Part of Our Lives
Subtitle: A People's History of the American Public Library
By: Wayne A. Wiegand
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 331
ISBN-13: 9780190248000
Subjects: Books and reading; Public libraries; General; Library users; Libraries; Public opinion; Attitudes; Libraries and society; Social History; History; Libraries and community; HISTORY
Description: "Part of Our Lives challenges the conventional idea that public libraries are valuable mostly because they are essential to democracy. Instead, this book uses the voices of generations of public library users to argue that Americans have loved their libraries for the useful information they make accessible; the public spaces they provide; and the commonplace reading materials they supply that help users make sense of the world around them"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: So much more than information; title: "Improv'd the general conversation of Americans" : social libraries before 1854; title: For "plain people" : the American public library, 1854-1876; title: "The best reading for the greatest number at the least cost", 1876-1893; title: "The liberty to read what they will and when" : the Carnegie era, 1893-1917; title: "Habitations on a literary map", 1917-1929; title: "One island of refuge" : the Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945; title: "Winning the battles of daily life", 1945-1964; title: "An individual meaning to each user", 1964-1980; title: "Library paste is a precious part of social glue", 1981-2000; title: Information, reading, and place, 2001-present.