For well over one hundred years, libraries open to the public have played a crucial part in fostering in Americans the skills and habits of reading and writing,
Overviews the notable events and underlying trends that either furthered or deterred the growth of the institution. For each of six periods during the century,
Challenges conventional thinking and top-down definitions, instead drawing on the library user's perspective to argue that the public library's most important f
Tracing the evolution of the library as a modern institution from the late eighteenth century to the digital era, this book explores the diverse practices by wh
Despite dire predictions in the late twentieth century that public libraries would not survive the turn of the millennium, their numbers have only increased. Tw