Libraries Within The Library

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.

Libraries, as a component of cultural space, are ubiquitous to almost every society during almost every time period. However, as places of cultural and symbolic and intellectual meaning, they have varied greatly. To capture both aspects, this collection of 14 original papers covers library spaces old and new, real and imagined, large and small, public and private. Contributions range from a consideration of the Garrison library in the British Empire, to the Carnegie library as a social institution, to the imagined library in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The result is a fascinating look at the library as a physical, social, and intellectual place within the hearts and minds of its clientele and the public at large.

Excerpt from The Library List: Being a List of Public Libraries in the United States and in Canada of Over 1000 Volumes, With Classification by Size and Name of Librarian The library list is a compilation based on the list of libraries compiled by the United States Bureau of Education, and forming part of the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Education, now the Hon. N. H. R. Dawson. It differs from that, however, in eliminating the minor libraries of under a thousand volumes, in adding the names of Librarians, and in classifying, by means of types of different face, libraries of corresponding numbers, as over over over 5000, and over 1000. There is also added a supplementary list of libraries, made partly by the Bureau of Education and partly from the records of the oflice of the library journai In the present shape, with the opportunity given by the printing on alter nate pages for correcting and extending the list to any date, it is hoped that this library Lls'r may be of service to all concerned with the library interest. The library list includes also the Libraries of Canada and the other British North American Provinces, for which it is indebted to the enterprise and courtesy of jame's Bain, jr., Librarian of the Free Public Library, Toronto. This is an addition which we believe will be of great value and interest, as it is, we think, the first careful census of Canadian Libraries. It was at first proposed to add schedules of Libraries of Great Britain and of other countries, but the facts that the present material is inadequate, and that Messrs. H. R, Tedder and E. C. Thomas, whose list in the fourteenth volume of the new edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is the best existing authority, are now at work upon a similar undertaking for Great Britain, has precluded the inclusion of foreign libraries. The distinction by means of type will enable those who have occasion to com municate with libraries to address few or many as they prefer, and many libraries will find it peculiarly useful for exchanging their reports and publications with libraries of corresponding size. The Brooklyn Library, for instance, has used this list, as origi nally published in the library journal, to send its annual report and its musical bulletin to all libraries of over volumes in the country. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This useful book helps reference librarians understand the information seeking needs and behaviors of the diverse groups of people in the communities they serve. With the increasing diversity of the American population, librarians striving to plan and deliver excellent reference services must enhance their understanding of how best to assist many types of individuals and groups, from children to the elderly. Library Users and Reference Services provides much-needed help in this area, delivering strategies and methods to aid readers in their quest for increasingly effective service for all members of the communities in which they work.Library Users and Reference Services is divided into four sections of chapters which cover a broad range of topics to assist readers in planning and delivering appropriate services. Section One explores customer service, economics of information, and marketing as key concepts useful in studying information needs of specific groups in the population. Section Two focuses on scholars and students in three broad academic disciplines: science, humanities, and social sciences. Section Three covers groups with special characteristics such as age, economic standing, gender, or profession. Section Four discusses evaluation and provides guidance in the use of the most widely accepted measures for assessing reference effectiveness.The book’s final chapter explores redesigning reference services for the future, providing a glimpse of how such services may change. Library Users and Reference Services is a practical guide to help readers understand the many issues related to serving diverse populations in a community. Reference librarians and graduate library school students and faculty will learn more effective ways to help a heterogeneous public with the help of this new book.

With the introduction of the Bologna Process, the emphasis on the importance of international librarianship and its activity between governmental or non-governmental institutions, organizations, and groups of nations has continued to grow. Collaboration in International and Comparative Librarianship highlights the importance of international librarianship in governmental and non-governmental institutions, organizations, and groups in order to promote, develop, and maintain librarianship and the library profession around the world. This publication is essential for graduate students, researchers, teachers, and LIS administrators in the field of library science.

WSCONSIN, a true cradle of freedom and successful government, has fostered several librarians who were true humanists. Dr. Peckham was one. Dr. Thwaites was another. Henry E. Legler was unlike either of these, but greater than either in his continued and unabated activity for the good of the people. Once, on being complimented for his splendid work in natural history and his persistence in the pursuit of scientific facts, Dr. Peckham remarked: "Oh, yes, but the facts have no value in themselves. They merely build up the groundwork of the ideas, and help you climb to the point of view where the deeper aspects of the subject spread out before you like a landscape beneath a mountain-top." Mr. Legler's activity in behalf of libraries will support the same explanation. He seemed always immersed in detail, always planning some movement and carrying it into effect by his peculiar, dynamic persistence. But he who observed the man kindly and closely cannot have failed to have noticed that there was a distinct Beyond illumining and overshadowing it all. There was a dream to come true, a vision to be unfolded. The dream and vision were in the man's speech and eye. He lived under a prophecy. It is not for us to estimate whether this prophecy became fulfilled in his life as one of us. But it is our privilege to confess that it brought to us the[Pg viii] things which Europeans have designated as "culture" and which really is enlightenment. Thus it is that many of Mr. Legler's associates and friends will recollect with gratitude that some gave them knowledge, and others gave them opportunities, but it was for Mr. Legler to illumine their knowledge and opportunity with the live spark of inspiration. The dream was in his eye, inspiration was in his speech and manner.

Providing a single point of access to the pert knowledge, theories & experience throughout the library & information science world, this international selection of writings was chosen for its power to amplify & illustrate preservation policy. Readings range from fire recovery at the USSR Library of the Academy of Sciences to preservation education in U.S. library schools, & reveal how preventative aspects of preservation can be integrated into daily management. (TOPICS IN LIBRARY & INFORMATION STUDIES)

This book represents an ongoing effort to fill the void in the library literature relating to collection development policies. The authors, whose experience each spans four decades as library educators and practitioners, created the book--as well as a forthcoming companion volume devoted to school libraries--to assist both library school students and professionals in the field in the compilation, revision, and implementation of collection development policies. Cutting edge trends such as digital document delivery and library cooperation are also covered. Furthermore, given the premise that a well-rounded policy reflects all activities concerning the collection management process--including the evaluation, selection, acquisition, and weeding of information resources--it is hoped that this work will also prove useful to non-librarians possessing some kind of stake in high quality library holdings, such as library board members, politicians, and administrators directly responsible for library operations, and institutional patrons.