This lively, nuanced history of New York City's early public libraries traces their evolution within the political, social, and cultural worlds that supported them. On May 11, 1911, the New York ...Public Library opened its "marble palace for book lovers" on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. This was the city's first public library in the modern sense, a tax-supported, circulating collection free to every citizen. Since before the Revolution, however, New York's reading publics had access to a range of "public libraries" as the term was understood by contemporaries. In its most basic sense a public library in the eighteenth and most of the nineteenth centuries simply meant a shared collection of books that was available to the general public and promoted the public good. From the founding in 1754 of the New York Society Library up to 1911, public libraries took a variety of forms. Some of them were free, charitable institutions, while others required a membership or an annual subscription. Some, such as the Biblical Library of the American Bible Society, were highly specialized; others, like the Astor Library, developed extensive, inclusive collections. What all the public libraries of this period had in common, at least ostensibly, was the conviction that good books helped ensure a productive, virtuous, orderly republic-that good reading promoted the public good. Tom Glynn's vivid, deeply researched history of New York City's public libraries over the course of more than a century and a half illuminates how the public and private functions of reading changed over time and how shared collections of books could serve both public and private ends. Reading Publics examines how books and reading helped construct social identities and how print functioned within and across groups, including but not limited to socioeconomic classes. The author offers an accessible while scholarly exploration of how republican and liberal values, shifting understandings of "public" and "private," and the debate over fiction influenced the development and character of New York City's public libraries in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Reading Publics is an important contribution to the social and cultural history of New York City that firmly places the city's early public libraries within the history of reading and print culture in the United States.
No library can buy or hold everything its patrons need. At a certain point, librarians need to pool their resources and collaborate to provide access to what they don't have: Collaboration and ...partnership, centralized and shared collection storage, digitization projects, interlibrary loan and resource sharing, purchase on demand, PDA and EBA are notably key to success. The 2022 edition of the Erasmus Mobility Staff Training week organized at the University of Liège Library focused on services, projects and policies that libraries can deploy and promote to increase and ease access to materials that do not belong to their print or electronic holdings. More than 20 librarians, managers, and researchers in library science share their experiences and visions in this book.
Learn how librarians can positively effect change in areas like digital equity and inclusiveness, while creating powerful programming for middle and high school students. Developing programs for ...learners can be an ongoing challenge for librarians – especially first-year librarians. Current books on the topic primarily focus on makerspaces or read alouds, and are aimed at elementary school grades, with a surface-level approach. This book addresses deeper issues that librarians face, while illustrating how to serve teens and tweens specifically by offering programming relevant to their lives. The authors offer practical ideas for developing effective programming through collaborating with the community to develop and implement programs, connecting programs to ISTE Standards and curriculum, and addressing curricular and socio-emotional needs. They also share practical advice on budgeting and funding to support programs, scheduling, maximizing the use of technology to aid in programming and much more. The book also explores ways library programs can have a positive impact on school culture, such as addressing the digital divide, inclusion and cultural relevance. This book:Discusses why programming is critical and covers how to develop library programs that are inclusive, culturally relevant and beneficial for students transitioning from high school to college.Shows how library programming aligns with American Association of School Librarians (AASL), Future Ready Librarians framework and the ISTE Standards.Provides checklists and templates to help readers develop their own programming ideas and lesson plans.Offers guidance on building consensus from various stakeholders and involving students, faculty and community in the development of programs.Shares stories from librarians in K-12 and higher education, addressing how they design their programs and offer career and educational paths for students. Programming for teens and young adults is a catalyst for learning and exploration. The activities and learning experiences shared in this book will empower librarians and deepen student learning. Audience: Middle and high school librarians, tween and teen public librarians, first-year experience librarians.
