This paper introduces the work of a major new AHRC-funded project which explores in unprecedented range and depth the role played by voluntary subscription libraries in the reading lives of communities and individuals across the British Isles and North America between 1731 and 1800. Team members will reflect on key questions of database design before outlining some of the ways in which catalogues and circulation records can be used to shed dramatic new light on the role played by libraries in disseminating books and ideas in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolutions.

To join us via Zoom please click on the following link:  https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/events/research-seminars/history-libraries-seminar