This article aims to discuss four major concerns that have been standing in the history of public libraries: the public and the access; the creation of collections; the control over the ways of reading; the role of the professional in charge of the institution. We discussed these four concerns using the reconstruction of scenes that expressed them in different historical moments, in Brazil and in other countries. We found that: there is a tension, throughout history, between the demands of the readers and the readings considered beneficial by librarians and teachers in the constitution of the collections; reading has been associated with instruction and education more than with leisure and fun, in the constitution of collections; there is also an attempt to control the ways of reading in the library; gradually, the roles of the librarian have complexified - from a conservative to a reading mediator.
Public library; History; Reading; History