Despite dire predictions in the late twentieth century that public libraries would not survive the turn of the millennium, their numbers have only increased. Two of three Americans frequent a public ...library at least once a year, and nearly that many are registered borrowers. Although library authorities have argued that the public library functions primarily as a civic institution necessary for maintaining democracy, generations of library patrons tell a different story. In Part of Our Lives, Wayne A. Wiegand delves into the heart of why Americans love their libraries. The book traces the history of the public library, featuring records and testimonies from as early as 1850. Rather than analyzing the words of library founders and managers, Wiegand listens to the voices of everyday patrons who cherished libraries. Drawing on newspaper articles, memoirs, and biographies, Part of Our Lives paints a clear and engaging picture of Americans who value libraries not only as civic institutions, but also as social spaces for promoting and maintaining community. Whether as a public space, a place for accessing information, or a home for reading material that helps patrons make sense of the world around them, the public library has a rich history of meaning for millions of Americans. From colonial times through the recent technological revolution, libraries have continuously adapted to better serve the needs of their communities. Wiegand goes on to demonstrate that, although cultural authorities (including some librarians) have often disparaged reading books considered not "serious" the commonplace reading materials users obtained from public libraries have had a transformative effect for many, including people like Ronald Reagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Oprah Winfrey. A bold challenge to conventional thinking about the American public library, Part of Our
Lives is an insightful look into one of America's most beloved cultural institutions.
A library's infrastructure of programs and personnel is its most valuable asset, providing the foundation for everything it does and aspires to do, which is why assessment is so vitally important. In ...this collection of case studies, Murphy and her team of contributors describe how quality assessment programs have been implemented and how they are used to continuously improve service at a complete cross-section of institutions. This volume Looks at how a program was established within a library organization, the individual roles for staff participating in the program, and singles out which activities and projects were most successful Describes programs such as the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, Lean Six Sigma, and ISO 9001:2000 Examines contexts ranging from a liberal-arts college library and key federal government libraries to libraries that serve major research universities in the United States and Canada Summarizing specific tools for measuring service quality alongside tips for using these tools most effectively, this book helps libraries of all kinds take a programmatic approach to measuring, analyzing, and improving library services.
Laying the Foundation: Digital Humanities in Academic Libraries examines the library's role in the development, implementation, and instruction of successful digital humanities projects. It pays ...special attention to the critical role of librarians in building sustainable programs. It also examines how libraries can support the use of digital scholarship tools and techniques in undergraduate education. Academic libraries are nexuses of research and technology; as such, they provide fertile ground for cultivating and curating digital scholarship. However, adding digital humanities to library service models requires a clear understanding of the resources and skills required. Integrating digital scholarship into existing models calls for a reimagining of the roles of libraries and librarians. In many cases, these reimagined roles call for expanded responsibilities, often in the areas of collaborative instruction and digital asset management, and in turn these expanded responsibilities can strain already stretched resources. Laying the Foundation provides practical solutions to the challenges of successfully incorporating digital humanities programs into existing library services. Collectively, its authors argue that librarians are critical resources for teaching digital humanities to undergraduate students and that libraries are essential for publishing, preserving, and making accessible digital scholarship. This title was made Open Access by libraries from around the world through Knowledge Unlatched.
Bridging Worlds: Emerging Models and Practices of U.S. Academic Libraries Around the Globe presents examples of libraries working to play their part in international campus development and ...engagement. This book provides practical best practices, lessons learned, and perspectives gained, from collection building to finances to designing spaces, and touches on some of the cultural, political, and social factors at play as institutions work to support these complex organizations.
How do college students really conduct research for classroom assignments? In 2008, five large Illinois universities were awarded a Library Services and Technology Act Grant to try to answer that ...question. The resulting ongoing study has already yielded some eye-opening results. The findings suggest changes ranging from simple adjustments in service and resources to modifying the physical layout of the library. In this book Duke and Asher, two anthropological researchers involved with the project since the beginning, * Summarize the study s history, including its goals, parameters, and methodology * Offer a comprehensive discussion of the research findings, touching on issues such as website design, library instruction for faculty, and meeting the needs of commuter and minority students * Detail a number of service reforms which have already been implemented at the participating institutions This important book deepens our understanding of how academic libraries can better serve students needs, and also serves as a model for other researchers interested in a user-centered approach to evaluating library services.
Libraries today are more important than ever. More than just book repositories, libraries can become bulwarks against some of the most crucial challenges of our age: unequal access to education, ...jobs, and information. In BiblioTech, educator and technology expert John Palfrey argues that anyone seeking to participate in the 21st century needs to understand how to find and use the vast stores of information available online. And libraries, which play a crucial role in making these skills and information available, are at risk. In order to survive our rapidly modernizing world and dwindling government funding, libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possibleby digitizing print material and ensuring that born-digital material is publicly available online. Not all of these changes will be easy for libraries to implement. But as Palfrey boldly argues, these modifications are vital if we hope to save libraries and, through them, the American democratic ideal.
