C. M. Carlander’s Swedish libraries and ex-libris (1904) : A source critical study of women's libraries during the early modern period.

The aim of this study is to examine the historical information about women’s libraries and book ownership during the early modern period in the work of Carl Magnus Carlander, Svenska bibliotek och ex-libris [Swedish libraries and ex-libris] (1904) and to inquire the scientific value of the information. A gender perspective is applied to the study. Gender is understood as a social and cultural constructed concept, dealing with female and male identities as interdependent categories.The study of Svenska bibliotek och ex-libris is made using source criticism and it has two parts. The first part deals with external conditions of the creation of the work; the life of C. M. Carlander and his motives for writing the work. The cultural and scientific context of the late 20th century, especially ideas and practices of book collecting, is discussed in relation to the work of Carlander. In the second part of the study book ownership and libraries of ten women described in the text are analysed, evaluating the evidence of the information on the basis of criteria used in source criticism; time, independence and tendency.The biggest contribution to library history made by Carlander in this work is the attributing of book ownerships marks, as relics, to historical persons on a broad scale, giving subsequent researchers the possibility to continue his work on a more text sociological basis than thought of during the late 19th century.Program: Bibliotekari