from the centrally prepared distribution list and orders and recommendations were given to subscribe to magazines of a clear ‘ideological and educational’ nature, including Soviet ones. This article describes the most important stages in the centralisation and ideologisation of amassing and using magazines at schools, which depended on the political situation in Poland. The basic source materials are the journals of the Ministry of Education, which contain a complete set of executive legal acts applying to schools of all types and levels.

• Details
• Contents