Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Libraries—public, school, and academic libraries—are ubiquitous cultural agencies. Yet how much do we know about the multiple ways that they serve and enrich our culture? These essays explore the role of the library in the life of the reader and the library as a place in the life of its users. Contributors are Thomas Augst, Ari Kelman, Elizabeth Jane Aikin, Ronald J. Zboray and Mary Saracino Zboray, Christine Pawley, Juris Dilevko and Lisa Gottlieb, Jean L. Preer, Jacalyn Eddy, Benjamin Hufbauer, and Emily B. Todd.
About the Author
Thomas Augst is assistant professor of English at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. Wayne Wiegand is the F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies, and Professor of American Studies, at Florida State University, effective 1/1/03.
Table of Contents
American libraries and agencies of culture /Thomas Augst --Sound of the civic : reading noise at the New York Public Library /Ari Kelman --High culture, low culture : the singular duality of the Library of Congress /Elizabeth Jane Aikin --Home libraries and the institutionalization of everyday practices among antebellum New Englanders /Ronald J. Zboray and Mary Saracno Zboray --Reading versus the red bull : cultural constructions of democracy and the public library in cold war Wisconsin /Christine Pawley --Celebration of health in the Celebration Library /Juris Dilevko and Lisa Gottlieb --Exploring the American idea at the New York Public Library /Jean L. Preer --"We have become too tender-hearted" : the language of gender in the public library, 1880-1920 /Jacalyn Eddy --Roosevelt Presidential Library : a shift in commemoration /Benjamin Hufbauer --Antebellum libraries in Richmond and New Orleans and the search for the practices and preferences of "real" readers /Emily B. Todd.