Main Street Public Library

Main Street Public Library PDF Author: Wayne A. Wiegand
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609380673
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
The author studies four small-town libraries in the Midwest from the late nineteenth century through the federal Library Service Act of 1956, and shows that these institutions served a much different purpose than is often perceived. Rather than acting as neutral institutions that are vital to democracy, these libraries were actually mediating community literary values and providing a public space for the construction of social harmony. The libraries, and the librarians who ran them, were often just as susceptible to the political and social pressures of their time as any other public institution. By analyzing the collections of all four libraries and revealing what was being read and why certain acquisitions were passed over, the atuhor challenges both traditional perceptions and professional rhetoric about the role of libraries in our small-town communities. While the American public library has become essential to its local community, it is for reasons significantly different than those articulated by the "library faith."

Main Street Public Library

Main Street Public Library PDF Author: Wayne A. Wiegand
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609380681
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
The United States has more public libraries than it has McDonald’s restaurants. By any measure, the American public library is a heavily used and ubiquitous institution. Popular thinking identifies the public library as a neutral agency that protects democratic ideals by guarding against censorship as it makes information available to people from all walks of life. Among librarians this idea is known as the “library faith.” But is the American public library as democratic as it appears to be? In Main Street Public Library, eminent library historian Wayne Wiegand studies four emblematic small-town libraries in the Midwest from the late nineteenth century through the federal Library Service Act of 1956, and shows that these institutions served a much different purpose than is so often perceived. Rather than acting as neutral institutions that are vital to democracy, the libraries of Sauk Centre, Minnesota; Osage, Iowa; Rhinelander, Wisconsin; and Lexington, Michigan, were actually mediating community literary values and providing a public space for the construction of social harmony. These libraries, and the librarians who ran them, were often just as susceptible to the political and social pressures of their time as any other public institution. By analyzing the collections of all four libraries and revealing what was being read and why certain acquisitions were passed over, Wiegand challenges both traditional perceptions and professional rhetoric about the role of libraries in our small-town communities. While the American public library has become essential to its local community, it is for reasons significantly different than those articulated by the “library faith.”

Main Street Public Library

Main Street Public Library PDF Author: Wayne A. Wiegand
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609380673
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 261

Get Book

Book Description
The author studies four small-town libraries in the Midwest from the late nineteenth century through the federal Library Service Act of 1956, and shows that these institutions served a much different purpose than is often perceived. Rather than acting as neutral institutions that are vital to democracy, these libraries were actually mediating community literary values and providing a public space for the construction of social harmony. The libraries, and the librarians who ran them, were often just as susceptible to the political and social pressures of their time as any other public institution. By analyzing the collections of all four libraries and revealing what was being read and why certain acquisitions were passed over, the atuhor challenges both traditional perceptions and professional rhetoric about the role of libraries in our small-town communities. While the American public library has become essential to its local community, it is for reasons significantly different than those articulated by the "library faith."

Parnassus on Main Street

Parnassus on Main Street PDF Author: Frank Bury Woodford
Publisher: Detroit : Wayne State University Press
ISBN:
Category : Detroit. Public Library
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description


Libraries and the Reading Public in Twentieth-Century America

Libraries and the Reading Public in Twentieth-Century America PDF Author: Christine Pawley
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres
ISBN: 0299293238
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
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, by routinely providing access to standard forms of print: informational genres such as newspapers, pamphlets, textbooks, and other reference books, and literary genres including poetry, plays, and novels. Public libraries continue to have an extraordinary impact; in the early twenty-first century, the American Library Association reports that there are more public library branches than McDonald's restaurants in the United States. Much has been written about libraries from professional and managerial points of view, but less so from the perspectives of those most intimately involved—patrons and librarians. Drawing on circulation records, patron reviews, and other archived materials, Libraries and the Reading Public in Twentieth-Century America underscores the evolving roles that libraries have played in the lives of American readers. Each essay in this collection examines a historical circumstance related to reading in libraries. The essays are organized in sections on methods of researching the history of reading in libraries; immigrants and localities; censorship issues; and the role of libraries in providing access to alternative, nonmainstream publications. The volume shows public libraries as living spaces where individuals and groups with diverse backgrounds, needs, and desires encountered and used a great variety of texts, images, and other media throughout the twentieth century.

Report of the New York Public Library for ...

Report of the New York Public Library for ... PDF Author: New York Public Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Librarians
Languages : en
Pages : 762

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Wisconsin Public Libraries Service Record

Wisconsin Public Libraries Service Record PDF Author: Wisconsin. Division for Library Services
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Libraries
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
Most vols. contain a directory section.

Iroquois and Tennessee Gas Transmission Pipeline Project, Construction and Operation

Iroquois and Tennessee Gas Transmission Pipeline Project, Construction and Operation PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Champlain Pipeline Project, Construction and Operation (MA,VT,NH)

Champlain Pipeline Project, Construction and Operation (MA,VT,NH) PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Handbook of the New York Public Library

Handbook of the New York Public Library PDF Author: New York Public Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Libraries
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Cape Wind Energy Project

Cape Wind Energy Project PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1006

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