The Library Service at the Front: the collection conserved at the Public Library of Tarragona

The article introduces a catalogue of the books from the Catalonian government’s Library Service at the Front, preserved over the years by the Public Library of Tarragona. It begins with a brief history of the creation of the Service and of the branches in Cervera and Tarragona, which serves to explain the provenance of these books. Emphasis is given to the political content of the collection —clearly favourable to the principles of the Second Republic—, and the publication of books in Catalan that reached its high point prior to the Civil War.  A description is provided of the major collections of books in Catalan from the years just prior to the Republic until the end of the Civil War. Jesus Dominguez Bordona, a librarian and historian who was removed from Madrid to Tarragona after the Civil War due to his republican sympathies, was director of the Public Library of Tarragona between 1942-1963. Disregarding orders for their destruction, he managed to save these books.