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Libraries in French colonial Vietnam functioned as symbols of Western modernity and infrastructures of colonial knowledge. Yet Vietnamese readers pursued alternative uses of the library that exceeded imperial intentions. Bibliotactics examines the Hanoi and Saigon state libraries from colonial to postcolonial Vietnam, uncovering the emergence of a colonial public who reimagined the political meaning and social space of the library through public critique and day-to-day practice. Comprising government bureaucrats, library personnel, journalists, and everyday library readers, this colonial public debated the role of libraries as educational resource, civilizing instrument, and literary heritage. Moving beyond procolonial or anticolonial nationalism framings, Bibliotactics advances a relational theory of power that centers public reading culture contextualized within the library infrastructure of the colonial information order. As the first comprehensive history of the colonial and national library in Asia, this book contributes new insights into publicity, colonial and postcolonial studies, and the histories of Vietnam, libraries, and information.

About the Author

Cindy Anh Nguyen is Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Studies and Digital Humanities program at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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Reviews

"A laudable archaeology of the colonial library in what is now Vietnam, Bibliotactics meticulously foregrounds the construction, curation, circulation, and consumption of a body of knowledge and a cultural institution that defies ideological bounds. A remarkable achievement that is sure to have a long shelf life."—Gaurav Desai, Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of English, University of Michigan

"An extraordinary account of one of our most valued institutions, Bibliotactics decisively shows that colonial libraries in Vietnam were not passive repositories or imperial instruments alone, but vital social infrastructure—dynamic, contested spaces of political engagement where diverse publics gathered to read, debate, and reimagine postcolonial futurity. As libraries today face mounting threats to their civic mission, Cindy Anh Nguyen raises urgent questions about the fate of equitable access, cultural commons, and the architectures of information that shape collective life."—Christina Schwenkel, author of Building Socialism: The Afterlife of East German Architecture in Urban Vietnam

"Bibliotactics names strategies the readers, users, and workers of Vietnam's colonial libraries used to negotiate the middle ground between themselves and the colonizing powers of print and language. Nguyen shows how library and print culture histories illuminate granular lived experiences and modes of resistance to power."—Jonathan Senchyne, Associate Professor of Library and Information Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison

"In this engaging study of libraries in Vietnam, Nguyen uses a wealth of sources—from letters, petitions, and archival photos to lively debates in the pages of newspapers—to argue that colonial institutions were contested spaces where a public sphere was created."—Kathlene Baldanza, Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies, Penn State University