In 1848 political-cultural societies were established in various regional centres: Trieste (Slavjanski Zbor), Gorizia (Slavjansko Bralno Društvo), Graz and Vienna (both societies were called Slovenija), and Ljubljana and Klagenfurt (both called Slovensko Društvo), the majority of which dissolved under the absolutist anti-Revolutionary backlash. The society in Vienna was the place where the national political programme for a United Slovenia (Zedinjena Slovenija) was formulated; the society in Graz was organized following the model of student literary societies; some time later, Klagenfurt became a literary and publishing centre (Mohorjeva Družba); and the role of Trieste as a literary centre started growing from the end of the 19th century and maintained its role until the mid-20th century.

The societies that survived 1848 could flourish under the conditions of the imperial patent of 17 March, 1849, which provided the right to free national assembly and organization. The emancipation of the Slovene language, culture, and literature was high on the societies’ agenda and pursued by means of a national-educational and entertainment programme, in the form of politico-cultural events (bésede) focused mainly on drama productions. The repertoire included a few original comedies and other plays, adaptations of German source material, and dramatic texts, mainly from other Slavic literatures, which were close to Slovenian in terms of language and sensibility. The societies’ events also included recitals and declamations. Providing reading material, including Slovene, Slavic, German, and other periodicals and books, was an additional aim, playing into the establishment of circulating libraries. (In 1848, the Trieste-based Slovenian bookbinder Anton Živic opened a bookstore that would provide literature, periodical publications, and school books; a printer from Ljubljana, Jožef Blaznik, also engaged in the sale of books, which represented an additional source of income for teachers and Church employees.)

In 1848, a book club was active in Klagenfurt under Slovensko Društvo management; in Carinthia, there is evidence of reading societies in Borovlje and Št Jakob; in Carniola there were reading rooms in Kropa, Železniki, and Radovljica, as well as Postojna and Cerknica. During the constitutional period, Slovenian reading culture (involving collective newspaper reading and nationwide book distribution) was mainly in the hands of such reading clubs with satellite reading societies.

Reading clubs were in a position to morph into national-cultural institutions as a result of the February Patent of 1861, which permitted the establishment of non-political societies, and the law on organizations of 1867. The first to be established was the National Reading Club in Trieste (1861, with Fran Levstik among the members); it was followed later that year by the reading clubs of Maribor (incl. Davorin Trstenjak) and Ljubljana (Janez Bleiweis, Lovro Toman). In the Primorska region (Gorizia, Trieste, Istria), 26 reading clubs were established in various towns; 17 in Carniola (besides Ljubljana); and 13 in Styria (besides Maribor). Some 60 per cent of these were in rural or peripheral locations. When at the end of the 1860s tabors began to spread (politically oriented gatherings, often with recitals and declamations, and attended also by sports activists of the Sokol movement), 58 reading clubs with more than 4000 members were active in most parts of the Slovenian territory. Many remained active until the end of the century; some 80 reading clubs were still functioning at the outbreak of the First World War. The bésede events kept dramatic theatre performance alive with a largely unchanging stock repertoire, and the distribution of nationally-minded texts was kept up.

One of the most important societies to foster a Slovenian reading culture was Slovenska Matica (1864), which took over the task of publishing professional works and whose aims included the establishment of a library and a drama society, Dramatično Društvo (1867). It took the lead in printing original and translated drama (the Slovenska Talija collection).