People's Libraries Society (Polish: Towarzystwo Czytelni Ludowych, TCL) was an educational society established in 1880 for the Prussian partition of Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 (active in the regions of Greater Poland

Greater Poland

Greater Poland or Great Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań.The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied somewhat throughout history...

 or the Grand Duchy of Poznan

Grand Duchy of Poznan

The Grand Duchy of Posen, or the Grand Duchy of Poznań was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, created from territories annexed by Prussia after the Partitions of Poland, and formally established following the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Per agreements derived at the Congress of Vienna it was to have...

, Pomerania

Pomerania

Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...

, West Prussia

West Prussia

West Prussia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773–1824 and 1878–1919/20 which was created out of the earlier Polish province of Royal Prussia...

, and Silesia

Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

). Its main goal was to promote education in Polish language

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

 among the people, especially the lower classes, and to revert the Germanisation

Germanisation

Germanisation is both the spread of the German language, people and culture either by force or assimilation, and the adaptation of a foreign word to the German language in linguistics, much like the Romanisation of many languages which do not use the Latin alphabet...

 practices of the Prussian authorities. The society established a network of libraries, reading rooms and organized speeches. It was active till the outbreak of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 in 1939.

Famous members

• Władysław Niegolewski
  Wladyslaw Niegolewski
  Władysław Niegolewski was a Polish liberal politician and member of parliament, insurgent in Greater Poland Uprising 1846, Greater Poland Uprising 1848 and January Uprising 1863, cofounder of Central Economic Society in 1861 and People's Libraries Society in 1880.- See also :* Central Economic...
  
   (1819-1885) was a Polish liberal politician and member of parliament, insurgent in Greater Poland Uprising 1846, Greater Poland Uprising 1848 and January Uprising 1863, cofounder of the Central Economic Society
  Central Economic Society for the Grand Duchy of Poznan
  The Central Economic Society for the Grand Duchy of Poznań was a social-economic organization of Polish landowners in the Greater Poland region established at a meeting held 13-17 February 1971 as a result of a merger of several local societies.Its main...
  
  (CTG) in 1861 and People's Libraries Society (TCL) in 1880.