Libraries were an essential part of life for Jane Austen – and for the characters in her novels. She made ample use of her father’s collection of more than 500 books, and borrowed from lending libraries on trips to London and other cities.

Those circulating libraries, as they were called, differed from today’s libraries in a number of ways. Most notably, they were chiefly business ventures and charged patrons a fee for books.

Claire Bellanti, president of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA), gives an illustrated talk on how these libraries developed, functioned, and were used by Austen in life and in her books. Bellanti also examines the links between circulating libraries and the rise of the novel and of women writers of the time. The discussion, marking National Library Week, is co-presented by JASNA’s Metropolitan Kansas City Region.